Tel'Thar woke to find his body burning and a raging headache.
"Where am I?" he murmured.
"You are in the Med Centre at White River." replied Merissa.
"White River? What am I doing here?"  asked Tel'Thar.
"Don't you remember?" asked Th'rin. Tel'Thar tried to think but could only 
remember blurred dreamlike sequences.
"The foul drink." said Tel'Thar weakly. "I remember that bit, it's the only 
real memory I have since, well the battle."
"How are you feeling?" asked Xanthia.
"Shit." said Tel'Thar. "My whole body aches and burns, I have a headache 
that feels as if I have three trolls inside my head having a punch up."
"Good." said Xanthia. "What I mean is that it could have been a lot worse, 
you're lucky to be alive."

"Was it that bad?" asked Tel'Thar.
"Yes, it's a miracle you made it to White River. What was that attacked 
you?"
"Monsters, created by the shifting magic."

"Shifting magic?" asked Merissa sharing a look with Th'rin and Xanthia.
"Yes, we, the warren, Marrid had nearly been wiped out by fluctuating magic. 
If a rider and their dragon is caught it severs their bond." said Tel'Thar 
sadly remembering good friends who had been unlucky, one was still alive but 
a wreck of a man and the others, well it had been too much for them and they 
had taken their own lives.

"That's not all, where ever the magic has shifted it warps nature. Plants 
become, well alive and blood drinkers, some even move. And the animals come 
out as monsters." said Tel'Thar shuddering at the memories.

"I know you are not well, but we need to know what has happened to Marrid." 
said Merissa gently pushing the wounded rider.
"I know. Marrid is no more.  There was not time for an organised retreat. It 
was horrible, it came out of nowhere, the magic shifted and those who 
couldn't flee in the few seconds......" Tel'Thar let the sentence tail off, 
seeing that the others knew what had happened, the bonds between rider and 
dragon had been broken. The echoes of their screams as he and Talos had 
teleported in the nick of time haunted Tel'Thar.

"We fled to a temporary warren, but it was in danger of being flooded in the 
spring so the bulk of the warren teleported to Xylian and a few scattered to 
other warrens. There were some of us who couldn't leave, our duty held us to 
defend the innocents under Marrids protection.  I was a wing second, but 
there was not enough of us to form even one wing. We acted in twos and 
threes. Defending against wraiths and the new monstrosities, we lived in 
dank caves and ate whatever we could scavenge. Live was harsh, many of the 
unjoined warren folk joined us, but it is only a matter of time before the 
warren starves to death or is wiped out in an attack."

The three stood and took in the information.
"Why don't they leave?" asked Xanthia.
"We believe and our dragons believe that it is our duty to protect the 
landbound, they are caught up in this too and unable to defend themselves."
"Well you're not going anywhere for a while at least." said Th'rin.

Tel'Thar started to weep.

<Whats wrong?> asked Talos.
<I'm crying for the dead, those left at Marrid, the landbound, children and 
innocents caught up in this nightmare. Mostly I'm crying because I am so 
relieved to be out of the hell hole, I don't know if I can face going back.>
<It's too dangerous what if the magic has shifted and we teleport to our 
death?>

Tag: Kris, Morgan and Arlene.

NRPG: Such a quick response deserved a quick reply! OK he's awake, thought 
I'd explain the situation at Marrid.

James
xxx
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