I Am A Hero

I look at him, laying there, helpless and wounded. How could I leave him there to die?

Thoughts whirl in my head. He's a Fae. I can't touch him. It's against the rules of the universe. Daddy told me so.

Yet I can't draw my eyes away from the injured boy on the ground. He's glowing strangely, a dim black light-or dark?-seeping from his body. I take this as a sign of impending death.

I can't stand there and do nothing. Who cares if the world ends?

Making up my mind, I rush over to him and take him into my arms. A frail little Fae, not much older than me, dying slowly. At least get him to a doctor!

Then I realise.

They can't touch him.

One rule has been broken already.

I'm about to break another.

I take the bandages from my knapsack and wrap it around the sword wound in his stomach. He stirs, waking, brilliant emerald eyes looking up at me beneath those bushy brows. He smiles and falls asleep.

I smile too, and kiss him on the forehead. "Sweet dreams."

I touched a Fae.

I healed a Fae.

I have broken two of the most important rules of my universe.

I am an outcast now, a criminal to the world, to the rest of my kind.

But I am a hero to the little Fae.

And that's all I ever wanted.