Landslide... (Open)

[Ivy]

Well I've been afraid of changing,
because I built my life around you...
But time makes you bolder...
Children get older...
I'm getting older, too...

Rulilove, it is getting darker. While Amalath was not usually one to complain, it was getting quite dark. Perhaps we can come back when it is lighter?[/color]

Ruliana just nodded towards the ground, Get closer please.

Doing as she was told, Amalath took them lower. She did not enjoy the view - while her memory lacked longevity (as did most dragons') she could recall from her rider images of what the weyr used to be like. It had been wonderful. She didn't recall living there, but her rider did. And her rider had missed it terribly. Now it was a broken heap of fallen rocks, boulders, and charred areas where a fire had burnt itself out. Ruliana seemed focused on a shadow further down and with another nod she said softly, There. Amalath descended towards the ground, back-winging at just the right moment to allow her feet to find the ground in a soft and gentle landing. As soon as they had landed Ruliana was slipping off her dragon's back and walking along the rocky ground.

Where they had landed was near the west side of the weyr - or what had once been the weyr. Since she had been in Burimyu she had not seen the full impact the quake had had on Selenitas until now. Yes she'd helped evacuate the survivors - but her focus had been on them, not surveying the area.

Why are we here Rulilove?[/color] Concern colored Amalath's words, she did not like being out in the dark - especially here. Who knew if the grounds were stable? If rocks would fall down and crush them both?

"R'ahre."

The name was given in a low voice, barely above a whisper. It hung there in the night air for a long moment as Ruliana stopped in her tracks and looked back towards her Green. Amalath knew she should know the name, but for some reason it did not come to her. She remembered some names, other than Hers'. She remembered the young ones, Terilyn and Riaren. She remembered Dhavalth's, Jazheera. But these were all people quite close to Hers. This R'ahre was not, was it? As if sensing her dragon's inability to recall whom she was speaking of, Ruliana added, "My brother."

The Greenrider knew it was a long shot, coming to the ruins in search for R'ahre. The ruins had been searched by other riders and handlers a few days after the quake and no other survivors had been found. But she hadn't yet managed to find him back at the new Selenitas either. Surely he wasn't dead. Tears stung her eyes as that thought festered in the back of her mind. She'd never been close to her half-brother, but the idea of him dying without her being there - just as R'wign had - tore her up inside. She had to find him. She'd found him once after turns of Searching and a journey from north to south, hadn't she? Then it should be much easier to now - she had a dragon!

Another glance was given around where she stood, she had been sure from the air the shadowed area had looked like the dark shadowy hide of R'ahre's Blue - she headed back to Amalath. We can head...

She was cut off as her foot slipped into a hole between two large rocks. The rocks shifted as her leg hit against them and she cried out in pain as her leg was pinned. Falling forward she barely managed to keep herself from landing face first on another rock. Shards and shells! The pain in her leg was wretched, surely she'd broken something. Scrapes covered the palms of her hands and her arms and as she pushed herself back up to ease the pain in her leg another rock scratched against her side.

Amalath let out a loud call of alarm when he rider was injured and tried to rush towards her, but as the rocks began shifting beneath her feet she froze. The last thing the Green wanted was to unintentionally cause something worse to happen with her movements. Taking a step back her eyes swirled orange and yellow in the darkness that surrounded them, Rulilove![/color]

Inhaling slowly, Ruliana closed her eyes and tried to push the rocks from around her trapped and possibly broken leg, to no avail. She just did not have the upper body strength to push them free, they were far too heavy for her to manage alone. Opening her eyes she peered through the darkness to where she knew her Green was. You've got to get help.

Rulilove I will not leave you.

Not that Ruliana could have given the Green coordinates back to the new Weyr anyways, pain clouded her thoughts and made focusing too much nearly impossible. Then call for someone!

Help! Rulilove is trapped and injured by rocks! Amalath called out - though honestly if there weren't any other dragons, firelizards, or salamandyr's nearby it would go unheard.

[Aftershock]

Max rode lightly on the back of Maximisk, trusting the blue wher to guide him safely through the darkened jungle. Quickly heeding warnings from his wher to tuck himself against Maximisk when shoving through undergrowth or bracing his legs in the harness when Maximisk finds an opening to make a powerful leap ahead, the duo make good time on their way from new Selenitas to the ruins of old Selenitas.

His mind left to wander, since he cannot see anyway and so must simply leave Maximisk to find their way through the darkness, Max thinks back to what sent him on this errand... a little girl who approached the handler at dinner (breakfast for the majority of the Weyr). She had been forced to leave her favorite doll behind, a doll that she had been given by her father... a father who had perished in the earthquake. Considering Max's 4'5" height, many of the children of the Weyr felt comfortable talking to him, since they felt he was more like them than most adults, and so Max agreed to go find the doll, since it was all the girl had to remember her father by.

Tensing his short legs slightly as Maximisk landed heavily from a jump, both Max and Maximisk stopped short as they heard the mindcall from Amalath. Turning his head to fix his handler with a look from one crystal-like eye, Maximisk sent Max an image of a generic female form trapped under rocks, and then an image of the female form under rocks, and a cloth doll, with Max and Maximisk between the two images, facing first one, then the other, as if asking which they should do first.

Max grinned, rubbing his hand along the wher's muscular flank, and said, "Let's get the girl, of course, Maximisk. The doll was our first mission, but it can't be hurt." Patting the basic healer's kit he always kept on him whenever he was planning to go digging, he said, "Good thing I have this, sounds like the girl might be hurt. Lead the way, Maximisk, hup hup!" With that, the small-bodied wher and his dwarf handler began carting off in the direction of the ruins once more, with Max sending out thoughts verifying they were on their way, and asking for more specific directions, or betweening coordinates if possible.

[Ivy]

Oh mirror in the sky,
what is love?
Can the child in my heart, rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Rulilove, someone comes. Amalath informed her rider, still a note of concern in her voice though it had lessened slightly. The Green then focused around her as best as she could in the dark and bespoke the unfamiliar wher, West side of the ruins, it is very dark with many rocks. Be careful little one.

Ruliana just stayed where she was, not as if she had much choice in the matter. The pain in her leg ebbed ever so slightly but was still intense. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she brushed them away against the back of her left arm. Another rider? The pain was severe but she was doing her best to distract herself from it by talking to her Green.

A wher.[/color]

A wher? What would one be doing out here? Ruliana inhaled sharply as the rocks pressed around her leg settled more and caused more pain to spike up her trapped leg.

I do not know Rulilove.[/color] It was all Amalath could do to keep from rushing to her rider's side, she could feel the pain ghosting in one of her own legs. Long tail twitched slightly and she scanned around them, wondering if the wher was close yet. Please hurry little one, Rulilove is hurt! she called out once more to the unknown wher, eyes swirling faster in bright shades of orange, yellow, and red.

[Aftershock]

At the green dragon's urging, Max urged Maximisk to put on some extra speed, and soon the wher was puffing with exertion beneath his handler. As they emerged from the jungle into the area of former Selenitas proper, the moon shone down on the devastation, and Max could only shake his head in wonder at what the Weyr looked like now, compared to it's appearance only a few short months ago.

Now able to move faster with powerful leaps out of the jungle, the pair moved towards the western side of the (former) Weyr, with both wher and handler keeping an eye open for the dragon. In a short time, Maximisk noticed the pastel green hide of the dragon glowing in the dim moonlight, and quickly adjusted his heading, reaching her and her trapped rider in a few moments.

Landing from his final jump, Maximisk immediately dropped to his belly, assisting his short-legged handler in dismounting from his back, and Max quickly grabbed a pickaxe and a small glow basket attached to Maximisk's harness. Moving over towards Ruliana, he frowned a bit as he noted that he didn't recognize her from Selenitas... though as a handler, he was far from an expert on Selenitas' dragonrider roster. Scrambling over the loose stones, his short legs giving him superior balance, he soon reached the young woman, and he placed the glow basket beside her and gave her a quick smile as he said, "Hello, there. I'm Max, and that's Maximisk. We were out here looking for a little girl's doll when we heard your dragon calling for help. Let's see what we're working with here..."

Looking down at Ruliana's leg, he hissed in worry as he saw that it was well pinned, and possibly broken, considering the angle and the apparent pain she was in. "Just stay calm, ma'am," Max started, using the gentle tone of voice he always used on trapped miners, knowing that panic could easily use up the air supply and cause injuries to become worse, "We'll get you out of here in a jiffy."

Calling Maximisk over, he pointed at the woman's trapped leg and said, "You start digging out the smaller rocks, and I'll start breaking down the larger ones with my pickaxe. Be careful, it looks like the leg might be injured." Sending Max a feeling of understanding, Maximisk got to work, his front paws efficiently clearing out the smaller stones from around Ruliana's trapped leg while Max picked up his pickaxe, stretched his small, but muscular arms and shoulders to loosen them up, then began carefully cutting into the larger stones, breaking them up to let Maximisk clear them away.

[Ivy]

The greenpair heard the wher's approach before they saw it - then a glowbasket on its flank came into sight and Ruliana breathed a sigh of relief through clenched teeth. It was unlikely a wild wher would have glows on it - and she soon saw the silhouette of the wher's handler riding astride him. Help was here. Eyes closed for a moment as she did her best to try and ignore the pain - it seemed to be lessening slightly as her leg went numb. Both a blessing and a bad sign, she needed to get free and back to the Weyr quickly. The voice she heard was a friendly and soft one, "Ruliana... n-not ma'am." She corrected him gently as she opened her eyes.

Surprised would be a bit of an understatement. For a moment she thought there were two people there to help her, the owner of the voice she'd heard and then a child - the person standing in front of her was rather well... short. Once her eyes adjusted to seeing in the dim glow light from the basket she realized that there was only one person there, he was just small. She had only seen one other person like him before, back in Nerat one of the drudges had been a small man as well. This one however, this Max, was a wherhandler? Had she not been in so much pain she would have continued to muse over this fact, but then he began hitting the larger rocks by her leg with his pick axe and she bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes once more.

In her mind she imagined the axe missing a rock and going into her leg. Or the wher's claws cutting open her flesh. Or a million other things that could very well have happened - but Amalath crooned and her presence was a calming one. Besides, it wasn't like her to panic in a tough situation. Focusing only on breathing evenly while the wherhandler and his wher worked to free her she stayed very still.

Little ones please hurry! Rulilove hurts badly.[/color] Amalath urged the small man and his Blue to go quicker, not finding anything wrong at all with referring to the handler as little - though she got a mental swat from Ruliana for doing so.

"Th-thank y-you." Ruliana managed to stammer out, no longer being able to get by just focusing on breathing. "We can... nnnn... help look for the doll too."

She felt bad that her foolish endeavor had caused the man to get off task and thus the only polite thing to do would be to offer to help him once she was freed. It was a silly offer though, it was obvious she couldn't go limping around the rocky ruins of the old Selenitas with her leg as it was - she'd need to go to a healer right away. Slowly but surely the rocks around her leg gave way, breaking into smaller bits that the wher was digging out from around her. Soon she felt the pressure and weight on her leg lifting and she inhaled sharply before gently pulling her leg. Crying out in pain she didn't let it stop her and with another gentle pull she was free - and her bloodied leg came into full view. Scrapes and deep scratches covered the leg and even without a healer one could see it was definitely broken towards the ankle. Tears trickled down her cheeks and she did her best to wipe them away quickly as she looked to Max - how in the world was he going to manage to get her on her dragon? Or his wher?

[Aftershock]

As Max continued to work at the rocks with his pickaxe, the light from the glowbasket showed he was wearing what appeared to be a grey child's shirt, but split from the neckline down to just above his stomach in order to accommodate his wider shoulders, and brown child's slacks, tucked into heavy leather boots. When Amalath chimed in about the urgency of the situation, Max smiled and said, "Hey, now, me and Maximisk aren't little. We're efficient." He accompanied his statement with a knowing wink and smile towards Ruliana.

When Ruliana offered to help look for the doll, Max scoffed, and said between pickaxe strikes, "Oh, no... Ruliana, was it? Beautiful name for a beautiful lady... you're not going to help me and Maximisk look for that doll. You're going right back to the Weyr to get a Healer looking at that leg." As Ruliana finally was able to pull her leg free, Max winced at the damage, and stooped to the ground, pulling his healer's kit from around his chest as he said, "Now I won't feel so bad about pickaxing this old ruin into dust to find that doll. It doesn't deserve any mercy, after doing what it did to hurt such a shapely leg."

Winking again at Ruliana, he opened his kit and moved over to her. "Let's see what we've got here..." he started, checking the wounds and the ankle carefully. Reaching into his kit, he pulled out some clean cloths, and taking a waterskin from his belt, he poured some clean water on the cloth and then began carefully and gently washing the blood from the cuts and scrapes. Nodding to himself, he put the bloody cloth aside and took a few more clean cloths and placed a small amount of redwort on them, then sanitized the wounds and bound them up with a few bandages. As he worked, he spoke to Ruliana to help distract her from the pain, saying, "This isn't too bad. I dealt with a lot worse when I was a miner at Hyphen. They called me 'Tunnelsnake' back then, 'cause I was small enough to fit into places easier, so when there were accidents, I was usually the first one there. It's why I learned how to take care of wounds like this, so I could keep injured miners stable until we could pull them out for a real Healer. So, you're in safe hands with me, I'm pretty experienced," he concluded, giving Ruliana yet another wink and grin.

Finishing binding the wounds on her leg, Max moved down to her ankle, prodding it gently to see the extent of the damage. "I won't lie, Ruliana, this is broken pretty bad. I'm gonna splint it to prevent further damage, but it's gonna hurt." He stood for a moment, and removed his belt. Presenting it to Ruliana, he said, "Here, you can bite down on this. Just fold it over itself a few times to make it thick enough. Might help prevent you from screaming and attracting felines, or biting your tongue or hurting your teeth from clenching your jaw too hard." As all this was occurring, Maximisk sat on his haunches nearby, silently observing his handler do his work.

[Ivy]

Cheeks were already flushed an impressively dark shade of red - from the pain of course. But they may have gone a shade darker when Max spoke of her leg. Was the pain making her delirious or was he actually flirting with her? Trapped by a rock, in pain, and the handler was hitting on her? This didn't quite seem like the time or place for that, but at least it gave Ruliana something other than her leg to muse over if only for a short time.

She was impressed with how prepared he seemed to be, though when he mentioned he'd been a miner before it made more sense. He was used to dealing with accidents and injuries when mining. She was certainly grateful for that. Listening carefully to him her eyes widened when he took off his belt, until he told her why. Taking it with a shaky hand she did as he suggested and folded it over a few times before placing it in her mouth. Normally she wouldn't be one to put something potentially covered in dirt and muck into her mouth, but the possibility she might bite her tongue or hurt her jaw were enough to get past the 'ew' forming in the back of her mind. Biting down she clenched her hands against the rocks and closed her eyes.

Amalath sent soothing thoughts to her rider, feeling rather helpless otherwise. Her hind leg hurt, shadowing the pain she felt from her rider - but much less intense. Tail flicked slightly behind her as she watched the smaller man tend to her rider.

[Aftershock]

Max nodded as Ruliana accepted the belt and placed it in her mouth. He said to Maximisk, "Go find some splint wood, Maximisk. You know what to look for." Nodding, the wher turned and trundled out for a bit before beginning to leap, so as to prevent accidentally spraying his handler and the woman he was assisting with gravel from his launch.

As he waited, Max pulled a few more long strips of cloth from his kit, and began speaking to Ruliana as he moved back to her broken ankle. "All right," he began, "I'm gonna start working on your ankle now. I'll warn you, I'll have to straighten it out again so it can be splinted properly, and it's gonna hurt, so I'll count down before I do..." In the middle of his sentence, Max grasped her ankle in his small, but powerful hands and snapped the ankle straight again, so as to prevent her from tensing beforehand with an actual warning.

As the likely still-screaming Ruliana worked on recovering from the intense pain of setting a bone, Maximisk returned with a couple short sticks, which he dropped carefully next to his handler before settling on his haunches once more as Max took the sticks and placed one on either side of Ruliana's broken ankle, tying them into place with the strips of cloth, then wrapping the whole ankle and sticks with a wider strip of cloth before securing it. Turning to Amalath, Max said, "You need to get Ruliana back to the Weyr, and a proper Healer. Can you help me and Maximisk get her on your back and secured?"

[Ivy]

She listened and sat still as he prepped for setting her ankle. She was doing her best to stay relaxed but the pain radiated up her leg and made it difficult. Just as she managed to relax ever-so-slightly, he made his move. Words were misleading, and he twisted her ankle back into place before doing a countdown. She screamed into the belt her teeth were clamped down onto as tears rolled down her bright red cheeks.

Amalath let out a loud bugle of alarm and started towards the handler and rider, only stopping when she felt the ground beneath her moving and shifting. Eyes were whirling even faster than before and her wings were away from her body, tensed and poised. The Green bobbed her head in what could only be a draconic nod when the handler addressed her, Yes little one.

Taking a step back onto firmer ground Amalath laid on her belly, flattening herself down as much as she could and offering out a front arm for the handler. I am sorry I am not smaller, little one.

Ruliana was sitting still, the screaming had ceased and she had spit the belt out. The tears still streaming down her cheeks spoke to how much pain she was in, but she was doing her best to keep it under wraps. Deep, ragged breaths were taken in slowly and when she saw her dragon get low to the ground she pushed up trying to get herself standing.

[Aftershock]

Smiling at Amalath, Max said, "It's all right, my dear green. Not everyone can be as efficient as myself and Maximisk here." As he saw Ruliana attempt to stand, he moved towards her quickly and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, no getting up. Let me and Maximisk get you up on your dragon. No putting pressure on that ankle." He whistled at his wher, and Maximisk plodded over obediently. Max picked up the glowbasket and placed it back onto the hook on Maximisk's harness, then moved to stand behind Ruliana, saying, "All right, I'm gonna support your upper half, and Maximisk is gonna come under your legs, then we're gonna walk you carefully over to your dragon and get you up. Let me know when you're ready," he concluded, moving himself closer to Ruliana and slipping two small, but strong hands under her armpits for support.

[Ivy]

Ruliana frowned as Max stopped her from standing up on her own - though to be honest she probably wouldn't have managed it. Looking to him she just simply nodded, allowing his hands to slip under her arms. As Maximisk moved closer she did her best to relax as he lifted her legs gently off the ground. The handler and his wher worked slowly but surely to get her to her dragon. For her part, Amalath flattened down as much as she possibly could and once Ruliana was close she slipped her arm out towards her.

Ruliana reached forward and gripped onto Amalath's arm, using her upper body strength and good leg to help pull and climb up onto her dragon's back where she strapped herself in. She managed to do so without putting any extra pressure on her broken ankle. Looking down at Max and Maximisk she gave a weak smile, "Th-thank you."

Thank you little one. Amalath said softly with a croon as she looked to the handler, Mine would enjoy your company for dinner some time.

Ruliana's eyes went wide and if she had the strength she would have swatted her Green. Since... when are you... a match maker?

You owe him, Rulilove.[/color] Was Amalath's matter-o-fact answer to her rider. Taking a few steps back she made sure she was in the clear to take off before taking to the air for the long flight back to Selenitas.

[Aftershock]

After Max had helped Ruliana back onto her dragon with the help of Maximisk, he grinned at Amalath's statement about dinner. Especially considering what the look that overtook Ruliana's face told him of her thoughts on the matter. Laughing a bit, he bowed slightly and said, "Oh, it was no bother, I was only doing what's right." Looking up at Ruliana, the dim light of the glowbasket reflecting the slight twinkle in his eye, he added, "However, if she insists, I will be happy to adjust my schedule to arrange such a meeting. Simply find me in the wherhandler apartments after you recover, and we can make a date?"

Backing off as Amalath looked for takeoff clearance, Max watched as the pair took off back towards the Weyr, and called after them, "I will be finding you to check on that ankle when I return. Don't spoil my work." His last words were laced with a liberal helping of the mirth he'd shown so much during their interactions, and as the green vanished into the evening sky, Max grinned and turned towards Maximisk, saying, "Well, Maximisk old boy, let's go find that doll," as he put his pickaxe back on Maximisk's harness and mounted up.

((End Thread))