-----I didn't like it, particularly because I was scared to be alone, but I obeyed my superior officer and scouted ahead of the main group. These mystical, beautiful creatures in the area were tough despite their frail appearance, easily a force of five men each, and I certainly didn't want to encounter one alone.

-----Unfortunately, after I emerged from the underbrush of the forest and into a clearing, I discovered one of the creatures some distance ahead of me. I was ready to turn and flee to alert my comrades, but it was so obvious that the creature was exhausted and battle-weary that I paused and took a better look at it.

-----It was the first time that I ever got a really good look at what they called a "faery", the mystical race our country waged a war with for some reason... (I didn't know why, because I was young and didn't care; I was drafted and that was the end of it.) They were all beautiful, bare of clothing, and female... As I stared at this particular one, my heart raced. She was beautiful: her skin was fair, gleaming in the sun with soft illumination; her hair was long, swaying softly in tendrils in the breeze; and her face was angelic.

-----It was when I gazed upon her face that I realized that she had noticed me, and, frightened by that fact, I yelped to my comrades, hoping for their immediate assistance. I heard their shouts that signified they heard me, but I never took my eyes off of her, frozen in my place, not knowing how much my heart was beating because of my infatuation with her, nor how much because of the fear of what she could do to me.

-----In reaction to my alarm, she regarded me with such a sad expression... It tore at my heart, enemy or not. But she didn't make a move to flee; she seemed too tired, if her body language and a torn wing meant anything. So, I gathered my courage and approached her, saber drawn just as a precaution. I almost ceased my movement when I saw tears spilling from her eyes, but I continued, though a little slower. I'm not sure why I was approaching her, as if drawn... I knew I didn't want to kill her, but I also knew that she was a potential threat to me and my comrades. It was beginning to confuse me why there was any fighting taking place at all.

-----However, before I came too close, I was startled when she collapsed and simply burst into shimmering balls of light, that soon all but faded: for her two swords continued to glow in the same light afterward. Once I came upon the swords, by that time they had stopped glowing that ethereal light. The swords... They were beautiful. I didn't think swords could look beautiful and still be intimidating and effective, but these were.

-----My curiosity getting the better of me, I just had to wield them and see for myself how they felt in my grip, under my command. Surely, it might even be possible that the swords were better than normal swords, and it'd improve my chance of living in future battles. So, sticking my saber into the ground, I reached into the shallow water and grasped each of the faery's swords by the hilt.

-----I gasped in fright when I was engulfed in the same light as that faery had been before she vanished, but that was all that I could do: my body began to move involuntarily, as I felt it alter, and I couldn't release the rest of my breath that I had reserved for a scream. A tug here, a tug there, weight added and removed in various places... It all happened so fast, I was overloaded with sensory information. By the time I realized that I was standing still after the magic had done its work on me, the breeze caressing my bare skin and new anatomy, my comrades had burst into the clearing.

-----And when I heard my comrades shout their cries of attack, then continue to charge in my direction, I fell to my knees, numb from the realization that I was now going to endure the fate that had once awaited that faery. And even as a faery, there was no chance that I could defeat a hundred men...

-----Forgive me, faery. If only we had met under better circumstances.