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 Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 8:42 am
"....Hnnng.."
A muffled groan could be heard from a ball of blankets upon a bed. Underneath the blankets, the young Qyprenna was curled, and it was clear that she wasn't feeling well. Every day, as the masterhealer had instructed, she had been in to get the wound on her eye cleaned and taken care of. Up until that point, things had been going fairly well. Things seemed normal, but today was different. Something was off, and the young weyrling could tell that it wasn't good. Bereck was not going to be pleased, probably. Aside from troublesome, it would just end up being more work for him, and that was the last thing she wanted to be -- a grievance.
'Dear one,' came Catoth's voice, gentle and clearly concerned, 'are you alright?'
When the brown hatchling spoke out, the bundle of blankets rustled.
"...N-...not really, I don't think."
Qyprenna's response was soft, barely audible, but the brown didn't have a problem. After hearing his lifemate's response, Catoth found himself drooping some. His eyes, which were usually an ivy green color, wavered and flickered to a worried yellow. this was accompanied by a whine. In an attempt to help the young woman, the hatchling extended his head out, grasped the blankets in his maw, and gave them a gentle tug.
'Come along, Qyprenna,' he went on to say, trying to help his rider as best he could, 'let's get you to Bereck. He'll know what to do.'
Not wanting to get out of her bed, but knowing fully well that Catoth was right, Qyp relented. With as much energy as she could muster, she pushed herself out of her bed and stood. She then moved to the mirror, straightened out her uniform, and frowned tiredly. She was running a fever, at least, that much was sure; she could tell from the sweat beaded along her brow. Great -- just great -- this is exactly what she needed.
With a wave of her hand, Qyp beckoned Catoth to follow. The dragon didn't miss a beat, and scuttled alongside her as the pair of them walked to the healer's. He wanted to be right there at her side, in case anything happened, like the dutiful brown that he was.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 9:03 am
The entrance to the infirmary was a small chamber with a few chairs and a table, behind which a couple of apprentices were busying themselves by testing one another's knowledge of anatomy* but when Qyprenna arrived they quickly set aside their slates of notes.
"Hullo, you here to see Master Bereck Weyrling?" asked one, a tall umber skinned youth of about Qyprenna's own age. His query had apparently been rhetorical for he soon continued with; "Come on through, I'll take you to one of the examination rooms while Henna fetches the Master." As an afterthought the young man added; "You look awful," proving that perhaps he needed to revise his 'bedside manner' lessons too, though plenty of healers never really excelled at that one.
The door the apprentice took Qyprenna through led into a corridor and, after passing a few doors, he came to a halt outside one which bore a plaque declaring 'Examination room 1'. Below that there was a little sliding wooden sign with currently showed 'Vacant'. The apprentice slid it across so that it read 'Occupied' instead, opened it, and started to uncover glows. "Please take a seat," he said, indicating the bed to Qyprenna, "His Nibs will be along shortly... uh, please don't tell him I called him that." _____ *As in revising, not as in 'testing one another's knowledge of anatomy' in a storage cupboard as a couple had been the previous sevenday. Those apprentices, caught in the midst of 'applying their knowledge' by Bereck, were currently cleaning the latrines. Separately.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 9:13 am
Normally, Qyprenna would have chatted and mingled with the assistants that took her in and got her ready to see the healer. She enjoyed talking with them, finding out how they were doing, what they were studying, gossip and the like. Today, however, she didn't feel up to talking at all, let commenting on the remark he said when he saw her. Instead, she just kept quiet, while listening as Catoth spoke to her within her mind.
'You know what's awful -- his way of handling patients. Telling someone they look awful, puh! Talk about rude.'
She couldn't help but crack the faintest of smiles when her dragon prattled on. If there was one thing that she loved about Catoth, it was his honesty. She, herself, probably wouldn't have said such things out loud, but she could count on him to express himself openly, without fear of what others thought. To show him who was who, the brown was tempted to n** at his heels, but he decided against it. He curled up beside the bed, rather than doing that, and Qyprenna sat down on it carefully.
"...Thank you.." was all she could muster, followed by a "...don't worry, I won't."
She trailed off into silence, after that, sighing heavily and reaching down to stroke Catoth's headnubs. At least she had him by her side; that was more than enough.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 9:31 am
Only a couple of moments later the door opened again and a green firelizard swooped in closely followed by Bereck and the other apprentice, the latter holding a tray of supplies. Once she had put them down on the little table by the bed Bereck waved a hand at the pair of them. "Alright, you can go, back to studying."
Once the apprentices had departed and closed the door behind them Bereck turned to Qyprenna, looked her up and down, and frowned. "Mmmh." She didn't look well at all, and a knot of worry started to twist in the pit of his stomach. "Alright let's take a look at you then," the healer continued, brisk and businesslike as usual as he cleaned his hands and forearms. "How do you feel today?"
As her human worked and talked the slightly scarred green firelizard alighted on the end of the bed and settled down to nibble at an itch on her left forefoot.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 9:40 am
"Not well," she replied, curtly and honestly, which was rather out of character for her. Perhaps she was channeling a bit of her dragon when she said that to him, but he had asked, and she felt that today wasn't really the day to dawdle when it came to answers. Qyprenna turned her attention to the firelizard at the end of the bed, who she watched with an intent gaze. She was a cute thing, and although she wasn't as snuggly as Aorta, it was good to see that she was with Bereck.
"My right eye really hurts, and my left his been watering a bunch. I think the other one has been, too, but you told me not to touch it." She then paused, closing her good eye and sighing to try and relax. "Light also really bugs me now. Everything is too bright. It's hard to be outside or even indoors if the lights are particularly vibrant."
As his rider talked with the healer, Catoth watched the firelizard as Qyprenna had. When he grew bored of that, he then reached out with his mind to speak to Berath, in order to pass the time. 'Good morning, Berath,' he said courteously. 'We're visiting your rider again. Qyprenna doesn't seem to be doing well. Hopefully, the healer can help, though. It's his job, after all.'
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 9:55 am
Shaff.
The worry knot got tighter, colder.
"I see." Bereck turned back to his patient and lent down to inspect her face. "Fever as well?" he asked as he studied her left eye intently, it was a little reddened. "Have you eaten or touched anything unusual?" A minor allergic reaction could cause the irritation to her eye... but not the fever or the sensitivity to light.
As he waited for a response Bereck started to remove the dressings from Qyprenna's right eye, the gentle movements of his hands rather contrasting with his level voice.
Berath greeted in return, sending the feeling of a reassuring nudge along with her words. But he was worried, and becoming more worried the more he thought. Unable to do anything else of use she sent a wave of reassurance to her bondmate too, she for one had every confidence in his abilities.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:07 am
'I'm sure he will. He is very knowledgable. He wouldn't be a master if he wasn't.'
All Qyprenna could do after she was peppered with questions was shake her head. Since the incident, she had done her best to do exactly as Bereck had told her. She was in to his office every morning, right after she had gotten up. She also didn't touch her injured eye whatsoever, as difficult as that was. It had been watering frequently, and she often had the urge to rub it, but she fought back that desire. Touching it would have just made things worse, she knew. The last thing she wanted to do was irritate this injury any further, as it was already a rather precarious one.
"No, sir," she went on to tell him, looking at him directly with her left eye. In hopes of getting better faster, Qyprenna had eaten plenty of fruits and vegetables and had made sure to take in as much fluids as she could. She had even asked the healers which specific ones might benefit her, and made an effort to eat those, predominately. "I've been as good as I can. Lots of fluids, along with fruits and vegetables. Nothing strange for me."
The young weyrling studied the masterhealer after this and a frown tugged at her lips. He did not seem impressed, and she could tell that he was probably worried about her. Just how bad was this thing getting, exactly?
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 10:34 am
Underneath the dressings the wound was not pretty, and though he remained outwardly calm Bereck was getting really worried now. The injury hadn't been great the day before but now it was angry red and far more swollen, the eye itself was red too and watery like the left.
This was something he hadn't seen before, the uninjured eye reacting like that. Why was that happening and what did it mean? Had he heard of something like this before? He couldn't recall.
"I see, good, well done," Bereck muttered eventually, his brows pulling together in a frown as he started to carefully clean the wound. He had a solution of honey and milk to bathe the right eye, he supposed he would just have to do the left as well in the interim while he did some research. "I'll bathe your left eye as well today then," he said aloud, "I want you to rest completely today, you can stay here if you don't think you'll get much peace in the barracks, wherever you'll be most comfortable. I'll see to it that food is sent for Catoth too. I'll bathe you eyes at around lunchtime and again in the evening. If you feel like you're getting worse- Catoth, would you contact Berath? I'll come right away."
He hadn't seen this before. Bereck was worried by that as much as the symptoms themselves, it wasn't all that often that he ran into things he'd never seen before these days. A gap in his knowledge was disturbing, deeply disturbing.
Berath agreed and it was true but unfortunately, and much to HerHealer's consternation, he was not all-knowing. she said to her bondmate alone, and though she tried to be reassuring she could tell that he was not comforted by her words.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:01 pm
Resting sounded nice, in all honesty. Frankly, all Qyprenna wanted to do after this was done was curl up under a blanket, as she was when Catoth had checked on her. As he spoke about bathing her eye, the weyrling took care to watch the healer as he examined things. She wanted to see if any of his mannerisms or body language gave away at how worried or serious it was. When she couldn't tell, she sighed, shrugged some, and decided it was probably just best to just ask outright.
"Be honest, sir -- how bad is it, and what do you think is wrong?"
At his bondmate's concern, Catoth couldn't help but squirm a little in unease as well. He whimpered this time, moving to jump up on the bed to sit by Qyprenna's side, rather than on the ground. 'The Masterhealer will take good care of you, dear one,' he said to try and calm her, 'his dragon reassures me.' After saying this to his lifemate, he then reached out to the green once more. 'What happens if my dear one is not ok? What if she cannot perform as the other riders. What will I do then? What did you do?' The little dragon had all of these questions and more. Although he didn't want his rider to know, he was a bit worried, too.
This could end up being really difficult not just for her, but for the pair of them together, depending on how things went.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:18 pm
She'd had to go and ask, hadn't she?
Bereck sighed faintly and met the girl's eyes directly, he couldn't lie to her even by omission. "I don't know." It was a hard thing to admit but impossible to deny. "You right eye, the condition of that isn't unusual, but I can't explain why your left eye seems to be having a sympathetic reaction. I intend to find out however, there will be something in one of my books or failing that I can consult the archives at Healer Hall." This must have happened to somebody before. Maybe it was nothing much to worry about, a minor irritation that just happened to coincide with her injury. Maybe. Somehow he didn't believe any of that even for a moment.
He felt Catoth's question to Berath and turned away from Qyprenna to pick up the honey mixture; already her dragon was thinking about the possibility of this damaging her permanently.
He was so young, so very young to be considering such serious matters but there was no escaping it she supposed. she said after a brief pause. What could she say to reassure the hatchling? Not a great deal really, not a great deal at all. will find out what is going on.>
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:29 pm
That didn't sound good.
That didn't sound good at all.
Then again, what could she do? It's not like she could command her body to do otherwise. It was going to do what it was going to do, and she was going to have to live with it, whatever the outcome. Ever the optimist, however, Qyprenna still clung to the tiniest sliver of hope that Bereck would find something. Surely there had to be something about this sort of thing in his books. He was bound to have hundreds of them, so it was probably hidden in there somewhere. And once he found it, he would help her and she would be ok, just like others he had helped.
"...Ok," was all she said in response to his words. After that, she grew quiet, and waited for him to take care of her injured eye with the mixture that would cleanse it.
Catoth listened with deep interest as Bareth explained the various duties that she did. None of them sounded so bad, really. They sounded like things that he could probably do, eventually, if need be. Flying in a combat heavy wing wasn't something that he thought he'd be particularly good at, anyway. He was more the brain of things, rather than the brawn. 'He will, and I will find something to make myself useful, I am sure. Best to be realistic in cases like this, in case it takes a turn for the worst.' Others might be in denial about such matters, or overly optimistic, but not the brown.
He had to be a realist; that way, he would be ready for anything.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:44 pm
He wasn't really very good at comforting people, not people he didn't know anyway. Oh he could do reassuring, that was no problem, but it was a different beast entirely to comforting. Bereck bathed both of Qyprenna's eyes, careful to avoid cross contamination, and started to dress her wound again as he tried to think of something to say. Don't worry, you might lose your vision or die or something but you'll make a fascinating case study!
"I will try to have an answer for you by the evening," Bereck said eventually. "I know uncertainty is difficult." He hated it more than nearly anything else. Lack of knowledge was lack of power, of control, and he hated not being in control. "If we're going to head out to the Hall I will ask Berath to let Catoth know, and make sure there is somebody assigned to check in on you in my absence." Time, time, time! There never was enough of it.... Was is possible to go back in time? It was possible to come forward so he saw no reason why not. Now was hardly the time to be experimenting however, or wasting his time thinking about ways to make more time! He would just have to use the time he did have efficiently, delegate the day's tasks to his subordinates, and focus.
said Berath, sending a mental croon and nuzzle too.
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Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2014 2:56 pm
Qyprenna nodded at what he told her, taking all the information in as well as her fever-addled mind would allow. Once he was done cleaning and dressing her eye, she then allowed herself to lie back on the bed and curl up with the blankets. He was working very hard to make sure she was well and taken care of, and that meant a lot -- more than she had said verbally. He was very, very kind. Even if he wasn't good at comforting his patients, she knew that he cared very deeply. He wouldn't have worked so hard if he didn't.
"Thank you, masterhealer, for everything..."
When the weyrling settled in to the examination room after her eye was cleaned, so, too, did Catoth. He nuzzled his rider affectionately, though his eyes still remained a soft shade of yellow. At Berath's crooning and nuzzling, the little hatchling cooed and responded with a mental nuzzle of his own in return. The green was doing well to make sure he was comforted as well. It was something a mother would do, he thought. Both the masterhealer and his dragon were well suited for this line of work, the brown thought.
'If anything happens to her, I will let you know. Thank you for everything. We will rest now.'
With that, both the rider and the dragon allowed themselves to drift off for a time, as all this news had been a lot to take in. It was a highly welcomed rest from the pair of them.
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