Be Careful

Writers: Heather, Miriah
Date Posted: 24th May 2016

Characters: D'hol, Jeyme
Description: Threadfall and heroics lead to Jeyme's first Threadscore.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 6, day 1 of Turn 8

D'hol

Jeyme

It was habit to dress in front of the mirror on Threadfall mornings.
Jeyme liked to make sure that everything was in place, and that she
hadn't forgotten anything. Her hair, which had finally become shoulder
length again, was braided back to fit snugly under her riding helmet.

Looking up, she smiled when she saw D'hol's face over her shoulder in
the mirror.

"Good morning."

Dressed in his own leathers, D'hol bent to kiss her cheek. "Morning."
He had his helmet tucked under his arm and his gaze was intent. "You
ready?"

She couldn't put into words how good her weyrmate looked in his riding
leathers. "Yes, I'm ready." Today she was going out in the first wave
rather than the second.

"I don't have to tell you to be careful." His face was unsmiling,
mentally prepping himself for the Fall ahead of them. "It's the
Queen's wing, but today is supposed to be windy."

"I'll be careful." She promised, after all, she not only wanted to
return home to D'hol, but there was Dheymin to think of as well.

~*~

"It's suppose to be windy" was an understatement, Jeyme thought as
Quinneth was buffeted to the side in the strong wind. Squinting, she
looked ahead to the Leading Edge as the Weyrleader's Wing snapped in
action. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, causing her heart to
pound loudly in her ears and her palms to sweat inside of her leather
gloves.

}:Here we go.:{ Quinneth rumbled with anticipation as the Queen's Wing
finally reached the curtain of Threadfall.

As a Wingleader, D'hol couldn't afford to keep his mind on his
weyrmate's safety, but it remained in the back of his mind, a constant
presence. He directed his wing to follow N'vanik's and at Yumath's
demand, tossed firestone into the waiting maw with practiced ease. The
wind had him concerned about the other greens in his wing and kept his
awareness up on their condition as best as he could.

"Closer!" Jeyme called, gesturing with her hand for the Weyrling to
draw up closer to Quinneth so that they could receive a replacement
bag of firestone. Just when the Weyrling decided to try and toss the
bag the wind blew his blue backwards and the sack when sailing into
thin air, far short of Quinneth and Jeyme.

Letting out a frustrated sound, Jeyme gestured again with one hand,
the other hanging on tightly to her riding straps to keep herself
steady. Tediously the blue Weyrling drew closer to Quinneth again.

"Dammit! Quinneth!" She swore as some Thread, missed by the upper
Wings, came sailing downward, right over top of the Weyrling pair.

Acting on her rider's instincts, Quinneth swerved hard into the blue's
side, shoving him aside with a grunt of impact. For a moment Jeyme had
thought that they'd managed to avoid the Thread, getting them both out
of the way, but the moment a slithery Thread spore streaked down her
neck and beneath the opening of her jacket.

It was the first time she'd ever been touched by Thread so directly.

**QUINN-** She didn't even have time to finish the thought before her
dragon was /between/. Against her skin she could feel the silvery
spore turn to dust in the frozen void of /between/.

When they came back out she winced, entertaining for a moment the
thought of trying to finish out the first wave, but the pain in her
neck and back weren't allowing that.

**Send word to Panitath. Take us back to the Weyr.** Quinneth
instantly jumped to do her rider's bidding.

Yumath flamed a swath of thread with vicious intensity, his strong
wings forcing him steady against the prevailing winds. Once word
reached him of Quinneth's departing, he promptly relayed it to his
rider even as he tilted his head back to receive more firestone. It
was nearly lost amid the flow of other information D'hol was
receiving, but he latched onto quickly, snarling a curse. Leaving the
wing to go to her was not an option and he couldn't stop doing what he
was doing. He shifted with Yumath as the bronze flamed another tangled
mess of Thread. He had to wait and hope that the injury wasn't severe;
he pushed the worry to the back of his mind as best as he could, then
set his jaw. As if in response to D'hol's frustration, Yumath bellowed
a challenge to the Thread coming at them and flamed a wide swath in
revenge.

Jeyme was cursing in long strings, words she had probably learned from
D'hol, by the time Quinneth touched the ground at the Weyr. Not only
did the scoring on her neck and back hurt like the blazes, she was
pissed at the Weyrling who had caused the problem to begin with.
Swinging her leg hopped to the ground, which caused an explosion of
more profanity through her clenched teeth.

"Rider?" a voice asked.

She looked up to see a healer, a woman, with the reddest hair she had
ever seen in her life.

"It's on my neck and back."

Barenziah winced sympathetically, "Come on, I'll need to see that in
the infirmary then." Other riders landed in the Weyrbowl for minor
patch-ups, maybe a small score on the arm, or leg, but the neck and
back would require a bit more attention, especially from the look of
the rider's now tattered riding jacket.

"My dragon-"

}:I will let the dragonhealers know I require their attention.:{ The
scores on Quinneth's hide weren't life threatening, and she was more
concerned about her rider anyway.

"Nevermind." She mumbled as she walked with the healer into the infirmary.

~*~

As soon as he was able to get his wing settled, checkout any injuries
and double check on his riders' health, D'hol made his way to the
infirmary to check on his weyrmate. He'd chafed and hurried as much as
he could have, and now that he was free to act, his steps were quick.

The moment he entered the infirmary, he was directed back to where
Jeyme was being cared for and he thrust aside the curtain to step in.
"How bad is it." Still covered in char and stinking of firestone, he
ignored the frown from the Healer as he looked at the bandage.

Jeyme was lying on her stomach, head pillowed on her folded arms, and
from the corner of her eye she could just make out D'hol. The healer,
who clearly was familiar with demanding dragonriders, merely crossed
his arms over his chest.

"No lasting damage. There will be some scarring left behind, of
course," typical with a Threadscore. "The area will need to be kept
cleaned and bandaged until the deeper burns heal."

"I know how to handle treating a 'score." D'hol was brisk as he moved
to be able to look Jeyme in the eye. He squatted. "What happened,
sweet? Was it the wind?"

The rare term of endearment nearly made her smile, but the stinging in
her back made it into more of a grimace. "It was the wind, but not the
way you think. A Weyrling was trying to toss me a sack but the wind
kept throwing him back. When he finally got close he didn't see the
Thread ahead, so Quinneth and I bumped him out of the way."

D'hol's face hardened. "Don't do that again. Let him get scored. It'll
teach him to be careful."

"It was just instinct. You wouldn't have done it?" she asked.

"No." He was brisk. "A weyrling has to learn that it's absolutely
essential to be mindful of their surroundings. They can't be saved or
shoved out of the way every single time. They have to learn to blink
/between/ when they're at risk. They can't put others at risk, which
is what he did to you."

"Well, lesson learned, for me." Jeyme said, although she couldn't say
for sure that she wouldn't do the same thing again.

"It's going to be a lesson learned for that weyrling too." D'hol's
voice was grim. "Idiot boy." He touched Jeyme's face lightly, his
fingers caressing. "Well, " he sighed, "every rider gets scored
eventually. Hopefully it'll be the last for a long while."

Jeyme groaned in approval. "Can we go home now?"

Gently brushing away her hair from her face, D'hol nodded. "Yes. But
you'll have to walk, sweet. At least out to Yumath." He frowned.
"Quinneth. Is she alright?"

Crawling off of the cot, she winced as she nodded, "Quinneth is fine."
Gingerly reaching for her shirt she looked up at D'hol. "Can you give
me a hand?"

He nodded, taking the shirt from her and unlacing the top until it was
all the way open, then held it from the bottom. "Arms out."

As she had done when she was a child, Jeyme held her arms out away
from her side and waited as D'hol carefully helped her into the shirt.
Once it was in place she sighed and returned her arms to her sides.
"Thank you, love." Then she seemed to notice more about his state.
"I've kept you from you from cleaning up, I bet Yumath is waiting."

He shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Yumath is patient and he was
worried about you too. I think he's with Quinneth right now and has
wrapped himself around her."

Jeyme checked with Quinneth and, sure enough, the green was happily
enveloped in her bronze couchmate's wings.

Last updated on the May 27th 2016

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