BUTTERFLY

THE FALL OF THE PROMISE KEEPER

I offer a symphony of my heart's voice, my fists ready to bring down this story in which I play the leading role. Who can blame me for the bloodshed!

There has never been a moment in my life when I was on my own. Not in my sleep, not in the bathroom, even in the cocoon, a Mistress would wait by my side for months, whereas during the cocoon period, we could neither go anywhere nor move. We just slept for months on end. In addition to all this, my family, who always ignored me, left me a huge loneliness.

Even though I was on good terms with my siblings as a child, after the king called them to his room and talked to them, they stopped talking to me. So I was doomed to loneliness even though there was always someone around me. The Mistresses were forbidden to sit and have a normal conversation with me. No one was allowed to interact with me in any way other than their duties. I was someone they avoided as if I had a contagious disease. Guests were not allowed to approach me at invitations or balls held in the palace. My face was even covered with a black veil to prevent me from seeing them.

Apart from the palace and its gardens, the only thing I saw of the outside world was the sky, and all I knew was what I had read and studied. I had never seen a single person living outside, I had never had any friends. I always felt a longing in my heart when I read in books about people who shared their problems and spent time together. But I knew, of course, that I would never have any of that. Never.

But as Ms. Seli hugged me and cried, I could see that she had always supported me. I always thought that her scolding me to stand up straight was because she wanted to suppress me. Apparently she wanted me to stand strong. Since I was still in my late teens, I had misunderstood things about her because of my adolescent hormones.

Mistress Seli suddenly stood up and wiped away her tears. "Come on, get up quickly!" She said hurriedly. She took me by the arm and lifted me up. Since I had just come out of the cocoon, my legs had no strength and I could barely stand up. "The prince will be here soon, we have to hurry!" She said and took out some clothes from the basket placed on the edge of the tree branch where I was lying in the cocoon. I involuntarily took a step back as she hurriedly took the clothes and put them on me. The prince wouldn't come to see me after the cocoon, the Board would. To make sure I was still a one winged woman. "What's wrong, mom?" I asked. This rush was not normal. We all knew I was going to wake up with one wing, I just had a never ending hope, that's all. But the facts were clear; cocoons do not create new parts in the body, they only strengthen and develop the existing parts.

Ms. Seli didn't answer for a while, she came to me quickly and put on my underwear. A thin line of sun fell on both of us through the leaves of the big tree. "Did you think we would give you to them?" she said and stopped and looked at my face. The sunlight brightened the color of her hazel green eyes. There was sadness and tenderness in her expression. "I haven't told the news that you woke up from the cocoon yet, your sister is keeping the other Mistresses busy right now. Your brother is on his way and will be here soon." She continued. Then she started to put on clothes that did not belong to me. She hid my wing, which was standing behind me alone, under the black sweater she put on me. I didn't make a sound even though it hurt a little because the sweater crushed and shrunk my wing. Then she put on a pair of men's pants and put the hat of the sweater on my head. I still didn't comprehend what she was saying as she draped a long, wide cloak over my shoulders. It could have been confusion, or maybe I still hadn't come to my senses.

"What do you mean?" I said, my surprise reflected in my voice. I raised my hand and grabbed Mistress Seli's hands and stopped her, were they going to kidnap me! "We can't." I said in a whisper. It was as if there was someone around and they could hear us at any moment. I couldn't escape, and even if I did, the Board would never let me go, and whoever helped me escape would be punished by the law with execution, not even a trial. "We will." Mistress Seli replied. She squeezed my hands and looked into my eyes as if to give me strength. "What about the Board?" I said fearfully, but Mistress Seli continued to look bravely into my eyes. She did not answer my question as if the Board was not important.

"Are you ready?" When I heard my brother's voice right behind us, I quickly turned around and looked at him. He lowered his wide wings and came to us. "Brother!" was all I could say. All this was so unexpected for me that I couldn't even think straight because I was so surprised. My brother opened his arms and hugged me tightly. I couldn't even hug him back, the taste of that apple was still in my mouth. "I promised you, didn't I, that I would never leave you to them." He said and stepped back. He didn't look at me, it had been a long time since we looked each other in the eyes properly. "Come on!" said Mistress Seli and handed me a bag. I realized I was shaking as I took the bag and put it on my back, but I still wasn't ready to go, everything was happening so fast that I felt like I was falling behind the times.

"But the Board, brother, the Board won't let me go!" I whispered, unable to raise my voice. The Board was an organization of mage butterflies who made it their profession to offer sacrifices to solve our curse. Centuries ago, because of the sins of our ancestors, we butterflies were dying prematurely from a disease. This disease would strike suddenly and take millions of adults overnight. It is said that when a one winged butterfly was sacrificed by witches, the death toll dropped and our dying race began to recover. There were still deaths, but they would stop the death toll from rising by sacrificing a one winged butterfly that appeared every fifty years. I was born with one wing as a butterfly from the royal family, and the Board believed that sacrificing a princess would end the deaths for good. So they would treat me more stubbornly and cruelly than other butterflies.

"The Board cannot harm us, we have enough soldiers." My brother said and took me in his arms. My eyes turned to Mistress Seli, I still couldn't believe what had happened, but I felt like I was seeing her for the last time as my brother took off and flew away. I smiled at her and waved. She wiped away the tears that were still flowing and smiled, it was the first time I had ever seen her smile in my entire life. Maybe I was still in the cocoon, dreaming, but if so, it was the most beautiful and sad dream of my life. I was scared that it was real, but I felt just as scared that it wasn't. We flew among the leaves of the big old trees, I think the last time my brother and sister flew me together was when I was a child. They had learned to fly after their first cocoon and they came and flew me together. Life was going well at the time, even though I knew I was going to be sacrificed. I was happy until the king intervened and stopped them from talking to me.

But here I was now, my wing trembling with excitement as I closed my eyes and listened to my brother's rapidly beating heart as he flew in silence. Apparently, no matter what the king had told them, they hadn't given up on me and we were flying again. The only difference was that my brother's wings were stronger and we could reach the highest altitudes. "Where are we going?" I asked after waiting in silence for a while. I knew we were heading deeper into the forest because the trees were slowly increasing.

"We are going to the Lions. I have a friend there waiting for us." My brother replied. His voice trembled, he was excited and scared like me. In fact, it was normal to be afraid as the Board was extremely dangerous. But the Lions were a land where butterflies could not rule, so I knew we would be safe if we got there. Mistress Seli had once told me that some criminals on death row had escaped to the Lions and lost their trail. But the feeling that we were doing it wrong was slowly growing inside me. It was as if we were already in the hands of the Board and we were just going back and forth.

And then there would be my sister, Mistress Seli, even the king and queen left behind. The Board wouldn't let me go, but if we lost our trail, they might try to take it out on the kingdom. Even though, as my brother said, we had a strong army, I couldn't help worrying. Mistress Seli always said the Board was dangerous. She said it was next to impossible to escape them. I guess I had to worry about my brother too. I wanted to give up and go back, I couldn't put my family in danger like that just for me!

When my brother got closer to the leaves of the tree to avoid being seen and to avoid attracting attention, his wings started to touch the leaves. Inevitably, our speed slowed down. My eyes fell on my brother's wings, whose scales had been damaged by the leaves. It was nothing that couldn't be treated, but if my brother damaged his wings too much, we wouldn't be able to reach the Lions. As far as I remembered from the maps, the Lions were far away and we had a long way to go.

" Brother, stop!" I said to fix the situation. My voice must have been too loud because my brother widened his eyes and gave me a look that told me to shut up. Then he looked around anxiously and I became anxious too. While I was looking around carefully to see if anyone was around, my brother landed on a branch among the leaves and lifted me off his lap. "What happened Een, are you hurt?" he asked, his eyes still roaming around. I closed my eyes and waited to calm down so that I could take a decisive stand, even though I was going to regret my decision. It was the right thing to do, I couldn't risk their lives for my own. After all, not only the Board would attack them, but also the people. For centuries, the Crown had encouraged public sacrifices. If it became known that they had kidnapped one of their own to prevent a sacrifice, it would go very badly. They couldn't cope, it was a dream.

"Take me back, brother." I said after opening my eyes. As he looked around through the leaves, he froze and then quickly turned to me. He looked puzzled. "What do you mean take me back, Een?" he said and took a step towards me. "They will kill you," he continued. I nodded, I had known this since I was a child. "I know." I said and smiled, as if smiling would make everything better, but it never did.

My brother frowned, his big wings were raised anxiously in the air. He was shaking, but we had to do this for everyone's sake. "Don't be ridiculous, Een..." He said and kept looking into my eyes. He was silent and waited, because he knew it was the right thing to do. Still, I explained so that he wouldn't feel bad, I didn't want anyone to feel bad and responsible for my sacrifice, because they had already done their best.

"Brother, I know you want to protect me and I appreciate that, but it's not just the Board, it's the people. You can't handle them both, and even if you do, there will be too many deaths." I said and looked into his eyes, there was no other way. He had to accept it. But he just stood there, looking at me with the same expression. My eyebrows furrowed, I couldn't understand why he was looking at me so silently. "I'm right, brother, please take me back." I said and took a step closer to him. Something was wrong, the air felt cold but I couldn't understand what it was.

My brother's wings, which had been raised in the air in a panic, fell down, a gust of wind blew and blew a few leaves off the tree. As the fallen leaves swirled around us, one of them licked my brother's eye. My hands froze, we used to close our eyes when something touched our eyes or came close! Didn't we? I took a step forward, a cold drop of sweat trickled down the back of my neck to my waist and the top of my head was as cold as if it had been iced. "'Brother?" I said, my voice shaking. But he continued to look into my eyes without any reaction. It was as if time had frozen for him. "'Brother?" I said again and stepped forward and took his hands. At that moment, the color of his bright wings faded and began to fall like paper ash. I stared at the ashes of his wings blowing with the wind.

A moan came out of my mouth, or a scream. It sounded distant, but I felt it was coming from me. I grabbed my brother's hand tighter and shook him to make him react. " Brother, what's happening!" I said in horror. But my brother continued to stand still. Someone had done this, witches! Had the witches found us? I hurriedly put my ear to my brother's chest and heard his heart beating calmly. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes involuntarily for a while. The fact that he wasn't dead alleviated some of the terror I felt. I opened my eyes and quickly stepped back and looked around, I had to somehow stop whoever did this.

At that moment, the ashes falling out of my dress tickled my waist. Mine was falling off in the same way as my brother's wing. I didn't care, my wing was definitely not my priority. I already had one. I caught a glimpse of movement behind me and the bark of the tree we were standing on swelled and split in half, opening the door to a dark hole. Immediately, someone came out of the hole with slow steps. The sunlight that had just illuminated Mistress Seli's face this time illuminated the knife in the hand of the man coming out of the bark of the tree.

I quickly stepped in front of my brother, the knife was not for me. The witches were going to perform a ritual, they wouldn't kill me before the ritual. He was going to hurt my brother. "Don't!" I said and looked at his expressionless face. Of course he wouldn't listen to me, I had to find a way out. I was in such a situation that I didn't know what to do, I had never hit anyone in my life, so I couldn't fight him. I had to get my brother away from here somehow, even if I tried to wake him up, I'm not sure he could escape because his wings were gone. Even if he was a good climber, he wouldn't be fast enough to escape from someone with wings.

The man's black wings spread to the good side and he took a step towards us. I glanced around quickly, looking for a way out, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a pair of shiny wings coming from the direction we had come from. Of course I recognized these wings, it was Mistress Seli. I hurriedly grabbed my brother's arm and threw him over my shoulder. Maybe Mistress Seli could take my brother and leave. The man took another step towards us, my heart seemed to be in my mouth. If I opened my mouth, it would jump out.

I had to do something so that she would see us before she came closer. Since my brother had no wings, it was impossible for her to see us from a distance. I approached the corner of the tree branch, I had to do it before he realized what I was trying to do. When he took another step closer, I quickly turned around and hugged my brother's rock hard body and let myself fall from the tree branch. This was the only way Mistress Seli could see us. As I was falling, I turned my eyes to Mistress Seli and met her astonished eyes. But her astonishment didn't stop her, on the contrary, she accelerated. She was going to catch us before we fell! I closed my eyes and waited for her to come, I was going to give my brother to her and surrender to the Board. My brother had lost his wings because of me, I couldn't allow any more.

When my body hit something hard, I thought it was Mistress Seli and was happy for a moment, but when I opened my eyes, I realized that we were still falling. In front of me were the tree leaves I had just hit. As I was falling rapidly on my back, I glanced at my brother, whom I was still holding tightly, not understanding when I turned my back. Then I tried to look for Mistress Seli, but there was no one around. As I was getting closer and closer to the ground, I realized that I was losing everything.