[Katla]

"Ouch!"  She eyed Nalin, who appeared to be off in his own little world.

Nalin snapped fully back to the present, his hands freezing for a moment 
before releasing her hand.  Contrite, he put his hands into his lap.  
"I'm sorry," he whispered, staring at his offending hand and refusing to 
meet her lovely eyes.

Chance considered him for a moment, and then took pity on him.  "It's okay,
Nalin.  Derry does that sometimes too."

He still refused to look at her, and she sighed.

*crash!* *thump* "Oh!"

"What the --" said Chance.

"It sounds like Terau!" replied Nalin.  They looked at each other for a
moment.  Without a word, Nalin handed her her crutches and she grinned at him.

They followed the string of curses and crashing noises.  They found Terau
leaning against the back of a chair, but the feet were beginning to give way
against the floor.

"Careful, Terau!"  said Nalin, placing his elbow beneath Terau's hand.

"That you, Nalin?"

"Yes."

"You see where that sneaky boy o' mine went off to?"

Katla and Nalin looked at each other, Katla's dark eyes gleaming with laughter.

"No, I didn't."

"Terau?  What *are* you doing here?"  Chance's voice rippled with gentle
laughter at the situation.


-----
[Derry]

He headed back toward training.  Cali was going over the saddling of their
dragons when he arrived.

"...And you have to get used to setting the saddle properly so that it
doesn't pinch or injure your dragon, and so that it won't slip and dump you
midflight."

"A bit like saddling and riding a horse in many ways."  He said as he
hurried up  "My apologies for being late...."


"Lute explained."  Cali waved the apology away  "I've made sure that both
dragonets have eaten.  How is Katla?"


"In pain."  he said wryly  "But she's too stubborn and pigheaded to let
something like this put her out of action for very long."


"Hm.  I'd like to talk to you about her training when you can spare a
moment."  Cali said thoughtfully   "If you'd join me when we break for
lunch... that's if you haven't already made plans of course?"

"Certainly...  I've been wanting to speak with you about it, actually.
Chance is too proud to do so..."

And with that, training resumed.  Derric practiced on Levka and Satinka, so
that both could become used to the weight and constraints of the straps, and
it left him little time to think, which was all to the good.  His fears and
worries related to Trinale preyed upon him when he wasn't thinking of
something else, and the respite was nice.

When practice was over, he hugged both Lev and 'Tinka, and walked over to Cali.

"Tired?" she asked.

"Gods, yes.  I want to apologize for missing class yesterday, but Lev and
'Tinka -- they wanted us to go."

"Hmmm."  Cali studied him and he brushed a lock of mahogany hair out of his
eyes, shrugging.

"Anyway, you wanted to discuss training?"

"Yes.  Let's go get some food and find a place that we can talk."

As per the usual, the dining hall was filled to brimming with the lunch
crowed.  Derric and Cali looked at one another, and each snagged something
portable and headed back out into the sunlight.

They ate for a little bit, silent.

"You know that Katla's disability is going to cause her problems, don't you?"

Derry nodded, brushing crumbs from his fingers.  "Yes.  But that's always
been true.  At home... well, Katla has trained half of the horses we've sold
over the last few years...  If given a chance, she'll find a way."

Cali looked over at him, considering.  He grinned at her.  "You'll never
keep her off of 'Tinka's back, and I dare you to keep her out of combat...
if she isn't allowed to fight with a wing, she'll find a way to do it
without the wing...  It'll work better if we find a way to help..."

[Tag, Les]


----
NRPG -- Sorry it's so short, but my fund of ideas is drying up for today...
More later :)

Respectfully submitted,
Jill E. Flansburg
Katla, Satinka, Derry and Levka


Assistant Director, X-Files                Rhiannon, WarrenLady  *Xylian*
Sterling A. Kincaid, TL, ECHO, X-Files     Elswyth and Aedra   *Keldarra*
Damien Cunningham, UD DELTA, X-Files       Katla and Satinka *Whiteriver*
Xan X. Xavier, T1, X-Files                 Zera and Mazel-to-be *Norwall*

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			Vasaris, the Fuzzy Dragon
Jill E. Flansburg		    |		vasaris@az.com
CS HMC 1994			    |		jflansbu@muddcs.cs.hmc.edu
History, WWU 199?		    |		vasaris@divcom.umop-ap.com
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