A WINGEAR SURPRISE

As the drab little Slugletts settled in, they felt a certain uneasiness --- a stirring inside. Something seemed to be changing, but they couldn’t quite figure out what. One thing they knew for sure was that they loved the warm sun --- but it seemed to be drying up their caterpillar hides!

One day, something amazing happened. Hearty (he’d been picked to be the leader because of his wise advice on how to defeat Windmogul) was all stretched out sunning himself with a bunch of other Slugletts. Without warning, there was a loud cracking sound and Hearty felt his caterpillar skin split right down the middle and pop apart. It didn’t hurt at all, but it did startle him, since he had no ideal what was happening.

There he was, sitting on the ground, with a totally new body, surrounded by his old caterpillar skin. At first he was afraid to even move. The other Slugletts were so frightened they just stared. As the warm sun dried his damp fur, Hearty moved. First his arms, then his legs.

One of the Slugletts finally found his voice enough to ask, "Are you all right, Hearty?" "I --- I think so," he answered. He moved his head --- and two giant ears unfolded.

They were beautiful.

Each ear looked like the wing of the most beautiful butterfly in the world. Maybe even more beautiful. Hearty loved them --- especially when he discovered he could fly with them.

And then it started. That same cracking sound, the one heard when Hearty’s caterpillar hide came apart, filled the air. The same thing that happened to Hearty was happening to all the Slugletts --- and they loved it. On that very same day, the Slugletts decided they would no longer be called Slugletts, the awful name Windmogul had given them. They would call themselves WINGEARS. A name that suited their new bodies, their new lives, and their new freedom. This planet they had saved was already starting to pay them back.

"How about some more sketches?"