There was once a young princess who had a beautiful twin sister. As a result, she was favored less, compared to her pretty sister, by her parents due to her sickly body and plain countenance. But she loved her sister so dearly she could not bring herself to harbor hatred against her sister. They had shared a room since they were born but the king feared that his pretty daughter might get sickly if she stayed in the company of her weak bodied sister. Therefore, he ordered his beautiful daughter to move out of the room that the twins shared and gave her a room that was far from her twin sister. The young princess, still sick and weak, was grieved to have her twin leave the bed that they shared and so she wept but she did not disobey her father the king. The pretty sister was kind and sweet, and she felt lonely when she did not have her sister close by. So one night, while the sick princess was tossing in her bed, someone outside the door knocked quietly. She got up and was surprised and happy to see her twin; she let her in and they talked in the night.
           “Dear sister, if only I was born sickly just like you, we would never be kept away from each other for I do not like being separated from you in the dark nights,” the pretty princess said with tears in her eyes.
           “Hush, you are blessed with a good heart and I love you even more for saying so but do not wish it, for I would be the one who shall be sad if that were to happen,” the sickly princess replied with misting eyes.
           From then on, the pretty sister would try to creep back into the room that she had once shared with her twin and stay there until midnight when she would go back to sleep in her new room.
           For a few years the young princess got sickly as she has ever been, and her twin sister grew prettier everyday. Soon it came for the princesses to marry and the sickly princess could not even leave her room at all for so weak was she that breathing grew to be a hard task. Her pretty twin had been arranged into marrying the prince from a neighboring country and she did not want to leave her twin sister all alone and lonely.
           “I shall think of you as you are in front of me now, for that is a memory that I will surely find comfort in,” the sick princess said in a barely audible voice.
           The married princess cried as she kissed her sister goodbye. The sickly princess wanted to cry but found it hard to make her heart feel as she would want it to. The king and the queen lost all hope and was certain their daughter would not be staying in this world for long and they cried as they left her chamber. They assigned a nurse to take care of her in her last few days.
           The princess was now barely able to move and she would lay on her bed all day with neither her father or her mother visiting her. One night, in the coolness of a midsummer night wind, she sighed in sadness and said to the bright full moon, “I wish you would talk to me and tell me stories you’ve seen around the world, dear moon.”
           Little did she know that the King Butterfly of Night was passing by her window that night. At the sound of her voice, he stopped in his flight and flew close to a window in the princess’ room. The King Butterfly felt a pain in his chest as he witnessed silent tears falling down her pale bony cheeks. With his huge black wings, the King Butterfly of Night flew into the room like the murmuring wind.
           The princess was hardly scared at what she saw but she cried even more. “I knew I shall have to leave this world soon, but I did not think you would fetch me so soon.”
The King Butterfly of Night knelt by the bed and whispered in the air, “I was merely passing by, but when I heard you speak, I was compelled by your deep sorrow, dear one.” He stroked the princess’ pale hand and said, “I shall come again soon and tell you stories that I have seen around the world; the moon and I are similar beings.”
           The princess managed a smile before fatigue took hold of her and slipped her into a dreamy sleep. King Butterfly of Night left the room as silently as he had entered it.
The next night, the King Butterfly of Night came just as he had said and he sat down on the bed, putting the princess’ head on his lap and gently stroking her hair. “Now listen, for tonight’s story, we shall begin with a boy.