Chapter Two:
Phil, the Savior of the Forest
A few years later Phil had grown into a buck. The pride of the whole herd of deer in the Tikiri Reserve Forest. He was well known among all creatures in the forest and was a leader to everybody. Some wondered how such a troublesome young deer could become such a leader. Many said it was because of his uncle Jeff. Jeff had taught Phil well as he grew up. After Phil had gotten caught in that snare he decided to make a few life changes and grow up some. This proved well for Phil. He began to take on more responsibilities at home as well as in the forest. Now Phil had taken such responsibilities that he cared for all the animals in the forest.
One day Phil met somebody he had never seen before in the forest. His name was Rodger. He too was a respected buck. Rodger came from a rougher wood. Rodger and his herd of deer were from the north and they had migrated south to Phil’s forest. “Hello.”, Phil said, “My name is Phil. What is your name?” Phil finished politely though confused as to who he was.
“The name is Rodger.” Rodger answered, “We got chased out of our woods to the north and came upon this forest on our travels. We are going to stay here now. Who runs this place?” Rodger questioned Phil.
“Well, I am the leader of the animals in this forest. We will gladly have you in our woods.” Phil replied.
“Good. Now I will watch over my herd and stay out of your business. Just stay out of ours, okay?”, Rodger finished.
“Okay. Welcome to the Tikiri Reserve Forest”, Phil answered as Rodger and his herd left them. Phil did not know exactly how to respond to his new forest friends. He was happy that they made it here safely, though, and was looking forward to getting to know them when he was able to.
Not too long later deer in both Phil and Rodger’s group began to disappear. The animals began to question what was going on and nobody seemed to be able to figure out what was happening. Phil decided to commission the owls and some of the other birds to stay on watch day and night to see if they could find out what was happening. When the report of the owls came in Phil was distraught. The Hunter had started venturing further into the woods to make a kill of the deer. The Hunter was a big man who killed many deer in his day, but tended to stay on the south end of the forest near his home.
Phil went walking through the woods that night to clear his mind. As he walked, he ran into someone he was not expecting, the Hunter. As he stood there with the Hunter’s gun fixed on him Phil froze. Odd enough, so did the Hunter. The Hunter spoke to Phil, “You are the most beautiful of deer. I cannot kill you nor will I ever”. And with that The Hunter walked away. Relieved Phil went home and told everybody what had happened and who was behind the disappearing deer. Scared and shaken families began to run further north instead of south, watchful of all things moving around them.
One deer, a doe of Rodger’s herd, went walking into the woods alone. She loved to do this and decided to risk getting caught by the Hunter to spend time at her favorite spot in the south. The Hunter caught sight of the deer and began to take aim. Phil happened to be walking in the same part of the woods when he saw what was about to happen and stepped in front of the doe. The Hunter confused and in awe dropped his gun. “This buck would step in front of my gun to save the life of another. I have the upmost respect for you, buck. I will never point my gun in the direction of the deer nor any other animal in these woods ever again. Goodbye, my friends”. The Hunter said and walked away out of the woods his gun still on the ground.
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Buck and Doe
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Author's Note:
In my story I am illustrating what happened in the Banyan Deer Jataka story with some twists to it. I decided to keep along with the original as best as I could while adding my spins to it to keep with my story of Phil better. I decided to have Phil playing the part of the Banyan king deer, because the Banyan king deer was the main character and Phil is my main character. I brought in Rodger to play the part of the Monkey king deer. He is a deer in the Jataka but is named Monkey king. And the Hunter plays the role as the human King who hunts the deer for meat. In the original Jataka, the human king was hunting the deer for their meat. He would kill and wound so many of them that the two deer kings decided that they would rather one deer from either side should sacrifice themselves so that nobody else would die from injury. Doing this led to one does turn from Monkey King's herd. This doe was pregnant and wanted to save her son first before sacrificing her life. The Monkey King did not allow it, so she ran to the Banyan King. She told her story to the Banyan King, and the Banyan King decided to lay his own life down for that doe. Deer and human could understand each other in the original, so they had a conversation and the human king said he would never hunt any animal in their woods ever again.
Though I added my own twist to the story I hoped to make it to where it followed the original story closely. I liked the idea of bringing in Rodger because I wanted to show who exactly Phil stands up for as the advocate of the forest. I decided to try and hold to this story as best as I could. My main focus to help you see that Phil, like the Banyan king, would lay his life down for anyone.
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Bibliography:
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The Banyan Deer
Jataka Tales
V. Fausboll
