Inik

Three young nocturnes are playing a high-speed game of chase around the lair's center, darting in and out of the stalagmites and in between the legs of flustered clanmates. As you approach the petite, gold-scaled member of the trio, she slows her pace and turns to look at you curiously. Unlike the other nocturnes you've seen, this one has fins, gills, and a glowing angler's bulb. As you try to puzzle out why she looks so strange, she starts attempting to speak.
"H-hello," she says falteringly, "y-y-you...fr..end?" She cocks her head and stares at you with bright eyes, then tentatively reaches out to shake your hand with her tiny, scarred one. "A-am Inik. B-b-brothers...I-Indra...I-Iolo."She points to each of her playmates in turn. "Y-y-ou l-like...s-swim?" She mimes paddling, then awaits your response. Her brothers begin to call for her to rejoin the game, so she waves and says "O-o-kay...b-bye!" As she dashes off after her brothers, you are left to wonder what could have happened to her.

~The Test Subject~
Inik washed up on the shores of the Tangled Woods one day, battered and bruised, covered in scratches, and unconscious. One of Clan Phantom's fishing parties found her, and quickly rushed her to Daen for healing. As he worked to save her, Daen noticed that something was deeply wrong with the tiny nocturne hatchling. Unlike the rest of her species, Inik had fins on her ears and legs, as well as a angler-fish-like bulb attached to her forehead. The points where these features met her body were scarred and jagged, as if they had been grafted on surgically. The pigmentation on her wings was warped, causing an unusual wave-like pattern. Most horrific of all, Inik had a set of scarred and tattered gills set into her neck. Daen theorized that perhaps she was the result of plague flight experimentation. Her adaptions seemed suited to the water, so he guessed that she was developed with the purpose of gaining an edge in territorial battles with the water flight. Based on her condition, she had either escaped her confines somehow, or been abandoned. Whatever her origin, Clan Phantom was happy to welcome her. She was given to Hyra to be cared with alongside two other orphan noctures, Iolo and Indra, who became like brothers to her.
Inik's mental development seems to have been stunted by whatever process resulted in her aquatic adaptions. She speaks rarely and falteringly, as if struggling to find the words to use. She has an energetic personality though, and enjoys chasing her brothers around the lair. Inik enjoys swimming in the swampy waters of the Tangled Woods and in Clan Phantom's large underground lake, but has an intense phobia of the ocean. Unlike other nocturnes, she enjoys eating fish, and will often seek out ponds when she is hungry so that she can catch them fresh. She can breath with both her lungs and her gills, allowing her to stay submerged indefinitely if she chooses.