: The young hunter has been chasing a huge deer for several years. Finally, he drives the animal into a trap, but understands that the deer, like himself, the son of mother nature, and releases him.

One summer, twenty-year-old Yang was hunting birds and saw a small hoof trail on the bank of a stream. I have never seen such traces - deer have not been found in this area in the northern United States for a very long time.

When the first snow fell, Jan remembered the deer footprint and decided to track down the animal. A tall and strong guy had not yet become an experienced hunter, but he was persistent and tireless. With a gun on his shoulder, Jan began to walk around the neighborhood daily in search of a deer.

After long wanderings, he finally tracked down a couple of deer. Seeing these beautiful animals with large meek eyes, Ian could not shoot. For a long time he watched the graceful jumps of deer, and when they disappeared from sight, the guy did not regret that he did not shoot.

However, the next day a hunting instinct awoke in Yana, and he decided to track down and kill the deer at all costs. All winter he wandered through the forests, but he saw a deer only once, and even then from afar.

More and more he liked to roam the hills. Every day of this endless hunt turned for him into a joyful, festive walk.

A year passed, a new hunting season began. Local residents began to talk about the recently appeared huge deer with huge branching horns, which was called the deer of the Sand Hills. The hunter’s excitement woke up again in Yang.

With a company of friends Yang went hunting on the first snow. While his friends were hunting hares, the guy stepped aside and noticed very large deer tracks. He followed in the footsteps until dark, but he didn’t see a deer of the Sand Hills, but he discovered that a wolf pack was chasing him.

Ian understood that, trying to escape from the wolves, he would automatically turn into prey. Therefore, the guy sat in the middle of the meadow, putting his gun on his knees. A wolf pack surrounded the clearing, but did not dare to attack a man with a gun. Sitting in the snow in a clearing, Jan felt what it means to be prey, surrounded by hunters.

Throughout the winter, Jan wandered through the Sand Hills, discovered many secrets of the wild, but did not track down the giant deer. At the very end of the hunting season, the guy met a lumberjack, who said he saw a pair of deer - a female and a male, who "had a whole forest of horns on his head."

Ian hurried to that place and soon saw a deer of the Sandy hills resting in the bushes. At the sight of a magnificent animal with brooding eyes, Ian did not immediately decide to raise a gun. His hands were trembling, and, finally shooting, the guy missed, the deer ran away.

Chasing the deer, Ian stumbled upon an Indian hunter. Together with him, Jan wandered through the woods for several days, spending the night by the fire. The guy learned from the Indian many hunting tricks.Then the Indian broke the gun and decided to return home. Ian never met him again.

Yang spent the summer in the West. At the beginning of the next hunting season, he received a letter informing that many deer were seen on the Sand Hills. Soon the guy was already at home. Gathering a group of hunters, he went to hunt down a herd of seven deer, led by a huge male.

The hunters chased the deer for a long time, then the herd split up, and Jan and his friend went along the trail of a large male and female. Noticing the chase, the couple split up, Ian chased the male, but did not catch up with him, and the boyfriend's friend managed to injure the female.

The hunters set off in bloodstained tracks. The male tried to save his girlfriend, confusing the track, but he did not succeed. The hunters overtook a couple, the deer escaped, and Jan's friend cut the throat of a wounded female.

After long days of excitement, after a number of setbacks, he achieved the desired goal: a beautiful exhausted animal was turned into a bloodied, disgusting corpse ...

The guy was shocked by what he saw, but in the morning the unpleasant impressions scattered. Jan left a group of hunters to track down the Sand Hills deer himself.

For several days Jan wandered through the forest, frostbitten his cheeks and toes, but did not give up and, in the end, overtook a deer who had already managed to gather his herd. Noticing the hunter, the deer again scattered in different directions. Jan followed in the footsteps of a huge male.

The guy tirelessly pursued the animal, solving all his tricks. Finally, a tired deer found himself in a forest surrounded by swamps, where only three paths led.Ian knew that the deer would not go along the path that he had already visited, so on one of the remaining paths he left his jacket to scare away the animal by smell, and he hid on another.

Soon, a deer of the Sand Hills appeared near Ian and looked at him with his beautiful dark eyes. Ian remembered how he was surrounded by a wolf pack, he remembered the eyes of a dead female full of tears, and he could not shoot.

Ian realized that both he and the deer are children of mother nature, brothers, only a person is wiser and older, and therefore must protect those who are weaker. The guy realized that he could no longer look at the deer as prey, and released him forever.

The retelling is based on the translation of N. Chukovsky.