Thina stood there facing her youngest son. Gone was the loving child she had
always known him to be, and in his place was someone she didn't recognize.
But still loved. 

The one standing there was looking back at her with an angry look that she
didn't understand. Nor could she understand what he driven him to try and
hurt sweet little Demee the way he had.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked him, taking a hold of his arm and
leading him off to the side away from prying eyes. "Demee looks up to you
and only wanted to play with you just as you used to always want to play
with My'kel."

"My'kel was my brother!," Shasha tone was defensive. "Demee is just some
little brat Uncle Farr'in got stuck with cause of his mama!"

"That's where you are wrong young man. Farr'in didn't just drag Demee home
because of Meena, he happens to love that little boy as if he were his very
own flesh and blood child, and I don't think he'd be very happy to know
about what you did here today!"

"It doesn't matter anyway. He doesn't care about me! He's to busy with that
brat and his mama to remember I'm even alive!!"

Thina stopped back the angry reply she had been about to make. This was
something she hadn't seen coming. "You know that's not true," she told him,
placing her hands lovingly on his shoulders. "You're Uncle Farr'in loves you
very much."

"Yea right!" Shasha retorted, but with a bitterness in his tone that shocked
his mother. When had he begin to feel this way, she wondered.

"That's why he left here after My'kel died! He just went off and forgot that
maybe I might need him too!! But he didn't even care enough about me to
think about that!!"

"That's not true... He does love you but at the time.. well there was just
so much going on back then and your Uncle had to leave here to work out what
he was feeling. Besides he knew there were others here you could turn to if
you needed us."

Shasha pulled away from his mother. "No he doesn't love me! Or he never
would have brought them back here with him! He doesn't care about me! He
doesn't!! All he cares about now is that brat and his mama! He doesn't even
come to see me or do anything with me anymore!!!"

Before his mother could reply, Shasha turned and ran off, ignoring her cries
to come back. She called after him a second time, but still he kept going
until he was out of sigh.

"Let him go," her father spoke up from behind her. "Nothing you can say or
do is going to make him change his mind right now."

"But father... he was so hurt..." Thina started. 

"No. This is something that needs to be worked out between him and Farr'in.
I'm sure once he knows that Shasha is feeling this way he'll make things
right. Farr'in does love your son."

"Oh I know that father. I just don't want to bother Farr'in with it, He's
got so many other things to worry about." Thina told him. "I'll just have
Jonash talk to him tonight when he gets home and..."

"That won't help at all daughter and you know it. Shasha has to be reassured
that he is loved. And it's something Farr'in is going to have to deal with.
He'll want to know."

"Maybe you're right," she sighed wondering how she could have missed what
her son was going through. Her eyes trailed back to the path he had taken as
if she could conjure him up with a look. But no one appeared. "I just wish
Farr'in was here right now so Shasha wouldn't have to be going through this."

"I wish he was here too daughter. I wish he were here too," Yarik told her
and pulled her into his arms giving them both a moment of comfort. 

Not hat it did the trick. With four of their six children somewhere off in a
place called Geode fighting against their most hated enemy, a father was
allowed to be concerned.. and yes scared. 

More then a little of both, he thought as he hugged his oldest daughter tighter.

"Let's go back inside and see if your mothers cookies did the trick with
young Demee," he said when he released her and turned his head to the side
so she wouldn't see him wiping away the tears that had begun to pool in the
corners of his eyes. 

"I've never known that trick to fail yet," Thina chuckled, looping her arm
in her fathers and leading him back inside. 

Thina excused herself as soon as they were inside and walked towards the
kitchen. Yarik found his favorite chair and sat down, his mind going around
in circles as he thought of all the children his love had given him. 

He knew they had all been raised with love.. and had been taught to take
care of themselves and to stand up for what they believed to be right.
(Something Lenna took to far sometimes.) He also knew that since becoming
dragonriders their lives were put into danger each and every time they
answered a call to duty. 

He and his mate Danki, had accepted, long ago, the profession of their
children. Were in fact proud that four of them *had* been accepted by the
dragons. But even with the acceptance, the fear and concern he saw echoed in
his mates eyes, didn't make it any easier now then it had been the first
time they'd had to face the fact that a child of theirs might not come back.
And right now his main concern was for his youngest daughter. 

Lenna. His fiery jewel. The child most like himself in his youth, before
falling in love with Danki. He didn't know *what* her brothers could have
been thinking to allow her and Blanchie to join the Wing before it left for
Geode.

Were they crazy!! The woman had just suffered a *major* shock in her life.
Not one that a day would see the worst over. Losing a baby was not something
people tend to forget so soon.. Danki hadn't. It had taken her several years
to come to terms with the lost of the child she was carrying before the twins. 

She had taken the birth of twins as a sign form the gods asking for
forgiveness for the loss she had suffered. Lenna had suffered the same kind
of lost... and he didn't know what that nomad healer had done to her when
they healed his daughters body, but he was sure the healing she'd done
couldn't have erased the memory or the pain of the heart.

"It's not easy is it father?" he heard someone say and looked up to see
Thina had come back into the room. "Being a parent I mean."

"No daughter," he slowly shook his head as he held his hand out to her. "No
matter how old they get you never stop worrying abut them when they are out
of your sight. Silly huh?"

"No father.. that's love."

****Submitted by: ******

Yarik (father of the family)
Thina (eldest daughter)
Shasha (grand son)

Cleft Warren

aka
Barbara