Yeah it's been a while but I was out of town for a week, visiting my grandparents and I couldn't bring my own computer so I didn't have access to this story file and hence I couldn't update. But now I'm back. It's December 12th, only 12 more days till Christmas Eve, excited? I know I am. Anyway here you go. Chapter 4.
Chapter 4 - Jump
The next morning he strictly told Bambi to stay near the den. His little Prince was not happy with it but he did not object as he knew it was better that way.
The days turned into weeks and the snow melted away and the temperature rose. It was now clear that the spring had come. He still kept disappointing Bambi every morning by ordering him to stay near the den but he knew that it was for the best, he could not risk letting Bambi walk around as he pleased because he could get caught in one of Man's traps. When he in the evening came back he would either find Bambi very bored or asleep from boredom but he didn't pay that much attention to it, the most important thing was that Bambi was safe.
One morning Bambi was very eager.
"So where are we off to today?" his son asked him eagerly.
"You'll stay near the den where it's safe," he told his son once again.
"But I'm ready for adventures, for danger, for..." "The den," the Great Prince interrupted his babbling and began to walk away.
"Yeah, good idea, I'll stay and guard the den," he heard Bambi say before he came out of hear range.
He wandered off on his daily route as usual and suddenly he heard the voice of a child. "Help, help!" it screamed and the Prince turned around to see a gray rabbit, which he thought he recalled seeing with Bambi the previous day. It was without doubt the only son in the rabbit family that lived in this part of the forest. But what was he doing here?
"There's this thing," the rabbit explained," and it's got these eyes," the rabbit pulled down his lower eyelids, making his eyes look bigger. "And these claws," the rabbit continued," and it walks around like this," it said, making an imitation of the thing's walking. The Prince had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. "And you've got to see it," the rabbit said and vanished into a hole between the bushes.
The Prince just looked at the bush, not knowing how to react to this. There was something about what the rabbit had told him that just wasn't right and the panicking ring in its voice didn't sound right either.
"Well come on," the rabbit urged him and he sighed, having no choice but to follow.
While he followed the little rabbit around only one thought was on his mind; 'what have I gotten myself into?'
"It's right over here," the rabbit said. The rabbit looked through a hole in a bush and shook its head. "Sorry, wrong way".
He sighed once more.
Suddenly he heard a scream some distance away. "What was that?" he murmured.
"What was what? I hear nothing, didn't hear anything, it's probably just a bird," the rabbit said while trying to push him away, "yes that's it a bird". But the Great Prince of the forest ignored the little rabbit and walked into the direction that the scream had come from.
When he came by a creek with a fallen tree trunk over it he heard a porcupine murmur something about kids these days and he stopped to listen.
"What are you looking at you big moose?" the porcupine asked him in an impudent tone.
The Prince glared at the hole in the trunk where through the porcupine had gone. He turned his head to look at the gray little rabbit standing next to him and cleared his throat and the rabbit gave him a nervous smile before it vanished. The Great Prince of the forest sighed again while shaking his head and continued his route. Nothing really happened after the incident with the rabbit, until he found his son rather far away from the den. A gray rabbit was with him, without doubt the same one that had made him follow him earlier that day. The rabbit was laughing, saying something about Mama's boy and Bambi was laughing along with him.
When the Great Prince cleared his throat Bambi gasped and the rabbit hid behind him.
"Hello Dad," his son greeted him nervously.
"Bambi," he said sternly, "I told you to stay near the den. When I give you an order I expect you to…" he paused mid-sentence to look at the surroundings. They were standing behind a cleft. "How did you…" he paused again, looking down at Bambi. "Did you jump?"
Bambi turned his head to look at the cleft behind him before looking back at him. The fawn nodded. "Yes sir," he said.
The Great Prince of the forest could not suppress his smile. He was impressed. And he was very pleased with the skills his son was displaying.
"I couldn't make a jump like that before I had my antlers," he said in awe.
Bambi's face lit up and a wide smile spread across the little fawn's face. A smile spread across the Great Prince's features as well but he managed to stifle it before it got too wide. He cleared his throat. "Well, we better go… home," he said.
When they got back to the den the sky had darkened. Bambi immediately fell asleep. The stag was lying awake watching the sleeping form of his son. What was this feeling that he had? For some reason he couldn't stop thinking about what he had learned today, about his son's jump. He couldn't stop thinking about how pleased he was with his son's progress. 'If you could see him now,' he thought while looking at the starry sky outside the den.
What was this feeling? Was it pride? No, not just that, there was something else too. But he didn't know what. And he still hadn't found a name for this mysterious feeling when he allowed sleep to claim him.
Yeah, short but I felt that it was a good place to end this chapter. Review please, I'd really like to know what you think.