Human Eating Fairies

Human eating fairies

Concept art for school.

They are around 30cm tall with a big disproportionate "insect" head. Their hands and feet have only 4 fingers but they have one more knuckle compared to humans. All fairies have an ovipositor and are sexless.

The fairies have different heads depending on their role in the colony (there are no spider-fairies colonies, moth-fairies colonies, etc.).

For example, the Stag-Fairy is in charge of making a wooden baby, one of the things fairies use to hunt humans.

Humans living near fairies colonies can make them offerings in order to avoid being hunted. The fairies will then avoid hunting these humans specifically. However, if all the humans in the area make offerings, they will start hunting the ones who gave the least interesting gifts.

Offerings can be tools (like a letter opener or a bowl), clothes (doll clothes, cut socks...) or shelter. Clothes and shelter are their preferred offerings as they are particularly sensitive to cold.

While the fairies can live in pretty much any corners of the forest, they absolutely love human-made tiny houses that are much cozier and prettier than just living in a tree.

Fairies have a variety of ways to lure humans in their trap which takes the form of a web with an odd pattern. Despite having very little strings, it is incredibly effective as it is infused with magic.

Other examples of house offerings : birdhouses and doll houses.

Fairies have some kind of pet, big acarids that they use to dispose of waste (like human parts they don't eat).

When a human is lured into the fairies' trap, they start losing control of their body and slowly morph into an animal with a human face (usually sheep or pig). Fairies want to fatten their preys and doing so is easier with a pig or sheep's diet than a human's. It is unclear if the transformed humans are aware of their condition.

The fairies' singing and dancing is their main way of attracting humans in their trap, but when egg laying season approaches, they craft a living wooden baby. They then go into a human's house to steal a baby and replace it with their creation. The humans are affected by the magic put on the baby and do not notice the difference. Eventually, the parents will be lured in a fairy's trap as the wooden baby will try to go back to its creators, in the forest.

When egg laying season arrives, a queen is chosen : it has t be the strongest and most resistant of the colony as its body will not survive the process. The queen will be fed excessively as it begins to make eggs that will quickly fill its whole body. Its arms and legs will atrophy and become completely useless, its organs will be barely usable as well, just enough to keep it alive. Once the queen cannot hold any more eggs, it will use its ovipositor to lay eggs in the human baby the other fairies stole. This will kill the queen.

The eggs will quickly hatch once inside the baby and will start eating it from the inside. The larvae will feed and feed and, once big and strong, start shedding, becoming a young fairy.

The type of head they get depends on how much they fed on the baby.

Fairies do have a natural predator. Affectionately called "hat-worms" by humans, they're a magical being that work somewhat similarly to a mushroom. Their "hat" resembles a brain which intrigues fairies who are always looking for more food.

Once at range, the worm will infest a fairy through the holes in its chest, leaving there their "hat" to plug it. It will make it harder for the fairy to breathe (and resist). The worm will start by going to the brain to take control of it. Once done, it will start hollowing and filling the inside of the fairy with spores. It will then move the fairy close to the colony, fly high and explode, trying to spread the spores to as many other fairies as possible. The spores that do not directly infect a fairy become full worms.

One infected fairy can make a whole colony disappear, so seeing a parterre of worms is a sign of good luck for humans.