Deep in the Deepwood there is a great old tree that has been stretching its gnarled fingers up to the sky since the wood was an empty grass plain, since the plain was a barren rocky field, since the rocky field was a war zone between gods and monsters. It is the elder tree and among its leaves and branches live the Fairies of Eld. They are small fragile things, women the size of insects with buzzing wings to carry them about. They live on an old branch hidden far below the canopy. There are whole families of them and all day they dance and sing and frolic in the dappled sunlight. Then at night they squeeze into tiny knots in the branches of the elder tree and curl up to fall asleep. But at night is when all the dark creatures of the Deepwood come out to hunt. All the shadow beetles and midnight wasps and great owls. So one of the fairies stays up at night to watch the forest and look out for these so she can wake up the other fairies if anything comes hunting.

This fairy is called Alfy, and this is her story.

She sits on a leaf, as she does every night and dangles her legs into the dark forest below. Looking out at the shadowy branches and leaves. Her wings are dark blue with spots that are in places almost black, as is her hair and her eyes, this is why she was chosen to guard the fairies at night, they said she would never be able to dance happily in the daytime with her dark wings and dark eyes. So she had to watch during the nighttime instead. She didn’t mind. She wrapped her wings around her and as long as she didn’t move very much nothing could see her, so nothing came to eat her. She could just watch.

But she often became bored just watching. Watching an empty forest all night every night can leave little to do. So she sang. Every night she sang into the dark forest. At first she’d worried that singing would mean the dark creatures could hear her and find her. But she didn’t think they were very good at hearing. The beetles and wasps didn’t seem to notice, although that could be because they had their own hissing droning song their wings sang when they flew. She wasn’t sure about the owls though. She had only ever seen an owl once and it had been very far away. She’d stopped singing and watched it catch a mouse and she’d been terrified. The forest was never quiet, everything made noise, everything had its song. But the owl didn’t have a song. It was as silent as a shadow. At first she’d thought it had been a shadow, descending on the mouse, and the owl had been higher up, casting it. But then the shadow had lifted the mouse into the sky and flown away. She didn’t much like owls.

She sang her song all throughout the night. Soft and sweetly into the rustling and whispering of the forest. Then the sun began to rise and dappled spots of sunlight started to fall onto the leaves like they always did. So she let her song fade and stood up from her spot. She walked back to her hole in the tree and burrowed deep into it, curling up and slowly falling asleep to the sound of the other fairies talking and chattering far away. They had found something, and they were all very excited. Fairies are easily excited.

When Alfy awoke they were still chattering away, much more than they usually would this late in the day. She clambered from her hole and emerged onto the leaf where, to her surprise, almost all the fairies were still there, none having gone off to bed yet. And they were all clustered around a large caterpillar that sat in the middle of the leaf nibbling away on a pile of leaf clippings the fairies had collected for it.

Liann, a tall fairy with bright purple wings and hair saw Alfy and walked over to her.

“Alfy, look at what we found,” she said pointing at the caterpillar. “Isn’t he so pretty?”

Alfy looked at the caterpillar. It was white with red frills running all up and down the sides and bigger ones that looked like horns on its head. It was rather pretty.

“It just wandered over and kept looking at us so we started feeding it and now it stays here. We think we’ll keep it and one day it’ll turn into a pretty butterfly.”

Alfy nodded. The caterpillar was still nibbling on its leaves. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll watch it tonight.”

“Great. Come feed him, he’s so cute.” Liann dragged Alfy over to the caterpillar which was still nibbling on leaves. Alfy picked up some leaves and held them up to it. The caterpillar sniffed them and then happily munched away. It was a nice feeling, having a pet.

The other fairies stayed up a lot later this time. Dancing around the caterpillar and singing and laughing as it followed them around. But soon it got too dark for the other fairies and they went to bed, leaving Alfy with the caterpillar. It seemed to be happily munching away on its leaves so Alfy went to her usual spot and sang into the darkness. She was a little worried. What if something came looking for food and saw the caterpillar? It was rather big and kind of slow. What if a beetle came and tried to eat it. There wasn’t much she could do. She could shout a warning but the caterpillar wouldn’t understand. It would just go on eating. She looked back at it, still eating through the pile of leaves. It was strange that it kept eating. She’d never seen anything eat that much before. She supposed caterpillars had to eat a lot if they were ever to turn into butterflies.

She kept watching the forest and sang into the night.

It was around halfway through the night when she felt a tremor on the leaf she was sitting on. Her song faltered and she spun around to see the caterpillar had started eating her leaf. She stopped singing and walked over to it angrily. She shooed it away and tried to drive it back to the pile of leaf clippings the other fairies had made. Then she realised there weren’t any, the caterpillar had eaten them all. She scratched her head, that was strange, she was sure there had been a huge pile. How had it eaten them all? She looked down at it. It had started eating her leaf again. She sighed and walked off the leaf onto the branch. She’d just have to find a new leaf while the caterpillar ate that one. And she’d tell the fairies they needed to get more leaves next time.

She settled down on a branch and began to sing once more. Down below the great dark cockatrice, normally lulled to sleep by her song, stopped stirring, and another peaceful night passed for the elder tree.

In the morning the caterpillar had worked its way through several leaves and Alfy talked to Liann about getting more leaf clippings today. The fairies agreed and buzzed off to find some while Alfy went to sleep.

When she awoke there was a huge tower of leaves gathered up by the fairies and the caterpillar was slowly working its way through them. Excited to help care for their new pet all the fairies had gotten involved, and they’d danced and sung all up and down the tree collecting new leaves. They’d also named the caterpillar. It was called Elden now after the elder tree. Alfy thought that wasn’t a very original name but she didn’t say that, it wasn’t her caterpillar. The fairies also seemed to have agreed Elden was male although Alfy knew there was no way they could possibly know that since none of them knew anything about caterpillars. She told them this but they just laughed her off, claiming she didn’t know anything about caterpillars either. Then they all went to bed, leaving her to sing into the forest as normal. The caterpillar munching away on its huge pile of leaves behind her.

As she sang she thought about what the other fairies had said. She knew things about caterpillars. She’d seen them in the forest while she’d been watching it at night. She’d watched them eating leaves and she’d watched them be eaten by shadow beetles or attacked by midnight wasps. She was sure none of the other fairies had ever seen a caterpillar attacked by a midnight wasp. They probably hadn’t even seen a midnight wasp at all since they only came out at night. She’d seen caterpillars like Elden be attacked by midnight wasps before. Although every time the wasp seemed to fly away and leave the caterpillar alive. That was strange. The caterpillars weren’t very strong or tough and Alfy wasn’t sure what they did to make the wasp fly away. She’d never thought about it before but now she did and her song stopped as she remembered the other thing she’d seen happen to caterpillars. Eventually every caterpillar would build itself a chrysalis and eventually it would come out as a butterfly. But not all of them came out as butterflies. Sometimes the chrysalis would grow bigger and turn black and slowly rot away. And then instead of a butterfly wasps would come out. Small wasps that could fly off to attack more caterpillars.

But the wasps never ate the caterpillars, only the beetles did.

She turned back to Elden and watched him eating the huge pile of leaves. Already he’d gotten through much more than she’d expected. Worried by her revelation she started singing again to fill the silence and wandered over to the caterpillar. He was happily eating his way through the leaves and didn’t seem to mind as she investigated his side. She wasn’t sure what the wasps did to the caterpillars but surely to turn into a swarm of wasps would require a lot more food than turning into a single butterfly. She hoped the amount he was eating was normal. She hoped Elden would turn into a butterfly.

She found scratches, cuts all over his body and one swelled up wound on his back that could have been a wasp sting. A very bad wasp sting.

She wandered back to her new spot and curled up her wings around her against the night. She sang once more and tried to think of other things than wasps.

The next day she talked to Liann about wasps but Liann just laughed at her. Everyone knew caterpillars turned into butterflies. She’d never seen one turn into wasps. Alfy tried to tell her that was because it only happened at night but she still wouldn’t listen and instead went off to collect more leaves with her friends. Alfy stood around wondering what to do and eventually decided to get some sleep, she was very tired.

She dreamed that day, she rarely dreamed but she did then. She dreamed of Elden, looking up from his pile of leaves and opening up his mouth to release wasps. So many wasps that buzzed and droned their horrible song as they swarmed over her. She dreamed of a chrysalis hanging on a dead tree on a dead plain, a black chrysalis with shapes twisting and turning inside of it. She dreamed of a shadow, a huge black shadow, a hole in the whispering forest, a hole of dead silence. And the shadow had wings, and the shadow descended. She dreamed of a blind ugly bird she’d never seen before, a blind ugly bird that tunneled into the elder tree from below and tunneled and tunneled until the elder tree died and the bird’s eggs hatched into even uglier spawn that feasted on the dead tree. And more wasps. There were always wasps.

She woke up and stayed huddled in her hole for a while. She was sweating and breathing heavily. She barely dreamed and she never dreamed like that. She touched the elder tree. Was there really a blind ugly bird killing it from the inside? Everyone knew the elder tree was magic, it had birthed the fairies, that was why they didn’t grow old and die like other animals, that was why they could speak and think and make things. What if the elder tree could make her dream things it wanted her to see? She was a fairy after all, a creature of the elder tree. What if it was giving her a warning? She didn’t like that idea.

She crawled out of her hole and saw the other fairies singing and dancing, more joyous than ever. For hanging off their branch was a chrysalis. A huge green chrysalis bigger than any chrysalis had a right to be. Bigger than any one she’d seen before. Except for the black ones, they were sometimes this big.

She flew over to Liann who was flitting about the chrysalis singing of butterflies.

“Liann!” she cried and she stopped, turning to see Alfy.

“What?” she asked, still smiling and humming her tune.

“This is a big chrysalis-”

Liann beamed. “I know, it must be all that food we gave him. He’s going to turn into the biggest butterfly.” She flew off and joined in a song with some other fairies. Alfy tried to follow but gave up. There were too many other fairies in the way..

She watched the chrysalis nervously and watched slowly as all the fairies went to bed, leaving just her to guard their pet. She didn’t really have it in her to sing, but listening to only the sounds of the forest was worse so she sang anyway. A quiet, haunting song, about nothing in particular. As she sang she didn’t sit anywhere this time. Instead she flew around the chrysalis, looking at it from every angle. And sure enough, right at the bottom, there was a spot of black. She watched throughout the night as it spread. It didn’t go far but it was definitely there. Some sort of black poison inside the chrysalis. Midnight wasp poison, for growing midnight wasps.

She had a knife, made from a sharpened piece of wood, that she had to defend from any creatures that might try to eat her. The chrysalis was dangling over a long drop to the ground so she flew to its stem which was still green and vibrant. Still the nice colours of caterpillars and butterflies. But she knew there wouldn’t be any butterflies coming out of this chrysalis. She attacked the stem with her knife, sawing and sawing. Singing all the while just in case some fairy heard her stop and came to check on her. It took a long time and her arms were starting to hurt but eventually she sawed through the last bit and the chrysalis plummeted away. Crashing to the ground far below with a splat. There was a shout of horror behind her and she spun in surprise, her song rapidly faltering.

There was Liann, having gotten up early, standing on the branch looking down at her.

“What have you done!” she shrieked.

“No it’s... I...”

“You killed him! You killed Elden!”

“No-”

“You monster! You horrible monster!”

“No-” Liann flew away. Alfy sat on the branch feeling terrible. She was tired and sore and felt sick in her throat. She’d never seen someone angry at her before, especially not Liann who was always so happy and friendly. In truth Liann was really the only fairy who was that friendly to her. And now she hated her. Alfy tried not to cry.

Liann returned with more fairies and they all flew above her shouting and screaming. She just sat on the branch and cried. She couldn’t make herself do anything else.

Eventually Liann came down and landed in front of her.

“We’ve decided to banish you from the elder tree. Leave! Now!”

Alfy looked up at her through her tears. She couldn’t think of anything to say. She couldn’t think of anything to do. So she stood up, and wiping away her tears, flew away.

That day was one of the worst in her life. She was tired and alone and afraid and as she flew she cried some more and as she cried she thought of all the things she was leaving behind. She’d lived there for her whole life. In the shadow of the elder tree. Sitting out on her leaf, singing her song at night. Now it was all gone. Where was she going to go now? What would she do?

Eventually she found a hole in another tree that wasn’t filled with worms or other bugs and slept there. It was uncomfortable, it was rough and scratchy, not like the elder tree. But she slept there anyway. She cried some more but eventually she fell asleep. This time she didn’t dream.

She woke up at night, the way she always did. And she emerged from her hole to see a different part of the forest. This time there were different trees, this time there were different shapes in the shadows, this time she didn’t sing. She didn’t know what to do. So she just sat huddled in her hole and watched. And for the second time she could remember, she saw an owl.

It came out of the dark night like it had last time but this time it was much closer. It came down like a silent shadow and blacked out the light of the stars and moon behind it. It was coming right for her, she watched it, but she didn’t move, she didn’t really care that much anymore.

It landed on the branch she was on, the branch sunk a little, and then it turned its huge yellow eyes to look at her. She looked back. It was huge, it was bigger than any bug or fairy she’d ever seen. Bigger than mice and rats and even squirrels. It was so big, yet so silent and so fast. And as she looked down she saw some huge deadly claws, sharp enough to rip her to shreds just by landing on her. She felt afraid.

She sang. A song she’d never sung before, a song fueled by her fear and adrenaline and not held back by wanting to sing quietly so as not to attract dark creatures. She’d always wondered if the owls noticed her singing and now she was going to find out if it was the last thing she ever knew. So she sang, and she sang a lot better than she’d ever realised she could. She stood up and faced the owl and sang directly to it, spreading her wings wide and opening up her body rather than singing in her huddled up way like normal. The owl blinked its huge golden eyes and hopped a bit closer. Watching its big eyes and seeing it hop she realised it wasn’t actually that scary. It was actually kind of cute, in a giant terrifying monster sort of way. She smiled and sang more. She’d never had an audience and now she finally did. She may as well make something of it.

She sang for a long time but eventually her voice started to grow weary. She could sing for a long time, but at that volume she couldn’t sing forever. So she stopped. The owl blinked at her a few times then took off. The owl’s breeze pushed her back a bit but it was still silent. It was always silent.

Before she had time to think she leapt off the branch and raced after the owl. She was curious about it and it didn’t scare her anymore. Apparently owls didn’t eat fairies. That was good to know.

The owl was fast. It sped through the trees and branches easily, weaving and ducking and gliding, folding its huge feathery wings to zip through tight gaps. With its huge wingspan it could cover more ground faster and with less effort than any insect ever could. But fairies are magic, fairies are faster.

Alfy raced through the forest after the owl. It was the fastest she’d ever flown, faster than she’d known she could fly. The owl was going up so she went up with it. Through the branches, through the leaves, through the canopy and out into the night. Out into the open sky. She’d never been there before. The owl flew off but she stopped and looked around. Looked out across the forest. It was huge, it seemed to go on forever in all directions. There were all sorts of different trees and all sorts of different leaves. She heard a high pitched screech and saw a fluttering shadow in the distance. She wasn’t sure what it was but it was heading toward her. She ducked back into the canopy and hid behind a leaf but she didn’t need to worry. The fluttery shape sped toward her but a shadow descended on it and caught it in deadly claws. The owl crashed into it and they both disappeared into the canopy with a rustle. She hopped back up again and looked out at the forest.

It was so huge, and so varied, and she’d never even left one tree. She looked for the elder tree but she was a little disoriented. Where she thought it should be there was only a small twisted tree, with leaves that were fraying and discoloured at the edges. That couldn’t be the elder tree, could it? The blind ugly bird flashed through her head. The leaves around their part of the tree had always been a bit like that, but they knew that was only because they didn’t get much sun. But the leaves up at the top shouldn’t look like that. None of the other trees did.

She jerked out of her revelry when there was a loud rustle and a screech and the fluttery shape exploded out from the canopy. In the moonlight she saw a flash of sparkling blood fly from it as it fluttered off into the distance. The owl rose out of the canopy silently, and flew up searching for more of the fluttery things. Alfy watched it fly. She decided she liked watching it fly. They should have gotten an owl for a pet rather than a caterpillar. Owls were so much better.

She flew back into the canopy. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she wanted to find out about the ugly bird. She flew to the elder tree but stayed out of sight of the branch the fairies lived on. She flew down and down and down until she reached the forest floor. Here was another place she’d never been to. It was dark here, and damp. She didn’t especially like it.

She hovered over the ground, circling slowly around the knotted base of the elder tree. She’d been staring into the dark night her whole life but even so she could barely make out anything in the dark forest floor in the middle of the night. There was what looked like the remains of the chrysalis, too broken to make out any caterpillars or wasps. There was a lot of roots of various trees, seemingly competing for space in the damp soil the same way they competed for sunlight at the top of the forest. And on the elder tree, there was a great gaping hole, half buried in soil. And around the edges of the hole something dark and ugly oozed and dripped. Poison, but not midnight wasp poison, something far worse Alfy knew. She didn’t know what it was but it was worse. She knew that.

She hadn’t lit fire for a long time. Not since the fairies had had a huge party to celebrate their creation from the elder tree all those years ago. But as she’d instinctively known how to do it then, she instinctively knew how to do it now. She had her wooden knife and she broke off a dry stick from the elder tree. Down here there were a lot of dying ones perfect for kindling. She stood on a branch and wrapped the sticks in her wings, then she buzzed them. Fairy wings can move very fast and eventually, after several attempts a spark flew and the dry stick caught. It threw light across the forest floor and cast light on the dark, oozing hole. She swallowed her fear. She had flown with an owl today, she wasn’t going to let fear stop her now. She flew into the hole and ducked through the oozing poison. It wasn’t dripping very fast and was easy to dodge but as she travelled further into the hole it became thicker and there were more oozing drips to fly around. She flew slowly, very careful not to touch any of the poison.

The hole was disgusting. It smelled terrible and even with her torch it was cold. She struggled to breathe but she kept flying anyway. The elder tree was depending on her. She found some small eggs and ignored them, she had something bigger to find.

As she flew she started to hear taps up ahead, and the breaking of wood. She started to suspect she knew what that was. Then she rounded a corner and saw the most hideous bird she’d ever seen. It was blind and ugly and featherless and covered in the sticky oozing poison. It spun to fix its dead eyes on her and her torch lit up its horrific beak. It screeched and that was somehow worse than the sight and the smell and it lunged for her.

She spun around and flew. She wanted to fly fast, to fly as fast as the owl had through the forest. But she wasn’t the owl, and flying through the forest of poison was much more dangerous than the forest of trees. So she carefully wove her way through, heart pounding as the hideous creature bounded after her. It must have felt the heat from the torch, that was how it knew where she was. She stopped and spun around. Waving the torch at its face. It stopped short and screeched again. A dread screech, a terrifying screech, a thousand times worse than the one made by the fluttering shape. Keeping the torch between her and it Alfy slowly backed up through the tunnel. The creature followed her. Ignoring all the drips of poison which just collected on its rank skin. Slowly, very slowly, she backed out of the tunnel and into the fresh air. Away from the smell, away from the sight, away from the screech.

Then she sang. She threw away the torch and she sang. She sang of freedom and of hope and of her escape from the monster’s lair. And to her surprise the monster listened. It swayed and bobbed its ugly misshapen head and looked at her with its dead pale eyes. And then as she sang its head began to droop and as she sang its eyes began to close, and then it curled up at the exit to its cave and fell asleep.

Then came the other bird who liked her singing. Silent as a shadow the owl descended through the forest. Its wings spreading out above her and blocking out what little light came through the forest. It fell all the way to the ground and its sharp claws closed around the cockatrice. Its talons entering its throat and heart and killed it instantly. The owl flew away and the cockatrice went with it, much bigger and easier to catch than the bat.

Alfy entered the hole again and destroyed the eggs, then she flew away to seek a new home, away from her fairy family. Whom she’d saved not once, but twice, as well as saving the whole elder tree.

She flew away, and never looked back.