Phew I finally finished it. After again procrastinating a lot. Yes the Liger needs to work on that. It's a new years resolution so here's hoping For now we've got a new pic! First pic of the year and it's a human putting on display my love of rafting worlds and fiddling with human genetics. Another in a long list of "almost" humans. ^^

Lance Weaver swam through the reeds looking about at the occasional coral grown. The ocean around him was crystal blue today with the sun shining brightly overhead. A welcome change from the gloom the storms at the surface had left them with for days. Lance took in a long breath scenting the water and feeling it pass his gills and smiled. It even smelled clearer than it had. Here and there Lance noticed fish of one sort or another flitting about in the reeds hiding prom bigger fish that might eat them or stranger things that dwelled in the endless ocean of Aqualus. Lance stopped a moment to admire the underside of a passing Great Mulkin. It was essentially a mulusk but scaled up to huge proportions and with it's fins protruding from the seem of it's shell mobile. Lance had picked them as the topic of the paper he had to write for science class. They kept to the surface and were essentially living mobile islands. The local fliers used them to nest and all kinds of planets grew on their backs. The Great Mulkin would provide nutrients and fresh water to the plants that would in turn provide it with sugars. Actual land was a rarity on Aqualus which had no continents. It had large shallows but only rarely did these give way to actual land mass. Aqualus' settlers stayed to the oceans leaving what little land there was to the planet's wildlife. They'd adapted well enough to their new home. Lance's gills were a prime example and easy to spot. Less so were the crystal clear membranes that protected his eyes underwater or the slight alteration to his skin to deal with the moisture and his ability to deal with rapid changes in pressure easily. He still needed flippers to be quicker in the water but that was something minor as far as he and the others were concerned. After all they still worked with normal humans regularly and their homes were water tight and suitable for normal humans buy and large anyway though there were water channels for ease of movement and some preferred pools to sleep in. Lance leaned back slowly swimming off in a direction starring up at the surface as his thoughts drifted through all the facets of his home and completely oblivious to his swimmer suddenly growing warm. Something many wouldn't notice. That was one thing which their water born life style had changed. It was common for many children to be slow trainers as well it was difficult to drill in dry and wet when one was quite frequently wet head to toe and when accidents in the water would be largely unnoticed. Lance wasn't the only boy his age wearing a swimmer rather than the standard trunks or speedo and indeed those even older then he were still sporting some kind of protection. After all while an accident out in the water was no big deal it was quite noticeable inside and for many accidents of one kind seemed to go hand in hand with those of another. Which Lance just noticed with a blush as he felt a mass expanding in the seat of his swimmer. He gave a sigh and one more glance to the Great Mulkin and rolled over and swam off towards home. Just another day under the endless sea.

Well hope you guys liked the pic and the lil story. ^^