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Student Zyhah Xhavaqiix(image) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Zyhah lived on Zedd as a pampered child. She was not so weirdly mutated that she was abandoned, and plus, her coloration was truly special. Most Zeddians were white with black markings, for one thing. But also most had multiple markings on their skin - she had but one, on her forehead and nose, which since babies on Zedd don't grow their hair in until toddler-hood, everyone could plainly see. She grew up in a nice home, with parents who cared for her but knew she could actually be dangerous what with those spines growing on her arms. As an infant they were merely bumps, but they grew with her until now. The physicians and genetic consultants on Zedd knew perfectly well what they were, and warned her parents of their danger. So as a youth, she was usually found wearing snug arm-wraps until she could consciously control where the spines pointed. They are slightly flexible, enough to lay flat or stand straight out - but they also may break, she's broken one or two of them and it's quite painful. So that is something she wants to avoid at all costs. Her ability to focus light around her into a dazzling hypnotic show started when she was around ten years old, and has only gotten stronger. If her class schedule would have allowed for more of it, she would have chosen a bit more instruction on how to use it. Perhaps next year. And, those weird little gills on her neck? The doctors also warned her parents that she would be able to breathe under water or probably filter out poisons in the air easily - but she'd need to learn not to breathe with her mouth or nose while doing so. That took practice, but after having fallen into the nearby pond a couple times, her parents figured she'd deal with it herself, on instinct - they were correct in that assumption. But the unique thing about her came shortly before her thirteenth birthday. After having some friends over, playing games and demonstrating each other's powers to impress one another, Zyhah got her (extremely Earth-influenced) cake and made a wish with the candles. She'd been reading about Earth for years, since Zedd had established contact with them through several Nexus points and space-time travellers. She'd been gobbling up all manner of information about the place, which was why she'd had a "traditional Earth party" as a theme for her birth celebration. It was highly unusual to do so, but her parents and friends indulged her because it was quite novel. Her wish, while blowing out those candles, was to finally be able to see Earth for herself. The earth that their contacts had found, Twoarth was different from many others, and that was the one where she had gotten her books from. The last candle flickered out, leaving a trail of smoke in the air, and with it, Zyhah herself vanished. Several hours later, the family recieved an emergency call from the Ministry, they'd found Zyhah on Twoarth all right, and would it be acceptable for her to remain on? What they didn't tell her parents was that she wound up in the bustling beach community of Crescent City, where Carramba High School resides. And also, that they'd like to study her ability to move between worlds a little more closely... *** That was three years ago. Zeddians mature a bit faster than humans, and Zyhah had been placed in the local Junior High at first, and graduated, heading to Carramba. Her parents visited, having been granted a special licence since their daughter was one of the few "lonemarked" on the planet. If they'd been anyone else, this would probably never have happened, and the Zeddian consulate on Twoarth would likely have sent Zyhah back immediately. But they were intrigued by her Reality Shifting techniques. As she'd learned from having faceplanted in the local pond, how to breathe - she also took to moving her shape into a more convienent one for the area around her. Training her was not the easiest thing until Carramba's instructors took over. Several of their experienced staff were teleporters or Reality Shfters themselves, this made things far simpler. She caught on quickly, like she does for many similar things. Immersion seems to trigger her powers or abilities, and 'immersion' can even include 'in a culture'. While she's not a linguist, she can get quick words in many languages (but she's hardly devoted to learning any specific one); what she truly excells at is finding her niche in a culture, and 'fitting' in it by shifting into something appropriate. A world where she's Japanese, for instance, provides her an ideal, demure, dark-skinned Japanese appearance with only two arms and no weird markings. When she took a brief look in on the Make Your Own Planet, and the Godhood and You classes, she inadvertantly slipped into universes where she herself had been born a goddess... She's not too sure why she's been chosen for the elite Dragon classes, but she's happy that suddenly she gets to look at the elegant adult dragons that the instructors ride, and care for the little ones that the students have paired off with or sponsored. The truth is that she was Searched by the head of the department, bronze dragon rider Hollis. He hadn't even realized it but there was a clutch ready, how it'd escaped his notice he wasn't sure, but it wasn't going to be something broadly available to people. This was special, this was different - like Zyhah. A little flitter told him, Hollis would claim later. It was true, but no one believed him... *** Zyhah leaned back against the tree and folded her low hands together over her belly, reaching her other pair up over her head and picking at the bark of the tree with them. It was hot, unusually so, for Winter, and there had been no sign of rain this year. "If only I had weather powers," she said to one of her classmates as they ate lunch, "I'd make it rain, a nice cool breeze, and there'd be blue sky out past the clouds so you'd see rainbows." "Ah, rainbows are for girls," said one boy, "it should be pouring rain, buckets of it, nothin' but dark clouds everywhere." "Next thing you'll be saying is Unicorns are for babies," muttered their friend, who happened to be a male, and happened also to be a unicorn-mutt kin. "I'm sure he didn't mean it that way," said Zyhah, carefully glancing back at their friend. "Well, none of us has weather shaping powers anyway so it doesn't matter." On a whim, Zyhah focused a bit of light in front of Thad, the tough guy. A little rainbow appeared over his nose, and it danced in front of him while he ate. He kept trying to brush it away, and everyone in the little clump of students under the tree laughed at it. "I don't wanna go back to class," grumbled Szuszan, "my afternoon on odd days just sucks." "Tell me about it," Thad commisserated with her. They glared at Zyhah. "Unlike Qiik here, who has nothing all day..." "I do not have nothing!" Zyhah said, standing and brushing her short hair free of bark and leaves. "I have ... Geometry in the mornings!" "And then nothing!" Szu asserted. "I'd hardly call Shapeshifting tech and Oceanography nothing," Zyhah sighed. "But it is a cruise, I mean... Geometry to make my brain hurt in the morning, and then I get to shapeshift, look at fishies, and then be a fishie..." She giggled, and they all headed to their classes. She did indeed now have Oceanography, and later Deep Pool sports where she enjoyed activities with numerous aquatic students. She left out the part where even days were pretty packed. Dragon Care, E/A Lit, Nexus Geohistory! Heavy work for the body and brain, and thankfully her last class those days was the sedate and always serene Tea Ceremony. She always thought of the Tea club more like another culture class, because it was always where she found out interesting tidbits about Oriental cultures as well as those on other worlds. Zyhah would eventually have to do a report about her own homeworld's culture for it, in fact, demonstrating some similar kind of formal event. It was challenging, that class wasn't all just sitting around drinking hot tea! They even learned about the history of tea in it! Zyhah wanted to bring something from home, to the class. The semester would be breaking soon and Winter break would mean she'd be able to head home if briefly. But ... but then the Dragon class master approached her. About coming during the Winter break out to the dragonry labs and the private dragon clutch that was being held.** "Here? Right here at Carramba?" She asked, quietly, not trying to draw attention since Hollis obviously didn't want any more than they were getting. As it was, they were literally like night and day - he was smaller than she, by almost half a foot, she was entirely black and he was almost entirely white... "Yes, here, it was a bit of a surprise to me too, but you're ... well, I want to say perfect for it, but I don't like to jinx things. With every dragon clutch there's always the possibility that someone won't go home paired up. It happened much more often back on the Old World." Zyhah was torn, "but I really wanted to go home for a few days... I haven't seen my folks in months..." "How about this," Hollis said, trying to drape his arm over her shoulders and failing miserably because she was way taller than him. He instead patted her on the back. "I'll cheat for you - when the start of the break comes, you come see me in my office. I'll... Well, I'll take you to your home myself - Synesth wants to meet you anyway." "Synesth, your dragon?" Her eyes brightened, "ooh, he's beautiful, I've seen him leading the parades in the air. I'd be happy to ride with you!" "Then you'll have to trust me on this... I'll take you home, and take you back here, and it'll be," he blinked, looked around, leaned in and whispered, "it'll be the same day you left. You can take a while if you like, I'll come back for you and we'll head--" "Through time?" Zyhah said a bit louder than Hollis intended, he quickly waved his hands at her before anyone else noticed. "Oooh, that is cheating! I like it!" He chuckled, "well then I'll see you in my office in a few days. Be sure to tell your folks that you will be standing - if there's a call for attendants, they might be invited too." Thus, Zyhah packed her bag and rode out the last of the quarter. Right when the holiday was about to start, was when the first rains of Winter arrived, but that was all right - she could miss it this time... She'd see the storm soon enough when she got back! *** Sadly there were no dragons for her on this supposedly-private hatching, something... happened. The eggs sort of faded into the mists of time between when they'd gone to her home, and when they got back to Carramba. That didn't deter Hollis, however. "Look, I know this is a bit weird, a little rough around the edges. I know you were really hoping that this would pan out. But now..." She brightened, literally she lit up with a soft warm-grey glow where she had been glowering in a shade closer to slate before. "Now, there's a place that I'd like to bring you to. A Weyr, but it's not exactly 'traditional'." She knew that word, "that's on Pern?" She asked, and Hollis gave a happy, slightly surprised nod. "Yes, though the parents of this clutch aren't exactly as traditional as that might seem." It was true, too. When they arrived Hollis had asked her Zyhah to reality-shift into a more presentable human with fewer limbs. So for the time being, as long as she was at this Dawn Watch Weyr place, she looked to be a very dark-skinned human female, with a 'tattoo' in white on her face, only two arms, though they too seemed to have odd pale silvery markings on them. She still had those spines, and was still careful where she put her arms, they just looked more like marks than anything that sprang out on their own! Still very tall, Zyhah would always stand out among the other candidates even though she was of an equitable age. But she'd already gone through most of the classes that the other local candidates had to sit through - she passed testing on those with flying colors. "Gold Bronze Brown Blue Green!" she chanted, those colors were expected for the most part. Until she got a look at the parents of these eggs... and wondered well. Maybe there might be some off-spectrum shades here! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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