Lheevdho Izraethi

Born as shown, with full furry appearance and a wolf-like head, modified hands and feet, and a tail. However, it was quickly seen that she was a shapeshifter, and did require some help as a child to get in and out of the four-footed shape also shown. More than that, however, is that she can also turn into water. That's right: actual liquid water. She can maintain her upright or wolf shape, and in fact when she's four-footed her water-based powers all work much
stronger than when she's upright.

While her canine-shaped head has benefits such as keen hearing and scent, she lacks much in the way of taste, and her thick paw pads and heavy coat of fur mean her sense of touch is poor. Her fur is an allergen for those sensitive, and she does have a distinct 'wet dog' smell at all times, but it offers her very strong elemental resistance. She must have meat in her diet, though she can eat other foods. She's able to conceive with canine-splices strongly, but also regular folks with seasonal boosts. She is markedly territorial and this shows in her parks and overall she is as
protective of the waterways of Curra as she is of her own family and pack.

As a shapeshifter she can move into a 4-footed wolf form within moments, and it can run very quickly, though no longer use tools or speech. She mitigates this with telepathy. Her second form, as 'water' can move into virtually any shape, though she can be affected by PR1-0 psionics with control over liquids...

Lheevdho takes her work as a quality control agent very seriously, and people who pollute waterways or abuse the inhabitants around them may find themselves... sinking to the bottom of those lakes. Vocal, but also highly intelligent and knowledgable, she represents Pack interests and will fight for wilderness over encroachment.

Two of her Holds are weather stations, and she and her mother both enjoy roosting at the tops of the towers to 'listen in' on the local weather. If it turns bad, she forewarns the Pack first, others... maybe.

The wolves however all listen to her regardless of where they are, or how related she is to them. Her power senses them at over 10 miles, and she can command related wolves at 2 miles away. She can heal or harm them, but she generally does neither of those, instead preferring to work on genetics or monitoring their locations over 'vet' work.

She can manipulate liquid water at ranges up to 100 meters, 200 when wolf-shaped. Purifying it is her main concern, but also noting its direction, weather patterns, and predicting both drought and deluge. She can literally become water, so 'breathing' water is something she just 'does'. She is cold-resistant as well, but cannot manipulate solid ice until it's a bit melted.

Bok Holdings
A sprawling wood-and-glass estate rests over a massive woodland, and included in that land are three lakes of various size and depth. These service Bok and its farmland but also are of use for water sports and vacationing - if you follow her rules. Her vet clinic contains a splicing lab, kennel arrangements, and extensive records. The weather station is co-Held with her mother, and releases balloons to monitor the frigid arctic circle. The vet clinic has several specific-trained Budak who will likely become Pelatih with practice, and others run the water park area with the Bayaran. Only Kaumburuh and Tuantana work with them at the weather station, for legal reasons.

F'ra Holdings
Though overtly similar in appearance to the Bok estate with local wood and stone structures, all of the F'ra Hold is much more centralized around the weather station. The clinic here does little with the Pack, and more serves as a point for other Pelatih to rent and do their mundane pet and food duties. The weather tower here also serves as a Steed landmark, and she makes sure that it doesn't get hit by them when they have their annual racing here. The waterfalls and extensive river system here is under her mother's direct influence, and F'ra's fresh water is kept in massive stone caverns maintained by specialized Budak and a few others.

***

Lheevdho wondered what was really going on in that "animal foundation" that had gone up in Bok. It was built quickly but all to code, at least as far as she could tell. Her expertise wasn't with buildings and structures, it was all in the water and weather departments. But within those... There was definitely something going on there and she aimed to find out what exactly it was.

All her life, she'd been part of the Izraethi clan, even though she took after her mother Sehatan Huben in many buisness respects. She could do her job with the weather stations and water control department and still protect her wolf-kin. Bok was meant to be isolated, a refuge, hardly filled to the brim with people like many other cities in Altem. In fact, there were only one or two Zones that had as few people in it and were still incorporated. It was actually while she and Huben were doing some weather research there that she'd spotted something... distinctly odd about the way the Animal Foundation was built. From above, in the weather balloon's extensive sensory collection, they realized that a good chunk of the place was built over caverns and systems filled with liquid water. Important things like that shouldn't have been overlooked, left out of official assay paperwork.

And yet.

Though Bok's weather ranged from absolutely frozen solid during deepest Winter, to a modest and somewhat mild windless Summer, it did have large lake systems and waterways that the mother-daughter pair would monitor for usage, pollution, and the like. Unaccounted-for deposits of pure water in aquifers like these could tip the balance for both people and wildlife. If it was tapped for a well here or there, that was one thing. But ... it looked for all the world like they'd actually opened up the entire system for this huge fish tank? Or something?

She wasn't sure what it was. But it was a centerpiece, and though artistically built and definitely all safe for people to wander around in, the waters of that cavern system should have been left to remain part of the entire water table under Bok! When she tried locating the folks who had done the ground assay... she found that they were dead from accidents? In the wilderness around Bok that wasn't really surprising, but it was more than one of them and that was what cued her in that something was amiss. Leaving a paper trail that led to a bunch of dead people? Yeah, that wasn't suspicious at all.

Lheevdho did a little more digging before heading into that animal park. There were few outright problems, nothing that would garner more than a small fine here and there in terms of hiring practices or the like. Something was definitely off about the Holding numbers: while Peridian like the holder were allowed a reasonable amount 'extra' for their Holdings, they were still required to file proper paperwork on Raising or changing their Status - and a Pemilik like this R'ly had well over the limit on her status, yet no paperwork for changing over to Suzerain or on up... It seemed like either it had 'slipped her mind', or perhaps she just didn't want a bigger role in the Area?

Politics were definitely something a lot of people wanted to avoid, but frankly as long as she'd had that volume of Holdings, she was already required to vote and participate. Lheevdho didn't feel like doing too much detective work in that regard, plus it was hardly her area of knowledge anyway. She'd retitled only once, and that was to add Suzerain to her own title. Maybe she'd bring that up, if it was appropriate. Though 'appropriate' was hardly a concern given the serious nature of her visit.

Her Zone Official badge would allow her to snoop around, but... not necessarily to simply walk into the Animal Foundation. She'd put it on the Zone's tab. It wasn't cheap - this wasn't a place that lower Status folks would be able to visit without saving up. So there would be a certain level of snoot at this place, Lheevdho could handle that.

What she couldn't handle was the extravagance of the park. On arrival the first thing she noticed was just how ... expansive it all was. Sure, the typical Hold Unit went a lot farther up here in the middle of absolute nowhere, but... this was... a lot. As far as the eye could see (and she could see quite well) were rolling hills with a few structures here and there, it was actually very artistic but it was so over the top. Animals of a wide variety were sequestered into their hillside or surrounded by crafted walls and fencing. That rankled Lheevdho more than almost anything else: they belonged in the wild. She knew that some of them were rare, and that conservation efforts were important to their survial - look at her own blood line for proof of that. But still it bothered her to see animals captive like this. Not pets, just ... not free. They were meant to be in the wild - maybe a hunt park, where they could fight back...

These animals weren't for hunting, she reminded herself, they were safe from predation and from being taken as trophies by hunters alike. Still though. When she got to the aquatic area she was almost livid. The aquifer had been torn open and stuffed full of cement and fake rock, walkways and glass, and then... re-filled with water? Was it the same water? Where had it come from or gone while they were working? Records, she consulted her data pad while slowly shuffling along with half a dozen others on this tour, were scarce at best. No record of having taken any in from the Bok system proper, so perhaps it was all just under the hills? Millions of gallons of the freshest unfrozen water like this?

Eventually though, she spotted her 'prey'. Lady Peridian R'ly, in the flesh. Something about her, even seen from a distance, made Lheevdho's hackles shiver. Maybe it was because she was a spliced antelope. Maybe it was that antelope was something she'd hunted on four paws. She had to muscle in with her Zone badge out, and for whatever reason rather abruptly the small group of hangers-on in the area just about vanished. The walkway and grassy hill led up to an observation deck, she imagined that would have a stunning view - for a price beyond admission.

Lheevdho was not casual when she asked to see records of water usage. And once more her hackles started to bunch up, something about this woman was just... bad. She could almost smell the secrets that R'ly surely kept, if only she could find out what they were. She didn't dare bring up the dead Membayar, not with this reception.

R'ly gave a scoffing noise and waved her hooved hand in a way that would dismiss a Budak. Lheevdho was about as far from a slave as you could get, however. She demanded to know what that little shove was supposed to prove? That she was willing to 'shoo' not just a member of the Curra council but an Izraethi in their own home Zone?

She saw R'ly's eyes widen, and that ... seemed to trigger even more instincts in the wolf-woman. She didn't know what factor it was that caused the mulberry-colored woman to panic and lash out psionically but she was obviously a match for this. It was all instinct when she shapeshifted - surprising the zoo owner but also appearing to cause someone else nearby - someone faintly familiar - to take note. Probably a bodyguard.

Suddenly moving into a four-footed wolf form would take anyone by surprise. But Lheevdho had another trick up her sleeve. When she felt this woman actively seeking to frighten her with some kind of power, images of scary things (not so scary to someone who literally hunts on all fours running with a pack) leaping at her from all sides... Lheevdho had enough. This was an attack, she was well within her rights as not just a citizen but as an official of the Area to defend herself. Fiercely.

So focused was she that she didn't really notice the violet and grey horned-wolf Budak racing up to intervene. Lheevdho splashed against him, and when she did so it was as if an entire mental history was exposed. This was - this... he was related to her?! To Izraethi blood? How? Angered beyond reason, Lheevdho set her claws like ice, her body like quicksilver. How could this person exist and she wasn't aware of it? She was Izraethi's daughter, who was this stranger who was a slave here?

He was, apparently, quite strong in ways that the Izraethi clan could barely conceive. Because one moment, he was bounding toward the pair of women to place himself in front of R'ly...

And the next, they were all falling --