As Adon shared his feelings with Rosslyn, he felt anxiety boil up within him alongside shame.

He had never openly told anyone how he had felt about his brother and sister in his previous life before.

How inferior. Like an insect or something, ironically.

On the one hand, it was a relief that Rosslyn seemed to understand his feelings, somehow, despite clearly—at least from what Adon had observed—being her father’s favorite child, and incredibly gifted at the things her family valued.

On the other hand, even as his feelings of shame diminished somewhat, he was aware that he would have to tell Goldie and Samson that he was leaving on a hunting trip. What if they wanted to go with him? Would he say, “Butterflies only,” or something?

He watched Rosslyn carefully as she carried him back to the room where the spiders were staying.

Would Rosslyn be good at keeping a secret? Would Adon be able to express himself in a way that did not make his feelings of inferiority obvious? Would he damage his relationships with Goldie and Samson in the course of trying?

Those questions ended up being completely moot, as Rosslyn, perhaps sensing his trepidation, did most of the talking for Adon herself.

“Adon is interested in trying to obtain the Telekinesis Adaptation,” Rosslyn explained. “We were discussing it after training, and it seems that the most efficient way for him to gain the Evolution Points he needs would be to take a hunting trip.”

Can I go? Samson transmitted. I would love to see a little more of the world.

“How is your magic training going?” Rosslyn asked. “Adon has convinced me that he can kill anything that threatens him out there, with his level of proficiency.” She fixed her eyes on Samson. “I am a little concerned, honestly, that if you join the hunt, something might step on you. Goldie, of course, I know you are at a further stage in your development, but—”

I have not made much progress in my magic, Goldie sent. I also cannot fly. I think I would only hold Adon back. My venom might be useful, but unless Adon believes he needs me…

She allowed her thought to trail off, but the implication was obvious.

Well, that was easy, Adon thought to himself. Maybe it had been a little too easy. A part of him wondered why Goldie had given in so easily. Then again, her experiences of the outside world had been traumatic. Both she and Adon had seen a great deal of death in their time, and Goldie had been around for much longer than Adon.

I can hardly blame you for wanting to stay back, Adon sent. I’ll make sure I bring you and Samson back something nutritious.

It was the best Adon could think of to dull the sting to Samson of not being included.

Goldie leapt on the idea immediately.

Such a thoughtful idea, Goldie sent. We will wait for you here, then. Maybe we can go on the next trip once Samson and I have more of a grasp on magic.

So it seemed the matter was settled.

Rosslyn asked her to let him know when he was ready to go, so that she could open the doors for him and see him off.

And Adon could not think of a single reason to stay any longer.

He felt a little strange about leaving Goldie and Samson here—although that was mainly because he had thought that he and Goldie were never going to be separated again before he went through Evolution. Now, only a little while after he re-emerged into the world, it seemed they had a good reason to split up for a while.

At least she seems happy, staying here with her children, he thought very quietly to himself. Most importantly, the palace should be a safe place for them.

You know, I think I’m ready to leave right now, he finally sent.

Rosslyn nodded as if she had expected nothing else.

She waited for Goldie and her children to climb onto the spiders’ pillow, and then the Princess tapped her shoulder for Adon to sit there.

He fluttered up to perch on her shoulder and tried to contain his excitement.

Even though he had very mixed feelings about leaving Goldie, Samson, the other spiders, and Rosslyn, he could not deny he was excited about finally exploring the open air.

Sure, Adon had flown around the palace a bit already, but it was one thing flapping from the table to the bed indoors, and it was quite another to fly like an eagle in the vast azure sky. As his mind turned over the possibilities of flight, he almost quivered with pleasure at the thought of the open air running across the scales of his wings.

Above any other instinct, beyond even basic things like survival, eating, and reproduction, Adon knew this was what being a butterfly—or any flying creature—was really about.

How are you feeling about this hunting trip, Adon? Goldie sent, breaking into his train of thought.

Adon’s head was spinning as he contemplated different aerial maneuvers and tried ineffectually to pull himself back into the present moment. It took him a few seconds to compose his thoughts.

I’m going to touch infinity, he finally replied, turning and looking over at her. I feel amazing.

The spider seemed to be preparing to say something back to him, but at that moment, Rosslyn opened the garden door, and bright light burst over all their faces. Adon felt the warmth of the sun strike his wings and the cool, crisp air run across his sensitive antennae almost at the same instant, and he shivered.

This is just perfect, he thought, unintentionally transmitting it to everyone.

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“I hope that you will enjoy yourself,” Rosslyn said, smiling sweetly.

Oh, undoubtedly, sent Samson.

This is what he has been waiting for his entire life, Goldie added, though Adon wondered if he did not feel a little sadness coming through in her tone.

But his focus was pulled away from that by a thought that was not telepathically transmitted, but simply close enough to the surface for him to pick it up.

And that you will be back reasonably soon, Rosslyn thought quietly. I do not know how father would feel if he knew that you were taking this trip. The words came out so quietly that Adon realized she might not have intended anyone to hear her. As he glanced around, he saw that neither Goldie nor Samson seemed to have noticed it. They were both sitting in place and had not reacted in any way discernible through body language to the Princess’s surprising thought.

Rosslyn normally had great control of her thought processes and whether she allowed thoughts to be audible to creatures using Telepathy. Adon wasn’t certain why he could hear what felt to him like one of Rosslyn’s guarded inner thoughts. He had an idea of why it seemed that only he could hear this one, rather than Goldie and Samson picking it up as well.

Adon had repeatedly invested in higher degrees of Telepathy, as well as mental magic. He was also extremely close to Rosslyn’s brain, sitting on her shoulder, while the spiders were being carried down at waist height.

Maybe the combination of his focus on Telepathy and mental magic, and his physical proximity, was enough that if he wanted to, he could start penetrating through to deeper, more secret levels of thought.

Naturally, Adon rejected that idea out of hand. He wondered why Rosslyn thought her father might be upset at his departure, but he did not want to press for an answer for that—certainly not if Rosslyn was going out on a limb by walking him out.

I will be back soon, Adon transmitted. I’m very excited to fly in the open air, but I promise I won’t be gone for more than a few days. Since he was talking to just the people he was most comfortable around, he found himself adding, I know you guys would miss me too much!

That is true, Goldie sent back.

Rosslyn nodded in agreement.

Go discover something no one has ever seen before, Samson transmitted.

Adon was struck that his brother did not sound either like he would miss Adon or that he resented being left behind. It felt like Samson was genuinely wishing him well.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, Adon told himself. He never had any feeling of rivalry toward me at all. This is a game I’m playing with myself. I’m in my own head, and he’s got nothing but love for me.

When you’re stronger, I’ll take you with me, Adon sent.

He still had time to be the big brother in this life that he never was in his last one.

I’ll hold you to that promise, Samson replied instantly.

Farewell, my friends, Adon sent to everyone.

He flapped his wings and floated above Rosslyn and the spiders as they all waved to him.

If Adon had possessed tear ducts as a butterfly, he knew he would be crying right now. He knew that the quality of his relationships with Goldie, Samson, and Rosslyn was more than he deserved. The crisp autumn air and the bright steady sun stacked on top of that felt like too much goodness and beauty to take.

The warmth of real friendship plus the joy of flight seemed to Adon to make his circulatory system move faster.

It might have been only in his head, but he perceived radiating energy waves rolling off his exoskeleton and wings, as if the overflowing emotions were too much for his body.

Before he could say something else that might embarrass him, the butterfly took off toward a higher position and left the world behind. He flapped and moved up until the Princess was the size of a butterfly herself.

Soaring through the open sky, finally surrounded by nothing but open blue and clouds, was phenomenal.

When I was an egg, and just after I hatched, I never had overly high expectations for this life, Adon thought. Then, when I was a little larger, I started to dream. One of the things I started to dream about was this. I knew flying would be good. But it’s so much better than I could have imagined.

It was even better, somehow, flying as a butterfly, than it had been to fly as a dragon. When Adon was a dragon, he had been a miniature mountain of flesh and bone. Flight was an effort of insane muscle power mixed with more than a little bit of magic.

Flying as a butterfly was something different. It was entirely natural, and the sensation resembled flying a kite—except that in this situation, he himself was the kite.

For a little while, he simply flapped his wings and let his wings take him all over, flitting back and forth over the garden. The others were watching him, he felt, from the place where he had left them.

But Adon could not pay them much attention. He was far too engrossed in what he was doing just then to think about anyone or anything else. Finally, probably around the time that he noticed the others had gone inside, he changed his pace.

The ground receded quickly as he ascended again and began playfully experimenting with the wind and his wings. Adon ascended to around treetop height, and he began working on gliding. He quickly found that he could accomplish a great deal of forward motion without much effort.

His antennae could feel the direction of different air currents, and by adjusting his altitude or the position of his wings slightly, Adon could glide from one spot to another much more quickly using the wind alone than he could have by flapping his wings with no wind at all.

A butterfly can get so much further out here, and move so much faster, than indoors.

When Adon moved from the top of the highest tree in the garden to just over the garden wall, he covered the distance at a speed he thought would compare favorably with a professional cyclist riding at top speed. And it was effortless.

What could I do if I really tried? he wondered.

The hunting trip purpose of this flight was almost forgotten for a while.

Hours flew by, as Adon spent the rest of the afternoon in flight practice.

I’m glad that I didn’t promise them I would be back inside by tomorrow. Though he was having a great deal of fun, he had made no progress toward actually hunting any living creatures.

He did stop and feed on flower nectar a few times, as the initial energy expenditures of his flight adventure quickly diminished his Biomass, which had a much lower maximum cap than it had when he was a caterpillar.

But as the quality of the light around him began to change, indicating that the sun would set soon, he had not even left the confines of the garden.

You’re not afraid to leave, are you? Adon asked himself.

He thought the answer was “No.”

So the butterfly ascended again, this time combining the use of air currents and a generous supply of muscle power to climb to the greatest height he had yet achieved.

Adon knew he was several miles up, although he had no way of gauging the exact distance. Unlike his dragon form, his butterfly body was not itself an adequate measuring stick for the vast intervals that his winged body was capable of traversing.

He exulted in the mad heights even as he managed his wing position carefully. The winds up there were far wilder and more unpredictable than they had been when he was closer to the soil, and he knew that a wrong move could send him tumbling toward the earth.

As Adon spun and moved with the wind, far above the palace, he noticed something for the first time.

This feels familiar…