Nature's Kaleidoscope
As Kit peered through his binoculars, trying to find the bird singing in the canopy above, a kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies interjected itself between himself and the trees, obscuring his view.
Kit’s hands slowly lowered the binoculars, leaving them to dangle from his neck. He had stumbled upon a Monarch migration route. Dozens, then hundreds, thousands of butterflies surrounded him, heedless of his presence as they made their way past.
He stood, transfixed, all thought of the bird gone until the very last Monarch had disappeared from view. Only then did Kit notice that the wood thrush was still singing.
I have to credit Bill Adler (Fiction by Bill Adler) with an unintentional prompt. He had made a comment on Twitter a while back about a group of butterflies being called a kaleidoscope. I immediately knew I had to write a story around that theme. So thank you, Bill, for the prompt!
I had hoped to find an image of a kaleidoscope in flight. Alas, it was not to be. I hope you enjoyed this 100-word story and the image I chose anyway. Please share it and comment.
It's a tiny part of a huge book and series, but Tad Williams has an amazing and unexpected butterfly scene in his Memory, Sorrow and Thorn trilogy ( which is actually 4 books, pubs split the third installment).
Loved this, Dascha. I remember Bill’s tweet! That stuck with me - as will your story.