Grimoire of Adair Jones (Entry 2)

23/06

I went back to the same creek last night. I looked around but I didn’t notice anything that seemed out of ordinary. The sky was clear as usual. I noticed that some of the clouds were shaped like a bird or some type of feathers. Some people think it’s strange, but I always like looking up at the sky. They change colours so often and at night, the stars are always beautiful. I’ve seen a few shooting stars thanks to this weird habit of mine. Once I saw the meteor split and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sight of that.

Anyway, while I was looking at the sky, I met this person called Mindy. I was bit intimidated by them at first since Mindy has a shaved head and is covered in tattoos from head to toe. But once they started talking, they had a really calming vibe to them. I was really surprised when they were so open about their preferred pronoun. It’s important but the only other person I know who is so open about the topic is Zeki, so it kind of caught me off guard. Mindy knew a lot about the local ecosystem and the different species that live in this area, it was really admiring. Since Mindy was wearing a black tube top and a dark green, flowy skirt, while they were talking about different plants and animals, it made Mindy look like a wood nymph Whenever I didn’t know something, Mindy would calmly explain it to me. When I gave my opinions on some of the things we were talking about, Mindy would listen to them with a calming and accepting expression.

Suddenly, Mindy asked me if I believe in the supernatural. I was a bit hesitant to answer, but I told Mindy my honest opinion. They have been so accepting of my opinions up until now. Mindy is a complete stranger, I know. But I just felt like I could trust them, and it wasn’t like I was telling them my address. I’ve always believed in the supernatural. I never really agreed with the idea that what we are seeing is all that is out there. Maybe, I just want to believe in it because I find it kind of boring that everything can be explained with science. But there have been so many things that have happened around the world that doesn’t have a fixed scientific explanation to it. The ocean itself is full of mystery, new species are always being discovered, and from what I hear from some of my friends who study microbiology, most microbes don’t even follow their own law of existence. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if some creatures can be considered mythical. That sentence just reminded me of a meme “how are unicorns not real? Like what’s more believable, a horse with a horn or a leopard-moose-camel with a 40-foot neck”. It’s a dumb joke on the internet but still…

I told Mindy about the ghostly figure I saw last night at this creek. I also told Mindy that the reason why I came out here today was that I wanted to see if I can find any clues on what I saw last night. Mindy told me that I must have seen a part of the summer solstice ritual. I must have looked a bit confused. Mindy told me that there is witches’ village close by and that since last night was the summer solstice, they decided to hold a ritual for Litha. Mindy also told me that the spell is called water recollection. They got up, pulled out a piece of paper from their pocket and placed it in the water. It was fainter than what I saw last night because of the daylight. But I saw the similar ghostly figure show up on to the creek. I lost my words and just sat at on the same spot and stared at the faint figure dancing in front of me. Mindy turned around and smiled. They told me that if I can see it, then I have the potential of practicing witchcraft. I still couldn’t say anything. Just like last night, I couldn’t process everything that I just heard and saw.

Mindy gave me a couple of minutes to calm down. I asked them if what I just saw was really witchcraft and they nodded. Mindy pulled out a piece of paper from their pocket and explained to me that a paper crafted by blacksmith witches, combined with flower seeds that symbolizes a certain memory stored within the water can be materialized once the paper is dissolved into a natural body of water.

Mindy said it before, but I just had to ask again if this really meant that I have the potential to study witchcraft. Mindy nodded again and told me how at the village, they teach people who have the potential for witchcraft different types of witchcraft to maintain their practices and knowledge. And that if I want to study more witchcraft, I can join the others in the village. They also told me that there are more they like to explain but that I’m probably overwhelmed by everything I just heard, which I was. Because of that, they told me to come back to the same spot next week if I wanted to find out more.

I know what I saw is real. If witchcraft really exists, I want to study it. But I also don’t want to follow someone I don’t know to a random village. I think I will go back to the same spot next week anyway and just try to get to know this whole witchcraft thing and Mindy a bit more. After that, I will decide if I want to follow Mindy to the village. I feel like that is the best decision for now.

I also decided to look up the history of the area and found out that in 1855, there was sighting for the Devil’s footprint. It was a footprint that resembled hoof’s footprint, but it was found in single file and it seemed to go over obstacles like roofs and hays without a problem. But there is a lot of scepticism behind this incident because there wasn’t a lot of first source record and the first press coverage was a long time after the said sighting. The said coverage of these footprints was also too long for a single person to follow through it in one day with the technology they had at the time. Also, there was a failed experiment on the same night, but the experiment was covered up because the balloon which was used for experiment broke some of the shed and glasshouse. There were few theories of mouse and escaped animals from the zoo but there’s no way to fully prove that it was those animals. And there was no record of the animal escaping the zoo either. Again, they could have just covered it up though. Either way, it was really interesting to read through it.

It’s past midnight now, I better go to sleep.