Fairy Dust - prologue

Title: Fairy Dust

Changeling - One raised among Humans

The Beginning -

Because of the number of homes and habitats being destroyed by the humans, many mythical creatures where starting to steal human babies from their cribs, and swapping them with their own young. It was an attempt to keep the races alive, mingled with the humans, whilst still remaining undiscovered, and thus far unknown.

You see, humans are idle creatures, and most believe only what they see. Few know the truth about creatures such as fairies and gnomes living among them in secrecy, and in most cases, fear.

Dark was the night when our tale began, in a normal, human town, in a normal, human neighbourhood, in a normal, human home.

A woman sat on her chair, looking down, her damp, curly brown hair sticking to her face and neck. In her arms she cradled a bald baby, who cried a cry only a human child could make. At her side stood a tall man, a thoughtful expression on his face that rarely changed.

When the child finally stopped crying, the exhausted mother lay it in the new, machine-made crib, and the father helped her to bed.

On the stroke of midnight three silhouettes crept into the room with the baby, who stared up in wonder with eyes of an incredible shade of blue at the glimmer of wings. One pair silky and Blue, one pair wrinkled and yellow, one pair stiff and green.

‘Take the baby,’ The Yellow fairy commanded, a coarse, cold voice. The Green fairy lifted the baby from the cot, and the Blue fairy, who held a bundle in her arms, stepped forward.

‘Go on,’ Green fairy said softly. ‘It’s for the best.’

Blue fairy gently placed the silent bundle into the human crib.

‘What will become of her?’ She asked.

‘Who knows. She will grow, and in time her wings will come through. Some day, she may come back to us. The matter at hand, is what becomes of the human?’

‘The river,’ the coarse voice croaked.

‘You can’t!’ Blue fairy begged. ‘You can’t kill the child.’

‘Then what do you suggest? Keep it?’

‘Take it to the country, an orphanage, drop it on the doorstep with a note.’

‘That is a possibility,’ Green fairy said, pondering on the thought. ‘I have seen humans do it countless times.’

‘Humans,’ Yellow fairy cursed. ‘They destroy the land, take what isn’t theirs. They abandon their young and mistreat their needy. What right does yet another have to live?’

‘Just as much as you or I,’ Blue fairy persisted. ‘What right do we have to judge this child for the mistakes of its ancestors? Surely, if this home is fit for my child, then the child born into this home fit to live.’ The reply she received was a cruel snort.

‘To the country then.’

Blue fairy looked down at the human whose life she had just saved, staring into the innocent, pale, unforgettable eyes, and praying with all her heart this one would be better than the others. Please don’t betray your life. She took one last glance at her own child with a strangling pain inside her. If this would save her child, then this was best.

To the baby in her arms she now felt a connection, perhaps a debt of some sort. To her own she felt foreign, as if now that she had given her up, she had no right to ever be a part of her daughter’s life again.

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This is a kind of fairy-tale prologue to a story I'm working on. My main reason for writing this is to tell a brief background of the two children being switched, and to introduce three vaguely known characters, the blue, green and yellow fairy.