The wood was all calm. Previously chirping birds had all nestled wherever their nests lay. The was still beaming brightly, as if nothing was happening. The occasional gusts of wind was swaying the lower growing grass and leaves of bigger trees. Pine trees were standing tall and proud, overlooking their folks.
Everything seemed fine aside the threatening rumble from afar. Everyone knew what that meant. Squirrels quickly gathered their stock to hole in the old oak tree. There was a lean pine that still possessed scones. And only a lone woodpecker tried to drill a hole in it's trunk despite everything.
It was warm so ducks didn't hurry to enjoy a pond near the small cliff that separated wood from the interstate road. It wasn't too high, only about 16 feet.
A curious deer was sniffing around the wealthier greens.
Suddenly the youngster stopped dead in it's track. Behind the bush that held some juicy berries lay a figure. The creature knew a human form from the nearby horse farm and often visited for extra snack.
So he knew humans were also harmless and could offer some kindness. But this deer fowl had found other kind of human. Injured human.
The animal had seen few, from road accidents. Those humans were all bloody and often got stuck into black, crackling plastic bags and stuffed into big trucks. Sometimes a flashing red and blue lights came after them and rolled out flat boards. They looked nicer than the other kind.
But the little thing saw nothing of a kind around. Everything was calm despite the upcoming storm.
So this human was there all along, the deer wondered in its mind that held more than humans gave credit for.
The deer cautiously you could never know- stepped closer. And observed.
Human on the ground was breathing, his eyes closed and chest slowly rose and fell, he had blood on the head and other places. Clothes torn and dirty. Face too.
The animal wondered whether this one too had fallen from the cliff. At least it looked that way.
The tree he was underneath swayed slightly more.
And suddenly the air turned a bit more dreadful, pre-storm warning mostly only animals sensed, but sometimes humans too.
Except this human. The deer looked back at the dark haired young man. To the woods creature he looked sad, and lonely.
And the deer knew it won't be good for human to be this way when the storm comes. So it gathered the courage only youth sported and poked the small nose at man's face. Unfortunately it caused no reaction, even after several tries.
Not good, the deer decided and sighed.
It took another thoughtful moment before another sound reached the "Bambi's" ears. Another type of rumbling and voices nearby. Maybe they finally decided to collect their human, the little one thought hopeful.
So he listened. And listened.
Voices were further ahead and out of direct sight, they were at least six people and there was a strange beeping. Suddenly the similar sounding noise was coming from the still sleeping human. The deer startled a bit before taking another sniff and earful. The much weaker noise came from the man's leg, animal noticed and poked the guilty leg. There was something around the man's leg ending and it was alive, and calling. For help maybe?
"Bambi" sneezed suddenly. Maybe the weird thing was calling for help because the human couldn't.
He listened for voices again. Few moved sideways but those with the beeping thing stood and discussed something.
If the deer had been human he'd started screaming and would've just pulled them over already. Sometimes humans were so silly.
And that's why the clever animal made decision to intervene. The storm felt bad, according to all vibes the whole forest received, and humans haven't done anything bad to him to wish them death, so it was help them instead, and maybe they won't hurt his family the other day.
It was possibly the strangest and at the same time best thing Peter had experienced, in the line of saving somebody.
They were just standing there, within the clutter of young pines, trying to decipher the right direction and sending cops to investigate a possible way back to road that didn't require climbing (because Peter doubted their ability to make the way back if Neal was in a worse state than just some bruises), when all of a sudden there was a young deer standing feet away from them and staring intently at them. At first they'd thought the thing was lost or something. But then Peter noticed the determination (and he swore to never talk about it with anyone) in the animal's eyes and stance.
Who'd thought non-humans could express so much with such limited ways.
It had stood there for a moment, staring fiercely, before turning around and skipping forward several feet. When nobody moved, it jumped once and moved back towards them. Diana suggested to watch a bit more. And they did so.
But the little thing repeated the motion twice more before Peter broke the spell and moved after the amazingly brave deer. He followed it with a quite an amount of doubt, his team hot on his heels, when they appeared in a more breathy space besides a small height cliff. That was where his, and not only, jaw fell to the ground with an impressive, resounding thud.
They all took a collective inhale and relieved sigh.
They'd found Neal Caffrey.
And in the most strangest way.
A damned deer had led them to their missing man and if that wasn't enough it even poked Neal's face with it's tiny nose.
Oh how El will be excited to hear about. And Neal would probably gloat about that.
That thought alone kicked a sudden laugh out of the older agent. Which was enough to draw a collective laughing fit from his companions.
The cops returned with a team of EMTs (Jones turned out to be faster than his boss by calling it in the second he recognized Neal and before they all erupted into a laughing fit). For their surprise the man in question was indeed where his anklet was and to add that there was also a deer and his FBI colleagues having a laughing fit.
Fortunately medics were faster to react and quickly gathered around the obviously injured man, even the animal in question stepped aside. But for their surprise not completely away.
"Only Neal, only Neal..." Peter thought to himself, while still laughing at the hilariousity of the situation, and watching the medics tending to his partner.
Wherever you are
I won't stop searching
Whatever it takes me to know
The End