---Entry 24/Divination 4/Esther's Earthly Educating---
Dear Gretel,
The next few entries will be fairly normal ones, spread across a few days and outside of the trinity's brain trust. Though as vast as the experience was, it took a memory spell plus the brain trust to piece together every last detail I could muster to record, recording the events of the rigorous classes I experienced starting from that first today. "Rigorous" of course isn't nearly enough a descriptive-enough word to describe everything that happened today, but I was looking for a word that combined the definitions of "dangerous," "crazy," "deceptive," and couldn't find one. I settled on rigorous not because of accuracy, but because if today was going to become the standard going forward, I'd rather call it rigorous.
Early in the a.m., Esther drove me up to the Angeles National Forest. I saw dawn cracking from laying down in the passenger seat, my head resting in Esther's lap as she drove; fortunately Esther's driving made it as smooth as possible, even though we could've hit a few major bumps the way she stroked the hair of my sleepy head, putting ideas into my caressed head to slip her pants down and give my tongue access to her before directing both of us to the backseat where she'd blow me afterwards; I'm happy sleepy me opted to not even try as I might've forgotten to instruct Esther to pull over.
By the time we arrived, the light of sunrise put a nice shine on the testing setting she had in-mind for me. There were a few tourists and avid hikers around like usual; I sort of envied them as I loved hiking in the area too sometimes, a great place to stroll and clear my head in solitude if the drive was worth it. Knowing this was more of a field testing, I got out of the car to stretch my legs, arms and torso to really wake myself up. Dressed in a long-sleeve shirt, shorts, and hiking boots, I was deliberately indistinguishable from everyone else present, with the exception of Esther herself. The way she was dressed in slack and a decorative top meant more for shopping than hiking, I should've known that she wouldn't be joining me; the other indicator was the sympathetic smile she gave me, the "hoping for the best" kind that stopped any questions I had, but produced many as she got back in the car and drove away without a word.
Witchy teachings have been known to be cryptic, but this was a step further. I wasn't even told what I was being tested on today, just left at the beginning of a long trail I was supposed to walk through, to catch a glimpse of what I should be tested on. More cautious than annoyed, I started onto the path, keeping a watchful eye on some sign or sense leading me to what was to be my trial. Hungry and still fighting off the drowsiness from earlier, which was hard due to a building sense of boredom after a full hour of walking, I started to wonder what I could be tested on in a forest. Pyrokinesis was my first thought, being made to prevent a forest fire, or maybe Divination in reaching out to a tree having to do with an ancient ritual I could tap into pertaining to the lesson. No clues from the thousands of trees I looked closely at gave me any indication of what I should be looking for.
I must looked like some strange sleuth to the hiking couple I was closest to by distance. I was constantly stopping to observe what could've been a sign, yet they never strayed too far away from me. A couple of glances their way told me why, how the man was slowing their pace and shooting glances my way he thought I didn't notice. It was getting close to the second full hour of hiking and searching when I felt low on energy, and almost decided to make a little detour in the lingering couple's direction. He was okay-looking, but she was much more appealing; an easy plan quickly formulated for taking both of them off the beaten path and playing with both, or playing cuckold with him watching. I was about to backtrack slightly and walk up to the woman, giving her a brief wave of Concilium to ready her for the hot kiss and rubbing between her legs to get her started (in retrospect, manual hypnosis should've been the way to go, but hunger plus impatience made me begin to take the easy way out, even if my energy was precious), when something shining off in the distance caught my attention. From the clearing, something, a specific shape, flashed from the distance at me; from far away, I could tell it was a specific shape.
Getting my head back into gear, knowing the guy was still trying to keep his leering eye on me, I walked up the woman he was with.
"Excuse me, but I'm taking a national park survey," I told her in a friendly voice, giving her a smile that made her smile, despite the discomfort of me taking her hand.
"It's a one-question survey about seeking rest while hiking," I told her, refusing to let her form the prerequisite ability to decline or seriously question my assertion. "On the trail, do you ever sleep? On the trail, do you ever sleep? On the trail, do you ever sleep?"
I kept asking the same questions, only altering how I asked it with emphasizing the word "you" and "sleep," stroking her hand repeatedly before getting a non-verbal answer from the lost hiker.
"On the trail, do you...ever....sleep!" I yanked her sleepy body to me after a minute, keeping her upright and in my grip as the guy watched, stunned. I just gave him a playful, come-hither look, and an upright mass of male putty walked eagerly into my grasp.
"The answer to your questions are 'yes, I hypnotized your girlfriend,' and 'yes, I'm interested in sex,' so listen carefully how this is going to play out for a three-way..."
He willingly gave me his ear to which I gave a slightly-longer induction, slipping in easily from being delivered from a hot, breathy voice.
With both under my immediate control, I so wanted to fuck with both of them the way I mentioned before, but that shiny object in the distance kept me focused, and I just convinced them to walk away and forget I ever existed, but not without suggesting to one of them to be interested in cuckolding later on (I forget which, but it doesn't matter; she deserves sex and he doesn't).
Once they were away and the coast was clear, I focused on my Transmutation ability, felt my energies phasing forward toward the location I wanted to be. It didn't come immediately, and I felt more of the transition with how tired I was, but I landed almost a mile away from where I started. I looked around for where the source of it could be, knowing it wouldn't be obviously shiny so close. I knew it was square or rectangular-shaped from a distance, which was odd considering very few things in a forest would be. It took me looking up in the trees above to see something all-too familiar lying on a branch in the trees - a framed photo of adolescent me, Ma, and Aunt Maggie in a photo, my favorite photo in existence.
I observed the branch it was laying on from every angle I could, noting how thin it was compared to others surrounding. It wasn't thin enough that a mild breeze could make it move, but it wasn't thick enough to guarantee it would hold my weight, which is what I deducted the task to be. Telekinesis would be too easy, and no other wonders really called for a solution here, lest burning down the forest to get a photo seemed like a good idea. Transmutating on top of a tree branch was an elite test of witch powers for sure, as even the most experienced have been told that they need sure footing to land on when performing it. And as strong as the branches looked, I could only assume the same risk would apply, so my best bet was to get to the branch, grab the family photo, and have enough unpanicked presence of mind to teleport back to the ground.
