The White Butterfly

 

Artwork - Super Nagoyaka

An expanse of orange, red, and yellow trees stretched out along the hillsides behind Levi, a chill, now indifferent man—back turned to the beauty before him. Japan was everything he had hoped it to be, crammed full of natural awe and unique cultural splendor compared to his western sensibilities. It was the change of pace he had sought for a lengthy vacation, but he had begun to wonder if he had stayed too long. He was well acclimated at this point near the end of his stay, and what had been fresh 3 months ago now seemed mundane. Even the serene nature of seeing leaves gently float around him elicited little reverence. That said, he still found much to love about a nude, outdoor dip in a hot onsen.

This was one of the best natural springs yet, it was as if he could feel the minerals soaking in. It made things easy to forget and send the mind adrift. Before he could reach such a calm though, screams began to approach, along with some angry footsteps on the old, wooden floor of the nearby shower room. The sliding, screen panel door flew open.

Levi watched as a Japanese man, who looked in his late 30s same as him, with sandy skin, body well toned, and with black, clean shaven hair and facial, stormed out angry yelling over another older male. The man was already stripped down, small towel in hand, clearly ready to use the spring as an escape from the flaring tensions. As much as Levi wished to keep to himself, his good nature got the best of him and he asked what was wrong. He wasn’t sure if the guy could speak English, and to be honest he kind of hoped he couldn’t.

“Oh? It’s nothing.” The man responded in English, accent still present but with an obvious grasp on it. “My father he… continues to be troublesome. Always pestering.”

There was no breaking free of the conversation now, so Levi took the plunge and asked, “Pestering you about what? I get the sense this is a near everyday thing with you two.”

“A wife.” The man replied while sliding into the opposite side of the hot spring. “He is desperate for me to find a wife, thinks I’ll be alone forever. I’ll be taking over the bathhouse from him soon enough. I don’t have time for finding a woman. I’ll take care of things on my own terms. Besides, I want to find the right one.”

“Ah, so you are the son of the owner of this fine establishment.” Levi said.

“I’m not sure if I’m ready. It is a huge responsibility to take on.”

Levi picked up a bottle of sake he had been making his way through and poured two glasses while saying, “Oh I’m sure. But hey, we all have our goals, duties, however ya want to paint it. What matters most is dreaming up the future ya want and figuring out how to get there.”

“I suppose that makes sense.” the man halfheartedly said, taking one of the sake cups. “What about you though stranger? What is your path?”

“You can call me Levi.” he replied.

The man apologized, realizing he had yet to introduce himself as well. “I am Ichiro.”

Both men raised their glasses and downed their drinks.

Levi relaxed, arched his head back and said, “Well Ichiro… I don’t really have a path.”

Ichiro leaned forward a bit, surprised by the comment.

“I don’t know. The idea of settling down never sat with me. I’m always after something I can’t explain, taking trips everywhere, chasing the taste of something new. It all ends up feeling pedestrian in the end. I wonder if I’ll ever find a place I can truly think of as home… be content you know?”

“There doesn’t have to be a rush.” Ichiro assured, holding out his sake glass to ask for more.

An amused look crossed Levi’s face as he said, “Amen to that. We both got plenty of time to figure things out. Now lets drink!”

The next hour was filled with drinking and mingling by the new acquaintances, their sharing of stories forming a friendly bond between the two. Ichiro opened up about his childhood and constantly feeling restricted under the thumb of his father and that while he truly did wish to take on running the onsen as it had meant a lot to him in his life, he felt at odds over handling it alone. Levi, who was becoming more outspoken and bright-eyed the drunker he got, started making outlandish suggestions.

“Hey, look bud I can stay here and help ya. You, you're a good guy. You deserve it.”

Ichiro, a bit tipsy but handling his alcohol better, replied, “I respect it, I respect it, but you talk crazy. You have your own life.”

The two were having a blast, but Ichiro figured it was time to start winding down. He cut himself off from anymore drinks, while Levi poured himself another.

“Yo, tell me a story Ichiro.” Levi requested while nearly spilling his drink. “I know this country is full of em. Like, ya know, one of those folky ones. Maybe a supernatural one, oooo.”

Ichiro agreed to do so while trying to calm him down, slyly pulling the large sake bottle away from him. He then asked if Levi had ever heard the tale of the white butterfly. He of course hadn’t, but Ichiro wanted to build the suspense.

“It actually is a tale about this very bathhouse!” He hyped up, before starting…

An old man lived in a little house behind the hot spring of Kurama. He was extremely amiable and generally liked by his neighbors, though most of them considered him to be a little mad. His madness rested upon the fact that he had never married or evinced desire for intimacy with women.

One autumn day he became very ill, so ill in fact, that he sent for his sister-in-law and her son. They both came and tried all they could to bring comfort during his final hours.While they watched, he fell asleep; but he had no sooner done so than a large white butterfly flew into the room and rested on the old man’s pillow. The young man tried to drive it away with a fan; but it came back three times, as if loathing the thought of leaving the sufferer.

At last the nephew chased it out into the garden, through the gate, and out to the hot spring beyond, where it lingered over a beautiful woman bathing in the water, before mysteriously disappearing along with her. Upon examining the rock surface where she sat he found the name “Hayami” carved into it. Despite this side of the springs being closed and covered in moss, he saw the area where she had sat surrounded with picked flowers as if offered.

When the young man returned to the house he found that the old man had passed away, and he returned to his mother and told her what he had seen at the old hot spring.

“Hayami?” murmured his mother. “When your uncle was young he was in many ways an outcast. During his isolated days working at the onsen, he always spoke of a woman named Hayami, whom he’d visit often at the old springs. No one else had heard of such a woman, and claimed your uncle crazy. He remained adamant about their time together and spoke of a faithful vow he had made to this unseen, unheard of woman. To him, she was his one and only love. Every day he went to the hot spring, whether the air was fragrant with summer breeze or thick with falling snow. Every day he went to the spot he claimed she sat to converse, until one day he stopped. The visions of whatever had sought him had left. Still, your uncle visited the same spot every day, praying for her happiness and setting flowers where she had sat.

The boy was left to wonder from his mother’s tale. When his uncle was dying, and he could no longer perform his loving task, was the butterfly Hayami coming for him? Who was this enchanting woman of the springs that could only be seen by such a lonely man?

While Ichiro grew a bit somber after the tale, Levi broke out into a laugh.

“Well that was depressing!” he noted. “Quite the tale you wove though. You say that took place here?”

“That’s how the story goes.” Ichiro said, turning his head away. “The old springs are gone now, no way to know.

Ichiro slowly began to sulk as the ramblings of Levi carried on, becoming more animated and jovial. His own story had put him in a mood and the sights of the beautiful trees surrounding him felt more like shadows encasing him. Then something caught his eye. Something impossible to look away from. A white, glowing butterfly.

He couldn’t believe it, a butterfly that looked straight out of the story he had just told. Ichiro followed its mesmerizing path as it fluttered forward, bouncing up and down, all the way to the shoulder of Levi where it landed. A pale, feint mist formed around his periphery as his vision seemed to narrow in on Levi and the butterfly alone. The borders of the haze grew stronger and the butterfly faded, its glow now outlining Levi instead. Except, Levi was no longer there. Instead what he saw was a beautiful, shapely woman with a slight tan and braided twintails bathing naked and giving a bright smile. He could no longer hear the voice of a man, but a woman talking to him as if she were his wife. She had a slight husky voice and spoke with an outgoing nature while still being relatively laid back.

“Why are you looking at me like that dear?” she giggled, her mouth turning to a reserved smile, her tone sprightly. “I know I’m a prized catch and all but you act as if you’ve never seen me before.”

“Hey, my man!? Why are you looking at me like that?” Levi asked, seeing the zoned out Ichiro ogling him. “And you said I was the drunk one… huh?”

Levi gazed down at his bathing body, feeling something tickling his stomach. He was surprised to see long, shiny, light black hair traveling down past his chest and spilling onto the surface of the water. He began to pat at his head as he felt a tingling sensation against his cheeks and an itchiness in his scalp. What should have been his short, brown, taper fade cut was now thicker, bangs brushing the top of his eyes and trickling down above his nose. He could feel some longer bangs on the sides traveling down past his cheeks too, falling to his clavicle before halting their growth. The hair felt smooth, and voluminous, as if the minerals from the water had enriched it. It was becoming too much hair for him to handle though, the bulk of it on the sides and back still growing towards his face. He swept the longer strands behind his ears to remedy the situation as unease began to set in. The hair simply carried on, benefiting from Levi brushing it past his ears as the longer strands in the back began to gently twist together, braiding themselves from the shoulders down. He held his self-styling hair in his shaking hands, watching them finish off underwater near his navel, white-spike hair-ties appearing from seemingly nowhere to hold the braids in place.

Levi’s body felt warm and heated, but he couldn’t be sure if it was from the warm spring water, heavy drinking, or something else entirely. He felt wrong, like something had seized his body. The trembling within his hands soon spread to the rest of his body and deep into his core, causing him to actually panic. He drunkenly pleaded to Ichiro to get help, not sure if he could even stand in his current state. Ichiro remained still though, feeling heated for a whole different reason. It was like a muse had been dropped from the heavens, and he dared not look away. Bathing before him, speaking to him, was the perfect woman.

“Damnit! I have to get out of here!” Levi shouted as he tried with all his effort to rise to his feet, but slipped. He was lacking energy within his stupor, his head throbbing.

For Ichiro, he saw his perfect woman try to rise as well, but then stumble. He quickly reached out and grabbed hold of her, breaking her fall and gently guiding her back into the spring.

“Woah, nice catch dear.” she applauded, trying to shake off the daze. “I guess I really did have a bit too much.”

Levi was thankful for the save, but was completely unaware of how Ichiro perceived his words. He continued to insist that he help him get out of the bathhouse. Instead Ichiro leaned in closer, giving a loving stare.

“What the hell Ichiro!? Seriously, I need haaah! Ahn…” Levi protested, before a strange pleasure stirred within him, causing him to let out an embarrassing moan. His body felt lighter, his flesh pulsating, and bones gently rattling.

To Ichiro the woman said while blushing, “What the hell Ichiro!? Don’t get so closaah! Oh…”

Ichiro’s mind was buzzing, memories of times with this woman flooding his head. They had met a few years ago when she had visited the hot springs for the first time. She soon became a regular and they hit it off hard, her bright, carefree personality helping him out of a rut. They spent the next few years growing close, some of their favorite outings being hikes in Kamakura and Okutama, and sampling the food and atmosphere of the like of Okuba and Ginza. It wasn’t long before the two married. Today was like any other for the couple, drinking and conversing in the springs before the beautiful landscape.

Levi shuddered as he felt Ichiro gripping him more fondly, his touch soft, as if petting someone he deeply cherished. His body reacted unexpectedly, subtle sparks of delight coursing through him wherever Ichiro’s hands traveled. It would have been easy enough for him to assume his nerves were because of the concerning behavior with his body, but this felt different. He knew he wasn’t into men, and yet the way this man was holding him...

“Ichiro you have to stop… Huh!? Oh no!” Levi softly insisted before freaking out at the sight of his body starting to lose considerable amounts of mass. His arms and legs looked far thinner, all the muscle draining from them. His usually broad frame was narrowing and he could feel the symbols of masculinity upon his body fading. The slopes of his shoulders and backside dipped more delicately now as he felt inches shaving off from his height. Ichiro began looming larger above him, Levi’s head coming to rest upon his chest as he was pulled in for a sensual hug.

“Wow, jeez! I don’t know what’s come over me.” The imaginary woman said to Ichiro. To him she was now nothing more than his beautiful wife who had a bit too much to drink while trying to calm his mood.

“Stop! Please! I don’t know what’s happening to me.” Levi yelped in reality while trying to break free from Ichiro’s grip. It was no use however, his body still caught in a limpish state. As he tried pressing off with his hands he was shocked at how pretty they now looked. The fingers in particular were the kind of delicacies one might eye when grabbing the tender hands of a—

“Such a beautiful woman you are.” Ichiro said. “I’m so lucky to have you.”

“N-No stop! We shouldn’t be doing this! I need-ahn!” Levi protested before a rush of pleasure knocked the wind out of him. He felt his somewhat flabby stomach suck in several times, flattening out and forcing the excess mass wriggling towards his chest and hips. Every last remnant of his former core was spread out as if by a rolling pin, the sensations leaving him no choice but to cling onto Ichiro lest he collapse.

As before, the words of Levi fell on deaf ears, written over by the imaginary wife saying, “N-No, wait… We shouldn’t be doing this out in public~.” Her tone was an obvious tease. She wished to continue.

Ichiro stared uncomfortably long into Levi’s eyes, creating another confusing swell of emotions in him as he struggled to fight off prevailing thoughts of attraction he felt. Any mental fight was deterred by his body’s need to spur him forward. Changes began to hasten, with his spine reshaping, heaving his chest out, prepping them for the traveling masses within his body now flooding his pectorals. He saw supple fat consuming any firmness in his chest, bubbling and expanding below his shifting nipples. They started as small tits but were terrifyingly intent on growing more. He needed them to stop, needed to break free and press them back in! He wasn’t sure if that’d even work but it was all he could think of.

One arm free!

Finally Levi was getting somewhere, and he figured if he could wriggle his other arm loose from Ichiro’s embrace he’d be well on his way to getting out of this mess. He knew he needed to work fast though, feeling more and more weight packing onto his blossoming bosom. They were big and perky enough to start squashing together, ample cleavage pressing up against Ichiro’s hardened body. It was maddening trying to break free, every movement dragging and enticing his erect, plumping nipples.

Finally, the other arm was free!

Levi’s excitement was short lived, as the moment he tried to push Ichiro off, Ichiro went in for the most tightening, loving embrace yet. This created an intense pressure in his sides, like a vice was clamping down around him. He could feel his body scrunching, bones crumpling. Everything felt ready to give around the side of his tummy, a heated collapse immanent. It felt good though, too good, good enough to—!

CRUNCH!

Levi’s sides caved inward, gaining a well-defined curvature. An uncharacteristic soft moan breached his lips, his body arching back as arousing warmth filled him. His growing breasts were now big enough to bounce, the sensation of them a startling extra stack upon the sudden pleasure. Fat continued rippling across the surface of the them, adding more and more to their size and sag. His chest, his sides, Ichiro’s touch, it awakened something within Levi, something his body refused to fight back against—evident by the hardening cock wedged between him and Ichiro, traveling up the expanse of their stomachs until it hit full mast.

The changes had become fierce, unrelenting in how they attacked Levi. In the throes of his ordeal he desperately sent his hands up to Ichiro’s head in an attempt to grab onto anything higher to keep him from constantly arching back. Being smaller, his first attempts merely brushed and caressed his cheeks, which Ichiro took as a loving gesture and so he leaned in. This made it easier for Levi’s next attempts, one of his hands able to wrap and grab at the hair on the back of Ichiro’s head.

“What is wrong with you!?” Levi halfheartedly screamed, the energy in his voice collapsing into softer groans. “Quit coming in so close. Y-You have to get help!”

On Ichiro’s end, he heard loud-and-clear the voice of his wife confidently say, “You just can’t keep it in can you? Well, dig in then you anxious boy.”

Ichiro wasted no time planting a kiss onto Levi. It started soft and reserved, then built into a passionate affair for which there was no escape. Levi was trapped, his groans of protests silenced, his body trembling and buckling under the building lust between the two of them. His dick was fully erect, gentle pulsations slowly pulling up the white wads of proof for which he wished to deny—that he was starting to enjoy this. It was like teetering on the edge, Ichiro’s own dick hardening next to his own only making things worse, the tension more real. Something insane was bubbling beneath the surface, and not just in his dick. No, his whole body felt ready for a great release, the fissures below the surface agonizing.

No, no, no! Levi begged within his mind, his body edging as Ichiro’s tongue began to get far more intimate in his mouth. It’s too much! I just, I need—!

Then it happened, the release hitting like a truck, the force of the blow rippling across his body like a wave. He hopped up, almost rising out of the water, but Ichiro grabbed hold, a hand firmly gripping the back of Levi’s head to keep him within their kiss. Levi instinctively wrapped his hands around Ichiro’s torso, struggling to keep himself under control as his body felt compelled to thrash. The only way to describe it was a full body orgasm. His dick did its thing, firing off ropes upon ropes of cum onto both man’s stomachs, while the rest of his body surged with transformative pleasure. Levi’s already respectable breasts exploded even larger in size, going off like airbags against Ichiro’s chest which they were pressed tightly against, delivering a violent kickback to himself. He was also rocked by an explosion in his ass cheeks, each one bloating quickly with extra fat and toned meat. All the mass from earlier that had traveled down to his hips was spilling into his ass and thighs and widening his hips. His balls were being suffocated by all the thickness growing down below, but then as if to remedy it his pelvis began to quake and pull. More relief came as he felt his pelvis broaden with a large snap, sending his thighs further apart, rescuing his balls but also releasing some extra girth into his already large bottom. He was clawing and gripping in a more lustful manner now, his muffled groans shifting to seductive moans and his tongue starting to reciprocate the playfulness of Ichiro’s. He felt so loved, as did his body, as if this feminine form had been buried beneath the surface waiting to break free.

But no, that wasn’t him… was it?

The kiss was released, leaving Levi a panting mess and with plumper lips, his still stiff dick firing off some last few spurts of cum. He was finally able to recollect himself, leaving the horror of his situation to become very real again. The even greater fear was that he might lose himself to the pleasure again. His body tingled with excitement against his will while he watched his facial and body hair slip off, revealing smoother skin beneath, with a tan tone spreading across his form.

With heavy, shaky breathes Levi begged, “Ichiro, stop… no more.”

Ichiro gazed upon his beautiful wife’s satisfied face and heard her softly beg, “Ichiro, don’t stop… give me more.”

It was unlike Ichiro to do something so brash and risky like he was now, but something had been awakened in him. His wife’s encouragement only stirred him more. Pondering it, he wondered if this was what he was missing. He needed to be more outgoing, take risks like his wife always insisted. It felt good to be letting loose like this, to be breaking norms.

Ichiro flipped Levi around and grabbed him by the hips, positioning himself. Levi gripped to the edge of the hot spring baths with both hands, much of his strength still enslaved to the stupor his body was trapped in. Looking down at his now slightly tan skin, he felt content for a brief moment, but snapped out of it from what he felt next. Ichiro’s erect dick began tracing along his butt crack, making its way downward. As wrong as it felt there was a nagging desire to let it happen, a yearning beating at the back of his mind that began to pool as pleasure between his legs, in his dick, and most powerfully behind the loose skin of his scrotum. There was a cavernous feeling nestled between his hips, growing and crawling towards a point behind his balls, hungering for something to fill it. It became clear as day the moment the head of Ichiro’s cock began to prod at the loose skin trapping it.

“N-No! Stop!” Levi yelled, feeling the dick begin to puncture the skin. For once the wife before Ichiro relayed the same words. But then…

“Let me go.” he muttered turning his head towards Ichiro with a nervous look in his eyes.

“Go slow.” the wife whispered, turning her head towards Ichiro with a libidinous look in her eyes.

The dick continued to press, slower now.

“No! No, no!” Levi shouted, whipping his head forward again, too scared to watch, too scared to admit it felt amazing.

The dick began to burrow into the flimsy skin, spreading most of it to the side. The skin was giving way around the head of the dick, the outer parts of the scrotum starting to form leathery flaps in an ovular shape. With each gentle press forward, Levi’s balls were tugged, dragged into a hole opening below them.

“Help! I-It’s, it’s going inside me!” Levi called out.

“Yes. S-Slowly, put it inside me.” the wife purred out.

Before he knew it, the dick was halfway inside him, his balls falling into the void that had been created. He could feel them stirring around inside like large marbles, seeking out new homes as a pair of ovaries at the sides of a growing womb within him—a twisting sensation following in their wake as tubes formed and fused themselves to them. Estrogen began pumping, spurring his evolution into womanhood further, diluting the white cum spurting from his dick.

“Ichiro stop! I’m not a womaaah!” Levi yelled, buckling under the pleasure.

“Ichiro yes! Make love to your womaaah!” the wife yelled, buckling under the pleasure.

Levi… the wife… both were pent up beyond normal. Levi had a pussy now, and it was full.

He squirmed and tensed, feeling the new muscles of his vaginal walls clamping down onto the large mass plugging it. Over and over it gripped and released, his body not used to the bizarre sensations that it didn’t know how to ease into it. It only served to make the confusing pleasure more maddening for him.

“Fuck, it’s so deep. Guh. P-Please, take it out!” Levi groaned.

“Fuck, it’s sooo deep. Ahn. P-Please, stir it around!” The wife moaned.

Ichiro obliged.

“Oooh! Hoh, No… no more!” Levi begged.

“Oooh! Hoh, yes… please more! The wife begged.

Ichiro gave more, his thrusts beginning. Levi was left a tensing, swaying mess, ecstasy reaching every inch of him through each loving impact. His dick felt smaller but no less bloated, spilling clear fluids into the waters of the spring, fluids that matched the salivations of his needy snatch.

Grabbing hold of both Levi’s breasts and giving their nipples a quick pinch, Ichiro commented on their size and beauty before moving to caress every supple centimeter of their surface. Levi clamped tightly in response, hindering Ichiro’s thrust but for a moment, before they picked up again even quicker than before.

Levi helplessly bucked, staring out at the fall scenery of the hillsides sprawling before him. There was a familiarity building, a comfort coming from the sights and sounds around him that made his heart flutter. He even became aware that Ichiro had returned to talking in his native tongue of Japanese, yet he understood him despite having not known the language. Phrases and sentences began to spill into his head, creating a compulsion to speak Japanese as well. With his next plea he could feel a language and accent not his own, wrapped within an energetic female tone, starting to replace his English. It quickly became impossible for him to tell when he was and wasn’t speaking Japanese.

“Ichiro! You need to stop! I-I don’t know what’s happening. I, I… feel strange.” Levi said.

“Ichiro! Don’t stop! F-Forget your dad, think only of me. I, I’m… here for you.” the wife said.

Ichiro began to lean more into his thrusts, spurred on by his wife’s love. Levi became more openly flustered, the landscape feeling like the most beautiful of sights, a nostalgic feeling seizing his soul—new memories of his time as a wife within the onsen registering.

“This is… my home?” Levi moaned.

“This is… our home~.” the wife moaned.

Levi’s dick began to recede into the folds of his womanhood, copious amounts of fluids excitedly launching. Images of loving times spent with Ichiro began to overlap his thoughts.

“Are we… together!?” Levi yelped, feeling the cusp of a climax.

“We’ll make it… together!” the wife yelped, feeling the cusp of a climax.

Levi’s arms nearly buckled from the sudden spike in pleasure, Ichiro catching his fall while keeping up his thrusts. His now nub of a dick fired off the last remnants of what it held as it began to snuggle into the upper layer folds of his pussy. The bliss of the moment was written across his contorting face, a long held moan carrying with it shifting bone and flesh—feminine allure replacing what remaining masculinity was left.

“Ahn, no! I-Ichiro! You can’t! Oooh FUCK!! I’m almost there!” Levi screamed out, some small vestige of resistance still clinging on.

“Ahn, yes! I-Ichiro! I can’t! Oooh FUCK!! I’m almost there!” the wife screamed out, her body barely hanging on.

Tears of joy streaming down his face, Levi felt the remaining, pearl sized head of his cock pop into place as a new clitoris, left to be heavily stimulated by the motions of the thick cock inside him. He felt the features of his face crumpling into the guise of a woman, his eyes beautifully slanting, nose narrowing, cheeks rising. This was the body of a woman… a woman from Japan… the wife of Ichiro…

Lost in the mental fog, he looked for any clarity he could among the ceaseless heat of his sex. Then he saw it, a wedding ring materializing upon his finger. That’s when she remembered who she was, why she was here, why she was about to—

“HaaaAAAAHHNN~!!” Hayami, Ichiro’s wife, howled, Levi’s voice fully erased by the rapturous sound. Finally she came. The most agonizing, wonderful sex of her life had reached its peak. It had felt like a rebirth for not only herself, but for Ichiro as well.

The banging of their bodies eased up, Ichiro’s cum spilling into Hayami with repeated, comforting bursts. The heat from the springs had not made it any easier to keep each of them steady on top of the already taxing intercourse, but Hayami mustered the strength to turn herself around with Ichiro still inside her, to gaze at him face to face. Their eyes locked and time stood still for the two, no words needed. They then embraced in a kiss as the sun began to set.

What was only a minute, felt like eternity, Hayami the one finally pulling away. Spools of drool trailed from their passionate makeout, their mouths wet with the taste of the other. It was as perfect a moment as any for Hayami to finish her words for her husband.

“My love,” she softly spoke with an assured smile. “You are not in this alone. You have me. This is my home as well. I want it to succeed just as much as you, and it will.”

Hayami purposefully collapsed into her husband’s arms and closed her eyes, remembering a famous haiku which she cherished in her youth.

“Come, butterfly.

It’s late—

We’ve miles to go together.”