. Did you ever get the area mapped out?"

"Not hardly," he chuckled, slipping his arm around her shoulder as they
started towards the dining hall. "things sort of got a bit busy around here
preventing my work."

"Oh do tell."

As the night shadows reflected off the stone walls around them, Trevor began
telling her about the events that had taken place while she was gone.

He had just gotten to the part about Lord Vorbis when they drew up near the
door of the dining hall.

"Do you mean to tell me that that man actually *thought* he could
*blackmail* Cynthia!!! Into going alone with his hair brain idea's!" her
eyes open wide in astonishment.

"Yup he sure did," Trevor nodded, pleased that he had finally shocked her
enough to get a real reaction out of her. "But he didn't figure on one
thing... and screwed up."

"Hell yes he screwed up! Lenna chuckled maliciously. "He didn't take in to
account how stubborn our Cynthia can be when her back is to the wall or
something is threatening this Warren."

"Yup... in fact she can be far more stubborn about some things then you ever
were."  

"I was never stubborn..." Lenna began only to have Trevor laugh. She glared
at him with a spark of her old self then, thrust her chin into the air.
"Well I was never stubborn about things unless I felt I was in the right."

"Okay I'll give you that... But you should have seen Cynthia play the man,"
Trev chuckled again, giving away his feelings for the woman.

"You seem to know our Warrenlady pretty good," she commented as they reached
the door leading inside the dining hall and Trevor reach out to open it.
"Anything I should know about?"

She shifted her eyes to the side to get a better look at him and even in the
half light of the open door could see the blush that appeared on his cheeks.

"Cynthia and I have an... Understanding," he admitted. "We're mates."

"MATES! That wonderful!" this had shocked her. But pleasantly so. "Well good
for you!"

"You approve I take it?" Trev grinned and placed his hand on the small of
her back to lead her inside.

"Not that it should matter, but yes I approve," Lenna told him. "It's nice
to know you're both happy."

"Yes I am happy with her. I'm lucky she feels the same way about me," he
said and Lenna wondered about the strange tone she hear underlining his
words. She knew him well enough to know something was bothering him.

But before she could ask him about it, she felt someone bump into her and
would have fallen when a wave of dizziness came over her, if Trevor hadn't
caught her arm to steady her.

"Lenna I'm sorry," a voice she recognized as belonging to the woman they had
just been talking about said. "Are you okay?"

<*> If only she knew <*> 

>*< Yes this couldn't have worked out better for our cause if we had planned
it >*<

<*> Yes... Very expedient. Now we can progress with the second part of the
plan... As soon as we get your report. <*>

>*< We just need to get her away from here and then we can begin... >*<

Trevor noticed the moment the light left Lenna's blue eyes, leaving them a
dull almost gray color, and began to worry.

"You just startled me a bit," Lenna told Cynthia after assuring the woman
she was fine. She smiled weakly. "Maybe my long day is catching up with me.
I'm a bit tired all the sudden. Maybe I'd better call it a night and take a
rain check on that hay and oats Trev..."

"Yes it has been a long day for you..." he said slowly, eyeing her with
concern which she didn't see as she had already turned her back and started
in the direction of her dragon.

His concern changed to worry as he watched her almost struggle to mount the
purple beast for the short flight back up to her apartment, only turning
away when the pair had landed safely.

"Something's wrong," Trevor turned to his mate.

"She's just tired Trevor," Cynthia told his, as she took his hand and
started walking beside him towards home.

"No it's not that," he insisted with a frown. "It's like... I don't know...
Like some part of her is missing..."

"Give her time my love," his mate told him. "It's just strange for her
returning home after being gone as long as she was... Give her time to get
used to being back and settled, then you'll see you were worrying for nothing."

Trevor wasn't so sure."

Like a zombie Lenna had turned from her friends and walked back to Blanchie.
It was all she could do now to mount the beast and give the order for her to
fly them home.

Once there Lenna dismounted and walked inside the apartment, on though the
living room and into the bedroom, where she spared a brief glance at her son
to make sure he was still asleep..... then all but fell onto the bed and was
asleep before her head hit the pillow.

>*< Think they suspect anything? >*< 

<*> No but the male bares watching. He seems smarter then the rest and was
able to break through the suggestion I left in his mind. <*>

>*<Yes we will have to watch him for our plan must not fail at any cost >*<

<*> I will not fail... but your plan... is it going well? <*>

>*< The programming is almost compete. She will do what she is told to do
when the time comes. Now give me your report on all you have learned here.
And tell me why you are no closer to fulfilling your assignment then when
you first arrived... Know well our Queen does not accept failure >*<

((tag John. What does Amar have to report?)) 

The figure on the bed was tossing and turning. Caught in a nightmare that
went on and on. The same nightmare that haunted her sleep every night for as
long as she could remember... But upon waking could not remember.

She was falling. Head over heals in a sea of darkness that never seemed to
end. Flashes of light sparkled before her at first appearing as specks of
light and then they began to take on forms. Forms and faces.

She saw her brother's, Dan'yar, Lonnie and Farr'in appear before her, and
begged them to stop her fall, but they just laughed and ignored the hand she
held out towards them.

Each night the dream was the same with her falling through an endless void
of nothingness. Each time coming just a bit closer to... to what... the
ground... Death... Questions with no answered... But the dream was trying to
tell her something.....

Down. Down she fell. Hands reached for her only to fall short. She cried out
begging them to reach further. Begging to awaken and end the nightmare. But
it continued on.

A new face suddenly appeared to her. This one she knew and hope flared as
she reached for the hand that the blond-headed woman held out to her. 

Contact. She was caught and held. For a moment she felt relief. The hand of
the woman pulled her onto solid ground and as she looked up to thank the
woman... She screamed... for the face she looked into now was not the one
she knew. No the smooth skin of her rescuer began to slowly melt away and in
it's place she saw a gray blob of death that seem to swell and get bigger
before splitting off into two then four blobs and on and on until all around
her there were thousands of them floating in the darkness.

She tried to move away from them. To run as far as she could from the death
coming at her, but her feet seem to be made of lead.

"I will not let you do this!!" she screamed defiantly, shaking her fist
before her. "I will see you destroyed!!" 

"How can you let them kill us Lenna!" an anguished voice cried and she
turned to the right to see one of the gray blobs transforming into a
likeness of her brother Dan'yar.

"NO! You're not REAL!" she screamed at it! "You're not real!"

"Lenna... save us!" the Dan'yar ghost begged, holding out it's gray hand
towards her. Beside him appeared the likenesses of Lonnie and Farr'in. Each
one reaching for her, begging for her to stop the trickle of flame that
started at their feet and kept growing bright in intensity as it slowly
working it's way up their legs.

Their cries reached her ears though she tried to cover them. She knew it
they weren't real. Were they?

Begging they called out to her to save them. To stop the burning that was
killing them. Her eyes opened and as she looked up the faces of her brothers
began to blue into others she knew. Each one holding their hands out for her
to save them. Each one calling her name in a pitiful tone that made her weep
for she knew not what to do.

Then her mother appeared and Lenna heard her weeping for the children she
had lost. 

"You could have saved them Lenna!" her mother cried. "You didn't even try!
Murder! Murder!"

"I tried mother!! I tried!!" she cried reaching up to touch the woman who
had given birth to her... But as she took her first step a sharp burning
pain drove her nearly to her knees. 

She tried again, but for each step she took pain, hot a burning embers,
assaulted her body until she couldn't take it any more, and this time when
her knees gave way she sank to the ground, covered her face in her hands and
wept, ashamed that she couldn't help them.

>*< You know what you must do to stop the pain Lenna... >*< A voice taunted
in her mind. >*< And you know the price of failure! >*<

She looked up just them and with what was left of her strength screamed
again as she watched the image of her son Rand burning away to cinder and
ash before her.......

Hands shook her awake.

"Lenna! Lenna!! It's a dream!! Just a dream!" the voice called out then
Lenna felt the sharp sting of a hand hitting her cheek a time or two before
she shot up in bed!

"It's just a dream Lenna," the kind voice said again. "You're home now...
You're safe!"

Safe... Home... the dream.....

She turned then and looked into the eyes of the woman she had met yesterday
on the green with her brother Lonnie.

"Maddy..." she said slowly.

Maddy smiled, nodding her head. "You remember me?"

Lenna slowly nodded her head, the nightmare slowly slipping away to be
forgotten once again. 

A baby cried and Lenna quickly looked around the room for her son. She
started to get up to go to him but Maddy was quicker and had Rand in her
arms returning to the bed before Lenna could leave it.

"You scared your son as well as me with the scream before I woke you up,"
Maddy told her. "It must have been some nightmare?"

Lenna wanted to remember but couldn't. It was gone.

"Must have been," she said as she sat there her heart rate returning to
normal. "But I can't remember a damn thing about it."

"Maybe that's for the good," Maddy told her placing a quiet Rand on the bed
beside his mother. "He'd probably feel more like himself if he was a little
drier. If you'll tell me where is nappies are I'll change him for you."

"I can do that," Lenna protested, throwing the covers back and then laid
back down when a wave of dizziness came over her.

"Wake yourself up first," Maddy chuckled coming back with a fresh cloth in
her hands. "Maybe after a cup of that coffee I placed on the nightstand
beside you, you'll feel better....."

Thinking that a very good suggestion, Lenna nodded her thanks and reached
for the cup. She took a slow sip of it until she discovered that it was
already cooled of enough to drink.

"Thanks... It was kind of you to think about it."

"Well I knew this being your first morning home again you might not have
thought about stocking up so could use a cup first thing. Besides it gives
us a chance to get to know each other a bit better without everyone else
trying to get your attention."

"Thoughtful of you," Lenna quipped, already refilling her cup from the craft
sitting there beside it. "I do hope this early morning visit includes
something to eat?"

"Out in the kitchen," Maddy laughed, and picked up a now happy Rand. "This
little one and I will go on and start leaving you alone for a few minutes to 
take a quick shower and get dressed."

Without waiting for Lenna's agreement. Maddy, carrying Rand, left the
bedroom and a stunned but bemused Lenna behind.

Well the girl wasn't a push over, she though getting up out of the bed and
heading for the bathing room. That was good. Lonnie wouldn't always get his
way with this one. Be good for him.

Fifteen minutes later she was ready and wondered out into the kitchen where
as promised, the morning meal awaited her.

"How did you know this was my favorite breakfast?" she grinned sitting down
and picking up her fork to begin. "Did Lonnie tell you?"

Maddy grinned. "No... He did not. As if he would think of something like
that as being important! I asked your sister Thina when I went by her home
this morning to pick up a dress she made for me. In fact she insisted on
making it when I told her I was coming up to see you. Sweet woman."

"Yes she is," Lenna nodded in agreement. "Sometimes I wonder how the two of
us could be so different. She was always the ... ah... sweet one of us
girls. The one who never caused any trouble."

"I'll bet you though that you're the one who kept your mother in shape
keeping up after you."

"Well I couldn't let her life become to boring," Lenna smiled sweetly. A bit
like her old self. "And I couldn't let my brothers get away with treating me
like a little girl all my life. I mean it was fine with Thina for them to
act as overly protective big brothers... but..."

"But you didn't need or want them too," the young Queenrider.

"No way," Lenna shook her head in agreement. "With them hanging around all
the time I'd of never gotten into half the things I did growing up or had
half as much fun doing it."

"I'll bet!" Maddy laughed, getting up to place Rand on the floor with a few
toys now that he was finished with his meal. "Lonnie has told me about a few
of the pranks you pulled on him and the others. You'll have to tell me how
you do it one of these days, but I have to be going now. Work calls..."

"Oh the trials and tribulations of being a Queenrider!" Lenna sighed
dramatically and brushed her hand over her forehead in an exaggerated swipe.
"Now you know why I'm happy just being an ordinary dragonrider!"

"Lenna my dear," Maddy grinned as she stood and waved good-bye to Rand. "You
were never an ordinary anything from what I heard."

Lenna stood to walk the young woman to the door thinking she liked this one.
"One day we'll have to sit down and you can fill me in on just what my
brother *has* told you about me!"

"I'd like that," Maddy offered and held out her hand.....

Finally! 

Amar crowed as the transfer was made.

Now I can really have some fun, he thought as the Queenrider remounted the
Queen she had left out on the ledge some time ago and the two of them took
off.....

(( Tag KK... ))

=============  

NRPG:
Lenna will be in and around the Warren most of the morning visiting people
and renewing old ...ah... friendships... waiting for her parents and B`rand
to return home from Telnor.

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

Lenna & Blanchie
Dan'yar & Shinner
Turner (Master Smith)
Cleft Warren

Aka
Barbara