The deer
399 Words
I turned in a slow circle, arms folded tightly across my chest like I could hold myself together.
Everything was too quiet. Even the wind made no noise only danced through the trees like it knew something I didn’t.
Then… I saw it.
A shadow. Just beyond the trees.
Still. Watching.
I took a step back.
“Stay back!” I called, my voice breaking halfway through. “Please… don’t come closer.”
But it did. One slow, hesitant step.
My heart beat louder than my thoughts. I braced myself for what, I didn’t even know. A wolf? A person? Another part of me I couldn’t control?
The figure emerged a little more.
Not claws. Not glowing eyes. Not danger.
Antlers.
A deer.
Its coat shimmered in the strange light, not gold, not brown — something in between. Its eyes held no fear, no threat. Only… recognition.
We stared at each other for a moment that felt like forever. My breath slowly steadied. My feet didn’t move, but my heart leaned forward.
“You’re not afraid of me,” I whispered.
It blinked slowly, as if to say Why would I be?
Still cautious, I knelt just a little not all the way. My hand hovered in the air.
“Can I…?”
To my surprise, it stepped closer.
When my fingers brushed its fur, something shifted. Not outside inside.
Like a warmth blooming in my palm, spreading gently through my chest. A calm I hadn’t felt in years.
I stroked it gently. Hesitantly at first, then again, firmer when it leaned into the touch.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” I murmured to it. “I don’t know why I’m here.”
The deer didn’t answer, but it did something else.
It nudged me.
Not hard. Just enough to pull my attention to the path beside us one I hadn’t noticed before. Trees parted just slightly, and even the wind swayed in the same direction, brushing gently at my side, coaxing me forward.
“You want me to go that way?”
Another nudge. A quiet breath.
I looked back once to the place I’d come from. Then ahead.
The wind lifted a strand of my hair like a mother tucking it behind my ear.
I didn’t know where the path led.
But for the first time, I didn’t feel lost.
I felt… led.
And I followed..
- Writer
