A Painful Scratch

Writers: Avery, Suzee
Date Posted: 7th January 2015

Characters: Y'gel, Riveenata, S'grul
Description: Savith gets injured in trio practice, Y'gel patches her up.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 10, day 9 of Turn 7

Y'gel

Savith was confident in their skills, as usual. Riveenata was nervous
about being in the air, also as usual. But she knew these formations,
they'd practiced them in drill before on the ground, and there wasn't
that much difference now was there?

Don't get too close to the person beside you, don't drop altitude too
quickly, and call the weyrlingmasters if you're overstressed. And at
least they weren't practicing the /between/ changes yet.

They could do this.

}:Jalath's says we will be fine, but that she and hers will do better.
Just like yesterday.:{ There was a competitive edge in Savith's tone
as she looked over at the bigger green.

**We just want to do our own part. Let others worry about
themselves.** she thought as she checked that her straps were tight.

Then the Weyrlingmaster told them to rise into the air and get ready.
She bit her lip as they went airborne. Time to shine.

Y'gel as dragonhealer was always on hand for Weyrling's first flights
to handle the inevitable injuries that could occur. So he watched from
Aughashyth's back as an additional precaution with the Weyrling Staff
to enable him to help catching a falling pair if needed. Aug was
probably the most experience dragon at catching.

He watched with a smile as they began to take off and try to form up
into a wing.

Riven's trio was herself, Jalath, and the bronze Vashath. S'grul was a
hotheaded sort, and Vashath tried to flap around like he had the
agility of the blues - which he didn't - and she disliked the idea of
flying as his cover, but she didn't have a choice about it.

The first few maneuvers went fine, but then at a position changeover,
it went wrong. Vashath swerved to the left as Jalath's replacement
came in, and smacked right up to Savith, close enough that she had to
duck his wings and hope his claws weren't in the way. Startled, Savith
screeched and instinctively folded her wings in, dropping altitude to
get out of his way in a fall that made her rider feel sick. She
snapped her wings out to stop the fall once they were clear, but the
wing extension was accompanied by a wrench of pain that shocked them
both, and the next wing-beat was clearly lopsided.

**Get down,** Riven thought at her green, whose eyes began to whirl with
pain and irritation. **Down now!**

Aughashyth was still one moment and moving the next. Miraculously he
got under the weyrling green and caught her effortlessly in the middle
of his back. He grunted when she landed but no more than that. "Stay
right there," Y'gel called out to them both and they glided to a
landing a ways away from where they'd started.

Y'gel immediately unbuckled and was out of his seat. "Shhh sweet one,"
he said as he came toward the green. "We'll take care of you." Aug was
already talking to the green to help her stay calm.

}:Mine will fix your wing:{

Landing on Y'gel's bronze was a shock, but good because it meant she
didn't have to descent on her own. Riven clutched onto her straps,
hoping her dragon wouldn't slide off. But they were down rapidly and
Y'gel was coming for them.

}:Vashath should not have swerved like that! He could have clawed
me!:{ Savith bellowed in an indignant fashion. Her outrage over-rode
her sense of pain.

"It feels wrenched," she said to Y'gel when he was in earshot. "I'm
not sure if Vashath clawed her before she dropped."

"Alright," he nodded. "I'll take a look." In the meantime Aug still
talked to the green as he usually did with injured dragons. The big
bronze did it so often that he never forgot how to ease them. "Can she
ease down," he asked as Aug crouched as low to the ground as he could.
"Back that way," he directed.

Since the class hadn't practiced being caught yet, they had no idea what
to do when on another dragon. Savith wiggled and slid ungracefully off of
the bronze's back and flopped a little heavily onto the ground. Riven
rocked at the movement and then unstrapped herself and slid down.

"Let me see, and let the dragonhealer see," she encouraged softly.

Savith extended the wing and made a little grunt.

Y'gel followed them down and didn't even crack a smile with they
landed a bit awkwardly. But he did approach the extended wing and
lightly ran his fingers over the pinions and leading edge. There
didn't seem to be any break and while he could feel the beginnings of
swelling it didn't look much worse than a bruised bone. "It might be a
bit painful," he said carefully. But I don't think anything's broken."

She sighed in relief. "I'm so glad to hear that," she said. "I was afraid
it'd be worse. Was she cut?"

He held up his fingers to show her a small amount of ichor. "Not
really cut, more of a scrape. But we'll get some redwort and clean her
up. There won't be any need for more than a touch of numbweed if you
think she needs it."

"At least it wasn't serious or he'd _really_ be hearing from me. She should
probably get that little touch," Riven said after consulting with the
green. She shook her head. "We've been having some bad luck this round of
training."

"Alright," he smiled. "Go to the dragon infirmary and check in. I need
to stay here until all the weyrlings are down and done. Can you do
that?"

She breathed out as she nodded. "We'll be right there waiting for you."

Once he'd made sure there were no others that needed attending. He
made his way back to the large series of caverns where he treated
dragons. "How does it feel," he asked as he prepared his hands for
dealing with the injury.

"The ichoring has stopped and it's just a throb now, but she's still
pretty unhappy. At least it's anger and not severe pain,"

"I'll check it out just to make sure there isn't deeper damage." He
probed with gentle fingers around the edges of the cut until he found
a small are that required a couple of stitches. Luckily this little
beauty wasn't going to need to /between/ anytime soon. "This will take
just a moment," he said and dipped his fingers in some numbweed to
slather on the wound before grabbing a suture.

She held a hand against Savith's side and projected calm during the
procedure. "Is stitching dragons very different from humans? After all,
hide has a different texture."

"Actually it's rather like sewing leather," he smiled. "A nice fine
clothing grade leather," he held up the needle and suture for her to
see. "She shouldn't feel anything more that a little tugging."

}:Can I watch?:{ The green tried to turn her head.

Riven sighed. "She's interested whenever I think about Healercraft or
have to help in the human infirmary," she explained. "I'll keep her
distracted by it."

Y'gel chuckled. "The more she's used to me doing this then the better
it will be later when there are more severe injuries. I'm sure you
understand." He proceeded to take a couple of stitches and then tie
them off. "There, all done."

She beamed at him. "Thank you, Weyrdragonhealer."

}:Thank yours,:{ Savith added to the bronze.

Y'gel smiled at the relayed comment. "You're very welcome Savith," he
said directly to the lovely green. Then looking at the young rider he
nodded. "You've got your hands full."

"That I do - but she's worth it." Lifemates always were.

Last updated on the January 10th 2015

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A Painful Scratch