Images may contain artistic nudity | Candidate at Caer Talor Cliff (dead link)
Original page made way back in the early Alskyr days (2002?) reconstructed here
with added info 2023

Name: Rita Tull
Gender: Female, straight, horny
Age: 20s
Height: 5'8", built with pleasant curves, not extremely strong but well balanced muscularity
Appearance: as shown; pale skinned with faintly visible freckles, short fluffy platinum blond hair, hazel blue eyes

Pets: flitter from Dark Moon, alisgryph from Paniya

-> ...

Triptych Character

Rita Tull

Stats:

Int 7 / Dex 9 / Con 8
Str 6 / Pow 9 / Cha 7

Prime One

Lanner Falcon, ~1' long

Shift: very often, instant
Abilities: Accuracy, speedy flight, talon beak attack

Prime Two

Albino Cheetah, ~3" s, 6' l

Shift: uncommon, quick shift
Abilities: Speed run, stealth, bite claw attack

Prime Three

White Phase Pegasus
~5's/15hh, 40' ws
(full form above not shown)

Shift: very rare, under stress; sudden and difficult, usually horse shape only
Abilities: Endurance, strength, hoof attack

Full Shift

As shown, has P1's wings, coloration and fur/claws and fangs of P2, with large stompin paws, head shape, and overall size of P3; note that full and P3 form ears are wedge-ended as shown below, a feature of the 'mythological' forms
7' head fully upright, 10' to tail, 22' wingspan

Shift: sudden and complete, often emotionally based, uses wings as cloak or defensive posturing; can shift virtually any part at will, growing fur or a muzzle and longer ears commonly; claws, big legs, or wings later
Abilities: Speed! Is at least as fast in the air in this form as her falcon shape, which is definitely terrifying as she is Not Small

Mental: aggressive, very much so. Especially when cornered. She is a strong willed woman, but also loves being near people. She is, to say the least, lusty. She has little tolerance for House lords and other high-ranking folk, but she respects those who lead caers, or fly against Ants or Rampage. Rita’s distant sister Rigel and she get along when they are near one another, but they have very different expectations about their lives.

Skills: Like the others in this group, Rita is a wanderer and as such her skills are all oriented upon herding, cooking and survival. However, she has taken one particular skill to an art, that of Alis-Gryphonry. She loves birds, and has an affinity for the swift falcon-cats she uses to hunt small game. She claims that she can understand their chirping speech, or perhaps she can actually tap into their minds. She also likes other small creatures, and has a mysterious flying lizard which is inexplicably from a place called Dark Moon Weyr. Rita is also a good leader, however she herself prefers not to be one, leaving the responsibilities to others

**

Rita watched the brothers talk near the wagon. It was so late, and she was so tired. It was possible to tell the pair apart, but ... maybe she didn't want to.

Maybe. Or maybe, just maybe, she wanted to see if there were more differences than their striking personalities, or the shaggy cut of Dane's hair? Maybe there were other things.

She heard Dave say something about "experiences being unique" but honestly, Rita wasn't interested in that. What she was interested in was that Dane truly seemed to know something that Dave didn't. That Dave ... loved her?

He'd finally said it. Finally. It was a relief, she cried and was over it. But what about Dane? He was so despondent about everything. Even being taken from his hard captivity was something he seemed to resent. But then, he hated himself more than anything else. Perhaps even his brother. That bothered Rita to no end. She wanted them to be happy.

She folded her clothing around her still-damp skin, and approached the brothers.

Her little hummer-gryph would normally be buzzing around her head with all the activity going on, but it was so late now that he was asleep. Curled in a little ball with the bronze flitter that had come with them from ... wherever they had been before. The place lacked a name, and even Dave didn't seem to remember anything about it. No matter. Even when she and Dave had been making love in the wagon, they had slept.

So had Dane, later. That was the subject of their animated chatter. She snuck up and surprised both of them, with a smile. It was when Dave suggested that Rita needed to see if there were more differences between the brothers than met the eye, that she let her heart do flip flops.

She was so in love... With both of them? With one came the other, surely. Though they were like night and day, they were her night and her day.

She proved it to Dane, wonderful, innocent, lusty, untamed Dane, until the morning broke above the hillsides.

When the others gathered their things up, they stared at the trio insessantly. Dave was intent on getting the group progressed past the main outposts of the House lands, and as soon as humanly possible.

When the Phoenix boys, a trio of disparate brothers, began to make angry mutterings, Rita shook away from Dane and got out of the wagon to watch. Dave was obviously tired, but the boys were fresh and annoying. Very annoying. The little pests thought that it might be wise of them to just scamper back to the House land, get their things settled. Or just stay there forever.

Their parents had long since disappeared, and the boys were orphaned like most others in the Triptych clan. Yet, they had been obviously fallen head over heels for the House way of life. They had not known what disasters might have befallen them if they were like Dane...

If they showed any promise at all, which at least one of them did. Andrew was by far and away smarter than both his older brothers, and he was the only one with even a slight grip on how the House had behaved by stealing their ancestral lands.

Rita stepped up to Alexander, as he sputtered about not having any idea where they were going. "Dave wants us safe, Alex. Safety can't be found at the House lands, any more. Everyone here has lost family to them. I did, you did. You would rather stay with murderers and thieves like them?" She let her voice rise in ire. The red-headed boy snarled back at her.

"I was safe! I was safe and I had food and clothing, and we were learning our maths!"

"You might have been," muttered Anthony, the middle brother, "I wasn't learning a cursed thing." He was ignored by most people nearby.

"Your safety came at the cost of your own parents!" Rita snapped, and the young boy jerked away. "And mine!" Rita's glare burned into the boy, and he gulped back a response.

Others would have interrupted her tirade, but they knew better even in the short time they had known her. Rita's temper was well known, and it was also clear where her loyalty lay. Drake was the first to shelter the red headed boy Alex from Rita's wrath, and glared at both Rita and Dave with equal anger.

"Back off. We're all hungry and have no place to stay, Rita, or have you forgotten now that your boyfriend has 'freed' us, we're considered criminals?"

"The only criminal thing here is that you didn't just remain with them," Rita spat. "But you came along of your own free will as I recall, so just shut up." She spun, and almost ran into Dave in doing. "They do need food, and we must find a home, Dave..." She said, hoarsely quiet.

"I know. If we had a ... well, I'll be..." He said, looking up into the light of the dawn. There was a blot across the big wavering light, and it grew bigger by the moment. "That's a dragon," he commented.

Others turned at his words, some less willing to believe him, but curiosity always won out with a Triptych Clan member. It was a blue dragon, with a woman riding him. They landed in a dusty cloud, and the woman smacked her pants clear of the dirt.

"There's a large party down in the vale, there," she pointed east at the House lands. "They have weapons. Thought I'd warn you. I'd bet you're the group I've been hearing about."

The woman was mature, sensible seeming. She tilted her head and looked at the dragon. "No, you think?" She said to him, and shrugged. "Well, Mitanth here tells me there are some potential Bonders among your children and young folk. Believe it or not, I think he likes the smell of most of you." She shook her head, "I've never heard of so many of you in one place before..."

The mutterings started almost immediately. Rita's hummer-gryph perked up and nearly speared himself on Rita's ear. He perched carefully, and watched all the sudden bustling.

Rita looked at the woman in astonishment as she looked with her dragon, at almost every one of the orphaned or lost Clan members. While it was true there weren't all THAT many of them, fewer than thirty total, the fact that the woman's dragon nosed practically all of the group that Rita was part of into the 'selected' area.

"Um, search rider," said Rita, her eyes wide, "um, thank you --" the dragon pushed her toward the group as well, then snorted loudly at Dane and Dave, who also recieved the same careful and practiced nudge. "Um, we *are* kind of on the run and such."

"I was going to say, if we had a dragon or two to help us move faster, or to scout out places to settle..." Dave said, and fortunately those who had been searched out were too busy chattering among themselves to care.

"Yes, yes," Rita said, "but they're coming! The Faustas House men are coming... I can see the dust from their Skirr..."

"Then you've got falcon's eyes," commented Nora, the dragon rider. "But yes, I see them too. Well, Mitanth can't possibly carry you all. But what I can do is ... delay them a bit?" The older woman had a clear mischevious glint in her eye. She mounted up on beautiful Mitanth, and hefted into the air. The sky had lightened completely, and the sun would prove hot today. Hotter for the men in their hard leather armor and pounded steel caps, looking for the Triptych.

"I wonder where... we'll be going. To whose dunes?" Rita said, and Dane answered.

"Caer Talor Cliff. I doubt there is room for everyone, but... surely some of -- us," he almost seemed surprised to use the pronoun on himself, "will be accepted."

"I hope so..." Rita breathed, "I hope so..."

(Duplicated on Dave and Dane's pages I guess if I get around to theirs - had been on ddr-hatch.html)

The trio of Tryptic Clan members stood nervously around the entrance of Caer Talor Cliff, until they were offered food, caerlets and open smiles from the inhabitants. Rita was the first to warm to the place, and she dragged the twin brothers kicking and screaming with her to this dinner or that guild-room.

They even stole a few glances at the beautiful eggs on the dunes. Naomith and her baleful glare at the threesome put a stop to that.

Then at long last came the day when those eggs decided to hatch! "I wish that our clan could be here," Rita whispered to the pair of men, "but they've all been shooed out. I wonder why?"

"To keep the hatchlings intent on us, I suppose," Dane groaned. Nervous but also curious as to what in the world was going to happen, Dane looked to his brother, and they shared an emotional wave ride.

The first to hatch was a deep red, then a purple and a cream. They had bonded before a silver did. Then, four more eggs broke open. More bonders went away from the dunes with wide grins on their faces, and hungry hatchlings in their arms. Several more eggs hatched, though one of the other hatchlings stayed off by himself, not allowing any candidate near him.

Finally a number of eggs broke open and one revealed a beautiful bronze. He strutted right up to Dave, and they shared their moment of mental impact. Vaguely, Dane was aware that his place in his brother's mind was being edged out. But that was fine. Alone would be just fine.

Saoith is hungry, Dave thought to his brother. So we're going off to the kitchens. You'll join us soon enough. Do not doubt me, brother.

Dane was stunned at the clarity of his brother's statement. Though he had not spoken, and was already walking away, Dave looked over his shoulder at Dane and gave a real, broad smile.

Several other eggs had hatched, and their dragonets bonded. One of the newer hatchlings, a red one, all but ran straight into Dane's arms. I can help you! He thought, and Dane suddenly knew what the fuss was about. This little creature would be with him always -- he thought about being alone, and simply knew he would never have to be that way again.

"That sounds just fine to me, Pyrkagiath," Dane sighed, as they too left the dunes.

Rita was left watching them, but still smiling broadly. She wasn't jealous, not yet. If the other eggs hatched and left her standing on the dunes alone, then she would begin to feel--
Let's follow the others out, Rita. I'm very hungry and I've a feeling they will have eaten all the food!

"I'm sure there's plenty left, Asimith!" Rita laughed at the lovely small silver dragoness before her. She finally joined the brothers, her lovers, in the kitchens and waited for their long long day to come to an end at last.

** (had been on ddr-fledge.html)

Pyrkagiath was the first to discover that his bond was connected to other people. He wondered why Dane was ashamed of himself so much. But then, he did not understand what had happened to him all those years before they had met.

And truly, the dragons didn't judge. Pyrkagiath nuzzled his rider and insisted they help with the ground-recognition training.

You are good at it. You might not know what you are looking at, thought Pyr, but you know you're seeing something. Let me do the rest.

"That sounds fine by me..." Dane said, eager to seem one of the crowd after so long.

Silver Asimith sunned herself daintily on her flat warm-stone, while bronze colored Saoith stood guard over her. He did not need to, she was at least as fierce as he was, and had learned to fly long before either male fledgeling.

You are beginning to make me wonder, my friend, Saoith thought to his rider, Dane is all right. Leave him to his dragon and everything will be fine.

You say that... But I sense something is still wrong.

You will always think that, though.

Stinging from the truth of the comment, Dave turned and tried to concentrate on helping Rita with the cleaning. Their caerlet was shared as a trio, but Dane and Pyr were often out alone or wandering with the explorers. They would sometimes come back very late at night, or sometimes the next day. Dave and Rita both shared their concerns, but the Fledge trainer did not see much difficulty. So long as he appeared with the other fledge students on time for their training sessions, nothing they did was truly wrong in his eyes.

Rita gazed out at the group below, after they had finished mopping up the hard floors and sweeping what was left out off the ledge. She leaned against her silver beauty Asimith.

You love them both. I love them both too. Isn't that nice? Asimith almost giggled mentally.

You're such a flirt... Rita scratched at the dragon's skin, and patted the silvery dragoness on her nose. "You could go down there and learn something."

You should come with. Come flying with me. You love to fly.

"As much as you do!" Rita eagerly said, and didn't bother with any flight gear. She'd heard that she was meant to use a harness but she trusted her silver bond mate intimately. If she could not trust Asimith... Who could she trust?

As they took to the sky, Saoith thought, if she falls, I would always go catch her.

"I know. And so would Pyr. And if I could fly," Dave said with his hand on the dragon's side, "I would too..."

((( lol note that they were not actual shapeshifters in this story yet.)))

** (had been on ddr-adult3.html which was basically duplicated from 1 and 2)

Rita scrubbed at the itch that Asimith swore would only be reached by her hands. The medium sized dragoness purred with pleasure. There it is. You have got it now. And you'll be putting that silly pack of stuff on it, won't you?

I will, and you'll just have to live with it, silly.

They had spent the better part of a year at the Caer, while their Clan had moved along without the protection of the dragons which swept the trio to Talor Cliff. How had they fared? How would they accept the dragons?

Where was that blasted alisgryph? And her flitter companion? Ah. The two creatures vied for space on the pale-haired girl's shoulders. "You're going to find us on the right island, aren't you? And you're not going to stray and get lost. It's a long trip, and you're going to get tired. So when you do, you're going to come to me and sleep with us. I know you don't like it," she warned the brown flitter, "but I won't lose you to some storm." The pair of flying pets chirped and flew off, getting some kind of image of where they were to be going, but they remained within sight.

Rita was enjoying the last flying view she'd have of Caer Talor Cliff when she heard a sharp whistle, it was Dave on the ledge of their caerlet. It wasn't long after that Rita and Silver Asimith swooped up to where they were. "You ready?"

"Been there, done that," Rita announced, patting her own smallish pack. She traveled light.

Where is Pyr? Has he gone away again?

He's right over there, quiet. Dane is afraid to go home.

"We'll be fine, Dane," Rita said, and Dave nodded to her to encourage her. "But we do have to go now. It'll be getting on evening at Paniya and I don't really want to hunt around for a camp site the size of a coffee bean in the dark..."

At that, Dane perked up. To Rita it looked like desire alone would bring the man to his feet. Desire for a good cup of Java...

That's right, they have coffee on Paniya! I'd almost forgotten! I had coffee once! I liked it... Dane thought to his brother, who rolled his eyes and chuckled.

"Then come on, vibroboy, let's find you some coffee and our Clan."

Before they got back to their 'clan' they did take a detour to Chagga, and chugged that coffee like it was going out of style.

And when they did get back, they were not particularly on Paniya any longer. They now realized what was 'off', they were furries, shapeshifters, and only after they'd returned to their group (somehow) did they all sprout wings or tails or tentacles as the case may be. Their roles are all still similar, Rita and Dave are seen as the leaders of their group, Dane still somewhat relegates himself away from them at times. But they now reside in a place where natives to the area - Cherokee by distant relations - call Snow Rising. A reservation that seems to drift from one area to another, or perhaps even exists in numerous locales at once. Central to the area is Lake Ataga'hi, the purple healing waters are where Dane lurks below, and where those who are injured in either or both body and spirit may be healed with a cleansing bath.

Their clan integrates itself into the Snow Rising population quite easily, even with dragons. All of the members of this tribe are Triptych themselves.

At some point a clone of Rita was made, likely while she was captured by Faust and when she discovered her full Pegasus form. Though she left the confines of their facility, Rigel was sent...