BACK

Cephari snorted and butted her pale head against the darker colored Night that Alex rode.

"I do not think you get it. It wass a joke." She said. She spoke verbally out of habit, but could easily send her thoughts to other draks.

"I get it." Khymelyn groaned. Cephari bounded away, her drak-giggle carrying through the valley.

Fire Gwaelyn, paired to Reynate, swung his head around and tried to get the young Wind to settle down. It was hard work.

"Do you think you could, you know," Alex said, nudging his old friend Istvan and nodding toward the exuberant female, "calm her down or something?"

Istvan's eyebrow went up, his black and blue eyes still rather unnerving even after three full years. "Seriously?" He said. "I don't think so."

"Rey's gonna kill you then," Alex reminded Istvan. "I mean, here she comes now."

"She'll have to catch me first, and we all know I can run much faster than she." Istvan replied. There was so much unspoken between the three, but they were all - perhaps especially Istvan - happy to have each other back. Rey looked less than pleased, though, as she came from the village's main house.

"I cannot believe how thick headed these people are. They ask for an arbiter, get me all the way out here, and then refuse to listen when I tell them what I think they ought to best do." She fumed. Her Gwaelyn flared two of his wings, and snorted loudly.

I could convince them.

"No, you couldn't, you just would not believe them." Rey said, as she rolled up some paperwork and stuck it into her pack. "This was a total lost cause. We'll probably have to come back some time soon and settle a bigger argument."

Alex held his hand to her shoulder and said, "Rey-"

"It might come to blows."

Istvan was about to try the same thing, but paused long enough for Rey to get out another, "But oooh-noo, don't tell them that. They're too civilized for that."

"Rey!" Alex said, making Istvan wince - but he was still grinning so Alex didn't bother apologizing for hurting his ears. "Rey, leave them. They're just the way they are, and someone else can take care of them later. We've done our job."

The siblings were climbing onto their Draks when Cephari swept through the courtyard at full speed, half-off the ground, and skidded to a halt before them. A big cloud of dust from her beating wings made all three cough.

"Can't go! Can't go! I found one!" She said, excited. She was so excited, apparently, that her emotions were bleeding through to Istvan's mind, and while he was still coughing from the dust, he almost doubled over with his hands to his forehead. "Sssorry!"

"It's okay, Ceph." Istvan said. He turned to his friends and said, "hold on a minute. I want to see what this is about." Cephari led him to another building, where she nervously slunk around.

"In here?" Istvan asked, and Cephari chirped a yes. He knocked at the hut's door, while Rey and Alex were curiously following him and looking on.

"What do y' want! Busy!" Called a woman's voice.

"not her!" whispered Cephari.

"Madam, do you have a child in the house with you?" Istvan said, and the sounds from inside the hut stopped. Moments later, a burly woman arrived at the door and threw it open.

"What's she done now!?" She bellowed, and Istvan hid another wince.

"Nothing, madam. May I see ...her?" The woman was staring intentely at his black eyes, but didn't comment. She turned, silently.

("Still catches on quick, I see," Alex whispered to his sister.

"He can still hear you," Rey reminded her brother.)

Soon, the child in question was brought outside. She was dirty, dressed in little more than burlap, and had what appeared to be a hand-made wooden Nex doll in her hands. She might have been eight or nine years old at most, but her fierce expression told Istvan she had already been in more trouble than he and his friends combined, at that age.

He turned briefly to Cephari, raising his eyebrow again slowly. For once, he was able to formulate a solid mental, this one?

Nodding enthusiastically, Cephari confirmed it. Istvan pushed his long hair behind his shoulder and cleared his throat. "Madam, your daughter has been Judged. When she is old enough, she may-"

"Take her!" The woman shrieked, "Take her now! I'll PAY YE!"

Laughing, Alex and Rey declined to offer their own Drak's services for carrying this whirlwind child. Istvan settled her on Cephari's back, where she seemed absolutely sure of herself.

"Good call, Cephali," Istvan said, "let us go back now."

"Back to Dun-" Alexander started, but Istvan 'ahemed' and Alex switched tracks, "back to Mi'ihen, we go!"

"CASTLE!" Shrieked the girl.

Oh how fun this would be, being a Judge, Lawgiver and Currier team...