Chapter Text
No one knew when it happened, it just did.
Humans and creatures used to live peacefully. Both sides knew that they benefited from each other with their different strengths.
Creatures, scientifically known as hybrids, had a combined strength of a human and a creature. This allowed them to be extremely strong. Some had the ability to pick up whole trees like it was a leaf, others had a speed that was faster than most had ever seen. Many had the ability to fly to great heights and some had the ability to shift their bodies in and out of reality. When it came to nature, they ruled like a kingdom.
Humans had humanity made. They had inventions that hybrids hadn’t seen before and items that they crafted and molded into many things. They made treasure in their hands. Some built walls and towers that were decorated in beauty and some crafted clothes, painted in colors all over. The inventions were their ethics, their morals, their advantages.
Soon, humans and creatures began to meet and to interact. Both sides were weary of each other, humans being the most weary. For a while, though the sides interacted, they were distant and cautious of each other. No one knew what the other was, it was new and different. Some part of each side liked the new change, others didn’t, and some were just scared.
Soon, human and creature interactions became more just than fear and caution. They began to bond with each other. They began sharing things about themselves, growing closer together. They shared their thoughts, their hobbies, and interests. They shared tips to make life easier for each other. Soon, before anyone knew it, humans and creatures were as common as talking with a friend, because that is how they began to see each other.
Humans began sharing their inventions with creatures, showing them things such as fashion, farming tools, utensils, and more. They shared their thought process and how to make the inventions. They showed them how to get the stuff for the inventions and how to harvest it. They showed them their traditions and their celebrations. They shared their dances, foods, music, language. They shared all the information they carried.
Creatures in turn began to share their strengths in the best way they knew how, lending a hand to the humans. They creatures would help the farmers with their farm work, helping tend to their fields and gardens if needed. With new information about how to create inventions, they helped humans brainstorm new ways to get their inventions to work. They also help with the hard work the humans weren’t able to do. They lifted, they bent, they mended. The creatures began to share their culture as well. They shared their many languages, they showed their calls. They shared land, food, music, and dances. Just like the humans, they shared all the information they carried.
As time carried on, some parts of each side's culture began to mix together. New families began to form, with new little ones that carried new found wonder and curiosity. With a new dawn, came a new everything. New inventions became better and better, lives found new life.
As creatures and most humans moved towards a new future, some humans stayed in the old.
Some humans didn’t believe it was fair to begin this new world. They didn’t find it fair that they now had to share land with creatures. They believed that they owned all the land, even though humans and creatures have had their own land for equally as long as each other.
The humans that didn’t like the creatures began to form a group, they talked and gossiped about how creatures were beneath humans and how they should not have to share society if they wished not to. If they saw creatures, they would insult them and tell them they don’t belong anywhere other than the forest. This surprised the creatures, but was easily ignored because what could they do? They had been combined with human society for years now.
One human in the group was fed up with creatures and humans mixed into society. So slowly he began to grow to power. They started in places filled with groups of people, people they knew would listen and agree with their ideas. They grew from pubs, to inns, to group gatherings, to places of law. Their power grew and so did their ideas. They wanted the creature back in the forest and out of society and soon they got to make that decision.
They made it permanent, every hybrid would have to leave human society and live in the woods of the humans choice.
The creatures were terrified as the law was immediately put into place. If the human part of their family hadn’t already disowned them, they would be ripped from their homes and family along with anyone in the family that had creature traits. Many were beaten, had things thrown at them, and some even killed. After the first creature was killed, the move to the forest was a little less resistant. They didn’t want their kind to be killed for being outcasted. So, begrudgingly almost all of the creatures were moved to the forest of the law's choice.
Some creatures still resisted, much to the dismay of the other creature’s dismay. They were quickly met with a swift blow to the head and almost always killed.
When the creatures got to the forest they were forced to, they tried to lighten up hope for each other. Some said it didn’t matter and that they would start from scratch and build up. This lightens everyone's mood for a good while.
It all went downhill when they realized that there was no food and barely any resources for them to start from scratch with.
Within weeks creatures began to starve. Everyone tried to find anything that they could eat. The plants didn’t give enough nutrients to last them even an hour of energy and the rest of the plants were poisonous. Everything else was useless unless they had food to feed themselves.
Soon, most of the hybrids didn’t have energy to even move or make anything. The younger children began to die quickly, from the lack of nutrition that they so heavily needed. Mother mourned but didn’t have the energy to even shed tears. Many of the creatures would lay on the ground, waiting for death to take them away.
Within six months, half of the creature population had died. With time the rest would too. The law makers were proud of their work, celebrating in their fine clothing and beautiful buildings. The very things that humans used to share with creatures. They erased most of the creature's culture from their own, effectively making it back to their original culture. Not all humans were happy about this, but most moved on and others knew they couldn’t do anything if they didn’t have the power.
Within the next year, creatures were thought to finally be extinct. The law makers rejoiced and so did most humans. No longer did the creatures belong in their world. Humans who didn’t agree just hung their heads or looked away from the new information. Either way, the deed had been done and the lawmakers got what they wanted.
The forest that the creatures used to live in was now vacant and dark. The trees seemed to droop more low, there were no sounds of birds. It was like the forest was ready to die out with the creatures as well.
The silence of the forest lasted for a while. Until, faintly, the sounds of wings flapping started to appear. You had to listen extremely carefully to hear it, but it was there. It was life.
A butterfly. It was a butterfly. Its wings were completely black, but if the light of the sun was to shine on them, they would shimmer. The butterfly flew around the forest, stopping at trees and bushes, near lakes and ponds. It flapped mournfully when coming to a clearing. Almost sensing what had happened.
The butterfly flapped for a while, but it was on a mission. It was looking for something, something important.
And in another small clearing, it found it. A flower. A white flower all alone in the clearing. Nothing used to grow in that clearing but that flower did. And that’s all the butterfly need to fly to it. It was a sign of hope.
The butterfly gently landed on the white flower, as if it would disappear if moved too much. The butterfly took rest on the flower and then took some nectar. Slowly the trees seemed to open, letting the light shine through. The breeze blew softly through the forest and in the distance you could hear chirping.
The butterfly stood on the flower for a while, before flying off.
Slowly footsteps could be heard, with someone stopping in front of the flower.