[Search party]

        <I don't see anything,> Neryssa shrugged, though she was
hesitant about moving on to her assigned duty.  Erkvinen had relayed
Ilara's instructions as they'd arrived.  <Let's go down and get a closer
look.>

        <Don't go far,> Oliathan warned her.  <No heroics.>

        <Hey big guy, I can take care of myself you know!> she grinned,
giving him a hearty nudge as she jumped off.  <Ask Chai'lynn where her
rider is, if he's found anything, love.>

        <Not yet, he's on the other side of this place.  See that
staircase?>

        <Got it Oli, thanks.>  She scurried down to catch sight of
Billy, who'd seen Ilara take off on Erkvinen just minutes ago.  "Are you
okay?"  Making sure he was alright was a little thing, but nobody was to
be left on their own anyway.

[Tag James!  Sorry!]


[Ilara's apartment, after Sarilyn is snatched away]

        She was angry.

        As soon as Ilara'd alerted a search party to find Sarilyn, she'd
been ordered to return to the warren.  She'd been tempted to ignore the
order, but she'd been eroded by Billy's worry.  Losing Sarilyn, in the
way it'd happened, had been awful.

        To be trapped here, whisked away at the first sign of danger-

        -to be fair, the last time she'd gone wandering almost killed
her beloved Erkvinen.  Ilara embraced the glimmering dragon as she
stepped into the spacious room, and sighed.

        <Don't you hate sitting here, twiddling your thumbs?> she asked
the metallic red Erkvinen.

        <I don't have any thumbs.>  Erk smiled.  <It's for our own good
though.  If I were to lose you->

        <Please... Erk, I'm not going anywhere, I promise.  My
travelling days are over.>  She cried softly, feeling her sadness
pervade again.

        Erkvinen lowered herself to the floor slowly, rider alongside,
comforting her.  <"lara, don't cry.  Everything will be all right.>  The
stress was affecting both of them, but Ilara's loneliness and depression
was still more overpowering.  <I feel your pain... I'm here beloved.>

        There was a knock at the door, and Carl's muffled voice carried
to her ears.  "Ilara, can I come in?"

        She wiped her eyes and called out, "It's open!"

        Carlynee soon found Ilara and Erkvinen.  "I heard," she started,
maybe unsure of whether the queenrider would want to talk about it.  But
then again there wasn't an awful lot Ilara hadn't confided in her.  The
glistening green eyes opened to her, saying so much before the redhead
even so much as uttered a word.

        "Carl..." Ilara sighed, her head bowed, "I feel like... like a
hermit, cut off from everyone and everything."  She looked up again.  "I
know I have everything I n-need here, but I just..."  She sighed, again.
"Thanks," she said softly, smiling through the tears, "for coming to see
me.  You know how much I need you, don't you Carlynee?"

[Tag Cheryl!]

-o+<nrpg>+o-
As this post speeds across the Internet towards you, I'm busily updating
my web site :)  Take a moment if you can to check out some of the
wonderful things that have suddenly happened there *grin*.  Sound
gallery, for one...

Okay *grin* sorry for seemingly hauling 'lara out.  I wanted to write
her looking back on it, in case I futzed up with what I remembered.  Or
something :)  So I figured I'd put Neryssa on the search team.

James: Do as much or as little with that as you can :)  There's nothing
worse than knowing someone's been assigned to 'watch' you *grin*.
Nothing complicated.

Jeanette: Who's got their evil clutches on Sarilyn???  Lemme at 'em!!
I'll take 'em all!!! ;)

Cheryl: You get the open-ended tag <ducks> there's so much catching up
to do with that one, take your time :)  A bit of look-back to why
Ilara's feeling so isolated, and how maybe it's actually her that's
doing it.  How did Carl hear about the kidnapping, know that Ilara was
tucked away in her apartment?  Ilara's been crying an awful lot
lately... things have got her down (though the chance to get away for
the day perked her up!)  And yes, her friends have been trying their
darndest to keep her spirits up :)

Katherine: I just noticed I didn't fit in that tour... does it happen 
before or after Jeanette's last post? :)  Sorry 'bout that, my brain's 
ready to go bang with everything I'm trying to remember :P

Darn, but we could use a dragon with x-ray eyes *smirkle*.

    Sam M. Edwards o-o http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Station/6307/
captivanova@hotmail.com -o- Ilara/Erkvinen [XYLIAN DragonLands]
Feedback! Take a moment to tell me what you thought! :)
    "Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast." - Arnold J. Rimmer


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