Draycca Glimmerwing's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Meridwen crouched at the edge of the marsh, watching three young fairies splash through water barely deep enough to cover their ankles. They laughed when they stumbled. They reached for dragonflies that zipped away before their fingers came close. This was the problem with safe shallows — students learned to move without consequence. But deeper in the marsh, where the copper skimmer hunted, a great blue heron stood motionless in water that would come to a fairy's chest. The bird had been there when Meridwen arrived at dawn. It hadn't shifted position in three hours. Its stillness was perfect, earned through hunger and necessity. Meridwen stood, her decision settling like silt. Tomorrow she would bring her students here, where the water was deep enough to matter and the heron had already shown them what radical stillness looked like. She waded out to the sunken log where mushroom clusters marked the boundary between shallow practice grounds and deep hunting waters. Her hands worked quickly, gathering smooth stones from the mud. She pressed a dot of bright blue into each one using pigment from marsh flowers. These markers would guide her students to the exact spots where the copper skimmer circled its territory. Let them choose whether to wade in or stay behind. The heron's eye tracked her as she placed the final stone marker in the shallows. Beyond it, the water darkened where the log disappeared beneath the surface. Meridwen's academy would not be built on comfort. It would be built here, in the deep water, where dragonflies chose riders who understood that stillness was not peace but work.