NRPG:  Greetings and Salutations....I am back and we shall see whats
going to happen...SMILE....anyways.....Part one is ready, so enjoy!

   Overhead, the darkening skies swirled in abundance, with a ferocity
such as hatchlings have for first food, the clouds rushing inwards upon
the turbulent air.  With the deepening of the setting sun, a pallor of
black started to extend its grasp upon the northern ranges of the
mountains, not a place for man nor beast.

     <Bond mate?  Why are we still here, when we could easily be in
front of a large, toasty fire in that lovely cavern system you found
last week?>, the thoughts caressed Kaleb's mind as he scanned the
emblazoned clouds, each wispy one holding the last vestiges of light.

     <I need to make sure that those blighted Loch'ni Khar have actually
gone to ground.  I do not like the idea of sleeping when they are
about.>, passively speeding his reasoning to his mount, Kaleb banked
Ryshann to the right and headed towards the tall spires up ahead.

     "Grrrrrrrr, I smell blight scent!", the tang of the scent barely
touching the Ryshann's draconian senses.

     <Bond mate, let's head over towards that smaller hillock.  I have a
feeling your Loch'nis' are there.>, very little actually got Ryshann as
mad as he was when blight infected creatures were around.

     As the mated pair, rider and dragon, settled on their wings,
alertly drifting to the small hillock that Ryshann had pointed out, the
last rays of the red hued sun deadened into the all embracing night.  In
the deepening night, the few, natural, sounds ever present were quiet, a
testimony of dangers of the region.

     Rising just at the edge of both their visions, a deep, pale,
charcoal gray form rose, its dark form siloquetted against the shifting
clouds.  The piercing, dark eyes, locked onto both dragon and rider as
the Loch'ni khar rose into the sky.  Banking his large form, the
cinnabar dragon moved with a grace and swiftness belayed by his size. 
As the Loch'ni khar leveled off and flew toward the expecting
combatants, a rustle from the undergrowth stirred, as the second of the
blighted pair thrust its sleek form skyward, like a slender arrow
streaking for a targets vulnerable body.

     <Damn, and we're supposed to be the smart ones!  How did they think
to ambush us and at this time of the night?>, the thoughts racing
through Ryshann's mind while it echoed a similar train of thinking
within Kaleb.

     Rearing back and beating his extended wings forcibly, Ryshann
exerted his muscles to their limit and drove himself upwards at an
impossible angle.  Wind started to tear at the tender flesh of the
mounted rider as Kaleb gave free reign to his bond mate, as the pair of
blight infected Loch'ni khars attempted to kill them both.  Kaleb
allowed himself a short second or two, to once again, view the creatures
that they have chased throughout the ranges.

     Crafted in like fashion to dragons, the Loch'ni khars that they
faced were just over thirty feet long and slender, their sleek
musculature composing of dense tissue, allowing for their great bursts
of speed and agility.  The forelimbs that dragons have as manipulative
claws are instead taken up as the wings on a Loch'ni khar, shaped in a
similar fashion as a bat.  Pressed against the ribbed underbelly, a pair
of taloned legs allowed for limited walking but when used in an attack,
could rake the intended
target easily.  Projecting from the backside of the blight creature, a
long prehensile tail composed of twenty-five percent of their body
length.  The unusual aspect of the Loch'ni khar's tail was the split
prongs that sectioned off and the piercingly sharp bone that extends
outward, spears of bone that are used to great effect.

     <Pay attention Bond mate...>, a perturbed Ryshann mindspoke
sharply.  <...And don't let their prettiness fool you.  They are still
dangerous, no matter what they look like.>, and Ryshann could tell that
he had hit a tender spot with his rider.

     <Just follow what I do and don't fight me on this...I have an
idea>, Kaleb replied, ignoring the comment his dragon had made.

     With the quick telepathic communication between dragon and human, a
fraction of time had passed but in all that the Loch'ni khar, spearing
its way upwards from the small hillock, had gained enough to threaten
both Kaleb and Ryshann.  With agility and speed that Kaleb had noted,
the second of the Loch'ni khar pair thrust past the dragon, even as
Ryshann rolled over, almost backwards, unable to entirely avoid the
outstretched claws of the blighted creature.

     Three of the taloned fingers were able to make enough contact with
the soft underside of Ryshann, that they split scale and skin, leaving
the dragon with bleeding wounds.

     <Bloody flames, that blighted abomination got me.  Well, whatever
you are planning, you had better figure it out now.>, beads of sweat
were forming on the scales of Ryshann's head even as Kaleb grabbed his
side in pain, the downside to the blending of both their souls.

     <Fine.  Bank right and then gain skyward as high and fast as you
can.  And stay away from them both.  We need then to come at us from
below.>, Kaleb thought quickly as Ryshann moved in response to his
missive.

     Angling back away from both of the Loch'ni khars, Ryshann moved
over and caught one of the day's last thermal updrafts and painfully
thrust him and Kaleb skyward.  As both dragon and human moved out of
their reach, the pair of blight infested Loch'ni khars moved upwards to
counter their preys movements.

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NRPG:
	Hopefully, you will all enjoy this short re-introduction of Kaleb and
Ryshann and I plan on having part 2 out shortly.

Leslie A. Brown
Freehaven
Kaleb ap ni'Dalaigh/Ryshann
=)