Inktober 2025 - 5 - Deer

The concept of totems is far from being an exclusivity of the world in which this short story takes place. There are daemons, spirit guides, Patronuses, and definitely many more similar pieces of mythology across the vast Universe, that I cannot think of right now or simply do not know about. Sometimes totems are separate from the person they are bound to, their own entity, with their own soul, albeit tightly connected to their host and/or partner. Other times, they are just a manifestation, something without a soul of its own, more of a reflection of the person they are associated with than anything more. In both cases, they often take the shape of an animal, though.

There are totems that can evolve over time, some that only do so at first before stabilising onto a specific form, and some that only ever take one appearance. There are some that are with their person from the moment of their birth, if not their conception, and some that only come into existence at a specific time in their life. In some cases they are even chosen instead of attributed. Really, lores vary greatly.

For Alan and his people, although they do not choose their totems, they still have a little work to do about them. An animal comes to them in a dream, one night, and once that has happened, they need to seek out a specimen of that species. What happens next is a mystery. No one tells those awaiting their night vision what happens when they make contact. It is seen as a rite of passage in their culture.

Alan was 19 years old when he was finally visited in his sleep. It was not particularly late, but it was not particularly early either. He was especially dismayed that no one else needed to set out into the woods at the same time he did. That could have made the whole trip less intimidating. As he ventured deeper and deeper into the forest, he kept thinking about his cousins which had matched with dogs, cats, hedgehogs, and mice. Among his friends, some were bound to horses, cows, and sheep. His parents were the ultimate cliché, him with roosters and her with hens. And those were all domesticated animals or close enough. What the heck did he have to go and find a deer for?

When he had told his family about what he had seen, over breakfast, they had made a strange face. Not many people needed to go that far out to meet their emblem. Fish and birds were usually the reason. But, he had to go, so they let him.

It was late Autumn, which meant he had a good chance of being able to track a stag by sound. He wondered if they knew he was looking for them and would let him approach instead of running away. But mostly, he wondered what was so secret about what would happened when he did lay eyes on the majestic antlered creature.