As she crept up the rise, then crested it, Desi saw that what she had come upon was a pretty little gem in the midst of ruin, a safe haven of sorts. The deer had approached a small pool of water and had its head down, drinking thirstily of the liquid. This was perfect. Maneuvering slightly around to where the deer was nearly exactly perpendicular, Desi pulled the string of her bow back smoothly and sighted down the arrow. She aimed for a vital spot, waited one beat, then another, then with a silent, swift prayer to Luna, released the arrow.
Desi almost closed her eyes when the arrow flew, but she forced herself to watch and, wonder of wonders, the arrow flew straight and true to bury itself in the deer's side, just behind the shoulder. Due to the close distance she had achieved, it also buried deep, at least one third of the way down the shaft if not closer to one half. She froze as the deer bucked once, ran about twenty yards away, stumbled, and went down. Then and only then did she rise up and head in the direction her quarry had run.
Another motion stilled her feet for a moment. Was there someone there? Quickly she retrieved the deer, then went back to the pool that she had shot him by. She placed the body on the ground, then turned and walked toward the movement she thought she had seen. She stopped after a few steps, ears pricked to try to catch any sound, but she soon wrote it off as nothing and turned to dress her kill.
She slit the body up the center, removed the heart, and raised it to the sky, offering a prayer of thanksgiving for the life of the deer, then, her white fur stained red, dug a hole in the earth near the pool and buried it. Then she washed her hands in the pool. Now, how was she going to get the remainder of the carcass to Cour des Miracles?.