§731

‘I was walking through the woods with one of my friends. She and I are both transgender, and I remember telling her that people like us often experience strange happenings because we too are locked between worlds (in our case, between gendered roles). She is a psychic medium, and I am an eclectic witch. We’ve both had our share of paranormal experiences, but I’ve never actually seen anything with my own eyes. I’ve only felt things: energy and temperature drops. Things like that. This time I saw something. For a little background, I have always believed in faeries. As soon as I became a witch, I began to research the real faeries, and now I’m something of an expert among my friends. I’ve read countless folktales and legends, and I spend a lot of my time researching them for fun. Wherever I live at the moment, I leave offerings to the Fae, usually sweets and wine, or honey, bread, and milk. I get the feeling it makes them happy. I’d left offerings in these woods before and got the same feeling. I always feel safer in the woods where I leave offerings than anywhere in civilisation. So, we were alone in a clearing, and she was calling to the Fae. I told her I believed this was a prime spot for them, a bit off the trail, and so we went to investigate. I looked up into the air, and I saw a strange shimmer, like the air above a fire wavering in the heat. I blinked and shook my head, but looking around me, I noticed the effect was heightened. Everything seemed etched and detailed, more so than before, and everything had more dimension. Not sure how to describe it exactly, but it was like wearing 3D glasses. As I looked up into the trees, I saw the form of a massive man, with a thorny head. I couldn’t see details as it was very dark. But I felt he was made of the tree itself rather than sitting on the canopy. He sat relaxed, as though upon a throne, and I got a very lordly impression right away. I was more awed than afraid, but I was a little scared too. I asked my friend if she saw the figure in the tree. She said she did and was surprised I could. She said there were others in the other trees, and though I saw their silhouettes too, they were fainter. The primary one before me was solid. My friend channeled him, and I spoke to him for a bit through her. He said he was pleased I left offerings, that few bother to do so anymore. I felt warm with his words, and as relaxed as I’d felt all year long. It had been a stressful year for me, a stressful couple of years actually, but this experience left me in utter tranquillity. I felt more at home there than I ever had. When it was finally time to leave, as it was nearing about 4 a.m., and we said goodbye, I was mildly devastated.’ ‘He looked like part of the tree, as though he was always there but I’d only just noticed. I couldn’t see much more than the silhouette though.’ They were ‘channeled through my friend. She told me what they said, and they spoke with her telepathically’. ‘There was a very natural feeling to this being. He belonged in, and to, the woods.’ Fairies are ‘Elemental beings living in our world as well as a world of their own. They’ve existed before mankind and will exist after.’