Reoccurring Nightmare

Writers: Ames, Heather
Date Posted: 28th January 2014

Characters: D'naz, F'aen
Description: It feels like N'ril's death all over again for D'naz when F'aen comes back to the Weyr badly wounded from Threadfall.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 4, day 21 of Turn 7

D'naz had been busy with the weyrling wing during the Fall.

"More firestone!" He bellowed as he watched the younger weyrlings
hurry to grab the bags to hand off to those who would ferry the stone
into the fighting wings. "Let's go! We can't have our dragons waiting
on us because we are too slow!!"

Up in the air F'aen and Scarleth had been flying a rather normal
Threadfall, until one of their wingmates, a burly brown, had become
entangled in Thread. Before the brown pair could go /between/ the
lumbering dragon veered sideways in panic, crashing against the much
smaller Scarleth with enough force to knock the green out of her
flight path. This chain reaction had sent F'aen and Scarleth directly
into the path of Thread.

F'aen had gasped as the white hot feeling of Thread squirmed down his
shoulders, over his forearms and down onto his thighs, eating into the
protective riding leathers that he wore. Against his skin the spores
felt like red hot pokers. He hissed as he used his glove hands to try
and brush the wriggling Threads off of his body. **Get us out of
here!**

What had felt like an eternity was only a matter of seconds and then
Scarleth was pulling them into the safe, cold haven of /between/. The
pain was agonizing and the pressure of it made F'aen feel nauseated
as they came back out into the warmer air above the Weyr. The
greenrider slumped forward against his dragon's neckridge, cradling
his arms against his chest, and clenching his eyes shut as he fought
off the urge to vomit.

Keluth bugled the arrival of Scarleth and relayed that the pair had
been badly injured. D'naz turned and stared with almost unseeing eyes
at his blue who had been helping the younger dragons during the Fall.

"What? How bad?" D'naz asked aloud in his panic. }:Scarleth is hurting
badly and hers is not doing well.:{ Keluth informed his rider, his own
eyes whirling with concern for the pair.

Turning to the rest of his staff, D'naz's mouth moved for a second
before he was able to speak. "Take over for me. I have to go. Now!"
The last word was given with a bit more force. The other staff member
just stared at him and then quickly nodded. D'naz took off at a run,
with Keluth lumbering behind, heading quickly towards the infirmary.

F'aen hadn't made it to the ground before puking, despite his best
attempts to restrain the gorge. The mess dripped down Scarleth's
neckridge. **I'm sorry.** He sent to her as he felt hands on him, and
heard voices speaking around him. F'aen couldn't make out their exact
words for the ringing in his ears.

}:Shhhh, calm down, rider.:{ Scarleth's husky voice was soothing,
}:The healers are taking you to the infirmary.:{

**But...**

}:Shhh. You took more of the injury than I did. I will be waiting for
you out here after they have looked at me.:{ Scarleth promised as she
watched the healercrafters carry a limp F'aen into the infirmary.

**D'naz?** Numbly F'aen's brain brought up an image of the bluerider,
and he wondered where the man was.

"Fellis him while we clean these wounds. It's going to take a while."
A faceless voice ordered while the clothes were cut from his body.

}:He is coming.:{ Scarleth assured him, although her voice sounded
fainter, and farther away, until finally, F'aen could hear nothing at
all, and he slipped into comfortable darkness.

D'naz hurried as quickly as his legs would carry him, but by the time
he got there F'aen was already being treated by the healers. He was
forced to wait anxiously to find out if F'aen was alright.

**Please let him be alright, please,** D'naz begged into the void. He
couldn't handle it if he lost F'aen after just having found him.
Images of the past blurred with the present. D'naz felt as though he
was reliving the worst times of his life. If not for Keluth
continually reaching out to him, he was afraid he might have slipped
into the dark void that had once almost destroyed him.

Keluth, while keeping an open dialogue with D'naz also positioned
himself near Scarleth to help and assist her and the other healers who
had come to help her.

One of the healers noticed the bluerider come up and he broke away
from the group for a moment to approach, the front of his work tunic
stained with blood from the patients that he'd seen that day, "Do you
know him?" The healer jerked his head back in the direction of the
greenrider that they had just taken in.

"Yes, yes, I do. He's...a close friend of mine. How is he? Please tell
me he's going to be okay?" D'naz's voice was laced with the anxiety
and worry that was clutching at his very center.

The healer raised his shoulders, "From first observations it does not
seem to be a fatal scoring, but how bad it is," he looked over his
shoulder at the team working on the greenrider, "remains to be seen.
It'll probably be a couple of candlemarks before he's cleaned up and
awake."

"Candlemarks? Not fatal?" D'naz felt the air whoosh out of him as he
reached for something to support himself before he fell down as well.
"I'll wait. _Please_ come and find me if anything changes. I..." he
blinked. "I love him and can't bare to lose him." There, he'd actually
said it. The words that had been there, building, tucked away inside
of him since the greenrider had entered his life. F'aen had brought
him a joy he hadn't felt in so many Turns. He _needed_ to tell him
that. F'aen _had_ to be okay so he could tell him just how much he
cared about him.

~*~

The world was a white fuzzy haze. It was like walking through a cloud,
F'aen determined. A noise echoed far away and he sighed as he shook
his head and tried to clear the sound. The more he tried to fight the
noise, however, the louder it became until F'aen finally realized that
it was a voice. A voice? In his head? But the voice was warbled and he
could not understand what it was trying to say to him. The voice grew
louder until it finally seemed to burst through the bubble of the mist
that surrounded him.

}:F'aen.:{ Recognition flickered to life. Scarleth. }:There you are.:{
The green's throaty voice enveloped him soothingly.

**What... What happened?**

}:We were injured in Threadfall. You took the worst of it. Open your
eyes, Keluth's rider waits on you. He is very worried.:{

His eyes were closed? The realization startled F'aen as he lay in his
half-conscious state. How did he open them? Why wouldn't his body
obey? Panic rose inside of him.

}:Shhhh, calm down.:{ Scarleth's voice was there again like a balm,
}:just take your time.:{

The more F'aen relaxed the more he became aware of things, like the
light touch of the sheet against his blazing hot skin, or the sound of
people, healers he presumed, walking to and fro amongst the other
patient's curtained cots. He caught a whiff of redwort. **Definitely
in the infirmary.** A flutter of color passed before him. It happened
once more, and then color washed his vision.

F'aen blinked as he looked up at the stony ceiling above him. His body
felt heavy and lifeless, and as he glanced downward he realized it was
because his shoulders were wrapped in white gauze, along with his
forearms and, if he was feeling right, so where his thighs. His eyes
slid sideways to the chair beside his cot- D'naz.

With Keluth keeping him as calm as possible, D'naz had waited
anxiously for news. When news finally came, he nearly collapsed on the
floor of the infirmary. F'aen was alive, though his injuries were
severe. Nothing would tear him away from the infirmary. Once he was
allowed in, he took up a seat beside F'aen's bed. There he stayed for
countless candlemarks, waiting, hoping, and fearing for the worst.
Finally, after some time he drifted into an uneasy sleep on the chair.

It was the voice inside his head that alerted him to the change.

}:Scarleth says hers is awake:{ Keluth spoke to his rider.

D'naz nearly fell out of the chair in his haste, wiping at the sleep
in his eyes. Shaking himself, he jumped up out of the chair and over
to F'aen's side. Yes, yes, he was awake! D'naz wanted to shout for
joy, but found instead that tears sprang to his eyes. He held them at
bay for now, but his eyes still glistened with moisture. Bending down
to one knee he reached out a gentle hand to touch F'aen's cheek.

"F'aen," he managed through the tightness in his throat. The way he
said that simple word, that name spoke volumes for the emotions that
had roiled and wrestled inside him since this ordeal began.

"D'naz." F'aen managed back, a tired smile on his face. He wanted to
reach up and run his fingers through his hair but the heavy bandaging
on his shoulders prevented him from moving his arms. "I still have my
hair right?" He couldn't remember what all had taken place from the
time he and Scarleth had left the air until now.

D'naz chuckled through his emotion. "Yes, love, you still have your
hair." He reached his hand up and ran it through F'aen's hair just to
emphasize his point.

F'aen breathed out a sigh of relief, "Oh good. Scars I can handle but
being bald is a deal breaker." There was a light-heartedness to his
voice, signature of the easy-going greenrider. From D'naz's wrinkled
clothing to the expression on the bluerider's face, F'aen was certain
that the man had been waiting for him to wake up for a while, "You
look like you might have been worried."

He gave him a snort and a smile at that. "I might," he replied, trying
to sound as light-hearted as F'aen about the whole thing, when in
reality his heart was heavy with the thoughts that attacked him since
this all began. What if he had lost F'aen? It was so reminiscent of
what had happened to N'ril. He didn't know if he could handle that
heartbreak again.

Sensing the bluerider's mood, F'aen wiggled his fingers, beckoning
D'naz to hold his hand, "I am here. Besides some scarring," he glanced
down at the bandages, "I should be fine."

D'naz took his hand, giving it a gently squeeze. "I know you are. I
know you will get well. I'll be here by your seide to make sure of
it." He hadn't had the same chance with N'ril. His injuries had proved
too fatal too fast. He had a chance to help the man he'd grown to care
about more deeply than any other, and D'naz vowed he would do
everything in his power to make sure F'aen made a full recovery.

Last updated on the February 1st 2014

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Reoccurring Nightmare