𝓢𝓱𝓸𝓻𝓽 𝓢𝓽𝓸𝓻𝓲𝓮𝓼 (𝓸𝓯 𝓪𝓵𝓵 𝓼𝓸𝓻𝓽𝓼)

ℱ𝒶𝒾𝓇𝒾ℯ𝓈 - 𝒜 ℒℴ𝓋ℯ 𝒮𝓉ℴ𝓇𝓎

When butterflies and moths cross the border of day and night, it has been chosen that as a punishment they may lose their wings.

In faeryland, moths are only allowed to go out at night time.
As she is looking at the stars, she waits for the sun to rise and for the butterflies to wake up. Curious as she is, she hides in the shadows of the trees in the forest and quietly watches the butterflies work. Going from tree to tree, she often loses her sense of time, and soon the night replaces the day.
Tired from her wandering, the little moth fairy slowly flies back to work.

The moths and the butterflies both have the same job : to watch over their home, the forest. The little moth's favorite place is on a little hill, at the back of the forest, where she has a beautifulview of both the forest and the stars. She often lays there for hours, until she falls asleep surrounded by the darkness of the night and the twinkling light of the stars.
She has never seen any other moth on this hill, probably because it was too far away from the center of the forest, where they all lived together. She found this spot on accident, while she was following the butterflies during the day and since then, she comes here every night.
Every night, she wishes to the stars that a lost butterfly finds her and approaches her.

That night, as she was about to sleep, she saw in between two flowers a weak light moving slowly to where she was standing. Curious, she got up and slowly approched the flowers. The thing that was moving towards her suddenly stopped. Without saying a word, the moth moved a petal from the roses that was blocking her view.

There, right in front of her, was standing a butterfly fairy, hiding her face with her wings.

Beautiful.

was the first thing the little moth thought.

Very slowly, not wanting to scare away the butterfly, the little moth took a step forward and extended one of her arms. The butterfly finally moved her wings away from her face and stared at the little moth in awe. The little moth's hand found its way to the butterfly's face, gently caressing her cheek almost like she was afraid to hurt her.

They stayed like that for hours. Scared of the other one running away, not wanting to hurt each other and simply amazed by the other's presence. Finally they started talking. And none of them ran away.

They met every night at the hill and talked for hours. The butterfly always had to go before the day started, so they did everything they could, talked about everything they could talk about, not wanting to waste time during the night.The little moth showed the butterfly how beautiful the forest was at night. The way the fireflies lighted up the sky, the way the lake reflected the moonlight and all the little things she knew. The butterfly talked about how it was during the day and how the butterflies all worked together. Everything was just so perfect.

They had known each other for months now. They had never missed a day. So why was she not coming ?

The little moth was waiting alone on the hill, her anxiety growing more each minute. Hours passed and she started looking everywhere near the hill for the butterfly fairy. But she did not find her. Did she not want to see her anymore ? But... why ?

Weeks passed and there was no trace of the butterfly. The little moth never stopped going to the hill everynight, hoping that she would come. She searched for her during the night, and during the day while hiding in the shadows but never saw her. She was starting to lose hope.

But one night, as she was sadly looking at the stars from the hill, she saw her again. There she was, standing, but something was off. Her face was red, she was sweating, and seemed extremely tired.
The little moth quickly flied over to her and gave her a hug. She couldn't believe that she was finally here again. She was so happy.
But a few seconds into the hug, the butterfly started crying.
It was then that the moth realised,

"Where are her wings ?".

Author : Alex D. Linson