[Ariana Black]

Color in plus story for ABeardedDragon for their tolter City Nights. 394 Words

It was a warm Summer's day and Tourmaline was enjoying being out in the pasture. The day before he had been entered a horse show and his hooves had been painted gold. They were still gold now as he played in the pasture. As he ran, he could smell the fresh pine trees that littered the area. Unknown to him, he was going to have a young visitor. A hunting party had been nearby and had accidentally shot a doe. Unknown to the hunters, a young fawn had escaped them and had slipped into the area closest to Tourmaline's pasture. The small fawn slipped in easily and then hid in the bushes. Tourmaline could smell something off and went to investigate but then stopped as he spotted the hunters. He saw them carrying off the doe. He looked down at the bush and saw the tiny fawn looking up at him with big eyes. Tourmaline was, of course, a big softy. He wasn't about to let the hunters get her and started grazing so that the hunters wouldn't notice anything off. They didn't and kept going as they went about their business. They took the doe and threw her in the back of their truck and drove off. Once he was sure they were gone, Tourmaline started nudging the fawn towards where his owner could see them. He knew his owner would help the tiny fawn. His own had a big heart and loved all kinds of animals especially the baby ones. His owner also hated hunters. That would be another reason that his owner would help. Soon he was whinnying loudly trying to catch his owner's attention. One of the work hands heard him and came to investigate. As soon as he saw the fawn, he went to get Tourmaline's owner. His owner came running and soon Tourmaline and the fawn were taken to his large stall in the stallion barn. A worker was already waiting with a milk bottle. The fawn took some time but soon she started nursing from it. Tourmaline, himself, was nibbling on his hay. From that day forward he had a new friend and his home got a new barn animal as the fawn was too young to be sent back into the wild. She was the first of many to start a deer sanctuary on the property.