[Day 1]

"Mind if I have a word with you?" Ja'ks stood in the door way of Tair'n's
office eyeing the man as he sat behind his desk. "It's good to see you
back there where you belong," Ja'ks commented as he was waved inside.

"What can I do for you?" Tair'n asked, setting aside the partner
assignment chart he'd been working on.  They'd had problems with the
original pairings Rayrem had done with the new trainee graduates and had
one transfer over to Gamma, so some rearranging was in order.

"It's about one of your riders," the Beta Wingleader told him. "D'Altar
and I were out on patrol this morning to the south of here and spotted a
dragon and a rider in the surf over by Shasta Lake... Sprarroe told me it
was Norin and her dragon. Now I'm sure I saw her on the list for the
morning patrol, so I thought I'd better ask you about it. And let you know
it's not the first time I've heard of her slacking in her duties to this
Warren... I just thought since she's one of your wing, you should know
about it in case you wanted to do something before Leigh found out about
it."

Tair'n sighed.  "I'll take care of it."

Ja'ks nodded.  "Then I'll not bother Leigh with it."

Ja'ks left and Tair'n pulled out the patrol schedule.  Rayrem handled the
actual area assignments for morning patrols for the most part, leaving
Tair'n to handle those later in the day.  It had always worked well.  He
glanced down the list.

"Norin & Brisha" it said in Rayrem's careful handwriting, followed by "+
Shanar & Thirena."  Penciled in after Norin's partner's name was "sick."
Tair'n glanced down at the standby listing.  At the top of the list was
"Someynara & Ravindra."

<Amadith, can you check and see if Ravin-- >

<Yes, she's still in the warren,> his dragon answered before he had
finished.

<So who went with--?>

<Brisha and her rider went out alone.  Ravindra says Brisha told her she
wasn't needed after all, that Thirena's rider was okay.>

Tair'n absorbed this.  It didn't seem likely that Rayrem would have left
the notation on the patrol schedule, but...  <And is Thirena's--?>

<Her rider is still sick.  I already asked for you.>

Tair'n swore under his breath.  Rule number one of patrols was that you
never went out alone.  <Okay, I'm going out to give Norin a piece of my
mind.  Tell Ravindra and...> He glanced at the list of standbys, <...
Zenith that their riders need to be ready to go in an hour to take the
rest of Norin and Brisha's patrol.>  He and Norin would be out there until
then.  He stalked out, considering punishments.  Probably extra patrols,
with someone trustworthy going with her... and confinement to the warren
for a couple of weeks.  That would probably do it for now. Shanar tended
to get sick often, so he'd have to see about giving Norin a new patrol
partner.

He found the irresponsible rider still swimming at Shasta Lake, just as
Ja'ks had said.  Irritably, he told Amadith to land.  The backdraft from
the cadet blue dragon's landing warned Norin that they were there and she
scrambled out of the water toward her clothes.

Tair'n beat her to them, however. "No way.  You're not getting dressed
until you tell me why the hell you're out here swimming instead of out
watching for wraiths, wild dragons and other creatures encroaching from
the Wilds.  And why the hell you went out on patrol alone, for the gods
sake.  You could get eaten by wraiths out here alone!"

She pouted, thrusting her naked chest forward provocatively. "As if you
care, mister Wingleader, sir. No one would miss me if I never came back."

"Goddammit, Norin!  I do care.  And I also care about the safety of the
people we're sworn to protect.  Now explain yourself."

Norin started to answer, her face set and rebellious, when a sudden ripple
of confusion and alarm crossed it.

"What's wrong?" Tair'n asked, stepping toward her.

He was answered by a scream from her dragon as she launched herself from
the water, followed by Amadith bellowing his answer to her challenge.

Tair'n watched, more used to mating flights than she, as Norin transformed
into an animal in heat, calling to him, then dancing away when he
advanced, at one with her dragon.

Despite the fact that there was only Amadith to catch her, Brisha put up a
mighty fight not to be caught.  Tair'n was beginning to think the female
would wear herself out when Amadith pulled a turn faster than she did and
caught her, claws sinking deep into her shoulder.

As her words, "I submit," reverberated into his brain from his dragon,
Tair'n felt Norin's warm body against his own, already naked and slick
from swimming, ready to be taken.  Between the two of them, his clothes
soon joined hers in the pile, then she was beneath him, her legs around
his waist pulling her up to join their bodies deeply as he thrust downward
into her.

Their dragons weren't sated till they had joined together three times.
Norin's lust didn't abate then, however, and Tair'n found himself lapping
up the juices of their three climaxes to bring his recalcitrant rider to a
fourth.

Afterward, they lay, the heaviness of their dragons' sleep pulling at
their minds, holding each other.

"Wow," Norin said, and it seemed to sum up the experience quite well
without elaboration.

Tair'n chuckled.  "One of the greatest advantages of being joined."

"I'm never going to complain about Brisha again.  Other than maybe that
she doesn't fly to mate enough..."

"So, was that why you were out here swimming-- you were feeling the heat
of Brisha and not realising what it was?"

"Um... I guess...  I did feel awfully hot..."

"Okay, I can understand that with a new rider.  But you're still going to
be punished for flying a patrol alone."

Norin sighed.  "I don't suppose the punishment would involve any of your
*toys*, would it?" she asked hopefully.

"No.  I'm serious about this.  I don't ever want to hear of you flying a
patrol alone.  You may think nobody in the warren cares about you, but I
don't want to see you hurt or dead."

Her eyes filled with tears.  "I'm sorry.  I just...  Nobody likes me...
and so patrolling with someone..."

Tair'n pulled her closer.  "Shhh.  I'll find someone.  And you could help
by not being quite so... opinionated."

"I'll try," she answered, still sniffling.

"Hey, let's get washed up and see if we can't rouse those lazy dragons of
ours," he said, rolling into a standing position.

"Good luck.  Brisha's dead to the wor--"  Her voice died as a shadow
passed over them, her eyes widening in horror.

Tair'n looked up and swallowed hard.  "Head for the lake.  They usually
don't hunt underwater."

He was already moving as he spoke, his mind screaming for Amadith to wake
up, but the dragon wouldn't rouse.  He saw Norin stumble out of the corner
of his eye and screeched to a halt to help her just as a black form
descended upon her naked back.  She started screaming.  He reached her and
tore the thing off of her, ignoring the searing pain in his hands, and
threw it aside, wishing he had something, anything, with which to kill it.
He dragged the girl to her feet and pulled her toward the water.

"Come on, goddammit. They're on us."

And then they reached the water and splashed into it, catching breath and
diving as deep as they could.

He just hoped the manace would be gone before they had to surface.

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tair'n and Amadith

NRPG: Welp, folks, we've got two riders who need rescued.  While Somi and
R'ven are scheduled to take over the patrol, nothing says they have to get
there first-- i.e. this isn't specifically a tag for Bridget, this is for
anyone.  I don't have any plans for where this is going, just tossing
something out for people to do if they want, so feel free to play with it.
I'd just ask that you don't seriously injure Tair'n or kill Norin.  
Tair'n's currently got minor wraith burns on his hands and Norin has some
on her back, but the water would stop the wraith juices from doing more
damage, so unless they get nabbed by another wraith, that's all they're
going to suffer.  Unless people really want it to be, this doesn't have to
be a big, multiple-wing battle. I didn't describe the size of the horde.  
A half dozen wraiths against two defenseless people is quite deadly
enough. But I leave that to you.

---

 Lynette R. F. Cowper <lcowper@io.com>, INWO Line Editor