They crept carefully away, the elder moving in strange zig-zags, though Bambi could not understand why. Even now he found it hard to contain his impatience as he followed these slow steps. It had been his yearning for Faline that had driven him along the path to this place, but now the urge to flee was chasing through his veins.
The elder, though, continued in his slow walk, then stopped, listened, went on, still on a zig-zag route, stopped again, went on again, slowly, very slowly.
They must, by now, have been well away from that place of terror.
“He keeps on stopping, so I suppose it’ll be alright to start speaking again, and then I’ll say thank-you to him.” He could see the elder just in front of him as he disappeared into a dense tangle of dogwood bushes. Not a leaf moved, not a twig cracked as the elder crept into it.
Bambi followed him and tried very hard to pass through just as silently, just as artfully to avoid making any sound. But he did not have that luck. The leaves rustled gently, branches bent under the pressure of his flank, flicked back again with a loud rattling, dry twigs broke with a quick, loud crack against his breast.
“He saved my life,” Bambi continued to ponder. “What should I say to him?”
But the elder could no longer be seen. Bambi stepped very slowly out of the bushes, saw a wild tangle of goldenrods in front of him, raised his head and looked around. There was not a blade of grass moving for as far as he could see. He was alone.
There was nothing, now, to tell him what to do, and the urge to flee quickly took hold of him. As he rushed through them, the goldenrods were divided with a broad hiss, as if being cut down with a scythe.
It was a long time wandering lost in the forest before he found Faline. He was breathless, he was tired, he was happy and deeply moved.
“Please, my love,” he said, “please ... don’t call to me when we’re apart ... never call to me again ...! We can look for each other until we find one another ... but please, don’t call to me as ... your voice is something I can’t resist.”