A crash, a dash, and an oh my!

It had been dark for hours and definitely felt like bed time, even if it was still not ten - I was walking down the hill and, as usual, it was raining. Thankfully at least it wasn't particularly heavy, just a light spatter, the clouds letting me know they were thinking of me. I could hear the water flowing in the nearby burn, slightly louder than normal, fed from the heavy rain just an hour ago.

The light from my torch glints off of the water running down the tarmacked road as I make my way home. I'm walking more quickly than normal, less the clouds affection turns into annoyance - you had to take advantage of the light rain, sometimes it was the closet thing to being dry you could find.

It didn't take me long to get home, no more than five minutes - I'd been up the hill to a friend's house for coffee earlier in the day. It had turned into dinner.

As I finally reach mine and turn into the gate I hear a panicked crash - my heart jumps, half startled by the noise, and half excited as to what it might be.

Slowly I turn around, pointing the torch, searching for whatever it might be. I didn't have to search long, or look far away. Right in front of me was a huge stag, massive antlers standing proudly tall.

It looks eerily majestic in the dark, gloomily lit by the torch on my phone, eyes bright from the reflected it light. It stares at me a while, checking I'm not a threat - even if it decided I am, I'm pretty sure it would do a lot more damage to me if it decided to get rid of me. The rain is picking up a little, but I stay there, watching as the deer gets used to me. I wonder what it's thinking, probably "stupid human, leave me be." I decide to leave it be, and I head to my front door.

I turn back quickly just to say goodbye, it had darted silently to the other side of the grass, now only two eyes visible in the dark.

Inside and warm the image of the antlers stay with me - and the hope that my new friend visits again.