Once there was this lovely caterpillar couple, Molly, the female was a beautiful green and the love of her life, Malcolm, was a bright yellow with black stripes. These two caterpillars were very much in love, and the story of their meeting is one to tell. But that's for another time. This is a story of how these two caterpillars decided to have offspring. At the laying of eggs, Molly only had managed to lay one egg when her friends had laid more. Molly, Malcolm and their friends gathered around the hatching of the eggs as each caterpillars egg hatched. Out from Molly and Malcolm's egg came a tiny brown larvae of a caterpillar that they decided to name Ronny. Out from their friends' eggs came caterpillars of different colours, varying. As Ronny and the other caterpillars grew older, he became friends with three of the children. Lucia, a golden caterpillar, Mark, a brunette caterpillar and Tick, a green caterpillar. Ronny, Lucia, Mark and Tick became the best of friends. They all watched as each caterpillars parents, including their own bar Ronny's, turned into beautiful butterflies. Ronny and his friends got so excited at this. They stood on a tree branch watching them all fly together.

  "It's really awesome how great our parents look now!" Mark commented.

  "I know, they're so beautiful" Lucia stated.

  "I hope we get to look like that when we're ready" Tick said.

  "Hope?" Ronny asked in dismay at his friend, he crawled over to Tick and the others and looked each of them in the eye, "We don't need hope. We WILL look like that when we're ready! And it's going to be so awesome!"

  At that moment, one of the other caterpillars parents flew by. They had dark orange wings, with little black dots on the insides of them.

  "I hope I look like that!" Lucia exclaimed, pointing at the butterfly.

  "That one's so pretty" Mark stated.

  "You're so pretty" Ronny said, staring at Lucia.

  "What?" Mark asked.

  "What?" Lucia repeated Mark, turning her head to look at Ronny.

  Ronny noticed that his two friends were staring at him.

  "I said, yeah, so pretty" He lied.

  Just at that moment, they realised their other friend was awfuly quiet. Which was strange for Tick. Tick would have made some weird comment, or completely blurted out how Ronny felt about Lucia. After all, Tick was Ronny's best friend and he told that caterpillar anything. The three friends turned to look in the direction Tick was and saw he was nowhere to be seen.

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  "Oh no, Tick's gone missing!" Lucia screamed.

  "Trust him to go missing at such a time.." Mark trailed off.

  "Guys, wait!" Ronny said as he crawled over to the spot where Tick and was and poked his head under the branch, "He was ready"

  Mark and Lucia crawled over to Ronny and poked their heads under aswell. They noticed a silky white cocoon with a hint of yellow had been formed on the underside of the branch. Tick's cocoon. Tick was finally ready to become a butterfly. The three caterpillars gave a huge smile as Molly rushed towards them.

  "Ronny! Ronny! Come quickly!" She hollered at her son.

  "What is it, Mum?!" Ronny asked, running over to his mother and following her to another branch.

  "Look! It's so exciting!" Molly told him, poking her head under the branch they were on.

  Ronny poked his head under the branch aswell and saw a brown cocoon. He knew this cocoon well, though. It was his dad's. He noticed that the cocoon was slowly starting to crack. This meant Malcolm was ready to emerge from his cocoon. Ronny was finally going to see one of his parents become butterflies. But a terrible storm started brewing, raindrops fell onto the branch heavily beside them, with a few hailstones. The wind picked up and Malcolm's cocoon began swaying fast. Ronny saw two little black legs struggling to break free of the cocoon, but the wind was too strong.

  "Stay back, Ronny" His mother told him, pushing him further back towrds the stem of the tree.

  Molly and Ronny watched as Malcolm's cocoon swayed in the wind, but the wind had picked up even more. They saw the cocoon break free of the branch and fall to the ground as the storm eased off. The two caterpillars ran to the branch and looked down, in hopes of Malcom managing to break free before the cocoon hit the hard pavement on the ground. Ronny looked up to the sky as Molly looked down at the ground.

  "Are one of those butterflies Dad?" Ronny asked his mother, pointing to a flew of butterflies that flew past.

  "I wish they were, son" Molly said, with a hint of sadness in her voice.

  "What do you mean you wish they were?" Ronny asked as he looked at his mother.

  He noticed she was staring down at the ground, so he followed her gaze. What he saw shocked him. There it was on the hard pavement. His dad's cocoon, split open, with two of his legs in one part and the other two in the other part.

  "No.." Ronny said.

  "I'm so sorry, Ronny" Molly said, crawling over to her son giving him a hug, "I wish I could help you"

  "Wait, what do you mean, Mum?" Ronny asked, letting go of the hug.

  Molly just simply pointed up at a gold cocoon that was open and looked deep in her son's eyes. Ronny knew what that meant. It meant that she was ready.

  "You can't do it now!" Ronny complained, "Not after what just happened!"

  "I'm sorry, Ronny," Molly said, holding her son's shoulders, "When a caterpillar is ready to turn into a butterfly, they have to get in their cocoon as soon as possible. I promise I will emerge for you. I'm not going to leave you, Ronny"

  And with that, she gave Ronny a kiss on the forehead and crawled up the tree and into her cocoon, closing it up. Ronny stood there staring up at his mother's cocoon,tears in his eyes. How could she enter her cocoon at a time like this? He ran back to his friends, after all, Mark and Lucia would be able to help him, but when he got to where they were, he noticed that in place of Mark and Lucia were two cocoons. No. This couldn't be happening. Even his best friends were ready to become butterflies before him. And now he had no one to talk to about the death of his father. He crawled down the tree and onto the pavement. He crawled up the nearest building and sat in the corner of a windowsill, crying his eyes out.