[Elswyth]

"They moved onto the dance floor together, Elswyth concentrating on 
following his motions.  He watched her move with an experienced eye.  After 
a moment, he leaned down to her ear.  "Keldarrans seldom notice things like 
this," he said softly, "but I wasn't born here.  You were a warrior where 
you came from, weren't you?"

Elswyth stopped dead in the middle of the dance floor, memories floating to 
the surface of her eyes and bursting there in razor shards.  She forced her 
feet to move with his and with the music.  "Once.  Long ago."

Movement sinuous and loose, despite the chill in her soul, Elswyth finished 
the dance, and managed a smile that almost reached her eyes.  "Thank you.  I 
believe I should find my bed.  I have learned much."

Bowing gracefully, she turned to wend her way through the crowd.

By the time she found her new room in the barracks, Elswyth was shaking.  
The memories of her last night in the council still haunted her, waking and 
sleeping.  Being stripped of everything she was, everything she had been and 
worked for...  Klenicht-a, outcaste, worthless...

~You were a warrior.~

~Once.  Long ago.~

Elswyth stared at her hands.  The sword calluses were almost gone, due to 
the women who had worked so hard on her palms and fingers.  Sefer preferred 
the soft, pampered hands of his amours of the Noble class, and it had amused 
him to force her, a warrior, into their likeness.  Exercize and muscle 
tone... he had required both, wanting the reminder of her warrior past, that 
he had engineered her downfall from a proud warrior clan to the classless... 
those not even the law could see...

<Stop it!>  Aedra's voice was fierce in her mind.  <You have worth.  You are 
my human and I won't have you thinking of yourself like that!  I'd like to 
find that man and burn him to a cinder!>

Elswyth laughed quietly.  <Oh, and how are you going to do that, since he is 
dead, and I killed him myself?>

Aedra harrumphed.  <Then it doesn't matter what he did.  He's gone and 
cannot hurt you.  You are what you always were.  What he did is of no 
consequence.>

Slipping out of the dress, Elswyth got ready for bed.  <And how did you get 
so wise?>

-----
[Morning]

Elswyth dressed in more borrowed clothing, and rushed out to feed Aedra, who 
was creeling softly.

<You know, I didn't ask M'ressan when he wanted to start training...> she 
told her dragon.

<I can ask Alanth.>

<Please, do...>

----
Respectfully Submitted,
Jill E. Flansburg
Elswyth and Aedra

Assistant Director, X-Files                Rhiannon, WarrenLady  *Xylian*
Sterling A. Kincaid, TL, ECHO, X-Files     Elswyth and Aedra   *Keldarra*
Damien Cunningham, UD DELTA, X-Files       Katla and Satinka *Whiteriver*
Xan X. Xavier, T1, X-Files                 Zera and Mazel       *Norwall*

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			Vasaris, the Fuzzy Dragon
Jill E. Flansburg		    |		vasaris@az.com
CS HMC 1994			    |		jflansbu@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu
History, WWU 199?		    |		vasaris@divcom.umop-ap.com
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