"This spell will make you human."
I refuse.
"But as a Hellkin you're mistreated."
I don't care.
"I don't understand."
You never did. I am who I am.
"But......"
Come, meet my TRUE family. -- Anon Guest
Once upon a time, a Hellkin did a Faerie a favour. He had no knowledge of the act, nor expected a reward. He had simply wandered unknowing into Nanogh, helped a living creature in need, and wandered back out again.
The Faekindred do not forget a favour. Especially when its a favour from a creature who was originally made to destroy them.
The Hellkin was allowed to return to his world unscathed, with no time passing between wandering in and wandering out again. That was clearly not enough. That was merely base mercy for a being who accidentally tripped into Nanogh. No, what this young lad needed was... a guardian. A Faerie Goodmother.
Sufficience found out about it when he was taking his foraging prizes towards his home. The dragonfly following him shone with its own light and casually transformed into the shape of a human with dragonfly wings. "Congratulations," they chirped. "I am going to help you."
"How would you try? You're very small."
"I've seen your kind before. Betrayed by the kind that made you. Rejected. Reviled. Repelled. They have no gratitude for what your kind has done. They hold no value in you. I would fix it."
"You can't change the world, little friend."
"Of course not. That's way too hard. I would change you. A simple spell for me. I can make you a more valued creature. I can make you fully Human. I can make it so you've always been Human."
"No, thank you," said Sufficience. "I'm happy enough where I am and being who I am. If you've seen my kind, you've seen how the humans treated people like me."
"True," allowed the Faerie. "Why do you not want to have the upper hand?"
"I've seen how they treat people like me. I've no desire to be anything like them. Besides. As a Hellkin, I know who my true friends are." He lead the faerie to a little neglected space almost full to the brim of neglected people. Unwelcome People, all of them. Young and old. Fit and infirm. Whole and gnarled. But all were hated for drawing breath.
Including a newborn baby unrelated to the creature nursing it.
"Another midden-born," said the halfbred Bugbear, slowly feeding the infant some kind of paste.
Sufficience joined with the chorus, "Who'd throw away a perfectly good baby?"
"See?" said Sufficience, taking a turn at juggling the little family's new child. "I have friends. I have family. We may not always have enough, but we have each other."
"I can gift you something better," decided the Faerie. "I can gift you the meaning of your name."
That, definitively, would be enough.
[Photo by Delia Giandeini on Unsplash]
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