A KINGDOM
At first glance, it is a flower. Who would argue any different? She never would have because the common signifiers were all in place.
There was a solid stem with spade shaped leaves that supported the golden blossom and it's inner workings. Nothing more than your garden variety flower.
At least upon first glance, and especially to an indiscriminate glance. She was different though, a little more curious than most.
She had a magnifying glass and she had set out to use it as a means of identifying the pollen she knew was int that flower, and that made her mother sneeze so violently.
It was a simple science experiment that quickly lapsed from botany to biology.
Under that convex lens, a whole new world was revealed. At first she thought it was a hallucination, a weird trick of the eye. It couldn't be, surely.
The following day, she walled to the store and bought a new magnifying glass, one that promised up to 1,000 times magnification.
She returned to her yard and settles into the patchy section where the blossom had sprung. She didn't pause before pulling out her new device and placing a wide open, inquisitive eye before the large glass circle.
And they they were, scores of tiny winged humanoids scampering about the flower.
Within that one simple plant was an entire colony, busily going about their mundane tasks.
A few of them glanced upward, and a few of those acknowledged her with a cordial wave.
It was the strangest thing she had ever seen, an entire community tucked away in that fragile bowl.
She let out a sigh of relief. She had planned to pick the flower to bring to her teacher, a token of appreciation that would also ease her mother's allergies.
Imagine if she had? What would have become of this tiny microcosm?
A single thoughtful gesture could have quickly devolved into a thoughtless one, a genocidal act of ignorance.
She knew it was important to stop and smell the flowers, and now she knew why. Every action caused a greater reaction.
Sometimes even the smallest gesture could result in unimaginable consequences.
She wanted to tell someone of her discovery, but she didn't know who to tell. Adults had an uncompromising view of the real world and she dis not have many friends her age who might accept her discovery without ridiculing her.
For now, it was probably best that this remained her little secret.
She leaned back into the lens for another glimpse. As far as secrets go, this was a great one. She smiled and waved back at one of the tiny figures.
Some secrets were definitely better left untold.
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