**N'lin**

N'lin exchanged a sardonic glance with Trinale as Mr. Durrall shut the 
door behind him, murmuring wryly, "Lovely man."

They both exchanged slight grins over her desk.  "Well, I'll leave you 
to your unenviable duties, Trinale.  If you'll excuse me..." he added 
unnecessarily.  He quietly made his exit and immediately brought up a 
had to his aching head as soon as the door was shut behind him.  Curse 
these damn headaches.

At least now he had a pretty good idea why they came so much more often 
then before, lack of sleep.  He could hardly shut his eyes anymore with 
out being confronted by nightmares he could never remember.  He'd tried 
sleeping draughts, and though he'd slept the whole night on them, he'd 
always felt worse for the sleep.  He decided he felt better in the 
morning when he only managed an hour or two of slumber between the 
nightmares and gave up on the sleeping pills and potions all together. 

<Why don't you try to get some sleep,> Foil said, not bothering to hide 
his worry.  <It'll probably help with the headaches.>

<*Mothering me?*> N'lin asked with humor he didn't feel.

<A bit,> Trefoil said with a touch of relief.  Forced humor was better 
then the uncharacteristic temper that usually met that request.

Sighing, N'lin let his hands fall from his head and stepped into the 
stabbing sunlight.  Moments later he was curled up next to his fretting 
green dragon, the slightly pinched look around his mouth and eyes 
relaxing as he drifted to sleep for a little while.

****************************
**Aeryin**

She looked towards the couch as Red moaned, feeling relief.  Maybe now 
she could get out of this place.  All the pictures on the walls of the 
same person, or nearly the same person, gave her the creeps, too many 
eyes staring at her from faces framed by red hair.  Not to mention she 
was tired, and the man's nearly belligerant incompetence was grating on 
her raw nerves.

"Well, Red, I see you are awake now," Aeryin said as she saw the woman 
stir.  She watched as Red looked around with the usual bewilderment that 
followed head injuries and pluck two pictures off the wall.

"Xanthia and Aradia," Red said.

Aeryin wasn't sure that would have been the first words out of her mouth 
if she had been in the girl's situation, though she doubted she ever 
would have gotten into this situation in the first place.

"You must be Xanthia then," she said, thankful that a name had been 
provided.  "I'm Aeryin."

Xanthia snorted derisively, obviously not very happy with something.

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

Aeryin wondered if the woman's wits had been addled previous to the bump 
on the head.  Her kids had gotten worse bumps then her and had been 
fine.

"No, I didn't draw them, if that's what you wanted to know."

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

Aeryin was almost amused as Xanthia squinted blankly at the man who 
loved her.  Usually she would have been chuckling with the girls, but 
she was alone and she was tired and she wanted to leave.

"I love you Xanthia," he confessed.

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

Aeryin gave an initial start of surprise before starting to rise to go 
to the girl, her maternal insticts coming into fore.  She tried to get 
closer to touch the girl, but Xanthia would not have it from either of 
them.

"Stay away!" Xanthia screamed, cowering away from her touch.

Aeryin looked up in surprise as a short, bearded man stormed in and took 
in the situation.

"Tarv'renon!" the new arrival called, "What the hell is going
on here?"

The man looked at him in surprise, "I .. I .."

"I want to leave!" Xanthia screamed pulling away from Tavy, and running 
to the other man, "I want to leave."

Aeryin almost rolled her eyes, 'That would make two of us," she thought, 
keeping her mouth shut.

"It's okay, let's go .."

"NO!" Tarv'renon said looking at the short man (who's beard was a bit 
more meticulous then her husband's had ever been, she thought with a 
cringe), "Don't take her away."

"What is your problem, man! Can't you see she's upset!" The bearded 
rider asked looking at the younger man.

"Saul?" A voice called from the entrance of the apartment.  Aeryin 
sighed, what was this a party?  At least she had a name now.

Saul immediately recognized the voice, "In here, Trinale."

The tiny red-headed warrenlady walked in looking very composed despite 
obviously having been wakened in the middle of the night but this 
ruckus.  She spotted Xanthia, and her face flooded with relief, "Thank 
the gods!  We've been so worried about you."

"I want to leave .." Xanthia begged again.  She began to cry and Aeryin 
would have thrown her hands up in dusgust and walked out except she 
still couldn't get down.
 
"We'll get you out of here soon. But first I want to know what is going 
on here."

"He...." Xanthia started, flusted.

Aeryin sighed, having this sinking feeling that this was going to take a 
while.  She was about ready to scream as the silence continued between 
the two red heads when she noticed the slightly 
not-quite-here-at-the-moment looks on both their faces.  She resolved to 
keep her mouth shut.

Trinale turned to Tarv'renon. "Why didn't you take her to the med 
center?"

"I... I couldn't risk it!" Tarv'renon stammered. "They would have sent 
me away, never let me see her again. I couldn't lose her, I already lost 
Aradia."

"Aradia?" Trinale asked and looked around the decidedly creepy room.

"You???" Trinale said, "You were the one who left that picture on 
Xanthia's bed?"

"Yes," he confessed, not a hint of regret in his voice.

"Tarv'renon," Saul spoke up, "Let Xanthia go. The longer this takes, the 
worse it will be for you."

"NO! I love her! We are meant to be together!" Tarv'renon exclaimed. and 
planted his mouth over Xanthia's once more. 

Aeryin's eyes widened with shock as the girl started to cry.  This was 
nuts.  She was about to move to pull her away from Tavy, but Saul got 
their first.

"Have you gone mad! Can't you see you're scaring her!"

She was however close enough to pull the obviously frozen woman towards 
the warrenlady.  She shot them all disgusted glares, not in the mood for 
this foolishness, as Tavy threw a punch at Saul.  He dodged it easily, 
grabbing him by the wrist as he went off balance and twisting his arm  
behind him. 

"Don't you hear her crying?"

"She's mine! You can't take her from me!" The man screamed. He was quite 
a bit larger then Saul and by sheer size he broke free from the smaller 
man's grasp and moved toward the three women.

Aeryin had had quite enough of this crap.  She spotted a nice small 
stool and quietly made her way over to it, unnoticed as the man that had 
come with Trinale went to block Tavy.  Her hands closed around the small 
piece of furniture, finding a proper grip expertly, this wouldn't be the 
first time she'd used one of these.

"Why was it that men had to be hit over the head a few times before they 
remembered it was there and started using it?" she thought to herself as 
she took aim and swung.

He went satisfyingly boneless and fell to the ground.  She set down the 
stool, unable to keep the phantom words of her husband out of her head.  
"That's my Aery, go right into the mess of it," his proud voice 
whispered in her thoughts.  "If you ever do it again I'll take you over 
my knee!"

She shook her head imperceptively, brushing a wisp of hair out of her 
eyes.  "Men!" she said with exasperation, but not only for the foolish 
ones who happened to be present, trying to regain her precarious 
equilibrium.  She could feel their eyes, her beloved's arms around her, 
her dragon's intruding mind.  She lost her mental balance and burst into 
tears.

She tried to stop them, choking and cursing her weakness and all the 
rest of them, but they still flowed down her cheeks.  The small red head 
recovered from her shock and went over to comfort the intermittently 
sobbing and swearing woman.  She laid a gentle hand on Aeryin's arm, 
murmuring soothing nonsense.

The arm was jerked away violently, injured pride getting in the way.  
"Get me out of here," Aeryin said harshly, striding through the room 
full of faces towards the dragon ledge.  Gods she needed to leave, 
something to do other then being stared at.  She turned when no one 
moved.  

"Now!" Aeryin shrieked, louder then she wanted, embarrassment making the 
tears flow faster along with the curses.

A brown haired man exchanged a glance with Saul and shrugged.  "I'll 
call Lev to come get us," he said and motioned her to follow him.

"I-I'm sor-r-ry," she managed to mumble once they were away from the 
others, waiting for his dragon.  She tried to wipe her face, but only 
succeeded in getting her sleeve all wet, her cheeks still shined with 
her tears.

"It all right," he said softly, touching gentle fingers to her arm like 
Trinale had, only this time she didn't shake them off.  She almost had 
herself under control, a lot of it do, no doubt to the fresh air and an 
escape from that frightening apartment.  He had no time to offer her any 
further comfort as his dragon landed neatly on the ledge.

He mounted up and would have offered her a hand up, but she closed her 
hands around his waist before he could finish the gesture.  She wanted 
to get back on the ground where she could move as she pleased.

"Where to?" he asked, turning around.

Aeryin blinked her red, though no longer crying eyes in confusion.  "I.. 
I don't know."  She saw his confused expression and went on to explain.  
"I hit my head and blacked out at the hatching.  I woke up at dawn in 
the Med Center.  My h-husband left my things in the Green, before h-he 
l-left," she inwardly cursed her stumbling tongue and the need to start 
to cry again.  "I don't know what's been done with all my things, or 
where I'm supposed to go," she finished miserably.

"Probably to the hatching barrack, you did join didn't you?" he asked.

"Yes," she hissed, unable to deny it, wishing it wasn't true.  "But I 
don't want to go near that creature!" she finished vehemently, looking 
at her hand with its golden wedding ring and refusing to meet his 
stunned eyes that gazed at her over his shoulder.

[NRPG: Erm, Tag Jill]
*********************
**N'lin**

N'lin woke up with a start, shaking so bad with nameless terror he 
couldn't even sit up.  His head chimed in with its all too familiar 
stabs of pain.  He curled up into a trembling ball, waiting for the fear 
and the pain to fade to managable levels.

Trefoil curled around him protectively, trying to sooth his whimpering 
rider.  When the worst of the spell had finally past and N'lin had 
enough presence of mind to move, he wrapped his arms around his dragon's 
neck and closed his eyes.

<*What's happening to me, foil?*> N'lin asked fearfully, halfway sure 
that he was loosing his mind.

<I don't know my heart,> Foil said softly, rocking his shaking rider 
back and forth.  <But everything will work out, I'm sure of it.>

<*Gods, I hope so,*> N'lin whispered as he broke the embrace.

He looked around in the dark, realized that he wasn't at his apartment 
and climbed onto his dragon.  

<*Let's go home.*>
*********************

Submitted by,
Bridget Olson
N'lin and Trefoil
Aeryin and Arhotarkhe

                            .  ,   
                            . ,`o--Y  
    ____.....------.'      .,' ,,~''   `,------.....____   
''''`    `---.:: ,':       ; ,'         ;`. ;;.---'    '```` 
            `   `:__`-._   `.`.,    _,-'__;'   '         
                 `  `---`---'`'`---'---'  ' 
      ____________________ \`--'/`____________________
       Bridget Olson aka  ```  '''  badei@hotmail.com 
       Dyanisa & Sienra             Daere Warren
       Inagua & Myacura          "  Geode Warren
       N'lin &Trefoil           ''  Whiteriver Warren
       Chelea & Nebavri         ''  Xylian Warren
       N'dovra Leriamtiq       ' '  Ralengarde City
       Lt. <jg> Sirosa Badei   ' '  USS FARADAY
      __________________________' '____________________
                                 -
   "The limits of life are the limits of your imagination."
   
               I am the God of my own universe          
                     What is moral or not             
                           I decide                         
                     What is to be or not             
                           I decide                             
                       What was or not
                           I decide
                  Your are your own God too
                   Make your own descisions
                              -me


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