Fairies: Sprites and Pixies

prologue

There is no real difference between sprites and pixies. In fact, they used to live quite harmoniously together, the north sprite kingdom, Kita; the south pixie kingdom, Mina; the east sprite kingdom, . The grandparents of the grandparents can remember when the the sprites and pixies, collectively known as fairies in the realm of Jelena wa Mylene, were not at war. No one quite knows why the two kingdoms are at war now.

Both claim to have been threatened first by letters sent by the other kingdoms. These messages often described the vast, strong armies of the other kingdom, and how they would kidnap their children and burn down their trees and houses. So since then, sprites and pixies have fought an endless battle.

It is only endless, however, because no one really knows how it began, except for those who started it in the first place. And they're not telling.

The social order of the fairies is fairly simple. You are ranked according to talent. There is no sense of actual parenthood, so their is no sense of natural hierarchy. Of course, there are bonds, but the bonds are not necessarily strongest with the one who made the fairy.

Fairies, after all, don't have babies the same way as humans. To make a child, first, they collect the leaves of a ledah plant they started growing when they turned seven and got their familiars. Once they have 14 leaves, they start raising the veins from the leaves, which are very thin and strong. They spin the veins of the leaves to make birththread. This thread is then weaved into a small square, and the fairies sprinkle a little fairy dust on the square.

These squares are then given to the royal seamstress, who then weaves around the squares with a layer of the fiber from Zaid plants, similar to Ledah in appearance. Zaid plants make the square grow to the size of a small banner.

These are laid in a pool of nectar from the flowers of both plants for fourteen days to soak in the elixir of birth and growth. When the banners come out, they are a bright green from the solution. All fairies are required of this task at least once, but are limited to three times, to prevent too much population increase or decrease. Since fairies don't die for 1400 years, unless they come in contact with hostile creatures, illnesses, and objects, that are for one reason or another immune to fairy protection spells. These things are very rare, however, so its not likely for a fairy to die before the second he or she was supposed to.

There is a beautiful ceremony as each banner is hung, one by one, all one hundred of them, in front of the masses to have fairy dust sprinkled on it, and to drop all of the dye except for what makes up the image of the newborn fairy, whose picture then comes alivemand flies out of his or her picture, trailing the color of his or her element: fire, water, air, earth, and very rarely, once every 1400 years, a multielemental trails a beautiful rainbow of color.

Only appearing when all of the kings and queens are 1380, the multielementals, or fairy kings and queens, do not know that they are until they are seven, when all fairies discover their element. Although everyone attends the ceremony of the newborn fairies, no one says anything about the element of the little ones. They can't.

A wise witch and friend of the fairies cast a spell so these things would not be remembered, only the ceremony itself. In fact, the spell made the remnants of the memory very vivid. The reason for the forgetting is for purposes of equality.

Immature fairies are just as bad as immature humans, and might form cliques or exclude others because of their element, especially if their bunch had a multielemental. Also, fairy instructors, knowing there was a multielemental in the flock they were teaching, wouldexpect more out of the student, or sometimes even the class. So, fairies didn't really know the elements of the children until they turned seven, at the ceremony of seven, when each little fairy gets the ledah seed planted to use when they turn 20.

Seven is also the age when young fairies obtain their familiar, a creature that is bonded to them by magic, and therefore can communicate with them. Fairies are also said to take on characteristics of their familiar, so they must choose one that does not deviate too much from their true nature. Also, familiars can fly once they are bonded, which is the only characteristic they obtain from their fairy, besides maybe natural influence from so much time spent together.

Once a multielemental is 20, he or she must take on the responsibility of king or queen.