“Please ... just stop,” Ronno begged him, pitifully. “You do know I walk with a limp ... I was only making a joke ... spare me ... don’t you understand a joke ...?”
Bambi, without a word, stopped his attack. With great effort, Ronno stood up. He was bleeding and he staggered. Without a word, he limped away.
Bambi was about to go into the thicket to find Faline, but then she came out of it. She had been standing close to the edge of the trees and seen everything. “That was wonderful,” she said with a laugh. But then she became serious and gently added, “I love you.”
The two of them went on their way together and they were very happy.
[CHAPTER] 14
One day they were deep in the woods looking for the little clearing where Bambi had last come across the elder. Bambi told Faline about him with great enthusiasm.
“Maybe we’ll find him again, I really want to find him again.”
“That would be nice,” said Faline perkily. “I’d really like to talk with him some time.” But she was not telling the truth. She may well have been curious, but in fact she was afraid of the elder.
The sky was already light grey, the sun was about to rise.
They ambled along next to each other into the place where the bushes and wild cabbages stood isolated from other vegetation, so that there was a clear view in all directions. They heard a rustling not far away. They immediately stopped and looked in that direction. The stag strode slowly and powerfully through the bushes and into the clearing. In the twilight it was not possible to see any colours, and he appeared as an enormous grey shadow.