A/N: Ok, this is another story with my Fox and the Hound characters, mainly Chipi and her master Andy, yet they are in the woods where Bambi and them live. This fic is based heavily off of the novel Bambi by Felix Salten, especially concerning the animals view of man and the Great Prince's view that man is not all powerful and there is one above even him, it's all in the book. Also that's why every time it says "he" referring to man it's capitalized "He". It's because that's how the book does it, trust me I mean no blasphemy by it for those of you worried about that (I myself being one, I cringe slightly every time I have to type it, but it's just cause I'm being true to the novel form). Anyway, on with the story.
Can Never Tell
Chipi, the brown spaniel hunting dog, was not a hound and did not have the facilities of a hound's bay at her disposal. Yet the cry the young female was emitting right now was one which seemed to imitate a hound's mournful and slightly longing bay. It stirred the small creatures currently residing in the nearby trees to come to the branches or out of the surrounding bushes to peer out at this scene. Chipi ceased a long cry of her mourning briefly to glance back down at the cause of all this.
Her master, Andy, lay on the green grass of a small clearing. The young man was panting and clutching at a wound which he had received from a young buck he had been hunting. The buck had fled long ago, but Chipi remained by her master's side, forlorn and feeling helpless as to how to help him. Normally the young spaniel would have asked help from her mentors Copper or Chief, but the two dogs and their master, Amos Slade, were not with the pair on this day. Andy and Chipi had gone out on a hunting trip of their own to this particular forest and were now left stranded as it were.
Up in the trees the squirrels chattered to each other. "Did you see!" the first chirped. The second only nodded, "Yes, the tables turned quite sharply!" she exclaimed, "and now He lies dying the same as one of us!".
"Well what do you know!" a crow put in, "He was all powerful and here He lies in the predicament we have seen Him put our own families into! It's truly a marvel!".
"I'd say it's justice!" a pheasant put in, ruffling her feathers in disgust as she stared at the fiendish hunter and his dog, a bird dog none the less! Many of the others nodded with the pheasants remark.
"and what of the traitor now!" a blue jay called down, referring to Chipi. "Always following blindly after Him, betraying us too Him and helping Him track us to where He wouldn't normally find us! How do you feel now traitor!" he called down.
Chipi had mainly been letting all of these remarks roll off of her. Her attention was solely focused on her master, Andy. "Please! You have to get better!" she whispered to the young man as she huddled over him and laid her head on his chest, her tears falling as she watched the red spot on his side pour the red liquid she had seen pour from the animals they had hunted. Chipi had never been happy about the animals dying either. She helped her master hunt them cause he needed the furs and there was just something about hunting she deep down loved. but she had never loved having to watch the red liquid drain the creatures of their life, she would always respectfully turn her head away until the ebbing life had done it's job.
Now though, that ebbing was coming from her own master and Chipi was beside herself with grief, there was no hope for there was not a sympathetic or helpful soul for miles. The spaniel let loose another mourning cry. Over near one of the bushes, a fox scoffed slightly. "My how the mighty have fallen!" he jeered. "Why I've been chased by hunters and their traitorous dogs more times than I can count and even that pair once or twice a few days ago! Now here they sit. It's more than justice my friend, It's simply...".
The soft and almost unnoticed approach of someone from behind where the fox stood in the bushes halted his statement as he and every other forest creature stilled to see the Great Prince Bambi himself stepping out. Bambi gazed down at the fox and his gaze hardened slightly. "You do a job for this forest by cleaning out the sick and the weak in your hunting of the birds and such, friend fox" he said, "but I will not have your cunning wiles turned to scavenging from the emotionally wounded".
Bambi's head then turned to face the others in the congregation of forest animals, "and I will not have those who aren't scavengers begin to do so!" he said, softly yet firm and harsh. The Young Great Prince then made his way out into the clearing. Chipi raised her head slightly and gasped as she saw the stately stag step out. She backed up a few paces and looked nervous.
"There is no need to flee" Bambi said softly, gazing down at the dog and her master. He slowly walked even closer and, much to every animal there's surprise, put his head down nearer to where the hunter lay unconscious. Bambi soon raised his stately antlered head back up and turned to the dog once more, "Your master still lives" he said. Chipi nodded, "Oh, yes sir, I know" she said. The other animal looked shocked at the dog's respectful treatment of the stag, surely he would be just another deer for her to kill wouldn't he? Not worth her time.
Bambi showed no outer signs of surprise himself yet both of his ears slowly flicked forwards as he regarded this dog. Chipi smiled hesitantly, "I...I've heard about the Great Prince of the Forest" she said, "but I wasn't sure if it was true until I actually saw you". Chipi then frowned, "Sir, I...I know that a common country dog, and one who's helped my master hunt at that, shouldn't even dare think of asking help from you but...please!".
A slow nod was Bambi's only answer, "I know the shock of finding that your master is not all powerful can be rough..." he began. "Oh no sir, I know He's not all powerful, I knew it before" Chipi said. She then gasped as she realized that she had interrupted the forests Great Prince. The other animals gasped as well. The fox grinned, "Now he'll let into her" he whispered, glancing knowingly at a rabbit beside him.
Bambi didn't reprimand the dog, instead he merely studied her once more, "You knew of your masters limitations?" he asked. Chipi nodded, "Yes sir, I know He's not all powerful and that everything that grows does not come from Him" she answered, "and I also know that many of the dogs around me do believe so, but my master controls nothing that I myself do not control really and the food he provides me does not come from him alone but is merely prepared by him. There is another above all of us and Him" the spaniel finished.
True to the nature of a Great Prince, Bambi did not look surprised although the dog's words did surprise him. As the Great Prince he understood this truth, he had understood it ever since his father, the Last Great Prince, had shown him a hunter lying dead with a wound the same as the animals received marked upon him. Bambi also understood that the forest animals and especially man's dogs did not understand this truth and thought man above all of them and immune, yet here was a dog who understood what the Great Prince knew for a fact the sneering fox behind them did not even!
"and why did you follow Him then, if you knew He was not all powerful and do not feel bound to his care?" Bambi asked after a pause. Chipi smiled slightly, "Love" she answered. The birds immediately began twittering and there was chattering from the other animals as well. "Silence" Bambi said simply and gently and they all ceased. He turned back to the dog before him, "Love?" he asked simply, "from you or Him?".
"Both" Chipi answered, "I am my masters top priority, not the hunt. He has proved this time and time again. I help aid him in his hunting because it's a duty I freely give, not one I'm forced to give".
"and your duty is your treason as well!" the blue jay screeched down, "Honestly, so you give no thought to us as you just press on in your duty for your master!". Chipi shut her eyes, finally having had enough of this. "You know that does cut deep" she said, not yelling but clearly upset, "Even though I don't know you, the constant act of being called a traitor does hurt! and no, I give a lot of thought to you" she answered back, "I do what I can, even giving yall the option once cornered that I can just mercifully end it before you need even see my master or his horrid gun, as I know it is to you. I do what I can! Honestly some of yall hunt and have a code of ethics attached to it, it's no different than that".
"Except that you're helping Him!" the fox called, "and that's lower than I currently have a comparison for, traitor!" he spat. Bambi said nothing to this, yet he felt that this particular fox who was speaking had no right to condemn the dog on his argument really, since the Great Prince had noticed that the cunning creature did not always follow a moral ethic when hunting himself, so the fact that this dog at least had a hunting honor code to her was more than he could say for him.
Turning back to the dog, Bambi continued, "You have friends who are denizens of the forest as well, do you not?" he asked in a knowing way, "Ones that live in the forest far that way, Tod and Vixey the fox's offspring Binx being among your chief one, along with a racoon? and then there is also a badger who, while not the most agreeable, does consider you a friend; is that correct?" the Great Prince asked.
The forest animals looked confused by this and Chipi just stood there in wonder. How could this Prince of the forest know that! Slowly getting over her shock, the spaniel nodded, "Uh, y-yes sir, I do" she answered.
"And if your master's fur need turned to them, would you still keep to your duty and hunt them as any other?" Bambi asked, keeping a fixed gaze on the dog. Chipi's answer came fairly quickly, since she had had to think this through since becoming a hunting dog. "No sir, they are my friends the same as my master is my friend" she answered. "I only call my master such because it is the title we dogs give our humans, not because I am His slave as some dogs are" she went on to explain, "my master is my friend the same as they are and I can't choose between my friends" she answered. "Though my actions of veering off the trail would disappoint my master, but I can only do what I am able" she finished.
There were scoffs of disbelief from some. Bambi just kept his gaze on this dog and seemed to give a small smile, though it was hard to tell. In any case, his gaze did soften as he looked at this dog before him who thus far was not fitting the mold of some of the other dogs he had encountered. Chipi side glanced and bit and caught sight of Andy still laying on the ground with his wound. "but I'm not sure if this talk is what's needed right now in this urgent time" she went on, turning desperate eyes up at this Prince of the forest who just might help her out she was beginning to think. He seemed wise and fair from her talking to him.
"Please sir, can you not do anything for Him!" she asked, tearful once more. The Great Prince Bambi turned to regard this hunter lying on the ground. He just stood there a moment. "There is little I can do when such wounds have hit" he said, and the compassion and kindness in his voice surprised Chipi as well as the surrounding forest animals present. Bambi turned his gaze back to the dog, "I doubt our herbs we eat for healing would help Him. He needs the aid of His own kind" he replied.
Chipi nodded and turned her tearful gaze back down to her master, "I can't run to get Him help and stay by His side at the same time" she said, she laid her head down on Andy's chest and whimpered helplessly. Bambi merely gazed on this scene silently. The birds and squirrels in the trees chattered a bit, yet were mainly silent. Chipi lay there a bit longer, before suddenly coming to a decision. This forest's Prince's words rang true the spaniel noticed, there was nothing that would help her master here.
Slowly, Chipi got up from where she lay and walking around, gently gripped her master's shirt collar back. She began to drag her master slowly off towards the tree cover up ahead under the trees the blue jay and squirrels were standing in. "What are you doing?" Bambi asked quietly. Chipi raised up to speak, "You're right sir, He won't get any help here. I've got to get Him to the nearest camp or civilization. It's His only hope".
"Do you not feel you will require assistance?" Bambi asked. Chipi nodded, "It would greatly help if any felt like offering" she said. She kept her gaze guardedly hopeful as the silence among the animals about answered for her. "I thought so" she sighed, not bitter just sadly and a bit disappointed. She picked her master up gently by the collar of his shirt again and continued to gently drag him off through the trees and towards where she knew the nearest ranger station lay many miles away.
Bambi and the others watched her go. The Great Prince's gaze swept the congregated forest animals, escorting the dog through the woods was something completely out of the realm of his possibilities with his other duties about, and Bambi wasn't sure if he would want any of the forest animals to offer to escort her themselves. He had nothing against this dog, she seemed a step above her other fellows actually, but still the prospect of escorting a hunting dog for the purpose of saving a hunter did not sit well with the Great Prince despite the situation, and Bambi himself wasn't quite sure why.
A robin who had been silent throughout this, yet had agreed with the others opinions to a point, suddenly spoke up. "I'll fly above and help guide her" she said simply and took wing. Many watched her fly off in astonishment. The fox shook his head, "Waste of time" he said, "and that dog's blind slavery will get her killed, her and the robin with her".
"No" Bambi said softly as he turned and headed back into the woods, walking past the fox. He was secretly pleased with the robin's decision. Nevertheless, he focused on another issue in his words as he passed by the fox. "No, it is not slavery" he repeated, gazing down at the fox briefly, "For many of the dog's own it is slavery. For her it is love" and with that the Great Prince Bambi disappeared silently into the woods, mulling through this new occurrence. It was strange, learning some little bit of something when one was even the Great Prince of the Forest, and Bambi suddenly had new things to mull over about how not even Man's dogs could be labeled, since you would always meet one who didn't fit your previous observations of them. Bambi shook his head, "You just never can tell" he commented to himself as he continued farther on into the forest.