The Joy of Infirmary Duty... [Tags Tashe]

[boober]

Bare feet padded silently along the floor, only the soft swish of fabric and the ever-so-slight creak of basket reeds indicating that anyone even moved along the passageway toward the infirmary. Cezine was dressed in her usual worn hand-me-down clothes. Whether they had originally been of light material or had been worn and patched to the point where the fabric was just that thin was uncertain, but either way it was a blessing; the days were growing warmer, and short of walking around in the nude (which she wasn’t entirely opposed to, though others might be), lighter clothes were the only option to keep cooler.

Not for the first time, the greenweyrling’s thoughts strayed to her hair; dark red, almost black, it was all she could do to just keep it up off her neck, and it seemed to attract the heat. Cutting it was an idle thought, but in the end nothing came of it. Her hair was the only vanity that Cezine allowed herself, and while there was nothing wrong with short hair, it just didn’t look good on her. So she endured without complaint the extra bit of warmth the longer strands provided.

The infirmary, at last. Stepping into the room, the young woman peered inside, her gray eyes sweeping along the line of cots inquiringly. She paused before setting her burden down on the nearest unoccupied cot. Crisp and white, new linen wrappings were coiled protectively around full crocks of fresh numbweed. But there was a flash of color amid all the whiteness, and Cezine frowned down at the pair of firelizards nestled in the basket, hunkered down in silence with their eyes swirling quietly in muted colors; it was clear that Sky and Topaz had hitched a ride, attempting to go unnoticed among the soft cloths and wrappings.

“Get out of there!” The command, while not spoken particularly loudly, was frought with frowning disapproval, as much as the young woman’s face from which it came. Immediately the little blue flitter peeped apologetically and darted out of the basket, looking thoroughly shamefaced. The brown, however, hunkered down even more, defiant. “Topaz…” The warning tone brought a curt, sullen chirp from the brown before he reluctantly pulled himself from the basket and slithered over the edge. Shaking her head, Cezine reached into the basket and began to organize, pulling the cloths from the jars and rolling them neatly before putting both away on their proper shelves.

The joy of infirmary duty.

[Tashe]

Tears stung her eyes, but she refused them access to the air, sniffing them back and trying her best to smile. Who knew rock hopping would be so dangerous? Especially around rocks that were almost completely smooth, it just had to be her luck kicking in. Whimpering slightly as the linen she had commandeered from a drudge, who was more than happy to comply, pressed tighter against the gash on her forearm. "Uhn... Owwie..." Slowly moving through a particularly crowded portion of a hallway, the woman made an attempt to not bump her arm, but soon found that it was next to impossible. Squeaking as a woman knocked into her, the young dragonrider looked up from her wince as the drudge addressed her.

"Oh dear. Pardon me Junior Weyrwoman! I didn't see you... oh dear, are you alright? Here let me help you to the infirmary."

"Oh um its alright, really... I-I can make it. I don't want you... to get in trouble." After a few moments of tearful debate, Kaegan was finally able to convince the woman to go about her business. Her attempt to get through the rest of the hall brought her an unusual amount of success, but as she rounded the corner and made her way down the side hall, she felt as if her luck was going to end. Poking her head into the infirmary, tears still wanting to escape, Kaegan sniffed before entering. From the looks of it, none of the healers were in at the moment, but it wouldn't hurt to ask. "Um excuse me... A-are the h-healers here?"

And from the looks of the girl, she wasn't much older or younger than she was, which ruled out the chance of the young woman being a healer herself. Dancing slightly from one foot to the other, which drew a small whimper from the back of her throat, the Queenrider tried to ignore the red blossom of blood that was starting to appear on her makeshift bandage. She knew how to bandage herself, but she would rather not poke around the infirmary unless absolutely needed.

[boober]

Cezine went about her work as always, quickly uncoiling the bandages and cloths from the numbweed jars and rolling them up. She’d developed a method, unroll, re-roll, back in the basket. The risk of the numbweed jars breaking just going from the cot to the shelves were much slimmer, and so it just felt more convenient to do everything in one place than to run back and forth each time. But her working trance was disrupted by a startled peep from Sky, whose eyes whirled rapidly as the junior weyrwoman appeared, obviously wounded.

Blinking, the green weyrling glanced at her blue before looking over her shoulder in the direction of his gaze. Surprise blossomed on her face briefly before it was tucked neatly behind an expression of mild concern. “Junior Weyrwoman, what happened?” She paused briefly, frowing slightly. “No, there aren’t any healers here at the moment.” With all of the cots empty, there was no one on watch, although there should have been someone there in case of emergency. But there was only Cezine, and she stepped toward Kaegan with an apologetic shake of her head. “Let me see.” Although the words could have easily seemed like a demand, they were anything but. Soft and coaxing, they were more persuasive than commanding (and of course, she wouldn’t dare issue a demand to a gold rider) as she approached.

“I’m not a healer, but…” Whatever she was about to say was cut off as she eyed the spot of blood on Kaegan’s bandage. It seemed quite a bit of blood, and quite an amount of pain that Kaegan was in. It didn’t seem as if the wound would be superficial. Unless she just had a low threshold for pain… but such suggestions were kept to herself as she motioned for the other woman to sit down on one of the cots. “I can have a look at it.” Like most women, she knew some healing; enough to be useful in an emergency and after a Fall, but she was by no means qualified to be a healer.

Which is why she turned back to the cot on which her things rested, her gaze falling on her pair of flits. “Topaz, Sky. Fetch a healer for me, please.” The brown gave a chirp, the blue a quiet affirmative croon, and both of them launched into the air and quickly disappeared. One of them would have sufficed, but Sky was too shy to go on his own and Topaz was too scatterbrained and demanding. The green weyrling had realized some time ago that separated, her pets’ faults were amplified, but together they complemented each other and worked well. So she’d taken to sending them both on errands that even just one flit could have done with ease. Besides, even if this was something that Cezine could handle on her own, she didn’t want to take any chances.

[Tashe]

She wasn't surprise that she had disturbed the girl from putting away the cloth and numbweed, but the girl's concern made her smile slightly. The name of the Weyrling kept escaping her mind, it was slightly frustrating since she had just finished learning all of their names. Sandy? Celie? Susan? She just couldn't remember. Perking slightly as the young woman spoke, Kaegan scrubbed some of the moisture from her eyes before smiling slightly. "Oh I was being clumsy again. I was rock hopping in the river and 'splash'. I slipped and fell onto the rocks and cut my wrist." Although genuinely happy now, Kaegan still looked a little pained from the cut, her eyes watering because of it. Peaking around the Weyrling as she answered her question, the Queenrider hoped that maybe Kalierre was hiding somewhere, but only discovered that the woman was right after all.

Blinking as the woman's voice attracted her attention once more, Kaegan looked down at her arm before looking back to the Weyrling. "Oh... Sure?" Offering the ailing limb to the woman, the Goldrider watched as she turned to the cot and spoke to it. Finding that odd, Kaegan raised herself onto the tips of her toes to see what was in it, her curiosity taking some edge off of the pain. Watching the two flitters disappear from their perch on the cot made the young Werywoman realize that her own flitter would be worried about her. She had left him in her weyr and promised to be back in an hour, but because of the cut it was past the time she was supposed to return. Shaking her head slightly, Kaegan turned her attention back to the other female before setting her mind on the task at hand. "Oh dear... since there is no healer here at the moment, I guess we'll have to do our best." Sniffing slightly, she let her eyes shift to the cot the flitters had been occupying. "L-Lets see... Do you think it would be alright to t-take some Numbweed and linen wr-wraps?"

[boober]

Cezine made a sympathetic sound as Kaegan regaled her with the tale of how she’d come to injure herself. She took the gold rider’s arm in hands that gentle, but had all the strength of someone who was accustomed to doing hard work, and lots of it. Slowly, she began to remove the bandage from the other woman’s arm even as Kaegan seated herself on the cot. Cezine glanced up at her with a reassuring smile. “Oh, I don’t think anyone will protest if we used a cloth or two and a dab of numbweed. That’s what it’s here for, after all.” While of course she knew Kaegan’s status and could put her name to her face, she was unfamiliar with the gold rider as a person, and couldn’t help but be just a little surprised, although she kept it firmly hidden.

Although she was more open-minded than some and a laid-back person in general, Cezine was still human, and she realized at that moment that she’d done a very human thing: she’d stereotyped the woman before her. Knowing that Kaegan rode a queen, Cezine had expected her to be demanding and perhaps a little spoiled. Really, this was going more on things she’d heard of gold riders and not personal experience, which made it even more silly. Mentally shaking her head at herself, the green weyrling finished removing the bandage from Kaegan’s arm, though she held the cloth against the wound to catch the blood as she reached out with her other hand and picked up a small square of soft cloth from the basket, replacing the wad of bandaging with it.

“Here, hold this there; apply pressure.” While she was sure the other already knew this, Cezine found that people typically took more comfort in words than in silence. Straightening, she walked over to one of the shelves after discarding the bloody bandage. Reaching up to the shelf, she took down a bottle of redwort and a used jar of numbweed. These she carried back to Kaegan. Hooking the leg of a stool with her foot, she pulled it closer and sat down. “That’s quite a gash… you must have fallen hard.” The words were light and conversational as she took the bloodied square of cloth from the other woman and began to clean the wound with the aid of the redwort.

Once that was finished, Cezine looked closely at the cut for any loose bits of dirt or grass or anything else that had no place in a wound. Seeing none, she slathered on a generous amount of numbweed before placing another clean square of cloth over the cut and producing a long bandage that she began to wrap around Kaegan’s arm. “As I said before, I’m no healer, but for now this will do. Still, I would come back here later, or seek out one of the healers to have a look at it. I doubt it needs stitches, but if it does, you’re better off having a healer do that.” She tied the bandage snugly in place and then got to her feet. “You’re all set. Is there anything else you need?”

[Tashe]

She had to look childish, the way she whimpered at the pain of the shallow gash, but if she could stop it she would. The Queenrider not only disliked blood in general, but any bodily injury to herself or others made her cringe. Benden had certainly taken its toll on her body, mind and soul... it was just another way to make her feel like she was too incompetent to be a Weyrwoman. Like a child dressing up in the clothes of her sister or mother, unaware of how to really act when she put on the knots of her stature. She might be well versed in battle plans, accounting, paperwork, and the going ons of a weyr, but she had yet to lead anyone... ever. Her real dose of Weyrwomanship had come the day after the news about Shmee's abduction, which coincidentally had to happen the day after her Queen's hatching.

Blinking as she was drawn out of her memories by the Weyrling's voice, Kaegan fained a smile as she quickly brushed back the now lingering sense of being a failure. "Oh thats good. I wouldn't want Kalierre harking unhappily at me for not coming to find her." Nibbling at the side of her finger, the Queenrider almost forgot that the girl asked her to press down on the cloth square and quickly did what she was asked. The Weyrling's name kept annoying her, she still couldn't remember what her name was, and that bothered her. Looking away as the teen applied the redwort to her wound, Kaegan yeeped slightly as the herb stung, that was until the numbweed took affect and slowly spread coolness to the smarting nerve ends. Sighing happily, the young Weyrwoman clicked the ends of her boots together as the bandages were wrapped around her arm. "Well kind of. Only I could fall and get injured on rocks that are smooth... Some days my bad luck gets to me. And nope... nothing else I can think of... at least, not unless Kalierre is off lurking in a broom closet somewhere around here." Grinning slightly as she began to rub her newly bandaged arm, Kaegan looked up from the clean wound to the Weyrlings face. "Thanks a lot Weyrling uh... um... Oh dear. It seems I cant remember your name..."

[boober]

It was clear that Cezine thought little, if anything, of the other’s behavior. Perhaps Kaegan hadn’t seen many injuries… or maybe she’d seen far too many. And some people had a fear of blood, she knew. But none of it was any of her business, and the green weyrling went back to the task at hand, unwrapping the bandages from the jars of numbweed and rolling them back up. Her movements were quick and smooth, and it looked as though she’d had experience in the task. Truth be told, there wasn’t much Cezine hadn’t done around the weyr; she’d been a candidate the entire time, up until her Impression of Brennath which had happened very recently in comparison with the full amount of time Cezine had been at the weyr. Having spent so much time as a candidate, there probably wasn’t a single filthy, boring, or mundane job left that she hadn’t done at some point.

She cast a smile at Kaegan as the other woman spoke, shaking her head slightly and setting her dark braid swinging. “No, I’ve not seen any healers hiding anywhere around. They must be busy with something; the flitters haven’t returned yet and they’re usually quite prompt.” Well now that it was taken care of, she supposed a healer wasn’t really necessary. Besides, Cezine would have hated to see all her work come undone for a healer to have to look at the wound. It was fine for now, although she stood by what she said about Kaegan finding a healer later. The bandages and numbweed were all separate now, and Cezine gripped the basket on both sides to lift it. However, she paused as the gold rider let drop that she didn’t even know the name of the weyrling who’d patched her up, albeit temporarily.

“It’s Cezine.” She gave another smile before lifting the basket and carrying it over to the shelves. “Cezine of green Brennath.” How she loved saying it; the novelty never wore off, even now with her lovely green half grown and… learning to fly. Cezine realized she was just standing at the shelves and immediately set the basket down to begin the second part of her task. She didn’t bid Kaegan leave, figuring that the Weyrwoman would know she was free to do so any time now. And if she’d rather hang around the infirmary, well, that was no business of hers either.