Butterfly Hidden in the Grass

That day, I was on a morning walk. I swear that was all it was.

I often volunteered to take over the night shift, so walking home in the early morning was my usual routine. The sun was creeping into view from the horizon line when I took a single step onto the grass in my local park. Not on purpose, really. I just happened to be on the corner, and a single step was all it took.

My foot was meant to have settled on a soft surface, but I stumbled forward, diving into nothingness instead. In the blink of an eye, the greenery of the park disappeared from sight, and the surroundings were starlit in the literal sense of the word. I was as if in space, surrounded by the dotted sparkles of the universe’s myriad stars, and my floating form had only been anchored by the sudden heat around my arm, and its intense light that almost seared my right eyeball.

With a blink, what at first looked like a being of pure light reformed into a human figure, almost four heads taller than me. I couldn’t tell the gender of this person. Wrapped in cloth loose enough that a chest was impossible to find, this shining individual could hardly even be distinct from its color, as everything whitened around them. Hair cascaded down to the ankles, almost transparent like a crystal, and from what I saw of their face, they only briefly glanced at me with a barely amber iris before stepping forward, dragging me by the arm.

It was then I remembered I had just been taking a walk, and that alone originated a shriek that did not echo into that mystical space despite the volume. That figure did not even blink, and my resistance did not faze them in the slightest. Catching light from the corner of my eye made me turn the other way to notice the flashing of multiple other similar human beings, though the light was not as notable as their backs.

The flapping of their wings did not carry air, but the wings’ size would have led anyone to believe that they held the force for it. The wings were predominantly white, but as they moved, I could notice they were not entirely composed of feathers. Peeking between different spots was the glimmer of a dark iris, of the multiple eyes hidden within the wings of the beings before me. I had to question my sanity at that point. If I inhaled anything on my path, it was undoubtedly strong.

“Ah, there you are,” a voice echoed from the horizon, redirecting my gaze back forward, where all individuals nearby were focused on. “Just the perspective I needed! Come, bring him closer!”

A round table stretched out before me, easily half the size of a baseball field, to the point I could barely see the figure who had spoken. Still, I understood immediately he referred to me, in that booming voice able to travel farther than my previous scream. The one holding me did approach wordlessly, and I could gradually see that man, who in comparison only shone faintly. His build was large, muscular, and he wasn’t afraid to show it. He was shirtless, showing off the entirety of his abdomen and miscellaneous jewels adorning it, in the primary colors. The light around him could not obfuscate his dark hair, and blue eyes locked onto mine with a grin I wasn’t used to seeing in real life. One of unbridled excitement for life, as if it heralded more than the routine mankind always had to contend with.

“You,” he said to me once I was by his right side, and the being dragging me along had stepped back to take a seat on the round table colored after the night. “Where did you come from?”

I was at a loss. As far as I was concerned, he was the one who brought me here and yet there he was, asking me that question. Pure reflex led to my answer: “I was just… Walking around, here and there.”

In front of me had been a man who could squash me with biceps alone. I was surrounded by equally frightening, tall, shining figures. I panicked, okay? All I knew was that I was just taking a walk, and that reflected in my bumbling answer.

“Well, then you clearly mustn’t know of my favorite servant. Behold!”

The man snapped his fingers, and the only shining person not seated tapped the table with two fingers before it lit up abruptly. I flinched in place, but didn’t have the heart to even try to escape. My heart raced beyond its regular monotone bounds as I wondered what to expect… Until part of the round table nearby projected the sprawling scenery of an idyllic hillside, supported by a clear and bright sky. The ball of light representing the sun had appeared almost normal, if not for the fact that it glimmered in colors foreign to the sun I was used to in my lifetime, as if a rainbow flickered in and out of existence in its radius.

Below the hill was a city of pure stone, but tall as a skyscraper, such that the towers there surpassed the height of that hill easily. The city’s gate looked minuscule in comparison, but my eyes drifted there because of the large creature I couldn’t make out at the time sleeping in front of it. It was uncanny overall. Like a fantasy world in a novel, depicted over that just as surreal round table. The man pointed away from that gate, and towards the top of the hill, where the ‘servant’ he mentioned was on her knees.

I had to hold my breath for a second, just taking in her beauty. The first thing to hold my attention was her hair, tinted the hues of the sunset’s pink clouds. Not in the sense that her hair was strictly pink, but truly in how the sunset is still orange in part, creating a gradient that’s hard to immediately forget. It was exactly that color, flowing down to her waist in a braid that was nearly falling apart, since the blue ribbon at the bottom was coming loose. She stared intently at a golden brooch over her palms, shaped like an eight-pointed star, and moving lips recited something I couldn’t hear. The young woman, likely no different from my age looked like she was praying over that hill, white and blue dress fluttering in the wind.

“A fair maiden, isn’t she? I’m quite proud of her, myself,” the man said, finally awakening me from my trance. “Of all trained mediums, she is by far the most diligent, scorning the face of evil and revering my good name. What say you?”

Suddenly, a bright light enveloped the top of that hill, with the young woman as the center. The projection was soundless, showing only as much as that man intended me to see, so I only noticed then the darkness behind her, creeping in speedily. The woman stood, flipping the brooch with her right hand, and standing composed before its transformation into a sword flaming with molting light, yellow and blue. The hilt was the only remains of the gold in that brooch, and she could barely grab it without touching that unknown substance, which remained afloat until, with a single swing…

The dark mist assailing her was swept clean, and the creatures lurking within were only visible in so far as their dissipating silhouettes. If they’d been looking for a fight, it was no contest. That woman had scattered them like a hero from a comic, taking a deep breath and smiling afterwards. Once done dusting herself off, she stuck the brooch near her neck, and jumped off the cliff without hesitation. “What the…?!”

The man beside me extended a palm, motioning for me to wait. It didn’t take long to understand why, when a large bird flew just below her, and they took off into the sky. The projection on the table followed them loyally, closing up on the woman who petted the bird over her, furred on its back as opposed to feathered, and then looked up, towards the sky. Towards that hypothetical camera.

Or, more specifically, towards the man next to me, who laughed heartily at the display. “Well?”

“W-what are you even trying to ask? If she’ll follow you forever?”

“That girl is my faithful servant. Everything in her possession is a product of my blessings, and she uses them in service of my interests. What isn’t there to love about her? I believe the decision is unanimous, but now that you’re here… I’m very curious about your opinion.”

My opinion? My brain could not keep up with the adrenaline, so it was hard to immediately think through the man’s question. I looked back to the woman, and then towards him… This gaudy guy, with a servant like her? What kind of question even was that? “I wouldn’t know! She’d be as loyal as your paycheck, just like anyone else!”

“Her paycheck, you say?”

“She works for you and you give her stuff, so what else? The moment any of her possessions or whatever are gone,” I replied, “She’d be eager to slander you at least ten times over!”

I have to admit, it wasn’t the best choice of words here. At that point, nothing was real to me. I was in the middle of outer space, talking to some muscle guy surrounded by strange glowing people on a round table, admiring a magical woman. I remembered vividly stepping into that park, but what good is the human memory? Just because you remember a dream doesn’t mean it’s real. I had just come out of the night shift, drowsy as any would be after a work day, and an idea had crept into my mind.

Didn’t I just fall asleep and end up here? Who’s to say I did take that morning walk? So, I couldn’t grasp the gravity of the situation anymore. I just wanted to curse my mind for the frankly bizarre situation it was coming up with.

Of course, because it was a dream, I didn’t expect the actual consequences of my actions. I just grimaced before all people on that table, who finally deigned to turn to stare at me specifically after having ignored me for so long. Then, when I looked at the man I talked to, whose identity was a complete enigma to me, he was thinly frowning.

“Very well, then. If you’re so sure, I’ll give you the means to prove it.”

The man stood from his throne, which flapped its wings at the base, and I jumped back, realizing that throne was no inanimate seat. The man towered me easily, and his hand surpassed the size of my face. It closed in on me, even as I stepped back, and struck through my chest.

Yes, through my chest. It stabbed through me not quite like a blade, but like heat which instantly melted my bodily tissue. So, a bit like a hot knife on butter, just more egregious. Adding to the gruesome nature of my sudden death, the rest of my body erupted in flames, just as my vision turned dark, and I whimpered the slightest, “Why…?”

And how do I know the difference between being melted through and stabbed, you might ask?

“Do as you want, so long as she is untouched. Let us see then if she curses my name!”

I’ve lived through both. However, neither would result in me waking up from this dream.