“Why are you crying,” the Butterfly asked the Turtle, lightly stroking her cheek with a spindly leg.
“For I have been betrayed,” the Turtle replied.
Julia the Butterfly was having tea with Aria the Turtle. She drank from Aria’s eyes, for the tea was her tears.
“The tea is a bit bitter,” the Butterfly confirmed. “But it tastes of a wonderful color. Who has betrayed you so?”
The Butterfly was curious as to what could have so befallen her friend to create such complexly flavored tears as these, replete with nuanced emotion notes. She flickled her long tongue to the flavor.
“It was the catfish in the lake,” the Turtle laughed. “Stop that, your tongue tickles my eye when you do.”
Wings fluttered in embarassment as the Butterfly skipped alight, resettling upon her friend-Turtle’s head.
“Oh, I like this,” she said glancing into the pond. “You know just how to cheer me.”
Julia the Butterfly looked too, seeing she had arranged herself so as to give her friend Aria a faux-do, for Turtles have no hair to actually -do.
She flattened her wings down to the side, up straight and rigid, on and on in various colors and styles. Each eliciting a giggle of glee.
–j.e. pittman