Lyn.. got Abby posts half finished and should have it out by
tomorrow....will work to finish the rest of it tonight at work... It gets
real boring at night around there so I should have lots of time to write....
Barb

........................

*No Forgiveness Here*

Tera & Trap
***********

[After H'nry leaves]

"Tera you can't blame Ash!" Trap tried getting through to her again. "It
wasn't his fault Sis. You have to see that!"

"I don't have to see anything right now Brother except that your *friend*
killed my mate! The father of my child and for that I will NEVER forgive him!"

"Ash wouldn't ask for forgiveness."

"Good because he won't be getting any from me!" she snapped and turned away
from him. "All I want is to stand before him if he is still alive and ask
him why! I want to know why he murderer a good man in cold blood and ask him
how he can live with himself knowing that man's son will grow up and NEVER
KNOW HIS FATHER!!" she screamed. 

She felt the world around her sway and felt dizzy, but pushed her brother
way when he moved to help her. 

"Tera.. you have to be calm right now," Trap insisted, reaching for her and
leading her to the couch where he pushed down on her shoulders until she
sat. "This carrying on isn't good for you or Treb. Can't you see you're
scaring him right now!"

Tera looked at her son and saw that Trap was right. She tired to get up but
the dizziness hadn't faded and she felt safer sitting back down. 

Trap seeing something was wrong picked the boy up and carried him over to her. 

"Mommy sad?" Treb asked bring his little hands up to touch his mothers face. 

She didn't know how to answer his question, so she pulled him to her and
hugged him as if she never wanted to let him go.

She knew she was going to have to tell him that his daddy wasn't even coming
home, but didn't know if she could find the words without the bitterness she
felt towards the man she held responsible coming through.

"Maybe I had better call for Sarrine or Abby to come take a look at you.."
Trap started, worried about his sister color. 

"You will not!" Tera glared at him, working hard to keep the anger out of
her tone so she wouldn't upset her son any more then he already was. "They
have enough to do right now as it is with the injured riders who *did* get
to come home! You will not bother them for nothing."

"Sis.. I think you need to talk to someone," Trap said slowly. He was
worried about her. The news of Ga'brin's death was bad enough to deal with,
without her having learned how it had come about. 

<<Diemis... can you contact Abby and ask her...>>

<I have, and though she wishes she could come she says their are to may
wounded in the hall for her to get away right now.> the dark green dragon
told his rider. <She said she would come when she can. The dragonhealer is
sad too but knows there are others who need her to be strong right now.>

Trap could hear the admiration for the healer in his dragons tone, and knew
most of the dragons she had come in contact with felt the same about the
human dragonhealer. Even though she rode no dragon of her own.

"And don't you dare go behind my back on this Traplin!" she said seeming to
read his mind. "I will not have it."

"Tera if you're ill..."

"I'm not ill. I just had a very bad shock so there's no wonder I felt faint
but it's past so you would only be wasting a healers time." She said more
calmly now. Trap had been right about Treb being scared by her temperament.
She had to calm herself down for his sake. 

But Trap wasn't fooled. 

"Now.. I want you to go."

"Go... you're kidding right?" He looked at her like she was crazy.

"No Trap I want to be alone with my son right now to try and find a way to
tell him his father is never coming back," her voice was cold, without any
emotion and that scared his even more.

"Tera I don't think..."

"Go! Please Trap just go. Go see your own mate and thank ever God you
believe in the you were able to find her still alive. Do whatever you have
to but don't lose the love you have with her brother," she looked up at him
now and he could see the tears forming in her eyes. "You never know just how
quickly you can lose it until it's gone."

Trap felt as if he'd been hit in the stomach, being reminded of Danielle
that way. He turned and left his sisters home but didn't go in search of
Danielle like Tera had suggested, but to the dining hall where he picked up
a large mug of ale and downed it in one gulp, then piled a few more on a
tray and went in search of a table far way from others. 

He wasn't feeling very sociable at the moment.

He was still there later on when the dragons brought back the body of his
sisters mate. But by that time the only thing on his mind was the next full
mug in front of him. It helped deaden the pain and for a brief moment in
time made him forget why he was doing this.

......

Sundellath told Tera the moment the dragon's and their riders arrived bring
the body of Preston's rider back to the Warren. 

As if in a dream she dressed her son for the trip downside and then made
doubly sure that he was strapped in, in front of her and then gave Sundy the
order to take them there.

She landed and took a few extra minutes with her son then slowly she turned
and in her minds eye saw the other rider standing there as if waiting for
her to proceed them. She took one slow step then another. Her eyes glued to
the body of the man they were gently unstraping and lowering to the ground. 

Holding Treb's face against her she looked down into the still face of the
man who had been her life up until he'd mounted his dragon and had flow off
with the others to do battle.

Treb struggled to be let go, but Tera held him, she didn't want him to see
his father laying there his shirt front all cover in blood. She wanted his
few memories of the man to be happy loving ones. Not this nightmare she was
seeing now before her.

Anger. Love. Emptiness. Longing. Hate!

So many emotions swept though her as she looked down at him. She didn't know
which she felt more.

Anger at his having recklessly done what they say he had in attacking a
crazed man. Anger at Ash`chenon for murdering a good man. Even anger at her
friend for ever loving a man who could do such a thing.

Hate filled her. Hate for the man who had, with one stroke of a sword, taken
her whole world away from her and her son, and left a big empty space in her
heart where love had flourished and grown only a day ago. Trap might not
blame him.. but she did.

Oh yes she did.

Someone came up to her and shuffled around for a moment until she lifted her
eyes up to look at them.

"Tera I'm sorry... They say his last words for you," the man said. "He said
to tell you he loved you and your son...and that he was sorry."

Sorry.

She nodded her head in thanks. It was a small comfort.

Someone moved to her side and took Treb from her arms. She thought it was
Tabita but she wasn't sure. Her eyes were on the man laying prone on the
ground before her. The man who even in death .. It was all so unreal to her.

"Tera they have to take him to the med center to get him ready," This from
Gabben, his father. 

She looked at him and somewhere in the back of her mind thought he looked
like he had aged a few years.

Was it any wonder. He had just lost his first born. The poor man. She knew
he must be hurting every bit as much as she herself was just then.

"Sarrine...Abby...?"

"They know..."

"I'm here," Ga'brin's mother said from behind her and Tera turned and flew
into the woman's arms when she saw they were open to her.

"Oh gods...." She sobbed as Sarrine held her. "What are we going to do
without him?"

"You'll go on just as we all will," the healer's voice was filled with her
own grief, even as she tried to comfort the young woman in her arms. "Treb
needs you to be strong for him now more then ever. It won't be easy but you
have to think of him now. He needs you daughter."

Off to the side where Tera couldn't hear them, Gabben was talking to his
youngest son Ben'sar who had joined them.

"We need to make final preparations," the older man was saying. "Can you see
to that?"

Ben'sar nodded his head. He still couldn't believe the brother he'd always
looked up to was gone, but he knew he had to be strong for his parents right
now and help them anyway he could.

"I'll see it's ready by tomorrow night."

Sarrine looked across at her mate. With one look they knew what the other
was thinking, feeling. No words needed to be said.

"Come Tera. There's nothing we can do right now," Sarrine said gently. "You
need to be with your son right now."

"But I don't want to leave..."

"Gabben and Ben'sar will stay with him. Treb needs you more right now."

"Treb needs me," Tera repeated and only then remembered someone had taken
her son from her. She looked around. "Where is he?" her voice a near panic.

"He's right here Tera," a woman stepped forward and held the boy out to her. 

"Come Tera.. We'll take him and go to our home," Sarrine told her, knowing
she might not want to go home and face an empty apartment just yet.

By now Treb had figured something wasn't right and had begun to cry. It was
the sound of his tears that got through to her and she let Sarrine lead her off.

Treb needed her now. She'd deal with her own grief later in the dark of the
night when no one was around to see her cry.

Ga'brin's body was taken to the med center to be prepared for the coming
funeral. His father accompanied it even as his younger brother went off to
find friends to help in the building of the funeral pyre. Ga'brin had been
so well liked as a person and as a rider that there was no shortage of hands
offering to help.

But his was only one of the many pyres that would be built over the next
day. Telnor had been hit hard and would be long in recovering from the lost
of the riders who'd given their lives that day in Geode.

Just as Tera would be long in forgetting the man she held responsible for
their deaths.


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

Tera & Sundellath
Traplin & Diemis
Sarrine, Telnor healer
Gabben, Telnor Bard
Ben'sar & (I forget his dragons name... for shame..)
Telnor Warren

aka
Barbara