• It was like any other day in our lives, and a rather pleasant one at that. My brothers and sisters and I had just woken up around six hours ago, and had at once gone to work again. The Great Green was almost gone by then, since we had been chipping away at it for several days. Ten days, to be exact. Ten days of continuous work, and the Great Green was nearly gone.

    We didn’t know why we had to get rid of the Great Green. I suppose we were just hungry. No one told us to work, and probably no one would say anything if we just packed up and scattered to other greens. We were surrounded by them, after all. Nevertheless, some strange, unnamed force told us to work, and so we worked, doggedly, from Great Light until Less Light, with one break at Mid-Light.

    At the time my life changed, the Great Light had been up for about six hours. We were working as normally we did, scattered about on the Great Green, each of us working on our assigned section. Our spirits were high, for our diligent work seemed to be showing results. We were seeing the fruits of our labor, and most of us believed that day would be the last we would have to work. I believed that our work that day would be finished.

    “Ha-ha! My section’s done!” Liam called, pumping his arm up in triumph. He was answered by similar announcements and reactions.
    “Break time then.” Nick announced, freeing us all to do what we pleased until break was over. From the time we were hatched, Nick had been the authority figure. He was the natural leader throughout our work, so what he said, went.
    “Come on Kean.” My closest sister, Aylish, called from our usual break spot. I smiled and went, joining our siblings in their usual antics. Aidan and Riley were wrestling and running wild all over the Great Green, Tonya and Cara were basking in the Mid-Light sun, and Erika was exploring the surrounding greens. The rest of them were hanging around like normal, talking and being themselves. Aylish and I went to the support beam in the center of the Great Green and sat, leaning against it.

    “This is it, Kean. We won’t have to work tomorrow.” My sister said, leaning backward and looking up to the deep blue sky. It was the color of robin feathers, with pure white speckles as wispy clouds. I nodded to her statement. We both were dreamers, and believed most things our siblings didn’t.
    “Wonder what Nick’s gonna do when he has to relax all day.” I joked, drawing a laugh from Aylish.
    “Shush, he’ll hear you.” She snickered, giving me a playful shove.
    “Eh, he’s not gonna do anything.” I snorted.
    “Yeah, you’ll be thinking different after he gives you seventeen sections a day to finish off.”
    “Hay, I got no problems there. I enjoy eating.”
    Aylish laughed again. I had always had a nice way of making her laugh. Funny, but nobody else seemed to be able to. I turned my head to look at Nick, and was about to make another smart remark about him, when something caught my eye.

    “Whoa…uh…N-Nick?” I stuttered, trying to focus on my words over my sight.
    “Dang, what is that!?” I heard Aylish behind me, and saw her pointing arm over my shoulder. We both got to our feet, staring with gaping mouths. Erika dropped down from her perch on the shelter’s roof, Tonya and Cara opened lazy eyes, and Aidan and Riley stopped wrestling to watch the scene unfolding. Nick blinked, taken aback slightly at the sudden outburst and his sibling’s reactions. But then he looked down at his arm, where Aylish was pointing, and caught his breath in shock.

    Slowly climbing up Nick’s arm, seeping through his very skin, was a strange, metallic shell. It was like silvery water, splitting apart his skin to emerge from underneath, flowing over his body. He swiped and swatted at the surface of his arm in panic, only to find more of the substance hardening on his other arm. He glanced down at his legs, which were also enveloped. Our siblings and I stared on, all of us frozen in shock. Eventually, Nick seemed to be swatting his arms less and less as the solidifying substance coated his joints. Liam, Aidan, and Riley unthawed and ran forward, trying to pry the silvery shell off him. The smooth shell provided no finger holds, however, so the boys did little damage on it.

    In a final burst of panic and looking like he didn’t know at all what he was doing, Nick ran for the support beam, scrambled up it, and clung desperately to the underside of the section above us. And there he hung, unmoving, as the silvery coat conformed to his body, then took on a warped, oval-shaped figure of its own. I was an unspeaking mixture of confusion, shock, and fear as I stood underneath my brother’s encasing. I turned to the place where Erika, Liam, Aidan, and Riley stood, only to find them undergoing the same strange transformation. I couldn’t find my voice. It seemed I was in a confused haze as I looked on, hating the inability to act. Soon the entirety of my kin was overcome by the same unnamed enemy, the same seeping disease.

    And then it hit me. All of my kin?

    “Aylish!” I spun on a dime to face my sister, my closest friend and companion. The horror left my face when I saw her standing there, safe. But the relief was blown away in a gust of panic when I saw silvery blotches forming randomly all over her skin.
    “No!” I dove forward, desperately scratching at the hardening shell which was slowly moving to encase her body. My efforts were in vain, and before I knew it, Aylish had climbed to the roof to hang from it in her silvery shell among our brothers and sisters.

    Confused, panicked, and alone, I simply sat on the ground and wept silently until my eyes wouldn’t open. Eventually, I could sleep.

    My siblings stayed that way for ten Great Lights. I waited every moment for them to wake up, sleeping underneath Aylish during every Less Light. I worked during Great Light, for I didn’t know what else I could do. I waited tolerantly, hoping that with the rising of one Great Light, they would all bust out of the encasings and everything would be normal again. I kept that hope through hours upon hours on loneliness, barely able to force my body into work each morning. I had no one to work for, but still that unmistakable force we all possessed told me to wait and work.

    On the rising of the tenth Great Light, I got my wish. But, it didn’t happen anywhere near the way I expected.

    I awoke to a new sound, the crackling kind of resonance that sounded like us at our work. The sound wrenched my tear-filled eyes open, and I sat bolt upright, glancing all around me. I saw nothing, until I remembered to look up. What I saw captivated me, held me to my position on the ground. I couldn’t hear any other sound but the flowing river beside our Great Green and the cracking of the thinned cocoon. My face, unlike the last time that any strange phenomenon occurred, was flooded with upholding awe. I was looking at Nick’s cocoon, I knew I was—I had to be, but who I saw emerging didn’t look like Nick.

    The creature cracked its delicate head through the once strong shell, emerging slowly with glittering eyes in a shower of shimmering, metallic, multicolored flakes as the cocoon was broken. The beautiful animal’s upper body poked through and, with a bit of struggling, it emerged fully, hanging onto the hollow shell that had reformed his body into something unmatched and beautiful. Protruding from his back were four crumpled, wet, folded wings. I couldn’t tell the color at the time, but I knew somehow they must be beautiful.

    The new Nick didn’t move for a long time, save for the gentle flapping of his damp wings. I was frozen to the spot. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just watched. After a few hours passed, his forewings and hindwings alike were spread out, dried out, and could only be described as perfect. He blinked once, turned his beautiful head my way, and I think I actually glimpsed a smile. Then he spread his magnificent wings, detached from his empty shell, and simply flew.

    More crackling revealed the entirety of my kin to be the same beautiful creatures, masterfully reformed by some unknown force. Glittering metallic shards rained from the many cocoons, landing in flakes on my head. I shook them off, sending them cascading down on the section under me. The same thing that happened with Nick, was happening to the rest. They unfolded their delicate, flawless wings and took to the air, floating carelessly into a new beginning hidden in the clouds.

    Cautiously, I looked above me. Aylish was still encased in the shell, but was visibly struggling to break out. Instinctively I stood up to help her, taking a handful of the flimsy lining and tearing it down. Aylish’s head emerged from the hole I tore, bearing the most gorgeous pair of eyes. I backed away to allow her room to work her way out of the casing and spread her wings, watching for hours while they unfolded. When finally they did, I was able to behold the most stunning pair of red-and-black speckled wings that nature ever crafted. I could understand why the cocoon wanted to hold on to her, because she was more magnificent than any of our kin.

    Then she dismounted, using her perfect wings to carry her to the section on which I stood. She spoke to me in her melodic rainsong voice.

    “Remember the day we hatched, Kean?” She asked, seeming completely irrelevant.
    “Uh…kind of…” I said, managing to find a weak voice in my confused awe.
    “Well…it’s kind of like that. Except when you come out of all the confusion, you’re something beautiful.”
    I felt that her words were more than literal, that they had a meaning behind them. Still, my life had endured a lot of confusion. I couldn’t imagine how it could make anything beautiful. Aylish must have seen that in my expression, because she flashed me her familiar smile.
    “Trust me on this one.” She assured, and then reached down to grasp my hand. She brought it up before my eyes so that I could see it fully.

    Slowly climbing up my arm, seeping through my very skin, was a strange, metallic shell.

    ~**~