Loba Zant sat with her feet stretched out before her, eyes closed, and fingers gently splayed. "I can still feel them," she said, and the grunt of her master's voice came to her ears.

"Lift one," he said, doubtful. But she did: the small shard of crystal that sat on the table before the girl vibrated a little, then lifted off the surface of the white plastic. It hovered for a moment, then settled back down as surely as it had been picked up. It was not dropped - Loba didn't drop it, she put it down. Her eyes were still closed. Had they been open, their yellow color would had unnerved any normal human around. They always did.

But her master wasn't human, he was one of the feline types that had often fallen between the cracks of Imperial society. Loba knew that some of his kind had been murdered by the Empire's soldiers, but then so had hers. Many of hers. She opened her eyes and asked, "master? Did I perform as expected?"

Distracted, Mlorm nodded and handed her the crystal that she'd lifted from the table. "It surprises me that the implants you have received have not interfered with your Force senses. Most brain matter forced to accomodate such things fail to return to their original state."

Loba nodded, solemn. She had been taken two years ago to a facility to implant her with slave-programmed command units. However, the program was invaded by locals, shut down, and the inmates were spread among the tribes to protect them. Loba and two others wound up in Mlorm's vicinity, and he immediately took her on as ... well, perhaps Padawan was too much to say, because he was no Jedi Master himself. He was not part of their organization at all, but few of the Jedi had ever visited his world. They owed no allegiance to the Jedi, but the people of his race prided themselves on their ability to sense and sometimes manipulate the Force.

So here, a human girl of nine years old had come to him. It was as though fate guided them together. The Force, his people believed, was not sentient nor forgiving. It was merely what it was: power. However he'd seen his share of that power misused. His own yellow eye, its pair missing, proved that much. But so long as they did not flaunt anything, did not cross the wrong people, the folk living on this backwater forest world were left primarily alone by both Empire and Resistance.

That was just fine with Loba. She was separated from her family and missed them, but had no illusions. She believed them all dead, that was the only way she could move about her daily life - not to dwell upon them, but to see how much life was still in her. Mlorm commended this attitude, it was one which he believed helped her keep her own Force sensitivity.

The implants could not be removed, of course, but they would expand and grow with her. Into her adulthood, Loba wished that she'd never had them put in, but as with many things, she knew that nothing could change the past.

***

As a teenager Loba watched the Alliance turn the tides against the Empire, though it still seemed distant to her. No one - neither side - came to this planet to ask their opinion, or demand their servitude, nor offer to help their own troubles. Loba did her best to continue her Force studies even after her Master had died of old age, and exceeded her own expectations most times. She was a humble girl, really, because she had always known more kindness than strife - even with her family killed.

So when the great liberation had occurred to the rest of the galaxy, their world was still left a bit in disarray. Were they to be taxed? Were people going to come and remove the ugly buildings the Empire had put up, the scientific outposts, the prisons? It didn't seem to matter, they were all in use now, residences and shelters for folk who wanted a closer look at the starport that had also been built years ago.

Finally it saw use, with a ship coming down on it. Loba stood like many others, expecting the worst. And the worst came. Slavers, with guns and electrified nets...

But they lost two of their own that day, one to the vicious claws of a local, and the other... To one of Loba's tiny glowing Shards. She hadn't meant to kill him - but she was so afraid, so angry, having watched one of her friends be blasted in the chest and die beside her... She acted without thought. She threw four of the small shards and three hit, one right into the man's eye and deep into his brain. It took the others by surprise, that their companion simply fell to some tiny glowing bits.

When they examined those little glowing bits, they discovered that they only glowed when Loba was near. She animated them, from her chains, but the men kept her from using them to pick the locks on her cage. They spared her the pain of being further accosted - no one wanted to get too close to her, what if she had some other trick up her sleeve?

So at the age of sixteen, Loba Zant entered the galaxy - in chains. And, unfortunately, due to the implants she wore and hardly even thought about now... She was compelled to obey whenever someone with a control unit was near. That box on her head meant something to at least a few folks - in the black market she was sent as a servant.

For two years, Loba's mind did not belong to herself. She felt, she saw, she acted... But she wasn't in control. The fat man with the dark eyes and lopsided lips was. Fortunately, when he had the control device turned on, Loba's Force powers could not be used. He tried to get her to 'do that thing with the shiny sticks' for his guests, but she could not. Even if he hadn't been pressing the buttons, she wouldn't have.

One night he'd left the control on the bar, as he drunk himself and his fancy whores to oblivion. Loba, still somewhat possessed of her instinct to survive, found it and picked it up, turned it off, and for the first time in years thought clearly of what she had to do to escape. The man was disgusting, a slob and a slovenly greedy bastard. But he hadn't harmed her particularly, he merely wanted another slave to show off. So she would not kill him, nor his guards. How then?

She darted outside, clouding the eyes and minds of the guards easily with a glance and a thought. It was hard after two years to do so, but she easily got back in control over her powers. They would come out of their stupor with a shrug and no memory of her vanishing over the huge hedge-covered fence.

Into the city she went, and she didn't even know what world she'd been on all this time. She did know that she had to get away from this particular port, because the crime lord she'd been enslaved to had paraded her around many times in the past. People would know her, know that she'd escaped. So she hid herself among some outgoing crates on a lift barge, and headed into the middle of nowhere...

***

I do not know why, but my friends have insisted that you come along with us, Said a voice that jolted Loba awake. It sounded so much like her old Master Mlorm that she first thought she was merely dreaming. But then she saw... Above her, she saw...

"What... What are you?!" She bolted upright, her Force crystals in her hands immediately and glowing fiercely. There were huge eyes, glowing from a deep, midnight black head. And towering, that too, from above her by several meters. She could see that the day had barely started, the sky was turned a pinkish color, and this creature blocked most of her view of it with two gigantic sharp wings.

I am as you imagine, a dragon, The voice said, deep and somewhat raspy. How a voice that appeared within her mind could be anything less than perfect, Loba wasn't sure. But Midnight was unused to speaking at all, mentally or otherwise, so his mind was unaccustomed to contacting others.

"But... You said I should come with you, where?" She looked around, concerned. She'd been hiding out in this huge farm site for weeks, stealing food by hovering it out of the baskets when the workers who had collected it weren't looking. She could do this at quite a distance now, but she never was able to lift something heavier than a gorm-fruit, nor bigger than a taal-melon. Her powers had largely turned to self defense, but why then didn't she even notice this huge creature's approach?

Possibly because he meant no harm? Well, Loba wasn't the brightest human ever born, but she certainly was no slouch. She figured that one out quickly and took stock. "Well I don't really have anything to take with me, so... I suppose... I should go. But how?"

The great beast knelt, his forelimb was bigger around than Loba could have held with her arms. She crept up to his shoulder, where she could feel his muscles working. The wings behind her drew together, then down, and they lifted off the ground in one powerful jump. Loba didn't scream - but the Force knew she wanted to...

They teleported - something that threw Loba's senses into disarray. But when they arrived at an old, old temple on a long-abandoned Sith world, her senses brightened again. All around her, Loba could sense the life and the light in it... The temple held several bright sources, more dragons, and several people.

One was a fluffed up hen-looking female, so involved in making sure that Loba had proper clothing and meals that the girl hardly noticed when the second person arrived.

"I'm glad you came," Karen said, "and now I'm going to send you somewhere else," she chuckled. The woman was older, but not aged by any means, she looked more tired than elderly. Her brown hair had started to develop streaks of silver in it, but her blue eyes were bright, and Loba met hers with a smile.

"Well I won't turn you down, but... Can I at least find out why?" Loba asked. Karen held her hand up toward the dragons on their ledges, inside the temple. They were bright and dark, large and small. Four of them, seemingly balancing one another in a strange way.

"The dragons," Karen said. "There are many worlds beyond this galaxy, and even some within it, which breed such creatures. They sometimes wish for companionship. Sometimes they gossip, and these have told me there are others in need right now. Eggs will hatch and dragons will need riders, friends, caretakers." She looked Loba up and down with a smile. "I think you could make a great dragon rider, Loba Zant. You've got strength, wits and power, you're not afraid to defend yourself. Those are admirable things."

Loba tilted her head, "... so... imagine me on a dragon, scaring the wits out of slavers who try to take people?"

"I've done that," Karen laughed and thumbed toward the bright red-and-white dragon. "He's good at that."

"Or ... rescuing people from disasters... or..." Loba was lost in thought, when the smaller of Karen's original two dragons, a blue-green female, approached.

So, you will go? It is to a place called Dawn Watch; the dragons will probably surprise you. I hope they will. I cannot wait to meet them.

"Okay, that will be fine!" Loba said. She was somewhat surprised when the grouse-kin woman trundled up with a sack containing clothing and a few trinkets meant to be bartered for things. When Loba put her Crystals into it, Karen stopped her hand.

"What are those?" She asked, focused on the pale amethyst colored pieces.

"Those... they're my ... sticks?" Loba said. She hovered them into her hands, and Karen's smile broadened.

"Neat, that's very clever, I've never quite seen anyone use crystals like that. Maybe you'd like to learn to use a light-saber some day," she said. "Think about it, but for now you should go, it'll be a cold, but quick trip."

How Karen knew that, Loba didn't guess. But she was right, though the teleport was fast - mere heartbeats - the trip was much much colder than just crossing a few hundred thousand light-years of real space. This was travel into time, into other worlds... The arrived, and Loba took her place among numerous strange and wondeful people. There was something quite troubling about a few of these multi-headed creatures, though - something that felt at once sad and amazing. But she wasn't privy to the thoughts or even the conversations between others here.

Only one mattered to her anyway.

I can sense that you want to learn more, may I accompany you on your journeys?

Loba's mind lit up with a bright, new wonder. Even with the control box on her skull burrowed deep into her brain, she could still sense the strength of this dragon's own mind. Bright and sparkling, so different from the ominous and velvet-black Midnight's, though not entirely different from his sense of nobility and purpose. And before Loba could even put those things into words for her own reply, the dragon spoke again.

I like your purpose, we will do many things for those in need.

The strangest sensation came with that assertion - there were other siblings of this one that seemed to focus their many-eyed gazes on this pair. But soon the moment passed, and in that same brief time, Loba's smile had broadened so much she could hardly contain it. "We will be protectors, and I know just where we'll start. But first I think you will want to grow just a little," she hugged the still small dragonet, with both of the heads snugging up warmly around her own face.

Zevysei Jariane was her name, and though it might have been a little odd for some folks seeing a two-headed, three-tailed dragon arrive back at the Temple but it wasn't like the dragons there had any rhyme or reason to their own features! Who were they to judge? This sweet, curious dragonet quickly learned the location's ins and outs, though she wouldn't be able to creep through many of the narrower passages by the time she was grown.

They would return to Loba's home, and other locations, slowly whittling away at any untoward behavior or groups of slavers, oppression would not stand a chance against this team.

*note some things below in Zevy's description will expand on Loba's abilities!

Name: Zevysei Jariane (ZEV ee sigh)
Bonded to: Loba Zant
Gender: female
Size: large 17' s / 55' l / 70' ws
Species: Unicorn-Dragon Mutt
Color: body white base with softly glimmering rainbow speckling; wingsails lightning-marked rainbow over white; mane/tail and other fur rich oil-violet black; horns and claws gold; eyes violet
Abilities: Winged Flight - remarkably strong lift and able to check her own 'six', Zevysei makes for a bold entrance and a sure exit. At her size she can carry either on her necks or in her arms, at least a half-dozen humanoid-sized people, more if they're small, and even more - up to a dozen - in a specially designed chest harness. Most refugees and folks used to hiding from old Empire forces, or invaders to their worlds, have no problem packing into this net and hanging on for dear life. Zevy is definitely not averse to menacing those who will run from a big scary dragon, after placing herself between invaders and locals to make absolutely clear whose side she's on.
Teleportation - used to 'reading' star charts, now, something that Loba's embedded technology can actually aid them with. She's been working with various techs and scientists to alter the basic programming of the box, and adding a navicomp to it was quite simple. Teaching her how to best use it, that took some work, but with Zevy there joined in her mind, they opened up whole worlds to explore just by checking a map! Zevy is able to easily teleport on-site with almost no effort, but must concentrate on whatever world they need to reach - provided it's been shown to them in the navicomp's system - and on arrival must rest. She has also been taken to other dimensions, Carramba where Karen works, Xen where those assorted Force-using students met up with even stranger people, even Zekira... whose slavery seems somehow less drastic but still irks the pair enough that they barely want to go back even with the flighted Steeds and plenty of colorful people to meet. When moving between entire realms like that, Zevy must know the location by sight, taken to it by another usually, and then can return to the Temple herself, but it always means a full day of rest and relaxation after each jaunt.
Telepathy and Verbal Speech - a clear, bright mind, and a cheerful and well-enunciated tone will greet anyone that she knows is a friend. Zevy doesn't mind-speak to enemies, preferring to give a low, clear warning before any actions are taken. She has a big vocabulary, perhaps even bigger than Loba's by a bit, but also knows numerous words in a variety of galactic languages just in case there are people who can't speak Standard. Those in need, she won't hesitate to gently nudge those minds, keeping track of people by their mental energy. She can keep up two conversations though not with too much variation between them, so at a group meeting where one thing is being discussed she's able to mull it over easily; in an area with lots of different conversations going on, not so much.
Telekinesis - taking a page from Loba's functional ability, Zevy manipulates the bigger items easily! Together they can pick locks or tear out whole prison walls, just with their telekinetic power. Zevy is able to lift a landspeeder with this power, and move it around as though it's a toy! She can boost her own raw strength if need be, so a contest of strength against, say, a Rancor pit fighter, becomes more a matter of telekinetically battering it with this power and slashing where needed with claw or horn. She's not much for actively fighting semi-intelligent creatures like that, but sometimes there is no choice.
Healing Magic and Immortality - Zevysei has been struck by plenty of bullets and blaster fire, and never seems to sustain dangerous or bad enough wounds to kill her. She can extend at least the quick healing to her bond, though whether she may increase Loba's lifespan who even knows. With the healing available, the techs first offered to try and remove the control device from her head, but Loba decided that having it altered would do better - not that she didn't trust Zevy's ability to heal her very brain with her power, but that by now it was part of her, and Zevy bonded her with it, so why not keep it useful. Zevi's power can detect wounds among those refugees they transport, and even while flying over to a safe place, can work on minor injuries or illnesses provided they are not life threatening or too old to fix.
Shapeshifting (humanoid) - this power is one that she can use, but has not developed much. As time goes on, and given that there are other dragons who do this, she might fully exploit it while in urban areas. She certainly can see the benefit of being able to simply walk around on two feet, at humanoid-height, rather than be refused entry to places because she looks like a beast of burden...
Free Willed, unaffected by Verem's curse, a few of her clutch-mates and half-siblings may have known all about her and her future, but they cannot or will not say anything about it. That suits her just fine, she believes that she controls her own destiny even if the Force 'binds' them to one or another of those possible futures.
Parentage: Sherimei Jariane and Verem
From: Rainbow Glitz Gather by Nomi
Personality: Confident and self-assured, but careful to be conscientious of others needs. Zevy attracts attention wherever she goes, and far from her bond's hesitance to stride right into a group, Zevy and Loba use this to their advantage. While people gawk at the amazing shimmery dragon, Loba is sneaking around looking for people needing to be helped.

** (note 2023 removed gel shimmer dragon and put them on Ryne's page, as they were inappropriate to this character, this will differ from old isla records, sorrynotsorry)