of that forbidden area under her tail, then pulled it back quickly with a bit of a blush.  "Sorry," he apologized.
	"I told you I don't mind, Tarrin," she told him with a smile, looking back at him.  "If you stuck your hand between my legs, I wouldn't mind."
	That made him blush furiously.  "Does it hurt when you sit in chairs?"
	"The tail is extremlely flexible," she told him.  "I can push it up against my side if I have to.  But if we sit up against our tails like that, it cuts off the blood flow and goes numb."
	"Huh," he sounded.  "It must be interesting to have a tail."
	"Well, in a little while, hopefully you'll have yours back," she said.  "Though I do like your curiosity," she admitted, wrapping her tail around her arm, like a snake.  "You won't be putting your hands on girls' butts in the bathing pool at the Tower," she said with a wink, "but one that knows you may ask you to help scrub her back, just like I did.  Think you can handle that?"
	"I guess," he answered.
	"You did with me, and I'm as good as a stranger," she assured him.  "It's the ones that ask you to scrub the front that you have to watch," she told him with a smirk.
	"You!" he said loudly, pushing her from behind, but she didn't go far, because her tail was still wrapped around his arm.  "You said you'd behave!"
	"I am behaving," she teased.  "And I got you to relax.  That's what I really wanted.  I want you to relax around me, Tarrin.  I want you to not feel nervous around me, no matter what I do or what I'm not wearing.  I want you to feel comfortable with me, even if we're both wrestling naked in a pool."
	That caught him a little off guard, and he chuckled ruefully.  "Well, it's working," he admitted.  "I don't really feel as self-conscious as I did when we started."
	"Good," she said wading up to him and, to his surprise, wrapping her arms around him.  He'd never been so close to a naked woman before, and the fact that he wasn't wearing any clothes either made it even worse.  "Calm down," she said in a gentle tone, looking over at him with a smile and dancing eyes.  "Boy, you weren't even close to being this jumpy when you were a Were-cat.  I think it's kinda funny."
	"You should see it from my side," he said bluntly.
	"I did," she laughed.  "Do you know what Mist did to me to break me of my modesty?"
	"No."
	"She made me go naked for almost a year.  Then she made me walk through a village in Arkis naked, then she took me to a Druid and had him summon a male Were-cat to deflower me.  She seemed to think that the fact that I was a virgin was the reason why I didn't like being naked."
	"She didn't!" he gasped.
	"Oh yes she did," she laughed.
	"Did--Did you let him--"
	"Of course I did," she said.  "I was getting used to my instincts by then, and if you didn't notice, there are very strong instincts about that kind of thing in animals.  I was curious, and truth be told, I was ready for some serious deflowering."
	Tarrin felt distinctly uncomfortable talking about sex with a naked woman who had her arms around him.
	"Now calm down and give me my attention, and I'll let you go," she told him.
	He wasn't sure what she meant, but he did hold still when she pulled him close and hugged him to her.  He could feel her body against him in a most intimate manner, and he struggled to not pay too much attention to it.  She clapped her hands around him, gave him a gentle squeeze, then let him go with twinkling eyes.  "There, it didn't kill you," she grinned.
	"I have no idea what that was about," he told her.
	"It's simple, Tarrin.  I was getting my free feel."
	"You're terrible!" he said with a gasp, then he laughed and splashed water in her face.  "Taking advantage of me like that!  Shame on you!"
	Kimmie laughed and splashed him back.  "Well, you are my mate, Tarrin!" she shot back.  "I shouldn't have to trick you into getting my feels!"
	"Oh, you're in trouble now, woman," he said in a dangerous tone, splashing her vigorously with both hands.
	In moments, they were laughing and playing in the water like two little kids, splashing one another as quickly as they could.  He redoubled his efforts when she shielded her face with her hands and turned around, but realized too late that it was a ploy.  Her tail whipped around right along the surface of water and sent a sheet of stinging spray over him, making him stagger back and wipe at his eyes.
	"Alright, you two," Triana's voice called.  "Out."
	"Mother!" Tarrin said in surprise, clearing his eyes.  She was standing in the archway, stalking over to them quickly.  She was wearing a ragged sleeveless buckskin shirt and breeches, not too far off the color of her fur.  She came up to the edge of the pool and glared down at them in a manner that Tarrin did not like to see.
	"Are you nuts, Kimmie?" Triana said in an accusing tone.  "I thought you knew better!"
	"We're just taking a bath, Triana," Kimmie said.
	"She hasn't messed with me or anything, mother," Tarrin affirmed, defending her.  "We're just playing around, that's all."
	"That's not why I'm mad at her, cub," she told him.  "Out, both of you.  Now!"
	They both scrambled out of the pool, and he felt a little silly for a moment.  There they were, standing naked at the side of the pool, both of them.  Triana was between them and the towels, and neither of them felt like trying to go around her to get to them.  She fixed Kimmie with a stern look, then snorted in that strange manner that she did.  "Didn't you think that you'd pose a danger to him girl?" she said in a flat voice.
	"I know he's fragile, Triana," she said quickly.  "I was being very careful--"
	"That's not what I mean!" she snapped, which made Kimmie flinch.  "Foolish cub, you're a Were-cat!  You just got in a pool with a human, and you unloaded the trees know how much spit into that water!  Thank the furies it's a big enough pool!"
	Kimmie suddenly paled, looking at Triana in sincere chagrin.  "I never even considered--I'm sorry!" she said quickly.  "I won't do it again, I promise!"
	"I don't understand, mother," Tarrin said.
	"She could have infected you," she told him gruffly. "Spit can do it, and it only takes a drop of it in your eyes or going up your nose with the rest of the water.  The pool is big enough to where it diluted it down to the point where it was harmless.  If that had been a smaller pool, though, you may have been turned again.  Not that I wouldn't have been happy to see it, but we're going to play this by Dolanna's rules for now.  That means we keep you human so that mad Wizard has a chance to find a cure for your amnesia.  Don't get back in that pool until I have a chance to purge it, Tarrin.  Now dry off and get dressed, both of you."
	"Yes ma'am," he said obediently, and they both rushed past her to their towels.
	A little chagrined, Kimmie dried off, dressed, and then lavished numerous apologies on Triana, who seemed a little too angry to accept them very graciously.  "I had no idea, Triana," she said emphatically.  "I mean, I know he's human, but he's still just Tarrin to me.  I didn't think about that."
	"Well, there was no harm done," she snorted.  "Why were you dragging him in there, girl?"
	"We were dirty, for one," she said.  "And he's a little too shy.  You know how they do things in the Tower.  He'd be mortified.  So I'm trying to get him used to the idea of it, that's all."
	Triana swung that penetrating stare in Tarrin's direction, and he nodded in agreement as he pulled his trousers back on.  "I see," she said slowly.
	"How did it go with Jesmind?" Kimmie asked.
	"Badly," she snorted.  "First she threw a fit, then she demanded to bring her back with me.  She knows I can't do that," she snorted.  "Jasana took it alot harder than I thought," she said absently.  "But I think it was a reaction to how hysterical Jesmind got when I broke the news.  She's curious to see what you look like as a human, cub.  That must be an old issue between you two.  Jenna asked to come see you, but I told her no again," she added.  "I think she can wait a couple more days, and I don't want her confusing you right now."
	They told him about that.  Jenna was a very powerful magician now, and she'd learned a trick where she could visit people thousands of leagues away.  He didn't quite understand how it worked, but Dolanna explained that it was an Illusion that they could see through, kind of like a magical window that bridged the distance.  He was quietly hoping that she would visit, that he could see it, but Triana was keeping him out of everyone's sight for some reason.  At least that was what he suspected.
	"When are we going to leave?"
	"That Sha'Kar woman, Ianelle, she said they'll be ready by tomorrow," she answered.  "They're having trouble with the human Sorcerers that lived on the island, though.  Some kind of minor rebellion."
	"Ianelle doesn't seem like the kind to put up with that for long," Kimmie chuckled.
	"I agree there.  The humans and the youngest children don't want to leave.  Dolanna explained what went on here before I got here, so I can understand their reluctance.  They're about to go from kings to paupers, and they know it.  They don't want to give it up."
	"They'd better," Kimmie chuckled.  "Or Ianelle will flog them."
	"She looked about ready to flog her daughter this morning," Triana chuckled.  "Her daughter Auli must be a serious troublemaker."
	"Oh, she is, Triana," Kimmie grinned.  "Auli was the town's bad girl, and I don't think being freed of the mind control is going to change that much.  She's a free-spirited, adventurous girl, and she's probably been pulling on the leash that Ianelle put around her neck."
	"I like her," Triana delcared immediately.  "Now finish dressing and I'll take you over to Phandebrass," she told Tarrin.  "He wants to check something, and it sounds important."
	"We're going to the ship?" Tarrin asked hopefully.
	"We are," she affirmed.  "Now hop."
	He did hop.  The opportunity to visit this amazing steamship, see it for himself, was an exciting proposition.

	Of all the strangers that were his friends around him, the one Tarrin probably felt most comfortable with was Dar.  Dar was only a year younger than him--mentally, at least, for Tarrin still considered himself seventeen--he was a boy, which made it a little easier to talk to him, and he seemed as intimidated at some of the things around him as Tarrin did.  Tarrin liked spending time with Dar, just talking to him, learning what it was like in Arkis and hearing what had happened over the last two years through Dar's point of view.  Dar had once been his roommate in the Tower, so he knew Tarrin pretty well.  Tarrin decided that it was only fair that he got to know Dar just as well.
	That did, of course, require a little subterfuge.  Tarrin didn't like talking about private things like that around the two Were-cats, and he privately bristled a great deal at them treating him like an invalid.  He did like Kimmie very much, and respected Triana a great deal, but he felt that they were wrong.  He was perfectly safe on the island.  The Sha'Kar were all very friendly, calling him "honored one" all the time and doing anything he told them to, even when he didn't mean it.  If he got in any trouble, all he'd have to do was yell.  They all watched him pretty close anyway, so he figured that him calling for help would bring help to him before he finished shouting.
	It was absolutely impossible to sneak out on Triana.  She seemed to sense his chicanery even as the plans formed in his mind, and that withering gaze evaporated any fantasy of even trying to slip out of the room while she was in it.  Kimmie, however, was much more easy to dupe.  It wasn't that she didn't pay attention, but she often got distracted by her books, and she slept more soundly than his bond-mother did.
	It was later that day, while Kimmie had her nose buried in a book that Triana had brought back from the ship, a book that Phandebrass had asked her to study, that he seized the opportunity.  He was still excited from visiting the ship, meeting Captain Jalis and the crew and getting a very thorough tour of the amazing steam engine from Donovan, the ship's inventor and lead engineer.  He'd even brought back the rest of his things from the ship, which someone had thoughtfully shrunk so they would fit him again.  He didn't want to sit around the room and be bored, because Kimmie was too involved in that book.  He had nothing to do, no one to talk to, and Tarrin was not the kind of boy that could sit still like that for very long.  He wanted to go out and look around, and he wanted to find Dar and talk with him for a while.
	While Kimmie was busy reading, Tarrin put on a comfortable pair of leather breeches and an old buckskin shirt like the ones he used to wear, functional clothes that were rugged and well suited for wandering the forest, put the hawk-hilt dagger in his belt that he'd won during the staffs competition right before he left--that dagger showed the wear of hard travel, another striking physical reminder that two years of memories had been taken from him--and proceeded to use every dirty trick his father ever taught him to escape from Kimmie's watchful eye.  The key, of course, was not to tip her off that he intended to leave, and she was sitting right in the middle of the room, where the opening of the door would alert her immediately.  So he required a diversion.  That diversion came when he told Kimmie that he wanted something to drink, and opened the door and asked the serving girl that was permanently stationed right outside the door to bring back a tray with tea for both of them.  She returned a few minutes later with a tray holding a teapot and two cups.  She poured both of them a cup, and just as he expected, Kimmie didn't say a word, didn't even look down, feeling around until she found the cup and picking it up without her eyes ever leaving the book.
	So, when the serving girl left, Tarrin crept out behind her, a finger to his lips and a mischievious look in his eyes.   She grinned at him and nodded, then waved silently to him as he crept down the hall with his heart pounding a little with the excitement of it.  Triana was going to kill him when she found out, but he'd take the punishment just for a little time to himself.  They were smothering him with all that attention.
	After he got far enough away to suit him, he broke into a dash, tearing through the house as Iselde and Allyn stared after him in surprise when he came around a corner and nearly knocked them down.  He skidded to a halt and scrambled back to them.  "Where is Dar?" he asked in a hasty tone.  A little confused, both of them said nothing and pointing to a door in the wall.  "Thanks," he said, rushing over to the door and opening it.  He found himself staring into another one of those huge, stunningly beautiful bedrooms, but one could take only so much beauty before getting numb to it.  Dolanna and Dar were sitting on a pair of backless chairs, sipping tea.  Dolanna's back was to the door, thankfully, and Tarrin waved madly until he had Dar's attention.  Dar noticed him and realized that there was no Were-cat with him, then nodded when Tarrin beckoned him.  He excused himself from his mentor, setting his teacup down on a little table between them and hurrying over to the door.  "What's the matter, Tarrin?" he asked.
	"Nothing.  Come on!" he said with a conspiratorial smile.  "Kimmie's going to realize I'm missing any minute now, and I need time to get away!"
	"Get away?" Dar asked in confusion.  Then it dawned on him.  "Oohhhhhhhh!" he hissed.  "Alright, come on!"
	Tarrin and Dar ran, barely able to keep a straight face, through the house, through the entry hall, and then out the front doors.  Dar paused to use his magic to obliterate their scent trails--he was fully aware of the keen senses of their hunters--and they dashed along the lush grassy lawn and out the gate.  Dar paused to obliterate that scent trail, then they ran at full speed along the white stone pathways, often having to go around the stately Sha'Kar, who would stop and stare after them in confusion.  They headed towards the middle of town then abruptly turned east, towards the treeline as Dar concealed the signs of their passing.  They ran across the grassy clearing between the closest manor and the trees, then plunged into the wood like adventurers diving through some killing trap.  They looked behind themselves and then started laughing.  Dar was winded, but the run was nothing to Tarrin, who waited for his friend to catch his breath, then they started off through the woods.
	It was almost like being home, but there were differences in this forest that reminded them of where he was.  It had been getting progressively warmer since the Ward had been brought down, as the Ward and the magical wind's effects on the local weather were slowly being reversed, and the trees were showing it.  Alot of them were breeds that were hardy in both heat and cold, and he knew that they'd be just fine after they adjusted to the change.  After all, those same breeds had to have been there when the Ward was created, so their species had lived on the island.  Tarrin led Dar through the woods at a leisurely pace as they talked about nothing of any great importance, laughing over their escape and worrying at how long it was going to take them to find them.
	"It'll be over when Triana comes back," Tarrin admitted.  "She'll find me in a blink.  But I don't think she's on the island.  I think she went back to Suld or something.  I haven't seen her since we came back from the steamship.  So let's enjoy it while we can," he grinned.
	They wandered aimlessly through the forest as Tarrin listened to Dar tell him all about their time in the Tower, when they were sharing a room, and the suspicious things that went on.  Then they talked about the others, Tarrin listening to Dar's impressions of the others.  Dar was a good judge of character, and he had a surprisingly keen understanding of the others.  He told Tarrin about Camara Tal's aggravation being because of her love for her husband, Koran Dar, who was resisting her every attempt to get him to go home with her.  "Master Koran Dar loves her, but he thinks she'll make him sit in their house all day.  He ran away to experience life, and now that he has, he's afraid to go back.  He doesn't want to lose it."
	"I don't blame him," Tarrin agreed completely.  "There's got to be some way to make them patch things up," he mused.  "If they love each other, it's a shame for them to be apart."
	"Not anytime this century," Dar chuckled.  "Camara Tal's been out of Amazar for a while, but her attitude hasn't changed at all.  I think she would confine him to the house if she got him back.  She may even chain him in his room to keep him from getting away.  She loves him, but she wants to control him.  Master Koran Dar is too strong to be controlled that way, and he's the kind that would wilt in those conditions, like a flower blocked off from the sun.  She doesn't understand that if she did that to him, she'd be destroying most of the things in him that she loves the most.  She wants to break him, but when she does, she'll realize how bad of a mistake it was.  But by then, it'd be too late," he sighed.  "I feel sorry for them.  Camara Tal is too stubborn to change, and Master Koran Dar is too good of a man to survive what she'll do to him."
	"That is sad," he agreed.
	"Well well, look what I found," a voice called.  They both jumped a little as a Sha'Kar came around a large tree.  He'd seen her before.  She was a very pretty girl with platinum blond hair and blue eyes that were always dancing with mischief.  Her name was Auli, and she was one of Iselde's friends.  He'd met her after losing his memory, and she had given him the most chilling smile...it was predatory.  She stood there with her back against the tree, hands behind her back, staring at the two of them with a similar wolfish grin on her face.  Tarrin couldn't help but admire her tall, curvy frame, being accented in a most appealing manner by the clingy nature of her shimmery blue dress, the same color as her eyes.  She had that ethereal Sha'Kar beauty and had a very attractive body, and though Dar may be used to it, Tarrin wasn't.  She gave him a very inviting smile when she realized that he was staring at her.  "You realize that this area is forbidden, don't you?" she said.  "We're not allowed here."
	It took Tarrin a little bit to get used to that.  Triana had used some kind of very powerful spell to teach both herself and Tarrin their native language in about three seconds.  It had left him dizzy for nearly an hour, but it had been very effective.  He could speak the Sha'Kar language like a native now, literally because Triana had borrowed Auli's mother's knowledge of the language as the model to implant into both herself an Tarrin.    Ianelle was two thousand years old--inconceivable!--and her grasp of the Sha'Kar language was beyond profound.  Tarrin knew many words and phrases that younger Sha'Kar like Auli didn't know, because he had borrowed the knowledge of someone much more learned than she.
	"Then why are you here?" Dar asked her in flawless Sha'Kar.  All Tarrin's friends spoke the language.
	"Same as you.  Hiding from my elders," she said with a laugh and a wink.  "My mother's really getting on my nerves."  She strode forward boldly then, to both his and Dar's surprise, went around them and draped her arms over both their shoulders and laughed.  "It's about time I had company.  All the other youngers are too cowardly to come out here.  So, let's go get in trouble," she said with a conspiratorial wink at Tarrin.
	Auli virtually invited herself along, but neither of them were very mad about it after a few minutes.  Auli had a truly wicked sense of humor and she was alot of fun, laughing and telling them embrassing secrets about other Sha'Kar youngers and flirting with Dar so shamelessly that his Arakite friend looked like he was continuously blushing.  She was impossible to dislike, urging them deeper and deeper into the woods, playing on their pride as adventurous rulebreakers to goad them into taking her up on the dare.  Tarrin found that he liked Auli alot, for she was very brave and was very funny, as quick to laugh at a joke she made about herself as she was about someone else.  She was completely comfortable with being with the two of them, a trio of youngsters looking for a little time away from the cloying presence of their elders.
	They found themselves in the foothills not far from the volcano after a while, as Auli was goading Dar and Tarrin into scaring sheep and making them scatter on their bewildered keepers, then watching the hapless humans trying to round up the animals.  "Watch this," she winked, and Tarrin felt something weird, like he always did when Sorcerers used their magic.  The sheep that the tall human man was dragging back to the flock shuddered, then all its fleece turned a bright shade of pink.  Tarrin and Dar had to clamp their mouths shut to keep from laughing and giving themselves away as the human staggered back at this amazing change in color, then he turned and shook his fist towards the trees.  "I know that's you, Mistress Auli!" the man shouted.  "I'm going to inform your mother about this, mark me!"
	"Come on," she whispered with a wink at them, then they snuck away as the human tried to calm the terrified animal, that had probably just noticed its new fleece.
	They did laugh when they got far enough away, and Tarrin was a little surprised.  Auli was almost incorrigible, and he'd never seen a girl like that before.  There were several chronic troublemakers back in  Aldreth, like Walten, but Auli seemed even more fearless than they were.  Girls just didn't act the way Auli acted in Aldreth.  It was shocking, but in a way, it was quite appealing.  Girls always seemed so stuffy and stuck up--alot of that was because their mothers didn't want their daughters getting interested in the handsome son of that witch Elke Kael--but Auli was outgoing, fearless, and utterly likable.  Tiella had been the only girl that had been his friend back in Aldreth, and that was only because her parents, the village innkeepers, were friends of the Kael family.
	"Come, I have a great idea," she said with bright eyes.  "Let's go up to the volcano!"
	"But Kerri and the others are up there," Dar said.  "They may catch us!"
	"So?  What's the fun in going where we can't be caught?  I want to go see that dragon!  Come on, Tarrin!  She's your friend, she won't eat us if you're with me!"
	Tarrin wanted to see Sapphire in her dragon form too.  "You think you can get us up there without getting caught?" he asked her.
	"I know five ways everywhere," she affirmed with a grin and a nod, reaching out and taking Tarrin's hand boldly.  "Come on, let's go!"
	And so Tarrin, Dar, and Auli started up the many steep, winding trails on the sides of the volcano.  Dar kept muttering to himself that they were going to get in trouble, but neither Tarrin nor Auli really cared very much.  They were having too much fun.  The paths got dangerous, and they had to shuffle along with a wall on one side and a sheer drop on the other, but Tarrin didn't feel in any danger.  It was all some kind of grand adventure to him, even when he nearly slipped off the path once when a loose stone gave out under his foot.  They worked their way around the side of the volcano to the north side, and a small peninsula of relatively flat land that was on that side, where they said the dragon was staying.  As they came around the volcano, Sapphire did finally come into view, and Tarrin ran into Auli's back as she stopped to gawk at the beast.  Dar looked around them and saw it as well.  It was definitely Sapphire, with her midnight blue scales and the fact that she completely took up a rocky clearing between the base of the cone of the volcano and the trees just past it.  She seemed to be reading from a book laying on the ground in front of her, a book that had to be thirty spans wide.  Tarrin marvelled at how she looked just like the tiny little Sapphire that sat in his lap, but she was some kind of titanic replica of that little drake.  She snuffled a bit and lifted her head, and then her gaze locked right on them.
	"What are you three doing?" she demanded.  "Oh, Tarrin!  Come down, come down!" she invited, sitting up on her haunches.  They were nearly a hundred spans over the clearing, but when she did that and craned her neck up, her head was suddenly level with them.  Tarrin stared long and hard at that immense head, and he realized that she could swallow him whole without even having to chew!
	"H-Honored dragon!" Auli said in awe, looking at her.
	"I thought Kimmie would be with you," Sapphire said critically to him, her powerful voice vibrating inside him in the weirdest way.
	"Uh, she's reading a book, Sapphire," he answered her.  "I was bored, so we came out to look around a little bit."
	"I'm reading as well," she said, pointing with a clawed finger nearly as long as Tarrin down at the ground.  "I'm just starting to get my powers back.  I'm surprised my gear all survived so long."
	"Gear?" he asked.
	"All dragons have magical powers, little friend," she said, rising up on her hind legs and holding out that huge forepaw at the edge of the steep incline.  Tarrin realized that she wanted them to get into her paw.  The three of them would fit, but only just.  Auli daringly clambered out onto her paw and sat down, and Tarrin and Dar crawled out with her a moment later, Dar praying hastily under his breath.  It was a tight fit with the three of them, one of Tarrin's feet dangling some hundred spans off the ground below, but the dragon was very careful with them.  Tarrin's stomach rose as the dragon lowered them carefully to the ground, by the book.  Tarrin helped Dar and Auli out of her paw, and they stared up at her massive head as she lowered herself enough to be about fifteen spans over them.  "All dragons have Druidic magic, because we are creatures of the land.  But since we are not bipeds, we are free to study other kinds of magic.  Most dragons learn Wizard magic as well, because we are good at it.  As my mind has cleared with the return to my true form, my powers are coming back to me.  I hid this spellbook over a thousand years ago in a safe place, and I was surprised that it was still there."
	"That's a spellbook?" Tarrin asked.
	She nodded.  "I used a spell to check on my other things, and they're all still there as well.  Untouched after a millenia.  It's amazing," she said with a raspy chuckle that blew hot, strangely charged air down on them.  "As soon as I'm sure you're going to recover from this strange malady, I'll be returning to my lair."
	"Where is that, great dragon?" Auli asked curiously.
	"My kind prefer dry places," she answered, "where the static builds and the rain that does fall always comes with lightning.  We prefer sandy caves.  My lair is on the border of the desert and the dry steppes of Saranam, far to the northeast of here.  The Sha'Kar agreed to transport me back to Suld, and from there I can fly back to my lair with little trouble."
	Tarrin tried to imagine a cave big enough to hold her immense form.  It wasn't easy.  "Are all dragons as big as you, Sapphire?"
	She shook her head.  "I was very old, even before the Breaking," she answered.  "Dragons grow larger as they age.  A good indication of the age of a dragon is how big it is.  Most dragons will be about half my size.  The age we gained during the Breaking didn't affect us.  I guess it was because the aging didn't happen while we were in our true forms," she mused.
	Tarrin looked up at her.  Even half her size was still absolutey gigantic.  Sapphire could swat down a Giant with little difficulty.
	"I was ruler of my clan," she said proudly.  "Mother of all, and shazil of the eastern desert and the western steppes."
	"What is shazil?" Dar asked curiously.
	"Overlord," she answered.  "We blues are much more organized and social than most other dragons.  We cooperate with each other, and we live by rules.  As shazil, enforcing the rule of law was my responsibility, and I oversaw a region that held about ten other clans."
	Tarrin had absolutely no doubt about that.  Tarrin couldn't imagine anything being even bigger than Sapphire.  "What happened to your children?" Tarrin asked impulsively.
	"I've managed to make contact with three of the