Argenteris

Argent was born, not all that long ago, as a shark. A fairly small kind of shark. He remembers living in a group alongside others of his kind, eating small fish and crabs and the like. He doesn't recall much else. He had just reached adulthood when it happened. Claws tore him from the sea. A sharp pain, then black.

He awoke as a non-shark. It felt like he'd been sleeping for days. He could scarcely move. A larger thing gave him some strange green thing, but it smelled like food so he ate it. Things went like that for a few months. The larger non-sharks were worried by his not-moving. The other little non-sharks were pulling themselves around. Argent wasn't sure how to do so. He could push with his non-fins and his tail, but the rest of his body didn't do anything.

A non-shark came from another clan to teach him moving. It was so different from anything he'd ever done. His body was capable, which she seemed startled by. Argent gathered that most little ones were born knowing how to do things. He guessed that made sense. When he was born as a shark, he already knew how to move. Eventually he was able to move like the other non-sharks.

'Dragons', they were called. He'd never really had language before. He had known that sharks were what he was, and some things were food, and some things were danger, and some space was his and some wasn't, but anything else had never really occurred to him before he was a dragon. And now most of that old knowledge was wrong. He wasn't a shark, and sharks would know that. His old foods he couldn't eat, and dragons were part of the old danger. The bigger dragons were his parents, and apparently there were others.

He could still swim. He was worried he wouldn't be able to. It was harder than it used to be, and he had to go up to the top a lot, but he could still do it! He was better swimming than his brothers or sisters. He loved swimming. He swam whenever he could. He tried to practice holding his breath so he could go deeper. He tried different ways of swimming to go faster.

He grabbed a fish once. It was automatic, really, but he knew right away he shouldn't have. It tasted bad and he didn't think he could eat it. Even trying made him feel sick. He felt strange about it. He should have left the fish. Something that could eat it could've caught it instead of him. He tried to remember which of his clanmates could eat fish. He wasn't sure if they'd even want it from him, but it was worth trying. A Coatl accepted the fish, but he could tell she was confused about it. He was told later that he shouldn't be hunting unless he was asked to.

He seemed to have natural skill with water magic. Ever since the clan started teaching him and other adolescents about magic, he thought about trying it with water. They only talked about 'pure' magic and ice magic. He knew there was also healing magic that the older dragons could learn. He wanted to do water magic, though. Not offensive spells, which he was incapable of entirely, but something. He started with mundane things. He tried making items water-proof. Within a few weeks he had succeeded. His necklace's cord wouldn't be worn down by the current. He could enchant a flame to be able to burn in water. Now he could see even if he went deep. What he really wanted was a way to stay deep longer, though. He began experimenting to make a water-breathing spell.

He felt the need to keep his water magic a secret. He wasn't really sure why, bu he got a bad feeling about it. He wasn't doing well in his normal magic lessons. Offensive magic was confusing and something about it kept muddling up. Most of the lessons were about offensive magic, so this was a problem. He could do the short-term body augmentation magic, though. It made more sense. Focus on the dragon you're helping, and feed the magic into their ability. Easy. Offensive magic meant focusing on something- the enemy? the projectile?- and just 'using' it. He wasn't sure what that meant. No one seemed able to rephrase it, either.

It worked! His water-breathing spell worked! It was a bit exhausting to do, but it lasted 8 hours, far longer than he'd dared think possible. For a few minutes, he was ecstatic. But then he realized he could never disappear for that long. His clan would worry about him. He doubted they'd believe in his spell, either. Or perhaps they wouldn't worry. He would disappear and noone would even notice.

He had decided to leave. He was a bit young to be leaving, but he thought it was for the best. His parents were struggling to help him and he knew he burdened them with his difficulties. A Pearlcatcher dragon poor in magic was about as embarrassing as it could get. Many other dragons around his age had younger siblings. Had he been too much work? Maybe if he left his parents would be free to have more children also. He left without saying goodbye. He knew which way the mainland was. He'd hit land in the Windswept Plateau. He slunk into the ocean, never to return.