Part one of four Cleft posts to come
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O'tis the drunk
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[very early morning

The bottle was empty.

O'tis held it up before him and with sad eyes looked upon the clear color of
the glass where only minutes before there had been a amber colored liquid
making the prettiest pictures when you held it up to the light and looked
through it.

Not that there was much light on this long drawn out night, but the moon, or
what there was of it, had been enough to keep O'tis amused for a short time.

He wanted to see more of the pretty pictures. For while he was watching
them, his mind didn't think of the other things. Things that scared him.
Things that had killed his mate and son.

His mate... Dear sweet Layla... Oh she was a fine one...he mused sadly as a
tear slipped from his blood-shot eye. Yes a fine one, with hair the color of
spun gold and eyes that a man could drown in. He'd been so much in love with
her. She'd been his whole entire world until Hatcher had been born. 

His son... the pride of any daddy's heart. As good a son as a father could
have... Strong, brave... and handsome... a boy who respected though who
needed respecting and a find dragonrider...

Beautiful wife... fine strong son... both the center of his world until
they'd been killed when the Warren had gone against that crazy would be God
a year or so ago.

And with there passing, so was O'tis's reason for living. Had he been
alone... Dragonless, he might have considered taking his own life to easy
the pain and loneliness that had come over him. But he had Dralon to think
about and knew he could never take the life of his dragon... No matter how
deeply he wanted to end his own.

So he took to drinking as a way to numb the pain. At first a few drinks
helped to get to sleep, but then a few drinks weren't enough and a few
finally became many.

Still there never seemed to be enough drink to keep away the dreams that
haunted him day and night... finally he had been relieved of duty to the
Warren and told that unless he stopped drinking, he would could stay in the
Warren, but he would be grounded.

He didn't care. Duty had come to mean little to him as the drink took over
what was left of his mind. Now all he dreamed about was one day finding the
courage to rejoin those he had lost. One day when Dralon let him.

He looked at the empty bottle again and tried to remember where it was that
he had seen another of it's like. The wine merchant would be closed by
now... and besides she had cut him off thinking he'd have to sober up if he
lost easy access to her stores... But he had been a cagey one and had come
up with a supply anyway.

He fought to get up from the hole where he had fallen earlier, stumbling
around for a few minutes until he finally made it to his feet, and then he
started slowly so as not to fall back down, along the path leading to the
spot where he knew the other bottle was hidden.

No one was about when he came to the open area he had to cross near the
Warrenlady's home, but that was all to the better O'tis thought as no one
would bother him. He was almost to the place when he heard a sound and
looked up a bit to quickly losing his balance and slipping forward when arms
reached out to catch him.....

The next second he felt a wave of dizziness come over him that had nothing
to do with the drink and O'tis/Amar howled in impotent frustration. The
rider felt a strange pain in his mind for the few seconds it took for Amar
to assume him, then his thinking became a little clearer if still not more
then slightly slurred by the drink he had partaken of a little while ago.

Amar cried out in impotent anger. For a moment his own thoughts seemed to
float around in a maze of colors and loud sounds. It took him a few moments
to realize that something was vastly different with this human then with any
of the others, but what he couldn't figure out.

He'd been so close... but now he couldn't quite remember what it was he'd
been so close too.....

He knew he had something to do. That he had been sent here for a purpose,
but every time he thought about it, the thought would slip away in a cloud
of confusion. 

Had this human he had stumbled into discovered his presence? Could the
stupid human actually have found a way to block Amar. He didn't think it was
possible but..... 

"O'tis are you all right?" a female voice asked and O'tis/Amar looked up to
see a woman standing in front of them.

The Junior Queenrider... he remembered and wanted to die... Amar knew how
what it was he had been sent here for... and could have cried, if wraiths
did that sort of thing.

He'd been so close... so damn Close this time but fate... if one believed in
that kind of thing... appeared to have intervened again in the form of this
mixed up human with the weird thoughts.

Still there had to be some way to get to the one he had been sent here to find.

"I have to see the Warrenlady," he tried to sound important, but his words
came out in an unintelligent slur. 

"What was that O'tis?" the Queenrider asked again.

"I have...Have to see the Warrenlady," he said again slowly, pronouncing
each word as carefully as he could. "It's important that I see her... I have
news of an attack."

There... that lie should get him in. After all attacks around her were
something they took seriously... didn't they.

"An attack huh?" the woman spoke as if to humor the drunken rider before
her. "Tell you what... you tell me about it and I'll tell Cynthia okay?"

No it was not okay... Amar wanted to shout. It's not okay at all!

"No... I best be the one to tell her," he shook his head to try to clear his
thinking. "Saw the with my own eyes I did, so I need to tell her what it was
I saw... you might not tell her everything and they could get us then... got
to save everyone."

Maddy looked on with pity at the aging rider, thinking he may of really been
a good man in past days... but she couldn't help feel sorry for the man he
had become since the death of his family. 

Dan'yar had told her about him. About how he sometimes still had dreams that
his family was still alive and only waiting for the Warren to go rescue them
from them who were holding them captive. Several times the rider's mind had
even reverted back to a time before the Attack, and Maddy figured this was
one of those times.

"Tell you what O'tis," Maddy said taking his arm, she began to lead him
away, hoping to get where she was taking him before he could figure it out.
"I know where Cynthia is right now, so let me take you there and then you
can tell her all about the attack. Okay?"

Dumb woman was going to fall for his plan, the O'tis/Amar wraith smiled
slightly. Soon... soon he'd finally be able to complete his assignment and
report back to his own Queen.

"Yes... Take me there... Take me to see her... must tell her about the
attack....." he agreed readily and allowed her to lead him away. Things were
happening. It wouldn't be long now and he could find out what he needed and
complete this jinx mission. The Hive queen would be so proud of him.

"You wait right here O'tis," Maddy told the ex-rider after they had entered
the medical center. "I'll go tell her you're here and need to talk with her."

"I'll wait here," he agreed, with a secret grin he didn't allow her the too.
Yes this was going to work out just fine... Just one small touch and she
would be his to ruin this place for his Queen.

He tried to dance a little jig, but nearly fell over as the legs of the
human he was in, stumbled and nearly tripped over himself.

What *was* wrong with this one human?

"O'tis..." he heard his name called out and looked up to see two men dressed
in white advancing toward him. "Lady Madelyn said we're to take you to see
the Warrenlady."

"Yea..... She's in here," the other man said taking his arm and began
leading him down the hall to a room at the far end. "She's inside here
waiting for you."

The door opened and he was ushered inside... and stopped in his tracks when
he didn't see any one in the room. But before he could turn around and ask
them where she was, he felt a sharp prick on his left arm as something was
poked there and that was the last thing he knew before everything went black.

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

O'tis (the drunk)
Cleft Warren

Aka
Barbara