Xuilan/Zhi

Xiulan is generally an angry person, stemming from her unsympathetic upbringing and her actual dislike of the work on the ranch. She's very determined and will take risks to get what she wants. She's self-motivated and determined. She can be snippy and abrasive, but will always get the job done.

She grew up on the family ranch with her single mother. Her father is a con man who had a one night stand with her mother. He didn’t learn of Xiulan till after her birth. He begin sending money and presents and such to help support her and her mother but was never allowed to really return or meet with his daughter. Because of this, his career as a con, and her mother’s lack of empathy to him Xiu doesn’t like him and prefers to avoid and ignore him. This changes over the course of this story as she interacts with him more in order to help her get Sister back. By the end, she realizes her father only ever wanted to help her and assists her in shutting down Paddock’s.

Her mother is emotionally unattached and is work oriented. While not abusive, she’s not empathetic to Xiulan’s emotional state and slightly neglectful. Her mother wants Xiulan to help on the farm and inherit the place, something Xiulan is not interested in doing which has led to a bit of a personal crisis as she’s not sure where else her life should go.

After her pet dragon, Sister, is stolen, Xiulan goes undercover to the facility where she beilves Sister is, only to be paired with an agressive and moody wyvern called Trouble. She has to keep up the facade as a trainer in order to find her own dragon but has to learn how to tame the dangerous animal in her charge in order to do such. As she builds a connection with Trouble, she starts to see her own frustrations in life reflected in him leading to her development throughout the novel.