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(Day ten, daybreak)

The nightmare shocked her out of her sleep. Horrible images - explosions,
people burned beyond recognition, a dragon cut to ribbons, a dragon with no
head. She shuddered and tried to clear her mind. Only nightmares. Only more
nightmares.

Opening one eye very slowly, Arri laid still and listened. A gentle snort,
then soft, deep breathing. Thank goodness. He was asleep and seemed to be
willing to stay that way.

It had taken T'lar longer to find K'chain than she had hoped. A slippery
eel, her closest childhood friend wasn't exactly someone T'lar knew well,
and he preferred to keep himself very quiet. She had been in and out of
sleep so much in the last two days that she didn't really know much except
that T'lar had finally tracked him down.

With ginger movements, Arri sat up on the bed and watched Rod'r'k sleep.
Always the hard luck cases with her, wasn't it? There was just something
about underdogs that made her protective. Smiling softly, she reached over
to brush a stray strand of hair away from his mouth. They had missed a few
when they patched him up.

<Arri, T'lar just landed.>

Nodding to herself and her dragon, Arri sidestepped past the other gurney
and out the door. A note on the door said 'Keep male occupant on suicide
watch." That sounded fine - she could come and go as she pleased.

Why was it all the jobs worth doing seemed to start before she woke up?
Pondering this, she walked through the ...Xylian, yes that was it... Medical
Center. Some smells about a med conter were always the same - numbweed,
alcohol, antiseptic. Even the sounds of soft snoring were a comfort to her
somehow; anything familiar to grab on to.

Daetyn was seated in front of the med center doors. When she saw Arri come
out, she craned her neck in the direction of T'lar and K'chain and Quanti -
who was impossible to miss. With a quick look around to make sure nobody was
watching, Arri ran over and wrapped her arms around K'chain with a sob.

The tall lanky man staggered backwards a step and hugged her back,
chuckling. "Hi Moonshadow. Having that much fun here, anama'fach?" In
response she squeezed him tighter.

"You have no idea," she said, stepping back teary-eyed. "You never came, we
lost everything, I was afraid you'd been hurt, Mom and Dad..." The torrent
of words stopped as the realization hit her. "Are dead." The tears she had
been holding back for so long erupted without warning.

Now it was his turn to hold her tightly as she sobbed brokenly into his
chest. "I didn't think you would have come back for any other reason, dear
one. I'm sure you made their passing easier. That doesn't help, but you know
I'm here if you need me."

"We've lost everything... Waste sickness... half of our warren missing or
presumed dead..." Gradually her tears trailed off. "I'm... I'm sorry
K'chain. I need to get a grip..."

Vise-like fingers grasped her thin arms. "Absolutely not," he snarled
quietly under his breath. "You know you're safe with me, and with T'lar."

Arri nodded slowly and stepped away. "Still, this was supposed to be a
business meeting."

Decorum safely restored, she stepped over to hug the Junior from Falagand.
T'lar's returning hug was warm and gentle, and Arri tried to relax.

"We've heard about everything over there," the Junior began slowly,
awkwardly, "I'm so sorry - are you doing okay?

"As okay as I can, being homeless and grieving," said Arri softly into the
other woman's hair with a last squeeze. "Do you have paintings of your
little one yet?"

T'lar brought out several small charcoal sketches of her baby. One of the
many talents, along with diplomacy, that the other woman had been gifted
with. Cerubic features gazed out from the paper, playing with toys,
sleeping, hugging T'lar's tamed wildcat.

"He's wonderful," said Arri with tears in her eyes. "Almost makes me want
one of my own."

In perfect chorus the two women chimed, "Almost, but not quite," with a
giggle.

"So much for business meeting," said K'chain with a grin as he wrapped one
arm around Arri's shoulders and squeezed. "Women and babies. I just don't
get it."

"Ah, but they're so much more FUN when they're someone else's," Arri
explained to K'chain as she reached up to pinch his nose. "Have some and
then you'll understand."

"If you could make me have one, falcon, I'd be willing to try," he retorted
with a chuckle.

T'lar couldn't help lauching as she watched the two of them bicker. This
might help Arri on more than a professional basis, and given what the rumour
mill had been saying about her reactions to the deaths and the forced move,
a friend sounded like just what she needed.

"Look you two, why don't I get back and you call me when you need me," the
young woman volunteered. "Someone should be awake soon and I don't like
leaving him alone."

"Of course not," said Arri understandingly, "I'll have Dae call you when I'm
ready to let him out of my sight." Gently kissing the other Queenrider on
the forehead, she waved her off. "Blessed be."

They waited respectfully until the other dragon winked out of sight, then
Arri turned to K'chain and sighed. "Let's go practice the forms and I'll
explain everything."

"Out of practice or needing to distract yourself?"

"Yes," they said in soft unison and giggled together. Gads she missed
K'chain sometimes.

In companionable silence, they walked over to the training grounds and
stepped into the large sand circle for sparring work.

Stepping into position for the first dijuru, K'chain suppressed a smile. The
first time Arri had taken him down with no warning, he demanded to know
where she'd learned how to take someone as big as he was. She was reluctant
to give away her advantage for quite some time until finally she introduced
him to her Guru. It made sense for them to train together after that. Doing
the practice work with her was like an old comfortable blanket. He knew she
still outmatched him in strength, speed and skill at this particular type of
combat, and he accepted it.

Silat was a form of moving meditation for Arri, and she often had practiced
with K'chain with eyes closed or blindfolded, the better to pay attention to
her body with. In the blackness, she moved into position and reached out for
the body she knew was there and began moving through the first dijuru.

Fluidly their bodies shifted together, point and counterpoint, gaining and
losing ground. Base, angle, leverage...and K'chain found himself on the
ground, laughing.

"You haven't changed a bit, muffin," he said as she opened her eyes to help
him up. "After fifteen years, you would think I would know better than to
fall for that." She grinned and settled into the second dijuru.

As he closed with her, her eyes slid closed. "Now then, on to business. This
all started with an attempted suicide I found several days ago..."

Her explanation went on, punctuated by the occasional puffing of breath and
laughter as one or the other of them won one of the slow motion practice
moves. Neither one noticed the eyes watching from a sunlit ridge as they
worked.

==--==

"So I need you to find out if this Kedrick Dyer person is still alive for
me," she concluded, picking him up off the ground with a smile. She'd taken
him for six out of ten, which wasn't bad. She let her guard slip a couple of
times but for someone out of practice had done quite well. "I think he may
be two spirited - Rod'r'k sure seemed unwilling to admit what made him so
angry, and usually it's an affront to the manhood."

K'chain chuckled softly and dusted himself off as he hugged her. "Kedrick
Dyer, huh? I'll see what I can do, anyway. It doesn't ring a bell, but
you're asking me to remember something that probably happened at least a
year ago. I'll have to check the records."

With a bow to each other, they stepped out of the circle. The students were
starting to mill and she didn't want to be in the way for the regular
classes. Walking slowly back to where Daetyn was pretending-to-be-sleeping,
she hugged him again. "You have to visit more often."

"I know, I know - but I'm working. You don't often have a Queenrider show up
at the barracks looking for you. There wasn't much Catlin could say about me
leaving." He grinned. "He was too busy scraping and bowing and pontificating
to say much."

Arri laughed. Not sure when Catlin Anderak had been nominated to Circuit
Master for the Bardic College, she remembered him for his bizarre worship
cum terror of dragons and dragonriders. If it didn't mean she'd lost him as
a friend when she Joined, it might have been funny. In retrospect, it was
hilarious.

<No, I'm not taking you there to visit just to watch him wet his britches,>
admonished Daetyn as they approached, <Even if he does deserve it. She's
coming.>

"I'll look into your patient's old friend and let you know as soon as I can
through T'lar. I can understand how knowing if the fellow didn't die would
make it easier for him to heal," he added softly, "Nobody likes loose ends."

Quanti and T'lar winked in beside Daetyn with a slight displacement of air.
K'chain gave her one last hug and a kiss on the cheek before he hopped up on
the dragon's back.

"Bring yourselves to visit more," said Arri into two grinning faces. Quanti
butted her chest with her nose and whuffled until Arri scratched the
sensitive eye-ridges. They both nodded and waved, waiting until Arri stepped
back before they disappeared again into the sunshine.

The vision of the headless dragon skittered across the inside of her eyelids
again and she shuddered. Why couldn't she shake this stupid nightmare?

<Because it isn't a nightmare. You've been mostly unconscious for the last
couple of days and holed up in that closet, nobody's told you anything,>
explained her dragon softly. <There have been some horrible things in the
last few days... sabatage, attacks on dragons...>

Arri looked up at her dragon in bafflement. <:What? You mean all those
horrible things I was seeing were REAL? Why didn't you tell me?:>

There was a long pause as the dragon weighed her answer. <You needed the
rest. There was absolutely nothing you could have done for Hogarth or Nova.
The people hurt by the coal explosion are in critical, but stable,
condition. The poor rider who got his foot stabbed is fine, just needed
clean bandages and stitches. This is a huge medical center with an enormous
number of staff - they can handle it.>

All the images, as horrific as they were, suddenly made sense. Daetyn had
seen everything. However carefully she tried to hide it from her rider, some
of the terrible scenes had crept through their bond. Arri trembled with
fear. What had she been sleeping through? Who could do such things? Why?!

<Rod'r'k is awake. He's wondering where you are. You should get back to
him,> nudged her dragon with a gently chiding overtone. <Worry only about
what you can fix.>

Arri sighed and stopped in at the local dining hall to pick up some
sandwiches and fruit for herself and Rod'r'k before she headed back to the
med center. She at least owed him a progress report, no matter how upset she
was feeling.

Opening the door, she plastered a cheerful smile on her face as she stepped
back into her closet... "Ho Rod'r'k, feeling better? Breakfast is served..."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
NRPG: Yeah it's lame. But I'm tired. Sarilyn; was that you watching us
practice? Rod - You have her incomplete and divided attention for a while
yet, she's quite upset. Day and night don't mean much in a room with small
windows to two exhausted people, so it's plausible that they may have slept
through everything. If not, what does he know that she doesn't? Information
on Kedrick will be a while coming. Need. Sleep. :(


Namaste'
-Shadow-

shadowsinger@bigfoot.com
http://www.bigfoot.com/~shadowsinger
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