[Ranon, In a cave not far from Marrid]

He lay groaning, knowing he had been left to die.  Colchis's dark green 
form curled nearby.  His dragon wouldn't curl up with him because of the 
burns that made any touch to his left arm or torso an agony.

<Ranon, do not leave me.  They will be back.  They promised.>

Yes, Roland had promised.  They would get him when they came for the rest 
of the eggs.  But that had been how long ago?

He was so tired.  Sleep.  Wanted to sleep, so he couldn't feel the pain.

Images and memories flashed through his mind.

His father, face grave.  "I've been banished.  I'm going with Roland.  Are 
you coming?"

Pulling Roland out of the rubble of the cave-in-- face crushed almost 
beyond recognition, bone shards protruding from his leg.  Alive.  
Miraculously, Roland had lived.

The land to the south of there, open now to the dragons.  The small, dark 
people who inhabitted it.

The first girl they had taken.  The other men taunting him until he had 
raped her in front of them, while she had silently endured, as if expecting 
no better.

Roland's plan for a warren, run the way it should be.  "How do we keep the 
female riders from running?" Roland had repeated his question.  "We don't 
teach them to ride.  We keep them inside, in our beds and kitchens, where 
they belong."

Alima, the girl he had taken as his own, with his child.  What would happen 
to her now, and the baby she bore?

Wilek announcing he had found a wild queen's clutch in Marrid domain, with 
what looked like a queen egg.  Roland's plans to kill the wild queen and 
take the clutch back to "Shakar Warren".

Colchis struggling to fight the queen, the flash of heat and pain and darkness.

Waking in the cave with the eggs.  Voices.  "You fucking idiot! Utha's 
daughter???"  Roland's voice.

He had drifted off after Roland and Wilek's argument, to the sound, all too 
common now, of a girl being raped.

Awakening to the activity of them loading eggs on dragons.  Roland's hand on 
his good shoulder.  "We'll be back for you, Ranon.  We could take only 
fifteen of the eggs, so we'll be back for the other three, and for you.  
Hang in there."

And then the waiting, alternately conscious and unconscious... and the 
failure of his comrades to come.

<I can't blame them.  They couldn't have done anything for me anyway.  We 
don't have a healer.>

<They will come.>

<Maybe something came up.>

Maybe... maybe...

******

[Roland, Shakar "Warren"]

"What the hell are you doing?  That tribe's encampment was visible to that 
damned warren.  Now they'll know we're here."

"Maybe not," Ar'train, his Alpha wingleader since the days of Falagand, 
said. "The relations between Cleft and that tribe weren't really good.  And 
we can't have the tribes refusing us.  We have to have women to join all 
those females, and to bear us children so the warren can last."

Roland sighed.  "I want a constant patrol.  If you see a warren dragon, 
flame it.  Do you hear me?"

Ar'train nodded.  "The men all know.  Are there more eggs?"

Roland shook his head.  "Just three or so.  Wilek kidnapped a girl and she 
got away, so we can't afford to go back."

"And Ranon and Colchis?"

Roland shook his head.  "The wild queen we took the eggs from got him."

"Damn!  Ramek's not going to take this well," the wingleader said, 
referring to Ranon's father.  "And his concubine's even pregnant."

"I know.  It couldn't be helped.  Could you have Sareth tell Jevid?"

Ar'train nodded, then relayed the message to his dragon to relay to Ramek's 
dragon.  It was probably for the better, he thought.  Ranon had never had 
the stomach for what they needed to do anyway.

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  writing for:
   Roland, Ar'train, and Ranon

NRPG: Marrid, there will be a few eggs, a dragon, and a badly-burned 
dragonrider when they find the cave.

Bios:

Ranon, age 18, dark brown hair, blue eyes, 5'11", average weight.  Son of 
Ramek, one of the Falagand riders who was banished with Roland.  Ranon 
chose to go with his father, and has been bullied, against his better 
judgement, to work for Roland's plan to start a rogue warren in the 
Nomadlands.  Dragon, Colchis, dark green with black splotches.

Ar'train, age 31, big and blond.  Former Alpha Wingleader from Falagand, 
banished with Roland.  Is now Wingleader for Roland's rogue warren, Shakar 
Warren.  He has one child, Aron, age 7.  Dragon, Sareth.

---
|   Lynette R. F. Cowper  *  Official INWO Rules NetRep & Goddess    |
| http://www.io.com/~lcowper  *  lcowper@io.com  *  lcowper@indy.net |
|  "If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever |
|                   get done."  -- L. Wittgenstein                   |

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