I was on my annual trip in the human realm when I spotted a small, stone cottage. Human-made by the looks of it. Now, I was in an old, enchanted forest, the Goshen Forest humans would later name it.

Anyway, seeing a human cottage on the outskirts of this forest was weird for me. Fae did live in the forest, as well as other creatures and monsters, but they never lived in human dwellings. They were far to inferior for Fae to live in them.

I would normally stay far away from humans unless I was hunting a human. The nearest human settlement from this forest was 50km away. They never came into the forest knowing what lurked in here. Those that did, well everyone knew what would happen to them…

So, you can see how this human dwelling was making me extremely curious. I was bored with my hunting task, and I had suddenly found something that did not belong. Curious about what was inside the cottage, I decided to take a peek in one of the broken, dirty windows.

When I looked into that cottage, I didn’t see anyone at first. Only after some time, did I realized that someone was living by themselves. It was a small girl. Maybe twelve years of age.

Knowing how dangerous this part of the forest was, even if it was on the outskirts, I wanted to know how she was still alive. I wanted to know how she managed to get the Fae and monsters to stay away. She was a pretty girl and would have been fun for the Fae to torment and play with. Monsters would have just eaten her.

I walked into the cottage to find that she was a starving, her family long gone. I must have scared her as she threw a rusted knife she was holding at me when I walked inside. Catching the knife between my clothed fingers, I said, “I promise I won’t hurt you. I just want to give you some food.” With that I took out some bread and cheese from my hunting bag. I was trying to use food as a peace offering.

The girl was making me seriously curious. She crawled under the table, trying to get away from me. Looking around, I saw that the cottage was slowly breaking apart. You could easily see it had been a long time since anyone had looked after this place. Dirty dishes overflowing the sink, broken furniture in every corner of the room, and paint peeling off the walls.

The little stone cottage was slowly crumbling into itself. Decaying like a Swamp Rat corpse. A shoe flew past me this time. I couldn’t  blame her, not really. I would hide myself if an unknown armed person walked into my home. Bending down, I said in my most gentle voice, “I promise the food is free. No strings. It won’t harm you.”

 I placed the food on the table and took a few steps back. It would be best to put some space between the two of us for her sake. Tucking my hair behind an ear, she saw the Fae trademark. An ear with a pointed tip. Realizing that I couldn’t lie, she grabbed the food and walked towards the nearest chair.

Guess hunger got the better of her. She sat on a chair, slowly nibbling away at the food. Grabbing another chair, I sat down to eat. We began to eat in silence. Finally, she asked, “W… Why are you helping me?”

To this day I will never know why I helped her. Maybe it was seeing her alone in a broken-down home. Or maybe Mother Fate was helping me. Not that I believe that. Those three witches hate me. They’ll do anything to make my life miserable. Then again…

Instead of answering a question I will never know the answer to, I said, “My name is Fer. What is yours?”

“Ros… Rosabella. W… Why are you here?”

“Hunting. Why are you living here?”

Sighing, she turned away from me and said, “M… My par… parents left me here while they went to the next town. T… The… They’re coming back after the festival is over.”

Her answer shocked me. I could practically taste the lies radiating off of her. She was lying about it to me. Her family had left her, abandoned her. I knew humans could be cruel, but never to their own families. It was normal for Fae to be cruel to their families, I personally knew about that, however, it never happened with humans. Only afterwards did I see all the cruelty humans had within themselves.

Gently, I grabbed her chin, lifting it up to face me. Tears were freely flowing down her face. Looking directly into her eyes, I said gently, “I understand how you feel. You don’t need to lie to me. I know they just packed up and left you. My parents also abandoned me.” I closed my eyes to make the bad memories go away. Her situation was opening a can of worms in my head. One that I didn’t want to open.

Opening my eyes again, I slowly began to wipe her tears away with a little black handkerchief I had pulled out from my pocket. “You don’t need to shed anymore tears. They’re worthless people to cry over.”

“T…they left because they wanted a s… son. N…not a burden” she furiously began wiping her tears away. “W… When m… my bro… brother d… die… died…” Her sobbing stopped her from continuing. When she calmed down a bit, she kept silent and refused to look at me.

Obviously, she was embarrassed to have been pouring her heart out to a complete stranger. I handed her the handkerchief, stood up and walked to the other side of the cottage, turning my head to the side to give her a moment of privacy.

“Something tells me you are not. You will have an amazing story. Your future holds many great things for you.” the words came out before I could stop them.

Now it was her turn to be shocked. Well, more shocked than she already was. Not that I blamed her. My ability to know if you have a good or bad fate was rare. However, every decision made changed it. Destiny flows like a raging river. Always changing, always moving. It is hard to change your destiny but not impossible.

It was like looking into the future; except I could change the course of that future. It was also one of the reasons that Mother Fate hated me. I made their jobs harder. They controlled fate and messed it up for them. A negative to their positive.

 “H…ho…how do you know?” ,she asked.

Turning my head back toward her, I whispered, “Because Mother Earth blessed and cursed me. It’s my Fae gift.”