The doe walks through the meadow carefully, but not careful enough. The hunter watches while hidden behind a bush. The leaves tickle his nose, but he must remain still. He quietly slips an arrow in his crossbow. The doe’s muscles harden and it stills. Its left ear turns left than right. Hearing no danger it gracefully walks through the tall grass eating rosebuds. The hunter still watches the every move of the doe, the light brown fur and slender body is almost too beautiful to take from this world. But the hunter’s hunger overcomes this thought. His muscles flex as he pulls the string back, and then releases it. The arrow screams through the air then plunges into the doe’s side. The doe tries to run in painful alarm but its legs falter and she stumbles to the ground. During her last breaths she sees the hunter running her way, he feels a little guilt as he sees the life draining from this beautiful creature. He kneels down and caresses her soft head. Their eyes meet and a warm blanket of understanding lies between them. Her fear and his guilt diminish; they know this is the way of life. The hunter and pray must eventually become one. And as her eyes slowly close the hunter’s ears catch the faint sound of her last heart beat and at this moment he looks down at his hands and sees the scarlet red running down them. His soul is calm. He turns toward the rose bush the deer once ate from. A rose comes to bloom and he realizes that with every death comes life. The life may fade but the beauty of that life remains. Every life impacts the world in some way, it’s like the ripples in a pond; the ripples fade but the stone remains. The hunter and prey are now one.