Garrett was lounging on his hoard, listening to his disciple read the ancient grimories out loud. Ascalon was a fast learner, in a few winters he would start raiding the Empire. (What a brilliant brat.) Red eyes closed slowly as the voice lulled him.

"Urk-!" "Teacher!" The hellion was pulling on his tongue! "What now? Did you grab a treatise on why humans like cinnamon?" The twerp showed a book, it was time for lessons. "Why are fairies so bad to make contracts with?" Hah, as if that forsaken race was worthy of trust. "You have tomes on binding with all sorts of beings, but none on faes."

"Alright. It's time for you to learn the codes of the higher races." The dragon grunted in annoyance. "Among the older ones, there are principles. Dwarves are peaceful unless they starve. Among elves, watch yourselves. An angered dragon forgoes reason. Demons always call for conditions..."

"And fairies?" Garrett growled. "They are the worst of them all." They consider themselves the only ones worthy of magic, even after the First War. "A dwarf will work as long you pay them. An elf won't antagonize you if you don't cross them." Dragons were better left alone, sadly humans were too dumb to learn that lesson.

"With demons, as long you can pay the price, they are alright." Even if the price was your soul, they took nothing more, nothing less. Their conditions were exact and devoid of duplicity. "I would know. I sold some of my stupider offspring for their service." Ascalon was listening closely. Good.

"But fae are sly." Their honeyed words could promise their prey the world and the stars, to pluck the moon from the sky into your hands. "When you call for them, that is the last mistake you make." Their price starts small, a sweet treat to make the fool step closer into their grasp.

"A fairy starts with a moment of your time. What moment? Insignificant for some, monumental for others. It's always a gamble, and the house wins at the end." Your memories are the first to go, a sunny day with your parents, a cold night with your beloved, days that you don't miss, nights that you forget, chips and slivers of your self.

"They help just enough to garner trust, but there's always a sliver more they can do, a crumb more of aid to be offered. They just need you to pay a little additional, another piece to be given." If one wishes for love, they earn a spouse, but life always feels hollow, as if there was just a smidge lacking to make things perfect.

"Pact after pact, they hack more of your soul. Contract after contract, they squeeze your ego. Deal after deal, you lose yourself." Your name is the last price to pay, your entire existence serves to feed their power. Everybody who knew you forgets. Everything you did is undone. As if you never existed.

"For now, those deals only affect humans." The entire creation kept close watch over fairies, for they once held absolute power, and tirelessly chased after the long-gone glory, amassing power to claw their way back to the top.

"That's why humans were forced to forget the rituals." If even a single soul learned how to make a fae pact, they had to die. "That's why that book lacks the knowledge." And if Ascalon tried to discover the means, Garrett would devour him.

"You can make a contract with any demon you wish, but never call for a fairy's aid. Eternal torment is preferable to oblivion."

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It was a beautiful clear day foraging in the woods for Tarin,

But as Tarin wandered through the woods he became increasingly lost.

"I swear this is the path I came in on...." he muttered quietly to himself as he continued on.

He'd been in search of a particular kind of mushroom and had the fortune to find it, but not the way out. Many claimed these woods were full of playful, mischievous sprites and spirits, creating a mysterious kind of danger unlike anywhere else.

If one were to tamper with the woods, they might face magical misfortune.

Tarin was not one for believing in bewitching woods, and wandered unwittingly further into the woods

In the thicker vegetation he began to hear a a faint whispering, childlike and high pitched. Words slinked through the air, "It's you! YOU! YOUUUU who stole our shroom!"

"Bah! Must be hearing things, I've done this a thousand times before!" Marin proclaimed.

Again, words on the wind whispered "You made a deal, made a DEAAALLL! You took from use, you're deal ISSSS MADDDEEE! The woods will take from you too!"

Beyond the dark branches Tarin supposedly saw bluish green flickering in the air. Little light orbs floating in the air with what looked like attached wings. But he shrugged it off for exhaustion; foraging for a day was no easy task.

"I'll be home in no time with my usual bounty, all in a day's work!"

He strode further into the woods. As he sat on a stump to rest he heard childish laughing and saw more of the blue green orbs hanging in the air.

"I'll just gather myself here with a tiny nap then be on my way" He yawned and made as comfortable as he could.

Tiny voices exclaimed "Yes! YES! You would take from us and we will take of you! The woods can always use more creatures."

The same blue-green light enveloped Tarin as he slept, and where once was Tarin now rested a curled up racoon encircling its prize of the day, a rare mushroom that belonged to the woods as now did the racoon.

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