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[Party]
[Zoi]

Zoi arrived late to find the party well in swing with dancers
already on the floor.  Grumbling to herself, she gave a few
unnecessary tugs to straighten out her black and red outfit and
stepped into the crowd searching for the guest of honor,
Maedralyn.

She found her dancing with the new "trainer in training" as he
had dubbed himself, and moved to cut in, careful to make sure her
hair obscured her features.

[snip]
Eth'n thoroughly enjoyed dancing with the new junior queenrider.
She was
light on her feet, and felt exquisite in his arms.

But it wasn't fair of him to monopolize all of her time.  And
just as that
thought crossed his mind another rider tapped him on the shoulder
requesting
to cut in.

Graciously, Eth'n relinquished the charming queenrider to the
waiting rider.
[end snip]

"I'm Zoi, rider of Rover," she said before the queenrider could
ask, but got no further when the song ended and a new, fast piece
began.  She tilted her head in an unspoken challenge towards the
center of the dance floor.  The queenrider merely grinned in
reply and they were off, swirling around the rapidly thinning
floor.

Sparing a brief thought from her feet to send silent thanks to
her mother for making her lead so much during their dance
lessons, Zoi then proceeded to see if the junior queenrider was
prone to motion sickness with furious spates of tossing,
spinning, and flinging about that left them both breathless when
the song finally ended.

"Punch?"  Maedralyn managed to gasp out over the applause, and,
without waiting for an answer, led the way.  It took a major
effort of will on Zoi's part not to simply dunk her head in the
bowl and slurp the liquid up like a beast.  Three rapidly drained
cups later, however, Zoi felt like she could talk again -- her
intent all along --  and led the pretty, if heavy, queenrider to
some open seats.

"Well, you certainly are quite a dancer, Zoi," Maedralyn
complimented with a smile.

"Thank you, you're pretty decent yourself, Maedralyn," Zoi
returned, wondering if the woman knew her dance partner had been
a woman.

"Mae, call me Mae, please."

"Well, Mae, as much as I enjoyed that dance, I actually wanted to
talk to you about something."  At Mae's encouraging look, Zoi
continued.  "With Laria out on med leave, you're likely going to
be stuck assigning partners for some of us, myself included."

"You have a preference?" Mae asked.

"Not exactly...  My dragon Rover is... well to be perfectly frank
he's about as intelligent as a dog.  Honestly," she avered at
Mae's skeptical look, "I had the unfortunate luck to join to a
mentally... deficient dragon.  Wing formations hopelessly confuse
him, and there's only so much I can do to keep him where he's
supposed to be.  He's all right in pairs, he knows enough to
flame wraiths anyways.  But, well, he's pretty dependent, not
just on me but on nearby dragons, to keep him in line.  So
basically, all I'm asking is that, well, you ask whomever your
choice is if they want to be partnered with me.  I'm not opposed
to a trial and error period either.  And if they want to switch,
well, let them, Rover takes more patience then I sometimes have."

"I^ñll have to conduct further interviews before I have a good
sense of which pairs would make suitable partners.  Once I have
an idea of who might be a good partner for you and Rover, I^ñll be
better able to judge if a trial and error period seems
indicated."  Mae smiled.  "Don^ñt worry, in a warren of this size,
there is undoubtedly at least one dragonrider pair who will be
able to work well with you and Rover."

"Well, now that that's settled, can I interest you in another
dance?"

"Of course," Mae answered, placing her hand in Zoi's offered one,
and led the way onto the floor.

*********
[Insert parts of various posts pertaining to the fire here :)]
*********

Smoke billowed thickly above her head as Zoi crawled for the
door, fairly confident that she was the last one out.  Good thing
too because her knees were starting to hurt from all this
crawling.  Her hand bumped into something warm, fuzzy, and fairly
pliable...  She squinted through watering eyes and decided that
she had found a face.  Frowning beneath the wet collar of her
shirt-- a pitcher of water had been conveniently close at hand
when the fire had broken out -- she gave the man an experimental
slap.  Not even a twitch.  Wonderful, now she'd have to carry the
stupid ox out of here.

Grunting beneath his greater weight, she managed to get him up on
her back with his arms dangling over her shoulders.  Gods, he was
heavy!  Cursing, she managed to straighten her legs, though she
was still hunched over like a grandmother with a load of grain on
her back.  His feet still dragging behind, she managed a
stumbling jog towards what she hoped was the exit.

Zoi nearly fell over when his left shoulder banged into
something.  Then she heard the voices and realized she had just
slammed him into the threshold.  Regaining her balance and
correcting her aim, she made it about ten steps beyond the door
before her knees decided enough was enough.  With little
ceremony, she dumped her load onto the ground and let the healers
have him.

***********************
[Morning after party]

Rover itched.  He opened his eyes and blinked, wondering who he
was cuddling with.  He craned his neck a bit for a better look.
Magenta was the first thing he saw and he still didn't know who
it was.  A flash of gold from twitching wingtips and he
remembered.  It was Zareena.

He liked Zareena.  She was very pretty colors.  He really liked
how she shimmer-shined in the light like little hatchling suns.
But she was sleeping and Rover could still  vaguely remember
Zoi's anger at being woken up this morning.  He didn't want to
make pretty Zareena angry.  That would not be good.  But he
itched and couldn't scratch it tangled up with shiny Zareena.

Carefully, Rover freed himself from the cuddle and wandered out
into the sun, stretching out the kinks as he went.  As soon as he
was far enough away, he rolled over onto his back, wings splayed
and eyes squeezed against the sun light, and began wriggling in
the dirt, raising a small cloud of dust.

A shadow fell over his face and he stopped moving as he opened
his eyes.  A dragonhead shadow shape hung above him.

<What are you doing, Rover?> the dragon asked.  Rover
concentrated hard, trying to remember who that mind voice
belonged to.  He noticed the white mark on her face and
remembered, Indigo.

<Well, what are you doing?> she asked.

It took him a moment, but then the bad spot reminded him. <I
itch.>

<You itch? Is that all? Well I can scratch... hmm no.  You're all
dirty and Elisa just gave me a bath.  But Elisa says that itching
is caused by dry skin and that mud is good for that.  Since
you're already so dirty, why not try mud?>

<Mud...> Rover repeated and struggled back onto his feet.
Indigo backed away until the small cloud of dirt had settled.
<Where is mud?> he asked.

<This way,> Indigo said cheerily and led the way to the small
lake that the dragons bathed in.

When they got there, the itchy spot was really really itchy and
he hurried ahead to the inviting black goo.  Indigo barely had
time to get out of the way before he plopped into the mud with a
spat and began rolling around.  By the time the itch went away,
he was alone.

Feeling much better, Rover left the lake behind and returned to
Zareena.  Having an itch was a lot of work and he was ready for
another sleep.  Still dripping mud, he snuggled up next to pretty
Zareena, and immediately rolled head over tail as Zareena flew to
her feet with an alarmed squawk.

<Rover!> Zareena spluttered furiously, shaking her wings to try
to dislodge the muck.

Rover shrank down to the ground, looking at the muddied queen
with dismay.  Pretty Zareena was angry!

<Out! Out! Go take a bath!> Zareena shrieked, and he slunk away,
back to the pool.

He swam out into the water dejectedly, the mud turning the water
even darker around him.  He hadn't meant to make Zareena angry.
He didn't understand what he had done wrong except that pretty
Zareena wasn't happy and it was his fault.

<I'm sorry, pretty Zareena,> Rover told her sadly, catching sight
of her by the human eating place.

She looked over at him.  <Oh all right, I forgive you Rover.  You
can come here.>

Pretty Zareena wasn't mad anymore!  He was so happy he obeyed her
at once.  He spread his wings above the water and teleported.

******************
[Zoi]

Zoi strode out of the dining hall, admiring the perfect pear in
her hand.  It looked so unbelievably delicious that she couldn't
bear to eat it inside where the rest of the food smells might
marr her enjoyment of its perfection.  Squinting in the brighter
light, she brought the fruit up to her lips and bit down, juice
dribbling all over her chin and hand -- and nearly choked as her
dragon teleported in above and behind the nearby queen.

A large oval of water surrounded her dragon from his neck and
wings down, sparkling like a really big opal in the bright sun.
For a brief, impossible, breathless moment Zoi thought it would
actually stay up there...  Nope.

The water came crashing down with a wet, heavy thud, quickly
followed by an offended dragon-sized yelp as it soaked the queen,
and headed straight towards the dining hall doors in a muddy
tidal wave.  Zoi made a desperate dive out of they way, still
mindful of her pear, and only managed to get thoroughly soaked
instead of swept off her feet.  Shrieks erupted from inside as
the water crashed loudly into the back wall.  Zoi winced as that
was soon followed by the muffled sounds of crashing pots and more
shouts.

A moment later smaller waves of water carrying all sorts of debry
flowed out, creating an expanding mud puddle in front of the
dining hall.  Soaked, battered, and angry looking people began
wading out next as Zoi picked herself up off the ground  and made
her way towards her dragon and the spluttering magenta queen.

<Why couldn't you have done that last night, Rover?> Zoi asked
irritably, not really expecting an answer.

He just blinked at her quizzically for a moment before saying, <I
itch.>

What dumping a ton of water into the dining hall had to do with
an itch she couldn't begin to fanthom.  But she had discovered
that with Rover there was no point in asking.  It wasn't worth
feeling like she was swimming in molasses while he came up with
an answer.  Besides, with him this close she was starting to get
a nasty sympathetic itch right between her shoulder blades.

<Come on and I'll oil you, then> she told him sharply.  "I'm
already a soaking mess anyways."

Throwing her ruined pear away in disgust, Zoi marched over to her
apartment, idiot dragon in tow, and hoped she wasn't going to get
in trouble for this.

************************
[Istvan]

Istvan led the white mare over to the warren stables, pleased
that she hadn't shown a jot of nervousness with all the dragons
present.  She should do very well for the show tonight... if the
warrenlady took his offer that is.  Why she wouldn't he couldn't
begin to guess, no warrenlady had refused yet.

He got directions from the stable boy and headed for the offices,
whistling cheerfully beneath his mustache.  Pausing to brush the
travel dust off his clothes, he rapped on the first door and
hoped it was the right one.

A muffled "Come in," issued from within and Istvan swung open the
door.  Bowing with practiced grace, he gave her his most charming
smile.  "The beautiful Warrenlady Laria, I presume?"

She chuckled softly, "Not quite.  Junior Queenrider Maedralyn.
Laria is currently on medical leave.  And you are?"

"Istvan Romav, owner and boss of Romav's world famous traveling
circus.  My  appologies for the mistake."

She waved off his appology and gestured for him to take a seat.
"So what can I do for you, Istvan?" she asked once he had sat
down.

"It's more what I can do for you, my breathtakingly beautiful
Maedralyn.  As a traveling circus, we do not tithe, though we
reap the benefits of warren protection.  So, being more honest
then most of my fellows, I'm willing to stage performances for a
few nights in the warren with no admission charged.  Trade,
gaming, and barter would, naturally, proceed as usual, but all
the shows would be free.  My version of a tithe, if you choose to
accept it that is."

"Why Mr. Romav, that is a perfectly marvelous idea.  I'm sure the
warrenfolk would enjoy the diversion.  You may set up your
caravans on the wooded side of the green."  Mae smiled.  "And you
do have the large cats, don't you?  Those are my favorites."

"But of course, fair Maedralyn, we have the most beautiful fierce
cats, much like yourself I dare say, that you shall ever lay your
glorious gaze upon," Istvan declared with a devilish smile.  "But
now, unfortunately, I must beg your leave if you shall see a show
tonight.  Fare thee well, oh most glorious of ladies, I shall see
thee anon."  And with an elaborate bow, he stepped back into the
doorway and was gone.
***************************
NRPG: Yes the circus is coming to town.  Mini bios shall be sent
out shortly and a show will be held that night.

Submitted by,
Bridget
Zoi and Rover