The Butterfly Summer – Chapter 10
Lizzy, I remembered Tinker Bell saying. Was that the girl's name? No wonder she knew so much about fairies, her walls and pictures said it all. Sitting me down atop her bed, she had raced over to her bookshelf and pulled down a loose leaf journal of some kind, which she automatically started flipping through as my wings anxiously started to flutter in uncertainty.
Looking up from her book, she seemed to notice as she said, "Oh, you don't need to be scared, little fairy. Are you?"
"I'm not scared," I started to say, to which she only laughed as she let out an airy sigh.
Flitting over, I must have showed my exasperation because she said, "I can't understand you."
Sitting down at her table, she lightly giggled, again, as she explained, "I'm sorry. Well, we only hear a tiny little bell when you speak. It happened with Tink, too."
"Well, that makes things hard," Mari spoke again, to which she looked up to see Lizzy staring blankly up at her as her hands still held her book in her lap. How can I talk to her if I know she can't understand me?
With a simple smile, Lizzy opened her book to a page that explained all about animal fairies, which showed a tiny fairy bandaging the foot of a baby chipmunk. "Neat, huh?"
Pictures. That gave me an idea!
Flying over to some blank white paper that she had lying out on her desk, I picked up a pink crayon that was twice my size and almost doubled over my wings as it sagged in my hold. Fluttering my butterfly wings hard, I hovered in place as I tried to move the crayon against the page. As Lizzy watched, I sighed exasperated as it only left a pink, squiggly smear.
Art is so not my strong suit! I thought inwardly, despite me knowing how to color in butterfly wings, thanks to Fawn and Emma. It wasn't that hard, or was it?
"Are you trying to draw a picture?" she asked me, to which I could only stare back, not knowing what to say or how to. So, I only nodded, to which she had me rest in her hand and point out some more of her pictures. "I love drawing! See here … a fairy is painting a butterfly's wings. Tink told me that."
Suddenly getting another idea, I tried to flit out of her hand only to have her turn around, to which she almost side-stepped into her chair as I flapped my huge wings against her wrist.
Laughing, she said, "Hey, that tickles! Wait, where are you going?"
She followed me as I raced back over to the drawing, pointing at the butterfly's wings. I'm a butterfly herder fairy, I tried to sign as I turned around and showed her my wings, to which to my shock felt normal and not my regular new wings. Slapping my forehead, I realized that they had shrunk, again.
"Wait," she said, heeding my attempts. "Are you trying to tell me that you are an animal fairy?"
Closer, I sighed, pointing at the sketch, again, this time at the butterfly and then back towards my wings, emphasizing what I was trying to say. Finally, it got through!
"A butterfly fairy?" Lizzy repeated, seeing me nod. "Oh really?! Butterflies are so beautiful!"
They are, I said as I smiled, this time flying up higher as I pointed more and more of her painted butterflies and immediately thought of Papillion as Lizzy watched intently as I took touch of my flute.
"Lizzy, you up here?"
Immediately, we heard a tentative knock at the door, to which we both turned to see Tommy peeking his head shyly in.
Standing in front of me and crossing her arms, Lizzy watched as Thomas quietly looked around the room as he said, "Where's the tiny fairy? Is that what you called it?"
"She is not an 'it,' Thomas," Lizzy corrected him, turning to see me flit around to peer over her shoulder. "And, why do you ask? You are not putting her in that cage, too!"
Sure enough coming in, he rested his medium sized butterfly cage on the craft table before he turned around and said, "Will you just relax! I have no intent of doing such a thing."
Flying over, I landed on top of the small wire cage as he undid the clasp that held the door shut, where one butterfly crawled closer to the door when it caught sight of Mari.
"Then, what are you doing?" Lizzy wanted to know, watching him start to smile.
"Has it stopped raining outside?" he wanted to know, bending over the cage and counted the total number of butterflies inside he had. I counted, too. 29 separate species, counting Papillion which made it thirty.
Running over to her window, she pushed it open and shouted, "Yes, it has. Now what?"
"Stand back," he called, pinning up the cage door and watched as one by one they started to slowly flit out of the cage, towards the sunlight that started to shine through the pane.
Taking out a camera, Thomas started taking pictures and checking off certain ones in a smaller notebook he had as he counted them to make sure they flew out all safely.
"There, all done," he said, starting to close the window before Lizzy stopped him.
"Wait, there is still one in here," Lizzy caught his attention as she pointed over to where I was fondly scratching across Papillion's antennae in the way he liked. "Shouldn't he had flown out, too?"
"Should have," Thomas said, completely baffled. "He seemed to be really protective of the others earlier, but … Wait, how did you know he was a male Blue Morpho?"
Giggling, I checked Papillion all over to make sure his wings were still strong as he beat them against the sun's warming rays. "They still haven't figured it out, Papillion. You stayed because of me. I'm just glad you're safe. Go on now, join the others! I'll see you back at home."
Tapping a couple of notes off of my flute, I flew over him and sprinkled a bit of pixie dust in the air that was left off of my wings and got him to follow me to the edge of the window.
"Look at her, Thomas," Lizzy watched us, awestruck. "Isn't she beautiful?"
"Elizabeth, you really want me to believe that she is a fairy?" Tommy said, catching me off guard as I paused in the front of the window and did not notice Papillion sneak out in a hurry. Turning around, I felt a slight buzz on my wings as I listened to his next words. "Fairies are just a thing of fairy tales. They are made up! They are not real."
"Don't say that!" Lizzy cried in defense as I felt my wings spark in pain. Something was wrong, but it wasn't me. And, it wasn't here I was feeling it.
"Why?" he demanded, seeing me watch as my wings started to glow a hazy hindrance as they resounded to their normal new size and glistened as the outer scales of my wings started to spread.
Something was happening, I realized, seeing them argue. Flying out of the window, I streaked away as fast as possible, feeling the need to speed, but as I was flying … I realized that I was out of the pixie dust and started to fall.
As Papillion caught me and flew back towards pixie camp, I glanced back to see my fairy wings still withering, but as we flew, I saw something else, too.
A white common fluttered by the window, unseen and completely invisible, as I felt a hazy bubble of the argument play out in front of my eyes.
"Don't ask me to play along with something that isn't real, Liz!" Tommy was shouting back at Lizzy.
"She was real! A fairy, Thomas. You saw her. Why is it so hard for you to believe?"
"It's not," was all he said as he stomped away, pausing at the door frame and sighed.
"What's wrong, Thomas?" Lizzy wanted to know. "All you've done since you got here is fight with anyone who tries to talk to you, while also sneaking off any chance you get just to capture innocent butterflies and document them? Why? What have I done to you, Thomas? Nothing."
Sliding a hand against the door frame, he said, "I'm sorry … It's not you, Lizzy."
"Then, what is it?"
"Nothing," he said, leaving. "Just … leave me alone. Please."
After that, my vision cleared in time to see a cluster of butterflies surround me as we landed safely in the glade.
Before I even had time to slide to my fatigued feet from off of Papillion's back, I felt two pairs of strong hands catch me as I looked up to see Emma and Winter.
"Mari!" Emma shouted, startling me awake as I almost toppled. My wings had withered to a grey coating as I gazed up to see Emma anxiously concerned, but she didn't seem to notice them as said, "You had us so worried. We were looking everywhere."
"The scouts searched around the house, but they couldn't spot you," Winter said, running a coat of frost over my wings to preserve what was left of them, at least over the part that didn't turn grey. Or, were they starting to turn brown? I couldn't tell.
"I was with Lizzy," I said, finding myself strong enough to take out one of my nectar vials out of my pocket that I kept handy and gulped it down. "What's wrong?"
Studying their shared look of anticipation, I straightened up enough to say, "You better tell me."
"Well … I'm sorry, Mari, but …" Winter started to say, but couldn't finish.
"It's your sister," Emma finished for him, seeing my knowing eyes. "She's not doing well."
"Show me!" I barked at them both as they carried me through the camp's pavilion and, not surprisingly, right into the camp's infirmary.
Sorry for the late post. Just finished it now. Until I figure out what's going on with my FF account, fellow readers, updates may be slow going. However, thanks for waiting on this story, and I'm sorry about this being a little late but I hope well worth it.
Also, I'm still figuring out the "ins" and "outs" of the story plot, so that might be a bit going on, too. Thanks for being a support my dear readers, and keep your wings high. Until next chapter ... And, enjoy.