Day 6, early evening

For a moment, she could do no more than sit there as the world blinked and
switched places on her.  "Gea'te," Aitzan murmured fearfully as Bakke
shrieked the same thing.  Magic monster.  From drowning to becoming
prospective dinner, Luck was hounding her tonight.  But Luck be damned if
she wouldn't choose how she got to go, and it definately wouldn't be as some
monsters dinner.

She squirmed, fighting for leverage and managed to free an elbow, which she
immediately used to jab his ribs.   Her head butted him under his jaw and
she had the satisfaction of witnessing the lizard join the fray, stinging
for all he was worth.

"Gea'te kiazu!!" he wailed amazingly over the wind.  Kiazu'hi gea'te li nie
Bakke!!"  Monster bad!!  Very bad monster no eat Bakke!!

She felt them land and bit back a yelp as Bakke jumped onto her chest, now
chittering inanely about talking gea'te.  She fought off despair as she
realized she was going to be eaten whether she liked it or not.

The monster's servant slid off the gea'te's back; Bakke flew off and hit the
ground running.   She slammed on her the man's foot, put a well-placed elbow
in his gut, and broke free, determined to make it very clear that she did
not like being eaten one bit.

She reached for the sling she always kept around her waist, eyes scanned the
ground for suitable stones.  She looked up, trying to see if the monster was
following and stopped dead.  The true magnitude of her misfortune slammed
into her like a gale, wiping out any remaining defiance.  Sometimes Luck was
damned stubborn about her plaything's fate.  Landing in a gea'te lair was a
pretty obvious statement of hers.

She quietly put her sling away.  Dignity was the only thing  she had left.

The sounds of speach made her look up at the monster's servant with a
bewildered expression at his gibberish.  "Ai li shu in'nue ja niali wa
shu'ji gea'te?" she asked.  Aren't you going to feed me to your monster?

He simply grabbed her arm, led her inside a strange looking building, and
handed her over to a broad, unintelligable man.

She was shivering and her hand was throbbing, but even that was momentarily
forgotten as she stared around in sceptical awe.  No one had ever bothered
to build a place like this at home.  She had never encountered anything
manmade that had such a feeling of solidity, or...  permanance.  But then,
no one back home was foolish enough to expect things to last.

The gea'te's servants were very strange, she decided as she was led to a
chair.  The man gently took her hand and began treating it; first numbing
it, then cleaning the slivers out of it.  She watched warily for a bit
before coming ot the conclusion that he really was healing her hand and not
poisoning her or something.  She'd heard of a few island peoples that did
some very unsavory things to their prisoners and she was glad these people,
at the moment anyway, didn't seem like that at all.

Aitzan blinked rapidly as it occurred to her that if they were botheirng to
heal her, than she likely wasn't going to become some monsters dinner.
Perhaps Luck was more subtle than she had thought.

A knot of tension unloosed itself and she slumped into the chair, suddenly
exhausted.  Yet despite the warmth and mindless babble around her, she
couldn't seem to fall a sleep.  Something was missing.  Half dozing, she
reached up with her good hand to where the lizard lay on her chest.  Any
though of sleep fled her mind as her fingers hit the remains of her poncho.

"Hi'ga, Nyumi!" she swore, jumping out of the chair, bandage ends dangling
from her hand.  Panicy, she peered at the walls and under the table.   Where
was the damned lizard?
****************************

Raleon bit back a curse as the strange girl jerked to her feet, the bandage
already coming undone.  Why couldn't she have waited until he'd finished?
He didn't have time for this, not with riders still coming in from the
fight.

For a moment he watched her peer around and came to the conclusion that she
had lost something.  She turned back towards them and spoke rapidly, her
voice climbing and dropping in some kind of madman's song, making gestures
with her hands and futher unraveling his work.  The only thing he could tell
was that whatever she was blabbing about was maybe three feet long.  When
she started towards the door, still looking around like she'd lost
something, he decided enough was enough.  She was his patient and he damned
well wasn't going to let her wander about in a stinking hurricane.
Especially when it was fairly obvious she didn't understand a thing.  Even
more especially when he didn't have time to treat her for hyperthermia.

Decisively, he reached for one of the shots of sedatives on the tray, broke
a fundamental safety rule, and ran after her.  His long legs over took her
and with a healers precision he jabbed her with the needle before she could
even turn her head.

She managed to turn around and look at him, terror flashing across her face
briefly before she dropped like a stone.  He was ready.  With barely a
ripple of his well developed shoulders, he gently picked her up and carried
her to a room, sending in a nurse to make her comfortable and finish the
bandage job.

He got back to the main room just in time to take a wraith burned rider. He
competently went about his work, immediately forgetting about the girl and
her missing thing.
************************

The thing in question was currently hiding in a corner shivering.  Bakke had
good insticts and fire breathing, magical monsters were more than enough to
activate them.

But he also had a stomache and it was very empty.

Quietly he slinked out of his corner and raised his nose, sniffing as he
slowly moved his head left and right.  Rain, mud, monsters, and people were
about all he managed to come up with.  But he'd stolen enough lunches in his
time to realize that humans had food and he liked just about all of it.

With his nose to the air and his eyes on the monsters, he went to fill his
stomache.
*********************************

Ishtey would never tolerate being called a fool, but a stubborn old bitch
was perfectly acceptable.  It was, after all, true.

Which was why she didn't give her assistant the sharp side of her tongue.
Instead, she gave him a few sandwitches and sent him on his way with orders
to keep out of the weather.   Busy brushing off the young man's pleadings
for her to get to higher ground, her keen eyes missed the green shape
slithering along the walls.

He finally left, unhappy, but with little choice.  Old stubborn oak might
have been a more accurate description of her temperment, she thought with no
little amusement. She continued securing things in the kitchen, just in case
it flooded again.

She winced as her elbow sent a particularily nasty complaint about the
dampness.   It hadn't done that the last hurricane she recalled.  Of course,
twenty-four years ago she'd been only greying instead of white and young at
forty-seven.

She hummed tunelessly to herself, working effieciently and quickly.  A crash
turned a wavering high note into a small screach of surprise.  She whirled
around, perhaps not as fast as she could have twety-four years ago, but it
was nimble enough.  Quickly with only a slight limp, she made her way to the
supply room where the noise had come from, picking up a broom along the way.

Fully expecting to see a food covered cat, she couldn't stop the shriek at
the green monstrosity eating her supply of dried fish.  This time it was the
overgrown salamander who did the shrieking as she brought her broom to bear
with a vengence.  Swearing at the top of her lungs, she followed the thing,
heedless of breaking jars and overturned bags.

Another jar crashed to the floor as she connected with the monster's side.
Chittering like a madman, and tossing some piece of food or other at her,
the creature scampered out, one set of hands full of stolen vittles.

"I'll fry you in my pan if I ever see you in here again!" she screamed after
the running lizard as she chased it out the door.

Panting, she fumed at the mess.  Vermin in her kitchen!  She'd have to have
words with Jemma.  Pausing briefly to catch her breath, she began applying
the broom as it was intended to be.

Still, she thought rather proudly as she swept vigorously, seventy-one or
not, she could still hassle critters with the best of them.
******************************

Bakke chittered happily to himself as he made tracks back to Aitzan munching
on his snack.  He liked that game and since the strange red faced human
hadn't scolded him, she must like it to.  He hoped next time he played he'd
get something better than just fish.

The lizard arrived at the med center and scampered his way to Aitzan's room,
following his nose.  With a leap he landed on her chest, and when she didn't
wake up, wrapped himself around her trying to warm up as he fell asleep.
*******************************
Day 7, morning

A fuzzy pale face surounded by a halo of black swam briefly before her eyes
and for a moment she wondered if she had drowned.  She blinked and the image
focuses into a blue eyed stranger.  Her eyes shifted towards her chest and
she noticed that the lizards was again missing from his usual place.  Where
was the damned pest?

"Shu ai nga?" Aitzan asked the woman hovering about her around the cotton in
her mouth.  Who are you?

The reply was more of their gibberish, so she quit talking to the rude woman
who had touched her without knowing even her name.  So she talked to the air
instead, hoping the lizard would hear and reveal himself.  "Bakke, shu ai
doka?"

A moment later, she felt the blankets pull slightly as Bakke peeked his head
over the edge.  They must have shooed him off during the night.

Wiggling out from the rude woman's hand she sat up and snapped her fingers.
Bakke jumped up and hissed good naturedly at the woman.  Aitzan had never
seen any one back up so fast in her life.  It was all she  could do not to
laugh.

Well, her foster mother had taught her better manners than this, it was time
for introductions.  Even if she had to improvise them a bit, though it
wouldn't be the first time.

"Aitzan," she said clearly, pointing at herself.  She pointed towards the
woman, raising a questioning eyebrow.

"Tala," the woman replied in kind.  The man went next, "Balagon."  Then the
lizard stood up on two sets of legs, pointed to himself and said, "Bakke,"
very clearly and slowly.  He'd done this before to.

Just to make sure she had everything right, she went around the circle
pointing and calling out everyones name. "Tala, Balagon, Bakke."

The woman frowned slightly and repeated her name slowly, "Ta-la."

"Ta-la," she repeated, not hearing the slightest bit of difference.

Tala sighed and shook her head.  Aitzan shrugged it off and scanned the room
for her clothes.  A small closet looked to be a likely place, so she threw
off the covers, making sure they covered up the lizard, and strode to the
closet without a thought towards her unclad state.

Flinging the doors open with gusto, she grabbed her things and dressed:
tucking her top and her sling into her waist and rolling up her blue pants
and cuffing them.  She moved next to a tiny mirror over a water basin and
moaned softly at the disaster her hair had become.  She could already feel
the inevitable ache in her arms that would come when she had to rebraid it.

Splashing some water on her face with her unbandaged hand, she took about
three fairly intact braids from each side and used them to secure her tucked
under pony tail.  Examining the result in the mirror she decided it was
presentable, a sentiment echoed loudly by her empty stomache.

Grinning sheepishly, she rubbed her stomache and pointed to her mouth,
miming chewing.  Balagon and Tala both didn't seem exactly sure what to do,
and kept looking at her strangely.  Aitzan looked down herself, but didn't
see anything out of place.  Her stone could use a good polish she noticed
disapprovingly, but she was clean enough to eat first.

Her stomache made another noise and continued its attempt at turning itself
inside out.  Her hosts still couldn't seem to decide what to do, so she made
the decision for them.  Whistling for the lizard, she brushing past them,
grabbed the door handle, and pulled.  Nothing happened.  So she pushed
instead and still nothing happened.

Clucking to herself in frustration, she jiggled the handle and found that it
turned.  She bent down and peered at it, turning the handle and examining
what happened.  By the time Bakke took a flying leap for her shoulder, she
had it figured.  Grinning proudly, she turned the knob and pulled.  The door
opened.

"Nie doko ai doka?"  Where is the eating place?  No response, so she tried
bribing.  "Wa gyu dijii i'shu.." she weedled.  'I'll find you some pork' was
the ever unfailing bribe since the lizard would do anything for bacon.  She
just hoped she'd beable to pay up.

Predictably, a long sharp tail pointed to the right over her shoulder.  She
set off as briskly as her short stride allowed, her hosts trailing behind
her chattering in their monotone language.

"Bakke uku dijii, Bakke uku dijii," the lizard began chanting eagerly as
they stepped outside.  Bakke gets bacon.

Aitzan's scolding died in her throat as she saw the shadowy monsters of last
night in full daylight.   "Hi'ga kyu ai ooke!" she breathed.  My god their
big! was all she could think of, fear freezing her steps.  The damn lizard
continued chanting, oblivious.

Her heart skipped a beat as a smaller version of the monsters turned towards
her curiously.

*I'm still growing.  What's bacon?* a voice asked in her head.  The lizard
scrambled to hide under her hair.  Aitzan simply stared, mouth hanging open
for any fly buzzing by, trying to decide whether to scream or laugh
hysterically.
*****************
NRPG: Well John, is Varaenna handy for conversation?  Does that little
dragon belong to anyone?
*****************

Talking monsters or not, Aitzan's stomache was still empty and she made it
clear to Tala, who had stuck by her, that she had every intention of filling
it soon.

Following the woman's lead, they walked into a large hall filled with people
eating.  She grinned hugely, hardly noticing the numerous stares directed
towars her bare chest.  She made a beeline to the table with food, nodding
at the ancient serving woman there.

Bakke scrambled over her shoulder and jumped onto the table before she could
grab him.  Horrified, Aitzan quickly made apologetic gestures, trying to
recapture the troublesome pest.  She never got a chance.
******************************

Ishtey gave an amused smile at the looks directed at the short bare chested
woman walking in.  She rather thought the girl pulled it off well,
considering she was bouncing like a puppy on a string.  Shaking her head at
the drool coming out of the men's and some women's mouths, she put on her
mits and went back for the fresh loaf of bread.

By the time she came back, the girl was the one drooling, over all the food.
Smiling, Ishtey was about to set the bread down and give the stranger a hand
when an all to familiar green form landed on the table.

"You!" she shouted as she took a swipe with the piping hot bread.  "Somebody
catch that lizard!"

Dishes crashed to the floor as lizard feet and bread load skidded across the
table.  The green thief ran out of table and took a desperate flying leap
right into the warrenlady's face.
***********************
NRPG: Tag again John, and anyone else who wants to get into the fun.  Just
don't kill the poor critter ok? ;>  Bios for Raleon and Ishtey to follow.

Submitted by,
Bridget Olson
Aitzan, Bakke, Raleon, and Ishtey