>>"He took me... a cave... there were dragon eggs there... Dragon riders...
>>bad ones... They argued, about me and the eggs." Yasmine babbled in a
>>panic, still feeling the effects of the drug she was given earlier to help
>>her sleep. Yasmine flinched in pain and clutched her abdomen. "Hurts," she
>>told A'rillia.
>
>>"Shhhhh..." A'rillia calmed her, "You need to settle down. This isn't good
>>for you."
>
>Arri pinned the girl more firmly to the bed, as gently as she could. "We can
>talk about the eggs later, okay Yasmine? For now you need to rest. Your body
>has been hurt in a lot of ways and your mind needs to rest, okay?"

Yasmine nodded numbly, too weak to argue and much in need of the tender
loving care that A'rillia was offering. She wanted to tell more, but her
thoughts were still confused as she tried to sort through what was
important and what wasn't. She wanted to think of anything but what he'd
done to her.

>She gently tugged the pyjamas onto the girl's unresisting body and stroked
>her hair gently. "There, that probably feels better. You have nothing to
>hide, but I always found good pj's made me feel at home."

Yasmine looked at A'rillia warily as she proceeded to dress her in blue
pajamas. They were warm and soft, reminding her of home.

>Yasmine smiled weakly.
>
>"Now then, little goldenrod, you are going to go back to sleep," she said
>gently, still caressing the mass of hair on the pillow, "And then when you
>wake up I want to feed you, and then we'll talk about your dragons and eggs.
>You need some real sleep, not the kind because of drugs or delirium."
>
>Arri pulled one glove off and, softly as possible, passed it over the girl's
>abdomen, struggling not to flinch at the pain as she took as much as she
>could handle. The girl would heal... but would her mind heal later?

Yasmine felt a warm tingling in her belly and much of the physical pain
left her. Her face still throbbed but her eyes grew heavy and her mind
foggy. Soon Yasmine drifted into a dreamless sleep.

***
== The next morning ==

Yasmine awoke to the feel of warmth on her face. She noticed that she felt
much better physically than she did the day before. Still she felt like a
scared rabbit. A'rillia was sitting by the bed, putting on a glove. Another
woman was in the room, writing things down on a piece of paper..

"Good morning, goldenrod!" A'rillia greeted her, putting a hand up to her
face in an odd gesture, and grimacing, "You remember Lakoda? She is the
healer that saw you yesterday when you got here."

Yasmine nodded. Now she had a face to put with the name. She looked at
A'rillia curiously, "Are you all right?"

"Yes, fine. Are you hungry? I brought you some breakfast," A'rillia continued.

Yasmine's stomach rumbled in response. The last time she ate was a couple
of days prior, the day she was abducted. "Yes, ma'am," Yasmine replied.

A tray of fresh fruit, boiled eggs, and muffins was placed in front of her.
Yasmine began to eat hurriedly, like a starved animal. She then realized
that she had forgotten her manners. "Sorry," she apologized sheepishly, and
daintily nibbled on the remainder of the muffin she held in her hands. It
was warm, sweet and unbelievably satisfying.

"These are better than the ones at home," Yasmine commented.

"Where is home?" Lakoda asked.

"Tressa." Yasmine started to panic, "You won't tell my father what he did,
will you?"

"Who is your father, Yasmine?" Lakoda asked in response.

"Hiram Utha," Yasmine said quietly, embarrassed to admit to her parentage.
She detested being treated as somebody special just because of who her
father was. She detested the way her father's pompous ways and just wanted
to be a normal girl for once. In a way she was relieved that the old man
didn't have much to do with her most of the time.

"Yasmine, do you know who did the this to you?" Lakoda asked. Yasmine saw
A'rillia cast an angry look at the healer.

Yasmine nodded, "Wilek. He used to work for my father. There were others
there, too, they needed them for the eggs."

"Eggs?" Lakoda asked.

"There were dragon eggs there, in the cave. The one man, I believe his name
was Roland, was angry. Said that they would come looking for me. Said that
they needed to get the eggs to the warren before they were found...
something like that."

"You are lucky we found you, but you were found out in the middle of
nowhere. How did you get there?" Lakoda continued to question, despite the
looks of consternation from A'rillia. 

"I heard them say that we were near Marrid. After he...." Yasmine took in a
deep breath and shuddered, "Afterwards, well, he passed out and everyone
was asleep, I ran away. I wanted to try to find Marrid." Tears were flowing
freely down her face by the time she finished her tale, her violet eyes
glistening like amethysts. 

Yasmine looked down, embarrassed by having told what happened to her. "I'm
sorry," she apologized softly, hugging herself tightly.

**************************************************

NRPG: Tag Barb and Bets!
 


                \=/,         _-===-_-====-_-===-_-==========-_-====-_
                |  @___oo   (                                         )
      /\  /\   / (___,,,}_--=    Submitted by:                        )
     ) /^\) ^\/ _)        =__                                          )
     )   /^\/   _)          (_   Jacqueline "Morgan" Routier           )
     )   _ /  / _)            (      FaeRhee/Alustriel of Daere       )
 /\  )/\/ ||  | )_)            (_    Aradia/Futhark of Whiteriver     )
<  >      |(,,) )__)             (   Kattibrie/Calishandra of Telnor )
 ||      /    \)___)\             (_ Yasmine/Starlin of Marrid       )
 | \____(      )___) )___           -==-_____-=====-_____-=====-___==
  \______(_______;;; __;;;