Tera stared after Nia, as the girl hurried off to meet the 
Warrenlady. She was left more confused than ever. What had happened 
to the girl while she was a captive of the Shadow, that she 
wouldn't talk about? And why wouldn't she tell?

<<Sundee will you ask Preston where Ga'brin is for me please?>> 
Tera asked her blue, and then waited for the answer.


< Preston said that he's in with the Warrenlady, and would like for 
you to meet him at home. He'll be there soon.> came the dragon's 
reply.

<<Only if he promises to tell me what's going on,>> Tera muttered 
to herself, while making her way out of the dining hall.

<He said he promises.> 

<<Sundee!!! >> Tera exclaimed, << I didn't mean for you to tell 
him that!>>

<Well you didn't tell me NOT to.>> came the blue's unrepented 
reply.

<<Silly beast.>> Tera laughed. <<Will you pick me up in front of 
the dining hall?>>

<How else will you get home?>>

Sundellath was waiting as promised when Tera made her way outside. 
Moments later the two were back at their apartment.

Ga'brin still hadn't arrived, so Tera set about finishing the 
dinner she had started earlier. With the roast in the oven, and the 
salad made, she found herself at loose ends. So she went into the 
bedroom and retrieved the blanket she had started making for Laya.

She'd found just the right hues of yellow, orange, and reds on the 
shelves at the Taylor's shop, to match the colors of Laya's girls.

Tera had been working on the blanket for about half an hour, just 
finishing the last stitches on the dragon's tail, when Sundellath 
in formed her, Preston and his rider where on their way home.

Quickly she gathered up her things and put them back into the bag, 
then raced for the bathroom to check her appearance in the mirror, 
before going out into the living room to meet her mate.

The somber expression on his face stopped her when she would have 
walked to him. Instead she froze where she was.

Something was very wrong.

Ga'brin stood there in the door way, his tall body straight and 
proud. He dreaded telling her what he had learned form Lyonnia 
earlier. He would give almost anything to spare her from any more 
of the pain she would be feeling because of that man. The meeting 
tomorrow with the Warrenlady had better bring some kind of results 
or he didn't know what he'd do. He couldn't lose her. She was his 
life, his one true love. Without her to share life with...it 
wasn't worth living. So much she'd come to mean to him.

"Ga'brin?" a question in her voice as she met his eyes.

"Come here," his eyes unblinking as the held hers.

Tera hesitated for only a second, not recognizing the commanding 
tone in his voice. He was scaring her, but this was Ga'brin. Her 
mate. He would never harm her. He'd already proven that to her  
over and over.

Slowly she walked forward until she stood just before him. 
Squaring her shoulders for courage, she lifted her eyes to meet 
his, letting him see all the love she had for him, shining there.

For a moment he just stared back, until she couldn't take his 
silences anymore, she raised both her hands up, to lay them palms 
flat against the hard walls of his chest.

"What is it Love?" she asked softly.

He didn't answer, just stood there, his eyes flickering over her 
features as if to set them to memory.  Finally he reached slowly 
around behind her and pulled her long thick braid around over her 
shoulder. His eyes dropped to watch as he removed the tie that 
held the ends together, before just as slowly, he began to unbraid 
the sunny blond tresses all the way up. When he was finished, her 
hair was falling free to her waist. 

"Ga'brin?" her voice a husky whisper, knowing what was about to 
happen. He always insisted her hair be free when they made love. 

"Hush Love," he spoke for the first time. The tone of his voice 
urgent and sexy as hell. The fingers of both hands moved to twine 
around the long strands, genitally applying pressure until her 
face was tilted up to his. Just right for his kisses.

"We'll talk about it later love," a flame deep in his dark eyes 
leaped into a blaze of unleashed desire.

Tera trembled, not in fear, but in anticipation.

"Later," he repeated. "I need you now. I need to be with you, 
inside you." His voice a whisper, a caress, a plea.

She lifted herself to him, and at the first touch of her lips on 
his, all Tera's questions about his strange mood, were forgotten. 
She felt him wrap his strong arms around her and pull her closer.

"Tera," he muttered as his lips trailed down her neck, then back 
up again. Her heart thundered in her chest as his mouth captured 
hers again, claiming her, branding her as his woman. Deep in her 
belly was an answering throb. 

His need fed hers, she gasped when she felt his knee wedge between 
her legs and felt the familiar length of him, pressed intimately 
against her body. A fever burned inside  her veins, her breast 
ached with want of his touch.

Very slowly, very gently he picked her up and carried her into 
their bedroom. Slowly, as if memorizing each new part of her that 
was revealed, he undressed her, and then himself. When he was 
finished, Tera stepped forward, raised her hands to encircle his 
neck, and pulled his head down until their lips met. 

The shock of desire was explosive.

Sensing his need for her, her hands began to move over him. She 
liked the way he felt. Liked the hardness of his chest and the 
swell of his muscles. Boldly she explored him, letting her hands 
move slowly down his body, past his slim waist, almost shyly, to 
the place she knew would be throbbing with the same need he had 
always stirred in her. When her hand closed around him, he gave a 
sharp gasp and pulled her hand away.

"Not yet love," he moaned. "I want to be inside you first."

She moved  then towards the bed. Laying herself down in the 
middle, she turned to hold her arms open to him.

"Come Love," she invited.

He didn't need to be asked twice. His hands began to move over 
her as she drew him into her arms again. While he touched her, 
his lips glazed hers, then dropped to the hollow in her neck. 

"Oh Tera, love," his voice a tormented whisper. "If anything 
happened to you...." his voice trailed off.

Tera's hands moved to cup his face, lifting it until their 
eyes met. "Hush Love," she repeated his words. "You won't let 
anything happen to me." she let him read her trust in him in 
her green eyes.

"Gods above woman," he groaned, "how I love you."

He came to her then, for what was only the fist of many times 
that night. Crushing her lips beneath his, he thrust his tongue 
into her mouth at the same time he thrust his body into hers...
proving his love for her over and over. In more ways than one...

At some point during the night, Ga'brin told Tera about the 
strange conversation he'd had with first Lyonnia, and then with 
the Warrenlady Ophelia. He told her about the meeting they were 
to attend in the morning, and about his fears for her safety as 
long as the Shadow was still free.

"Tomorrow we'll find out what is going to be done about it," 
he said.
*********
[Next Morning: Ophelia's Office]

Tera and Ga'brin arrived a couple of minutes ahead of Lyonnia and 
sat in uncomfortable silence till the girl got there.  Sandor 
walked in seconds after Lyonnia.  The three looked at him in 
mystification as Ophelia greeted him and asked them all to 
sit down.

Her eyes met Sandor's and he nodded.  She took a deep breath, 
reached into the drawer and pulled the picture out, handing it 
to Lyonnia.

"Do you know this man?" she asked the girl.

"Why would she know Tr--"

Lyonnia interrupted Tera's question, "Yes!  This is the Shadow.  
How did you get this picture?"

"No!" Tera cried, " There must be some mistake. Trap would never 
do anything like that."

"No this is him all right," Lyonnia insisted quickly, before 
realizing what she had done. "Oh shit!!" she swore, her eyes 
wide in horror as she watched all color drain from her friends 
face. 

"Tera, I'm so sorry,"  she was torn between reaching out to 
comfort her friend, and running away from the pain etched in 
the older girls eyes. Pain she had caused.

Ga'brin was already moving to take his mate into his arms. He 
had been afraid something like this would happen when he had 
talked to Ophelia yesterday. If only he had been able to spare 
her somehow.

"Lyonnia," he spoke the girls name softly, repeating a second 
time before Nia turned to look at him. He could see the tears 
threatening to spill from her eyes and knew she was blaming 
herself.

"Nia, it's not your fault," he told her in a soft voice, using 
the nickname for her that his mate used. "Tera, nor I blame you 
for any of this. Trap made his own choices in life, and you 
didn't ask to be apart of it."

"I know, but......" she held the picture she still held up. 
"If I hadn't...."

"If you hadn't, my mate never would have learned that her 
brother was still alive." his black eyes turned to take in 
first Ophelia and the Sandor. 

They could both see the anger written there, and knew he wasn't 
finished with them yet. With supreme effort he held his temper 
in check, as he turned back to the young girl.

"Nia I'll see that Tera's all right," he promised. "Why don't you 
go on a check on Dianthus, she was very brave today, as were you."

Lyonnia took one last look at her friend and saw Tera giving her a 
week smile before she fled from the Dragonlady's office.  Out side 
she heard someone call her name. She almost didn't stop, wanting to 
be alone, but when her name was repeated the second time, she 
recognized it as Ben'sar's. Ga'brin's younger brother. 

"I heard about what happened," he said when he caught up to her. 
"I know you and I don't know each other all that well yet, but 
I'm a good listener," he told her, "and if you want to go 
somewhere and talk, I'm willing to listen." 

(Tag Sarah; So here's Nia's big chance to get to know Ben'sar. 

*****Ophelia's office*****

"You knew about this, didn't you?" Tera  accused Ophelia. "You 
knew and didn't think I had the right to know about my own 
brother. Why?" 

"There are things going on that you don't understand," Sandor 
spoke up for the first time. God he hated this. Trap had been 
his friend. Though lately the friendship had been strained.

<The man was Diemis's rider's partner, >" Tera barely heard 
Sundee say in her mind. <Dinnan said his rider is upset about 
his friend, but won't tell me why,> Sundellath sounded peevish.

"Then Dinnan's rider," Tera bit out turning to face him, her face 
flushed with anger. "Why don't you explain them to me, so that 
I will!!"

Sandor turned to seek help from Ophelia. His eye's pleading, for 
he knew what the girl was going through. Traplin had been his 
friend after all. Form the start he had wanted no part of this. 
Dinnan nearly balked at going along with it. He hadn't wanted to 
have to lie to the other dragon's or feel their pain, when the 
word of a dragon's death got out. No matter that it supposedly 
happened some distance away from the Warren for them to know 
for sure.

"Warrenlady, we have to tell her," his voice strained, "He's 
her brother. 

Ophelia turned away from them, her eyes again fell on the letter 
to Trey on her desk. How would her children have felt if, if she 
had kept the news from them any longer that she had. 

She turned back to face the blond headed exsinger and her mate.
The decision was her's to make. She only hoped she made the 
right one.

"Let's all have a seat," she told everyone in the room. "What 
I am about to tell you must never be spoken of out side this 
room.  Because if it does......it may mean the death of a very 
brave young man."
 
Sandor sighed in relief. He would no longer have to carry the 
secret alone.

Ophelia started at the beginning,  from the time when the raiders 
had first started to become a huge problem to both the Landbound 
and the Warrens. She told of violent acts so terrible that the 
other's could hardly believe it. 

"Then one day I got a note from Lord Etain, the Lord of the city 
of Raisa requesting a meeting. He asked for help from myself and 
the other Warrenlady's with this problem. Your brother," her eyes 
met those of the younger girls, before she went on. "He had this 
way of finding out things around here that no one wanted known. 
He also knew how to keep those things to himself. It was he who 
suggested that he would go undercover to join in with the 
raiders." she paused.

"We never thought it would go on for so long, or that he and 
Diemis would have to be away from the Warren all this time."


"How did he explain his dragon to the raiders," Tera asked 
speaking for the first time since the story started.

"He told them Diemis was a wild dragon," Sandor answered.

"And you were his patrol partner," Tera wanted to know, just to 
keep things strait in her mind.

Sandor nodded his head. "I thought it was a stupid idea to begin
 with, I tried to talk him out of it. But the fool wouldn't 
listen."

Tera gave him a brief nod of her head and then turned back to 
the Warrenlady to continue the story.

"In the last few years he's fed us information several ways, 
Sandor being one of them. His green, Diemis another. But here 
lately he's been acting different. Like he enjoys pitting his 
skills against the Warren. Like with that dumb fool stunt he 
pulled kidnapping Lyonnia right off the back of her own dragon." 
 
"How much longer will he be out there on his own?" Tera asked, 
gathering her straight from the hold she had on her mates hand.  
"And when can you arrange for me to see him." Her eyes met and 
held those of the Warrenlady's. She wasn't making a request, she 
was giving a demand. She would see for herself that her brother 
was alive, and if they wouldn't help her, she'd find a way 
herself.
 
*************************************
(nrpg: I never thought I was going to get this one 
finished....it only started out as being 4 pages
long *egrin*

Justin: I just got you mating flight post....WOW...
time for some funto start :}
*****Submitted by:*********************
Barbara
Voices of:
Tera & Sundellath (Telnor)
Ga'brin & Preston (Telnor
Dan'yar & Shinner (Soon of Cleft)
"The Shadow" (parts unknown)
Dragonlands

Fatala of Kindis Weyr