Backstory
The Liths live on a beautiful and secluded island, hours travel from any city of men. Here there are those who live in the air, called Aeroliths, those who make their home in the tossing ocean waves and the freshwater rivers and streams, called Aqualiths, some who roam the countryside on their six feet, called Terrliths, and those who favor the deadly heat of the volcano to the north end of the island, and who are called Pyroliths.
Each tribe has their own customs and laws, as well as their own habitat, yet sometimes they all converge to help eachother, or settle minor disagreements. Little is known about the Liths themselves, because relativly few people have seen them in their home environment.
Several years ago, however, a paranormal investigator and jill of all trades, Dr. Rahvin Roachworth, was on a solo expedition into the wildernesses of Gaia, searching for the secrets of some pillars that were currently taking up her time in a museum near her home. Her small craft wrecked one evening off the shores of the Liths home island, and she came to know and befriend them.
It was the Aqualiths that she met first. As has been said of dolphins for many years, the Aqualiths are quite intelligent, and desire almost nothing more than to play and make friends. They rescured her, partly out of concern for what they could tell was another living being, and partly out of a sense of overwhelming curiousity.
The second Liths she met were the Aeroliths. They, too, were playful, and somewhat absent minded. They reminded her of a cross between birds and snakes. She found that they often spoke wisdom when it was least expected.
Both the Terraliths and the Pyroliths were far more skittish, less friendly. They acted almost as though they had seen negative things before. She learned in the ways hunters have for millinea that the terraliths were vegitarian, pack animals, and that they mated for life. As for the Pyroliths, she only caught a glimpse of them a few times, and was not able to get anything confirmed.
Having repaired her boat with the help of the Aero and Aqualiths (for she found that they were quite intelligent), she headed homeward. With the blessings of the tribes, she brought with her two of the Aquas and two of the Aeros, so that she could study them and learn more of their culture and habits.
When she arrived back at her labratory at the Serenity Fields Museum, Dr. Roachworth set up an environment that was as like as she could make it to that of the home of the Liths. She procured foods that they liked (fish for both, seeds, nuts, and leaves for the Aeros, seewead for the Aquas) and tried to make them comfortable. Her studies were progressing very well.
Then one day she arrived at her lab to find the place ransacked. The Liths were gone, their homes destroyed, along with her computers and all of her files.
And thus the Liths became yet another of the black market animals that can be bought on the streets of any major town in Gaia. The new owners know little about them because the sellers know little. And Dr. Roachworth is out for vengance on whoever kidnapped her friends.
