About the little deer Cody

Once upon a time, in a forest, there lived a family of Deer. Mr. and Mrs. Deer and their two restless deer children. They had lots of friends among the other animals so it is not surprising that they were very popular, especially their youngest, Cody. He was still tiny, born in the last days of spring, but no sooner had he learned to walk than he started frolicking all over the forest. At first, he was just cautious playing around the house, but as the days went by he became more and more venture. Until one day he ran all the way, to the edge of the woods, where meadows were beginning to bloom and he could see the whole landscape spread out before him. His front hooves were already touching the meadow but his hind ones were still safely in the forest. But he never left the hiding of woods, always taking care to stand so that his front hooves were still on the tree line. He could already caution touch the summer meadows and stretch his neck and head as far as where the very branches of the trees ended. He lasted thus for a just few moments, just as the summer sun tickled on his nose, and then he ran back home again. Sometimes he would wander to the very clearing that was hidden in the middle of the forest, where the forest residents liked to meet and where they sometimes dealt with important matters for the forest and its inhabitants. In the clearing, it was almost like a meadow, at least it seemed so to our Cody, there were trees all around and also the sun shone here during the day. And at night the sun was replaced by the moon. Sure the meadow was much bigger and it seemed like it had no end, but Daddy Deer explained it to little Cody one night before bed. And so our Cody knew that even the meadow has its edge and is not endless. And so the days passed one by one and little Cody became more and more courageous every day. By the end of August, he was as big and brave as he liked to say, and that he knew the whole forest. He knew who lived where and if he needed to find someone at any time he exactly knew where to go.
One morning he woke up and decided to explore all the remote corners of the forest. He was curious to see if the forest had turned into colorful patterns there too. He ran to the furthest meadow, curious to see if autumn had made its mark there too with its colorful crayons. At first, he didn’t notice the color changes much, he didn’t find it that strange and just thought that sometimes a leaf or a blade of grass would just dry up. But then he noticed that on the trees there were not only brown colors but also yellow, orange, red, and purple, and on some of them the colors were even mixed and so he saw red intertwined with a yellow ribbon or on another one someone seemed to have put green and then in the middle he changed his mind and finished the leaves with orange. Or that one over there, he had the leaves right away tri-colored. The painter Autumn took his color palette and painted all the trees he could find in the forest. First, he took the birch trees in his sights and changed them beyond recognition with his colorful brushes, then the ash trees, maples, poplars, beeches, elms, and even the oaks, those majestic oaks, followed right after. He liked the colourful spectacle so much that every morning as soon as he jumped out of his mossy bed he looked forward to seeing which tree would blossom in colour. And now that all the trees with leaves were colored, he thought, now, now it must come. But a few more days passed and the first birch trees began to cast their colorful crowns to the ground, and then the ash trees and other trees joined them. Suddenly the colourful beauty was all over the ground. And the trees were completely naked. Aren’t they cold like that, he asked himself. Cody, the jolly little fellow, was suddenly saddened.
Cody had been wandering in the woods for the last few days. He went from tree to tree. Always he was stopping at one and looking up and just watching. Then he would lower his inquisitive head again and move on to the next tree, and so he did for several days. He didn’t even notice the marten watching him from afar. She wondered to herself what was the matter with her. Hopefully, he isn’t sick, but Cody wasn’t sick. Just Cody didn’t understand it. He was so absorbed in himself, that one day he got to the farthest edge of the forest. The sun alternated its reign with night a little earlier these days, so he hurried quickly to be home in time for dinner. When he scared off an owl. Which made her fly off from her tree home a little earlier than she was used to, but she didn’t mind too much when she noticed it was just Cody. He also immediately apologized that he didn’t mean to and that he was very sorry. And when he saw that Aunt Owl was not angry, he wanted to run away again. But the Owl stopped him. “You know, Cody, our friends, and also I have been watching you for some time and we are worried about you.”
About me? Cody replied in astonishment.
“Yes, about you,” answered the Owl, and then added, “What happened? You’ve been frolicking around here all the summer, making silly and asking questions all the time. And now for the last few days, you’ve been going from tree to tree, watching them all the time. You’re quiet and you barely smile anymore. Tell me, what happened?”
“When I don’t understand,” said the little Cody sadly, and he lowered his head to the ground as if ashamed.
“Don’t you understand? What don’t you understand?” asked the wise Aunt Owl.
“I don’t understand why, when Autumn has painted all the deciduous trees with her brushes, it has not painted the ones with needles. You know, I was looking forward to seeing what they would look like, those little prickly needles. But they’re still green, just like in summer.” The Owl was surprised at the strange wish and then said “So you are like sad because you don’t understand”. Now she knew what was bothering their little Cody and began to smile. Cody was surprised when Owl started to smile. “Cody, you don’t know how worried we all were about you, but now that I know what happened. I can chase away your worries just like you can sometimes chase away flies when they make you angry”. Said wise Owl and immediately continued. “You know, the thing about autumn is, it dresses some trees in blazers of color”.
And the others don’t? Why not? Cody exclaimed with impatience. The Owl gave him a serious look and then continued with a smile. “Shh, and you’d better let me finish. It’s simple, trees with needles, don’t color in autumn, but then again they don’t lose their beauty in winter. Only spring will give them new needles, and they will first be a light green before they darken to that green you know so well. You were born in late spring, almost summer, so you haven’t experienced it yet when the trees start to put on their green colors. And you don’t have to worry about the deciduous ones either, they too will put on their colorful leaves as spring comes. Each to the one that belongs to him. That’s the way nature has arranged it. But in the spring you will know for yourself and you will be able to see with your own eyes.” Owl added. Now Cody was smiling too, and he understood his forest about a little bit more.
“Thank you, Owl, thank you so much,” said Cody, and quickly turned to go home. It was so late that he knew he was going to get scolded by his mother, but he didn’t mind. He was glad that he knew how it was with trees, but he thought to himself that he would watch them a little from time to time, just in case they wanted to color too.
Cody was just nibbling the last of the grass on the little patch and when he raised his head he saw a flock of white clouds in the sky and then it happened. Suddenly white bits of something strange he had never seen before began to fall from them. They drifted slowly to the ground like little feathers like the white feathers of birds. They landed on his tiny snout. Cody stuck his snout out towards them, trying to catch the smell of the strange white things from the air. They cooled and tickled him. And at the same moment, they touched his soft, delicate snout, and before he could take a breath, they turned into tiny droplets of water. Cody stood and was so fascinated by them that he didn’t notice that all those white bits had already flooded the entire glade, which was now colored into white. Even the branches of the tree were getting a new coat of white paint interwoven with green threads of needles. Cody was so caught up in the performance over his head that he didn’t even notice that his hooves were already completely immersed in the white thing. He didn’t even realize that he was actually cold, so fascinated was he by the play of snow. And the flakes continued to fall, so many of them that Cody was almost knee-deep in them, and he had plenty of them on his back and a few more on his antlers. He wanted to take a step, but he couldn’t. Only now did he realize how many of them there were and that they had trapped him in their snowy arms. For a moment he just watched the landscape around him. He was so surprised that he didn’t even notice a small red squirrel calling to him from a branch above. She had to pick up a dried-up pine cone that was still clinging to the branch with the last of her strength and throw it at him, but even that didn’t help much. From the other side, their friend the badger, who was barely visible in the flood of flakes, watched her efforts in amusement.

“What’s the matter”, asked the confused Cody and the wise Owl seemed to call out to him, “It’s nothing, it’s just December taking its rule”. “December?”, questioningly raised Cody’s face in the direction from which the Owl’s voice came. He couldn’t see much of her, there was so much sunlight reflecting off the white snow it almost made him dizzy. “Actually winter, December is one of the winter months, but winter has taken over,” Owl quickly added by way of explanation. “December or winter, I’ve never heard of either,” Cody added. “Nor could you” added Owl, after all, you were only born this year and this is your first time experiencing this. But each year is divided into four seasons, and each has its own moods and likes. Remember how surprised you were at autumn and now it has been replaced by winter and it loves to cover the ground with a blanket of snow,” added the Owl, flying closer to Cody. The Badger had also almost reached him through the snowy clearing. Only the Squirrel was still sitting in his place on the branch. Silently, she just chirped, “And she can make beautiful ice ornaments out of pine cones.”

Cody gazed at the white beauty with his eyes shining in amazement and just listened to his friends. Then the wind came over their heads and shook a few snowflakes from several trees right onto Cody. This amused Squirrel and Badger, who were now only a few feet away. He also immediately called out to him, “Look, look, we can play in it like this”. Cody carefully lifted first one leg and returned it to the same place, and then the other leg and returned it carefully again. He thought for a moment, and then, just to be sure, he tried it with the right hind and the left hind. He knew now that he could move around in it, that the snow was actually just gently hugging him. So he decided to try running in it, and then suddenly, owie. It’s not as easy as when the ground is covered only with soft grass, nor as easy as when there are only fallen needles on the ground, nor as hard as when the trees have covered the ground with their leaves in autumn. He took a few steps and looked behind him, and there he suddenly saw his footprints. What, it was. The little Cody searched his eyes for his friends, but they just laughed softly and then burst out laughing. His cousin Sika was looking at him in the distance, “It’s okay buddy, you’ll get used to it, it’s just a little harder at first. I already went through it last year”. A little further on, a family of wild pigs showed up. Mrs. Pig called to him with a smile, “I’ve come to show it to my rascals too. Cody was now having fun with his friends and immediately tried all sorts of antics. In the evening he was so tired that he hardly got home before he lay down in his cot, and before he fell asleep his mother told him all she knew about snowflakes.

It had been a few days since he first met the snowflakes, but they kept surprising him with something, but they also made him happy. When he was in a place and seemed to him, that there were somehow not enough, the next day there were many more. It was as if they were secretly listening to him and playing tricks with him. He didn’t even mind too much that they were cold and sometimes got his fur pretty wet. Every night, he told his family what he had experienced with them, his eyes shining with happiness and just a little while before he fell asleep he was already making plans for the next day. As soon as the first rays of the morning dawned, he jumped out of his cot and was out with one hoof. How many times has his mother had to call out to him to be careful and not to rush so much. Nothing doing, it went on day after day.

One morning Cody, when was eager to get out of the house, but he stopped. He stood in front of the house and looked left and right and then left and right again. For a while, he just looked ahead and wondered where he would go today. He was thinking eager to see where he would go today, but it was as if he didn’t know. His legs wanted to carry him, but he couldn’t decide where he would run this morning. Every day, every day knows it, just not today. And so he continued to stand quietly in front of the cottage and think. Then he walked a little way and looked around again. Nothing. So again he took a few tentative steps and looked around and, again, nothing. He was getting pretty confused. He thought I’ll take a few more steps and, nothing again. So he took more and more and more steps and nothing and again nothing. Suddenly he thought to run further, maybe when he was out of sight of the house he would know. And so quickly he ran forward and now he saw a bush, it was all covered with snow and glistening into the distance, in summer it is usually all covered with little green leaves and butterflies play hide and seek in it. But in winter it looked like a great white ball. Squirrel was looking at it from afar, wondering what Cody was up to, and shaking her head. She just watched him for a while and then threw a snowball at him. “What are you doing, Cody?” she called to him. Cody lifted his head to the branches where a snowball had just landed behind his neck and saw Squirrel. “Oh, what the heck,” replied Cody. “You know, when morning comes I can’t wait to see what new adventures await me in the snow. Every day I know where my feet will take me. Today I don’t know where to go, today my feet don’t want to carry me anywhere”.
The squirrel just shook his head, “Go where your heart leads you.”
“What? Heart”?
“Yes, go straight to where your heart takes you”.
The little Cody thought for a moment and then thought, “Why not. I’ll go where my heart takes me”. Cody stood up nice and straight, closed his eyes, and carefully sniffed around, and then did it again, and more than once he knew it. He opened his eyes and already knew where the way leads him today. He’ll go straight for the heart, even his little legs were pulling him in that direction now, and the smell was like he could smell something special.

He walked and walked and when he didn’t know whether to the right or the left or maybe straight ahead. He just stood up straight closed his eyes and let his heart tell him what to do. In a little while he knew which way to go. And so he wandered around for nearly a whole day, already slowly imagining in his head how he was going to tell it all at home, such a great adventure. When suddenly he noticed something bright shining through from behind the spruce trees. It couldn’t have been the sun, it didn’t have much power at this time of year, but in the summer yes, but no during the winter. So he walked a little closer and stopped. He began to sniff around, a little afraid, but the curiosity was much, much stronger. What the heck, I’m deer, it’s just that icy pine cone ornament, and because the last rays of sunlight of the day hit it, it glowed so, so strangely, he thought, and went after that strange light.

But it wasn’t a pine cone wedged in the icy arms of Mrs. Winter.

When he was close enough to spread the branches apart, a strange fragrance threw him off balance. It was as if he was near the feeder, there were some scents sometimes mingled, mostly the sweet apples he loved so much. Only here, the smell, was different, like another kind of mysterious. And so he closed his eyes carefully, snout trying to figure out just what it was that was teasing him so much. Only even after standing there for a very long moment, he couldn’t figure anything out. So he decided to venture and take a few more steps forward, to open the branches of the spruce trees and see what was going on in the middle of the forest. What, there is so shiny.

Suddenly he was standing in the middle of a small glade, he knew it, it was close to his favorite feeder, but he didn’t go there very often, only occasionally he wandered there. There was a small spruce tree in the middle, not exactly small, but to those in the middle of the forest, it barely reached the lower branches. The fawn stood silently, staring at it in disbelief. He already knew what was glittering and shimmering off into the distance, this little spruce. It had all sorts of things hanging on it, and under its lower branches were these magical little presents. “What’s going on?” Little Cody asked himself, even though he had been wandering all day, he wasn’t that far from his little house, so he quickly turned and ran as fast as he could. He was almost home when his father saw him. He was just talking to his distant cousin Mrs. Fallow Deer and his friend Mr. Fox. “Daddy, Daddy,” Cody called from a distance. “Come with me, I have something to show you.” He was all out of breath, so Daddy held him back. “Slow down, son, what’s wrong?” He asked. “You’re supposed to be home by now, Mommy will worry about you”, Daddy Deer was angry, but only a little, he knew his son.

He stood there beside his father in complete silence, almost afraid to breathe, perhaps to keep the magic spruce from disappearing. His hooves were restless. After a few long minutes, he finally took a deep breath and then quietly said. “See that spruce over there, Daddy?” Daddy Deer didn’t say anything, just smiled. He understood now what his son was so disturbed about. “Daddy?” asked Cody, as if he was afraid that he was alone and that he must be dreaming. “Daddy,” Cody demanded an answer, “are all the spruces going to be like this now?” “Don’t you like it”, replied Daddy Deer. Cody looked at his daddy with a curious look.
“Come on son, let’s go home, they’re waiting for us with dinner anyway. We’ll be back here tomorrow.”
“But Daddy, the tree, he’ll disappear, what if he disappears?”
“There’s nothing to worry about, it won’t disappear. He’ll be here tomorrow.” He looked at his son with a stern expression and was already leading him towards home. There, waiting for them, all impatient, was their mother. “Where have you been wandering”, she blurted out to them, “I was already worried about you, just today”, she mouthed to both of them.
“Just today”, repeated Cody But his mother did not answer him. At home, Cody ate his dinner and lay down in his mossy bed. Before he could close his tired eyes, his mother came to him. “She kissed him on his tiny nose and left.

In the morning Cody jumped out of bed as he had done so many times. At breakfast, he was already thinking about how to go as fast as possible to see the strange tree he had discovered yesterday, and he hadn’t even noticed that his father was watching him. But just as he was about to run out, Daddy stopped him. “Wait a minute son,” he called to him, “don’t be in a hurry today. We’ll help mommy and then we’ll go for a walk together”. Cody wanted to resist, but then he just quietly bowed his head and obeyed. All day long, he was gloomy, and he just wandered around the house. At last, it was afternoon. Mummy had dressed herself nicely and they headed out of the house for a walk.

Cody was thoughtful as they suddenly stood in front of the strange and glowing tree. It was already dark, so only now could they see the tree all aglow. Cody raised his head curiously. Then he suddenly noticed that besides him and his parents, there were many of their relatives and friends standing there. The little Cody was confused. Daddy looked at him and smiled, then began to explain. “This is an ordinary tree and it is just like the others. It was just that yesterday Mr. Forester decorated it to make us improve in deep winter and he made us one too…” he paused for a minute and then went right on. “He made this day nice for us too. It’s just that today is not just any day. Every year at this time we gather here, all of us, all the animals of the forest, to reminisce together about the year that has passed under our hooves. Spend time together and wish each other a wonderful Christmas Eve. Today is Christmas.”

“Christmas,” gasped Cody in amazement.

(12.11.2023)