Authors Note: Just to let you all know, I'm not going to put up the next section until I get some reviews. That's going to be the rule for the rest of the story. I'm not going to waste my time if no one is reading this.

Excerpt from the Collection of Jekra Folktales - Guide to the belief system of the reptilian Ossans

There came, then, the Years of Plenty. In these Years of Plenty, The First of the Jekra emerged from the egg. The First of the Jekra looked and saw the Plenty, and The First's blood sang with hunger. Now The First of the Jekra was superior to its egg-mates, and though The First was smaller, The First possessed a nimble mind. The First used this mind to survive the fights between the egg-mates for possession of the single Female of the eggs. The First saw that the Female was also superior. And The First knew love for the first time - the emotion that distinguished the savage egg-mates from the First Couple. The First fought for the Female with more ferocity than The First had ever shown before. And the egg-mates were overwhelmed by the strength of the First Couple's love. The egg-mates of The First were destroyed.

And the union of The First Couple made the land full of joy.

The First Couple laid eggs in the Years of Plenty. And soon the nest of the Couple was full, full. Yea, The First Family was full of love, and The First Father taught The First egg-children to be as He had been, nimble of mind and quick of feet. The First Mother taught the First Children to love, as she had.

So it was that the Years of Plenty were passed in joy and love by all the Jekra, who grew from the family of The First Couple.

Then came the Months of Destruction. And The First Family had passed long before. The Jekra had never known the Months of Destruction before and they were nearly destroyed. They ran before the Floods from the Skies, ran until they found The Holy Mother Mountain. And the Mother Mountain opened her womb to the Jekra, welcoming the children of her world back to whence all life came.

And the Floods from the Skies raged, raged.

Then came the Days of Heat. The Holy Mother Mountain turned her children out into the deserts, made by the destruction of the Floods from the Skies. The Years of Plenty were no more. The Days of Heat ruled the land. Many more Jekra died in the Days of Heat, Jekra that were not worthy of the world of the Holy Mother Mountain. The Jekra who survived the Days of Heat returned to the Holy Mother Mountain as the Shower of the Mother began to replenish the desert after the Days of Heat. The Holy Mother Mountain welcomed the worthy children of her world back into her womb, to shelter them from the Gentle Floods.

There came, then, the Years of Plenty. In these Years of Plenty, the Last of the First and the First of Jekra to come, emerged from the womb of the Holy Mother Mountain

Ossus - 14 years before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion

"The Days of Heat are a testing ground - the way the Holy Mother Mountain purifies her world. The humans that came during the Years of Plenty have been found wanting, the Jekra who had changed their way of life for the humans have been found wanting. There is only a small number of Jekra left on the Holy Mother Mountain's world now, and those Jekra that are left must obey the teachings of the survivors from The First Days of Heat. We must make sure that a severe purging of our race is not needed again, that the Holy Mother Mountain - in her infinite love and wisdom..."

Ssinaa turned her head from the Kedem of her tribe and stood to check on Keir and Silver. The Kedem every so often had the urge to preach to his tribe. Custom stated that The Kedem choose where they stopped for the cold, desert night. Thus, if The Kedem stopped, the tribe also stopped for the rest of the day. It would often happen that the tribe would not move once during the course of a week to satisfy The Kedem's need to hear his own voice preaching about The Holy Mother Mountain. This was one such occurrence.

Of course, it wasn't all that bad; the place The Kedem had chosen had a large rock that provided shade for the whole tribe. The Kedem didn't know that the rock had a small cave on the hot side of it, nor did he know that that was where Ssinaa went so often. Nor did he know that the children he banished from the tribe lived there. The Kedem assumed that Ssinaa went to lie in the sun, offering her life to the Holy Mother Mountain as penance for her sin - the sin of loving a non-Jekra, the sin of bearing a non-Jekra's child, the sin of not killing that child as soon as it was out of her womb. Ssinaa growled and hissed, fighting to keep the venom inside her body, not to let it spill out of her fingers and onto that fool of a Kedem. No one of the tribe really liked him, so if he were to turn up dead one morning, no one would really care. But she could not kill him, not now.

Silver was sick, and if The Kedem died, the tribe would move on and Silver would die.

So Ssinaa balled her dangerous hands into fists and let him live. For now.

As soon as she left the dark side of the rock, Ssinaa had to lower her clear eyelids over her eyes to stop the sand from blinding her. Her scales extended to cover the parts of her body laid bare in the shade and the clawed talons of her feet spread out to stop her from sinking into the hot sand. Ssinaa moved slowly to the cave where Silver lay, bringing with her what food the tribe could spare.

The Kedem was really the reason there was all this trouble about sin and purging. The tribe did not believe Silver and Keir were evil; in fact, they enjoyed having the pair around. It seemed that whenever Silver and Keir were with the tribe, the sand-serpent of the Days of Heat, the Nyokan, could not take them by surprise. The Nyokan claimed large numbers of Jekra from other tribes, but Silver and Keir always seemed to know when one was approaching, leaving time for the tribe to prepare. Because of this, the tribe had the least of losses compared to all the other tribes of the Jekra. Ssinaa had explained to the tribe about Silver, and so it was decided that The Kedem would not be killed until Silver was feeling better.

Still, it would make Ssinaa feel better if she could see The Kedem burning from her venom.

Silver and Keir were on the floor of the cave as Ssinaa entered the coolness. The pair was oblivious to her presence for the moment, so she stood silently to look at them.

The children were only five, but already their bodies were showing signs of what they would be in adulthood. Keir's hands were already broad and strong, looking out of proportion to the rest of his lanky body. Feathery lines of scales ran along the bones of his hands and the backs of his fingers, the same on his feet. He had broad swathes of scales on his shoulder blades, and lines of them spread out from his temples, ending at the corners of his eyes and mouth. His scales were becoming the deepest black as he grew, changing from the silver they were as a baby. Keir was already much taller than he should have been at the age of five, and Ssinaa felt swells of pride when she saw the glimpses of his coming strength and flashes of danger in his eyes. His proud name was shaping him already, making him confident and subtly powerful.

Silver, on the other hand, was still small and delicate in appearance, but Ssinaa knew that one could not live in the Days of Heat and stay delicate. Silver's skin was alabaster white, smooth and perfect. The sun of the desert should have blistered and burned her skin, but for some reason it never had. Silver carried with her an air of cool and control that passed beyond a girl of five. Some of the tribe laughed at her manner and seriousness, but most of them saw the quiet strength and confidence it indicated, and respected Silver for the woman she would obviously become. Her hair was long and the purest of whites, with subtle highlights of light blue and glittering streaks of silver. Most of the time, Silver kept the majority of it out of her face by pulling back strands at her temples and braiding them together at the back of her head. Her thick hair flowed out behind her wherever she went, and it never seemed to get tangled. Amidst this delicate and soft beauty of her face and hair, her eyes were her most striking feature. The iris's of her eyes were metallic silver that moved and swirled sluggishly around her pupils. But when she was warned of a Nyokan approaching, her eyes turned sharp and hard, the silver fixed and icy. When she was angered - which wasn't often - the sluggish movement would snap and flicker, then speed about her eyes, cracking like a whip, the colour of the silver sharpening as if it were metal on a grindstone.

Separate, the children were marvels, incredible individuals. Together, the pair was even more amazing.

Keir would watch over Silver with an almost paternal protectiveness flickering in the midnight pools of his eyes. Silver would care for Keir's wounds with an almost maternal care, her eyes softening and glowing as she helped him heal. They never left each other's side for long, not if they could possibly help it, as if they were an old couple who had been together so long they could not bear to be apart. They laughed at each other as if they were the best friends in the entire universe. They anticipated each other's actions and words as if they were twins, too alike to be told apart. Ssinaa had long given up trying to understand their complex relationship, waiting, instead, as the two children explored it for themselves, eagerly waiting to see what they would figure out, how they would end up in relation to each other.

Presently, Silver's tiny form was curled up against Keir's long body. Her head was resting on his chest and her arms were wrapped around his stomach. Keir had one arm around her back, holding her as close as he could, with his other hand running through her silken hair. His eyes were wide open and his view was filled with the sleeping girl.

Ssinaa was reluctant to disturb the pair, and was about to back out of the cave when Silver whispered half a word to Keir, who relayed it to Ssinaa.

"She wants you to stay, Ummi."

Ummi was what Keir and Silver called her, it was the most tender form of 'mother' in the language of the Jekra. Everytime she heard one of them say it, Ssinaa could not help but smile with bitter happiness. Why could Evylyna not have survived to feel so loved?

Ssinaa pushed the thought of her friend from her mind and went to her children.

"I brought Silver some more medicine."

Silver whispered to Keir. Ummi came closer and tried to give her some medicine. But she could not bear to have any more of the vile, chewy weed. Every time she had some, she seemed to get worse. But Ummi believed it would work and kept trying to give it to her. Ummi would tell Keir to give her the medicine, then leave, but Keir would hide it in the corner of the cave instead, knowing how much she hated the stuff.

Today was no different. Ummi sighed and stroked the girl's hair, handed the medicine to Keir and left. Keir hid the medicine and returned to Silver. This time she put her head on his lap as he smoothed her hair away from her face. He was worried about her; it was coming through their mind link, loud and strong. She sent reassurance at him through their link, trying to ease his concern for her. He smiled for a moment, allowing their minds to embrace warmly.

Then it came again, the wave of pure, unadulterated power that sent Silver's mind spiralling into a whirlpool of light. Her body stiffened as she fought the wave, struggling to stay on top of the whirlpool, holding onto Keir's mind so tightly that she nearly pulled him in with her. The power subsided and Silver let out an explosive breath as all her muscles relaxed. Her body was sweating rivers of water and salt - precious resources not to be lost in the desert - her hair was wet and under her closed eyelids her eyes raced. Keir laid her down gently and ran to get water for her to drink. The last wave of power had been stronger than all the others and had left her weaker than ever before. His worry renewed itself and became sharper. She couldn't afford to lose that much water, not now, not ever.

KEIR!!!

Silver cried out to him with her mind, and he spun around in time to see her stiffen again. The wave had returned! She was too weak now and couldn't fight her way to the top. She would be lost into the whirlpool!

SILVER!

Keir desperately reached out to her, trying to drag her back to the top, but she was already too far down, she had been swept away by the power, and he could not bring her back.