II

Now it's time for me to come into the picture.

Eggs that contain Yoshies are such that when they first appear, they're all white with no spots whatsoever. As the baby Yoshi inside grows, the outside changes colour to whatever colour the Yoshi is.

At one stage, my egg spots were pink. Then they gradually yellowed, but suddenly, they turned a sickly green for one day, before they went orange. I think something must have attacked the egg, some insect or something, and it was what gave me Heratu's Syndrome, where I suffer from severe teleportation sickness.

On the 9th of Arpito, on a Salamandosday, I hatched. My parents say I was reluctant to leave the shell. And I would have been, had I known what was to come in my life.

It was now three Fa’Dieli years after my parents' arrival, and they had grown accustomed to Kippoan life, and were speaking Pandoran like natives, though the odd word was bungled or wasn't known. So they had grown to be more accepted in the village, but only on the outside: they were ostracised still in people's minds, and this was apparent in the social circles.

I was a spectacle - a sight to see by everyone in Kippo - there were even some people from Pandora City who came by to see me. My nose was all squashed, I had no hair, my saddle was still soft, and I had blazing jade-green eyes; no joke, they started to turn sapphire as I grew. I was cuter than a rabite nestling.

However, my parents could not agree on a name for me by the time I hatched, so I was nameless for about a week. Since they had come to know about Mana, but were by no means practiced in it, they knew about the balance of Mana - so they wanted a balanced name for their children. And, as they were now in Pandora, they wanted a name that would reflect that.

So, my parents asked around about it, and got suggestions, but it was the shopkeeper Rumpil who set it all in stone. I was taken to be seen by him.

"So Rumpil," my father said, "I need a name for my boy Koyoshi."

"Koyoshi?" Rumpil asked.

"What we call a baby one of us."

"Oh."

"Anyway," my mother got the conversation back on track, "we were looking at something Pandoran for him."

"From history, like," my father added.

"Well, the Mana Knight's name's a good one - Randi."

Then, according to my parents, I cried.

"Doesn't seem to like it," Rumpil smiled.

"Nah. Besides, back on Yamauchi, that word sounds very much like a word that means…"

He whispered the rest in Rumpil's ear, and he blushed.

"Well, we can't have that, can we," he snickered.

Oh, how I wish I were called Randi, it would have made my life so much easier. But then, they probably would have given me the second name of Vandole, the Emperor of the East at the time of the Resurrection. And Randi Vandole Yoshi von Kippo doesn't cut it, in my opinion. Nor Geshtar, nor Fanha. But Sheex - that would have been really good. Could you see me as Randi Sheex Yoshi von Kippo?

"So," my mother said, starting to grow impatient, "what other name could we have?"

"Well, there's always Dyluck, the captain of the Pandoran Army during the Resurrection."

"Dyluck…" my father rolled it around his tongue, "…Dyluck Yoshi…Dyluck?" he asked my mother, who gave it a moment's thought.

"Dyluck it is then," she nodded. "Now, we need his opposite."

"Why?"

"I believe you have something to do with the balance of Mana, and we want our child's name to be balanced."

"Well…" Rumpil thought. "Oh no, you wouldn't want that name…"

"What name?"

"Thanatos. He was, er…"

"Thank you, Rumpil," my mother's patience had worn out. "Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi. Cyado!"

Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi. Why my mother couldn't have been a bit more patient, I don't know. Ask her.

This all set the groundwork for why I'm called Lich. But let me get to that later.