[PRP] Doctor Doctor, Give Me the News [V'rind/Dristan]

[ShinosBee]

"...He's got a bad case of post-flight blues," The stern, cross-armed woman finished, sarcasm writ clear in her voice as she all but tapped her foot at the pouting but massive blue dragon that had managed the flight down to the dragonhealer's weyr just fine, though this whole thing had started with him complaining of a lingering ache for days following Uridith's flight. In all honesty she'd been humoring the blue, but as she could feel no ache through their bond and they were beginning to earn disapproving looks (again) from their wingleader...well. If he was going to pout like a hatchling then she would just let the dragonhealer set him straight.

"Honestly he does this every time he loses a chase. So any time any gold rises at all." She huffed as she rolled her eyes and shifted her hands to her broad hips as she gave Dristan a look that read 'you really do not have to play along with his nonsense'. "Not the pulled wing thing, but some tantrum like this. Thank Faranth it was a bronze in the end that had her. He'd be acting like dragon plague was back as well as thread if it was that brown that got so close."

Across the weyr on the ledge the blue creeled pitifully, though his orange irritated eyes spoke the truth, and showed no real hint of pain. His tail lashed like an angry feline's and V'rind had to snap, "Hey!" to keep it from whipling several items and a small table to the ground that were unfortunately in range. "I just want to get him back in the air and out of my hair." And maybe a bit of her was worried, as any rider would be, that there WAS something. Better to be sure...and to shut the moping blue up in thebprocess if at all possible.

Fated Fable

 

[Fated Fable]

This was not the first time that someone had brought their dragon to him on such charges. Nor, indeed, was it the first time that someone had brought their dragon to him on account of Uridith's recent Flight. Had Dristan not possessed substantial sympathy for dragons in general he might have snorted a little. However, as he began to examine his charge, he realized something that it seemed even the dragon had overlooked. Given the way the dragon was unconsciously favoring a wing, he had a suspicion that there was more to the matter than first it had seemed.

Stepping forward, Dristan shook his head. "While I am certain that that is all quite true, I think he hasn't taken notice of his injury yet. Krahsujunth, will you please stretch out your left wing? Carefully, now. I want to see how far you can open it." There was room in his weyr, thankfully, for the Blue to do as he had bade. "He's favoring it a little, and while the frustration of losing seems to have clouded all else, I suspect there may be a bit of an issue here." Something that they'd have to work at. Thankfully, if it came to it, he did know how to proceed if that was the problem.

ShinosBee

 

[ShinosBee]

The look V'rind gave to Dristan as he began inspecting her blue was almost judgemental, humorously suffering of his indulgence. Beyond him she regarded Krahsujunth almost smugly, certain he'd be set straight and she could then scold him for wasting a healer's time (as the blue would never apologize for the loss of her own alone) and they could all of them move on.

Only when the blue complied, shifting to untuck his left wing and spreading it, did her mood shift. It opened easily enough, the translucent membranes casting a wash of false storm clouds overhead as it reached. No pain, no tightness...and then at the very peak, almost over-stretched in fact, though well within the range of movement a determined dragon would make to pound at top speed through the air--a twinge and rush of tightness that felt almost sour. Never one to cower, the blue held his wing as it was, and in a moment the ache faded to a dull 'wrongness', and V'rind swore.

"Crackdust Krahsujunth! You wanted her that badly? You weren't even close!" She swatted at the blue's flank, and its head curved around to growl menacingly at her. At least they both seemed to still be in their usual spirits, as they descended into mental quarreling.

Fated Fable

 

[Fated Fable]

Dristan waited patiently for V'rind to discover that he had not, in fact, been humoring the Blue. When finally Krahsujunth extended his wing fully the dragonhealer shook his head slightly. "Has anyone ever told you the story of the boy who cried wolf? An old Earth parable, one that has since been re-imagined as the boy who cried Thread. Krahsujunth, the boy who cried Thread gave false reports of Threadfall so many times that when finally he was caught out in Thread no one answered his cries. The boy died." Sometimes his job involved healing, and sometimes it seemed to involve playing the part of counselor. "You are the boy. Your rider did not believe that you were hurt because you have behaved this way every time that you have lost a Gold Flight. And while I am sympathetic to your feelings, even you did not believe that you were hurt. It's something to think about."

He began to putter around his weyr, collecting the necessary tools that would help with the Blue's affliction. Granted, it was unlikely that he needed much beyond a warm soak for that wing and perhaps the application of numbweed. On a human or similarly sized patient he would have recommended a hands-on massage. For a dragon, to get the ache out of the over extended muscle more creative means were necessary. "Do not use ice on the wing. It will only make the muscles more tense, which will cause more pain. Numbweed or a warm soak will be sufficient. And that wing needs rest. So don't expect to return to drills right away." Which, of course, was precisely what the dragon and rider both had seemed inclined to do.

ShinosBee

 

[ShinosBee]

Krahsujunth all but ignored the scolding of the dragonhealer, still locked up in his mental battle for dominance with his rider. Dristan wasn't a dragon, didn't understand the pull of a gold in flight. And didn't understand the constant feeling of being scorned just because his skin happened to be murky blue and not deep brown. He was just as large as some of them, so why was it so ridiculous to think he'd want to do the same things and be capable? Other males, he was sure, were hurting today, but their riders didn't make a fuss or drag them to the healers. And sure, maybe he'd 'cried wolf' before, but hey! He was ticked! And the real issue was obviously him being slighted, not his behavior.

V'rind, for her part, was livid. The stupid blue didn't realize that of all things he was the one that mattered to her, and that she already through the world of him, and who gave a wher's claw if he never caught a gold? Neither had any other blue, and shards, if him being the first meant that he got hurt, well, then let the records go unchanged! She slapped the dragon's flank again and turned with a scowl to Dristan. "A warm soak, but don't bother with the numbweed. Maybe a little ache will teach him a lesson." The blue growled again, and she made a frankly obscene gesture at him without even bothering to look. It wasn't at all that she didn't care for the dragon, their relationship was just one of constant combat as well as constant love.

"No drills, huh. Probably for the best. I know at least one other in the wing tried for the gold and with my luck he'd try to make an issue of it." Another snarl. "You know you would, shut up! ...Honestly Dristan. Sometime I think you're better off without a dragon." At that the blue reached out, taking the end of V'rind's braid in his teeth and tugging it perhaps a bit harder than was necessary.

Fated Fable

 

[Fated Fable]

The dragonhealer went silent for a long moment. He had been preparing medicine for Krahsujunth, but at V'rind's words he set it down. Very well. He would not provide the Blue with anything to abate the soreness. At her last sentence, his hands closed unconsciously into fists. Sometime I think you're better off without a dragon. A faint, forced smile crossed his lips. He did not meet her gaze. The silence dragged out longer still, until he swallowed, slowly. "I expect that Krahsujunth will be well enough provided that you stretch the wing out and work it back up to strength." Rather than address the dragon directly this time, as it was evidently a poor moment for that, he simply kept his phrasing as neutral as possible. If his tone evinced any emotion, it was not for lack of trying. "Make sure to soak the wing once a day, minimum."

ShinosBee

 

[ShinosBee]

The blue and his rider were so caught up in their own squabbles to notice the uncomfortable silence that had settled in the dragonhealer's weyr. For them, of course, it was still quite noisy, filled with the mental battle of insults between them, and so Dristan's discomfort went unnoticed and unremarked upon. Even if it had been brought to V'rind's attention, the idea that her words had caused it would not have, nor would she have known how to respond. Emotions and subtlety were not her strong points at all.

His instructions did penetrate their conversation though, and the rider turned to offer a genuine, if still somewhat distracted and displeased (though not at him!) smile for his advice. "We'll be sure to do that. I'll advise the wingleader of the situation," And here her words seemed half meant as a jab at the still-grumbling blue, "To make sure he stays clear of the sky for now. Thankfully none of the other golds should be due to rise soon, so he'll have time to get himself to rights before he makes a fool of himself again."

Still oblivious to Dristan's inner feelings and thoughts, she clapped the dragonhealer on the shoulder, giving him a light, friendly shake. "Well, I suppose I can't be too upset that he's made me come see you since there was something after all. Hopefully we won't be getting up in your hair again any time soon though." She vaulted easily up onto the blue's neck, and though he still rumbled sourly, the dragon obliged her. He paused to give a huff of breath at Dristan before twisting about for the ledge, V'rind's scolding reminder to just glide down to their own ledge and no fancy flapping about following them along the way out.

Fated Fable

 

[Fated Fable]

As the dragon and rider left, Dristan felt all the more the fool. Here he was gathering wool, and for what? His feelings regarding his own failure were only getting in the way. What did a dragonrider care for such things? His personal, private drama and silliness was... petty, unimportant. He tucked it away, retrieving his dignity from where it had fallen somewhere on the floor. It hurt to let go of dreams. It always did. But as that dream flew away, he gathered his tools back up together and began to clean them. If he could be nothing else, let him be useful. V'rind and Krahsujunth would continue their bickering, no doubt. Someone else would inevitably require his attention. He bent over his work, a frown of concentration between his thick, heavy brows.

ShinosBee