[Day 42.  Evening, after dinner]

	"Jylan, come on!" Telaran whispered, grabbing his friend by the arm
on his way to the exit of the Dining Hall and pulling him along.
	"Alright!" the other boy yipped.  "You're back!  When did you get
here?"
	"This afternoon, but I won't be back for long if Horatio finds me.
Come on!"
	Jylan frowned and shook his head.  "Horatio?  Who's Horatio--"
	"Some dragonrider assigned to help my father," Telaran replied.
"He's pretty cool, but he thinks he's supposed to babysit me too."
	"Bummer," Jylan replied.  "Where'd you ditch him?"
	Telaran shot his friend a disbelieving look, and reached out to rap
the other boy on the head.  "Hello?  Is there anybody in there?  He's in
the Dining Hall, duh.  That's why I didn't want to hang around in the
doorway like that."
	"OH.  Now I get it.  Hey, there's Anoroc.  Anoroc!  Over here!"
	Another boy turned, spotted them, and trotted over to meet them as
they strode across the Green.  "Hey, Jylan.  Hey, Telaran, you're back!"
	"Everyone keeps telling me that," Telaran replied, rolling his
eyes.  "One of these days I might actually believe it.  Hey, Anoroc.
What's with all the soldiers, anyway?  No one ever tells me /anything./"
	They reached a rocky spot at the edge of the Green and stopped,
throwing themselves carelessly down upon the grass.  "Some of the Lords
have been real bastards about the tithes," Anoroc replied, idly yanking on
the grass stems.  "One of them even sent poisoned coal, couplea folks died.
Lady Merissa's havin' them all over for meetings and whatnot, just so's she
can chew them all out.  Not like they don't deserve it, killin' dragons and
all."
	"Damn," Telaran breathed, and the trio fell silent as the sky
deepened into night.  Gradually, the stars popped out in the darkness, the
lights in the Warren appearing like a mirror of their heavenly
counterparts.  After a few minutes, two more boys ambled up and dropped
onto the cool grass.  "Hey."
	Telaran looked up, and grinned.  "Hey, Jason, hey Daniel."
	"Hey."
	"Hey."
	"Hey."
	"So, like what are you guys doin'?"
	Jylan shrugged.  "Nuthin' really.  Just hangin' out, I guess."
	"Yeah, what he said."
	"Anyone wanna do anything?"
	"Yeah."
	"I guess so."
	"Ok.  Um . . . what are we gonna do, Telaran?"
	"I dunno," Telaran replied, chewing on a piece of grass.  "Why do
you always ask me?  What do you wanna do?"
	"I dunno.  What about you, Jylan?"
	"Jylan doesn't ever have any ideas," Daniel snorted.
	"Do so!"
	"Do not!"
	"What are you boys doing over here?"  A shadow fell across the
little group, and they looked up to see a tall, burly rider standing
between them and the lights of the Warren.
	"Nuthin'."
	"Just hangin' out."
	"We're not doin' anything."
	The rider snorted derisively, but nodded his head anyway.  "Well,
make sure you don't get into any trouble.  Don't move around too much, stay
clear of the soldiers, and don't cross the river."
	"Right."
	"Sure."
	"Ok."
	With another nod, the rider turned and continued on his patrol of
the Warren grounds.
	"They're all, like, so paranoid now," Jason said after the rider
had moved out of earshot.  "Some Warren girls got attacked and now nobody's
allowed to cross the river without an escort.  Don't matter which side you
come from, you gotta have an escort if you wanna get to the other one."
	"Those soldiers shouldn't be here anyway.  I heard one of them
saying that he didn't want to be here, he was only here because his Lord
was a real bastard and thought that Merissa was going to, like, try and
kill him or something."
	"That's stupid.  She wouldn't do that, she's too nice."
	"Yeah, but she might send her mother after him," Daniel said,
earning a few nervous snickers from the group.  "I'd bring a bodyguard,
too, if I thought I was gonna have to deal with /her./"
	"Sheesh," Telaran said, then stood up and brushed himself off.
"You guys coming?"
	"Where we going?"
	"To the bazaar, I guess.  You wanted to do something, right?"
	Jylan shook his head cautiously.  "Um . . . the bazaar's across the
river.  We're not supposed to go across the river."
	"But it's dangerous.  He just said not to move around a lot," Jason
added.
	"He meant, 'don't go sneaking around in the dark like a bunch of
thieves,'" Anoroc said, getting up to stand by Telaran and glare at the
sitters with crossed arms.  "We're not a bunch of thieves, we're honest
Warrenfolk.  And it's hardly dark in the bazaar.  You really think that one
of those soldiers is going to attack us with all those people watching?
That's stupid."
	"Still . . . "
	Telaran rolled his eyes.  "Look, Jylan, it's not /that/ dangerous.
In the first place, we're not girls."  A few murmurs of relieved assent
echoed his
statement.  "Second, there's five of us, so we're like our own escort,
right?  And its not like we're gonna go snooping in their tents or
anything, we're just going to go and hang out there instead of here, ok?
You don't have to come if you're scared, you know."
	"I'm not scared," Jylan retorted sullenly, and got up to join the
rest of them.
	"He just doesn't want to get whipped again," Daniel sneered.
"Jyllie-willie's mommy spanks him when he-- OW!  What gives?  Man, what'd
you hit me for?"
	"For bein' a total jerk," Telaran retorted, then turned back to
Jylan.  "Look, if you get in trouble, just tell them it was my idea, ok?
Let's go."
	"Hey, my sister's boyfriend is a baker over there.  I bet I can get
him to give us some pies . . . "
	Talking idly, the five boys ambled slowly towards the bazaar across
the river, an oasis of sound and light in the hot summer night.

*****
NRPG: I know, it's short.  Anyone who would like to meet or get run over by
a rampaging horde of ten-to-fourteen year old boys, be my guest!

	KK, I may not write again before you do.  If I don't, feel free to
continue what we talked about earlier. :)

--Mia
Terau and Telaran
Horatio and Horn

************************************
Cat's motto: No matter what you've done wrong, always try to make it look
like the dog did it.

Mia Karen Sherman <shatavari@flashcom.net>
World Weavers Webmistress: http://travel.to/WorldWeavers
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