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1. [DL-J] Inside Information (JP)
From: John Pepper <trissana@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 20:03:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: John Pepper <trissana@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
Subject: [DL-J] Inside Information (JP)
Fig & Jerram
Day 2, afternoon
Jerram took a step back, blinking at her in surprise. "He won...er,
will win...your dragon's mating flight?" Well, that was no surprise,
bu.. I'm...I'm older than you now, and you haven't even been...I mean,
you don't *exist* yet! By the time you're old enough...er, were old
enough...or whatever...I'd be old enough to be your...your..."
"My lover!! Maybe the mother of your child... Do you think it matters
how old someone is when your heart is involved! Love doesn't work that
way my Bucko! You Loved me and made sure no one else could have me when
Kasha rose.. Age didn't figure into it. Deal with it," she threw his
own words back at him and watched and waited for him to speak again as
he possessed the information.
Jerram opened his mouth but said nothing. He found her attractive, yes,
but...love? How could he believe that? And yet, he was already
apparently buying into other things that were a lot stranger than that.
No, how could he possibly love anyone else? He'd loved Gus, through all
their tumultuous times together. How could he love anyone else? Then
again...he hadn't loved Gus at first...he'd even thought she was a boy,
because she'd deceived him along with everyone else. The love had only
come later....
But when Gus had come along, there hadn't been anyone else...oh, the
occasional one-night-stand at Ismene, the mating flights...but now, how
could he even think of loving anyone else? He'd see her ghost at the
very thought of it.
But...that was now. What about fifteen or twenty years from now? "You
could have your choice of all the good-looking young riders in the
warren, especially if you're Tara's daughter. Why an old, washed up
ex-swordmaster with....hell, by then I'll have a *white* mustache!"
She gave a short laugh. Her lips curved up on one side. "Believe me
sweetie.. you still had it even then... But you were always around. You
were the one I would go too when I'd messed up, and you always
protected me so my parents never found out about half the things I
did... But you were also very stern with me and would tell me the truth
no matter what. Even if I was acting like a low class drudge
unbefitting of the Warrenlady's daughter. I think *my* feelings changed
when I was about 16 and you became insufferable about that same time.
So by the time Kasha flew to mate I thought you hated me. Reminding me
I was just a kid
every chance you had. So imagine my surprise waking up to find you in
my bed naked as the day you were born after a night finding out what
*it* was all about."
Jerram coughed when she said that, and had to grab for a glass of
water. "You mean..." he spluttered, "That I was...the first...I
mean...?"
Fig had to laugh at that. "Oh I'd tried to find someone else to be my
first," she chuckled as she remembered back then... or rather what was
to come. "But every time I had a date with anyone you would show up,
glare at them, and then tell them it was time for them to go on home.
You scared off every male around for miles on end until no one would
even dare sit
with me in the dinging hall!! Of course you were my first... and only I
might add... Seydor won Kasha 7 out of 7 times she rose to mate. You
still had it... And no Darling.. you didn't have to brag... I did it
for you."
Of course, the dragon couldn't help hearing Jerram's mental reaction to
that statement. <Wow, seven of seven! I must be *really* good! First
Varaenna, then seven of seven! Um, how many is that?>
*Too damn many for your own good!* Jerram told him. *And don't you
breathe a WORD of any of this to your dragon-gossiping buddies, either!
And ESPECIALLY not to Varaenna or Sabbith...or...anybody!!!*
His eyes narrowed as he regarded Fig. He didn't know whether to
believe her or not...but even if he did, it was difficult to
comprehend. Him...and...Tara's daughter? Tara herself almost seemed
like a daughter to him at times...he could still remember the day the
young girl had come to the warren with her parents, and how they'd
abandoned her after she'd unexpectedly joined.
"This is a bit much to take in," he said, sitting down heavily and
grabbing the wine bottle that sat on the table. He popped the cork out
as though he were going to take a drink right from the bottle, then
thought better of it. "Grab a glass, and I'll pour you some," he told
Fig. "I
think we probably both could use some."
She got him a glass and retrieved her own glass still full with her
last pour. "Look... I didn't mean to... Well... I wasn't going to tell
you about... but... It's just that it's so hard sometimes seeing you
and knowing that you aren't the man I love... Not yet anyway... and I
can't just stop and kiss you the way I'm used to doing for no good
reason at all except I want to!"
Jerram cleared his throat, something she said earlier having finally
sunk in. "Um...you mentioned a...child?" He knew that these were
things he shouldn't be asking...if she were lying, then her answers
wouldn't do him any good.. and if she were telling the truth, then he
shouldn't know the answers in advance. But, he couldn't help himself
asking.
"Do you really want to know?" she asked, not sure weather to tell him
about the son he would one day have or not. Should she tempt the fates
and be honest with him? Or lie.
He started to say yes, then firmly shook his head. "No," he said.
"No, lets just keep it at...well, that if I help you change what might
otherwise happen, then there's a chance that I *can* have a child...
and that there will still be a place for him or her to grow up."
She nodded and lifted her glass in a toast. "So you are still willing
to help me out without turning me in to my mother or father?"
He nodded. "Yes...even though I'm still not sure just what it is we're
supposed to be doing. Saving Tara from...who, or what?"
'From horny men like you,' she thought to herself, not realizing she
had whispered it loud enough for him to hear.
Jerram blinked. "Um, look, I think there's something you really don't
understand..." He started trying to think of a way to tell her how the
mating flight had actually ended...at least the part that had taken
place on the ground. "You see we ah..."
"Will you shut up about it!" She glared at him, trying hard not to
throw the rest of her drink in his face at the reminder of the flight.
"I told you. I do not want to know the details. Can't you get that
through your head!! Shees... you would think you were the first man in
the world to
win a damn mating flight!. Okay! You won you're a stud. Now shut up
about it alright!! We have more important things to do!"
Jerram sighed, realizing he was getting nowhere fast in trying to
explain what had happened. Well...maybe that was for the best, he
thought. If Fig was telling the truth...and wasn't suffering from some
sort of delusions that would have to have affected her dragon
too...then the two of them had work to do. Work that could only be
disrupted if they let...well,
personal matters...get in the way. "Where do you propose we start,
then?" he asked.
She glared at him for ten seconds or so, thinking he gave up to
easy...she had been spoiling for a fight, but maybe it was better they
tried to work things out instead.
"Wisp is running down leads but so far all he can find is rumors. " She
told him, taking her drink and heading into the living area. "One lead
he turned up helped save the life of a Queenrider from a ... Daere
Warren... He said it was some warren in the new lands... she's here
in the med center now."
Jerram looked at her wide eyed. "Daere? I knew riders from Daere
once. We fought a huge battle at Geode...I was acting wingleader
then..." He shook his head, still not sure how he hadn't managed to
evade *that* honor. "Anyway, I worked pretty closely with their
wingleader...T'rell was his name. He told me a bit about the place.
What's this
queenrider's name?"
"Kasha said it was Jayleigh, her queen's named Viktroy... or Troy. Wisp
said she got a message one day and left the Warren without an escort
and disappeared until the Martyn found her and contacted Wisp and Trap
to help rescue her," Fig explained as she sipped on her drink. "What
they found strange was that she was being held not to far from where
the magic line between the two lands is the weakest."
"Jayleigh!!" Jerram gasped. "Fig, she's not just a queenrider... I
remember T'rell talking about her - and his dragon couldn't stop
telling Seydor about that queen of hers. Jayleigh was THE Warrenlady
of Daere...and you say she was being held prisoner somewhere??" His
mind raced...they were trying to guard one warrenlady, and now it
appeared that some sort of plot had been carried out against another.
He wondered if there could be any connection.
She raised her glass and looked at him. "I thought about that, but
couldn't come up with anything to link them," she said and would have
said more, but a third voice enter the talk.
"Then you did not think hard enough my daughter. Because there is a
link."
"Then maybe you would be gracious enough to explain what it might be my
father," Fig said without turning around, for she knew who was standing
there. "Jerram my dear, would you be so kind as to get another glass
for my father while he tells us what he knows."
Jerram quickly retrieved the glass and poured Wisp a drink out of a
bottle Fig hadn't seem before. It wasn't them same stuff they were
drinking. Fig glared at Jerram, but he just smiled and nodded towards
Wisp. "Pay attention to your father darling and maybe you can learn
something."
Neither saw the look of surprise that flashed across Wisp's face before
he hid it. But he did wonder about the little endearments being passed
back and forth between the other two in the room.
Dear? Darling? How much had these two had to drink already tonight?
"We found out that Leigh got a note delivered to her at Daere the day
she went missing," he started to explain. "The nearest thing we could
figure out is it was sent to her by someone she was familiar with.. or
I've been assured by Martyn and others who knew her that she would
never have left the Warren with out an escort..."
He stopped long enough to take a sip of the pale amber liquid, and
raised his glass to the Weaponsmaster before going on. "I went to see
Tara earlier when the others arrived with Leigh and found a note
address to her on her desk.. the funny thing was that the writing
*looked* like mine..and since I knew I didn't send her any note.. I
opened it.. Inside was a note asking her to meet me at a given
location, and a request that she come by herself... it was signed with
Lord Darden's name. I NEVER wrote her that note. On those rare
occasions I did sent Tara a note.. I always sighed it the same way with
just three small dots in a circle.."
"So you knew...know, rather...the Warrenlady of Daere?" Jerram asked
Wisp curiously. "You do get around, don't you?" He knew he'd need to be
cautions in what he said around Wisp. Clearly, Wisp assumed that Jerram
thought Fig was his daughter. But, did Wisp know her *real* parentage,
he wondered?
Wisp gave him a secretive smile. "I know her. Good woman. She was a
tough but fair leader in Daere. Her disappearance was hard for them to
take... But back to the note.."
"You said they both received notes they thought were from someone they
knew... but you think they were being used to drawl the Warrenlady's
away from their Warrens. Have you thought to find out if any of the
other Warrenlady's or Queenrider's received the same kind of note?" Fig
asked after listening to what Wisp had told them."
"Good question my daughter," he turned to look at her. "You learn to
reason well."
She nodded her head at him, pleased by the compliment. "I learned from
the best my father."
Wisp then turned to Jerram. "Is there some quite way you can contact
the Dragonlady and see if she knows of any more of these notes being
sent out."
"I could take messages around.." Fig started but Wisp and Jerram both
shot her looks that said NO louder then the spoken word could have.
"But I know someone I can get to do the job for us," Wisp commented and
his eyes went glossy as he bespoke his dragon Smoke. Then they
refocused and he turned back to them. "She'll be here in a moment.
Until then we have to think of how to word the notes we're going to
send so we don't spook the others."
"What exactly do you want them to do?" Jerram asked. "Seems to me that
will tell us how to word the notes. That, and how much they already
know or suspect." He paused for a moment. "Um, and who did you have
in mind to send?"
Wisp's lips curved upwards in a slow knowing smile. "Let's just say I
know of someone who can get in and out of almost anywhere like a
*Ghost* and has a quick head on her shoulder. The best part is she's
already here in Jasra so we won't have long to wait."
Jerram chuckled. "Oh, that's too easy a clue!" he said. "As I recall,
your 'ghost' rides a pink dragon, does she not?" It *was* a great
idea, he thought. It had been a long time since anyone had put Ghost's
unusual skills to use - at least, as far as he knew. Which he might
not, given that such things were always done in secret and on a
need-to-know basis.
"Who are you talking about?" Fig asked. She couldn't think of who they
might mean. But wasn't thrilled with how quickly Jerram had agreed to
let someone else go when they had both turned her down. "And why not
me? Afraid I might embarrass you or something? Or are you afraid I just
might fall for one of those handsome riders in one of the other Warrens
and
not come back?"
Jerram sighed. "We are afraid," he said simply, "that you are too
valuable to be risked. Also, that you aren't...trained, shall we
say...for this particular type of mission." He looked over to Wisp.
"Am I right about that?" he asked.
"I'm trained!" she shot back at Jerram, not waiting for her *father* to
agree with him. "Tell him I'm trained. Anyone can teleport to the other
Warrens and give the Warrenlady's a message. How difficult or dangerous
can that be? Or are you saying you'd be worried about me."
Wisp had caught the slight edge in her tone and again wondered at how
familiar these two were acting. He kept his thoughts to himself for
now, but made a note to have a talk with the girl later on.
"No Jerram is right in this case my daughter," he said before Jerram
could respond to the girls taunt. "The person I have in mind for this
has worked for me before and she knows where to go and who to contact
without alerting anyone that she's been there. She's more like the
Ghost she is named for then anyone I know... besides myself that is. We
need her
ah.. special skills for this job since time is important."
"That and she knows how to take orders without giving an attitude over
every little thing," Jerram commented as if scolding a undisciplined
child.
Fig turned to give some flip answer but stopped when she saw the young
woman who has somehow appeared to stand behind the man.
"Daughter.. meet Ghost," Wisp said, holding back the chuckle at her
expense. "Ghost.. my daughter Fig, who will remember her manners in a
moment when she gets over the shock of your ghostly quiet arrival."
Ghost nodded and gave a slight smile of greeting. "You have a job for
me?" she asked, not giving away for a moment her surprise at finding
Wisp here in Jerram's apartment.
"I do," he nodded and motioned for her to have a sit on the couch next
to Fig. It didn't take him long to give her the short version of what
had been going on. Including the sudden arrival of the Missing
Warrenlady of Daere.
"Know her. Good Woman," Ghost commented, remembering how Jayleigh
drugged her to keep her from retuning to Geode at the request of
Phaedra of Geode during the battle of Geode when Ghost had been sent
around the Warrens to ask for help to defeat the Hellspawn army led by
Ash.
"She kept you alive Bashie." Wisp's tone was a bit more stern then Fig
had ever heard from him before. She might have wondered about it, but
the name.. Bashie sparked a memory. She knew the name from her own time
in the future. Bashie and her dragon Kikeane had severed as Wingleader
in Jasra for several years before she had been called back to her home
lands on the death of her mother and step father. They had racked up a
very
respectful record.
"My god-parents always told me that when someone cares enough to save
your life when you were young and foolish.. it's because they know that
there is something more important you are needed for in the future,"
Fig said softly. "Your day isn't here yet Kikeane's rider. But the time
you come into your own will come soon enough. You will be a bright star
that
people will talk about and your name remembered."
"Until then.." Wisp said in the same stern tone of voice as he gave Fig
an odd look. "We have need of right now in this time. This is what I
need for you to do..."
He out lined what had happened and explained about the notes he wanted
her to take to the other warrens around both sides of the Dragons
lands.
"We need you to wait for them to read the notes and then wait for their
answers... I'll trust you to tell them what you think they should know
if they have any questions... But.. under *NO* circumstance are you to
tell anyone that Jayleigh of Daere has been found and that she is
alive. No one is to know that until we find out what is going on."
***Submitted by:******
John Aka
Jerram & Seydor
&
Barbara
Aka
Fig & Kasha
Wisp & Smoke
Ghost & Kikeane
Summary: Fig let's Jerram in on a few things about the future dealing
with the two of them before Wisp shows up at Jerram's apartment to talk
to Jerram and Fig about the strange notes sent to both Jayleigh of
Daere and Tara of Jasra asking them to meet the sender alone without
anyone with them. He are wondering if any of the other Warrenlady's
have received the same sort of note and wisp sends for Ghost to take a
message to the other Warrens to find out.
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