Nana Ana's Secret Hideout

Chapter 7 - Butterfly Tornado!

Barely visible at the far end of the field, a gaudy orange cottage reflected the late morning sun.

"Hey, Panda." Anders gentled swatted away a sky blue butterfly that floated under his nose. "Is the bungalow orange?" 

The panda cub didn't hear him. Its pace had decreased midway across the open field, enabling the men to stroll easily on its heels. "Pick me up, would you?" It said with a baleful look. "I'm tired. I need a break. Don't give me that look, I've got tiny legs."

"It's been ten minutes." Anders blinked away three butterflies bobbing around in his face. "Otherworldly bears should have otherworldly endurance."

"I've got him." Eirik scooped up the animal as if it was a corgi.

Anders squinted at the distant cottage. Nana wouldn't own orange clothes, much less live in an orange house, he thought. Maybe it belongs to a friend of hers we've never met. Someone with horrible taste in color. With ten butterflies about his head, he flailed when he nearly inhaled one. "Where are they coming from?!"

The bear gasped, happily. "Its a tornado!"

Anders frowned through a lazy haze of graceful insects. "I m sorry, what?" Blue sky, sunny day. There are a bunch of butterflies and it's a little on the cold side, but the weather's fine.

"Where?" said Eirik.

"It's my favorite kind." The panda beamed. "A butterfly tornado!"

The formerly clear sky teemed with a single species of butterfly, drifting in a circular motion as a single loose cloud over the field. The cloud grew dense, spun tighter. It seemed like nothing more than a tremendous insect gathering until a roar not unlike a chorus of jet engines struck up and the whirling insects pulled together in violent cyclonic mass, touching down and ripping into the earth. Trees bent, grasses blew flat, debris flashed through the air; bugs not a part of the main mass slashed horizontally in tandem with the vortex, gaining speed, becoming organic bullets.