Wilik was a young fairy who had just finished his millennia-long education in forestry and magic. As a newly graduated fairy, he had been entrusted by the fairy council with a lush, thousand-acre valley, heretofore untouched by man. As the spritely steward of this virgin patch of earth, it would be his first task to find a suitable guardian race to populate and tend it.
Wilik was well aware that it was customary to select an appointed race from one of the more traditional mythical species, primarily those specifically bread for the task of natural stewardship like satyrs, dryads, or gnomes, but as a young up-and-comer, he was looking to make a splash with something a little different and unexpected. He'd been brought up on old romantic stories of a time when humans could be entrusted with the land, and he was sure those times could come again, and despite his instructor's misgivings and firm discouragement, he was determined to prove it to the council.
Naturally, Wilik wasn't personally familiar with the races of humanity, but many decades ago he had happened upon a dirty, abandoned book in the forest that served to spark within him an enduring fascination with one very peculiar race in particular.
It was titled :