The Princess and the Butterfly

Once upon a time, in a faraway oriental land, there was a beautiful Mandarin castle, where lots of trees with pink, white and yellow flowers, give the place a touch of enchantment.  Inside the castle was living a mandarin couple.  They were really happy, because a princess was born.  She was beautiful.  Her skin was as soft as a flower petal with red cheeks and dark soft hair.  She really unfortunately got spoiled , thinking everything she was was her property.  Even though she was young she started to be selfish since she was a child, and selfishness is not good.  One morning the princess woke up and she thought it was a beautiful day as usual.  But this morning was really special; it was her birthday.  She was happy, because she knew that her father would give her anything she wanted as a present, and she didn't have to share it with any of her friends.  She started to walk around.  Once she got a little far she saw a woods where the sun rays filtered through the leaves and there were lots of trees.  She liked what she was seeing.  She wanted to have that entire woods, just for her and nobody else.  Suddenly a lot of butterflies came all over the place.  There were different styles and colors of them; they were just beautiful.  Then, a real pretty one, the prettiest of those which have the biggest and most gorgeous wings with a silk black and gold yellow combination in a special design, came over.  The princess, surprised, started to wonder what was going on.  The fairy butterfly started to talk and told her not to have the woods because it wasn't good for the other kids.  Also, the butterflies love to see them playing around there.  The princess didn't care what she said and asked her father to have the woods.  The fairy and the other butterflies got really mad.  They decided to convert everything to a sad woods with nothing pretty.  There was no sun, no animals; everything was dead.  Now the princess was trying to understand what was happening.  She started to cry.  Then she remembered the words of that fairy.  She came back to the woods calling the fairy.  She told the fairy that she regretted what she did.  She promised not to be selfish anymore, and bring back the woods to normality so the other children could play too.  The butterflies started to touch everything, changing all to normality again.  The princess was happy, seeing that again.  She had learned a lesson; she was not selfish anymore.  Everybody was happy.  The princess now has lots of friends to play with and everything is good and happy again.

1985