*Tarv'renon*

[late evening, after dinner]

It hadn't taken Aeryin long to discover that Tarv'renon did have a kitchen
but it wasn't well stocked, so she had sent him down to get some supplies
from the dining hall. He bristled at being ordered about so, but did it
anyway. That was always the way of it, doing something because someone else
wanted it done. Not that he had much choice in getting the provisions, he
could hardly take her down to the dining hall and back. But somehow it
seemed to Tarv'renon that there was never much choice when it came to doing
another's bidding.

As he went about his errands he noticed a lot of activity, and Murkash told
him there was a lot of dragon talk about the missing girl. He tried to push
it out of his mind, tell himself it would be fine.

He returned to the apartment and set down the boxes of food on the counter
of the kitchen. "Here, he said, I got the stuff you wanted."

"Good boy, Tavy." Aeryin said.

He grit his teeth, hating being talked to like a child. Tavy, that was a
child's name. He wasn't a child, he was a man. Xanthia would wake up and
she'd see that, he told himself.

"They're looking for her." Aeryin told him, stating the obvious.

He grunted in reply, not wanting to think about that.

"What are you going to do when they come here? You know it's only a matter
of time."

"Shut up!" he snapped in response.

"And another thing, what will you do when she wakes up? I don't think
she'll be too happy to find herself here with you."

"I said shut up!" he yelled, perspiration beading on his forehead.

Just then a moan was heard from the girl on the couch.


***

*Xanthia* 

She heard someone yelling, her head throbbed. This was as bad as a
migraine, only different. Groggily she tried to remember, and recalled
having been by a waterfall, and being kissed.

Reluctantly Xanthia peeled open her eyes and propped herself up on her
elbows. She blinked, relieved that the light was low, and allowed her eyes
to adjust to the dim light of the room.

Her eyebrows raised in amazement as she looked about the room she was in.
The walls of the room were entirely papered in pictures of her and Aradia.
She finished sitting up the rest of the way, groaning at the effort, On
impulse she put a hand to her head, a vain attempt to push back the pain,
and felt a bandage there. Carefully she probed about her head, searching
for the injury, and flinched when she got to the spot on the back of her
scalp.

"Well, Red, I see you are awake now," a woman said to her.

Xanthia blinked  not recognizing the woman. She turned to the wall nearest
to her and plucked down two of the pictures.

"Xanthia and Aradia." Xanthia said, asking many questions at once in those
three words. Who are you? Did you make these? Where am I? What's going on?

"You must be Xanthia then," the woman said, "I'm Aeryin."

Xanthia snorted derisively, not happy about not having her questions
answered and frustrated at not being able to make herself understood. Words
came difficult at that moment, with her head hurting and the confusion of
finding herself somewhere she'd never been.

"You?" Xanthia asked, pointing to the pictures.

"No, I didn't draw them, if that's what you wanted to know." the woman
named Aeryin answered.

Just then a man came out of the kitchen, "I drew them," he said quietly.
"Do you like them?"

Xanthia squinted at the man, he looked familiar, but she couldn't quite
place him.

"I love you Xanthia," he confessed.

Then Xanthia remembered.

"You!!!!" Xanthia screamed, pointing an accusing finger at the man and
shrinking into the corner of the couch.

***

*Maxima*

She thought she felt her rider, and tried to find out where her rider was.
In response she got the image of a room filled with pictures, and the
sensation of pain, and confusion.

<My rider, are you all right?> Maxima sent

<Hurt, Where am I?> Xanthia asked.

Maxima quickly spread word that Xanthia was somewhere with pictures, and
that she was hurt. She gave the image of the room to the other dragons.

<I've been so worried!> Maxima told Xanthia.

Then the hatchling was gripped by fear; fear she knew was not her own.

<My heart, what is it?> Maxima asked anxiously.

<It's him! The one who kissed me by the waterfall. Icky!> Xanthia replied
in a panic.

<Who?> Maxima asked, ruffling her wings nervously.

A mere moment later her answer came not in the form of a name, but an
image. She wasted no time sending the image to Fayloth and Cricket, calling
to her mother and father on instinct. 

<This is the man my Xanthia is with. She's very afraid of him. Please
hurry!>

*******

NRPG: Well, tag Kris and Kat!



                \=/,         _-===-_-====-_-===-_-==========-_-====-_
                |  @___oo   (    Submitted by:                        )
      /\  /\   / (___,,,}_--=    Jacqueline "Morgan" Allgood          )
     ) /^\) ^\/ _)        =__                                          )
     )   /^\/   _)          (_                                         )
     )   _ /  / _)            (      Danika/Kalindeth of Daere        )
 /\  )/\/ ||  | )_)            (_    Xanthia/Maxima of Whiteriver     )
<  >      |(,,) )__)             (   Kattibrie/Calishandra of Telnor )
 ||      /    \)___)\             (_ Yasmine/Starlin of Marrid       )
 | \____(      )___) )___           -==-_____-=====-_____-=====-___==
  \______(_______;;; __;;;