While enjoying her swim, Aleera encounters a young shark-like girl who was also spending the moment swimming. The young shark girl, who Aleera would soon find out was named Zinnia, took an immediate fascination with her.

Zinnia always had trouble making friends with other kids, due in part to the fact that her appearance always caused others to think she was a troublemaker. It didn’t really help much that the patterns on her body gave her the impression of having a lot of scars. It tended to lead to her dealing with a lot of people immediately judging her right off the bat, and also resulting in her having a habit of staring people in the face and noticing the uneasiness.

Aleera, however, didn’t show any uneasiness, as she didn’t even have a face, which put Zinnia at a strange ease, and a desire to know more about her and possibly even becoming friends.

Zinnia had quite the powerful bite, as well as was being pretty strong for a young girl and a very fast swimmer. Her species was also capable of lifting themselves up by their strong and flexible tails.