Kaeleb Sanger Kshau

Parents - Kalkin & Baeris

Siblings - many, both prior to him and on the way

Homeworld - Healing Den / Nexus

Age - shown here, around 17

Lifespan - expected immortal

Dragon - Name: Eramenla'Taykah
Gender: Female
Colour: Zappy Rain
Abilities: Spell Affinity, Fire Breath, Teleportation, Verbal Speech, Telepathic Speech

Crazy Doc Sanger, of Carramba High School, came striding down the hallway toward his 'nephew's' Healing Den dorm. It almost looked like he wanted to run, but was holding back for some reason. Not in that 'get out of my way or suffer the consequenses' sort of run, more like 'I've got something very important and I want to deliver it as soon as possible'.

The teenaged and somewhat sedate Sanger-Kshau boy was like a distillation of his parents. Two universes worth of breeding, two versions of essentially the same person, went into Kaeleb. He had an appearance that would match either his mother or father - though only Kalkin had those darkened finger and toe nails. Sharply smart, almost demonically so, Kaeleb wasn't as tall or skinny as his father, nor was he as athletic in muscularity. He had his mother's smooth voice, deep and soft but with an edge when he wished it, and her eyebrows which were well known as a Kshau feature.

Yet Kaeleb had an identity all his own. He always knew that he was loved and needed by his parents - they'd given up so much for him. Kalkin all but lived in the Healing Den with Baeris now, and had since the well-lauded (and filmed, and not ever shown to Kaeleb nor his sort-of-sister Ivana) Naughty Clutch. There were more than enough Sangers to go around the multiverse, Kalkin asserted, so spending more time with the family that he'd wanted for so long, no one would stop him.

Kaeleb enjoyed science over almost anything in the Den, from the moment he was able to peer into a microscope or try reading a genetic chart. As a toddler he learned to speak quickly, and learned at least two draconic languages before anyone asked him to translate. He was never an energetic or over-bouncy kid, fortunately, but he did have his share of incidents in the halls, running at full tilt between legs or up cavern walls to hide in nooks normally reserved for dragons.

It turned out that his 'nephew' was the first person he'd thought of when his dragon Umpteenth had paired up with another Sanger's drak named Maldula'Taykah, and ... now there were eggs in the mix.

So with a smile and a calm nod accepting this 'fate', Kaeleb went off with the widely grinning Crazy Doc, and were rather suddenly in a place which he hadn't been before. He traveled the Nexus freely with Dulath, but then... Dulath was better at it than many Sanger-dragons.

It was just in time, too, because the little quarter-draks were nosing around their warm mother's side and ready to pair up. The golden-rain marked female knew the routine, and doled out names for her offspring before seeing them off. Since they were at least half Pernese (or ... well, thereabouts if you could call it that) they would require solid bonds instead of merely partnerships. But Kaeleb was ready for that too.

And at the very least, he inherited his mother's incredible gift for dragons. His mind, while not open to every dragon's voice, was sturdy and solid, not fragile to the touch - not like his father's. So when Eramenla'Taykah approached him, stormy grey fur accents sprouting on her back and tail, gentle lightning barely visible on her storm-grey wingsails, Kaeleb knew she was the right dragon for him.

"I am a drak!" She proclaimed, wobbling up onto her hind legs with difficulty and splaying all four of her wings - and nearly breaking the bottom two in the process of rolling onto her back. "Ssseee! Oops!"

She lacked the lisp of the draks, but could speak clearly like her mother. Frankly if Umpteenth would say anything out loud in English no one would be surprised. He nuzzled the goldmarked rain, they did make a good couple. Their riders were bemused as always - about the whole situation start to finish.

"You certainly look like one, Eramenla!" Kaeleb knew her name, that was obviously part of her old-world line. She demanded food, demanded scratching, a bath, all manner of things typical of freshly hatched draklings. And of course, sleep.

It was while she was sleeping that they took her home to the Healing Den. She didn't stir, merely moved her tail a little closer around her paws, and when she did waken she simply seemed to know where she was.

"They seem to think it's impressive that I know how to find my way around," Eramenla said a few weeks later, as she grew stronger and bigger.

"Well, yeah, my dad is a real bad traveler. So is uncle Doc, and the rest of them. They hardly find their way around a table without directions."

"I resent that!" Called a voice from near one of those tables, yet another Sanger with yet another project he wanted some Kalkin aid on.

Eramenla grew steadily, she would not be truly huge, but with half old-world blood she might be bigger than her mother's side. Her fur grew in longer and shaggy, but like all things to do with appearance, Kaeleb brushed her fur mane often, and kept it free of any tangles. They did get tangled up when flying - and they went flying anywhere Eramenla could take them.

They wound up at Treval, which was where her mother's side came from mostly. And there, Eramenla learned how easy it was to learn true magic. Kaeleb stayed on there also studying, medicine and engineering, different-species medicine mostly. Thus when they came back to the Healing Den (to find Baeris pregnant again, and happily so) they were able to really dig in and help out for breeding, healing and rescue programs.

Some day, Eramenla would probably find a suitable mate... Here at the Den, there were plenty to go around!

"With our luck it'll be another of ours," Crazy Doc said, of his dragon's daughter.

"Well if you guys would stop hanging out so much leaving dragons around like that," Kaeleb joked, "she wouldn't get the chance!"