It was such a beautiful morning. The air was pleasant. The sky was cloudless. The honey-suckle smelled so GOOD.
It was perfect and Kayli closed her eyes to soak it all in as she reclined on a tree branch. The birdsong floating on a refreshing breeze...
Suddenly, the atmosphere in the grove sharpened. -followed quickly by the frantic exodus of all the wildlife in the vicinity. 'Uh oh,' Kayli thought, and just as the thought surfaced, a VERY angry sounding voice echoed throughout the woods.
"OBERON!"
Kayli reluctantly sat up on her branch and looked over to where her best friend Callum had perched. "That's my cue!" she said with a voice full of apology and regret. "Next time?"
Callum didn't even open his eyes. "Sure," he said although they both knew -with tensions as high as they have been- it would be a long time before the two of them could enjoy one peaceful uninterrupted morning.
"You'd better hurry," Callum stated blandly and Kayli rolled unceremoniously unceremoniously off of the branch.
She barely opened her wings -just a little- just enough to ease her rough landing a bit as she landed hard and rolled to absorb the impact. Standing up and brushing herself off, Kayli heard a dark chuckle as Callum fluttered (yes FLUTTERED) to a graceful landing nearby.
"Show off," Kayli muttered in vexation as she observed his confidence and grace. -his perfectly formed NORMAL wings.
Callum smirked and lifted one perfectly arched brow. "You could have flown down. You are the one that decided laughing at Death sounded more amusing." His smirk fell and his brow darkened. "I don't know why you won't open your wings. It's such a waste how you let them wither away hanging limply down your back."
Kayli glared at her best friend. "You KNOW why."
Callum's wings drooped in dejection but he smoothly covered the emotion by fussily folding and tucking them against his shoulder blades. Kayli released a wistful sigh when he was done as she noticed for probably the millionth time that the drape of his folded wings only reached his mid thigh.
Looking over her shoulder she could see that her own pair of curses dragged along the ground stirring up forest debri. Kayli sighed again and started walking.
Callum didn't have to go with her, but he knew that look in her eyes. He was sorry he had pushed her. He DID know why Kayli kept her beautiful wings folded away. He DID know why she had climbed the beech tree they'd reclined in this morning. He DID know why she was the only fairy that walked on the ground instead of soaring through the treetops. -so he would walk with her. It was the least he could do.
"I'm sorry," Callum whispered. Kayli pretended she hadn't heard but her mind trailed back to the day she "lost" her wings.
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She had always been different. Her wings were the largest anyfae had ever seen. Instead of the colorful and enviably proportionate wings other fae possessed, Kayli's wings were dark and massive. It had never bothered her before...
The day that changed Kayli's life had started out much the same as any other day. -but it had quickly become anything BUT any other day.
She had been flying. It was summer and the sun had felt so good on her wings. Then, without warning, a tightly woven net had crashed into her and she was suspended in it at the end of a long pole held by...
a HUMAN.
She barely pulled her glamour on before an old human with round spectacles (she thought maybe he was male but didn't think any further in her terror) brought his face close to the net.
"What do we have here?" he'd asked, but did't seem to need an answer as he continued. "A young female Ornithopterae alexandra."
Wait, what?
"What are you doing here my dear?" he'd asked. Why is he talking to me? Kayli panicked. She covertly glanced down and saw that her glamour was good. Even to her own eye her body had elongated and thinned in appearance. Dark thorax instead of fae chest, creamy colored abdomen where once there had been fae and legs. Six whisper thin "legs" where moments ago had been only two fae arms and two fae legs.
The untrained eye wouldn't see the telltale shimmer around the edges. The untrained eye would see...
a butterfly.
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Kayli didn't make a sound. She watched warily as the human reached into the net to grab her. She could see other fae folk in their glamours just out of reach of the long butterfly net. -hidden behind leaves and branches, too afraid to come to her aid.
The man (that's what they call themselves right?) was very careful with her as he brought her out of the net, but she was too terrified to notice. Instead, she lay across his palm in terror trying for all she was worth to act like a butterfly. 'Be the butterfly. Be the butterfly . Be...' her thoughts died as well as the breath in her chest as she felt something soft splay out her wings.
She lay perfectly still clinging to his rough weathered hand with true fear in her heart. Suddenly, she heard a series of alien sounding clicks and jolted out of her terror induced paralysis. Jumped into the air and launched into the sky and away.
"It was nice to meet you Queen Alexandra!" he called after her -tucking some small boxy object into a black structured bag. She flew faster.
As she reached the trees, the other fae, who had watched on in safety, scattered before her as she neared them. Alone and traumatized, she had released her glamour and curled up with her knees to her heaving chest as she sobbed. She had vowed then to never show her wings again.
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Shaking out of her dark memories, Kayli looked over to a morose looking Callum. "It's ok, Dove." Callum's eyes crackled fire at the nickname he hated. "You can go back. I'm already here, I'll be fine," she told him.
The flames in his eyes cooled as he smiled at her. "Go well, Kayli." -and then he was gone.
Sighing deeply, Kayli turned back toward the center of the grove. With resignation, she began the long climb up to The Bower. To her queen.
'What's he done this time?'
A/N: the picture included in illustration of the "Queen Alexandra Birdwing Butterfly" was sourced from this site - https://entomologymanchester.wordpress.com/2010/04/27/the-queen-alexandras-birdwing/amp/
