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"I don't wanna go!" shrieked Hella, stomping her feet and causing the bookcase in the hallway to shudder.

Her father squatted down on his haunches before her, his paws rest on the six year old thylacines shoulders.

"Sweetie, mom has a job in Australia and we've gotta go with her," his ears perking up and Richard put a smile on his face. Putting on a brave face for his daughter.

Her lower lip quivered, her dark eyes moist with barely restrained tears. Her ears drooped, her tail limp and it was clear to any and all she wasn't happy about this change in her life.

"B-b-but muh-my friends are all here," she turned to the age old refuge of children and turned on the water-works.

If Richard could be honest about anything, he hated seeing kids cry, even more so when it was his own daughter. All he could do was pull her into a hug and let her wet his shoulder with tears.

When the sobbing subsided for the time being, Hella wiped an arm across her snotty nose. "Can't we just visit mom everyday?"

Her father sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "But mom'll miss us and she'll be sad."

Hella's ears laid flat against her skull and her gaze dropped to the floor. "I guess," she murmured as she paid attention to her feet.

A moment passed between father and daughter. An understanding. The daughter nodded, she sort-of understood. She would cope and learn in this new place. She would make new friends.

She would overcome and adapt, and maybe 'Ozzy-trailer' would be almost as nice asTexas.

******

Rain poured down, in heavy rivulets, as though Zeus himself was taking a coffee-induced-roadside pee.

Australiawas in the grip of a severe storm front (which only the other day had passed through from New Zealand). Add to the fact that it was the middle of winter, and it was not by any stretch of the imagination, a fun view. No fun snow, and the chance for snow angels. No sir, Hella crossed her arms, pouted and proceeded to look as unimpressed as a little girl can.

"Don't like Ozzy-trailer," she put a joeyish growl into her voice, scowling at the rain cascading down.

Bronwyn looked over at her upset daughter, her husband had nodded off on the orbital burn upwards, he'd been dog-tired and she let the kangaroo sleep it off. "Well, sweetie Oz's gotta have rain otherwise it gets too dry and nothing grows. It'll dry up soon and it'll be the magical desert just like in Aladdin."

Hella responded to this statement with a derisive snort.

******

Mothers however, generally know best, and besides. What six year old can maintain a funk in a new place with so many funny looking people. Especially the duck-beavers. In true childlike bluntness she proceeded to tell a platypus child that he looked funny, and he in turn retorted, "Naaaaah you look funny. Big-mouth big-mouth big-mouth!"

Hella giggled, opening her mouth as wide as she could, one of the benefits of being a thylacine, and the platypus boy laughed and they proceeded to dance around each other dancing and singing in a disjointed unison, "Big-mouth!" and "Duck-beaver!"

But the parents were quick to pull their child away, "Bloody thylacines. They're not right in the head, them," the mother was heard muttering to her husband.

Hella didn't get the jist of it, but the tone and body language and the sudden removal of her new friend made her start to sniffle, her ears droop but she didn't cry. She told dad she'd try not to cry too much, for him; and by gum. She meant it! But Bronwyn stepped up to her daughter, resting a hand on her shoulder, Richard stood off to the side. This was a thylacine moment. He'd heard the story from his wife, about why things were the way they were. About what happened. About why they kept themselves to themselves. ******

Thankfully, Hella found companionship eventually when her parents joined up with some like-minded fellows and formed a commune, which grew from a handful to a steady farming community, trading with outlying towns and Hella got to grow up running around, 'rassling and tousling with all manner of critters.

She went to school in the Sydney Arcology, putting up with teasing about anything and everything. Especially as she got older, reaching puberty; 'Your mom's a roo-slut' or 'Your dad's a subby little bitch who likes taking it up the arse from predators' to 'I bet with a mouth like that, you could suck a lot of cock' and of course there were the taunts, 'Holy shit she's a thylacine watch out!'

But a few broken noses later, and getting into some fights. And when she proved she really wasn't afraid of biting people they tended to keep their remarks in whispers.

******

By the time she was 14, it was time to move again. This time, across the ditch to Aotearoa (Or New Zealand in Anglish), where it was her dad who had a job this time, as a doctor in the Skytower (connected to Auckland via space elevator) and her mother worked I.T. making 'dreams' for VR systems, as her own boss.

A young tuatara came into their lives rather suddenly, Dad was doing lower surgery duty (the base of the orbital elevator), when a stabbed and severely beaten tuatara woman was brought into surgery. And despite all of best efforts, she died on the operating table.

This factor, combined with the woman not having any living relatives, he decided to take in the young boy into their care. And Richard and Bronwyn decided, to use the money they'd been saving up, to purchase a small rural block deep in the Waitakere ranges, to set up a farm, Richard commuted to work, and Bronwyn was able to work from home and Tamati became the latest addition to the Corinna family.