Xholkrox Quauskath Wartinith sat on the edge of the platform, his legs dangling over the water and his tail lazily moving about behind him. Being assigned as a sentry on a fogfilled evening like this seemed quite foolish to him, but when you were assigned a task by the Women's Council you better complied. On the next platform over stood the dome serving as his niall's hatchery, a niall being the Foundation, the extended family so important to all T'Skrang. Four nialls usually formed a village together. Whitewater could only sustain two nialls, however, so it was questionable if the T'Skrang colony could really be called a proper village.<br/>That would change in the future. He had heard the talk, he knew the two nialls in Whitewater were allied with two more downriver. Eventually the platforms he had knew his whole life would be abandoned and the four nialls finally reclaiming the ruins out in the river. It would take lots and lots of money, however. The towers sticking up through the surface was still intact, but the underwater domes they connected to was not. It would take alot of True Water and True Earth to make the village habitable again, and such rare substances was insanly expensive. They had achieved a great breakthrough though, they had finally managed to gather enough funds to comission the building of a riverboat. The T'Skrang were fenomenal traders and sailors, and it could be argued that a village without a riverboat was no true T'Skrang village at all. Once the boat was delivered, the task of collecting enough money for the repairs should be alot easier.<br/>He looked in the direction of the hatchery. Had he heard something? No male was ever allowed into the hachery, so of course they gossiped wildly about what was going on in there, it was to be expected. His own egg had rested in there once, that was the extent of his knowledge about the hatchery.<br/>Women. Strange creatures, always ready to tell you what to do and give you a nose burn if you didn't do it. Strange then that his four closest friends were women, and soft skins at that. It could seem strange that the four girls had accepted him into their circle at all, but one had to remember that for the first part of their friendship no one had any idea what gender he'd turn out to be, not even himself. Once puberty set in and he gradually became male they had been friends for years, so turning their backs on him was out of the question. Besides, the girls had just reached the age when they started to realize boys might be good for a couple of things after all.<br/>Xholkrox was quite happy with being male, alot less responsibility and less of a need to grow up. Let the women run things, it was as it always had been and the men was fine with it. They were after all not excluded from the possition as riverboat captains, the most coveted possition of all. Once the boat was delivered, he would do what he could to get on the crew. He didn't exactly have the reputation of being a hard worker, and he didn't really have any skills, but few could match him with a bow. A riverboat needed archers, right? To fight of bandits and stuff? Yeah, he was sure they could use a young, brave T'Skrang like him. He almost always did well on the archery competitions the village held when there was a celebration. Sometimes he even won, although a few of Garashna's brothers probably had won more than he had. Or were they her cousins? Sometimes it felt like keeping up with the Morbaag family tree was a fulltime job.<br/>Now he deffinetly heard something. That was a riverboat engine, he was sure of it. He could hear the paddle wheels turning in the water. It didn't seem to be slowing down. They either had a damn fine captain or were suicidal to brave the rapids in this fog. Was that raised voices he heard through the mist? And there, was that the sound of someone falling into the water? He griped his bow tighter. Alot good it would do him though, he could barely see his own hand. He often argued that the bow was superior to a sword, but this time it would fall short. Was that muttered curses he heard? Yes, someone was deffinetly swiming closer. He'd better check it out before he raised the alarm, or he'd never hear the last of it if it turned out to be harmless.