The sun turned its large red-orange head away from the continent of Hale, shedding darkness onto the villagers of the high-tech society that lived there. As the sun continued to turn it silhouetted the mountains Fareia, and Shenti, named for the goddesses of Hope and Joy, and also the small oddly shaped frame of an odd out of place being. Sliver colored orbs looked up at the twin mountains and watched crimson red and fiery orange fade into a deep rich purple and then into the darkness. "Zealtella goddess of darkness please do not let him take me I am not ready to die..." A serpentine voice issued from the small twisted female frame. Water dripped form the corners of the slivery white orbs and landed in puddles underneath the creature's oddly shaped draconic feet. "I wish everything was normal again, oh how I long to be normal once more..." the dragon-like voice cried out in the darkness as the stars began to dance in the black-deep blue sky, kissing the earth with their faint glimmer. He creature looked up form it's self pity, it was sitting on the banks of the sliver sea, directly in front of the large snow capped mountains. A final tear slide down a sliver-blue cheek and fell onto the snow white sands, staining it a shade that perfectly matched the sea it's self. The now appearing white yellow moon played tricks on the sea's crystal clear water, causing it to look like molten sliver if you stood on it's banks looking out upon it in the dark. The creature stood up uneasily on her hind legs and attempted to step forward towards the sea, her home, her life. Her back legs which where not meant for standing on gave out and she fell forward onto her elbows into the clean white sand sending little bits flying in different directions. "Why must you torture me Zealtella? Why? I need you in these times of peril goddess of Darkness grant me safe haven.." The she-creature sobbed another tear rolling down form her luminous great sliver eyes. Somewhere in the distance a light issued forth through the from in fog splitting it like wood to an ax. The creature drew back relived that light passed over her, barely missing the tip of her horned head. She picked up her now exhausted legs once more, muscles straining and began to crawl on all fours towards the lapping waves of the sea. "I must hurry they are coming.." She hissed silently to herself forcing her oddly shaped legs on cringing as the muscles burned with fire. The creature bent her bluish sliver striped body as another beam of light passed just above her head. She tried her best to pull her aching muscles up and looked over her shoulder strait into the light. She stood still like a deer in the headlights unable to move the fear enshrouding her reflexes. "There she is don't let her get away!" A voice rang out form the darkness and the light's beam wavered. The she creature's mind snapped back into place. She dove into the waves with all of her strength and let the changes complete themselves. She would never be normal again, not after what they had done. She felt a tail sprout form her back and twist it's self down back and forth propelling her farther into the sliver sea farther away from him. Her nose enlarged and grew wider forming a snout and her teeth sharpened and narrowed. Her eyes widened and she suddenly became aware of more than one color spectrum. And the worst part of all where the legs, the bones crunched up agianist one another She felt a tail sprout form her back and twist it's self down back and forth propelling her farther into the sliver sea farther away from him. Her nose enlarged and grew wider forming a snout and her teeth sharpened and narrowed. Her eyes widened and she suddenly became aware of more than one color spectrum. And the worst part of all where the legs, the bones crunched up against one another twisting turning burning. She felt them enlarge and stretch out and she felt her 5 finger join together to form three. Then the skin stretched over them to form membrane like webbing. Bone like fin formed at her elbows and in between her enlarge cat like ears. On the tip of her tail two large blade like bones emerged completing her changes and revealing the pain. She was free once more, the she creature was no more he had failed... Thank you Zealtella goddess of darkness you have proved your worth to me once more...A sweet soft draconic voice echoed from the creature starling a fish that swam nearby. She picked up her finned draconic head and gazed around the sea depths with her sliver-white eyes scanning form signs that he might have followed. None where found she was safe. Saved by her creator once more, saved by her home. From above the moon still played the same sliver light across the sea from which it drew it's name, but the feelings of loneliness and fear had been lifted from the creature and the humans where gone, the evil blasted humans. She closed her eyes and tried to remember why she had ever trusted them, why she had left her haven of safety... I was the fool, I was the one who was the one who asked him to do it, why oh why I was so stupid? The draconic song like voice crooned sadly out into the sea to no one inparticular. Her slivery eyes fell down to the sandy floor as she searched her mind for the memory that had come back to haunt her many a time on the long cold nights as she buried herself in depths of her underwater cave, the cave she knew as home. Where it had all started... It was him. He was a human called Cale, a black haired tall thin funny looking scientist. He had gone on an exploration with his partner looking for sea pearls to examine. Rumor had it that the two where on the verge of figuring out how to make them aritifucally, they only needed on more for study. But they came to the wrong place, they intruded on a Gauru's lair. Deep in the heart of an underwater cave, more suited for a dwarf a young female Gauru lived in peace only their to accommodate her human needs, like oxygen and living space. She was happy and playful like a young unwise dolphin that strays to close to the sailor's ships. But she had the mind of a wise young human. She preferred her draconic from and would only be caught as the tall sliver haired woman once a month as was necessary. But Cale when he found the deep dark cave could only see a beautiful woman who stood staring at him like the dolphin stares at the sailor right before he snatches her up into his net and ships her away to the fish packing plant. Oh was she unwise back then. Her thoughts slipped even farther back to when he was just young, her father had once warned her that not all humans are good. "On the land things are different," he told her. "Not like here in the sea. All things here are balanced and peaceful everything works with everything else to create perfect harmony. No one upsets that balance, no one tries to." He paused to look at her with his green-blue eyes. "Do you try to save the fish caught in the fisherman's net?" He asked but didn't wait for her response. "For if you did you might also be ensnared and taken away. But if you let them go they would fulfill they're purpose and meet Septeinia in the big ocean in the sky." He said waving his hand upwards to exaggerate the meaning of his words. "But the land ones, they do not see things like us. They always strive for immortally defying the gods and therefore being punished. They do not understand the balance of nature or they're purpose in life. They always try to make things better than they have it." He sighed looking back down at his daughter. "Don't ever let me find you upsetting the balance beware of the land ones. Know your purpose in life and stick to it and the gods will reward you.." His final words had confused the she creature when she was young but she understood them now. She understood the delicate balance that life rides on and why the land ones where feared down here. She understood her mistakes... Cale had found her in her cave on one of the days he dreaded one of the days she was forced out of her draconic body and into her human one. He had come and saw only her beauty and her body. And she had seen only him like the human in her had, she had seen him like a man and not an enemy. It was the first time she had slipped. She let him take her to the surface and dress her in clothing and teach her the manners and edict of humans. And she did not want to go back to the sea, though the dragon in her raged she stayed on the surface with the man she had come to love. Cale told her she was beautiful, and that he was going to marry her. But the she creature didn't understand what marriage meant. She didn't understand that it meant she had to be with him form the rest of her life on. And when he told her this she flipped. "Stay her what do you mean my love?" She asked him in the same sweet eerie voice she use din her draconic form. "why can't you come back with me? We can return to the sea and I can be normal once more." Her eyes floated up to his brown ones and searched them trying to understand. "Oh Aiania, my little playful Dolphin. You are normal now, and I won't let you go back to them. You are mine and I am yours.." He said walking over to sit besides her on the bed that they shared. He extended his hand and ran his fingers through her long sliver colored hair. It hit her then what her father had told her. The words of her father echoed dully in her head 'never let me catch you upset the balance little dolphin..'. She looked up at him eyes full of tears, she realized she couldn't stay and wondered why he didn't. "Cale I can't stay here. Cale I'm a sea dragon! You know that why did you do this? You brought me here and now I must suffer I want to be free again. I want to go home.. " She said the dragon inside her spilling forth making her sweet voice sound inhuman and eerie. Cale was quite, as he continue dot stroke her hair. "I can make you human Aiana, and you can stay her forever with me..." He said standing up suddenly looking ten times larger and ten times stronger. "come I know someone who can do this for us.." He picked her frail frame up off the bed and carried her through his door. She was caught...caught in the fisherman's net... "Why does she look like this? I told you exactly what to do and yet you fail? I want to see her normal in the morning or I swear I'll have you killed." Someone said in referance to the She creatures, as she had become to be known by the people of this cruel and evil place. She looked up caught in the middle of a shift back to her normal form. It was horrible what had happened, half human half sea-dragon. Slivery-white orbs locked onto those of her fiancé's and she cowered in the small room that they had put her in. They, being a group of genetic scientists had tried to rid her of the sea-dragon's shape that plagued her. Little they knew.. and little they did. No shape plagued this young woman, it was quite the opposite. She was a sea dragon, a sea dragon plagued by a human form that her ancestors had once needed so they could walk among the land ones unnoticed from sea to sea, in times of war. She pulled her eyes up form the white-tinted sand to stare at an eel slithering by, could it have possibly been the one imprisoned like her in a cage back at the laboratory? No no, that one was green-white and he was probably gone by now. He had been her only true friend there... "We have a few more tests to go and then she will be ready..." The scientist responded eyes full of fear as he watched the dark haired man glaring at him. "I want my fiancé back now and I want her perfect.." He looked down at Aiania as she looked up at him. "That thing in her is hurting her and I want it out and served to me on a plate." He pounded his fist on the balcony that over looked the rooms causing the thing to shake. The scientist nodded and directed him to the door, for he knew what Aiania was and he knew she was dreadfully smart. And here I am now. And now that I am free of that stupid human I shall fulfill my purpose like my father... She told the little green eel that had curled itself around her legs eyes shinning up at her adoringly. She smiled draconcilly, a habit she had picked up form humans and gently removed the eel placing it on a rock. you flatter me really, it's to bad you can't see very well little one.. Aiania, Sea dragon daughter of Rinai and Cain, sighed. She was alone once more in the heart of the sliver sea with no one around to comfort her. She had grown to live with it until the human part of her had fallen in love with Cale, but now she wouldn't seek companionship in something else. She was bound for better things she was, better things than the foolish humans of Hale. Aiania spared once last glance at the ell and moved her four webbed feet propelling her to the surface. She was draconic but she needed air, the oxygen in the water would only sustain her for so long. She used her bladed tail as a propeller speeding up her smooth fluid like stride. Her finned head broke the surface and she opened her snout sucking in the life giving oxygen and cherishing it's subtle taste. Something that humans could not feel or taste, or appreciate. She apddled her feet to keep her head from going back under and looked up at the stars, burning white-sliver in the night. doesn't Aiania mean star? A foreign voice said quietly into her head. She glanced around for it's creator. There was no one, and no where for them to be, the nearest island was at least 20 miles away. Aiania sighed, she was imagining things once more. She plunged her finned head into the slivery water and propelled her feet straining her muscles to carry her back once more. Back to the caves, back to the darkness. She breathed out her remaining oxygen and swam down even farther, into the ear-popping depths of the unknown a place she referred to as home. Aiania paddled her way through the hidden tunnel into her well incased underwater cave. It was perfectly peaceful, nothing there to upset the delicate balance of underwater life. No Cale. No laboratory. No more humans... She pushed her head through the surface of the water and swam lesurily around the small pool of water that was in the center of her cave. The light radiating form the moon way up at the surface danced down through the tunnel leading to her caved and came up through her pool spreading wavey flickering rays all across her underground haven. She twisted her body out of the water and walked into a darkened tunnel, the one that she considered to be her sleeping chambers. She sighed, how lonely this was, living alone with only the rocks and fish for company. You never answered. Aiania does mean star doesn't it? Aiania's head shot up, once was weird but twice was scary. She pulled herself into a ball raising her find protectively and prayed to whatever god guarded lonely sea dragon from evil sprits. I mean you no harm... The errie voice crooned into Aiania's head, softer this time, more assuring. Away! OUT! go! Aiania demanded flicking her tail blade so that the little light that reach her bounced off it and made her look threating. She sighed when she heard no response. it's aa-nee-uh anyway... she hissed and dropped her tail, alone once more.. Sea star? the voice inquired. Do not be afraid and don't try and rptect yourself form me, I'm less human than you are. Now if you'll please come out of that little hole so I can get a good look at you.. No! Absolutely not! Get out of my cave who ever you are! Do not give me a reason to use the blade I was given by Zealtella and all the other gods! They favor dragons above humans! Aiania hissed her subtle sweet voice turning into an icy cool whisper. The voice laughed menacingly into her head. And they favor their sons above all things on this planet. Now get out of that cave and into the light or I will tell my mother to stop giving you breaks. She had already saved you from those human twice now. And she is the one who sent me lovely sea-star she is worried about you, your kind is her favorite out of all the creatures her sister made. Aiania was stunned. For one thing, she was honored for another, she didn't quite trust this voice, she had never heard of any of the gods sons waltzing about trying to lure dragons out of there holes. She had one idea, one that would either prove this thing's divine heritage or confirm his awful lies. Who is you father? She asked innocently, though she was a dragon when she had been human Cale had taught her to read and she would spend hours when he was at work pouring over books about the gods and history of Rayllom. The voice laughed, a smooth cool sound that echoed dully in Aiania's head. she warned me you where no fool Sea star. I am son of Zealtella by Sabbar, the seventh son. You may know me as that but most people tend to call me Sargon. the smooth voice proudly spat into her head with a hint of irrtance in it. Aiania almost toppled over where she lay, Sargon, in her cave at the bottom of the ocean. Wha-What do you want? she stammered unable to think of anything else. Have you ever heard of Bearis Kshau's Healing Den? Sargon asked stepping in front of the cave the light from the underwater tunnel cast an eerie light onto his aquatic looking frame. Anyone who had heard of the Forbidden kind knew that he was one of Rayllom's few chameleon shifters, he could assume any form anytime. Aiania couldn't quite make out what hew as this time but it looked to be something close to a dragon she could define fins and a long tail. Sargon's yellow eyes narrowed looking extremely dangerous in the dim light of the cave. I will not waste my time down here. You have been told by the GODS to get yourself together and go to the healing den. That is your purpose Sea star now get off your lazy scaled butt and come over here!He roared. Aiania bit her tongue a habit that the humans had taught her. Fine Sargon but if one human lays hi hand son me, so help my Zealtella I will slaughter him or her like the wicked creatures they are..