Excellent tale by CSE Cooney, with maybe a reference to another tale, but maybe not, maybe it's just

... the story as it is.

Friends, csecooney has written a lovely set of vignettes about Danaus incendiarius, and--in a wonderful development for Strange Horizons (where the story resides), it is illustrated!

It has her breathtaking imagination and her humor:

[The cigar] smelled heavenly, if heaven was a forest fire

Check it out: "Ten Cigars"

(Also it's very short, if that's a further spur)

And then, come and chat about it if you feel like it. (But I will be away from my computer for the next few ho...