Prologue:

In which Arthur discovers magic in the woods.

The day that I first became aware of the magic outside my home, was the day my mother gave me my first hooded cloak.

I had been four at the time, a tiny little thing, with a mass of blonde hair, wide green eyes, and a knack for getting myself lost in my childish thoughts.

Being the youngest of four brothers left me with a sense of distance from the rest of my family. At four I was small and weak where all my brothers were rough and strong. Every day they would hop into the family's wagon with my father to go work in the fields and village somewhere past the forest that shielded me from the outside world. If they weren't out for work, they would be home doing manly chores like chopping wood, or fixing the wagon, or taking care of the horses.

I, on the other hand stayed indoors. My mum often worried about letting me outside around such older boys, and for the dangers outside in those woods and along the great dirt road that stretched for a mile then became lost behind a bend in the forest, although my father would often insist that if I stayed the way I was, I would grow up weak and unmanly. My mother doted on me, not only for being the youngest, but for being almost her splitting image. All of my older brothers looked just like father, with their red hair and blue eyes. If I had been a girl, I'm sure she would have been just as happy, but as it was, she treated me like the daughter she never had.

Thus I spent most of my childhood hidden behind a book, lost in fantasies of faraway places, of magic and mystical people. It was more than likely this past time that would define my path in life as well. Especially since that same day, I discovered that magic was real.

The day my mother gave the cloak to me was the day I was finally given permission to play outside to my hearts content.

"Just make sure to stay close! There could be monsters out there!" she called worriedly, as I ran out the house, tripping over myself in excitement. I paid that last warning no heed. I was too excited to finally be out there, on my way to adventure. One would have thought I never saw the outdoors, the way I scrambled around the clearing around our home. Even within the boundaries made by the overgrowth around the house, everything was wondrous. The way the sun shone and made every color ten times brighter, the way little butterflies and other insects jumped from flower to flower, and through the grass.

I explored the grass outside my house and was enjoying every minute of it. My brothers were home that day, so they were doing chores around the house while I frolicked through the tall vegetation.

I hadn't even thought to get past that boundary, until my second eldest brother, Allistor, paused in his wood chopping to give me a toothy sneer.

"Nice coat, Artie, or should I say Arthurette?"

Of all the different insults my brothers put on me, the idea of me being girly was always the one to hit the hardest, and in my childish mind, although I hadn't had a second thought about the beautiful red cloak when my mother first gave it to me, I suddenly felt ashamed as I looked down at it, if only because of my brother's criticism. It was rather… girly.

My face heated up in embarrassment. "Sh-shut up you big jerk!" I'd mumbled, avoiding his gaze because I was so small and I was always fearful of an attack from my big brothers.

"Ha! Or else what? Are ye going to throw flowers at me?" As he threw his head back, cackling my other brothers suddenly appeared.

"Don't ye look adorable!" Seamus, the eldest, started saying, and I glanced at him, my green eyes filling with hope, "I've always wanted a little sister!"

Angrily I glared on as my two eldest brothers laughed, while the last oldest, Dylan snickered behind his hand, patting each other on the backs at their jokes, and I huffed away, fed up. It was sad how very quickly my brothers could turn a wondrous occasion into a sad memory.

"Fine! I don't need you anyway!"

My feelings and my pride hurt, I turned on the spot and started running, away from the brother who always ruined everything, from my father who probably thought I was a sissy, and my mother who'd brought me up this way and dressed me as though I was a girl!

I ran as far as my little legs could carry me, past the wall of trees, and through the maze of vegetation. It took awhile for me to realize though, how far I'd come. I looked all around at the tree tops high above me, and almost felt vertigo. But I continued walking, determined not to go back until I had my whole family nice and worried. Then they would learn to stop teasing me.

I didn't stop until I found my path blocked by a tiny stream. Over it's banks I could see another clearing where boulders lay in the tall grass, and on the furthest edge a doe and her fawn were grazing unperturbed.

I was so struck in awe that at first I didn't recognised the shimmering of lights around my head. But as the deer looked up and saw me, running of to the distance, I stopped mid step from trying to follow, as a purple light appeared right before my eyes.

I blinked, and it waved in the air, a little ball of purple light the size of my father's hands.

With a gasp, I clutched my hands together in nervous excitement, not wanting to scare it away.

I never had to guess exactly what I was just discovering, for I had read all about the mystical creatures that were said to haunt the forests. I couldn't hold my excitement any longer.

"You're- You're a fairy!" came my voice breathless in wonder.

The purple ball twinkled, and rolled a circle in the air. Suddenly I realized there were a bunch of them! All types of colors glowing around my head, gliding over the tiny stream, flying around the flowers that grew there.

In my short life I never expected to find them. But I had. I found an entire group of fairies!

They floated around lazily, and I sat down on the ground, holding out my hand as the fairies landed around me. They didn't have to talk. I could understand them intuitively. They were excited to have found a child in their woods. It had been so long since I human had come through.

We talked for a while, sitting on the ground in the middle of the woods before the fairies decided they wanted to play a game. But just before we could begin I started to hear a ruckus through the trees.

"Arthur!" came the distant voice. "Where are ye you twit?"

It was Seamus calling me.

Sadly I stood up and told the fairies I had to go.

At first I almost started to cry, but then the fairies told me not to worry. Either I could always find them here, or they could visit my home.

Happily I waved them goodbye and began running back home.

Soon I found my brother at the very edge of the wood; I could see my house only yards away..

"Where the hell were you?" He's shouted. 'We've been calling ye for hours!"

"Oh, just wandering around." I'd replied.

I'd found my own fairies, and I wasn't going to share them with my brother.

And all the way home I would glance back, excited to find them again tomorrow.