[DAY 1: Noonish, Veil]

The black dragon slowly landed neat the feeding pens to feed. Although
he would've prefered fresh meat ripped by his own talons, Veil was
hungry enough not to complain to loudly. As he landed, another dragon
and her rider caught his eye. He turned to look into the soul of the
dragonrider known as Ash.

> Ash knew what was wrong. He felt it from the dragon as soon as their
> eyes made contact. He felt it, the disdain and...*hatred*...that was
> directed to him. He reeled back slightly, suprised by the
> malevolence. What the hell was it, a wilder?
> 

Veil grinned inwardly to himself. The man had sensed something about the
black dragon... something dark. Perhaps the people of Telnor were not as
weak minded as he had anticipated. 

> Ash knew. And by the gods, the dragon knew that he knew. Somehow,
> it had noticed his reaction and recognized it for what it was. For a
> moment, they stared, eyes locked, a moment of complete under-
> standing. Veil *hated*. And Ash knew all about it.
> 

Veil chuckled. The pathetic human had actually understood his sinister
glare. He had somehow read his dark intentions. This man in particular,
Veil thought with a wicked grin, would need to be... studied further.
For, now though, it was time to curb a dragon's hunger.

> Then, the great eyes hooded, and the dragon looked dimly away.
> He looked again, but there was nothing. Had he dreamed it?
> Was his imagination running wild? He didn't really have a lot of
> control over his empathy, could it have been a stray sending from
> someone else? Ash shook his head.
> 

 <What happened? What did you do to my rider?> the female dragon asked
him defensively after the human had left. 
 
 Veil chuckled, <<Nothing. He is merely disssturbed.>>

<What do you mean by that?> she asked, more demandingly this time.

<<It issss no concern of yourssss... leave me be.>> And with that, Veil
went off to feed.
 
 *****************

[DAY 1: Couple minutes later, Gabriel]

"... then at the age of 18 I was promoted as Beta Wingleader." Gabriel
told his female hostess as he ate the hearty meal before him. His
stomach felt much better.

As he looked up from his plate he realized Tahlaya had yet to touched
her food. She was looking at him rather oddly.

"Uhmmm... are you okay milady?" he asked curiously.

"Hmmmmm?" she replied as if she had just woken from a dream.   

At that moment a hand went to Laya's shoulder.

> "Hello," he said, patting Laya's shoulder and extending a hand to the
> new rider. "I'm Ash. Pleased to meet you. I came as requested, milady,"
> he added for Tahlaya's benefit. She giggled.
> 
> "I'm Gabriel St.Knight," the man replied. "I'm certainly pleased to
> meet you."

Tahlaya's mate was a dark and handsome man in his own right. Gabriel
quickly noticed his blade by his side. A warrior like himself. He
instantly took a liking to the man. His thoughts were broken by a low
purr. 

> 
> Ash fought down nausea as Avid sent an even stronger hunger urge.
> "Ah, if you'll excuse me, I think this cat needs to be fed." Although he
> couldn't see why; the puma had grown to more than three feet, not
> including the short tail.
> 
> "I doubt it," Laya said. "He made off with a whole chicken this
> morning, right under my nose."
> 
> "Ah, you fed him then. Thank you. I'll have to up his diet a bit, looks
> like."
> 
> "Pfaugh! He fed himself."
> 
> "Well, if you fed him what you had this morning, you might curb his
> appetite a bit." Ash smiled and ducked, but miraculously no food
> went flying his way; Laya stuck her tongue out at him instead.
> 

Gabriel smiled as he watched the two lovers "bicker". It seemed the
people here were so friendly and kind. He knew then that he had chosen
the right Warren to call his home.

"Your mate seems like a very fine man." Gabriel remarked after Ash had
left to feed his cat. "I can see you two are very happy together." He
tunred to gaze out the window and beyond. "I pray that one day my fight
against evil will end and I too may find my chosen one and be happy."

He turned to her expecting a response, but she just sat there looking at
him in that odd way again.

"Yeah... he's a nice guy." she said dreamily. "Tell me about your dragon
once more?"

They talked for quite some time, actually it was more Gabriel did the
talking and her nodding her head. (She still had yet to touch the food
on her plate) At last Ash came back to join them. 

> "So, Gabriel, you ride the black dragon with the green eyes?"
> 
> "Yes, that's Veil. Have you met him?"
> 
> "Ah..yes, we've met," Ash said, his face a study of nonchalance.

"I'm worried about my brother though," Gabriel admitted, "it seems as if
he doesn't care too much about making a good first impression. He's
really not so somber once you get to know him."

"Uh.. right, I'm sure he's not," Ash replied with a polite smile.

The trio talked awhile longer (actually Ash and Gabriel did most of the
talking... go figure) until it was finally time to depart.

"It was a pleasure talking to you Gabriel." Ash said shaking the young
warrior's hand. 

"As was the pleasure of meeting you kind sir." Gabriel replied shaking
Ash's hand and bowing formally.

He turned to Tahlaya. "Milady," he bowed deeply taking her hand into
his, "the pleasure of our little conversation was all mine. I thank you
deeply for a quite enjoyable time."

Gabriel slowly took her wrist to his lips and gently kissed them. He
looked up and his sky blue eyes quickly met hers all too briefly. Then
the moment was gone. He smiled to both of them and with a final bow, bid
them adieu.   

That night in his appartment Gabriel smiled to himself. Ash was a pretty
lucky man he thought.

That night outside in the warren Veil smiled to himself. Ash... what an
appropriate name he thought. 


                                                Sincerly,

                                               Kha (Gabriel)


NRPG:

Ok... i guess it's time for me to move on to Day 2 now. I'm ready for my
flight drills whenever you are Lyn! :)

Lea: Please feel free to add to mine and Al's writing. I'd love to see
what Laya's reaction to all this was! ;)