(Dan'yar)

As they said their good-byes to the twins, Dan'yar helped Brisse 
to remount the Copper-green Shinner. This time she didn't ask to 
do it herself and letting him know just how tired she was. Well 
it had been a long day for her, he reminded himself. 

He held her tightly around the waist, as they rode down to the 
hatchling barracks and he led her to her dragon. His eyes rarely 
left her as he watched her feed her little Queen. Who wouldn't be 
quiet so little for very much longer, he surmised, smiling, 
knowing how quickly the hatchling would grow bigger. Almost it 
would seem, over night.

When she had taken care of Tymor and the beast had fallen asleep 
as soon as they were back in Brisse's room, Dan'yar turned to her.
"I should go," he said.

"No, don't!" she said, panicked again.

"Brisse, love, it's getting late.  You need your sleep." He told
her

"Can't you stay here?  I don't think I can sleep alone."  She 
suddenly realized what she had asked.  "I... I'll sleep on the 
floor."

He smiled gently, understanding finally hitting him. She didn't 
want to be alone. She was still afraid.  "I'm not going to let 
you sleep on the floor, love.  I'll sleep on the floor, if you 
think you can't be alone."

"But the girls--"

"I'll get their aunt to stay with them.  They'll understand." 

<<Shinner will you ask Blanchie's rider...>> He started, only to 
have his dragon cut him off.

<I don't think that'd be a good idea right now. She's...ah...busy 
with Rook's rider and I don't think they would take kindly to being
disturbed.> The copper told him. <I have informed Meritanth and he 
will ask his rider to go get Thina.>

<<Thank you my friend,>>

<You need only ask, my rider.>

 He could see as well as hear Brisse's relief. It made him feel 
good that she wanted him to stay. He wouldn't let her down.

"I'll just step outside long enough for you to change for bed, 
okay?"

It didn't take her long to change and soon enough he heard her 
soft voice calling out to him and he reentered her room, then 
the two of them made up a bed on the floor for him.

He could tell she was nervous as he watched her sitting on the 
edge of the bed, looking a little lost, so he laid down and 
turned to smile up at her. "Good night, love," he said.

"Good night, Dan'yar.  Thank you."

"You're more than welcome." he smiled warmly, letting her see the 
love he felt for her in his eyes.

They fell silent, then Brisse nervously leaned forward and kissed 
his 
cheek, then slipped under her covers and closed her eyes.

Dan'yar was still for a moment, his heart swelled and he had to 
fight the need to reach out for her and kiss her goodnight the 
way he wanted to. He knew she wasn't ready for that, so he just 
smiled and he got into his bedroll. Sleep was a long time in 
coming that night.

******
(My'kel)

My'kel stocked away, angry at what he had just seen. He didn't 
want to believe that his Uncle and Brisse had mated, but he had 
just seen it with his own eyes. Again he wanted to ask, how his 
Uncle could do that to him. 

And Brisse... well she was no better. Crying about being raped 
and then sleeping with Uncle Dani the first chance she got. Maybe 
she was just showing him how *grateful* she was, he sneered, 
kicking at a stone in his path.

And here he had thought her so wonderful. So different to from any 
of the other girls around the Warren. Boy had he been wrong. Well 
Uncle Dani was welcome to her. After all he wouldn't have taken 
spoiled goods.

My'kel gave a bitter laugh as he stood there in the dark. Who are 
you trying to kid, he told himself. You would have taken her 
anyway you could. Even after she was raped. But she had turned to 
his Uncle Dani, and for that he was upset with the both of them. 
He felt as if his Uncle had betrayed him, and she wasn't as 
special as he thought her to be. She was just like every other 
female born in the Warren... 

******
(Dan'yar)

He hadn't been asleep long when the sounds of someone screaming 
woke him. Brisse!! He was up off the makeshift bed on the floor 
in seconds reaching for her. She was having a nightmare. The 
healer had warned him that this might happen. Reaching for her, 
he began to gently shake her to try to pull her back to him, out 
of the dream.

"Brisse, it's okay.  You're okay.  It was just a dream.  You're 
safe.... you're safe." 

She let out an unintelligible sound and slipped into the safety 
of his arms.  He rocked her gently, his voice repeating his 
mantra soothingly.

He held her until slowly, she relaxed and then drifted back to 
sleep. Still he held onto her, his mind going blank to everything 
but how it felt to have her in his arms. A feeling he liked very, 
but he knew he would have to be patient with her and give her the 
time she needed to become accustom to him being in her life. Until 
she could learn to trust him.

He didn't want to rush her into something she wasn't ready for. Her
nightmare tonight proved that to him. He'd do whatever it took to 
help her to put behind the terror of what happened. Or if she 
couldn't, he would help her to make it easier to deal with. He 
had too, because now that he had found her, he didn't want to 
lose her.

It was sometime before he laid her back down on the bed and moved 
back to the palette on the floor. It was longer before he could 
find his own sleep, but finally he did.
--------

Dan'yar woke slowly, he could feel the soreness in his body and 
wondered about it, until he remembered that he had fallen asleep 
on the floor beside Brisse's bed the night before. 

When he opened his eyes he looked up to see her sitting on the edge 
of the bed smiling down at him. He couldn't help but smile back.

"Good morning," he said softly.

"Good morning, I was afraid Tymor would wake you," she said 
grinning. "She's such a noisy eater."

"Hatchlings tend to be that way sometimes," he said as he pulled 
himself into a sitting position. "Some of the dragons never get 
over it though."

"Know what?" Brisse asked.

"No...What," Dan'yar took a good look at her. Looking for any 
signs of her fear from last night, and was pleased when he 
didn't see any.

"I'm hungry," she sighed. "Is that going to happen everytime she 
eats?"

He laughed at her question, asked in such a exasperated tone. 
"Only for the first couple of days or so," he assured her. 
"Then when they start hunting on their own you won't feel it 
quite so intensely." 

They left the sated Queen to sleep away her morning meal and 
remounted Shinner for a quick trip to Dan'yar's apartment for 
him to clean up and change and then went on to the dinning hall 
where they met up with the twins, who were sitting with their 
Aunt Thina and her mate Jonash. 

"Where's My'kel this morning," Dan'yar asked noticing his nephew 
was missing from the family's table. 

"Oh you remember how it was when you first joined with that 
copper-top of yours," Thina teased. "You were to good to sit with 
the rest of us for the first couple of weeks too. It must be a 
trait that runs in the males of our family."

"Hey wait a minute," he brought his hand up to cover his heart, 
and tried for a put-upon look that failed. "We boys weren't the 
only ones...I seemed to remember Lenna doing the same thing when 
she joined with Blanchie."

"Yeah but that was understandable," Jonash broke in chuckling. 
"It was the only way the poor girl had of getting away from the 
rest of you when you all tried to tell her how to raise her 
dragon."

 "We weren't THAT bad," Dan'yar protested and looked sideways 
at Brisse to see if she believed him. 

"Want to bet?" A voice said from behind them and they turned to 
see their older brother Farr'in. "Girl told me one time that she 
nearly asked for a transfer to Falagand because of what she 
called 'our know-it-all big brother complex'." 

"What stopped her," Brisse shyly, got up the nerve to ask.

"Lonnie came up with a plan for us to ignore her after she blew 
up at us one time, and after a while she decided we weren't all 
that bad."

"Yeah, but it took a whole month for Lonnie's plan to work." 
Dan'yar quipped.

"Quietest month we ever had," Thina quipped back and everyone 
laughed.

When they had finished with breakfast, Dan'yar went off to find 
Lenna for their patrol.  <<If she's still busy... tell Blanchie 
to wake her up and tell her to get her butt down here or I'm 
coming up after her.>> Dan'yar threatened.

In some ways he felt sorry for his sister's latest. She never 
stuck with the same man for long. But he also found it kind of 
strange that she was still with the rider of the black. It had 
been what...a week or more? Maybe this time she had found someone 
she could really care about? Maybe he had better get Lonnie to 
talk to his patrol partner and have him warn the guy about his 
twin.

<To late...he tried...> Shinner laughed in his mind. <And Rook's 
rider told him to mind his own business. Said he knew what he was 
doing. Blanchie said that the two of them have deep feelings for 
each other and that Rook is agreeable.>

Lenna!! In love? That's a scary thought, Dan'yar smiled to 
himself as he thought about it. I just hope the Warren is 
prepared for the two of them. We should be in for some good 
fights.

"What's that smile for big Brother?" Lenna asked as she came up 
behind him already dressed for flight. "Brisse all right?"

"Brisse's getting there," he said turning to face her. "It's the 
Warren I was worried about."

"Why? Did something else happen?" she looked around her 
concerned.

"Not yet, but give it time," he quipped and turned to mount 
his dragon. "Well you coming on patrol this morning or not?" 
he shouted down at her.
*******

(My'kel)

My'kel purposely stayed away from his family at breakfast, 
choosing instead to eat with some of the others across the 
room out of their line of sight. He had seen Brisse enter the 
hall on his Uncle's arm and decided that he wasn't up to facing 
them yet. If ever. His anger ran to deep.

When the new hatchmates met later on the green for practice, he 
saw the girl smile at him and coldly wished her good morning and 
then turned his back on her. He knew he was acting childish but 
he couldn't help it. It just wasn't fair.

As practice started, J'errid explained about checking their 
dragons for various signs of disease as they washed and oiled 
them.  He spent a lot of time looking over Brisse's shoulder, 
since she had missed the first two days of training, where the 
basics of washing and oiling were covered.

"You're not doing too badly," he commented.

"Thank you.  Dan'yar showed me."

My'kle nearby threw her a dirty look. He'd forgotten for a minute 
about his Uncles betrayal while concentrating on what the trainer 
was telling them. He'd been enjoying working with Voger, until she 
just had to bring Uncle Dan'yar into it.

Again his mind went back to what he had seen last night. Dan'yar 
and Brisse on her bed... about to do it in the hatchling barracks. 
His mind pictured the two of them slowly undressing each other and 
their hands caressing each other until finally his Uncle, 
parting her legs and slipping....

NO!! He told himself and tried to close his mind off from such 
thoughts, 
but it did no good.

"All right.  Now, do you all remember about exercising your 
dragon's wings? Let's see what you've learned," he said as he 
wandered off.


They broke for lunch, and after feeding their ravenous dragons, 
went to the Dining Hall, where My'kle sat surrounded by several 
other boys by the time *she* got to the table. He saw her sit 
next to another girl and saw them talking. 

Then the man next to him introduced himself. My'kel recognized 
him as the new transfer from Keldarra Warren, and knew he had be 
sent here to help work things out with the Nomads.

"I am Qedhar," the Nomad said simply.

"My'kle," the young man stated, his eyes flicking once again to 
the girl.

Qedhar leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, "You... wish 
to... buy that girl as wife... mate?"

My'kel frowned and drew his eyes away from the girl to take in 
the man beside him. "Is that what your people do? Buy your women?"

Qedhar smiled slightly, before answering. "At times... Deal 
sometimes good... sometimes bad...bad..." 

He looked as if he was having a hard time trying to come up with 
the right word to use, "Mistake?" My'kel supplied with a wiry grin.

"Mistake," the dark man nodded as if to agree. "Talk much... 
long time.. man no rest."

"You've obviously met my Aunt Lenna," My'kel chuckled, and then
waved it off when Qedhar didn't understand his answer. "Even if I 
wanted the girl... and I'm not saying that I do...But if I did, 
it wouldn't do me any good now, anyway. She... belongs to my 
Uncle." he said, trying to explain it to the man in a way he hoped 
he would understand.

"Girl... Uncle's ...'chunor' ?" the man asked.

"His what?" the boy laughed but beginning to understand and 
quickly he decided that he liked this man beside him. Maybe the 
man could use a friend.

His good humor didn't last to long, when he felt a hand on his 
shoulder and turned to see Brisse standing there. "My'kel would 
you like to join Dan'yar, the twins and I for dinner tonight?"

"You've got to be kidding," he said in disbelief and then stood 
up and strolled away from the table. And Brisse. 
----------------------------------

nrpg: Lyn I hope I used that last word in the right way...or at 
least didn't use it to wrong.... Qedhar want a friend....they 
could teach each other how to speak in the others tongue... 

*****Submitted by: *****
Barbara (a.k.a.

Dan'yar & Shinner
Lenna & Blanchie
Farr'in & Tergath
My'kel & Voger
(and his parents:
Thina and Jonash

Cleft Warren