She had tried to go to the south gate to find out what was going on, but 
got sent back to the hatchling barracks almost at once.  Now she sat, 
stroking Tymor's soft, leathery hide as she waited for word.  She worried 
about the riders who had gone.

<My Brisse?>

<Yes, Tymor?>

<Shinner says his rider is home, meeting with Syren's rider to talk about 
the fire.>

She stood.  <I'll be back in a few minutes, dear.>

She made her way to the warrenlady's office and stepped in quietly.

Dan'yar was speaking, but gave an almost imperceptible nod to her.  "But I 
had no idea how the others there would react when they saw the girl talking 
to us.  I just wanted to keep her safe, in case we needed her to answer any 
more questions.  She may know where the rogue riders and their dragon are."

Cynthia's and J'errid's eyes flicked her direction, but no one said anything 
about her being there.  She supposed as the junior queenrider, they might 
even have expected her.

"Were there many hurt?" Cynthia asked.

"Too many," Dan'yar informed her.  "More than half of the village was 
killed.  Most of the others all have some kind of injury or another.  The 
most serious were brought back here.  We may need that rider from Keldarra 
to speak to them when they come to.  It might make it easier for them to 
adjust to being here."

"I'll ask him," Cynthia said.  "Now, is there anything else you need to 
tell us before I send you on home for some rest?  I'll be needing you back 
here in the morning..." she turned to confirm this with the Alpha 
Wingleader, "...to go back over what you've told us so we can try to come 
up with a plan for doing something about it."

"I'll be here," he promised and then offered Brisse his hand.  Cynthia 
nodded her dismissal and Brisse shyly placed her hand in his and left the 
room with him.

"Was it bad?" she asked as they walked away.

"Bad enough," he said.  She could tell he didn't want to talk about it, but 
needed to.  So he began to tell her about the scorch marks they had seen on 
the ground. 

"It looked as if some of the dragons were chasing after people on the 
ground trying to run away from them.  Using them for some kind of sick 
target practice or something."  He frowned as he went on.  "There were so 
many lying there injured and bleeding.  Too tired to even run from us when 
we had landed.  It was almost as if they had given up, and were accepting 
that they were about to die."

"But surely when the riders started to help put the fires out they had to 
have known we were friendly," she asked.

"No..." he sighed.  "Even then they were wary of us.  Too much damage had 
been done by then by the rogues, and I don't just mean the fire, love.  
It's going to take a lot of time and work to bring them around to trusting 
us.  And even that may not be enough."

She thought about the book of Matteen's.  If the rogues had done that to 
one tribe, what of the others out there in that vast land?  How many men 
and women and children were grieving because of those dragonriders.

He turned to her then, taking both of her hands in his.  "Would you stay 
with me tonight?" he asked softly.

She flinched at the thought, but tried to hide it from him.

"I just need to hold you, to be able to reach out and know that you are 
there with me.  I can wait as long as you need for anything else, I'd just 
like to hold you."

Anything else.  She knew what that meant and felt her stomach twisting at 
the thought.  He wanted her to sleep with him tonight, wrapped in his arms 
as his mate would be...

Like Matteen had done that one night, after he had...

The tears sprang to her eyes and she looked away from his intense gaze.  "I 
can't, Dan'yar.  I just can't.  I'm sorry."

She pulled her hands from his grasp and turned to flee, but he grabbed her, 
sending a panic flash through her.  He pulled his hand away at her near-scream.

"No, Brisse, don't.  I won't insist.  I just want to make sure you're not 
upset with me."

She shook her head.  "No, I'm not upset.  Just... remembering..."

"It's okay, love.  I understand.  I'll see you for breakfast?"

She nodded, still not looking at him.

"Good night, love," he said quietly, though there was a yearning in his voice.

"Good night, Dan'yar."

******

She was in Dan'yar's arms and he was kissing her, holding her to his strong 
body.  She began to panic, but he held her tighter.

"I can wait for anything else," he said, even as he forced her down under 
his weight.

"I can wait..."

His hands were on her and she was silently struggling against him, calling 
for Tymor, trying to cry out, but she had no voice.

She was naked and he was forcing her legs apart.

"... anything else."

But it was no longer Dan'yar.

It was Matteen.

"Nooooo!" she screamed, flailing, and sat up in the bed.

Tymor was nuzzling her leg, trying to calm her.  She buried her head in her 
hands and let herself sob.

"Brisse?" a voice like Dan'yar's, but different asked.  My'kel, she 
guessed, but didn't look up.

"Are you okay?" another voice asked.

Now that her breathing was returning to normal, she could hear the 
collective shuffling outside her door of a number of people.

"I don't know what to do," she sobbed.  "I think I want him, but all I can 
see is Matteen."

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Brisse and Tymor

NRPG: Tag, Barb and any of you other newly-joined who want to talk to Brisse 
in the middle of the night.

---
|   Lynette R. F. Cowper  *  Official INWO Rules NetRep & Goddess    |
| http://www.io.com/~lcowper  *  lcowper@io.com  *  lcowper@indy.net |
|  "If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever |
|                   get done."  -- L. Wittgenstein                   |