Illion knew he ought to be scared, that he should take off and lose her in the process, tell someone he saw her, curse her even. But he wanted to do none of those. She didn’t look anything like he’d pictured a human. He was sure they must have claws and fangs, although he didn’t know where that expectation came from. 

He gave her a curious head tilt. He knew what she was saying but it felt strange. He spoke the common human language fine, but didn’t always get to use it, he mostly spoke elven with the other elves. It was what he was most comfortable with, but it didn’t seem like that was going to do the trick here. 

He bought the half-truth. He liked to go berry picking all the time, especially when he was little. He would come home with dirty knees and the stain of berry juice on his fingers. His mother would scold him for ruining his dinner and getting all dirty, but she never stayed mad long enough to drive the point in. She was sometimes criticized for indulging him too much; reminded that he’d only be around for a hundred years. That was barely a blink of an eye to the rest of the elves. 

“You didn’t disturb me.” He said as he hopped forward. 

He began circling her looking for anything different. But aside from hair and eye colour, and the shorter ears, she wasn’t all that different. 

“How come your ears are so short? Do you have fangs? Do you have a tail?” He hadn’t ever heard about humans having tails but who really knew? 

Although he’d been scared at first curiosity won over. Looking at and hearing Nikita speak he found it hard to believe humans were that bad. 

Illion knew he was different, special even. His mother let slip to him that while the rest of the elves were capable of cursing humans, he had other capabilities. He begged and pleased with her for days to explain herself, and as she usually did with him, she gave in.
She taught him hone in on the power to curse, he could give a human an extra limb, or make the blind, or even make them so violently ill that it cost them their life. It scared him to know he could do that, but he was reassured he didn’t have to, it was better if he just stayed in the village away from all possibility of human interaction.

She went on to tell him that if he so desired he could do the opposite. He could grant small wishes, heal small wounds, find missing objects...Of course non of this was possible without practice, something he definitely didn’t have, and it only worked on humans. Elves could be neither cursed nor blessed by his magic.

Illion was oblivious to this story in it’s entirety. 

Once hundreds of thousands of years ago the elves ruled a large kingdom right besides the human kingdom. The two were mostly peaceful save for some small quarrels. However eventually the quarrels soon became fights and the fights became wars. The elves were nearly wiped out. What was left of the retreated to the woods, far from human reach. The gods reached out to them and struck a deal.

The elves would be granted magic to keep them safe from humans, and eternal life, so long as they provided a sacrifice. Every thousand years a special elf would be born, sacrifice this elf on their hundredth birthday and the rest of them would continue to live. 

That is what the elves believe anyway. Illion was told what they had to dish up in return was their ability of flight. They had once had wings to lift them skyward, or so they told him. Illion never questioned it.