"And don't ever come back!" A dirty man was thrown outside a bar, stumbling to his knees. The older, dirty man was wobbly, his head flushed with alcohol. 

"Well, fuck you too then!" The drunkard yelled at the now closed door. 

The man walked off to the motel he was staying at, it wasn't a far walk, after all, it was just a short little rest stop up in the forested mountain area he was in. The large trees looked foreboding in the growing darkness of the sunset.

He was approaching the motel when he began to fish around his pocket for the keys to his room. Unfortunately, he stumbled as he was pulling them out, and dropped them down a little ditch next to the road. 

"Fffffuckingsonofa... I'm too drunk for this shit."

He tried to get down the little slope of the ditch calmly, but, say it with me now, stumbled, and fell down the rest of the way. 

Picking himself up, he threw up most of the vile drinks he consumed earlier, and, feeling much more sober, went to grab his keys in the mud. 

He found them rather easily, they were in the middle of a ring of mushrooms, like nature had decided to help him out and make this easy. He took his keys while crushing a mushroom or two while doing so. 

Emilie was watching this sad excuse of a man from her motel room window, through a powerful camera. She was bored waiting for her friends to come back with food, she at first, tried to photograph some birds before noticing the drunk.

She and her friends were going to have a vacation in a huge lodge. All of whom were either in or just barely out of college. 

Emilie was a petite girl with short, brown hair. She had light skin, and rectangular glasses rested on her nose, near which were freckles that peppered her cheeks. She wore a tank top and sweatpants, she hadn't changed since waking up this morning. 

She huffed when she saw him break the fairy ring, she knew that it was a silly superstition that if you step in one you get bad luck, but she couldn't remember if anyone said anything about breaking it. 

Then she saw something weird, something had grabbed the attention of the drunk. Moving the camera slightly, she saw someone looking at the man, while peaking out from behind a tree.

The man wore a long, light grey and black robe, he was also barefoot. On the hand she could see, the fingers were strained a dark green, like he had been finger painting. The dark green on his fingers went down his hand like veins. His long, straight, shiny black hair almost reached his waist. His skin, pale and pristine, not even the tiniest of blemishes called his face their home. 

Then she noticed the ears. The long, pointy ears. She froze for a good, long moment.

Are those... Is that... A fucking ELF?! N-No, that's stupid, this is probably some hidden camera show, or... Something.

She immediately put the camera in shutter mode and took dozens of pictures of the elf as he stepped out from behind the tree. 

She continued to take pictures as he waked toward the drunk man, seemingly talking to him. The elf was grinning an awful lot. 

Emilie continued to take photos, watching the conversation between the two men. She was still taking pictures when the elf put his hand on the man's forehead and pushed him. 

She took a few pictures before the horror sunk in a second later. She had gotten the perfect moment when the drunk man fell backwards, his skin seemingly becoming multiple dark colors, before he hit the ground. 

Upon hitting the ground, his body exploded into a pile of writhing insects. The man's clothes fell to the ground as hundreds of bugs crawled and wiggled in his clothes. Centipedes, beetles, ants, and many more differing kinds of bugs could be seen in the pile.

Emilie stared through the camera as the elf reached down and scooped up a small handful of bugs, shaking them around in his hand for a moment, before shoving them into his mouth. 

She reflexively gagged at the sight. Then, still looking through the camera, saw as the elf's eyes widened in surprise. His eyes slowly moving.

Emilie held her breath as she saw the elf made eye contact with her. He opened and closed his mouth, hard, cutting a caterpillar in his mouth in half as he gave her a smile. 

H-He just saw the motel. Not me. There is no way he could have seen me.

A fast beat of knocks rang out from the door.

Emilie dropped the camera, the knocking at her door startled her. Quickly, she scoped up the camera and some in where the elf was. She was even more freaked out as she saw that the elf, nor the bugs or clothes were there. 

A second string of knocks sounded.

Emilie put the camera down and made her way to the door, ready to pull out a tiny canister of pepper spray she kept on her.

Opening the door and stepping back, she was surprised to see her friends standing there. 

"H-Hey guys!" She said, pleasantly surprised, she hid the pepper spray behind her back. 

"That took you so long to get the door?" Lee was the first to step inside with food. A tall, skinny brunette who enjoyed playing videogames with Emilie. She carried two bags of fast food.

"Yeah! It's freezing outside!" Tanya stepped inside, carrying the drinks. Tanya was a red haired woman of average height who was the oldest of the bunch. Something of a tomboy, she always was down to get into a little trouble with them. 

"S-Sorry! I just got distracted." She shut the door behind them, still shaken up, but hiding it well enough. 

----------

Vaeral watched the human leave the window, putting the camera down. After sleeping for about a year now, long after dancing with a few friends in the fairy ring, he was a little disappointed that the first thing he ran into was some human.

Especially such a disrespectful mortal, turning the man into bugs was fun for him however.

I would have enjoyed a larger handful though. But now I have a nosey little mortal to take care of. They really must learn to mind others business.

He began to walk to the motel, unseeable by naked human eyes.

--------

Emilie was trying to enjoy her burger, but was far less hungry after seeing what that elf did. She kept the camera close to her but didn't try to show the others yet, not before checking them out herself. She needed to make sure she wasn't crazy. 

While chewing, she picked up the camera and began looking at the photos. She stopped chewing as she looked through them. Almost all of them were at least slightly distorted where the elf would have been, the pitcture strangely blurry. The man who was reduced to a pile of insects was also blured. Only one of them was completely clear, the first picture she took of the elf, peaking from behind a tree. 

But it was different, the elf hadn't noticed her then, his full attention was on the drunk man.  But now his eyes were staring directly at the camera, like he was looking right at her again. 

She put down the camera and got up, sick to her stomach, she ran to the bathroom and just barely reached to toilet bowl when she threw up what little of her meal she had eaten. 

"Jesus Emilie! Are you alright?" Lee asked while getting up, hoping that she hadn't gotten sick just as they were so close to the lodge. 

"I-I'm fine, just... I'm sure I'll be fine." She lied through her teeth. 

"Alright, I'll get you some fresh clothes, you go take a shower."

"Thanks Lee."

-----------

In the morning Emilie was feeling much better, but still a nervous wreck. The group was gathering their things from the small motel room, every bag, charger and bit of trash. 

Everything was fine till Emilie went to pick up her bag. It was a army green backpack laying in the corner. When she lifted it up, she saw one tiny thing that was behind it. 

Half of a caterpillar. 

"You got everything Em?" Tanya asked. 

"Y-Yeah. I got everything." 

"Then let's go! Everyone already got to the lodge before us, we're late!" 

It didn't take long to get on the road, Tanya drived while Lee set up the GPS again. Meanwhile Emilie was on her phone, trying to look for information on elves and faeries. 

She posted the story of what she saw on a forum made for people who believe in fairies and the like, in hopes of getting some advice while she tried to do her own research. 

Why is it following me?

It didn't take long before she got some answers. While the story of her experienced was reacted too with doubt, some people actually offered advice.

Most of them kept telling her about giving it offerings, a few talked about using iron to keep it away from her. As for why it was following her, she was quickly informed she shouldn't have been spying on him.

Unbeknownst to her, Vaeral sat, in a tiny form, in the trunk, waiting to arrive and properly teach her a lesson in minding her own business. 

"This should be fun."