10.Mothvana Land

A bunch of caterpillars are sitting under a bark. Says one: "Does someone of you guys really believe in Mothvana?"

Answers one: "Just a myth, some old barkscriptures, who cares about those loonies? We're now so advanced, we're at the top! I believe in evolution and..."

Interrupts another: "This question is as old as the species of the caterpillars. Even with all this new technology there is still no conclusive answer."

Another one asks: "What _is_ Mothvana? Can you define it? Can you observe it? Can you measure it? Does it have a beginning, does it have an end? Guys, where are your scientific methods? Come on, give us a break with this mumbo-jumbo stuff..."

Yet another says: "Even if it would exist, who would want to be there? No cozy bark to rub against! If these rumors would be true then one wouldn't be in this
Tree anymore at all. What a terrible thought!"

One says "Yes! Outside this Tree there cannot be anything else than the Void! Emptyness! Nothingness!"

And one of the older caterpillars says: "I have been studying the scriptures of the Holy Barks for all my life and I tell you: Believe and you will be saved! Repent now or else the Mighty Woodpecker will swallow you for eternity!"

"Yeah, yeah," jokes another, "what's next - the Green Tree Lizard? Come on, let's chew juicy bark and get on with life!"

"It cannot be entirely excluded that there may be other Trees as well," says one and everybody laughs.

"I am certain that if we just wiggle our way through the bark, eventually we'll be free!" someone claims.

"Free from what? What purpose should that have? This Tree is all that counts - everything else is just some wild speculation - opium for the caterpillars - let's organize and make sure no one gets a better piece of the bark than the rest of us!"

Another caterpillar says with conviction: "I know that there is a way out of this Tree! But I shall not go until every Living Being in this Tree has found its way out first!"

"Me too," announces another one.

"Silly people," someone objects. "if you're both want to go last, neither one of you will be ever able to go. Can't you see that?"

All of a sudden there is a turmoil in the colony.

"I can see the light!" someone yells.

"Oh, no! One of these cultists again!" people sigh.

"I'm breaking through to the other side," the caterpillar insists.

"You must be on drugs," someone tells him.

"Noone has ever gone outside and came back to talk about it. This alone is proof enough that all this Mothvana bull is nothing else than the product of an insane pillar-mind," one of the caterpillars proclaims.

"No, no," shouts the one who saw the light. "Our silky body is just a hull, a cage really! Once you make yourself free, you can leave it. And even the Tree!"

"Come back now, silly boy!" his mother shouts.

"It is impossible to become free from this Tree!" say some wise ones. "You have to be member of the Order of the Enlightened Caterpillars first. There are no Worthy Nymphs outside of our Holy Community! This must be a sad case of delusion."

"Yes," adds another wise one, "besides there cannot be a salvation until the next Enlightened Pillar appears in this Tree!"

And the political caterpillar community calls for the caterpillar police to lock him up: "These crazy ideas are antisocial, signs of a deeply disturbed mentality. A threat to society."

"Don't worry," says a scientist. "Fortunately, we have developed a new drug that aids to alievate the symptoms. It's not cheap, though. We spent many millions of pillar-dollars on its development after all..."

But when they reached the caterpillar who had seen the light, all they could find was an empty hull.

Meanwhile, the unfolding caterpillar saw that Mothvana Lands was the skies. And he looked at his colorful wings and realized  that it was a beautiful butterfly.

And in the dawn of a new day, this butterfly spread its wings...