The Engoi family is not particularly pleasant to work with, for, or around. They are stars of video and stage, celebrity is their main hobby and they love to show off that they are 'the people you look at' on the videos... They are aggressive, annoying, selfish, stalkery-types that don't hesitate to butt in where they aren't wanted, and walk away with more than you'd like them to have taken.

None of that was lost on a young Lyteek. She was smarter than virtually all of their family members, and more than that, better Bred. Though even that feature wasn't something they were aware of when they bought her on the cheap, somehow. The fact is, she was 'cheap' because the Peridian had been using illegally-gotten genetics from some unusual people, folk who didn't even originate on Zekira. That Peridian has been Exiled, by the time she escaped from Oasis Island.

That place, a resort island wholly Held by the Engoi people, had casinos, Steed racing and betting, vast restaurants and fashion shows, a whole bunch of weird vehicular stunts and racing... They had an on-site video editing and production house as well as just plain housing and boarding facilities. They figured, 'oh, a taur shaped girl, she'll be fine with the Steeds right?' only she isn't. She doesn't 'hate' Steeds but she very much hates being equated to one, just because she has more limbs than normal. By the time she was ten years old, and only looked around 8, she had still not had as much of an education as she was meant to have, even as a Budak. Nor had she been fully tested by other Peridian - her paperwork was just pretty much thrown out the moment she left Osini her original birth place, but was 'technically' still available. Altered, almost entirely fabricated in fact, no one was going to question it. It had her name and her gender as created, a basic color scheme, and the visible mutations that couldn't be hidden. They didn't know any of her powers, no one knew. They still don't know her fertility - she doesn't, and isn't sure what to even do with her configuration.

So at some point, she realized she did not belong with those despicable people; doing sloppy work with Steeds that also seemed as snooty and arrogant as the men and women in the Engoi facility. She cleverly managed to get herself on to a 'tour' boat, which then strangely and abruptly started taking on water and sinking!

That would have been because she became too dense for it to float. While she got off the boat and it sprang back up, the others were able to keep themselves alive long enough to be rescued. They counted her as a loss, just a Budak anyway. It took her quite a while to adjust to the weird watery environment that she now seemed unable to die in, but as she got better at actually swimming, her other abilities began to properly function. She learned to ignore the pain of 'growing' webbing between her fingers and limbs, and how to swim by bobbing to the surface and dropping down again - altering her actual density along with each six-armed stroke. Soon enough she delighted in this.

There were plenty of islands and little caverns to hide in, along the route she took back toward the Land of Tana - and she did need to return, or go to that Land. Something compelled her, drawing her eastward bit by bit. The ocean surrounding Tana was reasonably shallow, if not particularly kind. Bitter winds and sharp rain fell on the surface, but she swam along below it, only taking a moment or two to surface for air every hour or so. She first spotted a boat on the ocean floor with a weird glance, and having noticed the spark of luminescent fish and glowing plant life, she emulated it... successfully! A faint glimmer of lights showed a trapped skeleton, but also goggles and flippers for swimming, someone was rich and stupid and didn't estimate how dangerous these choppy shallow ocean waves could really be!

So she brought what she could, along with her. A thousand-mile journey only breaking a dozen times in the tropical sand isles and occasional dormant volcanic island, something that people talk about in hushed terms now. If there was ever anyone that belonged in and around the sea, it was her! And she didn't even have fins or webbing normally!

When she was within a hundred or so miles of the shore of Difar, she felt a stronger calling, another psionic mind that she latched on to for dear life. She'd been alone and in the sea for a month or more, after all, and it would be nice to actually see people that weren't horrible? Please? Don't be horrible?

They were anything but horrible! This group seemed to understand her situation the moment that she could relate it: to the mentalist on the other end of this slender psionic line, she was another stray to be gathered up, one who could clearly make her own way in their little township! He explained, while she was still on the way to greet a boat they would send, that this was known as Reska Flats - a Renegade town. People of all Status seemed to wander by the place all the time, but never realized that its entire population were ex-slaves and runaway bonds.

She was only fifteen but still looked younger, and even their well-trained and friendly-to-Renegades Peridian was surprised by this. She calmly asserted that Lyteek needed that proper testing, but also proper identification. Since those records weren't readily available or accurate, it took a little digging to realize that her Holders had already presented a death record! That made it considerably easier to create a new identity, but the fact remains that Lyteek is remarkably distinct in appearance, and had at least on two occasions been on camera during recording on Oasis Island. It would be best, the Peridian explained, if she remained out of sight for another ... well, at least another decade. It seemed like that would be forever to a girl that age.

But there were so many things to do and see, Reska Flats was now her home and she intended to make the very most of it. They'd been around for thousands of years! Imagine! Slowly but surely expanding and testing the waters, literally in their case, to let one former Bayaran become Tuantana after their bond period expired... then another, and another. The location itself was weird, fun to look at on a map that's for sure, barbell shaped with one bulb in the lush grassland, the long bar across a broad strip of beach... and the other bulb out in the water itself! A floating town?!

She knew she'd fit in here!

**

"It's been ten years," Lyteek said, casually, to that Peridian. Ikode by name. Ikode had once been a Budak herself, but had strongly tuned healing abilities that boosted her into Sehatan, and later to Peridian for 'specially' created sea-faring mutants. "Do you think it's safe for me to put down a Hold?"

Ikode glanced around, at the sky, at the sea. "Well, we could--"

She hardly got those words out, before someone howled a warning: invaders!

Just in the time that Lyteek had lived here, the coast of Difar had been invaded a dozen times by those weird aliens in their fast, noisy aircraft. She was sure that they'd started establishing an undersea base, it was just an instinct, just a hunch, but... what if they were? What if those creatures from another planet intent on taking Zekira for themselves actually had a thriving base somewhere?

Lyteek helped pick up the goods that others were sorting through, and pulled a big tarp over it all. Normally just for the weather, it served well enough to disguise the place from above - from both prying bounty hunters, as well as alien invaders. Their discussion forgotten for the moment, Lyteek would want to return to it later... hopefully there would be a later.

Eventually, months later, another ship was wrecked close enough by that the township would help pick up the survivors, and try to get the ship itself back into working order. A few of the older or longer-term inhabitants, now Tuantana or at least free Kaumburu, would be on hand to do any of the deals or discussions with those rescued.

But it happened that one of those that they pulled out of the reef-broken ship had an unusual attachment. He was a Dragon Master, and his dragons had soared overhead during one other incursion recently. Something about them, and him, struck Lyteek, and she followed him around as he assessed damages and losses, while others were helping piece together pumps and floatation devices.

"I have a friend, a Dragon Breeder," he commented, "they'll be interested in you. I just have a feeling, nothing particular," he qualified. She wasn't sure what he could mean, until that other person arrived. It was not on a regular dragon - 'regular' meaning 'local'. A brilliant blue color, but with bright glowing bobs decorating its neck and tail fringe, and... It looked for all the world like it belonged right there in the water.

I do belong right there in the water, don't I? The dragon spoke to her, and dove into the waves. Lyteek's expression said it all, as Thahaidy, the Dragon Breeder in question, laughed.

"He's right, and Dragon Master Segg was also correct, I think you'd do nicely..." The long-tailed green haired woman seemed altogether too fashionable to be riding dragons, Lyteek thought. But even that thought was caught by the dragon again.

She rarely makes appearances, but she likes to be seen!

And that time, the Dragon Breeder's expression said it all...

Eventually they discussed what 'it' was. An offworld location fit for suitable dragons for a water-adapted and clever type like Lyteek. Lantessama had unique dragons on normal days, these were 'even more so'. Lyteek understood that there were 'other worlds', one of the local elders was apt to spin wild stories about 'his time on this far off planet', so she was prepared for that knowledge. What she wasn't prepared for was actually getting there, which involved traveling through a Void or... something. It was terrifying, cold, but at the end of it was a lush world and a beautiful warm bay!

And dragons!

** From hatching **

A second bronze, this one with darker stripes and lines, stumbled away from the minefield of sharp eggshells. He had avoided injury but had spent a lot of energy in his efforts. Sagging tiredly, he called out for his bond and she came for him. Lyteek scooped him up with ease and returned to a safer spot away from the crowd.
"Are you alright Kavyketh?" she asked.
"Yes, just tired." the bronze replied and dozed before he could eat.

**

Lyteek was sure that they should stay just a bit longer, as Kavyketh was still quite small. Lantessama was quite nice, no one making decisions about people who'd run away from awful situations, and more importantly no alien invaders to ruin the hard work people would put into their lives. Protective and caring, Lyteek asserted that she had seen plenty of undersea animals that would protect their brood, nestled in the corals or kelp forests to preven them from being harmed.

**

When Kavyketh had developed more of his 'plumage' with transparent fins and elegant additions to his wings, they were ready to head back to the Flats. Well, ready to head back to Zekira, perhaps they were going up to an inland spot first: Ablan. It was very far inland, and somewhat uncomfortable for the dragon, but several of Thahaidy's dragon-master friends asserted there were quite a few reasons to bring them there first.

"Offworld dragons aren't as well known or even categorized among most Dragon Breeder listings," Amaranth said, indicating her own incredibly pretty black and gold colored 'sky' dragoness. It was not a Sky dragon, it was a Pernese dragon whatever that meant. But what it meant to the dragons was far more important. The Lantessama Court dragons were in some way connected - Amaranth explained their colors, their lineages, and their potential.

"We just want to make sure that you know you've got a... different support network than most Dragon Masters," the Atasan casually said, "so if you need to get on and off world, as Thahaidy has said, we're here for you and you can always leave a message. We know where to go."

Though he was looking a little... dried out and wilted at the altitude and distance from the sea, Kavyketh paid attention to all of this. In his quiet way he nudged his beloved rider, I like that idea, it makes me feel more safe.

**

"So you can fly," Lyteek exclaimed, "just be careful! Your wings are delicate, aren't they?"

Her frilly dragon was certainly able to soar just a bit, over the water, before nosing downward and under the waves once more. A bronze colored shadow under the surface, circling the salvage boat. He went deeper and encouraged Lyteek to join him, 'with her thumbs'!

**

Their Holdings were growing, slowly but surely, and Kavyketh had matured into a beautiful and rather big dragon. Not quite as large as Amaranth's gold, but apparently that was because of their breed similarities. They were not similar enough, however, because Kavyketh believed very firmly that he could find a mate with 'a few more fins'. Racynioth merely chuckled at that thought, though she seemingly would have made for a good pairing he was right. He deserved to find a female that would give chase below the waves, in the depths. He didn't fly well enough to truly impress the Pernese, and would never have caught her in a traditional mating flight. But she hinted that perhaps there were others out there that would suit these waters.