The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Second Guess

[Sophia]

I had just climbed down from a nearby tree and made my way over to the tree house. Apollo was above, doing his own thing and I noticed that the Twins were approaching me.

"Hey Sophia, can we talk to you for a moment?" they asked me. I looked up.

"Yeah, sure."

"We just wanted to apologize for what happened last night. We didn't mean to get you in trouble," they said in unison.

"No, it's okay. It's not your fault. Those creatures meant to hunt us down. I'm just glad we made it out alive." I said.

"You mean those things were trying to attack us?" Fleetfoot questioned.

"What even are they?" Flyboy chimed. I breathed, trying to quickly think of a response.

"We call them Shadovians. Well, I call them that. They're dark, shadowy creatures that have been trying to kill us as long as we've lived here." I explained.

Technically, we don't know exactly what they are. From what we've seen, they just look like really large wolves or dogs made of shadows. But they're a lot larger than wolves. And they don't look exactly like them, but they're physic is similar. When Apollo and I were really young, the first time we saw these things, we were terrified. I could hardly hold up my sword towards them. Eventually, all they wanted to do was kill us. And every time they did, we'd always escape them. Sometimes just barely. And since then, I've called them Shadovians. Because... I was still kinda learning English during that time and in my young mind, I thought that name sounded cool. But it doesn't sound so great now, however it's kinda stuck now so...

"But why do they want to kill us?" the Twins asked.

"I don't know. Maybe it's because they're just creatures that live here and they don't want us here." I said. It was the only explanation I could think of.

"But when you attacked them, what was that thing in your hand?" Flyboy asked.

"Yeah, what was that blue thing you were holding?" Fleetfoot added. I had already predicted they were going to ask this at some point.

"Oh, you mean this?" I pulled the little blue gem from my bag and held it in my palm for them to see.

"What is it?" they both asked.

"Oh, uh..." I gripped the gem and it transformed into my sword. The blade glowing blue.

" It's my weapon. I use it to defend myself when I'm attacked," I said. The Twins eagerly looked at it as I held it up.

"Does Apollo have a weapon like this?" Fleetfoot asked.

"No, just me."

"Why doesn't he?" Flyboy asked.

"I don't know. I've had this thing for as long as I can remember," I said.

I also found it strange that Apollo didn't have a gem-like weapon like mine. Ever since I've had my satchel, my gem is always here in case of trouble. I don't really know why or how this thing even got into my bag. I've just had it as long as I can remember and no matter how much thought I put into it, I can never figure out why I have it. I just do.

I bet it doesn't make much sense to you, but believe me, I haven't made much sense of it either. But I'm grateful to have it either way, it's gotten me out of a lot of trouble.

"Well, we just wanted to thank you for protecting us when we're in danger," they said.

"Oh! Wait a minute, we should check on the flower to see if it's alright!" Flyboy remembered.

"Oh, that's right. Sophie, will you come with us to check on it?" Fleetfoot asked me.

"Yeah, okay." I said.

Apollo looked out of the cut-out window and saw us walking away.

"Hey, where are you guys going?" he asked.

"We're going to check on the Moonflower." Fleetfoot replied.

"Do you want to come with us?" Flyboy asked.

"Yeah, sure." Apollo agreed.

So we all walked together to see how the Moonflower was doing. The Twins remembered the path we took last night and soon we were upon the shrub they had planted it in.

"Here it is." they both knelt beneath the trees and Apollo got a closer look. I stood idly by them.

"Woah, that's a Moonflower?" Apollo said in awe. "It's really pretty."

I was relieved to find that it had survived the nightly attack and the morning sunrise.

"Looks like it's doing okay," the Twins said. The flower was protected by the shadow of the shrub and you couldn't see its blue glow, in fact it looked kinda white. But it was doing just fine and the Twins were relieved that it was alright.

"That's really pretty. Are there any more like this?" Apollo asked.

"No, his is the only one we managed to save." Fleetfoot said.

"The rest of the gardens were all destroyed," Flyboy added.

"How were they all destroyed?" Apollo asked.

"We don't know. We accidentally accused Sophie of destroying them when we found her." Fleetfoot explained.

"But she convinced us to let her go because she didn't have any evidence that she did it." Flyboy said.

"Yeah, I told them they could come up with me, but when I left they only came with me because something scared them and they didn't want to go back." I finally spoke up.

"Well, what happened?" Apollo asked.

"We don't know, there was a loud sound and something started to chase us and we had no choice but to find Sophie," they said.

"Did you see what it was?"

"No, we were too afraid to look back," they said honestly.

"Then how do you know if there was something chasing you? Maybe it was just something loud that scared you," Apollo questioned.

I did start to think that it might've been something that scared them off, but I still believed that something really did try to chase them down.

"Well, we don't know for sure. All we could think of was getting out of there," the Twins said.

"Well, at least you got out of there alive. I'm grateful for that." I affirmed. "But I guess we could try to go back there and investigate. Just to see if something really was down there."

Apollo nodded, but we could tell the Twins weren't absolutely sure about it.

"We'll all go down there together and explore to see if it was something that chased you or if something just scared you." Apollo suggested.

A plan was set in motion and we started preparing to leave as soon as we could. If we really didn't find anything down then there was nothing to be afraid of. But if we did discover that it was just something super loud that scared the Twins, then we'll explore further until we've reached a satisfying conclusion. But if there really was something down there then...

There's no point in going back to explore further. As long as we escape alive and unharmed, there's nothing that's worth going back to find.

(Although... I almost, sorta hoped there would be something down there. Is that a bad thing to hope for?)