She always tried to hide her tail by having her hair very long. She'd learned as a child of somewhat unwitting parents, that in "high, polite" society one didn't have tails and oddities.

But they were wrong, and although she never has truly snubbed them for it, she knows better than they do, since she became one of those "high, polite" society girls.

Her wiry muscular body was often hidden under layers of sparkling silk, but upon shaking her hand, anyone could tell she was far more than just another pretty face at a party. Those parties got progressively better - she was smart enough, adept socially enough, and pretty enough to get into some higher-class places just by showing up. When someone's dragon happened to be paraded around at one of them, she both pointed out that its diet was wrong (she sensed the allergic reactions) as well as healed it up enough to behave itself.

Three separate Atasan offered to boost her Status from Free Worker. She established tight ties with all three of them, each wanting to invest in her well-being and abilities. One of them had an unusual river-rafting sports club in Woth, where she wanted to plop down a new home.

Tanvarian not only had a longish tail like her own, but unusually sharp spines on his arms, legs, and all the way down his finned back! And, stripes! She loved to play dress-up as a child, and now here was a Dragon Master who wanted her to do so, if only to test the fabrics so her budding fashion-critique column could prosper.

Things evolved, attacks by the aliens came and went. More often than not, when she was in an area under lockdown, she'd head to the nearest Master's place, and wait for them to get home: they were always bruised and battered, even just from getting where they needed to be.

And because she did have a strong idea of what each of those dragons could be made to do, genetically speaking, the offers poured in to have her help customize nests. That work didn't come cheap, and she didn't feel in the slightest ashamed of asking outrageous prices. Practically every Dragon Breeder had an Atasan or Suzerain or even a Penjagan to support them financially. She certainly did, and she reveled in it.

There came a day, however, when one of her known psionics actually began to work. She'd known that it would happen sometime, she wasn't latent with anything and the genetic charts weren't muddled. She'd been Bred for it, at any rate.

But it was rather disconcerting, when abruptly at a party, someone telepathically contacted her, and she syphoned almost everything on their mind out, immediately blurting it out mentally to the person next to her.

Fortunately it was merely an invitation to another party - what to wear, who to speak to, when and where... But the implication was that she didn't know how to control this power. Yet.

So she found a mentor, someone who Tanvarian associated loosely with. Atasaan Engell, pioneer of one of the best alien-fighting forces around Zekira. He was known to be a top-rank mentalist, but no one quite knew how far that went.

Even Thahaidy didn't, until she opened her mind and focused on him. He was very careful to allow only certain thoughts - but everything he'd done in a day easily came out. Then, he abruptly wiped her memory of it.

She knew it was missing, and essentially he'd told her to expect this. Plus, Thahaidy knew that she'd never be in his league even with his training. But what he offered her was good solid boundaries to work with. He eventually couldn't even force his mind into hers, at least to trigger this power of transferance.

The things he allowed her to remember, during their weekly sessions, were more and more intriguing to her. The dragons that his people had were different from others on Zekira. They were bigger, bolder, burned fire from their mouths sometimes... They ran and flew, and they could teleport.

So it was Engell himself that introduced her to one of his other well-financed and extremely-well-powered riders.

That would be his son, Ten. The one who suddenly was able to understand the alien minds - the one who started the whole effort of creating dragons to fight them. Thahaidy was in awe - he was so beautiful too, elegantly pale. She suddenly thought she was much too bright orange to be around them.

Ten however was extremely polite and sensible. They didn't acknowledge their blood connection and it was obviously a sticking point for several others in that group. Thahaidy considered that she didn't really belong with these people, so much as the people who they hung out with.

Between Ten and Tanvarian however, she learned so much more was available to those who tried to find it. With her healing and mental prowess, she'd surely be able to find a great partner - or even more perhaps - but among the stars, not here on Zekira!

Thus, Ten took her off-world, to a place with several nesting females along with their single extremely pretty and extremely full of himself partner. Oh but these dragons were beautifiul.

Perhaps not for fighting aliens... perhaps more to bring around to parties and show off...

***

She had met up with another Dragonmaster, named Hilhuio, and they compared notes about the people around them. Both were able to sense the minds and life-force of the many dragons nearby. They didn't need to be told when the hatching had started, they both felt it.

Thahaidy watched as these tiny miraculously beautiful hatchlings made their way across the sands... Well 'tiny' wasn't the right word, they were quite small but they were all very long! Their sire saw to that!

Hilhuio was pounced upon by two dragons, and then, chuckling, Thahaidy noticed something else.

Thahaidy, on the other hand, was finding her introduction to her new dragons much more pleasant than Hilhuio was. A blue and a green, both from Raindraught's clutch, sauntered up to her, perfectly in step, only to split to either side of her and weave a pattern about her legs.

::I'm Siere.:: Proclaimed the green dragoness finally. ::And despite what those silly Myrsilkains will try to tell you, I'm a fire elemental:: She grinned up at the Dragon Breeder, fingers of flame spilling from her jaws. ::Earth is such a boring element.::

::And I,:: added the blue dragon, as he focused on the flames on Siere's jaw and extinguished them with a hiss of steam, ::am Zeronen. Water, just like I look. Though I can do little things with every element.:: He stated proudly.

With a pleased expression, Thahaidy knelt gently beside them, and picked both up in her arms. They were light, but would hardly remain small enough to lift for long!

"I'm positive that you will like where we're going to live, my dears," Thahaidy purred. "You are going to be paraded until you can't take it any more. Fighting off aliens, in style."