[NRPG: Sent to the admins just in case any of you wanted to pass this or 
the news therein on to your warrens.]

[Tivati Hananon at Shakar "Warren"]

She rose from her bed beside the scarred rider and stepped out to the ledge 
where the tiny blue-green queen lay in the sands curled up, seeming so 
small and alone without Roland's marroon Talthalar.

<Ashai?> she called, nudging the sleeping queen.

The dragon looked moved slowly.  <What is it, my rider?>

<Are you well?>

<Yes.  I feel fine.>

Tivati settled next to the dragon, sighing in relief.  The disease which 
had spread though the dragons here at Shakar, starting with those who had 
stolen the wild eggs from a cave, and spreading to the hatchlings from the 
wild clutch, and then those exposed to them, had left many of the dragons 
sick and weak, though only one had died-- from falling out of the sky.  Her 
hand stroked the dragon's eye ridges, remembering.

She had been the first taken from her tribe, the tribe of the goddess 
Hanan.  She had been raped repeatedly, then more or less ignored, save for 
the occasional man who used her for sexual release.  Since then, she had 
been joined by other Hananon-- Orinna, Ravai, Hassa and Nira-- as well as 
women from other tribes.  The pattern was repeated with each woman, 
breaking her spirit.

Then the eggs had been brought, and, a day later, the women and boys had 
been brought to the eggs.

There, Tivati had joined with Ashai, the queen, and Roland, the chieftain 
of this tribe, had suddenly taken an interest in her, claiming her as his own.

Tivati had watched the boys training with their dragons, learning to ride, 
but the females were not permitted on their dragons.  Tivati studied her 
dragon, longing to climb upon her back and fly from here.

But, as the first slave here, she had to free her fellow tribeswomen from 
this tribe of men.  And that meant...

"Tivati!"

She turned, returning to her master.

"Yes, mastah."

He pushed her roughly onto the bed.  He had been very out of sorts since 
Talthalar had fallen ill and had taken out on her.

Tivati endured his rough taking of her.

Soon, he was once again snoring.  She slipped the knife from its hiding 
place beneath the matress.

******

Out of the "green", Talthalar seemed suddenly to come alive, screamed, and 
launched into the air, and disappeared.

"Oh, no, Roland!" S'fas cried and headed for the steps to Roland's 
second-level apartment.  An aqua metallic streak launched from the cave 
mouth.  He stopped, watching the dragon fly away, a dark-haired woman on 
its back.  "The bitch!  The bitch!" he repeated as he ran into the apartment.

On the bed, Roland lay naked, a red stain spreading from the gaping slash 
in his neck.

"What's happened?" the voice of Gomar asked behind him.

He spun.  "Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, as he saw others of 
Shakar arriving in the apartment.

"Outrunning some warren riders."

"What?!"

"We saw a woman out by one of the lakes and decided to have a little fun."

"A Nomad?"

"No," Gomar said defensively.  "A DragonLands woman."

"You idiot!" S'fan hissed.  "You know Roland declared any DragonLands 
person off limits.  You're to avoid them like the plague!  What if they 
followed you back?"

"We dropped her in a cave all the way across the lands from here.  There's 
no way for them to find us."  Gomar's eyes fell on the dead man on the bed. 
"And it doesn't look like I have to worry about Roland's orders anyway."

"It's an ill omen," F'tin, the oldest of them, said.  "First the plague, 
and now Roland.  We're being punished."

"Shut up, old man!" S'fan spit.  "I want riders to go off after that 
bitch."

"We haven't the dragons for it," another said.  "They're almost all sick."

S'fan sank down to the ground.  Gods, maybe F'tin was right...  They were 
doomed.

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tivati, rider of queen Ashai
  The Rogues of Shakar Warren

---
|   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                   |