In the woods, I sat alone and whittled a small piece of wood I found laying on the ground. I'm not very good but it helped distract me from the pain of the day. This anniversary was always hard, no matter how many times it passed, it was still like a dagger in my chest.
I heard a sound that distracted my thoughts and as I looked in the direction of the rustling, my knife slipped and nicked my finger just enough to draw blood. I didn't even feel it though at first because I saw what made the sound.
A lone fawn limped into the clearing where I sat, an arrow stuck through its tiny front leg. "Who would shoot at a baby like you?" I spoke softly as I approached. Strange that the little deer wasn't spooked by me but seemed relieved to have crossed with ME.
I gently ran my hand down the poor animals back while I looked over the wound that still held the arrow. It didn't look like it would be a bad wound and once the arrow is out, it should heal well, and I calmly told the deer as much.
"Bambi, that's what I'm going to call you, okay? Bambi, I need to take the arrow out or you could rip it out running and hurt yourself very badly. It will hurt but only for a moment.... I'm so sorry."
I quickly pulled the arrow through the rest of the way, pulling the arrowhead back through the wound would just cause damage with the tiny blades around it. The deer didn't even flinch. It looked so grateful and after I finished, I tore the sleeve from my t-shirt and cut it into a strip and gently tied it around the wound.
I turned when I heard a giggle behind me and froze at what I saw. At first I thought it was slenderman, insanely tall and terrifying but then I remembered slenderman wore a suit.... and was fake. This though had one major difference from that story, this had a face... an oddly feminine face with what I would almost call a beautiful smile.
" You are a rare human, assisting my darling like that. Most of man wouldn't," she whispered but it still hurt my ears, as if the air heated as the words traveled it. I couldn't speak and so I just nodded.
She was so tall and so thin, like a stick figure walked off of a page and into my view. She ducked under a branch high up as she stepped closer before gently grabbing my wrists with both hands. I felt what can only be called a vibration from her... a zing of energy flowed into me as she pulled my hands together and made them into a cup.
She reached to the forest floor and her thin fingers effortlessly dipped beneath the dirt, then her hand disappeared and then her arm, all the way up to her elbow and when she pulled her arm out, she held something between her index and thumb. She dropped the small flat stone with a hole in the middle into my cupped hands and smiled.
"Debt paid." The words echoed through the air and I looked down at the small stone, the hole was not big enough to fit a finger but was polished black stone. I looked up and she and the fawn had disappeared. The rag I tied on its leg laid on the dirt with the tiniest bit of red still wet....
As if her whisper traveled again on the winds, I felt a burn in my ears as I heard the words "glimpsing stone"
Hesitantly, I looked through the hole in the little stone and at first, I saw nothing but the forest, but then a blur began to appear and as it came into focus, I realized it was a smiling face, her face... after so long, seeing that smile only in pictures, my heart broke and melted all at once.
"Mom, I miss you...."