Coven

Aderyn - Night children

We are known as the night children by some. By others we're known as spirits of the forest. We used to be worshipped by the humans, who would lavish us with shrines and offerings in an attempt to appease our wrath. I remember those days when we would revel in that glory and took it all for granted. I miss the days when all we did was laugh, and dance and sing. Back then my kind weren't feared or hated, but loved and worshipped as the creators and guardians that we were. We were the ones to guide humanity when they first came to our land.
The kindness we showed to the humans was a mistake I now realise. After all, our kind was here long before the species of man. Of course, I will admit sometimes we would trick humans and cause a great deal of mischief... I was happy then, we all were.
But then the soldiers came and declared the local humans as 'savages' who served us 'pagan gods'. After that, the offerings got smaller and our shrines forgotten by the humans who used to love us so much. Eventually the offerings stopped altogether and the laughter stopped with it.
I remember the anger we felt knowing that the humans had abandoned us when we had been the ones to support them and show them mercy in the face of extinction. THE AUDACITY OF IT! Even now the anger I felt then surges through my veins as I think of the first betrayal of humanity I witnessed. After that, us 'pagan gods' became feared and hated because of the soldiers who had ever so kindly insulted our existence by calling us 'demons' and 'unnatural'. I never did like the Romans.
Those who had once worshipped us now exchanged their candles for flaming torches, and their Druid robes for chain mail. Few shrines and forests were left after the devastation and mayhem caused by those retched humans. Everything we worked so hard to achieve was burnt away in front of us, without a single drop of remorse they slaughtered any creature who dared to not fit in with their new ideology. We were strong. We survived. However, the others and the animals could not fight for themselves and were also sacrificed in the bloodshed.
I recall how we taught the humans to love the beauty around them, to love the animals and nature surrounding them but how far they have strayed from that path.
Never again, we would often say. Never again would we trust the humans and their corrupted ways. As soon as we abandoned the old forest, we could feel how much the area had been corrupted. The animals became stupid hostile creatures, the ground would no longer bend to our will and the land we had so carefully cultivated was ruined. Death now ruled instead of us. The minds of men bend so easily... So there is no doubt that the fault we faced was due to the actions of humanity. Only we were the ones who suffered the consequences.
Because of that gruesome past, we never fully linked to the land again and our minds became sour with the regret and need for vengeance we felt. Only one elder was able to connect us with the land again. But at the price of his own immortality in return.
You see, there may be no such thing as a true immortal, but there are those who live for a very long time. This is the law we live by now, knowing that we are only equals to the land around us and that is what saved us from the fall of our kind.
The law of equivalent exchange. That rule is also the reason we still hold some of our former power, the ability to heal, become one with the forest and change our appearances to those of animals. The elder gave up his life in order to redeem us, however we were still far from being saved from the terror of the humans.
Personally, I can never fully understand humans, neither can I hate them. I know some of my kind hate the humans but it is not in my nature to hate. However I certainly do not trust them. Originally, I thought that our ways were righteous and whole, even if some have been tainted with hate for humans.
I know my brother truly hates what humans have become and refuses to even acknowledge their existence anymore. He felt the most betrayed by the humans and witnessed the death of many other brothers and sisters we once had, even back then I was still a youngling myself. However, I do remember the pain and sorrow that infected our species in a brilliant crimson flame all those centuries ago, it was the colour of human blood. That same crimson flame that robbed us of our wooden homes and mossy blankets in all it's unrelenting force.
My brother always used to tell me "Aderyn, never trust a corrupt one, one of those filthy humans" in the hopes that I would stop visiting those same humans in my youth. Even for a child of the night I was known to be quite mischievous and curious about the wonders of humanity. I might have been considered a god once, but being worshipped as a youngling made me fascinated by the prospects of humanity and what they had to offer to the world.
I also used to wonder about why my brother called them corrupted as if we were somehow purer then they were. But my little eyes saw no lies when the others committed unforgivable crimes against humanity too, often stealing away children to cause mothers sorrow, and tricking the tricksters into an early grave.
I remember how they would call my brother 'Aeron' the god of war. I on the other hand was nothing more than the small  spirit of the river Aderyn. Nothing more. Not that I ever truly minded. Even when I thought I had nothing, I had everything I needed.
I sometimes wish that for a single day we could go back to the way things used to be and thrive in the old land once more. Nevertheless, I know everything is gone now. And as Aderyn, the 'great guardian of the little stream', I can only hope people have forgotten us, so that we might forget them. That is the one law we must always follow in the dead forest. NEVER reveal yourself to a human and NEVER compromise the lives of your fellow brothers and sisters.
I suppose some laws are made to be broken...