I was born in April of 1983, along with two other calves which I learned were my brother and sister. I was in a world much bigger than where I came from. As I opened my eyes and looked around, I was afraid, but with my mother at my side, I felt safe. Awhile after I was born, I tried getting up on my feet, but I couldn't because my legs were so weak. I knew I had to keep on trying, though, and soon I started to walk. My brother and sister got the hang of it, too, and we started exploring the forest. It was so exciting for me and my brother and sister. Then we went back to our mother, and she taught us how to eat grass and many other things. I thought, at first, this world wasn't dangerous at all, but later my mother told us that there were many dangers in this world that we were going to have to face. For now, though, I felt safe, and later in the evening, we all went out fot a swim. It was so fun that I wanted to stay in the water longer, but it was getting dark and we had to go home.

A year passed, and then it was time for us to leave our mother. It was hard for us, but she explained why, and we understood. By this time, we were pretty much grown up. I thought this was the saddest part of my life, leaving my mother. But I still had my sister and brother with me.

By my third year, I had big full grown antlers. My brother and sister and I had already separated and I had already mated. One day while I was walking along the river, I heard a strange noise coming in my direction. It grew louder and louder. I looked towards the far part of the river and I saw something big in the water making a strange buzzing noise. I sensed danger when I saw something move inside the strange object. They were two-legged creatures! My mother had always warned us about the dangers of the those two-legged creatures. They were the ones that carried around the firesticks, as my mother called them. They too made a strange loud noise. It was the first time I'd seen a two-legged creature. I had always wondered how they looked. Suddenly, the loud object started to come towards me much faster. I looked closely and saw the men holding something I now recognized was a firestick. I got scared and started running for the trees. Then the firesticks made their loud noises, and while I was running towards the trees something hit the ground with a splatting sound. I got even more scared and ran faster. The men jumped out of the thing they were in and made loud bangs with their firesticks as I ran up the beach. They were hunting me. I ran through the trees as fast as I could. When I came to this big clearing there was no place to hide. They kept on shooting at me. Then something hit me on the leg and I felt a sharp pain. I fell to the ground. I tried getting up, but I fell back down. I finally got up and tried to run, but I couldn't and had to walk with a limp. The men were getting closer to me, and they shot at me again. I felt another terrible pain in my neck, and I fell to the ground and couldn't move. Blood was flowing down my side where I got hit. Then the pain started to go away and I felt dizzy, as if my life was going to end. Suddenly I heard another loud shot, and it hit me right in the head. I looked at the men one last time, then my mind went blank and I couldn't think anymore. I was dead!