[Hatching Cavern, Day 13]

Foil was pleasantly surprised to see N'lin waiting for him as he brought
Chrysthal another buck to top off her dinner.  For once Areena wasn't there
and her absence relieved him to no end.

It was very hard not to flame that smug little face sometimes.  Chrysthal
and her little simpering sidekick obviously thought he was gullible, stupid,
and slightly insane.  But they also thought he was amusing.  So he put up
with it.

He wasn't stupid, everyone knew that queens became cranky, demanding, fairly
paranoid, touchy,and very short tempered when eggs entered their lives.  If
him playing dumb and putting up with little-miss-know-it-all Areena kept
Chrysthal amused and in good temper than he could stand it... hopefully.

Currently, to satisfy at least a little of his urge to shut the little twit
of a dragon up, he was trying to think of ways to turn the joke on her.
It's not like he hadn't intended to do all the dirty work in the first
place.

Imaging Areena in the sand certainly made the otherwise dull chore of
heating them marginally entertaining.  He just had to work on making sure
they didn't get too hot, Chrysthal had been complaining a bit.  The
resulting jibes from Areena hadn't made the sands any cooler.

Foil watched Chrysthal finish up the buck and clean up her mess before
curling down for a nap.    By the size of her it wouldn't be long before the
eggs were laid.

<Foil,> N'lin interupted his pleasant train of thought.  <I hope you don't
mind, but you might have to take a leave of absense from Chrysthal for a
bit.>

He  turned to look at his rider, <Whatever for?>

<Merissa needs some help.  She's worried about a friend and I volunteered to
tag along and watch out for her.>

<What about me?  You could have asked,> Foil snapped testily.

<Well if you hadn't been doting on Chrysthal just now, you would have had a
chance to voice your opinion.  But it will make Merissa happy, so I don't
think Chrysthal will be all that displeased.>

Foil grunted and started looking for a good place for a nap.  <Well you
still could have asked first,> was his sullen agreement.

<Well, if I recall, you could have asked first before deciding to move me
half way across the warren,> N'lin snapped back.

Foil blinked in surprise.  N'lin getting snappy?  Maybe they should have
moved back to the warren a long time ago.  About time his rider started
sticking up for himself, showing a little fire.

<All right,> Foil conceded.  <We'll do it.  But next time ask!>

<Same for you,> was his riders parting shot before he and the queenrider
left the cavern.

Foil ambled over to the sleeping queen and cuddled up next to her.  With his
rider volunteering for who knows what and Chrysthal getting meaner by the
day, he was definately going to need all the sleep he could get!
*************

"I want to send someone in with Lady Raine."  Merissa announced,
pulling N'lin in with her.

He flashed a small, shy smile in greeting, most of it aimed at Katla.  It
was good to see her, even if she looked a little worse for wear.  He wished
he could have caught her before, ask her how she was, but now wasn't the
time.

"Good," Katla grinned slightly.  "I was going to suggest that we do
something like that.  N'lin's face isn't well known and he'll do
nicely.  N'lin, how do you feel about becoming a minor aristocrat who
doesn't particularly like dragonriders?"

He blinked, a minor aristocrat?  Then the light came on.  Of course a minor
not well known but possessing money, some minor influence, and the ability
to do as he liked, born to be arrogant and bigoted aristocrat.  Some one who
would be easily accepted by the higher cult members.  He was perfect.  Hell,
all he had to do was pretend to be his father with a little class.

With a little effort, he contored his face into a contept filled half sneer,
adjusted his posture to what he hoped was beligerant looming, and directed a
leer at Katla.  His small bow was more of an insult than repsect for her
rank.

"What else could I be, Lady," he nearly spit the title," Vaddon?"

>From the surprised looks on everyone's faces, he concluded he'd pulled it
off fairly well.  In a blink he was back to being himself again, totally
harmless and unassuming.

"Was that all right?" he asked.

Katla's eyes flashed and a possitively devious grin lit up her pretty face.
"Perfect, N'lin.  Just perfect."  And she proceeded to enlighten them all
with her plan.
**************
[Day 14]

He woke up that morning with a rather uncomfortable knot in his stomach.
Only a fool wouldn't be nervous about what he was going to do, and today
would be the start of it.  He and Katla were going to go shopping today.

But one thing they'd both agreed on after the meeting was not to take any
chances.  With the warren policy of taking in just about anyone, it was far
to easy to slip in a spy among the land bound.  He would go on patrol and
rendezvous with her by the lake.  She would make sure his partner was one
who would go along with it.

<Insert Arlene's "Blood Red Wine" post>

While he and Jael silently walked to the warrenlady's office, N'lin was busy
having Foil tell Satinka to tell Katla that they could probably meet at the
wreckage and disappear from there.  More likely then not there'd be, at the
very least, a salvage expedition and more likely than not both Derry and
Katla would be expected to show.

Jael knocked firmly on the office door and let them in.  N'lin was more than
happy to let Jael do the talking.  His thoughts revolved more around getting
clean, the char reek from his clothes was still making him a bit queasy, and
getting some information on the shopping trip.

He paid enough attention to what Merissa was saying to know that she was
going to send some people out.  Foil had confimed that Katla would meet him
at the wreckage and all that remained was getting clean.
**************
[Ralengarde]

N'lin knew he was staring about like a country bumpkin, but he couldn't help
it.  His death grip on Katla's sleeve was the only tether that kept him from
drowning in the mass of people.  His mind was locked up so tight he was
giving himself a headache and he knew that if he lost Katla he wouldn't have
any idea what to do.

He vowed never to volunteer for anything ever again.

Katla expertly led him into a clothing shop.  He had never been so happy to
walk into a building in his entire life.  Clothes upon expensive clothes
upon even more expensive clothes filled every nook and cranny of the
deceptively large building.  He looked down at Katla with wary eyes only to
see her looking up at him with a grin he did not like at all.

Maybe the crowds were better after all....
***********

Two more general shops, a tailor (for the really good outfits, Katla had
explained), and two very tired, sore arms later, N'lin was the one doing the
leading, right into a nice looking bar, the Traveler's Rest.  Or, more along
his line of thinking, a nice shady spot to sit and put everything on the
floor.

The next time Katla was in a generous mood, he promised his poor arms and
back, he was going to run like hell and not come back until she found
another victim to shower her generousity on.

He'd had no idea shopping could be such torture.  He really didn't have any
idea what he was going to do with all these clothes when he was done with
this either.  He certainly wasn't going to wear them!

It wasn't that the clothes were in bad taste; it was that Katla had this
amazing knack for picking out clothes that he even had to admit made him
look good.  A little too good in fact.

He liked his plain, simple clothes, he didn't want to be noticed, he didn't
want admiring glances, he didn't want to look good.  But Katla was spending
a fortune on him and he couldn't in good conscience not wear the damned
clothes.  The worst thing was, she knew it and was enjoying herself
immensely.

He just hoped she didn't take it into her far too devious head to sneak into
his place and turn his old clothes into rags or something.

Katla elbowed him, "What do you want to drink,  Drezak?"

N'lin blinked and then remembered that Drezak de Shaikur was him.  He looked
up at the smiling hazel eyed matron, considered briefly and decided on,
"Water.  Ice cold water," he ordered before putting his aching head back in
his folded arms.

Gods help him, they hadn't even bought accessories yet.
****************
NRPG: Hehe poor guy.  Tag Kris and Jill.

Submitted by,
Bridget Olson
N'lin and Trefoil