The Gift of Faye
an excerpt

Prologue

We are not your typical fairies. We don’t flit about the trees, pollinating the flowers and dancing in pixie dust all day. No, we are far more complex than that and hardly as whimsical. Our world is not quite as perfect and childlike as many humans would prefer to believe. And why wouldn’t they? They’ve been taught from the very beginning that fairies are good and pure and that they spread happy sunshine everywhere that they go. Who are we to toy with their perception of our world? Let them think what they want. At least that way they don’t have to be a part of the terrible war in which we find ourselves. Not that they aren’t a part of it already; they just live in blissful ignorance of how very much they have to do with our struggles.

And yes, despite what the rest of the world would like to believe, we fairies have many struggles, most (if not all) of which stem from pains that the humans have thrust upon us. Not to say, of course, that we don’t have a close relationship with the humans. We love them. We coexist with them, and indeed we do try to bring them happiness when we can simply because we love being able to bring a certain joy to the lives of our giant, wingless counterparts. But even the most human-friendly of fairies has to admit that there is a limit to our generosity. And that is only because of these aforementioned struggles.

Millennia ago, we fairies lived side-by-side with the animal demons, and when I say “animal demons,” they aren’t the type that one typically imagines. They don’t look anything like humans who simply have animal features. Quite to the contrary, they are animals, plain and simple. They are animals with souls like humans. They can think, talk, work, and act as humans, except that their pitiful souls are imprisoned within their animalistic bodies. That is why, despite their form, they have always considered themselves equal to the humans in every way. And truly, they are just as intelligent (or rather, have the potential to be). However, their actions and lifestyles are rather limited because they lack the dexterity of humans.

The fairies, animal demons, and humans used to live in absolute perfect harmony. There was nothing through which our society could not persevere because we were so comfortable with each other. All began to change, however, when the humans developed new and complex adaptations to their ever-changing world. They grew, became wiser and more intelligent, and it was then that they began to look upon the animal demons as lower creatures.
The poor animal demons were no longer treated as equals but instead they were put on the same level as their dumb counterparts. It only took the humans a few centuries to completely forget that there was ever such thing as an animal demon. To them, the demons were the same as the lame animals, and thus they were treated as such. They captured, domesticated, and even ate some demons just as they would to any soul-less animal that crawled the earth.

It was then that the animal demons completely turned their backs on the humans, refusing to ever be a part of their society again and proclaiming their eternal hatred for them. With their holier-than-thou mentalities and pretentious attitude, they confined themselves to the recesses of our world, never to reemerge.

We fairies were amiable to them at first. We helped them as best as we could, took care of them because they were now living in the darkness of the deepest part of the wood, and thus it was a terrible, trying, and even dangerous transition for them. Eventually, however, their resentment turned to us, not only because we look simply like tiny humans, but also because we had continued our relationship with them, choosing to associate ourselves with the human society that had cast them aside as unworthy beings.

Thus a war was born. Though we had been closer to the animal demons far longer than we had been living with the humans, we could hardly turn our backs on our large, clumsy friends. They are, after all, more or less large fairies. And we had gained a relationship with them over the years that was not so easily broken. It was because of our attachment to the humans and our refusal to give up that attachment that the animal demons dismissed us as well. We, of course, hardly minded. At least that way we could stop trying to uplift their puny society and focus on our own for a change. Let them fend for themselves. Let them loathe us as we now loathe them. What did it matter, anyway? They were only animals.

Battles would occur every once in a while as the demons rose against the fairies and vice versa. We were different now, on two different sides, and one of us had to be eliminated. One of us would suffer so that the other could thrive. Of course, we all knew what would happen were the demons victorious: they would then rise up against the humans and eventually kill them all off as well. Yes, the humans were smarter and generally larger. But then again, the animal bodies that so cursed the demons were also their strong point. They were afforded claws and fangs and other things with which they could tear the vulnerable humans to shreds. In a world of cut-throat “natural” selection, intelligence isn’t always at the top of the list.

That was why we fought with all the strength that we had to keep the demons from getting to the humans. Of course, we’re hardly a match in size for the demons, but our wiles were more than able to keep them at bay, at least for the time being. True, we had to sacrifice much in the process. We would have to let them tear through our kingdom just so that we could guard the outer borders of the forest, knowing that they would go no further than the tree line for they wanted nothing less at the moment than to go down into the human village that thrived within the valley.

These battles continued for some eight-hundred years until finally a bit of peace arose, and her name was Faye. Faye was the fifth queen of the fairies, and she ruled over every bit of the kingdom of Sylphia. She was fifteen-hundred years old when she took the throne, and yet a more beautiful fairy I’m sure the wood has never seen. We fairies, you see, do not age as humans do. We mature to a certain point and then very, very, very slowly grow older. By this point in her life, Faye was still very young-looking. Not a single wrinkle creased her perfect face. Her hair was white, though that was the color it had been all of her life, and it had the most beautiful black streaks running through it (a symbol that always reminded us of the old White Tiger Demons with whom we used to be so close). Her eyes were a piercing, wise shade of light grey and surveyed her kingdom with the kindness and caring that she was so famous for.

Aside from the blissful longevity that our beauty is afforded, we fairies are all each born with our own light. Our bodies naturally cast a glow, and while human legend would say that we’re all just little puffs of yellow light, that is hardly the case. Each single fairy has his or her own unique glow, and while some are very similar, no two are exactly the same. Faye, as royalty, was naturally born with a deep purple glow surrounding her, the envy of many a female fairy, and that glow was only enhanced by the long pearlescent gown that she loved so much to wear.