Chronicles of Eden - Act V

by Alexander Gordon

  *****

  “Wow,” Daniel said in wonder, his eyes staring nearly straight up as the group approached the edge of Flairwood. As they did he and Alyssa saw just how monumental the grove’s surrounding trees really were. The towering lumber stood high above the coppice’s inner trees, with each one of the colossal timbers appearing to be a mile wide and reaching high up into the sky near the clouds. Light managed to pierce through the widespread branches and enormous leaves the trees had up above however only small beams here and there reached all the way down through the canopy. What really illuminated the grove were softly glowing blooms of green and yellow lights that drifted around in the air above. Each one seemed to cast the area around it with a warm light while those that floated by sunbeams from above radiated with a sparkly bloom.

  “I’ve never seen anything like this,” Alyssa said softly.

  “What are those glowing lights?” Daniel asked pointing to the gently floating glowing orbs.

  “I dunno,” Luna replied with a shrug.

  “They say this grove was once inhabited by magical monsters,” Falla explained. “When the first giant butterflies came and found this place it was abandoned, but those glowing lights always remained. They’ve been there forever, they never fade or go away. But they never cause any problems. You could wave your hand right through one without a scratch, so we didn’t find them to be a threat.”

  “That’s incredible,” Daniel said before looking up again. “And these trees, how did they get to be so big?”

  “I dunno,” Luna replied with a shrug.

  “They’ve always been that way,” Falla answered. “They protect and hide our home from the outside world. This is our haven where we can live in peace.”

  As the caravan was pulled along by Lucky towards the grove they saw that the village of trees nestled together under the towering lumber all around were taller than normal trees as well. Many of them had wooden balconies and porches built into the sides of their wide trunks while the fluttering wings of giant butterflies started to be seen amongst the orchard and glowing lights.

  “I think I see them,” Daniel said peering ahead. “Giant butterflies.”

  “Alright, hold on a minute,” Falla ordered before she fluttered over in front of the group and held out her hands. Alyssa snapped the reins to get Lucky to stop as Falla glanced back to the village then to Daniel with a stern expression.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked while Luna watched her sister curiously.

  “We need to get a few rules set here before you enter,” Falla firmly stated. “I agreed to help you speak to our kind, and I meant it. However I’m not going to have you causing trouble with those that live here or ruining anything for them in the process.”

  “What do you mean?” Daniel asked shaking his head.

  “What do you think we’re going to do in there anyway?” Alyssa questioned with a raised eyebrow. “Start a fight with a giant butterfly or something?”

  “That’s not what I meant,” Falla snapped then quickly fluttered over in front of Daniel with an accusing glare. “Now you listen to me, Daniel. Inside this grove there are human men, just like you.”

  “There are? Here?”

  “Yes, here. And you’re not to say a single word to any of them, understand?”

  “Why not?” Daniel and Alyssa asked together.

  “Because the men here are with giant butterflies,” Falla explained. “Ones that they chose to be with for one reason or another.”

  “For one reason or another?” Daniel repeated.

  “It’s simple, Daniel,” Falla replied crossing her arms. “We giant butterflies will do anything to get a man, as I’m sure you remember from when you first met me.”

  “You lied and said you were in danger of dying unless I had sex with you,” Daniel recalled.

  “Yes. We have no magic, no real strength, nothing but our beauty and cunning to get a man’s seed. So that’s what we do, we lie. We lie and say whatever we have to in order to get the men to mate with us.”

  “So you’re all lying monsters,” Alyssa clarified dryly. “You being the sneaky rat you were before is how all giant butterflies are, isn’t it?”

  “Like witches are any more noble,” Falla snapped at her. “The point is the men here are with my kind because of one lie or another. Maybe they were told they would remain forever young, or would be given wealth and riches for helping raise a family. Or maybe they were told having sex with a giant butterfly would give them immortality, who knows.”

  “Those were some very specific examples,” Alyssa commented.

  “It’s what we’re taught in school,” Luna explained, with Daniel and Alyssa looking to her bewilderedly. “Those are the usual lines that work with humans. We also learn how to tie humans up so they can’t get away when we catch them.”

  “What?” Daniel asked with disbelief.

  “Yeah, though I was never really good at that part,” Luna said looking to her hands confusedly. “I could never get the knots right, I kept tying my hands together every time I tried it.”

  “You’re taught to lie through your teeth in your schools?” Alyssa asked. “And also to tie men down so you can rape them?”

  “You have a school?” Daniel asked curiously.

  “Of course we do,” Falla scoffed. “When we’re little we go to school and learn how to charm and lie to a human to get his seed. It’s very important for our young to know that their success at having a future, for helping all giant butterflies have a future, is to be as cunning and enchanting as possible. We’re taught to be as sexy with men as we can, to say whatever line is needed to get the man to want us, and to tie them down to keep them if it comes to that.”

  “You’re teaching them how to be rapists,” Alyssa dryly pointed out.

  “It’s how we survive!” Falla shouted out at her. “Again, witches rape humans all the time. You use your magic and innocent appearance to charm men and then fuck them, and don’t lie and say you don’t!”

  Alyssa huffed and looked down and away with annoyance as she knew she couldn’t defend that while Daniel watched Falla carefully.

  “So you’re saying there are men held hostage in there?” he questioned. “Like how the ant girls keep men in their mating dens underground?”

  “They’re not held hostage, Daniel,” Falla explained. “They want to be here, because of something they were told by my sisters. And until you can really get mankind to coexist peacefully with us and also have them want to mate with our kind without us lying to them, then you are not to say a word to any of them, got that? You cannot take away what we have until you can guarantee that humans will stay with us of their own free will.”

  “Falla, they need to know the truth.”

  “And they can, provided you win over the monarch with your wild idea of peaceful coexistence,” Falla reasoned factually. “Until then they’re needed by my sisters and our race, and having them the way we have them right now is our only option.”

  “Just talk to the monarch, Daniel,” Luna said hopefully. “Once you show her how to be good she can tell all our sisters to be honest with humans.”

  “And only speak to the monarch about your ideas,” Falla sternly added. “Not one single word to any other giant butterfly or we will not help your case with the monarch. I’ll tell everyone that you really are out of your mind and then you’re out of luck.”

  Daniel looked between the sisters with disbelief then towards the village while Falla watched him carefully. After a while Daniel sighed then nodded with closed eyes.

  “Alright, I understand,” he solemnly agreed. “You need the men to keep breeding with; right now it’s your only way of surviving. But if I am able to convince your monarch that we can coexist peacefully, without all the lying and raping, then all those men will be told the truth. Deal?”

  “Daniel,” Falla replied with a smirk. “If you manage to convince my monarch of your wild theories, I’ll tell all those men the truth
personally.”

  “Then it’s a deal,” Daniel said looking towards the village again. “We won’t talk to any of the humans there, we won’t even go near them. Where does the monarch live? We’ll head straight there and talk to her right away.”

  “It’s towards the back of the village. But first, we need to have another talk, with all of you,” Falla answered with a raised eyebrow at him, electing confused expression from both Daniel and Alyssa while Luna was absentmindedly trying to tie an imaginary rope around with her hands and seeming to struggle with it greatly.

  *****

  Inside the stationary caravan at the edge of Flairwood everyone was gathered around the table, with Pip still asleep on a small pillow resting near the open map. Luna had at this point seemed to tie an imaginary rope around her wrists and was fidgeting and whining as she panicked about being stuck even though she wasn’t, however given her nature everyone paid the troubled butterfly no mind as they were more focused on what Falla had brought them together for.

  “Okay,” Falla said while drumming her fingers on the table. “I want this trip to go smoothly and quickly at Flairwood. You can only imagine how difficult my visits here are with my… unique sister, and that puts a lot of pressure on me with the butterfly community as it is.”

  “Falla,” Luna whined while hopping up and down, hands still held together as she showed a sorrowful face. “How do I untie them again? I forgot.”

  “As you can see, she’s always a handful,” Falla dryly said gesturing to her sister. “And the second we are seen in the village everyone’s going to be on alert, not from you but from her. I’m going to pause for a second to let the fact my sister is going to cause more concern in the village than the rest of you coming here sink in.”

  “So she stays here, right?” Alyssa reasoned with a shrug.

  “I don’t wanna stay though,” Luna complained while hopping about, still holding her hands together from the invisible binds. “This is my home too. I want to go see everyone. Especially the princess, I’ve missed her.”

  “No, she’s not staying,” Falla groaned with a hand over her eyes. “Thinking about it she could actually help Daniel if she gets the princess to side with him. So against my better judgment we’ll be taking her with us. But we’re not all going.”

  “What do you mean we’re not all going?” Triska inquired carefully.

  “Do you know what giant butterflies do when they sense danger coming?” Falla asked, getting only confused stares from everyone. “They fly away. We don’t fight, we don’t like confrontations. So we fly away. If I escort Daniel to the royal tree with all of you, they’re going to run away. Not to mention we’ll have her with us.” She pointed to Luna who was holding her bound hands together up to Squeak with watery eyes and whimpers, the ant girl merely glancing to her with a raised eyebrow as the butterfly hopped around a bit on her feet.

  “That alone is going to be a red flag for the other butterflies,” Falla explained.

  “Somewhat makes sense,” Specca reluctantly agreed while watching Luna. “But would your monarch and entire village really flee just from us?”

  “If they’re scared enough they will,” Falla reasoned. “They’ll come back… though no idea how long before they do. They’ll just take off into the taller trees surrounding this grove and wait for you all to leave, and likely take all their men with them as well. If they do that Daniel will never get a chance to speak to the monarch, and Luna and myself may not be welcome here ever again for bringing suspicious guests.”

  “Don’t you have any fighters at all?” Triska asked.

  “Look at us,” Falla replied gesturing over herself. “We’re made to be beautiful, not spill blood. No giant butterfly is going to want to fight anyone. I doubt any even know how to throw a punch. We either use our natural beauty, our quick tongues, or our wings to simply fly away from a troublesome situation.”

  “Sounds like they could use allies who aren’t afraid to fight then,” Specca reasoned. “That could be a good selling point you could make with the monarch, Daniel.”

  “Yeah, sure, add it to your list,” Falla droned while waving off Daniel. “The point here is that we’re not all going to march through the village and cause a panic. So first, Alyssa, you’re staying here outside of Flairwood.”

  “And just why am I doing that?” Alyssa asked.

  “Two reasons,” Falla said before pointing to Pip. “One, make sure that fairy does not start molesting the butterflies of this grove when she wakes up or else we’re all screwed. And two, make sure your horse doesn’t get spooked or else we’re definitely screwed.”

  Alyssa glanced to Pip questionably from that while Falla turned to Specca and Squeak with a smirk.

  “You two are going into town, but not with us,” Falla ordered.

  “What do you mean?” Specca asked while Squeak tilted her head curiously. “What are we going to be doing?”

  “You’re going shopping,” Falla answered with a slick grin.

  “Shopping?”

  “Yes, shopping,” Falla said glancing over to the couch at the side of the room. “You see, Luna gets the couch every night and I get the floor with a blanket. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful you at least allow me to sleep inside at night, but I want something better than the floor. You two are going shopping for a second bed.”

  Everyone just stared at her with blank expressions while Luna was furiously trying to wrestle her hands free from her imaginary binds.

  “What?” Triska flatly asked.

  “A bed?” Alyssa repeated.

  “Yes, a bed,” Falla snapped at her. “We can move the couch over there by the table against the wall, and we can put another bed over there for me and my sister to sleep on. It’s the least you can do for all that I’ve done with helping you and getting Daniel to see my monarch.”

  “I’m not sure where to begin criticizing this request of yours,” Specca dryly commented.

  “Falla,” Daniel tiredly said. “We don’t really have that much spending money.”

  “And how are we supposed to get a second bed in through there?” Specca asked pointing to the entryway of the cabin.

  “Not to mention I thought you would be taking your sister home to stay there after we arrived,” Triska mentioned with a raised eyebrow.

  “No!” Luna whined while hopping up and down. “I don’t want to say goodbye now, I want to stay! Pretty please? Please!”

  The group watched her bounce around as she tried to free her hands still then looked to Falla as she sighed and shook her head.

  “My sister has really taken a liking to all of you,” she explained. “And she’s so damned convinced of Daniel’s belief she wants to stay with him and help however she can. I don’t think anyone of us can convince her to go, and if she’s staying then of course I have to as well. The poor thing wouldn’t survive without- Luna!” Everyone watched as Luna looked to her sister curiously and stopped hopping around. Falla reluctantly waved her over, with Luna then slowly walking closer and holding out her hands to her sister.

  “Stop playing with rope, alright?” Falla flatly said as she used her hands to untie the imaginary rope. Luna looked at her free hands with wonder then started bouncing around with a giddy laugh.

  “Yay! Thank you, sister!”

  The group just watched her jumping around with blank expressions, with the girl breaking out into maniacal laughter as her wings fluttered behind her, then turned to Falla as the girl watched her sister with a dull stare.

  “Bottom line, she’ll be sad if we go. So… yeah, a new bed is an order.”

  Everyone looked to each other then to Daniel as he watched Luna jumping around joyously, the butterfly girl then hopping over next to him and giggling with a timid smile. He glanced to Falla as the girl raised an eyebrow at him while crossing her arms.

  “A new bed, or you have to break her heart,” she concluded.

  Daniel sighed quietly and looked up realizing he was back
ed into a corner with this one.

  “Alright,” he reluctantly agreed. “You two have been behaving while traveling with us, and you are helping out greatly by letting me speak to your monarch. If you two wish to keep aiding us with our journey you can stay, the more proof we have to show the world the better I suppose.”

  The other girls glanced to each other then looked at Luna while showing some obvious concern.

  “Well,” Specca slowly spoke. “I suppose there is no real harm allowing them to continue traveling with us. Like he said, the more… proof, the better.”

  “We have to keep kicking them out when we want to have sex with Daniel though,” Alyssa whined.

  “At least they leave peacefully when we tell them to,” Triska reasoned with a shrug. “They haven’t crossed any lines when we’re with Daniel. If he says they can stay then I’m fine with that.”

  Squeak rolled her eyes and squeaked something before looking away and crossing her arms with a pout. After a while she closed her eyes and nodded once with a quiet squeak.

  “But how are we going to buy a new bed and get it in here?” Daniel asked out loud.

  “Her,” Falla said pointing to Squeak. That only got confused stares from everyone as Falla smirked at the girl. “She’s the answer to both of those problems.”

  “Falla,” Specca warned sternly. “If you’re insinuating that we’re going to have Squeak drag a whole bed here just for you and your sister then you are sorely mistaken.”

  “Wouldn’t Alyssa’s magic make that easier anyway?” Triska asked.

  “I’m not moving any furniture for them,” Alyssa dryly answered. “Besides, I have to stay here and keep an eye on our faithful horse and the perverted fairy, remember?”

  “You’re not understanding me here,” Falla assured holding her hands up. “First off everything in our village is done and made to order for special customers like her. That means the sellers of a fine sleeping bed for me and my dear sister will come here and set it up for you. She won’t have to lift a finger.”