No Time for Doubt

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 11th February 2014

Characters: Riveenata, S'vai, Naival
Description: Riven fails to save a patient.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 5, day 23 of Turn 7
Notes: Mentor Approved; Follows Unable to Focus

Walking along the river in the morning had calmed Riveenata's nerves down
enough that she'd been able to have breakfast before it was time for the
Fall. She hadn't been able to apologize to her sister, but that she could do
later. For this Fall, her job was manning one of the triage stations in the
Weyrbowl and providing a first response.

Now she was watching the dragons assembling, riders suited up and strapped
in, ready to fight their ancient enemy. She stood off to the side where she
wouldn't get in the way and watched them, trying to recognize who she could
and feeling a swell of pride. The wings looked glorious, the bronzes and
golds easy to pick out with their shiny coloration and their massive and
stately size, while the blues, browns, and greens in between them were a
vibrant collection of sleek bodies.

At some signal she didn't hear, they rose up and hung there for a moment in
a display of the Weyr's massed strength. Then suddenly they blinked
/between/, and she exhaled the breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
She hoped they'd all come back.

And if they didn't, well, her job was to help with that. She looked down to
check her work one last time. Her station was ready. All of the supplies had
been brought out of the storerooms and laid out for use - bandages,
numbweed, redwort, supplies for quickly stitching up wounds. She shifted
from foot to foot. She was as ready as she'd ever be; now all she could do
was wait for the first injured to return.

- - -

A brown dragon burst from /between/, shrilling distress and very low above
the bowl, coming in for a hard landing not too far from her. She waved at a
nearby apprentice, Naival, to help her carry the stretcher over.

A dragonhealer was already there, speaking to the brown soothingly. She saw
Riven's arrival and pointed up at where the rider slumped over the neck of
his dragon. "S'vai's badly wounded and can't get down. I'm going to cut the
straps and we're going to haul him down. Then I'll treat Canoth."

Riven checked that the apprentice had braced the stretcher, while the
dragonhealer grabbed at the straps of the brown, who kneeled down to assist
her. She slashed the long safety straps and levered him out from between the
ridges, and Riven and an orderly stepped forward to take some of the weight
and bring him down.

Once he was on a stretcher and moved just far enough away that his dragon
wasn't blocking the light, Riven made an assessment. His temple was bleeding
copiously, and the apprentice started wiping the blood away to see what type
of wound under it. She focused on the torn leathers stiff with blood at his
right shoulder and pulled them away, looking to see if there was any live
Thread. She saw torn flesh and more leaking blood. She splashed redwort onto
it then sliced away the leathers.

The Threadscore ran down the shoulder and chest, and Riven could see that it
had eaten into the muscle of the shoulders before the pair had gone
/between/. There didn't seem to be any live Thread remaining, and there wasn't
enough blood for an artery to have been severed. He was breathing shallowly
and his skin was clammy, and she knew shock was setting in.

"Irrigate the chest wound with redwort," she ordered Naival as she turned
away to grab fellis. She shook four drops into wine and looked at S'vai's
head - with the blood gone, it was apparent that wound was not serious.
Slipping a hand under S'vai's head, she lifted it and brought the fellis to
his lips. His eyes were blinking and not tracking, but he moaned as the
apprentice put redwort on the wound.

"Drink this," she told him in her most soothing voice. "It will ease the
pain."

She was reassured when he was able to swallow it and his breathing calmed,
and she set the little cup aside. Riven shouted to the dragonhealer, "Tell
Canoth he's going to go to sleep, but he's still here!"

The master gave her an okay signal, and went back to dealing with the score
on the brown's right leg.

She re-washed her hands with redwort and applied a tincture to reduce
bleeding to the inside of the wound. When she was satisfied that the
bleeding was under control, she picked up the sterilized needle and thread.
It looked like Naival had flushed the wound of any leftover char and debris.
It was deepest at the shoulder, but it wasn't very wide and it hadn't
reached any of the vital abdominal organs. As she began stitching and found
that it was closing easily, she had hopes that it wouldn't scar too badly
and that he might retain mobility in the arm, but she suspected that he
likely would.

She had narrowed her focus down to the wound she was working on, so she
missed when his breathing suddenly shifted. She did hear a loud bugle came
from Canoth, and made a noise of despair, knowing what that meant. S'vai's
color was white and his breathing stuttered a few more times, and then his
chest stopped moving. The dragonhealer and her assistants stepped back
hurriedly as Canoth keened and leapt into the sky before flicking
/between/. The other dragons around the bowl started the same noise of loss.

Riven stood there for a moment, needle still in hands, looking down at S'vai's
still face. But she wasn't really seeing her friend anymore. She'd checked
the wound for fragments, she'd treated his pain, she'd applied a bleeding
reducer... How could she have failed him so badly? What had she missed?

"Riven!" shouted another Healer at the neighboring station. "I need help
setting C'lano's leg!"

Another injury to respond to, and no time for recriminations or self-doubt.?
Those were luxuries for later. But she knew when later happened, she?d be?
seeing S'vai's face for a long time.

Last updated on the March 7th 2014

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No Time for Doubt