Journal Entry

Stranger –

Thanks for your listening ear and your advice to talk to Velda about the plant. You’re probably less surprised by this than I was, but, lo and behold, Velda says I’m a mage and that my powers are finally surfacing. I have no choice now but to learn how to control them, at least if I want to continue to suppress them.

It’s all too much, truthfully. I’ve been helping support my mom financially since I was a teenager. It’s always been just the two of us against the world because my asshole dad kept abandoning us. But now I know that I had other family out there, after all. And not just that—magical family, who have given me magical powers. It’s a lot to process. Every time I turn around, something else crazy happens.

I miss my home. I miss my mom. Elderberry Falls is charming, but it’s not where I belong.

At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.

Velda sent me to the bookstore for some learning materials and I also picked up some… I guess I’d call it pleasure reading, in the interest of learning more about Elderberry Falls and keeping an open mind, as you’ve suggested. This particular story is about an interspecies relationship, which I have to admit is a new thing for me to think about. We have some magical beings and monsters in the human lands, of course, but by and large interspecies relationships are nonexistent. It’s a welcome escape from all the other things weighing on my mind.

It’s actually a pretty wonderful read. The romantic hero is somehow strong and soft at the same time. He’s more confident than a human man, more protective of his woman but also gentler with her than anyone she’s dated previously. I wonder how much truth there is to this? Are all monster men incredible partners, or is this just fiction being fiction?

Once again, I find myself becoming mortifyingly open with you. But the people who I know here in town are much more experienced in this area than I am and frankly might make fun of me for being so na?ve. I’m ignorant of most romantic relationships, if I’m honest. I had a bad example of one at home growing up, so I don’t usually let my heart get entangled in my dalliances. What about you, Stranger? Are you part of some great romantic love story for the ages?

Anyway, between our letters, my new task with Velda, and this romance novel I’m reading… I’d definitely say that I’m keeping an open mind about Elderberry Falls. Or maybe I’m forcefully having my mind opened. And maybe that’s not so bad.

– Natalie