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Hi folks, just a few notes - Latest archive version is up on WWW.FORESTKEEP.NET

Ive spent a month going over the story and changing the dragon/human thought speech into *this*

Dragon to dragon etc will remain the same

thank you all for the comments and donations - I do read them all and try to reply and thank using my somewhat flaky net connection

this story is up to 342 pages now and book 1 will likely finish when cill clutches her egg..that means laying.,.not hatching..just to keep you all keen for book 2 (muahahahaha)

Oh yes..there will be yiff..taking bets on who seduces who next!

Cheers Pete

Chapter 47

Tommy lay back on the bed as Shalla cleaned away the remains of their lunch.

He was still partially stunned by the activities of the last couple of days.

Surreptitiously pinching himself to make sure it wasn't a dream, he thought hard

about what had happened.

Had he really made love to a dragoness? One who was even now humming quietly

to herself as she bustled about? The memory of the night was a pleasant blur, but he

definitely had the odd bruise where an over-eager paw had held him down. He

could feel her pleasure in his own head and he marveled anew at the sensation â€"

James had not been exaggerating in the least.

Shalla finished stuffing the remains of the breakfast into the pantry and slithered

over to his side, nuzzling him teasingly *So full of thoughts, my mate?* she asked

fondly.

Tommy grinned and wrapped his arms around her neck "And very good thoughts

too," he chuckled, giving her a kiss on the snout.

Shalla smirked, gently disentangling his arms *I'm glad to hear it,* she purred,

*but we have to clean up and find that errant brother of mine â€" I do hope he hasn't

been causing trouble!*

Tommy chuckled. "I think Tomako is old enough to look out for himself."

Tomako miserably made his way back towards the smithy, the Clanmaster's

instructions still ringing in his ears. He had already tentatively tried to shift back

into dragon form, and the crackling shocks that had racked his body made him

swiftly realize he was unable to defeat the spell placed upon him.

"Stay out of trouble and learn what you can," he muttered to himself, repeating the

instructions given to him, sullen anger fighting against the depression he felt. He

had replaced the bandage on his thigh so as to deter human suspicion about the

sudden healing.

Pausing outside the smithy he took a deep breath, relieved at feeling the flame ducts

in his throat open under his control; at least he would be able to still fulfill his

bargain with the Mastersmith and provide heat for the furnaces.

Stepping past the entrance he bowed a greeting to Desmond. "I'm sorry for my

lateness Mastersmith. I, er... ran into some trouble last night."

Desmond's gaze swiftly ran down to the stained bandage and back up to his face.

"Aye, I heard you rescued some lass from a nasty fate!" He gave a chuckle and

reached back to tug Tomako's finished shield from the wall "Lad, you're a natural

smith, this is one of the finest apprentice works I've ever seen â€" but if your going to

be running off and rescuing damsels you'll be needing a decent sword at some

stage!" Reaching beneath the table he pulled out a cloth-wrapped ingot.

"I've been saving this up" he murmured, dropping it with a thump onto the table

and unwrapping it slowly, revealing the high quality steel blank to the dragon's

hungry eyes.

Desmond grinned. "We shall both work on it; you will need to practice on ordinary

swords before you are able to do this metal justice. Would you like that?"

Tomako looked down at the ingot and back up at Desmond before nodding eagerly

and reaching for his tools.

Osedax looked at each of the dragons in front of him and nodded slowly. "You are

all aware of the problems facing us now." He looked sadly at Nakkour. "Tomako

will learn quickly, and I shall release him when I deem him ready to resume his

position."

Stepping in front of Nokala he pointed a talon meaningfully. "Teach him and James

to fight in human form; if he can learn that, then it should go a long way to giving

him the control they both require." Nokala nodded in agreement, not daring to say a

word after the haranguing they had all received from the elderly dragon.

Osedax finally came to Carlina. "And you, my dear, have the hardest job of all," he

sighed. "Use your contacts amongst the other dragonesses to find out who else

besides Divitchka is behind the movement to find James and Cill â€" I know there are

more and we need to find them and watch them!"

Carlina nodded, pausing briefly before raising a tentative paw.

"Yes?" asked Osedax.

"Zelafin told Mella that she was worried about Tekala," Carlina replied hesitantly.

"She said he kept on sneaking off, and she was afraid he had found a mistress."

Osedax frowned and tapped his foretalons together slowly. "One so high in the

council should not be partisan," he muttered, genuinely concerned. "You need to

question her more closely in regard to this behavior!" Carlina looked about

nervously and nodded her agreement, not wanting to upset the Clanmaster any

further.

Seemingly satisfied as to his plans the elder wyrm stumped back to the portal and

prepared to leave, waving a paw in farewell he faded slowly out, leaving three

somewhat stunned dragons behind

_____________________________________________________________

Divitchka stepped slowly through the halls of the clan, his muzzle twisted with

anger. The expression was sufficient to prevent any other dragons from approaching

with questions. Where to start, he wondered? He looked up at the massive scroll

covering the wall of the cavern â€" it named the entire clan, and blazoned in a

prominent place were the names of the two newest members. Avoiding those

hateful names he let his gaze roam slowly.

He had never paid much attention to his daughter's friends; looking back, he

realized he could not bring to mind any specific faces or even voices. But then a

sudden jolt of recollection sent his memory spinning down a particularly dark path.

When they had just returned from the joining ceremony, his daughter had

mentioned something about a new scent one of her friends had been wearing.

His eyes widened in horror as he struggled to recall the smell â€" Dragons were

superb at identifying odors and the closest he could place the one she had

mentioned was ‘human!' He had been too preoccupied with the ceremony to pay

attention. A sudden pain made him realize he had clenched his paws so tightly that

blood was trickling from between his claws. Along with the pain came the name she

had mentioned that night â€" Eriga.

With a snarl of hatred he found her name on the scroll and underscored it with a

talon before sweeping from the chamber.

________________________________________________________________

Dougal carefully put his traveling clothes back into the closet and trudged back to

the throne room deep in thought. Wards would not present a problem but the

damage was already done. He twiddled his mustache idly as he entered the room.

At least they would be able to stop any more unnatural couplings and there was no

sign of any pregnancies so perhaps they had escaped the worst of it.

Settling into his throne he realized there was something sticking into his rump.

Bemusedly he rummaged down the side of the throne and pulled out a scroll he

swore he'd never seen before, his eyes swiftly scanned the title and he sucked in his

breath loudly, his eyes bulging dangerously before bellowing ‘Where is Lord

Pepper!"

Pepper sat in his favorite chair, stared at the empty pot of honey-ale and sighed; he

hadn't wanted to be made ambassador! What did he know about humans other than

that they were clumsy and stupid? Idly flicking the pot with a fingernail he realized

there was someone screaming down the hall. Heaving a sigh at fate, he closed the

door, recognizing the yelling as that of the King. Things certainly had changed

since the dragons had moved in. Shoving his fingers in his pointy ears to shut the

ranting out, he suddenly realized it wasn't doing much good as with an abrupt crash

his door flew in and shuddered violently when the red-faced monarch scurried in

and shut it behind him.

"Y-your Majesty?" he stammered, sweeping the pot off the table and out of sight.

"Did you put this on my throne?" yelled Dougal, brandishing the ‘Thee noble

Dragonne and Thee Egges' at the bemused elder.

"N-No My lord" replied Pepper, now thoroughly confused "I've never seen that

scroll before!"

Dougal stared at him a moment as if assessing his veracity, then slumped into a

chair. "Then we have another problem." His eyebrows knotted together in agitation.

"When we were talking with the dragoness, did you look - and I mean really look -

at her?"

Pepper belatedly realized what Dougal was trying to get at and shook his head. "No

my lord, I did not bring full sight to bear on her at the time. It may have been

misconstrued..."

Dougal grimaced. Of course the elder was right, but if his suspicions had been

borne out... "Next time you visit â€" take a good deep look at her. Tell me...and only

me - what you find. Do you understand?"

Pepper nodded slowly. "Yes My lord" his eyes flicked to the scroll "Do you

think...?'

Dougal swiftly put a finger to his lips. "No one must even suspect!" he hissed. "Not

even her, if she does not realize it yet!"

Pepper swallowed nervously "Yes, my Lord!" he said again. It seemed the safest

thing to say.

_________________________________________________________________

Katreen fluffed her fine wing-feathers out as she preened slowly. She was not a

vain being, but she realized that she was certainly fine-looking and was aware of the

interested gaze of several males within the tribe. Any one of them would be a

worthy mate, she mused, yet they seemed too crude when she considered the human

lord and his gentle touch. He was sensitive and intelligent and she knew she was

stronger than him so he could not harm or scratch her during a mating. Her nares

flared pinkly as embarrassment flowed through her at this thought. She darted a

swift look at her brother as he moved back and forth talking to various visitors to

their camp. Hoping he had not seen the momentary lapse caused by her musings,

she pretended to look busier.

Ostensibly this dinner was merely to cement further friendly relations with the

humans, and perhaps set up trading outlines. She swallowed nervously as her

brother spread the word of the new treaty that was being negotiated among excited

runners from other clans. The news was certainly welcome, and the fact that

dragons had returned to the forest added luster to their tribe's importance as go-

betweens.

There was also the disturbing problem of her lack of knowledge about human

customs. Should she make a gaffe, it would no doubt reflect poorly on the tribe as

well as embarrassing her personally. She paced up and down, briefly considering

how to reduce the possibility of this occurring when an agitated runner arrived at

the entrance of the den, bowing in submission before her brother Meron before

being allowed to approach.

She paid little attention until she heard her brother's gasp of disbelief. Leaning

closer, she began to pick out words that alarmed her greatly. ‘...disembowelled

‘humans killed by dragons...'

Her eyes lidded themselves in shock, the protective membrane sliding down in

response to her mood. Surely things could not have gone wrong at the keep?

Stepping closer, she pushed her way to her brother's side, wanting to hear more.

The runner was showing a paw, raised talons indicating the number of bodies they

had found. "Tthere was evidence of others but scavengers had cleaned up," the

runner said, then cawed in surprise as Katreen pushed her way in front of him. "Tell

me what you saw!" she demanded, feeling a sudden irritation at the way the

runner's eyes slid sideways to her brother in a mute question.

"Tell her," replied Meron flatly. "She is our ambassador to the humans and

dragons."

The runner nodded and swallowed nervously "There was not much left to see, there

was evidence of an armed struggle and both human and dragon blood was upon the

ground. The humans were all killed â€" there was no sign of the dragon though. The

smell of fear was strong so we did not stay long."

Katreen growled softly and swept out of the den. Surely the friendly dragoness she

had met could not be responsible for this. Perhaps some renegade or interloper?

How would this affect their relations with the humans now? She scratched idly at a

tree, running her talons down it in frustration as she realized she would now have to

ruin her dinner with such questions for Duncan.

Time for a swim before dinner, she decided, and after a short run-up, she flapped

away and headed towards the nice pool she had visited with the fairies.

___________________________________________________________________

Caroline was doing some pacing of her own in her room. She had to admit that the

elder's words had struck home and that perhaps Tomako had not intended to be

caught in the middle of the struggle, but the damage was done and she was sure he

was responsible.

There were too many unanswered questions â€" and where was James? She was sure

he would have been there to meet her - even if he was going to get married! Her

fists clenched once more and she pondered hunting him down and demanding an

explanation.

She walked over to the window and peered out through the slats at the bailey below;

having lived in a pleasant estate for all of her life, the last couple of weeks had been

a somewhat unpleasant shock. She had never wanted for clothing or food, but

having seen ragged, hungry children and their parents had opened her eyes

somewhat.

Now she had to tell her father about the occurrences of the last days. Narrowing her

gaze she pulled a parchment from her pack and sat down, lips pursed in

concentration as she pondered what to write. She would make sure this Tomako got

what was coming to him!

"WHAT!?" came the message from his sister. Tomako flinched at the intensity of

the mental scream, the sensation like little claws all down his back.

On the private band there was no hiding the emotional content of the

communication, and he felt her shock and shame at the news as if they were his

own. "I leave you alone for a few hours and you not only tear up humans and ruin

our reputation, but the Clanmaster himself punishes you??!"

Tomako could do nothing but try to withstand the tide of anger and resentment

coming from his sibling as she vented at him. The Clanmaster had informed him

that telling her was his responsibility, and to take the consequences as an adult

dragon. He just wished she wouldn't be so shrill though, as he winced once more at

a high note in her denunciations.

Back in their lair, he stood with his head hanging in shame as she angrily tugged a

sheep apart. Tommy had returned to the keep earlier, which was just as well as

Shalla was in fine voice.

Finally running out of insults, she flumped down onto the bed and stared at her

miserable-looking brother. "So how long are you trapped as a human?" she asked

angrily, shoving a haunch into the fire.

"As long as he thinks I need to," replied Tomako quietly, sitting on the edge of the

bed. "I don't know if I can stand it! I feel so...helpless!" Wrapping his arms around

himself he leaned against his sister who pulled away angrily.

"What will mother and father say?" she growled. "You've disgraced the whole

family!!"

Tomako bit his tongue as an angry rejoinder sprang to mind. He had rescued a

female and survived an armed attack - it didn't seem so bad when he though of it

like that.

"Mother has left the lair," he said quietly, watching her reaction. "She's staying

with Nokala and Carlina."

Shalla's mouth dropped open in shock. Had everyone gone mad overnight?

"We should go and see her," he continued. "They know what happened, the

Clanmaster told them.

Shalla's eyes flickered towards the portal and she nodded slowly. "I think that

would be a good idea. We have a lot to talk about," she replied, trying to think of a

way how to tell her mother about her new, somewhat hairy mate. She pulled the

chunk of scorched sheep from the fire and chewed it savagely, glaring at her brother

for a long time. Eventually she dropped the bone and sighed, pulling him into a

tight hug. She felt him shake in her grasp and sob against her chest.

Standing slowly, she walked with him to the portal and sent the request runes to

Nokala's lair. Eventually they both moved onto the portal and flickered out.

To be continued...