EPHEMERAL
With the first fires of dawn she tore open her chrysalis and her wings spread for the first time in iridescent beauty. She flew all morning, landing here and there, exploring: branches, leaves, stones, soaking up the sun and the world; she even landed fearlessly on the hand of a giant, who soon returned her to the morning sky. When she felt hungry, she headed for a flower growing among the ruins of the castle where was born and fed on its nectar, sweet as the pleasure for which she had no name.
It was then that she saw him, one more among all the males who congregated on the top of the hill. But this one, she knew, was special: he was the predestined one: he beat his wings more powerfully than the rest and as approached her the aroma emanating from his pheromones became irresistible. And so they copulated for hours, joined by the tip of their abdomens, and dragged by the male in flight, she enjoyed gloriously feeling her copulatory pouch fill with the vital flow of her beloved. Finally they separated, not without a certain sadness, and she flew to a plant with succulent flowers to deposit the fruits of their union, the many children of their hours of love.
At dusk, a gentle lassitude invaded her little by little, and she knew what it meant. But she was not afraid, because her work was already done: now she could rest. And, perched among the grass that the light of the setting sun made shine like emeralds, with the moon already lazily ascending over the horizon, her little golden soul departed towards unknown territories beyond the night.
