I had a bad dream two nights ago, and it’s just sticking with me. Do you ever have that happen to you? Most of the time I’m able to explain away things that happen in my dreams, but sometimes the fears and doubts that they’re trying to bring to the surface are so dead on that I can’t help but mull over the dream for days. It feels like every time I think I’ve put it away, it slides right back into view and I’m all upset, all over again.

I’d tell you all about it, but it wouldn’t make much sense to you. Plus, specific people figure prominently in the dream scenario, and I wouldn’t want to make them feel bad by calling them out for being jerks to me in my dream.

I will tell you that part of the dream – the good part – was dreaming that for a special viewer, moonlight would reveal the land of the Fae. And during the course of the dream, I was gifted with the sight. In one part of my dream, I was back home in North Carolina, standing on the slightly swampy land of my old house’s backyard. I was near the edge of the shoreline, where the slightly damp ground gave way completely to the water of Pantego Creek. Off in the distance, maybe a quarter of a mile away, was a small island with trees. The moon was a blue crescent overhead, and where the moonlight touched the island, I could see through this reality into the next.

In the patches of moonlight stood deer, but they were unlike any deer I’ve ever seen before. They were muscular and tall, like elk. All of them had short horns, reminiscent of reindeer horns. In this case, the horns were too small for their overall stature, but beautiful, nonetheless. The deer were grey, and their hair was short, like a horse’s, so they had a sheen about them. In the moonlight, they looked blue. Each bore a brand on its flank that I can’t quite remember. The closest I can get to describing it is the outline of car’s gas flap, like an elongated D shape, but soft around the edges. They turned and ran away as a herd, into the trees on the island, singing out to each other with soft whinnying sounds.

As they ran away, I thought that these were the “Stags of Danann”, and I was sad to see them go. But it was what happened after that that broke my heart. It’s just a dream. It’s just a dream.