This is a commissioned piece done by Candra on deviantart.com:
http://candra.deviantart.com

This commission is dedicated to both Karbo and French Snack: the former for having created Felarya, then allowing others to play around in his wonderful creation, and the latter for coming up with the idea behind Felarya Park, then doing the same. I would also be remiss if I failed to mention Karbo's Mantoids doodles (found here: http://fav.me/d2d4et3), which is where Xulia made her debut as a drawn character. That doodle was used as a reference for this commission. In short, Xulia would not exist without them. Thank you both!

In this picture of a possible future scene, a mostly grown up Xulia is giving Maria and Joseph, her adoptive human parents, a mantoid's eye view of her natural habitat in Felarya. The two humans have donned their expedition gear in preparation for the tour.

Xulia was captured as a hatchling in her native jungle on Felarya and taken off world to Felarya Park. The park's acquisition team, led by Maria and Joseph, had originally set out to capture a common mantoid. It was Maria's hunch that found the team searching through a particularly colorful section of jungle where Xulia had recently been hatched. The baby mantoid eluded their team for several days before deciding to adopt the humans because they kept feeding her such wonderful treats - treats that were meant to be bait.

The mantoid endeared herself to her human hosts with her intelligence and gentleness. She was named after Maria and Joseph's own baby, who died during childbirth years before. The choice of name would prove almost prophetic. Over time, Xulia formed an extremely close bond with Maria and came to see both her and Joseph as parental figures.

After being brought back to Felarya Park, she was raised in her own dedicated exhibit as one of the park's main attractions. Things did not go quite as planned. Xulia proved cleverer than her keepers on many occasions, thwarting their security systems and circumventing restrictions they tried to place upon her. Despite preventative measures, she even picked up language skills in defiance of park rules. An ex-military man named Gower Cuthwill was put in charge in an attempt to rein in Xulia's rebellious tendencies. His efforts met with little success. Things came to a head when Xulia acted up during an event meant to showcase her exhibit to corporate sponsors.

Then the massive dimensional storm hit, wrecking havoc across the island that encompassed the park. Maria and Joseph, acting to save Xulia, entered her enclosure in order to disable a poison gas system designed to terminate her if containment was breached. There they met Xulia face to face, and for the first time since her initial capture, made physical contact with her.

There are two stories thus far involving Xulia. The first is The Mantoid Attraction. It is followed by Meet The Mantoid. Both are set in the Felarya Park series, which began life here: http://felarya.forumotion.com/stories-discussion-f5/felarya-park-t1351.htm

The rest of Xulia's story has yet to be written.

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