The Life of a Dragonfly

[--> arcticstripe <--]

Arcticstripe bent her head to taste the cool waters. She lapped slowly, letting the icyness spread throughout her body. She stopped and shut her eyes for a moment of release; a moment to think of nothing.

She lifted her head and body from the pool and looked around with her crystal gaze. The dragonflies were buzzing just as always, their bodies riding the wind and tumbling in spirals over the water. Arcticstripe tilted her head to the side. What would it be like to fly? She imagined herself a dragonfly, small wings beating others surrounding her. She shook her head. No, that wasn't the life for her. There was no way she could live like a dragonfly. How would she hunt? And who would she be loyal to?

She smiled at the innocence of them all. What a boring life it would be to just tumble in the air over and over again.

[--> arcticstripe <--]

Arcticstripe got to her paws, and after taking one last glance at the buzzing dragonflies, left the pond. Boulderpaw would want to get some training done. She thought it was about time he learned his fighting skills. If he was going to become a warrior anywhere near 14 moons she would need to teach him quickly.

[_Mirrorstone]

Once Arcticstripe was out of sight, Magpiekit slipped silently from her hiding spot and crawled slowly to the outer rim of the pond, sniffing the surface. She lapped up some water, a cold feeling crawling down her throat and into her belly. Her gaze washed over the pool, up a clump of reeds, before following a single dragonfly as it buzzed from left to right.

It circled above her head and alighted upon her ear, before crawling down and perching on her nose. She held in a sneeze, looking cross-eyed at the small insect. Shaking her head, she prodded it with her paw, urging it to go back with it's family, wherever they were. It shot away, but not too far, and returned. She poked it and once more it returned.

"So I guess you're like me..." she whispered to her little friend, "Without a family.." The bug looked at her with it's bulging compound eyes, it's hundreds of thousands of eye sensors reflecting the sunlight. It tilted it's microscopic head, and Magpiekit blinked, sending the small excuse for a dragonfly streaking off for good this time, but her eyes followed it, until she could now longer find any trace that it had ever been there.

"I guess we're not so different after all..."