On Fri, 19 Jul 1996, Kat Harris wrote:
> 
>          Arlene, please post yourself somewhere where a group of us can 
> get you before the hatching.

A bit nervously I write:

Merissa woke.  It was still dark outside and she wondered briefly 
through the haze of too much wine where she was and who the snoring 
stranger was beside her.  She could hear her mother's voice in her mind, 
as she slowly disentangled herself from her sleeping companion and slid 
off the bed:

`You'll never be anything, Merissa.' and Merissa agreed with her mother's 
voice.  She'd done it again.  All her good intentions always vanished in 
a bottle of wine.

She recalled the last few days of traveling.  She'd been "requested" by 
Lord Fowler to perform for his guests.  He was having a large gathering 
at his grand home near Whiteriver Warren.  There was to a be a hatching 
there and many of the elite were hoping that some of their sons would be 
selected for the attemped joining to become dragon riders--including Lord 
Fowler.

Merissa couldn't understand what all the fuss was over dragons.  She new 
that they were necessary for fighting the Wraiths, but she personally, 
had never had any contact with them.  She new lots of the "old songs" 
about them and could sing them on request, but not with the passion that 
she had for all the lost souls and travelers in the Wastelands.  For 
them, she had great understanding, traveling in a "wasteland" of her own 
making.

She quietly dressed, scolding herself for her entanglements again.  Dawn 
was in the air and she really would rather be out of this bedroom before 
her nameless "lover" woke--though with the amount of wine he had drunk 
that probably wouldn't be for days, she thought with a grin.

Tonight would be another feast, but this one would be more important as 
one of the dragonriders from the warren would be there to select from the 
young people gathered at the feast those that would be traveling to 
Whiteriver Warren for the hatching.

She headed off to the kitchen to see if she could scrounge up something 
to eat...

----------------
How's that?
-Arlene (aka Merissa of Whiteriver Warren)