Moth Ch. 002

Posted on literotica.com with permission of author Nanna Marker; literotica ID ellynei.

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Two years after the seer had died, Lei's parents still, on a nearly nightly basis, commented that life was harder without a seer. Oli's parents, who, as he, were butterflies, commented to the same end on a nearly daily basis.

Lei and Oli had first met the day they had left their respective first cocoons -- Oli at dawn, Lei at dusk -- and since then they had been inseparable, at dusk and dawn. Twilight, which the pair had named olilei-light, was all theirs.

Their parents had not objected to the friendship while the two had been small. But now that the unlikely twosome was as tall as their elders, and Oli had grown manly fur on chest and back, hints were being made to both of them that they needed to seek more appropriate company.

The dawn was summer-warm, as it had been for days. Lei was racing Oli, adamant as ever to prove that she, with her much smaller white-grey wings, could still outfly him. Oli stayed behind her, flapping his much larger wings at a much slower rate. With every dawn, it was becoming harder to pretend he couldn't catch up. His muscles were steadily growing to his latest wings.

When finally Lei landed, smiling triumphantly and panting for breath. Oli let himself fall flat beside her, hiding himself under his wings not to let her see that his own heavy breathing was assumed.

"I told you those big sheets were just for show," panted Lei, referring to his wings.

"Butterflies like to show off," agreed Oli, good naturedly, fully aware that his bright red, black-dotted, black-circled, wings made for a good sight.

"Moths like to be good at what they do," said Lei, proud as ever.

It was a thick old branch they had landed on. Thinking about time, Oli ran a hand along a ridge in the bark. He was becoming a man, during next winter's cocoon, his maturity would complete. Next summer, Lei would be where he was now. Next summer again she would be...

His feelings for her had changed the way his body had. He understood why their families were slowly trying to separate them. But, even if he understood, he wasn't sure he could carry such a separation.

"When will you be leaving for Altwar?" asked Oli.

"Altwar?" said Lei, with such surprise that Oli could just imagine her frowning.

Intellectual property of Nanna Marker.

Nature had lavishly decorated Lei's white body with the broad black lines of her father's blood. On her forehead Lei had four of those black lines. When she frowned the most central two reformed from straight line to shapes more resembling broken arrows. It was such a charming trait of hers.

"You don't think I'm still planning to run off to Altwar, do you?" asked Lei, sounding somewhat offended.

"You never yet told me otherwise," said Oli. Her denial of such plans made his stomach tingle with hope.

"I'm not a senseless child anymore, you know."

"No, you aren't," agreed Oli.

"There are more important things to life than great love," continued Lei, then added. "Great love can be as much a curse as a blessing."

Oli was slightly surprised to hear those words from Lei's mouth. Though, considering the way she had ranted on about the topic back when the seer had died, he was sure she had heard them often enough.

"What about you?" asked Lei. With Lei, silence tended not to last. "Will you be chasing off after your great love?"

"The seer never told me where I could find her," said Oli.

"She didn't?"

Oli flapped his wings up so they stood out behind him as one, then got up on all four, then sat up folding his legs under him. The first year after the seer's death, Lei had kept talking about what she had said. None had been able to shut her up. Oli, who had never appreciated Lei's fantasies of leaving for another forest, had made a point of never telling anyone what the crone had told him.

He had seen the seer the very day before the night that Lei had.

"Will you ever tell me what she told you?" asked Lei.

Oli smiled at her, the way he always did when she asked what the seer had told him. Over the past two years, he had, by not telling, received more attention from her, than he imagined he ever would have by telling. Besides teasing her by not telling, gave him plenty excuse to eye her.

She was old enough not to be naked, but still so immature to only wear a thong. The lines on her torso were as distinct as symbols. Sometimes he would imagine they were spelling a tale, sometimes he imagined they were portraying her essence.

Next summer she would start growing breasts, and the lines on her chest would be at least partially hidden by clothing. Thinking of it, he felt heavy enough to crack a branch.

If her feelings for him didn't change when her body did, then his for her would surely drive them apart. But if her feelings became like his, then they would be facing an even worse peril.

If anything could be worse than losing her.

Oli wrestled his eyes from her and gazed instead at the nearest tree.

"She told me that you would be the best friend I would ever have," he said, finally revealing that two year old childish secret. "I had no clue what to ask her, so she just told me that and sent me on my way."

For a brief moment, Lei was silent, then she said the most peculiar thing.

"You know, Oli. Up close you really aren't handsome."

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Submitted to literotica.com by the author.

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