"Mhmm! I think they're somewhere in their hundreds…" Kit hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember exactly. "I've got a fair amount of older siblings, and fairies live a really long time. I think we stop physically aging somewhere in our twenties or thirties."
That was… older than Marin had assumed Kit's parents were, to say the least.
"Oh, really? That's quite interesting," The mage said, smiling some. "Humans don't live for long at all compared to fairies."
"Oh, really? My parents said fairies are im.. immort… tortle…" Kit looked confused as he struggled to pronounce the word. "We can't die of old age or something."
"Immortal?" Marin said, smiling softly at Kit's attempts to pronounce the word. "That sounds about right."
"Yeah! That!" Kit nodded a bit, smiling. "Fairies are that. We can only die if somebody hurts us or something. How long do humans live?"
"Humans live for about one hundred to two hundred years, depending on how strong their magic is," Marin said after a moment to think.
"Oh, that's cool! What if they don't have any magic, though?" Kit asked, confused. "My parents said a lot of humans don't."
"Well, when a human doesn't have magic let usually live to about eighty to one hundred years old," Marin said.
"That's not very long… wouldn't they be sad a lot?" He asked. "Then the people around you aren't living very long…"
"It can be sad, yes," Marin said softly. "We humans have accepted that we aren't immortal, though. We learn to deal with the sad."
Kit nodded slowly. "I guess that makes sense… it's always really sad when a fairy dies, and it… doesn't happen super often."
"I can understand why," Marin said softly. They held Kit close, gently rubbing their back. "Death is something humans have almost gotten used to."
"That's sad, though… why do they die so much?" Kit pouted a bit as he looked up at Marin.
"Well, there are a lot of reasons," Marin started. "People fight a lot, and sometimes they get sick. Then sometimes, they just get too old, and their bodies don't work right anymore."
Kit grew more confused at that. "Why wouldn't their bodies work right when they're older?" He asked, clearly bewildered. After all, fairies didn't exactly appear to be particularly old as they grew older.
"Well, human bodies don't last forever. When we grow old, it gets harder for our bodies to get what we need from what we eat." Marin let out a small breath.
Kit still didn't seem to understand. "But my parents are over a hundred, and their bodies are the same as they were when they were like… thirty or something."
"Well, human bodies don't work like fairy's bodies," Marin said, keeping gentle with their words. "Our bodies aren't made to last for forever."
Kit was still pretty bewildered, not grasping the concept. "What do you mean?" He asked softly.
"Well, humans aren't supposed to live for as long as fairies do," Marin said softly. "I don't know why, but that's how it is."
"That's weird… it makes me sad." Kit pouted a bit, toying with his hands. "I guess there's no way to fix it, though…"
"There isn't," Marin agreed. "It's okay, though. We live the lives we have, for as long as we have them."
Kit nodded and huddled closer. "You shouldn't have to be used to death, though… death is sad." He said softly.
"It is," Marin agreed. "Still, it encourages us to do the things we want to do in our life right now, before we run out of time to do them. It's how humans have survived as a species."
Kit looked up at Marin, fidgeting a bit. "I feel like I'd be so stressed… constantly worried about when it's going to end, worried about rushing to get things done before I die…"
"Most humans still live to a healthy eighty years," Marin assured. "We can get a lot done in that time."
"That doesn't sound like very long…" Kit sighed softly, fidgeting a bit more. "I know humans can be killed sooner too… what are you supposed to do if you don't even live to the eighty?"
"We learn to deal with it," Marin admitted. "I… one of my close friends died when she was young. I miss her every day, but that's just how it is."
"But that's sad…" Kit insisted, his voice muffled from burying his face in Marin's shoulder again. "I'd be missing people all the time…"
"It is sad," Marin agreed. "Still, it's a human's life. We get along well enough."