[soft speckled squirmer]

hiked out right before a storm came in, was hanging out at the shoreline watching the front blow over the water when I realized the rest of the storm had snuck around me and I needed to get back into the deeper forest (was out on some open granite); as I was hoofing it back, made a split-second decision to take the long way through the gully woods instead of going back along the ridge I came in on. Not too many moments later, I'm loping toward the forest and just as I pass by the rock ledge that I would have otherwise been on, lightning strikes it (probably 10 feet from me). Force of it brought me to my knees, felt it in my whole body, ears ringing, the whole arc of it was unbelievably bright and complex (lightning up close looks like electricity inside electricity with a repeating pattern). With how close it was I would have been electrocuted to death anyways but I think the mineral deposit it hit was distinct from the layer that I happened to be standing on? Granite layering is weird. Had so much adrenaline pumping through me, was fear scurrying through the woods to get back to my shelter, knew that I was not safe yet and a few more strikes hit within 20 yards while I made my way back, the storm reminding me that it runs the place (very weather-beaten area, you can tell just by looking at how wind-scuffed all the jack pines are, they're smaller than they ought to be for their age but it's because they have to be wiry with dense stresswood). There is a little bip bap sort of light flash thing that happens toward the top of your eyes when you're in a storm and the big time lightning is about to start, have since been very sensitive to that, has come in handy. Have had brushes with wolves and coywolves, and one million arguments with bears (sometimes you let the bear win the argument but sometimes you say fuck you bear! and they let you win) but it's kind of hard to tell how close you were to doom; like, bears mock charge a lot, but you always wonder if this will be the one that has the moxie to actually fuck you up and kill you. There have been some close calls & some big stressed-out males I've had to run from but I think that lightning is scarier than bear - you are in a bad enough storm and you just randomly have a chance to explode and die, that's uncomfortable.