365 Days of Drabbles: Day Fifty-Two

[jeriendhal]

Catching up again, on account of having to take my cat Rascal to the vet last evening. :(

For drhoz: "Parasitic butterflies."

* * *

"Swan? Swaaaan!" Maria called, treading through the elvenwood. Her youngest daughter, always precocious, had gone off the track just as her father had instructed her not to. Better to find her before Tez was given cause to lecture.

"There you are," Maria said, stepped into a clearing. Swan sat in a beam of light coming through the trees, as a dozen butterflies in twice as many colors swirled around. She smiled as one landed on her cheek, then another, and then another…

Then Maria was trying beat them away and tear them from her daughter as Swan began to scream…

Comments

[seawasp]

There actually are blood-drinking moths.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Probably in Australia. Judging from drhoz's photo collection, all the really fun bugs are in Australia.

[drhoz.livejournal.com]

Actually, no - the moths in question - they usually sink their harpoons into your eyes - live in Eurasia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calyptra_%28moth%29

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

There's a Philip K. DIck short story featuring vicious butterflies; I can't find the title, unfortunately. Very creepy.

[natf.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I like this but they seem more predatory than parasitic, to me.