Chapter Text
Basil’s cloven hooves clacked against the sidewalk as he ran towards his group of friends. The five were surprised to find that he was wearing one of Polly’s baseball caps. Basil didn’t usually wear hats, unless it was too bright out.
“Hey everyone!” he panted.
“Well, Basil, what’s with the headgear?” Mari asked.
A wide grin spread across the deerboy’s face, before he pulled the cap off. The other hybrids noticed two round bumps right above his temples. They resembled golden-brown buttons made of fuzz.
“I’m getting my first antlers!” the buck exclaimed.
The others congratulated the blonde, Mari even applauding, while Kel went for a closer look. If there was one thing deer hybrids were known for, is that they took great pride in their antlers. They were a sign of maturity in bucks, and usually appeared in the mid-teens.
“Woah,” Kel exclaimed. “Does this mean you can’t wear hats anymore?”
“Well, it’s a little complicated,” Basil replied. “You’ll see in due time.”
The lumps of fuzz grew quickly. Extremely quickly. Although roe deer didn’t have the biggest racks of bone, Basil felt his head grow heavier every day.
He and the others where in the forest, beetle-hunting like old times. Although the others were using nets, Basil opted to use his camera as his main weapon of capture. One of his diamond-shaped ears flicked towards the characteristic low buzzing of a particularly large beetle. He began to crawl into the undergrowth, flinching slightly when branches scratched against his velvet.
He saw a rhinoceros beetle on a stump, overtaken by vines and shrubs. Basil set his finger on the shutter, ready to snap, when he felt something else on his growing antlers. However, the buck paid it no mind, thinking it was just another branch that fell on him.
And then a net hit him in the face.
“AH!” the buck exclaimed, immediately recoiling from the impact. He clutched his velvet, rubbing to soothe the pain.
“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” he heard Mari apologize. “You had a beetle on top of you, and your antlers blended in with the branches!”
“Hey, it’s alright,” Basil replied. “I didn’t notice you approaching. It’s a perk of having soft feet in comparison to mine, I guess. Ow...”
“Are you okay?” Mari asked, concerned that she may have caused a circular dent in his head.
“I’m fine, really!” Basil reassured. “My antlers are still growing, so they’re just sensitive.”
“HEY, MARI!” Kel shouted from the distance. “HERO’S BEING HARASSED BY A SPIDER AGAIN!”
Mari sighed, before pulling Basil up by the hand to join up with the dog brothers.
“AAAAAAGH!!!!”
An uncharacteristic scream erupted from the park. Basil was stunned, but also unsurprised at the same time.
“Aubrey, calm down!” Basil said. “It’s not really that bad!”
“Not that bad?!” the rabbitgirl yelled. “YOUR HEAD IS FUCKING BLEEDING!”
“His head is WHAT NOW?!” Hero ran towards the source of the commotion, along with the other hybrids.
“What’s going oaaaAAAAHHHH!!!!” Now it was Kel’s turn to scream.
Basil sighed as he saw everyone else’s reactions at the new state of his antlers. The velvet was in the process of shedding, with numerous strips hanging off of the blood-stained bone forks. Hero looked like he was about to faint, Mari covered her mouth in concern, while Sunny looked like he was about to cough up a hairball. Kel and Aubrey were left in a state of shock.
“Basil, what’s going on up there?” Mari asked. “Did you get into some sort of accident?”
“No, I did this myself.”
There was a short period of silence.
“My antlers got really itchy today,” Basil elaborated. “And before I knew it, my velvet was falling off.”
“Doesn’t it hurt?” Kel asked, mortified.
“Surprisingly, it doesn’t.” The buck unflinchingly pulled off a strip of fuzzy skin to prove his point. “I think the itch came from my pedicles.”
“Why does this happen?” Hero asked, gathering his courage to not throw up.
“When my antlers reach maximum size, the skin surrounding it dies,” Basil explained. “That’s when I peel it off.”
“You’ve got some tiny headgear, then.” Aubrey mustered to comment. Though she couldn’t vomit, she still felt sick to her stomach at the gorey sight.
“My antlers are only small right now because they’re my first set. They’ll get bigger,” Basil said. “Actually, I was gonna ask you guys...could you scratch off the rest of the velvet? My nails aren’t the best for this...”
Winter was approaching, and the increasing number of gale signified it. Basil shivered in the bench as he watch Kel play a few hoops. Despite the weather, he took it upon himself to exercise. Thank goodness for winter coats, or he wouldn’t still be wearing shorts. Basil’s leg fur was also thicker than usual, but he still wore long pants for extra protection. He was busy writing captions for his photo album.
“HEADS UP, BASIL!” he heard the dogboy exclaim. The buck looked up, only to get socked in the face with a basketball.
When he came to, he felt his head feel lighter, and not just in a mental sense. Once Basil raised his head, he felt lopsided. His left side felt heavier than his right.
“Are you alright?!” Kel panicked. “I didn’t mean to do this!”
The buck lifted his hooflike fingernails towards his left pedicle. There was a round depression where his right antler once grew. Sure enough, when he looked to his left, he could see a shed branched bone.
“Actually, thank you,” Basil said. “I needed that.”
“You did?” Kel asked. “But I just knocked one of your horns off!”
“Antlers aren’t horns, Kel,” Basil informed. “Horns are permanent. Antlers are temporary. I’ll grow a bigger set next year.”
“Really? That’s...kinda amazing.”
“It’ll probably take a few more years for mine to reach full size, but for now, thank you.” Basil walked up to pick up the fallen white bone.
“Looks like I can wear hats again soon.”