Lumos

It was a beautiful, cloudless night, a million stars glinting in the night sky. Deep in the Southern Icefield, a group of dragons stood clustered on the ice, staring up at the vast expanse above them, their breath appearing as clouds in the frigid air. They seemed to be watching the sky expectantly, as if waiting for something to happen, and sure enough, it did. With a blinding flash, a gigantic meteor speared across the midnight tapestry, immediately followed by another, then two more. The space rocks continued raining down for another twenty minutes, setting the sky ablaze with their fiery tails. The dragons below watched in awe and excitement, their faces temporarily illuminated with each falling meteor.

Then, just as suddenly as they started, the meteors vanished. The dragons waited several minutes but when the sky remained dark, many of the dragons wandered off, returning to their dens for the night in pairs or small groups, buzzing with the splendor of what they had witnessed. Soon only three dragons remained on the ice: Orbis, a female Skydancer, Rammus, a male Coatl, and Rubalina, a female Wildclaw. The three were good friends, and loved spending time together gazing up at the stars and appreciating the beauty of nature. They were laughing at Rammus’ most recent space pun, when suddenly the night sky burst into light again and a meteor bigger than any they had ever seen came tearing across the sky. Rubalina realized that the enormous rock was hurtling towards them, and called out to her friends to take cover. Sure enough, the meteor came so close that the trio could feel the heat coming from its fiery shell. It flew past them and a split second later, collided with the ice a hundred meters away, resulting in a blinding explosion of light. The impact shook the frozen ground beneath them, and the dragons waited until the fire had begun to burn down before they carefully approached the fallen rock, their curiosity overcoming their instincts to stay away.

It was difficult to see anything through the cloud of steam shrouding the rock, resulting from the mixture of ice and fire. Rubalina beat her wings to blow away the steam, revealing the titanic glowing rock beneath, like an ember from some gargantuan fire. Then, the rock began to crack, more steam and smoke spewing out from the fissures until the meteor was completely split in half before them. And there, sitting contentedly on the crumbling remains of its home, was a Coatl, preening its feathers. The Coatl glanced up in surprise, as if suddenly realizing it was not alone, and its gaze was met by three pairs of eyes, practically bulging out of their sockets with shock. Seemingly unfazed by his fiery decent from the sky, the male Coatl stood and stretched, and then introduced himself as Lumos, Bringer of Light in the Darkness. As Orbis, Rammus, and Rubalina continued to gape, Lumos explained that he had been in the middle of a fight with his brother Nox on their home planet when suddenly, he found himself hurtling towards Earth in a giant ball of flame. When he had finished with his short tale, the awestruck trio immediately erupted with a volley of questions, bewildered and amazed by the alien dragon before them. Lumos brushed aside their inquiries with a sigh, vaguely promising to explain later, but first, did they have any food?