"I think I know why she attacked us."  Tanya said suddenly   "Look!"  

She pointed to a small ledge about three feet away, and Cali gasped as she
realised what she was seeing.  An untidy nest...... and eggs!  Two of them.

"No wonder she was so aggressive!  She thought we were going to harm her
eggs!"  Cali exclaimed.

The animal shrieked loudly and renewed her struggle to escape as the two
girls examined the mottled blue eggs.  Tanya tried desperately to hold onto
the struggling creature in her arms; she was losing the battle, however.

"I think we should take the eggs and her back to the Warren with us"
Tanya said finally as the creature calmed.   "But how do we keep them warm
until we get back?  There's no hot sand here.... so she must sit on them to
keep them warm."

"Then we'll have to keep them warm."  Cali replied  "If we each take one of
the eggs, and carry it next to our skin.... maybe our body heat will be
enough until we get back.  What do you think?"

"Might work."  Tanya said thoughtfully  "We'll have to try anyway.... we
can't leave them here.  But what do we do about mum?......"

"Cover her head with something."  she shrugged out of her jacket as she
spoke, and quickly flipped it over the animals head.  Tanya tied the arms of
the jacket together around the creatures head, effectively blinding it. "If
she can't see what we're doing she might be quieter.  We'll have to tie her
to one of the
dragons though."

"OK.  If you help me we can get her tied to Poldera's saddle, and then see
to the eggs."

Moving rapidly the two tied the animal to Tanya's saddle straps and then
returned for the eggs.  When they were satisfied that they'd done all they
could to make sure the eggs would be warm enough, Tanya mounted Poldera,
and the pair launched from the ledge to make room for Lute to pick up Cali.  

With a last look at the cave mouth the two dragons winked out on their
way back to the Warren.

As the warren came into view, Tanya felt the struggling cease in the bundle
she was carrying.  "Uh oh," she muttered as she looked down; sure enough, it
was empty.

"It teleported," she shouted over to Cali, who sighed and said, "When?"

"I don't know.  Must have been right before we did."  She felt the egg that
was wrapped up against her side.  "Maybe this wasn't a good idea," she
called out to Cali.  "Maybe we should have left the eggs there.  I mean, it
was their mother...."

"But how would they have stayed warm?" Cali countered.  "You saw the
conditions; if these eggs  are anything like dragon eggs, that cave wouldn't
have been the right environment for them!  There was no sand, it was
slightly damp, and it was cold!  They would have more than likely died, if
they're not already."  That seemed, to her, to be a revelation; Tanya felt
the same way.  She placed her hand onto the egg, hoping that it wasn't
already dead.  Somehow, she knew it wasn't.

"I suppose," Tanya answered softly, then turned back to the warren.  "But
we've lost the mother.  What will we tell Trinale?"

"Everything.  We'll tell her how we found it, and its description, and that
it can teleport like dragons."

Tanya shrugged.  Seemed logical enough, if a little unfinished.  She wished
she still had the mother, though; the creature was hard to describe.  Until
the eggs hatched, or unless they went in search of the dragonlike creature
again, the warrenlady wouldn't know exactly what it looked like.

"Let's go see the warrenlady first," Tanya called out.  "Show her the eggs,
then try to get them incubated."

"Good idea," Cali replied.  "But we better hurry; this egg isn't getting too
warm."

They landed outside the warrenlady's office and, quickly dismounting,
entered the office.  However, they couldn't find the warrenlady anywhere.
Looking around, they spotted one of her aides and asked about her whereabouts.

"Didn't you hear?  She and that new wilder were out today and a wildcat
attacked.  The wilder fought it off, but not before he was wounded badly..."

Tanya didn't hear any more; she was racing out the door, the egg forgotten
momentarilary.  Pa'gan, hurt!?  She leaped aboard Poldera, narrowly missing
crushing the poor egg, and thought *The hospital!*

Poldera wasted no time, taking off swiftly as she felt her rider's distress
and winging the distance to the hospital.  On the way, she remembered the
egg vaguely, and put a hand on it to protect it, cursing silently.  She
probably should have done it first, but it was too late now anyway; she was
here.  She dismounted, careful about the egg this time, and entered the
hospital.

She searched down the corridors, asking people around her about the wilder
that came in. Finally, one nurse directed her in the right direction, and
within seconds she was outside the door.  

Trinale was sitting in a seat outside, holding what appeared to be a small
cub.  Tanya came up to her and, seeing the warrenlady's obvious distress,
asked softly, "Trinale, what happened?"

Tag Kat!

NRPG:  Kat, If you tell Tanya anything about the little meeting with Pa'gan,
she's going to be pretty jealous.  I know I already said this, but just a
little reminder.


Submitted by

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~ Sarah Pearson (isolinde@cwnet.com)        ~
* Lyonnia/Dianthus *TELNOR*; Rezsia/Jezebel *
~ *DAERE*; Tanya/Poldera *WHITERIVER*;      ~
* Cynedra/Jakob*the dog*/Louie*the ferret*  *
~ *MYSTERRA*; Leanna Vere *USS MAGELLAN*    ~
* (a web page with nothing on it)           *
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Death is life's way of telling you you've been fired."
					        Anonymous