[Talitha -- Day 4]

'Lith sighed with a certain amount of relief when Traknor canceled
Wing practice.  There were just enough differences between the
fighting that she had learned and the tactics that Marrid used to
make her, in her own mind, a danger to the Wing and whoever would be
assigned as her partner.  Trak had not said anything to her, nor
particularly reprimanded her, but 'Lith's own standards demanded that
she do *something* about it.

The question was, what could she do?

<< Prisma, love, who is the hatchling trainer? >>

< I do not know...  Aura says that it is Koroth's rider. >

A tiny smile graced 'Lith's mouth as Prisma's tone held that touch of
awe she always seemed to feel when speaking to a queen dragon before
fading.

<< And who is Koroth's rider? >>

< Trey. >  Prisma sounded troubled.  < There's something I've heard
that I think... >

<< If it's gossip, Pris, I'm not listening.  Tre'tram strikes me as a
kind man who has suffered a loss, >> 'Lith held herself, remembering
his expression when he spoke of the loss of his mate's remains... 
And the scars on his wrists.  What had driven the man to do that? 
His mate's death?

That was a fight with loneliness that 'Lith still fought, on
occasion.
 It was better here, without the constant reminders of Maelwith, but
sometimes...

< I am here, my rider. >  Prisma curled protectively around her, and
'Lith's arms went around the dragon's neck.  What would she do
without Prisma?

< You won't ever have to worry about that.  We will always be
together. >

'Lith fought the urge to sudden tears and rested in the cradle of
Prisma's embrace until she had control over herself.  Why did it have
to be so hard?

Forcibly, 'Lith set her mind to the task of what she could do to
re-learn Wing tactics.  She would need to speak with Trey -- as the
hatchling trainer he was probably the best person to help her figure
out the differences between what she knew and what was used at
Marrid...  But that would have to wait.  She could see that the
trainees were busy on the Green and she imagined that they would have
regular practice in the afternoon...  'Lith didn't think they were
flighted yet and it would help if they were...

She made a mental note to "sit in" on practice that afternoon, just
to see where they were in training.  It would probably be easier on
him if she just joined in with a regular session than try and fix
something up just for her.

<...>

Taking a seat on a rock nearby as Prisma, the cuddle-monster, went
off in search of a dragon to snuggle with, 'Lith watched as Trey
began practice.  The one with an adult dragon, Tina, was something of
a shock.  She was in tight leathers that were close to indecent, even
by Warren standards, and kept staring at Trey as though he were a
proffered meal.

Poor Trey.

The girl seemed to zone out as Tre'tram asked her some questions
about her previous training, and it was all 'Lith could do not to
laugh as Tre'tram brought her attention back to the present.

"Tina, Tina are you with us?" asked Trey.

"Uh, oh sure." said Tina.

"I was asking you what experience you have in dragon combat?"
reminded   
Trey.

"Sure. What do you want to know?"

"Anything you might have found interesting."

"Ok I tended to work alone in Renen. There weren't as many riders and
dragons as there are here so we couldn't fly in wings like you do
here."

"Right your main strength is you ability to fight in groups, each of
you looking out for each other. Well I had to rely on Shella and
Shella relied on me. Perhaps we could work on my tactics so that if
any of us are caught on our own we would be a more formidable force.
I mean you can't count on always having your buddies there to help
you right?"

'Lith snorted to herself, unimpressed.  Solo tactics were well and
good, but she'd like to see the young woman fight a large number of
Wraiths on her own.  That was the sort of attitude that got riders
killed... often taking others with them.

"We do teach our riders to fight on their own." Trey told the girl.

"I'm not saying that you don't. You're the wing leader, or teacher
type guy right?" Tina asked. Trey nodded. "I could whip your sorry
arse up in the sky, mainly because I *have had to* fight on my own to
survive."

"Care to put your words to the test?" Trey challenged.  Tina smiled a
sweet, innocent smile, and winked.

"You have got to be kidding me," 'Lith muttered to herself.  What was
with this girl?  Dragons did not fight dragons, and the mere
suggestion of it even in play bothered her.  It was obvious that the
riders of this place needed some work on dragons vs. LandBound
forces, but one on one arial combat?

'Lith shuddered, remembering a time, when she was young, when it had
been something necessary...  But then the riders who had died had
been hampered by the desire not to kill...  And their opponent had
had no such restriction on her morality.

<...>

After training was over, 'Lith scooted off the rock and headed over
to Trey.

"Hello."  'Lith's eyes went to Tina as the other woman slinked off
and she sighed.  "After watching this afternoon, I'm not sure I
should even ask this...  But the wing tactics I've learned are rather
different from the ones used here...  And I was wondering if I could
join your class for a while...  Identify some of the differences
between what I'm used to and the flight tactics here...  I've still
got my flight books, if it will help..."

[Tag, Lyn]

<...>

'Lith shook her head as Traknor presented Koda to the wing to
'explain' her reasons for not remaining in the Wing.  The man
*obviously* had poor people skills or he'd never have done it quite
that way.  She tried to imagine her old Wingleader doing that, or
even the new one, and failed.

She was unsurprised as the man caught hell from Koda, though she
thought the woman was overreacting to the situation.  'Lith snorted
lightly.  How someone as temperamental as Koda had become a Healer
was unclear to her.  The healers she was used to tended toward being
very calm and rational...  Though Nineve did have a temper on her.

When Koda stalked off, 'Lith considered following, until she saw Tina
make a move.  She gave it even odds that the pushy wench would get
Koda to talk or make the little volcano erupt again.


<... next morning ...>

'Lith woke a little late and grumbled to herself.  Prisma was
*already* off cuddling, leaving her rider stuck in the apartment they
had chosen.  Lying alone in her small, empty bed, 'Lith curled up,
struck by intense loneliness.  She didn't want to get up, didn't want
to deal with the world...

< 'Lith, Koroth says that we are to report to training this morning.
>

<< Hard for me to get there when you're out cuddling, dragon-of-mine.
>>

< You were asleep.  You're not even out of bed yet.  You should get
dressed.  I will come for you when you are ready. >

<< Ready? >>  That was a laugh.  Training with a sad-eyed man who had
just lost his mate and wanting to throttle the insensitive girl who
obviously couldn't see that the man was unhappy.  Just what she
wanted.

< Shella's human is not that bad. >

'Lith rolled her eyes.  << Whatever you say, love. >>

She got up and pulled on one of Mael's old shirts and belting it
tightly around her waist.  The stupid thing was obviously sizes too
big for her, but she needed the feel of her mate, if only in a
wistful reminder.  Snagging her flight books, she headed for the
ledge and felt the rush of wings as her beloved dragon landed.

< Ready to go? >

<< Not really. >>

< Too bad. >

They went down to training.

'Lith joined the small formation of half-grown dragons and single
other grown dragon and sighed.

"Hi, I'm Tina," said the once-again almost indecently clad young
woman as Lith dismounted.

"I'm Talitha, rider of Prisma, late of Xylian Warren."

"Oh.  Why are you here?"

"Because my flight training was somewhat different--"

Koroth landed and Trey dismounted, halting the incipient
conversation.

"Good morning, class."

Mumbled greetings echoed from the newly-joined and 'Lith added hers
to the brief cacophony.

"I'd like you all to meet Talitha -- 'Lith -- who is a new transfer
from Xylian Warren."

"Xylian?  Where's that?" asked one of the boys and 'Lith turned
toward him.

"Xylian is the Warren that protects the Eos Plateau in the Third
Pocket of the DragonLands ruled by DragonLady Vignette of Ismene."

"But Christalla is the DragonLady..." protested another voice.

'Lith nodded.  "Here, in this pocket..."

"Pocket?"

"Area of land where dragons and humans can live together.  We call
these pockets...  Where I'm from they're rather unstable...  This is
the biggest pocket we've ever heard of...  None of the ones in
Vignette's domain are bigger than a single Warren can handle."  A
small, wry smile crossed her lips, though her eyes were sad.  "Of
course, we're subject to random invasions of creatures from the
Wastes..."  She turned and looked at all of them.  "I'm willing to
talk about Xylian and the other Warrens later, but right now, I
believe we were going to talk about Wing tactics..."

[Tag Lyn, James]

-----
NRPG -- sorry I've been so quiet.  I don't think we've quite hit the
time of the discovery of the murder...

*hugs*

Jill
             X-FILES                         DRAGONLANDS
 Assistant Director                   Rhiannon, WarrenLady  *Xylian*
 Sterling Kincaid, TL, ECHO           Elswyth and Aedra   *Keldarra*
 Damien Cunningham, UD DELTA          Katla and Satinka *Whiteriver*
 Xan X. Xavier, Trainer,              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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