I THOUGHT THEY WERE JUST CURIOUS DEER—UNTIL I SAW WHAT THE LITTLE ONE WAS CARRYING

They came out of nowhere—just wandered up from the treeline while I was tossing hay near the fence. No fear, no hesitation. Like they’d been here before.

The bigger one had a calmness to him, like he was guarding. But the small one? The little one kept tilting its head at me, blinking slow, like it was trying to tell me something.

I laughed and pulled out my phone to snap this photo—“today I got some guests,” I joked, even posted it with that caption.

But the moment after I took it, something strange happened.

The little one stepped forward. Right up to the fence. And dropped something.

At first I thought it was a rock or a clump of mud.

But when I took a closer look, my heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t a rock. It wasn’t mud either. It was a small, neatly folded bundle of fabric. My eyes widened, and I found myself staring at it for a moment, trying to make sense of what I was seeing.

The little deer turned its head to glance at me, then back at the bundle. I slowly reached through the fence, my fingers brushing the rough wood as I hesitated. What was this? Why was the deer giving me this strange offering?

I crouched down, cautiously picking it up, feeling the weight of it in my hands. It was soft, almost too soft for something that had been dropped in the dirt. There was a slight tugging feeling in my chest, like my instincts were telling me something was off, something was significant about this moment.

I unwrapped the fabric gently, and there, nestled inside, was a small wooden box. My fingers trembled as I carefully opened it. Inside, I found a silver locket. My breath caught in my throat as I examined it. The locket wasn’t just an ordinary piece of jewelry. It was intricately carved with symbols I didn’t recognize, and its surface had a faint tarnish, suggesting it had been around for a long time.

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