The Moonlight Boy | Ferry's Tale # 1

The creatures named fairies

The fairy looked at him with her big eyes which Ferry was afraid to watch so he wouldn't be charmed.

"To better know who you really are, you have to learn some things about fairies," she almost whispered, as if being afraid not to be heard. Ferry looked around. Were they really alone? Or maybe unseen eyes were watching from the shadows?

"Fairies are whimsical creatures," she continued. "They're not entirely good, nor entirely evil. Like people, for that matter. But there are also fairies with great powers. So big, they could stop armies. Those are the Great Fairies, beings with extraordinary forces who had been existing since the beginning of time. They have created the fairies' magical world. But God forbidden annoying a fairy! They are capable of bad, terrible things if they think you want to trick them or mock them.

"You see, at the beginning of time, people and fairies were one and the same kind. They ruled over the same lands and had the same magical powers. There was a hierarchy, of course, but they were all living under the same laws, owning and sharing everything ─ the land and its riches, the animals, and the plants.

"In the land of fairies, time flows differently ─ it runs slower. We are not immortals, as people have always thought. But since our bodies do not know illness, we can live hundreds, even thousands of years. Because usually, fairies die of old age. There are so many sorts of fairies, some of them known by people, others hidden and hard to understand by a human mind. Fairies are born, they love, give birth, live a long life, and then die. Just like people. If fairies are wounded in fairyland, they can heal themselves and carry on living. But if they are wounded in the world of humans, they may die. Therefore, entering the fairy realm is so dangerous, if not forbidden to people. Yet, people are so fascinating, so beautiful, and strange...

"But it wasn't always like that. A long, long time ago, when people and fairies were alike, some fairies changed. They wanted more. They envied the greater powers of others. For they felt misunderstood. So they schemed their leaders, stole from them, even tried to kill them. That was when the Great Fairies got angry and banished them; but before that, they took all their magical powers away. They exiled them in a savage realm, with dreadful beasts that would tear them apart at any time. And once they lost their magical powers, the rebel fairies became... mortals. They became what today we call humans.

"Banished and without magical powers, the fairies, now humans, had to fight for everything in their new, wild world ─ food, shelter, and their lives. They were fighting diseases that no longer healed. They were doomed to perish. But to the astonishment of those who were once their own kind, people have managed to survive to the most dreadful occurrences. They tamed the beasts and the wildlands. They cultivated the ground and grew plants. They hunted. They built shelters, then huts, and then houses. Then, they built the cities. Great cities which the fairies have never seen before. They invented tools to help them survive through the hardships of their ticklish life. Then, their tools made their life easier. And they did all with no trace of a magical power. But their human nature was to bring them a lot of misfortunes, too.

"The way they invented the good things for humankind, the same way they created the bad ones. And among them, their weapons were the worst. In the beginning, the weapons were used for protection and survival; but the people soon understood that weapons, the more powerful, the greater the damage. This is how wars started. And death. People had come to kill each other. And they still do...

"The fairies watched in terror what people had created, what they had become. And they decided to have as little contact with them as possible; for fear that people might invade and destroy their world. So they created The Book of Fairies, a code of laws which forbade fairies to come into contact with humans, unless absolutely necessary. You see, our world mirrors people's world. When the people destroy a forest, fairies remain without a shelter. Every forest, every hill or mountain, or every sea of this side is inhabited by fairies on the other side.