The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Hidden in Plain Sight

[Sophia]

We put our exercises on hold as we were too excited to help teach Teri how to fly. Now that we knew she could get up into the air, it was time to actually start teaching her how to fly. We went out to the waterfall, by the cliffs of the lake where there was more space. (And less for Teri to crash into.)

From here, Teri's goal was to launch herself off the cliffs, fly in a big circle and touch back down where she started. Simple.

I watched as Teri pulled water from the falls, forming them into her wings and stepping up to the edge of the cliffs. We all looked over the edge together as Teri backed up nervously, unsure if jumping off of a tall cliff was really the best way to do this. While, yes, we could understand Teri's nervousness, this was the best area where she had plenty of space to practice without any obstacles in front of her. Not to mention me, Apollo, or the twins would be here to catch and bring her back to safety if anything went wrong. But Teri was still nervous. I decided to demonstrate her flight path by jumping off the cliff with no hesitation, yelling happily as I descended, before pulling myself up into the air and gliding around in a long circle, heading back towards the cliff, pulling my legs up and landing neatly with a cool skid on the ground.

Apollo helped explain that much like swimming, you have to control your whole body to move in the direction you want to. It's not just about your wings. When you want to move left or right, you have to lean your entire body in that direction. Your wings have the strength to carry you, but if you don't use your entire body, you'll only end up flying in a straight line. Or fall straight down and crash. Apollo was better at explaining it than me, but it helped Teri understand. The twins added that she didn't need to dive straight off the cliff if she didn't want to. They demonstrated by simply jumping into the air, using their wings to gain altitude, before tilting their bodies forward and gliding downwards. They flew around in a circle, before picking themselves back up and landing more softly on the edge of the cliff. This restored a bit more confidence in Teri and she decided to give it a try. Apollo also told her to keep her head up and not look down. Focus on where you want to go and where you want to land. He heaved himself off the cliff and hovered in the air a ways out so he could fly alongside Teri to help guide her.

The twins and I watched in anticipation as Teri focused on controlling her wings to heave herself into the air. Once she got high enough, Apollo called out to her to lean forward and just go. Teri did so, trying her best to keep her arms and wings steady as she rushed forward. Apollo flew up beside her and we watched as he guided Teri in a long circle. I could see her struggling a little bit while turning, but it seemed like Apollo was able to help her relax before they headed back towards us. While Apollo landed neatly, Teri scrambled and stumbled as she hit the ground, but the second she stopped, she started laughing. We all came over and cheered her for a successful first flight.

Afterwards, we all took turns flying with her, jumping off the cliff and going around, lap after lap. And with each attempt, she got better at keeping steady and leaning her body at the right time to turn when she needed to. I could tell she was starting to like this flying thing more and more.

After a while, we decided to take a break. We sat down near by the tree lines and I pulled out a bunch of snacks from my bag and tossed them to everyone as we made ourselves comfortable. Apollo suggested I move over into the shade so I wouldn't get sunburnt and I agreed. Teri asked us more questions about flying.

"So... how did you guys learn how to fly? I mean, if you didn't have anyone else to teach you... how did you do it?"

All of us thought for a second.

"You know... I'm not really sure." Apollo started. "I think maybe because we were born with wings, we probably just had like a... natural sense? Or something? I don't really know, but it feels something like that."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Sure, we didn't have anyone else to teach us how to fly, but we kinda just... learned how to do it ourselves at some point. And then, you know, the more you do it, the easier it is to just... fly better? I dunno. But kinda like that, I guess." I added.

"Hm... yeah, I guess that makes sense. What about you two?" Teri asked the twins. "How did you learn to fly if you lived in a cave for most of your life?"

The twins thought for a moment.

"I think I agree on what they said. Since we already had wings, we just figured it out at some point."

"We know there's not a lot of room down there to actually do any flying. But there are some spots where it's easy to just glide and... yeah, I think we just figured it out from there."

"It's definitely much better and way easier to fly around up here. So much more space. Sure, there's all the trees in the way, but this spot right here is definitely the best for taking off and getting real high into the air." they spoke in turn.

"Hmm..... Hey, do you guys remember the first time you learned how to fly? Like take off, stay in the air and land without falling or... crashing?" Teri asked.

Apollo set his bag of chips down and nodded.

"Yeah, actually, I think I do. Both Sophie and I were pretty young at the time. But both our wings were starting to grow a lot bigger and we were really excited to actually start flying, so we used to start jumping off the ground and seeing how high we could get up into the air."

"Didn't we start jumping off of the tree house so we could get higher?" I asked.

Apollo pointed at me.

"That's right! We started jumping off of higher places to see how long we could get in the air!"

Teri and the twins looked at us in surprise.

"That almost sounds a little dangerous. Didn't you ever crash or get hurt?" Teri asked nervously.

Apollo and I both nodded.

"Oh, yeah. Well, we didn't exactly crash since we had our wings, so if we ever thought we were gonna fall on the ground, pushing our wings really hard towards the ground kinda saved us from basically breaking our legs." Apollo explained.

"Yeah. I mean, we definitely had some scraps and stuff on our knees, but it really wasn't as bad as you think." I added.

"No, but seriously, if like, an adult saw us jumping off of stuff like that, they would start freaking out so much."

"You know, it is kinda stupid that we tried to do that now that I think about it. I'm surprised we didn't break anything."

We all laughed for a moment before continuing.

"But yeah, when we figured out how to stay in the air without falling, it wasn't that hard to figure out how to glide around the lake. It definitely gets easier when you get older and your wings are big enough to carry you." Apollo explained.

I nodded in agreement. Teri looked over at the twins.

"Was it the same for you guys?" she asked.

The twins nodded.

"Yeah, pretty much."

"It's definitely easier when your wings get big enough."

"I don't remember the first time we actually managed to get off of the ground, or even go across a certain distance, but it definitely had to have been some time ago."

While everyone continued to share stories, the memory of the first time I figured out how to fly came to me easily. I could've told them about it if I wanted to, but... this particular event was something not even Apollo knew about.

When we were kids, we tried day after day to start flying when we noticed our wings getting bigger, and it's true we would jump off of high places to see how long we would stay in the air. But Apollo was more successful than I was since he was taller than me. I could only seem to hover for a moment before falling to the ground out of exhaustion. I admit, I was a little frustrated that he was able to learn how to fly before I did. I was happy for him, but no matter how many times I jumped off of the tree house, I still couldn't do it. Apollo told me I probably just needed to wait until my wings got a little bigger. I had a feeling he was right, but as a kid, you don't wanna wait for anything.

At the same time, we had this cute little wagon that we used to help carry our groceries around. And a little ways past the tree house, there was this big hill where we'd sometimes drag the wagon up to, climb into it and ride it all the way down super fast for fun. We put a rock at the bottom to stop us before we went too far and we'd spend all day dragging the wagon up the hill and riding down it over and over.

One day, Apollo went out on his own because we'd forgotten a couple things, but he said he didn't need the wagon. I stayed behind because I didn't feel like going out and I got the idea to take the wagon out myself while I waited for Apollo to come home. I went up and down that hill so many times. But at one point, I pulled the wagon a little farther back on the hill so I could go down faster. But when I went down the hill... I felt a large bump.

And I kept going.

I must've rolled straight over the rock that was supposed to stop me and I started freaking out. I grabbed the handle and started steering myself away from trees, rolling over bump after bump. I thought at some point I would slow down and stop, but I kept going down smaller hills, gaining momentum, picking up more speed. I knew if I stopped myself too soon, I'd launch myself in the air and get seriously hurt.

Everything happened so fast.

I saw sunlight as I rolled out of the tree line.

And I suddenly felt weightless.

As the wagon and I went straight off the edge of the cliff.

Somehow, out of instinct, I jumped out of the wagon and extended my wings as far as they could go. The wagon crashed through the trees to the ground below as I leaned my body and started gliding over the lake. I almost didn't believe what was happening. I flew around in circles so many times with ease until I eventually landed back on the cliff. I was yelling excitedly all the way back to the tree house. And luckily, Apollo didn't seem to notice the wagon was missing.

I told him that I had finally learned to fly and we spent the rest of the afternoon flying around together.

But I never told him it was because I almost could've died.

And I decided it wasn't really important for them to know how I actually learned to fly.

Afterwards, it was back to the flying lessons. Teri and Apollo flew around in larger circles. Teri was testing out adding and subtracting water from her wings to make them bigger or smaller and seeing the difference it made while flying. The twins were sitting on the edge of the cliff, watching them go around. I was standing behind them a little further back, not really paying much attention. I started picking up small rocks and tossing them into the rushing river, hoping one of them might skip across to the other side, but they just made funny sounds as they sank in the water. I gazed to my left, seeing the twins by the cliff, Teri and Apollo in the air, and the endless sky above me. I looked in front of me, staring at the river going over the falls before looking at the other side, trying to see how far I could look into the trees.

To my right, I suddenly heard strange thudding on the ground.

I turned... just to be met with the claws of a Shadovian stretched towards me, jaws open as it screeched into my ears.

I didn't process the information in time.