A dream: She was riding the wind, the air filtering through her feathers. She knew she was falling, couldn't stay aloft. Her body crashed into the ground, and the pain shook her awake.

Kalli blinked one, twice. It was dark, cold. Her wings… no, her arms hurt, her pulse thundering through them like burning. There was still blood on the side of her face; it was dry and itched faintly. The floor under her was wood, cool and coated, wet to the touch. Something wet slid against the other side of the wall, crashing and wild.

'Boat. We're in a boat.' The floor felt like it was shifting under her body, rolling gently with the waves. She wiggled her fingers, then her toes, experimentally, just to see if she could. 'Phoenix, my head hurts.' She lifted her hand and placed it over her eyes, massaging her temples. 'What the hell happened?'

The day on the beach came back to her in a jolt. 'Someone hit me. Someone… Oh, Phoenix. I told Mae…' Tears stun at her eyes as she tried to sit up. 'Where is Mae?' Panic gripped her chest, making it hard to breath. What did they do with Maellyn?

Kalli could barley make out the form of the Dragon. She lay in a puddle across the tiny room, chained to the floor at the wrists and ankles. In the dim lighting, Kalli could hardly see her, much less tell if she was still breathing. 'Great good Gods, please let her be alive.' Kalli started to crawl to her wife on all fours, but was held back by her own set of chains. They rattled against her ankles. 'They didn't chain my hands… maybe… just maybe…' She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair. It was still drenched in sand and half pinned to her skull. Pulling one of the long pins from her curls, Kalli set about trying to pick the lock. 'Odd, I bet no one knows one of their Dawns can pick locks. Perhaps some of my past is useful.' The locks fell to the floor, giving her full range of motion. Kalli crawled as fast as her aching body would allow, dragging herself over to her wife. Mae lay, one arm over her face; the chains attached to her wrists were long, giving the woman limited freedom. The Phoenix moved the arm and touched her fingers to Mae's lips.

Air stirred just in front of Maellyn's mouth, making Kalli smile. 'She's breathing. Oh thank the Phoenix, she's breathing.' Kalli ran her fingers over the reddish looking bruise on her wife's cheek.

The Dragon stirred, wincing in pain as Kalli touched her injuries. "Kalli?" Her voice sounded small and confused as she blinked up at her with dark eyes. They were almost black in the low light, making her wife look pale and surreal. She lifted one hand, then the other, staring at the chains like she didn't know what they were.

"Mae… are you alright?"

"What did you say?"

Kalli whispered a little louder. "I asked if you were alright."

"No, not that…" the Dragon looked pained. "You… called me Mae. You've never called me that before… to my face."

Kalli blinked in surprise; her wife was so very strange. "You wake up chained to a floor and you're worried about what I'm calling you?"

The Dragon lifted one hand, studying the metal clasp around her wrist. "Can you get them off?"

"I got mine off."

Mae sat up, wincing from pain. "Did you mean it?"

The Phoenix stared at her Dragon. "Yes, I can get them off. I wasn't being sarcastic. Give me your wrist."

"No, no, no, that's not what meant, Kalli. I'm sorry… I'm so confused…" Mae pressed her hand over her eyes, the chains heavy and making the movement awkward. "You said… you said you loved me… Did you mean it?"

Kalli froze, her hairpin half into the lock opening. Her breath came in short gasps, her heart thundering in her ears. Her whole body hurt, her heart throbbed, and her head felt like it was burning from the inside out. She opened her mouth to lie, until she met the Dragon's wide black eyes. There was pleading there, something close to hope.

Her voice shook a little as she said, simply, "Yes, Mae."

There was quiet for a long moment. No one moved or spoke. The water continued to beat against the sides of the ship, rocking it gently under their bodies. Maellyn was too close, but Kalli didn't want to move away. Her breath hitched as she watched the Dragon's face. "Then why, Kalli? Why didn't you say something, do something? I… I thought that… all those other lovers you had…"

Kalli's fingers contracted, tightening her grip for a moment on Mae's wrist. "When we got married…" She looked away, ignoring the sounds of movement, the clink of chains. "You were so cold, to me… I thought… If I found someone else, you would be jealous. You would come to me… But you didn't… you… didn't want me…" It sounded silly, just saying like that. But there was nothing Kalli could do to change what she had done. This was a time for truth; the Phoenix might never get another chance to be true to her Mae.

"Kalli…" The Phoenix turned back to her, startled at the Dragon's closeness. Maellyn had sat up. She had gotten to her hands and knees, coming to eye level with Kalli. Her face was close enough that Kalli could feel the brush of her breath across her lips. The kiss was chaste, longing. The two women blinked at one another, each as startled as the other.

Mae blushed, trying to touch her lips with her fingers, but the chains kept her from it. She moved back a few inches, taking a deep breath. "I've never… kissed anyone before…" She looked embarrassed, and Kalli secretly thought it was very cute. 'Who ever would have thought anyone would call our beautiful Dragon cute?' "I'm sorry, Kalli; I shouldn't have… I… Unchain me, please." The Dragon held out her wrists, pleadingly.

Kalli took one of the offered hands, and used it to pull the woman back forward, almost into her lap. "I don't think I will."

"Kalli! What are you doing?" Mae tried to pull away, but even with her Dragon strength, she couldn't get enough leverage to push her wife away.

Kalli grinned, something wild in her icy-blue eyes. The Phoenix wrestled her Dragon to the ground, her hair tumbling in a platinum waterfall over the two of them. Mae looked frightened, pinned to the ground under the Phoenix. Kalli pressed close, blowing softly over the soft curves of her lips. "Do you love me, Maellyn?"

"Please, is this the time for this?"

"I'll never have another opportunity like this, Mae. You're chained to the ground, and I'm not letting you up until you look me in the eye and tell me the truth." The Dragon stopped fighting. "Do you love me?"

She stared up at me from the floor, her dark curls fanning out in a silky circle around her face. Sand dusted the darkness of her hair, shimmering in the low light. The Dragon looked like an angel, her lips slightly parted, uncertainty painting her features. "Yes, Kalli. Yes… Please let me up."

Kalli pressed a little closer, her chest against Mae's. "You mean it?"

"Yes! Kalli, please…"

The Phoenix leaned forward, pressing her lips against Mae's. She could feel the Dragon's body stiffen under hers, her breath halting. She kissed her softly, running her tongue over her bottom lip. Kalli pulled back a few inches, hesitantly, studying the stunned look in her Dragon's face.

"Dragon…" Maellyn whispered against her lips, her eyes wide and tearing.

Kalli grinned. "That was… amazing…" she breathed, pulling back and giving her Dragon some space. "Now I'll let you up."

It took only moments to free the Dragon from her restraints, even shaking as Kalli was. Her body shook with the memory of the Dragon's body, helpless under her own. Even her lips were tingling.

Mae rubbed her wrists, carefully, wincing as she found another bruise across her arm. The Dragon stood, leaning heavily on the wall at first. After taking stock of herself, she pushed away from the wall, slowly pushing her weight completely onto her feet. When she looked stable, she looked around, studying the room far more thoroughly than the Phoenix had. She ran her fingers over the walls. Kalli left her to it, still puddled on the floor. Her mind was wide and blank, no real thoughts forming under her strange new sense of euphoria; Maellyn, her wife, her Dragon, loved Kalli. She loved her. And Kalli loved her back.

'She's all business when she's confused or doesn't know what to do.' Kalli realized with a start. 'She doesn't know how to handle me. How to handle us. Perhaps that's why, at first, I thought her cold. Maybe, just maybe, I've been wrong all this time.'

"Let me help; what are we looking for?" The Phoenix asked, staring into the gloom at the dark walls.

"A door. We need to get out of here, find someway to get home. Can you stand?" Mae turned from her work and held out her hand, her long fingernails shimmering faintly in the low light. She held out her left hand, and it had a single, silver ring around the ring finger. 'Is she wearing our wedding band?' Kalli grasped Mae's hand with her right, embarrassed that she no longer wore their ring.

Mae didn't seem to notice.

The Dragon pulled her to her feet, and held onto her hand a little longer than was necessary, staring somewhere in the vicinity of Kalli's neck. She stood there so long, Kalli began to worry. "Mae?"

The Dragon actually jumped, started out of whatever thoughts had clouded her mind. "Sorry… I…" then she mumbled something, her fingers closing tighter around Kalli's.

"Mae, that hurts. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine… I… Did you realize we're the same height?"

The question was so odd, the situation so strange, Kalli actually began to giggle. 'We wake up chained to the floor and fall in love. Could this get any stranger?' "Come on, my dearest Dragon; we need to get the hell out of here. The sooner we do that, the sooner I can get out of this dress." She glared down at the torn material, realizing the line of tiny, concealed daggers were gone. 'I wonder if they found them all…' Kalli shook Mae's hand off, running her hands over the custom-made corset, lined with tiny sheaths for her collection of knives. Whoever had kidnapped them had found most of her knives. She smiled, brilliantly when she realized she still had four, the two pairs that ran down either side of her hipbones. Kalli pulled one of them out, though she had to go in through the top of her dress.

"Kalli, what in Dragon's name are you…"

"Knife." She held one out to the Dragon like an offering. "I'm not stripping for you." She smiled, winking at her wife. "Yet."

"Can't you be more serious, Kalli?" The Dragon was blushing; Kalli could see it even in the tired light. "We've been kidnapped and you're hitting on me."

"Sorry, Mae. Really, I just…" The Phoenix was still smiling. 'She's intoxicating, somehow. I can't even pretend to focus on what's important. We need to get out of this, and I need to stop being distracted.' Kalli took a deep breath, her fingers tightening on the knife in her palm. The handle felt cool and smooth in her palm. 'We're in danger here. I need to protect my Dragon, no matter what. We have to get out of this.' A sudden sense of calm and purpose settled over her body, laced with a cold kind of fear.

She held out a hand to the woman in front of her, unblinking and suddenly very steady. "Let's get the hell out of here." Her wife slid her long hands across her palm, tangling her fingers in Kalli's. The Dragon actually smiled, her long black curls tumbling forward, staining the soft white of her too-big shirt. Kalli went to the wall, running the fingers of her free hand over the wood, searching, when she heard the unmistakable sound of heavy footsteps on the other side of the wall…

Hmm... the Phoenix needs some kind of "power." Not like a Gift, persay, but some kind of power that comes from her being a Dawn. You know, like the Dragon's strength. :ponders: You think about that Inky, cause if you give your Phoenix some kind of power, I can give it to mine too.

Anyway, a big heaping thanks to everyone who has reveiwed. Alaria of the Dragon, Moon's Rain, and, of course, the Inkslinger.

Alaria: Thanks for your kind words. I know everyone gets out of it a little sometimes; I'm glad I found my way back.

Moon's Rain: I'm glad you're enjoying this. How far in the future is it? Umm... I have no idea. Really. Umm... Very? Enough that Ikeda and Shanza have become legend. A few centuries, I'm sure. I didn't want to give a definate time, because it's Inky's world. I don't even know if Dawns are supposed to live longer than normal people.

Inky: I'm evil and awful, I know. I'm sorry. Does this make it better? I updated as quick as I could. Besides, you have no room to talk. You and your loooooong update times and your little cliffs of your own. JK. I drew some pics of Kalli and hopefully I'll have one of Mae soon too. I'll post them on your board.

Working to get the done with. I like the feeling you get when you finish a big project. And this is a big project.

:mina: