I float through the lost memories, all pain forgotten. I was back in the fairy king's forest, zooming between the tree trunks, trying to throw off the two fairies on my tail.

"Get back here, (Y/N)!" Helbram laughs, coming up close behind me and wrapping his arms around me, folding his wings in and causing us to crash to the ground.

"Hey, get off!" I shout, laughing. Harlequin floats up behind us, smiling down at us as we roll over eachother in the leaves, trying to pin the other down. Without warning, he joins in, falling on top of us both. In the end, both of them managed to shove me under them, with Harlequin sitting on my chest and Helbram holding my legs.

"Alright, alright! I yield!" I cry, still trying to escape. The two boys let me go and we all float up into the air, above the tree line, and head for the giant tree in the middle. Elaine greets us with a scowl.

"It's not even sunrise yet and you're already covered in leaves! Don't you have any sense of responsibility?" she asks, reaching up and brushing the leaves out of my hair, leaving the two boys to themselves.

"Nah, not in the slightest. How's the forest this morning?" I ask, shaking my clothes out. At least twenty twigs fall out and an unknown amount of leaves.

"Full of life as always. Seriously though, you need to stop doing things like this. It's not very becoming of the fairy queen."

I cough in surprise and give her such a look that she tilts her head.

"Aren't you Harlequin's future wife? You two get along well enough."

"Listen, Elaine..." I say quietly so the two boys near us don't hear, "Nothing like that is guaranteed to happen. I'm perfectly happy where we're at now."

"Hmm..." she says, probably thinking about something, "I just thought that, since you're the only two without wings, the sacred tree must have chosen you two for something."

I splutter again and quickly turn around, hiding my red face. Helbram wanders over, raising his hand in greeting to Elaine, then takes my hand and leads me to the edge of the tree. Harlequin also walks over and takes my other hand. The two boys give eachother a look I don't understand, then we dive off the tree together. Just before we fly too far away, I hear Elaine click her tongue in annoyance, and I smile to myself.

~

"What do you think?" Harlequin asks, showing off his new clothes, "I made them myself."

"I thought you didn't like humans and wanted nothing to do with them?" I ask, throwing the last of the leaves on top of Helbram, essentially burying him and his grinning face entirely, "Why are you wearing their clothes?"

"I-I just happened to see them making them!" he says, crossing his arms and pouting like a little kid. Without warning, I jump up and grab his arm, throwing him to the ground and snatching up more leaves. Before he can react at all, I throw them over him the same way I did Helbram.

The pile next to me erupts and Helbram knocks me over, laughing as we tussle again. This time, I win, sitting on his chest and making sure he can't escape.

"You owe me a beer!" I say, throwing my hands up in victory.

"You do know that mainly humans drink beer, right?" Harlequin says sceptically.

"Says the person wearing human clothes."

Helbram and I were interested in humans. They were so strange, sticking together in groups yet fighting amongst themselves all the time. I knew there was a war, and that there was a capital city similar to our great tree, where all the humans gathered for events and such. And, I had to admit, they had good drink.

"If you two keep mixing with humans, you're going to get hurt." he continues, shaking his head at us.

"Come off it, we'll be fine."

~

We weren't fine. I was shielding Helbram with my body, protecting him from the humans that betrayed us as they ripped the wings from our fellow fairies. He was crying from fear and betrayal, trying unsuccessfully to hide it. A large, hairy hand reaches out of the darkness and grabs my collar, dragging me away from him.

"No! Let go of me!" I yell, kicking with all my might and trying to fight my way back to my best friend. He was also trying to reach out, held back by humans. Fairy wings littered the ground around us, the bodies they used to belong to lying bloody and broken nearby.

"HELBRAM!!" I scream, twisting around so far that I almost snap my neck and bite down on the hand holding me. The man yells in surprise, letting go long enough for me to flicker my guards into life and smash them into his side, sending him sprawling.

"I'm coming!" I shout, zooming towards Helbram's kicking figure. Suddenly, something hard and heavy is smashed into the back of my head, knocking me to the ground. Stars dot my vision and I felt myself slipping unconscious.

"Where's her wings?" a low voice asks.

"Dunno. She's the only one without them." another voice answers.

"Well, we can sell her for a nice price. Bag her."

~

I wake up in a rough sack, the material making my skin itch. The splintered wooden floor swung monotonously below me and a horse in front whinnied. Putting all these things together, I worked out that I was in a sack being transported on a wagon. However, I couldn't remember anything else. No matter how hard I strained my mind, nothing came to the surface. It was like a thick fog, preventing me from remembering... anything.

I shift around a bit experimentally, then get rewarded with all the glory of a sharp kick to the side.

"Stay still if you know what's good for you, fairy." a man's low, raspy voice says. From the sound of it, he was next to me.

"Is she awake?" a lady asks, most likely the driver.

"Yeah."

"Don't hurt her any more. You gave her a pretty nasty wound on the back of her head there."

The words spark something in me and I felt some sort of image floating to the light, then slip away at the last moment. I groan in frustration and get another kick.

"I said don't hurt her! We don't want to deliver damaged goods!"

~

I'm dumped unceremoniously on the floor as the sack I was trapped in is tipped upside down. Three people surround me, two women and one man. Without thinking, I spit on the ground, clearing my mouth of blood, then get kicked again.

"No spitting in the presence of your new master!" the man barks, drawing his boot back again. The second lady raises her hand in protest and shakes her head, then passes a bag of coins to the first lady. She then kneels beside me, and for a moment I'm tricked into believing she's good. Then she reaches into her pocket and pulls out an iron collar. I scramble backwards, pressing my back to the wall, and start floating into the air. I had no idea where I was or how to get back home, but I had to try.

Before I could fly away, though, the lady lunges forwards and snaps the collar around my neck, quickly attaching a chain leash as well. I choke at the unfamiliar tightness around my throat.

"Thankyou for this specimen. I'll put her to good use." the lady says in a sweet, high pitched voice, bowing to the other two. They nod and leave without another word, and the lady starts pulling me down the street. It was dark out and not a single light could be seen. I resist the pull, trying to fly backwards, but only succeed in choking myself more.

"Let me go, asshole! I'm not something to be sold and bought like a vegetable!" I shout, grabbing the chain and pulling back. The lady turns and smirks at me.

"Oh but that's where you're wrong, sweetheart-"

"Never. Ever. Call me sweetheart." I interrupt, my voice a low growl. The lady frowns and takes something out of her pocket, like a device of some kind. She twists a knob on it and suddenly, my body fills with electricity. I fall to the ground, twitching and gasping like a fish, and the lady keeps walking, dragging me along the ground until I recover.

"You don't make demands like that. You're mine now, and you're never leaving."

~

She gave up on me soon afterwards. I got used to the electricity and, even on the highest setting, it did little to phase me. I would constantly knock things off shelves and refuse to clean it back up. She had to be in the same room as me at all times or else I would break a window and fly off. It happened once and she paid thousands to track me down again. I hated humans.

I was transferred to an orphanage nearby and the lady told the owner that I was fifteen, even though I was almost as old as Har-

'As who? Who was I just thinking of?' I wonder, racking my brain for answers, but none came to the surface. I sigh, trying to brush it off as just another lost memory, but my eyes suddenly fill with tears. I was missing something, someone, a part of me. Or at least something important. And I wanted, with all my heart and soul, to remember.