Waiting for the Inevitable (Open)

[Rowana]

It was a day like any other. Well, it was colder than most others, but it was still a day. T'ke had found a nice chair where he could take a few moments to relax after taking care of the infirmaries supply of bandages. Actually, he didn't have much to do lately, thank Faranth. No major injuries, no pandemics, only a few odd colds had come. T'ke sighed. It would never last.

T'ke-mine, Garaeth sang brightly. T'ke groaned. Three guesses about what he was about to ask. Have you seen Feyrianth today? No, nor Erilena either, thank goodness, he snapped back a little harder than he meant. He liked Erilena just fine, but it was hard to look at her quite the same since the Flight. Besides, I thought you were going to leave her alone? Yes, but I can say 'hello' once in a while.

T'ke rolled his eyes. That was all he needed: an amorous dragon, and a love sick salamandyr. Shard was currently nosing around the store room, trying to find the perfect present to leave Rhino. She spent most of her time doing this now. On the one hand it kept her out of trouble, but on the other, it made seeing Iskierka even worse than Erilena. Curse salamandyrs and their mind control powers!

[dragon]

There wasn't much for it. When a tool mysteriously busted, half the handle coming off, the hot iron held with the tool was going to fall. And burn whatever it landed on. Even if said surface just so happened to be someone's forearm. Red hot iron tended to cauterize as fast as it wounded, too. So there wasn't much chance of infection in the least.

However, watching one's skin bubble and boil and slough off was rather disturbing. Not to mention it hurt an awful lot. C'oar never said anything about it, however. Didn't even yell. Not about the busted tool, and certainly not about the burn. He just simply retrieved the iron, set it where it wouldn't cat anything on fire, and then walked out to where his dragon was already pacing by the entrance. Catching a ride with him all the way to the infirmary, C'oar simply walked in, looking to get the burn treated.

He was not, however, expecting to find T'ke in there. Since when had T'ke started hanging out in the infirmary? "T'ke?" He asked, simply, momentarily forgetting the fresh diagonal brand on his forearm.

[Rowana]

The stench was what T'ke noticed first. It was worse than blood any day. He had to cover his nose with his shirt as the familiar figure came inside. Then he blinked, lowering his arm. The smell was momentarily forgotten. "C'oar," he returned simply. It had been ages since he'd seen his old classmate. One of the only classmates he still had aside from Farryl. Now wasn't that a depression thought? Of all the weyrlings to survive a year past graduation, no one would have bet a 1/4 mark on him, T'ke was certain. Wasn't fate funny that way? T'ke was still waiting for it to catch up with him.

"Nice to...oh shards." T'ke had noticed the burn now. So that was the smell. As bad as it smelt, it looked even worse. T'ke turned slightly green and had to look away quickly. "So...um...I...I should probably get a healer for you," he babbled. Shard it, and he'd thought he'd gotten over the blood fear. Apparently that didn't apply to burned skin. Goodness knows what he'd do with a threadscore victim. T'ke started to get up, but had to sit down again. "Maybe you should sit down too?" he suggested lamely. After all, if he felt sick just looking at it, it must be painful.

[dragon]

T'ke looked rather green about the gills. Like he was fixing to either lose his lunch, or completely pass out. C'oar wasn't sure which. He was certainly wobbly when he went to get up, before sitting down again. "Are you alright, T'ke?" C'oar asked.

Maybe that was why T'ke was here. He was sick or something. Not feeling well in the least. C'oar was aware that T'ke had a hard time staying conscious in stressful times, but he never thought that his own burn was what was making T'ke so wobbly. C'oar reached over with his good arm to stabilize his classmate by his shoulder. "Don't fall down. I'll get this taken care of, don't worry."

Sit down? Well ... he really wanted to get that burn looked at, because it rather hurt. But he could sit, since T'ke asked. It would keep. It wasn't like it wasn't cauterized. C'oar looked around, found a nearby stool, and dragged it over to sit on. "How are you doing? You don't look so good."

[Rowana]

T'ke blinked. "Me?" he croaked. What kind of question was that? He wasn't the one with his skin hanging off his arm. Shards, he was supposed to be helping C'oar not the other way around! Some healer's assistant he turned out to be. Kalierre must really have been crazy to hire him. "No, no," he babbled. "I'm fine." It was a bit of a lie. He did feel rather ill, but the desire not to look like an idiot kept him from fainting.

"I should be helping you," T'ke muttered, half to himself. He stumbled off his chair with determination. At least C'oar was sitting down, that was a good start. The healer's all seemed conveniently absent at the moment. How lucky for them. T'ke tried to remember what to do for burns as he sorted through one of the selves. He came back with a container of numbweed and almost cringed at the sight off the wound. "Here," he held out the medicine to C'oar. "That should help until someone can help you." Someone who is not me, T'ke prayed.

[dragon]

"You don't look fine. You look like you're going to collapse." C'oar answered, even as T'ke got up again and started rummaging through things. He was aware of T'ke's tendency to faint at things, but he carefully didn't call it that ... no reason to bruise the fellow's ego more than it already was. But C'oar let him do whatever it was he was going to do. Why T'ke was rummaging through stuff without a Healer being on hand, he didn't know. Maybe he was feeling sick enough to need something, and maybe he knew what that something was?

Oh. Numbweed. "Thanks." C'oar answered, taking the jar. " 'preciate that." He said, setting the jar between his own knees and turning the lid off. He had sort of forgotten the urgency surrounding his own injury at finding T'ke so very flustered and upset looking. Setting the lid aside, C'oar looked at his hand a moment. Not exactly the cleanest thing in the world, that. Kinda sooty, kinda oily, kinda rust-covered. All the halmarks of working with metal in a smithy. But there was nothing for it. However, instead of sticking his fingers into the salve to get some, instead he picked up the jar and carefully poured some of the thick stuff on the burn. Setting the jar down again between his knees (mostly to make sure it wouldn't either tip over or fall off anything), he then used a finger to smooth out the numbweed over the wound, concealing most of it in the soothing concoction. C'oar sighed in relief as the sensation died. "Wow, thanks, T'ke." He said, now knowing just how much that had hurt.

Using his more or less clean (or at least non-sticky?) fingers of his hand, C'oar screwed the lid back onto the jar again, making sure none of it spilled out. "Don't worry about it, T'ke. You've helped a lot just in getting this for me." C'oar told him. "Sit. They'll be along eventually."

[Rowana]

T'ke settled back in his chair gratefully. Truthfully he felt a little better already. At least C'oar wouldn't be in pain anymore, that was a good start. He'd even said "thanks" for it. T'ke felt himself gain a bit more confidence. Maybe he wasn't so bad at this job after all. "You're welcome," he said, blushing slightly. Then he shook himself quickly. Man, he was such a girl, he thought with disgust.

"How did you do that?" he asked quickly, hoping to change to subject away from his constitution. He didn't really like the fact he was so squeamish. It would definitely be better if they talked about something else. Besides, he hadn't actually talked to C'oar in ages. He felt a little bad about that. The other man had saved his life at least once at he could recall. T'ke had just been so busy trying to keep his head in the infirmary, that he hadn't kept up with the other two from his class.

[dragon]

C'oar looked at T'ke, and then at his arm. "I dropped some hot metal on myself. It blistered the skin right off me before I even felt it hit." It really was disturbing to see skin melt off of a body like that. And so quickly, too! "Hurt like blazes afterward. I think it's probably going to leave a mark. Oh well ... one more to go with all the other ones I've accumulated, right?" He joked, wiggling the fingers of the arm that was burnt. C'oar was grateful to note that it didn't hurt when the motion made the skin on his forearm move.

"So where is everyone? Did they all go on lunch at the same time? Or ...? Do you hang out here a lot now?" C'oar asked, curiously. Saeo had used to do that. Study in the infirmary. He couldn't remember if Raylin had done it or not. He straightened in his seat a bit, and looked around at the facility. "Nice place ... better than the last one, looks like. Does it work better?" Of course, only the people who worked there would know whether or not a new facility was actually better than the previous one.

It was good that it was in stone, now, though. Easier to keep cool. Or warmer, at the moment. Definitely fireproof, in general principle. Easier to get to, since it wasn't in the middle of the river anymore.

[Rowana]

T'ke frowned. Burning yourself on hot metal sounded excruciating. He couldn't imagine how C'oar could just shake it off like that. He'd always been a little crazy, T'ke really shouldn't have been surprised. This was the man who had told him to just "get up" after he'd gotten stabbed. Yeah, C'oar was crazy alright. Definitely had a high pain threshold too. T'ke couldn't help feeling a little jealous. C'oar was a picture of what a rider should be, to him. And here he was, squimish, fainting, depressed T'ke. Someone up there must like to torture him, it was the only reason he could think of that he'd survived this long.

"Well, I suppose you could say that," T'ke replied sheepishly. "Kali thinks this is good for me." T'ke was still debating the truth of that, but it hadn't been all bad so far. "It's not so bad." He shrugged dismissively. He'd actually never spent much time in the old infirmary. "Doesn't burn, anyway." Just their luck, maybe it would flood, or cave in. Nothing was ever infallible. Still, it was an improvement by far. He glanced around, trying to see if any of the real Healer's were around. "Usually someone's here. Must have gotten called out I guess."