Re: Butterfly (Reincarnated as a Butterfly)

Rosslyn! Rosslyn! Adon screamed the Princess's name inside his mind until he would have gone hoarse if he'd been using actual vocal cords.

The Princess did not stir, did not show any signs of regaining consciousness. She was still alive, but it took Adon a minute to compose himself.

What, what do I do? he thought, his tiny body shaking slightly with agitation.

He had fluttered from the Princess's back to her shoulder after they landed on the ground, returning to his normal shape and size to conserve energy. He had also deactivated mental magic. The only thing he was still spending mana on now was Telepathy, but he was using it at such a low level that the mana burn was probably less than his natural regeneration rate at this point.

He wanted to find some way to save Rosslyn.

Because…

"Save yourself. You promised. Live…"

Those had been her last words. A command.

But he couldn't follow it. No, he wouldn't.

I'm going to keep both of us alive or… He didn't allow himself to finish the thought. Every version of the ending felt maudlin and trite compared with Rosslyn's sincere, straightforward commitment to doing the best she could for her country and her world.

She had wanted him to stay alive, because whatever the Goddess had in store for Adon was bigger than either of them.

All right, I won't let myself die, no matter what. But I'm still going to save you.

Adon began flicking through plans, his mind moving perceptibly more slowly without mental magic boosting it. In fact, he felt a sort of brain fog had settled over him, a hangover from using mental magic.

But he pushed on. He didn't have time to waste waiting to feel better.

Transform into a humanoid and carry her? That won't work. This level is big. Crossing it on foot and then climbing up to the exit would take too long. I'd run out of mana. And my Telekinesis isn't strong enough to carry her. I probably have some Evolution Points accumulated after everything we've been through, but it's hard to believe the next upgrade is going to fix the weight limit issue. Even if I did, the amount of time I could carry her with Telekinesis is probably less than the time I could spend carrying her using Transformation…

Just then, the ground quaked, painfully reminding Adon that he didn't have forever to figure this out. He and Rosslyn had outpaced the destruction of the dungeon, but the collapse was still coming for them. Any moment, the tunnel they had emerged through would start shaking and then crumble up the cliff face behind them.

The sudden turbulence and increased sense of urgency didn't shake any ideas loose for Adon, though.

Goddess, help me! Adon thought frantically. I'm not leaving Rosslyn behind, but I don't know what to do. I'm at the end of my rope… Why did I emphasize destructive abilities instead of utility all this time? I haven't been in the garden for weeks!

Adon shook himself slightly and made his brain focus again. That was when he sensed something at the edge of his perception. Something in the level besides himself and Rosslyn was moving.

He heard the wingbeats before he saw the source of the sound.

His entire body went into defense mode instinctively at the approach of a predator, one that he sensed was a superior species at that.

And then Adon realized what it was.

Right, we're back on the second level, he thought.

He had already seen some monsters outside of their levels of origin. One griffin had been down at the very bottom of the dungeon, eating dead monster flesh. A squad of Gold-Digging Ants and the spider that led them had pursued Adon and Rosslyn into that level, deep underground, miraculously surviving the fall that should have killed them.

After that, somehow the idea hadn't clicked that there would still be griffins here, on the second floor.

A familiar shadow passed over Adon's head, hooked around, passed back again, and swooped down for a landing right in front of him and Rosslyn.

Don't you dare touch her, Adon thought half-heartedly. He didn't send it as words or feelings, though. Only considered doing so.

Because in the next moment, recognition dawned.

Prime! This griffin had been Adon's liaison with his species. He was the best possible monster Adon could have encountered in this space. The butterfly sent a quick telepathic greeting, just reminding the griffin of their first encounter in the monster's den, during which Adon had rendered himself invisible.

He felt the spark of recognition dawn in the griffin's mind. The creature had already recognized Rosslyn. Now he knew who Adon was, too.

Two more shadows passed overhead. Adon looked up and saw another pair of familiar griffins just before they landed.

One of them was brown with some white dappling across its wings—Speckles!

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

The other was Prime's mate, no longer pregnant and visibly deflated. Adon hadn't given her any goofy nickname as he had with the first two griffins to have drawn his attention.

As the female settled on the ground alongside Adon, Rosslyn, and the other two griffins, she made a slightly ungainly landing. Adon guessed she was still getting back into flying after giving birth. Then a small, feathered head poked out at him from just behind her head and between her wings.

It was the more or less newborn griffin. The infant had short, pale gray down feathers covering the part of it that Adon could actually see.

Ugly cute, Adon thought. Now how do I get your daddy to help us?

The new mother twisted her head back and tapped the newborn on the top of its noggin until it ducked down back out of view. She looked at Adon with an obvious hint of suspicion, though he questioned what harm she could imagine a seemingly ordinary butterfly might do to her young.

Prime made a loud barking noise at Adon, and the butterfly redirected his attention back to the new father.

The griffin bent and nuzzled at Rosslyn's unconscious body with its beak, then looked pointedly at Adon.

You're already thinking about helping her? Adon wondered. Without me saying anything first?

He started trying to compose a telepathic video message to Prime. That was how he had communicated with the griffins before.

Then Telepathy showed Adon exactly what the big monster was thinking. It still wasn't using words to express thoughts, but it certainly had a sharp mind.

Prime had pulled up a memory from their last encounter. In the scene, it was fighting the strixes in midair, while the humans attempted to pull their weight while hanging from the cliffside in front of it. A trio of strixes had dogpiled Prime in midair, and then the lead strix's head burst into pieces. Adon realized, in the same moment that the griffin had recognized, that Rosslyn had smashed a rock and thrown one of the pieces through that strix's head.

From there, Prime took care of the other two.

The memory cut forward to sometime much later.

Adon was placed inside the griffin's body again, and from the monster's point of view, he watched as the beast flew out of his nest, leaving his pregnant mate behind, to pursue the humans who were trying to leave the floor. The butterfly could feel the unwillingness behind the griffin's eyes as his body moved on its own to pursue the Dungeon Core's enemies. It reminded Adon of the incarnation he'd experienced where he had been a monster himself.

The vision cut off, and the butterfly was left facing the griffin.

It radiated a strange emotion for a nonhuman: guilt. The monster bent and nuzzled Rosslyn again, then looked at Adon as if waiting.

Yes, please help her! Adon thought.

He sent a quick telepathic animation of the griffith flying out of here with Rosslyn on its back. Prime nodded, turned his head, and let loose a quick trio of barks in different inflections.

Then he bent his neck, lowering his head to just under Rosslyn's height. Speckles stepped over, grabbed Rosslyn by her hair, and clumsily threw her upper half over Prime's shoulder. Adon helped with a bit of Telekinesis, pushing slightly to position her in a balanced way.

The griffith grabbed one of Rosslyn's hands with one front claw and an ankle with the other, and then it tilted its body back up. If not for the fact that it had a beak, Adon would have sworn he saw the creature smile.

Prime flapped its wings and took off with Rosslyn, letting loose a string of barks in all directions as it flew.

Adon had to rush to belatedly catch up with Prime alongside the other griffins. As he flew, he saw more of the other griffins emerging from their dens—that must have been what Prime was trying to signal—and following along with them.

It was as if the griffins had known they would return here and had been waiting for them to arrive.

In the distance behind the flying group, the tunnel Adon and Rosslyn had ascended through exploded loudly, sending chunks of rock flying in all directions. The butterfly almost fully ignored it, since they were already outside of shrapnel range.

Instead, he carefully matched his speed to Prime's and settled on Rosslyn's back. He expected the trip up from the second level to be a bumpy ride.

They soared through the entryway, then continued up the passage, quickly rising back up to the first level.

The griffins were surprisingly graceful even in the confined space, moving in a line and carefully avoiding striking each other or the walls despite the fact that their wingspan was similar to what Adon's had been when he was using his giant wings.

They've just practiced it more, he told himself.

Then they burst out into the open of the first level. Lizard creatures reacted instantly to their presence, either trying to throw themselves at the griffins—a rare reaction, and one that was punished by the griffins with instant death for the handful foolish enough to try—or by running away. That brought back memories.

As the griffins passed over the rest of the lizard monsters that had not moved, Adon dared to think that he and Rosslyn were actually going to make it out of the dungeon. It was a strange feeling.

A day ago, he would have said he thought they would probably make it out. Just after the Dungeon Core was destroyed, before it became clear the dungeon was collapsing, there was a moment when he would have said they would definitely manage. And fifteen minutes ago, he had almost fallen into despair, thinking they would not escape.

Perhaps the lesson was that fate was fickle, but griffins were honorable.

Prime carried Adon and Rosslyn swiftly through the first level, and then Prime shot up in a dramatic vertical move. In the distance far above them, Adon could see a white twinkling. It took a moment for him to remind himself that they were almost outside. That twinkling was natural light.

A few seconds later, Prime and the rest of the griffins, traveling faster than any non-flying being could hope to, burst out of the dungeon's entrance. Adon's eyes went crazy.

After so long in darkness, near darkness, magma-originating light, pale imitations of sunlight, glowing violet crystal light, seeing the sun again should have been comforting or at least given some sense of relief. Instead, it was just blinding. His vision was scorched.

Adon had to wait what felt like an eternity—probably much closer to a minute, maybe a minute and a half—before his eyes had regenerated the damage the direct sunlight did to them.

When he could see again, they were above the clouds. The griffins were flying in a majestic miniature V-formation, and the sky was a brilliant blue.

Are we going toward the city? Adon wondered. Rosslyn would want us to check on the capital right away…

The butterfly began composing a telepathic video message for Prime, but then they flew over a gap in the cloud cover, and he realized they were right above Wayn.

Thousands of feet below, Adon saw the city, and his whole body stiffened.

What happened?