Sacred Night

A once in a year event is starting in the enchanted forest, magical beings of all kinds gather under the light of the two full moons, most numerous among them are the fairies and for a good reason, tonight is one where the birth of more of their kind will be celebrated.

Spirits are flying around, following the procession whose strenght would be enough to raze a whole kingdom, elder dryads, ancient treeants, royal gryffins, alpha direwolves, fungi monstrosity and so much more.

In any other scenario these would be killing each other as soon as the occasion presented itself but tonight they walk together for no blood shall be spillt on the eve of the birth of new fairies.

Fairies are leading the procession as could be expected of the race whose control over the forest is second only to it's master and progenitor Brocc.

Soon the mismatched group of monsters and beasts reach their goal, there lays the lake of blooms in all it's beauty, a crystal clear water reflecting the moonlight, flowering lilypads everywhere on it's surface, will'o wisps of different colors illuminating the flowers by flying near them, a truly magnificent scene.

Anyone who could sense mana would see that the lake was positively brimming with so much mana that it should be impossible according to magical laws and yet, here was the lake of blossoms in it's full glory.

In it's center, stand about a hundred of what looks like closed flower buds, as all those present knew, these are the soon-to-be fairies, wrapped in a flowery cocoon for now, they will soon be releashed upon the world with the endless curiosity of the new-borns.

Still, they aren't yet and the procession knows that it will take at least two more hours for the young faes to bloom into being, for now though, the beings gathered here start to split off and each occupy a spot around the lake.

Soon some growls rise from the direwolves who took the north-eastern corner of the lake, drawing the attention of all creatures, after all, who would be foolish enough to try and disturd this hallowed night?

This question is answered quickly as a sense of dread, unease and primal repulsion drops upon all, only one kind of creature living in this forest is evil enough to be have this kind of aura, the leshens,.

And leshens it is, twenty of them walk without a care in the world towards the lake, at the front of this group stands three elder leshens, recognizable by the violet glow in their eyesockets compared to the dark green of their young.

Now standing in front of this incoming group are all the strongests individuals from those here for the celebration, leading them is the eldest of the fairies, a being of untold magical might, and yet this very fairy was shivering at the moment, not because of the cold, but because of the immense anger she felt even thinking about the leshens.

"What in Brocc's name are you doing here you eldritch fiends !?!" she asked, hoping for a non-violent way to get them to go back to their swamps

"Be at ease young leader." spoke the tallest of the three

"We are here for much the same purpose as you all, to celebrate the birth of the new fairies."

"Bullshit, your kind never came before, and don't pretend you're interested in life, we all know the only part of the cycle that you like is death."

Ans it indeed was true, keepers of nature they may be, but leshens focus only on the end result, what they want is to see things die and rot to be reborn anew.

"Of course we don't care for flimsy things such as the birth of new life via magic, however, the most skilled in divination among ours found out something, from these fairies will be born a death-bringer, one being of such hatred even us would be humbled, as such, we came here to pay tribute to the one who shall bring oblivion upon it's foes."

"What? How could a fairy become such a being? We are all pure and righteous by birth, you must be lying! What is your true goal here?"

*Sigh* "We already told us our goal, to pay tribute to the one who is yet to be, in other words, add all our mana to the one already present in the lake, and before you jump at us and say that we are trying to corrupt them, know that the mana of leshens is purely attibuted to nature, much like a dryad."

"And why would we allow you to do this?"

"Because there are no downsides, you don't want to spill blood tonight and more mana means stronger fairies, we already know you planned to do it so why not allow us to add to the pool."

This was also an undeniable truth, the more mana there is in the lake of blossoms, the stronger and more attuned to nature the newborns will be.

"If you still don't believe us young leader, let us do something that may change that" saying this it looked her straight in the eyes, piercing her with it's gaze.

"We solemnly swear upon Brocc's name that none of our actions will harm those who are not yet in any way."

The fairy was shocked for an instant, swearing upon Brocc's name is not something to do lightly, if one were to lie he would find himself quickly brought down by the spiritual magic of the old tree, for it does not like when lies are associated with it's name.

"Fine then, I'll believe since you just swore to Brocc, but remember, any weird move from y'all leshens and you'll be brought down as quickly as you came."

"That is most natural" with this the group of leshens moved to occupy the northern bank of the lake

Then, the leading fairy flew above the cluster of closed flowers, amplified her voice through magic

"Beings of the forest" she started.

"Thanks to some...unexpected visitors, the ceremony has been delayed so I'll make this quick."

"I thank both personally and on behalf of the fairies all of you for gathering here tonight despite grievances you may have against one another."

"So now, under the twin moons of Syllacia, let us give to these fairies the mana that will make them strong enough to protect the forest with us." with this she ended her short speech and began channelling her vast pool of mana towards the lake.

Soon, all others present followed the example and dumped their mana into the lake, from all the fairies and spirits flew a multitude of colors each representing it's own element, from the dryads, treeants, fungi and leshens flew dark green streams of nature, from the gryffins bright blue air mana joined the lake and lastly from all other beats without any elemental affinity flew streams of transparent white mana.

All ended up exhausted mentally due to emptying all their mana but they still had a smile, or what could pass as such depending on their species, after all, it was not in vain, if the lake was previously brimming with mana, it was now overflowing, the waters, tainted by the multiple elements started changing colors at random intervals, the will'o wisps flying over the lake had already disappeared after giving their mana to the lake but there was no need for light under the two moons who approached their zeniths.

And as they neared their apogee, the mana started moving, slowly first, but more and more quickly as the moons moved, all the raw energy of the lake started seeping into the hundred or so buds which soon started twitching.

The beings who had assembled were now watching with great focus, eager to see the new generation of those cute and innocent troublemakers that were fairies.

Their wait was not long, the moment when the two moons reached their summit, the flowers bloomed all at once, spreading in the air a fragrance who soothed all that breathed it but more importantly, it revealed babies, all girls who upon taking their first breath did not cry but instead laughed.