Saffron's New Animal Friend Wasn't What She Expected

TheCuriousSeed

It's tale time!

~Saffron desperately wanted an Animal Friend, but wasn't sure which. Holly had a blue pollywog, Gardenia a purple one (a boy instead of a girl like Holly's), Silver had a cobalt and white hummingbird, Hickory had a light blue dragonfly, Ginkgo had a purple firefly, Daylily an orange one, Strawberry had a lilac bee, Foxglove had a wysteria butterfly that was white before, Lavender had a green ladybug, Elva had a purple and blue hummingbird, Jessie at first had a ladybug, but said ladybug didn't want to be her Animal Friend anymore, so she adopted a butterfly instead, Heidi a blue butterfly and Xenops a pink one. Saffron liked butterflies, but butterflies were a little tricky, especially the ones that started out white. If only Animal Friends could come any colour you chose instead of white or sepia anymore.

~Then Foxglove heard word from Heather the Merfairy about recolouring her Animal Friend, Foxglove did so twice (because the first time wasn't a good shade of purple) and now her butterfly was quite happy in her new colour. Foxglove decided not to change her butterfly's name even afterwards because she believed diamonds could be purple too.

~Saffron thought and thought until she figured out what to adopt: a butterfly! Four of her friends already had butterflies, so why not make it a solid five? She went to get a white butterfly and thought of a name for the butterfly: Amethyst Lazuli. Unfortunately...

~"Saffron, you can't name him that," Daylily told Saffron, pointing to Saffron's butterfly.

~"I thought for sure I adopted a girl," said Saffron.

~"No, n-n-no, you don't get to choose your butterfly, the butterfly chooses you," said Foxglove. "At least, the ones born white do nowadays."

~"Foxglove, what're you talking about?" asked Saffron.

~"I mean your butterfly could either be male or female and male butterflies set for adoption are increasingly rare. Almost no male butterfly wants to be adopted anymore because he'll think he'll be mistaken for a girl just because of his pretty wings. Also, I'm beginning to think he wants to stay white."

~"Hmph, I'll prove that I adopted a girl butterfly and I'm still naming her Amethyst Lazuli!"

~"Mm-mmm, I'm telling you he won't like that."

~But Saffron wanted to prove Foxglove and Daylily wrong.

~Saffron taught her new butterfly every trick she could think of and even tried calling him by the name she wanted to call him, mistaking him for a girl: Amethyst Lazuli. But the butterfly refused to come to her no matter what she tried.

~"AAAUGH! Why won't you cooperate?!" Saffron exclaimed.

~Then Foxglove came with Diamondwings in tow and called to Saffron's butterfly, "C'mon, Spinel!"

~Spinel, the butterfly Saffron adopted, flew to Foxglove.

~"His name's Spinel because some spinels are white," said Foxglove. "And he wants to remain white."

~"Oh, for the love of mitochondria, we've been trying to tell you, Saffron!" exclaimed Daylily, flying in with Gingerbright and three white butterflies, also male. "This large one is Zircon, this medium one is Gypsum and this small one is Beryl, and these are all Spinel's brothers and they want to stay white too."

~"Are you serious?" asked Saffron. "Aw, I was hoping to adopt a butterfly and name her Amethyst Lazuli."

~Oh well. At least now Saffron had a butterfly even if it was a he instead of a she and even if he wanted to remain white. Still, this would be quite interesting.

Hope you enjoyed this tale!