Learning to Fly

Title: Metamorphosis Turned Reality As you stand in the midst of a lush meadow, a peculiar sensation sweeps over you. An air of unease resonates through you, and yet it feels oddly familiar. A strange, glittering light dances around you, filling every inch of your field of view. In that peculiar liminal space, everything begins to change. You close your eyes whilst trying to resist, but then the light bursts into an explosion of brilliant colours, unlike anything you've ever seen before. As the breathtaking spectacle abates, you slowly open your eyes, only to find your surroundings blurry. Your sight is different now. You blink, your lids feel strange. A realization hits you: your eyes have reshaped into large, black orbs akin to that of a butterfly's. Panic surges through you as you feel yourself shrinking, the grass around you standing tall and regal. Your masculine physique is shifting, contouring into a more feminine form. Slowly you're diminishing in size until the world around you becomes massive, intimidating. Your once firm hands and feet feel strange now, delicate and nimble, fractured into tiny segmented limbs. You can no longer feel your hair, your backstreamed against a hardening shell. You examine your body in disbelief. You are covered in a beautiful pattern of intricate scales. Every detail is magnificent, and although the situation is absurd, you cannot help but admire the artwork of your new body. Your appearance isn’t the only thing affected. You can feel yourself slowly detaching from your previous experiences, from the friends you loved, the places you cherished, the food you enjoyed, it all starts to become vague fragments. You are no longer tethered to those humanly concerns or desires. Instead, a primitive urge fixates you on two things: the seductive scent of nectar and the irresistible urge to fly. Your rear end elongates, inflating into an abdomen, so bizarre it feels, yet so right. A hard, coiled platform in place of your once wet tongue lies in your mouth prepared for an onslaught of sweet nectar instead of complex humanly dishes. Your heart pounds as you feel the familiar sensation of wings sprouting from your back; only they're not metaphorical this time. Folding neatly by your sides are a gorgeous pair of wings, a canopy of vibrant hues that shimmer with elegance upon sunlight. Gently, ever so gently, you spread your newly sprouted wings, stroking the cool air around you. Your body instinctively knows what to do. You can feel a child-like excitement bubbling within you. Everything you were, now tucked away in the cocoon of your past, you take in a breath of fresh, almost ethereal air, and then... lift-off. Your mind dances with the breeze as you ascend into the air, cresting dizzying heights mindlessly, your thoughts solely focused on the joys of flight and the aroma of flowers in the distance. The world as you know it has not ended but transformed — you have transformed. Now, you are a butterfly, free to enjoy the vast world from a perspective that was always marveled yet never understood. As you flutter in the dazzling daylight, you've forgotten your human name, your age, or where you come from. Instead, you feel ageless - timeless in the ceaseless flow of nature. You never did understand the fascination with butterflies until now. This is not a nightmare. It is a dream come true. Through your wings, you have tasted freedom, through your antennae, you have embraced the world, and in your new form, you have discovered an entirely different realm. It's peculiar, it's fascinating, it's life — from another lens.