Disclaimer: I own nothing recognized. Anything unrecognized is mine.

Chapter one

The fairies

The Erikson family was not normal.

The mother- Abigail- was half crazy and hadn't spoken since her youngest child Halia was thirteen years of age. The father- Erik- was an angry drunk who had more pride than a king. But it was the children of the Erikson family that made the family strange. The children had powers, special abilities, given to them by nature. The children were fairies.

The Erikson family resided in a house in the woods, just outside the village. There was a pond behind it, next to the stables where they kept the horses. Bella was in charge of preparing the meals, because her mother was ill, and so she woke before everyone else to prepare breakfast. Bella rose before the sun did, to make sure that there was food on the table when her father woke up.

Bella had taken up most of her mother's responsibilities and housework since she got sick. She didn't complain- mostly because her father would punish her if she complained- but it was not Bella to complain.

After feeding her family breakfast that morning, Bella washed the dishes and enlisted her youngest sister Halia to help. Bella and Halia were very close sisters, and Bella was very protective of her. With good reason, though. Halia had the tendency to be naïve and trust people who didn't deserve her trust.

"It is Juliana's birthday in a few days, Bella," Halia informed her sister as they walked to the village together. Juliana was a girl from the village who was friends with both Erikson sisters.

"Is there to be celebration?" Bella asked, her dark hair pulled into a braid while Halia's dark brown hair ran wild, much like her.

Halia nodded just as their brother Garrett joined them, his long black hair falling in his face. Garrett was the youngest boy of the family and was very hot blooded. Bella had lost track of all the fights she had had to pull him from.

"Did someone say celebration?" he smirked at his sisters. Garrett was a trouble maker and did not mix well with parties.

"Yes, it is Juliana's birthday soon. And no, you will not be attending. Nor will you, Halia. They have a tendency to get out of control and I do not wish for you two to get hurt if something is to go wrong," Bella told them, causing her young siblings to glare at her. "Shouldn't you be mucking out the stalls with Joseph, Garrett?" she added with a frown.

He shrugged. "It is already done. I just burned it," he said, causing Bella's frown to deepen.

"Garrett, that is using your powers for your own personal gain-" she started to say.

"'-And using your powers for personal gain goes against nature-'" Halia deadpanned.

"'-And going against nature sets off the balance-'" Garrett mocked.

"'-And setting off the balance can result in horrific consequences ," Joseph finished, walking up to his siblings. Bella glowered at all of her siblings for mocking the speech she had given too many times to count.

Joseph laughed at his younger sister's expression. "Oh, lighten up, Bella. If you keep frowning you'll wrinkle your pretty, young face," he teased as the group entered the village.

"Where are Adora, Gemma, and Adrian?" she questioned, pulling a bag of gold out. She had to buy food for their meals for the next week.

"Adora was playing nurse to mother when I left the house. Adrian is with Father, out getting payment for his weapons he sold. And Gemma is busy slapping Kol Mikaelson." Joseph gestured with his head to where the second oldest daughter of the Eriksons was, indeed, slapping Kol across the face, and it was still morning.

Gemma and Kol were very antagonistic to each other. Not a day went by where Kol did not say or do something to anger Gemma, and Gemma did not retaliate with physical or verbal hate. It had been that way since they were children.

Bella sighed and walked forward to get her sister. "Gemma, come now," she said quietly, grabbing her by the arm. With one last glare at Kol, Gemma huffed and stalked away. Bella gave Kol an apologetic look, which he returned with a wink, and followed her sister away.

"Gemma, you know better than to start retaliate to Kol," Bella started as soon as they were with Halia, Joseph, and Garrett.

"I cannot help it, Bella. I am no angel like you," Gemma snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. Then she flinched and looked at the hand she had slapped Kol with. Gemma had sprained her hand.

"Here," Halia said, gently placing her hands over her sister's injured hand. Closing her brown eyes in concentration, she healed Gemma's hand. Halia was a healer by nature.

When the pain went away and her injury was healed, Gemma pulled away and smiled at her youngest sister. "Thank you," she told her.

Halia nodded before her attention was grabbed by a vendor selling beautiful necklaces. She looked hopefully up at Bella, who sighed and nodded. It was hard to say no to Halia.

"Here," she said, giving Gemma a fair amount of gold. "Stay together," she told her sisters as they walked away.

She turned back to her brothers, but Joseph and Garrett were already walking away, talking about practicing sword fighting. "Be careful!" she called to them. Garrett rolled his eyes and Joseph waved his sister's words away.

Bella sighed and walked forward to buy wine from a vendor. She suddenly tripped over her own two feet and fell. Bella could have used her telekinesis to stop from falling, but someone caught her before she hit the ground.

"Are you alright?"

Bella felt her heart skip a beat, hearing that voice. She immediately pulled out of the man's arms and nodded. Her heart was pounding in her chest and she couldn't breathe, let alone talk. She bent down to pick up her gold that had fallen out of her bag. Elijah bent down to help her, and Bella cursed him for being such a gentleman. Though if he wasn't, she wouldn't like him as much as she did.

"Here," Elijah said, picking up all of the fallen gold and putting it back into her bag. Then he offered her a hand to help her up, but if Bella did so much as touch his hand, she would most likely pass out. So she stood up on her own and brushed off the skirt of her dress.

"Are you sure that you are alright, Bella?" he asked her, his brown eyes full of polite concern.

Bella. She decided that she loved the way he said her name. God, she was pathetic. She was completely head over heels for a man who had spoken only a few times to her, despite the fact that they had lived in the same village since birth.

Bella nodded, gulping slightly. Then she turned away from him and walked away, her heart still pounding away. She had been crushing on Elijah since as long as she could remember. He was polite, honorable, moral, and a real gentleman. He was also very aloof and had dozens of other girls in the village half in love with him. He didn't give them the time of day. The only woman he had eyes for was Tatia, and Bella was painfully aware of it.

Tatia had half of the men in the village trying to court her, including some of the Mikaelson and Erikson men. Bella used to call her a friend, but she found herself resenting her and her beauty that attracted so many men. Wasn't one enough?

Not for Tatia, though Bella had yet to realize it. Just one man for Tatia Petrova would never be enough.

"Ooh, I like that one!" Halia said, pushing her long locks out of her face.

Gemma sighed, impatient. "Just pick one Halia, so we can leave. I wish to go back to the pond," she said. Halia rolled her eyes; Gemma's power was control over water, and she barely ever left the pond.

"Look, it looks like Bella is literally falling for Elijah now," Halia pointed out, giggling. The only person who didn't know of her crush on Elijah was Elijah.

Gemma rolled her eyes. "I swear, Bella could have him if she just tried. She's convinced herself that he's in love with Tatia." She shook her head.

"What man in this village isn't in love with Tatia?" Halia countered, picking up a necklace with a pretty blue stone in the middle.

"Very true, sister," Gemma said, her eyes flicking over to Kol. She absolutely loathed him, but sometimes she found herself loathing the girls he would flirt with. There was a thin line between love and hate after all.

As Halia debated on buying the necklace, her eyes traveled over to Niklaus- brother to both Kol and Elijah. He was also a notorious womanizer. Bella was especially protective of Halia whenever Niklaus was around. She was sweet, innocent, naïve Halia- she was bound to fall for Niklaus and his charming words.

But Halia was more cunning than she seemed. She knew better than to let Niklaus talk her into letting him deflower her, as he had with so many other girls. Still, he was so nice to look at.

As if reading her mind, Niklaus caught her gaze and smirked at her. Halia stood her ground and smiled cheerfully back at him, disarming Klaus for one second. Then Halia turned back to her sister.

"I want this one, Gemma," she said, and Gemma paid the vendor for the necklace.

As the two walked away, Halia felt Niklaus's eyes on her. She didn't look back though- Adora had taught her that playing hard to get was the best way to get a suitor. Men were hunters, and they loved the chase.

Tatia was a few feet from Niklaus, talking to a few friends. But for the first time in his life, he didn't watch Tatia. He didn't smirk or wink at her. He didn't try to win her attention when there were so many other men trying to do the same. For the first time ever, Klaus's blue eyes were firmly on the fairy walking away from him. With just one smile, Halia Erikson had managed to switch his focus from Tatia onto her.

Sweet, innocent, naïve Halia was exactly what wild, mischievous, womanizing Niklaus needed.

~TLND~

A/N: first chapter for the prequel to Love Me Forever! I apologize in advance for any historical inaccuracy. I'll try my best, but being accurate to the eleventh century is not my main goal.

Reviews are inspiring!

~Abby :)