Hi everybody! : )

I began writing this story-within-a-story on November 8, 2004. My current main Princess of Fire characters, Kuja and Hakkana, have both become negatively biased toward Fairies because of the crimes of one Fairy clan. Y’know the expression “one bad egg?” Well, there is a lot more to Fairies than Kuja and Hakkana know, and will eventually find out, but not now. ; )

The urban legend Kuja finds out at the Dayton farm is not entirely true. This story is the truth about the Huntress. I love dramatic irony- the reader will know more than my POF characters regarding the fairies. This story should only be several chapters long- it’s not supposed to surpass Princess of Fire, but ya never know…

Love,

Tesh : )

Prologue

Sepoña Atalanta glided over the treetops, heading for home. The fresh forest air had its familiar scent of pine and flower. The nine-year-old breathed in the scent, loving every minute. She pricked up her brown and green cat ears, listening for the sound of her people, her society.

Being half Cat-girl and half Fairy had its perks. Sepoña mostly looked like a Cat-girl, except for her slender, transparent jade-green wings. She felt very grateful for them- she didn’t know what she would do without them.

At last the Small Huntress reached her house, which was built into the tops of the tall pines. She easily coasted to the porch. Her mother was there to greet her, and her father wasn’t home yet. They embraced, and went inside.

Mother and daughter entered the simply furnished wood-paneled family room. Sepoña noticed an old photograph and a wooden instrument on the roughly carved mahogany table.

“Mama, what’re those?”

The Huntress smiled, looking reflective. “It’s a high school photograph of myself and my old sepoña.”

Sepoña picked up the yellowing photo. “You looked pretty, Mama, but what’s a sepoña?”

“It is similar to a pan flute, only more powerful. Give it a try,” the Huntress urged.

Sepoña took a deep breath and blew a long, quavering note into the instrument. It dissolved into the air, lingering like a small shard of ice reluctantly melting into a water droplet.

Sepoña’s mother applauded. “Well done.”

They sat down on the bare floor. The Huntress put her arms around her only child and began stroking her emerald hair.

“Daughter, have you ever wondered why I came to live in peace here with Fairies?”

Sepoña was surprised. It had never really occurred to her that her mother, a Cat-woman, came to marry her father, a Fairy. It was just normal for her.

“…Please tell me, Mama.”

The Huntress, her own emerald hair shimmering in the sunshine filtering from the single window pane, gazed tenderly at her daughter and began her story.

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2/16/05-Author’s Note: Fyi, a sepoña is a real instrument from the Philippines, I believe. For Christmas in 2003, my dad gave my younger sister a sepoña. It’s a very beautiful and exotic instrument that looks like a pan flute. However, all the little bamboo hollow tubes aren’t the same length. Also, I had been unsure of a real name for Sepoña (besides “Small Huntress”) for a long time, since I first created her back in ninth grade. One day, the pretty name of the instrument came to me. I’ve been calling the Small Huntress “Sepoña” for about a year now. : )