"M'ressan told me that telepathy was usually taken with negative 
emotions.  Et makes some afraid, and I thought ye be the same..."  David 
broke off.

"Why would you think that?  Could you not have asked me how I felt?"  Minty
demanded  "You're the one afraid of it, David!  Not me......" 

	David staggered mentally, as if caught by a punch to the gut.  He 
looked into her violet blue eyes, and saw the truth as it was.  He was 
afraid of his power, ever since the joining when all the voices slammed into 
one chorus in his mind.  He had always thought of himself as brave, facing 
death in a sort of courtship.  But telepathy was beyond his 
understanding, and he was afraid of what he did not understand.  

	All the color drained from his face, and he nodded in acceptance 
at Minty.  The anger in her eyes stopped abruptly, turning to confusion.  

"Ye be right." He said softly.  "I am afraid of et.  More afraid of et 
then probably any en te' warren."  

"I'm right?" Minty said to herself, more of a qusetion than a statement.  
She had expected what all males supposedly did when they were called cowards.  
What her father did when he drank too much.  But there was no outburst, 
no anger and violence.  Just a man who had seen that he had been wrong, 
and just dealt with it.  Something that had never happened in her life.

"Aye, ye are."  David breathed, tiredly.  "And I see that now."

Minty just looked at him, her face a contortion of emotions.  She must 
have voiced her thoughts again.

"Don't base all te' warren on me, please.  They deserve your faith and 
loyalty."  David pleaded, holding out a hand to encompace all around 
him.  "As fer me, I grieve fer hurting ye, and I offer anything 
that may be done to make up fer te' pain I have caused.  I've been a 
coward and a fool, and I be truely sorry fer it all."  David nodded to 
himself, gaining strength from faceing the smallest part of what 
frightened him the most.  The acceptance that he had acted as one without 
honor.  

	He looked at Minty's unchanged face, and shrugged slightly.  "All I 
have said es te' truth.  I just hope ye can forgive me en time, but I do 
not blame ye if ye don't."

	He hoped she would forgive him.  Loseing her trust and friendship would 
be a pain close to unbearable, and he probably deserved it if it 
happened.  But another pain was there too.  It was undescribable, and 
seemed to ache from his soul.  Strange things this woman has caused to 
him, and that the strangest yet.  He wondered silently at this, trying to 
figure out what was wrong with him.....


************ Shortly submitted by *************
	Justin

NRPG:  I would have finished the whole scene, but I have no idea what 
Lesley has in store for David.  Minty has him so confused that he should 
be tearing his hair out.  (Extremely Big Evil Grin Acompanied By Insane 
Laughter)  Sounds like what most women do to men anyways.  Just ask my 
girlfriend.  ;P  Well Les?


      /\     /^---_---^\     /\       "I think, therefore I am.  Yet        
     /  \    > |_\ /_| <    /  \       when my characters think, are they 
    /    \   |         |   /    \      also?"  
   /      \   \  o o  /   /      \    "Dragons exist my friend, for the sheer
  /        \  |\_____/|  /        \    fact that in all cultures they are
 |          \ | \/ \/ | /          |   present, weather separated by land
     ----------       ----------       sea or air."----  Justin Almeida