Editing Malakai Ruskin (section)

==Bio==
When Malakai was a child a violent dust storm wiped out the settlement he lived in, which had been left vulnerable by drought. By the time help came he'd been alone for several weeks, surviving on what he could scavenge from the ruins - or catch in newly-discovered animal forms.

There was some disagreement on what to do with him. He had no known family and was now obviously a Duster, but had started out as Human as everyone else. How could they give a defenceless child to the ravages of the Wilds? So he was passed into the dubious care of Copper Flats chapter of The Society for the Rehabilitation of the Dust-Afflicted, a group of do-gooders who were convinced that Dusters could be normal productive members of society if only they'd forsake the weird powers the dust had given them.

While the Society provided Malakai with lodging and an education, any use of powers or "unbecoming behaviour" was punished. He learned how to tell the adults around him what he thought they wanted to hear, and to steal food when this wasn't successful. As a teenager he stowed away on visiting airship the Black Sheep in cat form. Since he had nowhere else to go except back to the Society, the Captain agreed to keep him on as an "apprentice". Although he's been with the crew ever since, as a Duster raised by humans he has a foot in both worlds, and doesn't feel like he belongs in either.