Trevor
(Dining hall - morning, day 4)

/snip from Arlene's post/

"You need third rider to go with you on mapping flight?  Bohoc and I go....
if go now."  Andahar's eyes left no room for argument.  Trevor just glanced
at the drawn swords and the sheen of Andahar's sweat streaked body and
silently gathered up his maps.  Andahar nodded once to Ankara, smiled a
quick smile at Reain, and headed out of the dining hall... ignoring Saleh as
he passed her.
/end snip/

     Trevor shrugged and looked at Ankara.  "Well, we wanted a third 
rider...now we've got one," he told her.

     "This is true," she agreed, and they followed Andahar out of the dining 
hall.  Trevor sneaked a glance over his shoulder and saw Saleh kneeling next 
to Feysal, trying to stop the bleeding on his arm.  Feysal was glaring after 
Andahar, his eyes smoldering.  

     That kid's going to be trouble, he thought.

     Outside, the three of them walked over to where their dragons waited on 
the green.  Trissana was already saddled, and he saw that Bohoc and Eness 
were as well.  "Triss has the image of where we need to go," he told the two 
Nomad riders.  "It's the place where we last mapped, when I was out with 
Lenna and Katrina.  That'll be our starting point.  We'll fly in square 
patterns, ten miles to a side.  That'll allow me to sketch out what I see 
below us, and then when we come back I can turn the sketches into the 
finalized maps."

     "What do we need to do?" Andahar asked.

     "Fly above and behind Triss and me, and watch our backs," Trevor 
explained.  "Hopefully the wing took care of all the wraiths yesterday, but 
you never know about those damned things.  I'll be looking at the ground the 
whole time, and Trissana's attention will be on keeping us flying in a 
straight line, so neither of us will be able to watch out for them."

     "We can do this," Ankara agreed.

     Just then Cynthia walked up to where they stood.  "So, you've found your 
third rider, I see," she said, giving Andahar an approving nod.  "Are you 
ready to go?"

     "We're ready," he told her.  "I imagine we'll be gone most of the day, 
but we'll definitely be back before nightfall."

     "See that you are," she told him.  "And if you see wraiths...even if 
it's only a few...don't stop to fight them!  Come right back, and we'll send 
Alpha Wing out to deal with them."

     Trevor chuckled.  "You sound like my mother," he said.  "You aren't 
going to remind me to take my sweater along?"

     "Smarty," she said, grinning.  "Just see that you remember what I just 
told you, or tonight I'll send you to bed without your dinner!"

     He leaned forward and kissed her.  "That doesn't sound so bad, provided 
you stay home with me.  We might find more fun things to do than eating!"

     "That sounds rather exciting, now that you mention it," she said, 
stepping back as he climbed up into the saddle.  "If you're on good behavior 
today, we might just do that!"

     Trissana waited until her rider was strapped in, then slowly stood up 
and flexed her wings.  She noticed Syren standing on the other side of the 
green.

     [Trissana, keep an eye on Ivee and Eness, will you?] the queen asked.  
[I do worry about their being away from the warren.]

     [I'll do my best,] Triss promised.  However, given her performance 
against the wraiths the day before, she wasn't sure just how much that 
promise was worth.

     [You'll do fine, my hatchling's hatchling!] Syren assured her.  [Now, 
you'd better go so you can get back while it's still light out.]

     *Are you ready?* Trevor asked her.

     [Ready, my rider!] she said.

     Trevor turned and saw that both Andahar and Ankara were strapped in and 
ready as well.  He raised his arm in the signal for takeoff, then waved to 
Cynthia.  One after another, the three dragons took off and circled over the 
warren to gain altitude.  

     *You have the image of where we need to go?* he asked his dragon.

     [Yes, my rider,] she replied.  [And I have given it to Bohoc and Ivee as 
well.]

     *Okay,* he told her, *let's go!*

     Together, the dragons winked out of sight.

* * * * * * * *
Kellie
(med center)

     Kellie woke up to find Turner bending over her.  "Is it morning?" she 
asked sleepily.

     "Yes, it is!" he said, kneeling down next to her.  "And I've got some 
news for you!"

     "Do I want to hear the good news first, or the bad news?" she asked.

     "It's all good news," he assured her.  "First, Meena had her baby 
yesterday evening!"

     "She did?" Kellie asked excitedly.  "Are they both okay?  Boy or girl?"

     "Yes to the first question, girl to the second," he chuckled at her 
rapid-fire questions.  "A beautiful little girl.  They're naming her 
Melenna...sort of a combination of Meena and Lenna, you know."

     She reached up and touched his face, seeing in his eyes how the mention 
of Lenna's name affected him.  "I think she'd be happy if she were here to 
hear about that," she said softly.

     "Yeah...I think she would," he said.  "Now for the other news...you get 
to leave here."

     "This morning?" she asked, sitting up.  "Now?"

     "Yes and yes," he said, grinning.  "Here, I brought your clothes!"

     She let him help her out of bed and get dressed...what a relief it was 
to get out of this skimpy little robe that they made people wear in the med 
center!

     Once she was dressed, she let him help support her as they walked out.  
S'lomon was waiting outside in the corridor.  "Now just remember, nothing too 
strenuous for the next day or two!" he warned her.  "Or I'll have Turner here 
bring you right back!"

     "Don't worry, S'lomon, I'll be good," she told him, though she noted 
that he didn't define just what he meant by "strenuous."  She guessed that 
left her some leeway to make up her own definition.

     Varie was waiting outside.  [I'm so glad to see you again!] she cried 
happily, bringing her head down to nuzzle both her and Turner.

     *And I'm glad to see you too, love!* she replied.  Varie crouched down 
and Turner helped Kellie up onto the saddle before swinging himself up after 
her.  

     "I'm getting pretty good at this," he remarked as he strapped her in.

     "Among other things," she told him.  "I'd like to go and visit Meena, if 
she's up."

     "You can do that this afternoon," he assured her.  "After you're *both* 
rested up a bit."

     Once they were both properly secured, Varie sprang aloft and took them 
both home.

(Tag Barb)

* * * * * * * *
Trevor
(Early afternoon, over the eastern Nomadlands)

     Trevor stopped his sketching for a moment, flexing his fingers to take 
the cramps out of them.  He'd gotten out of practice at this high-speed 
sketching during the last year, he realized.  Of course, he couldn't afford 
to rest more than a moment.  Below them, the landscape continued to slip by, 
and he needed to keep up with it.

     Still, he took a moment to glance behind him.  Bohoc and Eness were 
still behind and above them, soaring in large crisscross patterns to catch 
the wind currents that helped keep them aloft.  

     *And how are you holding up, Triss?* he asked.  Trissana had by far the 
hardest job, since she had to fly at a constant speed, altitude, and 
direction so that her rider could map accurately.  This required her to flap 
her wings almost constantly and make minute adjustments to her speed and 
altitude instead of simply soaring as the others were doing.  They'd 
completed their fourth "box," and were making good progress...but how much 
more they could do would depend on Trissana's stamina.  

     [I am fine, my rider,] she said, but Trevor could hear a note of 
weariness in her mindvoice.

     *Trissana, if you need a rest, PLEASE tell me!* he said, knowing her 
tendency to push herself beyond her limits.  *You've gone as far as Blanchie 
or Azure ever did without stopping.  They both told their riders that flying 
a straight line all the time is really hard work.*

     [Well...perhaps we could stop for just a few moments...I'm know you're 
tired of marking that paper, and could probably use a rest.]

     Trevor chuckled, patting her neck.  He glanced over to his left, where 
the mountains that bordered the Nomadlands loomed only a few miles away.  
*Let's go over to the mountains and find a good spot to land,* he told her.  
*They look a lot cooler than those plains down below, eh?*

     [Good idea, my rider!] she agreed.  [I'll tell the others to follow us!] 
 She immediately began to bank over into a turn, gliding downward to search 
for a landing spot.

* * * * * * * *

     Kelasha, the Nomad scout, wondered for the hundredth time why he had 
decided to return to his tribe today.  He'd been on a scouting mission, to 
confirm reports that another and possibly hostile tribe of Nomads had taken 
up temporary residence on the plains at the base of the mountain range where 
his own tribe made their home.  Secrecy had always been their best 
protection, since his tribe had long ago given up their wandering, warlike 
ways.  He'd seen no signs of any close encroachments, but had been searching 
for only a little more than a day.

     He'd planned to be out for several days, actually, searching the plains 
for many miles up and down the edge of the mountains...but had covered only a 
small portion of his intended search area before a strange urge had seized 
him last night...the urge to return to the tribe as quickly as possible.  
He'd acted on that urge, wondering if this was not some premonition of danger 
that might threaten the tribe during his absence.  

     But this morning, no sooner had he started on his way back than he began 
to wonder why he'd made his decision.  Searching his mind and feelings now, 
he couldn't for the life of him figure why he was returning.  If there'd been 
some premonition of danger, then it had proved as elusive as the morning 
mists over a mountain lake.  Certainly, if he went ahead and returned to the 
tribe now, he'd have a very difficult time explaining to the Chief and the 
Elders why he'd not fulfilled his instructions.  

     "I am a fool, Chohouka, am I not?" he asked the horse rhetorically.  He 
tugged the reins, and the horse obediently came to a halt.  "Faugh!  Let us 
go back and do what we were sent out to do!"  He tried to turn the horse 
around, but the animal stubbornly refused to move.

     "What is wrong with you?" he demanded.  Normally, Chohouka was a very 
well behaved horse.  He was about to dismount and deal with the problem when 
he suddenly heard a soft whistling sound overhead, like that made by the 
wings of a large bird of prey.  But the shadow that passed over him was too 
large to be any bird.

     He looked up and saw three dragons gliding overhead, a large white beast 
in the lead followed by a smaller green and then a large brown.  He drew in 
his breath sharply, seeing that they were heading in the direction of his 
village.  Had his premonition of danger been right after all?

     Then he noticed something even more startling - each of the dragons 
carried a human rider, and one of them also carried a smaller dragon on its 
back.  People *riding* dragons?

     Then he remembered something he'd once heard, from a scout that he'd 
encountered from another tribe - of a place to the north where humans and 
dragons lived together, and flew out to fight the deadly wraiths such as the 
one which had inexplicably spared his life last night.  Could these be from 
that place?  And if so, why were they heading for the place where his own 
tribe lived?

     He wondered now if he should go to investigate, or continue with his 
assigned mission.  Then he became aware of something else, a familiar smell 
that was carried on the breeze...a smell of water that could mean only one 
thing.

     "Storm coming in, fast," he muttered to himself.  Well, that settled the 
matter.  The storms in these mountains struck both fast and hard, and he had 
no wish to be out in the open when this one arrived.  He needed to seek 
shelter, and the only place close by was the village.

     "Let us go, Chohouka!" he told the horse, giving the signal for the 
animal to move forward.  Chohouka took a moment to respond...the horse was 
staring after the dragons, and the Nomad would almost have sworn that he saw 
a look of keen interest in the beast's eyes.  He shook his head as the horse 
moved forward, wondering if he was beginning to see things that weren't there.

     Once he got moving, Chohouka started galloping off after the three 
dragons with an enthusiasm that his rider couldn't ever remember the animal 
exhibiting.  Things were getting stranger and stranger.

* * * * * * * *
Trevor

     The dragons had found a level patch of ground between two looming rock 
walls in which to set down.  As soon as they'd landed, the three riders 
dismounted and took stock of their surroundings.

     "Pretty," Trevor remarked.

     "Plains look better," Andahar replied, with a small half-smile.  "How 
long do we stay?"

     "Just long enough to give Triss a rest," he told his companions.  He 
hoped it wouldn't be long, but even though she refused to admit it he knew 
that his dragon had to be tired.  Unlike the earlier mapping flights, where 
they'd had two dragons to take turns at the difficult straight-flight 
necessary for the mapping, now Triss had to do it all herself.  This was a 
complication that no one, least of all him, had thought of until now.

     "Shall I take Ivee down from Eness' back?" Ankara asked.  "Or will we 
not be here that long?"

     "Let me ask Triss how her wings feel," Trevor told her.  "If she thinks 
she needs to rest for awhile, you can let Ivee get down."

     But before he could ask, his dragon spoke to him.  [I smell something 
odd,] Triss said.  [Like...when it rained and the warren flooded.]

     "Triss thinks she smells rain," Trevor told the others.  "I don't see 
how that could be, but..."

     "In mountains, storms can come quickly," Andahar told him.  "Bohoc 
thinks storm may be coming too...clouds can come over mountains quickly."

     "Would we not have seen them as we flew in?" Ankara asked.

     Andahar shook his head.  "No, not if storm clouds were on far side of 
peaks."  He turned to Bohoc, and the green dragon sprang aloft.  He circled 
up until he was above the walls of the canyon, then roared warningly before 
diving again.

     "Storm is almost upon us!" Andahar warned the others.  "We must seek 
shelter!"

     "We need to get back to the warren!" Trevor said.  "We can take off and 
teleport out."

     "No time!" said Andahar.  "Look!"

     Trevor looked up and saw the fast moving clouds boil over the rim of the 
canyon above them.  Lightning flashed through them, and the wind suddenly 
picked up alarmingly.  He realized that Bohoc had gotten back onto the ground 
only just in time.

     "How long do these storms last?" he asked, having to speak up to be 
heard above the now rushing wind.  

     "Could be minutes, could be hours," Andahar said matter-of-factly.  
"Would be good idea to look for shelter until it passes."

* * * * * * * *
Renata
     
/snip from Darren's post/
C'aranth stood kicking the chair out from under him, Renata followed only
slightly behind him.  "LIKE WHAT?"

"LIKE HOW TO FIGHT OTHER DRAGONS IS WHAT!"  She looked him strait in the
eye.  "I know your last dragon was killed."

"Quiet."  C'aranth's voice was very soft.  "Just be quiet.  You do not know
what it is like.  If Britanna had known."

"You cannot keep living in that shadow, you have a new dragon now!"  She
leaned over the table and placed a hand on his shoulder.  "I will not happen
again."

He pushed the hand away.  "She is still out there.  Some place in the
Nomadlands.  So do not try to console me.  I will not let anything happen to
Jeratko."  He sat, a cold flush running over him, fear stopped his heart at
the thought.  He had never said it out loud, but it was always there in the
back of his head.

/end snip/

     "So this is still about Zelandreth," she said quietly.  "I guess I 
should have realized that, shouldn't I?  But C'aranth...if it's her you're 
after, then all this training you're giving to Jeratko is useless."

    "Useless?" he asked, looking sharply up at her.

     "Yes," she told him.  "Even if you do succeed in making Jeratko as good 
at fighting dragons as you are, he can't help you with this because he can't 
do *anything* that would harm or even endanger a queen...not even Zelandreth! 
 It goes against every instinct he has."  She sighed deeply.  "I'm afraid 
that slaying a queen dragon is something that only a  man could do."

     C'aranth stared down at the tabletop, saying nothing.

     "You *could* break down his inhibitions, of course," she reminded him.  
"But at the cost of making him as bad as she is.  Once he's crossed that 
line, he can't return and go back to being what he was...and then you'd spend 
the rest of your life joined to a rogue dragon who would just as willingly 
harm Vega or any other dragon in this warren as he would Zelandreth.  That's 
how Rashevon was...is that what you really want for Jeratko?  Would Berainna 
have wanted you to avenge her at that price?"

     "Zelandreth is a threat to this warren," he told her.  "If she lives, 
she will produce more offspring.  When she has enough, what is there to stop 
her from bringing them against us here?  She has no real concern for whether 
her children live or die, as long as she can kill humans or joined dragons in 
the process.  One way or another, we must face her eventually...and I would 
rather it be out there somewhere than at the doorstep of the warren."

     Renata bit her lip, realizing that in this, at least, C'aranth was 
absolutely correct.  "And right now she's at her weakest," she said quietly.  
"She lost many of her wilders at Jhezrael."

     "Exactly," he said.

     "All right, we agree on that much," she told him.  "But you can't train 
Jeratko to be a dragon-killer...and you can't risk killing him in the process 
of training him!  There has to be another way.  So, at least for now, would 
you ask Dan'yar about having a regular trainer assigned to work with him?"

     C'aranth shrugged.  "I suppose," he said reluctantly.

     "And now," she continued, "we need to think of another way to go after 
the queen," she said.

(Tag Darren)

* * * * * * * *
Trevor
(in the mountains)

     *Triss, we need to get a message to the warren, to tell them we might be 
stuck here for awhile,* he told the pearlescent dragon.  *Can you reach Syren 
from here?*

     [I think so,] she replied, as the first raindrops began to pelt them.  
[But I cannot hear her answer from this distance.]

     *Okay, just send the message!* he told her.

     Triss raised her head, and concentrated.  One side-benefit of her 
"locating" talent that she'd only recently discovered was that she had the 
ability to send off very long-ranged telepathic "bursts" through which she 
could send messages far beyond normal telepathy range or even the normal 
range at which she could get an echo from another dragon...provided, of 
course, that she knew the specific dragon she was trying to contact.

     She sat up on her haunches and concentrated on Syren's mental pattern, 
and then sent off her message.  

     
[Groundedinmountainsbystormmaybestuckhereawhilewillcomebackwhenablesorry!]

     She dropped back down onto all fours and spoke to her rider.  [I sent 
the message, and we will just have to hope that Syren hears it.  Otherwise, 
we may get in trouble again when we return.]

     Trevor nodded, knowing that both Cynthia and Kellie would wonder what 
had happened to them otherwise.  But before he could think more on this, he 
heard Andahar call out.

     "Over here!" the Nomad called, waving in their direction.  "I have found 
something."

     Trevor, Ankara, and their dragons hurried over to where he waited for 
them.  Trevor gave a low whistle when he saw what Andahar had found.  It was 
a wide cavern entrance at the base of the cliff wall, wide enough for the 
dragons to enter.  Trevor heard a sound coming from inside like splashing 
water.  "Bohoc has already gone inside, and said that there is water," 
Andahar explained.

     The storm was growing worse, so all of them hurried through the 
entranceway.  They found themselves inside a huge cavern, lit dimly by 
sunlight that came in through a pair of narrow shafts in the stone ceiling 
above them.  Most of the cavern was taken up by a pool of water so large that 
it could almost have been called an underground lake.  Bohoc was already 
plunging into the water, and Trevor was surprised to see wisps of steam 
coming up from its surface.

     "A hot spring!" Trevor exclaimed, kneeling down to dip his hand into the 
water.  "It would sure be nice if we had one of these at the warren!"

     [Ooh, let me through!] Triss said happily, all but bounding over him and 
splashing into the water behind Bohoc.  It was just deep enough that it 
almost covered her when she crouched down.  [Ivee, come on in, and bring 
Eness!] Triss called.  She gave Bohoc a good splashing before ducking under 
the water herself.

     "That does look like fun," Trevor said, grinning.

     'It does, but something concerns me," said Andahar.

     "What is that?" Ankara asked.  "This place is beautiful."

     Andahar pointed at the ceiling.  "Shafts that let light in are square," 
he noted.  "Cut by men."

     "Ah," said Trevor, seeing his point.  "And that means that we might have 
just invaded someone's swimming pool."

     As if to confirm this, someone suddenly spoke from behind them in the 
Nomad tongue.  "Who are you, and why do you come here?" 

     They turned and saw that it was indeed a Nomad, leading a horse by its 
reins.  He was soaked to the skin, and Trevor figured that it must have been 
the growing noise of the storm outside that kept them from hearing his 
approach.

     Before any of them could answer, the horse took it upon himself to get 
in out of the rain, pushing past the Nomad and shaking the water from 
himself.  Since they were still looking at the Nomad, none of the Cleft 
riders noticed the intense, almost intelligent look in the horse's eyes as it 
looked at them and the dragons.

(Tag Arlene or Gabby)

NRPG: Okay, the wraithspawn is here, still inside the horse...if anyone cares 
to give him a new home, feel free!  BTW, I figure Kelasha's village is very 
close, and that they do in fact own the hot spring that the dragons are 
currently using.  I figure there's probably an underground passage that leads 
from there to the village.)

Submitted by:

John

Trevor & Trissana
Kellie & Varie
Renata & Vega

Cleft Warren


          


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