No kidding: he's a Sanger.

Mihve, his mother, was a shapeshifter just like her father, Ivo. The fact that Mihve and her sister were raised outside of time, granting their small - all but one, male - tribe a few more females was a blessing. Ihnala was not overprotective of his mate, but he certainly did keep an eye on Mihve if nothing else, because he loved to see shapeshifting in action.

So when Mihn was born with a fluffy grey ruff of fur on his shoulders and back, and Ivo had popped by to check out the Tribe's progress, the first thing he said was, "huh, shapeshifter, good boy."

The ruff on his head and back faded eventually to the rich black, naturally curly locks that Mihn keeps effortlessly clean. He's just as vain as any other Sanger in any other universe, and the kicker is that he does it with his shapeshifting. Some keep themselves clean with magic, others just seem to slough off any slop or grime they encounter. And Mihn encounters a lot.

You wouldn't think those nunchucks would produce so much spattering blood, but oh, they do. Expertly used, he can deliver a crushing blow to a bird in flight, or a running antelope. He and some of the others in his generation like to spar, but he's much too fast for most of them. That, too, is part of his Sanger legacy.

But of course, the legacy of the Twelve and One tribe was something he was keenly interested in even as a young child. Dragons! What Kin could be complete without a dragon? Well, none of the Cheetahs that he knew of, anyway. And as long as they had dragons to ride and protect their wide, plains-land territory from the lion Kin, their lives could be more easy than most.

With his generation also had come the Zekirans, landing on Planet Twenty and immediately assisting the local population in defending their rights among the other worlds. This was a Kin world - the only true non-human habitation where Kin were free to do as they will. Elsewhere, still, they were in use as burden-beasts, warriors, slaves, sex toys. Traded by Humans for money.

The thought made Mihn sick to his stomach. If there was one thing he truly wanted, it was to see the galaxy rid of that kind of slavery.

Of course, the fact that the Zekirans approved of slavery ... kind of made his brain twitch. He understood that their ancient culture was built upon money and ownership, not war and domination. But... sometimes it was hard to sit and listen to their stories of "when so-and-so was Owned by such-and-such".

He knew his place in the tribe, as a defender and hunter... But, he also knew that as a shifter he would be more prized by his own generation's females. Or perhaps even the Zekiran half-breeds, he wasn't going to complain. There was so much mixing now, plenty of the spotted hides on the new generation were purple and green rather than black and orange!

Mihn knew his place, yes. But he wanted to be elsewhere. He was growing restless, and like many of his family he could hardly bear to stay in one place for more than a moment. But 'one place' meant Planet Twenty. He didn't yet have the full run of the place, like others did.

He needed a dragon. He needed one which would be sturdy and take him far around the world, which wouldn't be afraid to combat injustices like slavery or even the weirder alien creatures which occasionally descended on the worlds. One which might even help him find his own mates.

But where? Where was a good place for him of all people, to find a dragon-bond. He had to run it off, so he shifted down to all fours, and bolted around the Plateau. The rocky ground high above the flat plains was also covered in thick reedy grass, but was much drier than the surrounding lowlands. It crunched and made a sound he liked hearing as he passed through it at full tilt.

And unlike a true cheetah, he could run much longer than 'enough to catch prey'. He ran until he ran out of Plateau.

He ran into Ivo.

***

"Hey gramps," Mihn said, shifting upwards into his more Kin-like appearance. "I didn't expect you here."

"Of course you did," Ivo said with a lopsided grin, "because here you are."

It was exactly the kind of thing that Ivo was known to say, and particularly what he was known to do. Just show up out of the blue. Zkoth, his beautiful bronze dragon from Ryslen, preened himself while perched on the very edge of the Plateau's rocky cliff.

"Shall we?" Ivo said, and indicated the big bronze.

"Well... where are we going?"

"The Ferreus Caves," Ivo replied, "it's a desert, but you can squint and keep the sand out of your eyes."

"Oh thanks," Mihn groaned. "It's hard enough getting dirt off me..."

"We attract gunk," Ivo commented, helping his grandson up onto the wide, warm shoulder of Zkoth. "It's a fact of life for us. Everything Icky."

Mihn didn't understand the history behind that statement, but Ivo wasn't chatting about it, either. Instead, he asked whether Mihn had been on a teleporting dragon before - he had - and made sure that everything was good to go, before instructing the bronze to lift off. They would make the journey through the Nexus and toward the magically-gated 'community' of Veniam Mactare.

The dragon's flight in mid-Nexus tilted, and they traveled toward the Ferreus caves directly. When they came out, it was to a bright violet sky, sudden heat, and nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Then he dropped down onto the salt flats, where they were greeted, allowed inside, asked questions.

Mihn was stunned. His heart sped - these... these were dragons he could see himself bonding! Though they weren't meat eaters, he was informed they could easily fend for themselves with the vast array of quickly growing grasses on the Plateau. His one worry was that he wouldn't be able to properly instruct any hatchling... hutchling he chuckled to himself, in the use of their magics. He'd have to find someone, maybe one of the Zekirans. Their psionics were close enough to magic. Or even, head up to the Healing Den and ask if Baeris knew of any magicians that would be of use.

But that would be moot unless one of the stunningly colorful eggs' contents decided that Mihn was for them...

***

He was drawn toward them, and one egg in particular seemed to give off its pleasant glow. It also was a mess of color, and Mihn wondered what had gotten into the mother to have pushed out such a mottling. None of the eggs looked the same - and then he spied little sprite-things, flittering around another egg and painting it.

"This is... paint?" Mihn chuckled, "well, that's different..."

Mihn wondered whether the patterns that had been put onto the egg's normally-white surface meant anything to the hutchling inside. If he squinted, he could imagine that there was a sun, a cloud, rivers... of course if he looked at the egg from another angle it was all kinds of other symbols.

He curled up around the egg in a full-cheetah shape, keeping it warm and wondering when he'd feel the ping of life within.