Elster
Part 1
This story had been on my mind for a long time, and I finally got the time to write it! Please let me know if you liked it!
Long ago, in a land far away, there was an enchanted grove in a forest. The grove was home to a village of fairies – small, androgynous humanoid creatures with colourful wings on their backs, most often similar to those of insects. The fairies had made their home there in trees and bushes, weaving twigs and leaves together and creating beautiful but delicate burrows. They were magic, spawn of spirits and animals, and their sole purpose in life was to protect nature.
All was well in this fairy grove on most days. However, there wasn’t peace, not really.
A black sheep – or more likely, a black bird – lived there among them. While most fairies trace their lineage back to insects, this one was born of a magpie. She was taller than them by at least a thumb’s length, and like her avian heritage, she was a troublemaker. Due to her size and manoeuvrability in the air, the magpie would often harass the smaller fairies. Pulling on their legs, hair, and wings, stealing their food, verbally harassing them, and other pranks. The magpie was a nasty fellow, who unsurprisingly had little friends. She lived in a great oak on the edge of the village, claiming a big knothole as her home. It used to be that this tree was the middle of the community, but many of the other fairies relocated when their unpleasant neighbour moved in.
Years had gone by. The harassment never ceased.
Libelle, leader of the village, decided that she had to act.
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“So, you want me to, what? Scare her?” Andreas asked, looking down at the little fairy standing next to where he sat in the clearing. His pants were slightly stained from mud and grass, as was often the case when the fairy’s human friend visited her.
“Yes,” Libelle answered. She was a perfect example of a textbook fairy. Her short hair was light brown and slightly wavy, her dress was handmade from rose petals, and her wings obviously resembled those of a dragonfly. Even her tan skin showed a slight ethereal shimmer. “She picks on us because we’re smaller. It’s time for her to get a taste of her own medicine!” Libelle jumped in the air, her wings dropping fairy dust everywhere as she flew up to Andreas’ face and grabbed onto his glasses.
“I’m not so sure about that, Belle.” The human said softly, as he held up his hands underneath the fairy to give her a better place to land. “I’m not really what you would call an, uh, intimidating person.” Andreas tucked his shaggy blonde hair behind his ears and adjusted his glasses. To say that he was shy was an understatement. Most young men his age had had quite a few brawls to their belt, but Andreas had never been interested in them. “Conflict-avoidant” was what some nicer people called him. “Wimp” or “coward” were terms he was used to.
Consolingly, Libelle placed her hand on his thumb. “Maybe to humans, but not to us little folk. Remember how terrified I was when we first met?”
“And you think I wasn’t?” He laughed. “I grew up hearing all kinds of stories about not angering the fairies of the woods, and there I was holding a crying one in my hands. I thought you were going to curse me!” Andreas thought back to that day years ago. He had been picking wild berries and accidentally grabbed a fistful of fairy instead. Both had been in shock as they locked eyes, but in the end, they had managed to somehow become friends instead.
“Curses aren’t real.” Libelle reminded him. “Witches can curse you. Fairies play tricks.”
“I didn’t know that back then, okay?” Andreas argued. “And as far as this ‘trick’ you have planned for this magpie goes, I’m not sure if it’s not a bit too much?”
Libelle patted his hand. “It’s fine. Not like animals are interested in hunting us. Also, no human ever comes to these woods. A few hours won’t hurt her.”
“If you say so…”
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Libelle was at easy to find, gathering food at one of her usual spots. Dumb thing had a special connection or something to this one redcurrant bush, among others. Not that the magpie could ever relate to that. She didn’t have a special purpose or magic abilities like the other, insect-kind fairies. Couldn’t sprinkle stupid fairy dust wherever she went and make flowers bloom, or other nonsense. No, she was on this earth for one reason alone: To be an utter bastard.
Swooping in from above, the magpie grabbed Libelle from behind and put her in a headlock. “Why, hello there little one,” she taunted, pressing her claws into the ground to balance out the smaller fairy’s struggling. “Good old Libelle. My, you’re always such a nice little perfect picture book fairy, aren’t you? But what’s that?” The magpie let go of Libelle and shoved her to the ground. Quickly, she pressed one of her bird-like legs into the smaller one’s back, preventing her from getting up, and then picked up one of the dropped berries in front of the two. Slowly, she took a bite, but spit it out immediately. “Ew, disgusting!” The magpie dropped the berry in front of Libelle, then squashed it with her other foot. “For someone who is always so prim and proper, you have quite the sour appetite, little Libby. Something’s not right with you.” She laughed, high and catty.
Then suddenly, a whirlwind came crashing through the brambles and yanked the magpie off her victim.
“No, something’s not right with you!” A human yelled at her, holding her in both of his hands and was slightly shaking her back and forth. After a second of disorientation, the magpie began to struggle against his sweaty grip. “Yeah, sucks to get grabbed by someone bigger than you, doesn’t it?” He taunted the magpie with a smile.
Meanwhile, Libby had flown over to them, and had the audacity to land on the giant’s shoulder. Wearing a smug grin, she said, “Let me introduce to you my good friend, Andreas the human. He didn’t like it at all when I told him about your behaviour.”
The magpie wanted nothing more than to smack that stupid smile off her face, to pull on her wings until she screamed and cried. But for now, she kicked her feet against the human’s arms, scratching him until he flinched from the pain and red stained the torn fabric. Finally free, the magpie rose to the skies and flew in a wide circle above the two, before landing on a branch right above him. “Friend, eh? What, the little miss goody two-shoes took pity on a nasty bastard like you? Did she tell you that you’re gonna be a big hero?” The magpie looked down on the man, who still held his scratched-up arms. “Heroes usually aren’t uglier than a troll, and they don’t stink twice as bad, you useless sack of shit!”
That seemed to get a reaction out of the hideous brute. Good. “Am I wrong? You can’t amount to anything on your own with a face like that. Hah, I bet not even your mother loves you, having a revolting visage like you do.”
“Stop it, you- you vile bird!” The human protested, which made the magpie only more agitated. She rose to the skies again and circled right above the ugly giant, high enough that he couldn’t grab her.
“Troll! Ogre! I bet you trip over your own feet! You’re sweaty and you smell like you’re taking your daily bath in a sewer!” The magpie was yelling out insults at full blast, even daring to swoop down and pull on single strands of the man’s hair. “The fairy princess and the human orc, what a fitting pair!”
Then something happened as she swooped down again. Suddenly, she was restricted inside a… net! Had the bastard just played weak to lure her back in? “Let me go, you rotten, disgusting, vomit-inducing-“ the magpie kept swearing, all the while Libelle cheered and the human bound the net into a bag. Pulling and biting at the mesh proved fruitless. The assholes had somehow made one from pure iron.
“That’s what you get from being a vile, mean bully!” Libelle yelled gleefully, while her ugly friend fastened the net to a branch. “Maybe hanging here for a few hours will make you reconsider how you act with other people.” They turned around and walked away, leaving the magpie speechless for a second.
“You- How dare you! Libby you insolent idiot, come back right now! I will rip out your wings for this, do you get me?!”
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They weren’t lying. Hours passed and nobody came back to free her. The magpie yelled insults and threats a few times in case anyone was near, but nobody appeared. Occasionally, some animals would come to check it out, but it wasn’t like they could help her. Being one with nature just wasn’t in it for her. Leave it to the stupid grove fairies to cuddle with squirrels and befriend sparrows. All the magpie got were a few crows curiously nipping at her until she hurled insults at them too. For the most part, the magpie was left hanging there alone. Not before long, lying on the wire net began to hurt. Worst of all, thanks to the bumbling human troll, one of her feathers was completely bent!
Then she heard it - there was the sound of a huge fool tumbling through the bushes and trampling the grass. “Finally there you are you gross idiot! I swear Libby, you and all your stupid little friends will-“ Standing before her at eye level wasn’t the ugly four eyes. This human was slender, refined, with long dark hair pulled back into a perfect ponytail. Actually, he wore glasses too. He seemed just as surprised as she was. “Who the fuck are you?!”
The human didn’t answer. Slowly, his lips curled into a smile as he kept staring at her. Somehow, it unnerved the magpie. “Hey asshole, I’m talking to you. Are you deaf?” A hand gloved in leather rose up to cup the underside of the net, while the other hand pulled out a knife and began cutting it lose. “Finally, at least you’re useful for something. Can’t believe I have to be rescued by some other human idiot.”
“Who said anything about ‘rescue’?” The human said calmly, his voice pleasant as if they were talking about the weather.
“What?” asked the magpie, confused. His expression did not falter as he kept working. The fairy now noticed that he wasn’t cutting the mesh – he was simply cutting the leash binding the net to the tree, while his other hand wasn’t just cupping her, it was gripping the loops. “No. No, you will let me go you prim and proper wannabe woodsman, you hear me? Do you know what will happen to you if you treat a fairy like this? I will curse you! I will course your wrinkly, hairy ass for at least 5 generations, you hear me?!”
The fingers holding onto the net suddenly yanked at it, making the magpie tumble. “Please, don’t take me for a fool, little fairy. I know that your kind does not do curses.” He yanked again and again, until finally, the leash broke. Before she could even look for an opening, the other hand dropped the knife and grabbed her out of the air. One of her wings was squished uncomfortably to her back, while the other one was stretched out, equally uncomfortable.
“You rotten bastard! Let me go this instant, or I will make your life hell. I don’t even need a curse to do it!” He ignored her, instead focusing on the wing in front of his face. Slowly, almost gently, his finger ran down the individual feathers, as if he was counting them. He stopped at the one that was bent. With one swift motion, he yanked it out.
The magpie screamed, clawing and thrashing against his grip, while the human dropped the bloody black-and-white feather to the ground. “I have no need for damaged tools,” he informed her, his stupid voice betraying no emotions.
“You’re the one that’s got some kind of damage!” She shouted at him, ready to hurl more insults at the human, until she noticed that he moved her to his bag. “No. No, I said no! You asshole, are you deaf?!”
“Oh shut up, will you? You’re the most foul-mouthed fairy I’ve ever seen!” He hissed, and with one hasty motion stuffed her into his bag. The human closed it shut, making sure that the trapped creature had no means to escape, before turning on his heels and walking back from where he came.
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“Don’t you think that we may have left her there a bit too long?” The human worried loudly. They slowly walked – well, he walked; Libelle sat on his shoulder. The leaves of trees and bushes were cloaked in the golden light of the setting sun as they made their way through the forest
His fairy friend just shrugged. “Believe me, she once set up a honey trap that had Hummel and some others stuck to a tree for days before we could get them out. I think she got off easy.” Libelle jumped off his shoulder and flew around a tree and high into the sky. “Now, magpie, did you calm down a bit?”
There was no answer. In general, the area was way too quiet in general.
Andreas and Libelle shared a worried look, before running into the clearing. The very much silent and empty clearing. The magpie was gone.
“Oh no, she’s surely planning her revenge right now.” The fairy flew around, scanning the trees and bushes. “Magpie? Magpie! You can come out now, you know? I don’t care what you’ve got planned!”
Meanwhile, Andreas inspected where the magpie had been bound to. The branch was showing signs of damage, specifically scratches done with a blade. Then there was the fact that only the leather leash he had used was lying on the ground, definitely cut in two, and no sign of the actual iron wire net. The man knelt down and found a twisted and bent black-and-white feather lying on the ground. “I… I don’t think she’s still around here…” He whispered, horrified by the revelation of how their “little prank” had gone wrong.
“Wait, what are you saying? That she was-“ Libelle did not dare to finish that thought. She didn’t want it to be real. Sure, she wanted for the magpie to get a little payback, but not like that!
“It… seems like there’s been a human here,” Andreas spoke out the fact, his mouth dry. “And they probably cut her lose. And, I mean, it’s possible that they couldn’t free her from the net with the tools they hadat hand, but, uh…”
They both looked at the path of broken twigs and scattered leaves. Finally, Libelle broke the silence.
“Shit.”
