Among Unfamiliar Company

"Urggh..." moaned Adeline as her consciousness very slowly returned. She was feeling unusually groggy and disorientated as she slowly pushed herself up from her bed. Vaguely realizing that her alarm was not blaring, she made no haste in leaving the warm embrace of her bed, clumsily peeling back the her covers before swinging her legs to the side of the bed. Her feet landing on the ground, she pushed herself off the side of the bed and headed towards her bathroom, or at least that was what she had intended. However, unexpectedly, her routine movements seemed to have failed her in this occasion, as her feet were far from touching the ground and her push from the bed did nothing but cause her to tumble of the side, landing face first onto the ground.

"Ahh!" she exclaimed as she collided with the wooden floorboards. The sudden knock helped awaken her slightly from her morning daze. That allowed her to notice one more detail that confused her, the shrill sound that had just escaped her voice. Although she was by no means masculine, she did naturally possess a low, smooth voice that highlighted her maturity and bared no resemblance to the prepubescent shriek she had just produced.

"How did I even get home?" she thought as her she mentally muddled through her hazy memories of the day before. As she sat there on the floor, it slowly all came back to her. Her headache, Harriet's words, her funeral, her mother's tearful face, her sisters' breakdown, the silence that followed, the being that appeared, the conversation that followed. It all cascaded back into her mind like a broken dam. At some point, she had begun crying. Faintly at first, before evolving into a passionate flurry as she finally lost control of the emotions she had tried so hard to internalize before. Deep in her emotions, Adeline did not notice the light in the room flickering erratically or her shadow growing into a violent dark flame behind her.

Elsewhere, the Matriarch of the Fairies, Constance, was leaning against a windowsill while lazily basking in the landscape. Her home, like all homes in the fairy settlement, was carved within the trunk of gigantic dark-wood trees, strengthened using the matriarch's nature magic. Within the matriarch's tree, an audible sob could be heard through the halls.

"Is she awake?" wondered Constance. She had recently housed a newborn fairy in her abode, a mysterious progenitor fairy that had formed deep within the forest. Although she had brought her to her tree to rest immediately after finding her, the young fairy had remained asleep for the past week, showing no signs that she was close to rousing. But now, it seemed that the fairy had not only awoken suddenly, but also burst into tears, behaviour entirely inexplicable to Constance.

"I should go see her, maybe a friendly face will calm her down?" wondered the matriarch, appearing even more cheerful than her usual self. She quickly exited her room and pranced down the long hallways, eager to meet her new sister as soon as possible. The birth of a fairy was an uncommon occurrence, more so the birth of progenitor which was thought to be impossible. This meant that to Constance and the other progenitor fairies, it truly felt as if a new sibling had been born. Arriving at the room occupied by the young fairy, Constance immediately noticed the phenomenon occurring inside as she saw dark tendrils in the shadows appearing to absorb the light around them.

"Her emotional state seems to be setting her magic wild..." she thought as she inspected the room through the door frame. Undeterred by the hostile seeming magic, Constance casually entered into the bedroom, quickly approaching the young fairy. She found her seated on the ground in the fetal position, her curled hair still unkempt from her long sleep. As Constance stood over her, the girl's tears showed no sign of stopping, further stumping the matriarch.

"Whatever could she be crying about? I don't seem to remember crying when I was born... then again, that was many centuries ago at this point, it's possible I'm misremembering..." pondered Constance as she continued to silently watch the girl. Finally deciding to try and help the girl, she slowly crouched by her and began patting her head. Feeling the foreign touch, the girl immediately tried to shrink away from it as she looked in the direction of the perpetrator. As their eyes met, Constance gave a warm smile to the girl as she introduced herself,

"Hello child, I'm your eldest sibling. From now on, I shall be fully dedicating myself to nurturing you" she said gently, as if calming an alarmed animal. However, this introduction was not entirely necessary. Like the young of any other race, fairies are not born with the linguistic abilities necessary to communicate through speech. Although they are cognitively superior beings, able to understand gesture based communication and contexts even from birth, their language is still something that must be learnt. As Constance spoke, the girl's surprise seemed to shock her out of her tears, as she widely stared back at her. In that instant, the violent shadows that surrounded the girl suddenly recombine back into her shadow, returning to normal.

Adeline had entirely lost her composure and succumbed to her negative emotions. As she sat, wallowing in self pity and cursing the evil being that had flipped her life upside down. As cried into her knees, she suddenly felt a hand touch the top of her head. Caught off guard, she subconsciously shied away instantly before turning to see who was there. As she did, her eyes met those of a beautiful mature woman, gracing her with a smile as calming as the forest. Adeline felt her mind overtaken by a sense of calmness and serenity as the woman began speaking in some unknown tongue. Not understanding the words, Adeline could only assume that the stranger was introducing herself. Feeling slightly calmer, Adeline took the opportunity to quickly check her surroundings. She was in a moderately sized bedroom that appeared to be carved entirely out of wood. Even the furnishings, such as the bed, tables and chairs were formed of wood with accents of vine ropes, giving the room a very uniform design. Although there appeared to be no recognizable lights in the room, a large window dominated one wall of the room, allowing a significant amount of natural light to enter the room. Looking back at the lady that had continued patting her head, Adeline could recognize compassion and curiosity in the woman's expression. Feeling slightly put off by the passion exhibited by this stranger, Adeline stood up and moved away from the lady, seating herself back on the bed. Although she partially appreciated the woman attempting to comfort her, Adeline always struggled with reacting to the sincere emotions of others, especially when those people are complete strangers to her. Seeming to understand the implication of Adeline's actions, the lady only gave her one last smile before leaving her alone once more. Able to relax again, Adeline found herself feeling extremely more refreshed after finally letting out her emotions.

"This is my world now, huh... I wonder what I will do here" she thought. Trying to remain optimistic, Adeline set her mind to her future plans.

"Before anything, I have to learn how to speak this language"