never follow a butterfly; any

[Illae]

There was a wild excitement that came with the game she played. Zig zagging through the underbrush, chasing the little creature which fluttered always just a breath away beyond her reach. Each step trodden, carefree and wild taking her further and further from the protective guidance of her mother. Though whilst aware of this fact, young Illae did not care. Her mother would tell her she juggled with danger, but what was danger to a young filly who had never experienced fear, whose occasional night terrors consisted of her mother’s disproval or little green mushrooms with gnashing teeth. All Illae knew was that exploring was her thing, her curiosity unbound. And that now, her little world of swaying grass and boring grey rocks suddenly became that little bit bigger as she chased and giggled her way through new and uncharted territory.   The creature fluttered beneath a low lying branch and around the next tree, the underbrush far too dense to barge recklessly through lest she become covered in scratches and forest muck. Illae paused dead still in her tracks, the fluttering thing of wonder vanishing from her sight. Adventure and dirt went together, just like the sun in the sky. But Illae also knew that if she returned to her mother looking like a filly who had been in the forest, well, she would get into terrible trouble. The game would be up, and no amount of sneaking would free her from the iron clasp of her mother’s watchful eye in the future. For freedoms sake, she had no choice but to remain as clean as possible and go around.   “Hello young lady. Best be careful with butterflies, they are quite fragile you know?"   Illae whirled around. Away from the underbrush and the flutter creature and towards the voice. It was a voice she did not recognise and it belonged to a stallion she was relieved she did not know. She had pursued the flutter creature for too long and too far only to be dragged back to the herd now. And her apprehensive expression faded into relief.   “Butterflies?” she questioned him, is that what it was, what she gave chase too? Butterflies, flutter creature, whatever it was, with every moment it fluttered onwards beyond her sight it was gaining a head start that could possibly become too big to rectify, she couldn’t tarry. “It’s getting away!” she exclaimed to him. And with gangly legs Illae spun back around and raced around the underbrush, and then the next tree.   But beyond the next tree the flutter creature was gone, and yet strangely, Illae’s child-like demeanour did not sour with disappointment, instead what she found made her eyes grow big with a wide eyed awe. “Wow,” she breathed out, as her wild imagination pieced together two completely separate entities into one. For where she had assumed the flutter creature should be instead stood a mare. With the flutter creature no longer within sight, to Illae there was no question, here stood her flutter creature rematerialized. “I’m Illae,” she responded in turn, before reaching out tentatively with her muzzle to touch Rhy’s skin. “and I caught you” she giggled…   "Oh, is this one yours madam?"   For a moment she had almost forgotten about him. He had almost disrupted her play, had almost hindered her wonderful new discovery. “Didn’t you see?” she asked the stallion incredulously, not understanding why his outlook on the situation didn’t quite match her own. “She’s the butterflies!” she told him, using the term he had used to describe the colourful flutter creature before it had transformed into Rhy.