Houssa

Houssa [tree-like one]
Viryk
healer, scholar, withdrawn but kind


As a hatchling, Houssa's only ambition was to learn. Her supreme disinterest in everything else lead her to the Tourmaline Archives, where she spent the first portion of her life immersed in a dreamworld of books, stories, and likeminded friends, such as Hodsa, Oup, and Oylik.

It was nearly perfect.

But the little threads at the edges of the known world tugged at Houssa. How could [xyz] be, and also [xyz]? What did it mean for there to be stars none of them could reach? What about the stories the Aether dragons brought back from their adventures so near the heavens?

One day, these questions took her too far: through a wormhole and to a strange planet where she was a monster. This place was populated entirely by two-legged apes, resembling some of the Sornieth creatures that dragon society had long since designated as animals. Here, she was the animal, and it was only thanks to the intercession of Serthis refugees that she was able to speak with humans, and convince them not to slaughter her.

But she stayed. For several years after, she remained on Niska, learning to speak the strange human language as well as a dragon could. This language, Gÿr, was a part of a dialect continuum spoken on every known planet with intelligent life -- even Sornieth, where learned Serthis used it as the language of diplomacy.

The wormhole was not quiet. No more dragons came through, but waves and waves of Serthis did, displaced by further dragon attacks.