Hello, bonjour, ni hao, ahlan, hela, hola, hej, hallo, zdravo, konnichiwa, and so on dear reader!
Welcome, once again, to the most magically magnificent spyglass into the neverending tomorrow! So climb aboard and get comfortable because our next stop on the Future Express is, as you might’ve bloody guessed, the future!
Last week I did some bone throwing to peer into the depths of the future and, gotta say, it sucks to be right sometimes, bloody hell. As you might recall, the message was a warning of something either coming from or going into the forest and seems I was dead on in this case. From a certain ill-fated Defence Against the Dark Arts class to the rather ill-mannered Whomping Willow to several little ill-hidden mumbles and whispers I’ve heard in between it seems there’s been no shortage of opportunities to heed my warning about the forest!
This is why we’ll be doing something rather more natural this week to search for some insight into this foresty mystery. Dendromancy! As you may have guessed from both the prefix and context clues, Dendromancy is a divinitory method of studying trees. There’s a few ways we can do this such as burning branches or leaves and studying the smoke, studying the patterns and lines and things on the leaves themselves, not unlike palm reading, or studying the movement of the tree branches and leaves in the wind. Since the Willow’s been swinging round so wild lately I reckon I’ll go with the last one.
So here I am. Sitting against the big oak tree across from Miss Whomping just as the sun touched down on the horizon. The sky is that lovely deep orangey-pink we only seem to see round this time of year and I’m just far enough from the Willow that she’s nice and calm and not about to bloody flip out and murder me or nothing. In my lap is my notebook and my guide into what each of the symbols and motions mean so now I just relax and watch and wait until I see… something.
For a long while there’s no discernible pattern, just waving and shaking tree-limbs but, as I’m about to give up, my eyes and mind both focus on one particular limb hanging low to the ground. I can’t say why, exactly, my mind trained in on it but my heart knows this is the one that’ll give me the answers I seek.
Sure enough, the low branches sway lazily back and forth in an almost hypnotic dance. I watch as either the wind or the willow itself pulls the long pliable limb up into the air and I keep my eyes trained on the rather mesmerizing dance as it curls itself into a little knot only to lash back out again. Our poor branchy friend almost seems to be trying to escape the tree itself.
I have some idea what this means but I check my list of symbols to verify and, as I suspected, it seems to be referring to an individual of unknown origin. Perhaps someone or something powerful but perhaps not so much. Whatever that individual may be, it’s apparently trying to be noticed or perhaps just showing off? Someone seeking power, fame, or even notoriety, perhaps? Or is it some beasty in the forest, all lonely who just wants a hug? Wouldn’t recommend obliging, personally.
Either way I’d recommend keeping an eye or two on the shadows. After all, not everyone or everything out there wants to be noticed for the sake of it. Sometimes it’s to conceal something bigger and nastier happening among the shadows while we’re nice and distracted.
Well sorry for being so bloody optimistic all the time but that’s all I’ve got for this week, dear readers. Stay safe and keep your eyes open, always, and ta-ta!
-Riven Redwhisper
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