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 Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2013 7:35 am
The quill flowed across the page leaving a tangled trail of black in its wake. The writing was legible but to one unfamiliar with the hand it took a slight run up. Bereck didn't especially mind this as it meant a casual snoop would probably lose interest, and it was near impossible to read upsidedown from the other side of his desk. He could write neatly when he chose to do so and did for official reports, instructions to journymen and so on, but for his personal notes and other things that other people didn't need to read he favoured speed over making it look good. Just at the moment he was scribbling notes down for a research paper he was working on; the effect of a slight change in the formulation of a standard poultice. Results so far were quite encouraging; the alteration showed slightly better results so far, enough to be worth considering, but unfortunately the addition caused a minor allergic reaction in a minority of cases.
The quill paused, was dipped into ink, and flowed onward as Bereck reached for his mug without even glancing at it. As he took a sip the healer pulled a face and put his quill back into the ink; the klah was cold. Draining the mug he pushed himself to his feet and moved across his office to the terrifying piece of brass and glass machinery that produced his favourite drink or, as some would have it, spawned his terrible brew.
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Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 12:10 am
J’car was not the kind of man who summoned people. Summoning was for the pretentious sort of Wingleader who thought he was important enough to have other folks at his beck and call. Sure, sometimes J’car called meetings, but that was different. Also he tried to offer klah and snacks as incentive.
Somehow, he didn’t think that klah and snacks would cut it when it came to ordering around the Masterhealer of Warden’s Weyr. J’car also didn’t particularly want to get on the Masterhealer’s bad side when there was a nonzero possibility that he was going to urgently need a healer before he left Warden’s. J’car wasn’t paranoid, but… well, a weyrleader was disappeared, a weyrwoman was dead, and nobody seemed to be able to offer explanations. Long story short, don’t make the Masterhealer angry until you’re sure you won’t need him.
So he’d managed to find a time when the man wasn’t tangled up in other appointments, and strolled down to Bereck’s office. He paused outside the door for a moment and knocked briskly, two quick raps with his knuckles. Then he opened the door and peered around it. “Hello? Masterhealer Bereck? J’car, from the Watch. I was hoping I could ask you – Faranth what is that?”
He was momentarily distracted by a terrifying thing that looked somewhat like some kind of newfangled medical torture device. Bereck was doing something with it. A less brave man might well have run away.
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Posted: Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:24 am
At the knock Bereck looked up from pumping the bellows; the current sign on the outside of his door said 'knock then enter' so he wasn't surprised when his visitor did. Humm, a watch rider was it? He had wondered when one of them would-
What?
Bereck blinked in confusion. "What's what- Oh!" He looked down at the machine that was now making rather furious hissing and disturbing glurbleling noises. "This?" he gestured towards it and then set his mug down under a nozzle at one end. "It's my klah machine, makes a decently potent brew rather than the water you get by just boiling the bark." The hissing got louder, considerably so, and without even looking Bereck reached over to move a lever which sent steam shooting out of the nozzle over the cup, closely followed by a stream of dark brown liquid. Once the mug was nearly full Bereck lifted the lever again and the stream slowed to a trickle before finally stopping in a short series of drips.
Bereck picked up the mug, blew on the surface and took a sip. "Much better," he muttered mainly to himself with a slight sigh of satisfaction. "In any case," he nudged his glasses back up his nose and nodded to J'car, "you wanted to speak to me? Mmh, have some klah if you want, I can water it down if it's too strong for you."
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Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 7:10 pm
J’car made a dismayed face at the klah machine. He was an adventurous man in may ways, true, but klah was klah. It was hot liquid that came in a pot. Sometimes if he came to the dining hall late and it had been simmering too long, it had kind of a burnt taste to it, and sometimes when days were too hot for hot klah, he was lucky enough to get it iced. But he had never heard of someone doing mysterious klah-machine things to it.
“I… thank you, but no thank you,” he managed. “Already had a cup today, and I’d rather not jitter all over your office.” He placed both hands on the back of a chair and leaned on it slightly, but remained standing for the moment. “I understand that you and your Berath were among those at the Hatching. If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to get your account of what exactly went on there.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:10 am
Bereck shrugged and took another sip of his klah, frowning as he tried to get the order of events sorted out in his mind. "Well it was all... relatively normal until the first grey hatched. It started attacking the candidates, as hatchlings sometimes do, and I went to treat them. Next thing I knew C'ross had shot it. V'tyai and Berath charged over to shout at him... and it was around then that the two yellows hatched, and then the pink." Bereck paused, taking another drink of klah as he got his thoughts back in order. Keep calm and objective as much as possible, he was damned if he was giving this bronze rider an excuse to roll his eyes at a highly strung green rider. To be completely fair however J'car had been decent and respectful thus far.
"Berath called C'ross a murderer, and for a moment or two I thought she and Merceth were going to end up fighting on the sands. Didn't come to that luckily." Berath was a big tough green be he was under no illusions about how such a fight would have turned out. "After that the opal dragon hatched, though I was a little busy treating my apprentice - one of the ones the grey mauled - to notice it. The next major thing I was aware of was the fact that somebody had tried to kill M'onk. A guard and the Murderer Row Secondary took him down and I ran over to see who was bleeding." Shaking his head again Bereck pursed his lips, keeping his sharp eyes trained firmly on J'car for any sign of a reaction to what he was saying. "The would be killer was already dead by the time I arrived, M'onk was unhurt, and another grey hatched. He ordered C'ross to shut it up, and then seemingly half the Sands moved to stop him. He was knocked flat, hit his head, and that's more or less when all of you arrived." Recounting the events of the Hatching felt a little surreal; all of those strange colours, and actions that belonged in a nightmare.
"That's the gist of it anyway," Bereck concluded, "I probably missed details from where I was, but for most of the time I was focused on dealing with my apprentice."
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