From: Wil Turrin <wilt@webcomlink.com>

Day 6 - Evening
Outside Kalena's Apartment

>"ˇEveryone here is so very nice."  she smiled.  "And if I wasn't here, I
would never have met you, and that would have been tragic."  She looked up
into his eyes, gazing for a moment before she quickly turned away.
>"Now that you know all about me,  it's your turn. "  she smiled.

K'Tarr was silent for a moment. "I, too, do not know where I came from.
There's a lot I don't know, actually. I am an orphan, like you." He reached
into his bag and withdrew something. In the shadows, Kalena couldn't make
out exactly what it was.

He continued his story. "I was orphaned to the warrenfolk in Jasra. When
they found me, I was just a cub, but I had been covered in these markings.
My foster family didn't know what the markings meant, no one did; But they
raised me as one of their own anyway."

A few sparks began to flash from the tube that K'Tarr had produced from his
bag. Finally, the little tube's end burst into flame. K'Tarr  held the
little flame to the end of a small candle. The wick burst into flame sending
a circle of golden light around the two riders and their dragons.

"For my first seven years, I was raised by Cookie. She was one of the chef's
in Jasra. She was like a mother to me." K'Tarr reached into his bag and
pulled out a wine skin. "Always be ready; never be thirsty. A hunter's
motto." He smiled and passed the skin to Kalena. She took it gratefully and
tipped it back.

"When I was eight, I became to old to work in the kitchen, so I was
apprenticed to the Blacksmiths. I was too small for the work though, no
matter how hard I swung the hammer, I couldn't bend the heavy metals."

Kalena passed the wine skin back to K'Tarr. He took a long drink. "Sounds
like they didn't know what to do with you." Kalena said with a smile.

"Not really. They had me cleaning fire pits and cleaning up, but they knew
that I couldn't stay there forever. I was very unhappy."

"So what did you do?" Kalena inched a little closer as she took the wine
skin back.

"I was very fortunate. I was about thirteen, and a new person had come to
Jasra. His name was Aguya. He was a master hunter. I was instantly drawn to
the strange new man, in the leather clothes. He was an older man and his
hair was long and black streaked with silver. He wore it in heavy braids and
every several inches down the braids was a heavy platinum ring."

"Like your hair?" Kalena asked.

K'Tarr nodded and continued. "Aguya saw me watching from the edge of the
smithery. He smiled at me." K'Tarr paused for a moment. This was more
talking than he had done at once in a long time. He looked at Kalena, she
was hanging off his every word. It felt good to have someone listen.

"Aguya talked to the smiths and had me apprenticed to him the next day. I
was made his hunter-son, and he my hunter-father. We spent many years
together. We traveled far and wide and I learned the way of the hunter from
him.
After he died, I was left alone again. I felt as if I would never find
somewhere to belong, even though I was living amongst friends in the
warren."

"Then Qualis came along." Kalena seemed to be loosening up again, but K'Tarr
stayed put. He didn't want to scare her away again.

"Yes, literally. The searcher at Jasra asked me to stand at a hatching. I
stayed for the beginning but I snuck off. I didn't think that I would be
joined, so I went for a walk on the beach. It was a short walk, though.

A band of pirates had attacked the warren. They used decoys to lure our
dragons away from the real attackers. But I happened to stumble across their
raiding party. I held them at bay for a while, then the warrenlady and one
of the rider's came looking for me. The warrenlady was taken hostage in the
fight."

"What happened then?" Kalena asked, she gripped the wine skin tightly.

"Qualis came and told me to fire an arrow at him."

"What?" Kalena gasped.

"He had a small shield from one of the fallen pirates. He bounced my arrow
off it and into the pirate's head. We saved the warrenlady."

"That's quite a history, K'Tarr." Kalena said slowly and passed the nearly
empty wineskin back to K'Tarr. She was feeling warm and fuzzy from the
Hunter's strong wine, and she couldn't help smiling at the muscular man
before her.

[Tag Dianne]

Submitted by
K'Tarr Morrinn and Qualis
Dragon rider and Hunter

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