Taylee's fondest wish was to just graduate with some kind of honors and get into a good medical engineering program at the university.

She knew that there were people at Carramba who could help put her in the right programs, but she was still only in tenth grade. What more could they do but place her in the right advanced classes, and push for her grades and units to be counted as college entrance material?

One particular instructor was watching Taylee closely. Her career could go either way - she could become a world renoun scientist and advance the medical community at large. Or, she could become a mad scientist and try to dominate the world with her schemes and creations.

Darkhanis Paveh was a dignified grey-skinned and handsome Zekiran man. He watched without anyone knowing, because he was also a shapeshifter. He could be anyone - a staff member, another student, a bum on the street, or a visiting alien. Today he watched Taylee as just himself, because he had some things he wanted to present to her, as an instructor to his student.

"Taylee," he said, pulling her aside from her friends. "I know that you are looking forward to the testing phase of the Engineering class," Taylee brightened. Darkhanis grinned. "Well I have something for you, that I want you to use as a kind of. ... extra credit report."

"Anything that'll help propell me through school..." Taylee said flatly. Her emotions were easily read by the Zekiran, he was quite positive that she was dying to know what she could do to further herself.

Darkhanis produced a white object, perhaps he'd been hiding it with his mental powers, because his close fitting extremely nice suit would hardly accomodate that large of a ...

"What is that?" Taylee asked, tilting her head. Her green-dyed hair flopped across her eyes, and she flipped it out of the way with an expert nudge of her hand.

"That is what I want you to work out." Darkhanis said. "Your friends, one or two of them, have also managed to get ones for themselves. But I don't want you to cheat. I want you to use what you know, and feel free to utilize my lab for this purpose."

The thought of being able to use the great Paveh lab for her studies made Taylee's mouth water. It was like... going from a local cable show to being broadcast on all six networks and pay per view.

"When do you want the results?" Taylee asked.

"When you have them. I will be testing you for your honesty too, so if you do wind up cheating, even incidentally from one of your friends, I will certainly wipe that information from your brain."

"Glee," Taylee muttered, "ever pay any attention in your own telepathic ethics class?"

"Of course I do," Darkhanis said, "but the rules apply to you, not to me." He waggled his black eyebrows, and then shifted into another person's appearance as he walked back to his lab.

Taylee looked at the large white bundle. It was ... silken, like a spun thing. A coccoon. Perhaps something inside it would be metamorphosing out of it? When should she start extracting the DNA? She walked toward the lab, and then remembered that she had a class to attend - or make that ditch - the next period. Maybe she'd take it home and then bring the samples to school with her. That would make more sense...

***

It wasn't long before Taylee discovered that this was not an Earthly object. The DNA wasn't from anything she recognized, but there were little hints that certain "like-this" genes were floating around. She muttered to herself about it frequently, while she was using the lab's equipment. "Fox, sort of, and... why are there two kinds of hair? Weird... it almost looks like this here could be ... feathers?"

Off in the corner, observing the girl with a broad grin, Darkhanis knew he'd made the right decision when he found her. She'd be getting credit all right, now would it be appropriate to wait to tell her?

When Taylee sped out of the room, with enough care that none of the equipment was damaged and all her work was saved and stored properly, Darkhanis wondered why. Ah - he pried into her mind as she ran down the hall - it was that her pager had gone off.

The coccoon was shaking and moving of its own accord. When Taylee got home, the motion sensors she'd put up on the object had to come down. The pager would need new batteries at this rate, since every time it moved here at home, her pager was programmed to go off.

She was a brilliant girl, after all.

"Now, we see what you really are..." she muttered. She hadn't been there for Tonja's party, she'd gotten the worst case of ... something... probably from the lab. She wasn't afraid to jump into these things, either. So Taylee waited eagerly as there was a bit of a nose, some part of a claw... maybe a tooth? What was that thing coming out of this coccoon?

Then there it was. He. She was certain, there were signs. Under the multiple tails! What Taylee hadn't expected was that not only was this creature an amazing assembly of genes - foxlike face and body, with the multiple tails of a Nihon Kitsune. Then there were wings! And even at this stage, they seemed well-feathered. They weren't ugly and ungrown, like a hatchling bird.

Making Taylee wonder, then, the coccoon was quite interesting. It kept the creature healthy and safe, and allowed it to mature pretty well.

Wobbly on its paws for the first time, the creature looked at Taylee and gave a gurgling yip.

The other thing that Taylee didn't expect was the heartmelting look that this beautiful boy gave her when he'd come from his coccoon.

No one was there to see Taylee with tears in her eyes - she rarely displayed much emotion, especially at school. She hugged the creature. "I don't know what you are, little guy, but you're mine. Professor Paveh gave you to me... I wonder what I should call you?"

The cub yipped again, and started sniffing around the room. Taylee's room had many pieces of electronics, wiring everywhere, glass vats, beakers, all those mad science things that she and a couple other students at Carramba High were famous for. But the cub walked up to Taylee's computer, and nudged open the scanner. He peered at it with bright yellow eyes, and Taylee laughed.

"Well I still don't know what you are, but you're going to be called Scanner. That's what that is, see?"

She showed the small critter how it worked, and he did seem to kind of understand. At least, he didn't sit there staring at the light on it as it ran.

"Now I need to figure you out.... Where are you from? Hmn... Professor Paveh isn't human. Where's he from?" Taylee asked, and Scanner made a little yip noise again. "He's from Zekira, right." She scratched him behind the little feathery nubs that grew around his ears. "So I think I need to get to the library and see if you're in a Zekiran field guide."

She packed up a lunch and found a leash - Scanner didn't much like that idea but she explained that if they thought he was a dog she'd be able to bring him in. Crescent City's leash laws were pretty lax, given that Twoarth was a half-furry world anyway. "I've never seen anything quite like you, Scanner," she said.

They made it to the library without incident, though Scanner was quite interested in the cars and bikes and all the people! He wasn't afraid of anything, really, just curious. She went to the "offworld interests" area, which was not only a tourist and travel section, but also served for things like her outing. Native guides, wildlife information, it was all there.

"So you're not native to the planet," Taylee muttered, "but that's okay. Now I know you're an Egyptan." Scanner yipped quietly, and rubbed up against Taylee's leg.

"Oh my god!" A familiar sounding voice came to Taylee's ears, "you've got one too!"

Tonja and her family were there for some reason, and shortly they explained that Boogie - her "discoball" colored Egyptan, had also just hatched. They were looking for feeding and care instructions, to photocopy.

"I've got them all here," Taylee said. Though she was usually fairly reserved, she had a big grin on her face. Tonja noticed it, but was good enough of a friend not to say anything. It was rare enough as it was, she didn't want to spoil the moment.

***

Taylee presented her findings to her professor, and while the class watched, she was shown off and used as an example. "This girl could make an exceptional Breeder on my home world," Darkhanis said. Taylee didn't bother blushing. She knew it was true. "Normally this sort of training would only apply to Animal Masters, but the theories are all quite sound for human - or Zekiran - genetics." He always had to clarify because there was always some snide idiot in the class who said something about him not being really 'human' even though he could pass.

"So what," Taylee said, "do I get an all expenses paid trip there?" She asked, with a big grin.

"Not yet," Darkhanis said. The class mostly went silent. "That's for your graduate studies."

Taylee shared this information with the girls at lunch, while their pets played. They noticed that Trish and Tabitha had also gotten an offworld pet, along with two flitters that joined in too.

"What's the world coming to," Tonja said, playfully, "when nice normal humans don't even have nice earthly pets like cats and dogs..."

"I have a family dog," Tabitha said.

"Yeah, but you can't even remember its name half the time," laughed Taaj with her special mocking grin.

The Egyptans wore themselves out during their play time, but they'd all have to go back to their own campus home - so many students, and teachers for that matter, were getting pets like them that the school had to arrange for something. They were distracting the other students, and they weren't really 'guide dogs' so they weren't technically allowed in the classrooms. Some people still smuggled their flitters in, but they were usually better behaved than other creatures.

***

With the group of Egyptan now residing at Carramba, the staff decided that there should be a place for them to play and sleep while their owners went to class. Since so many other animals would also be there, it had to be kept under close watch.

Taylee didn't think that Scanner would get into too much trouble. He was curious all right, but he was certainly not stupid. He didn't pick fights, at least... not ones he thought he'd lose... Once Taylee had gotten her grades from the courses she thought she'd never pass, it was time to think about what Hollis wanted with them.

They'd be leaving Carramba briefly, coming back with dragons...

"That doesn't mean we'll be abandoning you," Taylee said to Scanner, who seemed a bit down in the dumps about it. "I know you want to come with, but I don't know what kind of place I'll be at. It might not be a good place for you."

Scanner whined and rolled over, playing when he sensed Taylee was in a soft hearted mood. When she was aggrivated, he went into guard-mode. When she was happy, he bounced around like the others. He was a mood-ring of an egyptan...