I was a child of love...I'd thought. For all things of precious creation should come from love. My path into this world came in secret, in a shed, and, I suspect, with me falling into the mud.

In the years to come, I never did get well.

By age three, my mother was dead, and I was brought to a man said to be my father. I suppose he was.

He was the first one to poison me, but not the last.

And as I lay dying in the streets, wanderers found me. What they left of my remains was unrecognizable as human.

That was my first encounter with the fairy queen—the one to save me.

She always liked fixing broken things.

As I observed the strange actions of the new fairy queen, I concluded that this one was no different. She did not saunter up to a pile of blood and bones and restore it to life. No, she knelt, peering into a wall of ice.

More specifically, at the gnome trapped behind it.

Always a fixer. And never all that smart.

I should have told her to leave it, but I couldn't help myself.

Thick globs of snow covered the world outside this cavern where I kept her. It was a hollow tunnel, capable of emptying out into the nook of a life-syphoning tree. As it needed to sustain itself, all creatures, all things with life, eventually sunk into the lake of the Forgotten, only to end up here...trapped.

As this gnome though proportioned as a dwarf rivaled humans in height, perhaps that was what interested her about him.

Gnomes lived below ground. The way she studied it, one would think she'd never seen anything like it before.

When she searched around her, snatched up a rock, and rushed the ice, I believed it.

"Hold!" I caught her hand.

The shock in her eyes surprised me in kind.

It wasn't often that I stared at her. I could not say why I hesitated—only that I had. I'd also kept my distance, waiting for her to prompt our transformation into fairies.

Such a suggestion did not come. Instead, she said something foolish. "Oh, right. Of course, you'd have a better idea." She stared past my shoulder to the ice and wore a look of wonder. "Do you wish to melt it? Would this entire area flood?" She looked up but could make out nothing of the lake above us. The cavern was strong and sturdy. "We could climb out—after we shrink him down, of course. I—"

The rock striking the ground by her feet shut her up.

"Free it?" I asked, doubtful that my ears hadn't betrayed me. What nonsense to speak. "You'd dare steal from Manoj?"

Patience was never my forte. I'd learned it as a consequence of wars. Not every day, not every weather, not every army was a perfect fit.

When I'd first met the fairy queen, I knew no patience. I'd since learned it and put it to good use now as I explained, "Everything here belongs to Manoj." Her eyes still held confusion, so I cast my gaze upwards. It would take her a moment to understand but the moment she flinched, I knew she saw it, the thick roots. "This is the tree of life. Manoj. He lives, and he breathes, and he does not give back what he claims."

The function of a fairy queen would be hard to explain as Manoj was difficult to understand. A simpleton could imagine what I said next.

"Fairy queens bring life, fairy kings collect it—eliminate it, but we both do so for Manoj. He's our father—our source of life."

The dull panic in her eyes forced a sigh out of me. Though she still wore the warming clothes of humans, I, having shed all but a tattered pair of trousers, unleashed my wings so that all around us could come to light.

A gasp left her. One left me, too as I turned to see the endless wall stretch far beyond anything I'd ever witnessed. All encased, all trapped, all feeding Manoj.

Hands at her mouth, she bit back a cry. "This is dreadful."

Her words sounded the last of my gentleness. "Put your hand there," I challenged. "Ask Manoj to release any of them, prompting him to take you in exchange."

With that, I walked past her. I should not have done that. Regret weighed on my mind with each step.

I was not a child when I became the fairy king. I was not a child when I first uttered a word to the fairy queen.

Eons ago, she scooped me up, spread me out, filled me with the life from Manoj, and moved me left and right much like a puppet. I felt no anger to her then, for she could do no better.

She'd been a puppet of Manoj as well.

When she tired of me months later, I was expelled back into the mortal world with no means to find her.

Life as a child without protections had been hell. Viewing the world through the prism of a poor man wasn't any better. I worked and toiled and fought. And when I could work no more, I stole.

A rock, no bigger than the one dropped at this new fairy queen's foot, connecting to my very human head sent me into darkness. This time when the fairy queen revived me, she did so with no strings and with freewill of her own.

Manoj, the creator of all fairies, threatened by the rise of man and the violence they brought, offered me purpose. Hate the humans with the same hate they showed me. Keep this forest safe—keep Manoj safe and be reborn evermore.

But as I marched out of that cavern, I felt no chill, I felt no sympathy, only an all-encompassing emptiness.

We arrived on the other side to a hollow throne room.

The rot of mildew hung in the air. It was dark and dank, untouched for...decades.

I did not understand. "My rebirth should last no longer than a year." Magic collected at my fingertips, and I struck my hands together, shooting them forward to fill each glow stone.

The cobwebs embarrassed me far less than the barren room. Rooms like these were always filled with priestesses seeing to our needs. Not one remained now.

"Ow."

I spun around, horrified and confused to find this fairy queen...very much human.

"Shrink down," I ordered.

"What? Ah. Yes. Right. Of course."

But despite her words, she still tried to squeeze herself through the narrow archway. The fur of the animal pelt wasn't helping. I let her carry on like that for near ten minutes before stomping my foot, forcing her fairy form.

Fortunately—unfortunately, it was while she still struggled so she shot forward into the floor.

My laugh would do no good, so I stifled it.

After some effort to get out of those human clothes, a head popped up. A naked body came with it.

She was stunning.

The physical aspect wasn't what captivated me. It was her glow. A fairy with a pure intent was rare. Much like animals compelled to seek out fire, it took us in—took me in.

Now, out of her mortal form, the wrinkles of her eyes were gone. I waited to see the rest of her, but she dragged the now humongous fur coat up around her shoulders and refused to stand.

After a time, I asked, "What are you doing?"

Despite the rose-colored wings of her back confirming her identity, she tucked below the fur, attesting, "It's freezing."

"It's winter," I said, unamused. When she didn't resurface, I gave in. "Very well, warm yourself with your wings. Surely, you know that much."

"Warm myself, right." Her head popped up again. She stood in the fur and hesitated before letting it fall to her feet, revealing her full breasts, nipples taut from the cold. Fairies' body hair matched the color of their skin. Hers were golden, much like mine. Still, I made out the slit of the crease between her legs without trouble. The black of the hair on her head hung at her shoulders. I stared at her so long that I'd forgotten to breathe. Perhaps this rebirth had lasted longer than a year, after all, because my member reacted to her, stiffening slightly and starting its rise to the occasion.

My eyes drifted downwards to witness my distress, but I was the only one concerned. The fairy queen, on the other hand, hopped up and down, struggling to get her wings to move.

She jumped on one leg. She jumped on another. She even shook her shoulders.

And I? I could not understand to what I was bearing witness. How was it possible that this fairy did not know basic fairy things?

A two-thousand-year-old conversation came back to me.

"I've just been made, too," the fairy queen said at the time. "Manoj was dying, you see. So I'm here to heal it. But you...for you, he has other plans."

"Tell me," I entreated. "Whatever he wants, I will do. But please do not send me back out there to mankind."

The fairy queen smiled at me. "There's only two of us. He says that's all we need."

But that hadn't been enough for her. I became enamored...and she found someone else to save. And then another and another until she all but forgot about me.

I should have forgotten about her as well. Like a fool, however, I vied for her affection—not once did I ever have it.

Unlike that very capable fairy queen, this one did not know anything about being a fairy.

"You were born human?" I accused.

She ceased in jumping and regarded me in fear.

"Then how do you switch from fairy to human?"

Her lips parted automatically, and a word leapt out. "Wyrn w—"

Perhaps my horrified expression was what stole her drive to finish that utterance. What creature was this husband of hers? Someone strong enough to command the mortal and immortal forms?

I did not know, but this newfound knowledge changed my view of her.

Now, the plumpness of her breasts and the firm nipples standing at attention no longer enticed me for the right reasons. Instead, I saw something voluptuous...that I could not touch.

My original plan, like all plans pertaining to the fairy queens, was to seduce her—to show her finally that I was worthy of her trust, her love.

Now, I dared not even attempt it, not until I knew more about her husband and could understand who—what he was.

Even when she fell to her hands and knees, shaking her back in an effort to activate her wings, a glance of her spread legs sent visions of me behind her, buried deep, sliding in and out as some beast came up behind me and cleaved my head.

This time, my half-hearted erection dwindled on its own.

She could not get her wings to work but perhaps it was only a trick—an excuse to accuse me. The fairy king's reputation with women was grandiose, and false. I did not jump from bed to bed. I'd only given up and settled whenever my queen refused me.

For once, I'd save her the trouble. I'd look for a bedfellow right away. But first, I stood to my full height and looked around while coming to one conclusion.

This place was too dangerous to heat.

For now, it would do. Surely, a proper kidnapper would throw around threats and demands but she, being a human princess and I, a fairy king, knew these protocols well enough.

Therefore, I sought rest. I assumed she did so as well. My body dulled and pulsed. The sensation rushing through me came with frustration. My power was just there. Just within my grasp. I overexerted myself because I lost time again. All was sterile, all was calm, even the low humming from the tree of life failed to reach me.

A force connected into the cavern, jarring me back to reality.

Whatever the cause, it was coming through Manoj's feeding cavern, the only secure pathway in. Our safety here was understood so I took time in opening my eyes.

I found myself...alone.

Typical. I opened my mouth to mock her foolish attempts at escape, but a harrowing scream which sent the glow stones humming brighter came from the cavern. And that wasn't all. I heard it—felt it.

She'd awoken Manoj.

This fool.

And she'd run.

I didn't leap to my feet. No. Rage filled me, and my wings fluttered in response, dragging me up and rocking me forward. I shot from that nook and directly into the cavern which brought us here.

Oh, how I regretted having come, because I was just in time to see the foolish fairy queen, no doubt looking for another alley to entice, put her hand against the ice encasing the gnome. She fluttered her wings and they burned bright.

Foolish. I felt foolish. Of course, she could achieve that warmth on her own.

My wings slowed and I landed.

A sense of satisfaction filled me the moment the ice melted, and the gnome awakened.

She glanced to the right, to the way out but not I, for she wouldn't get far. And she didn't.

That gnome grabbed her by the waist and snatched her right up.