Basic information:

Name:          Calista (ka-LISS-tah)

Nicknames:   Cali, Lis, Lista, (whatever else you come up with)

Meaning:       fairest, most beautiful

Age:                 adult doe, five or six years approx

Species:            Pampas Deer

Gender:          doe/female

Relationsships:

Herd:         lived in various “herds” (pampas deer live in small bands) back in Brazil, now Bambi’s

Parents:      ??? x ???

Siblings:     likely, but none known

Crush/Mate:     had various mates (closed)

Offspring:        none, is unable of breeding

Friends:            very few

Foes:                  about each of her ex-mates

Other information:

Personality:    Calista isn’t really liked by other does. She likes to have bucks admiring and swarm around her and will do about everything to achieve this. Since she is a quite pretty doe, she never has much trouble achieving that. She may come off as a doe who just needs attention, but in reality, she’s quite sly, malicious and egoistic. Whenever she had managed to wrap a buck around her hoof during the rut, she simply tells him she’s unable of fawning, giving him a sweet smile.

But she actually enjoys being around those does who don’t hate her for playing her little games, which are very few. She loves to talk, but dislikes if someone asks about her past. She refuses to let one single detail slip, but deer who are good at observing will notice the look of hurt in her eyes.

She can be very reclusive and actually reacts aggressive if persuaded or if her peace is destroyed. She then doesn’t hesitate to bite or kick, and the deer around her have learned not to get on this does bad side and especially not to set her off.

She is not the most caring deer who has ever lived, but if she likes someone, she will stand up for them if it’s necessary, and she doesn’t stand for it if someone attempts to hurt that person. She also can’t bear to see fawns in danger or troubled and always tries to help them.

But she wouldn’t let down anyone else who is in real need of help, either.

She is great at finding her way to a place where she hadn’t been before, as she has spend much time wandering around on her own.

Likes:    flirting with bucks, being the center of attention, fawns, talking, chatting, helping fawns, being independent

Dislikes:   being unable of fawning, seeing does with their fawns, deer talking of true love, being ignored, does glaring at her, deer talking behind her back

Voice:     Alice Braga  (City of Gods, I am Legend, Redbelt)

History:  Calista was born very far away from Bambi’s forest, not even on the same continent as him. Her first home were the grasslands of the Brazilian Pantanal wetlands (although this area not only is on Brazilian ground), where part of the grass is so high that it covers an adult deer of her kind – which wouldn’t be very tall for Bambi, since pampas deer only have an average shoulder height of 0.7 to 0.75 meters (2.3 to 2.4 feet).

There, pampas deer live in small bands of 2 to 5 animals. Only if the feeding area is very good, they unite to groups of up to fifty, but they usually separate again soon.

Calista’s mother was part of a small group of four, two other does and one buck, Calista’s father. Pampas deer usually don’t have harems, but it just happened that the buck stayed together with the does.

Calista was born some distance away from the buck and the two other does, covered from being seen due to the high grass. Her mother spend many hours with her, not leaving her little girl’s side. But eventually, the adult doe went away, leaving little Calista all alone, perfectly hidden from predators. She returned several times per day, though, to nurse the little fawn.

When Cali was about two and a half week old, her mother took her with her to the other does, who had fawns as well. They often played together, as well as with other fawns when they met other bands of pampas deer.

All in all, Calista lead a peaceful youth and stayed by her mother’s side for not much more than a year. After that time, she still was in the same herd as the older doe, but was fully grown, independent and almost sexually mature.

She of course was bred during her first real rut and even took. She was happily to soon be a mother, but of course, something went wrong.

She was grazing with some others of her kind when poachers spotted the little herd. It is actually not allowed to hunt pampas deer, as they are an endangered species in the wild, but of course, poachers don’t care. Although pampas deer are actually quite curious and this particular herd wasn’t really afraid of man as they hadn’t encountered them very often, they fled in alarm.

While she was on the run, something made her stumble and fall badly. I think about everyone can imagine what happened next…

After aborting her fawn, Calista was in deep shock as well as very weak. She couldn’t stand up due to both blood loss and the sight of the…”thing” which would have been her fawn. Some other doe eventually found her and made her get up. She couldn’t remain lying there, a predator would smell the blood and find her.

She recovered very slowly from both physical and psychological pain, but eventually she managed to with some help of her friends. When the next rut arrived, she got pregnant again.

But like the last time, she aborted the fetus again, this time for no obvious reason. She could only guess that something inside her must have gotten damaged when she aborted the first time. She couldn’t believe that it happened to her again, and ran away the very next night.

The following years, she was bred several times, but now, she didn’t even take anymore. And every time it happened, the bucks of that area were furious with her and the does gave her strange looks between pity and malicious joy. She couldn’t stand either of them, and every time, she continued wandering.

She even started telling the bucks that she was barren before mating after she had some time to get to know them, and in the beginning, she hoped one buck would say “I don’t care, I still like you”. But of course, it never happened.

She couldn’t even count how much shame she felt and how often her heart was broken. Eventually, something died inside her, and her little game of tricking bucks started. This time, she attempted to seduce them, especially in the mating season, just to say “Honey, I’m barren” with the sweetest smile on her face.

She actually found joy in doing this, as she could get revenge for any heartbreak that had happened to her. She of course always wandered on her own, to places where she wasn’t known. Sometimes, she encountered predators or other dangers and had to flee. While she was on the run one time, she had an accident with a thorny bush, leaving a few small scars and a blind eye. She learned to deal with it, though, but the light blue eye with the scars around it makes her look even more crazy sometimes, something she agreeably is.

This went well for some time, but then, another thing that changed her live occurred.

As mentioned before, pampas deer are extinct, and some people wanted to try and breed them. Exactly those people were who eventually managed to stop Calista’s wandering by capturing her and bringing her to the U.S where they had a area where they wanted to start their breeding program.

There, Cali met other does. Some came from so called zoos, others used to be wild or semi-wild like her.

The does were bred when their time came, and each of them had a fawn in spring – each but Calista.

The managers of course weren’t happy when the vet told them that they had a barren doe. Calista overheard their talk, as she was able to because one of the does from the zoo had taught her some English.

“We capture and buy random does, and what do we get? A BARREN one!” – “You can’t do anything against misfortune. What are we supposed to do with her?”- “Sell her to a zoo, she’s useless.”

Calista was very, VERY upset by this. She wasn’t useless, not in the least. Her anger made her mind quick and her muscles strong, and so, when the men tried to get her, she kicked and bit them and made a quick escape.

She wandered for a long time. Of course the temperature and the weather were different from her old home, but she had gotten used to it while she had been in captivity.

She soon met other deer, and immediately, although she was different from them, started playing her old games again, although a little less than before.

She eventually ended up in Bambi’s forest, and is staying there at the moment, as she is tired of wandering for so long and she feels that it will get even colder if she continues wandering.

RTB:    her journey ends in Bambi’s forest

Created for Hige's contest