The Buck

The E-mail spawned an idea I couldn't resist.
Hope you like it.

The Buck
By Wayne Keisler

Kelly's father was one of the many people in this day and time that had to travel quite a distance to work. The mill in town had closed years ago and He had to find another job. What he had found, was a second shift job at a steel mill, in the next town. It was a job that took more brawn than brains. Bill, her father, had only finished high school and had worked in the mill like his father before him. When the time came to find new work, he found that he was not qualified for much of anything. The job he now held, wasn't the best and kept him from home a lot, but at least put food on the table.

They had lived in the small town for most of Kelly's life and she really liked it. She wasn't a person that liked crowds. She was a relative loner. It could have been because their nearest neighbor was over two miles away. She had to get up early each day, to catch the bus, for the long trip to school. She had a couple of friends, but really was not close to anyone. She read books that she checked out at the library and watched TV, at least the two stations that they could receive. Kelly rarely saw her father. He was in the bed when she got up to go to school and was at work when he came home. It was strange to live in the same house with someone and never hardly see them.

Bill got off work about 12:30 am, if he didn't have to do any overtime. This night, he had to work later than usual. He was in a hurry to get home and to bed. He was really tired and not paying as much attention to the road as he should have. Suddenly, in his headlights, there was a deer! He tried to stop, but as the car slid, he heard a sickening thump and the doe was knocked off of the road and into the ditch. Bill stopped and backed up. He was really upset. He was a kindhearted man and never really meant to hurt a thing in his life. He got out and went over to the doe and shook her with his hand. She was obviously dead.

If things were not bad enough, he saw something coming out of the woods, on the far side of the road. It was a fawn, that could barely walk and still had spots on it. It stumbled over to the dead doe and bleated pitifully. A tear ran down bill's face and he was heart broken. It a moment of inattention, he had not only killed a doe, nut doomed her fawn to death also. Well, it wouldn't die if he could help it. He loaded the doe into the floorboard of his pickup and caught the fawn. He lay it in the floorboard also, near its mother, so it wouldn't be so very scared. It helped that the fawn was so young. It had yet to learn fear of humans and adapted to its new circumstances.

Once Bill got home, he took the doe and squeezed as much milk as he could from her teats and warmed it in the microwave, then fed the fawn. He left it in the shed and was somewhat surprised, as it lay down of some rags and slept. Kelly woke the next morning and went to school, not knowing what had happened the night before. When Bill woke, he started building a pen for the fawn. He knew that it had to be a good one, to keep the coyotes and foxes from killing it. He finished about midmorning and went to the shed and got the fawn. He put it into the pen and went to get something to eat. He had no doe milk left, so he tried baby formula. They had bought it to give to a neighbor with small children, that was down on his luck, but they had moved away before Bill and his wife had got over there.

The fawn ran up to Bill and butted him with its small head. It was obvious what he wanted. It eagerly grabbed the bottle and began to suck. Maybe, it tasted different to it, but it evidently didn't care. That solved the problem of what to feed it. The case of milk should last for quite a while. Bill had to go to work and left a note for Kelly, explaining what had happened and how to feed it. Kelly immediately fell in love with the small animal. She took over the job of bottle feeding it and taking care of it. It began to follow her around the pen and when it was big enough, she let it out and still it followed.

The young buck was her constant companion. Every day, when she came home from school, it was looking over the fence, as if it knew that she was coming. When the weather was good, she took her books out to the pen and did her home work there. The quickly became a pair. Bill was happy to hear that the two were getting along. He had felt so bad when he had killed his mother and now, the buck seemed to be happy and so was his daughter. Maybe things had worked out all right after all.

John, that was what Kelly had name the buck, grew rapidly and soon became a large 10 pointer. He strutted around the pen and mock fought with the bushes. Bill was worried that John might hurt Kelly, but he was docile and tender with her. Bill, wouldn't dare go in the pen though. John grunted and charged at Bill, when he approached. Bill didn't know what to make of this, but shrugged and went about his business.

Kelly had just had her 16th birthday party. She was happy, even though she celebrated only with her parents. It was a warm night in late summer, and the moon was full. She slept with her windows open and the gentle breeze fluttered the curtains. Kelly couldn't sleep. Whether it was the warmth of the night, or the full moon, she didn't know. She was restless and sat on her bed and looked out of the window. Her father had already come home and gone to bed. He had gotten off early, for once, that night.

Maybe, she could catch a glimpse of John if she looked hard enough. She looked for the buck. The moon cast an almost eerie glow over the yard and pen. She thought that she saw something in the pen. There was her buck. Then, something that made her think that she was dreaming, happened. John stood up on his hind legs and stayed there. No deer could stand like that for any length of time. She slipped silently down the stairs and out into the yard. She had to see if she was imagining things.

John was also restless that night. He could feel something in the air. It was nothing that he could smell or hear, but more like an anticipation of something to come. He walked out from under the tree and into the moonlight. He felt like the moon bathed him in fire. He suddenly reared up on hind legs and stayed there, perfectly balanced. He looked to his hooves and watched them split into parts and become fingers, much like he had seen on his human. Fine brown fur receded, as bones shifted. He became much more comfortable standing upright. His sense of smell diminished as his muzzle retracted and his face flattened. He was covered with pink human skin and a new intelligence was born. Lastly, his tail receded into his buttocks and he was human.

He noticed movement in the shade of the pen. He couldn't scent what it was and his new ears, barely let him hear it, but he knew it was there. It was her. Kelly quickly opened the pen and was amazed to see a naked man there. She had seen more that a little of the transformation and knew that it was John. She hesitantly moved over to him. He reached up to her and felt her face. His fingers trailed through her hair and down her face, to the curve of her neck. Kelly shivered with a never before felt pleasure. She reached up to John's head and ran fingers through his hair also. It wasn't human hair at all and there were small nubs on his head, but this never bothered her.

John gently took her by the hand and led her out of the pen. They moved deeper into the woods. They came to a clearing that was covered in soft clover. They lay down and kissed. Kelly found herself responding to his caresses and becoming more and more excited. She slipped from her night gown lay with him. They lay there, entwined, under the moon light. He was her first man and she was his first also. They finished and lay there and watched the moon go down. As the moonlight left the clearing, Kelly felt different. She looked down and saw John once more start to shift. She reached out to him and touched him with her hoof.

Bill rose early on Saturday morning and went outside. He saw the gate to the pen open and thought the worst. He ran back inside to tell Kelly the bad news, but found her room empty. He waited most of the day with his wife, for her to come home. He figured that Kelly had gone off searching for John. She never came home. He searched around the pen and found the tracks. He followed them to the clearing, where he found the nightgown. No human tracks left the clearing.

The Sheriff searched for days, with bloodhounds and every man they had. They found no clue. Finally, they called off the search. Bill cried for many nights after that. He knew, or thought he knew what had happened to his daughter. He had taken the buck's mother from him and this was repayment in full. He couldn't tell his wife his thoughts. She would have never believed him and she was already heartbroken enough. He just hoped that where ever Kelly was, that she was happy.

Kelly ran with her mate and gloried in her new form. She had never felt so alive! She had felt a momentary sadness for what she had left behind, but as John nuzzled her, she came back to the present and they bounded away. She wouldn't look back!

End

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