[Derry]

"Of course" Trinale replied, smiling at him, tears of joy in her eyes. "It
would make me the happiest woman on this earth."

As the two kissed, the sounds of three dragons trumpeting rang out from the
hatching cavern as Cricket, Levka and Satinka let the warren know of the
happy event.

Breaking the kiss slowly, Derry laughed, resting his forehead on hers.  "I
suppose this means that everyone will know..."

Trinale nodded.  "Well, if you didn't want to be an object of gossip, you
shouldn't have got yourself Joined to a dragon..."

Derry held her loosely, swinging her around in an impromptu dance.  "Oh,
given a choice between being here with you as a subject for dragon gossip
and being out among the LandBound, I don't suppose I'd choose horse
breeding..."

A twig crackled and Derry escorted his lady to her seat.

"Dinner is served."

----
[Late Afternoon, skipping lots o' stuff]

He watched as Chance dismounted, looking slightly puzzled as 'Tinka huffed
a bit disdainfully at the others and walked over to where he stood by
verdigris Levka.  Derry grinned at her and she smiled back.

"So, big brother, I guess I know where you'll be sleeping... Not that I
didn't before," she said cheekily, dark eyes sparkling with mischief.

Derry laughed and hugged her.  "Gee, thanks, brat."

"So when are you going to tell Mama and Papa?  I mean, you just got
married... more or less."

He froze, blinking down at her, startled.  "That's right, isn't it?  I
*should* tell them..."

"More than should..."  She smiled at him, her cheeks a bit flushed, eyes
bright with something he didn't quite recognize.  "In fact I think you
should go now..."

"What?"

Satinka sat up, eyes disdainfully raking across the assembled dragons.

"Derry..."  Her breathing sped up and he suddenly understood.  "Go..."

<* Tell Trinale where we're going, Lev... *>  He told his dragon as they
launched into the air and winked out.

-----
[Katla]

Tension coiled in the pit of her stomach as Levka winked out and 'Tinka's
snappish irritability suddenly flared into something deeper and more
insistent.  The frail control that had allowed her to ask Derry to leave
falling to ashes beneath fires burning beneath her skin.

Screaming defiantly, Satinka took to the air, and Katla's soul went with
her.


-----
[Satinka]

< Catch me if you can! >

Her demand echoed to every male dragon in the Warren as she soared into the
sky, the ecstasy of flight coursing through her.  How tedious to be tied to
the ground, being kind to those graceless, pathetic male lumps!  None of
them were sleeker, faster, stronger than she...

Tumbling from the heights, she fell through the cluster of her lovers,
dancing nimbly between them.  They scattered and she bugled triumphantly,
rising to flirt with the incandescent clouds...  The males gave chase, but
the freedom to move filled her, and Satinka wheeled and soared and spun,
dancing...

He caught her as she pirouetted above the silver-and-gold glory of the
luminescent clouds, wrapping around her and holding her captive as they
fell in an uncontrolled tumble.

< Release me! > Fury and heat rose within her in equal parts as she
struggled against superior strength.

<^ Submit! ^>  Teeth pricked the sensitive hide of her throat and they spun
faster toward the ground.

< Never! >  The heat rose as his jaws clamped tighter.

<^ I am Grunth and you must submit or die. ^>

Rage and defiance mutated in an instant, and Satinka yielded utterly.  <
Yes, you are worthy... >


------
[Katla]

A mouth descended on hers, hard and demanding as she clung desperately to
Grunth's rider.  Her crutches fell away and strong arms lifted her as her
legs refused to support her weight.

Clothing disappeared, vanishing under the heat of their bodies, his hands
stoking an uncontrollable fire that raced along her nerve endings,
threatening to leave her as nothing but ash.  She couldn't hear her own
pleas through the velvet-edged lightning, just the harsh breathing and
moist contact of sweat drenched skin and mouths and fingers...

There was an instant of pain as they joined together, swept away by the
tide of other sensations and they moved together in a dance older than
time.  Crying out as the sun exploded, she twisted and bucked, and his
voice joined hers as liquid fire flowed into her belly...

And the name he called out was Shawnee's...


-----
[Anis Vaddon]

"Derry, what are you doing here?"  Lady Anis Vaddon smiled in startled
surprise as her second-born walked into her solarium with a jaunty step and
a wide, incandescently happy smile.

"Just visiting...  I've got instant transportation to wherever I want to
go, so I suppose I should use it to visit people I love..."  Anis laid
aside her embroidery and went to her son, her favorite of all the children,
and was caught in a hard embrace.

"So, where's Chance?"

Derry flushed a brilliant red.

"Um... She told me I ought to come visit..."

Anis raised her brows and pulled back from him, mischief glowing in her
eyes.

"Oh...?"  Examining the flush, she laughed.  "Of course!  Oh, dear.  When
she Joined, I never considered that aspect of it.  She was sensitive enough
to know when you should leave?"

"Yeah."  His blush faded and he smiled.  "But there's another reason
too..."

"Oh?"

"Let's find Papa and Allin, I want to tell everyone at once..."  Derry
laughed.  "Actually, I want to tell the world..."

Her husband and youngest son were in the estate room, going over various
points of business when they walked in.  Allin had grown up a great deal in
the time that Jerlyn had designated the boy his heir, and he was shaping
into a fine Lord who would do well for the people of the Vaddon estates. 
Both looked up and grinned widely as they saw Derry come into the room
wearing riding leathers, embracing him roughly and laughing.

"Derry, what are you *doing* here?"

"Just visiting.  Well, not just visiting."  He grinned.  "I just wanted to
tell you that I asked Trinale to be my mate last night and she said yes!"

Anis gasped and ran over to hug her son.  "How wonderful!  I had quite
despaired of ever marrying you off."

"You married the WarrenLady?" asked Allin, eyes wide.

Derry nodded, happiness glowing in his eyes.  "The Warren equivalent,
anyway.  I wish that it could have been a big wedding with all of our
friends, but..."

"That's okay, son.  Warren ways aren't LandBound ways."  Jerlyn took
Derry's hand and shook it.  "Congratulations, Lady Trinale is a beautiful,
courageous girl...  And you must bring her to dinner some time soon.  I've
never spoken to her in the aspect of father-in-law..."

Derry laughed.  "I will."

"Where's your sister?  I'd have thought she'd be eager to know the progress
on my petition for guardianship of those children..."

Derry blushed and Anis laughed.

"There's more than one reason that Derry had to leave the Warren today..."

Jerlyn blinked at her.  "What?"

"Mating flight."  Anis stated matter-of-factly.  It was mildly amusing to
watch her husband go red and then quite pale as he realized that his
daughter was subject to all of the ways of the Warren now, and Allin went
quite red.  She smiled gently.  "It's perfectly natural.  Don't worry about
her, I'm sure she's fine."

The men all nodded and Anis fought the urge to laugh.  They'd all been
protecting their crippled little girl forever, and had never quite realized
that the girl had grown up into a strong young woman.  There would be a
difference in how they saw her now, and for that, Anis was glad.  Chance
had been slowly smothering under the chains of being "Lord Jerlyn's
crippled daughter," and Anis hoped that her child was gaining some peace
and independence from that mold in the Warren.

-----
[Katla]

Katla dozed, physical exhaustion overcoming thought in an instant.  Dreams
came in the sated darkness, where she sat at the edge of a party her
brown-and-gold velvet dress, watching the dancers with an envy she could
not admit.  Throngs of gilded admirers feted the other ladies present while
she sat among the dowagers, alone...

Slow fire spread through her veins and Chance awoke to the deep indigo of
late night.  Hands brushed against her, leaving burning trails of
unsatisfied desire in the darkness.

"Shawnee..."  It was T'jellan's voice, thick with dreams, and Katla
shuddered, pushing away from his sleep-guided hands.  With effort, she
managed to pull herself out his embrace, falling to the floor in a noisy
heap, while he slept on, unaware.  A brief search on her hands and knees
managed to recover her pants and a shirt -- it was much too large for her,
but she wasn't going to light a candle to search more thoroughly for her
own clothes.

But her crutches were gone.  The passion fogged haze that shrouded her
memories seemed to suggest that they might be on the Green, but Chance
couldn't be sure.  For that matter, she wasn't entirely certain where she
was -- the inflamed desperation that had filled her when 'Tinka had
submitted overlay everything with an inky stain.  The details were gone...

Dressing as quickly and as silently as she could, Katla forced herself to
her feet, welcoming the agonizing spikes of white-hot pain that ran through
her legs and hips to her spine and beyond.  She didn't want to think,
didn't want to feel...  Pain was an adequate substitute for both.

Chance made it out of the Warren and sighed with relief when she realized
that she was close to the Med Center.  Without a doubt she could obtain
crutches there, and then she'd be able to make it to her room.  She could
make it that far, she knew she could.

And she did.  Step by step, concentrating on making it only a few feet at a
time until she got to the doorway and leaned against it.  Tears flowed
unnoticed in silver streams down her face, and she contemplated the steps
that would take her into the building with a kind of despair.  It was only
a little farther, but it yawned before her like infinity.

"Chance!  What are you doing here?"  Th'rin's voice came from her side and
she flinched away unconsciously as he held a hand out to her.

"No crutches," she said between gasping little breaths, making her way,
alone, to a chair.

"I thought..."  Th'rin broke off, staring down at her.  "Are you okay,
Katla?"

Chance forced a who-gives-a-damn smile to her lips.  "Yeah, more or
less..."

Tears continued to drip down her face, soaking into the collar of her
shirt, turning it into a sodden mass against her throat.  Th'rin moved
toward her again, and she flinched again, completely unconscious of the
action.  His hand fell to his side, and she missed the look of terrible
concern as she stared across the room.

"Is there anything else you need?"

Katla considered the question, trying to use it as a shield against
thinking, but the mating flight kept intruding on her thoughts.

"Umm...  I..."  She flushed.  "I wasn't taking anything to... um... avoid
pregnancy...  Is there anything..."

Th'rin nodded and she smiled wearily at him, trying to even out her
breathing.

"Something for pain would be good, too."

"You'll get more than that.  I want you to stay here for observation and I
want to examine your legs..."

She flinched inwardly.  Her damn legs, the only source of male attention,
and that had always been for medical reasons...  But she had walked further
without aid than she ever had before, and the agony of it was slowly
driving her mad, even with the trifling incidentals that weighed on her
mind.

"Could... could I take a bath, first?"

[Tag, Kris]

-------
[NRPG]

Kris, when it comes to strict medical practices, Katla won't have a problem
with being touched, it's incidental contact that she's currently flinching
away from.

*hugs*

Jill
                 X-FILES                         DRAGONLANDS

  Assistant Director                     Rhiannon, WarrenLady  *Xylian*
  Sterling Kincaid, Team Leader, ECHO    Elswyth and Aedra   *Keldarra*
  Damien Cunningham, UD DELTA            Katla and Satinka *Whiteriver*
  Xan X. Xavier, Trainer, Classroom A    Zera and Mazel       *Norwall*

 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
			      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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