I saw you once (Teddy)

[Zephyr]

How are you? L'am voiced to his dragon. Jeth's voice came back, a little grumpy from all the interruptions, but he understood his rider's concerns. Fine, like the fifth time you asked. The man frowned as he finally rounded into the infirmary. It was hard to find anything in this place. Not to mention having to ship a critically injured dragon did not a happy rider make. His blue had mostly recovered, but had been restricted from flying. You know I only ask because I care about you, right? The dragon sighed. Yes, I know...but I'm fine, unless there's an earthquake here too... Jeth was laughing, but L'am didn't find the humor in the situation. The bump on his head had been more serious than he thought if Jeth was joking. He never joked.

" Hey..." He tried to flag down one of the infirmary staff. Jeth had sent him to ask when he was going to be able to fly. He said his ribs didn't hurt anymore and he thought his leg was mostly mended, it had been in a cast for a whole month. He asked L'am to take it off for him, and had even threatened to rip through the annoying thing with his teeth, but L'am had told him he would take it off if he could speak to one of the healers about it.

Forwning a little, the gangly man leaned against the wall. It seemed everyone was busy today. Well, that sucks.

[dragon]

She really didn't want to do anything. Especially not after the argument she'd had with Isori during lunch. It had started off congenial enough. But one thing had led to another, and of course they hadn't seen quite eye to eye on a lot of things, which had led to a few things being said that probably shouldn't have been ... even if they'd been true things. In general, there was a high probability of one of them hurting the other. Probably the only reason it hadn't happened at all was because Isori's hatchling had intervened and dragged a rather hotly fuming Isori away.

Pft. Yeah, she should have been with her dragon that fateful night, instead of 'off trysting about' as Isori called it. But yeah, that would have only meant she would have died too. Asphyxiation was a hard thing to avoid, you know. Which after she had pointed that little fact out, Isori had been a bit taken aback. A few other things had been said along similar lines, jumping topics but also being just as thoughtlessly truthful and badly said.

So Orena was in a tizzy of a mood today. In general, very grumpy. Not only from the loss of her own dragon still burning like a raw wound in her soul, but from the argument/borderline homicidal conversation with her twin.

Yeah, she still had duties to hold down, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. Today was just a general rotten day. Orena banged a few things about in a temper until finally she went and sulked in the corner, perched on a stool to glower at the world in general that she could see.

It was only because she was there like that, doing nothing but that, that she even noticed L'am's attempts to get attention that had so neatly failed miserably. A small smirk graced her features, if only because she could see evidence that she wasn't the only one having an absolutely horrid day. After a moment memory triggered and she realized she'd seen this fellow at least once before.

In fact, it had been that night. The night that Riavorth had slept herself to oblivion. This ... this was that fellow who's dragon had gotten buried and he'd gone berserk over it. Now ... now she could understand why. Only she'd never gotten the chance to go berserk. By the time she realized there was a serious problem for her dragon, it had been too late.

Heaving a weary, grumpy sigh, Orena bestirred herself and got off the stool she was hoarding to slouch her way over to where L'am was standing there looking rather lost and defeated. "What do you want." She grumped.

[Zephyr]

L'am hadn't noticed Orena right away. He was a little busy trying to secure someone to ask them about Jeth, but failing that, he had fallen against the wall, long arms folded in front of his chest, eyes following the path of anyone walking in front of him. He was tempted to stick a foot out and trip one of those walking, maybe that would catch their attention. Before he had a chance to ponder anymore of these slightly darker thoughts, someone approached him. At first, he was put off by the woman's attitude, before he realized, somewhat belatedly, that he knew this woman.

He'd met her the night of the earthquake...well, sort of. He had been too out of his head to really have paid attention to anyone. But she had been there, she had helped him...sort of. He also recalled her crumbling to the ground.

She had lost her dragon.

His thoughts on her attitude were banished almost as soon as he had thought them. He had realized how insane he had been when Jeth was so close to dying...he couldn't have imagined what it would have been like if he hadn't gotten out alive. " I was looking for someone to tell me if Jeth's cast could come off yet. He's getting terribly restless." He watched the woman for a moment, mind whirring, searching for something to put to a face. Then it came to him, all at once. " Orena, right? I remember you from the earthquake. I never thanked you properly for trying to smack some sense into me."

[dragon]

Orena heaved a sigh. A cast. If only her dragon had a cast on. If only. "Alright, let's go have a look then." She agreed grumpily. "Dragons are going to be restless. They're active creatures. Tie them down for any reason and they're gonna twitch themselves into a spazz. It's normal." She pointed out as she made her way back through the infirmary toward the dragon wing where Jeth would be.

His questioning toward her own self was both welcomed and rejected at the same time. Oddly enough. One part of her was grateful that someone remembered her. Even if he was a stranger. But a bigger part just didn't want to think about that night at all. It hurt too much. It was easier to be mad at the world for seemingly obscure reasons.

But that wasn't like her... Riavorth wouldn't want her to get old and bitter. She would want her to keep on being, well, herself. Orena pulled in a long, slow breath, before finally coming to terms with it and sliding a look at L'am. "You're welcome." She answered. For whatever it was worth.

Stopping before Jeth and looking down at the cast, she looked up at the beast. A pang jolted through her heart but she shook it off. "I hope you realize that if I take this off and you're not ready for it to come off, the bone may well flop about broken again?" She warned sternly. It was highly unlikely that it would do that. But she was just feeling particularly morbid right now.

[Zephyr]

While the lanky bluerider was glad that Orena had consented to go look at L'am, he couldn't help but feel like she wasn't thrilled about it. He gave her a wide grin and walked with her, constantly having to remind himself of the fact that she lost her dragon the night of the earthquake. He needed to be more sensitive to her situation, he decided. If he had lost Jeth, he would likely be terribly grumpy himself if he hadn't decided to kill himself. Instead of judgemental, L'am tried to be supportive and understanding, a hard task when one had an insistent blue dragon pounding away in the back of your mind.

Did you find someone? Jeth's question was punctuated nicely in his rider's mind. For a moment, he thought about ignoring his dragon, but then sighed lightly. Yes. I found someone. We're on our way calm down. He could sense that Jeth was pleased then, and as they walked towards the dragon wing, they fell into silence. For the longest time, L'am was sure that the girl wasn't going to speak to him. The death of her dragon had his her harder than she would have liked to admit and the man sought for something, anything to say to the girl. Something that wouldn't sound contrived or forced or even fake. He was grasping at straws when she spoke at last, her voice impossibly quieter than it had been previously.

The smile that spread over his face was infective, and he thought about saying something else. In fact, he was about to open his mouth when Jeth shot into his mind full force. Head shot up and he realized they were there. Grinning lightly at his dragon as they walked over, the dark blue dragon blinked. Baby steps, L'am. It's a horrible thought to lose half of yourself. Inconceivable... Sometimes, he was surprised with how wise his dragons was at times...when it wasn't sleeping. As soon as that nugget of wisdom was out of his head, Jeth's attention was brought back to Orena. He sent waves of comforting energy to the woman, readying himself for the inevitable. Understood. He said softly to the girl, while L'am sat back and watched.

[dragon]

Wow. He sure got quiet fast. Maybe that was a good thing though ... Orena really hadn't wanted to talk about that night anyway. It was a good thing he didn't go on and on about it in that case.

Having a dragon communicate with her was hard to endure. She almost burst into tears at the feelings and the sound of his voice. Nevermind it was nothing at all like Riavorth being there in her mind and soul ... but hearing and feeling the touch of any dragon right then was almost enough to shove her over the edge into that deep, dark abyss. She could have curled up on the floor right there at his feet and cried herself to bits.

Inhaling a shaky breath, Orena closed her eyes for a moment as she did her best to concentrate. The dragon had been trying to comfort her, not tear her apart. That helped a little. Opening her eyes again, her shoulders drooped a bit. But then she knelt by the casted leg and started working on it. Concentration. Work. She could get through this. The cast was well made, fortunately. Probably done while she'd been completely out of it. She'd been a useless lump before Jeth had been fully excavated, after all.

Very carefully she worked at extracting the dragon from the cast, and once she was done she lifted the stiff, chewed-looking thing away and set it aside. "Alright." She said quietly. "Give it a little try. If it hurts, don't move it. If it is stiff, move it slowly. Whatever you do, don't put any weight on it." Orena instructed as she backed away a little bit. A glance was sent in L'am's direction but that was all.

[Zephyr]

It was probably a good thing Jeth wasn't aware of Orena's feelings. Had he been, he would have been torn. On one hand, he wanted to be free of this nasty cast, so he would do whatever it took to get the woman to take it off, even if that meant battering her feelings. On the other hand, Jeth wasn't an unfeeling monster. He could be grumpy at times, even exceedingly humorless, but he wasn't a monster. He had a heart and he didn't like intentionally hurting people, especially people he knew to be suffering. He had felt the death of Riavorth, as any dragon can feel the deaths of one of their fellows, so he knew that she was suffering. It was just impossible for him to imagine that pain. Dragons didn't live with pain following the deaths' of their riders, it was just something that was incomprehensible to the giant beasts. They just blinked away, without a second thought.

So, while Jeth could understand that she was hurting, he was having a hard time imagining it. In fact, in trying to imagine it, he thought that maybe the pain she was feeling was a physical pain, and he knew all about that. Following the earthquake, he had been in more physical pain than the blue dragon could have ever thought possible. The thought made him lower his head a little bit and croon lightly. It took all he had not to move his leg when she was cutting the cast off. It was difficult, like keeping a starving wolf away from a pile of fresh meat.

Immediately, Jeth wanted to get up and run out of the infirmary. L'am caught the woman's glance and pressed his thoughts deeply into his dragon's mind. NO. Slowly, Jeth! Don't stand up, just move it. It was difficult for the dragon to obey his rider, but he knew it was best, so Jeth,growling softly with the effort, lifted his leg. The limb was understandably stiff, and for a fraction of a second, the blue dragon flipped out and was about to flail when his rider pressed against his mind even more intensely. Slowly! That made him calm down, and he shifted his leg farther, all the while moving very slowly. It's very, very stiff. He complained while he continued to move it.

[dragon]

Orena backed away as she witnessed the wrestling that was going on with Jeth, spotting it more in the warring impulses flickering under his hide than any real intuitive notion of what was going on telepathically. "Easy there." She said, more under her breath than out loud. If he really did explode into motion, it might be bad for the limb but it would definitely be bad for any human standing in his proximity. She really didn't want to get smushed, thanks.

She could also tell that the limb was being stiff, given the way it was wobbling around awkwardly. So she offered a word of advice for that too. "Go slow, work it just a little. Warm it up slowly, the blood flow will normalize and the stiffness will work out. It'll take longer than if he'd, say, slept on it wrong. Mostly because of how long it's been immobilized." Orena warned. "Just take it slow." She looked over at L'am again. "A walk might help a bit. A slow walk, not a hurried one."

Slowly she inhaled a breath as she backed up another step, trying to stabilize not only her inner feelings, but her outer ones as well. Sometimes keeping a patient calm was only a matter of staying calm one's self, after all. Especially when there was a finicky bonded in the area that would also feed off of any stimulus input.