there was a light that represented innocence. it represented the curse of curiosity, the burden of fragility.
fairies aren't born of the same means humans are. they're brought into existence when nature deems them necessary. they grow to mirror the world around them. with the beauty of flowers and with the strength of trees. they form into existence, adapting into families of their own. and no fairy is born with wings, they begin to form as they grow.
jackie growing his wings was a core memory for him. he remembered the exact day it happened, the exact time the pain started. it was a sharp, delirious pain that had started midway through the night. it was excruciating. he remembered how loud he screamed, how much he cried. on his knees for hours until the process finished. he didn't understand why it hurt so much, why something so beautiful would have caused so much pain. he tried asking his mom about it but she'd brushed it off as a normal occurrence. something that wasn't as painful as he made it seem. he remembered dropping the topic then and there, but even years later he still wondered.
he loved his wings ever since he'd grown them. they were colorful, they were soft. they weren't riddled with vains and they weren't so textured like others were. they were layered on top of one another. three rows of individual wings that were connected, and when they expanded it was like they glowed in the light of day. they were as light as feathers and yet they were able to carry so much. they shined and he could even change their colors and textures at will. he loved them. they were his pride, they were his everything.
it's been years since his wings grew in. a few hundred even.
he'd grown a lot since then. he wasn't with his family anymore, he'd found a new one. he watched them all sleep in the dead of night. he didn't sleep much, his kind didn't need the sleep as much as others did. and even now he found himself lost in thought. on a ship full of non-humans, besides reign of course, he wondered what it would like being around other humans. he wondered what other humans were like. in the few hundred years he'd been alive, this was the most interactions he'd gotten outside of his own species. his wings were pressed closely to his back, he didn't know if he should do this or not. he didn't know if he should leave, but he had to know. he had to explore before he'd lost the chance.
he moved without even willing his body to do so. he forced himself out of the ship and to the shore hoping to go completely unnoticed. it was only for one night, he'd be back before dawn. before anyone would have even noticed he was gone. he was just going to look, to take a peek into the human world. human civilization, what were they called? kingdoms. he remembered that word. it's what eris called it. a kingdom. where they had kings and queens and knights and guards. where people were separated into systems of class, jackie didn't quite understand that form of equality but he sure wanted to learn.
he wanted to know so much about humans. he wanted to understand how they worked. he had so much hope, so much faith and fascination when it came to them. he wanted to know what they did, understand their lives, he wanted to know every little thing. it fueled his passion, his curiosity.
he took off into the air, flying just at the tree lines. dipping through branches and avoiding heavily barricaded areas. he followed the sounds of people, the sounds of music. he followed the smell of food and the bodies of people that he hadn't yet seen. he rushed through the trees, flying faster with every passing second, until he saw it. the bright lights, the buildings packed. maybe humans didn't sleep much either. maybe they were more similar to fairies than jackie had thought. he stopped just behind a building, feeling his nerves grow in his chest. a butterfly feeling he just couldn't shake off. his wings tucked into his back, falling overlapped into one another. he watched as the humans walked around. as they stumbled in and out of the bustling building. as they clung onto one another and kept up obnoxious tones.
