Hello, everyone!
I haven't posted anything of my own here yet, but I've lurked around for a month, waiting to grow up into a stag. Today, my deer Laphis tried out his brand new grown-up body for the first time in the Forest. It was absolutely magical -- there were loads of deer and they were all super nice, and he's already made a few friends.

If you're one of the deer Laphis played with today, please say hi! I want to know who you are!

(Also, I'm not too sure about the etiquette of pronouns when it comes to deer you don't know [which is just about everyone in the forest, for me ._.], so I just referred to everyone as he. If your deer is a doe, feel free to correct me.)




As soon as I woke up in the forest, I saw a herd of deer all walking past together. They were heading for the Twin Gods statues, so I caught up with them there. So many deer! They were all casting spells on each other, and they were all very colorful. Before I had time to be ashamed of my plain looks, they all started casting spells on me!



I love the way I looked at that moment, but then I accidentally sneezed and my beautiful blue pelt went away. I also wanted to return the favor to all these deer somehow, but I hadn't been in the forest since the early days of my fawnhood, so I didn't remember how. All I could do was rear up in joy and bow to everyone who gave me a beautiful new pelt or set of antlers. I ended up bowing quite a lot. The little red deer was the nicest to me -- we played together in the forest surrounding the statues for a while, chasing each other around.

After a while, a new deer came running up to us. He seemed bigger than everyone else somehow, but it was probably just the antlers. His antlers were HUGE!
Could this be Quamar?



I bowed to him to try to get his attention, and when he left the area of the statues I left too, and I happened to find him again on the big rock playground. I followed him back to the group after that, and then decided to go to the playground again... and to my surprise, a faun followed me there!



He seemed intimidated at first, but I bowed to him and nuzzled him, and I think that calmed him down. We played on the rocks for a little while, and he followed me wherever I went.

There were a lot of fauns by the statues when we got back, and I got a good look at all their pictograms.



My faun friend from the playground and I followed a deer who showed us a pinecone tree near the statues. So that's how you cast antler spells! -- I practiced on the deer and my faun friend for a while, and then I brought antler spells back to the statues to use on the others.



Eventually, most of the other deer went away, so I lay down to rest with the fauns for a while. My faun friend followed me, and lay down next to me, and we formed a perfect square.



I fell asleep for a while...




When I woke up, there were still people there, even though they were different. My faun friend was gone, but two of the other fauns were still there. I followed a pair of deer to a nearby tree with mushrooms growing on it, and they taught me how to cast mask spells! We stayed there for a long time, casting masks on each other and then bellowing to see if our voices changed.

I also learned how to sneeze on purpose, which is convenient because there were some masks I really didn't like, and some that I really did. One of the deer had a blue mask that I wanted very much, so I tried my best to ask him to help me get it. Sure enough, the next spell he casted was the mask I wanted!



After that, our small group made its way to the pinecone tree again, and then back to the statues, even though there was nobody left there but some sleeping deer. But on the way back to the statues, I caught a glimpse of... the faun from earlier with the pictogram that looked like mine -- except now she was a stag!

Could it really be the same deer?



Back at the statues, my deer companions lay down next to the sleeping deer, and then started casting pelt spells on each other. Soon, I was doing it too. Now I knew how to cast every type of spell -- even the shape-changing spell, because I remember it from being a faun. We spent a while casting spells on each other by the statues, and I somehow ended up growing closer to one particular deer. Feeling playful, I stamped the ground and reared, trying to get him to follow me, and he did. We ran aimlessly through the forest together until we stumbled upon the Old Oak, one of my favorite places.

I went inside and lay down right away, but my new friend didn't seem to want to stay there, so I got up and went back to the entrance to nuzzle him goodbye.



He left as soon as I went back inside the oak. All alone and feeling peaceful, I curled up under the huge tree and went to sleep for the night.