In a thicket where young beech leaves hung like little hands, a fawn stood on uncertain legs. His coat was brown and bright with white spots, and his ears turned at every sound of dripping water and birdcall. His mother nosed his shoulder and led him one step forward, then another, into the morning grass. The forest was wide, but she moved through it as if she knew the place of every fern and root, while the fawn stayed close at her side. His name was Bambi.
Before the sun climbed high, Bambi saw that the forest was full of neighbors. A rabbit sprang from under a bush, stopped short, and twitched his whiskers at the small newcomer. “Mind your feet,” he said. “The ground changes when you think it will stay the same.” A striped little creature rustled in the leaves nearby and lifted a neat face to look at Bambi. High above them, an old owl opened one round eye from a pine branch, as if he had been listening long before anyone spoke.
Bambi wanted to step everywhere at once. He touched a fallen feather with his nose, stared at a beetle crossing a stone, and followed a butterfly so eagerly that he drifted away from his mother’s shadow. At once she gave a low call. Bambi turned and found her standing still among the hazel stems, so he hurried back to her side. She brushed his neck with her muzzle, and together they went on.
When …
6 chapters
