A Woman To Stand Beside

"All finished?" he asked as he took her hand in his. "I was hoping maybe
you'd join me for lunch?" 

He'd missed her even for the short time they'd been apart this morning 
and was wanting to spend some time with her.

"Well, first we have to investigate the site of Oldreth's attack...  
It's awful early for lunch, love."  She cocked her head to one side.  
"Do you ride?"

Kanler stared at her, gaping.

LOVE!!! She called him LOVE... surely he hadn't heard that right... 
though he prayed he had. Could it mean... 

"Horses, Kanler."

He continued to stare at her and Chance glared at him.  "Kanler, what's 
so hard about whether or not you ride horses?"

"Love?" he barely got the word out. Wanting to be sure before he made 
a fool of himself in front of her if he'd been wrong.

Katla cocked her head to one side, resisting the urge to laugh. "Yes.  
Love.  Now, do you ride horses?"

"Ummm.  Yes?"

"Good." She smiled sweetly at him and took his hand, pressing a light 
kiss into his palm.  "Let's get
moving.  We're having lunch with my parents."

"We are?" again almost cursing himself for the lame way the question 
came out sounding. All he could think about was the way his hand was 
feeling from her kiss, and wanting to feel her lips on his in the worst 
way.

"Ummm-hmmm."  She set out for the stable.  One of the stable lads 
saddled Flit for her immediately.

The two galloped out to the site of Oldreth's attack, Katla's long dark 
hair a streamer behind her as the freedom of riding took her for the 
short time that it took to get to the location.

"Has anyone been here?" she asked one of the riders on duty.

"No..."

She nodded as Kanler dismounted and she grinned as he held his hands 
out to help her dismount.

"You don't need to do that."

"Maybe I have an ulterior motive."

"Mmmm."  She slithered down against him and brushed a kiss against his
cheek.  "Well, maybe I did too..."

Katla pulled away before he could kiss her and grabbed her crutches 
from their place on the specially designed saddle.

"We've got work to do..."

He couldn't help but grin in admiration as she switched from teasing 
lover to take charge of the situation at hand. He followed after her as 
they went back over the ground. The signs of struggle were obvious, 
clearer by sunlight than they had been by torches. Katla frowned, 
counting several more attackers aside from the ones she'd noted the 
previous night. Stopping by a small, rusty stain of dried blood and 
grasses, Katla hunkered down, wincing from the pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked softly so no one else could hear his question. 

"Not really, but there isn't much choice..."  She brushed the mark with
gentle fingers, noting a line of such spots heading into the woods.
"Oldreth hit this one pretty hard..."  She took a deep breath, 
evaluating scents carried on the breeze.  Dried blood, grass, trees...  
and something else.  "Let's keep going...  The trail will
be easy to follow from horseback..."

Before they could leave Merissa the Junior Queenrider called her over
wanting to talk. Kanler stood back a ways and then started to look 
around some on his own to give them some time alone to talk. But he 
still couldn't help but over hear some of their conversation. 

Hellspawns... he'd heard of them from a rider friend in Telnor. But to 
have them here in Whiteriver!! He shuttered at the thought. 

..."Why didn't anyone tell me?  Did you know about Trinale... and 
Derry... this whole time... during the party?"  Merissa snapped at 
Katla, and Kanler wanted to say something to her, but kept his mouth 
shut. 

Chance wouldn't be to happy about him stepping in just now. Besides...
she was holding up her own end admirably. She didn't need his help in 
this. 

"Sorry, Merissa, but you were in the bedroom with Oberon...  I didn't 
want to disturb you, when J'red was called out, and then I only found 
out about the Hellspawn possibly being in Derry and Trinale while 
coming here... Didn't Chrysthal tell you?"

Merissa looked away, feeling foolish, "No, she didn't want to *disturb 
me*" Anger and frustration mixed, but were suddenly driven away with the
loud cry from Jael.

"I found TWO DEAD men!"  Jael screamed out. "He killed two of the SOBs
before they got him!"  Jael said
with awe.

Chance got there as quickly as she could with Kanler and, Merissa 
following. He stood back while she knelt once again to have a look 
at the two, and couldn't help but again admire her as she worked. 
She did seem to know what she was doing.

He was glad to see her look up at him a minute later and hold out her 
hand to him, in a silent request for help up. He moved quickly to assist
her, careful to keep any expression off his face.

Then stood back again while she slowly made her way around the area, 
looking for what ever clues the hard earth had to offer, until she was
satisfied she had learned everything she could.

"I want someone to search their pockets and see if we can find anything 
to tell us who they were," she gave the order and no one thought it 
strange that she did, but moved to follow them. 

The only thing the search had offered up was a wooden coin in the 
pockets of both of the dead men. Nothing else. But the coins had a 
strange picture of a woman with long hair cascading over one shoulder, 
but the strange part was the blind fold covering her eyes.

"Has anyone ever seen anything like this before?" Katla asked and 
passed the coins around, only to have everyone say no.

"Well it's something to go by anyway," she muttered and handed them to
Merissa for safe keeping. "I know a few people I can ask about them. 
Maybe they will be able to tell me where they come from."

"I suppose you're thinking of going to see these people on your own?" 
he asked her when they were finally walking back towards the horses. 

"We'll talk about that later love," she told him. "We're late right 
now for lunch."

He moved back a step when they came to the horse, wanting to help her 
up not because he felt she needed it, but because he couldn't get 
enough of her touch. 

He didn't try to help her remount, knowing how she'd hate to be 
reminded of her disabilities, but it had been hard not to. He wanted 
to help her in anyway he could, and he knew he'd have to let her do 
things on her own so she wouldn't feel like he was smothering her.

Love... he found he liked hearing that from her the second time just 
as much as he had the first time she'd called him that.

Had they been alone somewhere he would have taken her in his arms and 
shown her how much he had liked it. But he could wait. Katla was 
definitely worth waiting for.

Lunch didn't go as bad as he thought it could have. Her parents, mostly 
her mother seemed to have accepted him as her chosen *friend*. But he 
knew he'd have to still prove himself to them by making sure he kept her
happy, which was fine with him, because that was exactly what he was 
going to do. 

Later after they had left her parents, he suggested they go on back to 
his apartment to talk.

"Talk love?" she grinned up at him.

"Well I promised not to rush you Chance," he answered, his face held a
serious look as he took hold of her hands. "And I mean to keep that 
promise. I'll wait until you're ready for more."

"And if I was to tell you that I was ready... for more?" she asked 
meeting his eyes. 

"Then I would try my best to make you feel loved and hope I don't 
disappoint you."  He told her, reviling the one fear in his heart. 
"I only want to make you happy."

"I only want to make you happy!!!" came the sound of a snide voice 
behind them and both looked up to see Beneka standing there. "Oh how 
sweet you sound Kanler."

"Don't you have somewhere else to be Beneka?" Kanler asked as he moved
slightly in front of Katla. He didn't want her to have to deal with the
little bitches venom again.

"Yes like training," Katla spoke up beside him. "I happen to know your 
wing is about to start training right this very minute so what are you 
doing here?"

"What's it to you?" the girl turned angrily towards Chance. "You can't 
tell me what to do."

"Oh can't I now," Kanler could swear she was fighting the need to laugh 
as Chance stood up to the girl. "I'm afraid that I can and will tell you
what to do. As acting Wing Leader until my brother is back in charge, I 
have every right to discipline any rider I find acting in a manner
un-befitting this Warren and their duties."

She could see the bomb she'd just dropped had shocked the girl, who 
turned to look at Kanler for confirmation, even as her dragon was 
telling her it was true. 

"I would suggest you concern yourself with those duties concerning you 
from now on and keep your mouth shut when it doesn't," Katla took great
delight in saying. "That kind of bitchiness may have worked around your
father's lands, but you don't live in his house any longer, and he's not
here to bail you out when your mouth doesn't know when to keep itself shout."

Beneka's face turned red with rage as anger built from her words. "You 
may win for now. But don't think he'll stick around a cripple like you 
when he's gotten what he wants from you. But I'm sure he'll make it 
worth you wiles before he dumps you."

With that she turned and stormed off. 

Kanler couldn't help the near panic he was feeling when all he heard 
was silence beside him. He turned to look down at his love, his 
expression must have show his concerns over the girls words, but was
relieved when Chance smiled warmly and slipped her arms around him.

"I would never..." he started to say, but her hand came up to cover 
his lips. 

"I know," she told him. "I'm a good judge of character, and so is my
mother... and she liked you. Beneka is just jealous because you chose 
me to be with."

"And why wouldn't I? You're more woman then she'll ever hope to be. 
She doesn't know that it's more then a pretty face or a rich daddy, a 
man looks for when he's chosing a mate," the words slipped out before 
he could stop them, but he figured once out it was better to go on. 

"I wanted to find someone like my father found with his second marriage 
to Cholee. A woman with a warm caring heart and the ability to think 
for herself. Someone who put others in front of their own wants or needs
when they felt it was needed. Someone real... who wasn't afraid to be
themselves and speak their mind when they thought they were right. I 
had given up thinking I could ever find someone like that... until I 
found you. It's because of all these reasons and more that I fell in 
love with you Chance. Though I have to admit... you are beautiful."

A strange look came into her eyes, the hold she had around his waist tighten. 

"You said mate?" she gulped, her eyes widening as she met his. "Are you
asking me to be your mate?"

"If you'll have me."

The sounds of the dragon's roaring angrily hit them both at the same 
time, putting off her answer as they both turned and raced towards 
their dragons as fast as Chance's legs could carry her. 

Other's were already responding to the call when they arrived on the 
green. Kanler stepped back to allowed her room as she started calling 
out orders.

Then he heard her yelling at someone and turned to find Shawnee suited 
up to go standing there next to her teal. 

He wondered if her mate Saul knew of her being here.

"What do you think you're doing here!?!"

"Filling my duties to this Warren and my Wing," Shawnee fired back at 
her new sister. "I was cleared for patrols this morning and I'm not 
going to be left behind like a hatchling. I'm a trained dragonrider!!"

Katla looked like she wanted to deny her request, but at the last 
minute she gave up, knowing it would do no good.  

"Fine, but I'm going to pair you up with Lisha for right now since 
Cali's away," Katla told her. "You're to follow her instructions and 
if she tells you to get the hell out of there then you go... no 
arguments."

He saw Shawnee bristle a bit at the order, but then saw the blonde 
nod her head in agreement and Chance stood there for a second eyeing 
her. 

"Good luck sis," Chance finally said and the two hugged briefly before
Chance turned back and ordered everyone to mount. Seconds later after 
making sure every rider/dragon pair had the mental picture of where they
were to go, he watched as she lifted her hand and gave the order to lift off. 

Seconds later they reappeared about the devastation of what had once 
been a lively little town, and the riders got down to the duties they 
had been sworn to do.

------------------

Ah Jill... there's a tag for Chance in there :)
Oh and Kanler won't want to leave her when they get back....

I thought we could have some fun trying to figure out what the coins
meant... or where they were from

****Submitted by: ******

Kanler & Sariss 
Whiteriver Warren

aka
Barbara