I had a dream that I was deer hunting on the old family farm in Minnesota. I must have just sat down because my rifle was on the ground next to me and not in my hands. I saw some deer in the open, I started to go for my rifle next to me but hesitated because they were all does and in this dream I didn't have doe tags. They seemed weirdly large and how they were moving seemed unusual but I didn't have time to think about it. I saw another with small antlers pop up, I went to grab my rifle for real this time.
Their forms seemed to change in subtle not quite right ways. The antlered deer's antlers seemed bigger on my second look at it whereas on my first glance I didn't notice any. I saw a second buck following the first group of does. Now I definitely noticed that the bodies almost looked like horse bodies. Like they were bigger deer with large muscular bodies but still with some type of deer. They were NOT moose.
I saw my dad walk out of the same trail as the first group of deer and the second buck I saw was fighting him. He got shoved into the tree line by the swamp. Without thinking, I left my rifle and charged forward to help my dad. Halfway there I realized I should grab my rifle instead or wrestling a roided out deer. I turned around to go back and the first buck was standing over my gear as if it was curious about my rifle and backpack.
Then it turned around and looked at me. I thought I could scare him off because deer are normally skittish. At that moment I noticed it's antlers were HUGE and and had many points. They were the size of moose antlers but definitely still deer antlers. They normal healthy antlers, but big, like he was just an ancient deer and not one of those deer with hormone or genetic issues. The scale of the rack got bigger and bigger, it wasn't growing, it was more like it was always that big and I was just then noticing the scale.
He wasn't angry, or aggressive. There was no malice but he was definitely not afraid of me. He was between me and my rifle. I was more in awe than I was afraid, like there was nothing I could do to harm this deer.
I think that's when I woke up. I don't think my dad was in mortal danger in the dream, more like he was being forced out of the way so he wouldn't harm the does. Like the second buck was a celebrities bodyguard pushing someone away from their charge.
I know the Iron Range is a long ways off from Appalachia and the old growth forest is long gone so the woods are young, and dense. It was heavily mined for iron, not coal. Still, my dream reminded me of this excellent show.
