Melaana and Bremon each consider their first meeting and how they will move on from here.

Melaana didn't bother about sneaking back into the house. They all knew she had gone. She set down the cloudhopper in front of the Rash family's personal hanger where they kept all of her father's collection of rare speeders and hopped out, letting an attendant see to the actual parking of her vessel. She frowned back at it for a moment wondering if at some point her parents would decide to lock it up and ground her if they ever felt she was being a little too rebellious.

And then there was mother rushing toward her. She looked Melaana over for injury but finding none seemed as if she might inflict a few of her own in response to the embarrassment that her daughter had caused her that morning. "Where have you been Melaana? And what have you done to your hair? And why my dear girl, do you smell like a barn?"

Melaana put her hand to the braided twist of her hair that had not only held up to wind speed while she was riding the ruping but also to the helmet she had warn while she piloted herself home. "Do you like it?" She hadn't actually gotten a look at herself in the mirror yet to see the effect. She only knew that it was terribly comfortable without any of the loose hairs pulling or poking of pins.

"It... looks very nice." Her mother grudgingly agreed. "I suppose you can cover it while you take your bath and leave it that way for supper tonight. But you must hurry now. The Bonteri's are joining us for the meal and drinks after, although I don't know why after the incredibly rude fashion in which they were treated this morning."

"I'm sorry, Mother." Melaana sighed and kissed her mother's offered cheek. "I'll try not to embarrass you this evening." She caught sight of her brother lurking just around the corner.

"Very well." Mother fretted. "I had the droid draw your bath as soon as we heard you land and your dress is laid out ready for when you finish. My nerves can't take much more of this. I'm going to lie down. I'll see you at supper."

"Yes Mother." She lowered her eyes and waited politely for the woman to float off up the stairs to her own rooms. As soon as she had gone Melaana slumped and groaned. She limped, a little bow-legged toward the stairs. "Come on out, Sani. I know you want to hear the whole story."

Sanjay swallowed a mouthful of whatever he had been munching on and spun the core between his fingers agitatedly. "What have you been doing? She's right you do rather smell like a barn."

"And what have you been doing skulking? Did they find out you aided my escape?" She grimaced. Her muscles were beginning to ache after the unfamiliar use.

"Possibly." He frowned at her.

"Well I met two remarkable gentlemen this morning." She took the stairs slowly and he joined her at the measured pace.

"Two gentlemen?" he took a bite of the remaining fruit.

"Yes," she grinned wickedly. "I rode one of them for nearly and hour while the other one held me in his arms."

Sanjay choked and spat out the bite. "You what!"

She laughed. "I met a beast rider and he took me for a flight on his ruping. He was an amazing, beautiful creature, nothing like flying the cloudhopper, and as I said, perfect gentlemen, both of them." A blush rose to her cheeks.

He caught the look in her eyes. "Hmm. An amazing, beautiful creature?"

"I'm going to see them again tomorrow, Sani. I don't care what Mother and Dad say."

The bath helped some with the aching muscles from the ride but being stuffed into the fancy evening gown was worse than any pain from honest exertion.

Melaana took only small bites of her food at supper. She was hungry but she was afraid she'd burst her lacing if she tucked in the way she wanted too. She was just contemplating how she would make a run on the kitchen for leftovers after she got out of this costume when someone finally saw fit to address her.

"I understand that you had met our son before this morning?" Madam Bonteri asked sweetly.

Melaana looked up at her with what she hoped was a polite smile even though she could hear her father mumbling, "Maybe that's why she didn't think it was necessary to join us when he arrived here."

"The Lieutenant led me to the dance floor for the... Chandrilian waltz I believe it was, at a gathering a couple of weeks ago. It was most agreeable, Madam Bonteri."

Both mothers smiled at the answer and her own nodded at her to try to further the conversation, so Melaana sought for something else to say.

"I understand that Dane is commissioned in the infantry?" She asked as politely as she could.

"That's right." His father boasted. "Top of his class in the officers' academy."

Melaana couldn't help herself. "Being a pilot myself, I generally prefer the areal forces."

All four parents gave her varying looks of shock and dismay while she took a bite of her food and ignored them. She couldn't decide if she was disappointed or not that Dane himself couldn't be here tonight. It was a last minute order from his superior officer that called him in to be the personal guard of the Galactic Senator who was on home on Onderon for her mother's funeral. She supposed that she should have been... what? proud that the young man she was about to be engaged to was a loyal officer doing his duty? He was handsome, nice enough, and from a good family. The Bonteris, with their military ties, were as new to society as the Rashes but it would be an advantageous match for both families.

Still when Melaana really thought about being married, possibly producing an heir, another face popped up in her imagination. Shy smile, sparkling green eyes, shoulder length hair nearly the same color as her own but effortlessly tied back with a leather thong. She smiled in spite of herself while she absently drew ruping shapes with her fork in the sauce on her plate.

"Melaana? Melaana!"

She looked up, wondering how many times her mother had called her name before she caught her daughter's attention. "I'm sorry, Mother."

"We're going through to the lounge for drinks. Your father has said you're allowed one glass of your own but we would like for you to play your flute for our guests."

She grimaced. The small amount of alcohol was no where near an equal reward for playing her instrument.

"Melaana?"

"Yes, Mother." She nodded obediently and followed the woman into the other room.

Melaana could hardly get a lungful of air in her tightly drawn corset but she managed a passable rendition of a patriotic tune that would please her possible future in-laws. She noticed that Sanjay was on his third glass of wine by the time her musical performance was done and she was handed a tumbler of something pink and sparkly that probably didn't contain very much alcohol at all. She sipped it demurely and tried to hold on to the thread of the conversation. It was dreadfully boring though and the adults were mostly talking about her as if she wasn't even there. She might have actually dozed off in her chair if her brother hadn't spoken up in her defense about something or other.

Sanjay's voice was slightly slurred. He obviously hadn't been given the same one drink restriction that she had. "Well, you're not going to force her to get married if she doesn't want to."

Melaana lifted her head, suddenly wide awake, in time to hear her father answer him.

"Son, I believe every person in this room has your sister's best interest at heart."

"But what if..." Sanjay looked as if he was struggling with how to phrase the question. "What if she falls if love with somebody else? What if she's already met someone?"

Suddenly all eyes were on Melaana and her brother's outburst was forgotten as if it were her fault that he had spoken out of turn.

"Have you met someone?" Her mother asked.

"I..." Eighteen or so hours ago she could have answered honestly that no, she had not met anyone who was a more suitable choice than the son of the couple staring at her now. "I don't know... perhaps?"

"Well, what's his name? What family does he come from?"

Melaana wished that they could do this some other time, that it didn't have to be in front of her perspective in-laws, but she answered her mother's question obediently, none the less.

"I met someone called Bremon Kira... but he's not..."

The air in the room seemed to change dramatically in the instant that she said the name.

"You've been in conversations with the House of Kira?" Dane's father asked.

"I wasn't aware there were any heirs to House Kira left." Said his mother.

"When did this happen? When did you meet him?" her own mother asked.

Melaana stuttered, confused by the reaction. "I... I just met him today. Why? What - what's wrong with the House of Kira?"

Her father who seemed calmer than the rest and perhaps he was now calculating what this new information could mean for their family spoke. "The House of Kira is an ancient Onderonian family. They were originally beast riders who married into the royal family hundreds of years ago and then faded back into obscurity. It was said that the wildness of the jungles and the beasts they tamed couldn't be bred out of them."

Melaana almost smiled, thinking of Bremon's gentle treatment of Frayl and how he spoke of the other animals he tended but she managed to keep her face neutral. "Well I only just met him. I don't know anything about his family. It's not like we promised each other anything." Though they had promised to meet again tomorrow and the idea of it thrilled her.

The Bonteri's both seemed to calm a bit at her words and her father assured them. "You see there is nothing to worry about. As I said, the House of Kira has all but died out. If this boy is even of the original bloodlines it doesn't matter because my daughter only was introduced to him as a passing acquaintance. It's not as if she'll ever be seeing him again..." And with that they returned to leaving her out of the conversation.

When Sanjay caught her eye however and raised his brow in question, she knew that he knew that she wanted nothing more in the galaxy than to see Bremon again.

"What do you think, Frayl? Do you think she liked us?"

The ruping gave a trumpeting call that was probably as much for the fact that Bremon was giving him an after flight rub down and the tone of his voice as it was for the actual words. Although the beast was extraordinarily smart. Sometimes it almost seemed like he did understand what his rider was saying to him. He was also a great judge of character and he had liked Melaana from the start.

"She did say she would come and see us again tomorrow."

Frayl nodded his big head up and down in agreement and Bremon smiled but the expression soured almost as quickly as it had appeared.

"So you've met someone?"

"Yes, Uncle." Bremon knew better than to even try to keep any secrets from the man who had raised him after his parents had died. His uncle always figured out the truth eventually by whatever methods. His uncle claimed to have gained power through Sith sorcery. Bremon didn't know if that was true but he had experienced some pretty strange things centered around his uncle over the years that lead him to believe that there was more to the man than just the physical human existence.

"And you're going to see her again?"

"I - I hope so. She's... nice." He didn't look his uncle in the eye, didn't want him to see how powerfully he had been affected by just being near the girl for a couple of hours.

"That's good." The older man patted him on the shoulder. "I'm glad you've found someone who shares your interests who you can spend some time with."

Bremon looked at him, a little confused. There was no talk of fate or prophecies. His uncle just seemed to be honestly happy for him. "Really? I mean er... thanks."

"You're meeting her again tomorrow?" Uncle Nadd backed a couple meters away from the ruping. Frayl wasn't particularly fond of the human either.

"If she can." Bremon resumed rubbing down the animal.

"What is she like?"

"She..." he couldn't help but smile. "Her family is Rash." They both were aware that it was an important name in Iziz. Not that either of them mingled in society. Bremon wasn't fond of crowds and his uncle seemed to believe he was on a higher plane of existence than the general masses. "but she likes to fly. She's a pilot, a good one, gave Frayl a good chase. Didn't she, boy?"

Again the animal seemed to nod and rolled his large eyes.

Uncle Nadd, he called himself Nadd and insisted that others did also but that wasn't his given name, frowned. "You'll have to be careful around the girl's family. They could make things difficult."

Bremon wasn't sure what his uncle meant by that, difficult to pursue a relationship, or difficult for his own plans for Bremon's future. His uncle had always had some idea of Bremon's fate. There was a prophesy said over him as a child. Just remembering the dark, cold place and the darker, colder words, chilled him even though it was now a warm, sunny day.

Frayl whined and shook all over as if he too felt the chill. Bremon patted him reassuringly.

"I'll be careful, Uncle. I don't want to make trouble for her with her family. I just..." he shrugged. He had only just met the girl. He hardly knew anything about her. "I just want to get to know her better."

"Then you shall." Uncle Nadd nodded. "And when she is ready, you'll introduce her to your people."

"I was thinking of introducing her to some of the other animals," Bremon said excitedly, but he could almost hear his uncle's eyes roll.

"You believe an heiress wants to slog around with dalgos and fambaas?"

"Why wouldn't she? She likes Frayl." Bremon grinned. He felt more comfortable around the non-sentients as most people called them. Though he knew them many of them to be better companions than humanoids.

Uncle Nadd sighed. "Well, I for one would like to meet her if you find her so interesting. You should invite her to the summer fete."

The Fete was a yearly gathering of the clans who had once been known as beast riders before they moved to the cities and civilization.

"That's still weeks away." Bremon frowned. He had no idea if Melaana would still be his friend after tomorrow's meeting, that is if she came at all.

"She will come," Uncle Nadd said in that mystical voice that he sometimes adopted as if he knew things that mere mortals were not capable to understand. Then he looked up at the shadow of the demon moon. Bremon hated when he did that. It reminded him of his one visit there...

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask her."

Frayl nudged his rider with his snout encouragingly.

"The worst she could do is say no."

"But she will not." The older man straightened up, sounding more human and annoyed. "I have a feeling she will be as interested in your family and culture as she is in your pets."

Frayl snorted.