Day Two
Early-ish morning (9:00)
==--==

Sarah ambled into the Dining Hall with a sleepy smile. 
She was far from the last one picking up breakfast, she 
noticed, and quite a few of the others looked like 
they'd been up past their bedtime just as much as she 
had.

The party hadn't gone on much longer after she returned 
except for some huge battle between the Warrenlady and 
someone she didn't know. Then again, Merissa had looked 
fairly well into her cups at that point too. A moue of 
regret crossed her face as she realized she still had 
not met Janet. Well, given how well her meeting with... 
umm.... 

For a moment, her mind would not put a name to the shy 
innocent face and lock of silver hair. As she wandered 
through the food line, nodding a tired hello to the 
laughing servers, it finally registered.

"Tinker," she said aloud, causing one of the people 
behind her in line to give her an odd look.

"What about him," the stranger growled, "Other than that 
he stole a perfectly good dragon."

Sarah turned to look at the tall man behind her in 
genuine puzzlement. "How can one steal a dragon? They 
choose you based on your spirit and personality. If you 
tried to keep them against their will, I'm sure you 
couldn't stop one," she added, "Not even a hatchling."

"He's got no right to her. She's too good for the likes 
of Gingle's folk," he spat.

Sarah's eyebrow arched in warning as she noticed the 
emblem on his cloak that designated him as one of the 
Searched. She wasn't even a dragonrider and she could 
see the fellow was being pigheaded. A typical little 
child who was angry someone else got what he thought was 
his.

"That may be, but I think that it's best to let them 
prove themselves before we judge them," she said quietly 
as she walked away shaking her head. She would really 
have to spend more time in the library and figure out 
just what had been going on around here.

Looking around the room for a table, she saw Merissa 
sitting alone against one wall. As a child's head popped 
up from below the table, she amended that to wishing she 
were alone. The expression dancing through Merissa's 
eyes was somewhere between adoration for the child and a 
genuine desire to tie him up in a gunny sack somewhere 
for a few days.

Merissa caught Sarah's eyes over her breakfast and waved 
her over. As Sarah settled into the bench across from 
her, the little boy promptly climbed up to examine her.

"Morning, m'lady," said Sarah with a grin, turning to 
the lad. "And you would be?"

The boy grinned back at her, cherubic cheeks catching 
the sunlight, but he did not answer.

"His name is Oberon," explained Merissa with a fond 
look. "He doesn't seem to talk. Well, not as much as he 
ought to."

With a fond ruffle of his hair, Sarah looked to 
Merissa. "Has he ever talked at all?"

"Just a word now and then, but we've never heard a 
complete sentence. Mama, Mara, and today he said dragon-
bird as we were walking through the gardens."

Pulling a napkin closer, Sarah took a pencil out of her 
pocket and quickly sketched the little insect known as a 
dragon-bird on it, showing it to Oberon.

"Dragon-bird!" he crowed, taking it from her and showing 
it to Merissa. "Mama, dragon-bird!" He pointed at it 
with glee and stuffed the napkin in his pocket.

Sarah couldn't help but laugh. "Well, he seems to 
understand concepts, at least. I wonder why he might not 
talk? Does he hear well enough?"

The Warrenlady nodded. "He knows his name, commands and 
so on. He understands talking, but he doesn't do it and 
I'm worried."

"Well," said the teacher quietly, brushing her hair out 
of her face, "If he can hear, there's no point in 
teaching him hand-talk."

Oberon stared at her expectantly, as if asking for 
something. Sarah gazed into his eyes for a long moment 
and picked up the pencil. When he grinned hugely, she 
started doing a small sketch of his face on another 
napkin.

"Strangely enough he seems to understand the basics of 
communication - eye contact, pointing, that sort of 
thing. Have you encouraged him to speak aloud, m'lady?" 
inquired Sarah as she alternated between pencil-strokes 
and forkfuls of her breakfast.

Merissa watched as Sarah took the sketch, pointed at 
Oberon, then at the sketch. "That's you, lad. You're 
Oberon." He cocked his head quizzically at the teacher. 
Sarah pointed at Merissa, "That's mama," then to 
herself, "I'm Sarah," and finally to Oberon, "And you 
are Oberon."

The toddler stared intently at Sarah and then at 
Merissa. When nobody immediately did anything, his face 
fell into a slump and he sat down on the bench. "Did you 
want something, Oberon?" asked Sarah gently.

He stared at her again, tipping his head to one side 
with an intense gaze. After a long moment, he looked 
away to Merissa and then back at the table.

"Is he always like this? Just sort of stares at you when 
he wants something, but doesn't ask for it?"

The Warrenlady rubbed at her temples tiredly. "Come to 
think of it, often. Or he'll just point at it and we've 
sort of figured out what he wants by playing twenty 
questions."

The teacher thought back to a particularly unique little 
girl she had worked with briefly back home. There was an 
inkling in the back of her mind as to why Oberon wasn't 
talking. After all, if he thought he was and couldn't 
figure out why nobody else understood him, it would 
explain a lot.

"You've had him tested for telepathy, that sort of 
thing?"

Merissa's eyes widened. "Goodness no, why would we do 
that? He's a perfectly normal little boy except that 
he's developing slowly. We only test for dragon 
telepathy and that's only when they're old enough to be 
searched..." The Warrenlady trailed off. "You don't 
really think...?"

Bending down, Sarah looked Oberon in the eyes so she was 
at his level. "Sarah," she said, tapping her chest. She 
tapped his, waiting expectantly. A look of confusion and 
intense concentration filled his eyes. "Out loud, 
please. I can't hear you here," explained Sarah softly 
as she tapped her temple.

Merissa watched in wonder as Oberon nodded and smiled. 
What was going on?

"We'll try again. Sarah," the teacher repeated, tapping 
a finger to her chest. "And you are..."

"O.... Obr'un," stuttered the little boy with a look of 
surprise. "Ob'run"

"Wonderful," cheered Sarah, ruffling his hair. "That's 
right, you are Oberon."

A tear slid down Merissa's cheek. "He talked. I didn't 
even know he knew his own name."

"Merissa, my lady. Ask your dragon if she hears Oberon 
at all. If he IS in fact telepathic, which I suspect, 
since I had a student like him in my training years, she 
will have heard him before and can help encourage him to 
speak aloud." Oberon scooted under the table to hug 
Merissa as she cried softly, communicating to her dragon.

"Ob'run. Mama," he giggled to himself as he held her 
tight. Merissa's eyes were lost in communication with 
her Queen.

<Chrysthal, is what she suggests true? Do you hear 
Oberon talking?>

<<As much as you can understand what a hatchling says,>> 
replied her dragon warmly, <<yes, I can most of the 
time.>>

<Why did you not ever tell me?> asked Merissa, confused.

<<I assumed he would speak in his own time. It didn't 
seem to worry you that much,>> said Chrysthal a little 
sheepishly. <<You don't hear him?>>

Merissa's anguished mental silence was her only response 
as she looked at Sarah. "But, what can we do? Chrysthal 
says she hears him talking and can't figure out why I 
don't."

Sarah nodded sagely. "It never occurs to a child 
telepath that they're different. You just need to 
encourage him to speak what he wants aloud. I can work 
with him for a while if you want, outside of classes in 
the afternoon. I don't have much of a schedule yet..."

Merissa leaned across the table to take Sarah's hand 
warmly. "Thank you so much. Anything you ca do to help 
is welcome."

Smiling softly as she stood to go, Sarah looked at 
Oberon leaning on Merissa and grinning fit to beat the 
band. "Bye Oberon," she said with a wave.

"B... Bye, Say-wah..." he tried tentatively. One tiny 
hand came up to make the universal clenched fist child 
wave of little ones everywhere, fingers curling and 
uncurling against his palm. Tears trickled down 
Merissa's cheeks as she hugged him close.

"Talk to me after class, m'lady and we'll try to work 
out a schedule. I have to get down to the school and set 
up my office." Sarah carried her tray back to the racks 
and heard Oberon giggling al the way out the door to the 
sunshine. 

Katy had been just like that, the healer mused - 
frustrated because nobody understood her, but eager to 
learn how to communicate. Sarah wondered if she could 
get Chrysthal to help somehow. She'd have to ask about 
that later. It shouldn't take long to give Oberon a 
basic command of the language - a couple of months, 
perhaps. After that, he could probably keep up on his 
own.

Sarah headed off to the woods for a hike. She needed to 
clear her head, and a few hours alone in the trees 
seemed just the thing to ease her fluttery mind.

----
***Mid-afternoon (2:00)**
----

Wandering across the Green towards the building that 
housed the school, she looked absently around the 
periphery of the carefully laid footpaths, imagining 
giant torches standing along them and bearing witness to 
the Warren life. She supposed it was a great idea, if 
Tinker could convince Merissa to do it.

She smiled softly, remembering the eager childlike face 
drawing swooping designs across the night sky. He had so 
much to offer the warren with that creative mind, she 
only hoped that they would let him use it.

Entering the school, she walked down the empty hall to 
the room that would be her office. With a sigh, she 
opened the door, only to be pleasantly surprised. The 
room had been furnished for her, with a bookcase, desk, 
comfortable chair, planning boards and several basic 
books on the shelves. A warm rug covered the wooden 
floor in the middle and a large window looked out over 
the trees and the edge of the waterfall.

On the desk were several pens, some paper and a small 
bouquet of flowers. There was no note on the flowers 
this time, and Sarah wondered who they were from for a 
moment before going into the staff room to look for a 
vase and some water.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to believe all 
the rude things she'd heard about dragonriders. It was 
eve becoming difficult to think that all dragonriders 
were like the few she had met. As she returned to put 
the vase down on her desk, it occurred to her all that 
these people had done to make her welcome. Overwhelmed, 
she sat down in the chair and stared out the window, 
crying silently.

=======================================
Tag? Anyone? Want to come make friends?
=======================================

==--==
Evening (7:00)
--==--

Stumbling slightly, Sarah came back into her apartment 
and took off her cloak. Until she got used to the 
routine here, she was going to be completely drained. 
Thankfully, regular classes would start soon and things 
would regain some structure.

As she started some tea, the teacher wondered if Merissa 
would remember to drop by tonight about Oberon or not. 
Highly unlikely, she concluded while stoking a fire 
against the early chill, since she had many other things 
to do today, it being the trial of the Gingle boy.

Bits and pieces of overheard conversation filled in the 
gaps Tinker had left in his story about the Gingle 
family and the iron hold they had over their charges. 
Closing her eyes, she shuddered. The travesty visited 
upon those poor people was unfathomable. No wonder they 
were so afraid of everything. No wonder the other riders 
were so distrustful of poor Tinker. He hadn't done 
anything to deserve it, but it was there.

The Gingle lad had been assigned to live at the Warren, 
doing community services. Either he would learn 
something about what Warren life was like or he would 
die of shock within the month. She wasn't putting any 
money on it either way; she mused as she poured a nice 
strong cup of tea. No point in trying to guess which way 
the coin was going to fall. At least he was young and 
perhaps more open-minded than his father. She reached up 
and took her hair down in a tumble to fall around her 
shoulders and yawned.

Curling up in a comfortably padded chair with a hugely 
soft blanket, she sipped her tea and drifted lazily in 
and out of dreamspace in front of the fire. She wasn't 
quite homesick, but she didn't really feel much at home 
yet. Putting the teacup aside, she let her eyes slide 
closed and listened to the pop and crackle of the flame 
lull her towards unconsciousness. Dimly some part of her 
knew she should move, but she was too comfortable to 
bother.

===
Tag: Anyone? Merissa?
===

NRPG: I've been away for a bit, sorry. It's not my best 
post, but I'm trying to get caught up. My Office 
exploded and I lost mail for about five days. I think I 
should be reasonably current now. Arle: I hope I played 
Oberon and Merissa okay. :)

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