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The5Virtues t1_isabqz4 wrote

Reply to comment by MsVindii in On a hunting trip with my Grandad, deep in the forest, we made a haunting discovery. There's something wrong with the animals. by Darkly_Gathers

My personal bet is the original two deer that ran from them and then ran back toward them were genuine. We never saw them again after they ran like hell.

They fled humans then realized they were running toward something far worse and went “nope, fuck that!” and doubled back right passed Roberts 1 and 2.

The deer had been seen by the shifter so now it had something to use to approach the Roberts in a form they would be familiar with. From that moment onward the Robs never saw a real deer again, just the shifter messing with them in the form of a deer.

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ADerbywithscurvy t1_iue09h7 wrote

Dangit, tried to edit the comment to amend my theory and managed to delete it instead. :/ Edited version was meant to read:

I got the impression the Barely Breathing Deer was a real deer, but empty. It "caught" the BBD, “ate” its soul or conciseness or whatever, and was waiting to use it as a lure to ambush the humans.

That’s why it was just off the Human Game Trail, that’s why it was pulled so close up against a tree it had a hoof on the trunk, and that’s why when Grandad tried to startle it with a clap, water fell off the leaves and branches directly over its head in perfect time with the head turning.

Whatever the fuck is hunting them, I don’t think it’s shapeshifting. I think it’s using the empty bodies of the other things it’s caught like decoys, and turning the deers head required some kind of movement on its part, like controlling a large marionette. But they didn’t go up to the deer, they went wide around it - so it couldn’t Death From Above them.

Wonder if it uses the deer as lures for other things beyond humans, like bears or mountain lions.

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