A/N: Welcome to another experiment. These are extremely short fairy tales, or legends, or a mixture of the two, set in a world named Arion which I tried to write an epic fantasy series in and which refused to work out. These all concern the fae, extremely chaotic creatures, powerful and immortal and whimsical, and new ones will be added on an irregular schedule. They may connect to each other, but each "chapter" should be able to stand alone. Enjoy!

She opened her eyes and looked around. The air burned with light, but as she watched, the light faded and darkness spread across the air in its wake. She lay and watched the darkness deepen, and then more light came forth in it. There were stars, and the gleam of the changing moon, and she thought they were lovely.

It came to her that she needed a name, and she decided on Lilliana. That was a good name.

She sat up and looked around. A glade curved in to hold her, and she thought it was strange that she hadn’t noticed it before. But she had been rather occupied by the sky. She laid her hands on the grass, and felt its springiness, and smelled the sweet scent of the flowers just closing for the night. She bent over and sniffed them, and then laughed. It was the first sound of joy she had heard, but she knew what it was, because she was the one who was making it.

She stood and looked around at the land under the stars. It looked softer and more mysterious, wilder. It came to Lilliana that she would like to run, and do it faster than she could in the two-legged body that held her right now. She thought about it, and pictured long legs and a slim body that would cover the ground faster. And four legs would be better than two, sturdier.

Her body danced around her, and then she had the new one she had wanted. Lilliana tossed her head and tried to laugh, but for some reason, she couldn’t do it. The closest sound she could make was a chuffing neigh. She shook her mane, and then began to run.

Her hooves pounded the earth easily, and then threw her higher. The faster she ran, the less her hooves touched the ground. This was a wonderful thing, and it was a long time before Lilliana felt a burning in her throat. She noticed that the water nearby smelled very good, and turned towards it.

She lowered her head to the stream, and sniffed at the water, then drank. The cold water was sweet, and it soothed the burning in her throat. Lilliana looked down into the water for a while, then decided that she wanted to turn back to the self she woke as. Once again, her body danced, and then she was herself again, and gazing at another self in the water. Lilliana smiled at it, but decided, when the self grinned back at her, then it was just her own face after all.

But she hadn’t known what she looked like, and so she fell still, staring at her reflection. It was like the darkness all around her, black of skin, but her eyes burned as bright a silver as the moon above. Her long silver hair fell all around her like her mane in the other form. She stood up and moved back and forth, waving her arms in the air. Her form danced and twirled in the water, and it was beautiful.

Lilliana began to dance. It was the first dance she had ever made, and it was clumsy and crude. But it worked. She saw herself move swiftly in the water, and with more joy than she could even on hooves.

She drew in her breath. She wanted to do something to express her joy, but laughter wasn’t enough. She didn’t know what would be.

Then something chirped from the tree nearby, and she knew what would be.

She began to sing, and the richness and clarity of her own voice rivaled the starlight. Lilliana was proud of that, and she varied her notes, spinning them around each other and then singing two at once. The thing in the tree chirped back at her, and Lilliana laughed, then returned to her song.

Soon she began to hear others singing, and she looked up. Two other bodies were dancing near her, but she could barely see them. One shone like the light in the sky earlier, and the other was dark like the darkness and silver like the stars and red like some of the flowers.

Lilliana turned towards the figure that shone, and sang to it. It sang back to her. She knew it was as delicate as the flowers in the grass, as beautiful as the light of the afternoon, as gentle as the grass blowing in the wind. It embraced her, and she felt herself swept up and held close. It would rock her and hold her all her days, if she danced to its dance and sang its song.

Lilliana thought about that. Then she turned to the dark figure, and sang to it.

It sang back to her. She knew it was as wild as the wind that howled among the stars, as beautiful as a fall over a cliff, as sturdy as the stone at the root of the world. It swirled around her, and she felt herself exalted and dashed down. It would make her endless life endlessly perilous and fair, if she danced to its dance and sang its song.

Lilliana thought about that. Then she danced between the dark figure and the bright figure, and sang, and listened to the echoes of her own music while they sang back to her.

Her own song was much like the bright figure’s music. She wasn’t as delicate, but she was made to walk in the light of the sun. She could sense that.

The song of the dark figure was very different, dangerously different. It might destroy her, endless life or not, if she chose it. She could sense that.

Lilliana smiled, and matched her voice to the song of the dark figure. Then she danced to its dance, and it exalted her and dashed her down. She walked by the light of the stars and the moon, and ran as a horse under the shelter of night, and loved the fire that burned all the brighter for burning in the darkness.

The bright figure mourned her, and chose other children. The dark figure welcomed her, and danced with her, and ran beside her and howled when she discovered the form of a wolf.

So it is that the fae have ever been of the Dark, and the wildest of its creatures. They were made to walk in the Light, but they chose the Dark, and the whole world is changed from what it would have been because of that.