Bambi nosed his rabbit friend, Thumper. "Hey," The gray rodent protested, "watch it!"
"Sorry," Bambi replied, big brown eyes looking into the trees. A hind delicately stepped into the clearing out of the forest.
"Prince," She said in a voice as smooth as silk, "it's time to go home now."
Bambi nodded and followed Faline's mother into the woods and back to Mark. The two white-tailed deer heard Annabelle before they actually saw her.
"Bamba, Bamba," She yapped in that odd accent of hers, "Mark is lookin' for you, he says 'e wants you home for dinna. Come, come!"
The hind left Bambi in the motherly hound's care and went back to grazing with the other hinds. A small doe peeked out from behind a tree. "Faline!" Bambi hissed.
The doe winked at him but leaped back over to her mother. She was teasing him. Again!
Annabelle led Bambi to Mark's clearing. "Atta girl, Anna," Mark praised, patting the dog on the head. Bambi followed his human caretaker to a small glade with a sparkling lake. "Take a drink," Mark motioned to the lake. "Then eat that."
The human pointed to a pile of berries, leaves and other herbs. Mark always made sure the small buck had a balanced diet and ate right.
Since the Great Prince left his son in the care of Annabelle and Mark, they had gotten very attached to each other. "Bam, here boy," Mark called when the deer had finished eating. The buck wobbled on thin, jointy legs to his caretaker. "Time for bed. Look, the stars are out. Bambi stared up into the cerulean-and-diamond sky. A crescent moon hung like the largest silver gem in the world. "Annabelle, help me put Bambi to bed," Mark told his beloved hound.
After a while, Bambi lay sleeping in a nest of green leaves. Mark and Annabelle looked at each other, then admired their work. Annabelle lay down next to a large cedar tree. She was out almost immediately. Mark settled in a bed of a few blankets he ad left over and he, too, fell asleep.