Copyright ©1986, 1996 Terri Windling. Used by permission.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild...
William Butler Yeats
"The Stolen Child"
I hear that out in your World, mothers warn their little ones that if they misbehave, the fairies will come and steal them away....
What a load of crap. Let me tell you what really happens.
Most humans go about their daily lives completely unconcerned about what goes on in the distant realm known as the Elflands. Since Elfland first reappeared in the World, you've made it clear that we're not exactly welcome here -- and truth tell it we don't want you in Faerie either. You stick to your side of the Border and we'll stick to ours, and that suits about everybody just fine.
But every once in a while a child is born who can't seem to fit in anywhere in the World. A misfit, a malcontent, with an itch in his soul, a wild look in her eyes. We don't have to steal these kids away -- they come of their own accord. Hell, we couldn't keep them away if we tried.
Being human, they cannot cross the Border into Faerie. So they come to the Borderlands -- that no-man's land between Elfland and the World. Where magic bleeding from our side of the Border has warped and twisted into unpredictable shapes. Where our spells and your technology work sporadically -- or not at all.
In the infamous city of Bordertown, elves and humans mingle in an uneasy truce, vying for dominance in the High Council chambers, the marketplace -- and, most of all, the rock'n'roll clubs in the slums south of Ho Street. Clubs like mine, the Dancing Ferret: cheap beer, good wine, and the best bands in town.
Down in Soho, the runaways have claimed the abandoned buildings as their own. The gangs cruise at night on spell-powered bikes: the elvin Bloods in red leather, the human Pack -- dark and dangerous, the Rats from under the docks, the rich kids from Dragon's Tooth Hill.
You have to be crazy, or desperate to come here. But if you make it across the waters and wilds to Bordertown, come on over to the Ferret. The first beer's on me; after that, kid, you're on your own.
Farrel Din
The Dancing Ferret
18 Carnival Street
Bordertown
[ Bordertown | The Borderlands ]