** Note this had been on 3 separate pages - zhul1, zhul2, zhul3.html on geocities originally written in 2005, now collected on one page
NEW 2023 STUFF at the BOTTOM of the page! **
Zhül Xai Zero, Non-Human Culture Studies
| Name | Zhül Xai Zero |
| Age | 32 |
| Species | Zeddian, +3 bod with four arms and an extended spine to suit Totem: Virus, s+2, bf+2, rwp-3, drv-1, lks-2, bonk+2; +5kks |
| Post | Instructor |
| Tenure | Recent (graduated in 2007, college through 2012, hired 2014 @26) |
| ... | |
| Smarts/GM | 5 Smart enough to get good grades all through school, but doesn't rely on it |
| Bod/Feets | 10 Able to concentrate on two completely distinct tasks at once manually |
| RWS | 4 Without a family back home, she's dedicated herself to the students where she works |
| Luck | 4 It was good luck to be chosen to go offworld, she hasn't had much bad luck! |
| Drive | 3 Doesn't bother driving vehicles, as she can ride a dragon where she needs to! |
| Looks | 6 Though exotic, a 'single marked' Zeddian like her is a one in a million on her world |
| Cool/Mouth | 5 She's a dragon rider! That's cool! |
| Bonk | 7 She's over 7' tall now, fully matured, yes that includes the hair |
| Powers | Animate and Communicate With Dead - anything up to 100 years deceased, though freshly-dead is easiest, she can call forth its essence or 'soul' if it has one, and briefly set it back into its body, if the body is intact. This lasts only about 2 days, after which the spirit cannot return to a physical form. However the spirit doesn't necessarily vanish, and she can continue to communicate with them as long as the spirit itself is willing. Some spirits last longer than others, so she makes sure not to 'waste' their remaining time. She can sense the dead in an area, within about 50 meters of herself easily, and with concentration she might single out individual spirits in a graveyard or battlefield. The dead do seem to be attracted to her, and she won't resist if they want to chat Dragon Rider - In her Freshman year, Zhul was searched and brought to Draco's Inferno Weyr, where she impressed a lovely white dragon! This allows her to go offworld and through different dimensions or even time travel, as well as simply ride in style across the landscape around Crescent and Talon Cities. She has intimate telepathy and empathy with her dragon partner, and through Antaakutsuath can learn information from or offer help to other dragons and their riders. |
| Clusters | Rituals and Traditions +6 Though most of these are her homeworld of Zed's traditions, she's also learned a lot about other worlds and cultures, and has applied her experiences to those as well. Once she sets about learning how one or another event is done, she can pass that knowledge on in a very accurate manner. This is how she's been working at Carramba, first as an assitant, and then as she gained her degrees, a full instructor here Hand/Eye Coordination +3 Of course someone with a nervous system as advanced as a Zeddian can do multiple things at once! Anything involving manual dexterity is quite easy for her, including tasks she's never done before |
| Skills | Local Martial Arts and Kthari Arts +5 Having at least two extra arms than local Humans allows her to perform actions in combat that are impossible or at least extremely difficult for them. However she does lack two extra wings (and a tail) but can still hold her own with the Kthari that have begun settling in the area, they think this is terrific fun, and she's developed skills in avoiding their added wing-claw and tail-swipe attacks (thus making them learn how to use other tactics for them to work!). Over time she's deprecated her teenage use of weaponry, preferring a peaceful solution and learning other skills to use those fingers, but she is still energetic and likes working out and sparring with those willing to go up against a tall and strong opponent, leading to her being added to the Martial Arts class roster Dragon Riding and Care +4 Having spent 15 years riding and caring for her beautiful dragoness, Zhul is quite capable of assessing the needs of other dragons of similar configuration. Not only Pernese but Alskyran, and virtually all types that are 'four legs and two leather wings' varieties. Their food habits, mating and clutching, physical disorders or injuries, and all facets of riding them - though less 'into combat' and more 'into the unknown' in her case - all of these things drive her and she relies on the connection between her and her dragon daily Balancing And Guesstimating Volumes +3 This is a good skill to have when you're trying to sit on a moving dragon in the wind while carrying delicate machinery and gear to its destination, and she's improved it from a mere knack over the years. She'll always be able to look over a dragon, not just her own, and understand where to put the harness, or how to arrange baskets for flight, as well as just loading herself up with stuff to carry around campus without bumping into things or dropping anything in a busy hallway |
| Knacks | Hit It Off With Dead Things +4 This is her long standing personality at work, since she can sense and speak with them anyway she's always enjoyed listening to the opinions and stories from those old folks or young warriors, or even, sadly, those children whose lives were cut short - their imagination still sparks something in her and she can act on those bits of information and suggestions too Use Tools and Musical Instruments +4 Though she doesn't actively play music much beyond the occasional strum of a double-sitar brought from her homeworld, she can still easily comprehend and utilize those tools and instruments easily just by examining them carefully. It only takes a few moments, and perhaps a pointed question in context for the tools, to understand how to hold, manipulate, or tune them. She's no mechanic, nor musician, so these skills will eventually fade, and they are already considered knacks instead Grooming Techniques +2 She's kept up with the styles of local groups, as well as her own needs for that hair and her many nails. She'll always look a little different what with that off-centered single marking on her pale skin, but her volume of hair is always flawless, and her outfits usually suitable for activity and comfort alike |
| Period | Class Teaching |
| 1 | Non-Human Cultures |
| 2 | Peer Counseling Assistance |
| 3 | |
| 4 | Martial Arts for Non-Humans |
| 5 | Non-Human Cultures |
| 6 | Non-Human Cultures |
| 7 | Offworld Immigration Assistance |
| 8 | |
| Song: ? | |
| Dragon | Antaakutsuath |
| Hatched | Draco's Inferno Weyr, clutch 9, 2005 |
| Pets? | none |
| Partners? | Will probably hook up, who knows! |
| Children? | None yet (2023) |
| Dragon | Name: Antaakutsuath (ant ah ah KOOT swath) Teleportation - local, nexus, time, you name it, Antaa' is absolutely good at knowing where and when to be. Like many white dragons, she's got some kind of inner sense of timing, though she wouldn't boldly blip back and forth through time by herself, she wants guidance and sensbily her rider restricts that to a minimum unless absolutely positively needed. If they're bringing people along, she does not allow any shenanigans, only normal overland flight and direct local teleportation, since anything else might disrupt minds, spirits, or instruments. Locally she can teleport from Carramba up to Wonder, or down to Esmeralda, and up the coast to Talon's Alabaster HQ without even thinking hard. With a visit to another location more distant, such as Norcal Line (it's a popular railway connection point, with a thriving community including a lot of fun parties in the big redwoods, and she loves it up there) Antaa' takes a minute to concentrate, and reaches it momentarily. Farther than that, she wants directions but also will easily take that direction from another dragon that knows the way. Non-locally, she'll visit worlds she's been to - her home sands are perhaps forever gone, but still linger and she accidentally reaches those to watch various goings-on in their past... But again she does like having direction, and listens to some offworld dragons tales, following them if they can teleport there, and then she knows the way! Through time, however, she is accurate and pinpoints just exactly when to be, but it does wear her out, and any riders including Zhul experience a dizzy and muddled feeling on arrival Telepathic Communication, connected to her bond with a deep and permanent familiarity, Antaa' can speak with virtually any intelligent mind nearby within 250 meters, and if she knows where to look, can talk to telepaths or dragons with telepathy at up to 2 miles. Her mind is energetic and feels confident and kind, she is always looking for ways to make people and dragons happy, and her mind shows that strongly Unassisted and Assisted Firebreath, she has never used fire, and doesn't intend to, but because of her multidimensional travels and her unusual line, she is entirely capable of producing chemical fire, as well as chewing stuff to spark the flames, ew. No thanks. However this will definitely carry in any descendants, either / and / or. Parentage: below ** unlikely to be Blue Jericonialituianith since their parentage is radically different from this dragon's appearance and powers, and her coloration is distinctly 'white' and not dark like theirs; note that Molly has a sibling and their page is complete with alternate father's lineage while this one below is assuming that Fino' is the parent
|
(Original character stats, open in new window to see full size)
Zhül sat with her top pair of hands propping up her chin, and the bottom taking notes. It was afternoon, Friday, and she had one class to go after Biochem. But her note taking was faintly interrupted by a pair of the hoidy-toidy girls who were in the Cheer squad and all those other nice things (like, the ones who have an unlimited budget and a family that bent over backwards to keep them happy? Like, any of them could have whatever boy they wanted, but they refused - except for the football team's best players...). They were talking about her, she'd been in the class only three weeks, and frankly, Zhül wasn't sure how they got in the class at all.
They weren't bright, they were sly. They were smart enough to get by with B's and a smile, and with Anderson Vale at the chalkboard they might be able to swing a low A out of it if they only wiggled and giggled a little more.
That wasn't fair, especially to say about Anderson. He wasn't like that - he was not going to endanger his tenure at the school by allowing some 16 year old bimbette to wiggle her way into the books.
That bimbette however would be getting an earful later, since right now she was saying to her friend, "I wonder if the broad's head is covered with that crap or what? It looks like someone gave her a tar whirlie..."
"Bald," laughed the other, "with that mop head. I bet they whirled her and it clogged their drains."
"Hah ha," said the first, "and her name, 'Zero' is right! She's totally a loser."
The bell rang, and everyone packed up quickly. The girls were out the door long before Zhül could respond to them. She was about to leave the classroom and head to the math building, but Anderson stopped her gently with his 'clearing-my-throat-to-get-your-attention' cough.
She paused, her hair swung around and she pushed it back with her low arms. "Yes, professor Vale?"
"I heard them too," he said. "I could call their parents or the councilors, if you wanted."
"I... I don't think so," Zhül said, looking at him. It was hard to believe she was merely a sophomore, being at least half a foot taller than him. It was her breed, of course, what with the extra 6 or 7 inches of spine they had to accomodate their second set of arms. Even so, she'd be a long-legged, tall girl without them. Anderson had to drag his eyes away from her four breasts - that wasn't something they saw every day.
"If you want to, you could report them anyway. You don't have to site anything specific, just complain that they were offending you. If they were."
"They were," Zhül said softly. "I've... got to get to class." She picked up and sped away, and Anderson opened up his cell phone to tell the councilors anyway. This wasn't going to lead anywhere good.
***
It didn't. After school fortunately the girls had their cheer squad workouts, and Zhül slipped into the on-campus dorms where she resided for her duration at Carramba. But her mailbox had been sprayed with sticky hairspray, not the kind she'd ever use on her own hair of course, and patches of dirt or mud had been plastered on it.
"That's just not nice at all," said another passing student. He was of the thoroughly non-humanoid variety, and as he schlucked along on the ground with his ovoid body, he did something strange and the mailbox was cleaned up. He made smacking noises, "thanks, that hit the spot."
"You just... ate the dirt?" Zhül said.
"Yeah, whatever got sprayed on it was a little tangy, though." He disappeared into the lobby and then went his own way. Zhül was so stunned she didn't even have time to thank him. Her mail box had two letters in it, one from her Spirit Seeker mentors and the other was a locally-marked letter.
As she went upstairs to her semi-private room, her upper hands worked open the letter from the mystery source. It didn't have a return address on it, but the handwriting looked quite familiar. Her lips twitched into a frown, it was from Alexi Neuveau, the Sophomore councilor. Zhül sighed and flopped down on her bed, which wasn't quite long enough for her, and all four of her arms draped down over the sides.
"You look beat," said her room mate, a near-human girl with green-grey skin and long antennae. "What's wrong?"
"My councilor wants to talk to me about 'peer harassment'," Zhül muttered into her pillow.
"Those girls again?" Nayi asked, and she saw Zhül's head move into a nod. "Well you should talk to him about them. They're mean and awful. And if they're not going after you, they're always talking trash about someone else. It's about time someone put them in their place."
"I suppose so," the Zeddian said, lifting herself up with all four arms. "I just don't want them to know about it."
"Zhül," Nayi groaned, sitting on her own bed, "look, you've got to get over this ... fear you have. It's not good to go through life not enjoying yourself."
Zhül's memories drifted around, and she searched for a time when she was happy. It was tough. She nodded once, and looked at the letter. "Says he's free this afternoon, that was quick." She hupped herself off the mattress and made a quick check of herself in their mirror. Everything looked good - according to her breed's standards anyway. She didn't have that idiotically feathered or fancifully curled look that the human girls did. But by Zeddian standards, her 'mop' of hair was quite desirable.
The fact that she only had markings on her face, not on any other part of her body, put her into a different category on Zed. As she walked back across campus to Neuveau's office in the admin building, Zhül thought about how many ways she was singled out in her life.
When she was tiny, her parents were both killed. That landed her in an orphanage, but since she was still an infant and her hair hadn't grown in yet, everyone at the hospital could see her for what she was. A single-marked Zeddian was one in a million - literally. Most had multiple markings - on their face and head, but also on hands, wrists, legs, or down their bodies some how. Some had several sets, and the only rarer condition ever seen than her own, was to have white markings upon black skin. No one had ever been born to their kind with but one color skin. (That's not to say that mutants with only one pair of arms didn't exist, though they were shunned... How could you get along with only two arms?)
Zhül was elevated to a 'rich-person-only' adoption offer. All this was of course long before she even knew her own name or destiny. Those who adopted her had designs of a different sort in mind. One of their 'seers' had located her from afar, and demanded to see her brought to him. That began her journey as a Spirit Seeker.
While dead, her parents stuck with her. For a time, of course, she didn't know that they weren't physically present. Only their spirits, but that was enough for a little child. After a while, though, their spiritual energies began to fade, and they slowly vanished. This was traumatic to Zhül, and she retreated into herself.
(Zhül stepped past the speaker's plaza, not listening to anything going on there. Today it was a discussion about the flavors of slushie one could make if only allowed to use under-sea ingredients.)
The Spirit Seekers gave her purpose and direction. But they also - and she knew this even then - were using her for their own means. She was a prodigy, indeed. Able to see not only her own parents after their brutal deaths, but many others. But that was not the end of her abilities. The seer had selected her above all others, because he sensed a hidden talent.
That hidden talent came to the surface when they performed a ritual with her. It had been done before, this talent wasn't unique to her on Zed, but it was quite rare. Most who had it, either went insane without counciling, or abused it until they were themselves consumed with death.
A member of their sect had been found dead in her quarters, or so they told Zhül. She would come back to life, if only the young initiate could guide her spirit back into her body.
What they hadn't told her, was that it was not the spirit of the dead entering that body. It was Zhül's own. She gave a little bit of herself into that frame, and felt it briefly come to life.
Years later, by the time she was ten or so, Zhül understood that this ritual kept her from misusing the power. It guided her, and made her aware that she could in fact manipulate the dead matter around her. For a few months, it seemed to Zhül that everything was dead. Every. Thing. But soon enough she got over that and began lifting small animals back into warmth. Privately, she taught herself to use that 'guide' phrase and make it true. To find the spirit was one thing. To locate its dead body was another. Convincing it to return...
So she performed her rituals for the sect, and performed her own acts of resurrection for herself. She could guide the souls of small things back into their shells, carefully. She made sure not to show this off to the Spirit Seekers themselves. They would never have allowed her to leave!
Zhül entered the maze of the Admin building, and had to pay attention to where she was headed now. The councilors offices were nearby, and Alexi was in his room without any others present. He waved her inside, and she shut the door behind her.
Quietly, she sat down and didn't meet his eyes. Alexi was an alien, noseless, with wood-textured skin and short curved horns. He had reflective glasses on, but he took them off shortly. "Zhül, I've been hearing more from people that the cheerleaders are talking down to you again."
She nodded, and said nothing.
"Zhül, you've got to either stand up for yourself or tell me that it's okay for me to contact their parents. They deserve to be-"
Zhül said, "punished, I know, I know. That's what Nayi says too. I'm just... I don't like that kind of thing."
"It's not a reflection on you, Zhül, you're the one who is being hurt by this. And I can tell," he leaned his elbow on the desk and gazed at her seriously, "that it does hurt."
"They gummed up my mailbox today," she said quietly. "But this nice Voiodd cleaned it up for me."
"They what?" Alexi said, "that's a federal crime, you know."
Zhül's eyebrows tilted. "It is?"
"Yes, it's against the law to tamper with mail or a mail box. They should be punished for that, officially." He tapped his thick fingers against his wide jaw. "They will be taken off the cheerleading squad temporarily," he announced. Zhül gasped, but he held up his hand and shook his finger. "No, don't defend them. There is no reason for that at all. They're not being fair to you, and other people have complained about them too. They only share what, two classes with you? They've got four with another girl, Moshan Teek, you know her?"
Zhül shook her head, "no, but ... it doesn't make me feel any better that they're like this to everyone. Everyone lower than them."
"You're not lower than they are, Zhül, you're different from them," Alexi said, standing up. "And they are afraid of differences. Their parents were the same way, the people at their country club are like that, and their kids will probably grow up like that too."
"Then what's going to stop their parents from just letting them ignore anything you do about it?"
"Good question. Maybe," he said with a glimmer in his eye, "they'll pull them out and send them to a private school where they won't be able to harass people like yourself."
***
"I don't see why she gets to stay in her class," said one of the pair, humiliated that one afternoon by Alexi himself coming out to the practice field and explaining the situation to Delia Carson, the PE and Cheering instructor. Tuesday would be the first day they'd be restricted from participating, and today, Monday, they were going to try and take everything out on her in Biochem.
"Because she's 'special'," said the other, and they hit their hand on their collar bone like 'what a retard'. Wickedly laughing, the pair stared at Zhül until professor Vale came into the room.
They were going to straighten out, act all nice-nice, but then they noticed that Alexi Neuveau was also with him. Both girls slumped into their seats.
"Alexi has something to say," Anderson Vale said, and Zhül noticed a faint trace of a smile on his handsome face.
"It's come to my attention that an attack on a public area was made by individuals in this class," Alexi said, and most of the class took in a breath of disbelief. In this era of terrorism and occasional random acts of violence, they couldn't see who it might be.
"The security cameras in the Alien dorms caught a pair of people defacing a mailbox," Alexi said, and Zhül could see faintly that his eyes had turned behind his glasses, to the pair of cheerleaders. "Which is, I have to add, a federal offense. There is a hefty fine involved, and possibly time in juvenile hall."
"That's so stupid!" Yelled one of the pair, suddenly. Everyone jumped at her voice, everyone except Alexi, Zhül and Vale. "There wasn't anything wrong with-"
"Shut-up," said her companion.
"Well now that we have the culprits conversing about the event," Alexi said, "why don't you two come with me, and we'll talk to the federal Agent who is in my office waiting for you. Your parents are on their way - again."
With everyone as wide-eyed as they were, it was a wonder most missed the scathing look that the pair of girls gave to Zhül as they passed her desk.
Beyond them, Zhül could see Anderson Vale give a tiny nod to her. Zhül smiled back at them. Then she noticed something faintly - and her smile got broader.
There were several dead insects sticking in the girls' locks, placed there somehow by someone. Was it Alexi? Anderson? How could either of them have done that? She didn't care.
Shortly, Zhül concentrated on them as they walked by. Shrieks and cries of disgust and fear suddenly erupted from them both as Anderson closed the door and began his lesson. That one moth would be flapping hard trying to get out...
***
"Wicked," Nayi laughed, hugging her knees and rolling back and forth on her bed. "That was absolutely wicked!"
"I just wonder who put them there," Zhül said, "I mean, I didn't, that's for sure."
"But you took advantage of it, and I'm proud of you!" Nayi giggled. They both looked up as a shadow passed by their window. It was the one facing east, overlooking the field. Both stood before the smallish window and gasped. Nayi said, "look, the dragons are landing!"
Sure enough, there were half a dozen of the local dragons coming in for a precise landing on the field. Apparently they'd planned for it, because the football team wasn't practicing today. Though they were pretty far from the fields, they could hear the muffled sound of the dragons bellowing. Others greeted them from afar. Here in Carramba's airspace there were quite a few.
Zhül wasn't used to them, really, but they were very cool. "Let's go see them," she said. Excited for the first time about something, she almost exploded with emotion.
"Okay," Nayi laughed, and they skipped down to the field. A batch of dragons looked up from their telepathic discourse, and a couple of their riders paused in their own conversations.
"Well look who we have here," said one, Vax Silverknight. His mechanical lower body eased off the dragon and somewhat stiffly walked toward the pair. The brown dragon he rode seemed a little too big for him, he wasn't very large considering that he didn't have legs of his own...
Zhül and Nayi glanced at each other, and Vax beckoned another rider near. He wasn't exactly unfamiliar on campus but was hardly a regular, Jeff Engell and his beautiful silvery white dragon. "Tehn is telling me too," he said. Nayi hugged one of Zhül's lower arms.
"I don't want to disappoint you," Vax said to the green skinned girl, "but our dragons have only searched Zhül here, not you."
She squealed anyway. "I knew it! I knew it!" She jumped up and down, dragging Zhül's arm with her. "They've searched you! They've searched you!"
"But..." Zhül said weakly, "what does that mean?"
"It means," the white-haired Engell said, "that you should stand at a dragonry for an egg, which will then hatch," he waved his pale hand at the snowy dragon beyond, "into a dragon. Which you then," he smiled, "would ride."
"With us," Vax added with a grin. The oddly bald man peeled his rubbery helmet off his head, exposing wiring and plug openings. "Ahh, it's way too hot for this."
"Stand... for a dragon," Zhül said.
"I know you're not that dense," Nayi said. "You're perfect for a dragon. You'd be able to hang on even when they do those great loop-de-loops!" Perhaps she only said it just to get the eyes-wide-open look that Zhül gave her as she imagined the activity - she'd seen them doing their acrobatics out here, but no one rode them when they did it!
"I ... suppose!" Zhül whispered, "but won't that interfere with my studies?"
"Like it would interfere with your studies after we get through with you," growled a voice behind her. The group all spun, including the dragons turning their great heads to listen. The anger in her voice was obvious, her friend was silent.
"We are so not letting you get away with this," said her friend.
"What, making you pay for your crime?" Zhül said. For some reason, the dragons behind her made her feel more comfortable, more confident. "Getting away with it is the least of my worries."
"My father is a lawyer, and he's going to fight it for us." Said the first.
"Well your father is going to learn a thing or two about law," said Engell with a smile, sidling up to the tall Zeddian. "I have no idea what your little enemies are talking about," he said to Zhül looking up at her with a broad smile on his face, "but you do know that I am one of the richest lawyers in any dimension, right?"
"I do now," Zhül said. "Can I afford your services?"
"You don't need to, I'm offering them to the school pro-bono. It's in my contract."
"Maybe while you're arguing with them," Vax said to Engell and then turned to Zhül, "I can take you off to a dragonry or two and see where you'd be best likely to bond. How does that sound?"
"Wouldn't I need to be there for a -" Zhül said, but Engell shook his head.
"Of course not. Tehndarinth has been informed that this pair was caught on a security camera that my company installed, doing something against the law. How clever of them to do it right where they could be seen." He glanced at Zhül, "no, your presence would only get them more riled, and you would be better off on the sands somewhere."
Angrily, the girls fairly yeowled with words best suited to prison, not high school. Engell and Tehndarinth stepped between them and Zhül, while Nayi stood there grinning like a total idiot and laughing when they were led away again.
***
"Here does seem like a good option," Vax said. "Now, you're going to want to have a few things with you, clothing and any special needs you might have to address. We'll make sure that your letters or calls get where they need to be."
Zhül looked around her at the dragonry. Draco's Inferno was its name, and there were several clutches on the sands. Zhül wondered why there was so much concern over the one, but it turned out to be the clutch she was most interested in.
"I like it here," Zhül said with a wistful gaze around her. There weren't all that many people about, but she knew that in a month or so, perhaps less when the eggs hatched, there were supposed to be a ton more. The tall white-skinned marked girl strode around investigating. Now that there were no hoidy-toidy girls to annoy her, she was freed up to act more like a proper teenager exploring a new place.
There were three dragons hanging close to one another, on the sands - a female and two blue-type males. On the way around the dragonries that Vax had shown Zhül, he explained the variety of colors, gender breakdowns and the like. How some world had gender-based colors, ranks and sizes, while others had a mix of results. There weren't many two-colored dragons that he knew, so when Zhül asked about the blue and green who stood proudly near the small green dam, he had little to say.
"Perhaps you should ask him," Vax suggested.
She did, and what she learned - about the blue, blue-green and their green companion - made her even more determined that this was the right clutch for her. Abandonment was something she understood intimately.
Her bags, moved from her cabinet in the dorm, came and went. There were rooms for the candidates, and her barrack was much bigger than the room she shared with Nayi! How she would miss the girl, too, because her bright laughter and her constant reminders of friendship were always welcome.
Shortly, Zhül settled in. It would just be a matter of time now.
But she had homework to do, loads of it, since she was still 'in school'!
Zhül sat at her desk in the dorm she'd been given, and wrote down some notes.
'Urooboeth', she wrote, 'seems like a very nice dragonet. When we spoke it was almost like everything I did was important to him. I guess that when you're little, and don't have much experiences under your belt, every little thing is new and exciting.' She paused, and then put the quill back to the paper. 'But I worry - because some of the things he offered to do, not just for me, but I heard him later on talking to someone else, and even in the egg hall where some drudge was picking things up, he's so... Well, unselfish! That's not a bad thing, but...'
"Wow," Zhül said quietly to herself, "that's sounding a lot like me." She chuckled to herself and rubbed her eyes with her left lower hand, while the right upper continued to write.
'I worry because when Nayi would tell me I was letting people walk all over me, I didn't see it. Maybe there's a lesson I can learn from Urooboeth even if he doesn't choose me to bond with.'
She tapped her nails against the desk, and formulated more.
'Now, that big Antaakutsuath, she was pretty impressive. I could listen to her voice all day - in fact I think I did.' Zhül giggled, 'I wonder if she ever shuts up? But I wouldn't want her to anyway. She's insightful, and I've never heard so many compliments about my hair or my markings, or my arms - or other people when they passed by! It was such a nice change to listen to someone who had a nice thing to say about me.'
Zhül sighed, "yup, that's me, poor poor Zhül... Always taking abuse..."
She snickered. Since her Search, actually since just before then when Alexi helped her break through about the cheerleaders, Zhül was acting a little more self-protective and less victimized.
Zhül wondered though, what about when she would graduate? After her dragon was grown, after all she still had this year plus two more to go and dragons would grow much in that time, what then?
Would she be made to head home to Zedd? If the Spirit Seekers wanted her to continue her ritual work they might have another thing coming.
"They should find their own power," she muttered. It was about time to tell them she was grown up, and while she felt a depth of love for them all, she also knew that they didn't reciprocate the emotion. Perhaps one or two of the elders, but most of the ones who had actually raised her were either dead themselves now, or so old they could not attend her.
But ... 'But I've got these powers...' She thought.
It was a hard feeling, torn between duty to her people, and her religion, and the fact that after experiencing the freedoms she had at Carramba she really wanted to try making her own way in the multiverse. Why should she be tied down to one aspect of one culture? When there were so many others?
Zhül stood up and strode out of her dorm, her long hair waving behind her like a grey flag. She headed down to the hatching chambers, where the hatchling dragonets from Caligoth's clutch resided. She paused at the entrance to their little warm den.
"May I enter?" She asked of one of the sires, the blue-green one named Fimokodoth. He sniffed at her and decided that she was safe, and moved aside. "Thank you, sir."
She heard his rumbling laugh but not his mental voice, she knew that he would be saying how she didn't have to call him 'sir'.
And yet, she did, because that was how she was raised.
Zhül looked about, in the dimly lit room. It wasn't sweltering like it would be on the hatching sands (and she thanked every god existing that she hadn't needed to be there - everyone's eyes on the candidates and all that pressure?) but it was pleasantly warm and without a breeze.
She cast her eyes across the room, trying to locate the two dragonets who had spoken with her before. The others included a stand-offish male, one who almost lept into the shadows every time something moved, and even one who kept moving things back and forth in her den area. Finally Zhül spied one, the male.
"Urooboeth, I ask you a question?" She said, and the dragonet picked his head up. "And, if you don't mind, is Antaakutsuath around? I'd like to ask her opinion too."
The medium-sized dragonet got up and cheerfully swept around the dens, until he found the other dragon. She trailed after him chatting with everyone in their path.
What is it, Zhül? Is something wrong? You seem like you're worried about something. I hope nothing's wrong! Bespoke the bigger sized female.
Yes, I would like to know if there's any way I could help? The male said.
Zhül hemmed and hawed for a moment, before the glassy whirling gazes of two young eager dragons provoked her to say, "I don't know if I want to go home, after I find my bond dragon."
But you have to return home, sometime, don't you? Asked the female. Where would you stay if not at home?
"Home... well, I ..." Zhül said, "I have a place at Carramba High School, and I really like it there. I'm making friends," she looked away, and pushed her hair behind her ear with her upper hand, "well, some friends anyway, and some enemies, but ... People like me there! And, well, my home ..."
Don't people like you at home? I don't think that's right, bespoke the male, Home should be where everyone loves you. Our parents love us, and we all have each other.
"But ... I don't have parents," Zhül said sadly and quieter than usual. It hit her for the first time in her teenage life: she was an orphan, her parents spirits were even lost to her forever. Her only family was the Spirit Seekers, and all they did was use her. "They died when I was a very young baby."
Suddenly the pair of dragonets burst into action, moving near the Zeddian and supporting her by plopping down right on either side of her.
We didn't know that!
We're sorry - we didn't mean to bring that up! They spoke, the sentiment echoed in both.
"It's all right, I didn't talk about it before because I was so excited to even be here at all... But now, I ... I know I will bond here," she said to both, looking at them significantly, "but when I was at home... I have duties."
She explained what she did for the Seekers, how their society worked. It was complicated, and Urooboeth asked a lot of questions, but Zhül felt better after explaining how she felt about going home. The dragons pondered this situation silently. Perhaps they spoke between themselves, Zhül didn't know.
Duty is important, the male announced. But don't you have a duty to yourself first?
No one has let you decide what you're going to do with yourself, the female told her. We think that you should go home - someday. You should tell them that you'll be back, write to them or something so they know you won't be there right away.
Zhül blinked away some tears that had started to form in her pale yellow-tan eyes. She nodded, "thank you. I ... I might do that. I didn't expect to feel so alone out here. I'm glad you're here to help me."
We are glad to be of help! The male butted his head against her shoulder. If there is anything I can do to make you feel comfortable I'll be right here.
Me too! Bespoke the female, excited again. Whatever happens, I know you'll be okay now. Chin up! We'll be watching for you!
Zhül got up and brushed the sand from her pants, "thank you both. I wonder when we're all going to find out which of us has bonded?"
The dragons seemed to share another brief communication, but said nothing more to her as she left.
***
Zhül was so happy that the hatchlings had finally been brought out to bond, that she almost forgot she'd have to be headed back to Carramba High soon. But even when she remembered, it wasn't a big deal. She liked it there. She felt so much better after her talk with the dragonets.
Caligoth was still nervous about the bonding. It was not surprising to Zhül anyway, since the picky mother had a very big job ahead of her. Allowing her babies to go forth into their worlds... She may never even see them again!
Suddenly Zhül was pained. Should she immediately go back to Carramba? Knowing that the offspring would hardly have contact with their parents?
*** (some from hatching)
But at last, at long last, Cali ' announced to the weyr that they were ready. The candidates were led to the sands where they stood facing the clutch mother and her blue and blue-green mates, Jeri' watching the candidates with an almost fatherly expression and Finom' glowering at Caligoth for delaying this day. He had more faith in his offspring than she seemed to show. After a very long, thorough talk with each of my children, we are ready for them to let their choice known. Be warned, if any of you even think of abandoning one of my children, I personally will see to your most unpleasant demise. She punctuated her point with a deep-throated growl, cut off by Jeri' glaring at her. ”She does not mean that... I believe every single one of you will make excellent bonds for our children. You've been waiting long enough, so I'll not keep them any longer.”
Jeri' stepped aside and revealed the group of dragonets to the crowd of candidates. Antaakutsuath. Caligoth rumbled, sounding rather like a teacher checking names off on a role-call. The large female hurried forth, darting between her parents and toward the girl she'd wanted from the moment she had met the oddest candidate to grace Draco's Inferno's sands.
Zhül , there was never any doubt in my mind that you were the best for me! the white proclaimed, pushing herself up and into the woman's lower set of arms. It took Zhül a few moments to fully comprehend what had happened, while Anta' happily led her from the sands, already talking her ear off.***
The dragon's warm mind kept buffeting Zhül's with her questions. Where would they be headed, what classes would they be allowed to be in together?
That was one question that Zhül couldn't answer yet. She hardly even knew if the dragonet would be on the campus most of the time. And suddenly she couldn't bear being apart.
She hugged Antaakutsuath fiercely with both sets of arms. "I love you my dragon friend, I promise never to leave you."
Sometimes it's okay, Antaa declared with a headbutt. But I know what you mean. I wonder if we will be able to sit together in your classrooms? They might get a little small for me though. I won't be a small dragon! I will be big!
Laughing, Zhül decided it would be for the best, to just head back to Carramba for her dragoning classes and to fill out her schedule with other education. And worry about the details later.
Zhül's travel back to classes at Carramba High brought a strange sensation back to her, a new one for Antaakutsuath.
Why do you fear? She asked - right to the point as always with the words. Zhül sighed.
"Well, because..." She moved her hands around each other, nervously. Then she looked up to see a much larger, adult white dragon landing. He didn't seem all that big close up though, and Zhül laughed to herself. It was only because Antaakutsuath was still young and growing that she thought this ridable dragon was big!
"You've bonded a white!" Called Engell, landing on the turf near her and jumping down from the silvered white Ryslen born dragon he called his own. "Excellent."
"You're actually... just the person I needed to talk to, sir."
To allay her fears, Engell assured her that the pair of troublemaking girls had been sent packing. Literally - their parents knew when they were beat, and in lieu of actual punishment by the state, they opted to send them to a 'criminal camp' for disruptive teens.
"Well, that will either make them worse or nice," Zhül sighed with a smile, "I hope they learn from it."
"If they haven't, they will by the time your dragon is grown," Engell said. "She's.... going to be huge, isn't she?"
Zhül nodded with a big grin. "One of the biggest on their sands, in fact."
But I am not toooo big, am I? Asked Antaakutsuath. I will learn those loopyloops that you told me your friend likes.
***
With her first year of Earth studies finished, and among the top of the sophomore class that year, Zhül proudly stood among the others in the dragon riding class, as the endcap to a great graduation ceremony for the seniors. A good number of her friends in the dragoning classes were leaving that year - but they'd be in the community college system or even just getting a job as courier or pizza delivery until they could settle on something a bit more ... relevant.
In that year, though, Zhül's past crept up to meet her. Nayi was the first to notice the robed white-skinned men and women standing with their multiple arms crossing their tall chests. Antaakutsuath's tail lashed back and forth angrily. Protectively, she stood on her rooftop roost and mentally nudged her rider.
Go. Meet them. Speak to them! You've been practicing what to say for so long, now's your chance!
"Thank you, okay..." Zhül whispered to both her green friend and her dragon. She stepped down to the lobby, and bowed in the traditional greeting of her Order.
"The Spirit Seekers require your presence," said the one, and Zhül wasn't sure whether she liked his tone. "You were asked to return quickly, and we have discovered you here applying for ... summer schooling?"
"Yes!" Zhül said, suddenly. Her hearts were racing. What more could happen? "Yes, I've learned much about this culture and the multiverse, but I have so much left to learn. My sciences and arts grades really could use a bit of --"
"You will return and complete your duties to your Order, Zhül," said the one woman. "It is your duty, after all we raised you and sheltered you."
"And you never loved me," Zhül said. She had wanted it to come out as a hiss, or a growl, or a mean tone of some kind. She meant it that way. But... instead it was merely a flat statement of truth learned the hard way.
The trio of Spirit Seekers stood back, glancing from one to the other as though they'd never even thought of it.
"And you didn't want me to leave because you don't have someone who can raise your dead and get more funding and attention for you, any more, without me." Zhül again continued in a flat tone. She couldn't meet their eyes, hard copper colored eyes, but she watched them fidget. "I know you require me. I know your duties. But ... I have a duty to myself. I will stay here, as long as I want to, and when I'm ready to return and help the order, I will. But... you can't count on me to remain forever, even if I do return."
The trio sputtered, and finally the shortest of them (who was half a head shorter than Zhül) yelled, "what blasphemy is this? What are you saying, girl? You owe us your very life! Your livelyhood! If it weren't for the Order, you'd have been --"
"What, killed along with my parents? Did you know that they stayed with me because they loved me? I wasn't just forcing them to stay. I needed them. You didn't love me," she turned to the other two, "and I don't think you ever could. All you want is the Spirit Seekers to have their political sway."
Zhül began to pace. Nayi watched from the balcony above. The Zeddian's huge mop of hair drifted around like a black flag - or, more accurately, like a dark storm cloud following her around.
"So I'm going to stay here. On Twoarth, and learn. Stuff you never taught me, histories of other worlds and planets! And now I can reach them - I have bonded a dragon!" That stunned the trio even more. "Yes, and I intend to bring her back to her hatching place, maybe even to breed. She's big and strong, you've never seen the likes of this dragon. And you might not, unless you ... start acting nice to me."
Dumbfounded, agitated, and unsure of how to respond, the Zeddian priests turned to one another and spoke quietly. It was while they did so that Engell came into the lobby.
"Problem?" He asked simply. Zhül shook her head and smirked.
"Nope, not this time." She turned her attention back to the trio. "Thank you for your concern, but I will return on my own time. I hope that you find yourself another dead-speaker, soon. Maybe next time, you'll foster them into a proper home before starting to exploit them in the priesthood."
Two of her hands made 'shoo-shoo' motions. Abruptly the trio left, not even bothering to cast glares over their shoulders. As the doors swung shut behind them, and they vanished into the busy courtyard beyond, Zhül sighed and almost sank to the floor in relief.
"You did it!" Nayi squealed from above. She would have lept down to meet her, but even she wasn't that crazy. "You really signed up for summer school?"
Zhül nodded, "I ... wanted an excuse to stay. I mean, I don't have a place to stay unless I go 'home'."
"Wrong," Engell said, warmly. "You're a dragon rider, you've always got someplace to stay. Any one of the riders here will be more than happy to have you stay with them. Plus," he smirked, "Alabaster always has hotels and penthouses and ... you know, expensive investment property, to fill up. In fact..." he glanced around, "I've just bought this house where a number of other dragon riders live..."
Zhül enjoyed her time at Carramba tremendously. She'd graduated with honors from the school, primarily with dragon-studies but as time passed she knew that she'd enjoy having other interests, and knew even more that she'd want to help other students both learn and thrive.
She went to C4 for her college experience, and put in another two years for a Bachelors degree in teaching, on top of her Cultural Studies Master. If there was something she truly enjoyed it was learning about other cultures! Her curiosity was never quite sated, even now she's out and about on campus listening to the conversations of newly arrived kids, those from other parts of the country, the other side of the planet, or even other planets like her own.
And her own planet had changed in the time she'd lived here. Though she visited on numerous occasions, arriving with a slightly-winded dragon to carry her back to the temple and cities she'd known as a child, she formally severed ties with that Order after the first return. As an adult she'd realized how much they had taken advantage of her, and she saw that they'd 'discovered' another dead-speaker in the meantime. He was not as young or naive as she'd been, and apparently, after conversing with him about it, he was also not an orphan. Good, he could hold his own, then, and she bid the Order a less than stellar farewell.
She did go to a place that she hardly remembered consciously, but one which Antaa' delivered her to almost on instinct. Her original home, where she'd lost her parents, where their lives were cut short. She hoped beyond hope that their dissolved essences would somehow - some how - show themselves once more, but they did not. It was a finality that she knew would mean she'd hardly want to really come back to Zed, but she would do so in order to keep others from her similar fate.
Antaa' enjoyed picking people up for rides, after all, though neither of them were truly 'search rider' material. Observant and kind, yes, but not the type to go up and sniff people in weird ways, or do any 'insistant' conversing to parents and guardians about 'they must come with us'. That was as abhorrent to her as being kept by the Order.
All about personal choice and freedom of will, and yet she did so love traditions and rituals. Zhul figured, if there was a tradition one must understand its origins, learn about how it evolved, how the culture around it changed or stabilized with its use. She expresses this strongly in her Non-Human Culture Studies classes, and welcomes every student that is not 'local to the area' to write up or even perform (if possible) some of their native rituals and traditional actions. This can come in the form of a simple greeting or more formal addresses to elders or instructors, on up to music and dance or religious undertakings.
With her experiences and physical stature, however, she also likes to help out with the Martial Arts for Non-Humans sections of Physical Education. Since her friends in the system won't let up, she's become a full time but single-period instructor for that course, and enjoys the challenges that some very non-human builds present. Since she's got those four arms, she likes to have more multilimbed kids in the class, but will never hesitate to figure out ways for slithering, floating, or even digital members of the class to participate.
When she came back to Crescent City from her last major Zeddian trip, she'd noticed that there were new administrative duties available, and has decided to help out at least as much as she can, in the Peer Counseling department. With her dragon as well as lots of, well, dead things around, she knows how to locate the right kind of assistance for kids that won't open up, or have issues with authority. She's still young-looking enough that she doesn't get immediately judged as 'authority figure' by many kids, and also has her own depth of experience to rely upon to help out those that - like she did - have issues standing up for themselves. She attends the staff room for 2nd Period Counseling.
Later in the day or alternate days, 7th Period, she is there again but for a much different reason: Offworld Immigration. With Starchaser the bipedal arm-winged dragon who was also a former student (he graduated a year before she did) heading up the program, and with Engell's support from Alabaster among other corporate entities, they are slowly but surely building up a good legal protective system, and immigration for students and their families becomes much easier when they are on the job. Since she and her beautiful dragoness had the benefits of a stable location and a good support system, she wants to forward that, to get the ball rolling, and to keep interest locally, for those who need to escape bad situations or who want a better life for their own families later.
***
Did you know that... I have never flown for a mate?
"Did I... did I know that? I mean," Zhul was a bit taken aback by that. "I ... mean, yeah? I guess I'd never really thought about it. I remember we talked, we've talked about it before, but you haven't hardly brought it up in a while."
Antaakutsuath preened herself, scratching at the little ridge over her eye carefully with her wing wrist. You have been busy, but I have been looking for places to possibly fly. I would love to see the sights, you know.
"We both love traveling so much," Zhul chuckled, "It's true. So have you found a place?"
Perhaps. It requires applications, so we will see, right? It will be over Winter vacation, and you know...
"I know you can move easily through time, we won't lose any class time!" Zhul encouraged her dragon, "well, where?"
It is a place called Ryslen, you know of it, there are a lot of descendants from there, here. Zhul nodded when the dragon continued. It's called the Flurry, it's a tradition! You will love that!
"I already do, it sounds fun!" Zhul made the proper arrangements, and even if they didn't manage to get on the list of participants, she'd be on hand to fly to and from the place for the inevitable hatching!