Third Person POV
Throughout the forest, all the animals – the squirrels, the opossums, the raccoons, the quails and other birds, the rabbits, and even Friend Owl – ran and flew past the trees and fallen logs to meet the groundhog. As Thumper hopped along, his little sisters followed him and chattered about. Finally, the gray bunny stopped, held his arms up, and yelled, "QUIET!"
All the sisters went quiet as Thumper thought of something to say. "Umm," he said before he thought of something, "First one there's who I sit by!"
All the cream-colored bunnies cheered as they hopped; one of them unintentionally pushed Thumper into the snow. Just then, Bambi and Jeanette trotted over.
"Gee," Thumper said to them as he dusted some snow off his fur, "I'm sure glad your father let you come!"
"Oh, uh, he understands!" Bambi said nervously, "Uh… he-he and I are best pals!"
Jeanette did a face-paw. I'm not sure about the "best pals" part, she thought to herself.
The three of them soon heard some snoring, and looked over to see a dried flower floating up and down in a little den.
Jeanette raised a brow and asked, "Who do you suppose is in there?"
"There's only one way to find out!" Thumper said as he, Jeanette, and Bambi walked over to the den.
The three friends peered into the den and saw Flower the skunk, snoring away as he was still hibernating. Jeanette thought of something, and then giggled a little bit.
"What's so funny?" Bambi asked her softly.
Jeanette grinned at him and said, "Uh, it's kinda hard to explain. I'm uh, just wondering if maybe Flower is dreaming about two bad guys named Dirty Dan and Pinhead Larry!" At the mention of those names, Jeanette started giggling again; she was remembering one of her favorite SpongeBob SquarePants episodes, Survival of the Idiots, in which a couple of anthropomorphic sea creatures disturbed their squirrel friend, who was hibernating and dreaming of Texas outlaws.
Thumper, meanwhile, pounded his foot against a log and cried out, "Wake up, Flower! Wake up!"
Flower stopped snoring as the dried plant landed on his face. He slowly moved the plant a bit and opened one eye. "Wakey, wakey," Jeanette coaxed the skunk.
"Come on, Flower, you're gonna miss the groundhog!" Thumper begged Flower.
"Thumper, calm down!" Jeanette said to Thumper, "I think we still have time."
Flower started to sit up as he sleepily yawned, "Gosh, I hope the groundhog sees his shadow. So I can get back to hibernating!"
"Attention, everyone, attention!" A voice called out in the distance, "Attention, everyone, gather around!"
Bambi, Jeanette, and Thumper all ran off, while Flower sleepily managed to climb out of his den.
In a clearing, Friend Owl had gathered the animals of the forest as he said to them with a chuckle, "We'll be starting in just a few moments, yes! Now, there's plenty of room!" He looked at a raccoon and said, "Eh, ma'am! Could just scoot over one?"
The raccoon stopped licking her paw, and turned to see a bunch of quail chicks all crammed together. The raccoon gave a nervous grin and moved over a little bit to make room. Then, all the chicks fell backward with exhaustion as their mother checked on them.
Friend Owl then looked over and saw Bambi and his friends approach the circle. "Oh, the Young Prince and his friendly fox friend! Oh, this is a special occasion!"
Thumper's sisters crowded around their brother and hugged him; one of them giggled, "We decided we'll all sit by you!"
Thumper sighed with annoyance while Jeanette gave a little chuckle.
Friend Owl greeted his friends as he cleared his throat, "Greetings, greetings! Each year, we gather around to watch the groundhog emerge from his winter slumber! For if he sees his shadow…"
"It means more winter!" one of Thumper's sisters giggled.
Or, it could mean a time-loop story, Jeanette thought with a grin.
"Yes," Friend Owl continued with a hopeful grin, "But if he doesn't…"
"Spring is on its way!" another cream-colored bunny cried out with excitement.
"Now, girls!" Jeanette whispered with a little sternness, "This is Friend Owl's time to talk!"
"Yes," Friend Owl continued with a little bit of annoyance, "Now, without any further interruptions…"
All of Thumper's sisters gasped when they heard the last word, and Jeanette simply winked at them.
Friend Owl cleared his throat and pointed to a snowy burrow as he announced, "The Groundhog!"
Everyone looked at the burrow, and wondered with confusion.
Friend Owl nervously pointed out the burrow again and repeated, "The Groundhog!"
A tiny, furry head shyly and nervously peeked out from inside the burrow. Everyone, including Jeanette, looked over at the burrow and gasped with excitement, but the Groundhog gasped and went into his hole again, disappointing everyone.
"Where's the Groundhog?" Thumper demanded to know.
The cream-colored bunnies jumped up and down as they chanted, "Groundhog, Groundhog, Groundhog!"
Jeanette didn't know how the Groundhog would react to seeing a fox, so she just nervously and softly called out, "Come on… I'm not gonna hurt you!"
Friend Owl groaned with disappointment as he flew over to the burrow and asked the Groundhog inside, "Now what seems to be the problem?"
"I'm afraid to go out there," the Groundhog answered, "I'll see my shadow! And besides, there's a FOX waiting among those critters!"
"Now, now, Jeanette is a friendly fox," Friend Owl stated, "She wouldn't harm a mouse! As for your shadow, now that's entirely the point, isn't it?"
"I don't care!" the Groundhog said defiantly.
"Oh, must we go through this every year?" Friend Owl asked as he went deeper into the hole. But soon, he got stuck!
Bambi's POV
My friends and I all laughed as we watched Friend Owl struggling to get out of the Groundhog's burrow. As I turned my head, I saw another old friend – Faline! I gasped as I looked at her, and she simply said as she fluttered her eyelashes, "Hello, Bambi."
I backed away, and then tripped over a log. Jeanette rushed over to me and asked, "Are you okay, Bambi? Looks like someone else missed you, too!"
I just held my hoof up and waved nervously, "Hi, Faline."
"Hello, Faline!" Jeanette called as she and I got back up.
Faline giggled and said, "I almost didn't recognize you!"
"Really?" I asked, "I-I guess it's because my spots are almost gone! Uh, and my antlers are coming in, too!" I showed her my fawn spots and my head, trying to impress her as I asked, "Can you see 'em?"
Faline looked at my head and said, "Um, well…"
Thumper also looked at me and stated, "I don't see anything!"
"Oh, don't you worry, Thumper!" Jeanette assured him, "I have high hopes that Bambi's gonna get little spikes come April or May!"
"I don't," Thumper finished.
Just then, we all turned to see Friend Owl pop out from the Groundhog hole and fall backward. Thumper's sisters caught him and helped him get back on his talons. "Eh, oh, yes!" the owl said as he flew off, "The Groundhog!"
Jeanette's POV
My friends and I watched as the Groundhog slowly backed out of his hole to meet us and the other animals. "Oh, why me?" the Groundhog lamented as he covered his eyes and walked towards us, "This is the last year. My nerves just can't take it anymore."
As the Groundhog watched, Thumper's sisters noticed that there was a shadow underneath the weather-predicting rodent. They gasped and whispered, "I see his shadow!"
"More winter!" groaned Thumper.
"I hope not," I prayed to myself.
Flower just sighed with content, "More hibernatin'."
"Oh, no shadow," the Groundhog prayed, "No more shadow! Please don't let there be a shadow, please!"
But soon, I looked up at the sky and saw that clouds were coming in to block out the sun. I simply smiled to myself and prayed silently that the Groundhog would not see his shadow.
The Groundhog, meanwhile, uncovered his eyes just as the sun disappeared behind the clouds, and looked down at the ground. He gasped with delight, "No shadow!" He then laughed, "Oh, no shadow! Spring is here! Spring is here!"
All of us animals cheered with excitement at the Groundhog's prediction of spring arriving soon.
"Oh, let's sing a gay little spring song!" the Groundhog sang to everyone, "Let's get together and sing!"
Everyone except Friend Owl and I sang along. Friend Owl covered his ears in annoyance and groaned, "Oh, that song!"
I simply just smiled and danced along to the merry little tune.
"Oh, I'll never be frightened again!" the Groundhog said happily.
Suddenly, an older fawn with darker colored fur than Bambi and Faline appeared right in front of the rodent and said, "BOO!"
That made the Groundhog scream with fear and run away before turning into a little ball the bounced around, until the Groundhog went back into his hole and said, "Oh!"
I did a face-paw, while all the young animals moaned with defeat. The older fawn just laughed and snorted, "It looks like I just scared the shadow right outta him! Did you see the look on his…"
"Come on, you guys!" I said to my animal friends as we turned away, "This little pipsqueak is trouble!" But as we were walking along, the older fawn cried out, "Wait! Hey, hey, whoa, wait!" He then ran and jumped in front of me, Bambi, and Faline; he also covered Thumper and Flower with snow.
"At least you could say, 'excuse me' or something!" I frowned at the fawn.
"Where's everybody going?" the fawn asked, "Is the forest on fire?"
"No," I snarled.
Thumper's little sisters shivered with fear, and Faline asked with a raised brow, "Who are you?"
"Name's Ronno," the older fawn answered haughtily as he showed his antler nubs off, "And these are the boys – stab and jab!" At the last words, he head-butted into a tree, only to have some snow fall on top of him.
I laughed at Ronno's mishap and smirked, "Serves you right, RONNO!" Then, I turned to Bambi and his friends and said, "Let's go."
"Well, I hope the three of you have a nice day!" Bambi said to Ronno and his antler nubs.
"Uh, I wouldn't go that way if I were you," Ronno warned us as he shook the snow off of his body, "That's where I saw Man!"
We stopped dead in our tracks at Ronno's remark. The younger animals all gasped, while my stomach tied in knots. "You saw Man?" Bambi asked with fear.
"Uh-huh," Ronno replied as he looked at us with a smug grin on his face. He jumped back at us and said in a spooky, storyteller-like voice, "There I was – out in the meadow. Suddenly, I heard this voice luring me, 'I am here! I am here!'" He used a stick to imitate what I know as a deer call, and then spat it out at Thumper and Flower's feet. "You see, Man's got this stick that can make his voice sound like one of us," Ronno continued, "But I'm WAY too smart for that!" He then got down on his belly and said sneakily as he crawled about, "So I crept up on him, real quiet…" He poked his head out from under a snowdrift before he jumped up and yelled as he head-butted a tree branch, "And BAM! I knocked him out with my trusty antlers!" Just then, the tree branch hit him back in the mouth, getting his mouth filled with pinecones and pine needles.
I smirked at Ronno, while all the younger animals laughed. "Oh, really?" I asked Ronno with a sly grin, "Because you look like you could've knocked over one of Man's CUBS much easier than Man, himself!"
Ronno just spat out the pinecones and needles with disgust and approached us again. "That was… quite a story!" Faline said to him.
"Oh, you think so?" Ronno asked as he held his head up high.
"Yeah," said Faline, "It's uh, unbelievable!"
"Yeah!" said Bambi, "Unbelievable!"
"Sounds like something for the birds, to me!" I remarked.
Suddenly, Ronno's expression turned to anger as he asked us, "You callin' me a liar?"
"Uh, no!" Bambi stammered.
"You wanna squabble, do ya?" Ronno asked as he got into fighting position.
"Clover him, Bambi!" Thumper said as he gave a fighting pose.
"Bambi?" Ronno repeated, "Isn't that a girl's name?" He laughed and said, "Come on! Let's go. Just a little friendly competition!" He began cornering Bambi against a tree with an angry look.
"You leave the Young Prince alone!" I ordered Ronno with a glare, beginning to show my teeth.
"Ronno!" a female voice called. The dark-furred fawn looked over and saw a doe standing on top of a hill.
"Coming, Mother!" Ronno called to his mother.
"Yeah," said Faline, "Maybe you should get going."
"Geez, I was only playing around with him," Ronno said to her before he mocked at Bambi, "Isn't that right, BAMBI?"
I growled at him and glared, "Watch it, you punk! I know how to use these teeth!"
"Uh-oh!" Ronno mocked me, "Looks like Foxy-Loxy wants to take me on like a wolf! Compared to a wolf, you're just a WEASEL!"
That remark enraged me as I made myself look bigger and growled, "First of all, my name is JEANETTE! And secondly, I'm NOT who you think I am!"
"RONNO!" Ronno's mother called again.
"I'M COMING!" Ronno yelled as he ran over to his mother, "MA! How many times do I have to you? Don't bother me when I'm trying to make new friends!"
"Sorry, dear!" Ronno's mother said as she and her son walked away.
I glared at Ronno some more, and then my expression softened to relief. "Good riddance to that snotball!" I said out loud.
"You big ol' mama's boy!" Thumper shouted at Ronno, "Why don't you run home to your mama, you big ol' mama's boy!"
"THUMPER!" Thumper's mother called from a distance.
"Gotta go," Thumper said to us, "See ya later, Bambi and Jeanette!" He then hopped away to his mother and sisters as his mother asked him about the Groundhog.
"See ya, Bambi and Jeanette!" Flower called to us as he also walked home with his mother.
Faline looked at us and asked, "You want us to walk you home?"
"No," Bambi answered sheepishly, "My father's coming for me and Jeanette."
I could tell that poor Bambi was still missing his late mother, Willow. That brought back painful memories of watching the doe die a few days earlier.
"Well, it was nice to see you and Jeanette again, Bambi," Faline smiled before she walked to find her mother.
"See ya later, Faline," I waved with a small and sad smile.
Bambi and I watched Faline meet her mother and walk away into the forest. Bambi gave a sad look as he stayed still in his spot, and I put my paw on his front leg and whispered with a lump in my throat, "I'm sorry."
