Treeline

Enter, the Faerie (Prologue)

Wimborne wheezed. Thick ashen smog belched into the sky, feeding the dark cloud that sat right along the pointed rooftops.

The people of the City wheezed too. Along with the weekly supply of bread and potatoes was purchased the weekly supply of cough syrup. Windows were stained yellow, so thickly so that the people had little need for drapes. The only respite could be found in-doors to the point where people took to knocking holes through walls to provide paths through the City. Thus Mrs.Margaret would step through the kitchen of Ms.Jones every morning and so on.

One such house was almost always full for in it were kept live oddities; Attractions of the outside world, decorated for people to gawk at. For a fee of course.

The gas-lit lamps flickered across everything from the somewhat more common butterflies, hedgehogs, and giant boas to the rare. Horned jackalopes were glassed in right next to flying degus which clawed desperately to escape from the two-headed wolf that drooled against the glass. Everywhere one looked in a spot where there was not a person standing on the stained carpet, there was a cage of some kind.

The greatest attraction sat in the back of the room with a few wooden chairs placed in front. It was a faerie. One of the fair folk. Of course everyone knew that they were all around, but to have one that could be seen was something extraordinary it itself, invisible as they usually were to the natural eye.

She was a little thing and looked even smaller as she sat cross-legged on a pedestal. If she stood she'd only reach about a foot off the ground. The light didn't help her pale complexion and cast shadows across her gaunt face. She looked very much like a tiny human and could have been mistaken for one if not for the subtle differences.

For one, her hair could have been mistaken as brown but was truly a dark green. Her body looked frail and thin, so much so that only the sickest of humans could carry that look, but on her it suited. Her head in proportion was slightly too large. Beside their large size, her dark brown eyes carried little special except anger.

Once she had an audience taking up the chairs she sighed. Her mouth opened in a grin to show two rows of white pointed teeth. People in the audience leaned back ever so slightly in their seats.

"While you are sitting there gawking, I may as well tell you a story." The room grew to a hush. This was what the people truly came for. A storyteller was priceless and the little faerie's stories were some of the best.

"I don't expect your frail minds to keep up," she sneered. "Or to understand any of the reasoning behind my actions, for we are not the same. Truly, I would eat you if I were not currently bound."

If possible, her face seemed to grow darker and she took a somber tone. Her eyes filled with memories, regrets. "But perhaps one of you may learn something, and for that, I will tell it."