Juli-us
Legacy Name: Juli-us

The does gathered to congratulate Jillian on her beautiful newborn fawn. The little doe stayed close at her side as Jillian licked away the birth blood and taught her firstborn the sound of her voice.

She named the doe Juli. The thought it was adorable how her little fawn practiced the movements of the Patrol bucks when they returned from duty, tossing their antlers and snorting in pride at another successful day of keeping the herd safe.

It was around the time when Juli's spots disappeared that the young doe went to Jiillian with a very serious question.

"Mother, when will my antlers grow in?"

Jillian laughed. "Silly Juli. You'll never have antlers. You are a doe and someday when you meet a handsome buck you'll have a little fawn of your own." She tried to lick the young doe between the ears but Juli stepped back.

"I am not a doe. I'm a buck and my name is Julius."

Jillian tried to pass it off as a phase. She called Julius by his new name but treated it as a joke. She said nothing when he insisted on going to the clearing where the young bucks trained.

Sedge and Flatnose were the first young bucks to notice him. They paced circles around Julius, sneering.

"Hey gorgeous, don'tyou know there are wild animals in this forest?"

"Need a big strong buck to show you the way home."

Julius snorted. "I can find my own way home. I came to join the games."

Sedge was the first to recover from his shock. "This is no place for a doe. You could really get hurt."

"I am not a doe!"

Flatnose laughed. "Sure, and I'™m a squirrel. Take a walk with me and I'll show you my stash of nuts."

Sedge studied Julius a moment. "Hold on, Sedge. I think she's serious."

Julius snorted again. "Call me a doe one more time and you'll see how serious I am."

The bucks stared at the smooth fur on Julius's crown. Sedge gave Flatnose a nudge. "Come on, Flat. This one's crazy."

Flatnose flicked his tail in disdain. "Wolf bait for sure."

Duskmane oversaw the training of all Patrol hopefuls. The moment he saw Julius he lowered his impressive rack and charged, not waiting for an explanation. The laughter of the young bucks rang in his ears as he ran for the safety of the home clearing.

Duskmane halted at the edge of the trees, nostrils flaring. "Does are a distraction my young bucks don't need. Don't let me catch you in the training clearing twice. There will be no does in my Patrol."

Julius continued to grow, practicing the exercises of the Patrol in secret and always drinking plenty of water. On a clear day he would run as much as five miles, building up the muscles in his shoulders necessary for supporting a full-grown rack. He took care never to cross the path of members of the Patrol.

He refused to accept his lack of antlers. The does had a particular rock crevice they used to store cobwebs for bandages. He learned to form strands into ropes, gathering sticks with strong branches and forming them into unique antlers he could attach to his crown.

The first time he trotted into the clearing, proudly displaying his creation, was the first time he met his younger sister. Jillian would not even look at her son as she steered little Janey in the opposite direction.

Julius didn't care. His body was sleek and strong and when he looked at his reflection in the pond now he was proud to claim it.

He used a boulder to straighten his newest pair of antlers as Jana and Jessica joined him at the edge of the drinking pond.

"Isn't it a beautiful morning?"Jessica gave her fawn an affectionate nuzzle. "Dillon just refused to spend another day cooped up in that stuffy cave. He's more like his father every day. Someday he'll be a Patrol leader just like Barley."

Jessica was the sweetest doe in the herd but she often spoke without thinking. Jana flicked her tail along Jessica's flank. The Patrol was a sensitive subject with their friend.

"I hear there's a new crop of snowberries on the southern edge of the meadow. Why don't we see if we can't beat the birds for once?" Jana pointed her nose in the direction of her find.

Jana was one of the few does willing to eat from the same patch as Julius. When she was much younger, she had witnessed an old buck being brought down by a pack of wolves. She had developed a fascination for predators, doing her best to imitate their loping walk and baring her fangs when other young does irritated her. An older buck caught her sampling meat from the leg of a dead rabbit, nearly earning her exile from the herd.

No buck would mate with her that season. They called her Blood Drinker and Bone Cruncher. When a young buck took pity on her the next year, her twins were born dead. She was saved by the loss of Jolly, a doe well loved by the herd. Jana was grudgingly entrusted with young Barley as she was the only doe still producing milk. Barley grew into a fine buck, the only male in the herd who refused to be cruel to Julius.

Julius let Jana and Jessica have the best berries, pointing out an especially juicy cluster near the bottom for little Dillon. Jessica's head rose as the Patrol thundered into the clearing, bucks trotting forward to greet their does.

A pang of sadness shot through Julius as he watched Barley lay his head on Jessica's shoulder. Julius hated his mother's prediction, for it would never prove true. A buck must participate in the ritual dance passed from mature bucks to their fawns, a dance Julius would never be able to learn. His own father had fallen victim to wolves shortly before his birth. No little buck or doe would ever huddle into his flank.

"Good day to you, Jana. Those juniper berries have done wonders for your coat."Jana ducked her head to hide a smile. "Hello, Julius."

Julius dropped his antlers just so, the sign of greeting from one buck to another. "All is well along the borders, I hope."

Barley snorted. "We've had nothing more exciting than a startled rabbit all day. Sedge swears he smelled a puma but the trail we found was stale and led out of our territory. Everyone knows Sedge has cotton fluff where his bran should be."His ears flicked to the side at Duskmane's distant bellow. "We're looking at new recruits today. Ladies, Julius." He gave Dillon a touch on the nose before trotting away. Jessica sighed.

"I hate this time of year. He's almost never home and his breaks are so short."

Jana raised her head from sampling a sprig of grass. "Off on another run, Julius?"

Julius nodded his head. "You can't be fast as the wind if you don't work to catch it."

His friends had no idea how much he admired the Patrol. He knew every one of their routes from the stream choked by the dead tree to the cottage abandoned by humans a century ago. He ran a parallel route, never allowing the Patrol to see him. He got enough dirty looks and rude hoof gestures at feeding hour to know his presence was unwanted.

The smell hit his nostrils as he carefully picked his way down a hill littered with pebbles. The puma's back was turned, his golden tail twitching as he watched the Patrol pass. Few animals were foolish enough to take on a Patrol of bucks in their prime but this cat had been driven from his old territory by a younger rival and was desperate. The risk of death was much less frightening than the threat of slow starvation.

Julius lowered his head, lining up just right and using the thick moss of the forest floor to soften the sound of his charge. The puma's head whipped around in time to see the crazed deer that plunged sharpened sticks into his rear legs. Julius's antlers splintered to pieces as the cat screamed in pain.

Julius hid in the trees as the Patrol came to finish off the cat. They would take credit and pose for the does as they made up a story about their heroics but it didn't matter. Any deer that came to see the body could not fail to notice the stick antlers so deeply in his fur.

Julius paused on his way back to the clearing, gathering sticks to shape himself a new pair of antlers.