A Tiny Beacon in the Moss

I was making my way back toward the house in the dim evening light, double-checking each step along the damp edge of the garden bench, when a rhythmic greenish spark caught my attention. Pausing carefully, I knelt by a tuft of velvety moss to inspect it. Um, it was not an exposed LED diode or a navigational transponder at all, but a tiny, luminous firefly resting quietly on a fallen twig. Every few seconds, its abdomen would pulse with a soft, steady glow, illuminating the tiny dew droplets around it like miniature planetary beacons. I kept perfectly still so as not to startle it, admiring the polite, silent signal until it gently dimmed.