For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating
	and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the
	day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until
	the flood came and took them all away.
						Matt 24:38-39a

[Day 5, early afternoon]

[Ranon]

He watched her there in front of the warren.  While the topic was serious,
his mind kept drifting to last night, where for the second night they had
made love.  Carie's attentions had been desperately passionate, as if
trying to forget the decisions that lay ahead and the danger at their very
doorstep.

"We all know what has been happening around the Warren recently," she was
saying. "I don't want to leave here.  But if we stay here..."

Carie's voice trailed off, but he wasn't hearing it.  He was hearing the
panicked voice of his own dragon, even as he turned and ran for Colchis.

******

[Baeta]

While waiting for Carie to speak, Baeta had been thinking about her
future with T'rend.  They had spent the evening before on a slow build-up.
First, there had been dinner.  While it had been good, she found herself
thinking of him in their bed, making love to her, with them both knowing
this could be the night...  When the meal had been over, they had
practically raced to the bedroom, like a couple of eager teenagers.  But
once there, they had teased each other with hands and mouths until they
could wait no longer.

She touched her abdomen and smiled, picturing his child growing within
her, then froze in shock at the sight across the way from her.  A'Rillia
looked ravaged, but it was still Arri.  His Arri.  The one who had always
owned his heart.  She had always been first and Baeta a distant second.

"I can't believe it," he whispered.

Oh, please, she begged, not when we've come this far.  Not now...  She
looked into his face, unable to ask.  She could see the uncertainty in his
eyes.

Then there was a wrenching and she felt Jindalie's mind grow suddenly
distant, shrinking away from her own as a flying dragon appears to become
a toy, an insect, a speck and then...

"Jindalie!" she screamed, clinging to him to steady herself.

T'rend held firmly onto her as they began dodging through the crowd. A
panicked dragon swooped down and grabbed the rider beside them, dragging
him off into the skies.

"There! There!" Baeta pointed, and T'rend turned them toward the peach
and sky-blue of Jindalie and Grall.

As they got to the dragons' side and T'rend pushed Baeta on to her dragon,
scrambling up behind her. He grabbed her face, as he thrust the reins into
her hand, "You hang on! Do you hear me! And concentrate."

She nodded at him, tears streaming from her dark brown eyes, as she felt
the image form and waver in Jinda's mind.  He kissed her quickly on the
lips and jumped back off the dragon. "Don't fall!" he screamed at her as
the peach dragon take to the air.

<Can you make it, Jinda?>

<...don't kno....  ....image... fuzzy...>

<Go anywhere.  Just get us out of here.>

<Goi... hometow...>

<Just GO!>

******

[Trey]

He had been unsurprised to see Arri there, though he had been curious to
know what had happened to her.  He remembered Breeze saying the woman was
contagious.  Apparently, she wasn't anymore, but perhaps some disease had
stolen her health and the warmth from her eyes...

He glanced over at his trainees.  Today, the hatchlings would be taking
their first flights.  Evacuating the warren would be difficult for them
and their riders, but he and Carie had worked out the logistics of it.  
He had lined up a few dragons to transport the hatchlings while they were
still relatively small and had found horses for the newly-joined riders.
Fortunately, the Landbound army had left a number in and nearby the
warren, so the newest riders could have mounts without taking any horses
away from the transport carts and wagons.

Carie had just started into her speech when he felt it.

<We must leave, my rider.  At once.>

"No..." Trey said aloud and in his thoughts.  The trainees' eyes were full
of fear and panic.  <Roth, call the hatchlings, tell them to hop and
'reach' with their minds to the new warren.  You have to explain to them
how to teleport.>

<There's no time.>

<Do it!  I won't leave them all to die.  And if you can get any dragons to
grab hatchlings or trainees, do it.> He turned to the trainees. "Get to
the stables and get on a horse and ride like hell out of here.  That way!  
Go, go, go!"

And in that moment of horror, he saw the depression and defeat leave
Solly's face.  "Go.  I'll handle this."

He turned away.  The young bond was more tolerant of being a bit
stretched, in general, as young dragons were still used to their riders
getting out of range of the bond, a thing that was impossible as the bond
solidified.  There was nothing more he could do except get himself out.

<Roth?>

<I've shown them.  I ho...  ...M... r.der?>

Panic welled inside him.  He was too late.  He broke out in a dead run,
looking up for any sight of Koroth, then felt the odd, tinny taste in his
mouth.  Gods, not now!

There was a flash of white and then one of red.  He was vaguely aware that
he had crumpled to the ground.  Another flash as he felt the muscles in
his body begin to to tense and then all was blackness.

******

[Gransol]

He felt Sylan's fear as she leapt once again into the air.  His stomach
lurched in sympathy as his dragon 'reached'.  Then there was a snap and a
strange feeling of distance.  He couldn't hear her, but he knew she was...
somewhere.

He unceremoniously lifted the young girl onto the horse.  "Go, now!" he
yelled, glanced about to see that all the newly joined who'd accompanied
him were mounted and swung up into his own saddle and immediately whipped
the horse into a gallop, even before he'd gotten his other foot in the
stirrup.

******

[Telnor Warren, early afternoon, during the hatching party]

[Thomas]

He was demonstrating oiling technique to a newly-joined girl whose dragon
had tried to crash the party, when the dragon trumpeting interrupted him.

<What is it, Buddy?> he asked, looking up for the source of the noise.
His eyes found a navy dragon with cream and pale yellow streaks, and a man
in matching navy leathers hanging from its claws.  "Excuse me," he said to
the girl and took off at a run toward the landing dragon.

<Something terrible has happened at Marrid.  Koroth's rider is having one
of his... seizures, and Koroth had to get him out of there before
something happened to their bond,> Thomas' dragon explained.

<What would happen to their bond because of seizures?> he asked as he
arrived at the side of the dragon and rider, who was moaning softly and
slowly coming to.

<The Wastes invaded the warren.  Many of their dragons have died.  Others
have lost contact with their riders.>

<Gods!>  "Trey, can you hear me?" Thomas asked his former Wingleader.

"Ungg...  Where'm I?"

"You're at Telnor.  I'm calling for R'chein, okay.  Stay right there."

"Don't think I'm going anywhere right away..." Trey answered.

Thomas smiled.  Trey couldn't be too bad if he could still crack a joke.

******

[Ranon]

He hadn't had time to fasten himself into his riding straps, so when
Colchis appeared on the outskirts of the new warren and made a hard
landing as he greyed out, Ranon found himself thrown to the ground over
his dragon's head, joining his dragon in the blackness.

******

[Gransol]

He slowed down as soon as he felt the bond begin to grow stronger again.
"I think we're out of danger."  He glanced back at his companions.
Several eyes looked blank and dull and he knew, with a sinking feeling,
that their dragons had not mastered the art of teleportation in the few
moments' instruction they'd had and were laying dead back at the warren.

He slipped off his horse, as others did the same, helping where he could.
Fa'ndwes, a boy of perhaps 15, stood unseeing for a moment, then his eyes
focused on Gransol.  "Palith is dead," he said, his voice flat.

Gransol nodded, his mind reaching out to touch the reassuring distant
presence of Sylan.  "I could tell.  Is there anything I can do?"

"Lend me your knife."

Gransol considered the boy for a moment.  "Come with me."

******

[C'tain]

He surveyed the children clustered around his sister, Miri.  She had been
left to care for a great number of the riders' children, and now they were
all abandoned to her care.  Almost none of the riders had had time to
retrieve their children before they had left.

His eyes fell on Ralos, an orphan now.  Ralos' mother had died in the
Battle of Marrid.  His father now lay dead on the Green.  His eyes moved
to Larisel.  Her father had been among the newly-joined.  What were the
odds that the man lived and was sane now?  And the twins, Treanya and
Darreni...  And there was Talera...  What if...?  No. Lakoda lived.  She
had to still be alive.

"A lot of the patients have already been moved.  A couple of those that
are left..." he closed his eyes... "were riders who've asked... to join
their dragons."

Miri touched his arm lightly.  "I'm sorry."

"It's okay.  It's just... too much death.  I had... to... ease Minourith,
too.  She was too weak to fly and didn't want to live anyway.  I could
tell."  He ran his hand through his hair.  "At any rate, I've got extra
staff to help oversee getting the kids to the new warren and make sure
they're cared for till their parents can be found."

"There were no injuries during the panic?"

His face turned grim.  "Only minor ones or fatal ones."

******

[Gransol]

He emerged from behind the rocks, carrying the body of Fa'ndwes.  He laid
the boy quietly beside the road.

"What did you do?" Vicina asked.

"I killed him," he answered quietly.

******

[Baeta]

"Baeta?"

She stumbled into the arms of the man who ran out to greet them as they
landed in the square of her hometown.  She hadn't been here for many
years, but when a crisis arose, it was always foremost in her mind. "Yerik,
oh, thank the gods, I made it."

"Baeta, what happened?  Why are you so pale?  What...  Gods, Baeta, what
happened to your leg?"

"I'm afraid I don't have time for the full story, Yer.  I just needed to
catch my breath and calm down, so I can go to the new warren."

"New warren?  You mean Cleft?"

She shook her head.  "Marrid.  Something terrible happened there and... a
lot of dragons and riders are dead."

The heat of the village was oppressing, for it was far south.

"I'll send the boy out to the farm to get your folks," Yerik said.
"They'll want to see you."

She shook her head, her hand stroking Jinda's snout.  "I need to see if
the people in my warren are okay.  I need to know if Terry's all right."

"Terry?"

She smiled.  "My... mate...  Yerik, tell my family hello for me, but I
need to go.  Sometime, Terry and I will come back and I'll introduce him.
But I can't wait for them to come into town."

Yerik nodded.  "Wait here just a minute, dear.  The least we can do is
give you some supplies for your people."

******

It was about a half hour later when she and Jindalie popped into the skies
above the new Marrid.  Baeta heaved a sigh of relief.  She hadn't been too
sure she had the image right.

<Is Grall here, dear?>

<He is.  He and his rider are fine.>

She let out another relieved sigh.  <And Fiera?>

<Is here.>

<Tell her to tell her rider we have some supplies to help out-- food and
bedding and cooking pots and such.>

<I will tell her.>

<And, Jinda, is Daetyn here?> Baeta asked nervously.

<It is not nice to wish her ill, you know,> her dragon scolded.

<I don't wish her ill, I just want to know what I'm facing here.>

Her dragon was silent for a moment.  <She is a difficult one to contact.
But, I think she's here, yes.>

Baeta nodded, and hoped she wasn't with him...

Respectfully submitted,
 Lynette R. F. Cowper
  Tr'etram and Koroth
  Ranon and Colchis
  Baeta and Jindalie
  Gransol ap Chevane and Sylan
  C'tain

NRPG: Quick summary:

Trey is at Telnor, having had a seizure from the stress of the evacuation.

Ranon is at or nearby the new warren, but got knocked out when he was
pitched off Colchis on landing.  Colchis is passed out.  He still hadn't
entirely recovered from Waste sickness yet.

Baeta is there, with *stuff*.

Gransol and a bunch of newly-joined are on their way on horseback.  Some
of the newly-joined are no longer joined and liable to be a bit crazy.
The three-day-old hatchlings are probably evenly split between dead and
scattered round-about the new warren or places that look a bit like it.
Finding them all could be quite an adventure if people want.

C'tain and company will arrive with the Landbound, and has Treanya,
Darreni, Larisel, Talera, and Ranon's son, Alon, with him.

---

 Lynette R. F. Cowper <lcowper@indy.net>, INWO Line Editor