From: "Vasaris, the Fuzzy Dragon" <vasaris@az.com>

[Talitha]

"Maybe it's not him that doesn't understand," Talitha said.

Gransol shrugged.  "I think I'm all debated out and I'm tired, if you
two will excuse me..."

"G'night, Solly."

'Lith waved at him as he went to bed and then grinned ruefully at
Trey.  "I probably shouldn't be so hard on him, but he's so... so...
LandBorn!"

He looked up at the almost affectionately cursing emphasis she put on
it and huffed slightly.

"Hey... I'm LandBorn."

"Yeah, but you got over it."  Laughter built up in her chest and she
let it out, feeling it cleanse her.  "I'm sure you'll manage to cure
him too.  Still, he's right, it's late... and I've no doubt Waylene
will have come up with a thousand questions by tomorrow."

That killed the laughter and the lightness of mood, but 'Lith tried to
shake it off.

"See you tomorrow."

"'Night, Trey.  Sleep well."

<...>

After the third screaming nightmare that night, 'Lith devoutly wished
Trey had returned the sentiment.  She couldn't seem to close her eyes
without reliving every Wraith-battle and monster attack it had ever
been her dubious privilege to be part of.  Finally, she gave in and
got up, stripping her bed of the sweat-drenched bedclothes and
bundling them for the laundry.  After a moment's indecision, 'Lith
occupied herself by heating water for a bath, and taking her time
about scrubbing herself clean, as if removing the rank perspiration of
her terror could cleanse her of her fear.

The barest hints of dawn had begun to lighten the eastern sky when she
went into her tiny kitchen and raided her extremely small supply of
coffee.  She hated the vile stuff, but unless she wanted to go to the
Med Center and ask for stimulants, she needed it.  All C'tain or Sina
would do was tell her to go sleep, and as it was, 'Lith wasn't at all
certain that she'd be able to do so.

Damnit.

The nightmares had been gone for several months -- they'd been regular
right after Mael had died, but had tapered off eventually.  And never
before had she had them more than once per night -- the three or four
times they'd woken her was a record.

Perhaps the hell of the bond fraying had affected her more than she
had thought.

Pouring herself a cup of the nasty brew, 'Lith winced inwardly as she
realized she'd made far too much.  Mael had liked coffee -- he
drank -- had drunk -- enormous amounts of it.  If she could force
herself to drink a second cup, it would be a miracle, much less the
four or five that remained in the pot.

Her heart ached, but her eyes remained clear.  Maybe that was a good
sign.  Sighing, she curled up in an armchair and studiously thought of
nothing -- nothing at all.

Someone knocked on her door, stepping in before she could rouse
herself enough to say 'Come in.'  It was Tina, wearing, yet again,
tight leather that would make a Ralengarde streetwalker blush with
shame.  'Lith sighed quietly, thinking about remonstrating the other
woman for coming in without invitation, but somehow it was so... well,
*Tina*... it wasn't really worth the effort.

"Oh... Hi, Tina."

"Morning!  Mmmmmm... smells like good coffee."  Tina inhaled deeply, a
trick 'Lith was impressed by, given the tightness of the leather, and
her eyes begged wickedly for the stuff.

"Not very good at this subtlety are you?" 'Lith remarked, raising an
eyebrow slightly.

"Ooo, you're right, never had time for it myself." said Tina, "No
don't get up I'll help myself."

Tina walked into the small kitchen and started rummaging around.
'Lith heard the *chink!* of a mug hitting the counter and a blissful
sigh followed the wet gurgle of liquid finding itself a new home.

"What brings you round here?" asked 'Lith as Tina sat down in the
other chair.

"Oh well I had to tell someone, but I don't really have many friends
round here."

"From what I've heard you've made quite a few 'male friends'." 'Lith
noted dryly, somehow unsurprised that Tina hadn't made a cadre of
female friends.

"Well that's just it, I'm quite hooked on one in particular."

"Oh who?" 'Lith asked, mildly curious and wondering what *he* thought
of Tina's choice of outfit for today.

"Oh no-one you'd know." said Tina hiding her face behind her mug of
coffee.

'Lith didn't press it.  She didn't know anywhere *near* as many men in
the Warren that Tina was rumored to.  Hell, even if a tenth of it was
true, then she *still* didn't know as many men as Tina did.

Come to think on it, perhaps she should get out a bit more often.

"Anyway," said Tina, interrupting her thoughts, "I need to talk to you
about these pockets of magic, or more particularly, the creatures that
we're going to have to fight."

"Okay," said 'Lith, pushing away a resurgence of fear.

"I think we should start training the combat wing, ASAP."

"You won't find me arguing." said 'Lith, shrugging.

"Well, I've run it by Waylene and it seems we're both going to do it.
I thought that you've got a whole load more experience at fighting
these creatures and have had training yourself so unless you disagree
you should be kinda in charge of it, and I'll add bits here and there
from what I've experienced. I also think that we should come up with a
training plan and start the training tomorrow or the day after."

"Tomorrow," 'Lith said decisively.  "To begin with, the dragons need
to know what to look out for.  It's easier for them to sense.  Combat
techniques... You may know more than I do.  I only did a couple of
rotations with the PF.  Mostly, we're not likely to even know about an
attack until it's long over... and right now, it's too dangerous to go
out looking until we have a ground-sweep looking for probable areas of
flux...  And for that we need the unJoined."

"Right."

"So... are you literate?  If you could write up beginning
recommendations for how to fight creatures on the ground that would be
of great help..."

<...>

Finally, she managed to usher Tina out of the apartment --
fortunately, the other woman had drunk *most* of the remaining coffee,
and 'Lith threw back the dregs, welcoming the jolt even as she made
faces at the taste.  Carelessly, she pulled clothes out of the
closet -- pausing only long enough to be sure that for once she hadn't
once again chosen something dark and somber.  A blue-and-violet
patterned silk shirt, the colors bright and vibrant matched with blue
leather pants that would never give Tina's a run for their money;
normally braided hair caught in a loose ponytail... she was set for
the day.

Prisma took her down to the green, and she began to head for the
dining hall when the dragons began to trumpet.

< The eggs!  The eggs!  They're hatching! >

That sparked a spontaneous smile, when suddenly 'Lith realized that
she hadn't the faintest clue where the hatching cavern was.  She
pondered this fact while watching everyone run to and fro for a while,
and then suddenly recognized Koroth as he landed.  Gransol seemed to
appear out of nowhere, his small daughter in tow, and 'Lith smiled to
see poor Trey as he prepared to wrestle his small girls out of their
place on Roth's saddle.

Trey was the Searcher, who better to sit with?  She headed over to
them.

"Got a spot you usually sit?" Solly asked just as she arrived.

"Up front there.  I want to watch how my Search candidates do.  Good
morning, Talitha."

"Morning, Trey.  Morning, Solly."  Today, things were okay, so she
resisted the urge to tweak Gransol's nose -- literally or
metaphorically.  As Trey got the girls off of Roth's back, she didn't
have time anyway... it took all three of them to get the girls into
the stands where they couldn't hurt themselves and yet still have a
good view.  It was always so magical -- that stunned moment when a
candidate recognized the voice that came from mind and soul, and the
joy of it reflecting in their faces and in memory... it seemed like
nothing could ruin a day where one could see that...

Solly suddenly stood and 'Lith blinked up at him, surprised, as Trey's
concerned voice washed over their little group.

"You okay?"

Solly's dazed eyes met Trey's and then out onto the sands where a
delicate, pale green dragonet seemed to be trying to catch someone's
attention, her eyes whirling with the longing that came from a dragon
trying to find their human in a crowd.

"She says her name is Sylan."

Shocked, she glanced at Trey, who returned her dumbfounded look.
Silently, he stood and led his brother onto the sands, leaving her
with the children.

"Where's they goin'?" little Larisel asked, and she could see three
bright, curious eyes focus on her.

"Your daddy's been chosen by a dragon, little one.  Isn't she
beautiful?"

"Wanna see."  Larisel nodded firmly, and her cousins mimicked the
movement and 'Lith had a vision of the three little girls running
harum-scarum over the sands.

"Oh, dear." she muttered under her breath, absently noting the way
Gransol's hand absently stroked the dragonet's hide despite his
agitation.

"Daddy!"

"Larisel --" 'Lith tried, she really did, but she missed the catch on
the excited little girl, and the child moved like lightning across the
hot sands, stopping abruptly before her father's dragon.  She *did*
however, manage to catch Trey's daughters before they managed to try
and mimic Larisel's actions.  Huffing lightly, she managed to pick the
girls up and carry them out toward their father.

"Daddy gots pretty dragon." Larisel announced just as they arrived,
but Gransol didn't seem to hear her, staring in wide-eyed shock at his
brother.  In just about any other circumstance she would have found it
hilariously funny -- self-honesty made her admit she would find it
funny later too -- but right now compassion topped her list.

Solly's eyes widened impossibly as something seemed to click in his
mind, and words spilled from his lips without regard to her presence
of that of the children.  "But the mating flights... you said the
riders of the dragons..."

"Yes," Trey answered simply.

Gransol's mouth opened and closed several times, then his knees
buckled.

"Is he okay?" she asked, keeping a tight hold on Treanya and Darreni

Trey looked up to see Talitha on the sands with two toddlers to hand.
"I think he's passed out from the shock."  He looked at Talitha and
sighed.  "This is going to be difficult."

"Yeah..."  She looked down at the confused dragonet.  "Poor Sylan."

-----
[Prisma]

<! My human! !> wailed the little dragonet, and Prisma's heart went
out to her.

< Your human is okay, little one.  My human and Koroth's will be sure
of that, right, Roth? >

<* Of course, *>

<! Why is he asleep?  I'm hungry! !>

< I don't know...  My rider thinks it's because... > Prisma stopped.
She didn't understand it either, though there were shades of humor in
'Lith's mental tone that she didn't quite get either.  It was a little
soon to start trying to explain that humans were strange about
mating -- the little one would just be confused by it and Prisma
didn't know what to say.  < Aura... >

[Tag, Kris, Lyn...  Someone ought to tell Sylan something...]

-----
[Talitha]

"Poor *Sylan*," Trey repeated, staring at her.  'Lith grinned.

"How was she to know your brother's so... LandBorn?  Come on, we've
got to feed her...  Hey, Larisel, would you like to help feed daddy's
dragon?  She's very hungry..."

"'Lith..."

"Oh, come on, Trey... He'll wake up.  And Sylan's not going to eat the
girls..."

Buckets of meat appeared and 'Lith scooped out a handful and held it
out to the tiny dragon.

[Tag again, Lyn]


-----
NRPG -- I know, I'm not quite caught up, but I'm still working on what
to do next...

Respectfully Submitted,
Jill E. Flansburg
Talitha and Prisma
Marrid Warren
DragonLands

             X-FILES                         DRAGONLANDS
 Director, X-Files Division           Rhiannon, WarrenLady  *Xylian*
 Sterling Kincaid, TL, ECHO           Elswyth and Aedra   *Keldarra*
 Damien Cunningham, Forensics         Katla and Satinka *Whiteriver*
 Xan X. Xavier, Trainer               Zera and Mazel       *Norwall*

                        Visit the XFRPG Web Site:
                http://www.steele.ml.org/~wiggly/xfiles/

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
                         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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