Day 10

<Someone's found us,> Myacura practically whispered to her rider.

The news was bad enough that Inagua forgot to make her usual less then kind
remark about her Queen's backbone, or lack thereof.  She spared the bottle
of mediocre wine a guilty glance and took another swig.  She hadn't meant to
steal from those people, they had been kinder then she deserved, but she
simply couldn't stop herself.  She'd had enough self control, barely, to
simply stuff it in her bags and continues her agonisingly slow journey to
Jasra.  Teleporting had driven it completely out of her mind.  Until her
headache had gotten so bad they had to land so she could empty her stomache
and catch her breath.  She had reached into her bag blindly for something to
wash the taste out of her mouth, and the next thing she knew, half of the
first bottle was gone.  There had been no going  on from there, neither she
nor Mya were stupid enough to teleport unless she was completely sober.  She
could have been nearly to the warren if not for that.  And now they had
found her.  She took another drink and waited.

It wasn't long before her dragon told her that they where here.  She stood
up to meet them, pleasantly surprised that the alcohol had sufficiently
numbed the pain in her head so she could stand with out retching.

<snip>
When they arrived, it was only the two of them who landed next to the Queen
and her rider. The others she noticed were there but had landed three
dragons lengths behind them.

Ed'wen she noticed had dismounted and stood there next to Hesperus, then she
noticed the slight frown on his face as if he seemed to be waiting on her to
make the first move.

Quickly she dismounted from the Teal and walked quickly up to the angry
looking woman waiting with her hands on her hips for them. A quick look
around took in the backpack and the two bottles of wine near by. One
appeared to be empty and the other nearly so.
<end snip>

"My lady..." the blond woman began, her tone light and conversational.
Inagua was mildly impressed, it had been a while since anyone had even
bothered hiding their distaste of her when she was sober, let alone drunk.
"It seems we arrived just in time to escort you to your new home. I am
Shawnee, Doshayne's rider and Wingleader of Jasra. This is Ed'wen,
Hesperus's rider and my second. We are happy to have found you alive and...
whole in this place..... If you will mount your Queen then we can be on our
way back to Jasra and a clean bed."

"I'll go when I'm good and ready!" Inagua informed them.  Which wouldn't be
until tomorrow morning.  Damn them if she was going to.. going to.. get
herself lost again without putting up a fight.

"We'll go now," Shawnee's voice was firm.  "My Lady the Warrenlady had been
very worried since your escort arrived in Jasra without you. Tara will be
relieved that we have found you and are bring you back safely with us."

"I told you..... I am NOT ready to go back there yet," she repeated, damned
if she was going to give them what they wanted-  She felt like a perfect
amethyst had just fallen into her lap.  She'd give them exactly what they
expected, damn them.  "That prison will be waiting for me, but I want to
have fun first before I'm stuck there for good."

Shawnee seemed lost in thought, and after a while, a dragon with a decent
looking rider came up to join them.  It was an effort to restrain her sigh
of relief.  It looked like they were falling for it.

"If you'll excuse the interruption Wingleader..." the man started in an
apologetic tone. "But Glier has been telling us what's been going on and I
was thinking that there really wasn't any harm in the Queenrider staying out
here for a little while longer..... I mean after all she'll soon be in Jasra
and you can't tell me that with all the work she'll soon have to be doing
that a little fun before hand would hurt all that much."

"A little fun?" Shawnee turned to the man as if he was crazy. "She's a
Queenrider R'wlan."

"Oh I know that Ma'am," he was quick to assure her. "But if me and some of
the other boys say... stay with her..." He winked at her, and Inagua gave
him her best besotted sot smile.  "We could make sure nothing happens to her
and..."

"And have a little free time to have some fun yourself?" The scorn and
lifted eyebrow, likely a bit of acting on the wingleaders part, Inagua took
as her cue to move closer to R'wlan in order to show the proper amount of
eagerness.

"All for the good of the Warren Ma'am." He grinned impishly. "I'd make sure
she was safe... and she'd be better for the time... Maybe we could call it a
chance to tour the Lands. Wouldn't it be better if she knew something about
the area before she has to deal with all that goes with it? Why we could be
her tour guides and show her the area real good."

"Sounds good to me," Inagua piped up, careful to maintain her totally
sloshed and horny role.  Can't let them think she wasn't enthusiastic.

"Well..." Shawnee hesitated slightly, then, "Okay... seems it's the only
choice I have at the moment... But! You are to stay with her at all times
and if you lose her you'll be pulling the night patrol in the upper plains
for the next month. Agreed?"

R'wlan nodded, and the four riders, Shawnee, Ed'win and a woman and boy,
mounted and left, leaving two.  Not as good as she could have hoped for, but
it would have to do.  She raised her bottle threateningly, "You even think
about touching me and you'll be going home across someone elses saddle, you
understand?"

He backed away, hands raised defensively, looking surprised.  All she cared
about was his rather vigorous nod.

"And that goes..." she squinted, trying to make her

The bottle let a sparkling trail of spilled wine as it arced towards its
target, shattering dully as it connecting with a matt of blond hair.  He
crumpled to the ground and his dragon started wailing as if the world was
ending.

<Mya shut him up!  His rider's fine, he'll wake up in a bit.>

<We're trying.>  There was a pause, as if someone were asking her something,
then a reluctant,  <Why did you do that?>

The lie came as easily as the drink.  Her past had always condemmed her.
What strangers didn't know, wouldn't hurt them, or her.

<Because he startled me.>

She could feel her dragon's doubt, but didn't let it bother her.  The dragon
was still wailing pathetically and racket was beginning to make her head
throb again.   Growling irritably to herself, Inagua staggered towards a
boulder that looked like it would be a fairly decent backrest.  She really
needed to sit down again.  Careful not to snag her clothes, she slid down to
the ground with a grunt.

Inagua watched her unwelcome companions with half a mind, the rest of her
cursing the climate for not allowing a proper snowbank to stick her head in.
Fairly certain that R'wlan wasn't going to try anything funny, she risked
closing her eyes and tried massaging her temples.  It didn't help.  The only
think she got was a twitchy feeling between her shoulder blades, like
someone was glaring at her.  She tried to ignore it, but the image of a
rabbit being stalked by a fox kept coming to mind.

She raised her head and directed a glare at R'wlan, only he wasn't paying
the least bit of attention to her.  Nor, a glance revealed, were the
dragons.  But the twitchy feeling persisted, as annoying as her headache in
its own way.  Frankly it gave her the creeps.  Giving in, she gathered  her
feet under her and began the laborous task of standing again.

<Inagua!  Look out!> Myacura roared.

Surprise destroyed her precarious sense of balance and she hit the ground
hard.  Grit rained down on her head.  She looked up and the sudden rush of
adrenaline into her system nearly made her dizzy.  Her attention was
immediately rivetted to a mouth full of sharp looking teeth in the mouth of
the creature perched above her.  A part of her noted it could have some
mountain cat, wolf, bear, or all three in its ancestory.  The rest of her
was trying to decide where she could run to and the gut clenching conclusion
was nowhere.  Never the less, she got her feet underneath her, waiting for
it to leap before she made a move.


Its muscles tense and she moved.  Grit flew in a dusty cloud as she
scrambled for purchase on all fours, vaguely aware of the creatures shadow
passing over her as she raced aroung the rock to the other side.

<Duck!>

Obedience was instantaneous.  She leapt the rest of the way around the rock
and rolled to absorb the impact, aware of decidedly unpleasant noises coming
from the other side.  It was rapidly followed by an nausiating smell.

<You can come out now.>  Myacura said after a moment.  <Glier got it.>

"So I see.." Inagua murmured with distaste as she took a quick look at the
rather charred carcass the dragon was happily devouring.

"Are you all right?" R'wlan asked, running up to her.

"Just peachy."  She looked around, ignoring his unapproving grimace.  "Why
don't we load your partner up and get the hell out of here before anything
else comes looking for a meal?"

He grunted agreement, and after a moment, his dragon landed near the
uncounscious man.  As the secured the rider to R'wlan's saddle, she
explained how they were going to teleport to Jasra.  He didn't like it, but
he was smart enough not to argue.  They mounted up, and the three dragons
rose into the air before disappearing.
*********************
[After sunset, Jasra]

They were on the ground a part of her acknowledged, but she couldn't seem to
think of what to do next.

<Straps,> a voice mumbled wearily.

Her fingers worked mechanically and she nearly fell off the saddle at the
sudden loss of support.  A painful moment later, she managed to swing one
leg over and slide down.  Her legs remembered they had bones in enough time
to keep her from falling on her face, but not much before.  The heat seemed
to press her against her dragon's side.  But she managed to push herself
away and take a few steps out into the open.  She noticed with some
disappointment that there wasn't a single snowdrift, but just so long as
they had beds, she could live with it.

**************************
NRPG: Well she's there, finally.

Submitted by,
Bridget  Olson
Inagua and Myacura