“This is a very important mission, failure is not an option. Do you understand, Phaedra?” The young fairy woman gripped her fists tight, the memories of her fallen people giving her strength.
“I understand and I am proud to serve the fairy folk in any way that I can.” The governing council gave her a wave of dismissal and so Phaedra turned on her heels, her vibrant earthy brown hair flowing behind her. The soft waves of her hair bounced as she walked away and back to her small forest home. She wouldn’t be returning for a while, her mission a deep undercover operation.
Flexing her transparent wings she realized she wouldn’t be able to use them where she was going. Her mission was to disguise herself as a human woman, found injured on the side of the road. She was to be picked up by some sort of traveling human group and take refuge with them. Then, while she was among them she was to learn as there was about their operations and their weaknesses. But most important was to remove the threat if the situation presented itself. If she could Phaedra would kill the king.
The mission wasn’t without danger though, the spell she was going to use to hide her fairy appearance could malfunction or disappear without a moment’s notice; it had been known to happen before. If such a thing were to happen, Phaedra feared she would be killed on the spot. The war with the humans was a long standing one, each side claiming the right of way.
The true beginnings of the feud were long lost to the sands of time, but the current war rage over land and resources. The fairy folk were being pushed further and further into the forest and away from the fields were the food was grown and the harvests were kept. Of course the fairy knew it was on purpose, the humans wanted to keep all the food for themselves. Trade didn’t exist between the two races so the only food that the fairy folk could eat was what they gathered or grew on their own.
The small villages that dotted the outskirts of the human settlements were often raided because of this lack of food and so the humans would retaliate and attack the forests were the fairy folk lived. It was a self-perpetuating cycle; one the no one believed would every end.
Returning to her small forest home, carved out of a large oak tree, Phaedra gathered a small satchel and the few supplies she was allowed to bring on the mission. Of course anything that was overtly fairy in appearance wasn’t allowed, so there were very few things that Phaedra could actually bring. She loved her culture, her people, greatly and was proud to be a fairy, a protector of the forest and all that dwelled in it. The war with the humans may be going on, but the duties of a fairy are still the most important part of a fairy’s life.
“Phaedra, oh good, I managed to catch you before you left.” A tall tan skinned fairy with dark ebony hair entered the tent, Rian was his name and he was the son of the chief of the fairy folk. Phaedra and Rian were betrothed to marry once Phaedra completed the mission. Phaedra knew she should be honored and blessed by the forest gods that she had received such a great match, but there was something holding her back from accepting their future marriage.
“Oh hell Rian. Yes, I am not leaving for another few hours. There is so much I still need to prepare before I go. If you don’t mind I need to go on an errand, perhaps we can talk later.” Without waiting for an answer Phaedra exited her little tree home and made her way down the dirt path littered with tree leaves.
She didn’t really have a specific errand so much as she wanted to spend some time in the forest she loved, running through the grasses, flying through the tree tops, relishing the fresh air of the only home she had ever known. Taking a deep breath Phaedra jumped into the air and spread her thin yet sturdy fairy wings. Flapping them a mile a minute they held her in the air before she pushed them on, zipping through the forest at a high speed. The wind whipped past her face as she took in these last moments in her home land, for soon she would be surrounded by enemies with no way out until the end.