It was quiet tonight around the bowl as he made his way towards the dinning
hall where he was going to take a short break away from his own four lonely
walls and maybe find someone to talk with for a while.

By the time he arrived at the hall he noticed it was to quiet for anyone to
be there this late, but still he went inside. The cup of tea that had
started out as his excuse for getting out, had started to sound better to
him all the time. 

Maybe he could find himself a small supply in the kitchen, and take it back
home. He was out of the leaves at home and had forgotten to pick himself up
some during the day light hours. 

He heard the sounds of someone humming coming from inside as he came down
the corridor and saw someone standing just this side of the door leading
inside and wondered why she was standing there.

Kellie! Trevor's mother. Though what was she doing here?

Quietly he reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder, then realized
his mistake. Startled, she whirled around, her hand dropping instinctively
to her sword hilt.

"Hey, it's just me!" said Turner, backing off a step.  "What's going on..."
He fell silent when Kellie quickly put her finger to her lips. She pointed
to the doorway, indicating that he should look inside.

Turner did so, and when he hastily withdrew from the doorway his eyes were
wide.  "I'll be damned..." he whispered.  Kellie quickly took him by the arm
and drew him down the corridor.  

"Let's not bother them," she said quietly, but she was grinning from ear to
ear. "Gods, can you believe that?"

"No, but then again...I always figured there was more to him than he let
on," said Turner as they walked out into the cool night air.

Kellie walked over to where Varie waited, then turned back to the smith. "I
wonder, though..." she mused.  "Trevor's...well, he's never..."  She shook
her head.  "I wonder if he realizes what's happening?"

Turner shrugged.  "I wonder if either of them do," was his only reply.

"Well, time will tell, I suppose," she decided.  "By the way, what were you
doing down there this late?"

The smith grinned, something she seldom saw him do.  "The excuse, or the
real reason?" he asked.  "The excuse was that somebody said there was a
problem with one of the pipes in the kitchen...the real reason was pick up a
cup of tea before I head back to my quarters."

Kellie chuckled. She looked over at him.  "Tell you what, Turner...if you
don't mind a short dragonride, I've got some good stuff I picked up at a
gather awhile back.  It's probably better than what you'd get in the dining
hall, in any case."

Turner blinked in surprise. "Dragonride?  It's been a long time since I've
done that..."

A long while. Farr'in used to tote him around when he had needed it to reach
some of the upper apartments they'd been remolding when they first came here. 

But Farr'in was gone now and the upper apartments were nearly finished. His
work laid in the newer family joined apartments as there were more and more
families moving to the Cleft.

"Only way to get up to my quarters, though, where the tea is," she pointed
out, taking him by the hand and leading him to where Varie waited. "Don't
worry, Varie's never lost a passenger yet."

"Oh I'm not worried about that," he grinned, showing off the good looks of
the men in his family. "I'm just worried she might like me too much and not
want to bring me back down."

"Oh?" The woman asked. "Something going on between the two of you that she
hasn't told me about?"

"Now if I told you that...," he started to say, then reached up and caught a
hold of Varie's saddle and pulled himself up without any problem. Then
turned to lower his hand down to help her rider up. "...We'd have nothing to
talk about while we drink that tea you promised to make me."

"Now we can't have that can we?" she grinned as she settled before him and
picked up the riding straps and held them up for him to see. He waved her
off. It was only a short flight after all.

The trip upwards didn't take very long. 

Varie made sure to keep the flight as smooth as possible, and soon had the
two human's where they wanted to go.

Once inside, Kellie took off her riding jacket and threw it over the back of
a chair as she headed into the kitchen. 

"Make yourself at home," she called out. "You got your choice of blackberry
tea or Triberry... though I think I still may have about a pot of spearmint
left that we could have."

"Ah.. the spearmint if you have it would be fine," Turner called out after
her. "But id not anything will be fine. Nice place you got here."

"Yea I was sure lucky to find it before someone else did," she agreed coming
back into the room and dropping down in a chair across from him, while
waiting for the water to heat up. "Though there are a few small things I'd
like to have fixed up around here."

"Oh?" his eye brows raised. "Have you put in a request yet?"

"I did a couple of weeks ago but D'ren said it would be a while because they
were taking the requests as they came. But I'm on the list."

"Maybe you just got on the wrong list," his blue eyes held a twinkle. "I
could...if you would like... maybe come up here in the evenings and do a bit
of work on the place for you... that is if you'd like me too."

"Just remember... you offered!" Kellie sat upright in her chair and reached
out to grab his hand, pulling him to his feet. Then turned and began
dragging him towards the back room. "I sure hope you're not the type to turn
red after entering a ladies bed room."

"Not if we keep our cloths on," he grinned. For now anyway, he thought to
himself. "But if you're dragging me back her to have your way with me, I
think I should warn you that I will insist upon having my tea first."

"The TEA!!" she stopped walking so fast he nearly ran into the back of her,
but stopped himself just in time. "I forgot all about the tea and the water
will be hot by now."

She ran from the room, giving him a chance to look it over. His trained eye
caught a few things that he thought could have been finished off a little
better. To him it looked like who ever had worked on this apartment had just
wanted to get it over with and left is sort of unfinished.

Like that craw space in the back left hand corner. He wondered over to where
he'd caught the slight shadowy area to have a closer look.

Why had the person working here had tried, he could have made a nice set of
shelves here. Instead of leaving it unfinished. Kellie could have more space
to put things and still not have them seen by anyone unless they were
standing right here where he was at the moment.

He wondered around the room looking here and there at the work that had been
done, and found several places where if a little imagination had been used,
would have improved the place a great deal.

He began to make mental notes.

The bathroom was next. He was appalled when he saw how small it was. Why
he'd *Never* fit in the excuse for a tub she had. He wouldn't even be able
to stand up to take a shower, much less lay down on the bottom and enjoy a
long hot soak. How did Kellie put up with it.

"Turner?" he heard her call out.

"In here," he raised his voice slightly and seconds later she joined him. 

"I've been trying to figure out how you can be comfortable in this cloths
closet." He frowned.

"Well usually Varie and I go bath in a small little alcove we fond on patrol
one day," she admitted. "It's water is warmed by the sun and there's a small
water fall. It fills the bill when I don't feel like getting a creak in my
neck." 

Well I think I can do something to improve it in here, he told her and saw
eyes light up.

"Really?"

"Really," he nodded his head while his eyes were looking over the rock above
her tub. "Look here..." he said and pointed to the spot his eyes were
focused on. "there's still plenty of rock that can be removed from here to
give you added height... And here... we could take out a bit more of that
back wall and make your tub a little wider."

"You could do all that?" Kellie sighed. "Why that would be wonderful for
when it gets chilly here and the alcove gets to cold to bath in."

She handed him his cup and after a smile of thanks, he began to show her a
few other improvements he thought could be made to make the room a little
more livable. 

When they were finished going over the bed and bathing room, she asked him
to have a look at the kitchen area. Here too he came up with a few ideas.

"Now I don't expect you to give up all your free time to work on my
apartment," she told him when they were once again seated in the living room.

This time both had sat on the sofa. Somehow Kellie ended up with her back to
him, her body resting against him, and his arm up along the back of the sofa. 

It felt comfortable. Though neither of them gave their position a though as
they began to talk about the changes to her apartment.

After a while she grew quiet.

"What did you think about those two dancing?"

"I think they may be in for a slight shock when they discover that they care
for eachother," he told her. "I also think it'll be good for the both of
them. Cynthia's been alone for too long with no one to lean on."

"I agree," Kellie nodded her head. "She's worked hard to get this place in
shape, and Trevor's been alone too long."

There was a sadness in her tone that he didn't understand.

"Care to tell me about it?" he asked softly, but she shook her head.

"Maybe another time," she told him, then got up and reached for her cup.
"Want some more?"

"Sure."

The rest of the evening seemed to breeze on by. Neither noticed the passing
of time as the dawn broke over the Warren and the sounds of people moving
around below started drifting up to them.

"Do you always hear that noisy in the morning?" he asked frowning.

"It does get a bit annoying when one wants to sleep in," she told him. "It
was one of the things on my request that I asked D'ren to try to fix."

"Think I can solve that for you. All you need is a decent door between the
human part and the dragons ledge, and I know where to get one I think will fit."

"Oh that would be wonderful!"

"Tell you what. If you feed me tonight, I'll come by and hang that door for
you."

"You have yourself a deal!!"

Turner grinned to himself and hoped the day past by quickly. He'd enjoyed
himself last night and found that he liked spending time with the female rider. 

Getting to know her a little better was going to be fun.

Both seemed to regret it when the day refused to wait any longer to start.
They remounted Varie and just as they were taking off from her ledge Kellie
turned her head around so he could hear her when she spoke. 

"So which of us get to ask Trevor how his evening went last night," she grinned.

Turner couldn't help the laugh that escaped before he could stop it. Not
that he tried very hard.

"Think he'd tell us?"

"Not likely!" she chuckled back.

Varie's landing on the green was just as gentle as her landing of the night
before. He figured when Kellie laughed aloud, she was doing so in reply to
something her dragon had just told her. 

When he turned to face her, his eyes held a question, but she just smiled,
but didn't enlighten him. 

"Are you hungry?"

"Starving."

"Well I'll treat for breakfast since you're supplying dinner," he offered
and they started along the path towards the dining hall.

As they were entering the building, Lenna came running by, almost tripping
Turner up in her rush to get out side.

"Gods I hope she didn't dump something over B'rand's head again," he sighed
looking after her, but then B`rand himself raced on by, and the look on the
redhead's face started Turner to worrying. 

He had looked more concerned then upset.

"Umm.. Maybe I'd better go see..." he started to say, but the roaring
challenge of a female dragon drowned out the rest of what he had been about
to say.

"I think we had better move out of the door way," Kellie told him and took
his arm, pulling him along behind her. "I'd hate to see you get trampled by
the male riders going after the female's rider before you can hang my new
door....."

"Ahh...thanks...I think."

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

Barbara (a.k.a.

Turner (the smith & official door hanger)
Cleft Warren