"Will you help us, will you fight?" said the Mermaid to the Butterfly.

The Butterfly sat atop a loveseat, petals scattered on her dress of fattened meat. She was a gruesome, lovely vision. The flesh of her face, covered in a thick coating of moss, hung like a curtain of primly groomed locks over her fanged maw. The strands would tremble every time the Butterfly took a heavy breath. Around her tendril feet, Adelberts, the Butterfly's bright eyed minions, danced happy jigs and tended to her sprawling array of flora. Every so often a few of the cuttleflies would break from their duties, picking out the most brilliant of rosebuds and placing them gently in the Butterfly's makeshift hair. In response, the butterfly would bashfully bow her head to thank them. The minions flitted and fussed around her, making sure her wings were not too dry or too oily, that the throbbing veins that spiderwebbed through her torso pulsated with vigor, all the while sighing and swooning over the privilege to dote on her. She was truly revered as the most beautiful of creatures within the confines of her Labyrinth.

The Butterfly made sure that the outer appearance of her home mirrored her own perfection. Posies, primroses, zinnias, and wisteria among other flowers all filled her Labyrinth. The Butterfly had planted them all, but had not tended to her garden in quite some time; all except the roses had wilted and rotted into dried and blackened husks. Their fragrances however, remained and were so sweet they could put one in a daze. The walls were lined with ribbons and a collection of moths were pinned like brooches to the inner walls. Her mustachioed familiars would dutifully trim the hedges of her vast Labyrinth, working in a conveyor belt fashion to further shield their princess from outsiders. The Butterfly's maze was her pride and joy, filled with tall winding walls strips of deadly thorns that ensured no stranger would ever trample the flowers in her garden, lest they prick their finger and become lost to the world forever.

"Not I," said the Butterfly in a voice as soft as dandelion fluff, but edged with bitterness, "for a true princess sits and patiently waits for strife to end. I will not risk the safety of my flowers just to help a silly nut. Besides, you were not invited to my beautiful garden; you cause destruction wherever you go! Just look at your tail!"

The Mermaid looked down at her magnificent length of a tail and saw dirt and dark petals sticking to the edges of her fin. How unfortunate. The Mermaid had long ago lost the ability to feel for others and didn't feel a twinge of shame for trampling romantic reminders, but risking the wrath of the Butterfly of the Rose Garden was never wise. "You have destroyed my daisies without even noticing! Trespasser, leave my garden at once!"

The Mermaid scowled. "Coward. You always have been, and you always will be. Fine, wither away in your garden. I suppose it can't be helped."

The Butterfly hung her mighty head in shame, but said nothing. She shifted uncomfortably on her loveseat, waiting for the Mermaid to take her leave. The Mermaid, finding no other reason to stay, silently obliged.

"Please, when you go, give a kiss to my Anthonies won't you? I miss them so..." said the Butterfly, her meek voice muffled by her mossy veil, but the Mermaid was gone.