Hidden between the misty hills of DragonZone was a place few travellers had ever seen.
A waterfall tumbled between two ancient cliffs into a pool so clear that, on quiet nights, it seemed to hold the entire sky beneath its surface.
The dragons called it the Moonlit Pool.
And it was here that a little blue Dragonling named Nymira made her home.
Nymira loved the water.
She loved the way raindrops tickled her nose. She loved chasing ripples with her paws and collecting smooth pebbles from the bottom of the stream.
Most of all, she loved the Moonlit Pool at night.
As the sun disappeared behind the hills, Nymira would sit upon her favourite mossy rock and wait.
Slowly, the first stars would appear.
Then the moon would rise above the cliffs.
Its silver reflection stretched across the pool, surrounded by hundreds of tiny points of starlight.
Nymira thought it was the most beautiful thing in all DragonZone.
One evening, however, something was wrong.
Nymira sat upon her rock and waited.
The stars appeared.
The moon rose.
But the pool remained dark.
Nymira tilted her head.
She looked up.
The moon was certainly there.
She looked down again.
No moon.
No stars.
Not even Nymira's own reflection looked back at her.
She dipped one paw into the water.
Plip.
The water barely covered her toes.
Nymira's eyes widened.
The Moonlit Pool was disappearing.
Nymira hurried towards the waterfall.
Usually it thundered down the cliff, filling the air with sparkling mist.
Tonight, only a thin ribbon of water trickled over the rocks.
Nymira followed it.
Up the hill she went, alongside the stream that fed the waterfall.
But the farther she travelled, the smaller the stream became.
Soon it was barely more than a wet trail winding between the stones.
Nymira stopped.
From somewhere nearby came a tiny sound.
Plip-plip.
She listened.
Plip!
Nymira pushed through a cluster of tall reeds.
Behind them were three little pools of water trapped between the rocks.
And inside each one swam the strangest creatures Nymira had ever seen.
Tiny silver-blue fish with round bodies and long shimmering tails darted through the shallow water. Soft light glowed beneath their scales like moonlight.
Moonfish.
Usually they travelled freely along the stream at night.
But now they were trapped.
Nymira lowered her head towards them.
The moonfish gathered near her nose.
"Don't worry," she whispered. "I'll find the water."
Nymira continued upstream.
Around the next bend, she discovered the problem.
A great pile of fallen branches, leaves and stones had become wedged between two boulders.
Water gathered behind it in a deep pool.
On the other side, almost nothing escaped.
Nymira climbed onto the blockage.
She pushed against a large branch.
It didn't move.
She pushed harder.
Her paws slipped.
Splash!
Nymira landed bottom-first in the water.
For a moment she sat there, dripping.
Then she giggled.
Perhaps pushing harder wasn't the answer.
Nymira climbed back onto the rocks and looked carefully at the tangled pile.
Amongst the large branches were dozens of smaller sticks and stones.
She picked up one little twig in her mouth and pulled.
It came free easily.
Then another.
And another.
Behind her came a soft splash.
One of the moonfish had followed her upstream.
It nudged a floating leaf away from the blockage.
Another moonfish appeared.
Then another.
Nymira smiled.
Together they worked.
Nymira moved the little branches.
The moonfish pushed away leaves.
Slowly, tiny gaps appeared between the stones.
Then Nymira heard something.
Drip.
A single drop escaped through the blockage.
She stared at it.
Drip. Drip.
A tiny thread of water followed.
Nymira's fins lifted excitedly.
The moonfish shimmered brighter.
The thread became a trickle.
The trickle became a stream.
And suddenly—
Splash!
One of the larger branches shifted aside.
Clear water rushed between the rocks.
Not a roaring flood.
Not a crashing wave.
Just a bright, bubbling stream finding its way home.
Nymira and the moonfish raced alongside it.
Down between the stones the water danced.
Past the reeds.
Through the little pools.
Over the edge of the cliff.
The waterfall began to sing again.
Nymira hurried back to her favourite mossy rock.
The Moonlit Pool was slowly rising.
Ripples spread across its surface.
Then, as the water became still, something silver appeared.
The moon.
Nymira watched its reflection stretch across the pool.
One by one, the stars returned around it.
The moonfish swam into the deeper water, their glowing bodies leaving little trails of silver-blue light beneath the surface.
Nymira dipped her paw into the pool.
Plip.
This time, a perfect circle of ripples travelled outward.
Across the moon.
Across the stars.
All the way to the farthest shore.
Nymira smiled.
She hadn't needed to move the biggest rock.
She hadn't needed to be the strongest dragon.
She had simply found one little opening.
And water had done the rest.
From that night onward, whenever Nymira found something blocking her path, she remembered the stream.
There was no need to rush.
No need to force her way through.
Sometimes all you needed was patience, a little help from your friends...
and somewhere small enough to begin.
For Nymira had discovered something that the rivers had always known:
Even the gentlest water can find a way through.
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