Khyesh knew her place, as a child.

Now, she was not so sure. With her abilities flourishing, practically the moment she was old enough to be tested for fertility and genetics, her psionics started booming. She'd been Owned by a Dragon Breeder, which was a good start anyway. Almost anyone working for the new, somewhat odd Status folk would be placed higher than even those of a High Master.

Fighting off the weird alien craft, and the weird aliens themselves, was hard work. Animal Masters couldn't do it all, Dragon Masters had been created to fine-tune the efforts.

So when, one morning a few weeks after being tested (and coming back with a 'well she's fertile sort of, but this list of stuff we found in her genes should prove very interesting to watch' note attached) she was escorting the Dragon Breeder around the custom dragon-nests... Khyesh suddenly realized that one of the eggs was dormant and had a seriously defective dragon-fetus in it.

And she fixed it. She concentrated hard on it, and made the egg's resident change. Just enough to restart its heart, just enough to make sure that its nervous system worked properly. It would never be a 'good' dragon, it would likely still die after hatching.

But the Dragon Breeder watched this with amazement, and abruptly Raised her from her slave status.

So now... What. Now, she was a Dragon Breeder.

Now, Khyesh had people fumbling over themselves to give her things. Land! Holdings! Stuff! Money!

Woah, money. Lots of it. More than she even understood was possiblet to have. And even her own Budak, that was weirdest of all. But she had to start getting picky about things, a few years later. She could work with almost any kind of dragon, prefering flighted ones to those snakey things in the deserts. But mainly, Khyesh enjoyed working with people.

And now that she could decide for herself what she could or would do with her time, she decided to play it up. She was very pretty, her coloration striking, and her mutations at least interesting to look at. She loved being around people, so her main focus would be to show off to them how important it was that Dragon Mastery be kept on as a viable Status. Some day, they knew, the aliens would either give up or be defeated and driven off forever. But...

Where would that leave the pair of new Status folks? Dragon Masters who commanded their bonds into battle or healed them or flew communication missions... And Dragon Breeders who, like Animal Masters, had almost complete control over each egg and generation of dragon to be hatched. They would always be necessary, they would be repurposed, heavy lifting and seaborn adventures, even racing or show - like Steeds!

But that would be plenty far in the future, they all guessed. In fact, several people who had fortelling powers knew this would be a long, painful fight. Not every Dragon Master commanded a fighting dragon, Khyesh was among those who didn't want to train or breed dragons for battle at all. Instead, she continued her work with other Breeders, and helped house the dragons that did fight - every Land had their own bunch of Breeders, but once those dragons were hatched and sent off with a Master, they had to be kept somewhere!

So she rented out spots for Dragon Masters who weren't free like herself. Some weren't quite highly Bred enough to sport as many powers as she. And some weren't even powered, they were just good with creatures or had skills that Dragon Masters could use such as harness making or armor fitting for the very brave. Each of her dragon homesteads could house large sized dragons and their Master, in quantities up to thirty of each local type. They had plenty of room, and the Masters often appreciated the luxury of having their 'own' spot in the world. Some would go out and come back. Some came back with injuries and were tended by expert Healers. And some... Didn't come back.

Her own dragonry sands were sparse, mostly because she had yet to settle on the trade fully. She'd only been involved with really doing Dragon Breeding for a few years, even after being Raised to that status. So, Khyesh bought a few of this and a couple of that kind of egg from other Breeders, and watched them.

There were some experiments she did that just didn't work. The Forest dragon for instance, that hatched and suddenly flipped out, almost mauling her, and then flew inexpertly into the nearby lake - where it was eaten by one of the Swamp dragons she kept around.

But some... worked.

Better than expected, but not as expected. This pale colored hatchling emerged from a large, hard shell and she knew she'd done something amazing. It was based loosely on a Stone dragon - they were huge and sturdy and didn't have wings. But ... this one did. He had turned completely white with her genetic alteration, but that was acceptable. He had fringe of furry color bits running around his wing sails and such, and those 'ears' he had... Well, fins perhaps, more like some of the Sea dragons out there. But this was all just her fiddling with a Stone dragon egg.

Each egg she had in her dragonry was numbered, and this one was no exception. When this unique and obviously intelligent dragon came out from his shell, he gazed at his creator with loving, violet eyes.

It's nice and warm out here, can you give me some food?

"Of course I can, Two-eight-seven-four-five."

That is not a good name, you know.

"I know," she said, digging around for some of the insect-mash kept on hand for feeding young dragons. "But how about Tw'ait! That sounds like a fun name, doesn't it?"

He didn't answer, he was gobbling up his first meal.

***

They made appearances in locations that other Masters might not. Making sure that everyone knew what was happening out there in the world. The aliens could attack at any time, and in any location - it didn't matter if it was a big city or a flat plain of nothing. They couldn't afford to lose even one Span of their homeworld.

Khyesh and Tw'ait were popular and enjoyed success wherever they went. In fact since Khyesh could to a reasonable extent detect such things, she Raised one or two new Masters!