yew and yarrow thoughts
Been thinking more about Yarrow's mum... I had it down that she's like, guarded, very suspicious of humans. Will attack if she feels threatened.
She has this little house out in the woods, right. She's probably around 600 years old and decides to have a child. This is Yarrow. She was already fiercely protective of the forest and there were instances where she harmed or threatened humans who tried to cut down trees, hunt, anything that could be harmful to the things that live in the forest.
Now she has a little baby Yarrow, the protective instincts just amplify. I can see her carrying him around the forest in like a, papoose thing, essentially cloth wrapped around her torso to keep him secure. She'd climb trees with him close to her body. When he's a bit bigger he might hold onto her kind of like a piggyback ride, with his limbs wrapped around her while she climbs.
At night I can see them, honestly like the one sketch commission where Jesper is laying on top of Yarrow's torso sleeping... but it's a toddler Yarrow laying on Yew instead. Or similar. So I think Yarrow has this instinct for that kind of affection but was missing it for a long time. It's a role-reversal though, where he's the big one now, and Jesper does his own thing but in some ways Yarrow is in a caring kind of role towards him. Cooks for them and such.
The other thing I was thinking about is... I don't think Yarrow ever ventured outside of the forest until after Yew died. Like a long while after. Not a long time in terms of the fact these guys live for 900-1000 years, but like. A Few Years, maybe ten. His mum taught him how to cook, how to find food, how to essentially look after himself, and they were always self-sufficient that way, so he never needed to leave. But I think he probably genuinely just went so long without any type of connection besides fleeting moments of, say, interacting with a squirrel or a wild dog -- he got to a point where he decided he MUST go out and see people living their lives, maybe even talk to a few.
Yew probably put the fear of God into him about human beings -- how they're terrible and would destroy more and more of the forest given the chance. So this is a last resort -- he just doesn't know how he will go on for hundreds of years without speaking to another soul. Sprites are solitary creatures for the most part but they're also very intelligent and need enrichment.
Maybe a human walked through the forest one day, maybe when she was alive, and she was not nice to them, but as far as Yarrow could see, they weren't doing anything wrong. Perhaps there were a few occasions of this over the years. So there's been a seed of skepticism about her beliefs, and a curiosity about human beings that has been growing for a long time.
Maybe the first time he went into town he used magic to disguise himself as a human. I've been trying to think of excuses for him to use this ability. He'd use it to blend in, and maybe he just observes the first time. He gets curious about the wares, the different foods. Maybe he sees the bakery for the first time and is amazed. He's only really eaten simple plant-based cooking and raw fruit up to this point.
The humans seem okay. And he sees maybe a domestic imp or something else, existing alongside them, so maybe they won't burn him at the stake the second they see him in his true form.
Perhaps he visits a couple more times in disguise and then gets the courage to go as himself...
I think a few things are possible here. They do not immediately burn him at the stake. But I reckon Yew is a local legend, "the vampire", and he matches her description. I think there is some hostility for sure, but not running and screaming -- probably a lot of staring though. He's so little that I think people just mistake him for a child at first. Probably he wears a hooded cloak his first time going there so people don't really notice he has grey skin, red eyes and fangs until he gets closer... Unsure how they'd react. Maybe it's like a bank robbery lmao they're like just take what you want... and he's like... oh... are you sure? Lmao
I also think he was relatively optimistic about humans at this time in his life, but being treated as suspicious is what made him a little more like his mother as he matured. He was something like a teenager in his lifespan, when he first started visiting the town. Now he's a young-ish adult.
He started asserting himself more -- keeping in mind that he had no money at this point cuz he's never engaged in human society, he had to find a way to make money so that he could buy things. This is probably when he decides to start selling produce from the forest. He... probably didn't get many buyers at first, with people thinking the produce was poisonous or cursed somehow. I'm not sure how he got through to anyone in the first place. Maybe a good place to leave this cuz it's long as hell!!!!! But I'll be big thinking.