[Early evening, Day 1]

Xanthia's eyes fluttered open as she heard the door creak open. Aside
from the short time she'd spent practicing her walking, she had slept
away most of the day, physically and emotionally drained.

"Hungry?" Th'rin asked, carrying a tray in each hand.

Xanthia shrugged, though her stomach grumbled loudly in reply.

"Good!" Th'rin replied, and set the two trays down on the table. He
helped her out of bed and pulled a chair out for her. "Thought you
could use some company, and a break from eating in bed."

"What about Merissa?" Xanthia asked, finding the whole situation odd.

***

Xanthia had to admit, it was more pleasurable to have a dinner
companion than it was to eat alone. And Th'rin seemed to know all her
likes, even the chocolate mousse pie for desert. Xanthia loved
anything chocolate, and this delicacy was so deliciously light and
fluffy that it was Xanthia's absolute favorite.

Xanthia pushed the empty tray away from her with a heavy sigh. This
was the most she'd eaten in a long time. "I'm stuffed! That was
great!" She smiled sweetly in appreciation. "Thank you."

"I just thought, we don't see enough of each other," Th'rin regarded
Xanthia's quizzical look, "As friends I mean."

"Friends," Xanthia smiled softly. She liked the sound of that word.

***

[Midmorning, day 2, on the green]

It had taken some coaxing, and not a little bit of manipulation by
guilt, but Moira and Lia had managed to get Xanthia to come out into
the fresh air to learn how to tend to her dragon once more.

"I can't do this," Xanthia growled through her teeth, an impressive
sound for such a petite young woman, but the two taller young women
with her were unimpressed. Her dress clung to her body, wet and muddy
from several tumbles on the grass and many spilled buckets of water,
her hair hung in damp tendrils, and her frustration tolerance was at
an all time low.

"Sure you can! You learned it before, you can learn it again!" Moira
proclaimed resolutely.

"Whose idea was this anyway?" she mumbled, much preferring to wallow
in grief beneath the blankets in her bed in the med center.

<Mine, dear heart,> Maxima replied, <I itch so bad, and no one can
bathe and oil me as you do.>

<Hmph... flattery.>

<Truth,> Maxima replied.

<Sure, no one can get as muddy as I can in the process.>

<Oh it's not as bad as the last time you learned. Remember the talk
you had with Satinka's rider...>

<Yeah, yeah...>

Xanthia turned as she heard Moira giggling, "No, this isn't as bad as
your first time, is it?"

Xanthia turned back to the obsidian and red beast before her. "You
told Vasra, didn't you?" Xanthia gasped, her cheeks reddening with
embarrassment.

<Had to get your attention somehow!> Maxima replied smugly, feeling
she'd fulfilled her purpose.

"Perhaps you two magpies would like to help a body here, so this
doesn't take all day?" Xanthia crowed at Lia and Moira. "Be good
experience for you, Lia, for when you get your own dragon."

***

<Med center, late morning>

"Don't say a word!" Xanthia scowled as Th'rin covered his mouth,
though his eyes still smiled at sight of the bedraggled wet junior
healer that came crutching back toward her room. "I just want a
bath... and some oil so I don't rust," she muttered as afterthought.

"Good idea, and a clean dress..."

"Why, when I'm going straight to bed?" Xanthia asked Th'rin wearily.

"Because you're not going to bed, you're coming home with me, to have
an early dinner with the three of us."

"Th'rin..." Xanthia whined plaintively.

"Please, Xanthia, Bear misses his Aunt Xan. Besides, Merissa's worried
about him."

"Bear? What's wrong with my little Bear?" Xanthia's brow crinkled with
worry as a lump grew in her throat. She couldn't take anything being
wrong with anyone else she loved.

"Nothing serious, I hope." Th'rin replied. "We'll discuss it at dinner
tonight."

***

[Xanthia's room, after the bath]

"What's this? This isn't mine!" Xanthia asked Corra as she regarded
the sapphire blue dress that lay on the bed before her. 

"Sure is," Corra's eyes crinkled gleefully, "Th'rin picked it out from
what they had at Tandra's shop for you. Thought you might like
something new to wear, pick your spirits up.

Xanthia reached out and touched the dress cautiously, "Soft..." she
exclaimed quietly, her eyes dancing with delight.

Corra nodded, "He knows you well, doesn't he?"

The elder healer helped Xanthia get dressed and fixed her hair
prettily, relishing every moment. Never had she seen her Xanni look so
fetching. But there was something missing, Corra gazed critically as
she pondered the issue. Then it hit her, "You need some color to your
face, you've been cooped up here way too long!"

"Corra..." Xanthia moaned.

"Tut! Tut! I'll be right back! Don't go anywhere!" Corra chided
cheerfully as she headed out the door.

Xanthia sagged into the chair, waiting impatiently.

Corra returned moments later with a small box filled with various
vials and jars. Xanthia knew the box, she'd seen it's contents before,
and seen the miracles Corra had worked on the faces of young women of
the village who were seeking a beau. But man hunting was the last
thing on Xanthia's mind, so she wondered what Corra was fussing over.

"Now be still... and let me work my magic." Corra's grin turned to a
frown as she applied the moisturizer to Xanthia's delicate skin, "So
dry... don't you take care of your skin?"

Xanthia sighed and furrowed her brow, unused to the attention and
entirely uncomfortable with it.

"Don't make a face now! You'll make wrinkles."

"I don't want to look made up now!" Xanthia fussed.

"You won't... trust me!" Corra replied as she continued to work, as if
Xanthia's face was some masterpiece.

Finally finished, and satisfied with the result, Corra proudly held a
mirror up for Xanthia to look into.

"Look!" the elder woman ordered.

Xanthia practically did not recognize herself. Words failing her, she
reached up and lightly stroked her cheek with the back of her fingers
as she gazed in awe, a sign she had not used since childhood. The
gesture did not escape Corra's watchful eye, and she knew that for
Xanthia this simple act was highest praise indeed.

"Yes, Xanni... Xanthia," Corra corrected herself as she now saw a
young woman before her and not a young girl, "is very beautiful. And
that dress, the color brings out your eyes!" Corra dipped again in her
wondrous box, "Now to make you smell as beautiful as you look."

Corra opened the perfume bottle for Xanthia, "Vanilla musk, you like
it?"

Xanthia nodded her head vigorously, the light scent pleasing to her
nose. "You make it?" she asked.

"Dear, you know I make all these cosmetics. Women were born to be
beautiful. I just try to help them along." She carefully dabbed a
touch of the fragrance on Xanthia's neck.

A knock sounded on the door. "Come in!" Xanthia called out. The door
opened and Th'rin entered the room.

"Xanthia?" He looked at her askance for a minute.

Xanthia stroked her cheek uncertainly in the same way she'd done just
a few moments before.

"That's Xanthia's sign for 'beautiful', she want's to know if you
think she looks beautiful." Corra whispered in translation to Th'rin.

***

The two healers arrived at Th'rin and Merissa's apartment, and Th'rin
helped Xanthia carefully dismount.

"Honey, we're home!" Th'rin announced.

"We?" Merissa asked from the kitchen.

Her answer came a split second later as Oberon charged through the
room yelling at the top of his lung, "An Xan! An Xan!"

***

NRPG: Tags to Kris, Arlene, Rhi and Dana! BTW, isn't the funeral the
evening of Day 2? 
                \=/,         _-===-_-===-_-===-_-=======-_-===-_
                |  @___oo   (    Submitted by:                  )
      /\  /\   / (___,,,}_--=    Jacqueline "Morgan" Allgood    )
     ) /^\) ^\/ _)        =__    morgie@iquest.net               )
     )   /^\/   _)          (_                                   )
     )   _ /  / _)            (   The heart and soul of:          )
 /\  )/\/ ||  | )_)            (_  Xanthia/Maxima of Whiteriver   )
<  >      |(,,) )__)             (                                 )
 ||      /    \)___)\             (_                              )
 | \____(      )___) )___           -==-_____-====-_____-===-___==
  \______(_______;;; __;;;

Morgan's World http://members.xoom.com/Morgie/

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