The Not-So-Colourful Butterfly

By Stacie Eirich

Once, there lived a not-so-colourful butterfly named Sunny. She hadn’t started out that way. She began life as a colourful caterpillar – pea green and mustard yellow with black spots.

She climbed trees with her caterpillar friends, May and June. Sunny loved climbing, and she loved munching on leaves, right after the rain when they were ripe and juicy.

But what she loved more than anything was to tell stories. Her stories were full of adventure – pirates, witches, wizards, brave heroes who fought dragons and princesses who spoke their minds. She loved to sit in her tree and weave tales to the other caterpillars, spinning a magical story web around them. She told them in sun and shade, and by the light of the moon.

Her friends loved to listen but agreed that Sunny was, well – strange. Or at least, different from them.

Sunny dreamed of the day when they would spin into a chrysalis, beginning their transformations into butterflies. Sunny imagined her wings with rainbow colours sparkling in the sunlight.

One day, when the first Spring buds were forming, Sunny curled into a candy cane shape, hanging upside down from a branch, and began to spin her chrysalis.

After two weeks, Sunny popped out in excitement. She imagined how beautiful her rainbow wings must look. She flew down to a stream not far from her tree, peering into the water at her reflection.

“No!” she gasped aloud. She couldn’t believe her eyes! Staring back at her was a butterfly dark as night, with no bright colours. This was not what she had imagined at all! No, no – this would not do. What would her friends say when they saw her?

She couldn’t bear to find out. She lowered her head and flew high up in her tree. If only I could be a caterpillar again, she thought. The sun rose higher in the sky as she sat thinking all day, thinking so hard that she didn’t even notice when the sun set and May and June perched down on a branch beside her.

“Wow, what big wings you have!” May said.

“You look like the midnight sky,” said June. “We’ve missed your stories – tell us one please!”

“Yes, tell us one!” May echoed.

Sunny hesitated. Did she really look like the midnight sky? She looked up at the dark blue sky above her, dotted with tiny stars. It was beautiful.

Sunny let out a breath and began “Once upon a time, there was a not-so-colourful butterfly…” As she spoke, she felt just like she had as a caterpillar – breathless, excited, full of adventure and dreams.

Sunny smiled. She felt beautiful, just as she was.

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