Apparanza weaved through the trees of the Forest, her dual-colored eyes searching for anyone she knew. The left eye was a celestial blue and the right was a fiery amber, and quite the sight. She had yet to meet any other deer with dual-colored orbs, but she didn't mind in the least. She liked being original. Even as a fawn she would attempt to stand out from the others by putting on a ring of purple flowers atop her head.

Ears swiveled back at the sound of a twig snapping. The silverine doe halted her trot and turned her elegant head equipped with two slender yet sharp antelope horns. She gazed into the shadows, seeing a faint illumination that could be nothing else than a pictogram. Ranza tilted her head slightly and bowed to the stranger, but was confused when the stranger didn't bow back.

The mysterious stag stepped forward out of the shadows towards Ranza, and she was mildly surprised to see a spiteful look in his dark eyes. He was entirely black, just jet-black, even his antlers. She had never seen a pelt like that before.

"Err, hello m'lord. Can I help you?" she ventured quizzically, wondering why he seemed unfriendly. She surely had never seen him before.
"No, Apparanza. But I can help you."
The silverine doe's eyes widened. "How do you know my name? Who are you? And how can you help me?" What did she even need help with? She felt completely fine. What was he talking about? Is he crazy? she asked herself.

The black stag rolled his eyes. "Silly doe. You only need to know me as your brother." He smirked. "I don't reckon you remember anything about your real mother, do you? Don't you want to know why she left you alone in the dark of night, vulnerable to death of starvation or being torn apart by wolves?"

Apparanza flinched at his harsh words, pinning her ears back slightly. So she had a sibling after all. But why was he such a jerk? "No, I don't remember. Are you here to enlighten me?" she asked with a certain sharpness to her tone. She was not liking his attitude at all and struggling to keep true to her Siiya's teaching. Siiya was her foster mother who found her on the night of her abandonment and adopted little Ranza as her own. Siiya had been nothing but the sweetest of mothers, making sure Ranza learned to be kind to other deer and a polite young lady. It was difficult to obey those when it came to this rude stag who claimed to be her brother.

"Indeed I am, little sister. Where shall I start?" He tilted his head, thinking for a little while as though prolonging the release of information that Ranza had wondered about for so long. "Well, Mom's name was Tasra and Dad's name was Raide. They had me, and were delighted. They had another fawn, your other brother Drew. And then, they had you." The stag sneered. "You were silver, gray, and white. What possibly went wrong? You see, our parents were dark colors, Father having the same set as me and Mom a very dark shade of crimson, almost ebony. Drew's colors are like hers, and mine are those of Father. But you. What went wrong with you? You were a bright-colored little freak, and on top of that, you had different eye colors. No normal deer has two eye colors. You were a weird little thing and Mom was absolutely disgusted when she gazed at you for the first time. She had been expecting a fawn like me or Drew. But no, she got you."

Apparanza already had tears gathered in her dual-colored orbs when she turned and ran. She couldn't take this anymore. She wished she had never wondered and had ran away before he could start. She jumped in surprise when she realized that her brother was following her, and she sped up to get away from him.

"SHE HATED YOU, RANZA! SHE WAS HUMILIATED BY HAVING BIRTHED A FREAK LIKE YOU!"

The tears spilled.
"STOP! PLEASE!"

"EVEN FATHER HATED YOU AND HE NEVER EVEN SAW YOU! HE BEAT MOM BECAUSE SHE GAVE BIRTH TO YOU! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO ALL DEER IN THE FOREST, RANZA! A FREAK! THIS IS THE TRUTH, THE TRUTH YOU'VE BEEN PONDERING ABOUT EVER SINCE YOU COULD THINK! MOM, DAD, AND DREW ARE ALL ALIVE, BUT WE DON'T LIVE IN THE FOREST SOLELY TO PREVENT MEETING UP WITH YOU!!!"

Apparanza's sobbing slowed her pace slightly and made her steps uneven. She screeched when she felt a sharp bite on her haunches. Her hind legs sailed up to meet her brother's head, but instead she felt antler tines rake across them. A gasp of pain came up from the silverine doe and she winced every time she put weight on them as she fled. With one more bite from him, Ranza sensed her brother's pictogram disappear and she no longer heard his hoofbeats.

The doe collapsed into the snow, her sobs muffled from the cold substance. Blood dyed the snow around her hind legs, the warmth of the liquid combined with the cold from the snow being a feeling she had never experienced. She lay there for a good hour, her mind reeling from the information. She remembered always wanting to know her real family, and why her mother left her alone. She had always convinced herself that perhaps she had gone to find her father and bring him to admire young Ranza, but now she knew the truth she had been dreading. Her mother left her to die, disgusted by her appearance and disgraced at having birthed such a freak. She was a freak.

After Apparanza's sobs had died down and her tears had stopped their flow, the silverine doe slowly rose to her cloven hooves. She shivered, her breath coming out in a plume of mist, and her hind legs gave her a numb ache. They were stiff and she had difficulty moving them, but painfully made her way to the Ruins. She limped to Siiya's small grave, at the little cross headstone by the large cross headstone, and collapsed again in front of it. The tears came again in small rivulets as the freezing doe curled up as best she could without hurting her hind legs. She started shivering, feeling snow covering her pelt. Ranza became more fatigued every time she shook off the relentless snowfall from her fur, and eventually gave up. It all came back anyway. If only Siiya could come back, too.

The snow gave way to rain. It soaked through Ranza's fur and her shivering became more vigorous, the rain combining into her tears. She felt like such a stupid doe. Crying. She felt weak and sad and... like a freak. Oh, and she was cold. Horribly cold. She couldn't sense any pictograms or get up to listen properly. Would she die here? How fitting, beside Siiya's grave. She didn't know what to do, her mind was a whirl and she could only feel the sadness from her brother's words and the pain from her wounds.
Ranza couldn't even hear a single moo.
She felt cold and alone. How pitiful. She forced her tears to stop so she could feel better about lying there like the pitiful doe she was.

Like the freak she was.

-x-

All righty, I said I was going to write how she found out about her past, and here it is :3 Very sad, very sad v.v
So if you see Ranza limping or constantly using the sad emote, this is why. She won't be joining in dances or running around like she usually would, because she's wrapped up with this and feels horrible about herself as well as suffering from the pain in her hind legs. Her self-esteem is down the drain D:

I will be updating this sometime with a little artwork :3 I'm getting a little braver about drawing deer xD

EDIT: She's long healed now, so if you see this, it's been a while xD