Flight of the Butterfly 🦋 Children's Story

In tonight's cozy bedtime story for kids, Mona the butterfly gets ready for the journey of a lifetime.

Narrated by: Sam Jarvis
Written by: Angelica Esquivel

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Snuggle Cozy Stories for kids. This episode is
called Flight of the Butterfly. Snuggle is a production of
Slumber Studios. Support the show, listen ad free and get
exclusive access to monthly bonus episodes by joining Snuggle Premium.

(00:25):
Check the episode description to find out more and sign
up today. Hey everyone, it's so lovely to have you
here again for story time. In case you don't know already,
my name is Tom and I'm your host. Today's story

(00:47):
is narrated by Sam. While you listen, you'll imagine yourself
as a butterfly who takes an amazing first flight. It's
such a wonderful, dreamy adventure. So let's get settled in
and prepared to listen. Wherever you're resting right now, whether

(01:13):
it's in your cozy bed, on a soft couch, or
somewhere else, close your eyes for the next few moments
and imagine that you're snuggled up in your very own cocoon,
like a caterpillar who is about to become a butterfly.

(01:38):
All around is a wide open field, covered with flowering
plants and bustling with life. And this is where our
story begins.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Mona stretched her legs for the very first time as
she crawled along a green milkweed leaf on a warm
spring day in Ohio. It was a moment of awe
for her, a young caterpillar who had just emerged from
her egg here on this very leaf. She'd never seen

(02:32):
the sunlight before or felt her little legs wriggle across
the leaves. Tiny green and translucent. Mona looked at the
meadow around her in wonderment. Toward the ground, she could
see layers of green, emerald, kelly, and olive. Her eyesight

(02:57):
was fuzzy, so she couldn't make out the exact shape,
but she was pretty sure they were leaves. Above, Mona
saw the endless, pale blue sky. Her eyes registered the
rays of light that bounced off her leaf, making it glow.

(03:22):
All around. She could hear birds chirping happily and bees
buzzing merrily as they pollinated the flowering plants. Mona's stomach
began to rumble Instinctively. She turned to the egg casing
that she had just emerged from and started to munch

(03:45):
on it. The crunchy yellow shell was filled with nutrients,
but it wasn't enough to fill her stomach. As soon
As she finished her egg case, Mona began eating the
milkweed plant she was sitting on. The oval leaf was

(04:07):
covered in lime green veins. It was thick, and when
she bit into it, milky sap began to spill out.
The thick, gooey substance dripped down the leaf in beads.
Mona ate the leaf while crawling in a circle, careful

(04:31):
not to step in the growing pool of sticky sap.
The milkweed leaf tasted delicious. She enjoyed how each leaf
looked the same, but up close they were all slightly different.
It made for an interesting meal, which was good because

(04:54):
Mona was awfully hungry. She consumed leaf after leaf, traveling
in a spiral up the milkweed plant and nibbling holes
in the leaves as she went. After a few short
days had passed, Mona finally began to feel full. She

(05:18):
felt herself wanting to slow down and noticed a slight pressure,
not in her tummy, but on her skin. It felt
similar to when she'd emerged from her egg. Then a
bulge appeared near Mona's head and her outer skin came loose.

(05:41):
She squirmed and wiggled until she climbed out of her
old skin. Now Mona had peach vass and tiny tentacles
that helped her crawl faster. She was fond of this
brand new outfit. No longer see through and green, Mona

(06:04):
now had thin stripes that were white, yellow, and black
running up and down her body. But this outfit came
with a new appetite. Mona spent most of the night eating.
Once in a while she rested, settling down on to

(06:28):
a leaf and falling asleep with her eyes open. She
felt safe and sound on her milkweed plant, where her
only concern was filling her tummy. Days passed and Mona
kept growing and nibbling on plants. She shed her skin

(06:50):
a few more times, and before long, Mona was finally
a fully grown caterpillar. In just a few weeks, she
had become about two and a half centimeters long. The
days were growing longer as spring turned into summer, the

(07:11):
meadow was in full bloom. Mona kept on eating, now
preparing for her metamorphosis into a butterfly. Different types of
milkweed grew in this blossoming field, and Mona sampled the more,
and there was yellow poke milkweed, purple milkweed, bright orange butterfly, milkweed,

(07:38):
and more. They each produced tiny buds that looked like
berries until they blossomed, revealing clusters of colorful petals. One
quiet morning, Mona sat on top of the purple milkweed
plant she called home. The leaves rustled occasionally in the wind,

(07:59):
but Mona herself was too light to rattle them. She
marveled at the obscure rainbow of plants that grew all around.
She'd been enjoying herself lazely exploring the different flora, eating
tasty leaves from each of them, but now she needed

(08:20):
to find a safe place where she could enter her
chrysalis phase. She wriggled from plant to plant and spent
nearly an entire day searching for the perfect location. Until now,
most of her life was spent on milkweed plants, but
she wanted something new. She spotted a pretty lavender plant

(08:45):
and some tall yellow flowers, but neither was satisfactory. She
saw corn flowers and hibiscus, but wasn't impressed with them either. Finally,
Mona spotted a plant that had bright red splotches on it.
It was strong, healthy, and sat in a nice, shady

(09:07):
spot out of the sun. It grew so tall that
it bent over and forms an arch. This was the
plant she'd been searching for.

Speaker 1 (09:19):
It was perfect.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Mona crawled through the arch and felt like she'd entered
a different place. Up close, she could see that the
red splotches on the plant were actually ripe tomatoes. She
climbed up the winding branches and vines, pointing in every
direction until she found one that grew horizontally parallel to

(09:46):
the ground. It was sturdy and thick. A gentle cust
of wind rustled the tomato leaves. Mona looked to the
sun and saw that it was nearly mid day, as
good a time as any to begin her metamorphosis. She

(10:07):
crawled to the under side of the branch and began
to carefully spin a silk pad. It was small and round,
like a white button. Mona attached the end of her
body to the silk pad. For a while, she hung
nor suspended from the branch, curved into a fuzzy hook.

(10:33):
After a few hours passed, Mona straightened out her body
and began to shed her skin once again, but this
time something different happened. Her skin peeled away to reveal
an opaque chrysalis. The soft acorn shaped sack would be

(10:53):
Mona's home for the next few weeks. The inside was
snug and cozy. Mona adjusted herself until she found the
perfect position to sleep Around her the chrysalis began to harden,
serving as a protective barrier from pesky predators. Mona was tired,

(11:19):
exhausted from eating, growing, and crawling. She sighed through her spiracles,
the small breathing tubes that led from the chrysalis to
the outside. She wondered what she looked like from far away.
Other creatures probably thought she was simply resting. They didn't

(11:41):
know that inside her chrysalis, she was undergoing the transformation
of a lifetime. Mona yawned. She heard crickets commence their
evening chorus. As the sun went down, no more light
reached her eyes. That night. She fell into a deep

(12:04):
sleep and dreamt of the butterfly she had soon become.
Days went by with bees buzzing about calm. Nights passed
as water rippled down the stream nearby. Except for a
deer munching on the ripe tomatoes, nobody bothered Mona. It

(12:28):
was the best sleep of her life until ten days later,
when she started to stir, Mona awoke feeling slightly groggy
from her long slumber, but it quickly passed. She squirmed
in her chrysalis, surprised at how much she still felt

(12:49):
like a caterpillar. With much determination, she managed to split
open the chrysalis shell and climbed right out. She held
on to the underside of the branch with her legs.
Mona hung upside down for several hours. It took her

(13:09):
a little while to get used to her new body.
It wasn't like the one she was used to. She
looked out at the meadow and realized that she could
see more clearly than ever before. The leaves on the
tomato plant were no longer blurred together. The flowers that

(13:30):
surrounded her used to seem flat, but now they were
three dimensional. A few plants away, Mona saw another butterfly
leaving its chrysalis. Its bright orange wings were lined with
black veins. Its body had two antenna and a long

(13:52):
tube like mouth. Mona felt a strange familiarity with this
butterfly and wondered if she looked the same. While she hung,
Mona could feel fluid flowing through her wings slowly it
stiffened them like starch. Eventually her wings were completely dry.

(14:17):
Aided by the cool morning breeze, she flapped them pentively.
Unsure if flying would come naturally to her, she had
no choice but to make a leap of faith. Autumn
was fast approaching, when she would have to fly three
thousand miles in just a few months. Mona took a

(14:40):
deep breath and let go of the tomato branch. Her
wings waved in the wind, automatically, fluttering gently and keeping
her suspended in the air. She was elated at the
lightness of her body. How easily she moved through the air.

(15:00):
For a little being who spent her life climbing milkweed plants,
lying was a true wonder. She began to fly up
and over the meadow. It seemed like a dream to
see her familiar home from this view. Below her, the
corn flowers, lilac and hemp flourished. The beautiful colors called

(15:25):
to her. Mona landed on a soft, pink zinnia flower.
She unfurled her long tongue and reached into the plant
to taste its nectar. It was sweet and syrupy, much
different than the milkweed leaves she used to eat. She

(15:47):
had never tasted anything so delicious. Mona spent the next
few weeks feasting on her new found favorite food. She
didn't venture out of the meadow because she didn't need to.
There were hundreds of different plants for her to eat here,

(16:07):
and plenty of other butterflies just like her to dance
with in the wind. Apart from eating and pollinating plants,
Mona also enjoyed mud puddling. She found a small puddle
towards the center of the meadow. It was murky and shallow,

(16:28):
but it was filled with precious nutrients. Mona stood at
its edge, her wings splayed outwards, slurping up the water.
She whiled away the rest of the summer in this
lovely meadow. With all the food available, Mona stored up

(16:49):
plenty of energy reserves for her upcoming journey. All of
the other butterflies were talking about it. Nobody could wait
for this adventure of a lifetime. One day, towards the
end of fall, when the days were becoming shorter and
temperatures cool, Mona felt that it was time to move.

(17:15):
She and the other monarchs who lived in the meadow
didn't need to communicate this to each other. Mona was
going to miss her meadow, but she was also eager
to see more of the world. After one last sip
of nectar, she fluttered up into the air. Her wings

(17:38):
were luminous in the sunlight. They made a gentle beating
sound as they flap. Mona looked down at her meadow
for one last time. The tall grasses, the apple trees,
the milkweed plant where she was born. She would never
forget them, but she longed to see what lay beyond

(18:01):
this quaint little world. As she rose higher, the meadow
got smaller and smaller, until it looked like it did
when she was still a caterpillar, a blur of colors,
bright and rich. Mona was surprised at how effortless the

(18:22):
first leg of the journey was. On her way from
Ohio to Kentucky, she rode a current of air. It
both pushed her forward and held her aloft. While she flew,
Mona witnessed many new things. She saw a bird that
had syan blue feathers, mountains in the distance and long

(18:46):
rivers down below. She saw shiny boxes with creatures inside
moving down gray parts, and meadows that were ten times
bigger than the one where she grew up. Mona also
met other monarch butterflies. They didn't fly together during the day,

(19:08):
but they roosted together at night in bushes and branches
along the route. After a few days of traveling, Mona
reached Kentucky. As she landed in a small pasture of
milkweed that grew next to a river. It was nearly nightfall.
Mona heard the river flowing gently over rocks and branches.

(19:32):
As Mona expected, other monarchs began to land nearby. She
drank some nectar to quench her thirst before joining the
others on a tree. They roosted together in clusters that
looked like orange autumn leaves. There were hundreds of them,
all of them the same but different. They all had

(19:56):
bright orange wings with black veins and white light spots,
but the vein patterns varied from one to another. Mona
had a few more spots than others. Every night, Mona
made new friends. She learned about the different places where
each of her companions grew up, some along rivers, others

(20:22):
on the side of rolling pastures. Mona loved to talk
about her home in the meadow. The monarchs settled into
a roost. As the sun disappeared and darkness descended upon
the pasture, Mona felt a small tickle as another monarch's

(20:43):
wings brushed against hers. It was nice to be a
part of something bigger. She was still thinking about her
new friends when she drifted off into a long and
peaceful sleep. The next few mornings, Mona rose early to

(21:04):
get a head start on her journey. In less than
a week, she had reached Arkansas. She traveled over rivers
and in between the peaks of mountains. She had become
quite skilled at riding the air currents like a surfer
rides a wave. She roosted at a state park in Arkansas.

(21:26):
The mass of butterflies camping for the night a steadily
grown bigger. She now had thousands of companions. The only
sound they could hear was the song of cicadas. The
bark was dark, save the occasional firefly, which looked like

(21:49):
a slowly flickering speck of light. Each day on her journey,
Mona saw a brand new world. In the morning, Mona
awoke to crisp sunlight. The state park was a buzz
with activity. Hooded warblers, cuckoos, and ovenbirds whistle creating her

(22:16):
chorus of birds song. Mona listened to their melody while
she refueled at some wildflowers. Thanks to her nutrient reserves
from home, she still felt energetic and ready to take
on the remainder of her trip. She flew to Texas,

(22:37):
where summer was still going strong. There were other butterflies
in Texas, kinds that looked different from her. One of
them had blue and purple wings that gave off an
ethereal quality. Another had pastel yellow wings that flared out.

(23:00):
Mona observed them while sipping some nectar. As she carried
on from the United States into Mexico, a sleepy feeling
started to set in. She needed to hibernate soon. Now
confident in her abilities, Mona swooped over the red, dusty

(23:23):
deserts of Mexico. Tall saguru catti dotted the deserts. At night,
Mona drank the nectar from their white flowers. Sometimes the
wind would blow up a swirl of desert dust, and
Mona could briefly see the air currents that she rode.

(23:46):
She rode the current higher and higher into the sky,
all the way up to a mountaintop. As she crossed
its peak, she saw millions of orange and black wings.
Down below. They were monarchs clustered into ooml fir trees hibernating.

(24:10):
The cone shaped fir trees had needles instead of leaves,
and grew in tall clusters. The majority of the monarchs
sat perfectly still, clinging to the trees as if frozen
in time. The trees blocked the wind so that not

(24:30):
even a small breeze bothered them. Her timing was perfect.
As she drifted down to the first Mona felt as
sleepiness come over her, the kind felt at the end
of a wonderful but long journey. She fluttered her wings

(24:55):
as she landed next to another butterfly. I wondered how
they all knew to flock here, even though they had
never been before. They roosted on the same trees generation
after generation, inheriting them from the monarchs that came before.

(25:18):
Perhaps the trees were marked with the butterfly sent or
perhaps the memory of the mountains and fir trees was
imprinted into their genes. She liked to think that they
just followed the prettiest path all the way here. Mona

(25:39):
had surely enjoyed the views along the way at long last,
Mona was able to let her exhaustion win. She'd sleep
here until the end of winter. Then she'd wake up
and lay eggs of her own. Those eggs would hatch

(26:04):
into lava, and those lava would turn into caterpillars as
the cycle of life renewed. Though these evergreen fir trees
were unchanging, Mona knew that back home, the apple trees
were losing their leaves and her milkweed was freezing over.

(26:29):
She still missed her old home, but she was grateful
to have found a new one. Mona sank deep into hibernation.
There's memories from the warm meadow where she grew up
fluttered through her mind.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
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