Broken Pattern

Writers: Emma, Nici, Paula, Yvonne
Date Posted: 10th May 2004

Characters: U'das, R'han, M'van, Tsaera
Description: Zack gets scored and M'van, R'han and Tsaera rush to help.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 13, day 20 of Turn 2

They had fallen into the familiar rhythm of the Fall. Duck, flame,
dive, flame, feed more firestone, flame, dip, flame, pop
/between/, flame, check Wings and order the left one to
backdown a bit since they were getting ahead of the rest, flame again.

Then the pattern was broken. Zackariath roared and somehow managed to
cut off his flame before scorching a brown that had suddenly appeared into
their path. The bronze turned with amazing show of agility for his
size, avoiding a collission.

"You sharding idiot! Watch were you..." The weyrleader's profanities
were cut off when he noticed the way the brown's rider slumped against
the neck. He was injured, probably unconcious, and the dragon was panicing.

The Thread kept falling all around them. Zack flamed a clump.
**Zack, try to calm the brown, **

}:Rath :{ the bronze provided the name.

*'... tell Rath to return home and give him this ** U'das continued and
recalled the visualization for the Weyr to his mind, sending it to
Zack.

The brown disappered. **Did he?** U'das started to ask when it
happened. Unnoticed, a clump of Thread fell, straight through Zack's
wing.
The bronze bellowed in pain and /betweened/. When they appeared again,
they were over River Bluff Weyr. The visual had been fresh on the bronze's
mind.

Zack screamed and started to fall towards the ground. U'das leaned to
look and felt his guts twist with horror. Half of the wing was flapping
loosely, like a sail cut from the rigging. Then, with a flash, the
others were there, placing themselves around and below the injured
bronze, slowing his fall, encouraging him. Just like during the countless
drills.

M'van glanced up as he heard the draconic screaming. Having flown the
first part of the fall, the bluerider was now with the dragonhealers on
the ground. He'd been ready to treat a minor threadscore on a new
inexperienced green dragon and reassuring her rider that it would heal
in a sevenday or so and had just been washing his hands before applying
numbweed to the wound.

At first he was able to dismiss it and get back on with treating the
green, but then as he realised that more and more dragons were bringing
him in, including his own blue Kiloth he knew there was something
wrong.

Zack's landing was far from graceful but at least they didn't crash in
full speed. The bronze whimppered when his injured wing brushed against
the ground. The dragons that had helped them down, landed around them,
crooning encouragements for their injured leader.

Filled with dark fears, U'das quickly opened his straps and dismounted.
His greatest fear was, that in his pain, Zack would /between/ without
him. He had no intention to let the bronze go and end up as dragonless
rider.

Tabanirth suddenly appeared in the Weyr's sky and fell towards the
earth and her injured mate like a stone. She snapped her wings open in
time to land and the crack from the displaced air echoed across the
cliff face. Tsaera was already undoing her straps and she leapt to the
ground as the gold dragon settled beside Zackariath. She staggered
slightly, thrown off balance by her haste and the added weight of the
flame thrower she carried, before hurring to where U'das stood. She
carefully embraced the big bronzerider and planted a dry kiss on his
cheek. "What happened?"

"We were trying to help Rath, whose rider was injured. A moment of
distraction and Thread got us" U'das explained. He was very glad she
was there. Tabanirth, if anyone, could keep Zack doing anything silly.

Dragonhealers were rushing on the scene, but the bronze's thrashing
made it impossible for them to get near the injured wing.
U'das noticed it. **Stop flailing around, these people are here to
help, to make the pain go away!** But Zackariath wasn't listening.
"Tsaera, can you ask Tabanirth if she can calm him down? I have to go
to help the healers" he asked.

She nodded and snapped a command to the anxious queen, and then stood
back to allow the dragonhealers room to do their work.

The second he could be released from Torrent wing, R'han and Yarbreth
headed towards the Weyrbowl. Yarbreth had scarcely been able to
concentrate, he'd been so upset by Zackariath's agitation. All the
veteran rider could do was concentrate on surviving the remaining Fall
while his dragon gave mental support to his injured friend.

The Master Dragonhealer slid from Yarbreth's back, wincing when his
less than youthful bones jarred as he hit the hard dirt. **Yarbreth, tell
him I'm coming!** While he couldn't work miracles, he was going to sure
as sharding try once he'd assessed what exactly had happened to the
Weyrleader's bronze.

U'das managed to gain Zack's attention long enough to take a hold of
his head. He looked into into a large, wildly swirling eye. **Hush,
mate, calm down** he reached to scratch the eyeridge. **You didn't let
me go when things were bad for me, and I sure don't let you go now.
See, all your friends are here and they want to help.**

}: My wing! :{ the dragon cried, the first verbal response from him
since the scoring, a good sign.

"Let the healers take care of it, big boy."

R'han could already tell that their was barely enough wingsail for him
to work with and his heart hurt. Still, he urged Yarbreth to rally all
the dragon's to support the Weyrleader's bronze as he tried to get the
full extent of the damage. "M'van, see if you can look underneath the
wing now. I can't see from this angle."

The bluerider obligingly bent to see if he could examine the damage to
the bronze's wing. He could tell that it looked bad before he got too
close. Closer inspection showed major damage that would take a long
time to heal. "The wingsail looks bad, I think we need to get some
numbweed on there for the pain, and then take a closer look."

Overhearing M'van, U'das suppressed a groan. He tried to keep his
thoughts positive. Last thing they needed was the bronze panicing
again.

"We'll be able to help him though," said M'van in a reassuring tone as
he stood up once more.

Tsaera slipped an arm around U'das' waist and gave him a lopsided hug.
"R'han and M'van are the best this Weyr has. Zack will be just fine...
are you okay?"

"No, I'm not. I think I'm going to get seriously drunk tonite" U'das
answered. Zack was relaxing visibly when the numbweed took effect.

M'van signalled an apprentice dragonhealer closer with the numbweed as
he and R'han began to treat the bronze. "Just relax," he said, to both
himself and the dragon. "We'll sort this out for you."

R'han kept silent, continuing to see what they could do with the
ravaged wingsail that remained. For once the normally carefree
dragonhealer had absolutely nothing to say.

Last updated on the June 7th 2024

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Broken Pattern