Fern

Faun Felicjan Fern was sitting on a rock above the lake chewing on a small branch. It was looking dirty with earth and dust and moss but that didn't seem to disturb him much. He was looking at the water intensely, as if trying to see something beyond it, trying to see something that nobody else would see.

He suddenly stood up, still looking at the water and threw the branch away with a theatrical gesture. He dived into the water.

"I bet you he won't get it", Kelpie said laughing.

"I bet you he will", Kordelius answered very seriously.

Kelpie sighed waiting for Fern to come back up. He had been in a long time.

Fern finally surfaced lying on his back. He was looking at the sky. 

The two little boys run down to the shore. Fern seemed washed out.

"What did I tell you?" Kelpie answered.

"Why do you always win?" Kordelius answered.

Kelpie smirked, he should have bet something valuable, he always forgot to bet something valuable.

"I better go home anyway", Kordelius said. 

Fern turned to look at him leave. He waited for him to be far away before getting out of the water holding something in his hand.

He threw it at Kelpie.

"I won't always do it, young master, you shouldn't be cheating the stars", he said shaking the water his hairy legs. He passed his shirt back on. 

"What tells you that the stars didn't mean for you to hide it?" Kelpie asked jokingly looking at the stone in his hand, it was shining in the sunlight with golden reflection.

"Because I read the stars this morning and this should be Kordelius'." The faun answered.

"You know what is going to happen if we don't change things now" Kelpie said.

"Yes but if you don't believe in the stars why should you?", Fern asked.

Kelpie didn't answer. He turned around to leave waving at Fern.

Fern put his hand on the nearby tree, he needed the energy of the forest. Of course he knew what would happen. Something that wasn't written in the stars yet, something that the Queen fairy was preparing. He wanted to protect Kelpie but he knew he couldn't. There was something wrong with this world and it was growing fast. He walk through the forest, trying to remember each trees, each smell. He was touching the trees as he passed nearby, they were part of him, just like he was part of them. He was the forest and he would die with it. Not now but later, in the future when all he needed and all he loved would have disappeared. 

Once he had been in love, only once but he could still feel the pain in his heart. Females were a problem for him, their thoughts were so incoherent and confusing that they were making him feeling dizzy. Helping females to cross his forest was his worse burden. But this one had been different, it was as if she was thinking so little that he had trouble to notice it. They had asked his help to go from the Feron's cave to the fairy city. The forest had become so dangerous with new creatures coming from Morgan's dark magick, giant mantis near the cave were only one part of the problem, his forest was becoming poisonous and the insects were all growing bigger. But for him, it was safe. He had marked everyone of them at his, stroking his horns against their cheeks. When her turn had come, she hadn't complained like the other that is was itchy, as if she already knew that it was necessary. She was a nice kid, he had thought. Their thoughts had invading his head and they had started to walk through the forest, him counting the trees until he would one more time be freed of them, he was trying to find her thoughts but he couldn't. It was melting in the trees' voices as if she was part of the forest, part of him, for eternity. He had laughed at himself but before realizing it, he was standing below her window at night, waiting for her to appear. But the Fairy World is not a world of love, for that love is forbidden here and for loving you have to pay the consequences.

Fern is a character of "Demon and fairy".