>"Isolinde is awake," the healer said.
>
>"Did you ever find anything wrong with her?"
>
>He shook his head.  "We may want to keep her for observation overnight, see 
>if this happens again."
>
>She nodded and walked into the room, where the young, newly-joined girl 
>lay.  Cynthia sat in the chair beside the bed.  "You gave us a bit of a 
>scare.  How are you feeling?"
>
>"Fine."
>
>"Can you tell me what happened?"

"Not really," Isolinde said, thinking. She sat up on the bed, not really
wanting to seem like a weakling in front of the warrenlady.  "I was just
watching the men build the cavern, then one of them asked me if I wanted to
have a drink with him...." she trailed off, wondering what happened to D'Ren
after she'd left. She hadn't really been all that lucid, and didn't remember
anything.  But she forced the thoughts out of her mind and continued.  "The
next thing I know, the ground is shaking, and someone had thrown me to the
ground and was protecting me.  Then it was chaos, and I didn't know what to
do, and then I came upon this man, and he was bleeding really badly, and I
didn't know what to do, and I tried to hold the wound together, then...."
Isolinde shrugged, "Then I just blacked out."

"You don't remember anything else?" Cynthia questioned gently.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but that's it," Isolinde said, truly sorry she didn't have
any more to tell.

"That's okay," the warrenlady told the young girl in front of her
comfortingly.  "It's just....well, something strange happened."  Seeing she
had Isolinde's full attention, Cynthia continued.  "You said that the man
had a huge wound in his upper leg.  Yet when he got here, he had no wound
whatsoever, just a faint scar in the area described. He had all the symptoms
of blood loss, yet we couldn't find a wound." She looked pointedly at
Isolinde.  "We were just wondering if you had any ideas what happened."

"I'm sorry, but I don't really remember anything," Isolinde stated, somewhat
shocked. Did these people think she had actually healed a man?  Just by
thinking about it or whatever?  Was that even possible?

Seeing Isolinde's distress, Cynthia smiled.  "That's okay, really. I just
wanted to ask you a few questions; didn't mean to pry into your life---"

"Isolinde!" a loud voice shouted outside the door, and a very enthuisastic
R'bert burst into the scene.  "I heard you got hurt, and I got here as fast
as I could..."  He trailed off when he saw the warrenlady Cynthia, and a
blush crept up his features.  "I'm sorry," he stammered out, "I didn't know
you had company..."

"It's okay," Isolinde blurted out, not wanting R'bert to go or for the
warrenlady to be mad at him for barging in.  "I mean, we were almost done
anyway, weren't we ma'am?"

Cynthia seemed to understand the girl's silent plea, and her eyes softened
slightly. "Yes, I believe that's all," she said, rising regally from the
chair and smiling at Isolinde.  "I just wanted to know a few things, that's
all."  Then, as if it had just come to her, Cynthia added, "Oh, did you know
about your dragon?"

"My..dragon?" Isolinde stated blankly.  "What happened to her?"

"Well, she became unconscious at about the same time you did, and I didn't
know if you knew or not---"

*Faile!*  Isolinde thought, getting quickly out of the bed before the
warrenlady or R'bert could stop her. Her only thought was the little
dragonet lying somewhere, without her...

"Whoa!" R'bert stated, grasping Isolinde by the midsection as she tried to
hurtle by. "I'm sure Faile is fine," he reasoned in her ear.  "Why don't you
just try to ask her from here?"

*Faile?* she thought tenatively.

<Where have you been!? Are you okay!> came the worried reply from the little
dragonet, and Isolinde slumped with relief.  "She's fine," she stated,
smiling.  "But really, I'm fine right now."

"We'll wait for a healer to make sure of that," R'bert admonished teasingly.
And, as if on cue, a healer came into the room.

"Hello, I'm Raissa," the woman said, glancing at the warrenlady and smiling.
"I'm not really a doctor here, but I heard something had happened and just
wanted to see."

"Oh, nothing happened, really."  Isolinde tried to explain what had
happened, but couldn't tell this woman, Raissa, any more than she had told
the warrenlady.

"Hmm, I heard of something like this before," Raissa murmured, obviously
thinking. "Keldarra has something like this I believe."

"Yes, Almiron," Cynthia added. "I met him once when I was visiting."

"Yes, well, I don't remember them ever having pain afterwards though,"
Raissa said thoughtfully.  "Perhaps I'm forgetting."  She turned to R'bert
and stated, "I checked on the girl you brought back, Aniki, and...."

"Oh!  You found her?" Isolinde interrupted, smiling.  Seeing their grim
faces, however, her smile slipped on her face.  "Is she alright?"

R'bert's face had a bleak look about it, and Raissa's had pity etched all
over it.  "I'm sure she'll be fine soon," she said, yet the statement fell
rather hollow, even to Isolinde's ears.  "It might take some time though..."

"What might take some time?" Isolinde demanded, wanting to know.  "What
happened?"

"Listen, I need to be going," Cynthia said, glancing at R'bert and Raissa
and waving to Isolinde, then exitted the room.

"Robbie, what happened?" Isolinde asked, looking up at him beseachingly.

R'bert glanced at Raissa, and at her nod proceeded to tell the whole story.
By the end, Isolinde was sobbing.  "You mean....for two days, she was...."

"Yes," R'bert answered, "and now she's virtually catatonic. She won't
respond to anything except men; she just screams if they get within eyesight."

Isolinde couldn't believe it. Just a few days ago, Aniki had been a happy
girl, someone to whom Isolinde had shared fun moments with, and who was
going to be her flight partner in the future when she joined with a dragon.
Now.....?  "Can I go see her?"

R'bert shook his head and started to say something to the negative, but
Raissa interrupted instead.  "It might help," the slightly older girl (she
couldn't be older than twenty, Isolinde noticed) stated.  "She's been
unresponsive so far; maybe this will help."

Unfortunately, it didn't.  Isolinde did everything she could to coax
something from the girl she'd called her friend, yet nothing could bring her
out of the silent stare she had. It seemed like she had lost the will to
live; there was nothing on her face, no emotions whatsoever; she rarely even
blinked.

When she exitted the room, she flew into R'bert's arms, sobbing. Her one
friend at the warren (beside R'bert, she thought absently) was gone, and it
seemed that nothing was going to bring her back short of a miracle. 

She retired back to her room as R'bert left for patrol, just thinking about
things. She wondered if she would have ended up like Aniki if something like
that had happened to her.  She hoped she'd never have to find out.


***Lunch time***

Isolinde poked at her food absently, not really hungry.  She couldn't get
Aniki's bleak look out of her mind, and nothing would chase it away. After
she'd fed and oiled Faile, which was getting longer and longer as the dragon
grew, she'd headed out to the dining hall, not knowing what to expect but
hopeful that something would. So far, nothing.

"Isolinde!" a feminine voice behind her called, and she turned to see Raissa
beckoning her over to a nearby table. Smiling slightly, and not wanting to
be rude, she picked up her half-eaten tray and sat down at an empty seat
near Raissa.  Raissa introduced the others next to her, who included Kendra
and Kehan, as well as a few of the boys nearby. Isolinde just smiled and
said hello, somewhat self-conscious around so many people she didn't know,
and just listened in on the conversation, speaking only when spoken to.

>My'kle sat surrounded by several other boys by the time Brisse got to the 
>table.  She sat with some of the others, feeling self-conscious.  Raissa, 
>the girl who had translated at her rescue, sat with her, so at least she 
>knew someone.  A couple sat across from her and another girl on the other 
>side of her.  Raissa performed introductions.
>
>"Brisse, this is K'han and Kendra, and Isolinde."
>
Isolinde, hearing her name, looked shyly at the girl in front of her, who
looked to be no older than she herself was.  Somewhat embarrassed, she
looked around the hall, trying to spot a familiar face.  Maybe they would
bring Aniki here, she wondered. She did have to eat, after all....
>
>"Are you looking for someone?" Brisse asked.
>
>"Well... sort of..."  Isolinde felt a little more at ease talking, and
said, "I don't know if she's out of the Medical Center yet.  She's not joined."
>
>"Oh, was she hurt?"
>
>The girl considered her for a moment, seeming hesitant.  "She... she was 
>the other girl the Nomads took.  Aniki."
>
>"Oh."

Brisse fell silent, and Raissa reached over and gently squeezed her arm.
"Are you going to be okay, Brisse?"

>"Yeah... I'm fine..."  She forced herself to smile.  "I'm fine.  So, tell
me about yourselves."

>The others looked at each other, as if determining who should go first.  
>Raissa started to speak when someone stepped up behind Isolinde.
>
>"Isolinde?  You're okay?  I thought you'd still be in the Medical Center?"
>
Isolinde turned and smiled as she recognized the new visitor.  "Oh, hi!  No,
there wasn't anything wrong, so they let me go this morning."
>
>"Oh, that's good."  The man turned to the woman who had walked in with him. 
>"Oh, this is Nelar.  She's a new transfer.  Arrived here yesterday.  And... 
>well, these are some of Cleft's newly-joined.  I'm afraid I don't know any 
>names but Isolinde."

"Need some help R'bert?" Lonnie said, coming up from behind and smiling at
Nelar.  "I was showing her around the warren, but left her in the hands of
this simpleton for just a moment, and he botches the whole job."  Everybody
smiled at the jest, then the introductions began.

>There was alot of teasing and laughter and
>Nelar found herself laughing right along with them. She thought she 
>recognized Lonnie's brother Farr'in but she couldn't quite remember 
>from where. That made Nelar worry but Farr'in just smiled pleasantly 
>made her feel welcome. When it was discovered that Nelar played a 
>harp, there was an immediate request for music. At first Nelar was 
>terrified to play in front of so many people, but everyone seemed 
>really nice so Nelar decided to go ahead and play. Lonnie's voice 
>joined a few of the songs and his wonderful baritone voice blended 
>with the music. 

Isolinde eventually loosened up, especially with R'bert there to help her,
and the afternoon was spent having fun.


NRPG: Amy, hope you don't mind my using Raissa? I had thought she was
something like a psychiatrist, so I'd thought she would be one of the people
to try to help Aniki. And Isolinde's talent is curious, so I just had her
pop on by. All: sorry I haven't posted in so long. My dad had our computer
taken for all of last week, so I had a lot of email to sort through today.
Just now getting back on my feet.

Submitted by

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~ Sarah Pearson (isolinde@cwnet.com)            ~
* Lyonnia/Dianthus *TELNOR*; Rezsia/Jezebel     *
~ *DAERE*; Tanya/Poldera *WHITERIVER*;          ~
* Cynedra/Jakob*the dog*/Louie*the ferret*      *
~ *MYSTERRA*; Leanna Vere *USS MAGELLAN*;       ~
* Marcail/Gossamer *GEODE*; Linaya *RALENGARDE  *
~ http://www.linux.sfasu.edu/xfiles/xfrpg.html  ~
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Reality is the only obstacle to happiness."  -Anonymous-