Woundbearer Ch21 (end)

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Yeva was dead before she reached the end of the Rainy Forest, but her legs didn't stop moving. Her eyes were nearly shut and the blood dripping from gaping wounds had become hard. It caked her fur and speckled her white face. Something in the deer's still heart compelled her to walk. Although Yeva would never have admitted in life or in death, her body was desperately seeking its way home. A home long abandoned, on a path she didn't remember.
It was nightfall that finally she collapsed into the river. Even the lingering willpower of the wood spirit couldn't keep her body upright. She lay upon the bank and the waters came up to great her. They lapped at her face and welcomed her. They pulled her slowly, gently in until she was consumed by the water.
A faint and far away voice, like the babbling of a brook, whispered words into the dead doe's ear.
"You have come a very long way," said the voice. "How have you come so far, hind who posses a hateful heart?
The waves inspected the body like a young wolf pup inspects a new rib bone as a toy. There were new wounds and scars and her face was white, but it was certainly the same deer that the river spirit had met a year ago.
"It seems your hatred was enough. But the spirit's debt has been paid. Yet he remains. I do not understand how he can still be faithful to this body. The deed is done. I came all this way, traveling the length of my waters, hoping I might get the chance to drown the tiger again. But I was too weak. Yes, I admit. My hatred for him was not as strong as yours.
"And for that, I will show my respect to both you, and your strange wood spirit."
The river swept the body against its own currents, carrying her far, far away. It took until the brown leaves fell and the snow began to fall before the river spirit eventually lay Yeva's body back on the shores. Despite the time spent beneath the waters, where the flesh should have rotted and been torn away, Yeva's body looked as fresh as it had the day she fell in.
Soon the waters would freeze and the ground would become hard. There were very few trees where Yeva had been left, and those that remained had shriveled up from the cold.
The water spirit emerged and took again a solid form. It was the form of the dead fawn who looked strangely proud of its work.
"I do not know where you came from," said the dead fawn. "But this is close to where I first met you. I think this will suffice. This is closer to your home. And this is as far as I can take you. No Old One shall bother you here, so you can rest. May your hatred seep into the soil and live on forever."
The dead fawn waited as if expecting a reply. When none was received, it retreated back into the waves. It was only once the fawn had disappeared that Yeva's body instantly began to decay. In seconds she was reduced to bone. Yet within the still skeleton there was a pile of one hundred shiny green seeds. The seeds began to scatter in all directions.They sprouted tiny leaved and set down their roots. They grew miraculously, branching out and filling the sky with a vibrant canopy. Within the course of minutes, a new forest was made.
It stayed green through the long winter, and brought many deer to its shelter. All the crows in the new forest talked of the strangest stories.  Of wide eyed does, and talkative bears, and boars with warriors hearts. Of wolves that would conquer the world, and the deer that saw them all. The deer from the north who traveled south, chasing a tiger for revenge. The doe who wore a single antler made of branches upon her head, and left the world as a creature neither living nor dead.
When asked where the crows had heard such a story, they always said the same thing: they heard the tale sung on the breath of the wind that sweeps through the fallen forest leaves.