Duttu was born on Planet Twenty, some decades after the arrival of the Zekirans and the earnest settling in of the half-breeds which inevitably came from their arrival. She'd heard all the stories about their travails with Humans, but the only ones she's ever met are the ones with powers such as her own, or those who clearly respect the individuality of the Kin around them.

Duttu was far from innocent, however, of the fact that a lot of the other Humanspace worlds near Planet Twenty were rather hostile to them. This seemed rather distant to her though - the last time anyone made the mistake of trying to invade their world ended very badly for those people! Who would be stupid enough to try again?

Particularly when the population included empaths capable of sensing people from a thousand miles away? Or those who could manipulate the very metal of their ships? Or especially because of the dragons?

Duttu had never been close to a dragon until her youth was almost over. Her power over animals had blossomed strongly, and never gotten any weaker over the years. Dragons were always around, flying overhead or even burrowing underground, and she'd heard of some that lived in the oceans. She'd never been to the ocean, she'd only seen images of it, and had one Zekiran woman's mental imprint passed on to her while she trained.

She wondered, one day, whether she'd be able to control sea life. They had rivers, and a small lake, where fish and such resided. But she'd never seen any crabs scuttling around along side the wild cats or small forest pigs she'd summoned!

Equally she wondered... What about dragons? From what she'd been told, there were so many different kinds. Some needed their space and had their own agenda, while others absolutely required someone to pair with and basically tell them what to do. Dutta thought about that - was she the kind of person that a dragon would respect and allow near them? Or one that they'd take commands from? Or just...

She sighed.

The rope ladder wasn't going to weave itself. She sat with her hooved feet splitting the length of rope, while her thick fingers poked the ends through spaces to bind into sturdy sections.

Their tribe's home was at the edge of the woods, on the southern side of a major mountain range. Farther to the south were more and more exotic species; the tribe of Elephant and a scattering of Giraffe, distant relatives of her own kind with hooves and horns or antlers interspersed among Lion and Tiger clans.

The place her family had settled with other similar breeds had several towering trees that they'd shaped up into housing, and some of the Bird Kin that lived with them would roost as well as work up in the very tops. They could see for many miles, they'd told her. She wasn't particularly afraid of heights, but she also didn't think that she would do too well climbing up that far into their tree community without aid.

Platforms of shaped wood supported numerous families, and from a distance even she was hard-pressed to actually see where the shaped items left off, and the tree branches naturally occurred. But then she was a Deer - they weren't known for their very sharp eyesight, that was up to the birds!

Grassland and crop lands being cultivated spread around their community trees, ending in the southern marshes and fenced in on the east and west by more rugged hills and trees. It wasn't so much a valley as an isolated meadowland they'd colonized.

As she wove more of the rope into its proper shape, with loops every three steps to have a hand-hold - or an elbow or tail or whatever else might need to suddenly grasp it - Duttu's mind again wandered to her setting. It was a pretty place. Far more green than even the nearby Boars' village, which was muddy and had many reeds, to their firm healthy dirt and thick grass. Here and there around the area were remnants of those large trees - several rotting trunks with hollows big enough for an entire family to stand in, but also one or two positively ancient petrified ones that stood with their ancient bark ever frozen in time.

She'd been told by one of the water-shapers from that Boar village, that there had been a huge flood probably a thousand years before - one which killed those trees which still rotted. But the petrified one? It was far older, had probably been there ten, even twelve thousand years before any Kin had set foot on the world.

Duttu preferred living in the present, she considered, because flooding wasn't her style either. She knew there were breeds of deer that thrived in marshy wetlands, and she was decidedly not among them! Taking a deep breath, she could smell not only the slightly acid tang of the cured fibers in the rope she worked on, but the heavy scent of the grass all around. Then she sneezed: there was also pollen from those huge trees they lived in, spreading into the summer air!

"Urg," she said, swatting at her leg. "Stupid bugs. Why cant bugs obey me?!" On impulse Dutta's power reached out and the nearest creature popped its head out from a hole just a few paces away. A groundhog, barely lighter brown in color than her own mottled shade. It immediately spied the many legged crawlie that Dutta had flicked away from her, and gobbled it up. Her power barely needed to nudge that one: a juicy lunch at the cost of coming out from the ground.

Finally finished with her work, Dutta stood and brushed the dirt and grass from her skirt and legs, and shook some life back into her feet. The ladder she'd made wasn't going to be as strong or perfect as those created by plant shapers, but at the moment they had none in the village. Their primary powers, she'd seen in action, were more geared to sensing and controlling life as she did. Her parents were both more moderately powered than she - her mother had an affiinity for birds, while her father and his siblings were known to be able to communicate with and control the large animals around them.

The plant shaper their tribe sported was off with the Boars, collecting reeds and gearing up to dry out a lot of plant material in order to create paper and goods. This time of year, he'd claimed, was the best in that area. But that left her and a few others who had talent with weaving or binding, to fix the housing ladders when they broke. It had been raining hard for the last few weeks, dried now but with a good deal of mold and rot to get rid of. Can't have hooved feet slipping off their home's own step!

She took the many-meter long ladder and hefted it over her shoulder, began walking toward the tree line. Duttu heard bird calls, saw a flock of the local natural birds burst into the sky, but didn't see why, and her lack of perception through those animals made her grind her jaw around. If she had some kind of empathy with them, like her mother did... she would be able to sense why they had flown off like that.

As she came closer to the village, Duttu could sense there was some kind of goings-on up there, and half wondered whether her elders had given her this task knowing she'd be out of earshot while they discussed 'something' in their large natural-shaped wood chamber. The biggest of their trees were where 'business' went on, smaller ones and those to its sides were housing and storage. People kept giving her looks, as she made her way into the storage area to deposit the new ladder.

They weren't cold or angry, they were just... looking at her differently. Once she'd finished folding the rope onto an easily-removed hook, Duttu decided to investigate. She didn't dare go up directly to their council chamber, as a villager she didn't really have that right until she was brought in by them, or had become old enough to join their council automatically. But that didn't mean she wasn't curious - like others, who were also skulking around the back of the council chamber.

"Hey, Patu," Duttu said, "what's going on here?" Her voice was quiet, but she tried to keep the tone conversational just in case their voices carried. She realized that speaking in a hush or hastily might be heard 'the wrong way'. The young buck Kin flicked his ear toward her, and she saw the little toss of his head indicating he had a bit of a view he wanted to share.

His own fur was lighter in shade all around than Duttu's; she thought he was quite attractive. His rack was going to be very fine, too, though she only knew that by his father's - at this young stage in both their lives, their antlers were almost the same shape with three points apiece. He scooted sideways and let her look through the natural split where two large branches didn't quite intersect.

Beyond them was the council chamber and the council itself, a dozen elder Deer Kin, dressed in their long woven robes and their antlers decorated with colorful jewelry. But there were also other ... people(?) in the chamber. She recognized one of them as a Zekiran, and one might pass as such as well, but the other she wasn't sure about.

The tawny-furred gryphon-Zekiran female had a pleasant enough voice, though from that angle and distance Duttu couldn't quite make out what she'd said. The Deer council seemed to ripple with agreement, more or less. Her brighter yellow companion, one with striking black markings and a long tail - she didn't know what he might be based upon, if his friend was a gryphon - vocally added his own "yes, that would be what would happen," and then eyes went toward the third member of this unusual group.

She was humanoid, might even pass as Human, for what that was worth around here. But she had green stripes in her brown curly hair, and on standing up Duttu noted that she was rather tall and had four arms. That certainly wasn't a feature of any Human she'd heard about! The woman wore violet and grey clothing, fashionable it looked like, that accented her arms - she didn't seem to want to hide them. Once she stood, all others quieted.

"I think it would probably be best if all of us were here for the decision," she said. Her voice was husky but pleasant, almost musical in a strong way. "Could someone fetch her?"

Before any of the attendants in the room could get farther than their rumps off the shaped-wood stools, the eldest female, the Deer Matriarch, nodded directly toward the little notch between two big branches, looking straight at Duttu with her blind white eyes.

"She's right there, come on in, ropeweaver. We have a task for you."

Duttu froze (.... like a deer in... um... nevermind) and had the weirdest feeling of tunnel-vision. Was the elder reading her mind? Or - well, sure, she had done that, that was what she was known for. Patu's ears and body language said he knew better than to say a peep - he wasn't invited, but he also hadn't been told not to stick around spying on the process!

What he saw was his lilac-haired friend straighten herself out, make sure she didn't have any stray grass or dirt on her rump (he dwelled a little longer on that fluffy lilac tail, of course...), and enter the chamber. The beaded leather strips that comprised the 'door' clicked with a distinct sound - no one would ever enter that room from that doorway without disturbing those beads. They spoke in their own way, heavier clattering near the floor meant only a small Kin had entered, while a chiming of smaller sections above indicated a taller one had come in.

Duttu stood calmly, or at least she appeared calm. Inside, any empath would be able to tell that she was filled with curiosity and wonder, as well as a decent amount of fear and an edge of shame - she knew she wasn't being chastised, she'd done nothing wrong, but that didn't allay her old memories of the few times she had ever been brought in here.

But this time, there were only friendly and passive expressions on the elder council. And, the Zekirans certainly seemed to be excited to have her here. She made note of the yellow and black male, he had 'antlers' too, oddly shaped, silvery white in color, that contrasted brightly with his black hair. What was odd was that his winged feline companion... she felt like Duttu knew her - not like, as a person, but as if they had something in common. A lot of Zekirans did, though, with the Planet Twenty Kin. They'd often become tutors or instructors for Kin with powers that they deemed worthy of expanding. Duttu herself had had one as a child, but then they'd gone back to their colony mountain and suggested that if she needed further training, she should make the trip there.

It would be a trip of a lifetime, she'd thought then - and she thought it again now.

But then there was this other person, who was introduced as Woodstock, who approached and shook her hand (using both her left and right ones, alternated upper and lower sets. Very odd!) and smiled broadly. "I'm glad you're finally here. I have to ask you something, and I want you to be completely honest with yourself and with me."

Duttu mutely nodded.

"Do you think that your village could use a dragon?" The woman asked, and Duttu's blood pounded into her ears.

"I... well - yes, of course I do," she said, trying to clear her mind. "I know that in villages that have them, they can do better trades, and keep their territory more secure, they can spot dangers or perform rescues easier."

She noted with her large eyes that the couple of Zekirans were faintly nodding and shared a private grin with one another.

"Mostly unrelated," Woodstock continued, "what power do you have? In your own words?"

Duttu stretched her neck a little, straightened her shoulders. "I'm an animal controller, like my parents. I'm not as good at it as my mother is, but I command different creatures than she does - she commands birds, but like my father I'm more four-legged adept." She paused, "I can summon creatures that are nearby, to help me, or to bring them out of danger... I can also lead them into traps, when we need it."

With that, she noticed that the gryphon Zekiran lit up a little, and gave a giggle. "I knew that was it, your elders said something but didn't describe it deeply."

Duttu tilted her head toward the woman, "oh - I did notice ... something? You do the same?"

"Maybe more like your mother, mine is," she extended her furry paw-hand, "birds and cats, pretty much."

The elders allowed them to briefly shine smiles at one another in bonding, but then one of them cleared his throat and Duttu turned her attention back to Woodstock.

"Well, then, my ... last question is," the tall humanoid said with a broadening grin, "do you want to find a dragon for your village?" With that, she swept her right hands (both of them) away from her a little, and out from the broad shaped table stepped a small, medium-green colored... dragon.

Duttu stood in silence for a moment. Maybe she wasn't quiet, she might have made some squeeky, breath-catching noises. It seemed like her nervous swallowing might have been heard too, but it was followed by a gasp of surprise and glee.

"Is... this is your dragon friend?" Duttu immediately connected the presence of a completely new dragon type (to her eyes and instruction anyway) with the alien woman's appearance. There were a large number of different breeds of dragons bonded to those Kin and Zekirans who lived on Planet Twenty, but this one was quite unusual. It was small, but had a distinct pleasant power. She - Woodstock introduced the dragon as Zulda, a female - calmly and quietly nodded her long head in greeting.

Duttu felt more than she heard, the voice that the dragon had sprang into her mind carefully. It wasn't a sentence, it was images and emotions, a sequence of events that said, basically, "come with us, eggs are available, your village will prosper."

"I would... I would be honored to do that!" Duttu quietly exclaimed.

Woodstock seemed quite happy to explain that her presence on the world was almost an accident, that their exploration ship the Caledrus had a weird 'improbability drive' feature which allowed them to travel great distances and meet very interesting people. Thankfully she said they could tell it where to go, and they knew how to get back to Zulda's home world.

Duttu knew that was the process others had gone through, to find dragon companions that weren't born here on Planet Twenty. But it had always remained a mystery - the Zekiran ship was in use as a defensive item, circling the world very visibly and protecting it from incursion from Humanspace. They had scout ships, smaller environmental exploration ships, and such as well. But the Caledrus was a considerably smaller - but no less interesting looking - craft.

The mental impression of it came from Zulda, she enjoyed romping through the dragon areas of it - ones which Duttu considered were a lot smaller than those on the Zekiran ship, but served the same purpose. Nothing would be like a real world to run on, though - Zulda's thrill to be on a planet again was obvious to the deer Kin.

As she was bidden, Duttu went to her family's chambers and conferred with her parents and her younger brother about it all. Of course, her sibling was too young to really understand what was going on, he'd barely begun his education and didn't have much background on dragons yet.

She had only few belongings, but put her extra clothing and formal robes, as well as a hoof kit and some practical items, into a leather satchel. She wasn't sure she'd need much else, but then Woodstock presented her with an additional item.

It was a slender, silvery metal rod with a button on the end and a pleasant grip that adjusted to her three-digit hands. She sniffed at it, and Woodstock laughed.

"It's an Electronic Thumb," she explained. "It'll give us the heads-up when you need to get back on the ship, or when you will need to head back and forth to the Realm."

"But... you'll go out of your way to pick me up and shuttle me around?" Duttu asked, "I mean, that's a lot of effort for just me."

"It won't be just you," Woodstock said with a lopsided grin. "It'll be you and your dragon, eventually. Plus, that's kind of what we do for money - there are other people going places, and we don't just do exploration or science aboard the Caledrus. These days, we take tourists and currier work too." She paused and let a softer smile cross her face. "Plus, it's for a dragon. It's a good cause. Your village isn't in any dire need - you've got good resources and a nice defensive setup, but there are places around even this world where Zulda's powers will be needed before long."

"I wonder, though," Duttu said, as she bid farewell to her family and village, having already thanked the council for considering her for this honor, "what kind of dragon will it be?"

"Well, who knows? It's a Machesri clutch, they're friendly and calm, your village might wind up with an extra patrol or scout, or maybe it will bring out the best in your powers too."

They met back up with Aafaen and Zhuanash the Zekirans before leaving for the ship above. There were several others, how they'd got there without anyone really noticing, Duttu wasn't sure. She would be sure in a moment though!

"When you're ready to explore your powers a bit," Aafaen said, "just send a message. We're at the colony but we usually travel through dreams. All you need to do," she winked, "is dream of us."

She ... mounted up on the yellow male. ... Duttu hadn't even noticed that he shifted from a two-footed tall male into ...

"He's also a dragon?" Duttu muttered, "wow."

Woodstock leaned in a little and chuckled. "And pretty hot, too."

"Yeah he..." Duttu's eyes went wide, "he's taken!"

But to that, as they raced away into the grasslands to enjoy a bit of a romp before flying off, Duttu heard both the female Zekiran and her dragon shapeshifter companion laughing musically.

One of the other remaining Zekirans, a blue-tinted man and a slightly more violet female, beckoned the remaining ones toward themselves. And suddenly, they weren't on the ground any more. Well - they were on ground, but not dirt. It was quite a shock - Duttu realized that her hearing changed, her head hurt a little, she was dizzy but it passed quickly. They'd moved from the planet below, to ... The inside of the Caledrus.

"Teleporters, gotta love them," Woodstock said as the pair bowed and vanished once more, leaving the green dragoness, the four-armed alien, and Duttu standing on a metal platform near a wide viewing window.

Duttu dropped her satchel without realizing it. Woodstock and Zulda let her to her amazed stare out that big window. From it they could see the entire world, they were at a pretty high distance away from it though they couldn't easily see the entire curvature of the world from one angle. But they could see the distinct huge inland sea that was to the south of Duttu's village, and the mountain range that bordered it to the north. Suddenly it seemed so ... tiny.

Her village was down there somewhere, absolutely lost below the vast clouds and weather system that churned under the ship. Lost, among the green strips of forest and swaths of tan grassland, but nestled safely away from most dangers. Duttu came to her senses as the ship began to back up farther away from the world - she could see more and more of it, but less and less she recognized. She'd seen globes and maps, of course, but to see it from out here....

It was a touch overwhelming, but to her credit Duttu kept her head about her. She didn't faint, she didn't scream or panic. She instead stood marvelling at the world below, wondering where the Elephant clan was, where the famous cheetah clans lived... Oh - and there was where the Zekiran colony was! That very distinct ring of land surrounding a large body of water, that was where the Twelve and One as well as the Spotted Hand had made their first Dragonry! Near there, the Zekiran realm! It seemed quite far away from her own village, but then not nearly as far as some parts - as they drifted farther and farther it really did become clear how large the world was, and how little of it she'd seen.

There were so many living things down there, Duttu pondered. She could control some of them - the little four footers and maybe their slightly larger types... But ... what was it she'd said, Aafaen seemed to indicate she would help learn more about her powers, but it... might not be from her. When she was younger, that Zekiran genetic specialist came around, well - she was a photographer but she always extended her powers to young Kin when asked... And Mirage had told her family that there was shapeshifting power in Duttu's makeup. She'd never understood that, but ...

When Zhuanash had become a dragon-shape, there had been a very clear feeling of power about him. Almost something that Duttu felt she could emulate. But just - not yet! Not on a big foreign space ship!

Not when there was exploring to do! She spent a day getting used to the ship itself. Though their travel to the Bishen Realm would be quick, it wasn't instant by any means. While on board, she had the chance to read up on this place, because Woodstock as well as several others aboard the Caledrus had paired up with Bishen dragons.

Once they slipped through space and time, into the area near the world that contained this clutch of wild eggs, several of the Caledrus Bishen (at least those who could, since there were aquatic ones remaining behind) came down to the world to revisit their childhoods and maybe brush up on things.

It felt good to be back on real ground - Duttu aimed a careful thought at Zulda, who creeled a little when she got it, about how she now knew how it felt, to want to be 'home' but still enjoyed traveling in their big amazing ship.

So now... now she waited. If there was a process to be done, Duttu wanted to do it right, she asked questions and she made double-sure. She even tested the Thumb - getting a radio reply from the ship that they'd heard her signal nicely, and would hope to hear it again with her excited voice telling them she'd found an egg.

***

The waiting was quite short - Duttu noted that there were others involved in this nesting process. She wondered whether they'd gathered eggs at random? Did the parents of each egg decide in advance to donate them to this nest? Well, probably she would never really know the entire story, she wasn't a native to the place, she understood that they could have secrets or even just ways of life that would always be a bit mysterious to outsiders.

One of the eggs seemed to shine in her eyes more brightly than the others. She looked around, noted that others had seen a similar thing in their own way. What had been six eggs was down to just a couple, and then... none! Duttu held the egg close to herself, her big ears focused on it. Was there something moving inside? How old was it? When would it hatch? She knew because she'd been told by the Caledrus Bishen that an egg this shade would have a male inside.

She got a little giddy. She would be raising a dragon! Her village would be so proud! On the other hand, she pondered as she wandered back to the waiting area nearby, what if... It brought unwanted attention? She sat the egg on her lap, and put her warm, hoof-fingered hands on it. "People think my breed are skittish and unreliable, because we're wary sometimes. But we're fierce too, and we come together when we need to. I think they'll come to you, maybe you'll be a protector that looks fierce. I can bring lots of little animals to your side, too!" She sighed. "People might line up to see a dragon, there really aren't that many on our world." Duttu grinned to herself, "and I know there will be none just like you, I hope that doesn't make you feel lonely. I promise you'll never be lonely."

***

Dragon: ??? ID#: mc133m Description: Machesri Male Egg Caretaker: Duttu Adopter: lethe-gray ( Duttu ) Clutch: Machesri Clutch 14: Wild

** 2022 note: sadly Indy stopped doing these apparently, so only about half of these got their images, and I was not among them. So, I'm sending Duttu off to find another friend, but leaving this egg up just in case, some day, it hatches.

***

With an egg in stasis and a bit of disappointment behind her, Duttu continued her work as a rope maker. She'd sensed the faint confusion and dismay from a number of the elders, as well as those aliens who had brought her to find that egg.

But that disappointment couldn't possibly end soon enough - there were powerful empaths among the Zekirans as well as her own breed that decided something else would be in order. Something they'd caught wind of not too long ago.

"Lantessama is a place we know and love," said one of them, as she introduced a pair of not-quite-Kin to Duttu. "And I think no one around here loves them more than this pair!"

Shreeah and Lapinus each gave the deer-girl a little nod, the dramatic black and white cat and rabbit were definitely not locals, though. It was possible they weren't even from the same dimension. But they had finally retired here on Planet Twenty (imagine that, retiring to a 'prison' world? where better for people to never look for them!) and brought with them not only a spaceship worthy of note, but...

A whole crowd of dragons. Small ones, surely, but lovely! And talented! The little Gem dragons and the bunny named Hunt were all from that world. Their only other companion shone like chrome, but with the field of Gems glittering around her that was simply lovely.

"We can take you there and back," Lapinus asserted, tossing his long-eared head toward their ship. "It's not in this part of the Nexus but that's never stopped us before."

It was Shreeah who said, "we can go whenever you're ready, if you need to prepare or anything."

"I've been on a ship before," Duttu said, but was a bit more subdued than expected. She tried to focus on the here and now, and how amazing that ship actually had been. The Caledrus had been seen here and there over time too, the research vessel never stopping long, but always going out of their way to stop here.

"Then off we go?" Lapinus and one of the Gems, a coppery colored female, made toward that self same craft. Duttu had little choice but to follow, since she had always kept her pack near and only needed to grab it to be fully prepared.

The ship was considerably smaller than the Caledrus; fit for cargo and living, but not for hundreds of crew or lots of big dragons. But it was comfy, and fast. When they made it through the barrier from one realm to another, back to Lantessama, it almost felt like the ship knew just where to go.

This time, Lapinus was surprised, "it's at the sands, but the sands seem kind of snowy right now?"

"Oh that's fine, I like the snow!" Duttu looked forward to this, and was stunned when she saw the parents of these many eggs.

It was like a holiday, the evegreens covered in blankets of frost, chill in the air with plumes of hot breath freezing, but not so cold that she felt uncomfortable in her own fur. Lapinus seemed to truly enjoy this weather too, the Gem dragons not so much...

Eventually, they would wait for Duttu to indicate she was ready to leave, and eventually that might - this time - mean "with a dragon".

** From the hatching **

Right in the middle of the sands, Duttu the Deer-kin from planet Twenty was waiting for a bond. She'd been waiting for years but disappointment had brought her here. Disappointment fled as a cheerful feeling grabbed hold of her heart and she followed the feeling to a camouflage green, see-through reindeer dragoness who despite looking rather frail, was covered in a multitude of wings and fur. Pasema, hiding just beyond the glow of lights, waited for the young deer-girl to approach and then quietly but fondly allowed the bond to take hold of their minds.
"I can't promise to be around people, but I can manage animals."
"I wouldn't ask for more." Duttu earnestly answered and joined her bond in her quiet retreat.