Shell Shock (pt. 2)

Writers: Eimi
Date Posted: 1st May 2009

Characters: T'mahl, Retran, Ginry
Description: Things don't go well as T'mahl prepares to lead his first Threadfall...
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 6 of Turn 5

~~ FLASHBACK ~~

"Oh Faranth please, just let me die! Just let me die, please, I beg
you! Just let me die..."

T'mahl tried to close his mind to the sound but he couldn't. He was
surrounded by sound, in his ears, in his head. The bronzerider felt
this terrible urge to sleep, but he couldn't. There was just too much
sound... Too much pain and too much sound.

"Will someone give that man fellis juice for Faranth's sake," muttered
the journeyman Healer that stood over him, cutting away his clothing.

"We're almost out," the master beside him whispered. "S'fee won't live.
Not with his dragon gone. We need what we have for the living."

"We can't work like this, Ginry. We're running out of redwort, numbweed
and now fellis? How are we supposed work without supplies?!" the
journeyman growled his frustration.

"Keep it down, Retran. We have a job to do here," the Master snapped
back. "Get ahold of yourself or you're useless to me."

T'mahl groaned as the journeyman peeled the clothing away from his side.
"There's got to be more somewhere,"he heard the
journeyman say. "In the back of some supply closet. _Somewhere_. I
mean, shards, we stock piled enough, didn't we?"

"We can't use everything. We have to ration it. We already used more
than we ought to have in the first Fall. If we use it all up now, we'll
have nothing for the next one." Master Ginry began pulling the edges of
T'mahl's wound as gently as he could but it still sent shots of pain
through the bronzerider, eliciting a choked off cry. He didn't have
enough energy to give it much volume.

"What about other Weyrs? We have to ask the other Weyrs." T'mahl could
hear the clink of metal on metal as the journeyman threw a pair of
tweezers into a bowl.

"They're in the same situation as we are. No one has enough. We'll
have to just make do with what we have." Ginry checked T'mahl's pulse
and looked into his eyes once more. "Hold on, bronzerider. We're going
to do everything we can for you. Just hold on."

Retran was not satisfied with that answer. "What _do_ we have, then?"

The Master was getting tired of his journeyman's questions. "Bandages.
Now bring that bowl over here. We need to clean his wound."

With a sigh the journeyman did as he said. "I think this one's a waste
of time, Ginry, I mean look at him..." The look the Master Healer gave
him was enough to silence him.

Ginry's look softened considerably as he looked down into T'mahl's eyes.
The bronzerider was having trouble focusing on the face above him.
Deep down, T'mahl know Retran was right. He wasn't going to make it.
They were wasting their time and their precious supplies on him. But
the Master's look was firm. "Now, I'm sorry I have nothing to give you,
bronzerider, but I will do everything I can to help you. You will make
it. You just have to believe and be strong. Do you hear me?"

T'mahl's eyes filled with tears as he nodded ever so slightly. He
wanted to believe. He wanted to live.

"Open your mouth. When the pain comes, I want you to bite on this." A
wad of sterile tasting cloth was laid across T'mahl's tongue. "You are
going to make it. It will only hurt for a little while."

The bronzerider's eyes rolled to the back of his head, his mind reeling
in agony as the healer began digging pieces of Thread and cloth from his
open wound. The last words he heard before passing out from the pain
were from the greenrider lashed to the bed beside his- "Just let me
die!"

***

}:T'mahl! Stop this! You are safe now!:{ His dragon's mind cut
through the memory.

The bronzerider stopped, looking down at the pile of boxes at his feet.
What was he doing? Why was he here? Thinking hard, he could remember
little flashes of memory - looking at the blue sky, looking at the
people, walking the corridor, talking to the apprentices... And now here
he was.

**Oh Faranth, Uluruth... I can't do this. I can't go up there again.
I can't face it again...** Tears welled up in the bronzerider's eyes as
he remembered the screams, the pain, the blue sky, and those silver
masses that haunted his dreams. **Please, don't make me go up there
again! I want to live! I just want to live...**

Last updated on the May 10th 2009

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Shell Shock (pt. 2)