The Butterfly Girl: A Star is Born

Sidequest

[Sophia]

I had just closed my eyes for at least a few minutes, until there was a quiet knock on my door. I opened my eyes and looked up, almost nervous about who was knocking on my door so late at night. I heard another knock and I sat up quickly as the door opened just a little bit.

"Sophie?" I heard two voices speak. It was the Twins.

"Yeah?" I answered.

"Can we come in for a second?" they asked. I pulled the blankets off me and sat on the edge of my bed.

"Yeah." I obliged. The Twins quietly crept inside and closed the door behind them.

"Sorry if we woke you." Fleetfoot apologized.

"We didn't mean to bother you," Flyboy added.

"Is everything okay?" I asked nicely.

The Twins didn't reply, but instead Flyboy held up a small blue flower within the darkness of my room. Glowing weakly. I recognized it as the Moonflower they'd shown me before back in the caves when they had me tied up.

Wait, where'd they even find the rope to tie me up? I suddenly thought for some reason.

"Before you came down in the caves, these Moonflowers used to grow everywhere," Fleetfoot explained.

"But one day we noticed that they were all being destroyed and we couldn't figure out who was doing it. This is the last one we managed to save." Flyboy added. I was confused as to what they were getting at.

"Sophie, we need your help," they said in unison.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"We want to re-grow the Moonflowers." Flyboy said.

"But if we grow them in the caves, they might be destroyed again," Fleetfoot added.

"And we need your help, we need you to protect us while we plant them," they said together.

"You want to do this now?" I asked suddenly.

"Yes, the Moonflower only grows in darkness, and the one we have here is dying," they said. I wasn't sure what to do. I've said to you before that the forest is extremely dangerous at night. If they had told me earlier before it had gotten dark, it would've been less dangerous.

"Please, Sophia, we need your help," Flyboy pleaded.

"If we can't do it tonight, it might not live until tomorrow," Fleetfoot insisted. Both their faces held the same pleading expression.

I would've insisted that it was way too dangerous to go out this late, I know by experience. But they felt so desperate for help to regrow those beautiful flowers... I just couldn't find a way to say no

"Okay, but remember it's really dangerous out there. I'll protect you, but we have to be quick," I instructed. The Twins smiled at me.

"Just give me a moment to get ready." I said.

"Okay, we'll wait for you outside." they said, and quietly left my room. Closing the door behind them.

I was too tired (and lazy) to put on pants, so I just left my sweat pants on and pulled on a random shirt. I found my bag hanging on my desk chair and quietly shuffled out the back door, hoping not to bother Apollo, and quietly crept downstairs and out to the backyard where the Twins were waiting for me.

There were hardly any clouds in the sky and luckily, the moonlight was bright enough for us to see.

"Okay, you guys ready?" I asked quietly. The Twins nodded, Flyboy holding the Moonflower close to himself.

The Twins followed close behind me as we walked slowly into the forest. It looked completely different than it did in the daytime. It was ominous and cold and even with the moonlight filtering down upon us, you could hardly see anything in clear detail. It really was dark.

I adjusted my jacket to keep me warm and I could tell that the Twins were unnerved about being here at this time. At least from what I've told them. It wasn't long until we got back to the tree house.

"Can the Moonflower survive in daylight?"

"No, any exposure to bright light is really bad for Moonflowers." Fleetfoot said.

"It would die immediately." Flyboy added.

"Oh."

I looked back in front of me and looked around for any sense of danger.

"But if we were to plant it out here, it would be able to survive if it were underneath a shadow." Flyboy explained.

"It would be able to bloom at night too, so it'd be okay to plant the flower out here," Fleetfoot said.

Okay, then here would be no good. The tree house has an opening up there where the sun shines through. So we'll need to go in a bit farther.

"Okay, follow me. We'll need to go in a little farther," I said. The Twins walked on either side of me. I could tell they were nervous. I led them away from the tree house and further in to where I thought it was the darkest. Although the forest provides lots of shade, I had to make sure that the Moonflower would be put in shade for all hours of the day. Shadows can move in daylight.

"How far are we going?" the Twins asked.

"Not too far." I said. I didn't look back. I was more alert for danger than I was about the life of a flower. Seriously, you don't know what's out here.

Suddenly, my eyes spotted a patch of dark and I stared at it for a bit. I walked over and surveyed the area to see if it was a good spot. It was just two trees that stood side by side and a small shrub that grew in the middle.

"How about this? Is this good?"

The Twins knelt down and looked around the area.

Yes, this seems good." they said happily. They both crouched down and started digging a hole in the earth and planted the dying Moonflower within it, leaving the petals exposed. When the Twins backed up, I thought I saw it glowing just a bit brighter.

"We'll have to check on it and make sure it's doing okay," the Twins said.

"We can come back tomorrow and see how it's doing. I said. The Twins looked back at me and smiled.

"Thank you for helping us re-plant the Moonflower Sophie," Flyboy said kindly.

"We couldn't have done it without you," Fleetfoot chimed. I was about to say something, but I suddenly heard something strange. I looked back and around me, wondering if I really did hear something or if it was just the wind. The Twins noticed my unusual behavior.

"What is it?" they asked. I didn't respond. I kept looking around, just to be sure. Suddenly, I heard it again. A sort of shifting sound.

"Sophie, is everything okay?"

"Sophie, what's wrong?"

I still didn't respond. I kept looking, although I think I already knew what was happening. And what was going to happen.

"We need to get back to the house," I said deeply. Suddenly, we all heard it and we turned our heads. We stared ahead.

"We need to get out of here," I said quietly. I pulled my satchel to the side and reached inside. I moved it around in my bag until I had a grip on something. I pull it out and it glimmered in the soft moonlight.

It was a small blue gem, roughly the size of my palm. I gripped it tight and motioned to the Twins to follow me. They didn't hesitate, they trotted up to my side and followed me back the way we came. I could hear another shuffling sound, still quiet, but I heard it. I started to speed up and the Twins picked up behind me. A soft thud and it started to slow down behind me. I told myself not to panic, but my heart was pounding in my chest. A loud thud. No, not the thud in my chest. I heard a thud behind me. I tried not to look back. I slowed down just a few steps so the Twins were in front of me. I gripped the gem in my hand and swung it to my side and as fast as I swung it, a blade shot out from the center of the gem and glowed brightly in my hands. The gem in my hands turned into a crystal sword and as soon as I held it in front of my face there was a loud roar and a sudden figure rushed straight towards us. I made a downward stroke and hit the figure straight on as the Twins reeled back in surprise. The creature went down with a howl. I kicked it a few times and kept striking it until it was good and dead.

"Run!!"

And we did. We sprinted as fast as our legs could carry us. My bag bouncing at my side. We had to get out of here. We all heard a loud screech from behind us and fear made us carry on faster. We knew something was chasing us. I knew we couldn't outrun them. I skidded to a halt, reeled around and raised my sword in the air and took a swing at a dark figure that rushed towards me.

I struck it directly in the face and as it fell I jumped backwards and almost bumped into the Twins. They yelled as I almost hit them and they stumbled back. The creature tried to get up, but I took another swing and almost hacked off it's leg. It lifted it's head and almost took a bite out of my arm, but I dodged just in time and struck it again. The creature was down.

"Keep going, keep going!" I motioned to the Twins, stumbling over myself. We rushed forward again, but I was starting to fall behind from exhaustion.

"Keep runni-!!" I couldn't finish my sentence as another creature launched out at me and knocked me to the ground. I quickly grabbed both edges of my sword and blocked it's attempts to crunch on my face. I wasn't able to kick it off, it was too heavy and I couldn't hold onto my sword much longer. Seriously, these things are stronger than you think.

The Twins turned around as they heard me hit the ground and were terrified with what they were witnessing. Thinking quickly, they both grabbed the heaviest rock they could find and threw it directly at the creature's face, grabbing it's attention. It's deep, red eyes piercing into them. Fleetfoot fell over Flyboy as they tried to get back up and run. The creature was about to take a leap, but I picked myself back up just in time to take a swing.The creature reeled back and tried to bite me, but I doubled back and held my sword straight as it launched head-first and I felt the impact of my blade sinking into it's head. The Twins stumbled as they got back up and watched me dis-lodge my sword from it's head. I limped towards them and motioned them to keep going. We just ran. That's all we could think of. Jumping over rocks, stones and bumps in the hills. Until we finally saw the tree house coming into view. We didn't say anything. I was able to get a lead and the Twins followed me through the trees, up the hill, over the fence and we leaped into the backyard. We heard one last deafening howl by the time we made it to the neat grass.

We all breathed heavily and fell to our knees, trying to catch our breath. My sword retracted and I released my grip on the gem and stuffed it inside my bag. I pull my satchel off my shoulders and threw it to the side. I looked up, still breathing heavily.

"You guys okay?" I asked the Twins who were both on the ground. They looked up at me.

"Yeah, we're okay," they both said. I breathed a sigh of relief.

I sat up and rubbed my back. It hurt a lot when I got knocked down, but it didn't feel like anything was broken. I tried to get up, but I suddenly felt a pain in my side and I put my hand to it. The Twins noticed this and rushed over to me.

"Sophie, are you okay?" they asked, concerned. I pulled up my shirt slightly to reveal the wound. There was a large cut on the side of my abdomen and it was starting to bleed.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I'm good." I breathed. Luckily, it wasn't bad. It must've happened when I got knocked down and the creature was clawing at me.

"Thanks for saving me back there." I sighed.

"We couldn't just let you die. We should be the ones thanking you for protecting us."

Suddenly, we heard the back door open and we turned to see Apollo stepping outside, a concerned look on his face.

"What are you guys doing?"