Conjure

Hidden in the ocean for a small eternity, a small band of Aethers went undetected in their observations by dragons dwelling on the surface of Sornieth. As one of the few babies hatched in the ocean, he was told from the day of his hatching stories about how all his ancestors flew away to the stars. His type were so few, so spread out, that rarely did any of them meet.

Conjure never thought he'd see any dragons like him in his lifetime.

One fateful night saw him watching the stars from the shallows of the ocean from his favorite perch among a moving reef that surrounded a floating island and he chanced to see a returning starship leave a burning path across the dark sky.

Excitement for the unknown future flared through him as he watched, riveted, all through the next day. Conjure saw the dragons from the two clans that lived on the island inside his floating reef hurry to their stout crafts and depart the island. Days later, still among the sharp corals of the reef, he watched their return as well.

And beheld dragons that looked like him for the first time since his parents floated away in different directions days after his hatching.

His faceted eyes widened as he spun in excited circles and flipped through the shallows with his familiar, then swam to hide among the sturdy boats in a hidden harbor as he pushed his head through the comfort of his home-waters to sample the air that the stranger dragons inhabited. It took Conjure many minutes to get used to the feeling of wind over his skin, not water, but he challenged himself to adapt to the discomfort as he dragged more of his body from his watery home. After a long hour, he was using his tender feet to run over the hot sands and take shelter in the cool shady trees. Then, when his tender soles stopped throbbing, he followed the path to the heart of the nameless clan.

Where he was welcomed with open wings by not only the odd-shaped dragons he had watched through the watery barriers between their worlds, but also by the returning space dragons who were fascinated with his multi-faceted eyes. Eyes that worked so well to keep focus through the moving underwater currents.