As we sleep among the dead [Max]

[Avu]

“Okay, don’t take this the wrong way or anything,” Sena muttered, “Because I’m not trying to offend you, okay, but yeah, ow, and if you could please just go find s-someone that’d be real helpful, Azazel, could you please magically learn how to fly right about now…” Her face scrunched with discomfort, the girl flicked her fingers at Azazel, “Shoo, c’mon sweetie, I promise there ain’t no such things as ghosts, oh man the Candidatemaster’s gonna be so super pissed at me…” Not that she really knew the time anymore, but she was pretty sure that curfew had sailed straight over her head at some point, up to an hour ago maybe. “And the Healers,” she added, even though her voice echoed weirdly in the deserted hallway, “And oh crap Auntie…”

Azazel, distressed, flipped out his wings, sending a downy feather drifting onto Sena’s hand where she was supporting her weight, and squeaked, a frightened hatchling sound. He was already tucked as close as possible to her, despite the awkwardness of her position with one hand bracing her ankle, in a half-sitting position against the wall. For once, Sena wasn’t quite in the mood to soothe the Razorclaw’s fear; it was wet and miserable and really, really cold, and she could curse at her own stupidity right about now.

Like, why not drag Sydney with her? Or Kaius, or both of them, or let someone know where she was going, or make sure she’d be back at curfew or hey, maybe not sprain her ankle. At least, Sena was pretty sure it was sprained; it’d be the worst sprain she’d ever had in her life, but she didn’t think it was broken and it was still swelling rapidly, making a mess of bruises out of her left ankle in addition to the spectacularly blue bruises on both of her knees and the heels of her hands. It was unquestionably the worst she’d looked in years—Sena wasn’t usually so ungraceful.

She also didn’t believe in crying, but just looking at her ankle was enough to make her want to throw up a little, and dragging herself to the Infirmary had ceased to be an option when her head had stopped spinning and she’d realized that she really wasn’t sure which way to go.

It wouldn’t have been a problem if she could walk; it might’ve even been sort of fun, figuring it out.

This…complicated things.

“I think,” Sena added to Azazel, combing shaky fingers through his feathers, “I mean, um. They don’t let people Stand if they’re hurt when the eggs Hatch, y’know. Crap, Azzy, this sucks. Ow.” She inhaled carefully, chewing on her lower lip intently for a minute. “Um. I mean, Syd’ll notice. And…I mean, there’ll be a search or something, so. It’s okay. At least you make good company. Listener. You’re not real talkative. But that’s okay, I think I’m rambling, I think I probably have a concussion…” She squinted at the Razorclaw, who made another hatchling sound, his eyes huge and dark in the dim lighting.

“Just…not right away, y’know?” Because Sydney wasn’t going to panic. She’d probably think that Sena’d gone off for fun somewhere, because she had, after all, and telling M’kai would hardly be a favor then. “Maybe, like…tomorrow?”

[Aftershock]

Max rode lightly on Maximisk's back, the wher's short legs giving Max a bit of a rolling ride, but one he was used to by now. He kept the wher at a slower pace, as he was down checking the more uninhabited and unused parts of the Weyr at the moment, and didn't want to miss anything. He held a glow basket in one hand, swinging the light back and forth as he checked for any telltale cracks in the walls, ceiling, or support beams, or debris on the floor that would point towards structural weaknesses that needed patching. The light had to be dim for Maximisk, however, so the wher was the one doing most of the work, his sensitive eyes scanning the area as he passed through it, sending symbols that flashed over His' vision whenever he spotted something worth a closer look.

Nefertiti nestled on Max's shoulder, watching the proceedings with detached interest. She was growing quite quickly, at least compared to the others of her clutch that Max had seen, though from what he was told this was normal for females of the species. Her downy coat was beginning to shed and reveal beautiful silverish feathers, and the razorclaw was always fastidious when it came to grooming any loose down away so as to not leave herself with a patchwork appearance. Suddenly, Nefertiti cocked her head and made a small crrr-ickick in her throat, and at the same time Maximisk slowed, placing his feet more carefully so as to prevent the click of his own claws on the stone from overwhelming what had perked his interest.

Maximisk listened for a moment longer, then sent an image to His of a crude human caricature lying on it's back, it's legs twisted at odd angles. Max, recognizing it as Maximisk's sign for "injured human", leaned forward and said, "All right, lead us to them, buddy." Maximisk grunted quietly, and began plodding carefully forward, sending the image of a glowing line upon the floor to overlay Max's vision so as to indicate the direction the sound was coming from for His.

Soon, they had traversed the quiet corridors until even Max could hear the sounds of the distressed girl and her razorclaw. As they got closer, Maximisk's claws began to slosh as water appeared covering the floor of the tunnel to about a quarter-inch in depth... probably a crack letting one of the waterfalls leak into the tunnel, or one of the underground tributaries feeding the pool in the weyrbowl. He would have to find the leak later, right now he had someone to help... a female Candidate someone, he discovered as they rounded a bend and found the blonde girl lying on the wet floor.

Quickly dismounting, Max's worn leather boots splashed into the shallow water covering the floor, and the diminutive wherhandler grabbed the glowbasket off the back of Maximisk's harness and slowly approached the young woman, saying, "Hello, there. Name's Max, and this is Maximisk here. What happened to you, and what hurts the worst?" As he got closer, he saw the male razorclaw cuddling into the crook of her neck, and suddenly Nefertiti's increasing agitation made sense... he recognized this girl, or at least knew where he'd seen her before. "Wait, that's one of Nefertiti's clutchbrothers, isn't it?" he asked, indicating the razorclaw on his shoulder as she made a crrrrr-ick-ick at Azazel and spread her downy wings slightly in his direction, head turned so that her golden eyes could watch her clutchbrother.

[Avu]

She didn’t notice the pull and push of the thin layer of water, at first, and when she did, accompanied by the soft click of talons on stone, Sena froze ridiculously, abruptly and vividly recalling every single stupid horror story about the monsters that roamed the halls of Selenitas. And then she attempted to literally become one with the wall, pressing against it with one hand cupped around Azazel in a futile attempt to keep the Razorclaw quiet—to which Azazel’s response was a terrified kakaka chatter, much too loud in the comparative silence. Sena hissed a frantic, absolutely ridiculous, “Shh, Azzy, please please please be quiet shhh, Azzy don’t—uh.”

Blinked at Maximisk, when the blue rounded the corner, momentarily disbelieving, before a wave of acute relief had Sena slumping against the wall. Stupid of her, forgetting wherhandlers made rounds. Her first impression of the faintly blurry silhouette dismounting from the wher was that it was practically a child, before she blinked again and wait, the proportions were all wrong for that. A few more steps closer, and her eyes widened in vague recognition—spurred primarily by the Razorclaw with the man, honestly. Azazel creeled in her ear—ducked to nuzzle against her jaw, peering in half-alarm at his clutchsibling.

“Uh…” The questions made her head spin a little. Sena blinked, dazed, trying to organize everything into coherency, “Um. Hi. I tripped…I think I sprained my ankle and I hit my head, so I’m sort of…I don’t know, concussion?” The tentative diagnosis had her screwing up her face apologetically; Sena figured she was probably wrong. She wasn’t a Healer, and even if she knew the basic symptoms of a concussion, she figured having a concussion was probably not conducive to diagnosing one. “And y-yeah, I think so…he’s Azazel…Azzy. Hi, Nefertiti,” tripping over the word only a little. Strange name, not that Azazel was honestly much better.

“Oh. I’m Sena, by the way, um, I’m a Candidate, M’kai’s gonna be pissed at me, can Maximisk talk to dragons?” Technically she should be calling M’kai sir, apparently, but Sena couldn’t for the life of her figure out where the disrespect was in acknowledging someone’s honorific. And it wasn’t like she was talking to him, so whatever. He’d cope. “I’m like…real glad I don’t hafta spend the night down here,” she added, fervently hoping that the man wasn’t going to have to go call for extra help and leave her again, however briefly, “Azzy was startin’ to freak me out…”

The Razorclaw in question snuggled firmly against her, and clicked his beak quietly at Max and Nefertiti—too shy to really acknowledge his sister. Under the circumstances, it was probably a good thing he was even capable of moving at all.

[Aftershock]

Max smiled as he came closer to the girl, noticing the wet clothing sticking to her didn't do her any disfavors. She was a cute little thing, though as a Candidate he knew better than to proceed anywhere in THAT regard without checking her age... which he did while also checking her for her possible concussion. "Sena, huh? It's nice to meet you. Just to check if your head is okay, I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions. While I do so, I'm gonna take this glowbasket and bring it closer to your face while opening it. Watch the glow, even if it's a little bright, okay?" As he brought the glowbasket closer to her face, he silently appreciated how cute she was, while at the same time watching her pupils to see if they properly dilated.

As he checked her eyes, he asked her, "So, how old are you? Where do you come from?" He didn't know the answers to those questions himself, but if she could answer such basic questions without having to think about them, then he would know she didn't have any of the confusion that could indicate a concussion. If her answers were quick and her eyes dilated properly, he would move back to Maximisk, grabbing his medikit off the wher's harness and pulling out some strips of clean cloth and a short wooden rod. Moving back over to the girl, slipping the handle of the kit over his shoulder so as to keep it from getting wet on the tunnel floor, he moved over to Sena once more and set his glowbasket on the ground next to her legs to free his hands up.

Nefertiti watched Hers in interest as he kneeled down next to the blonde girl's legs, and carefully ran his hands over her feet, ankles, knees, and hips, squeezing and slightly moving the joints while watching the girl's face, asking, "Does this hurt?" as he tested each part.

[Avu]

“Oh,” Sena said, only a little dumbly, “Yeah. Uh, yeah, okay, sure.” She blinked a few times, and then squinted before catching herself and doing her best to follow the glows. Her head hurt, the kind of dull pounding ache that made her singularly uninspired to make conversation; she was just mostly tired and wanted to pass out and wake up in maybe thirteen hours to reevaluate her life, or something. Well, maybe not quite so dramatic, but still. In any case, just following Max’s orders made it easier for her to concentrate, and she fidgeted slightly, staring at the glows, “’m eighteen, and…um, do you mean originally or recently…oh, I guess it doesn’t matter, does it. Benden first, the Weyr, and then Glasscraft Hall. ‘s real bright,” she added, and blinked hard.

She was trying to be helpful, really, as the handler moved back to his wher briefly, Azazel clicking his beak quietly by her ear, although frankly Sena expected to be no help at all. Ankle hurt, head hurt—though less, she supposed, and she was pretty sure memory loss or confusion or whatever was a symptom of concussion, so at least she didn’t have that. Or at least, a really mild one. Headache was definitely starting to get old.

She twitched at his first touch, and then squirmed uncomfortably to re-situate herself into a more malleable position. A faint hum, more exhausted than hurt, at her knees, “’s just bruised,” she offered, which was probably pretty obvious; they were really a lovely shade of blue by now probably, “And, I mean, a little sore, but it’s—” The first touch to her left ankle interrupted that sentence and Sena muffled a yelp with a mmph sound. A shaky inhale because oh god that hurt, and she twitched a smile at Max, blinking hard to fight tears. “Um. Yeah. That hurts. Like, a lot. Ow.”

Making an apologetic face, she rubbed the heel of her hand, which also hurt, against her cheek. He hadn’t said anything about telling M’kai why she’d broken curfew, and knowing her luck, today would be the very day that he actually checked or something. As if she wasn’t already screwed over enough. “Please, can I get a message to M’kai? Or,” because she was pretty sure her aunt would want to know, “Iskierka? Futh or Ioth…I’d’ve but Azzy’s sorta not up for flyin’, y’know?”

[Aftershock]

Max winced apologetically at the young Candidate as she squealed at the touching of her ankle, and he said, "Sorry about that... might be a little worse than a sprain if it hurts that badly. Then again, it might just be due to how long it's been sitting here swelling up. Either way, unfortunately I'm gonna have to wrap it pretty tight to keep it from moving around and making things worse..." With as much care as possible, he slowly unlaced and removed her shoe, quietly apologizing if he moved her ankle too much and caused more pain. Once he had the ankle exposed, he put the shoe aside carefully and dug in his kit for some numbweed. Chewing the plant a bit to break it up and release it's sap, he spit to the side to avoid numbtongue and gently rubbed it around Sena's wounded ankle. As he did, he smiled up at Sena and said, "This will help a bit with the pain. It's pretty deep, though, so this will still hurt, just to warn you."

As he applied the numbweed, he said, "Don't worry about M'kai. I'll talk to him myself once I drop you off at the Infirmary. Not like you meant to sprain your ankle down here. However, in the future, if you want to explore the Weyr, come find me in the wherhandler apartments, and I'll take you on the tour myself," he said, grinning at Sena. "I have go through every nook and cranny of this place to make sure we catch any structural damage like the one that caused this leak here... and to find pretty young injured women like yourself," he added, smiling wide.

Finishing applying the numbweed, he smiled up at Sena once more and said, "This is a very nice leg, by the way. Damn shame what happened to it. I consider it my duty to the Weyr as a whole to do my part in getting this back where you can show it off with pride," he finished with a friendly grin and a wink. Reaching out, he took her hand in his own (supporting her leg over his bent knee as he knelt to keep it out of the water), and said, "This is going to hurt, quite a bit. Be strong for me, Sena. I promise you this is for the best, and will help this heal faster." Catching her eyes with his own in the dim light of the glowbasket beside her, he waited for her to let him know she was ready for him to begin wrapping her ankle, still holding her hand in his.

[Avu]

Owowow ow.

Sena blinked, her gaze flickering from ankle to ceiling to hallway to wher, before eventually landing back on her ankle; as thoroughly nauseating as it was to see her ankle that swollen, she couldn’t not look. Illusion of control over the situation, maybe, the thought earning a faintly derisive flicker of humor from the girl as she hissed, unable to keep completely silent at the maneuvering of her ankle. A nod at his explanation about the numbweed—Sena knew perfectly well how numbweed worked and any other time she would’ve said so. But…didn’t matter. As long as something was happening, the wherhandler could talk about anything he wanted.

Her expression went briefly owlish with surprise at his offer, and the…compliment, she supposed, although Sena was like ninety-nine percent sure she did not look at all pretty at the moment. “Okay?” she answered, uncertainly, “I…thanks. Yeah. I will, if…yeah.” Disjointed, but it was as good as she could manage. She blew out her breath wearily and chewed on her lower lip for a moment, and then added, “Thanks,” again, quieter. For the compliment, yes, but mostly for existing. She curled damp fingers around Max’s, ignored the nauseous lurch in the pit of her stomach. Wrapping this was gonna suck. And…she didn’t want Azazel on her shoulder for this.

Not that being right next to her would be better, but at least he couldn’t feel her tensing up or whatever then. Sena turned awkwardly to look at the Razorclaw, who fluffed up his feathers defensively in fear, and said, “Azzy?” He blinked at her, clicked his beak. “Shift off, please, c’mon,” she coaxed, managed a smile as she wormed her other hand under the Razorclaw’s talons, “C’mon, go flirt with your…um, Nefertiti,” right, names, “Or somethin’, don’t gotta be all over me right now, Azzy…”

He complained all the way to a largish rock where he wouldn’t get his feet or feathers wet, and finally fluffed up his feathers even more, throwing a shy glance at Nefertiti and then resuming his wide-eyed staring at Sena.

She squinted at him a minute to make sure he stayed put, and finally looked back at Max, “Okay. I’m…okay, I’m good, I’m ready.” Except for how she wasn’t, but Sena wasn’t going to say that. Lower lip caught between her teeth and her fingers curling tighter around Max’s hand, she curled her other arm under her thigh, and tried to relax. It didn’t seem like it would matter but things like this seemed to hurt less if you were relaxed. Problem was, relaxing was actually really hard.

[Aftershock]

Max smiled as the young woman stuttered her response. He always enjoyed flirting with pretty young things, especially after he could verify they were only four turns younger than himself, and sometimes he could even arrange a date (or something less romantic, but more physically entertaining) out of such flirting. Even if he couldn't, however, he found flustering young women who were injured was quite effective at helping distract them from their injuries in trying to figure out how to respond to his advances.

Squeezing the young woman's fingers in return to help further assure her, he watched as she shooed her razorclaw hatchling onto a rock nearby, then gave her hand a final squeeze as he smiled at her once more and disengaged his hand, saying, "I wish I could hold your hand through this, but I need both hands to wrap this properly, unfortunately." Digging into his medikit once more, he pulled out a roll of tightly knitted linen, and sent a message to Maximisk, asking him to send the girl a "distraction screen".

Turning without ceremony to face the young woman, the blue where's large eyes swirled blue and green as he attempted to send a soothing wave of warm, flowing colors and simple glowing shapes across the girl's mental vision, attempting to hopefully calm her down while also blocking her view of her own injured ankle. It did not always work, but it often at least helped a little bit, and Maximisk put all his concentration into performing the screen successfully, so as to avoid making himself look incompetent to the young Candidate.

Max, meanwhile, waited until he saw the telltale alternating blue-green in Maximisk's eyes to let him know he was sending the screen, then placed the end of the linen roll on the top of the girl's ankle. Wrapping the roll slowly around the joint, he made a complete circle, then tugged the cloth tight to secure the end, holding the foot firmly in case she involuntarily kicked at him as a pain response. He then continued to firmly wrap the ankle, wrapping a short stick into the cloth parallel to her leg to keep the ankle from bending side to side, finally securing the bandage with a small needlethorn. Sending a small mental nod to Maximisk, the wher's eyes returned to a solid green glow as the distraction screen faded from Sena's vision.

Carefully securing his remaining materials back in his medikit, Max turned back to face Sena and smiled once more warmly, saying, "There, all done. Hopefully that wasn't too bad, and I apologize if it was too bad. Either way, that should keep your ankle from moving around and making the sprain any worse while we get you to the Infirmary. Soon as you're ready, I'll help you up onto Maximisk's back, and we'll head that way."

[Avu]

Oh. Yes.

Sena blinked, and then reluctantly disengaged her hand from Max’s. She hadn’t been thinking—or she had, but certainly not about that, which was stupid, of course. For a minute, she wavered, uncertain of where to put her hand now, and finally intertwined her own fingers and settled both hands into her lap. At least she didn’t have to worry about clinging too tightly to herself. Which was good. Yes. She watched Max reach for the bandages in silence, trying to count her breaths—she was pretty sure that theoretically it was supposed to be soothing but frankly it wasn’t really helping much; her breathing wasn’t a distra—

She inhaled halfway on a gasp as Maximisk began to broadcast…something…at her. Not the first time someone else’s mindmate had touched her mind, but it had been a very long time. Sena tensed in response to it, and blinked hard, trying to focus through it. It was helpful, she supposed, but it also meant that the first touch to her ankle came as utterly a surprise and her breath hitched again, her knuckles going white before she very deliberately allowed Maximisk’s…screen-thing…to come forefront of her mind. And if it didn’t numb the pain, it was at least a distraction, and a reason to squeeze her eyes shut.

At least he was quick about it.

Sena peered tentatively through her eyelashes as the mental touch receded, and exhaled, shakily, managed a smile for Max. “Thanks,” she offered, and hastily scrubbed one hand over her eyes, turning to focus on Maximisk. And then Azazel, to whom she offered her arm again, “Okay, c’mon Azzy, up you go.” The Razorclaw flapped stubbly wings, sending a downy feather drifting through the air again, and clambered back up to Sena’s shoulder, peering anxiously at Max as Sena licked her lips and then said, “Okay…okay, I’m good, how do we do this…” She squirmed, bracing one hand against the floor in a vague effort to lift herself to her feet, glancing at Maximisk to judge the distance.

And yeah…no, even with her ankle stabilized she wasn’t getting over there on her own.

Short of a flying leap, anyway, which did not sound appealing in any shape or form.

[Aftershock]

Seeing her attempt to get up herself, Max quickly reached forward to place a hand on her hip, saying, "Whoa, whoa, don't try to get up on your own. Let me take care of you." Carefully moving to cross her left leg over her right, he said, "Keep your legs like that for now, to keep the wrappings out of the water," then got up and directed Maximisk to move over beside the young woman while Max moved around to her opposite side.

When Maximisk got close to the young woman, he dropped to his belly, his deep blue hide making him appear like a splotch of night sky migrated into the hallways of the Weyr. Max, for his part, said, "All right, wrap your left arm around my shoulders, and I'll get you up onto Maximisk's back, and then we'll secure you and head to the Infirmary." After the young woman did as he requested, he smiled at her reassuringly, then slipped his short arms under her back and under her thighs. Bending his knees, he heaved, and though he was small, years of minework made him strong, and his powerful and compact muscles flexed as he lifted the woman into the air, his short legs giving him a solid center of balance.

Walking forward with his blonde cargo, he reached Maximisk's right side and lifted Sena slightly higher to place her bottom over Maximisk's spine, then released her legs, rotating her around and stepping over Maximisk's long tail as he told her to lift her right leg over his back so as to be mounted properly. Ending up on Maximisk's left side, he made sure she was stable, and checked to make sure her ankle was still fine before strapping her in properly. He then sent a message to Maximisk, who carefully dropped his wings to cover her legs and press her legs firmly against his sides, to prevent her ankle from bouncing against his side during the ride. Max then said, "Luckily I'm pretty efficient when it comes to weight, so Maximisk will be able to easily carry us both. If you feel unstable at all during the ride, feel free to hold onto me for support," he added with a smirk and a wink. Moving forward to slip over Maximisk's back in front of her, he commanded the wher to stand up once more.

When she verified she was ready, he sent for Maximisk to head towards the Infirmary, leaving his glowbasket on the floor so as to easily mark this place to check on it after he had dropped Sena off, trusting Maximisk's vision to let them reach the Infirmary safely.

[Avu]

Wait, he wanted to carry her?

Sena went appropriately pink—sure she hadn’t thought he expected her to get herself up onto Maximisk (because even if he didn’t care that much it would’ve been an awful waste of time) but being carried was just sort of embarrassing, not least because she wasn’t exactly the skinniest girl in the Weyr and neither did Max seem like the strongest…or the biggest. Not to put too fine a point on it or anything. She opened her mouth awkwardly to say something even as she obediently wound one arm around his shoulders, tentatively, and then, as he actually lifted her up, blurted out an undignified, “Oh gosh thanks ‘m sorry, oh man…sorry, this must be full of suck,” and clung onto Max tighter in spite of her embarrassment to keep from toppling onto the ground again.

She clung to Maximisk too, when she was placed onto the blue wher, tentatively stroking the fingers of one hand down the blue’s spine in mute thanks—having a wher carry her did not have the same taboo as having a man carry her did, but Sena still wasn’t out of it enough not to be faintly embarrassed by the necessity, and grateful for it anyway. Max’s flirtatious comment earned a startled smile, and despite the ridiculousness of the comment Sena immediately looped one arm around the wherhandler’s shoulders for balance just in case, the other going up to curl carefully around Azazel as the Razorclaw grumped anxiously, clinging to the fabric of her shirt.

Chewing on her lip anxiously as Maximisk rose to his feet and began to move again, Sena gradually let go of Max as she became more accustomed to the motion of it. Different from dragons. Weird. Exhausted, the girl dropped her chin onto Max’s shoulder, cheek tucked into the crook of her own arm, and then, because it had been knotting up her stomach since she’d first evaluated the damage to her ankle, “So um…I know you’re not also a healer unless you’re maybe just superman but d’you think I’ll maybe be okay to Stand for the wher Hatching? ‘Cause I meant to and I know they don’t let Candidates Stand if they, uh, literally can’t Stand but…I mean, I got a few months, right?”

((If you wanna ninja them to the Infirmary and snag a Healer I’m down with that, otherwise I can do it post after if you’re cool with it?))

[Aftershock]

As Max carried Sena in his arms, he laughed honestly at her embarrassed blurtings, and replied, "I have an armful of a curvy, beautiful blonde. What's there to suck about this?" He also, of course, did not complain when the attractive young Candidate clung closer to him, likely pressing her chest into his face considering the positioning.

As Sena placed her arm around him during the first few minutes of the ride on Maximisk out of the deep tunnels and back towards the main Weyr, Max smiled yet again in the darkness, enjoying the fact that the lack of visual stimulus enhanced his other senses, letting him enjoy the scent of floral soapsand the girl used, the feel of her warmth, the softness of her skin where it wrapped across his open-chest shirt. Nefertiti, for her part, snuggled close against Hers, still unused to the pitch darkness Max sometimes brought her through, and tried to put forth a brave front before her smaller clutchbrother with a fear-mostly-hidden krrrr-rrrr-rrickick.

As Sena placed her head on his shoulder, their trip finally having reached the main tunnels of the Weyr once more, dim glowlamps making the darkness retreat to the edges of the tunnels and making everyone able to see again, Max grinned yet again, quietly saying, "Usually when a beautiful girl's face is this close to mine, I'm getting a kiss. But you're a patient, so don't worry, I don't require payment for my work. I'm just happy to have saved such beauty for the Weyr as a whole." Listening to her concerns, Max smiled again (though more friendly than sultry this time), and replied, "Oh, don't worry. I've seen plenty of mining accidents in my nearly 12 turns in the tunnels. Considering you obviously just tripped, since there was no debris to show anything fell upon you, there's only a very slim chance there's any kind of fracture in your ankle. It usually takes something heavy falling on the leg, or the foot getting stuck in a rock fissure as the rest of the body falls, in order to create a broken ankle. As it is, a week or two, at most, of staying off the ankle as much as possible and keeping it iced will have you good as new, I'm sure of it."

Finally, the group reached the Infirmary, with Maximisk having to squint his eyes nearly shut and depend on Max's eyes to navigate now that they were in the more brightly-lit main Weyr areas. Commanding Maximisk to drop to his belly once more, Max dismounted smoothly, then put his arms out, indicating to Sena he planned on carrying her once again. "I'll carry you in from here, since it's even brighter inside the Infirmary and I don't want poor Maximisk going blind. If there's a particular Healer you prefer that you know is working, let me know, else we'll find the first one available."

((Max will carry/help (if she refuses to be carried) Sena to whichever Healer she wants, either a specific one or a random one, so feel free to "control" Max and run the Healer of your choice.))

[Avu]

Flirting. That was…while not unpleasant, Sena supposed, still surprising. Well, inasmuch as she stereotyped heroes as tall men with daredevil charm, at least Max had two of the three. Sena hummed at the flattery—at least with her position and the lack of light her blush was probably invisible—because yes, she responded practically always responded well to flattery. Shallow, a little, but at least she was comfortably shallow. That said, Max was decidedly not her type, but that didn’t particularly stop Sena from smiling against his shoulder, huffing a quiet, “I do try ‘n make a point of lookin’ pretty when I’m bein’ a damsel in distress, wouldn’t have the same effect if I didn’t.”

His reassurance earned another tired hum from Sena, the girl nodding. Good to know; missing the Hatching would’ve been absolutely awful, especially with Sydney all excited. And Kaius promising to go watch, too. She blinked at the light—Azazel practically melted in relief from his curled up position in her lap, clicking his beak rapidly at Nefertiti to indicate his gratitude—and lurched awkwardly sideways as Maximisk lowered himself onto his belly. And then went red again at Max’s offer. Being carried into the Infirmary seemed very…very damsel-y, and even if she could make jokes about it she didn’t like it.

But on the other hand, hopping into the Infirmary on one leg struck her as even less appealing, not least because while her other leg wasn’t badly hurt it sure wasn’t hale and hearty either, unless bruised and wobbly was good now.

“Uh,” she said, after a minute, and reached out to Max, fumbling to loop an arm around his neck and half-slide and half-fall off of Maximisk, “Don’t know any Healers real well, don’t matter much…whichever of ‘em’s around I guess.” She did her best not to fidget as Max carried her into the Infirmary, although she did go a shade of red that was probably only previously cultivated in tomatoes when they actually got in there. Fortunately she spotted Buram in fairly short order and even if she didn’t know him very well, he was a Candidate and therefore automatically more trusted than…not.

“Buram!” she blurted, tacitly ignoring the fact that he probably only knew her as some random chick in the Candidate Barracks as utterly unimportant, “Hi—um. You busy?”


((So Zep can post here if she is not too busy? ))

[Zephyr]

Buram was busy sorting through supplies. It hadn't been terribly busy as of late, so he hadn't gotten the hands on experience that any apprentice needed. That didn't mean Buram wasn't looking forward to work. The boy was always so upbeat during anything he had to do, that even work was welcome to him. It didn't matter that all he was doing were the tedious, everyday things that most people would find terribly boring, it was interesting to the boy.

Fortunately for the apprentice, excitement was about to limp his way in the form of Sena and the short wherhandler. The boy didn't know the girl, not personally, but he had seen her around. He made it a point to at least know of his fellow candidates, and had wanted to approach the girl one day, he just didn't have the chance until now. When she called out his name, he perked up instantly, whirling around to face the pair.

"Sena!" He said brightly, bounding over to the pair. " Not so much." He said in response to her question. His eyes darted quickly to the man carrying her. He was short, even shorter than he. Buram wasn't one to judge, however, and beamed down at the man. " Who's this? Hi there, I'm Buram!" He said brightly after a moment before belatedly realizing that Sena wouldn't have a man carry her in here for a casual chat. Eyes found her wrapped ankle soon enough and his eyes widened, going into healer mode. " What happened?" He asked beside the point, already moving away before anyone had even answered.

He was moving towards the tables, pointing towards an unoccupied one, well, they were all unoccupied, but it didn't matter. " Set her here, please." He was already shuffling through the supplies he had been so carefully sorting before.

[Aftershock]

Max smiled in a friendly manner in return to the greeting, answering Buram with, "Name's Max, I'm a wherhandler, rescue squad," nodding his head towards his armband. Continuing as the boy asked for specifics, he replied, "I found Sena here down in the older, more unexplored parts of the Weyr. There's a leak down there, possibly from an underground river or lake, and it appears she slipped and twisted her ankle. I didn't have the time or light to check her out as much as I would have liked," he continued, giving Sena a quick smirk and wink at that, then resuming his attention towards Buram, "but her ankle was pretty swollen, though I don't believe broken. I bound it for transport to prevent further damage, and brought her here. She was also sitting in some pretty cold water for a while, so be aware of that..."

As he spoke, he moved over to the indicated table, carefully hefting Sena up slightly higher to put her bottom on the table, then releasing her back when she seemed ready to support herself and sliding his other arm down her legs, mostly to prevent her lower leg from suddenly being released and swinging her ankle into the ground or the table supports or something, though he couldn't say he didn't enjoy sliding his hand down the girl's shapely leg in the process.

Backing off to let Buram do his work, Max settled back against the wall, waiting to see if either Sena or Buram needed anything else from him before he returned to Maximisk and his patrol duties.