Chapter 2


With the minutes that have passed neither of the two said a word to each other. To say that Gemina was okay with that was far from it. The Great Prince was still trying to help her find shelter, and with no words being exchanged between them the white doe considered walking away from him and finding shelter on her own, but after that coyote almost had her for supper she stuck with her guts and continued to follow the Great Prince like a duckling following its mother. She wasn't sure what part of the forest they were in, but all she pretty much knew was that they were in the deep parts of it. Her eyes and ears were kept wide open just in case and after that attack that just happened a while ago, she couldn't be too careful. Gemina was never even too far behind the stag, and even with how awkwardly she walked at some points she made the effort to try and keep up with him, but at the same time, she made sure she was never too close to him as she didn't want to make things too weird. Luckily it seemed the Great Prince was not paying a lot of heed to her as his attention was mostly towards trying to find shelter and keeping a watchful eye out for danger, and that did relieve the white doe.

Then, the stag approached a thick and bushy-looking shelter with sticks firmly intertwined, and when he did, he looked inside. After a few seconds of looking inside, he nodded at Gemina. "This should be alright. Since you're new here I'll have my good friend come by here tomorrow and help you around the forest until you're ready to get around it on your own. Other than that I will wish you a goodnight."

Gemina looked inside her 'new home' for however long she would have it and when she did she saw that it was pretty roomy and the inside of it seemed pretty warm. It wasn't like a hotel, but the icy blue-eyed doe thought that it would have to do for the time being. After all, it wasn't the end of the world that she'd have to sleep in there. At least she wouldn't be sleeping in prison.

The white doe looked back at the Great Prince and when she did she nodded. "Thank you, Great Prince. You have a goodnight as well."

The Great Prince nodded and after he did he walked away, and it wasn't long until he disappeared out of Gemina's sight. After he did, the white doe started to make her way inside the shelter the stag helped her to find. As soon as she got in, she was greeted to a pleasant warmth that had her sigh in relief, almost as if there was fire being made. However, the human turned deer then started to wonder how she would lie in a sleeping position in her deer form. When she was human she didn't have to worry about lying down, but now she had another challenge to take on. Gemina tried to find the right spot to try and lie down and when she did she tried to lower herself to the ground, but that alone wasn't easy. It was almost like she was trying to climb down a ladder, and the white doe was hating every moment of it. It took her some time to figure out, but she finally found the best position a deer should be lying in after some struggling. Her front and back legs were tucked under her and not even a minute in she found it to be very uncomfortable, but she would have to get used to it for the time being and for however long she wasn't sure, but she hoped that maybe just maybe she would wake up and she would be back in her human form… However, the white doe didn't think that it would be possible.

Was she frightened? More than anything, all she wanted was to be back at home with her family. Of course, Josh cheating on her still upset her, but even as that was, she just wanted to be back at home safe and sound away from all this.

As if things couldn't get any worse, she heard thunder outside, and before long, rain droplets could be heard dripping and dropping, and Gemina did all she could not look outside. Finally, she closed her icy-blue eyes and tried to get some sleep, and as she was, she tried to take her mind off of everything that happened today by counting sheep, but no matter how many sheep she counted, sleep could not take over her. So, she did the second-best option to try and get some sleep: recall a memory. She wanted to remember a memory not only to get some sleep but so that she could keep calm… and who knew how long it would be until she could see her family again. It took her some time, but when she finally found a particular memory to look back at, she slowly started to relax and allowed it to play in her head like she was watching TV.


4/17/1961

10:47 pm


She kept tossing and turning, but no matter what she did, she couldn't get any sleep with her sister's light still on and what made things worse was that her sister was playing music on their record player very late at night. Gemina loved her twin sister, but she found her incredibly annoying sometimes, but she found their brother Jesse more annoying than her. Her sister Gemini was what most people called a ball of energy as her personality was pretty wild. She tended to be a rule-breaker at some points, and whenever they weren't wearing the appropriate attire to school, Gemini would always be wearing hippy clothes. The hippy style was getting trendy nowadays, and wherever Gemina went, she saw a few people wearing hippy clothes like her sister. Their parents were unsure about Gemini going the hippy route, and from what she's heard about hippies, Gemina honestly couldn't blame them. She was not into the hippy style like her sister was, and even though they looked alike, they had different tastes. Even though they had some differences, like their outfits, they still had things in common that made them inseparable, like their love for singing and Elvis Presley.

Thunder clapped in the sky at some points as rain poured outside of their house and as that was all happening, Gemini still hadn't fallen asleep, and that was starting to annoy Gemina. They had school tomorrow, and it wasn't even close to Friday. Gemina even lost track of the sheep she was counting because of the music her sister was playing, and if the music hadn't been playing, she probably would've been asleep by now. She thought about getting a glass of milk to help her fall asleep better, but she didn't want to get into trouble with her parents. However, their parents were not going to be happy if they found Gemini still up and about.

With a sigh of annoyance, Gemina then sat up and looked at her older twin, annoyed, and as she did, her sister was reading the latest magazine that came out. Gemini did not seem to notice her awake as she continued to look through the magazine, and after she flipped to the next page, she took a piece of chocolate out of a recently bought chocolate box and plopped it into her mouth. The younger twin shook her head as she could already imagine how her parents would react if they saw Gemini not only staying up late but also eating chocolate late at night.

"You know you're not allowed to eat sweets before bedtime," Gemina said, a little annoyed.

Gemini took another piece of chocolate out of the box, and after she did, she looked at her younger twin casually with a shrug of her shoulders. "Well, we're not allowed to play music this late either. Besides, it's not like Mom and Dad will kick me out of the house if they see me doing this." With that, she plopped the piece of chocolate she had in her hand in her mouth.

Gemina started to rub her temples, and after she did, she looked back at her sister. "No, but you'll be in trouble if they catch you doing all that. Can you please go to bed? I have an important test tomorrow, and I need to sleep."

"Sis, relax. You'll do fine tomorrow with or without good sleep. You get good grades anyway."

All Gemina could do was roll her eyes at her sister. Sometimes she could be unbelievable, but she did have a point. She always got good grades, and as of now, she didn't have anything to worry about. She studied hard for it, and as long as she got a good grade, then that's all that mattered. Getting A's and B's were undoubtedly better than F's or D's, after all.

Then, Gemini started to giggle about something, and as she did, Gemina looked at her, confused. "What?"

"I was just thinking about last night. You were snoring again." With that, Gemini giggled once more, and as she did, Gemina looked at her more annoyed.

"Will you ever stop teasing me?" However, before she could say anything else she thought she heard someone coming towards their room and when she listened very carefully, she heard footsteps echoing in the hallways. Her eyes widened, and she had the feeling she knew who it was. She looked back at her sister. "Gemini, turn off the gramophone. I think Mom or Dad is coming." Unfortunately, their door was closed, so Gemina had no way of knowing who was coming towards their bedroom.

When Gemina mentioned who could be coming towards their bedroom, Gemini's eyes widened, and she quickly closed the chocolate box and slid it under her bed; after she did, she went to try and take the needle off the spinning disc. However, as she wanted to take it off, the music suddenly scratched pretty loudly, and when it did, the girls gasped. Just as that happened and the music finally stopped, a soft voice spoke. "Don't tell me you broke it this time."

Their mother was standing in the doorway, smiling tiredly with her arms crossed. She had her wavy caramel brown hair in a messy ponytail and was wearing a light purple nightgown and the same shade of purple for her fuzzy slippers. It was no surprise that the twins got their lovely looks from their mother, and what they especially got from their mother was her icy blue eyes. The eyes were what made the three of them very pretty.

"You two should've been in bed an hour ago. I'll let this slide for now, but when I come back, you both better be asleep." With that, their mother then closed the door, and after she did, Gemina scowled at Gemini, and as she was, Gemini was putting the magazine she was reading under her bed.

Gemina barely got into trouble, and they were undoubtedly lucky their mother wouldn't be punishing them. However, if they did get punished, she would've been furious at her sister. When Gemini noticed her scowling towards her, she shrugged her shoulders. "What? Be glad mom at least let this slide."

"You're annoying. You know that?" Gemina said.

At that comment, Gemini smirked. "Isn't that what sisters are meant to do? Annoy each other?"

The younger twin rolled her eyes, but she couldn't help but smile as she threw her pillow at her sister, and when she did, her sister quickly caught it, and after she did, they started to giggle. Even though her sister was quite annoying sometimes to deal with, she loved her very much. They were almost like the same person, two halves, one whole, pretty much. It was a sister bond that was unbreakable.


Present Day

9/17/1963

7:14 am


The twitterings of birds filled the sky, and as they did, the white doe was still sound asleep. It was hard for her trying to get some sleep the other night, but she somehow managed to fall asleep in no time. She was very warm in the spot she was lying in that she didn't even want to move from it, even when she didn't like the position she was lying in. It felt like she was lying on sticks, which made her want her human body back even more.

As she continued to sleep, someone swooshed into the shelter and spoke very friendly. "Good morning, Miss."

When Gemina heard someone in the shelter, she woke up and yelped. She tried to get up and back away, but when she was halfway up, she somehow slipped on air and found herself falling flat on her face. Ever since she woke up to find herself as a deer, she had been rather clumsy lately, and when she was human, she was never that clumsy. She was not sure how long it would take her to get used to her new legs, but she knew for sure that it might take a while. It was like trying to walk on stilts, not only that her body still ached from the other day, and this was probably the most aches she had ever received in her life. Oh, what she would give to have her other legs back…

"Oh, my," the same voice spoke. "I'm very sorry for startling you. Are you alright?"

After Gemina shook her head to make the pain in her jaw go away, she looked to see who spoke to her, and right on the ground near her was an old-looking great horned owl. He had yellowish-orange eyes with different brown and tan-colored feathers, an orange beak, and what appeared to be a white beard. The human turned doe couldn't help but stare at him, confused as she tilted her head. She wondered why a nocturnal bird was up and about this early morning. Surely he should've been asleep by now like the other owls.

When Gemina realized she hadn't answered the great horned owl, she felt like she'd been rude to him at that moment. "Oh, yes, I just did not realize someone would've come in here…" As she stared at the owl, she couldn't help but ask the one thing that kept getting her confused. "I'm sorry, but aren't owls supposed to be sleeping during the daytime?"

At what Gemina said the old owl started to chuckle. "Owls certainly do sleep during the daytime, but for me, I've always preferred being out during that time. So you could say that I'm a different type of owl. Ah, but where are my manners? I'm Friend Owl. I'm here to help guide you around the forest."

Friend owl? Gemina thought. That was rather an oddball name to call someone if she was being honest.

However, when Friend Owl said he was here to guide her around the forest, Gemina could not believe she had almost forgotten about the conversation she had with the Great Prince the other night. His good old friend would be the one guiding her around the forest, but she never would've imagined his friend to be an owl. She kind of assumed it would've been a deer, but she guessed that different types of animals could be friends with each other. If that wasn't strange enough, she wasn't sure what was. She didn't judge though, as she had an animal friend of her own aka her beagle, Trudy.

"Nice to meet you, Friend Owl," the white doe said sweetly. "I'm Gemina, but some call me Gem for short."

"That's a beautiful name," the old owl said. "Well, if you're ready, we can get going. I do hope you enjoy it here. Not very often do we get deer with white coats." With that, the great horned owl made his way out, and after he did, Gemina made the best attempt to stand on her legs once more, and after a tough time of pushing herself up, she made her way out of the shelter. The old owl had been patiently waiting for her on one of the tree branches of an oak tree, and when he saw her emerge from the undergrowth, he spoke once more. "You must be hungry, come. I know just the place."

Friend Owl then swooped off the tree branch and took flight, and when he did, Gemina followed him the best she could without stumbling on her four legs. It was a pain walking as the aches had practically spread throughout her body as if they were doing it on purpose, and it was hard to hide that fact from the great horned owl. He seemed to have already suspected that she was aching all over, but even as it was, the white doe tried to give him a smile to show that she was doing alright-only it was an awkward one-but in reality, she was doing god awful. The icy blue-eyed doe started to repeat in her head to act natural, and as long as she did, everything would be alright.

Gemina thought about what Friend Owl said about deer with white coats as they continued on. It was certainly not every day anyone saw a deer with white fur, and the fact that she happened to wake up as a white doe was certainly unexpected. She wondered why her fur wasn't a chestnut brown color as her human hair was exactly that color. Surely she should've at least had some sort of brown color to her coat. Either way, though, she supposed it was better than nothing.

"Are you doing alright, Gemina?" Friend Owl asked.

"Yes," the white doe immediately replied, trying to act normal. "I'm doing fine, just still feeling exhausted from my traveling." She then nervously laughed.

Friend Owl looked at the icy-blue-eyed doe curiously but at the same time a little confused. "I see, tell me: where are you from?"

At that question, Gemina started to panic a little. What was she going to say? It had to be convincing. No way Friend Owl would believe that she lived in a lovely house in a nice neighborhood. No matter what, the white doe didn't want anyone to know that she used to be a human girl.

After scrambling in her head a little for an idea, she spoke the best thing she could muster. "Uh… I came from a pretty far-off land. You could say something a lot wouldn't expect."

"A far-off land you say?" The old owl then chuckled. "Well, that certainly explains the wobbling. You really must be exhausted after the trip you took."

Gemina chuckled the best she could as she continued to try and keep up with the great horned owl. "Precisely, all the walking certainly took the energy out of me."

"Well, I can say for sure that once you eat something, you'll feel better in no time." As they continued on the path Friend Owl was leading them on, Gemina noticed that he was staring at something on her in an intriguing manner. "I must say, I don't think I've seen anything like that before. What's that on the side of your neck?"

When the great horned owl mentioned what was on the side of her neck, she did not expect that it would show up, especially on her snow-white fur. However, when she was born about 15 minutes after her sister, they both had heart-shaped birthmarks on the side of their necks, with Gemina's being on the left while Gemini's was on the right. Because of the birthmarks, it made things easy for everyone to tell who was who since they were identical twins. Sometimes, the twins would often switch places when they were little for the fun of it, though. Of course, they would often not get away with it because of their birthmarks, but it was usually fun while it lasted.

"It's a birthmark," Gemina said. " I was born with it."

"Very interesting," Friend Owl replied. "You must come from quite a land to obtain such a mark."

Once more, the white doe tried to laugh it off, and as she did, she nodded. "Yes, very much so." As they continued to walk, she began to wonder where they were going. "So, where exactly are you taking me?"

"You'll find out soon enough."

At that response, the icy-blue-eyed doe tilted her head in confusion but decided not to further ask about it. Wherever Friend Owl was taking her, it sure sounded like something special. Also, when the old owl mentioned food a couple of times, it made Gemina realize she hadn't had a thing to eat for a while. She felt famished, but when she realized she wouldn't be eating anything like a human would like cereal, she felt very anxious because she would have to eat things that a deer usually would have to eat. Even thinking about that made her want to gag as she could practically taste the horrible tangs she'd be receiving once she took a bite out of some herbs like grass. However, she supposed she could try and scavenge out berries, but she didn't even know where to start… She decided, though, to try and go with the flow.


Some time had passed as the doe and great horned owl continued going on the trail the old owl was leading them on, and as they did, they continued to chat. Gemina had to admit that Friend Owl was lovely to talk to and was very friendly. Even though the human turned doe had moments where she had to make up something, she still had a friendly chat with him. If anything, she was glad that the old owl would be her guide until she could get around on her own.

Then, Friend Owl came to a halt, and Gemina did the same thing when he did. The old owl then looked at the icy-blue-eyed doe, and as he did, his eyes suddenly turned into serious ones. "Gem, you wait right here. I'll check our surroundings to see if we're safe or not."

Before the white doe could even ask what he meant by that, the great horned owl flew up over the treetops and disappeared, leaving her all by herself. If Gemina was being honest at the moment, she didn't feel very safe, and after what happened the other night, she couldn't help but look around her worriedly as if that coyote was going to pop out again. Her ears were flattened against her head as her icy-blue eyes darted in every direction, and the more that she was left alone, the more she was slowly starting to panic. As she looked around her, she tried to take a few deep breaths as she tried to reassure herself that she was safe. There was nothing to be scared of. That was what she wanted to tell herself, at least.

Suddenly, something swooped down near her face, and when it did, Gemina yelped as she then toppled to the ground. However, she saw that it was just Friend Owl to her relief. He looked quite surprised by what the white doe did, but even as it was, he still had that friendly expression on his face. The icy-blue-eyed doe tried to steady her heartbeats, and as she did, she was slowly taking a few more deep breaths.

"I'm so sorry, Gem," Friend Owl said as he landed next to the young doe. "I had no intentions of frightening you."

"I-It's okay," Gemina said as she tried to get up. "Please just don't do that again."

As soon as the white doe managed to get up, the old owl spoke. "Well, good news! The coast is clear, and we can move onwards. So let's keep moving."

With that, Friend Owl then took off from the ground, and when he did, the white doe followed him to where he was taking her. After a couple more minutes of walking, they finally came to where the old owl wanted to take her, and when they did, Gemina gasped slowly at the sight she was seeing. Before her very eyes was a meadow, and it was a gorgeous sight with the sun rays shining on the patches of grass and some flowers here and there. There were a few animals she saw out in the distance with some rabbits, birds, and even deer! As she stared at the sight before her she felt a single tear slip down her eye at such a scenery.

"Welcome to one of the meadows in this forest," Friend Owl said. "Go ahead and get something to eat."

At the mention of food, Gemina could literally hear her stomach growling, and when it did, she smiled awkwardly at the old owl, and as she did, she nervously laughed. "Umm… thank you, I will certainly have something to eat."

With that, she went to try to see what she could eat, and as she did, she tried to walk normally like a deer would, trying not to draw too much attention to herself. As she walked around, she was trying to find some berries, and when it looked like there wouldn't be any in sight, her luck skyrocketed when she saw a small tree full of red toyon berries. Hallelujah! She thought. At least this is something I can live with!

Without wasting a moment, the white doe quickly approached the small tree, and when she did, she immediately tore off some of the berries the best she could off of one of the branches with her mouth. When she did, her mouth immediately exploded with sweetness, and as it did, she moaned with satisfaction. It had been a while since she had something to eat, and the berries tasted so good that she simply wanted to have more. She then started to grab more berries to eat, and as she did, her stomach started to fill up quite nicely. As she was eating the ripe berries, a few figures were running in her path, and as they did, she hadn't noticed them.

"Whoa," someone shouted. "Bambi, look out!"

When Gemina heard the shouting, she looked over her shoulder confused, but the white doe yelped when she saw a small fawn running towards her and didn't look where he was going. Before she could even try to move out of the way, the fawn collided into her and that resulted in the white doe crashing to the ground and the fawn falling on top of her.


A/N- Well, here ya go, the next chapter! Not much to say, but I hope you enjoyed it!