A world by M. E. Warner

the DragonflyChronicles

The world is bigger than they imagined.

Enter Heartwood—the hidden Aeralyn civilization where dragonflies choose their warriors, nature remembers, and the smallest light pushes back the dark.

Three who walk without wingswill fall from the world aboveand where giants stumble

Book I · Prophecy Fulfilled

The worst vacation ever becomes an impossible world.

Emma, Noah, and Liam wanted Wi-Fi. Instead, a fairy ring shrinks them into the Always Autumn Woods—an ant-sized realm alive with towering grass, ancient magic, and war in the sky.

Rescued from a spider by the dragonfly warrior Kaelith, the children are carried to the Ancient White Oak. Within it waits Heartwood, the seven branches of Aeralyn society, and a prophecy that names three strangers who walk without wings.

“The tree remembers. And tonight… we listen.”

Before the prophecy,
the dragonflies knew.

Three canon-grounded story treatments developed from the manuscript, writer planner, and Squadron 7 notes.

Young Aeralyn standing within the glowing rings of the Rite of the Seven Paths as dragonflies arrive01

Squadron 7 · Origin I

The Day the Dragonflies Chose

Every young Aeralyn enters the Rite of the Seven Paths. Most are recognized by root, ember, seed, shell, light, or loom. The Skybound receive only silence—until the dragonflies arrive.

Wyng is chosen with quiet certainty. Ember answers doubt with perfect composure. Vine earns a bond only when he stops performing for the watching chamber. Stump believes he has failed until the largest, most stubborn dragonfly in the perch forces its way inside. Four strangers leave the ceremony already arranged by their mounts into a formation none of them understands.

View the source notes
Four Aeralyn Skybound riders flying dragonflies in formation through an autumn storm above the pond02

Squadron 7 · Origin II

The Formation Before the Flyers

The riders clash. Their dragonflies do not. Again and again, the mounts break training position and reform together—as if they already know the squad their riders must become.

When an autumn storm traps a young courier above the Pond, the four trainees launch without permission. Wyng sees the whole field. Ember holds the dangerous line. Vine finds the impossible opening. Stump becomes the anchor who carries the courier home. Their punishment is immediate. So is their new name: Squadron 7.

View the source notes
The glowing Heartwood Chamber inside the ancient white oak filled with Aeralyn and dragonflies03

Book I · Prophecy Fulfilled

Three Who Walk Without Wings

Deep inside the ancient white oak, the Circle of Rings speaks a prophecy that has waited beneath the roots for three hundred cycles.

Far above, Emma, Noah, and Liam step into a fairy ring during the worst vacation ever. They wake beneath mushrooms the size of buildings, in a world where grass becomes forest and spiders become monsters. Kaelith brings them to Heartwood, where the elders realize the impossible: the three children may be the wingless strangers promised by the roots.

View the source notes

Skybound · Squadron 7

Four riders.
One formation.

Their dragonflies understood the future squad before the Aeralyn did. The bond is not pet and master—it is recognition, friendship, and trust in motion.

01

Captain · The instinct

Wyng

A fearless improviser learning that a dragonfly chooses potential, not perfection.

02

Guardian · The line

Ember

Disciplined, precise, and determined to be measured simply as a Dragonfly Warrior.

03

Second · The opening

Vine

A cool-headed tactician whose playful dragonfly refuses to let him hide behind calm.

04

Shield · The anchor

Stump

Loud, loyal, and unbreakable—mounted on Pebble, the squad’s smallest and fastest dragonfly.

Heartwood Chamber, the living center of Aeralyn civilization

Always Autumn Woods · Lionzfang

Nature is alive.
Wonder balances danger.

The Aeralyn build nothing apart from the world around them. Shellsmiths turn beetle shell and resin into armor. Glowbinders carry living light. Seedwardens protect food, medicine, and memory. Rootkeepers listen to history beneath the soil. No strand stands alone.

  • Skybound warriors chosen by dragonflies
  • Heartwood a civilization inside the Ancient White Oak
  • Varkeshi hornet riders gathering beyond the mossfields
  • The prophecy three wingless children and a sleeping storm