NRPG: This is a bit of a quickie.  I don't really have time, but I really 
want to get Glory into the game.

RPG:

	M'ressan strolled into Traveler's Rest, took a table, and sat 
down.  Unlike his usual self, he was quiet and brooding this evening.  
Too much had happened today. Michel was seriously wounded; Darlea was 
missing, in the clutches of some dragonrider who had violated every code 
that the Warrenfolk stood for.  M'ressan felt responsible.  They were 
HIS trainees, after all.

	And now, in the thick of it all, Melianth was flying to mate.  
M'ressan had taken Alanth away from Keldarra the instant he had felt 
Melianth's mating challenge.  Alanth couldn't win a mating flight with 
Melianth due to the relationship between M'ressan and Aleta, but M'ressan 
had no particular desire to find himself entangled in the flight at the 
moment.  

	Besides that, he'd need all his strength for the Hell tomorrow 
when she woke up with someone beside her who was not M'tan.  Aleta had 
never really accepted the Warren necessity of incomplete monogamy, though 
she had come to the Warren with him when she was only 10.

	He called one of the hostesses over and ordered a drink-- 
something barely alcoholic, since M'ressan drank so infrequently that he 
had little tolerance.  He wanted to relax, not make a fool of himself.

	He was in Aleta's usual seat, he realized.  She was the one who 
frequented Traveler's Rest, especially near Hatching time.  It was a good 
place to find Searchlings, she insisted.  M'ressan had never had a 
particular knack for picking out Humans with dragon-affinity, but he did 
enjoy occassional people-watching.  He scanned over the tavernfolk idly.

	His eye caught the bar, where a young girl was standing miserably 
while what appeared to be her father talked with a particularly dirty 
man.  She was dressed in revealing clothes, though she was young enough 
that her figure hadn't quite expanded to fill them.  Very odd... M'ressan 
wondered at them.

	Suddenly, the two men laughed and shook hands.  The dirty one 
reached into his pocket and pulled out several gold coins.  The girl 
looked horrified, though she tried to mask it.

	M'ressan's eyes flashed.  Slave trade.  Though he had been 
raised in a Landbound home with slaves, 20 years of Warren life had made  
him unable to accept the reality.  And this girl, barely out of puberty, 
was being sold as a concubine!

	M'ressan stood up, nearly knocking over his drink in the 
process.  Conscious of the leather riding gear he wore that marked him 
as a dragonrider of some rank, he strode over to the bar in long steps.  
"Excuse me," he interrupted the transaction.

	Her father turned and glared.  "You want something?" he 
demanded.  "I'm  finishing business here."

	"Well, I don't know what business you're completing," M'ressan 
lied, "but I am M'ressan, Beta Wingleader of Keldarra Warren, and I have 
some business of my own to complete."

	Both men stood back, trying to mask surprise.  Sky looked up at 
him, eyes widening.  M'ressan smiled down at her reassuringly.  "What's 
your name?" he asked.
	
	"Sky," she answered quietly.

	"Well, I'm Searching Sky here in accordance with the Contract 
Between Warren and Landbound," M'ressan declared, his voice filled with 
official power.  "She will accompany me to Keldarra Warren to await our 
next Hatching, where she will stand as a candidate."

	Erk.  He hadn't exactly asked Sky's permission, but it was out 
now.  He had no idea if she would make a dragonrider or even good 
unjoined dragonfolk, but he couldn't just let her be sold.

	He waited for the ceilling to fall on him.


Respectfully Submitted,

Susan Rati
Administrator DragonLands

NRPG: Well, there ya go, Glory!  Go ahead and finish up the scene (don't 
kill M'ressan, please! <G>)  You'll probably arrive at Keldarra at dusk, 
with the entire place in an uproar about rogue dragonriders and wild 
dragonriders and some terrible events at the Council of Warrens I'll be 
sending out in a minute.  Quite confusing, really <EG>.


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