Lolita gets clever

With  five hundred and fifty five  sacks of nectar  collected, I only have six more to go. Then I will be  collector of the week, Horace thought as he paused for a break.

It was humid and hot, not two of his favourite words but work was work and families had mouths and they needed to be fed.

He paused and with a neat flick his strawlike tongue zipped outwards and got …nada… zilch…nothing.

Again, it can’t be happening again. Oh gosh, that’s the third time today. I’m overworked, I’m finished I won’t make the top of the pollen charts today or tomorrow. I must be ill. As he ranted and raved, a strange noise caught his attention. He paused and looked about him. The other insects around were mostly bees or the odd horsefly, but he could have sworn he heard a giggle. He didn’t see anyone watching him.

“Oh god, its worse than I thought, I’m going cuckoo, mad, batty.” He shuddered – he hated bats.

Horace considered his options. To return home now would be to admit total and utter defeat.  “I’m not a quitter, ” he muttered. “I’ll move on to the next plant and try once more.”

Horace waited for the wind to lift and like the other butterflies about him he had a knack of taking off just at the right moment. However, today when he stretched his wings for take off, he noticed that something was not quite right. I feel as though I am gaining weight. Must go back to  Moving and Meditating Classes, they did me good the last time. He decided as he flew on to the next plant.

He landed with a thump and gave himself a minute. He closed his eyes and pictured a calm scene. Night time and his bed.

Meanwhile Lolita ladybug had unattached herself from him and was busy collecting nectar. Horace is exceptionally stupid, he closes his eyes for a minute each time he lands. She hummed as she worked.

Butterflies were famous for being less than clever but today she had hit the jackpot, so far she had robbed Horace of six sacks of nectar and if she played her cards right he would even give her a ride back home.

The sun was dropping to its bed, the level of noise was dropping as most animals were settling down for the night.  Horace was almost home. He was exhausted and flying low to the ground. As he flew over a discarded bicycle he noticed a strange reflection. It can’t be me, I am never that shape, he thought and circled for a better look.

Lolita, I will fix her. But saying it and doing it are two very different things. Horace didn’t want to hurt her merely give her a fright. Suddenly he saw the perfect place to do it.  It was a steep climb but he made it. He dropped very low over the basin and with a huge effort gave his wings a shake. The sleepy ladybird slid off the end of his wing, the sacks of pollen followed her dropping through the air. As Lolita woke with a fright she began to scream.  Feeling the sudden rush of air, she began to flick her wings to stop her fall.  It was enough for Horace to turn around dive between her and the sacks and collect them with his outspread wings.

“Don’t mess with me again. I am not stupid.” Horace said as he turned for home.

With a shrug Lolita vowed she would have better luck tomorrow as she too made her way home.

 

 

Advertisement

Butterfly Hunt

Breeze sat up and looked about him.  He couldn’t see anything but he could hear a lot of soft whispering in the air.  Suddenly he heard a loud shout, “I see him. Over here.”

He smiled because it was Daisy-lyah’s voice. He thought they were looking for him. Breeze slid down the tree and got a nasty shock when Lilly ran past shouting, “Get out of the way Mr. Breeze. We want to catch him.”

“Catch who?” Breeze asked but the two girls had run deep into the wood. He followed.

It didn’t take him long to discover that they were chasing butterflies. Spot , a large colourful butterfly landed on Breeze’s nose.

“Help please. We don’t want to be caught and put in a cage.” Spot whispered.

Breeze frowned. “Why would they do that?”

“Homework, I heard them say. They are supposed to bring an animal to school for show and tell. I don’t want to be it.” The butterfly sat on Breeze’s shoulder. Spike popped out of Breeze’s pocket and looked at Spot then slipped back into the shirt pocket for another nap.

As Breeze walked about the forest an amazing thing happened, butterflies flew towards him and landed on him. Before long he was covered in colorful, beautiful, butterflies. He decided to walk to the witches house as he knew Elegant witch loved butterflies and she would help to hide them.

With the butterflies safely fluttering around Elegant who was sitting in the garden, Breeze went in search of Daisy-lyah and Lilly. He found them sitting on a fallen tree. They both looked grumpy.

“Hi, what is wrong?” He asked.

“We have nothing for show and tell. We were trying to catch butterflies but the stupid things kept flying away from us. We wouldn’t hurt them just put them in a cage for show and tell.”

“Ahh.” Breeze sat beside Lilly.

“What?” She asked.

“Butterflies are like fairies they don’t like to be trapped. Their wings would stop working. If you trapped them you would have damaged them.”

“We didn’t know. But what do we do now. We had a whole project written about butterflies.” Lilly kicked at a passing rabbit who dodged her foot.

“Lilly, be nice.” Breeze said.

She scowled.

“It is a big problem.”Daisy-lyah said.

Breeze suggested they  make butterflies. Lilly frowned, “The only butterflies I have made are butterfly cakes.”

Daisy-lyah laughed. “We will draw butterflies.”

They asked Breeze to help. He did. They drew many butterflies, then colored them in, cut them out and then fixed them with spiders cobweb string to thin sticks. When they held them, the paper butterflies swished and jiggled.

Lilly laughed. “They look nicer then the real butterflies.”

Breeze agreed and said, “Don’t tell Spot, Dot and Flitty that or they will be sad.”

The next day at school the two girls discovered their butterflies were the best animals at the show and tell. Matt had borrowed Smelly, the skunk, and he made the classroom smell so badly he was sent home.  Marigold, the elf, borrowed a hedgehog and when some of the children petted her, they cut their hands, so they were sent to the nurse.

The teacher told Lilly and Daisy-lyah they would have no homework for three nights because they had made such a safe choice. And best of all the butterflies were happy because the girls forgot all about them.

A Fairy Princess lands in the wood.

Breeze was woken by a strange noise, he sat up and looked around him.  He checked to make sure the world was okay. The sky was blue, in the distance he saw a lot of sleeping sheep and down below the wood was as he last saw it, green and quiet.

Then he heard it again.  He wondered had an elf come to play a trick on him. He decided to check it out. Elves, like his friend Ainion (which sounded like Eye-nee-on) tended to be a bit nasty with their tricks, they had a love of seeing misfortune happen to others which meant others ended up wet or cold or frozen solid for a while.

He crept through the wood and finally spotted her in a large clearing close to the center of the wood.

It was a fairy. She had light brown hair, twinkling eyes and a huge smile. Her wings were gossamer light and her skirt was colored like a rainbow. She was playing in the sunlight chasing a large butterfly. Breeze watched her for a while and noticed the most extraordinary thing. A sunbeam was following her!

When she moved to the left of the clearing the sunbeam danced after her, and when she walked forward the sunbeam danced after her. He smiled. A pair of blackbirds landed on the branch beside him and came to watch. Soon others joined them. The wood was filling up with birds, rabbits and then the branch groaned as Lisbeth and Matt climbed alongside Breeze.

Lisbeth said, “Is she a nasty witch in disguise? Maybe it is Lovisma.” Lisbeth shuddered.

Breeze said, “You stay here and I will find out.”

He slid down the tree trunk and said, “Hello. I am Breeze. ”

The fairy stopped moving and stared at him. She looked frightened.

Breeze said, “We were wondering who you are? We know the other fairies in the wood.” As he spoke he sat on the ground.

The tiny fairy seemed to relax when Breeze sat down. She said, “I am Daisy-Lyah. My job is to catch sunbeams and deliver them to woods. I do this every day. It is a tiring job. I stopped for a rest and found him.” She pointed at the large butterfly.

Lisbeth came to sit beside Breeze. “I never heard of a Fairy who was allowed to catch sunbeams.” Breeze said. “I thought only Princess’ were allowed to do that.”

“My full name is Princess Daisy-Lyah.” Daisy-Lyah said. “But if I say that people laugh. And I don’t like people laughing at me.”

“I won’t laugh cos it is a beautiful name. I’m Lisbeth. Can I play too?” Lisbeth asked.

Daisy-Lyah said, “Yes please it is always better when more people play.”

And so it was that Lisbeth found a new playmate. Daisy-Lyah came often to the wood after that and Tulip always made sure there was plenty of toffee topped fairy cakes for Daisy-Lyah to eat and take home with her.

 

Story inspired by comment from blog site; little things and me