Author's Note: sorry this update came late, I've been a bit burned-out lately and have been writing less than I'd like.
I, Isla, have been noticing strange signs in and around my home. I don't wish to let anything distract me from my quest, and as forest conditions become still more dire and industrial development spreads like a plague, I had hoped to devote my time recuperating to planning and preparing for my next journey.
However, when I arrived home things began going strangely. It's such an annoyance. So distracting!
I showered, as usual, to erase all traces of my journey from my body, combing fallen leaves from my hair and mourning their deaths. They will be missed by the trees and by me, and alas, will now reside in my shower drain. Such is life.
Showering greatly rejuvenated me, as I have charmed my water supply in a moment of greater strength. This has proved necessary and very fortifying; compared to most magical girls I am very weak and sickly, and my stamina drains at an alarming rate. Though I have worked to strengthen myself, I cannot let training exercises become a distraction from my goal.
Charming the water was a brilliant move, if I do say so myself. I used a rare forest magic that can sustain itself for years without external influences, and it was well worth the time I took to learn. I bathe in fortified water. I drink it, cook with it, and often bring a bottle or two with me on my journeys.
I tend to appreciate this water very greatly, though today I did not have the chance to do so, as I noticed that runes were writing themselves in the fog of my mirror. I cannot believe I bothered to take the time to give them a cursory translation, as none of them pertained to the forests or the fairies often born there. A few runes said my name "Isla" and "Pay Attention" which held some temporary intrigue, since most instances of mirrors self-writing turns out to be nonsense, the result of scattered energy from a charm gone wrong. However, I know for a fact that none have my recent charms have gone amiss. I balanced the equations for my potions perfectly - I always do. I have to, since I take them with me on journeys to aid in research and self-fortification. No, these runes didn't come from me, and I don't think I live near anyone with casting magic so strong that they could cause this much writing.
Whatever it was, I quickly determined that the message was probably boring and went about my business as usual. This involved quickly throwing together a meal while preparing research samples and using restorative potions on my charm bracelet. Each charm will receive its own incantations, but perhaps it's time to forge some new ones if I can find the time to do it. My incantations are becoming too complex for my simple charms to sustain. Perhaps some more elegant designs, or a few runes?
Not to self: it does not do to be absentminded while cooking dinner, using potions, and sorting research samples at the same time. Fortunately, those leaves I ate don't seem to be poisonous and I'm wondering if this preserved dinner sample will come in handy at any point down the line.
After eating, I pulled my charm bracelet, steaming and shining like new, from the cauldron full of restorative potion and set about re-charming it with herbs and incantations. It seemed to me that the links and charms were positively humming with an energy that was surely not my own, for although I pride myself on my well-developed energy. It wouldn't do to kid myself; I know I'm not that strong, and the air around the bracelet was positively shimmering. I could have sworn I saw some rune-carved charms trying to rearrange themselves as though trying to spell something, though I've had limited time for rune-carving or the translations to various ancient languages. I'm not fluent in all of them; most predict the end of the world at some point, but I'm rather certain that's all folklore and I need to stay in the present. At any rate, the charms were unable to arrange themselves into anything coherent, and began rattling in a very frustrated manner. I couldn't really tell from their limited letters, but I'm pretty sure that, had my rune collection been completed, they would have spelled out some rather nasty swear words, and the charms that were not currently attached to the chain did fly at my head in a very bothersome manner, like so many attacking flies. One even lodged itself in my ear, requiring a twenty-minute pause in my research to extract the blasted thing. I'm going to re-forge them so that they cannot be moved by stray magic or outside forces.
Oh, but that's no good. Some of them were experimental charms, as I was attempting to develop a form of interdimensional communication, should the Sanctum ever gain respect for me. I've got so little time for it now and the Sanctum seemed so unlikely to listen, so I'd temporarily set aside the project in favor of more important things, but I'd like to take it up again someday. It would be so useful.
You know, it could be that I'm imagining things, or making a big deal out of stray magical energy that found it's way into my house. Surely those banging and tapping sounds around the walls were just my neighbors fooling around with their musical system again. (One of them is following the wish to create a form of magic through different kinds of music, which is lovely at times and horrifying at others. There was that incident with the improperly soundproofed room and the attack music....but, well, I survived, and I'm sure they learned their lesson after what that did to their ears. Ah, well, but the problem did correct itself in the end. It was just an experiment that worked a little too well - it happens to everyone, right?)
You know, I have been known to hallucinate from exhaustion and fever, but I'm sure I feel mostly all right this evening, and only a little worn-out. To be sure, I need sleep, and I have imagined these things before. There were times I was sure of an important impending occurrence which could really have been attributed to some magic gone astray. But, you know, perhaps an outside party is trying to reach me.
If so, they've been quite a nuisance this evening. I've hardly managed to get any work done.
