Blacktail Deer Plateau I've loved and I've lost

@Finley

Black fur of darkest color lay on a frame thin from years of fighting and living and now dying. Rickety shoulders and creaking paws made loud noises as silent footfalls fell on the ground. At least to the large elderly male they were loud. He was tired, and weary and he just wanted to die, but his body and his soul and his heart, they just weren’t ready to give in yet. So he strode through the plateau an old bent man, graying with age.

He shuffled slowly, the arthritis and the displasia and everything else causing severe pain at every step, but he didn’t let anyone know how painful it was for him. Preferring to keep a happy face on, if one was to die of age it should be rejoiced not dreaded. Because if you lived this long plain and simple it was deserved and you were a fighter.