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I awoke, nude as the sky, in the pouring rain. The world was different: I felt it, the pure, raw, and absolute newness of it rubbing against face. It was like waking for the first time, and everything before it was just a strange dream -- like the world hadn't existed before then, and this was some new thing. I never knew it was possible, for something that has been there my whole life to suddenly not been there before; but I swear the forest is a little different now.

I had unusually good luck recovering my set this morning -- as if the universe were electing to help me along. Of course, as soon as I was done getting my set, I met a deer lacking her set. I aided her with the masks, which, unlike for me, was a painfully slow task. Mask after mask, she tried on in the rain. She eventually found the right one, and I admit, I considered leaving her to her buisness, right then and there. There was so much I wanted to do in the rain today... But then I thought about this stranger: If I left now, I would have helped a stranger, no more, no less. But if I followed, I could learn more about this person. I could maybe find the friend in this stranger, which would be find enough use of my time. I promised I would help until we were done. My nephew Aleit appeared the moment I made that promise, so I decided to make a detour to greet him. To my – not my surprise, exactly, but certainly to my pleasure – he elected to come with me and help. The work went much faster that way, but after we were done, she sort of…bounded off, and didn’t seem to care if we followed or not.

Aleit in tow, I decided to go celebrate the rain. And how to celebrate, but by finding the place where water strikes water, and the sound melts into itself. By which, I mean, we ran out onto the lake water, turning our hooves into raindrops that spread ripples across the surface, distorting the already distorted image of the stormy sky.