I should have known better than to wander in the woods so close to sunset. But upset and disconnected... I wanted to ground myself. The only way I had truly found myself able to do that was to wander in the woods for a while. It was beautiful, just letting the golden rays of sunlight filter through the leaves to grace my skin. Connection to the earth. To nature. To the home I had long since abandoned. These woods I had grown up in... but here I was once more. Older. Not the little child that spent hours upon hours chasing leaves and noises through the woods. Who knew all the trees...

As the sun set, panic struck my chest looking around as I tried to find my way home once more. The noises I had been savoring turned dark and menacing as I feared I was lost. I knew I was lost. How could I not? It had been years. I had no deer friend to guide me home. I was lost.

I was alone.

I stood still for a moment... remembering how when I was small I would follow my friend- An imaginary friend I had made up in my youth- a tall rugged stag with so many points on his antlers that were draped in moss and flowers... all the way home to the cabin that my family had nestled in the wooded mountains where I had returned at last. 

I heard noises- crunching of leaves and twigs. My eyes shot open staring up, expecting to see a cougar-

Instead, there he stood. My old friend. Unchanged, walking forward to nudge me, to wipe my tears from my cheeks almost amused.

His gentle eyes looked into mine. Deep mossy green stared into my own and my hand reached out, smoothing his fur, deep red and soft... I wrapped my arms around him, weeping into his fur. His head draped carefully over my shoulder as if to hold me closer, in a hug of his own. 

I don't know how long I wept into his fur, but he was patient with me, before nudging me along, taking me home, trusting him as much as I had when I was a child. Eventually, I saw my cabin come into view and I ran forward, my hand leaving his soft coat. Before I reached the door of my cabin I looked back to see a man wearing a gentle smile, tall and massive, and many pointed antlers growing from his mess of long curls. "Thank you." I breathed to him, only getting a slightly bigger smile before he turned disappearing into the forest making my heart soar just a bit higher for a moment. Perhaps being lost again wouldn't be so scary.