Xiirsh the Dragonlike Lady

  Xiirsh is one of the first friends Altair of Lutianen makes during his journey. They met as crew companions in the Meek Goose, a long-distance Ship supposedly going to Micula in travel that should last more than two years and intended to mix piracy and honest commerce. Xiirsh is then a experienced Sailor Caste citizen of Lutianen, obviously non human and at very best in the borders of what could be considered humanoid by Sharitarn standards.   Being from Earth, captured by the Vortex in year 2090, Altair is fascinated and curious about the non-human companion. More so when he realizes she is a female. His is a extremely misandric world, and see men in basically all positions of power on Sharitarn do causes physical suffering in the poor ii, things like cannibalism and slavery are easy to swallow by comparison, and so this mighty fighter of wise soul provides the Chemical Engineer of Earth a welcomed refresh.   Xiirsh do not look like a female, but as a matter of fact the same could be said for countless women on Altair's Earth. In her case has nothing to do with artificial hormones, since Xiirsh's specie is born without noticeably distinction between genders. They go through several physical changes during their biological existences and only after the last one is that sexual differences emerge, before than only technology or magic can tell males from females. In their home universe there is no ostensible magic, but technology has gone far beyond the hopes of humanity in Altair's home planet.   Xiirsh did not came to Sharitarn recently, but neither came she as a child. She was caught by the Vortex when it was tuned in her home world, that was 3 million years ago, and back them she was already in the second fase of her existence. Only now, during the war between Lutianen and Shirshan, is that her second change came. She has a long existence a head for her before reach her first reproductive cycle. For the moment two thirds of her life are left in her home universe, since she was 6 million years old when became a ii.   Altair avoids to call her specie dragons for as long as he can, but let's not do the same. They are dragons, the closest thing to that Sharitarn ever saw. And they ruled a entire country as living gods for about 100 thousand years, basically all Imperial Age.   Dragons are abandoned as eggs in wild lands. They leave the egg looking like four legged predators about as large as cats, with reptilian appearance and two appendages coming from their backs. They are efficient predators at this point, unable to talk, and some form hunting bands while others remain lone survivors.   After about 50 years the first change comes, the parents instinct drive them to where their children are. Midway they eat the children of other dragons, any time they find them, but once they find their own the normal is that a parent will help all pack of their children to pass the first change. Those packs form a strong bond that will continue for live, stronger than the bond between most human brothers. First passage was the first and most terrible trauma endured by Xiirsh, far worse than be captured by the Vortex.   She was member of a pack, and she was found by her parents, but her parents decided to kill and eat her and the rest of her pack instead of help them. They only failed because Xiirsh's older brother intervened in time to save her, but then was too late to save the others.   After the first passage dragons became almost humanoids. The proportions look a bit more like a gorila, with a crocodile tail and two smaller arms protruding from the torso. In this fase they develop intelligence in human levels, and for millions of years remain with their parents learning from them the culture and laws of their kind. That forces, by culture and by instinct, the parents to stay together during what may seem for some a long period of time. Which was the motivation behind the decision of kill Xiirsh and their pack, mommy and daddy didn't liked each other that much anymore.   If no adult dragon finds the young to help or eat them the change destroy them from inside out and their bones rip the flesh and the organs leak through this mess. The adult dragon must vomit a goose of dense radioactive mass that serves as a map to guide the transformation. Same thing must happen in the second and third changes.   Altair helps Xiirsh to find her Brother so he can provide the necessary help during the second change. After that she becomes more or less the usual figure of dragon you usually see in ocidental fantasy, flying, four legged, a bit heavier than a elephant and considerably harder to hurt than a rhinoceros. She will eventually develop a fire breath during this fase, but begins with a corrosive saliva strong enough to melt stone and iron. From that she will grow both in power and in intelligence.   This third fase of life has a inconvenient for Xiirsh. She can no longer walk the streets of human cities as someone who is almost a humanoid. During the second fase she was frequently mistaken for a lizard-folk, what was bad enough since humans and all other intelligent mammals do have a consistent inclination against lizard-folk, but that would be worse.   Having considered the options the dragonlike lady decides to do back to Iborn, the former capital city of that long dead Draconian Empire. In those ruins she will build a new nation, and possibly make it a powerful empire. Hopefully, a empire that will still existe when Xiirsh's third and last change arrives.   That is the plan, any way.