Do we really have to stop? the clouded blue dragon bespoke his rider as he eyed the sky and the last few Sr. Weyrlings in their class still aloft practicing dropping and catching filled bags of firestones, I would love to continue flying with you, Tr’zin. The young rider smiled as he loosened the flight harness from his bond’s neck.
“As would I, Toyozath,” he sighed and looked up to see two blues in the air, the slightly larger of the two blues who were now working together, “Don’t worry though, we’ll be in the air again soon. Maybe not today, but probably tomorrow.” Without warning as to why, Toyozath suddenly took in a sharp breath That is going to hurt. Tr’zin’s head shot up and caught the last second before the rider of the smaller of the two blues crumbled under the weight of the firestone bag hitting him directly on the head before bouncing off and grazing the blue’s left shoulder and forearm. The small blue caught the bag before angling quickly towards the ground, his rider flapped in his seat during the decent. We have a problem here, Tray. F’linro’s been knocked out! “What?! I didn’t look like it was that hard. Get over to Matsuath in case he gets the wrong idea and tries to between. The Weyr doesn’t need something like that. Warn Torth.” As he had been instructing his dragon he pulled a charcoal stick and small notepad out of his flight jacket pocket and scratched a hasty note before tearing the small page from the pad and putting it in Soru’s small paws “Take that to the Weyrhealer. NOW!” the little blue flit squealed in slight fright at his master’s forceful words.
A fearful and sad keying sound suddenly ripped through the quiet of the late afternoon. Toyozath pounced on the blue pinning his wings to Matsuath’s sides and lay his full weight on the slightly smaller blue keeping him fixed to the ground. Calm yourself, brother, your rider still breaths. He is not dead! Toyozath bellowed at the blue beneath him but also letting his rider and probably a few others hear his words in case they did not know what was wrong yet. Whether there was a bespoken response from the pinned blue or not there was a defendant struggle as the smaller blue tried his best to dislodge his larger brother. Toyozath clung to the blue beneath him and for extra grip dug his claws on his hind feet into the ground. It was then that Tr’zin started hearing the yelling of the other Sr. Weyrlings as well as the Weyrling Master. “It was an accident! It just slipped!” Z’rut rider of the blue Sengoth was yelling in fear at what he’d done. “We’ll deal with that later,” S’mar growled, “We need to get F’linro off Matsuath before he hurts the kid more with his thrashing. Torth, pin down his neck.” “He can’t, he might hurt F’linro in the process!” Tr’zin replied to which the brown nodded in agreement. Without thinking the boy leapt at the struggling blue’s shoulder. Come on! he argued mentally with the flight straps as he fumbled to loosen them so as to release his the young man also from his time. Mastuath thrashed even more as Tr’zin released one leg. However the other was too tight. Thinking quickly the clouded blue rider pulled a knife that had been strapped to the outside of the other rider’s boot and cut the last flight strap. Flicking the knife to the ground it landed blade first into the ground up to the hilt. A few seconds later Tr’zin had yanked the other rider from his perch upon the blue’s neck and fell the short distance to the ground, landing first so as to break the unconscious rider’s fall. Groaning, Tr’zin got up and pulled F’linro farther away from the thrashing blue who now found himself pinned by two dragons. Torth was now upon Matsuath’s neck and growled at the blue beneath him, Concentrate, Hatchling! If you do you can tell your rider still lives. He is just knocked out! It was a bazaar blow to hear the anger and fear in the brown dragon. Tr’zin shook the thought off as he started to check over F’linro. With a rip of fabric he made a quick bandage for the blue rider’s head to stop the bleeding. It surprised him that the wound was mainly on the surface. There was a slight dent where the blow had come but nothing so serious that the more senior healers in Falas Weyr couldn’t fix it. Feeling he could do no more for the most noticeable wound, Tr’zin carefully checked the rider’s neck and was relieved to not find anything that seemed like a broken bone. He made quick work of checking the rest of the rider’s body before returning to the bandaged head. It was as he was finishing that he heard the running feet of the healers. I need to get near him. He needs me, Tr’zin heard and for a moment thought that F’linro was conscious until he realized that the only movement out of the older rider was the rise and fall of his chest. Let me go! F’linro needs me! I must get closer, crooned the pinned blue. You will not try to between, brother? Toyozath asked the blue critically, fearful that the lighter blue was bluffing. F’linro is not dead! Why would I between if my rider is not dead?! Matsuath growled at the clouded blue. Do you think it will be alright, Torth? Will he stay if we release him? Toyozath rumbled. The brown replied with a nod and soon the lighter blue was released. Tr’zin felt the blue quickly close the distance between them as he realized the bandage needed to be changed and was thankful that the other healers had brought clean white linen to use instead of dusty riding clothes. A stretcher was being brought now too. “Hold on there, F’linro,” Tr’zin mumbled as he worked, “You’ll be fine. We’ll get you to the infirmary.” How is he? At this point he’s only in danger of losing too much blood. But I swear I will not let him die. Mastuath will not lose his rider! We need to get him to the infirmary. Toyozath turned to the other blue then, They will take him to the infirmary. We can follow. My rider will not let you lose yours, this he has sworn. Matsuath nodded numbly and followed the darker blue as all turned to go to the infirmary. The healers and Tr’zin moved as fast as they could without jarring their patient. The Falas Weyr healers worked quickly once they were in the infirmary, carefully mending the skin and bracing the indent the best they could. After that, as they told Tr’zin, Toyozath, and Mastuath (who didn’t seem to be taking in anything he was told so focused on staying with his rider’s consciousness), they could only wait and see. However they were pretty sure he should be awake in a few days at the latest. The longer it took though the worse off he might be. “You’ll remember to check for my consciousness if this ever happens to us, right Toyo?” Tr’zin asked as he changed a wet cool cloth out for a clean one shortly after the healers had finished. I will remember it. I will even force them to try to bring you back if your heart stops before I make my final decision to leave. he crooned at his rider to which the young man raced out to the storm cloud looking blue and hugged his wedge shaped head. Tr’zin didn’t want to think of such a thing happening. It was unnerving to even think of a scenario in which that could happen. “H-how’s he doing?” a voice asked nervously. Tr’zin turned to find Z’rut looking at him worried having seen the exchange between the two. “He’ll live,” Tr’zin replied and then frowned, “Why did you let the bag go so early?” “I didn’t mean to,” Z’rut winced, “It just slipped. Nerves maybe… I’m not sure.” The two had walked back into the infirmary and the other blue rider took in a sharp breath at the sight of his classmate still on the bed; his breathing the only thing telling him that the young man was indeed still alive. “I’m so sorry, F’linro. Sengoth and I are both really, really sorry!” Tr’zin placed and hand on the other man’s shoulder, “He might not be able to hear you right now. But I think he’ll understand. Do me a favor, tell Master S’mar I’m going to help out for a while to keep an eye on F’linro and Toyozath to keep an eye on Mastuath.” “He won’t like you missing classes despite this, Tr’zin,” Z’rut gave a slight chuckle. “Tell him it’s a part of my weyrhealer training,” the clouded blue rider replied, “I’ll try to make some of the classes but I should keep an eye on him. Tell him what happened when he gets up. I’ll come to classes regularly again after that.” “If I get yelled at for telling him this you owe me a fire lizard,” Z’rut half joked. “If it happens, it happens,” the healer replied with a weak smile.
Tr’zin sighed heavily as he walked over to prepare another compress for F’linro’s head, Faranth when are you going to wake up, F’linro? On his head, Soru chirped sleepily draping a paw over one of Tr’zin’s eyes. “Soru!” he grumbled quietly softly pushing the paw back up into his hair. He paused for a moment as he thought he heard a sound in the other room. Tr’zin nearly shook it off when he dragon spoke, though it was not to him. It has been three days, did he speak to you? Tr’zin looked over his shoulder to see movement in F’linro’s bed. Quickly he made the compress and hurried back to his friend’s bedside. “Shards!” the rider finally vocalized and his voice cracked with dryness as he did, “My head hurts worse than a hangover. What did I do?” “You didn’t do anything really,” Tr’zin replied picking up the small bowl of water and fellis near the bed. “Uhg… Tr’zin?” F’linro coughed and the cloud blue rider pressed the bowl of water to the other rider’s parched lips. “Yay… Here, drink this, it’s water.” Tr’zin watched as the other man’s hand shook as he drank from the bowl and splashed some on himself in the process. This has really weakened him, he thought as he picked up the compress again but still did not replace it with the one on his friend’s head yet. “Lightly laced with fellis if I’m not mistaken,” F’linro sighed sleepily. “What do you last remember?” Tr’zin replied instead of answering the statement. He thought for a moment before replying with a weak grin, “That silly burping contest in the dinning cavern.” “Well at least you haven’t forgotten much,” Tr’zin replied also grinning and finally replacing one cool rag for another on the man’s forehead, “You’ve been out for three days, starting about four hours after that contest. It was during firestone toss practice. Z’rut accidently hit you with a half full bag. Matsuath was in hysterics for about ten minutes at least thinking you were dead. Torth and Toyozath managed to calm him enough to have him realize you were just knocked out, though they had to tackle him to make sure he didn’t between because he thought you were dead.” There was a rumble at the dragon’s part of the infirmary and sneaking a look out of the corner of his eye, Tr’zin could see Matsuath’s head peaking through the entrance to look at his rider. Words were being spoken between the two he was sure. He waited a few moments before continuing, hoping that he wasn’t interrupting them in the middle of their talk. “Z’rut and Sengoth have been by every break to check up on you. They’ve apologized multiple times to both you and Matsuath,” Tr’zin told him as he got up to get ready to tell the others of their classmate being awake finally, “With you finally waking up you should be on the road to getting better soon. I’m sure the rest of our class will be relieved. I know I am, who else would I be able to talk to about healing matters?” F’linro started to chuckle but soon winced at the action. Tr’zin smiled, they might not have been the best of friends but this was something he knew that showed their friendship no matter how small. They were both healers and concerned with helping others when they could, “You keep resting,” he told the blue rider and then turned to F’linro’s bond, “And you get some sleep! You haven’t slept since before your rider got hurt. He’s better now so it’s no reason to hurt your health as well by not getting any rest.” Yes healer, he heard Matsuath’s voice in his head again for the first time since the accident. “I’ll let the other healers deal with you now,” Tr’zin chuckled to F’linro, “I’ve got to get back to class now that you’ve returned to the living.” He quickly regretted his choice of words. HE WAS DEAD?!?! Matsuath bellowed his head suddenly back in the room, eyes whirling dangerously red and orange. The lighter colored blue was pulled back by storm cloud blue colored arms and there was slight harshness in the speech of Toyozath as he set the other dragon right, It’s a figure of speech, brother. F’linro was never dead as you should well know it! The other blue didn’t reply but glared slightly at Tr’zin as he mounted Toyozath’s neck without flight straps. Let’s get out of her before Matsuath decides to shred me, Toyo. Agreed. But you could have chosen better words, rider mine. I didn’t think it would affect him like that since he knew that F’linro did not die. The clouded blue just gave a dragonish shrug before lightly springing into the air to fly them to the current class, at least they had good news for them as another firestone toss class was in session.
|