It was beautiful, its dazzling, glittering shimmer. I watched as it beat its wings for the first time, each flutter tearing through the air like a fresh harvest as it gracefully began to fly. I watched as embers of light, as bright as the stars in the sky, slowly descended from its wings. Each flap of its tiny body so miniscule, yet so enormous.

Ah, the first flight of the Astral Butterfly. Its name arrived with its birth, even if its meaning remained unknown. Its body radiated a vibrant purple, yet it holstered the unknown mysteries of the cosmos. A being that shouldn’t exist, but simply does anyways. How fascinating.

What a beautiful sight. I began to follow as it rose into the sky, before floating away. Through the forest I followed, through trees of mystical essence, through eternal streams of flowing water, I watched it fly. Unending. Unerring. Without Purpose.

Its gaze fell upon bone white mountains and passed over even the endless seas. It observed the roots of the world, watching as the trees overtook the land, seeping into the core of the world itself. It watched as the world moved; a sight only ever observed by me. Yet I was the only one to watch as the butterfly slowly faded into a burst of ethereal purple, falling to the ground and settling on the root of a nearby tree. Even I could not notice the sudden unnoticeable change, one that would take me years to truly understand.

At the same time, I watched as the world began to right itself once more, with the birth of a bright orange sapling. I witnessed its predecessor slowly crumble away, feeding the newborn as the world’s core spun on a new axis. The remains continued onwards, feeding the blossom beyond its prison, spilling out into the realm anew. Its presence, not unlike the butterfly, is not welcome, yet it persists and even thrives, unknowing and uncaring. I witnessed them all at once, for I have no other purpose.[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/924120148024102994/1144315302717431948/Attempt_2.png]

Michael sat up in his chair, uncomfortably blinking the sleep from his eyes. He'd stayed up late the night before preparing for a history exam, but now that it was done, he had no energy left. His face drooped as he struggled to right himself, fixating on whatever he could grasp his mind to. He'd resigned himself to watching the clock, a new flurry of emotions flowing through his mind every time the hand ticked. Whether it was a lack of interest in the subject at hand, or the indiscriminately long lecture ahead of him, time seemed to stretch on.

He had expected the classes to get boring. He had one more semester before he would graduate, finally getting a chance to get out of this absurdly hot state. For now though, he was two weeks into a semester-long class, a rare find in his school, but still welcome. He had long been accepted into several different colleges around the nation, although he wasn't quite sure yet what to choose. He cut that thought; Now's not the time to worry about college. He could worry about that when he--

"Mr. Locke, are you doing alright?" He perked up, quickly turning his head towards the front of the classroom. To his dismay, the owner of the voice was his teacher, Mrs. Hill, and she was staring right at his slumped figure. A small smirk grew on her face, and Michael flushed, embarrassed as a small chuckle erupted from the students behind him. "I-" he cleared his throat "Sorry Mrs. Hill!" He knew from experience that it was better to own up to your mistakes than to argue with her. The sheer amount of debates in the past two-week period was astounding, and he certainly didn't want to add to it.

She looked glanced around the room before turning back around; "Good." As she continued with her lesson, Michael truly started to pay attention, well, at least he tried to. To be honest though, he knew most of this anyways. As a huge history fanatic, he'd known most of this information long before the required class covered it, but he enjoyed reinforcing his prior knowledge. Today though, he'd rather be anywhere else.

He started doodling, to hopefully give off the impression that he was taking notes. He'd hear little bits and pieces of the lecture that'd catch his eye, and listen carefully to absorb all the knowledge he didn't know, before turning back to his drawings. Wiping his brow, he shook off any remnants of sweat he gained from the cramped, humid room before staring down at his crudely drawn landscape.

The heat was unbearable, a mixture of hot summer temperatures still only furthered still by intense humidity brought by a rapid mixture of rain and intense sunlight. There was a few who enjoyed the weather, although Michael called them crazy, one of his best friends was one of those people, the friend who currently sat three seats behind him.

Turning back, he saw Ken, his close friend, sitting with his head in his hands. It appears that he was just as bored as Michael, although he definitely hid it better. His stark black hair contrasted with his peachy skin, his hazel eyes almost glowed a vibrant yellow, easily letting Michael pick him out in a crowd, not to mention the fact that Ken was at least six foot five, towering above Michael’s six foot frame.

Tick! Tick! Tick! Michael’s head swiveled back to the clock, as if alert. The clock continued to move at a sluggish pace, rebuilding Michael's perspective on the relative laws of physics as he waited for the class to end. Only ten more minutes… Almost done! He thought, trying to motivate himself. He had more classes of course, but this one in particular needed to be done, for his sanity's sake.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Alright everybody! We're going to have a small pop-quiz! Put away your notes, because we're about to cover everything we learned today!" Mrs. Hill's announcement was greeted with a series of groans and whines, including one from Michael. "Don't worry! It's not really for a grade, but I just want to make sure you are all paying attention!" Her positivity was contagious, and most students couldn't help but smile, despite there being nothing worth smiling for.

"Now, let's begin with some of the basics! First off, what was the ancient Egyptian god of the sun?" Easy Michael thought, before raising his hand. [Ra] He replied, immediately tuning anything out. He knew this because he knew mythology so well, and it provided a perfect excuse to not participate in any other questions.

"Perhaps you were paying attention after all!" Mrs. Hill said sarcastically, but kindly, before moving on to the next question. "Alright then, how about another hieroglyph question?" She pulled out a marker, drawing a symbol of two arms reaching upwards. "What hieroglyph is this?"

[Ka], another student interjected, relieving Michael of trying to remember it. Frankly, he was grateful that there were a lot of smarter students in his class. As much as he liked sharing his knowledge, he didn't want them to expect it from him every time.

"Very good! Make sure you're taking notes!" She said with a smile. "[Ka] is typically used as a sign of praise, especially for pharaohs and gods of ancient Egypt. This could certainly be used with the other hieroglyphic, [Ra] due to their more spiritual connection. Now, I'll go ahead and answer the last question for you. The glyph "[Men] isn't really a major symbol that you can just look up through typical means. This technically isn't a hieroglyph, but accurately paints a picture of the life of the ancient Egyptians. The glyph depicts a man taken as prisoner. This typically stands for a rebel or foreigners taken as prisoner, or forcefully taken from their homes. I'm not going to go into detail on what they did as prisoners, but most of these people died doing labor for their captors." Her face grew a bit solemn as she recalled more information, but quickly returned back to her familiar smile.

"Of course, if not for those people, we wouldn't have fantastical structures like the pyramids, or sphinxes." She turned back at the class, clapping her hands with a resounding clap! "For the test, you won't have to remember these specifically, but you must recall what they stand for. If you can understand the glyphs, you can understand the context!" This got a look of understanding from some of the students. Mrs. Hill always tried outlandish ways to get people to remember information, and surprisingly they worked a majority of the time.

"Typically to remember them, I put them in an order like so!" She grabbed a marker and began drawing on the whiteboard, labeling each of the different glyphs. "For [Ra] and [Men], I put them together, to make Ramen!" a chorus of snorts and giggles followed, until Mrs. Hill moved on. "Then, you just put [Ka] at the end. It's a bit of a weird one, but it sounds more like an evil villain name!" Michael rolled his eyes a bit. These jokes are so corny. Why can't we just say [Ra] [Ka] [Men] or something? Why do we need something else to remember them?

The lights flickered.

Michael felt a bit dizzy all of a sudden. He raised his hand to his forehead, wiping it with his palm. A bead of sweat dripped down his face. Shaking slightly, he grew a bit panicked, looking from side to side for help, but found that the other students were experiencing this too. Someone stood up and raised their hand. Michael couldn't tell who it was but she looked desperate.

"Mrs. Hill! Can I go to the nurse? I think I'm having a migraine or something!" Her voice was shaky, as if caught off guard. Mrs. Hill did not respond, clutching her head. Instead of waiting for permission, the girl ran out of the room, but skidded to a halt as soon as she passed through the door. "Oh wait. It's gone." She walked back into the room, extremely confused. She took a single step back and instantly fell over, face first. Clutching her head she began to scream, which aroused several others to do the same.

Michael clutched his ears, as if trying to prevent the ringing that just erupted in his head. He watched wide-eyed as several others fell to the floor, struggling to keep himself upright as he leaned back in his chair. The light above him exploded into a shower of sparks, sending out more cries of alarm as students and teacher alike were sprayed in a blast of glass. The light, despite being out, peaked, getting brighter and brighter as the noise in Michael's ears grew louder and louder. He closed his eyes, but his eyelids failed to protect him, and he fell over in a panic. He let a pained cry as he landed on a small chunk of glass, cutting into the back of his ankle, sending a jolt of pain through his body.

Everything hurt

He writhed on the ground, clutching his head as much as he could with his two feeble hands, gritting his teeth in a mixture of pain and confusion. The pain became overwhelming as the lights in the room seemed to continue to get brighter than before, despite how impossible that seemed.

The light just burned brighter.

And brighter

And brighter

And brighter

Until…

It stopped.

Without warning, as fast as it came, it was gone. The pain, the searing light, everything vanished in an instant, almost seamlessly. Seconds felt like hours as Michael was met by nothing but silence, his eyes still glued shut and his retinas still reeling from the pain.

Michael stood silent for a full minute. His eyes, as if blinded by the shockingly bright light, could not work, his world shrouded in darkness. He reached around for a place to hold himself up, his hands meeting a smooth tile floor. It felt like granite, or some form of rock he couldn't describe. Either way, this was not the usual carpet he was accustomed to. He managed to open his eyes, instantly closing them as a blazing ray of light pierced his retina. He pushed himself to an upright position, sitting on the uncomfortable floor as his mind raced with questions. Where am I? What the hell just happened? How is there tile? Did I just die? What i-

"WELCOME HEROES!" A booming voice rang out across the room, echoing slowly in the silence that followed. Michael jumped, nearly falling over as he struggled to get his bearings. Grunting, he accepted the pain and slowly but forcefully got to his feet, the gash in his ankle causing him to awkwardly shift his weight from one foot to the other. Then, readying himself, he angled himself towards the sound of the voice…

And opened his eyes