Another AU you say? I hope you all like this one. It'll be roughly 8 chapters long when it's finished unless I feel the need to expand a little more. This is a fairy AU with Maleficent vibes.

Far beyond the borders of a great kingdom was a hidden, mystical world of fairies. Despite the two worlds living close by for centuries, the fairies were fortunate to have never been seen by humans. In the eyes of people, such winged creatures were viewed as myths who only existed in fables. They were thought to be tiny beings who lived underneath roots of trees, wings delicate and fragile like a butterfly's, and were most often mischievous and pesky to humans.

Luckily those fairies were either written or spoken of in human tales because the ones that neighbored them? Well, they were quite different from fairytale pixies.

When the sun rose above the forest canopies that morning it marked the day as officially summer. Its warm rays sparkled through many layers of leaves, piercing every hole that was left in place by a munching insect. Birds in various colors and sizes sang merrily from their perch at high peaks, awakening those who'd been asleep at the lower limbs inside hammocks.

Rey opened her eyes and yawned, legs drawn and held close to her chest beneath the downy blanket that was her wings. She smiled sleepily at the songs resonating from higher branches of her willow tree, noting how a select few sung baritone amongst the choir of tenors. She stayed that way for a few brief moments, wanting to hear the remainder of their beautiful song. It was part of her routine before starting the day. And when the song finished they immediately began the next.

Shifting her position she moved onto her back, parting her wings just enough to stretch her arms and then her legs. Slowly and carefully, she swung her feet over the edge of the net, allowing her bare toes to make contact with the bark beneath, certain that her feet were firmly planted before she stood.

Surprisingly, Rey was the size of the average adult human. She was remarkably light on her feet when on the ground and even faster in the air, making her nearly impossible to catch or be seen by any outsider if she happened to wander too close to the human part of the world; although, if she wanted to she could simply change her size and form. She could be a small bumble bee or a large fire-breathing dragon. Thankfully, she had never needed to be that extreme.

Lacing her fingers she extended her palms high above her head, sighing how good it felt and then spread her wings. Like every fairy, they were unique in appearance. Her feathers were tawny with freckles of gold on the flight plumes, a detail that was visibly best in sunlight, and an ivory claw that curled inward at the first joint. When folded and not in use the very ends of her primary feathers hung to her ankles.

Unlike the majority of other fairies, who actually took pride in their magical powers, what she loved most about herself were her wings. They were strong and powerful and carried her with effortless ease above the clouds into the headwinds. And not once did they falter.

She could hardly imagine what her life would be like without them nor did she ever try. They had been her sole means of comfort during long and sleepless nights, longing for the family who never returned as promised many years ago.

The dress that she wore was simple and moss-colored with seams that settled above her knees. Its neckline hugged the jut of her collarbone with thin straps tied into bows on her sun-kissed shoulders. Her auburn hair hung freely in waves, tucked behind pointed ears and ending slightly passed her shoulder blades, where her wings attached.

Her hands fell to her sides and took a casual step from the limb, the span of her wings served as a parachute to help her land gracefully on the ground, carpeted by minimal amounts of decay and small patches of grass with miniscule violet flowers.

Within the willow's trunk, there was a hollowed-out doorway, serving as the entrance to a variety of gizmos and gadgets that Rey had collected during her daily stroll through the woods. While most females wished to gather flowers and ferns she preferred giving a home to abandoned trinkets.

Depending on the size of the object she sometimes found them steadily drifting in the nearby shallow river: pearled necklaces, dinnerware, and bronze medallions were a few that she deemed too pretty and interesting not to keep. However, whatever the small thing with a narrow handle and prongs was, exactly, she hadn't the faintest idea. There was another object that was similar but was instead more rounded.

She liked to imagine on occasion what the humans had used them for. The one seemed too oddly-shaped and small to be a brush for hair, or a till for culling the soil. She found it unlikely that they would have used them to eat when that's what hands and teeth were for.

She never bothered to ask what the other fairies had thought, most were too busy grooming themselves at the falls of the lagoon, doing one another's hair in vines and posies, to have cared. Aside from the very few whom she considered friends Rey had always felt like an outcast for her differences in living and enjoyed the company of animals rather than being amongst her kin.

She grabbed her satchel that hung from a loose chunk of tree bark next to the doorway. It was a ragged-looking handbag she had made from the material of a feed sack, one that she'd found wrapped around a sapling near the outer perimeter of the forest.

Following the roots of her home to the river, she knelt at the bank and cupped her hands, taking a fair amount of water into her palms and washed her face. She greeted the hovering dragonflies and other water bugs and fish with a sweet good morning.

The temperature wasn't quite so humid as it would be later in the morning, so she set out to make her daily trek through the forest then, rather than waiting until early afternoon when the sun would be at its highest.

She spotted a pair of red foxes not long into her walk amongst the vine-covered trees, playing near a rotting log and a handful of chattering squirrels and chipmunks. The forest was peaceful and the wildlife seemed content. Then, it was all suddenly disrupted by obnoxious caws and shrieks, stemming from a short distance of her current location.

She quickly followed the cries for help through the trees, minding the fallen branches whose leaves were still intact. She found the creature near the hole of a badger's den, an injured raven with an arrow lodged into its wing, hopping about frantically and hopelessly relieving itself of the wooden projectile. She knew it was only a matter of time before the grumpy resident of the lair aroused from its sleep, and the poor bird would undoubtedly become its next meal.

"Well, hello there," she purred, approaching the injured creature slowly. "What happened to you?"

The raven immediately stopped with its antics and fell silent, watching her approach. Its beady black eyes eliciting apprehension. Its chest was heavily flaring from the previous state of panic, wings spread and wanting to fly. She gave it a reassuring smile, meaning that she meant it no harm.

"You're going to wake a very not-so-friendly neighbor if you keep up with the ruckus," she affirmed, leaving a foot or two in distance between herself and the bird when she lowered into a crouch. "But I can help you. It's okay, I won't hurt you."

The raven cocked its head at her, alternating from side to side as if measuring her offer. It really was a beautiful creature, one that was rarely ever seen in the area as they were said to be messengers of bad luck and death. Its feathers were as black as ebony, though there were hints of azure in certain places whenever it moved. It was bigger than most ravens she'd seen in the past, and alone whereas most traveled in pairs. Seeing the arrow in its wing made her wonder if its mate had suffered a far worse fate.

She slowly extended the palm of her hand to it, continuing to smile. "I can get the arrow out for you," she assured. "You can stay with me until you're healed, then you can be on your way."

The raven cocked its head with every word, and she couldn't help but chuckle when its situation clearly wasn't funny. However, it must've been enough to make her seem trustworthy, considering the bird drew in its unhurt wing and ambled towards her, cawing softly as if meaning to express its thanks.

She carefully picked it up and snuggled the bird to her chest with her forearm, surprised to see that it was virtually weightless when it was considerably large. She let the injured wing hang over her arm, though being able to see it up close allowed her to recognize whose arrow it was. She frowned at the arrow's feathers that were black with streaks of red.

She stood and turned to head back towards her tree, but saw that her friends Armie and Gwen were near and approaching, bows in hand at their sides. Armie and Gwen's home in the swamps was destroyed by humans years ago, where they lived off of meat when those in the lagoon survived on fruits and greens. When they typically hunted alligators, large snakes, and the occasional elk she wondered what a bird would've had to offer them for nourishment. Of course, thinking about berries made her stomach growl.

"Ah, thanks, Rey!" Armie praised. "I was wondering where the beast had fallen."

"You're only supposed to hunt predators, Armie," Rey chided. She glowered at the redhead and his blonde counterpart as she met them halfway in strides, piercing her hazel irises with his rigid and icy blues. "Ravens are scavengers. And I would hardly call a creature who also eats mice a threat to us."

Like all male fairies, Armie was bare-chested, wearing a muddy pair of loosely fitted knee-length slacks that frayed around the edges. His reddish hair hung in shaggy layers and clung to his face from sweat, skin pasty and his form scrawny yet toned. His wings were creamy, tainted a rusty-shade of red on some of the quills, quiver harnessed and hung at the center of his back.

Gwen was surprisingly taller than the average female fairy, hair short and strikingly blonde, skin lucid like Armie's and eyes just as cold. Her dress was as simple as Rey's but silver and would glisten whenever touched by moonlight, wings an alabaster white.

"Our apologies," Gwen uttered coolly, eyes lowering to the bird that was meeting her gaze. "We actually thought it was a hawk when we saw it in the air."

Rey arched a brow, having believed the pair to be far more competent and capable of distinguishing the apparent differences between a hawk and a raven. But even then the excuse didn't seem good enough, as hawks were far from being feared predators - unless they'd shrunk to the size of a pixie which was a rare case of its own.

"Well, it wasn't," Rey grumbled.

"He's just a bird, Rey," Hux countered bitterly. "One less devil bird in the area makes the rest of us happy."

"It's not a devil bird," she scolded back, leveling her chin. "And he's going to stay with me until he's better."

So the raven was a he? She wondered how Armie had known that just by simply looking at it; however, the other fairy's expression had made it clear that he didn't share the same bit of enthusiasm over the notion as she.

"Yeah, sure," Armie gestured his free hand to the air with a grimace. "Anyways, I was meaning to find you later on today."

Rey scoffed. "Oh?"

Armie nodded and shrugged. "I was thinking that we could watch the stars come out tonight. If you want to?"

Oh! Rey loved to stargaze. It was almost a weekly tradition with her two friends to spend a night amongst the canopies and pick out the constellations. Then she remembered the raven she was holding, and when she looked at it she was met with a pair of eyes that were no longer black but a darker shade of brown with blotches of honey. She wondered what other surprises that the raven had in store.

"Um, not tonight," she whispered, looking to see the disappointment on Armie's face. "I need to make sure that this little guy will be okay. I'll see you later."

Armie opened his mouth to object, but was silenced when Rey turned her back and left. She looked to the raven that was contentedly settled on her arm again, seeing the same warmth in its eyes as before. If she hadn't known better, she would've thought its soul was far deeper than what the usual fowl possessed.

"You know, as long as you're staying with me, you're going to need a name that's something other than Bird."

The bird shook its head at a rapid motion and ruffled its feathers around its neck and back, meaning that it agreed. Or so she thought, at least. It was obvious that the bird couldn't speak.

She mulled over a selection of names that she could call the creature instead of Bird over the duration of her short walk. It wasn't until she arrived at the entrance to her home when she found the perfect one. Tilting her chin down to the raven, she grinned and said its new name.

"Kylo. I'll call you Kylo."