This macrophyte is common in freshwater wetland habitats, it can be found in the litoral zone of most mezotrophic/slightly eutrophic oxbows and artificial ponds, blooming from July to September. The leaves are floating, they look most similar to the leaves of frogbit (Hydrocharis morsus-ranae), but are more elongated and oval and the flowers are yellow and have fringed petals. Its roots are long, but the floating parts aren’t very large in size (much smaller than the leaves of European white water lily or yellow water-lily, both can be found in Hungarian oxbows), on the last picture is a pool frog (Pelophylax lessonae?) for comparison.
This plant can become quite invasive and dominant, it can spread to a dense, continouos population, covering the whole water surface in very shallow, litoral-type bodies of water, adding to the bentonic succession of such small ponds. They are called “Fairy voile” in Hungarian.
One of my poor friends got a front-row seat to hearing me ramble about Melodia’s lore, but I never actually posted it. So, here we go with more rambling notes and not an actual story.
It’s got neglect, self esteem problems, and body horror. And a happy ending (at least to where I am in lore now). Maybe.
While they were in Nature for the first Night of the Nocturne, the Queen’s Clan stumbled upon an Earth dragon of a species they hadn’t encountered. Macaw wanted to keep it for observation purposes. Aine threw a fit and dumped it on Macrophyte because Macaw is your lover so this is your responsibility.
Everyone knew that excuse was weak at best and Aine probably had an ulterior motive, but couldn’t imagine what it would be.
Macrophyte wasn’t thrilled with having to babysit the thing. She knew nothing about being a mom (Why not dump it on Absinthe? She’s raised four children; she can raise a fifth...) but couldn’t drop-kick it with a clean conscience, or without Macaw bemoaning the loss of an intriguing new specimen, so she grumbled and accepted. Absinthe gave pointers on how to lull hatchlings to sleep, how to get them to eat, but Macrophyte was barely paying attention. She would forget to feed it, would ignore it crying, and complain about how it got in the way. Mostly, it was a parcel to be lugged around.
It didn’t even get a name until it could scramble and chirp. When it was named, it wasn’t even by Macrophyte; Macaw noted the hatchling’s chirping sounded like a song sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and figured that was good enough. Calling it “it” was getting old. Macrophyte rarely talked to it, and Nocturnes learn by mimicry, so Melodia spent most of her time mimicking sounds rather than words. She wasn’t good with understanding sentence structures or what other dragons were saying.
When Melodia was old enough to not need constant attention Macrophyte left her with Absinthe’s kids. There were excuses like Melodia needing playmates her own age and it being too dangerous to care for a hatchling and hunt. Canelm and Yuyi were chatty and excited to make a new friend, and Melodia quickly showed Nocturnes’ talents for mimicking voices. Though she didn’t make her own sentences she was smart enough to notice the difference between Canelm and Yuyi and herself: mainly, they had parents who loved them.
Absinthe and Balisong were constantly checking in on their kids, fussing over them, and listening to how their days went.
Macaw took wing measurements and observed growth patterns, while Macrophyte ignored her.
So, Melodia started trying to be more like Macrophyte. The Guardian was big and vocal; she tried to be big and vocal. It didn’t work out due to Nocturnes’ tiny sizes. Macrophyte was always preening, talking about her beauty and how eye-catching she was, and she did look amazing: bright caribbean scales, emerald wings, and a vibrant carmine belly. Macrophyte had dark scales and dark wings, and no special patterning to speak of. Even if she did have a pattern, it wouldn’t measure up to Macrophyte.
This quickly instilled a sense of inferiority in her: she had dull scales, and the most interesting thing about her was that she was a new creature. No wonder Macrophyte didn’t like her. She wasn’t even pretty. Canelm and Yuyi tried to tell her she wasn’t a boring and useless dragon, but it didn’t do wonders for her self-esteem; Yuyi had amazing gemstones speckling her hide, Canelm shimmered, and both their parents were bright freakin’ green. Melodia couldn’t even fight. Macrophyte had taught her nothing while Canelm and Yuyi had been taught everything. Ability, beauty-
Canelm and Yuyi butted in and said any dragon could learn to fight, and hey, they had time to kill. They’d heard of this neat place called the Golem Workshop, wouldn’t it be rad to learn to fight there? This was a bad idea and they got their asses handed to them. (Melodia was level 1 and only useful as a meat shield.) Absinthe and Balisong stepped in and gave Melodia slightly less deadly crash-courses in the Mire (leveled her to about 20) before returning her to Canelm and Yuyi. Exploring the deadly workshop went much smoother after that.
Macrophyte was mildly impressed when she came back to Melodia playing with a sizable pile of metal scraps (and chirping that she’d gathered them personally, with friends! with friends!). Macrophyte had quickly learned to avoid the Golem Workshop and was curious ‘bout what it was like. Melodia and her friends told all they could think to tell, and Yuyi suggested Macrophyte tag along and watch them work. This pretty much ended with Macrophyte and Melodia bonding slightly over their abilities to wreck things.
The children weren’t the best at wrecking the Golem Workshop though; they were young, and Canelm was the only caster/healer in the clan. Generally they made it through battles easily, but when things went bad they went bad. They got their asses handed to them big-time and Absinthe and Balisong fussed over their injured babies. Macrophyte came back to see Melodia being fussed over, but not to the same degree, and extreme guilt happened.
At this point Melodia had spent as much of her life with Absinthe’s brood as she had with Macrophyte, but when it came down to it she was nobody’s favourite. Macrophyte didn’t care about her; Absinthe put her babies first. Whenever Macrophyte was injured she could count on her mates doting on her, but Melodia had nobody, really.
Macrophyte scooped up Melodia and took care of her until she felt better. When she wanted to leave Macrophyte let her, because if there was anything she’d learned from watching Absinthe and Balisong with their kids, it was that smothering was as bad as neglecting. (and she didn’t feel she had the right to demand Melodia stay. she had, after all, ignored Melodia for half her life.)
More dragons joined the clan, one being Pacific, and another being Almeisan. Both joined the children’s gang and made exploring the Golem Workshop easier; Pacific could also heal dragons so there was less stress on Canelm, and Almeisan served as an extra melee attacker. The children didn’t need parents to watch them at every moment, and having more friends did wonders for Melodia’s mental state. (Really, nobody could be more anxious and upset than Almeisan, and misery loved company.) Macrophyte would hear about their exploits secondhand and would often hear of Melodia’s injuries long after they’d healed.
She started asking how Melodia was doing, if she was okay, and that surprised everyone. While Macrophyte cared for her mates, they were nearly as bright as her and their relationships hinged on how beautiful they were. Melodia didn’t have much going for her appearance-wise, so it couldn’t be beauty. Macrophyte was the only one blind to this development; she just kept fussing (from a distance) and Melodia would occasionally drop in for awkward bonding time when her friends went to visit their parents.
Eventually The Queen’s Clan returned to Plague. Melodia was excited to see Canelm and Yuyi’s ‘true home’; she had a ball exploring but unfortunately wasn’t informed of all the dangers. After overhearing Nicor and Nokken talking about it she consumed seeker eyes. This caused extreme pains and she started screaming for mom. Her friends freaked the fuck out, tried to take her to Absinthe, and Macrophyte threw a fit before scooping up her baby and chasing the children away.
During this time nobody saw Macrophyte and Melodia. Some of them thought Melodia might have died, and others thought Macrophyte had abandoned the clan. But, Macrophyte couldn’t keep her adoptive daughter away from her friends. Eventually Melodia reappeared. Eating the seeker eyes had caused extra eyes to grow on her body. Some had eyelids, tear ducts, pain-sensing nerves, optic nerves, extraocular muscles, and eye sockets; others were missing one or more of the mentioned features. The pains had been caused by mutations shoving existing muscles, nerves, and skin into new places, or ripping them entirely! Some eyes had pain-sensing nerves but no optic nerves; they didn’t work and they hurt. It was basically A Mess. While they could remove extra eyes, they couldn’t do much about nerve and muscle damage.
Melodia tried to accustom herself to having near 360 degrees of vision and her new appearance. She'd never been pretty, but now she was a freak. Her friends were unsure of what to do; how do you make a friend who’s sprouted dozens of eyes feel better? After a couple days of trying to pretend the eyes didn’t exist (which wasn’t made easier because Melodia cried, a lot, and a good number of eyes had tear ducts) they eventually remembered that Melodia had wanted her mom and that Macrophyte had been ultra protective for two whole weeks.
Melodia had won over the vainest dragon in the clan and gotten her to love her for reasons that didn’t include appearance. Realizing that she had a mom (finally, finally) didn’t make the mutation suck any less, but it did send Melodia scurrying home to be showered in love and attention. She didn’t even need to ask because Macrophyte assured her appearance wasn’t everything, she didn’t care about the eyes, she would always love her adoptive kid. And she’d try to find a way to fix the mutation if Melodia wanted.
Melodia eventually dared to ask if she was still an experiment or something to be observed, and Macrophyte insisted was not the case; she would always be loved, eyes and all. (She didn’t mention the extreme guilt for neglecting Melodia in the first place.)
Myriophyllum (milfoil) is an aquatic plant with 69 species native to Australia. Its many fine leaves give it a feathery appearance and provide safe habitat for many aquatic insects such as dragon fly nymphs.
