Abby dismounted from Preston after her brother had been nice enough to fly
her back down to the green when she had finished talking to him and his
mate, Tera.

The news she'd delivered to them had been sad, and she could kind of
understand what Tera must be going through right now, worrying about that
perfect little boy she had born.

Abby also knew she would soon be feeling a little guilty because Treb had
lived and was still growing healthier everyday, while her friends baby had
only lived but a few hours. 

She had explained all this to Ga'brin and told him what signs to watch for
if should happen, but told him not to drive her crazy while doing so.

She knew her brother to well.

With her shift over for the evening, and nothing much else to do, Abby
headed over towards the dining hall to get something to eat. It had been a
long time since breakfast and despite everything that had gone on that day,
she was hungry.

Seated inside was the rider who's dragon had nearly flown over the new
Queenrider and Kay a few days ago. Looking a little lost at the goings on
around him, Abby filled her plate and wondered over to his table.

"Mind if I join you?" she smiled when he looked up at her.

"Please!" he sounded happy to have someone to talk to. "I was going to go
looking for you later to find out how you think Xanith is doing."

Abbien laughed, somehow knowing that would be his first question. "You're
friend is doing a whole lot better. In fact I had planned on going out to
him tonight for one final check-up. Before I clear him for teleporting, I
wanted to run the test one more time."

"We could do it now," Devon said hurriedly and started to stand up, but Abby
waved him back down into his seat.

"A few moments to allow me to fill this empty middle of mine won't hurt him
any," the healer reminded him of the full plate sitting on the table in
front of her. "While if I don't eat something now... I might faith away
before I can run the test."

She couldn't help but to chuckle when she saw his cheeks color. 

"Sorry,," he grinned and ducked his head a little in apology. "It's just
that we really need to be going and I want to make sure he's okay before we
try it again."

"I understand Devon. Really I do," she reached across the table and touch
her hand to his wrist to get him to look up at her. "But you have to
understand that you won't be able to teleport over a long distance and
you'll have to make sure Xanith is well rested before you try another jump."

"Why is that?" he asked frowning. "I mean what makes him so different from
other dragons when it comes to teleporting?"

The healer set down the fork she'd been raising towards he lips and looked
back at him. "I'm really now sure we can blame this all on Xanith."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm really not sure," she admitted. "It's just something I felt when I was
in contact with him. Sort of something there but I could only feel it when
you were also there beside him. Why don't you tell me about what happened
the first time you two tried to teleport again."

"Reluctantly he went over it again, but she had a feeling he was leaving
something out. What it was she couldn't even guess. But it might have
something to do with what was happening to the pair and why they were having
such difficulties with something that should come so naturally to the
dragon. Or so she'd been told.

"Do you think that he may be reacting to some fear of mine and doesn't even
know it?"

"Could be," Abby shrugged her shoulders. "It's a possibility we should
consider, because of the fear you both suffered from your first attempt. But
you'd need to talk to a mind healer about that as it's something I'm not
trained in. "

Scooping up the last few morsels on her plate she finally pushed the plate
away and sighed. "Well my middle is finally full up again so why don't we go
check on the beast of yours, shall we?"

Devon picked up her plate before she could, and stood up.

"I'll catch up to you in a minute," he grinned and hurried away with her
dirty plate. 

True to his word, he came racing out of the hall and caught up to her before
she'd gone to far from the dining hall doors.  

Within minutes they were beside Xanith and after Abbien shooed away two
dragon's who'd been keeping him company, she started running the dragon
through the same sight tests she'd given him twice a day since they'd
arrived here. 

Earlier she'd asked Ben'sar to and his dragon to take her around to a few of
the places Devon remembered from places he'd been and it was those images
she now fed to Xanith to gage how long it took him to form the picture in
his own mind. Next she ran back over a few pictures of other places Ben'sar
had taken her to and flashed them in her own mind to see how long it took
the beast to form these new pictures.

Devon was looking kind of nervous by the time she was finished. "Well?" he
asked when she didn't say anything for a moment, just stood there and jotted
down what she had learned in the small note pad she always kept with her.

"Just a moment," she said and continued to compare these new reading against
others she had taken earlier. Finally she turned to him with a grin on her
face. 

"Well his responce time is back to normal for the moment," she informed him,
and saw him clench his hands.

"Yes!!"

"But I do feel I need to remind you that this tiredness and disorientation
might and likely will return after your next teleport. So you'll need to let
him rest up before you try it again."


"Oh I understand," he told her and then stood there while she went over the
test she had ran, so he could try them the next time to gage his dragons
readiness to teleport again if they need to.

She made him repeat her instructions back to her twice before she was
reassured he understood.

"Well then I don't see why you two can't try this next leg of your journey
when ever you're ready to go," Abby told the rider and then turned back to
the dragon.

<<And you my friend,>> she sent the thought to him. <<You be truthful with
your rider if you are feeling tired, and take care of each other.>>

<I promise healer,> Xanith replied and turned his great head towards her so
she could scratch his eye ridge. <And thank you for all your help. You are a
good human.>

<<Why thank you Xanith,>> Abby grinned at the dragons complement and then
turned back to the rider who stood there grinning.

"I agree with Xanith," Devon said. "And I will never forget you for helping
him."

"That's what I'm here for," she shook of his thanks but inside she was
pleased that things had turned out the way they had. "I only hope that a
reason for what ever it is causing this can be found, or maybe cured. Good
luck to you both."

Minutes later she was walking away, heading in the direction of the homes of
the unjoined. As it had in the past, a thought came to her. More a question,
but one with no answer. Why was it she could hear the injured dragons and at
times uninjured ones like Sundellath and Sabbith and still have been past
over by the eggs each and every time she'd been put to them?

Maybe someday the answer would come to her, but for now she was thankful of
her ability as it had saved many a dragons because of the time saved by not
having to have someone there to translate the dragons thoughts to her. 

Maybe that was answer enough.

-------------------------------    

Well Kris: Devon is finally free to go anytime he needs to be leaving.....

Tony: Tera will be looking for her patrol partner soon.... 

And Lakoda of Marrid will do what she can for those who will be in need of
her.... hopefully tomorrow or Sunday....

****Submitted by: *******

Barbara (a.k.a.

Abbien, Telnor Warren Dragon Healer
Telnor Warren