Byyla chose an odd name for herself, where many of her peers took on more earthly-human types. She's okay with that. She likes being a little bit different. She revels in being able to swim the depths of the huge pool in Carramba (they've done something odd to it, it now seems to connect to way more places than it ought), she likes to surprise people by springing out of small bodies of water.

If she had more limbs, and could really get around on land, she'd become a master prankster. As it is, she enjoys her water-born pranks and jokes quite a bit. Sometimes she manages to douse important people, sometimes she even apologizes.

If her activities are taken as typical class clown, then this girl has a bit of a self-confidence issue. As long as people are laughing at someone or something else, they're not examining her for any flaws she might have. She doesn't want to admit that, but if confronted, perhaps by a friend, she might.

**

It had been quite a long while that she and the other small Rukels had come to this world, hanging out at Carramba, or Crescent City in general. She'd noticed that there were plenty of them that had adopted - or perhaps been adopted by - dragons of various types.

But it was only after the new "dome" thing was made in the shallows of the Crescent shaped bay opened, that Byyla realized her calling was still right in front of her. She didn't need to rely on that pool, but still loved going into it to watch classes now and again. But what she was really interested in was all the science in that dome. She floated just outside the glass, watching with big eyes, and scooting away whenever the professors would look around for kids to answer a question. How could she answer? They didn't realize how smart she was and how much of her behavior issues were caused by that fact.

At one point Byyla watched someone playing a video game in one of the little cafe nooks that also had a pond for such students as herself. And he'd complained, "I don't understand, dolphins are really smart and very clever, and in this dumb game, they can't become the dominant species on their world? Why?" She wondered, herself. "Because they can't make 'fire', and that means this dumb game doesn't understand that fire isn't always the most important tool intelligent life forms have."

Something clicked in her mind that day. She didn't necessarily want to be seen as a super-serious student, Byyla loved being a little chaotic! But she did want her mind to be enriched. It just so happened that there were other people around that noticed her watching and listening, and one of them carefully approached. It was an odd tall non-human man, though how she knew this was beyond her, since he looked entirely human at the time.

"I think you could meet someone and get a little inspiration," he said. It turned out that this professor was Treason, an immortal Zekiran, and he shapeshifted into a smaller aquatic form and then led her through a series of twisty pipes and underwater tunnels. She could hear him speaking somehow - it was telepathy - "I want you to hold your breath, it might be a little weird, also there's salt water where we're going." The tunnels and such under Carramba's extensive campus were fresh or at least 'clean' water, aside from the specific saltwater environment tanks.

When she emerged, Byyla's long ears 'popped'. She knew she was no longer on Twoarth. Her query was unspoken but Treason answered her anyway, "Planet Twenty, this is Jolie's cove. Come on, let's see if she's home."

Of course she was, she was a mermaid, where would she really go?

Aside from 'the entire ocean'? She was home however. The blue skinned Zekiran perked up at the entry to her home. It was a marvelous place, and Byyla took it all in with wide eyes.

"Oh who have we here?" Jolie asked, and sensed the answer before Byyla could even let out a peep. They spent a full day wandering her caverns and rooms. All of them shaped beautifully either by Zekiran or Kin psionic powers, or by the waves themselves hollowing out areas and making room for little trinkets or nooks when the tide was out.

"Underwater engineering!" Byyla blurted out, once the new day had come. She swam right up to Treason, who was now in his full flashy winged-and-tailed-and-too-many-color form. "I want to be an engineer! I know I don't have hands, but I can supervise! And!" The Zekirans looked at one another as she excitedly continued, "since I ... well I like to prank, I know where weaknesses might be and avoid them so any other prankster won't worry about ... I don't know, blowing a hole in the toilet wall or causing a place to flood."

"So it was you," Treason chuckled. There had been that one time exactly that had happened.

"Well if they'd made the walls different - like these!" she nosed toward the stone shaped ones that blended seamlessly into strucutrally sound housing above the waves. "Then they wouldn't have needed to clean up and fix the damage. I'm sorry about that, by the way, but it was just so funny at the time!"

**

Byyle was signed up for the right classes, properly this time and not just as a silent observer. The school had ways of getting translation done, even from alien species and water breathers. But before the next year's classes began, there was another surprise in store for her.

A trip to a place called Lantessama. Water dragons, called Nekrat there, were in plentiful supply and oh how she wanted a companion of her own to share ideas with...

And maybe some harmless pranks.

( mostly from hatching )

A soft yellow-coloured sand female stuck her head briefly above the waves, giving the candidates a once over before she dove back down and swam toward Byyla.

"You're by far the most interesting of the candidates so I choose you!" she said.

Byyla grinned and added, "that sounds wonderful, Perila! I hope you enjoy classes on engineering because I'll be taking a lot."

"I'm certain they'll let me wait outside.... or maybe they have some classes on interior decorating."

**

It turned out that the school DID have interior design classes! And a few nudges and requests made to the local city council made sure that the additions that the Dome needed would be legal, safe, and zoned for multiple uses. Because they would be taking up residence in them as dorms, but also for classes and even industrial or ... well, 'cottage industry' work. Textiles and structure samples would be scattered all over the place in their portion of this new locale, but also there were large video screens and sensitive equipment designed to allow those sea-born students to remain in their normal element while attending classes. Instead of having to slink around the 'pool', now they had a real place to call home! Perila was allowed to enter Carramba's system, and carefully chose her classes. She did have to work up to some things - after all it was still required to know a good amount of math, communication skills, and the like before some could be taken.

**

Perila was allowed to adjust the variety of courses she was taking after her first year, given she didn't actually need to be doing a lot of the same things that any typical graduate might.

"Do you think I should leave this wall blank, or would it do with a little... something?" Perila asked, head tilted, looking at the opening to their new home below the waves. From the outside it looked more or less like the surrounding rocks and coral formations. But from their side, it was a smooth, 'finished' looking arch done in paler stone than the rest. It had enough of a flat surface to it that it was clear it was meant to be used as an entry.

"Well I thought that's why you were taking those courses," Byyla chuckled. She examined it, the wall was a little ... plain. Apparently Perila agreed because pretty soon there were a surprising number of small, water-safe portraits on the arch. Their class mates, a couple teachers, little faces or even a hologram projecting a final project in three-dee.

**

Together, Byyla and Perila would bring the sea into the home, as well as the home into the sea! Crescent City development council members agreed, this was lovely for tourism and also safe for the environment. They even got featured in a local magazine!