[PRP] Hearts stop (V'gar & Y'qua)

[Hattaki]

As if it hadn't been bad enough that they had ripped their own shoulder out of it's socket, dislocated it right in front of their Wingleader, K'ienn. As if it wasn't bad enough that poor Ngawanth had been put down by a nasty threadscore, courtesy of a clump of thread that had managed to wrap around that leg so well even going Between hadn't managed to crack it off, leaving her with what would surely become a permanent limp now despite how well they tended it. As if wingmates and clutchmates falling all around them hadn't been enough over the past two weeks...

Y'qua and Heimdath. If it had to be anyone on all of Pern, why them?

It had been a few days since Ngawanth's leg had been wounded and with the bandages and salve the pair were able to get her back up to her own comfortable weyrledge so she could relax away from all the other dragons pain and suffering, which hadn't seemed to do her very good. While the long green was fairly laid back and understanding of wounds and the need for death and the cycles of life, that didn't mean that she needed to look it in the face when she was healing. In fact it wasn't her own desire to leave so much as V'gar had leaned on her until she agreed to go and relax so she would heal better, her health their only interest. But it had sparked a slight discord between the two of them when the unthinkable had happened, when the terrible had happened. For if she hadn't gone back up to the ledge and if V'gar hadn't applied numbweed just when they had, she would have been there for her sister.

Unlike the turn previous when the stringy rider had found their best friend laying ill on the ground and raced them with Nga to the healers, V'gar was left running down the halls themself and cursing every slow step that they took, not nearly as fast as their twisting green. But that didn't even matter now, for Y'qua's name was banging around in their head along with alarm bells and fear so great that every step was like sinking into darkness. Ngawanth had been in a snappish enough mood that she hadn't told them what happened, instead focused fully on the other green to reach out gently.

All the worse, for she rarely ever showed any type of behavior like this, only when she was in the most pain or fear herself and given her feelings it only made sense. Still, it didn't do anything to ease V'gar's nerves as they skidded to a halt just before the entrance to the healers, a dozen or more different scenarios and wounds running through their mind. One finger reached up to trace down one of the many scars on their own face and served as a sort of deep wish that Y'qua hadn't suffered the same. Not Y'qua who's own expressions could make their heart skip a beat, or two.

Slowly they crept in, careful not to bother any that looked as though they were seriously and maybe even mortally injured in their movements or with any sound they might make as they cursed themselves. There were Healers around, but they were with riders and workers and to bother them would be the height of disrespect most likely, so instead they simply pulled back curtains gently and peaked for a familiar face, over and over past faces asleep and bandaged and irritated and... so many injured. These threadfalls had been terrible the past few weeks but this was terrible. If this was the extent of damage... what would Y'qua be...

There were only a few curtains left to pull back at last and when the thought ran through V'gar's mind they ripped the next curtain open and nearly fell in on themselves out of relief that it was indeed who they were looking for. Eyebrows pulled tight in concern, the rider slumped to the chair beside Y'qua's cot and tried to find words to even speak or to shake them awake or something, anything, but it was as if their throat had bound up tight. Instead they simply opted to cover their face with their hands, not at all worthy enough to even consider rousing up the sweet boy laying on the cot before them from sheer terror.

Prism Shine

 

[Prism Shine]

Threadfall had gotten progressively worse as the weeks had gone on. Where they thought that they were ready, they were prepared--they were not. No one ever truly was. Nothing could have given it away--no odd feelings, no bad omens. It was just another bad fall that would take the pair out of the sky. One minute they were snapping between, the comfort of darkness to ease away the burn on Heimdath’s foreleg--the next, where there had been clear air a moment ago had brought them in thread’s direct path. It had eaten away at her tail, burning into her backleg and up her back, nipped at her wingsails. The belch of fire from above had heat sear into the greenrider, had Y’qua roaring through both their pain to take them between again, but it was fuzzy. They’d stayed longer than they should have, had scared the pair beyond the moans and aches that they would never see the sun again, would never see ...

It wasn’t half as scary as the drop as Heimdath failed to be able to keep aloft, her wings and tail too damaged to properly fly.

Y’qua, fuzzy from his drowning consciousness, only recalled the pit of his stomach dropping out as darkness overtook him. His last flash was a golden hide catching them both.

It was likely a blessing from the queens that he even woke to a darker infirmary room at all.

His head still spun, even as the various sounds and senses hit him. His face hurt, the dull ache of burns beneath bandages that was mostly dulled by salve. His body was cold--immensely cold. Unnatural in a way that he almost worried that he and Heimdath were still lost in the void of Between. Yet he hears the droaning buzz of the infirmary. Patients, healers, the various soft noises of dragons. He’s safe.

Heimdath…?

Terror runs through his veins, chilling him worse than he can imagine. The unparalleled fear at the potential loss of his beloved scares him more than opening his eyes to see the damage to himself. To lose his sweet girl was a fear unlike he had ever known, and he was loathe to potentially admit that their quiet bond was due to . . .

Heimdath? Sweetheart…? It was a mustering of all his courage to reach across the quiet bond, but the relief was like liquid gold in his veins as he felt her. She was quiet, pained--possibly felis-laced for her injuries. Yet she was there--and when he gave a soft mental push of affection, he could have cried when she pushed back.

Which only left… Himself.

Slowly, Y’qua started opening his eyes, unfocused until the roof became more firm above him. He blinks, slow, methodical as he takes stock. It's hard to do as his body is so cold. Yet he moves fingers and toes that he can--and realizes that he can’t see them move because there’s quite a few blankets piled on top of him. Bandages cover part of his right eye, but he can still see out of it -- looks like his goggles saved his eyesight, thankfully. Slowly, his head starts to turn to take stock of the room -- and lands squarely on a familiar form.

V’gar.

It’s a slow process to worm his way into sitting up a touch, fishing an arm, a hand out of the blanket -- he’s still cold, he can see it in the deep purple of his nail beds. Yet he’s scared, worried his best friend is hurt--that V’gar thinks the worst. A hand shakily slips over their knee, squeezing gently as he tried to call their attention. “H-hey,” His voice is so raspy and soft that Y’qua almost doesn’t recognize himself. Yet he just squeezes his best friend’s knee gently, worry overpowering the normal flutter of feelings that such an intimate touch might bring. “C’mon.. ‘M okay….”

So cold…..

Hattaki

 

[Hattaki]

With their hands over their face it was hard to know that Y'qua had actually begun to awaken, impossible even. Maybe under the crushing weight of their own concern and with the weight of all their fears of losing him, it was making everything that had happened seem about ten times worse, but it always was that way when someone they cared about was hurt or sick. V'gar tried very hard to play at the fact that they didn't entirely care about anything and the generally disinterested look on their face certainly helped that, but certain individuals cracked that facade. For turns since everything had taken place, they'd hidden the more fragile parts away from anyone that might reach for them, but against their better judgement, Y'qua had taken them all without likely realizing that he was.

And they'd given it over just as easily.

Hand on their knee, the raspiest of voices trying to reassure them, V'gar's heart began to chip and crack. He was alive, Y'qua was alive, that much they needed to keep reminding themselves as the worst hadn't exactly happened but it loomed on the horizon, a constant reminder of that being their own dragon's outlook on death. But it... it was Y'qua. Without speaking, V'gar reached down and pulled the hand on their knee into their own, brushing their palms against the man's paler skin gently as if to warm it up. Thank goodness he was under so many blankets, but that wouldn't have been good either, as it was just compressing things.

Or maybe that was a help, as they themselves had found things like that to be useful over the turns. Gently they brought the hand up to their face and rested their forehead against it, back bowed a bit, braids dangling loosely out of their normally thick knot.

He's alive, you have no reason to mourn the living. Ngawanth stated simply, far away, her voice still grumpy from her own pain and the displeasure of being unable to help her sister or any of her other clutch siblings that had fallen. You celebrate everything, celebrate his survival, the rising of his chest. It means he breathes, it means you still have a chance.

Clearing their throat against their dragon's own words, a blush rising to darken already dark cheeks, V'gar lifted their face and pressed a kiss into the center of Y'qua's palm. "You're not okay." their voice cracked a bit as they spoke. Betrayal flooded through them but they pushed past it and coughed as if to cover the fluctuation up. "But you're alive, how's that feel?" There would be time enough in the future, hopefully, to delve into everything that was going on with them internally but their focus was entirely the blonde laying on the cot before them. "Sometimes life sucks as a rider. This is one of those moments they warned us about, right? Why'd it have to happen to you?"

Of course, they didn't want it to happen to anyone at all, but that was the truth that they'd been taught as candidates and weyrlings, that this day might come, that even worse would be on the horizon with thread falling. Especially as greenriders, looked down on by some on metallics as fodder for the front lines. Not all, but enough had told them that in the short time since their graduation that V'gar had rankled a bit at it, only to find that situation on their own weyrstep. It is life on Pern now. Well I don't have to enjoy it.

Slowly they slid Y'qua's arm back under the blankets, noticing the bumps rising on his skin and letting their dark eyebrows knit together in concern as they did so.

Prism Shine