“I’m by myself so much,” she said quietly.
“I’m by myself too,” Bambi replied hesitantly.
Faline seemed disheartened and asked, “Why don’t you stay with me any more?” and it pained Bambi to see that Faline, once so gay, once so bold, had become earnest and downtrodden.
“I have to be alone,” he replied. He had wanted to say it in a soothing way, but it sounded hard. He heard it himself.
Faline looked at him and quietly asked, “Do you still love me?”
Bambi did not hesitate and answered, “I don’t know.”
She went calmly away and left him alone.
There he stood under the great oak tree at the edge of the meadow, looked carefully out there to see that all was safe, and drank in the morning wind. Every time there had been a storm the air was moist and refreshing, it smelt of the earth, of dew and grass and of wet wood. Bambi breathed deep. He suddenly felt free in a way he had not felt for a long time. He felt gay as he stepped out onto the misty meadow.
Then came a clap of thunder.
Bambi felt as if something had shoved him and it made him stagger.