She was called a monster, I was an aberration.
I was found dying, she was near starvation.
She feeds on me, I live for her.
I shouldn't exist and she should have fleed.
We meet in the desert, under a moonlight sky, far, far away, after I almost died. I don't remember the accident, only the pain, the misery, the sadness... Emptiness. Such strong, hateful emotions, such lack of hope...
I remember the sand above all else, the cold air under the gaze of the stars, the numbness that came to me when I realized that, by all rights, I should be dead.
The desire for relief.
Lying there, looking at nothing, hearing the wind pass me by, paying attention to nothing... It was a miracle she came around, a miracle that she talked to me instead of just use me. To this day it still surprises me, and I couldn't be more grateful.
At the time there was no fear, no sorrow, no longing. I just thought I was going to die as those eyes pierced mine, as her stomach growled in need for food. Even if I wanted I could not move, I could do nothing but sit and watch, and I just didn't care either way. It was an end, one way or another, by her hoof or time flying by, I was going to die.
But she talked... and worried about me before all else.
Funny how things are sometimes.
I just stared at her, wondering, thinking, and then talked back, pushing the pain away as curiosity took away the resignation and disinterest. We talked and talked, pain and hunger forgotten, tiredness, loneliness, fear... all was washed away by her presence and the few chuckles I managed out of her.
She was so pretty... she is so pretty...
My little butterfly...
We wasted the night away, something that surprised her when nothing disturbed us. Her hunger was the one thing that made her notice the faint light in the morning, my pain the only thing that brought me back to reality.
I was going to die.
She was going to starve.
I offered myself.
She refused me my end.
I could do nothing but admire her, and despite my mind crying against it, I asked her to come close. It had been hours, slow, painful and agonizing hours, just hours, a bit of time... but no one had cared for me like that despite what she thought.
I kissed her.
She didn't pull away.
I feed her.
She saved me.
So many things happened after that between then and today. So many little things, big things, good and bad. Her fear of her queen finding. My fear of her leaving. The pain, the tears, the doubts, the fears.
We endured, we went on.
The little things, such little things, bring so many feelings to mind. So many nights, huddled together, going through the night with little more than a kiss, not knowing what happened so far away, wondering of what danger the world was facing while we just tried to survive. As hard as those days were, we had happiness, and we had love. We needed nothing else.
Time flew, it kept going no matter what. From the desert to a swamp, from the swamp to a forest, from the forest to the plains, from the plains to a village, a city, a mountain. We went wherever we needed to go, we went where we had to. Hiding all the time, fearing for our lives, wondering when we would be found.
She was always so scared because I couldn't blend as she did, always looking everywhere when we were near any intelligent being. I could not survive like she did, I had never been that, a survivor, and despite my fears and the desire to go away, make it easier on both of us, I just couldn't...
If I had done that we would have never found out what was going on, how it was going and when to come clean.
Oh we were scared, we were so scared back then. I feared not for me, but for her. If she had been found anywhere but one single place, then she would have ended far away from me, if we were lucky.
I didn't want that.
As for me? Neither of us were sure, we didn't know if I would end in a scientist's table, behind bars or simply banished with her, if she had the most desirable outcome in the worst case scenario. If I could have done differently, if I hadn't been so hurt despite her best efforts, then we should have been away, just with each other as company, alone but happy, living on the line, every single day of our lives.
And then, between fear of the end, fear of discovery and plain uncertainty, she asked me what we both had been fearing for a while.
She loved me, I loved her.
She wanted me, I wanted her.
She was so nervous and so was I.
But in the end... in the end we both wanted it.
I don't remember if things had turned for the better by then, I am unsure of how long it took us to get there, I only knew that, once we reached that point, we didn't care about anything else and we didn't fear any monster in the land. We had each other, we had no more doubts, if any had sparked during our travels.
We were one, and we would have it no other way.
Today, with everything said and done, with us doing nothing to help, with fear still trying to grab us, the danger disappeared. Now we are welcome in this world, a world that would have shunned both of us back in the day. We are happy, we have our love and we are not alone anymore.
She is a changeling.
I am human.
At some point this could have been our end, we would have been denied a future.
Today... today is just a new beginning.
Together, with our future, with our love, our hopes, growing within her.
My little, sweet and beloved butterfly.