A/N: Shapa-keesay (shay pah kee say) n. 1. Shape-shifter.
Wateela (wah teel lah) n. 1. Water.
From The Complete Wermo's Guide to Huttese
Anakin pressed his face against the thick glass. The tank's lone occupant watched him, brown and cream fins moving with the gentle sloshing of the water. Sure Anakin had heard stories, but he'd never actually seen a wateela shapa-keesay. His scales seemed a bit dull and his skin a washed out but he was beautiful, long auburn hair kept back in a neat braid, brightly colored beads in a smaller one that draped forward. Anakin wondered if they meant something. Maybe they were for how many people he'd drowned.
"You tried to kill me," he said, not expecting a response and not getting one.
Although those blue eyes might have sharpened. Anakin wondered how and why Count Dooku had him. Was he some sort of dangerous exotic pet? The ship creaked and Anakin glanced toward the door of the cargo hold. He wasn't even supposed to be down here. No one was. But that hadn't stopped him the first time either. The shapa-keesay must have heard him coming when he'd snuck in to spy on what was so important to a nobleman that he'd charter a trip with a disgraced naval captain like Grievous because Anakin's first eyeful of him was a young man floundering in a tank of water, desperately hitting the grate above it. Anakin had broken the lock, tried to pull him out. Only to find himself dragged under the tepid water. He'd barely managed to get himself back out, drenched and gasping. His would-be murderer was still sporting some livid bruises, one of them a dark smear across his cheek.
"Pretty rude for a first meeting. I thought you were drowning. Can you turn your tail into legs whenever you want?"
Nothing. Anakin mapped the path of several long scratches across the creature's shoulder and down his arm.
"You can't understand a word I'm saying, can you?"
His strong tail smacked the glass and Anakin jerked back. A smirk tugged at the shapa-keesay's mouth. Anakin, heart pounding, couldn't help but grin and slowly moved closer again.
"So it's gonna be like that, huh?"
He ran his tail along the glass then settled into the far corner of the tank that had initially seemed huge to Anakin but now was obviously too small for any long-term confinement. Even with his back to the glass, his tail curled up the side of the adjacent corner. Anakin relaxed and leaned against the tank, resting an arm above his head on the smooth surface. He probably would have been willing to kill some hapless cabin boy too, if it meant escaping. Deadly and violent and beautiful, Anakin's mind turned on how he could keep the shapa-keesay for himself.