The Black Færie

“Oh dear! Where to begin, Child. The problem is most of us are woefully ignorant concerning the world of humans and little better concerning the world of Færie. In order to answer your questions concerning your ancestress the Queen I shall have to tell you much to correct your ignorance. So you shall have to be patient, Granddaughter.

“Too, there is much ignorance and perhaps surprisingly even less curiosity concerning our origins. I am told that one of the first questions every human child asks is, ‘Where did I come from.’ I am not aware any Færie child has ever asked that and most adult Færies don’t either. Mayhap I am being a little unfair, for humans are born more or less in equal numbers of men and women whereas with us it is very different. Humans mate when they are old enough and the females become pregnant and bear young as a result. This is an ongoing thing with them that is happening all the time. Do you understand about mating and its consequences, Gwenhwfar?”

“Oh yes, Grandmother. It’s just like it is with other animals.”

“Do you know how it is with us?”

“No. I never thought about it.”

“Have you ever seen a man Færie?”

“No. I didn’t even know there was such a thing. I thought we were all female.”

“Therein lies the problem. Think about it, Child. Why would there be such a thing as a female Færie if there were no such thing as a male Færie. We would all be just Færies. Yes?”

“I suppose so.”

“There are male Færies, but they are very rare. Unlike humans when we mate the pregnancy is usually in a suspended state and can remain so for centuries. Once in perhaps a millennium one of those babies born is a male. I am many tens of thousands of years old and I have only ever seen four males, and that is why I have three daughters. I have been pregnant for going on two and a half centuries now with my fourth child. Who knows maybe it will be a male. Males are very powerfully motivated to mate and their presence and scent alone makes we females ready, willing and driven to mate too. A male will mate with many thousands of females before he loses interest and disappears.”

“Where do they go?”

“No one knows. They start to become more interested in the woods and the fields than they are in mating. Their effect on females fades and they just wander off. Some think they die, but none truly know. What is known is that by the time they leave they have left the next generation of the Færie safely in the wombs of the females they mated with and a few of those many thousands of pregnant wombs will contain males. I suspect the ignorance about ourselves is due to the rarity of males and our complete lack of interest in sex unless in the presence of a male, for unlike humans we have no interest in sex with ourselves or even with another female.”

“I have heard of that, Grandmother, but I don’t see the point of it since it can’t result in young.”

“Just accept that humans have very different drives and motivations from the ones we do. They enjoy sex for its own sake. They are often driven by their sexual desires which is why I suspect they tend to be erratic and irrational from time to time.” She flushed and admitted, “I can understand that, for I was not at my most clear or level headed when in the presence of a male.”

“What does this have to do with the Queen, Grandmother?”

“Everything and perhaps nothing, but it is as well that not all of your age are in complete ignorance of such matters till you meet a male, at which point you’ll certainly not be thinking about anything other than mating.”

“A long time ago, a very long time before I was born, a male was born who was named Raphael. Raphael was even for a male very different. Færies as you know are fairer skinned than any human. Most of us have bright red hair and green eyes, though a sizeable minority have golden blonde hair with bright blue eyes. We average about three feet tall with gossamer wings that one can read through. There are no Færies with brunette hair or anything other than white skin and all have transparent wings. Raphael, who was well over four feet tall, was black skinned, with black eyes and hair. Even his wings were a solid impenetrable black. Like all of us, males and females both, he was pretty with high cheek bones and lips that drove many a female mad with desire. His scent was capable of overwhelming an entire Færie cèilidh of over two hundred females, and many a time he’d mated with every female there before leaving. It is a matter of record that none of his offspring looked at all like him. They all were typical members of the Færie.

However, all was not well with Raphael. He said he felt driven to mate against his will by the scent of females and their libidinous behaviour in his presence. None understood him, for all, male and female alike, had always been driven by their urges in the presence of each other. It is a natural thing for us and the way the Færie are maintained. Raphael became more and more unhappy, but unable to deny his urges in the presence of females and unable to escape them due to his heightened sensitivity to the whereabouts of any unimpregnated female within hundreds of miles, which forced him to seek them out, he had to suffer his terrible malaise till he began to naturally be more interested in the woods and fields than in mating. Unusually he did not wander off. He went to the capital Greenstrath to seek the enchantresses and those who maintain what the humans in their ignorance refer to as magic. It was assumed initially that he wanted to look like a typical Færie and he was considered to be vain and unworthy. However, the enchantress Siobhan took pity on him and said she would solve his problems if he would mate one last time, with herself. He agreed and in their ensuing conversation she said, “I am aware of your child within my womb and you have more than fulfilled your side of the bargain, for you have given me a male child. It is clear that your appearance is not of concern to you, so what can I help you with?”

“Raphael explained as best as he could. His anguish at not being able to understand his problems, never mind to articulate them, was apparent to Siobhan who was moved by his plight beyond words. She did what was necessary to ease and change Raphael’s mind and body. Somehow in the process his mind was expanded vastly beyond the capabilities of any enchantress known to our history. It was later concluded that the capacity must have lain dormant, a latent ability just awaiting the right circumstances to manifest itself. The most powerful enchantress at the capital is always the one named Queen. To be a male Færie is no bad thing, but Raphael’s problems are now resolved, for unlike Raphael, Færie Queen Raphaella is not a Fairy.