Damia paced around her tree restlessly. Every so often her wings gave a nervous twitch, and she bit her lip frequently. Trapped.

A cool breeze rustled the leaves of the topmost branches. Damia jumped at the noise and cast her eyes desperately around the room, to the door, to the holes, to every nook and cranny. Trapped.

She had been made a prisoner in her own bedroom. Tightly woven branches sealed the top of the hollow that formed the room, and vines were woven across the door. Trapped.

Damia wanted to scream, to fly, and to escape. She would do anything to try and release herself from this jail. But something in her soul bound her to the ground, silent and unsure. She could barely breathe, the imprisonment was so confining to her mind. This enclosure was torture, slowly driving her to fury and inner torment. She wanted to lash out, at anything or anyone. If only her sister Stratus were here for her to lash out upon. It was she who had enclosed Damia this way. Her ideals of high royalty had driven her mad, and she was imprisoning her siblings right, left, and center. The subjects of Eldrin, fearful of her harsh tongue and harsher punishments, obeyed her every wish, to their great dismay. Of all the one hundred and fifty seven royal children, Stratus would have been their last choice as queen, had they any say in the matter.

The fact of the matter was, they had no say. Even had they wanted to speak out, their religion would have dissuaded them at the last minute. In their hearts they truly believed that the royalty were gods, and they could do nothing against their gods. The fairy monarchs held absolute power. And absolute power corrupts absolutely, thought Damia. She smiled at the thought of her favourite human philosopher, one who had visited their court once, only to be beaten nearly to death by fairy racial purists. Damia had helped him escape. Sighing, Damia allowed herself to collapse on her bed. She always felt so out of place in her kingdom. All around her, her people thought of humans as nasty, oversized beasts, lesser creatures, and scum of the earth. The only species they reviled more than humans were the Rotheliens. Apparently “snakes” were lower to the earth than fairies as well.

Damia had never met any humans other than sir philosopher, and she hadn’t met any beings of other species. She kept being told she wasn’t missing anything, but really, she couldn’t help but wonder what they were like. This made her one of the less desirable of her siblings to rule the kingdom. She was glad she was higher on the list than Stratus.

Suddenly, a thought hit her. With that thought, she sat up abruptly. How could she have been such an idiot? Granted, she had only been in her room for a little over an hour, so . . . no, she was just an idiot. Muttering to herself, Damia walked over to a particularly normal-looking patch of the mossy carpeting. She knelt down and whispered a charm. The ground seemed to cave in slightly, and a set of stairs etched themselves into the ground itself. Damia smiled. That was too easy, she thought to herself. It seemed that there was still no other in the kingdom that knew about Damia’s childhood escape route. Looking around suspiciously, Damia quickly packed up necessities. It was a good thing her escape route led to many places, including the kitchen, or she knew she would never be able to pull this off. Picking up her staff, she commanded it to glow softly, and entered the tunnels, charming the trap door to seal behind her.

Once in the tunnel, Damia’s heart began to race. Although she was free from her imprisonment, this was a much smaller and darker place than her room. Her breath came in frightened gasps. The walls seemed to close in on her, when at last she reached the pantry’s trap door. Get a grip, Dami. Do this now, or you’ll be staying here even longer. She poked her staff at the trap door and cast a proximity charm on it. The staff told her no one was near the pantry, thank the stars.

Damia carefully opened the floor and took her necessary food charm kit. Unfortunately she had not yet mastered food charms herself, so she had to rely on the charm kits that fairy mages had prepared for hunting parties and gathering trips. One day, she promised herself, I will learn it. One day I will. I just need to get out of here first.

Back in the tunnels, Damia navigated her way to the very edge of the kingdom. For some reason, their capital city was very close to the border, though hidden by magic, and so it was only a short jog to the border itself. Opening the mossy knoll, she gasped and blinked in the suddenly blinding sunlight. It took her a moment to adjust to the brightness, but once she had, she looked around with joy at the trees and grass and birds. She breathed deeply from the fresh air and smiled joyfully. She was free. She cast one slightly longing glance back toward her kingdom, and spread her wings in the breeze, letting her feet lift gently off the ground. Onwards she flew, to the human country of Achryn. To freedom.