From: Pele@yabbs
To: all@yabbs
Subject: Metamorphosis
Date: Fri Aug 19 20:45:34 1994
Thanx for being so supportive.  This may be long so please bear with me.
Here goes:

The beam of light edged its way softly through the leaves above only to
rest on the soft fur-like body of the slow-moving creature that seemed to
bask in the beauty of the tree from which it was getting its daily nutritional
requirements.  The caterpillar was quite content as it swallowed the last
of its meal--a leaf from a tree several hundred times it's size.  He
looked down and up the tree.  He was so far up that he could not see the
bottom of the tree and so far from the top that the tree's apex seemed to
exist in another dimension only imagined in the mind of this lowly creature.


He smiled as he envisioned himself on top of the tree looking down on the
world below...beyond anything and everything.  He started his tread back
to his home where his brothers and sisters were waiting for him.  

He was always considered the dreamer of the family.  Always walking around
in a daze not knowing which way was which.  He was often laughed at by the
other insects that were living in the tree.  His only friend was an odd old
worm that lived just below the branch he was on.  The worm was quite wise
and lived to see both his parents, grand-parents and great-grandparents go
through the metamorphosis and eventually die.  He always had words of
encouragement to give to his little friend, the caterpillar.


The caterpillar decided to pay his friend a visit and headed down to his home.
The worm was comfortably eating away at the bark of the tree and barely
noticed his friend's arrival.  He looked up at his friend when he saw him
and smiled.

"Hello there little one," he smiled.  "How goes it today?  You seem to be
in the best of moods." With this he turned his attention back to the uneaten
bark.  The caterpillar was used to this and simply responded with a smile.

"I'm fine," he said.  "I just came to see how you were."

"I," came the muffled response of a worm with a mouth full of tree bark,
"am quite fine.  Are you readying yourself for the metamorphosis?"

The question seemed to take the young caterpillar by surprise and he did
not respond.  Instead, his face fell and his furry skin seemed to change to
a darker shade of green.

"What's wrong?" asked the worm.

"I didn't realize it would be so soon," he responded.

"You do not wish to be a butterfly?  They are quite beautiful and they can
fly as high as they want."

"I know.  It's just that....well....I want to be a worm, like you.  I want
to teach people like you teach me."  The worm smiled in recognition of the
compliment and the young one's addulation.

"I know how you feel," he replied.  "When I was your age, I wanted to be a
bird so that I could eat my friends who made me angry.   I later learned
that we often have to be what we don't want to be because that is the way
of things.  You have no choice.  You must undergo the metamorphosis
because that is your destiny."  The caterpillar frowned.

"But I don't want to be a butterfly," he whined.  "And if I choose not to
go through with the metamorphosis, I wont!"  He then took off as quickly
as he could running to another side of the tree where he ran into one of
his brothers.

"Hey silly," his brother screamed at him.  "Where do you think you're going?
Home is that way."  He laughed at his brother who seemed to have tears in his
eyes.

"I don't want to go through with it!" screamed the caterpillar.

"With what, dreamer?" his brother asked more out of jest than curiousity.

"The metamorphosis."  His brother fell back and gasped.  His furry green
coat turned a bright green as his face contorted into pure anger.

"Don't you dare say that again!"  Screamed the older caterpillar to his
brother.  "You will do as you are told and I will hear nothing of it!  You
are meant to be a butterfly and that is that!"  With that he grabbed his
little brother by the ear and took him home.  

At home, his other brothers and sisters argued with him all night
demanding that he do as he was told and be what he was supposed to be.  He
cried all night as they badgered him.  Finally he could take it no more.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!!!" he screamed.  With that he ran into his room and shut
the door.  But he could still hear them talking.  He wanted them to stop. 
He wanted to just be alone.  And without thinking, he began to spin a web
around his ears.  At first, it was enough, but he could still hear them a
little and he could still see their reflections outside and so he spun
another web around his eyes.  This, however was not enough because he
could still feel them and so he spun the web all around his body.  All
night he spun the web, carefully so that there would be no room for them
to get it and talk to him.

Finally he was alone.  He was tired and soon he was asleep.  Early the
next day he woke up and looked around his little cell.  He couldn't see
but something was strange.  He strained his eyes hard and looked down at
his body and let out a scream of terror.



Uh...sorry guys.  Running out of space.  Next post, I'll finish it.
Maybe later.  I have to go now.