One night I woke to the sound of thunder, and the rain was pounding on my windows as a drum, calling, and chanting. So I crept from my bed covers and did creep to the window, and stood before the shutters trembling with rhythm, the wood a rattle as the wind blew against it, and the rain drumming loud.

The latch was fighting, being wrenched about as it tried desperate to keep the drumming out, and my heart was beating so fast, as there was this fire raging through my blood, my heart beating as though it would rupture and take shape. And for a moment I wondered if I was in a dream, and so a great gust blew apart my bedroom shutters, and a legion of animal spirits came bursting forth! Racing around me and flying about my room, it so frightening as I dropped to my knees and begged, begged for no more!

But the chanting grew louder, and the drumming louder still. I covered my ears the sound was so loud, I could feel it in my feet, my deep, my bones. This fire in my blood was burning, burning me! The animal spirits were dancing, dancing upon the floor, the bed, the chairs and mantles of my chamber. They played instruments and pranced and danced — Dancing everywhere! My heart was screaming, though I know not for what, and in a scream I cried out, “Leave me be!”

And then the drumming was gone, the spirits, had died suddenly and vanished. Shaking I wept, my room cold and my body, suddenly overwhelmed with emptiness. Overflowing with despair, I crawled back into my bed covers, and cried myself back to sleep with the rain and thunder, but the drumming gone.