A week has gone by and the butterflies are gone. The mating period has long ended and they have left the island. They traveled in the North-East direction and crossed the sea with little difficulty. There don’t seem to be any islands on the horizon, so on Earth that would be somewhere around 5 km and given the ships I have seen before, they travel at around 10 kilometers per hour, so it should take 30 minutes to get a ship from the horizon to the point of reference (horizon for standing at sea level). But not here. It takes around three times as long. But that can only mean that the planet is 9 times bigger. And the butterflies would need to travel around 15km without rest. Or that would be if there were no weather phenomena. There is no way this planet is ten times bigger right? That would mean a one-hundred-fold increase in surface area! (Formula for surface of a sphere is 4*PI*r^2, so when radius is ten times larger, the surface is a hundred times larger). There is no way that’s the case. The gravity should be far greater than it is. So that means the natural constants should be different. Or the most simple explanation is, that it is a weather phenomena. Maybe the composition of air is different so it acts differently than on Earth. After all, the Occam’s razor is universal. Or should I say multiversal? Am I still in the same universe? Who knows.
Enough of that. Today we are going to see the first caterpillars entering the cocoon. I never saw that in my previous life. It should be interesting since I have never done any research on the subject.
And as if on schedule, Tina grabs my hand and we left the small port. As we continued to make our way towards the orphanage I spotted something. It was strange. It looked like a bubble hanging from a tree. As I subconsciously approached it, Tina noticed my actions and said: “Oh, that's right! The caterpillars are in their cocoons right now. We must have found an early one, since it should take a few more days.” She points at the cocoon and says: “This is a cocoon. The caterpillars enter it and transform into a beautiful butterfly. They spend a week in it and after that they exit it and spread their majestic wings, completing their transformation.” After she explains it we stay for a while. I observe it without touching it and can see an outline of wings forming. It was interesting.
But soon we left and nothing special happened in the next few days. It took eight days for something notable to occur. The cocoon which we have been paying attention to finally opened. Luckily for us, it started when we were nearby. The process of “hatching” was a bit disturbing. The newly transformed butterfly exited by creating a hole and squeezing through it. The wings started twitching as they expanded from their rolled up state. As they expanded they revealed a beautiful rainbow pattern. Normal butterflies usually have only a few colors, but this one had the whole specter of bright colors. It just seemed special.
When it first took flight it was struggling, but it soon got the hang of it. It flew a few laps around the nearby trees, before it sat on my head to rest. Am I that attractive? I chuckle. We continued and onward and left the insect to its own devices.
In the afternoon, we reached Tina’s house. Her family was at home waiting. When we entered, we saw the two parents. Tina’s mother said: “Hi sweetie, how have you been?”
Tina replied: “I’ve been alright. You know you don’t have to ask me that every day right? Nothing much happens. What about you two?”
“Nothing major. Besides Olivia giving me a massage, nothing notable happened,” says Tina’s father.
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“Rodriguez!” Shouts Olivia in an embarrassed tone. “At least not in front of the children…” says Olivia meekly, while Tina just looks at them in confusion.
After the whole event played out, Rodriguez told us about the architect arriving in two days. His name was Muno Riki and he was a rising star, who owed a favour to Richard. Something about a damaged boat.
Since the ordeal was finished, we left. The two days passed and I continued to interact with the flying animal. I tried to sound a few words, which resulted in the naming of the creature. It’s new name was Awa. I tried saying Ava which apparently means butterfly, but my mouth couldn’t produce the 'v' sound so it ended with the name Awa. Not that it really matters.
Today was the day that the architect would come. As we sat at the port, I enjoyed the relaxing wind. The fast pace of modern society really puts a burden on one’s mind. You have to relax sometimes and completely unwind from the stress. The smell of salt entered my nose as I took a deep breath. There was not a single cloud in the sky, leaving a beautiful blue color spreading through the skies. And just then I spotted a ship at the horizon. Some people were already waiting for it since they could see further from a higher vantage point. I was too distracted enjoying the peace to notice the people.
What felt like a relaxing hour passed with the ship getting closer and closer while it seemingly grew in size. As it was about 10 minutes away, something unexpected happened. An excited scream of a child resounded! As I looked back, I saw a group of newly hatched butterflies flying towards the port. The swarm grew in size until it covered the whole village. The people seeing this were shocked at the scene. The perfect conditions were met and most of the cocoons were vacated at the same time.
The people on the ship were no exception to the excitement. Sighs of admiration could be heard, but they couldn’t overshadow a word said by a man in strange clothes; “Beautiful!”. The man was Muno Riki, the architect that was going to draw the blueprint for the village, which is sure to transform it into a town. He, along with the others disembarked from the ship and greeted the people waiting for them. The introduction was brief as the young man was feeling antsy from waiting. After the bearests of hellos, he ran towards a nearby hill. He quickly sketched a few lines on his notebook and started going around the island. This continued for several hours and only ended when the butterflies could no longer be seen, along with the exhausted Muno lying on the soft grass.
This, although in a lesser form, continued for the next two months. The eccentric Muno Riki, or Miki like he preferred to be called diligently drew the design plans. When Alan chanced upon an opportunity to see them, they seemed almost magical. The countless patterns and lines emminated a strange aura leaving everyone astounded.
It featured an expanded port, taller stone houses and the infrastructure for electric wiring. Overall, it looked amazing.
***
It was a late evening and Alan was pondering. In his previous life, he never truly cared about city architecture. Yes, some buildings were majestic but that was it. The supposed most beautiful city, Venice, was nothing worth visiting in his opinion. He never understood city architecture and it’s supposed beauty. But even he must admit that he was astounded when he saw the blueprint. Compared to it, Venice was nothing more than some slums. Even with it’s small size, it overshadowed everything else. The patterns drew you in whenever you wanted it or not.
And so passed the night for Alan. When he woke up groggily the next day, he heard a loud commotion outside. He spent the night at Tina’s place which was close to the port. For some reason he couldn’t really wake up. ‘How late did I go to sleep?’ he thought. He exerted a lot of effort and managed to push his 11 month old body up and out of the door. Along the way he heard strange and unfitting phrases like hunt, difficulty, death, opportunity, money, status and finally exam. His groggy mind sobered up with the last phrase he heard.
He minced his eyes one last time before opening them fully and looking up…
He saw a big ship with a strange flag. He could recognise it anywhere. It...
At that very instant his mind cleared up to previously unimaginable levels. The last piece of the puzzle was fit in its place and information swarmed his head. The proverbial damn broke down and whatever it was holding gushed out. He could hear dozens of conversations around him, all featuring a single topic. The hunter exam.