Corría desesperado el pequeño ciervo por el bosque en busca de su padre. Sus pasos eran ruidosos, en su inexperiencia no sabía cómo correr en silencio. Las ramas que quebraba y los balidos que emitía anunciaban a todos su presencia.
No era temporada de cacería activa, pero cualquier depredador natural podría querer saciar su hambre con tan fácil captura. Algunos otros herbívoros lo miraban pasar a toda prisa sin entender la razón de su miedo.
Unas aves, preocupadas por su bienestar, le siguieron por un buen trecho de camino, pero decidieron detenerlo al ver que nadie lo seguía y que ningún peligro se hacía evidente. Deseaban saber qué ocurría y como podían ayudarlo.
—¡Detente, nadie te está siguiendo!
El pequeño ciervo hundió sus patas delanteras en la arena para frenar su carrera; casi embiste a una de las aves que tuvo que pararse frente a él para hacerse notar. El ciervo jadeaba mientras recuperaba el aliento. Las aves esperaban para interrogarlo. Cuando dejó de respirar aceleradamente, quisieron saber qué lo había espantado tanto.
El ciervo les contó de una criatura horrenda que vio en el lago cuando se acercó a beber agua. Él nunca antes había visto algo semejante y de la impresión solo se le ocurrió correr y correr para alejarse de allí.
Su padre, un enorme ciervo con astas de once puntas, apareció en medio de ellos para enterarse del problema; había escuchado los balidos de su hijo y temió que algo malo le hubiese ocurrido.
El pequeño ciervo repitió a su padre lo que le dijo a las aves, a lo que este sugirió que lo llevara de regreso al lago para que le mostrara a la temida bestia. Una idea arriesgada, pero el cervatillo tenía plena confianza en su padre, quien siempre resultaba ganador en los enfrentamientos contra otros ciervos, y a quién ningún depredador había podido capturar hasta el momento.
Se fueron juntos, y las aves los siguieron de cerca, pues también estaba viva en ellas la llama de la curiosidad; nada más que se refugiaban en las alturas, por si algo malo resultara de esta aventura.
Cuando finalmente llegaron al lago. El imponente ciervo se detuvo frente a la orilla para inspeccionar el lugar, pero no encontraba a la bestia descrita por su hijo.
—Le he visto allá, padre, debajo de aquel árbol —señaló temeroso el cervatillo.
El padre caminó algunos pasos hasta el sitio indicado, y luego de olfatear la arena y el agua, no pudo encontrar la razón de los temores de su retoño. Las aves dieron algunas vueltas sobre el lago, tratando de divisar algo que pudiera ser una amenaza, pero no tuvieron éxito.
Entonces el padre llamó a su hijo para que se acercara y le indicara exactamente donde había visto a la bestia. El cervatillo se mantenía a la distancia, seguro detrás de unas rocas, asomando la cabeza de vez en cuando. Al llamado de su padre, caminó titubeante hasta la orilla para señalar el punto exacto donde apareciera el horrendo animal.
Lentamente, se asomó al agua, y dio un grito desesperado al verlo justo frente a él.
—¡Allí está, es ese! —gritó con todas sus fuerzas.
Su padre y las aves dejaron escapar carcajadas al percatarse del origen de los temores del cervatillo.
En el agua, agitada por las ondas que se formaban con el viento, el cervatillo miraba su propio reflejo. Las ramas secas del árbol le adornaban la cabeza, haciéndola parecer una bestia enorme y truculenta que habitaba en lo profundo del lago.
El cervatillo solía tomar agua de algunas charcas dentro del bosque. Esta era la primera vez que se aventuraba a saciar su sed en aquel lugar, por lo que apenas conocía su propio rostro.
Su padre tuvo que explicarle que no tenía nada que temer, y que tal bestia horrenda no existía. Fue una gran experiencia para el cervatillo aprender que muchas de las cosas a las que tememos, solo están en nuestra imaginación y en la forma equivocada que vemos al mundo.
English version
The little deer ran desperately through the forest in search of his father. His steps were noisy, in his inexperience he did not know how to run in silence. The branches he broke and the bleats he emitted announced his presence to everyone.
It was not active hunting season, but any natural predator might want to satiate its hunger with such an easy catch. Some other herbivores watched him scurry past without understanding the reason for their fear.
Some birds, concerned for his welfare, followed him for quite a way, but decided to stop him when they saw that no one was following him and that no danger was evident. They wanted to know what was happening and how they could help him.
-Stop, no one is following you!
The little deer dug his forelegs into the sand to slow his run; he almost rammed one of the birds that had to stand in front of him to make itself noticed. The deer gasped as it caught its breath. The birds were waiting to question him. When he stopped breathing rapidly, they wanted to know what had frightened him so much.
The deer told them about a hideous creature he saw in the lake when he came to drink water. He had never seen anything like it before, and from the shock he could only run and run to get away from it.
His father, a huge deer with eleven-pointed antlers, appeared in their midst to learn of the problem; he had heard his son's bleating and feared that something bad had happened to him.
The little deer repeated to his father what he had told the birds, to which the father suggested that he take him back to the lake to show him the dreaded beast. A risky idea, but the fawn had full confidence in his father, who was always a winner in confrontations against other deer, and whom no predator had been able to capture so far.
They left together, and the birds followed them closely, for the flame of curiosity was alive in them too; they only took refuge in the heights, in case anything untoward should result from this adventure.
When they finally reached the lake. The imposing deer stopped in front of the shore to inspect the place, but he could not find the beast described by his son.
-I saw him over there, father, under that tree," the fawn said fearfully.
The father walked a few steps to the indicated place, and after sniffing the sand and water, he could not find the reason for his son's fears. The birds circled a few times over the lake, trying to spot something that might be a threat, but were unsuccessful.
Then the father called to his son to come closer and tell him exactly where he had seen the beast. The fawn stayed at a distance, safely behind some rocks, poking its head out from time to time. At his father's call, he walked hesitantly to the shore to point out the exact spot where the hideous animal appeared.
Slowly, he peered into the water, and gave a desperate cry when he saw it right in front of him.
-There it is, that's it! -he shouted at the top of his lungs.
Her father and the birds burst out laughing as they realized the source of the fawn's fears.
In the water, agitated by the ripples formed by the wind, the fawn looked at its own reflection. Dry tree branches adorned its head, making it look like a huge, gruesome beast that lived deep in the lake.
The fawn used to drink water from some ponds inside the forest. This was the first time it ventured to quench its thirst in that place, so it hardly knew its own face.
His father had to explain to him that he had nothing to fear, and that such a hideous beast did not exist. It was a great experience for the fawn to learn that many of the things we fear are only in our imagination and the wrong way we see the world.
