Here’s the first of (probably) a few more entries in the Altered Fates series, which I did 3 of a while back, and is now returning in Patron-voted form! These what-if scenarios are little explorations into what might have been, if there was just a little tweak to some person, place, or event, with everything else following the strictly canon details.
 
So to kick it off, the first Patron-suggested winner is a pretty unsurprising one!
 
 
Alteration: Kassen is born as a yinglet
 
Kassen Akoll, in whatever form he takes, is a spirit that thrives on hard work for, and recognition from, whatever organization he’s aligned himself with. He is, at heart, a company man.
 
When Kas-Kas the yinglet hatched in an enclave far away, she was quick to realize that she was treated very differently than the other hatchlings. The nurses paid extra close attention to her, making sure she didn’t get hurt or wander off, and was fed the best scraps of food before all the others.
 
When her litter was moved into the oldest age group in the nursery, she was taken aside and told she was different than the others. But not in a bad way, not at all! She was a female, which meant that she had a very very important role to play in the enclave.
 
She would be kept safe within the enclave’s walls, fed the best food, kept safe by the numerous males, and be taught very special things by the Matriarch, and the other females. The very special duty of making more yinglets to fill the enclave would be entrusted to her, and she would be respected and adored by all for performing her sacred duties.
 
The praise and great expectations heaped upon her was almost too much to handle. The excitement kept her awake for days, as she fantasized about what her life would soon become.
 
She took to her Females’ Studies with intense dedication, which was only strengthened every time the older females and the Matriarch praised her for her newfound passion. Though some of the subjects were a bit hard for her, she was quick to redouble her efforts any time an obstacle presented itself.
 
By the time she came of age, she had the poise, grace and confidence usually expected of far more experienced girls. And when it came time to receive her first seeding, she found it to be a heavenly experience, solidifying her conclusion that this was exactly what she wanted out of life.
 
By her fourth year, she was a paragon of the ideal traditional enclave female, basking in the respect and praise of the Matriarch and her many suitors, and delivering a great number of healthy younglets to her beloved enclave year after year.
 
She never rose to the rank of Matriarch herself, having no desire to give up the simpler, stress-free life afforded to the standard female population which she had become to accustomed to. Though she sometimes thought that she would gladly take up that role if it meant serving her beloved enclave in a higher capacity, she knew there were other, more clever and studious candidates who had focused their efforts on Matriarchal studies while she had been refining her appearance, grace and poise.
 
On nights like this, when she had no specific assignments for her breeding schedule, and was thus free to dance and strut in a showy mating dance to excite the more successful males allowed to partake in such exclusive gatherings, any doubts she had about her choice quickly melted away in the growing scent of excitement in the room emanating from both her and the male occupants.
 
After she had roused their essences, they would compete for breeding rights, and the winner would take her as his prize, and plant the seeds of another batch of strong, superior young within her. The thought, as always, was intoxicating. She raised her tail high in invitation, and began the next dance.
 

 
Having been born a natural yinglet from a male and female from her enclave, rather than re-formed from a human, Kas-Kas bears a few slight differences in appearance. Most notably her trademark ridge of fur running much further down her tail than most, a shorter, rounder snout, furless grey arms to match her legs, and a very slightly lighter shade of fur.
 
Also, there’s a little animation in the main pic! If you can’t see it, try dragging the PNG into a Firefox or Chrome window, or other program that supports animated PNGs.