Jeannie followed Frank down a narrow corridor. She was too nervous to ask any questions, and didn’t even wonder where they were headed, or what was going to happen. She did, however, wonder who Frank was. He was obviously of high rank; Jeannie had never seen officers bow down like that to another butterfly. Yet he did not appear to be as scary and ruthless as she had imagined the Grand Patrol to be.

While she was walking behind Frank, keeping her head low and not daring to look at anything but the next few meters in front of her, she tried to remember why the government was called “Grand Patrol”. There was some sort of legend behind it, but she could only vaguely recall it. A long time ago, when butterflies had become independent for the first time, a few leaders, chosen by the Lizards because of their pure hearts and decisive actions, were tasked with looking after butterflykind. In the beginning, these leaders would literally patrol the trees to insure everyone acted only based on pure intentions; that there was no robbery, murder or rebellion. Jeannie tried to imagine how long ago this must have been, since the Grand Patrol had evolved into a complicated structure which was now mostly busy with monitoring itself; a strange paradox that showed how big it had become.

It was a mystery to Jeannie how one would decide to join the Grand Patrol. Bob was the only one she knew who actually wanted that; one day he literally had woken up with the urge to join them. That’s all Jeannie knew; shortly after that, Bob had changed forever. She never asked too many questions, of course: little Jeannie’s biggest fear was getting noticed by someone from the Grand Patrol.

Jeannie almost bumped into Frank once he stopped. She tried to collect herself and not show emotions the way she had a few hours ago, but this proved fruitless: her knees started shaking the moment she saw the two guys in front of them.

One of them really was objectively scary. He was slightly shorter than Frank, but the muscles on his legs more than made up for the lack of height. He had a golden chain around his neck with a large tooth tied in the middle. Jeannie tried not to look directly at him, but it was difficult.

The other one wasn’t nearly as frightening; he resembled a poodle much more than a butterfly. Jeannie had never seen such a hairy chest before. The tips of his hair gently touched his face and made it look as though he was trying to hide inside his furry coat. It was easy to ignore him, and so Jeannie tried to focus on the empty space in front of her despite the scary one and his golden chain.

“Brothers! May the sun shine once in your life!” Frank suddenly proclaimed and walked over to the other two as if they were his peers.

“May the sun shine once in yours as well, Frank,” the scary one replied.

“This is Jeannie Swallowtail, the last remaining White Swallowtail.”

The scary one nodded and turned his head towards Jeannie. She could feel how cold his gaze was, and that terrified her even more. He flapped his wings in the most formal way anyone had ever seen.

“Allow me to introduce myself and my brothers. Jeannie, we are The Three Wise Buttermen.”

She had never heard of them. The Grand Patrol remained a mystery for everybody outside, well, the Grand Patrol.

“My name is Cardiff, and these are Frank and Melroe. Let me tell you The Real Legend of The Three Wise Buttermen in order to get rid of any inconsistencies with the outside world,” Cardiff continued, oblivious to what the outside world was talking about. “We are called that because we are old.”

Jeannie nodded in her mind. They did look old. She tried to process everything Cardiff was flapping, but her mind was blank. Simply knowing he was looking at her was enough to make her completely numb to everything that was happening.

Cardiff eventually gave Frank an irritated look.

“Can she understand wing language?” he asked bluntly. Frank nodded and it seemed to make Cardiff even unhappier.

“This is foolish, Frank. Look at her. She is just a hatchling; she’s basically useless.” He murmured in a tone that made Jeannie’s blood almost freez. She had no idea a creature could feel so cold.

“We don’t have the luxury of being choosers right now,” Frank flapped back in a tone that was just as cold.

Jeannie tried to follow the conversation, but her mind was struggling to process each word. Some things made sense, others didn’t. All in all, Jeannie understood very little and questioned nothing.

“Jeannie Swallowtail,” Cardiff turned to her directly, and Jeannie tried to pull herself together,” do you believe in humans?”

“Humans?” she replied, trying to stall answering the question while searching through her memory for the definition of a human. Jeannie remembered humans used to be ancient (perhaps mythical) creatures; nobody she knew had ever seen a human. What else did she know about humans? They had antiques. They used machines. And they had created the Big Boom from which all insects had emerged stronger and bigger.

Jeannie wondered which would be stronger in battle: a human or a lizard? She had no idea what lizards or humans looked like. Jeannie glanced at her lizard skin boots to get an idea, completely forgetting about the question.

Cardiff was getting impatient. He was such a strong contrast to the other two butterflies.

“Look, hatchling. Humans exist. They are real.”

Jeannie nodded automatically. She would have been just as surprised if he had claimed they never existed in the first place.

“Not only are they real, they are a big threat to us,” he continued, and his story only got worse from there.” Humans have been around for centuries, trying to exploit us in different ways. We finally managed to become allies with a small part of them: those who genuinely care about the progress of mankind and, to a lesser extent, the progress of other species. But that’s good enough for now.”

He paused for a few seconds and waited for Jeannie to flap something, but no visible reaction came from her side.

“This group of humans, a faction, if you will, is searching for something. Something hidden in the endless antiques of humankind. And you are going to be the one who can help them find it.”

“Me?” Jeannie couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

“Yes. A White Swallowtail. The only one who can see colours. Our secret weapon. The one who can save our alliance,” Cardiff replied. He waited a few more seconds for Jeannie to ask something, but her thoughts had now gone in the opposite direction from earlier: now there were so many of them, running wild like little children.

“What do you want me to do there?”

“Not much. Just look at paintings.”

“Paintings?” Jeannie tried to remember the last time she saw a painting; it must have been ages ago. Most of them had gotten dissolved from the acid rain.

“Yes. All you have to do is look at paintings, and tell us what you see. In exchange for that, you get guaranteed food rations and safety many would kill to get. No more rain for life. Doesn’t that sound good? Frank, you’re taking her to the humans, right?” Cardiff had already turned to Frank, somewhat relieved he was done explaining things to Jeannie.

“Me? I don’t think it’s a good idea. Not after last time,” he replied.

“It’s exactly because of last time that you need to go there again.” Cardiff argued with a firm tone to the flapper of his wings. Frank moved his wings in an attempt to deny something, but then stopped in the middle of his motion. He gave Cardiff a thoughtful look, one which Jeannie would experience very rarely from him.

“You realize how risky this is,” Frank asked in the form of a statement. A statement which could not be rebutted.

“I do,” Cardiff replied simply, and the two of them exchanged a look which only they understood.

“I’ll take her the moment the sky reaches indigo,” Frank replied and glanced over at Jeannie, who was now battling endless questions and the occasional urge to run away; the only thing keeping her there was the view of the tooth tied to Cardiff’s gold chain. It looked very sharp.

“And so it shall be!” Melroe proclaimed suddenly, snuggled up warmly in his furry chest.” And if she refuses to cooperate, tear off her wings!”

“And so it shall be!” repeated the other two in a most prophetic way.