Beware the hanging deer that sings

I wandered once near a forest old, and from its depths came something cold. A wind that chilled you to the bone, made you sure you weren't alone. It ebbed and flowed like ancient breath, it put in you the fear of death. On the breeze a whisper carried, I listened in, my breathing harried.

*Travel deep within my boughs, and find the deep and wild things. Gather round and swear your vows, before the hanging deer that sings*

The words would piece you to the core, you'd shudder and wish to take no more. Yet hear it once and you already knew, a curse had found it's way to you. No mortal mind could stand their call, you too would break and risk it all. And so that night I braved the woods, though the chill cut through my scarves and hoods.

The trees grew thick and dense around me, smothering, muffling and all darkening. Then all at once a clearing broke, and quietly I held in a choke. For in a pool of cold moonlight, I saw a dreadful chilling sight. From a long dead tree the deer did hang, and as it breathed the forest rang.

*Travel deep within my boughs, and find the deep and wild things. Gather round and swear your vows, before the hanging deer that sings*

All at once I saw them there, as a chill cut through the air. Deep things, ancient things, stood around me, were I not so scared they would confound me. Rotting beasts of forest birth, stood on two legs with eyes of mirth. Here a goat and there a bear, my eyes grew ever wide with terror. From them all a single call, as if spoken by the very air, their voices echoed *you must swear*.

I cast my gaze upon the tree, the deer's head turned to look at me. The words still echoed in my head, but at his feet I saw the dead. The bodies bent in fealty, with faces torn in agony. As I turned to bend my knee, something in my mind broke free.

All at once the poem had ended, something in my soul had mended. I turned and from the forest fled, on my heals a sense of dread.

As the trees thinned and I left the forest, the deadly rhyme finally ended. But even as I pulled away, the woods had one more thing to say:

*Though somehow you've broken free, know that you belong to me*