Her breathing grew harsh as she moved in a staggered pace among the snow. It wasn't long before the youngster collapsed into the snow, struggling to get herself back up standing, she did not want to give up. This only met with her stumbling about in the white dust as the cold began to affect her movements into that of a dying animal. A little coating of snow on the ground while not harmful to most Earth life, to a Zullux this was a death sentence to them. The species while almost impossible to kill had a few weaknesses, one being the cold temperatures. This one so driven on the prey she was pursuing that she failed to pay attention to her own surroundings when the snow began to fall.

The fatal mistake left her stumbling about before dropping to the snow covered ground. The small flakes collecting on her body as tears began to roll down her face. She didn't want to die, she didn't want her life to end this way but she knew the temperatures had made her weak and unable to move. Deep in her mind the child could only hear the pained screams of the queen and all the other zullux. The loudest of the voices was the queen herself, her mother as she sensed her beloved daughter fading away. The child could feel herself slipping in and out of conscious, her vision becoming hazy and dark. There was some last pitiful movements from her as the young zullux made her last attempts to get up.

There was no luck, the children collasped again and looked up to the sky to the cruel weather that would be her final sight. As she faded out for the final time her eyes seemed to have changed. What once was a bright orange now was fading into a cold bright green as the child took its last breath. With that her mind shut down and the voices, the screams of her mother and thousands of others soon fade to whispers and then to nothingness.

And so the Queen could only scream as she could feel her daughter's life slipping away from her grasp, unable to save her from her demise.

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With my recent Zullux guide I created that I wanted to working on a digital painting that was similar to one I did at the beginning of working on my OCs. Concept in mind I drew up a sketch that eventually led to the direction of the painting. Its also gave me a chance to introduce some of the characters from the Zullux species which this painting depicts one of the daughters of Queen Renya. This daughter is Khari who was sent outside of the nest to lure her first Shapeshifter back under the orders of her mother. This did not end well at all for the young child as the shapeshifter was soon aware what she was and a simple task became a prey vs predator chase. The chase went on long enough that Khari didn't notice the snow fall or the cold which is a death sentence for this species.

She ends up dying... or so everyone thinks. Reality of a traveler came along to discover Khari's limp body and soon she was rescued and brought to an area hospital where after a month of treatment she reawakened and very much alive. However... Khari 'dying' had one side effect of being severed from the hivemind the zullux share. She's now a Zullux with a freewill, lost in a world she's unfamiliar with. This bought in an onslaught of scientist ready to whisk her away from the hospital for research that she made the decision to flee.

From there its anyone's guess where she ends up and more importantly who she meets.

Art, Characters and the Zullux © Knuxtiger4