A Job Well Done

Writers: Kastaka, April
Date Posted: 28th December 2008

Characters: Jozia, Vasha
Description: Jozia shows Vasha how to prepare some salves.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 13, day 19 of Turn 4

Vasha timidly peered around the store-room doorway, hoping to recognise the journeyman inside that she'd been sent to help with herb preparation. She was pretty sure this was meant to be some kind of punishment for getting the cloth weights muddled up in the dragonhealer stores, or possibly some kind of remedial duty for her famous lack of consistency in numbweed salve preparation. She hoped the Healer she'd been assigned to was the patient type.

Jozia was bending over picking up some of his salves. He had several and was going to teach someone what each was for. He wasn't sure if he had met the girl that was being sent to him. She was supposed to be a dragonhealer. He straightened up and turned around. When he saw her in the doorway he put on a large smile. "Well, you must be my little shadow for the day. I am Jozia."

Vasha nodded politely at Jozia. She was pretty sure she'd seen him around, but not really to speak to. Vasha," she offered. "I heard you needed some help preparing some herbs, or something?" She clasped her hands behind her back and tried to look tidy and eager, smiling nervously at the journeyman.

"Something like that. I hear tell you get the job of helping." He smiled and winked at her. "If you wouldn't mind grabbing that box there we can get to work." He waited patiently for her.

Vasha favoured the journeyman with a wide grin and trotted over to the box happily, picking it up and looking up at Jozia triumphantly. This one looked friendly, at least. Hopefully that would continue when she started making a mess of things as she always did.

Jozia nodded and started for his office. There he placed his box of salves on the desk and motioned for her to put hers on a table in the corner. "Today we are going to be mixing up some salves and puting them in little jars. These salves are for anything from itches to burns to small cuts and the like. Each one has different things mixed in." He smiled as he picked up a jar of green salve. "Each one also has a bit of a different color and scent." he showed her.

Obediently (and very carefully) placing her box down on the indicated table, Vasha peered curiously at the green salve and took a cautious sniff. "Do you put extra colour and scent things in to help tell them apart, or do they just end up like that?" she asked interestedly.

"Sometimes they end up that way. Sometimes I add certain herbs for their aroma. Aroma can help heal just as much. A calmer person will heal faster than say, someone who is stressed. Also someone is more likely going to use that smells pleasing than something that smells terrible." He smiled as he opened a different jar that had a tan salve. This one was a base salve. It needed something to change the scent. "See?"

Vasha cautiously sniffed the tan salve and made an appropriately disgusted face. "I guess having to smear that stuff on myself would make me pretty unhappy," she agreed. "And not too pleasant for anyone I was in contact with, either." She guessed she was lucky that numbweed basically smelled okay, or maybe it was just that she'd got used to it. Maybe the smell of numbweed calmed people down because they knew the effects that came with it.

"That is one of the reasons I add a few things to mask the smell. Certian smells are also very calming. This salve her is the base for a burn salve. What scents do you think we should add?" He asked as he arranged several jars of dried herbs in front of her. He would allow her to smell the different things and guess what they offered to the salve. This way he could see what she already knew.

Delicately opening each jar and giving the contents a careful sniff, Vasha hovered in indecision. There were clean scents, soothing scents, green herbal scents, rich earthy scents. Eventually she timidly pulled forwards the jar of lavender and presented it for inspection. "I'm not sure this one will cover it completely, but it's kind of how I think it should end up," she offered.

Jozia smiled. "I think it should do fine as a scent. I think some of the ladies will love it." He set it down on the table and motioned for her to add the lavender. "You don't need much. Perhaps a pinch or two."

Sprinkling in a tiny quantity of the herb, Vasha looked at the salve like it might bite, and cast an eye across the table for some kind of implement to stir it with. She'd done quite enough of touching the wrong substance at the wrong time to just stick her fingers in to mix it up.

Jozia smiled encouragingly as he handed her a palm sized flat piece of wood. He watched her mix it. "Now, you have a burn salve, scented with lavender." He smiled as he took out an empty jar and several ingredients. "Now you will learn how to make the salve form scratch."

Vasha mixed the salve with exaggerated care, obviously unused to the correct method uf using such tools. She looked relieved when Jozia made no disparaging comments about the end result, and looked attentively over the different ingredients he'd just selected.

"Now first I've a list here for you. These are several of the mixtures I use for salves. It also lists the effects, amounts, and what to watch for. This is for you to keep and study. I am going to have you make a burn salve. Look on the list and identify the proper herbal mixture. Then pick out the proper herbs. I'll check it over before we move on to mixing it and scenting it." He smiled softly. She was young but he thought she would do alright if she didn't get nervous.

With a little frown of concentration, Vasha read down the list, found the right entry, and began selecting pots of herbs, gradually getting more confident until she finally satisfied herself she'd got the right selection and beamed up at Jozia for approval.

Jozia smiled and nodded. He could tell she needed to be reassured. Others must have yelled at her for her mistakes. He hated people that did that. It accomplished nothing. Only made people feel bad. "Vasha, you've only made one mistake. Let's see if you spot it. One of the jars you've chosen is not the right cut of herb. Read carefully."

Vasha studied each jar intently, comparing it with the notes on the list. Finally she perked up, swapping out the crumbled version of a herb for the crushed variety, and presented her new selection proudly for inspection.

"Very good." He smiled. "Now why don't you measure out what you need and we will mix it up. Then you can scent it how you want."

Vasha measured and poured, mixed and prepared, continually looking up anxiously at Jozia for approval. Finally she reached for some crumbled bay leaf and pine oil - "Something that isn't lavender so this one doesn't smell so girly," she explained.

Jozia nodded as he watched. When she was finished he smiled in aproval. He gentle took it from her and tested it. He smelled it and then returned it to her. "You may keep this to remind yourself of a job well done." He then handed her a bag. "This will be your very own personal healers kit. In it you will place a few of the things to every healer should have on them. Even though you are a dragonhealer in training you should still know how to treat the rider as well as the dragon. You never know when you may be called on for assistance. Place both salves in your bag. Come back to me when you would like to learn to make another of the salves and when you do we will put it in your bag too. And if you ever need a hand or someone to talk to come see me." He smiled at the girl.

Vasha smiled back at the Journeyman, with only the slightest hint of her earlier nervousness. "Thank you, I will," she assured him, genuinely, as she packed the salves in the bag and nodded in satisfaction.

Last updated on the December 30th 2008

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A Job Well Done