label thestag:

window hide
with Pause(1)
show text "The Stag" with dissolve
with Pause(2)
hide text with dissolve
window show
show woods zorder 1 with dissolve
$ game.status_stag = "Alive"

"""
There is something strange about the cold tonight.  It feels piercing, like a draft through a tear in fabric, but covering your whole body, so that it does not matter how you adjust your furs, the feeling on your skin is constant.  

And yet, you are warm.  How, you do not know.  But it seems to be coming from inside you.  Your skin is freezing, you are aware of that, and yet somehow warmth flows down from your eyes, making you feel strong and comfortable.

That is the first thing you notice.

The second is the glow.

At first you think it's the moon.  But it's too white, it seems hazy despite the lack of fog.  You look up to the sky and see that the moon is riding high instead of sitting low and casting long, swaying shadows.

It is those shadows that allow you to work out where the light is coming from.  You take a few tentative steps towards it and feel that warmth in you growing.

You hesitate, then walk forwards into the forest.  That is a much better story.

You move cautiously towards the light and as you do waves of vitality and warmth flow through you, unnaturally, down from your eyes.  The stiffness in your limbs disappears, you no longer feel the weight of your equipment and while your skin feels like ice, beneath it you feel your heart beat strong and proud.

And then up ahead you see it, standing in the centre of a large clearing, lit with light whiter than you have ever seen before:

A stag.
"""
show stagimg zorder 4 with dissolve:
    xalign 0.5 yalign 0.25
"""

The only thing whiter than the light, whiter than even the snow that covers the clearing, is its fur.  Its hooves are pearl, its antlers silver.  It turns to look at you, spotting you instantly no matter how stealthily you approach.  Its eyes are swirling vortexes of stars.  It stands taller than a man, pure white and glowing.

And staring, its eyes deeper than the sky, at you.

"""

menu:
    "Approach, slowly, with your hand out to pet it.":
        $c=3
        """
        You place your tools gently down on the snow and stand up straight.  The stag adjusts its head so it may still look you in the eyes, but apart from that it makes no movement as you slowly walk across the clearing, your palm flat and outstretched.  Only when you are within a step of it does it finally change position, stretching out its head and nuzzling your hand with its nose.  

        The feeling of warmth, strength, purity and power reaches its zenith as the light grows.  It overwhelms you as the stag, its eyes infinitely deep whirlpools of stars, stares deep into you and its tongue, so bright it appears as nothing more than a blur to you, licks your hand and...
        """
        hide stagimg with dissolve
        """
        ...you wake up in the centre of the clearing, your whole body feeling warm and strong.  You do not know how much time has passed, but the forest is dark again and you no longer feel that your skin is ice or that your eyes are sending vitality through your body.

        But you do not feel quite the same as you did before.  You feel...pure.  Healthy.  Well.  Your limbs no longer ache, your bruises and cuts have vanished and you feel calm.  You head back to town feeling young again, fit and ready for life as you were in your adolescence, long before the sun set for that last time.
        """
        $game.occult_connection +=4



    "Hunt the stag.":
        $c=5
        """
        It continues to stare at you, unmoving, as you pull out your bow, knock an arrow and fire.  

        You hit it square in the chest.  The stag blinks once.  The arrow has lodged deep, it should have struck its heart and yet there is no blood to mar the whiter-than-white coat.  

        The Stag continues to stare at you.  You look into its eyes.  The constellations there seem to be receding, the infinite depth somehow pulling away, flying infinitely quickly backwards, away from the world and into the animal's skull.  The light in the clearing starts to fade, the warmth coming in through your own eyes drops, you feel the cold, the normal, everyday cold, returning to you. 

        And then, just as the light dims so much that you can no longer see down the beast's enchanted eyes, it collapses.  
        """
        hide stagimg with dissolve
        """
        Darkness.

        You drag the corpse back to town and stop in at Henryk's inn after delivering the meat to Mik, the town butcher.  True, it wasn't your job to hunt tonight.  But you have brought back a large kill, with lots of meat and fur.  You feel like you should be proud, but really you just feel empty, like something important has just been taken out of the world.
        """
        $game.occult_connection -=4
        $game.town_stability +=2 
        $ game.status_stag = "Dead"

#hide ssnow
hide woods with dissolve
return