The Druid

Elsie was 6 when she was abandoned in the forest. She had been displaying weird behaviour. The school called it autism. Her mother thought she knew better. She thought their daughter had been replaced with a changeling. A superstition that had mostly died out but was held firm by the people of the local area. They live near what some considered to be the last truly enchanted forest. It was said the Fay still lived there. Still played tricks. Still stole children and replaced them with one of their own.

They were not entirely wrong on all accounts. When the magical creatures hid themselves from the world, Most of the fay banded together and combined their magic to create a new safe realm for themselves and took their magic with them. A pocket dimension people might call the feywild. Dryads and Nyads, being linked to specific trees or streams/rivers however were forced to stay behind. With no magic most died as the humans cut down their trees, poisoned the earth and polluted their waters. This forest however, was the site where the feywild was created. Deep in it’s heart was a thin sliver of bent reality behind which the feywild lay. Magic leaked out of this, giving the Dryads of the trees and the Nyad of the stream just enough magic to protect the forest from logging and pollution.

The humans also inadvertently gave it protection. Designating it a Site of Special Scientific Interest and an Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, because of it’s biodiversity and it’s accent oak trees.

Elsie was not a changeling but did have a great great great grandmother, on her father’s side, who was one of the Dryads, that still lived in the forest. She had inherited some of the Dryad’s features but it was completely unrelated to her autism accept that gave her a special interest in nature and the outdoors.