The first raindrop missed Syo by the length of an antenna. I stopped short from crashing into him when he skidded to an alarmed halt and hovered mid-air to recover from the fright. A shiver ruffled through my wings at the thought that he’d been a mere flutter away from being hit and sent spiralling down like a dead leaf.

“That was way too close!” Syo threw back his head to glare up at the sky. “I doubt this raindrop came here all by itself. Dammit, I wanted to reach the Roost as soon as possible.”

When I followed his gaze towards the treetops, I realised that this raindrop was only the first forebode of the storm that awaited us.

A thick blanket of clouds had rolled across the sky, leaving only a dreary grey in its wake that lingered like the trail of a slug. At last, it swallowed the sun awhole, causing the forest to bathe in shadows so deep that every bright shade of colour seemed to have been filtered from the woodsy landscape.

Then, a collective disquiet broke loose as all creatures at once braced themselves for the incoming rainfall. From squirrels shooting up a tree to huddle in their nests, to a mother quail who urged her young to seek shelter with warning calls. A herd of deer stampeded through the bushes, having sensed the prickle of a thunderstorm in the air right when I did, as the fuzz on my body fluffed up for protection.

“Your Highness, I’m afraid we’ll have to inform the others later,” I said, tugging on his sleeve, “We need to leave before the rain starts.”

Before I could finish that sentence, a raindrop came crashing down like a falling acorn, and another, and yet another, the intervals in between them shortening at an alarming rate.

“Come on, let’s go find shelter!”

I squealed when Syo yanked my wrist forward, my wings fluttering fast to catch up with his sudden movement.

We nosedived under the nearest tree branch just as the drizzle turned into a downpour. To our great relief, we found a jagged hole in the bark just large enough for a couple of bugs to squeeze into. A bird must have carved it out with its beak, though it didn’t seem to be lurking nearby, thankfully. A shiver like an icy droplet ran down my spine at the thought of flying from one danger right into the other, straight into a hungry creature's maw.

“We made it just in time,” Syo said, ruffling his wings and casting a curtain of dew that had formed on his scales around the hideout. “Now it’s only a waiting game before we can return to the Roost and warn everyone about the wasp nest.” With a new generation of young caterpillars on the verge of cocooning, we couldn’t risk having a colony of hungry wasps nest nearby and take advantage of their vulnerable life stage.

“I hope the sun comes out soon…” I watched the endless stream of raindrops trickling through the canopy, rolling off leaves of shrubs and plants before sinking into the earth below. Even if the rain bound us to the ground, I found some comfort knowing that at least the rain worms and beetles that emerged from the soil were having a ball. “Well, at least there won’t be any wasp attacks in this weather. Not even those terrible yellow jackets are invincible when it rains!”

When I triumphantly cried into the streaming rain, Syo poked his finger against my cheek. “Hey, who’re you calling invincible? Did you forget how I fought one off just now?”

It had been an impressive display of strength and guts when Syo hurled himself onto the wasp’s back to render its venomous stinger useless. With just the power of his wings alone, Syo battered it over and over again until the attacker’s thrashing died out from pure exhaustion. By mistaking his beauty for weakness, the wasp had to learn the hard way that a butterfly’s wings stored an incredible amount of strength despite their delicate appearance. Even elegant roses hid thorns under their petals, after all.

“They think they can mess with us because we don’t have stingers or mandibles, but guess what. We’ve got a different punch to pack!”

When Syo pumped his fist in the air, I responded with a cheerful applause. Our excitement as we recounted his heroic interference was cut short when a dark rumble resounded through the forest. A sharp wind began shaking the treetops, sending more gusts of rain under the canopy. To our horror, the temperature continued to drop steadily, without any sign of stopping soon. I huddled deeper into my fuzz and tightly pressed my wings to my body against the cold wind and wet that sprayed on the entrance of our hideout.

Suddenly, I noticed a strange vibration in the air that alerted me at once. In our relief to find a hiding place, we hadn’t considered possible dangers hiding in the shadows. My antennae quivered as I focused on searching for threats or hostile bugs. Some dug tunnels in tree bark to raise their grubs, and they rarely welcomed strangers into their nurseries. Yet nothing seemed out of order at a first glance. Perhaps I was still on edge from our earlier wasp encounter, though thankfully that buzzing noise was just an echo in my mind now.

Then… what was it? When I turned around, I realised that Syo was the one causing the vibrations… by shivering from head to toe! How could I have been so dense to forget that butterflies did not possess the same insulating fur that protected me against the cold?

"Your Highness, you must be cold," I said and fidgeted with my sleeves, knowing Syo detested being coddled. His status as a prince meant that enough bugs fussed over him already, and I didn't want to add to that. Yet freezing posed a serious threat to butterflies, and I knew Syo would never admit his weakness. I held out my right forewing towards him. “Here. You can wrap it around yourself for warmth. It might not look like much, but it’s pretty fuzzy and warm.”

Syo glanced at it before crossing his arms in front of his chest. "It’s not a big deal. I just need a little sun to warm up, that's all," he replied a bit too quickly, the tremble in his voice betraying his attempt at sounding confident. “I-I can handle a bit of cold weather. Besides, you need it more than I do.”