Fire Bringer – David Clement Davies

Fire Bringer is a young adult fantasy novel by David Clement-Davies published in 1999, in the United Kingdom and 2000, in the United States. It tells the story of Rannoch, a red deer whose life is the subject of an old prophecy among the deer.

Fire Bringer is the story of Rannoch, a red deer born in 13th-century Scotland. Rannoch is born with a white mark on his forehead resembling an oak leaf, the symbol of the deer god, Herne. To the Herla, as the deer are called among animals, the white mark is the symbol of a prophecy foretelling the birth of a deer with the ability to communicate with all animals who would bring freedom to the Herla.

The story begins the night Rannoch’s father, Brechin, is murdered, and his mother, Eloin, is forced to become the mate of the Lord of the Herd, Drail. Rannoch is adopted by another doe, Bracken. However, soon Drail decides to kill Rannoch and the other fawns out of fear of the prophecy. When Eloin finds out, she warns Bracken and the other mothers that their fawns are in danger; however, only some of them listen. So Rannoch, Bracken, five other fawns, and their mothers flee Drail’s herd and take refuge with another, which they believe will be a place of safety.

Soon, however, human hunters attack their new herd. Rannoch helps his friends by drawing off one of the hunters’ dogs but is injured in the process, after which the other deer believe him to be dead. Rannoch is found by a human boy who takes him home, where the boy and his mother keep him safe while his leg heals.

Meanwhile, one of Drail’s servants, Sgorr, tricks and murders Drail and militarizes the herd by making the stags sharpen their antlers, training and drilling the young bucks and having them gore each other in the forehead to make permanent scars. Sgorr slowly expands his territory over many herds, intending to make himself lord over all Herla. He finds the herd where Bracken and the other mothers and fawns have hidden, and the herd’s new leader gives them up to Sgorr.

After his leg heals, Rannoch struggles growing up without a herd. He stays close to the human dwelling and slowly begins to lose his ability to speak to other animals. One day, a mole who has become his friend tells him his time around the humans is changing him, and Rannoch decides to leave. He returns to his herd, intending to learn more about the prophecy.

When he finds his friends again, they embark on a journey to the mountains to find the mythical herd of the deer god, Herne. Herne’s herd is not the utopia the deer believed it would be, and after Rannoch disperses it, he and his friends form their own herd, sheltering other stragglers from Sgorr. However, Rannoch and his new herd disagree about whether they should fight back against Sgorr. Rannoch, torn between taking action and keeping the peace, tries to dissuade them, but his friends leave him to join the fight.

Searching for answers alone, Rannoch discovers that Sgorr has a terrible secret: he once killed a human child and ate its heart. Knowing Sgorr is evil, Rannoch returns to his friends on the battlefield. He defeats Sgorr, aided by all the animals in the forest, and in doing so fulfills the prophecy.