Welcome Tour

Writers: Estelle, Heather
Date Posted: 25th February 2020

Characters: R'fal, Rasme
Description: R'fal shows Rasme around the dragon infirmary.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 1 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: Y'gel

Rasme

R'fal had heard a little about being apprenticed to the healers and the
dragonhealers from the friends he'd made at the Weyr, but he still
hadn't anticipated the sheer amount that there was to learn. Every spare
moment seemed to be spent copying, and memorising, and then copying
again, until he all but saw lists of herbs and remedies in his sleep.
Sometimes he wished he could. That would be better than some of the
dreams he'd been having lately.

He yawned and rolled up the hide he'd been working on, realising with a
touch of guilt that he was too late for lunch. **I've been studying, it
doesn't count.**

As he got up to put the hide back on the shelf, he saw a woman he didn't
recognize entering the dragonhealers' infirmary. He could tell she was a
rider, though, from the way she moved, confident and fit, even before he
saw the gold in her knots. R'fal blinked. He'd thought he knew all the
Weyr's goldriders. Was she a visitor?

"Good day, ma'am," he said, politely. "Are you looking for the
Weyrdragonhealer?"

Rasme swiveled towards the voice. The hard part of losing the vision in
her left eye was that it had taken her peripheral view from her. When
her solitary blue eye landed on the source of the question, the corners
of her mouth twitched a bit. A young brownrider.

"Yes," she confirmed, extending her hand toward the boy. "I am Rasme of
Piketh, and you are?"

"Oh, I'm R'fal. My dragon is Marlath." He took her hand, sounding
slightly surprised that she'd be interested in his name. "I'm an
apprentice here. I think Master Y'gel might be at lunch, and I'm not
sure if he's on duty this afternoon, but I could go and find the
journeyman if you want. I think he went to check on Sivannath, she's a
green who got scored last Fall."

Rasme waved her hand to dismiss those suggestions. "I'll catch up with
Master Y'gel and there's no need to disturb the journeyman. Unless you
have other duties assigned to you at the moment, perhaps you could show
me about the infirmary?"

"Yes, of course. I'm not allowed in the stores where the herbs are kept
on my own, but I can show you the classroom and where the instruments
and the dressings are, and the couches for the injured dragons." It had
suddenly dawned on R'fal that she had dragonhealer's knots, too, and if
she wasn't here just to meet with the Weyrdragonhealer then - perhaps he
was one of the first to meet a new goldrider!

"This is where all the dragonhealing texts are kept. The ones for
apprentices are up here." He slid the rolled-up hide back into its place
at the top left. "I only started here a few months ago, so I haven't
read many yet."

Rasme surveyed everything as she was shown around by R'fal. She had to
admit that the Dolphin Cove dragon infirmary was neat, and organized,
meaning that Master Y'gel ran a tight ship. She liked that. "Why did you
choose dragonhealing, R'fal?" she asked in a light, conversational tone
as she pulled one of the hides designated for upper journeymen and
glanced over it to see what sort of information Dolphin Cove was keeping
archived.

"I - uh..." The young man glanced down at his boots, embarrassed. "Well,
I had to help out in the Infirmary for a while, when I was a weyrling. I
got in trouble, and the Weyrlingmaster assigned me to help the healers
in my free time. Then one day, the Master Dragonhealer needed help with
an injured dragon, just to carry supplies, so they sent me and..."

For a moment, the tension evident in his face cleared and he looked less
tired than he had before, remembering. "He was a bronze, and he'd was
hurt and afraid. Master Y'gel and Aughashyth calmed him, and cleaned and
stitched his wound, and when it was done he let me ask questions, and
come back the next day to see that it was healing. So, after I'd
graduated and got used to being in the Wings - I wanted to learn how to
do something like that."

Rasme remembered getting in trouble a few times herself when she had
been R'fal's age. "It sounds like your punishment ended up being a
positive experience, then. Being a dragonhealer is the most admirable of
crafts," the goldrider said, her expression softening a bit as she
glanced at the brownrider. "Although, I suppose I am a bit biased in that."

"Maybe - but I think so too. It's the only craft where Marlath can be a
full partner to me, talking to the dragons who are hurt, calming them or
even catching them when they fall. Though that hasn't happened yet,"
R'fal said hastily. He was only an apprentice, and fortunately there
hadn't been any injuries so serious that Marlath's aid had been needed.
"Ma'am, if I may ask - what made _you_ choose it? Dragonhealing, I mean."

"I almost didn't," Rasme admitted. "I really loved my harper classes,
and I had made up my mind to apprentice with the harpers. The
Weyrdragonhealer, however, noticed something in me, I had chores in the
dragon infirmary on occasion, and he talked me into apprenticing with
the dragohealers instead. I am very glad he did."

A shy smile emerged on R'fal's rather serious face. It sounded as though
she'd had a similar experience to his, apart from the part about the
harpers. He'd never have dared think himself clever enough to join their
craft.

"The classrooms are through here," he said, continuing the tour. "The
junior apprentice classes are in the morning, twice a sevenday before
wing drills. I guess you'll be teaching as well, Goldrider?"

"I assume so, although I guess that is up to Master Y'gel and what he
needs." As a senior journeywoman, Rasme had taught her fair share of
classes, but she also enjoyed her time in research. "Do you enjoy
classes, or do you like it better when you're getting a more hands-on
experience?" she asked.

"Hands-on," R'fal said immediately, then looked rather abashed by his
own enthusiasm. "I mean - not that I don't like classes, and I certainly
don't like to see dragons hurt, but practicing with Marlath is the best
part."

"I've always been the opposite," Rasme confessed. "Maybe it's because I
wanted to be a harper. I really enjoy the classes, reading the old
hides, researching techniques and methods. I was able to do almost
exclusively that during the Interval," there weren't a lot of dragon
injuries without Threadfall, "but once the Pass started, everything
mostly became hands-on."

"It must have been hard." R'fal thought for a moment of what that must
have been like, going from the quiet of studies and the classroom to the
intense aftermath of Fall, the smells of char and ash, ichor and redwort
and the cries of scored dragons, and those who were unharmed but
panicking over injured riders. "I'm only a junior apprentice so I fly
with my wing through Threadfall, but I've helped afterwards, cleaning
up, once I've seen to Marlath." He wondered sometimes what it would be
like when he learned enough to assist during Fall itself, and whether
he'd cope.

He led the way back from the classrooms towards the area where the
injured dragons' couches were. It was relatively peaceful at the moment,
with one blue curled up fast asleep, his right wing supported by
splints, and two greens, one having a wound to her back examined by the
journeyman on duty while his own dragon watched. "That's Sivannath over
there with Journeyman P'galin treating her, and the blue is Drolgath.
I've heard he's healing well and should be out of here next sevenday."

Rasme studied the way the couches were built to house the injured
dragons and the central hub in the middle that supplied the
dragonhealers with quick access to medical equipment. It was an
efficient set up. She was particularly interested in the support system
that had been built, the stints, that kept the blue's wing lifted while
it healed. Wing injuries were a particular interest of the goldrider's.
"Excellent," she said, sensing that this was the end of the tour. "Thank
you for showing me around, R'fal, I appreciate it."

"It's no trouble, ma'am." The young man's smile lit his face, and he
seemed to relax properly for the first time. "Welcome to Dolphin Cove
Weyr. I hope you and Piketh like it here."

Last updated on the May 31st 2020

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