Nit crept slowly down the long corridor, his single eye focused on the shiny metal floor before him. He could see his pale pink paw pads reflected as he took each step, vanishing when he put his foot down to take the next step. "He's the only other one like me," he whispered, still gazing downwards.

The black-and-yellow-furred anthropomorphic wolf walking beside him, glanced at him, her gray-green eyes worried. "Who's that, Nit?"

"My reflection," the cyclopean dragon murmured. His short-furred skin rippled, his bioluminescent pits glowing briefly. "He's the only other one."

Lakota sighed. "I'm sorry, Nit," she said, reaching down to flip one of the dragon's ears playfully. "Zehklos is still trying to trace the ripple-waves your arrival caused. If we could just find the Gate you arrived through, even…"

"I don't remember," Nit said miserably. He had been found wandering the hallways of the Gate building several months ago, and the attendants had fled, screaming, when they noticed the fact that the uncharted newcomer had but one huge eye in the center of his forehead. Even the strangest of dragon species that Lakota brought back through the Gates had at least two eyes.

The more level-headed attendants had quickly realized that the cyclopean dragon was intelligent and able to communicate, and they summoned Lakota to collect him. She had taken the dragon back to Sitheil Tirean, where she and the others discovered he could speak their language, but was unable to remember anything about himself or his homeland.

"I'll name you Niteo Soloculi," Lakota had said. "That's sort of Latin for 'glowing one-eye'. But I think there's another dragon named Niteo out there somewhere, so we'll call you 'Nit'."

It had become quickly apparent that, even though the resident Schattarneki dragons and all the other residents of Sitheil Tirean treated Nit with honor, respect, and as an equal, he was deeply lonely. There were no others even remotely like his one-eyed kind anywhere on the planet. It was then no difficult decision when Kaere, nearly rabid with eagerness, suggested that Lakota cart the biolumiclops dragon off to Dr. Schroeder and his biosynthing abilities.

"Well," Lakota said. "If he wants to… Nit, it'd be like having kids… err… without having kids."

Nit had raised his head, his expression solemn, his single yellow eye as still as the moon. "I will go," he said.

"I'll take you," Kaere said, looking about ready to froth at the mouth and actually grinning.

"Heck no," Lakota said. "The last time I let you go to the Abstract Destiny, you came back with a pulsingly bright orange wolfdragon."

"Hey, Damas is cool," Kaere said defensively. "Fine, you take Cyclops. But ask Dr. Schroeder if I can come watch him synth something someday. And don't bring back another dragonet sponsor," she added, smiling wickedly.

"Me? Never," Lakota said, blankly innocent.

"Yeah, right," Nit said, and looked surprised when the two wolves burst into laughter.

Days later, they finally me up with Dr. Schroeder on his gigantic spaceship. "I don't know if he's even… compatible," Lakota told the doctor, gazing down at the cyclopean dragon with a faint frown touching her muzzle. "I mean, I've encouraged him to try…"

Nit lowered his head, squeezing his eye shut. His bioluminescence flared bright green for a brief moment in the extreme of his embarrassment. "I don't… it's not that I don't want to try," he said in a hoarse whisper.

"I've paraded everything from Schattarneki to Whorlings in front of him," Lakota said, blithely. Nit practically glowed, as if he was trying to vanish in a flare of bright green light. "Nothing."

"I'm sorry," Nit mumbled. "I just… it's not…" Finally he seemed to realize that his stutters weren't explaining anything, and Lakota would go on babbling to Dr. Schroeder unless he made his point. "They're just not attractive," he said. "They all have two eyes."

There was a moment of silence, and Nit raised his head to notice that both Lakota and the doctor were gawping at him. "Errr, I mean," he said, "There's nothing wrong with having two eyes--I'm sure I'll get used to it in time--I just--right now, I…" He gave up.

"It's all right, Nit," Lakota said, grinning and putting her hand on the dragon's head. "We understand. That's why you're here. Although, you understand…" the wolf tilted her head at Dr. Schroeder briefly.

"The resultant synthed offspring might not have your… unique ocular structure," the human said carefully. "Depending on who you're synthed with."

"That's all right," Nit said, his floppy ears twitching briefly. "I understand the risks." He grinned slightly, showing a mouthful of short, triangular teeth.

"Well, then," Dr. Schroeder said. "No time like the present."

"Kaere still wants to come by to study your process," Lakota reminded him. "She drives me nuts all day, making fruit-dragons and trying to engineer a Schattarneki in polka-dot colors." She rubbed a hand across her black-masked face. "She still won't admit that Dhur-dhur is one of her creations. I think she could use a few tips."

"We'll see," Dr. Schroeder said, smiling. "Although Kaere's told me that her facilities are rather primitive compared to the Abstract Destiny's, there is still a lot we have in common in practice and process."

"Um, excuse me," Nit said. "This synth. Will it hurt? Does it involve a large needle?"

Dr. Schroeder laughed. "Not at all, and not at all," he said. "Come on, let's get started."