The Mallet of Kotto-Re

At the monastery of Kotto-Re, Master advocated raking the sand in the courtyard, but I wasn't aware that it was a hard-and-fast rule. There was not a single word in the canon of scripture about the necessity of raking sand, in any particular way, but only of preparing the court to be a delight to those who come upon it. I was a raker, the most highly ranked in my raking ability, and I was roused in the pre-dawn to do the honor of raking twice as often as any other raker. While I performed my work, I reflected on the concept of delight.
One week, Master appeared distracted and unhappy. As far as the raking went, it seemed far from his mind; he neglected to remark upon the disposition of the courtyard at all. The raking squad was deflated. Then things got worse. An order came that next morning, the most highly ranked raker was to prepare the court. There was no word on why, but a strange excitement was in the air.
I roused in the pre-dawn and went out to the shed. It was not a normal morning at all. The sky was evenly distributed with stratus fractus, and the air was filled with a nearly acoustic thrumming. The moon was near setting. Instead of the rake, I picked up a large wooden mallet, and walked with resolution to the courtyard.
There, I hammered all the sand throughout the courtyard with a consistent moon edge facing the West. I can't remember each mallet strike, but sometimes as I wended around the perimeter of a rock or celebrated a chapparal bush with a radiating, rather than a concentric pattern, I was struck with a feeling of the correctness of it. Excited but still anxious, as I had not seen the court prepared this way before, I returned the mallet to the shed, and returned to rest until the others stirred.
In some aspects when official morning starts, it is as if the day before never happened. Some discussions that were settled the day before come unsettled, some open issues are discarded, their importance evaporated.
On the matter of the appearance of the courtyard, Master blanched and nodded.
The Dauphin Emperor arrived at noon. The first thing he did, upon riding to the center of the court, is look around in a wide sweep from right to left, and smiled.
"I have never before been honored with the likes of hammered sand!"
"Ah yes," Master said, "Hammering sand is very much the specialty of Kotto-Re! We wished to honor you especially, Dear Dauphin, with this hammering!"