Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2004 02:40:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Skylar Moonsdove <makutu_matakite@yahoo.com>
Subject: Dragon Keepers Series 3

Legals: This story is entirely fictional.  Some of the characters may be
inspired by real people, but most are made up.  The events of this story
exist only in my mind and in those of the readers.

Also, this is my first attempt at writing anything so any feedback would be
greatly appreciated.

Dragon Keepers 3

Pelath stepped into his washroom and cleaned his face before heading down
to breakfast.  He was hoping that he would be able to avoid Olridian.  He
didn't really want to deal with him just yet.  He just wanted to get
through today without any other hick ups.  He scanned the mess hall and
breathed a sigh of relief.  He quickly got himself an apple and a glass of
juice and made a quick exit out into the gardens.

*

Olridian checked himself in the mirror of his washroom.  He looked like
shit.  In the past two hours he had run the gamut of emotions, from desire
and lust in the showers, wonder, hope, joy and love while watching Pelath's
performance to heartbreak and now sorrow.  "Damn him!  What gives him the
right to make me feel like this?!"  Olridian took a deep breath and washed
his face with cold water.

He stood there for a while just watching the water flow down the sink.  He
snapped himself out of his trance and shut off the water, going back into
his room.  He grabbed a brush and dragged it through his dishevelled hair,
the simple act of brushing helping to calm him some what.  Grabbing an
elastic Olridian pulled his hair up into a pony tail, his fringe falling to
sit at the corners of his eyes.  He took one last look in the mirror before
heading down to the mess hall for breakfast.  "Better, much better." He
thought to himself as he headed for the door.

He made his way down to breakfast and stopped at the door into the mess
hall.  Olridian popped his head around the corner and scanned the room for
any sign of Pelath.  He breathed a sigh of relief but felt strangely
disappointed.

"Damn him" he muttered under his breath.  "Damn who hon?" came a voice from
just behind him.  Olridian almost jumped out of his skin.  He spun around
and just about slipped down the steps into the hall.  It was Yanka and she
caught him just in time.

"Hold up, no need to freak out there" she said trying, but failing
dismally, to keep a straight face.  "Yanka!  You dog!  I just about shat
myself not to mention almost breaking my neck!  What the hell were you
doing sneaking up on me like that?  Honestly if it was anybody else you
would be dead right now!"  Olridian was furious.  That did it for Yanka;
she threw her head back and roared with laughter, tears streaming down her
face.  Olridian turned on his heels and stormed off into the mess hall
leaving Yanka to pull herself back together.

He grabbed himself a plate and loaded it up with sausages and scrambled
eggs muttering darkly under his breath.  Yanka moved up behind him as he
was filling his plate.  "Sorry about that hon, but you have to admit, that
was pretty funny" she giggled.

Olridian just gave her a cold look and turned around, about ready to make
off with his spoils, but Yanka had other ideas.  She grabbed his arm and
spun him around, a frown crossing her face "Ok King of Frosts, my bad.
Now, tell me, what's his name and how far up your arse did he stick it
`cause you got a real nasty temper on you at the moment."

Olridian glared at her and then quite suddenly broke down and started
crying right there.  A look of consternation crossed her face and she
pointedly removed the plate from Olridian's fingers and put it down on the
counter, she picked up a couple of pieces of toast and dragged Olridian out
into the garden.

* Pelath moved with his breakfast to a quiet corner of the gardens and sat
down behind a large T'laqui tree.  It was huge measuring eight meters in
diameter around the base and fifty four meters in height.  He leaned up
against it and tried to collect his thoughts.

Naturally the first thoughts through his mind were about Olridian.  "Why
did he have to be a mage? Why did he have to be so hot and why the hell do
I have to feel the way I do about him?"  Pelath sighed.  Today seemed to be
a day full of questions and lacking in answers.

When he had first become aware of the link with Olridian he was so
embarrassed that he couldn't even look at him.  The feelings of shock and
confusion that pulsed along the link still burned in his mind.  Maybe he
should have tried to talk to him, tried to explain it all away, but the
shock of everything that had happened and the speed with which it had all
occurred made him panic.

Pelath leaned back against the tree, took a deep breath and let out a
defeated sigh.  He sipped his juice and took a bite out of his apple,
slowly chewing and ruminating.  He tried to clear his head of thoughts
regarding Olridian.  Today was a big day, the day when the dragons chose
their keepers.  He had always dreamed of flying a dragon but never believed
it was possible.  Until now that is.  He was in the middle of one of his
favorite flying fantasies when he heard a commotion coming from behind his
tree.

*

Yanka dragged Olridian out into the gardens to a quiet area in front of an
old T'laqui tree, one of the last left on Tar'El, the species having become
an early victim of progress and innovation which saw most of them clear
felled about a hundred and twenty years ago.

She sat him down beneath the shade of the trees enormous canopy of leaves.
He was still crying but his sobbing had quietened.  She pulled him against
her, rested his head on her shoulder and started to rock him, whispering
words of consolation.  She looked down at his face and saw how dejected and
empty he looked.  She brushed back his fringe from his eyes and the
hopelessness in his empty gaze almost broke her heart.

"What's wrong hon?  You want to talk about it yet?"  He looked up at her
seeming not to realize where he was or who she was until finally,
recognition dawned on his face.  "Shit, I'm sorry Yan, everything just sort
of came to a head and I couldn't stop myself".

"So you want to tell me what's wrong?"  Olridian sighed "It's nothing
really..."

"Like hell its nothing!  You just had a freaking nervous breakdown there
and all over my good shirt too I might add.  Either you tell me now or I
tickle it out of you!"  Her threat hanging ominously in the warm summer
air.

When he didn't reply immediately she jabbed him a couple of times in the
kidneys and stomach, causing him to squirm and giggle.  The mirth however
did not quite make it to his eyes, they still had that hollow, distant,
empty look to them but at least he giggled.

Olridian quietened down and then sighed.  "Ok, I'll tell you but its
stupid..." he went on to tell her about Pelath.  The first time they met,
how Olridian had almost melted on the spot looking into those depthless
golden wells that he had for eyes, how just the sight of him over the last
few days drove him to distraction, how he when he went to sleep at night
his last thought would be about Pelath, his dreams filled with him and his
first waking thought would be Pelath, how he had been scared to talk or
make friends with him because he may not have been able to control himself,
how he had seen him naked in the shower that morning and everything that he
had felt.  He told her everything seemingly unable to stop the flood of
words that poured forth from his mouth once he had started.  When he got to
the part about watching Pelath this morning as he practiced, Yanka
interrupted him.  "I didn't know you were a mage.  Why didn't you tell me?"

"Neither did I until this morning.  I was just standing there watching him
and suddenly the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end as I sensed the
power trickling forth from him and then I get this tingly sensation seeping
from me and heading towards him.  The next thing I know I'm inside his
head, feeling everything he did, seeing everything he did and remembering
everything the way he did, but you have to let me finish the story..." He
told her everything he saw and felt while he was linked and what happened
afterwards.  "What hurt the most was that I couldn't tell him how I really
felt.  He broke the link before I could really show him what I felt about
him.  When I felt the emotions he felt for me wash over me I was shocked
and a little confused as to why, but then he broke the link and I couldn't
show how much he meant to me.  I went to talk to him, to try and sort all
of this out `cause I was so confused.  I have never felt this way about
anybody before Yan.  But before I could get to him he ran off without even
letting me explain.  He wouldn't even let me explain..." his voice trailed
off as a new flood of tears threatened to overwhelm him.  Just then they
heard a twig snap and both of them swung their necks around in the
direction the noise came from.

*

Pelath heard the sound of someone crying coming from behind him. "Great,
just what I need while I'm trying to eat breakfast" he thought to himself.
He was about ready to get up but something made him hesitate.

He heard someone ask the person a question, followed buy silence and then
giggles.  He listened carefully and heard the reply of a very familiar
voice.  No force on the planet could move him from his spot now.  It was
Olridian.

Why had he been crying?  The answer came soon enough.  Pelath listened to
the tale that unfolded and was moved more than he ever thought he could be.
He couldn't believe what he was hearing, the confession stealing his breath
with its depth of feeling.  He was rooted to the spot listening to
Olridian's story.  He was trying to place the voice of Olridian's confidant
and listen to the conversation at the same time.  When she interrupted him
part way through Pelath realized who she was.  It was that Yan something
chick who always hung around him.

Pelath had assumed that she was his girlfriend when he first saw them
together, which was another reason why he was so cut up after the incident
this morning.

When Olridian confessed that he didn't know that he was a mage until this
morning Pelath was a little surprised, but it was hardly unreasonable
seeing as you normally have to be around a mage whose powers are aspected
before your powers are unveiled.

Pelath stopped musing and concentrated on what Olridian was saying.  When
Olridian finished up he was in tears, the final sentence tearing his heart
to shreds, so filled with sorrow and hopelessness.  He realized what a
mongrel he had been.

He had panicked and had taken the cowards way out and ran.  He had to make
this right, if that was possible now.  He stood up and walked around the
tree stepping on a twig as he did so.

*

Olridian looked up to see Pelath standing there.  There were tears in his
eyes.  Had he heard everything?  Deep inside Olridian hoped so.  This could
make everything so much easier.

He couldn't help notice that Pelath was still topless.  His eyes scanning
the broad flat expanse of Pelath's bronzed torso, perfect abs and pert
little nipples.  Olridian eyes glazed over as he fantasised about all the
things he could lick off that perfect body.

Yanka saw the glazed expression on Olridian's face and realized that she
would have to take charge of this little interaction.  "How long have you
been standing there listening to our PRIVATE conversation?"  Pelath glanced
down at her as if he had just noticed that she was there, before turning
his attention back towards Olridian.

"I... I heard everything... and I need... I need to say I'm sorry.  I'm sorry
I didn't give you a chance to talk.  I couldn't.  It... it was just too hard
to face you, after... what happened this morning."  Tears streaming down his
face.

He was going out on a limb here.  He didn't know how heart broken Olridian
was but he was willing to try anything that might win him over.  He dropped
down behind them and revealed his own story.  The first time he had met
Olridian and the greeting that had left his knees feeling like jelly, how
he tried to be everywhere Olridian was just so that he could see him, how
he had first seen him in the shower this morning and the feelings it had
caused, and then how he had panicked this morning and run away and the
aftermath that followed in the bedroom.

"Olridian I need you to know that... that I have never felt this way about
anybody before, you fill my every thought and I think... I think I might be
in love with you.  No scratch that I am in love with you."  Pelath hung his
head morosely.

Who knew confessing could take so much out of you.  There was a long moment
of silence as both Olridian and Pelath ordered their chaotic thoughts into
some type of pattern.  The silence however was broken as Yanka cleared her
throat.

"This is all very nice boys but aren't we forgetting something?  They both
looked up with a questioning look across their faces, they looked so
similar Yanka started to chuckle.  "What would that be?" Pelath asked.

"You still haven't introduced yourself to me.  We have yet to meet."
Pelath looked confused then realized, etiquette and custom decreed that he
greet her formally or risk mortally offending her and as he was male he had
to instigate the greeting.

"Of course, my humblest apologies.  My mother would be most angry if she
knew how rude I was."  He extended his hands forward palms open and facing
forward, "Greetings, I am called Pelath Udanavore, House Udanavore, City of
Aletium.  It is my pleasure to greet you."  Yanka looked Pelath up and down
with an unreadable look then opened her palms facing outward placing her
hands palm to palm with his, their fingers clasping.  "Greetings Pelath
Udanavore, House Udanavore.  I am called Yanka D'enatha, Family D'enatha,
from the town of Eked Elimon, north of the city of Anendioran, in the
Chimoyan Territories.  It is my pleasure to accept you welcome, and yes, as
you may have guessed, me and Olridian are related, he's my younger brother,
by about seven minutes.  The acceptance of your welcome is conditional
however on one thing."

"And what would that be?" Pelath asked.

"If you ever hurt my brother like that again I'm gonna pummel you into
mush."  She smiled sweetly, "Now that we have all that cleared up I'll
leave the two of you to talk.  Don't take too long however because its ten
to eight, selection begins at eight sharp and we still have to get to the
hall.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a tissue wrapped packet and
fished out a piece of toast from it.  She threw one of the pieces of toast
to Olridian.  "Here, you should eat something first and you..." she said
pointing to Pelath "should put some clothes on, otherwise no body will be
able to concentrate properly" With that she bent down and kissed Olridian
on the cheek, then she walked up to Pelath and did the same.  Pelath
blushed, "Thank you but what was that for?"

She looked down at Olridian and then looked back at Pelath.  "What you just
did took a lot of guts honey, a lot of guts.  That's to thank you for
staying and talking when you could have just run away."  With that she
walked away, munching on her slice of toast.

End of Chapter 3