Almiron stirred in his sleep, disturbed by the quiet sounds of another
presence in the room.  He remembered then that Darlea had spent the night. 
"Darlea?" 

"I'm still here. How are you feeling?" She asked sitting down next to him. 

"Better... thank you for staying and taking care of me." 

Darlea smiled down at him, her blue eyes sparkling.  "I didn't do much,
you did most of it. I woke last night, and you were burning up... and this
morning, no one would even know that you were hurt. That's an amazing
power you have." She paused, combing his hair slightly with her fingers,
"I'm going to go and get some breakfast. You should probably sleep some
more. So, I'll see you later, okay." 

He nodded, closing his eyes obediently, though his mind was mulling over
their conversation the previous evening. He felt a light kiss on the cheek
and heard her walk out to the ledge, then the sound of dragon wings.  He
debated whether he really wanted to go back to sleep or not, but started
to drift off when he was started awake by a distant trumpetting. 

<Come, pet, I want to fly this one and I won't have you up here in agony
if I win.>

Almiron groaned and rolled out of bed.  <You have so much concern when it
is wild lady you are flying,> he chided as he pulled his pants on. 

<You wouldn't let me win a warren dragon, but now you will.  I can feel
the change in you.>

Almiron thought about the dragon's words as he pulled on a shirt while
walking to the ledge.  Yes, something had changed.  <Who is flying?>

<Dencia, whose rider is Salinda.>

Almiron mounted Darshan, bareback, thinking of Salinda.  He knew her.  She
had ended up in Second Flight and had slowly been emerging from her shell. 
He had seen her and Darlea often together.  He felt a slight qualm at the
idea of Darshan winning her red Dencia. 

<Oh, please, pet.  You really must adjust to the ways of the warren,> 
Darshan spoke as he briefly touched down on the green near where a knot 
of men were forming around Salinda.  <Off.>

Almiron obediently slid off the dragon.  As Darshan launched into the air 
after the darting red form, Almiron felt the heat in his body rise.  
Soon, all doubts had been forgotten-- subsumed in that heat-- and he 
joined the knot of men around the dark haired girl, who was echoing her 
dragon's challenges.

Darshan watched the red as she manuevered, dipping and turning.  Soon the
pattern emerged and he placed himself to catch her.  His claws raked
across her back as she shot under him, but his hold slipped.  He pursued,
another male grabbing at the female.

Darshan couldn't make out the colour of the other against the sun and
little cared; he was an adversary.  The other male reached for Dencia and
Darshan lashed out, slashing the other male's wing badly.  The adversary
screamed in pain and began spiralling down to the ground.  He managed to
land and some part of Darshan, buried now under the mating passion, was
glad.

Darshan's claws shot forward again.  Dencia struggled to get away from him
as he bit the back of her neck, the two forms falling.

<I will have you,> she conceded.

He released her reluctantly, and they turned toward the mountains.  There 
in the high peaks he would mate her and his body yearned to get there as 
soon as possible.

On the ground, Almiron led Salinda into the woods, to the quiet spot where
he and Darlea had shared Makayla's first mating.  They undressed quickly
and laid down.  Her body quivered under his touch, but there was more than
desire there.  Alongside it was fear, deep and strong.  As his hands
explored her, she whimpered in fear, even with the influence of her
dragon's desire.  He removed his hands, looking into her eyes. 

"You do it."

"What?" she asked, her voice husky.

"Someone has hurt you, and you are afraid that I will, too.  So I yield 
control to you.  Take your time."

He laid back, yearning for her even as Darshan yearned for her dragon, 
flying beside him.  He fought the urge to touch her until she was ready.  
He moaned as her hands found him and began a slow, shy exploration.  His 
hands clenched around leaves and grass, fighting the urge to touch her.  
Her lips met his and her hands explored his shoulders and chest and then 
slid down his arms to take his hands and place them lightly on her 
breasts.  He slowly explored her as her legs straddled his hips.  Time 
seemed to stand still as she built up the courage to take him.  A cry 
escaped both their lips as Darshan and Dencia were joined.  Overwhelmed, 
she took him, her body tensing as the pain flooded her.  Soon it was 
replaced by heat, a heat so intense that her world seemed to shatter as 
the waves of pleasure washed over her, so intense she didn't hear his cry 
as he filled her with his seed.

Only a few moments passed before they joined again, driven by the passion 
of their dragons, lost in each other and the pleasures of their dragons 
mating.

Afterwwards, he held her as she cried.  He gently asked what was wrong, 
but she only shook her head, so he fell silent and held her to him.  
Slowly, the sobs died.

She kissed him lightly.  "I have to go."

"Will you not tell me what is wrong?" he asked.

"I'm sorry, Almiron.  Not right now.  Maybe later."

She stood and dressed quickly, turning her back to him to hide the body 
he had just known so intimately.  She smiled shyly, waved, and fled 
without another word.

He watched her go, concerned and mystified.  He debated going after her,
but felt that she needed to be alone, whatever it was.  He gathered his
clothes and walked to the nearby lake. 

He slipped into its warm waters and began washing away the evidence of his 
recent lovemaking, both to Salinda and to Darlea the previous evening, he 
realised with a guilty start.  He could feel Darshan, asleep, tangled 
pleasantly with Dencia's body.  He didn't know what to think anymore of 
warren ways and mating flights.

******

"Um, excuse me?"

Kyven glanced up to find the owner of the voice was a girl.  He 
recognised her as the one whose dragon had flown the mating flight a 
couple of hours before.  Aethnod had joined the chase, though he had come 
nowhere close to winning.

The girl was blushing and nervous and Kyven guessed what it might be
about.  It was not uncommon for riders, under the influence of dragon
passion, to mildly injure themselves or their partners during dragon
matings-- scratches, bruises, bites, Kyven had seen it all in his fourteen
years in the Medical Center.

"How can I help you?" he asked gently, trying to put her at ease.

"I... umm... Wrenna, the lady that talked to me about... matings said 
that you had something called a 'morning after' preparation?"

Wrenna was one of the many riders that M'ressan had tapped to take a 
small number of the newly-joined girls under her wings and teach them 
about mating flights and birth control at the warren.  Kyven was familiar 
with the tradition, since Ree also served in that capacity.

"Yes," he said cautiously, "we do have such a thing, but you shouldn't 
need it if you've been taking the regular preparations that Wrenna should 
have provided you."

Her blush deepened.  "I haven't been."

He tried not to look too angry at her since she looked as if she might 
burst into tears at any moment.  "Well, then, it sounds like you might 
need to start.  I'll get you the morning after preparation, but I'll warn 
you it isn't 100% effective.  Not nearly as effective as the standard 
birth control."

She nodded, looking frightened.  Good, he thought, a little fright might 
set her to rights.  He walked to a cabinet and opened it, scanning the 
shelves for the proper label.

******

Almiron laid on his back in the water.  He should be heading to the 
Medical Center, he knew, but Kyven would understand.

He heard an odd whirring sound and a horrible, hot pain suddenly exploded
in his chest.  He was suddenly struggling to stay afloat as the water
turned red with his blood.  He looked down in horror at the arrow sticking
out at a low angle from his chest.  The pain exploded again, ten times
worse, in his back and his legs went suddenly numb.  He gulped and spat
bloody water out his mouth as his arms flailed, trying to keep him afloat. 
He had so little body fat that such an effort was practically futile in
the best of circumstances.  He hardly registered it as a third arrow sank
into his shoulder. 

The world had become a haze of pain and water.  <Darshan!> he screamed as 
he sank under the surface.  He fought to break the surface, but his legs 
felt like dead weights, dragging him under.  His lungs began to burn with 
the effort to keep from taking in water.

He felt his dragon start awake and panic.

******

Behind him, he heard the girl suddenly cry out.  Kyven turned to ask her 
what was wrong when Aethnod cried out, <There is a rider hurt.  He is 
going to drown.>

<Where?  Where is he?>

<I don't know, his dragon is too panicked.  It is the one who mated this 
morning.>

"Where is he?" Kyven demanded of the girl.

"What?"

"Almiron-- where is he?"

"I left him in the woods, near the lake that's shaped like a foot."

<Aethnod, tell all the dragons that if they're up and have a rider on 
board to get to Giant's Footprint Lake,> he instructed as he ran out of 
the center at a dead run, the girl right behind him.  He mounted Aethnod 
and pulled the girl up behind him.

A thought hit him.  He remembered Almiron commenting that his dragon had 
horrible visualisation ability.  <Aethnod, send Darshan this image,> he 
sent, visualising Giant's Footprint Lake from above.  <Tell him not to 
arrive too close-- we don't want him teleporting into one of our rescuers.>

******

The burning in his lungs became unbearable and Almiron found himself
opening his mouth and letting all the air burst from his lungs to go
bubbling to the surface.  The feeling as the water rushed in was oddly
comforting.  The world turned grey as a curtain descended over his vision. 

<Goodbye, friend,> he thought, then all was blackness.

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Almiron and Darshan

NRPG: <SHIVER> I should know better than to try to write a drowning
sequence.  Anyhow, anyone who beats Kyven there will find Almiron with 3
arrows in him (front chest, back shoulder and lower back-spine (actually,
that one hit a vertebra and may not still be in him)), unconscious, not
breathing, having lost a lot of blood, and with his lungs full of bloody
water. 

Also, I intentionally left out who the other dragon was.  Anyone who wants
to can have it be theirs.  It was wounded badly enough to drop out of the
flight-- beyond that is up to you.  Just don't expect Almiron to be
healing him within the next couple of days. 

 **********************************************************************
 * Lynette R. F. Cowper       *     Official INWO NetRep & Goddess    *
 * lcowper@io.com             *        Circle of Janus Secretary      *
 * lcowper@indy.net           *   VP of P.U.R.P.L.E. (People United   *
 * http://www.io.com/~lcowper/*   Respecting Purple Legal Equality)   *
 **********************************************************************
 *     The INWO rulings I make are official.  All other opinions,     *
 *  discussions, deck ideas, card ideas, political beliefs, etc. are  *
 *  my own and not those of Steve Jackson Games, the Circle of Janus, *
 *                        or P.U.R.P.L.E.  Fnord.                     *
 **********************************************************************