turtles

Troublingly, I haven't seen any of the 'usual' local faeries around. The ones that I drew before. I'd been telling myself it's because I haven't been in the woods much, and they've been keeping out of the yard as requested. But it's getting towards fall and they're usually much more active around this time, and they're just...not around. I've been out in the woods a few times, hoping to make contact, as I decided to do. They're not there. The woods are empty.

Or rather, they were. I just saw something in there. It was very dark in color, almost black I think. That's about all I could tell =/ it made me very nervous to see it - I was watching it through the window, and I think it might have been looking back at me, even though it was down in the woods. I couldn't see any face or eyes but I got the impression I was looking at its face anyways.

Also, shortly before leaving for China, I had gotten the impression there was something on the large rock at the edge of the woods - the entrance to the 'corridor' that leads to the now-dead tree. That tried to eat me. There has to be a simpler way of referencing that incident, but although I've found a few other incidents of minor encounters with these sorts of trees, I can't find any folklore that seems to directly reference it. I've labeled them 'singing trees' to myself, but my personal labels are not very helpful, as they are meant to categorize reported phenomena and my own theories, not be applied to the actual reality. (Some other faerie creatures and phenomena I have personal labels for are 'the storyteller(s)', 'chickenfeet' and 'following'. Anybody care to guess what they might refer to? If you've done any independent faerie research yourself? IDK that any of you have :P I just thought it would be neat if you could guess.)

Okay, back to what I was actually talking about. I got the sense that something was on or standing directly behind the rock; it made me very uncomfortable, and my eye kept being drawn there, but I couldn't see anything. I have actually not looked at the rock since. I haven't been in the backyard, let alone the woods, since before I left for China, and now I'm afraid to go in.

I suspect strongly that some changes occurred out there while I was away. I had grown comfortable with what I knew if the current balance out there. What happened? It occurs to me more and more that I really know very little. Maybe it's a good thing that I never got to approach them personally like I wanted to. I don't actually know that they weren't interested in eating me or something D:

Black thing is still out there. Keeps disappearing and then coming back. I am pretty sure now that it's looking at me.