anyone else here write stories??
this is the first Novella I've written, it's about Luna moths and their less prosperous second brood
without further adue, i present "Second Brood"
Second Brood
By Agent A
Chapter 1:
The late July sun shone on the tree in the early morning hours, glistening on the morning dew, making colorful reflections with the small water droplets. The morning air was still, the tree was quiet, and the mood was calm, but the events of 9 days before were anything but. Now, as the ground warmed around the thick roots of the tree, the heat crept up the trunk and the moments went by, lazily.
A small egg, brown with a whitish speck and dark dots, perfectly round, lay on the underside of a leaf, but the pure, smooth texture of it was breaking. A tiny green insect with dark bluish stripes along the sides of its slightly fuzzed body emerges. She begins exploring the world she knows as a branch high up on a shagbark hickory. She isn’t alone. She is met by another small larva as she travels up and down the leaves. “Hello fellow caterpillar!” she calls out to the stranger, who obviously was in a rush to get to another leaf in the vast expanse of leaves.
“I take it you are new as well,” replies the second larva, somewhat arrogantly, “You mustn’t be so friendly, because there are many killers on this tree, such as fanged balls. They call themselves spiders, but this is no place for leisure. The name’s Luna, everyone is afraid of me. They think I know too much.” “Who thinks you know too much? Other caterpillars?” inquires the first larva, nervous. “There are at the very least several caterpillars on this tree. I never got your name.” replies Luna, hoping her new friend isn’t about to flee. “My name’s Lena, I think we need to sort out what’s going on here and find a place for you. Why do you know all this stuff I don’t?” replies the tiny larva, shocked at how much she’s learned in the first 13 minutes of her life.
The day progressed on and brought some intense heat, Lena and Luna sought refuge on the underside of a leaf. Lena, who was not quite hungry, yet parched, looked over at Luna, to ask “I’m thirsty, but I don’t feel like eating right now.” Luna simply replied “Hack into the petiole and suck the moisture from it.” Lena complied, surprised at how much relief it brought. The once firm leaves were almost wilted themselves, which made Luna even more worried. “I think it’s going to rain soon”, she acknowledged as the tone of the sky grew ever more dark and intimidating.
Chapter 2:
The next 2 days passed without any water falling to the drying ground. The shagbark hickory was faring well, and the luna larvae ate and interacted with each other without any regard to their surroundings.
Luna was finishing a leaflet when she noticed something amiss, a caterpillar was upside down but oddly, stuck to the bottom of the leaf. “Lena!” she called out into the vast sky, but no response came. However, Luna did notice the air was becoming moist and there was something moving on the leaf she’d been eating from. Luna saw a fast moving, yellowish round object charging at her. The ugly creature had 2 black protrusions on its hideous head and easily 6 menacing eyes. She was looking at a fanged ball!
The fanged ball was fast, but Luna was clever. She spat and dropped from the leaf axis, leaving a shiny trail of hardened silk behind. If the fanged ball tried to climb down her silk, the strand would break and Luna would be lost in the tangle of grass and weeds below. If it stood there, it could be waiting for hours, the time it could use to find and easier meal. Just them, the leaf contracted and then bent, flinging the fanged ball high into the air. Luna held onto her string of silk for dear life, and she watched a drop of water, perhaps the very one that pelted the leaf and saved her life, drip off the terminal leaflet. Luna climbed up the silk strand and rushed toward the tree’s center, where she found Lena, quivering underneath a woody stem.
“What are you doing?” shouted Luna at the obviously freaked out larva. Lena, still shaking, replied, “I heard a crash and, since you told me the strong wood of the tree was the safest place in an emergency, I huddled here. What’s going on?” Luna, trying to reassure her friend, replied, “That crash was thunder! Great clouds full of rain are crashing together; soon the tree will be drenched!” As Luna was explaining the issue to the traumatized caterpillar, a huge line of illumination darted through the sky and zapped the tree, hitting an upper branch and pulverizing it. The shock nearly jostled the 2 out of the tree, who were a mere 3 feet under the site of the strike. The branch lay on the wet ground in blackened shards, splintered and cooked. Thin silvery grey smoke rose from it, but it was quickly choked away with the water coming down at an alarming rate.
There was water running down the trunk of the tree, and rivers of rain cut through the channels made from the texture of the bark. Wind was forcing rain at cutting force onto the bark. “Let’s hide under one of the strips of bark,” suggested Lena, but Luna was quick to throw the plan out the window. “It isn’t safe,” she reminded, “the fanged balls like to hang out under there with their sticky silk traps and their friends the predatory beetles. It’s safer to secure a mat of silk onto the branch and hang on with all extremities.” Luna was right. There were fanged balls and thin, shiny beetles with powerful jaws being washed out from underneath their bark hideaway. These predators were only the ones hiding under upward facing strips, the areas where the strips faced downwards barely got moist. Lena was shocked at how the beetles, even with their sharp, pinching jaws, couldn’t hold on to the wet bark. The storm persisted through much of the night before letting up, but by mid afternoon, it was still raining.
“I think it’s safe to leave our makeshift shelter,” advised Luna, “The rain is barely falling anymore, but we must still be careful.” The first place the 2 caterpillars inspected was the injury site, the bark was stripped from the burnt wood, and a deep gash in the trunk was visible, showing where the branch had been torn out by the strike of lightning. Golden orange sap oozed from much of the wound and was becoming hard resin. “This sap is the tree’s blood,” started Luna, “it’s dangerous however. We can get stuck in it if we get too close. This sap also will attract dangerous insects. We must get away from here as soon as possible.” As Luna was explaining this to Lena, other survivors gathered around. The 7 caterpillars explored the tree together, looking at further wreckage. Bodies of caterpillars that didn’t make it were on some leaves, obviously drowned, some still entrapped in the water droplets. “We need to get rid of these,” exclaimed Luna, “or they’ll attract ants. Grab a body with your back claspers and flick it off this tree. The longer we hide from ants and wasps the better.” The young larvae tentatively search the tree, tossing a total of 11 bodies onto the wet grass beneath.
Chapter 3:
As the next 2 days went by, changes began to take place. July shifted to August, Luna, Lena and the other larvae shifted to their second instar, and the hickory nuts were growing more rapidly. The caterpillars observed as armies of black ants rushed up the tree and collected resin. On their way up, many were captured by the fanged balls and beetles waiting for them. The caterpillars watched in amazement as large, yellow and black flying insects lapped up the running sap and its ant prisoners. Panicked, Lena asked of Luna, “What are those things?” The other caterpillar, still in awe, replied “They are thin buzzers. They are more vicious than thick buzzers, who shove their heads in flowers. Thin buzzers eat meat and sugary materials, but some thin buzzers lay eggs inside caterpillars, and their grubs eat the caterpillar alive. Some thin buzzers live alone; others build huge structures just like the thick buzzers. Either way, thin buzzers are caterpillar killers. Some stuff you in a cold pot and lay an egg on you, you’re paralyzed but live until the grub is through with you. Others drag your lifeless body into a burrow for waiting grubs. Some will chop you up and regurgitate you directly into their grubs’ mouths.”
Lena was learning a lot from Luna. She learned how to drop off a leaf when a predator approached, how to jump off the tree and get back on, how to spot the sticky traps of the fanged balls, even how to destroy the traps set by the elusive fanged balls. Lena and her counterparts were eating at least a leaf every day, and with the intense August heat, were growing quickly. At just 11 days old, Lena, Luna, and 4 other caterpillars were already in the third instar. The rest were quick to follow. There were now a grand total of 8 larvae on the tree, and as they were getting larger, they were becoming more vulnerable.
Chapter 4:
Deciding that the fanged ball problem was getting out of hand, Luna had an attack plan. A hickory horned devil who shared the tree with them offered his old skin from his molt to the third instar, although the luna moth larvae were about to molt to the fourth instar. Luna was quick to explain that adult regal moths emerge from cocoons about halfway through the luna moth first brood.
Luna took the skin, wrapped it over once, and attached it to a strand of silk. She swung the heavy skin that collected air easily. She threw it onto the trap of a fanged ball and began to tug and twist, stirring up the silk of the trap. The fanged ball rushed to the chaos, nearly startling Lena off the branch. The horned devil started across the silk bridge Luna previously placed over part of the trap. He coiled his head under his body, burst forward, and thrust his head up. His horns speared through the fanged ball’s fat body, who previously had been preoccupied with the fake prey. Luna spun some silk over the head of the fanged ball and plucked it off the horns of the horned devil. She threw the heavy beast off the tree, collected the skin, and went to the next trap.
The sun began to set, sending stems of violet, orange and red across the sky. At the end of this day, Luna had, with the help of the horned devil, killed off 16 fanged balls. “This is the world we live in,” she told the horned devil, “we must accept that. If we can’t protect ourselves, we won’t be able to survive to adulthood. You are better protected than me and you’re the only one of your species left on this tree.” The horned devil, in disagreement, was quick to reply, “You must realize regal moths grow larger than luna moths. We need more food than you, and thus instead of laying 20 eggs per tree, we only lay about 10 eggs per tree. It’s the only way we can eat and grow properly. We do what must to survive.” Luna looked up. The horned devil was right.
“I’m still confused about how this Luna caterpillar knows what she knows,” rants an angry male caterpillar, who had gathered 3 other larvae up for a meeting. Another terrified larva screams out, “She killed all those fanged balls, what if she pulls the same thing on us?” The mob of larvae march over to the branch Luna and the horned devil are on, demanding answers. Luna explains, “I have a strange ability. I can look at different scenarios and piece together exactly what they mean. I can interpret this world and understand how things work. I myself still am not sure how I know these things. I can sense you all are a little shocked by it. I’m shocked we made it this far as a species. With humans around, destroying our homes, polluting and poisoning our forests, and taking us for a collection of killed insects, we are being pushed to the brink. Those humans now call us endangered, but they’re the reason for that in the first place. What’s more, they destroyed a once valuable hostplant of ours.
Long ago, luna moths would feed heavily on American chestnut. Almost 50% of caterpillars grew up on these trees. They were once everywhere. More common than hickory and sweetgum combined. But then a horrible blight came along and killed off a lot of them, making them too small for us to eat from. The blight doesn’t kill all of these trees; many still grew back after their main leaders died. But the blight doesn’t allow these new shoots to get any taller than 12 feet before killing them off yet again. The trees will never be able to reproduce again. Once the last tree dies for good, this species will be extinct.”
Haunted by Luna’s words of the night before, the 4 luna larvae, as well as Lena and the horned devil, spent the day in silence. When the day was through, the lunas had all molted once more, now fourth instar, and slept under the same branch. They were now 24 days old.
Chapter 5:
The larvae were now getting quite large and the hickory horned devil, though younger, was beginning to surpass them growth wise. Luna reminded them of how hickory horned devils were supposed to get very large. Luna herself admitted to being somewhat tired of hickory, although the stinkbugs on the tree who fed on the nuts begged to differ. Even the predatory stinkbugs, that were no longer a threat to the caterpillars because of their huge size, agreed that hickory was the way to go. Lena herself couldn’t get enough hickory, and Luna acknowledged that the horned devil coevolved with hickory.
August was a month full of heat, yet the daylight hours were diminishing. All 8 larvae quickly agreed that there would not be time for another brood. But there was something Luna didn’t like on a high branch of a neighboring tree, and she had good reason. All of the 9 caterpillars on the shagbark hickory looked at a clearly woven structure. Flexible, thin sticks wrapped and twisted around each other in a reverse-taper form, creating a circular bowl shape. Entering and exiting were large, winged creatures with large, menacing eyes and yellowish triangular mouths. The 2 creatures carried insects and sometimes fruit and seeds to the structure at regular intervals, stuffing them into the greedy mouths of what were presumably their babies. Luna called them caterpillar hoarders, as their main food source was polyphemus moth caterpillars. The curious horned devil approached the intelligent caterpillar with a question, “Why don’t those things go after us on this hickory tree?” Luna took only a few moments to think before saying “Because this tree is so much smaller there are less caterpillars and we usually only feed at night, so I assume they don’t even know there are caterpillars on this tree. However they might one day check so we must be careful.”
After a few days, Luna had had it with the caterpillar hoarders feeding their fattening young hundreds of insects. She, Lena and the horned devil descended the shagbark hickory and were standing on the soft, moist dirt at the base of the tree. The ground was littered with severely decomposed leaves from previous years of the hickory’s life, and a messy tangle of grass and weeds poked up from the ground everywhere in a random pattern. Luna could see that there were many trees lined up together in the distance about 8 feet away, and she could see the oak close by. The 3 cautiously made their way over to the tree, traversing around open areas and using the low-lying plants for cover. At last they made it to the base of the oak tree.
The 2 adult caterpillar hoarders were nowhere to be seen, and a polyphemus moth larva came up to the 3, greeting them. “You guys shouldn’t have left wherever you came from. We are under attack by some weird things that kill any caterpillar they find. There were almost 50 of us on this tree at the beginning of the brood, and in a little over a week, our numbers have diminished to just 4.” He said. Luna, who noticed the caterpillar looked somewhat identical to her and Lena, replied saying, “We are here to exterminate these caterpillar hoarders. Leave it to us!” The scared polyphemus caterpillar backed off in respect for the brave larvae he was convinced were doomed. Lena, Luna and the horned devil made their way up the tree and found the structure made by the caterpillar hoarders.
“Got the wad of skin?” asked Lena to the now 5th instar horned devil, who was nearly fully grown. He replied, “Why certainly, I even had a polyphemus caterpillar wrap it in silk on the way up.” Luna proceeded to take the wad of spiky, filmy exoskeleton. She hopped in the structure, encountering 3 nightmarish baby caterpillar hoarders, who were fat and cheeping and defecating in their home. The ugly creatures looked at her and one bounded towards her clumsily, drooling and flopping. Luna took the wad of the horned devil’s shed and shoved it into the hideous thing’s throat. She rushed out of the structure and waited. The animal’s pupils dilated and it began violently jerking its head forward and back in an attempt to clear the obstruction. The 3 caterpillars watched as the trembling caterpillar hoarder thrashed about before suddenly collapsing onto the floor of the structure, no longer moving. The 2 minute struggle was over, yet there were still 2 more babies to handle.
“This one is the runt!” shouted the huge horned devil as he charged into the structure. The intimidating horned devil scared the smallest baby hoarder to one edge of its home before thrusting it out of the tree. His strength was incredible, and the young caterpillar hoarder tried to flap its stubby wings in a vain attempt to avoid the ground. It didn’t work. The small creature hit a root of the tree and its head folded over its back. The ugly thing was still, its eyes bloodshot. “Alright!” shouted a polyphemus caterpillar who had been watching the whole thing. The horned devil left the structure, thinking of how to exterminate the final baby. Luna came up with a plan.
The trio found what they were looking for, a long, strong, thin stick. Retreating to a leaf tent made by a polyphemus moth caterpillar, they began biting the stick and shredding it on the horned devil’s horns. They made a perfect spear and went back to the structure. The horned devil distracted the hoarder as Luna placed the spear in the middle of the nest. She then got a lasso of silk and put it on the hoarder’s foot. Lena then ran around the structure, the horned devil ready to pull the polyphemus silk. When he did, the baby hoarder fell right onto the spear. It began to seize and cough up blood before finally dying. Just then a full grown caterpillar hoarder holding a fat earthworm returned to its home. All 7 caterpillars on the tree then knew this meant trouble.
Chapter 6:
The caterpillar hoarder stuffed the earthworm into the skewed baby’s mouth. It then noticed the 3 caterpillars in the structure and pecked at them. The 3 ran as fast as they could and ducked as the flying hoarder swooped in on them. The hoarder’s mouth was wide open as it charged straight at the horned devil. It just missed, but the horned devil was plucked off the branch. Luna looked and saw he had stabbed the beast in the eye with his horns and was stuck inside its skull. The injured creature was spinning in circles and eventually crashed into a branch. The horned devil got off in time before the animal tumbled to the ground. The 3 were now tired and hungry. They left the oak and promptly crawled up the hickory once more.
Lena, Luna and the horned devil wolfed down many hickory leaves as the sun set, then ate more throughout the night. The mid August heat lingered through the late hours, getting progressively hotter by the day. The next week was very emotional. The horned devil gave his final goodbyes and left the tree to burrow and pupate. The luna moth caterpillars reached the 5th and final instar of their larval lives and began eating voraciously, during both day and night. September was rolling in now and so were somewhat heavy rains and cooler temperatures.
Lena and Luna went out on a branch and began to pull leaves together. Spitting out long strands of silk, they weave it in a figure-8 pattern. They work night and day on their cocoons, talking as they work. “So we still can talk until we pupate you know,” says Luna, “So why don’t we? It’ll be fun! Just make a loud rustling sound that lasts about 10 seconds when you’re about to pupate. I’ll do that too, just so we know when we’re pupating. I must warn you about the adult stage while we still can talk. First off, there will be little time for interaction; we must dedicate our short adult lives to reproduction. Give males 3 days before giving up, and when you finish mating, the next time it gets dark go out there and lay eggs. You must watch out for rain, it will waterlog your wings. You also must look out for caterpillar hoarders by day, hide well when you don’t fly. Bats fly at night, but if one chases you, fly in a zigzag pattern to deter it. Owls will also chase you, and they’re pretty hard to deter. The best way to get away from one is to go into dense foliage. Any questions?”
Lena, who was happy to be informed, replied, “What if I forget all of this?” “You won’t, and the reproductive stuff comes instinctively” says Luna. The 2 caterpillars, whose cocoons were mere inches from each other, were ready to seal themselves in their cocoons. They turned around in the flimsy cocoons, leaflets covering the latitude of the cocoons. The 2 simultaneously closed off the end of the cocoons and relaxed.
3 days passed, the silk of the cocoons turned brown, and the leaflets desiccated, curling back to reveal the cocoons. Luna then heard, from the neighboring cocoon, a distinctive sound. A rapid shaking that lasted exactly 10 seconds, then silence. She knew then that Lena had pupated.
Luna was quick to follow with pupation, and as her new form took on, her consciousness was barely there. Only about 2 weeks later, Luna heard a slight snap, and could feel a free lift below her. She then felt the sudden stop. She realized the leaves were falling and she was on the ground.
Chapter 7:
Luna sat in her pupal casing, inside her cocoon, day after day. The daylight hours were diminishing, and it was getting colder. The cold pinched at the cocoons, but both Luna and Lena found time on the warmer October days to explore the walls of their cocoons, scraping against them, turning and doing tricks in the roomy cocoon. Late October brought the first frost, and by November, killing frosts were a nightly thing.
Lena felt herself slipping away, going into a full diapause as the temperature plummeted. As the weeks went by, snow began to fall. The tree’s wounds had healed on the hickory tree and a thick, scabby tumor of sap covered the whole top of the tree. The ice made the thinnest twigs weep, and the tree’s shaggy bark had snow wedged in every nook and cranny. The spreading, tapered crown looked like a tree skeleton without its leaves, and although a few hickory nuts remained on the twigs, the rest of the tree was bare. Winds roared and carved dunes from the snow blanket covering the landscape.
Lena’s world was totally dark. She was covered by 3 feet of insulating snow, but couldn’t tell because she was diapausing. In her mind no time had passed between the killing frost and now, but things were soon to change. It was now February, and in just 3 months time, she’d be out of the cocoon as a moth. March quickly took control and after a few weeks, the ground had thawed and the snow had melted. The now drenched ground still froze at night, but Lena was coming in and out of consciousness with the temperature.
Chapter 8:
By mid April, the temperature was more settled. The daytime temperature was up in the 70’s and it barely got below 40 at night. Warm, golden, welcoming rays of sunlight shone into the cocoons, as if to say “I’m here for good”. Luna was fully out of diapause and developing into a moth. The events of the last brood were still clear in her mind, the fanged ball, the storm, the buzzers, the horned devil, the mob, the hoarders, the spinning of cocoons, everything up to the killing frost. That was a blur, and Luna quickly realized she may never recall any of what happened. She entertained herself by replaying the second brood of the season in her mind, sometimes warping the past or predicting the future.
About 2 weeks later the hickory was budding once more. The buds broke free of their tough brown film and then extended and unfurled. Dark, drooping catkins were quick to follow. By mid May, the tree was in full growth. At the nodes of the highest branches, new shoots to replace the top portion of the tree burnt off were already growing.
The pupae of the moths were undergoing much change. The indentations on the pupae were getting deeper as well as tighter, the pupae darkened, stiffened, and the moths inside were visible. The pupal shell softened, and one morning, she was ready.
Chapter 9:
Luna used her head and legs to push on the front part of the pupa containing the indents for the antennae, head and legs. She hurled herself to the front of the cocoon and pushed her head against the silken wall. She fizzed out a brownish fluid from her vestigial mouthparts. The soggy silk was now much easier to break through. Thrashing side to side, she eased herself out of the hole she made in the cocoon. She pulled out her severely inflated abdomen and scurried towards the tree.
The soft, dark dirt crumbled beneath her feet. She dragged herself and her stubby, wet wings up the warm tree trunk. She climbed 9 feet to the nearest branch and took cover under a wilted leaf. She rapidly pumped blood into her wings and let them spread. After nearly 25 minutes, her wings were fully expanded. She released her leftover wing and metabolic fluid through her abdomen onto the absorbent ground beneath. She sat still in the sun to dry her perfect, lime green wings, with their purple, brown and yellow bordering and the eyespots on each wing, as well as the long tails, she hardly imagined being so beautiful. After almost another half hour, she saw Lena scamper up the tree and settle close to her. The 2 moths dried their wings throughout the day, and when night was approaching, they hung on a low-lying branch together.
The beautiful sunset was quick, but the yellows and blues were eye opening. Lena had never seen something quite like it before in her life. The moon was small this night, and Luna wondered how big they’d get to see it become. As the night progressed, the 2 moths slightly curled their white, furry abdomens and let down a yellow protrusion and released airborne pheromones into the still night air.
Chapter 10:
At around midnight, several shapes, flying in erratic patterns were visible. As they zoomed into the hickory tree, it became clear what they were, males. Male luna moths were swarming the tree, having picked up the scent of 3 females on the single tree with their huge, feathery antennae. There were at least 10 of them; fiercely racing each other to the branches, knowing only 3 of them would get a mate on this hickory. Not to worry, however, as there were several other hickory trees in the nearby forest, as well as birch and sycamore. Finally a male landed near Luna and wasted little time doing his biological duty. Lena too had hooked up with a male. Once a male had won the prize, the pheromone flow stopped and the other males followed pheromone trails from somewhere else. The cloud of males would get thinner and thinner. The males raced in large mobs to the scene of a calling female. The females would rip off chunks of the cloud, the fastest males would settle down on a tree to mate, while the others would fly away, and soon only a single male would be left, the slowest one, and if he was the only one left within 7 miles, the next female he smelt would be his.
Luna, Lena, and the males stayed together for the whole day. The sun shone and began, at last, to set again. The males released the females from their grips and flew off. They would not likely mate again, as most females were already taken, and since they had just mated, their drive and determination was fading, much like the burning branch in the thunderstorm, and they were slower and had less energy now. After about 2 hours, Lena and Luna released the rest of their runny metabolic fluid and hopped off the branch. They strongly flapped their large, heavy wings and floated upwards into the night. After just a few minutes, they had the hang of it.
Luna laid 3 eggs on a leaf of the tree she grew up on. “Stay strong!”She whispered to the eggs as she rappelled herself off the leaf to lay eggs elsewhere. She flew into the forest close by and found several different trees to lay her eggs on.
Meanwhile, Lena, who also laid a few eggs on the shagbark hickory, decided to go a different way. She flew off, flying at 17 miles per hour. After 90 minutes of flapping, she reached a distant forest. She heard a branch break and could sense an eerie presence. Above her, a sharp shadow appeared. She’d been spotted by an owl!
Chapter 11:
Lena curled her wings upward and pointed her body downward, darting down into the forest beneath. The owl was just as athletic, and it too made a sharp turn, cutting through the branches with its thick, feathered wings. It made hooting noises and Lena found it quickly gaining on her. She swerved left to right, performed mid-air tricks, and even dropped to the ground. Nothing could deter this owl, who was keen on having a dish of luna moth tonight. The owl hurled itself off of branches and propelled itself at her. Lena had tried almost everything. She had one last chance to get this owl off her tail.
Lena started to pick up the pace, and then she slowed, did some glides, and finally, she gunned it. She had her target in sight, but she realized just how dangerous what she was about to do really was. She flew straight, then, at the last second, shifted her body into a sideways glide, cutting through the air like a machete. Her wing tails scraped against something rough but she made it. She heard a bloodcurdling screech and realized her plan had worked. The owl had flown straight into a pine tree. She watched the helpless creature flop aimlessly among the ground. It was bleeding profusely and she knew it was only a matter of time.
Lena propelled herself away from the scene and reached a nearby broadleaf forest. At first, all she could see were oaks; she even laid a few eggs on an oak leaf before coming to a clearing. The clearing offered odd looking trees. She landed on a leaf, tasting it with her feet. She didn’t recognize it, but it was oddly appealing. It was like a distant memory of something, if it were to be seen again, it would be recognized, but recognized as nothing more than something that were seen a long time ago. The trees were about 10 feet tall and had thin trunks. There were also many tall wooden sticks that had no bark and were split perfectly in half but kept in one piece at the bottom. Lena realized she had found a stand of American chestnut trees.
Chapter 12:
Lena’s thoughts were racing. She remembered Luna’s words, “Almost 50% of caterpillars grew up on these trees. They were once everywhere. More common than hickory and sweetgum combined.” She also remembered Luna talking about destructive humans, “With humans around, destroying our homes, polluting and poisoning our forests, and taking us for a collection of killed insects, we are being pushed to the brink. Those humans now call us endangered, but they’re the reason for that in the first place. What’s more, they destroyed a once valuable hostplant of ours.” She thought to herself, ‘if I lay eggs here, maybe our numbers would be on the rise’. But then she suddenly remembered Luna’s chilling warning, “The trees will never be able to reproduce again. Once the last tree dies for good, this species will be extinct.” She asked herself, ‘is it really worth risking one species for the good of my own?’ She suddenly thought of how the humans had harmed her species, collecting and killing luna moths for their own enjoyment. She also recalled Luna’s objections to using it as a host, “making them too small for us to eat from.” However, upon closer examination, the trees, though small, were dense. Many were grouped together, if a caterpillar were to run out of food on one of them, it could hop a branch to the next. Had Luna overestimated the devastation? Either way, there were easily 300 chestnut trees all around where Lena was and she could see no clear reason not to lay eggs on the leaves. She laid 2 eggs on each tree, finally resting before dawn. She was tired, and had laid over half of her eggs, but satisfied that she had decided to help her own species, coming to an ultimate realization. Every species does what it must to survive, and the only thing that saves 1 species from being destroyed by another is the more destructive species’ dependence on the other.
The next evening, Lena went to a different forest, flying up and down amongst the leaves, tasting them, and if they were a hostplant, she would deposit 4 eggs on the underside of the leaves. After 8 successive nights of egg deposition, Lena was empty, and she went back to the original forest. Luna was waiting on a shellbark hickory. When Lena arrived, Luna was very weak. She herself had just noticed her own fatigue, and realized the end was near. The next evening, the 2 lost the strength to grip onto surfaces. They lay on the ground next to each other.
“So I found a pure stand of American chestnut,” proclaimed Lena, “and I realized something. I realized that we all must work with nature, not against it. The thin buzzers, the caterpillar hoarders, the owls- they all rely on us for food. They can’t possibly kill each and every one of us, otherwise they’d run out of food. I laid eggs on the tree, but I still wondered, why did you say the trees were too small for us to eat from?” Luna had an epiphany, and shared it with Lena, “I said they were too small because I was referring to a population. If a female luna moth lays an egg or 2 on one of these trees the caterpillars will have plenty of room, but if 7 female luna moths decided to use a stand for food, there’d be a problem. I also meant that if a female luna moth were scanning the forest for hosts, she wouldn’t be able to find chestnut. When we fly through the forests, we’re at least 15 feet off the ground, maybe more; an American chestnut barely reaches that height, there are definitely American chestnut trees everywhere, and we just hardly notice them because they are so small. We are all on this earth for a reason, whether it be to feed another species or ensure the good of your own. We all try to be the ones who help our own species, which is what keeps us going. If we all have the attitude of becoming food for other species, we’d quickly go extinct. The thought of dying at the hands of a predator is scary, and perhaps the fear comes from not knowing if your death will harm the good of your species, but like I said, we all have a purpose. I’m glad you have finally seen the way things balance in our life and existence, that was my goal. I can die comfortably now knowing I’ve done some good. I may be on a forest floor, beat up and old, but I still consider this a dignified end. I’ve done my job of reproducing and ensuring a new generation, and our species only needs stored fats to do this. I’ve contributed, and I feel guilty about killing the predators as a caterpillar, they were only trying to fulfill their duties to their species. However I can forgive myself because my mind was not as mature at that time and realistically, many of my young will not get as far as I did, because it isn’t meant to be. We can’t run from death forever, but we can accept it as a part of life.”
this is the first Novella I've written, it's about Luna moths and their less prosperous second brood
without further adue, i present "Second Brood"
Second Brood
By Agent A
Chapter 1:
The late July sun shone on the tree in the early morning hours, glistening on the morning dew, making colorful reflections with the small water droplets. The morning air was still, the tree was quiet, and the mood was calm, but the events of 9 days before were anything but. Now, as the ground warmed around the thick roots of the tree, the heat crept up the trunk and the moments went by, lazily.
A small egg, brown with a whitish speck and dark dots, perfectly round, lay on the underside of a leaf, but the pure, smooth texture of it was breaking. A tiny green insect with dark bluish stripes along the sides of its slightly fuzzed body emerges. She begins exploring the world she knows as a branch high up on a shagbark hickory. She isn’t alone. She is met by another small larva as she travels up and down the leaves. “Hello fellow caterpillar!” she calls out to the stranger, who obviously was in a rush to get to another leaf in the vast expanse of leaves.
“I take it you are new as well,” replies the second larva, somewhat arrogantly, “You mustn’t be so friendly, because there are many killers on this tree, such as fanged balls. They call themselves spiders, but this is no place for leisure. The name’s Luna, everyone is afraid of me. They think I know too much.” “Who thinks you know too much? Other caterpillars?” inquires the first larva, nervous. “There are at the very least several caterpillars on this tree. I never got your name.” replies Luna, hoping her new friend isn’t about to flee. “My name’s Lena, I think we need to sort out what’s going on here and find a place for you. Why do you know all this stuff I don’t?” replies the tiny larva, shocked at how much she’s learned in the first 13 minutes of her life.
The day progressed on and brought some intense heat, Lena and Luna sought refuge on the underside of a leaf. Lena, who was not quite hungry, yet parched, looked over at Luna, to ask “I’m thirsty, but I don’t feel like eating right now.” Luna simply replied “Hack into the petiole and suck the moisture from it.” Lena complied, surprised at how much relief it brought. The once firm leaves were almost wilted themselves, which made Luna even more worried. “I think it’s going to rain soon”, she acknowledged as the tone of the sky grew ever more dark and intimidating.
Chapter 2:
The next 2 days passed without any water falling to the drying ground. The shagbark hickory was faring well, and the luna larvae ate and interacted with each other without any regard to their surroundings.
Luna was finishing a leaflet when she noticed something amiss, a caterpillar was upside down but oddly, stuck to the bottom of the leaf. “Lena!” she called out into the vast sky, but no response came. However, Luna did notice the air was becoming moist and there was something moving on the leaf she’d been eating from. Luna saw a fast moving, yellowish round object charging at her. The ugly creature had 2 black protrusions on its hideous head and easily 6 menacing eyes. She was looking at a fanged ball!
The fanged ball was fast, but Luna was clever. She spat and dropped from the leaf axis, leaving a shiny trail of hardened silk behind. If the fanged ball tried to climb down her silk, the strand would break and Luna would be lost in the tangle of grass and weeds below. If it stood there, it could be waiting for hours, the time it could use to find and easier meal. Just them, the leaf contracted and then bent, flinging the fanged ball high into the air. Luna held onto her string of silk for dear life, and she watched a drop of water, perhaps the very one that pelted the leaf and saved her life, drip off the terminal leaflet. Luna climbed up the silk strand and rushed toward the tree’s center, where she found Lena, quivering underneath a woody stem.
“What are you doing?” shouted Luna at the obviously freaked out larva. Lena, still shaking, replied, “I heard a crash and, since you told me the strong wood of the tree was the safest place in an emergency, I huddled here. What’s going on?” Luna, trying to reassure her friend, replied, “That crash was thunder! Great clouds full of rain are crashing together; soon the tree will be drenched!” As Luna was explaining the issue to the traumatized caterpillar, a huge line of illumination darted through the sky and zapped the tree, hitting an upper branch and pulverizing it. The shock nearly jostled the 2 out of the tree, who were a mere 3 feet under the site of the strike. The branch lay on the wet ground in blackened shards, splintered and cooked. Thin silvery grey smoke rose from it, but it was quickly choked away with the water coming down at an alarming rate.
There was water running down the trunk of the tree, and rivers of rain cut through the channels made from the texture of the bark. Wind was forcing rain at cutting force onto the bark. “Let’s hide under one of the strips of bark,” suggested Lena, but Luna was quick to throw the plan out the window. “It isn’t safe,” she reminded, “the fanged balls like to hang out under there with their sticky silk traps and their friends the predatory beetles. It’s safer to secure a mat of silk onto the branch and hang on with all extremities.” Luna was right. There were fanged balls and thin, shiny beetles with powerful jaws being washed out from underneath their bark hideaway. These predators were only the ones hiding under upward facing strips, the areas where the strips faced downwards barely got moist. Lena was shocked at how the beetles, even with their sharp, pinching jaws, couldn’t hold on to the wet bark. The storm persisted through much of the night before letting up, but by mid afternoon, it was still raining.
“I think it’s safe to leave our makeshift shelter,” advised Luna, “The rain is barely falling anymore, but we must still be careful.” The first place the 2 caterpillars inspected was the injury site, the bark was stripped from the burnt wood, and a deep gash in the trunk was visible, showing where the branch had been torn out by the strike of lightning. Golden orange sap oozed from much of the wound and was becoming hard resin. “This sap is the tree’s blood,” started Luna, “it’s dangerous however. We can get stuck in it if we get too close. This sap also will attract dangerous insects. We must get away from here as soon as possible.” As Luna was explaining this to Lena, other survivors gathered around. The 7 caterpillars explored the tree together, looking at further wreckage. Bodies of caterpillars that didn’t make it were on some leaves, obviously drowned, some still entrapped in the water droplets. “We need to get rid of these,” exclaimed Luna, “or they’ll attract ants. Grab a body with your back claspers and flick it off this tree. The longer we hide from ants and wasps the better.” The young larvae tentatively search the tree, tossing a total of 11 bodies onto the wet grass beneath.
Chapter 3:
As the next 2 days went by, changes began to take place. July shifted to August, Luna, Lena and the other larvae shifted to their second instar, and the hickory nuts were growing more rapidly. The caterpillars observed as armies of black ants rushed up the tree and collected resin. On their way up, many were captured by the fanged balls and beetles waiting for them. The caterpillars watched in amazement as large, yellow and black flying insects lapped up the running sap and its ant prisoners. Panicked, Lena asked of Luna, “What are those things?” The other caterpillar, still in awe, replied “They are thin buzzers. They are more vicious than thick buzzers, who shove their heads in flowers. Thin buzzers eat meat and sugary materials, but some thin buzzers lay eggs inside caterpillars, and their grubs eat the caterpillar alive. Some thin buzzers live alone; others build huge structures just like the thick buzzers. Either way, thin buzzers are caterpillar killers. Some stuff you in a cold pot and lay an egg on you, you’re paralyzed but live until the grub is through with you. Others drag your lifeless body into a burrow for waiting grubs. Some will chop you up and regurgitate you directly into their grubs’ mouths.”
Lena was learning a lot from Luna. She learned how to drop off a leaf when a predator approached, how to jump off the tree and get back on, how to spot the sticky traps of the fanged balls, even how to destroy the traps set by the elusive fanged balls. Lena and her counterparts were eating at least a leaf every day, and with the intense August heat, were growing quickly. At just 11 days old, Lena, Luna, and 4 other caterpillars were already in the third instar. The rest were quick to follow. There were now a grand total of 8 larvae on the tree, and as they were getting larger, they were becoming more vulnerable.
Chapter 4:
Deciding that the fanged ball problem was getting out of hand, Luna had an attack plan. A hickory horned devil who shared the tree with them offered his old skin from his molt to the third instar, although the luna moth larvae were about to molt to the fourth instar. Luna was quick to explain that adult regal moths emerge from cocoons about halfway through the luna moth first brood.
Luna took the skin, wrapped it over once, and attached it to a strand of silk. She swung the heavy skin that collected air easily. She threw it onto the trap of a fanged ball and began to tug and twist, stirring up the silk of the trap. The fanged ball rushed to the chaos, nearly startling Lena off the branch. The horned devil started across the silk bridge Luna previously placed over part of the trap. He coiled his head under his body, burst forward, and thrust his head up. His horns speared through the fanged ball’s fat body, who previously had been preoccupied with the fake prey. Luna spun some silk over the head of the fanged ball and plucked it off the horns of the horned devil. She threw the heavy beast off the tree, collected the skin, and went to the next trap.
The sun began to set, sending stems of violet, orange and red across the sky. At the end of this day, Luna had, with the help of the horned devil, killed off 16 fanged balls. “This is the world we live in,” she told the horned devil, “we must accept that. If we can’t protect ourselves, we won’t be able to survive to adulthood. You are better protected than me and you’re the only one of your species left on this tree.” The horned devil, in disagreement, was quick to reply, “You must realize regal moths grow larger than luna moths. We need more food than you, and thus instead of laying 20 eggs per tree, we only lay about 10 eggs per tree. It’s the only way we can eat and grow properly. We do what must to survive.” Luna looked up. The horned devil was right.
“I’m still confused about how this Luna caterpillar knows what she knows,” rants an angry male caterpillar, who had gathered 3 other larvae up for a meeting. Another terrified larva screams out, “She killed all those fanged balls, what if she pulls the same thing on us?” The mob of larvae march over to the branch Luna and the horned devil are on, demanding answers. Luna explains, “I have a strange ability. I can look at different scenarios and piece together exactly what they mean. I can interpret this world and understand how things work. I myself still am not sure how I know these things. I can sense you all are a little shocked by it. I’m shocked we made it this far as a species. With humans around, destroying our homes, polluting and poisoning our forests, and taking us for a collection of killed insects, we are being pushed to the brink. Those humans now call us endangered, but they’re the reason for that in the first place. What’s more, they destroyed a once valuable hostplant of ours.
Long ago, luna moths would feed heavily on American chestnut. Almost 50% of caterpillars grew up on these trees. They were once everywhere. More common than hickory and sweetgum combined. But then a horrible blight came along and killed off a lot of them, making them too small for us to eat from. The blight doesn’t kill all of these trees; many still grew back after their main leaders died. But the blight doesn’t allow these new shoots to get any taller than 12 feet before killing them off yet again. The trees will never be able to reproduce again. Once the last tree dies for good, this species will be extinct.”
Haunted by Luna’s words of the night before, the 4 luna larvae, as well as Lena and the horned devil, spent the day in silence. When the day was through, the lunas had all molted once more, now fourth instar, and slept under the same branch. They were now 24 days old.
Chapter 5:
The larvae were now getting quite large and the hickory horned devil, though younger, was beginning to surpass them growth wise. Luna reminded them of how hickory horned devils were supposed to get very large. Luna herself admitted to being somewhat tired of hickory, although the stinkbugs on the tree who fed on the nuts begged to differ. Even the predatory stinkbugs, that were no longer a threat to the caterpillars because of their huge size, agreed that hickory was the way to go. Lena herself couldn’t get enough hickory, and Luna acknowledged that the horned devil coevolved with hickory.
August was a month full of heat, yet the daylight hours were diminishing. All 8 larvae quickly agreed that there would not be time for another brood. But there was something Luna didn’t like on a high branch of a neighboring tree, and she had good reason. All of the 9 caterpillars on the shagbark hickory looked at a clearly woven structure. Flexible, thin sticks wrapped and twisted around each other in a reverse-taper form, creating a circular bowl shape. Entering and exiting were large, winged creatures with large, menacing eyes and yellowish triangular mouths. The 2 creatures carried insects and sometimes fruit and seeds to the structure at regular intervals, stuffing them into the greedy mouths of what were presumably their babies. Luna called them caterpillar hoarders, as their main food source was polyphemus moth caterpillars. The curious horned devil approached the intelligent caterpillar with a question, “Why don’t those things go after us on this hickory tree?” Luna took only a few moments to think before saying “Because this tree is so much smaller there are less caterpillars and we usually only feed at night, so I assume they don’t even know there are caterpillars on this tree. However they might one day check so we must be careful.”
After a few days, Luna had had it with the caterpillar hoarders feeding their fattening young hundreds of insects. She, Lena and the horned devil descended the shagbark hickory and were standing on the soft, moist dirt at the base of the tree. The ground was littered with severely decomposed leaves from previous years of the hickory’s life, and a messy tangle of grass and weeds poked up from the ground everywhere in a random pattern. Luna could see that there were many trees lined up together in the distance about 8 feet away, and she could see the oak close by. The 3 cautiously made their way over to the tree, traversing around open areas and using the low-lying plants for cover. At last they made it to the base of the oak tree.
The 2 adult caterpillar hoarders were nowhere to be seen, and a polyphemus moth larva came up to the 3, greeting them. “You guys shouldn’t have left wherever you came from. We are under attack by some weird things that kill any caterpillar they find. There were almost 50 of us on this tree at the beginning of the brood, and in a little over a week, our numbers have diminished to just 4.” He said. Luna, who noticed the caterpillar looked somewhat identical to her and Lena, replied saying, “We are here to exterminate these caterpillar hoarders. Leave it to us!” The scared polyphemus caterpillar backed off in respect for the brave larvae he was convinced were doomed. Lena, Luna and the horned devil made their way up the tree and found the structure made by the caterpillar hoarders.
“Got the wad of skin?” asked Lena to the now 5th instar horned devil, who was nearly fully grown. He replied, “Why certainly, I even had a polyphemus caterpillar wrap it in silk on the way up.” Luna proceeded to take the wad of spiky, filmy exoskeleton. She hopped in the structure, encountering 3 nightmarish baby caterpillar hoarders, who were fat and cheeping and defecating in their home. The ugly creatures looked at her and one bounded towards her clumsily, drooling and flopping. Luna took the wad of the horned devil’s shed and shoved it into the hideous thing’s throat. She rushed out of the structure and waited. The animal’s pupils dilated and it began violently jerking its head forward and back in an attempt to clear the obstruction. The 3 caterpillars watched as the trembling caterpillar hoarder thrashed about before suddenly collapsing onto the floor of the structure, no longer moving. The 2 minute struggle was over, yet there were still 2 more babies to handle.
“This one is the runt!” shouted the huge horned devil as he charged into the structure. The intimidating horned devil scared the smallest baby hoarder to one edge of its home before thrusting it out of the tree. His strength was incredible, and the young caterpillar hoarder tried to flap its stubby wings in a vain attempt to avoid the ground. It didn’t work. The small creature hit a root of the tree and its head folded over its back. The ugly thing was still, its eyes bloodshot. “Alright!” shouted a polyphemus caterpillar who had been watching the whole thing. The horned devil left the structure, thinking of how to exterminate the final baby. Luna came up with a plan.
The trio found what they were looking for, a long, strong, thin stick. Retreating to a leaf tent made by a polyphemus moth caterpillar, they began biting the stick and shredding it on the horned devil’s horns. They made a perfect spear and went back to the structure. The horned devil distracted the hoarder as Luna placed the spear in the middle of the nest. She then got a lasso of silk and put it on the hoarder’s foot. Lena then ran around the structure, the horned devil ready to pull the polyphemus silk. When he did, the baby hoarder fell right onto the spear. It began to seize and cough up blood before finally dying. Just then a full grown caterpillar hoarder holding a fat earthworm returned to its home. All 7 caterpillars on the tree then knew this meant trouble.
Chapter 6:
The caterpillar hoarder stuffed the earthworm into the skewed baby’s mouth. It then noticed the 3 caterpillars in the structure and pecked at them. The 3 ran as fast as they could and ducked as the flying hoarder swooped in on them. The hoarder’s mouth was wide open as it charged straight at the horned devil. It just missed, but the horned devil was plucked off the branch. Luna looked and saw he had stabbed the beast in the eye with his horns and was stuck inside its skull. The injured creature was spinning in circles and eventually crashed into a branch. The horned devil got off in time before the animal tumbled to the ground. The 3 were now tired and hungry. They left the oak and promptly crawled up the hickory once more.
Lena, Luna and the horned devil wolfed down many hickory leaves as the sun set, then ate more throughout the night. The mid August heat lingered through the late hours, getting progressively hotter by the day. The next week was very emotional. The horned devil gave his final goodbyes and left the tree to burrow and pupate. The luna moth caterpillars reached the 5th and final instar of their larval lives and began eating voraciously, during both day and night. September was rolling in now and so were somewhat heavy rains and cooler temperatures.
Lena and Luna went out on a branch and began to pull leaves together. Spitting out long strands of silk, they weave it in a figure-8 pattern. They work night and day on their cocoons, talking as they work. “So we still can talk until we pupate you know,” says Luna, “So why don’t we? It’ll be fun! Just make a loud rustling sound that lasts about 10 seconds when you’re about to pupate. I’ll do that too, just so we know when we’re pupating. I must warn you about the adult stage while we still can talk. First off, there will be little time for interaction; we must dedicate our short adult lives to reproduction. Give males 3 days before giving up, and when you finish mating, the next time it gets dark go out there and lay eggs. You must watch out for rain, it will waterlog your wings. You also must look out for caterpillar hoarders by day, hide well when you don’t fly. Bats fly at night, but if one chases you, fly in a zigzag pattern to deter it. Owls will also chase you, and they’re pretty hard to deter. The best way to get away from one is to go into dense foliage. Any questions?”
Lena, who was happy to be informed, replied, “What if I forget all of this?” “You won’t, and the reproductive stuff comes instinctively” says Luna. The 2 caterpillars, whose cocoons were mere inches from each other, were ready to seal themselves in their cocoons. They turned around in the flimsy cocoons, leaflets covering the latitude of the cocoons. The 2 simultaneously closed off the end of the cocoons and relaxed.
3 days passed, the silk of the cocoons turned brown, and the leaflets desiccated, curling back to reveal the cocoons. Luna then heard, from the neighboring cocoon, a distinctive sound. A rapid shaking that lasted exactly 10 seconds, then silence. She knew then that Lena had pupated.
Luna was quick to follow with pupation, and as her new form took on, her consciousness was barely there. Only about 2 weeks later, Luna heard a slight snap, and could feel a free lift below her. She then felt the sudden stop. She realized the leaves were falling and she was on the ground.
Chapter 7:
Luna sat in her pupal casing, inside her cocoon, day after day. The daylight hours were diminishing, and it was getting colder. The cold pinched at the cocoons, but both Luna and Lena found time on the warmer October days to explore the walls of their cocoons, scraping against them, turning and doing tricks in the roomy cocoon. Late October brought the first frost, and by November, killing frosts were a nightly thing.
Lena felt herself slipping away, going into a full diapause as the temperature plummeted. As the weeks went by, snow began to fall. The tree’s wounds had healed on the hickory tree and a thick, scabby tumor of sap covered the whole top of the tree. The ice made the thinnest twigs weep, and the tree’s shaggy bark had snow wedged in every nook and cranny. The spreading, tapered crown looked like a tree skeleton without its leaves, and although a few hickory nuts remained on the twigs, the rest of the tree was bare. Winds roared and carved dunes from the snow blanket covering the landscape.
Lena’s world was totally dark. She was covered by 3 feet of insulating snow, but couldn’t tell because she was diapausing. In her mind no time had passed between the killing frost and now, but things were soon to change. It was now February, and in just 3 months time, she’d be out of the cocoon as a moth. March quickly took control and after a few weeks, the ground had thawed and the snow had melted. The now drenched ground still froze at night, but Lena was coming in and out of consciousness with the temperature.
Chapter 8:
By mid April, the temperature was more settled. The daytime temperature was up in the 70’s and it barely got below 40 at night. Warm, golden, welcoming rays of sunlight shone into the cocoons, as if to say “I’m here for good”. Luna was fully out of diapause and developing into a moth. The events of the last brood were still clear in her mind, the fanged ball, the storm, the buzzers, the horned devil, the mob, the hoarders, the spinning of cocoons, everything up to the killing frost. That was a blur, and Luna quickly realized she may never recall any of what happened. She entertained herself by replaying the second brood of the season in her mind, sometimes warping the past or predicting the future.
About 2 weeks later the hickory was budding once more. The buds broke free of their tough brown film and then extended and unfurled. Dark, drooping catkins were quick to follow. By mid May, the tree was in full growth. At the nodes of the highest branches, new shoots to replace the top portion of the tree burnt off were already growing.
The pupae of the moths were undergoing much change. The indentations on the pupae were getting deeper as well as tighter, the pupae darkened, stiffened, and the moths inside were visible. The pupal shell softened, and one morning, she was ready.
Chapter 9:
Luna used her head and legs to push on the front part of the pupa containing the indents for the antennae, head and legs. She hurled herself to the front of the cocoon and pushed her head against the silken wall. She fizzed out a brownish fluid from her vestigial mouthparts. The soggy silk was now much easier to break through. Thrashing side to side, she eased herself out of the hole she made in the cocoon. She pulled out her severely inflated abdomen and scurried towards the tree.
The soft, dark dirt crumbled beneath her feet. She dragged herself and her stubby, wet wings up the warm tree trunk. She climbed 9 feet to the nearest branch and took cover under a wilted leaf. She rapidly pumped blood into her wings and let them spread. After nearly 25 minutes, her wings were fully expanded. She released her leftover wing and metabolic fluid through her abdomen onto the absorbent ground beneath. She sat still in the sun to dry her perfect, lime green wings, with their purple, brown and yellow bordering and the eyespots on each wing, as well as the long tails, she hardly imagined being so beautiful. After almost another half hour, she saw Lena scamper up the tree and settle close to her. The 2 moths dried their wings throughout the day, and when night was approaching, they hung on a low-lying branch together.
The beautiful sunset was quick, but the yellows and blues were eye opening. Lena had never seen something quite like it before in her life. The moon was small this night, and Luna wondered how big they’d get to see it become. As the night progressed, the 2 moths slightly curled their white, furry abdomens and let down a yellow protrusion and released airborne pheromones into the still night air.
Chapter 10:
At around midnight, several shapes, flying in erratic patterns were visible. As they zoomed into the hickory tree, it became clear what they were, males. Male luna moths were swarming the tree, having picked up the scent of 3 females on the single tree with their huge, feathery antennae. There were at least 10 of them; fiercely racing each other to the branches, knowing only 3 of them would get a mate on this hickory. Not to worry, however, as there were several other hickory trees in the nearby forest, as well as birch and sycamore. Finally a male landed near Luna and wasted little time doing his biological duty. Lena too had hooked up with a male. Once a male had won the prize, the pheromone flow stopped and the other males followed pheromone trails from somewhere else. The cloud of males would get thinner and thinner. The males raced in large mobs to the scene of a calling female. The females would rip off chunks of the cloud, the fastest males would settle down on a tree to mate, while the others would fly away, and soon only a single male would be left, the slowest one, and if he was the only one left within 7 miles, the next female he smelt would be his.
Luna, Lena, and the males stayed together for the whole day. The sun shone and began, at last, to set again. The males released the females from their grips and flew off. They would not likely mate again, as most females were already taken, and since they had just mated, their drive and determination was fading, much like the burning branch in the thunderstorm, and they were slower and had less energy now. After about 2 hours, Lena and Luna released the rest of their runny metabolic fluid and hopped off the branch. They strongly flapped their large, heavy wings and floated upwards into the night. After just a few minutes, they had the hang of it.
Luna laid 3 eggs on a leaf of the tree she grew up on. “Stay strong!”She whispered to the eggs as she rappelled herself off the leaf to lay eggs elsewhere. She flew into the forest close by and found several different trees to lay her eggs on.
Meanwhile, Lena, who also laid a few eggs on the shagbark hickory, decided to go a different way. She flew off, flying at 17 miles per hour. After 90 minutes of flapping, she reached a distant forest. She heard a branch break and could sense an eerie presence. Above her, a sharp shadow appeared. She’d been spotted by an owl!
Chapter 11:
Lena curled her wings upward and pointed her body downward, darting down into the forest beneath. The owl was just as athletic, and it too made a sharp turn, cutting through the branches with its thick, feathered wings. It made hooting noises and Lena found it quickly gaining on her. She swerved left to right, performed mid-air tricks, and even dropped to the ground. Nothing could deter this owl, who was keen on having a dish of luna moth tonight. The owl hurled itself off of branches and propelled itself at her. Lena had tried almost everything. She had one last chance to get this owl off her tail.
Lena started to pick up the pace, and then she slowed, did some glides, and finally, she gunned it. She had her target in sight, but she realized just how dangerous what she was about to do really was. She flew straight, then, at the last second, shifted her body into a sideways glide, cutting through the air like a machete. Her wing tails scraped against something rough but she made it. She heard a bloodcurdling screech and realized her plan had worked. The owl had flown straight into a pine tree. She watched the helpless creature flop aimlessly among the ground. It was bleeding profusely and she knew it was only a matter of time.
Lena propelled herself away from the scene and reached a nearby broadleaf forest. At first, all she could see were oaks; she even laid a few eggs on an oak leaf before coming to a clearing. The clearing offered odd looking trees. She landed on a leaf, tasting it with her feet. She didn’t recognize it, but it was oddly appealing. It was like a distant memory of something, if it were to be seen again, it would be recognized, but recognized as nothing more than something that were seen a long time ago. The trees were about 10 feet tall and had thin trunks. There were also many tall wooden sticks that had no bark and were split perfectly in half but kept in one piece at the bottom. Lena realized she had found a stand of American chestnut trees.
Chapter 12:
Lena’s thoughts were racing. She remembered Luna’s words, “Almost 50% of caterpillars grew up on these trees. They were once everywhere. More common than hickory and sweetgum combined.” She also remembered Luna talking about destructive humans, “With humans around, destroying our homes, polluting and poisoning our forests, and taking us for a collection of killed insects, we are being pushed to the brink. Those humans now call us endangered, but they’re the reason for that in the first place. What’s more, they destroyed a once valuable hostplant of ours.” She thought to herself, ‘if I lay eggs here, maybe our numbers would be on the rise’. But then she suddenly remembered Luna’s chilling warning, “The trees will never be able to reproduce again. Once the last tree dies for good, this species will be extinct.” She asked herself, ‘is it really worth risking one species for the good of my own?’ She suddenly thought of how the humans had harmed her species, collecting and killing luna moths for their own enjoyment. She also recalled Luna’s objections to using it as a host, “making them too small for us to eat from.” However, upon closer examination, the trees, though small, were dense. Many were grouped together, if a caterpillar were to run out of food on one of them, it could hop a branch to the next. Had Luna overestimated the devastation? Either way, there were easily 300 chestnut trees all around where Lena was and she could see no clear reason not to lay eggs on the leaves. She laid 2 eggs on each tree, finally resting before dawn. She was tired, and had laid over half of her eggs, but satisfied that she had decided to help her own species, coming to an ultimate realization. Every species does what it must to survive, and the only thing that saves 1 species from being destroyed by another is the more destructive species’ dependence on the other.
The next evening, Lena went to a different forest, flying up and down amongst the leaves, tasting them, and if they were a hostplant, she would deposit 4 eggs on the underside of the leaves. After 8 successive nights of egg deposition, Lena was empty, and she went back to the original forest. Luna was waiting on a shellbark hickory. When Lena arrived, Luna was very weak. She herself had just noticed her own fatigue, and realized the end was near. The next evening, the 2 lost the strength to grip onto surfaces. They lay on the ground next to each other.
“So I found a pure stand of American chestnut,” proclaimed Lena, “and I realized something. I realized that we all must work with nature, not against it. The thin buzzers, the caterpillar hoarders, the owls- they all rely on us for food. They can’t possibly kill each and every one of us, otherwise they’d run out of food. I laid eggs on the tree, but I still wondered, why did you say the trees were too small for us to eat from?” Luna had an epiphany, and shared it with Lena, “I said they were too small because I was referring to a population. If a female luna moth lays an egg or 2 on one of these trees the caterpillars will have plenty of room, but if 7 female luna moths decided to use a stand for food, there’d be a problem. I also meant that if a female luna moth were scanning the forest for hosts, she wouldn’t be able to find chestnut. When we fly through the forests, we’re at least 15 feet off the ground, maybe more; an American chestnut barely reaches that height, there are definitely American chestnut trees everywhere, and we just hardly notice them because they are so small. We are all on this earth for a reason, whether it be to feed another species or ensure the good of your own. We all try to be the ones who help our own species, which is what keeps us going. If we all have the attitude of becoming food for other species, we’d quickly go extinct. The thought of dying at the hands of a predator is scary, and perhaps the fear comes from not knowing if your death will harm the good of your species, but like I said, we all have a purpose. I’m glad you have finally seen the way things balance in our life and existence, that was my goal. I can die comfortably now knowing I’ve done some good. I may be on a forest floor, beat up and old, but I still consider this a dignified end. I’ve done my job of reproducing and ensuring a new generation, and our species only needs stored fats to do this. I’ve contributed, and I feel guilty about killing the predators as a caterpillar, they were only trying to fulfill their duties to their species. However I can forgive myself because my mind was not as mature at that time and realistically, many of my young will not get as far as I did, because it isn’t meant to be. We can’t run from death forever, but we can accept it as a part of life.”
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