The Field, The Butterflies And The Dragon

Foreward

For those of you who don't know, the book The Butterfly Dragon I: Heroes Of Our Own is about two girls who befriend each other early in life. At that time they have a profound impact upon one another and some important life decisions that they must make related to their future. As a child one of those girls (Ai Yuanlin Ying who would become known as Heylyn Yates) used to hear a bedtime story from her Mother that has been handed down from generation to generation. This is a recreation of that story. I have opted for large print in the web version to make it appear more like story book format.

Despite the fact that this story is a safe read for children, keep in mind that much of the content on this site is targeted at a mature audience. Most certainly we would advise adult accompaniment for this story and discretion for other content on this site.

If you would prefer to read this story an ebook reader or other device, the ebook version can be downloaded from the Google Play store (for free).

The Field, The Butterflies And The Dragon

by Brian Joseph Johns

Dedicated to Universal Children's Day

The Field... 

This tale is about a large field where many creatures lived

and to the things that lived there the field was their entire world.

All of the creatures that lived there lived there in harmony,

and some were more dangerous than others.

They still managed to live together peacefully.

There were the creepy crawly ants with their long antennas.

There were the slimy worms with rings around their bodies.

There were the buzzing hornets with their sharp stingers.

There were the slithering snakes with their tough scales.

There were the squeaking mice with their sensitive whiskers.

There were the soaring birds with their plumage of feathers.

And there were the butterflies with their grace, beauty and artistry.

They had no enemies and the field would provide all of the food that they needed to grow up and have children, starting the whole cycle over again.

It was very peaceful there until one day the animal collectors happened upon this field.

A very vile group of animal collectors whose cruelty was without equal would collect the most beautiful specimens of each of the creatures and keep them trapped inside of a jar while they tormented them.

These cruel animal collectors would show up and claim one of the most beautiful of each of the creatures from the field young and old alike every time, taking them away never to be seen again where they were kept in a jar while they were tormented and exploited for the benefit of the animal collectors.

The creatures had a meeting and every one of them that lived in the field showed up.

The creatures tried to figure out what they were going to do about these cruel animal collectors.

The mice said: The snakes can bite them.

The snakes replied: They're too big. They will throw us and stomp on us.

The worms said: The birds can eat them.

To which the birds replied: They're too big. They will hunt us down and capture us too.

The ants said: The hornets can sting them.

To which the hornets said: They're too big. They will smack us with their hand and we'd have to say "bye bye".

The birds said: The mice can scare them.

The mice replied: They're too big. They'll just jump on us and squash us flat.

Then the butterflies said: We can stop them.

To which the rest of the creatures laughed asking them:

What ever can a butterfly do?

All you have is grace, beauty and artistry?

The butterflies left the meeting feeling worthless and like they could not help because they could not do anything but be graceful, beautiful, artistic and vain while all the other creatures could at least do something.

...The Butterflies...

One night the butterflies got together and decided to make a cocoon.

When they made it they included an antenna from the ants,

a whisker from the mice, a feather from the birds,

a stinger from the hornets, the ring from one of the worms,

and the scale from one of the snakes, and a pair of their wings.

Then they left it to grow and grow it did.

One day the cruel animal collectors returned to the field to collect one of each of the rest of the creatures.

Each of the creatures was put in the jar as the next one was collected.

When the animal collectors went to take a butterfly the already humongous cocoon opened.

...And The Dragon...

Out came a ferocious Dragon.

The Dragon had the wings of a butterfly so it was beautiful.

It's butterfly's wings had the feathers of a bird so it could fly.

It had the scales of a snake so its skin was tough.

It had the antennas of an ant so it could read minds.

It had the whiskers of a mouse, so it could sense danger from afar.

It had the rings of a worm, so it could heal very quickly,

And It had the stinger of a hornet so it was deadly.

The Dragon said to the cruel animal collectors:

You've taken one each of the creatures of the field.

You may keep each one but for a price.

For the mouse, I will take your left leg.

For the worm, I will take your right leg.

For the ant I will take your left arm.

For the bird I will take your right arm.

For the snake I will take your neck

and for the butterfly I will take your head.

The animal collectors dropped all of the creatures they'd collected that day and tried to run before they were stopped again by the Dragon.

The Dragon spoke:

For all of the creatures that you've already taken I will take your lives.

The animal collectors cried:

No, no! We shall return them at once.

The animal collectors returned a short time later with all of the creatures they'd collected and set them free though the creatures had been tormented to no end and were emotionally frail and distraught.

The Dragon then asked the returned creatures whether the animal collectors should be allowed to go free or to pay the price to which the creatures replied...

After the creatures had made their decision the creatures of the field never laughed at the butterflies from that day forth and they lived happily ever more.

The End

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