As Kigen rolled up from his usual spot in the trees, he felt something strange. His body had a certain heaviness he was not used to. His wings were also slightly sluggish, less active than they usually were.
It took Kigen some bit of time to get used to his new body. He could feel his body was certainly stronger, but he couldn't explain how, nor did he understand by how much.
Turning around, Kigen was shocked to hear gasps as the other fairies were also unrolling. Like him, the fairies were waking up and discovering changes to their new body. The change seemed to have spread across the entire family.
"Senior, do you feel it too?" Nixa, curious as ever, came running to where Kigen was. Several fairies also followed. Kigen saw Foli and Tande also come out. They too were expecting him to have answers.
"What do you feel?" Kigen asked, curious to see if his experience was similar to the others. All around, the fairies were sharing their experiences. Many were not thrilled, some were very curious to see how great the changes were.
As Kigen listened, he had an idea. Extending his palm, his tendrils started moving as usual. The other fairies watched, wondering what their senior was up to. This was their primary mode of feeding, so of course they could all do this.
Once a sufficient number of tendrils had extended, Kigen willed them to form a cluster. Then, he folded his fist. The cluster was compressed, becoming harder and harder, until ... A stone was formed.
"Earth element," Nina exclaimed. She too had done the math, just like Kigen.
All the other fairies exclaimed, eager to also do as their senior had. Some managed, others weren't so adept.
Kigen fluttered his hind wings, shooting through the air. However, this was not like the usual times. His thrust this time was far more powerful than usual. It was a shock. While the upper and mid wings' abilities had been somewhat weakened, the hind wings seemed to have been boosted.
Perhaps some of the fairies had discovered this. He could see several all over the skies around the mother tree. This brought a small smile on his face.
Back then, it had just been him, all alone. He even adopted a pet eagle to keep him company, until Nina showed up. Before he knew it, the air above the mother tree was no longer lonely, and eerie. It was teeming with fairy life.
However, this life was threatened. When he thought of that, a shadow fell over his joyful mood. Time to get things moving.
"Everyone, gather around," Kigen shouted, attracting the attention of the fairies. Since it was morning, no one had wandered off to go hunting yet, so they easily congregated.
"From today, things are going to be different," Kigen said, once everyone was around. Even Mistress Kering had come for the meeting, and Manati, the resident serpent.
Kigen explained that there were looming threats all around them, and they could no longer live without a care in the world.
Hence, they needed to establish a proper patrol, set up sentries, early warning signals. They also needed to keep a watch over their enemies, starting with the serpent horde in the river basin. No doubt, the serpents were keeping watch over them too. They also needed to keep hunting and provide food for those handling other responsibilities.
To achieve all this, they needed some sort of organizational structure. By now, the numbers had swollen up, with the count going as high as more than a hundred fairies. There was no official census done, so they did not know how many they were.
Hearing this, a lot of ideas started running through the minds of the fairies. Many were wondering what structure the family would look like.
"Already, there have been some informal leadership established, and I just want to reinforce this," Kigen said.
"First, there is me, Eldest brother," he said with a smile. There were some chuckles at his attempt at a joke, but many fairies took him too seriously for that.
"Other than me, there are five others," Kigen said, indicating the five. Even now, they stood at the front, leading the others. "Each of them will form a group within the family, and they will lead that group, overseeing their needs."
At first, Kigen wanted to assign the five distinct roles. For instance, he felt Nixa would be well suited for handling the scouts, and Foli would be a good trainer. However, he did not outrightly do this since he felt this would be too linear.
Rather, he came up with this method: setting up a hierarchy of sorts, where he was at the top. Below him, there would be these five. It was their responsibility to organize those beneath them, forming smaller units.
This would facilitate proper organization. As Mistress Kering listened, she realized what the little fairy was doing. He was forming small factions. She had seen this quite a lot among the fairy kind, and she was not sure whether it was for the best. Nevertheless, it was not her place to interfere.
"Listen up, just because you belong you this faction does not mean you are opposed to your brothers and sisters in other factions. We are all one family, and we will act as such. This is simply to facilitate organization and management," Kigen explained.
"Right now, you will all split into the various groups. If you haven't already decided on who to follow, now will be your chance. Once you have gathered up in these groups, decide who will be hunters, how you will manage the hunting, and so on. Also provide me with five fairies from each group, to organize the sentry duties, and spying on our friends in the river," Kigen instructed.
"As for the names, and the mascot beasts for each faction, you will have to choose and successfully catch it and tame it. Remember it has to be a bird, so hurry and choose the best birds there are, before someone else does," Kigen said with a smile.
Soon the fairies went off into the five groups. Each congregated around their senior siblings, Foli, Tande, Nixa, Nina, and Luita. Kigen was left alone, with Tera, his eagle, Manati the serpent, and Mistress Kering, the resident human.
"What a sad gathering," Kigen muttered, and flew away. It was indeed lonely at the top. He also still had matters to ponder on, so he flew to the highest point of the mother tree, overlooking the entire forest.
As the fairies were busy organizing themselves, several miles away, a serpent was lying in its lair, coiled up at the riverbank. In this underground cavern the serpents had dug out, the weak light from the various orbs and gems on the wall of the cavern served to chase away the darkness, but only just.
However, as the serpent watched, the water from the river started to rise. Not all of it, which was the shocking part, just a small section.
Soon this section had risen to form a column of water a little over five feet tall. Then the water column started to contort. Rather it was shaping up, condensing to form what looked like a humanoid being, a woman at that.
Finally, once the watery humanoid being was fully formed, she simply started walking over to the gasping serpents. Even the senior, Erebus himself, had shown up to see this phenomenon.
When he did, he realized what this was. A look of terror appeared on his face, and he desperately wanted to run away. His hiding hole had been invaded so unceremoniously.
"Erebus, you are here," the water golem said with a soft piercing voice. She sounded much like a teenage girl. "I've been looking everywhere for you," she said, ignoring every other serpent as she walked to the stunned serpent.
"I heard you had a little run-in with my brother," she said, exposing the reason for her visit. "Have you seen him around?"