Spira, The Moonlight Butterfly

Settle down, children, and i'll tell you the story of Spira, The Moonlight Butterfly!
When he was but a caterpillar, newly hatched from his egg, Spira found himself alone in a deep, dark cave.
At first he was scared, but then far in the distance, he began to see a soft light. It took all of his effort and might, and many days and nights, but he crawled towards the light. With only one more ridge of rock ahead of him, the light seemed to be so close. Feeling tired from his long journey, he spun himself into a cocoon, and awakened again, as a great butterfly, ready to finally see what the source of the light that had drawn him in for so long was.
Flapping his wings for the first time, he took to the air, and found himself outside of the cave for the first time in his life. Blinking his many-faceted eyes, he saw that the light which he had sought was a shining blue and green globe, far above in the sky.
As he flew towards the globe, he left behind him a sparkling, twinkling trail of hope. He wanted to meet the people who lived on the globe, and thank them for shining such a beautiful light for him to follow.
When he arrived on the globe, which looked very different up close, he met a young boy, to whom he said, "Thank you small one, for shining your light for me."
The boy smiled at Spira, and said "No, thank you, for shining so many lights for all of us."
It was then that Spira looked back the way he had come. He saw for the first time the shining trail of hope which he had spread across the sky, and his own globe, twinkling in the sky, as if it was smiling back at him.

Summary

The tale of Spira, The Moonlight Butterfly, is one told throughout the land to children, as an explanation for why the moon glows and why the stars twinkle.
Inevitably, as children grow, they come to doubt and outgrow this fairy-tale explanation for how the stars and moon came to be, and those who undergo more rigourous education may even learn the more scientific explanations for what they see in the night sky. The tale persists however, as a rather benign, for a change, story to fill the hearts of small children with a touch of wonder at the universe around them.

Historical Basis

Spira himself is, of course, completely real, although the tale told of him is largely apocryphal. One of a few remaining Lunar Butterflies, and the only one who made the long trip through space from Altea's moon to the planet itself, Spira is comparable in size to a large Roc, with a wingspan of roughly 120ft, or 36.5 metres. His wings are pearlescent and irridescent, and he leaves a trail of sparkling dust in his wake.
Once a rare, but occasionally documented sight in the sky, Spira suffered an unfortunate encounter with a jumpy, spell-happy master enchanter in the dying days of the Age of Arcane Might, and may now only actually be visible to mortal eyes in the light of the full-moon, and then only if the observer has not yet reached their tenth birthday, or has ingested a near-lethal dose of hallucinogenic Dream Mushrooms. In both cases the observer is unlikely to be believed, in any case.