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." The stag looked away. "I prefer to speak of
them, though I still have them."
"Time changes feelings. Time may change all things,
even us."
"Time has not changed what we do, nightly." The stag
turned his head, briefly, to look at the north star. "I do not
think it can change what I am, nor will it change what I do.
I choose, again, to betray the one whom I - the one whom I
should obey."
"Another might not so choose. Even you, after some
consideration, might not."
When the stag did not respond, the king continued, "Tell
me, though you have told me often before: is this a lover
one could betray to hunters?" "One could. Does that
surprise you?" "No more than it surprises me that you
would." Without warning the stag lashed out at a sapling
with one of his front hooves. The kick left a sharp imprint
in the wood. "How could she have refused me? How can
she refuse me?" He kicked again, splintering the small tree.
"How DARE she refuse me?"
He stood trembling with anger, then mastered himself.
"Excuse me," he said to the king. "I'm not myself today."
The king said heavily, "I rather fear that even after ages
of punishment, you are still yourself."
"Perhaps you are right
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