Summoning Ocellus

Ocellus stood in a dank windowless chamber, the walls and floor chiseled from damp stone, mildew growing from the mortar. The air smelled faintly of filth. It was dark, so everything was in shades of gray. Two gaunt baby dragons, or creatures that greatly resembled them, stood nearby – one of them her mistress. Her mistress had not given her any orders yet, so she stood calmly awaiting instructions.

“Summoning, Tixi? That’s a wasted spell to learn,” the other dragon said. His words weren’t in Equestrian, but that was what he meant to say, and she heard the intention behind them even if the actual sounds were weird, draconic hissing and growling.

Her mistress, Tixi, looked down at the book she was holding, then back at the other. “I can learn another spell tomorrow,” she said, defensively, her ears swiveling to flatten against her skull, expressive like a pony’s.

“What did you even summon?”

Tixi frowned, and walked around Ocellus, staring at her from different angles. “I don’t know. It was supposed to be a badger.”

Ocellus obediently turned into a badger, the flash of green flame momentarily bringing light and color to the room, and sending the two small dragons stumbling back.

Tixi grinned, dozens of sharp teeth showing. “What is your name, creature, that I might summon you again?”

“Ocellus,” the changeling-turned-badger responded, and although her form lacked the ability to talk, her mistress reacted as if she’d understood.

===

Another night, Ocellus found herself standing in the middle of a ring of tiny dragons, already shifted into badger form. Her enemy stood before her, and she lunged, sinking her teeth into a wooden shield suddenly interposed between her and her target.

Her enemy laughed. “That was the spell you were building up to? A summon?” He circled around, until he was between her and her mistress, then turned his back on Ocellus to stab a wooden spear, the tip wrapped in cloth, at her face.

Tixi yelped and fell back, stumbling into the arms of the crowd. “Ring out! Rezzo is the victor!” growled the voice of older looking dragon – still tiny and wingless, somehow, but wrinkled and frail.

Ocellus leapt at Rezzo and bit his tail. He yelped and stabbed at her with his spear, while the others laughed.

“Down, Ocellus, I lost,” Tixi said, her entire form signaling submission as she sat on the sidelines now. Ocellus let go and walked over to stand guard over her. She didn’t seem badly hurt, at least.

A clawed hand descended on her neck, then stroked down her furry body, little claws running through her fur.

She awoke.

Smolder awoke with her, peeking down over the edge of the top bunk. “Bad dream?”

Ocellus sat up atop her sheets. She’d tried sleeping under them before, but it just seemed to make the bed messier without actually increasing the comfort. “Not really? I was a badger, and someone was petting me.” She tried to remember the rest, but it fled from her memory.

“Fluttershy?” Smolder asked.

She shook her head. “No, it was a dragon.”

“Spike then,” Smolder said, pulling back and settling back onto her mattress, the bunk overhead creaking as it adjusted to her weight. “You know I’m not really his girlfriend. If you want him to ‘pet’ you –”

“I don’t have a crush on Spike!” Ocellus squeaked, covering her face.

“Then why are you dreaming about him?”

“I wasn’t dreaming about him!” she insisted. “Maybe I was dreaming about you?” That didn’t sound right either, though.

There was a snort, and the faint smell of smoke. “Come on up, then,” Smolder said at last, her grinning face leaning over the edge, and offering a clawed hand up.

She shifted into a badger as Smolder grabbed her hoof, and the dragon rolled onto her back, pulling her to rest on her belly.

“I’m not really sure this is the best form for cuddling,” Ocellus said, and Smolder began to stroke her rough fur, and she let her digging claws scrape slowly down the dragon’s scaled sides.

Somewhat to her surprise, Smolder liked that, a lot. The little dragon’s heart started racing, and she stared into Ocellus’ expressionless black eyes, her own half-lidded.

Half-remembered training told Ocellus exactly how things were supposed to go from there, and she was too drowsy and comfortable to put up a fight. By morning the dreams were all but forgotten.

===

Ocellus was a badger, standing at the feet of her mistress, whose claws stroked her head, scratching her behind her ears.

“Run down the hallway and set off as many traps as possible,” Tixi said, pointing to the rickety wooden construction before them, a wooden mockup of a presumably trap-filled corridor.

Ocellus obeyed, snuffling as she stumbled into the hallway, swerving back and forth to make sure to trigger as many pressure plates as possible, and banging into the walls on either side for good measure. Spring-loaded, cloth-wrapped spears battered her from either side, and a showed of gravel poured from a ceiling compartment to roll off her back. Near the end of the corridor, the floor opened under her and she fell two feet into a tiny pit, lined with straw.

Tixi followed behind her, stumbling a bit as the gravel shifted under her feet, but otherwise unmolested. She hopped over the pit and, as Ocellus scrambled up out of the slight depression, pranced out the other end of the tunnel, flinging her hands into the air as she grinned. “Tada!”

“If those were real traps, you would have lost your summon,” said a voice from out of sight, as Ocellus walked over to stand at Tixi’s side.

“Then I’d just summon it again. It’s not *real*,” Tixi retorted, turning to speak to the other, snatching her hand away just before it would have settled back on Ocellus’ head.

===

“I had the dream again,” Ocellus mentioned over breakfast.

“The one where Spike was petting you?” Smolder asked, smirking. Ocellus felt a warm dragon tail curl around her ankle, under the table. She wasn’t sure how to feel about this. The entire point of what she’d done with Smolder was to make her victim more attached to her, but was it really okay to do that to a friend? How would anything be helped by rejecting her, though? It wasn’t like Smolder hadn’t enjoyed herself, and for her own part, dragon claws were *very* good at petting.

She noticed that Silverstream was staring at her, a wide silly grin on her face.

“You’re blushing!” the hippogryph said, in a singsong voice.

“It wasn’t Spike!” Ocellus said, shaking her leg loose from Smolder’s tail. “Or you, Smolder. This time I was… setting off a bunch of traps? Like a Daring Do story, but none of the traps could hurt me because they were all fake or something.”

Smolder frowned. “That doesn’t sound like the same dream at all.”

“It felt like it was the same,” Ocellus said, reaching down discreetly to wrap shoulder’s tail around her hoof. “I just wish I could remember more about it. Maybe if I was a dreamling…” The others looked at her expectantly, until she explained. “Some changelings can walk the dreamscape. It’s one of the ways we study our targets.” She grimaced. “We *used to* study our targets, I mean. We don’t have targets anymore.”

“Is it something you could learn?” Gallus asked. “Seems like it could be a lot of fun.”

“I don’t know,” Ocellus said. “I was being trained to seduce and replace ponies, not to mess with their dreams.”

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this conversation,” Sandbar said, the only pony at the table.

“Sandbar not worry!” Yona said, ‘patting’ him on the back with her usual excessive display of force. “No one replace Yona’s friend!”

“But Yona, I’m over here,” Ocellus said, in Sandbar’s doofy voice, from Sandbar’s doofy face.

Gallus smirked, and Smoulder snickered, but Yona just narrowed her eyes at ‘him’, then nodded firmly. “Yona can handle two Sandbars. Twice the smashing!”

“Yona!” Sandbar and Sandbar protested, but Yona was having none of that. She dragged the two of them to the end of the table, arranging one on either side of her, facing each other.

“Yeesss,” Yona said, glancing at one Sandbar, then the other. “Now kiss!”

It was far from Ocellus’ weirdest kiss, and Sandbar seemed to have fun with it as well. Their friends’ laughter somehow made it better.

“You liked taking orders from her, didn’t you?” Sandbar asked, later, when they were alone and Ocellus was back looking like herself.

“I…” she tried to say. “I’m not sure ‘like’ is the word.” She wasn’t sure what the word was, but she hadn’t been able to stop. It was so much easier to just go with the flow.

“Yona’s really into that,” Sandbar said. “If you want to… we could have you over sometime? And we could both be her little pets.” He looked down. “I don’t mind sharing with you.”

“Um… thanks,” Ocellus said, resolving to never take him up on that.

===

The dreams kept coming, never quite the same but the foggy memories of them were similar enough that Ocellus could tell that they were the same.

It turned out that several of the dreamlings had survived the invasion and stayed with the hive, and one of them was interested enough in her dreams to come visit. He sat by her side while she slept, and shook her awake in the middle of the night.

“What is it?” Ocellus asked, having just completed another training session, this time fighting against another summoned badger. Neither of them had been able to take the other down before the dream ended.

“I don’t know,” Parieto replied. “Something snatched you out of your dream, and I couldn’t wake you up until just now. Was it another one of the dreams you’ve been experiencing?”

Ocellus nodded. “I can remember it pretty clearly. There’s a little dragon called Tixi who keeps summoning me, with a magic spell. She has me turn into a badger and fight things for her. This time I was fighting… was fighting…”

“And you just do whatever she says?” Smolder asked, awoken by their talking.

“It’s a dream,” Ocellus said. “I know what I’m supposed to do and just go along with it.”

“And you’ve got a thing for dragons,” Smolder said, smirking.

Ocellus rolled her eyes, not that the dragon could probably tell. Parieto tilted his head at her, and she reluctantly nodded. There was no way she was hiding her ‘relationship’ with Smolder from an older changeling.

“I suppose it’s good to keep in practice,” Parieto said.

“It’s not like that!” Ocellus said. “She started it.”

“Did not,” Smolder said. “But as long as I get what I want, I don’t care if it’s just a workout for you. I’m no romantic.”

“Liar,” Ocellus muttered under her breath. Smolder pretended not to hear.

“At any rate, I think there’s something more to this than just a normal dream,” Parieto said. “I can teach you a little bit of dreamwalking, just enough to unfog your mind and realize that you’re dreaming in the moment.”

“I think I’d like that,” Ocellus said. “Tomorrow after class?”

===

It took a few days for Ocellus to learn the basics. Gallus sat in on the lessons, to Prietto’s obvious discomfort which the griffon entirely ignored.

But at last, Ocellus appeared in the moldy underground lair, and realized at once that she was in a dream. Another badger was across the ring from her, but she ignored her instinct to fight it, and turned back into her true form, stepping over the line. “Tixi, we need to talk,” she said.

Tixi and the other little dragon, across the room, stood there with their mouths open.

“Why do you keep summoning me?” Ocellus asked.

“We’re training to defend our home,” Tixi said. “I’m not very strong, so –”

The other little dragon cut her off. “We’re training to hunt rats,” he said, smirking. “Tixi convinced me to learn to summon, but my summons aren’t anywhere near as cool as hers.” His badger didn’t seem to object, or react to his insult in any way, and soon enough vanished in a puff of smoke.

Ocellus felt the dream wavering around her, like her time was almost up as well, but managed to hold herself together with Pareto’s mental exercises.

“I told you my version was special,” Tixi said. “Ocellus can remember being summoned and learn from it, because I get the same creature every time.”

“Then that’s why –” Ocellus started to say, just as Tixi turned to her and frowned, saying, “Did you want me to stop?”

Ocellus froze. She’d solved the mystery, perhaps, but did she want it to end? “Not really,” she said.

Tixi grinned widely and hugged her, and the dream dissolved, leaving her standing in an empty room made of changeling slime, still lucid enough to recognize it as a dream. Green glowing pods hung from the walls, and the sounds of distant skittering echoed through the hive. She could tell that she was in trouble, because she hadn’t studied for her math test – hadn’t even realized she was learning math – and when Chrysalis found out that she’d failed…

It was a lot less scary when she was lucid. Still, she’d take Tixi dreams over Chrysalis dreams any day of the week.

===

From that point on, the summoning dreams became a lot more interesting. Knowing she was lucid, Tixi would talk to Ocellus while they trained, introducing her to Rezzo – a warrior – and Ijj, who also summoned things but was somehow not a wizard. “I’m a dragon caster!” he said proudly. “The blood of dragons runs in my veins!”

“I thought you were all little dragons?” Ocellus asked, kicking at the badger, who dodged her hoof and nearly took it off with a quick bite in return.

“We are…” Tixi said, frowning, “but there are true dragons. Magic dragons. Fiercer and larger and better in every way. Even the surface-dwellers fear and admire them. They sleep upon piles of gold and gems…”

Ocellus shifted into a wolf, and growled at the badger, trying to make it back off, but the summoned creature knew no fear, and they snapped at each other’s jaws. Ocellus managed to win the exchange, and crunched the creature’s throat between her teeth, briefly tasting blood before it vanished into odorless smoke.

“It’s not fair!” Ijj complained. “You shouldn’t be able to summon wolves yet.”

“I didn’t summon a wolf,” Tixi said, smirking. “I summoned Ocellus!”

Other times, she’d summon Ocellus when there wasn’t any training, showing her around the tribe’s lair. It was all fairly similar – ancient, damp stonework deep beneath the ground. One chamber had a stove, the fire carefully locked away so little light could emerge to hurt the little dragons’ eyes. Dozens of little dragons lived and worked together, warriors and not-wizards and others who dug tunnels, searching for gems or ore, although there wasn’t much to be found.

“So many warriors?” Ocellus remarked.

“So few warriors,” Tixi corrected. “It lets us train and equip them. Most little dragon tribes need everyone to fight when we’re invaded, but the surface dwellers here let us live in peace, most of the time, as long as we keep the other monsters under control.”

“Mostly giant rats,” one of the warriors added.

“And adventurers,” another chimed in. Everybody laughed.

Ocellus was confused. “Don’t they get mad if you fight the adventurers?”

“They’re not supposed to be down here,” Tixi said, indignantly. “But they come anyway. This isn’t their territory!”

“Mostly we don’t even fight them,” the warrior noted. “But some of them get violent, and then…” he winced. “Well, sometimes some of us get away.”

The dream ended before she could ask any more. Tixi was getting better at summoning her for longer periods of time, but her magical power was still very limited.

“If I focused everything on being a summoner, there wouldn’t be a time limit,” Tixi explained, casting a few other spells on herself, layered defensive fields that a group of other trainees tried to penetrate with thrown rocks. “But pure wizardry is so much more powerful…” She yelped as a lucky throw got through her defenses, bruising her arm. “Eventually, I mean. I still only know a few spells.”

She demonstrated another, creating a hovering sphere of light that made the rock-throwers hiss and squint, further hurting their aim. Ocellus, not involved in the exercise, had time to admire the indigo shimmer of Tixi’s scales, fading to a creamy yellow on her belly and chin, while she screamed a battle-cry and starting lobbing gobs of sizzling acid at her opponents, who spun around screaming dramatically when they were hit, before collapsing to the floor and pretending to be dead.

Another dream was spent studying traps and trigger mechanisms, something that all little dragons were expected to be competent at, and Tixi decided that Ocellus might as well learn too. “It’s all well and good to set off the traps by bumbling around, but every trap you can set off safely is another trap that doesn’t kill you and make me waste my magic calling you back.”

Ocellus found the subject fascinating, but had no real talent for it, and her eyes weren’t nearly as good in the dark as the little dragons’.

Then one night, in late autumn, she arrived in the middle of a fierce battle, shouting and screaming and cries of pain all around as the little dragons fought larger invaders, Tixi a nexus of panic behind her tossing acid globs over her shoulder at a hulking, armored figure that towered over Ocellus like an angry minotaur.

Ocellus shifted into a teenage dragon, the most dangerous form she could think of in the moment, tall enough to come up to the monster’s chest, and slashed at it with razor-sharp claws, only for its sword to whip out faster than she could see and take off her arm at the elbow. She breathed fire in its face, and it recoiled momentarily, before lunging at her and sinking its blade into her chest. Ocellus had time to see an acid glob nail it in the face and splatter across its helmet’s eye-slits before the world faded to black, and she woke up in her bed, gasping and running her forehooves – both forehooves – over her chest, which was mercifully unharmed.

It was just a dream. Dying in a dream didn’t mean you died in real life. She’d already known that, Tixi had said so. Still… was Tixi okay? What were those things?

Smolder peeked down over the edge of the bunkbed.

“I’m fine,” Ocellus had. “You don’t die in a dream if you die in real life.”

Smolder blinked, and Ocellus realized her mistake. “I mean -- *sigh* I hope that isn’t the last time I dream about her. Things were going bad.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Smolder asked, offering her a hand.

“I don’t know,” Ocellus said, reaching up a hoof and letting Smolder pull her into bed next to her anyway.

The dragon’s claws snaked around her, and claws dragged slowly along her wing-cases, while a snaky tail spiraled up along her thigh. “Want to not talk about it?”

===

That worked for a while, but eventually Smolder exhausted even a dragon’s stamina, and Ocellus was still wide awake. When cuddling a sleeping dragon stopped being romantic and started getting boring, she slipped out and stalked the dark halls of the school dorm until the morning bell rang. She tried to pay attention in class but was so distracted that she was sent to the counselor’s office for cocoa and empathy.

“So in your dreams, you’re summoned by a Great and Powerful Sorceress?” Trixie asked, reclining in her chair and spinning around slowly. She’d never been very good at the ‘empathy’ part.

Ocellus nodded, albeit while Trixie’s back was turned. “That’s right. Although she insists that she’s a wizard, not a sorceress. I’m not sure what the difference is. And… I’m worried for her. She summoned me to fight off a deadly beast and I failed. What if she never summons me again?”

“I’m sure she wouldn’t give up on you after one little failure,” Trixie said. “Not if you’ve been friends with her for weeks.”

“I’m more worried that she’s dead,” Ocellus said bluntly.

Trixie froze at that, then forced an unconvincing smile. “I’m sure she’s fine. A Great and Powerful Wizard would surely have other tricks up her sleeve.”

Ocellus had seen her other tricks, and doubted that her defensive spells would be enough against the monster’s skill. But she pretended to be comforted until Trixie calmed down, then left to fret privately, given the rest of the day off to settle her mind.

===

She remained unsettled until she was summoned once again, leaping into Tixi’s arms and hugging her. “You’re alive!”

“So are you!” Tixi replied, patting her shoulder and then pushing her away. “I’m glad you were able to reform your body so quickly. I was worried.”

“Reform my… what?” Ocellus asked. “I come here in my dreams, Tixi. When I died I just woke up.”

“You did?” Tixi frowned. “Then why couldn’t I summon you again? I prepared the spell three more times but it didn’t work.”

“Ah,” Ocellus said, lowering her head in embarrassment.

“Olieras said that it was because summoned creatures need time to reform their body, but if you weren’t really hurt why wouldn’t you come back?”

“I couldn’t get back to sleep,” Ocellus said, looking down. “I was too worried.”

Tixi opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Well, Ijj managed to throw his stupid badgers in the way until we could both make a run for it.”

“What were those horrible things?” Ocellus asked. “I thought this place was safe.”

“Adventurers,” Tixi hissed. “They killed everyone at the entrance and made it past our traps. Then they killed a bunch more of us before we drove them off. I hope they don’t come back.” She reached into a belt pouch and fiddled with something. “The surfacers gave us a chest of treasure as an apology, so it wasn’t all bad. I got something for you.” She took out a shiny ribbon, and tied it around Ocellus’ neck. “Do you like it?”

Ocellus tilted her head, but couldn’t get a good look at it. “Thank you, Tixi.”

Tixi hugged her, tentatively, and Ocellus returned the gesture. Tixi’s scales were warm against her chitin… but all too soon, she felt the magic fading.

“I have to go, but I’m glad you made it.”

Tixi nodded. “I’m working on a way to keep you here for longer.”

“That would be nice,” Ocellus said, as the dream dissolved. She let go of lucidity, and let the rest of the night pass in restful dreams.

===

“What’s with the collar?” Smolder asked the next morning, as they were freshening up before breakfast.

Ocellus reached a hoof to feel her neck, then went over to the mirror to take a look. A shiny purple ribbon was tied around her neck, with strange letters inscribed along its length. “Well, that’s not freaky at all,” she said.

“I didn’t do it,” Smolder said.

“Tixi gave it to me, because I tried to protect her,” Ocellus said. “I didn’t expect to have it when I woke up.”

“It’s a good start for your hoard,” Smolder said. At Ocellus’ look she grinned. “You fought a giant monster for it. That automatically makes it awesome.”

“I *died* fighting a giant monster,” Ocellus pointed out. It hadn’t hurt as much as it probably should have, since it happened in a dream, but remembering the fight still gave her the chills.

“Eh, so you lost. Who cares?” Smolder said. “I wish I got to dream about fighting giant monsters. Mostly I just dream about being embarrassed by my brother.”

“I’ll let her know you’re interested,” Ocellus said, deadpan.

“Really?” Smolder perked up. “I knew there was a reason I hung out with you!”

===

“I’m not sure a name will be enough, but I can try,” Tixi said. “Can you describe her?”

Ocellus frowned. “She looks a lot like you, only orange and magenta. She has wings. And she’s a true dragon, just fairly young? Barely past her first molt.”

“True dragons molt?”

Ocellus nodded. “I could try drawing a picture, but that’s not something I’m good at. Oh! I could…” flame flashed over her body as she turned herself into Smolder. “I’m not supposed to impersonate real people, but no one cares as long as I’m not actually trying to pass myself off as them.”

“Hmm,” Tixi said, looking her over. “I don’t think the spell I know is strong enough to work on dragons, but I can try.” She took a deep breath, and stood firmly upright, then started to wave her hands around as she chanted, “Golden hook, silver line, bring Smolder here and make her mine.” She grimaced as if concentrating on something, and her claws strained against resistance of some sort, but eventually she let out a frustrated growl and let her arms fall to her side. “I hooked *something*, but the spell wasn’t strong enough. I can only cast the simplest version, suitable for the weakest of monsters.”

“But it was strong enough to work on me?”

Tixi patted Ocellus on the head, although she had to stand on tiptoe since shoulder’s form was a bit taller than her. “Don’t worry, you’ll get stronger if you practice!”

Ocellus scowled. “If I tell her that, I’ll never hear the end of it.”

===

“Sorry, Smolder,” Ocellus said the next morning. “She tried, but without knowing your mystical true name she can’t choose what to summon.”

“My what?”

Ocellus nodded. “Your mystical true name, unique throughout all the worlds. Without it, she’d have to get lucky and summon you at random, like she did with me.”

“Rats,” Smolder said. “I guess that means you don’t have to worry about getting replaced.”

===

“Aren’t they beautiful?” Tixi asked, a few nights later. She held a trio of slimy, apple-sized eggs that, judging from the smell, had just come from inside of her own body.

“Oh wow,” Ocellus said. “I didn’t know you were old enough to have children. Who’s your mate?”

“Um… I think it was Poxl?” Tixi said, pausing to answer the question in the middle of licking the eggs clean. “I don’t really know him, but he was supposed to be a good match.”

“That’s…” Ocellus said.

“I know I shouldn’t really get attached, but I can’t help feeling a bit sentimental,” Tixi said, cradling the eggs. “Are you sentimental? Have you been poisoning me?”

“I’m a bit sentimental,” Ocellus said. “You could say I’m from a school that teaches sentimentality.”

“Ooooh, oh no no no,” Tixi said. “At least tell me you aren’t spontaneous!”

“I’m pretty sure I’m not *contagious*,” Ocellus grumped.

“But you are! It’s…”

The spell started to fade, and Ocellus didn’t stop it.

She was summoned back the same night, a bit later after Tixi had had time to set up a diagram, and presumably store the eggs somewhere safe because they were nowhere to be seen.

“These are the opposing forces that shape the outer planes,” she explained, waving Ocellus over. She pointed to the four cardinal points of what looked like a compass. “One axis is pragmatism vs. sentimentality, the other is reliability vs. spontaneity. Little dragons are supposed to be pragmatic and reliable.”

“I don’t think morality is quite that… black and white and red and blue,” Ocellus said.

“It’s not just morality, it’s a magical property of all living things,” Tixi explained. “So if you’re sentimental instead of pragmatic, then by summoning you I’m performing a sentimental act, and my soul will be progressively infected with sentimentality, until I’m no longer properly pragmatic.”

“And that’s bad?” Ocellus asked.

“Our tribe has to do a lot of pragmatic things to survive,” Tixi said.

Ocellus looked at the diagram again. “It’s not one of the magically active qualities of my world, but my hive used to be very pragmatic. Or at least, that’s what we told ourselves.”

“But not anymore?” Tixi asked.

“It wasn’t sustainable, and we found a better way,” Ocellus said. “Tixi, where are your eggs?”

“They’re safe,” she said. “Safer than they would be with me, and I have more important things to do than take care of them. I’m a wizard, after all.”

Ocellus stared at her, but was the first to look away. She would have had to give away her own eggs, if she’d ever been favored enough to earn the right to make them.

===

A few days later, Ocellus appeared in the training ring, which wasn’t unusual by itself. This time both Ijj and Rezzo faced off against Tixi, and they didn’t look happy.

“You’re holding us back!” Rezzo snarled, trying to leap past Ocellus to get at her mistress. Ocellus had fought him often enough to know that she was no match for him, but she could certainly get in his way and shove him back, now that she wasn’t forced into a badger shape by the dream logic.

“Tomorrow!” Tixi said. “I can do the ritual tomorrow, then I’ll be ready!” She tossed a blob of acid at Ijj, who flinched back, tripped, and lost concentration on his own summoning spell.

Rezzo slammed Ocellus in the face with his shield, and it smarted a little, but didn’t stop her from sinking her fangs into the wood, holding it in place. She danced to the side to avoid his spear, dragging him around and off-balance by his shield arm.

“Bolts of force!” Ijj shouted, and a pair of shimmering motes erupted from his hands and spiraled through the air towards Ocellus. She tried to dodge behind Rezzo, but they parted around him and slammed into her from either side. The pain wasn’t much, but they broke something inside her, and her vision started to fade in and out.

“Sticky strands of spider’s silk!” Tixi said, and the whole room was filled with thick, clinging cobwebs. Ocellus and Rezzo were both completely entangled, putting a messy end to their fight.

“Oh, come on! Why did you cast that spell?” Ijj complained. “Why did you even learn that spell?”

“It’s the most effective means of disabling multiple opponents from the second level of complexity,” Tixi said, proudly. “But of course it’s too subtle for a dragon-caster like you.”

“It’s not subtle, it’s just indiscriminate. I can’t believe they let you use it in training.” Ijj growled. “Now we’ll be stuck here for half an hour before we can finish beating you up.”

“Or I could light the webs on fire,” Tixi suggested. “I won’t, because this is a friendly match, but you have to admit that you’ve lost.”

Rezzo hissed and struggled against his bonds, and managed to free up his arm enough to stab Ocellus again.

She woke up in her bed, of course, none the worse for wear. But she had questions.

Questions that would have to wait for the next night, since she was far too worked up to get back to sleep. She watched Smolder sleep for a few seconds. She knew her roommate wouldn’t turn her away if she crawled into bed with her, but thinking about it just made her stomach twist. She hadn’t used any magic, hadn’t drained any love, but she couldn’t help worrying that she was taking advantage of the poor dragon.

===

By now her friends recognized the signs of Ocellus being distracted and drowsy due to dream death, so they didn’t remark on it much, although Smolder was annoyed that she’d managed to sleep through the whole thing. Ocellus had gotten better at staying awake during class – as far as her teachers knew. Shapeshifting alert-looking eyes wasn’t difficult. That was enough to avoid another Trixie session, at least.

“You know, I talked to Starlight about mystical true names,” Smolder said, as they were hanging out watching the pegasai arrange the clouds in pretty patterns for sunset. “She said that’s a fairy tale, and magic doesn’t work that way. Are you holding out on me?”

“Um…” Ocellus said, lowering her gaze. “I don’t know much about it personally, it’s just what Tixi told me. She’s just learning magic herself.”

“If you want to fight so bad, I could kick your tail again,” Gallus offered.

“In your dreams!” Smolder shot back, standing up and putting her hands on her hips.

“Loser has to braid Sandbar’s mane!” Silverstream called, grinning and rubbing her hands together.

“Wait, what?” Sandbar said.

“Only Yona braid Sandbar’s mane!” the big yak said protectively.

Ocellus chuckled and took the opportunity to rest her eyes a bit.

That night, she slipped into her dreams as normal, and squirmed her way to lucidity without having to think about it. Her dreamworld home decorated itself with the colorful flowers and vines and furniture she liked to see there, woven rugs covering up the glowing pods. It was still a reminder of the hive, but the additions made it more of a reminder of the new hive, after Thorax showed them how to break free of Chrysalis’ control. Her dream-self was still black and riddled with holes tonight, though, so she folded her legs under herself and meditated on her form, willing herself to change into the pastel version that she showed on the outside.

She felt Tixi’s presence, and opened her eyes, expecting to see the kobold’s lair, but no, she was still in her dreamscape. “Tixi?” she asked, looking around. There was no Tixi to be seen.

Suddenly, the world lurched, and she woke up in her bed – but something was wrong. Her skin was glowing faintly, roiling bands of brighter luminescence squirming across her chitin, making her tingle… but she still felt Tixi’s presence, so she tried to force herself to relax, and not to wake up Smolder. If this was how the new summoning spell was going to work –

There was a soundless *whump* of pressure, and she found herself in round, dark chamber, part of the little dragons’ lair judging from the stonework and the smell, sitting in the middle of a magic circle, runes and stars and spirals and everything else you usually saw when wizards decided to get fancy. There were candles at each point of an irregular five-pointed star, and the faint sound of a bell fading from the air, although she’d never heard it ring. Tixi crouched near the edge of the circle, off to the side, resplendent in the candles’ glow, the light making her scales shimmer. An older dragon stood off to the side, watching, her scales spotted and gray, leaning on a gnarled staff.

“And now the binding,” hissed the older little dragon.

Tixi sat up, reaching one clawed hand towards Ocellus. “Spirit from beyond, bind to my soul, become one with my power, together we face the world. Honor my wisdom as I honor your might, and let the fools who stand against us suffer.”

“Tixi? What is this?” Ocellus asked.

The older dragon tapped her staff against the stone floor. “Again.”

Tixi chanted once more, and Ocellus realized that she wasn’t speaking in her normal tongue. “Spirit from beyond, bind to my soul, become one with my power, together we face the world. Honor my wisdom as I honor your might, and let the fools who stand against us suffer.” The pronunciation was weirdly stilted, kind of like when she was casting a spell.

Ocellus stared at her outstretched hand. She reached out for it, then pulled her hoof back instinctively as she felt some magical force rushing through her the closer she got.

Tixi gritted her teeth, and met Ocellus’ eyes. “Please!”

Ocellus reached out and let her take her hoof, and drag her out of the circle. Fire rushed through her, and she gasped – Tixi was more stoic, but she obviously felt it too.

“It worked,” said the old dragon. “Now put out the candles before they burn any lower! You’ve wasted enough paint on the circle… have your familiar clean it up.” She turned to leave, but Ocellus didn’t turn to look, instead gazing, rapt, into Tixi’s eyes.

Emotion flowed freely between them, the force and clarity dwarfing the rudimentary empathy Ocellus had always had as a changeling, or even the somewhat stronger link she’d felt from the simpler summoning spells. Tixi was relieved, and exhausted, and then worried as she felt Ocellus’ confusion and alarm. Ocellus clamped down on that feedback loop, forcing herself to send love and support, and soon enough Tixi followed her lead until the emotions calmed to a simmer.

“I’m not dreaming, am I?” Ocellus asked.

Tixi let go of her hoof, and scampered around blowing out all the candles, returning the room to the dull grayscale of darkvision. “I don’t know how it works on your end,” she said. “But yes, you should be physically here.”

Ocellus tried to clamp down on the spike of fear she felt at that, with limited success. She kept her voice calm, for what that was worth. “That seemed like a serious ritual. How long does this sort of summoning last?”

“Forever?” Tixi responded, confused. “You’re here physically, gated in and bound.”

“Is that… safe?” Ocellus asked, the fear prickling along her wing-casings.

“I think so? There weren’t any warnings,” Tixi said, gathering up the candles. “Can you help me clean up the paint?” A trickle of worry reflected back from her, fed by Ocellus’ mounting terror.

“I mean if I die again,” Ocellus said. “I’ve been dying a lot, and it’s bad enough when it just makes me lose sleep.”

The wave of understanding and relief from Tixi was heartening, and she felt her fear receding even before the explanation. “Oh! No, it’s just as safe as before. I can summon you back the next day if you die. I don’t think you’d go back to your spirit world, though.” She glanced at the book, then shrugged. “We’ll probably find out soon enough!”

“Right,” Ocellus said, looking around the room. There was a doorway, and she could hear other little dragons moving around in other chambers. She glanced back over at Tixi, who’d found a filthy mop and was getting it wet in a puddle where a corner of the room had subsided over the years. “What do we do in the meantime?”

Tixi held the mop out to her. “You can start by cleaning up the paint,” she said. “I’ll put the rest of the supplies away.”

Ocellus stared at the mop, took it in her mouth, then shifted into her dragon shape so that she’d have hands to wield it properly. The ‘paint’ hadn’t dried yet, and seemed to be water-soluble, but there wasn’t a good way to wash off the mop, so she ended up with it smeared all over the floor while the puddle was opaque from the paint she’d managed to actually clean off.

And she just felt blank, which bothered her. Was she supposed to be angry? Scared? Excited? Tixi was excited enough for both of them, at least.

“I guess I’m going on an adventure,” she said to herself, setting the mop by the puddle and heading for the door.