•Prologue•

"How long have our kind been around, Mother?"

The gentle hands ran through soft waves of hair, twisting and parting strands over each other.

"Quite a long time, love."

"Then what about them?"

The older woman paused, tucking her chin lightly over the smaller head in front of her as she pondered the question.

"A long while for them as well I suppose."

"How come humans behave that way towards others then? Towards us?"

The woman watched as the small figure turned around and settle closer in her lap, big eyes twinkling with curiosity and never ending queries.

"Hm, I wonder," she said, tucking a flyaway strand of fine hair behind the child's ear, "it could be fear to a certain extent. Fear of the unknown, fear of what they lack. Fear of what they can't understand."

"I'm scared of a lot of things too but I don't go around scaring others because of it. Humans are weird."

The woman let out a quiet laugh, hugging the smaller figure to her chest in a sudden urge of affection.

"That's because you, my love, are the most lovely fae in existence," she replied, "but humans aren't all bad either. A lot of them are kind, just like you, looking past what is new and strange to them. That's how peace has come about as it has over the years."

"Well," the child murmured, burrowing further in the warmth of her mother, "I hope the nice humans always stay with us."

"I hope so too, little one," the mother replied, kissing the soft head of hair in her arms, unaware of the horrors that awaited them in the coming time.