Preston's P.O.V.
Fae and faeries were similar to the untrained eye, both small and winged creatures from the invisible world with powers yet unexplained to humans, but to us on the level of the forest floor, we were very different. I couldn't entirely understand why we were even compared, thought about as equivalent, but humans were narrow-minded creatures often blinded by wonder.
I was a faery, wings more similar to a dragonfly than a moth or a butterfly like so many other faeries. We were small, no taller than 3 or 4 inches at most, but had powers beyond most people's wildest imaginations. I specifically could heal, plants and animals as well as myself if I happened to be injured, I could manipulate vegetation, I had vast wells of knowledge on everything imaginable and I, as well as all other faeries, live for thousands of years. We had incredible longevity but we not immortal, eventually facing a natural death.
Fae... Fae on the other were... less like us. While the concern of faeries was the health of the forest and the animals in it, Fae were always out to create mischief and distrust our day. They were smaller than us, only reaching 3 inches high at the most, and all were naturally pale. They had emerald green eyes and were always young and mischievous, getting in our way.
On top of that they all had an incredible rang of powers, just like us faeries, but they all possessed the same four. Tongues, which allowed them to speak any language, sometimes without even realising it, glamour, essentially the power of illusion that could be used for a short period of time, allowing virtual invisibility and a change in appearance. They also had the power of shapeshifting but only to increase or decrease their size and, of course, flight. Their wings allowed them flight just like me. They also had one weakness, iron, which was poisonous and may kill them if there was simply too much of it in their system or around them. It hadn't come to that just yet, but if we needed to keep them away then we could always deter them with iron.
I was wandering through the forest, clambering over tree roots because I didn't want to fly, when I came across a young Fae. He was curled up between a bush and the trunk of a tree and at first I thought he was asleep as they tended to sleep in some pretty weird places, but then I noticed that his chest was heaving- was he crying? I stepped a little closer.
"Hey... are you okay?" He jolted and sat up, and yes, definitely a Fae. He was much smaller than I was and his wings weren't quite copies of a real creature's, a tell-tale sign. He had indeed been crying and his blue eyes- wait, blue? Since when had Fae had blue eyes? What was he doing out here? His blonde hair fell in his face and he tried to back away, but I held my hand out calmly. "It's alright, it's okay, I just want to make sure you're okay. You shouldn't be all the way out here on your own, you know."
He sniffled and wiped his eyes, wings fluttering lightly. He was sitting back on his knees now and I was surprised to see how tattered his clothing was, torn and ripped with battered and bruised skin peeking out from underneath.
"What's your name?" I finally asked, crouching down to be on his level. "I'm Preston." There was a pause before he answered, hiccupping slightly.
"Lachlan." He whispered, voice soft and with a thick accent, which also confused me. Accents weren't common, in fact they barely existed at all because if you were born in this forest you stayed here, and newcomers weren't common. Was that the explanation for his blue eyes, his tattered clothes and his being out in the middle of the forest?
"Well Lachlan, do you want to come with me? Night's coming soon and I don't want you here freezing." I was trying to be earnest but not too overbearing, trying not to scare him. He eventually nodded but didn't move until I reached out and gently took his hand, which was so tiny and fragile in mine. He was tinier than I thought, maybe two and a half inches at most and so skinny that I realised he mustn't have been eating at all.
We had to fly to get up to the entrance of my small house, about half way up a large oak tree, and Lachlan paused.
"Are you able to fly?" I asked, suddenly understanding his hesitation. He shook his head. "Alright, come here." He folded his wings against his back and I gently picked him up, holding him close against his chest. "Hold on!"
I flew him up and placed him down just inside the front door before directing him inside. His eyes wandered my place but he didn't say anything, too scared to I think. I watched him for a moment before realising that he was basically falling asleep on his feet and proceeded to usher him towards the bed. Lachlan protested a bit but I was more forceful, tucking him in.
"Just sleep, okay? We'll sort this all out later."
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Lachlan had to wear my clothing for a few days which was far too large for him, and the shirts hung off his shoulders. He was too tired to shapeshift and change his size to actually fit the clothes, so two and a half inches was his actual size. He was tiny.
As it turned out, my assumption of him not being from around here was accurate. He wasn't from around here at all and his accent showed that, but his blue eyes were still as unnatural there as they were here. That was why he had been kicked out. He had been hidden from the world his entire life to avoid that exact scenario, but it had happened anyway- someone had found him, told everyone, and he had to leave. That was how he ended up in my forest, sleeping in my house.
Once a couple of days had passed and Lachlan had his own clothes, was eating more and seemed to be sleeping, he began to open up a little more. He was still pretty quiet about his past but I began to see the more mischievous side I knew most Fae's had. He was cheeky, always cracking a joke or pulling some sort of prank. That was the sort of thing I was expecting from him, especially once he had cheered up and realised he could stay here and I wasn't about to kick him out. He was flying a little more too, wings fluttering often or occasionally flying from place to place inside my house, building his strength back up.
He came out with me for the first time about a week after his arrival, managing to flutter down the tree without my help, and the look in his eyes as his feet touched the moss of the forest floor for the first time in a week was amazing. He just... lit up like I hadn't seen before and I think that- that was the moment I realised that I wanted him to stay. Lachlan didn't have anywhere else to go and he needed time to heal and seeing him like that, so happy and, well, innocent. He was a young Fae, much younger than me, not much more than a child.
I watched him for another moment more, smiling to myself. Fae and faeries normally didn't get along, but maybe this was the beginning of something new.
