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Harper's Tale - Saturday, June 29, 2002, 7:41 AM
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Infirmary
Echoing and austere, blank stone walls are vaulted high to overshadow the row of white-curtained cots along the back wall. Ancient metal gleams steel-bright in the form of sinks and examination table, lit relentlessly by bright glows and reflecting the colours of bottles and jars shelved above. Padlocked cabinets hide the more dangerous drugs and implements, whilst healer paraphernalia litters one solid oak table with sweetly-fragranced herbs and tattered scrolls. A small hearth contains a fire usually banked low, several cauldrons set ready nearby to for heating water. A dark staircase twists up from one corner to the dragonhealer's lair; one low door leads into the lower caverns, another to weyrhealers' quarters. Barn-sized doors open inwards with creak of hinges from the ground weyr.
Comfortable on top of a cupboard are ten firelizards.
You see examination area here.
Khena is here.
Obvious exits:
Ground Weyrs     Inner Caverns     Healers' Quarters

"Well, just give me my /other/ boot, then," Khena says to a healer apprentice who's looking rather apprehensive about letting the rider go without permission from a journeyman. "But.. But, ma'am... If you'll just," he starts, getting cut off as the brownrider stands from the cut, reaching for the crutches laying on the floor beside it, "d'you want me to go barefoot?" she asks, staring down at the ten inch shorter boy.

Wyn slips into the Infirmary with a promising package smelling of bakerish goodies tucked under one arm. The petite bluerider settles to a quiet halt to watch the scene between Khena and Healer, a touch of wicked amusement settled on her lips. Some sense of communion with the apprentice lad however, convinces her to interject "Making an escape, Khena? Prob'ly better to terrify one of the ranking Healers than him... They'll only hunt you down again later if you don't."

Khena is staring at you again. Perhaps she needs therapy?

Khena's viscious stare is interrupted by Wyn's entrance, the rider breaking eyecontact with the apprentice who abrubtly runs off, looking over his shoulder. "Oh, hello Wyn.. Well, I can't stay here forever, y'know?" Khena says, grinning crookedly at the bluerider. "Too noisy.. And the /smell/.. 'sides, I'll be much better off in my weyr, and I won't be keeping a cot occupied here." Lifting a shoulder in a shrug, the brownrider seems to notice the package brought by her new wingmate. "Breakfast?"

Mission accomplished. Wyn gives the fleeing apprentice a touch of a fey wink, before giving Khena a quick smile that would be replaced by a grin on any other face but Wyn's. "Breakfast of a sort," she agrees, handing over the package. "Although don't let the Healers catch sight of these, or they'll confiscate them for themselves." Wyn knows these things. Wyn used to /do/ such things. "But you want my advice, just humour them, then make them miserable by having run errands, and they'll kick you out on their own, still thinking they've won." she notes, expression solemn.

Khena leans on one crutch, letting the other fall clattering to the floor, not caring about the noise as she accepts the delivery from Wyn. "Thanks Wyn," she says, eyes going from the package to the bluerider. Letting out a slight sigh, the brownrider sits back down on the cot, placing the package next to her and patting the surface with a hand, offering the new Mudslider a seat. "We'll share. They already gave me some bread and cheese, but this smells much better."

Wyn sits accordingly, one of her standard perching movements with ankles side by side and her hands folded precisely on her lap as she gives another little smile. "You're most welcome," she assures. "I've managed to avoid being an overnight guest in an Infirmary so far, but I've worked enough shifts here in the past to know that the food and the lack of company are the primary complaints. So, how are you holding up?"

Opening the package, Khena hands one pastry to the bluerider offering a smile along with it. "I'm okay.. The healers seem to think otherwise, though. They want me to stay a few days more," she says, fingering a pastry with delicious-looking cream inside. "I might as well have a free-pass for this place. I've spent a lot of hours in here... I was a guard 'fore I impressed, y'know?" Taking a bite of the pastry, she gives Wyn a sad look, quickly replaced by a light twinkle in her eye, though. "I guess I should be used to coming here, eh?"

Wyn nibbles on her pastry, now looking more mouselike than birdlike with the movement, and somehow managing to avoid getting pastry flakes on the comforter even as the treat is avidly eaten. Another sign that Wyn's not entirely human, no doubt. "I was a Healer trainee before I Impressed," she allows with a slight nostalgic look. "So I can say that they're probably just being cautious. A lot of times, you'll let a patient go when /they/ feel up to it, only to have them collapse twelve steps outside the Infirmary door, so caution is a virtue. No matter how irritating it is to the /patient/." she admits, before tilting her head. "Do you miss it? Guarding, that is."

Khena nods slightly, listening to Wyn's explanaition on healers and their patients. "Maybe I'll humour them and stay another day..." she mumbles, a few crumbs falling from the corners of her mouth. Eyes glazing over for a moment, she grins crookedly again, slowly re-focusing on the bluerider, "Mneoth's happy about it. He says it'll do me good to have someone care for me." Wiping her fingers in her trousers, she gives a shrug of the shoulders, while a frown forms on her face, "I dunno.. Sometimes I find myself acting as though I'm still a guard, y'know... Breaking up fights and such.. But I'd never trade Mneoth for /anything/!"

Wyn offers a quiet laugh. "They /do/ seem inordinately pleased when that happens, don't they?" she hazards. "Or at least Vorkoroth agrees with your Mneoth on the subject of lifemates needing to be fussed over." She then tilts her head again and continues to munch the pastry. "I don't think a one of us would. But... I also don't think that anyone ever completely forgets their past history and training, simply because of Impression. Holdfolk all think it makes you a completely different person, but that's a lot of rot. I'm still the same Wyn, you're still the same Khena... just with some additions and modifications." A crooked quality now tinges her smile. "Heh. And on that topic, my old Mindhealer training appears to be trying to poke out. Do tell me to shut up when I ramble?"

Khena chuckles, lifting another pasty from the package and devouring it in just a couple of bites, not caring about crumbs falling on shirt and trousers. "That's okay," she says, licking her fingers and then wiping them in a clean part of her shirt. "You're not half as bad as /some/ people I know." Offering Wyn the last pastry, she lifts an eyebrow looking pointedly at the bluerider, "so.. D'you like Mudslide, then? P'rru treating you alright? Not too many dawn-sweep?"

Wyn takes the pastry and breaks it in half, offering the other side to Khena with a "I tend not to eat much, mornings," of explanation before giving a firm nod, her mouth occupied with the snack. A swallow later, she nods again. "Oh, very much so." she assures. "I'm really convinced that I'm going to make myself a home with you all. And P'rru is wonderful. I'm sure he'd be fair to me even if he /weren't/ trying to convince my Da to let him know where he gets his wine." she winks. "And actually I haven't a single dawn sweep. Lorsalia favours them, apparently. Although I might get a crack at them, should she get stuck nursing her hand."

Khena h'mms, stuffing the half-pastry in her mouth, chewing while giving Wyn a smile. Waving at an infirmary assistant, the brownrider manages to have some klah brought over and washes down the breakfast with a healthy swallow of the warm liquid. "S'nor used to give me 'n Mneoth dawn sweeps when we were first tapped.." she explains, replenishing her klah, letting a shrug roll over her shoudler, "at least I'm on good terms with P'rru and he let's us have the dusk sweeps."

"You like dusk, then?" hazards Wyn, finishing her own bit of breakfast and licking off her fingertips. "I actually have to manage to corner P'rru and get my official times assigned to me. Was going to do it this morning, but I saw Tatia making for his weyr, and after the rather amusing incident last morning in the Caverns, I decided I'd best not keep her waiting."

"Tatia...? Going to P'rru's?" Pausing for a moment, Khena sits quietly to let that sink in until Wyn's second statement makes it to her conscious mind, "What incident?" Blinking slowly, the brownrider turns to tilt her head at the bluerider, one eyebrow going up in a questioning expression. "I didn't hear of any.. Incident..."

Wyn arches a bemused eyebrow. "Really? Would've thought it would've made it to Weyr gossip by now. But yes, the incident. Ike apparently lost a bet the other night, which entailed him having to finish a bottle of Tillek retsina by himself. So I arrived in the caverns yesterday morning to find a drunk Sii'kyn, a crabby Tatia, and a K'nex... being himself. Sii'kyn pondered whether Tatia was so cranky because she hadn't had anyone warming her bed in a while, and the long and the short of it is that he managed to stagger over and inquire when the last 'piece of ass' she'd had had been. I'm rather amazed she didn't kill him." she allows dryly. "But I /do/ think she was headed to P'rru this morning to rat on him."

Khena's eyebrows raise higher and higher with Wyn's recount of the 'incident' and her mouth opens a little as if to say something but comes up short. Lifting her mug, she buys a little time to think while sipping klah. "I'd have decked him if he'd said something like that to me," she finally notes, setting the mug down on her thigh, a grin forming on her lips. "And he said that to /Tatia/?! It /is/ surprising he's still alive..." Chuckling, the brownrider shakes her head, trying to think what sort of punishment the wingleader will come up with for the new Mudslider. "P'rru won't be happy..."

Wyn nods sagely. "He's a good man, my clutchmate is, but he really has absolutely no /sense/, some times. Although possibly he thought he was safe, as she wasn't proddy at the time." she theorizes, maintaining her bland air a bit, even though it's apparent that the second of the two new mudders is enjoying herself hugely. "D'ye suppose he might just leave Ike to Tatia's tender mercies?"

Thankfully Khena no longer has klah in her mouth or she might have spluttered it all over Wyn. "I should hope not," she says, eyes growing wide with just a tint of amusement hinted in the gray-green. "I wouldn't dare to guess what she might do to the poor man." Draining the last klah, she grins at the bluerider over the rim, looking in a much better mood now, than when Wyn had arrived. "Let's just hope P'rru'll come up with something that'll satisfy Tatia, eh?"

Wyn has a slightly mischievous look in storm grey eyes. "I wouldn't either... but I bet it would be sharding amusing to see," she notes, before twitching one corner of her mouth and sweeping a hand in a gesture at the Infirmary. "Perhaps you ought to hang about here longer, in case Ike gets carried in... But I have full faith in our illustrious Wingleader's ingenuity."

Khena chuckles, shaking her head, "maybe it'd be better if I was around to officiate," she says, making a fist of one hand, "I /do/ have guard training, y'know? I haven't forgotten what I've learned. Maybe I could help him if Tatia gets /too/... Um.. Agressive." Shrugging, she loosens her hand again, wrapping it around a knee, lacing the fingers with those of her other hand. "I'm sure it'll all be worked out without greater injury, though.. S'long as Tat isn't proddy...." she adds as an afterthought.

"Quite right, I'm sure," she agrees. "And even a proddy Tatia isn't... /totally/ irrational. Granted, she gave me a black eye last time, but I was slightly deserving of it." And Wyn will not delve into that incident further, preferring to muse on Sii'kyn's downfall instead. "Hum. I suppose she might make him her personal drudge for a week."

Khena nods, "s'long as poor Sik doesn't end up in here. It's bad enough we had two of us injured in Fall yesterday," she says, motioning toward her foot with a disgusted grimace flickering over her face, "we don't need another rider in here because he got on Tatia's bad side... Have you seen Lors, by the way? How's she doing?"

Wyn shrugs. "I doubt he will. Mental torture is always far more fun in any case. But Lorsalia... She looked to be doing all right. Made it back to her weyr safely, and allowed me to take a look at her hand, in any case. But you were there for that, so." A nod. "Right. In any case, she shouldn't be out for more than a sevenday or so, although naturally it's P'rru's call as to when she's back on duty." A slight compression of her lips. "There were quite a few scored yesterday, weren't there?"

"Aye.. 'Twas a bad Fall," Khena says, her face becoming serious as she glances around the infirmary. "That Istan green'll have to stay here a while until she's healed too... " Letting out a sigh, she attempts to flash a smile at Wyn as she scoots back toward the head of the cot to lean against the headboard. "P'rru tends to be overprotective of his riders, y'know.. So even if Lors is ready to get back on duty in a sevenday, more than likely she won't be for two." Leaning her head back, she watches the ceiling for a while, then looks back down at Wyn, "I'll probably be off duty for at least four sevenday as it is..."

Wyn offers a wry nod, before a quiet laugh escapes at the brownrider's estimation of P'rru. "I've rather noticed that. The Wing Parent, is P'rru. I suppose you could always take a small vacation?" she hazards, before snapping her fingers suddenly. "Ah. I bet you /that/ is what P'rru will do. Make Sii'kyn take up the slack with you and Lorsalia out."

Khena frowns, the prospect of vacationing not something she'd look forward to. Especially not with Lorsalia. "I think I'll just stay in my weyr," she says, suddenly seeming to remember something. "Ohh nooo.. I've a visitor stuck there, 'less someone got her down," she notes to Wyn, running a hand over her face before scrambling out of the cot again. Glancing around the Infirmary for lurking apprentices or journeymen, she deeps the place clear for an escape and bends to get her crutches, "help me get out to Mneoth, will you, Wyn.. Naylia'll be going out of her mind up there..."

Wyn blinks. "A visitor... Stuck? Oh dear." And the bluerider casts her own furtive glance around the infirmary, before stooping to pick up Khena's crutches and hand them to her. "Right. Just so... probably easier to just cut through the ground weyrs and out," she thorizes, offering a shoulder for the much-taller Khena to lean on.