Prove Yourself

Writers: Halyonix, Heather
Date Posted: 24th October 2024

Characters: W'ser, S'yen, Vaile
Description: Syerin shows W'ser what he's learned so far about dragonhealing
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 6 of Turn 12

W'ser

Notes:
*********

Syerin arrived in the Infirmary midmorning, not nearly as hungover as
he expected to be after the raucous party he had found himself in last
night, but that was all for the better. After yesterday's Threadfall,
he found that he was ready to prove himself just a little bit more to
W'ser, if one of the present patients was up to being used as
instructional material.

He stopped to look in on Liranth first. The green dragon had wrenched
her left wing yesterday, tore some of the musculature in it enough so
that she couldn't fly and had to be caught by Chioneth. She was awake
when Syerin walked in. "Hey. Um...good morning Liranth," he greeted.
It always felt weird to have a one-sided conversation with a dragon
but here he was. "You feeling any better? Hope so. Hope you got more
sleep than I did." His own fault for partying late but Syerin never
turned sex away.

Syerin slid his hands into his pockets as he looked over Liranth's
left wing. From the outside, nothing looked wrong but he knew that if
she stretched it to its full range of motion, or at least tried to,
the muscles pained her enough to stop. He had been looking over the
diagrams in W'ser's office, memorizing them to the best of his
ability. He felt just about ready to show the Weyrdragonhealer what he
had learned so far.

He went off to find W'ser in his office, hoping that he hadn't had a
late night either.

The Weyrdragonhealer was reclined in his chair, his tunic looking
crumpled and disheveled, as if he'd slept in his chair that evening...
or as if he was asleep at that very moment....

Syerin made a coughing noise and rapped his knuckles on the doorframe. "W'ser?"

The brownrider jolted upright, sending a decorative clay dragon
figurine skittering across his desk. His eyes had a confused looked
for a moment as he scanned his office, and then he seemed to orient
himself as his eyes landed on Syerin.

"Syerin." The dragonhealer rubbed his hands down his face. "What is it?"

The Candidate caught the figuring before it could crash to the floor.
He gently returned it to its place on the desk as he said, "We were
scheduled to meet today to review anatomy. I've been studying."

"Ah, yes," W'ser said as he shoved his fingers through his hair, which
honestly didn't muss it up any more than it already was. "Let's review
while we check in on our patients, shall we?" The Weyrdragonhealer
stood to his feet and grabbed his work coat that held the deep pockets
for his instruments and notepad.

Syerin followed with his hands laced nervously behind his back. He had
never been one for academics but he was running out of options when it
came to life paths and wanted to prove himself. "Should we start with
Liranth? She's awake."

W'ser shrugged into his coat and then flipped open his notepad.
"Liranth. Yes. Let's start there." He led the way to where the green
was resting. "Good morning, lovely," he said, patting her snout. She
rumbled a quiet hello.

Syerin ducked around to her injured side, looking over the tucked
wing. "So, where do you want to start?" he asked. "Can she open her
wing any?" The green dragon looked his way, blinked, and then spread
her strained wing slowly, coming to a stop just before full extension
with a grunt of pain. "Guess she can," Syerin muttered. He often
disregarded the fact that the dragons were listening and just chose
not to speak to those in the room out of his own resentment
because...oh, feck, that was neither here nor there.

Taking that as his cue, Syerin launched into what he had practiced
saying. "So we know she didn't injure any of the chest muscles like
the pectoralis because it hurts when she extends the wing, not flaps
the wing. So that means either the alae flexor or the
supra...supraspinatus? Supraspinatus." As he spoke, he pointed to the
muscles in reference, following a line from chest to shoulder to
somewhere near the elbow of the wing.

W'ser's lips twitched, but he suppressed his smile. It was clear that
Syerin had set out to impress his teacher. "And can you point out for
me the batten ribs and the aileron? You should consider the wing
structures as well as the muscles."

Liranth carefully lifted her wing so that Syerin could point out the
batten ribs on the primary mainsail and the aileron on the secondary
one. "And a dragon can still fly with one-third of their sails
damaged."

"That's correct. Now, read to me the healer's notes on Liranth." W'ser
picked up the nearby chart that the journeymen and masters kept
updated each time they visited with Liranth and handed it to the
apprentice.

Syerin looked at the notes and scowled. "I can't read this. It's
wherry scratch!" he declared dismissively. "Who writes like this?"

"Apparently, Master U'rev does," W'ser said, glancing at the last set
of initials on the chart. "But this is common. You'll have to get used
to it." The Weyrlingmaster nodded his head to punctuate his sentence.
"Now, try."

The apprentice grumbled loudly as he tried to read the notes again.
"Appetite and...bowl? Bowel? Bowel functions normal. Why do we care
about bowel functions? It's her wing that's hurt."

"Abnormal bowel functions can be a red flag that there's something
wrong under the surface. Normal bowels are a good sign that a patient
is on the right track to healing," W'ser explained with patience.

"Oh," Syerin replied, chastened. He looked further through the notes.
"What does 'ROM' mean?"

W'ser nodded to a passing dragonhealer as he answered Syerin's
question. "Range of motion. What did the last healer notate about
Liranth's ROM?"

"ROM improving," Syerin repeated. "So, the range of motion of her wing
is improving? That's good then. We want that. Right?"

"Excellent. Once she is back to one-hundred percent, she'll be able to
go back to her own weyr to finish her recuperation." W'ser looked at
Syerin. "You're doing excellent, Apprentice Syerin. Shall we go on to
the next patient?"

He didn't entirely feel like he was doing excellent, though he had had a good start to it, but he took the compliment with a sharp nod and said, "Sure."

Last updated on the October 24th 2024

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