Bored... Nothing to do...
Nothing on TV...
Oops! I left my OC falling out of the sky!
Could you go see if she's okay? Thanks!
"Ahh!" Nora screamed as she unstoppably fell from the sky to the forest below.
"Hey there!" a bright, much younger voice said next to Nora's ear. She looked and saw a very familiar face.
"Tina?" She definitely looked like Tina. Though instead of a mild-mannered outfit, this Tina was wearing a grey and pink business suit and out of her back were fluttering, translucent pink, red, and yellow butterfly wings!
"Here," The butterfly-Tina sad urgently holding out a red mushroom. "Eat this, it will make you shrink and I can slow your fall."
"Seriously?" Nora asked, skeptical, but guessing what was going on.
"Quick!" Butterfly Tina handed her the mushroom. "We're about to hit the treetops!"
Nora put the mushroom in her mouth and chewed. The second the mushroom down her thought, Nora noticed that the Butterfly-Tina was growing bigger and closer to her until they were about the same height! "Hang on!" Tina grabbed Nora from under the shoulders and started beating her wings at a rapid pace. Nora looked down to see that they were indeed slowing until they seemed to be just above the forest floor. "We did it!" Nora cheered.
"Phew!" Butterfly-Tina breathed out, "That was a close-" Tina's grip slipped for just a second and Nora was falling once again. "Oh no…"
Nora didn't have time to scream for long, as a tall grass gently caught her and bent all the way to the dirt to which she slid off too. Safe, Nora called up, "That's okay, Tina, I'm fine!"
Butterfly Tina fluttered down next to her and gave her a hug. "That's a relief. Hey, how did you get up there anyway?" The next second, Butterfly-Tina was roughly pushed to the side by a figure in green.
"This just in on Creature- Corner, with Chaz! A new bug just fell from the sky and landed safely without any wings!" It was Chaz Monoranian. Sort of. Instead of his imposing white suit, it was a light green with bright blue and black circle making him look like a… peacock-ish, caterpillar. "I'm the caterpillar with the antennae in the air for the latest news, Chaz. So tell us, you buggy-babe, will we be seeing you on the red carpet for the big celebration today?"
No question this was Chaz. No one else could be so annoying. "Chaz, you know me." Nora said to him, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm Nora! And why do you keep pushing Tina like she's a sack of flour? You have no respect for other people." Nora angrily pushed past Chaz and went to help Tina up.
"Thanks," Tina said, rubbing the side of her head where she fell, "but… how do you know our names?"
"Uh… I'm the most famous bug around T-snore." Chaz said pushing up his green collar. "Don't have the wings and already my career is soaring! I am so good!"
The two girls rolled their eyes. "The wings are sign of maturity, Chaz. If you want them you have to start acting like a real reporter and not let your imagination block off the facts."
Chaz just brushed her off. "Stop talking in riddles, Tina. People will sing when they hear the story of how I got my wings!"
Tina gave up and turned back to Nora. "Sorry, he's always like that. We're both reporters around here, but Chaz is keeping us from being taken seriously."
"You have my sympathies." Nora told her. "Thank you again for catching me. I thought for sure I was going to die."
"You're welcome." Butterfly-Tina smiled at me. "I like to keep my eyes open for a good story. That's why I got my wings before Chaz did. Even before I got them though, I always wanted the truth of a story, and a lot of the time had wait and watch for one."
"You're making me sound like I'm stupid!" Chaz said, breaking in between the two girls. "I can find even better stories than you, Snoozy-Wings. Your scoop on the shrinking mushroom got you some attention. But when I reveal my story on the growing mushrooms, you'll be last century's news!"
"Chaz, you're dad already did the story on the growing mushrooms." Tina reminded him. "I think you might need to earn your wings in another way than reporting."
"I am the BEST reporter in the forest!" Chaz protested. "No one sees me, but I can see everything from down here!"
"You're only looking at a story from one angle. You shouldn't just look up, you need to see it from above and all sides. Have real details, not ones that exaggerate the truth just so you can try to impress people."
"It's not something someone from a non-news- reporting phylum would understand." Chaz said combing back his hair.
Tina grumbled. Then Nora said, "It sounds like you're more jealous of Tina than anything, Chaz." Caterpillar and Butterfly both froze at her words. "She's even trying to help you, but you're too absorbed in thinking everything will just fall in line for you. If you want to be like your dad so much, why can't you look into a story like he does? Tina, you just able to save my life because you saw me falling, right?"
"Yeah, I did." Tina answered. "I was looking for a story to share at the big party today. Chaz was supposed to be looking into the bio-mantle, and I was given the Emergent layer of the trees to investigate."
"I don't see why you get the trees while I'm stuck in the mud." Chaz whined, crossing his arms.
Tina said, "You said you wanted to find some 'good dirt'."
Both of the girls laughed.
"It's NOT FAIR!" Chaz ran off, disappearing from their sight behind the blades of grasses. With the caterpillar gone, it was just Butterfly-Tina and Nora left to talk.
"His cocooning stage is a long way off." Nora said.
"Definitely." Tina agreed. "But really, I haven't seen you before. At least not in a long time… you do look kind of familiar. Has there been a story on you before?"
Nora shrugged. "I've been interviewed before, but I doubt that news would have reached this far. I was just chasing the tazelwurm through my house when-"
"You saw the tazelwurm!?" Tina excitedly grabbed the human's shoulders. "That's the only creature in this world to be able to pass through any boundary! Which way did it go?"
"I-I don't know, Tina. I fell out of the sky, and I was right behind it. Then I heard this woman's voice telling me the only way to get home was to go to this party. After that you saved me from falling to my death."
The butterfly-girl let go of Nora and tapped her own chin in thought. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that. But if you want to get home, you'll need that tazelwurm. Like I said, it knows all the boundaries of this world and how to cross them. But if you can get to that party, maybe that's where you can find it."
"Well," Nora looked around her. She was definitely going to need help around here. She was only three inches high! "I can't do my best searching from this height. Unlike you, I have no chance of growing wings. Is there any way I can get back to my normal height?"
"Sure, there is." Butterfly Tina walked a few steps away to where Caterpillar-Chaz had been standing a little while ago. She picked up a green mushroom that fit in her tiny hands. "Chaz was probably going to start a new rumor about the growing mushrooms. When he can't find a story he makes one up. He dropped this one. It should be enough to get you back to normal." Tina handed the mushroom over to Nora who accepted it. She prepared to eat it.
"Oh, and another thing!" Tina quickly stopped her. "This party you heard about. If it's the big bash being held here in Enigmaland then it's invitation only. You need a special card or someone who has one if you want to get in."
"Enigmaland?" Nora asked. Immediately she took a guess at where this day was going to go.
Butterfly-Tina face-palmed herself. "Ugh! I didn't even tell you where you are! Sorry, here, you can come with me. I have a press pass into the Court of Hearts that I got from-" Tina searched the pockets on her suit but came out empty. "What? Where is it?"
"Something wrong?"
"My invitation! I had it with me this morning! And I-" Tina looked hit with a realization. Her face grew red. "CHAZ! You stole my invite! Give it back!" Tina took off flying after the caterpillar.
"Wait!" Nora called after her. "How do I…?" But Tina was already long gone. Nora looked down at the green mushroom she still had. "Well, I don't want to miss Dad in case he comes home. I need to find some way to get into that party and find the tazelwurm to get back." Eating the mushroom, Nora grew back to her normal, human size. Checking herself over Nora said, "I don't understand how this works, but I'm grateful that my clothes shrink and grow with me."
Nora looked around herself, in case she could catch a glimpse of Butterfly-Tina. But even now there was no sign of her. "Maybe I should start with finding out where this party is. I could meet Tina there and we could go in together." But Nora couldn't decide which way to go and she was feeling pressed for time.
Looking up to an opening in the trees, Nora could see a cloud of smoke coming from the distance. "Well, that's more encouraging." Feeling conscious, Nora carefully started making her way in the direction of the smoke, looking out for any bugs that were hanging around. She also kept her eyes on the smoke, hoping it would lead to someone who knew about where she was supposed to go.
Chazz is the immature caterpillar and Tina is the mature, logical butterfly.
To me that seems to fit!
You don't have agree with my choice of roles, but if you want to assign your own, I'd love to hear either that or what you thought of mine!