I don’t know how it started, but the trouble between humans and mononoke started after the witches were all executed in the early 17th century. Before the witch burnings, the humans and the mononoke had been on peaceful, if not the closest of terms. In those days, the humans and the elves, goblins and other mononoke types lived separate but fairly peaceful lives, like neighbors on the same block.
The relationship took a dramatic turn a few years after the last witch was burned at the stake. My mother once told me that it was because of the kids. Humans were always better at farming and keeping livestock. No one knew what it was, but humans had a unique capability to domesticate animals and to keep them in line. Even the elves, who were the biggest, strongest and most hearty of the fairies, had trouble with their livestock. And even when the elves were able to keep their animals under control, they were always skittish around humans and would sometimes turn on their fellow mononoke. The situation was a far cry from the warm and friendly relationship that had existed in the witches’ heydey.
As a result, humans ended up implementing drastic policies that they thought would keep the elves and goblins out of their livestock. In the past, elves were happy enough with a population of two hundred. With the advent of firearms, and the ability to wage war against humans, the elves’ population grew out of control. They needed to kick the human population out of their territory than the humans needed to jump at the chance to escape dangerous and aggressive elves. One day, many years into the human-mononoke feud, the elves decided that they would be better off on their own and the humans almost immediately acceded to the elves’ will. They raised their hands in peace and the humans, who had been barely scraping by, were promptly kicked out of their homes.
I remembered my mother’s story very clearly because I had been one of the humans moved out of the elf territory. I was born into the human village in the area that was now occupied by the halflings. My parents—a father and a mother—reared me and moved us from my mother’s original home to my father’s homeland when I was barely a year old. For me, I grew up in a village that was open air, with a courtyard in the center, surrounded by homes. All of these homes had a front yard, in which those of the mononoke had been banished to live.
We were close enough to the elven town that a scout would often appear every few days to deliver some kind of special food or gift to the elf children. As a child, I was not allowed to leave the village. I was basically a prisoner but my parents reminded me often that this was my destiny, not just because the elves had said that I was the last one of my kind but because I was somehow the best of the humans captured. The exact nature of my special talent was unknown, even to my parents. I had been trained to fight but that was the extent of my education. I went to the village school in my village and learned to read and to write. I had grown up in the village but the villagers seemed reluctant to talk about the affairs of the village. I wondered for a long time why I was treated so very different from the other children.
After a few years of living in a friendly village, I was selected to travel to the elven kingdom, which was a mile and a half away. The elven village was large and was made of five hundred houses. It was one of the few places that I would visit in my life and I was excited to be invited by the elves to explore their home.
Three elves, who were dressed in colorful robes and were flanked by a human servant, met me at the human gates. I took one look at the elves and melted. They were as beautiful as they were in the fairy tales. They had light green skin and their ears were long and pointed; they had black hair that waved down and their eyes were like jewels. The one that was in front had a bow-shaped mouth that practically invited me to kiss. She wore flimsy robes that floated around and gave her a ghostly aura.
“Hello, are you Siegfried?” the one in front said to me. She spoke a human language.
“Yes”, I said in response.
“We are glad to have you here. And we are glad that the old elven kingdom is safe from the humans and their evil.”
I was quiet for a long moment, not knowing what to say in response.
“You will be treated like a member of the family. We do not allow outsiders to question our decisions. The decision to allow the humans to live here is one that will not be overruled.”
I said nothing.
“You are welcome, Siegfried”, said the elf in back, who was wearing a dark blue robe. She had a slight accent. “Let us be on our way. It is nice to meet you, Siegfried.”
“The old elven kingdom will be a happy place for you to live in. Free of any problems,” said the one in front. “The humans, whom your father and mother wanted to kill, will be kept away from you. You will have a very nice home with all the amenities. Our village is a community of peace. You will have access to learning and to fun.”
I was silent for a long moment.
“Now that we have met, let us be on our way,” said the elf in the back.
“Sure”, I said.
I followed them to the main gates. The guards at the gates were waiting with open arms to receive us. I was loaded into the back of an wagon as the elves waved. My parents requested that I be taken to the village in a wagon. I was captivated by the elves, by the kingdom, by the lush vegetation, the foliage that rivaled anything I had seen before. None of that compared to my elven friends, standing before me. Elves were known for their physical beauty and this was so. The elf princess drew my attention most of all.
The horses trotted forward and soon I was out of my home in the human village. The elf princess was right next to me in the wagon. I was still enchanted by her. I was suddenly aware, for the first time, of the smell of the forest.
“So Siegfried,” she said in a sweet voice. She caressed my cheek and I found myself saying “Yes, my elven princess”.
“Remember when you talked about your imaginary friend?”
I nodded.
“You did have a friend, didn’t you?” she said.
I nodded.
I was still in a fantasy world. I accepted that wholeheartedly and couldn’t wait to get to the elf village. I must have drifted off to sleep because I suddenly found myself looking out at a camp. It was almost brightly lit up and the fire blazed behind me.
However, something was amiss. The elves did not seem to be the sort of people participating in war. I had seen the elves in the village so maybe I was just getting used to their way of life. The humans were at war with the elves and I knew the story almost as well as the elves and the one in front had told it to me.
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