Buck & Stag

The two big deer with large rack of antlers on their massive heads barreled through the wilderness as shots from hunters’ rifles whizzed by them. They bounded through thick foliage, briars and brush. They sprinted up a draw and the shooting stopped as they heard voices of the men echo off the hillside. 

“Did you get them?” 

“No! Did you?” 

“I’m not sure. They sure were fast. Did you see the racks on them bucks?” 

Both deer stopped at the summit of the ridge and looked down at the two hunters. “Were they talking about you?” Stag asked Buck curiously. 

“I guess. Stag let’s head down the other side to that clearing.” 

“Sure. I always was curious about that place anyway.” 

They slowly meandered down the other side of the ridge and moved cautiously down the steep grade until they found the familiar deer trail that took them to a clearing where they saw the stone columns of various sizes placed in uniformed formations. 

The pair sniffed the ground and they both smelled earthen decay below them. “Buck, have you seen this place when people show up?” 

“Once when I was a fawn. Mom said they take the dead people inside wood boxes and dig a hole and bury them.” 

“I saw the same exact thing not too long ago,” Stag replied. Both began feeding on the grass that the man with the water hose tended to daily. Both raised their heads alertly as they chewed on the green grass. “I often wondered why humans do that, bury their dead. When we die, if we don’t get shot or run over by humans, our bodies decay naturally as most of our animal cousins do. Why do you suppose that humans go through all that trouble to place their dead inside wood boxes, dig a hole, then bury them?” 

“I guess their spirits must rest inside the ground to feel safe.” 

Stag thought about that for a second or two before resuming eating the grass. “I do like the flavor of this grass as opposed to other grasses in other clearings we’ve been to.” 

“I agree with that assessment, Stag. Why do you supposed that is?” 

“I guess we’ll never know,” Buck replied as they continued feeding from a stone marker that read Forrest Hunter.