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"But why?" she demanded, staring at her mother with tears in her eyes. "How can we be so close to the world, watching its people suffer, and yet do nothing?"

"Child," the Queen began sternly, but her mother spoke quickly.

"What is it you would have our people do, Lanara?"

"Step in!" Lanara explained eagerly. "Help them out; stop their suffering."

"It is not our place," the Queen said coldly before anyone else could speak. "You are young, Child Lanara, and the world of mortals still seems to you much like ours. But you will learn."

"What does it matter if it's like ours!" she cried, unable to help herself. "They're people; don't we have the obligation to help them? If it were one of us who was in danger, everyone would step forward to help! Must we consider ourselves so far above the humans, that--"

Lanara knew she had gone too far as soon as the words were out of her mouth. She flinched, but she still wasn't prepared for the pain that raced through her at the Queen's anger. She heard her mother start to cry out.

"You will learn," the Queen repeated. Her voice had lost whatever understanding it had once had. "The humans are not like us, Lanara. In time you will come to see that."

Huddled on the ground before her, Lanara nodded and whispered, "Of course, Your Majesty."

But when she thought again of the humans, suffering in their pain-filled world so near to her own, she still doubted.