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1. [DL-J] A New Home For Two, and A New Job For One
From: John Pepper <trissana@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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Message: 1
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2006 17:58:07 -0800 (PST)
From: John Pepper <trissana@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Subject: [DL-J] A New Home For Two, and A New Job For One
Ansel
Morning, Day 2
(Before the peace talks)
Ansel and Eliase, upon waking, went to the med center to check on the
casualties. Luckily, their idea of bringing in Kataani healers seemed
to have done some good. At least, the place didn't have the air of
chaos that it had had the night before. They had tried to check on
Tara's condition, but were told by one of the nursing staff that both
Kalewyn and one of the Kataani healers was with her, and that further
visitors just now would not help. Eliase took her leave at that point,
and Ansel - after checking on some friends who'd been in yesterday's
battle and been brought in as casualties - left to go and find
Belarade. He knew she hadn't been in the front lines yesterday because
of the need to care for her child, but was still worried about her -
though he assumed that Menia would have told him had something been
wrong.
He knew that Khamorray was at the beach, but Ansel didn't need the
dragon to walk the relatively short distance to Bel's quarters. He
quickly spied the bright red Menia lying on the ledge outside. She
raised her head as he approached, her black eyes narrowing.
<About time,> she grumbled. <So, you finally found the time to come
and say hello, eh?>
Ansel sighed. *I'm sorry, Menia, I really am. I tried to contact
you last night, but you were asleep.*
<I'm surprised I got any sleep with all the worrying my rider has
been doing,> she told him. <First you didn't show up, and then...>
He didn't need her to finish. He held up a hand and nodded, knowing
she meant that Britche and his rider had been missing since yesterday's
battle. *I was in the fighting till it ended yesterday,* he said.
*And then with my sister, when Oga stabbed her, and then...we were out
bringing back healers to help those in the med center. We...had a
pretty busy day.* He tried to peer past her into Bel's quarters. *Is
you rider here?* he asked.
(Tag Taylor)
* * * * *
Early Afternoon, Day 2
Ansel looked up as he saw a junior officer of the Imperial Army
running hard up the stone stairway that led from the beach to the
warren proper. The officer stopped at the top, as though he were
looking for something. When he spotted Ansel, he hurried over to where
the young rider stood.
"You are one of those who...rides...the seadragons?" he asked,
stuttering a bit as he did so. Ansel knew that it was still hard for
these people to understand any sort of association with what they
considered both a dangerous animal and an outright enemy.
"I am," Ansel told him. "What can I do for you, Lieutenant?"
"Rider, our signalers are passing along messages that something
strange has occurred to the north of here. One of our patrols has
encountered a wild seadragon. One with eggs."
Ansel's eyes widened in surprise. Wild seadragon eggs, if abandoned,
could be brought back for Keeza to raise for future joinings when they
hatched. "What is the situation?" he asked. "Is the dragon still
there?"
"There is some confusion," the Lieutenant admitted. "At last report,
yes, though the standard signal for 'engagement in process' was sent."
Ansel's eyes narrowed. "In other words, your patrol is trying to
kill the female?"
"I do not know," the Lieutenant admitted. "What I do know is that
the signals also tell of a lander...er, one of your kind...being
there."
Ansel nodded. "In other words, you'd like me to go investigate." In
truth, there was nothing he'd rather do - but he wanted to make it
appear that he was doing the Kataani a favor rather than the other way
around. "I will go and have a look," he told the officer. He knew he
would need backup, though, if there was a wild seadragon on the scene.
*Khamorray, tell Ryianne I need her and her rider to come join me
here. Oh, and you need to come too.*
<Ryianne reports that she and her rider have encountered a rather
strange situation of their own,> Khamorray reported.
*Tell her we may have some wild seadragon eggs located - if we can
get there before the takes them away or the Kataani patrol destroys
them.*
/snip from Rachel's & Mel's post/
Eliase smiled at the girl. If she was not a rider now Eliase knew
that someday she would be. Just then Ryianne lifted her head and looked
back to the warren.
{Khamorray says Ansel is looking for you.}
Eliase nodded to her and then glanced back to the girl. "I have to go
back." She offered her hand out again. "Do you want to come back with
me?"
The drudge hesitated and then nodded, reaching out her hand.
What other choice did she have?
/end snip/
Ansel was saddling Khamorray when Eliase and Ryianne arrived,
bringing with them a girl that Ansel had never seen before. She seemed
frightened, looking around her as if she expected that any moment to be
attacked. "Hello there," Ansel said softly. "Don't be scared,
nobody's going to hurt you."
Eliase shook her head. "I don't think she can hear," she told him.
"She seems to communicate by some sort of pantomiming."
"Like Kalewyn," Ansel mused. "Maybe he can speak to her. You know,
Khamorray mentioned hearing something from Plastyra earlier, something
about Tyler and Jerram bringing someone in from Cabral. I wonder if
this could be her?"
"We could ask Tyler to come and see to her," said Ansel. "But...we
really don't have time to wait for him to get here, not if we're to get
to those eggs in time." He looked around, and saw a disgruntled - as
always - looking G'ret walking slowly along the edge of the green.
"Ah, there's our answer," he told her. "Hey G'ret!" he called out.
G'ret looked at him and scowled. "Yeah? What do you want, punk?"
Ansel resisted saying that he wanted to break G'ret's nose, and
instead said, "Listen, Eliase and I have an emergency to attend to. We
need to get this girl to Tyler - she doesn't seem to hear or speak, and
she seems pretty frightened, so be gentle with her. But get her to
Tyler right away, understand? If you can't find him, have Seroth
contact Plastyra."
"Yeah, yeah," said G'ret, nodding. "Emergency, right." In G'ret's
mind, 'emergency' probably meant the two riders were going off for some
'private time' out on the beach. He would have protested more, but an
idea was forming in his mind. "I'll take her to Grouty Junior, don't
worry."
Ansel nodded, satisfied that they had done all they could for now.
Eliase seemed a bit more reluctant, but realized that if she couldn't
trust a dragonrider to take proper care of their charge, who could they
trust? She mounted Ryianne, and seconds later both dragons were
airborne.
* * * * *
G'ret looked speculatively at the bewildered-looking drudge. "Well,
well, you just might be what I've been looking for," he said. She
looked like someone used to doing dirty-work, and he couldn't think of
anything worse than tending that mean-tempered queen fishdragon. And
if she couldn't talk, that meant she couldn't tell anyone that she'd
been put to work doing G'ret's job. And if that damned mermaid Tanami
showed up for a progress report, he knew he could quickly get the
drudge quickly out of sight and report on what a good job he was doing!
He took the girl by the arm and led her off toward Hsina's quarters.
She came along quietly - he chuckled at his own joke, she couldn't do
anything *other* than come along quietly, could she? In any case, she
didn't put up any sort of resistance, which told him that she was used
to being ordered around. So much the better!
He pulled her quickly through the junior queenrider's quarters. The
drudge looked around at the weird furnishings and decorations - he knew
Hsina came from some really weird place whose name he couldn't remember
- but he didn't give her time to look at the place. Rather, he pulled
her on into the dragon's waterlogged sleeping area. "Okay, drudge,
there's your new job!" he told her, pointing at the huge seadragon
queen. "Get to work."
The drudge looked at Keeza, then at G'ret, then at Keeza again.
Well, he guessed he had to show her what to do, but he wasn't going
anywhere near that dragon again. He handed her the bottle of polish
and the rag, and then pantomimed a polishing motion. Then he pointed
to Keeza again. "And don't miss a spot!" he ordered, then sat back to
watch from a safe - and dry - distance.
(Tag Mel/Andrew)
* * * * *
It was the dragons who first spotted the activity off in the
distance, along the shoreline. A large wild seadragon - presumably a
queen - was ringed by numerous smaller figures, which Khamorray told
Ansel were Kataani soldiers with long pikes. <And the eggs have
hatched,> he added.
Well, so much for getting new eggs for the warren. But, they could
still stop the senseless bloodshed that was occurring now. The queen
might be able to fend for herself under normal circumstances, but not
encumbered by several helpless hatchlings.
/snip from Arlene's post/
As Shomashi turned with disgust he came face to face with a small
green
dragon with shiny orange eyes. The dragon cocked his head to the side.
<*You make it sound like a bad thing.*> Sazerac looked at Shomashi.
The Kataani stared at the dragon and spoke aloud, "Did you just... say
something?"
<*Yes, I'm Sazerac.*> The green seadragon hatchling replied, <*Why are
your friends attacking my mother? Tell them to stop!*> Sazerac's fear
and pain emanated across their newly formed bond.
"WHAT?" Shomashi gasped. He turned to his fellow Kataani and began to
yell at them to stop.
It was then that other dragonriders arrived. They also were not very
pleased with the Kataani attacking the seadragon. They blocked the
Kataani from the seadragon, and she quickly slipped back into the ocean
to gather her remaining hatchlings, fleeing with them into deeper
water, mourning the loss of SeaLandia and Sazerac who would now stay
behind,
joined to riders.
/end snip/
It had taken only a couple of quick passes to convince the soldiers
to desist. Their real training was to defend against these creatures,
not pursue and kill them needlessly. And, recognizing that any hostile
action against the two joined dragons and their riders might cause a
renewing of hostilities - and worse, earn them the displeasure of every
officer up the line and all the way up to General Nakamo himself -
decided them to stand down.
The two dragons landed, and their riders dismounted. Nearby, Ansel
saw a human girl standing next to a hatchling seadragon. He hurried
over to her.
/snip from Raemonda's post/
Raising her bow again, as she turned around, but then lowered it when
she spotted a dragonrider, dismounting.
"Now you'll be stuck with one of those creatures forever!" the
Kataani said, as he turned to leave.
/end snip/
"I'm Ansel, of Jasra Warren, Khamorray's rider," he told her. "What
is your name?"
"I'm Nynaeva," she told him. "Nyna for short. And this..." She
knelt down by the little seadragon hatchling. "This is SeaLandia."
"Hello Nynaeva," he said, then projected directly to the dragon.
*Hello SeaLandia!* The small creature looked up at him in surprise,
not having learned from her dam that there were such things as humans
who could talk to her kind. Ansel gave SeaLandia a pat on the head,
then stood up to look at Nyna. "Well, it looks like you've had quite a
busy day here! I'm sure you've got a million questions about what's
happened here, and I think I can answer them...but this isn't the place
to do it. We are going to take you and SeaLandia back to Jasra Warren
where we can see to you properly."
"Ansel," Eliase said in a whispered yet clearly worried voice. "I
think we might have another problem." She pointed over to where a
small knot of Kataani soldiers were clustered about one of their own -
who was kneeling on the ground, sword out, clearly trying to protect a
second hatchling.
"Shomashi, just let us kill it for you!" one of the soldiers
insisted. "That's the only way you'll ever be free of it! Those
things take over your mind!"
"You are not going to hurt him!" the soldier called Shomashi said
defiantly, even though his expression belied his own confusion over
what he was saying. This, thought Ansel, was going to be an even
bigger problem.
"Take Nyna and SeaLandia," he whispered to Eliase. "I think a simple
extraction might be the best way to handle this."
"I agree," she whispered back. "But for this kind of extraction, a
smaller dragon is better."
He nodded reluctantly. "Okay, but we'll cover you."
He hurried Nyna and her small dragon aboard Khamorray, as they
watched Eliase and Ryianne take off. Khamorray cleared the ground
just as a confused-looking Kataani sergeant was hurrying in their
direction. Khamorray did a tight spiral to gain altitude, then flew
top-cover for Ryianne as she swooped down to pluck the besieged soldier
from his ring of attackers.
He sighed, wondering how he would put this in his written report to
Corwin.
(Tag Arlene or Rachel - Ansel will take Nyna back separately, since
that's already been written, but he won't leave until he's sure the
others are safe. Presumably there will be some reason why Eliase won't
come back to Jasra immediately with Shomashi.)
* * * * *
Mid-Afternoon
Ansel's first stop upon returning to the warren was the med center,
to have his charges checked over for any injuries - and also to see to
the health of the little hatchling. And so he led Nyna and SeaLandia
in to see Balagon.
"Hello, Nynaeva," said Balagon, after Ansel had introduced them.
"I'm Jasra's Master Healer, and if it's all right with you, I'd like to
look over your dragon for just a moment. Then I'll want to ask you
some questions if you don't mind."
"He'll probably ask me to leave in a moment," said Ansel. "But I
need to let my wingleader know about your being here. Did you know
that Kataani soldier who joined out there, by the way?"
Nyna shook her head. "Not before today. He was one of the soldiers
with the patrol. He was kind to me, though. He put himself in danger
to save me from the big seadragon."
"And wound up becoming your fellow trainee," Ansel said. Assuming, of
course, that Eliase could convince him to come here. If necessary,
Ryianne could call Adas, and get Keer out there to talk him,
officer-to-soldier.
"Well...could you tell me a bit about yourself, and how you came to
be out on the beach? Were you aware that you were walking right in the
middle what was just yesterday a battlefield?"
(Tag Raemonda - want to JP the followup post?)
Submitted by:
John
Ansel & Khamorray
Jasra Warren
Summary:
Day 2:
Morning: Ansel goes to see Belarade and Menia.
Early Afternoon: Ansel learns from a Kataani officer that there has
been a disturbance up the beach involving a seadragon queen and her
eggs. He calls Eliase to back him up, and they fly north, leaving the
drudge with G'ret.
Early Afternoon: G'ret takes the drudge over to Hsina's apartment,
where he makes her take over his own duty of caring for Keeza.
Early Afternoon: Ansel and Eliase pick up Nynaeve and her dragon
SeaLandia from the Kataani patrol. Eliase rescues the soldier Shomashi
and his own new dragon, who are being menaced by his fellow soldiers
who believe they can help him by killing the dragon.
Mid Afternoon: Ansel returns with Nynaeve and SeaLandia to the
warren, where he takes her to see Balagon the healer.
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