More resembling Flies than Dragons, dragonflies were insects found near warm and slow waters. They had long narrow bodies and wide compound eyes made of thousands of facets, which let them track multiple moving targets at once. Their wings were thin, glasslike, and lightly tinted, and they flew with unusual stability. They could hover cleanly, shift sideways without turning, and accelerate in a short snap of motion that seemed to defy the weight of their bodies. Their vision let them detect subtle motion, even in heavy sun glare off water.
Dragonflies were predators that hunted in open air, locked on to prey while hovering, then burst forward in a straight line strike before the target could adjust. They consumed Mosquitos, flies, and many early hatchers that emerged in wet seasons, feeding while in flight and did not need to land to eat. They avoided large predators by hugging water surface and vanishing into dense light reflections, which made them hard to track by birds and amphibians.
To mate, males and females linked together while in flight, then dipped low over water and laid eggs in floating plant masses. Their larvae grew in pools, slow river bends, and low marsh pockets and fed on small aquatic prey until they developed wings. Their emergence always signaled a stable season and clean water nearby. Travelers could judge the health of a wetland by dragonfly numbers, since their life cycle required water that was steady, rich in life, and free of heavy corruption.