Finally, the dark shadow became solid and I stared up in frozen horror. It leaned across the carcass of the deer and glared at me right in the face.
Yvain Lalumiere.
"What do you think you're doing out here?" He scowled.
I shivered until he sighed and planted two heavy palms on the tops of my shoulders.
"Don't be afraid," he hissed under his breath, trails of steam escaping the pale brown lips. The sneer on his face slowly receded until he just looked frustrated. "Your sister's having a fit worrying for you."
The image of a mad Régine made my stomach sink low into my knees, my gaze drawing back to the wasteland of snow.
"I-I thought I saw someone," I rasped with tears in my eyes. The cold grated on the flesh of my insides and hard dry patches coated my throat like flaky barbs.
"You can tell her that, but I doubt you'll be spared a birch stick." Yvain grimaced and shook his hand in front of me. "Now come on, let's get going before we freeze out here like this poor beast."
"It didn't freeze to death!" I gasped.
Yvain yanked me from the snow by my frozen hand. "Wolves probably just got to it after it died. Deer die in the winter all the time, not enough food." His attempt to explain away the animal’s death was totally unsatisfactory.
"It didn't starve either. It was fat, it had a living baby. Anyone can see that it was murdered," I growled. I might have been a child but I wouldn’t let this man coddle and lie to me like I was an idiot.
"You can't murder an animal." Yvain contradicted me again. "Look, I'm not going to engage in any philosophical debate on the matter. The deer is dead, and given time you will be too dressed like that." He gestured at me lazily.
"If you were a real hunter, you'd be able to tell the difference between an animal dying of the cold and a murder, you pretentious peacock," I growled back.
"Peacock?" He snorted and his sable brown eyes flicked over my balled up fists and scrunched face. "You're a feisty beastie, aren't you?"
My face burned with embarrassment and cold but I didn't say anything.
Yvain began to drag me again. "Let's get you back home. Wolves or no, I don't enjoy standing beside rotting deer carcasses or making conversation in the middle of a storm. Call me pretentious if you will." Yvain took a few steps, but I cried out for him to stop.
"Oh wait, Yvain, please, please wait–" I yanked my hand out of his and he spun around, spraying snow into the wind.
"Now what?" he groaned, watching me as I fell down beside the body of the deer.
"We have to help her, please," I urged incessantly and refused to be moved by going limp as a doll next to the fawn. The self-proclaimed hunter was very muscular and could probably have carried me, but I wouldn't make it easy for him. "I'm not leaving without her."
Yvain spotted the baby deer and a resentful snarl pried his lips apart. We glared steadily back at one another while the winds tore at both of our resolves.
"Fine," Yvain gasped as he lumbered forward, dropped to his knees and then scooped his arms underneath the fawn. “Bad luck anyway to let one of Life’s messengers freeze to death.”
"Careful!" I cried out when I heard the high-pitched chirps of distress and I yanked back on the tail of his jacket.
"Watch that pulling, I just had this coat hemmed.” His voice went high and sharp as Yvain studied whatever damage he thought I had done. After a thorough investigation, he sighed and continued to walk. “I hate this town’s superstitious nonsense. We should have left it for the wolves. It'd be a kinder fate than letting the animal grow sick," Yvain muttered, his broad shoulder parting the winds of the storm as I followed on his heels.
"It wasn't a wolf," I whispered so softly not even Yvain heard and then I said a little louder, "and I'll take care of her."
Yvain snorted derisively as if to say I couldn't even take care of myself. "This one's a boy and a right bit of a fighter." He grimaced when the fawn flailed back on him.
He put the fawn down and touched my shoulder, pointing to the hind leg. It took a few moments for me to understand what I was looking at, the mutilated back hoof of the fawn half submerged in snow.
It must have been attacked as well.
“I can carry him.”
I slid my arms underneath the body, his setal hide shivering against my flesh as we began to walk again. He didn't kick as much with me, just the occasional flinch when I stumbled against the wind.
"Don't grow attached," Yvain muttered, and when I looked up, he was staring straight ahead with a solemn glare in his dull eyes. "It was born late. You can tell by how small and weak he is. He probably won't survive the night."
I absentmindedly began to stroke my thumb against the bristly fur of the fawn for comfort.
He cast a slanted look over his shoulder at me, grinning from ear to ear. "You're quiet, beastie. How about this? Since I saved your deer, you tell me something about your sister and we call it even, eh?"
I didn't speak, but in my defence I wasn't able. In fact, I was finding it more difficult to carry the tiny fawn than I thought, and couldn't manage to speak and walk at the same time.
Yvain's expression soured as his mouth drew into a grim frown and he took his eyes off me.
"The least you could do is tell me her favourite flower," Yvain grumbled to himself as he swayed back and forth, his heavy boots leaving deep imprints in the snow.
It took longer to find the right door than the naturally confidant hunter first anticipated. He did eventually find it, though.
"There!" Yvain gasped in relief and still managed to sound confident as if we hadn't gone knocking on twenty doors before finding the right one.
I had been eyeing the forest nervously as he kicked at the bottom with the toe of his leather boot his hands clenched under his arms.
"Eh- look forward, you'll topple over like that." Yvain nudged me with an elbow.
The door was pulled open with a snap and before I even saw her, Régine's frantic hands were cupping my face. She stopped when the fawn in my arms let out a pitiful mewling sound.
"What is that?" she gasped.
"It's a baby. We found the mother-"
"It had died of starvation." Yvain jumped in, quickly throwing himself between me and Régine, who was just as flustered by Yvain as she was by the fawn.
I pushed him out of the way and pleaded with my sister. "I couldn't leave him out there, Giena, don't make him stay outside-"
The unforgiving corners of her mouth puckered unhappily without word and tears welled up in my eyes.
Miraculously, Yvain Lalumiere spoke on my behalf before the stern lecture could leave my sister's mouth. "I would see no trouble in keeping the fawn in our stables."
The young man offered, his hands clasping as my sister stared back at him in disbelief.
"That is very thoughtful of you, Monsieur Lalumiere, but-"
"You may call me Yvain, and I insist. We have a stable big enough for ten horses and it houses only four right now," the young man interrupted again.
Régine looked undecided, but if my pleading hadn't done her in, her will certainly broke when Cosette–who had just wandered into the hall– plopped herself down beside me and the fawn and began cooing and petting the creature.
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