Dedicated to the incredible Eien ni Touko.
This is based off the book version of Maleficent, and I will be changing nearly all of the character relationships. Please note this as you read. Not much will be different from this prologue and the one in the book. Most dialogue and description will be near identical. The story will deviate more in the future, but this is some nice background into Brain.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail, Hiro Mashima does. I don't own Maleficent either! Disney holds that right.
Minatory: adj. "To have a menacing quality."
This is the story of the faerie Erik. Not the story you might know. Not the one that start with enslavement and ends with finding the light. No. This an entirely different story. And while it might have finding the light and a snake, it has much more. For it is a story of lost trust, found kindness, and, ultimately, the power of a loving heart.
It was late afternoon as the sun shone on bright green grass. A few clouds skidded across the sky as sheep, with similar fluffy shapes, grazed in the field. Sitting on a stone wall, a shepherd and his son watched the flock as they ate their dinner. Two dogs sat resting at their feet.
The boy, called Brain by all for his intelligence ( though he once had another name, it had been quickly forgotten by all except his mother who only used it in moments of extreme anger), watched the sheep critically. It was his first time in the pasture. He had been excited to finally follow in his father's footsteps, but now he realized how boring it could be to be a shepherd. It had been easy for him to run silently behind his father so as to not scare off the sheep, but as the two males called out loudly to make the animals move along, he felt uncomfortable, embarrassed to be doing something so foolish-looking.
With all the excitement, running, and yelling, Brain was terrifically hungry. He observed his father place his sweet cake on the ground and form a wreath of soil around it while he ate his own cake. Confused and slightly concerned for his father, he asked, "You didn't want your sweet cake, Father?"
"I'm leaving it there for the Fair Folk," the shepherd replied seriously.
Brain waited for his father to crack a smile, give his signature booming laugh, and say he simply did not want the treat. He quickly realized this was no joke, even though the boy had never heard of this before. "Why?" was his next question.
With a proud smile at his son's intelligent curiosity, he answered, "I have to thank them for their hard work to help nature grow. And to show them we mean them no harm."
Brain was not satisfied with this, though. When he found something he knew nothing about, he had to learn everything about it. So of course he had more questions. "Why do they do that? Why would we harm them?" His voice was rather cold, analytical, as he voiced his thoughts.
The shepherd looked down at his worn, dirty boots before replying. King Precht had been demanding more and more crops and sheep every year as taxes, and times had gotten hard. People had started calling him King Hades behind his back. Boots, love, dirt were things that were kept close in the heart of the farmer. "The Fair Folk are a part of nature. They care to all other parts of it, animals, plants, even water and air. Not all humans appreciate all they do, however. Some attack their land, wanting to take the wealth of their natural treasures. Plenty of pointless wars between greedy humans and the Fair Folk have been fought because of it. The last big one, though,must've been 'bout 400 years ago, when King Zeref was in power, may his black name live on in infamy. And even though both sides have strived for peace since then, we always seem on the brink of another war."
Brain did not know what to make of what his father said. It seemed like gibberish, silly really. The boy refrained from saying silly things, as he was conscientious of his image. It would not do for someone called Brain to be known to say ridiculous things. Without a way to punish his father for doing so, he moved on with his list of questions. "Why did you do that with the dirt?"
"A sign of respect," his father said matter-of-factly. "So the Fair Folk don't fear poisoning, we let them know it's safe for them to eat. Faeries can be quite cruel when they are provoked." Standing up and calling to the dogs, he cut off the conversation there.
Behind him, the boy frowned in disappointment. He still had questions. Brain had never heard of cruel faeries before. Inquisitive, he scanned the stone wall without success before racing after his father. Once he was at his father's side, he began to look for the Fair Folk, eager to see what they looked like.
As the two herded the sheep back home, the son was looking up at the sky and down ay the ground to catch sight of a faerie. Noticing an odd-looking green creature perched on a flower, he stopped and asked his father, "Is that one of the Fairy Folk?" If it was, it was rather ugly. And he did not think its anger would be fearsome.
The shepherd shook his head with a soft smile at his son. "No, simply a grasshopper."
Brain felt slightly foolish for not knowing that already, and he could feel the blush forming on his face, so he quickly diverted attention away from himself. Pointing at another flower, he asked once more, "Is that one of the Fair Folk?"
Once more, the shepherd shook his head. "That's a dragonfly." To ward off more similar questions, and to save his son some dignity, the man knew he had to elaborate. "Not all the Fair Folk are small. Some are even our size or larger. Some have wings, some don't. They all have pointy ears."
The boy tried to discreetly feel the tips of his ears. His eyes widened, and he called, "Could I be one?"
Hiding his amusement, the shepherd stopped and turned to regard his son. "Let me see," he said, examining Brain's head. "No, they're not pointy." He whirled his son around. "And no wings. You're just a boy."
The boy sighed. The shepherd mistook it for relief, but it truly was disappointment. Brain did not just want to see one of the faeries, he would adore having magic of his own.
His father continued speaking, raising a finger to point past the field. "If you were one of them, you'd live there, in the Moors. That's what all the fuss is about."
Brain's eyes followed the finger to study the Moors, which he had never seen before. He had heard stories of how sheep would wander in and never return, but his home was too far away for him to have caught a glimpse of them before. They were covered in mist, keeping their secrets well-hidden from the boy's gaze. They stretched on in both directions, with tall twisted trees that concealed the land behind them. Cattails grew at the edge, stretching towards the human land as if they too were curious. He shivered in awe of the mystery. He would delight in solving the puzzle that was the Moors.
The shepherd moved on with the sheep, but Brain lingered, his eyes glued to the Moors. He could barely discern food and talismans left on the ground and hung from the branches of the trees at the edge of the faerie land. Even squinting, he could not make out more through the mist. Curiosity nowhere near sated, he made his way over to the misty glen.
And he found himself standing at the edge, mist cleared enough to show him the rocks and shrubbery covering the ground. Kneeling, he pulled the half-eaten sweet cake from his pocket (forgotten in his fascination with the Fair Folk) and carefully placed it upon a stone. He grabbed a handful of dirt and sprinkled it around the cake. A step back, and he waited.
Nothing. He nudged the cake closer to the center of the rock. Still nothing. Brain was disappointed and turned to leave. The sun would set soon, and he needed to return home with his father. As if fate heard him and decided to be merciful, a soft fluttering sound could be heard behind him. He stopped and turned back around cautiously. He watched a pair of small, insect-like antennae rise over the rock.
The boy quickly ducked behind a tree to continue his observation, heart racing and breath gasping in excitement. With a quiver of the antennae to test the air, two tiny blue wings came into view, followed by a brilliant blue faerie which climbed onto the rock. Her skin seemed iridescent, like dew, and her wings mesmerized Brain as they were the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Unaware of her company, the tiny faerie reached for the cake. Alas, the boy hiding behind the tree felt the telltale nose twitch. Wiggling his nose to try and prevent the inevitable failed. He sneezed.
The faerie spun and locked eyes with him. For a breath, neither moved, each awed by the other's presence. The moment was shattered by the bark of one of the dogs as it bounded over. Before Brain could say a word, the faerie had flown off, vanished, leaving the cake behind.
He gave a small disappointed sigh before standing and walking away from the Moors, his mind still full of questions and thoughts. What kind of faerie had that been? Was she young or old? Was she kind or cruel? Were there others like her? Most importantly, where was she going? For now, his curiosity had to be satisfied.
'Another day,' he thought. 'Another day.'