The Nightingale and the Caterpillar

Interesting, the ideas that pop into your head while on long road trips. Actually, the first sentence came yesterday, but the real meat of this piece and then tying it to that little blurb I'd jotted down yesterday came today, in the car. I have another little idea but I'm not quite sure if I can do it justice. I also hope the space editing comes out ok; there isn't much of it, but what with different browser resolutions, I'm sure there's a chance it'll look screwy to somebody.

Secrets secrets don't make friends
but sometimes
secrets secrets keep friends
and promises break them.

Once upon a time
there was a boy
who had a secret
he didn't want anyone to find out.
So he turned himself into a nightingale
and flew away
over hill
and dale.

One day he heard a song
and alighted to find a young maiden.
"I am so sad," she told the nightingale.
"My father is mean, and will not give me any baubles
to play with."
So the nightingale flew to the nearby town
and stole a bauble from the butcher's wife
to bring back to the girl.

"Oh," she said,
"How happy you make me,
pretty nightingale!"
And she danced all the way home.
But the next day
she was sad again;
her father had taken her pretty, she said.
So the nightingale flew to the nearby town
and stole a bauble from the tailor's wife
to bring back to the girl.

The weeks went by;
every day she was sad,
and every day a glimmer of happiness -
or so the nightingale thought -
for the maiden was cunning and shy
(as maidens are)
and was fashioning a cage for the nightingale:
a cage of pretties
lashed together with ivy
to hold her pretty.
Then came the fateful day
when it was complete,
and the nightingale was trapped
in the cage of his labors.
How he struggled against the walls of his glittering prison!
But it was too late,
and the maiden was too crafty.
She tied a leash around the nightingale's leg,
so he couldn't break free,
even after beating his wings all day.

Exhausted,
the nightingale sank to the floor of his prison,
and cried himself to sleep.
But in the night
he heard a small voice above him,
and looked up
to find a caterpillar peeping into his cell.
"Little nightingale, why were you crying?"
she said.
"I am stuck,"
he said,
"And do not know if I will ever be free again."
"Do not fear,"
she said,
"I will help you, if you will but promise me one thing."
"Anything,"
he said.
She told him
and he promised.
So the caterpillar slipped between the bars
chewed through the leash
and then the ropes of that hateful cage
and the nightingale flew free
with the caterpillar on his shoulder -
for that was part of his promise.

Many miles they flew,
to a land where the strangers spoke in tongues
and the water stood still in Winter's grasp.
And here the nightingale landed,
for that was also part of his promise.
Since there was no-one around to find out his secret anymore,
the nightingale turned back into a boy
and built himself a cottage
while the caterpillar built herself a cocoon.

In the spring she emerged,
a pretty butterfly,
and the boy and the butterfly spent every perfect day together,
until the boy began to feel something new,
something he had never felt before.
So one day he turned to the butterfly
and whispered
his secret
in her ear.
In a flash,
she turned into a beautiful maiden,
who thanked him for breaking the spell placed on her
by an angry witch
who had entrusted her with a secret
that the maiden did not keep.

Did they live happily ever after?
Oh, my dearest.
That is a secret
for another time.

Edit: Nevermind, the spacing I was hoping for didn't even come out. Looks like it's time to search the internets for html.