I awoke to a forest that seemed stiller than usual. Certainly no one I knew was on, but I considered it the strange hour, more than anything else. I wandered over to da drinkplaats, where I had heard a fawn cry out, surrounded by deer that bore my name and little else. While I played transform briefly, I found it was not the best way to get to know other deer; I never even managed to greet the little fawn I had come out there to meet. While it was pleasant, circling as a dove, pondering the life of doves, who flicker on white wings into sight and pull above to some unseen heaven...I do wonder what their lives are like. I guess it's the old curiosity. Dove families, dove happiness... Of course, I am of the opinion that rabbits, wherever they hide in these woods, must be happier than doves. Just being a rabbit makes me happy; their bodies are small and soft and cosy, like they have a candle-flame beneath their skin and it flickers through their fur and blood; it circulates like oxygen and fills them up with something soft as wilting rose petals.
...Regardless, I heard another solitary deer, and encountered a lively fellow dressed in death's gear, for the full sake of contrast, who frolicked with me about the pond waters for a time, leading me on a bit of a dash to the other side of the water. We rested briefly in the shallows before meeting a deer who, as before, bore my name and nothing else (he is welcome to it; not thinking you have a name, even if you have the wrong one, is a sad and lonely thing) and taught him to enjoy a rolling laugh where the waters soak up around you and clean your back. We also danced with him for a little, but once he left, so did the stranger-friend I was playing with, and so I bid him goodbye with full regret, and settled to write this in my favorite sunning spot.
I did, however, manage to save an image of him before he left, so perhaps someone knows him and may tell me more.
((Presumably, Seed'll do more today; I just wanted to get this up.))
