Hidden Folk
Fairies - or the Fae - are often thought of as playful, winged creatures from children's books. But in folklore, they are something much stranger. Across cultures, they appear as beings who live beside us yet remain unseen, inhabiting woods, hills, or mists. They are neither angels nor demons, but something else entirely: elusive, ancient, and deeply unpredictable.

Global Lore
Ireland speaks of the Sidhe, hidden folk who live in earthen mounds. Iceland still maps homes to avoid disturbing elves. In Japan, yosei resemble nature spirits, while in the Philippines, duwende dwell in tree roots. These tales span continents, yet all describe small, human-like entities with great power - often tied to nature, weather, or fate. Some help. Others mislead. All demand respect.

Fairy Rings and Vanishings
A perfect circle of mushrooms - a fairy ring - was once seen as a portal. Step inside, and you might vanish or fall under a spell. Throughout Europe, tales tell of travelers disappearing for days - or years - only to return unchanged. In some accounts, people who accepted food or music from fairies could never fully return to the normal world again.

Changelings and Tricks
In medieval times, fairies were blamed for swapping human children with lookalike replacements - changelings. The real child, it was said, was stolen to live in the fairy realm. The swapped infant might be sickly, silent, or oddly intelligent. Though often used to explain illness or disability, the idea reflects a deeper fear: that the familiar can be quietly replaced by something *not quite right*.

Portals and Perception
Some modern theorists suggest fairies are not just myth, but glimpses into another reality - interdimensional travelers, symbolic projections, or phenomena tied to altered states of consciousness. Visionary experiences in forests, sudden time shifts, or eerie dreams have all been connected to fairy folklore. Perhaps they were never "little people" at all... but something that slips between layers of awareness.

Reflection
Fairies live on in the quiet places - mossy clearings, old stories, the edges of sleep. Whether real, symbolic, or simply mysterious, they remain part of the world's forgotten language. They remind us that not all things seen are real, and not all real things are easily seen.