Friday, May 3, 2013

The Butterfly Bomber

Part 1.

In the Land of flowers and insects, there lived the toughest of fairies, Jessie, otherwise known as the 'Butterfly Bomber." She'd been riding butterflies practically since birth, when her grandmother, Jezebel, lifted her up, set her on a resting Monarch, and then slapped the backside of that butterfly, causing it to take off with a jerk before soaring. Jessie had riding instincts, though, and from her very first surprise ride, she knew to clutch the tiniest bunches of butterfly fur in her tiniest of fists. It didn't take her very long before she became too lazy to move anywhere with her own wings--her own wings were small and she moved, she thought, at practically a snail's pace compared to butterflies. Besides, the ride was a lot smoother.

For her fourteenth birthday, Jessie received her very own butterfly--a beautiful pink one with enormous wings. Now, pink butterflies were rare, even in the magical world where Jessie lived, but her grandmother had high hopes for Jessie. Jessie was about to embark on an intense training to learn how to become one of the elite force of Butterfly Bombers.

Most people assume that all is harmony in the Land of flowers and insects--but no! Though nature takes its course and certain insects eat certain plants and certain insects even eat other insects, and this is the way of nature that no one can change, there was evil beginning to invade the Land. What could only be described as an alien presence was starting to take over the bodies of ladybugs and forcing massive numbers of ladybugs to take down a whole rosebush in a single day. Ladybugs--who used to be the friend to the rosebush--had now become the enemy. And even ladybugs who weren't taken over by the alien forces were considered suspicious. There was uproar in the Land of flowers and insects, as one of the most gentlest and kindest of insects was being used in a mean, destructive manner.

Jezebel, Jessie's grandmother, had by this time inherited the kingdom. She'd been crowned Queen of all the Land, and her first job was to get to the bottom of the ladybug takeover. She stayed up for days on end, watching a seemingly unharmed ladybug family go about their business of herding aphids and basically being the cutest and most lovable of all insects. Then--and it happened without warning--one of the ladybugs in this particularly family turned mean. It started bossing the other ladybugs around, shouting and calling out orders that were quite contrary to the ladybugs' normal routines. The ladybugs were flustered and afraid. What they had feared was upon them.

Jezebel watched more closely. The second infected ladybug seem to transform after drinking water from a droplet in the well of a foxglove flower. She left the ladybug family to fend for themselves and decided to go into the flower. She carefully peered into the flower, just barely peeking her head over the part that cascades down to the stem. She saw the tiniest, ugliest creatures she had ever seen. If, in fact, she didn't have supervision, they probably would've been invisible to her. They were nearly specks, flea like, but with jagged front legs that were holding up a thin pipe from which emitted a liquid. This liquid must be the substance that was changing the ladybugs.

But how to destroy these evil insects without destroying the lovely foxglove? This troubled Jezebel. She didn't want any other beings in the Land to be felled due to these creatures. But there must be a central nest of these pinpoint-sized evil things, and it was her task to find it.

She sent her sentries to search the Land far and wide, and finally reports came in as to a very damp, hideous place that no insects, no matter how dark they may seem, would normally tread. There was not a flower or blade of grass in sight, just a vast pool of dark mud. And this pool was filled with millions, her sentry reported, of the tiny pinprick creatures. "They are smaller than flea dirt!" he cried, "And infinitely more disgusting!"

Jessie was working hard on her training exercises, and she'd begun to master the harnessing of her butterfly's flight. But was she ready, at the young age of fourteen, to lead an attack on the creatures that lived in the blackest part of the Land?

*****Stay tuned for Part 2*******

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