How Bad Is It?

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 25th October 2020

Characters: Riveenata, C'rin, Xehanis
Description: Riveenata wakes after her accident.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 20 of Turn 10
Notes: Mentioned: K'lvin, Rasme
belated because of Avery LOA

C'rin

C'rin sat by Riveenata's side, eyes studying the peaceful countenance of her face. One of his hands held one of hers, his thumb tracing the back of it. He could not quit thinking of how close he had come to losing her.

Riveenata became aware of several things as she drifted to wakefulness. One was that she felt like her body was under heavy pressure, like she was pinned or struggling - but it also felt floating and disconnected and slightly alien. The second was that as her eyes blinked open, the ceiling wasn't that of her weyr.

The third was the pressure of Savith crowding into her mind to greet her, as intense as it had been at Impression, or during flights. }:You'rebackyou'rebackyou'reback!:{ she was crying over and over again.

**Savith? Wha?**

}:You were gone and now you're back,:{ along with waves of affection and need and desperation, was the emotional conveyance that the green provided, unable to cohere her thoughts much beyond that.

She opened her mouth to try to say something but it was parched, dry, her tongue heavy, and all she could do was make strange noises.

"She's awake," C'rin called through the curtain to alert a healer. "Hang on, I'll get you some water," he said to Riveenata, reaching for the cup beside of her bed and holding it helpfully to her lips.

She felt the cool stone of the cup and the water flowing into her mouth, and she was able to lift her head a bit from the pillow, though it felt leaden, twice its weight, and took a small sip. The water moistened her parch lips and she began sucking it down greedily, then coughing. It was a little too much, too fast.

Her head dropped back to the pillow to look up at the ceiling, though her eyes turned to the side to track who had offered her the water as best she could. C'rin was there. With her. And it was...not their weyrs...the Infirmary?

"Why - where?" she asked him.

"You are in the infirmary, you had an injury during Threadfall. You had surgery so that's why you feel so groggy." C'rin explained.

}:You were out for so long. I was terrified.:{ Savith had been kept calm by Piketh for a long time, with assistance from Xmrenth while he was there, until Riveenata had transitioned from the unconsciousness of shock and then the fellis-drugged sleep into natural sleep and the green could feel for herself that her rider was not Gone. But even then, the green had been unnerved and restless, and she had preferred to stay on the Rim close to dragons she knew. She'd been pressed against Dasveth for quite some time, as her last mate.

"Oh." She blinked up at him, her mind still dazed.

Xehanis came in the door and nodded at C'rin. "Brownrider, how are you?" he greeted.

He stepped into Riveenata's sightline and looked down at her. "How are you feeling?"

She licked her lips. "Floaty. Cold. Confused."

"That's natural with severe injuries and shock and coming out of fellis. But you're one of us, you know that," he said, reassuringly.

Riveenata nodded. She'd worked shifts with Xehanis before.

"I'm going to take off the blanket, look over your injuries, and tell you about them." And he did that, taking the blanket off her chest and folding it down to the waist to reveal her form. She was shirtless underneath it, with bandages covering her left side from neck to shoulder to breast to part of the abdomen. There was a smell of the herbs of the poultice underneath it, and a deep brownish-red stain on the bandage over the breast. Her skin was quite pale compared to normal.

As the blanket was lowered and revealed the bandaging, C'rin felt his stomach twist a bit, and his eyes fluttered upward as he took in a deep breath to steady himself. The smell of the herbs and even the faint smell that accompanied the bandages, made him feel a little lightheaded. He was a harper, not a healer, he wasn't cut out for this sort of thing.

"I want to see," the greenrider said, trying to sit up, but found it difficult. She could feel her hands pressed against the fabric of the bed and she could push down, but her left felt weaker than her right and she only raised herself part of the way before pain bloomed through her chest and abdomen and she laid back down. She scrunched her eyes shut against the pain.

Xehanis looked at C'rin, keeping his expression neutral. "Help me set pillows up behind her so we can sit her up so she can see."

C'rin nodded at Xehanis' instructions, but the brownrider's normally bronze complexion was a shade paler as he mimicked Xehanis, supporting Riveenata's left side as they slid the pillows up to bolster her.

"Good lad, thank you very much. You can come back in when I've talked to her," he said.

"No, please, he can stay. I don't mind him hearing," she interjected.

"You'd like the comfort, eh?" The Healer studied his patient, then looked over to the brownrider. "If you feel faint overhearing anything, feel free to step outside," he said.

"I'll be fine," C'rin insisted with a nod of his head. He was sure if K'lvin was here the bronzrider would have no trouble standing by Riveenata's side.

While the men talked, Riveenata took a peek down at herself. It pulled at her neck to do so and she hissed in pain. Oh, feck, it hurt. She saw a wide swath of bandages covering her side and chest and realized how bad it must be. It explained a lot of the disconnected feeling, as well. They'd given her so much fellis to keep her under but it must be wearing off. She couldn't imagine what it was going to feel like when it came back in full feeling.

Xehanis acknowledged the lad's bravery with a nod, then spoke to his patient. "Look at me, and I'll model myself."

She nodded and lifted her head to look at the Healer.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked.

"Not really." Pain. /Between/. Cold. Her fingers on her undamaged right hand twitched.

"You /betweened/ back very low and plunged into the Weyrlake. Had to be pulled out by gold Piketh."

"I don't remember that." She swallowed. "How bad?"

"The clump landed on your shoulder, just where your knots would be or a firelizard would perch. Pieces of Thread struck out from there, lashing the back of your shoulder blade, down your chest, and a small bit caught your collarbone and neck, that's why the pain moving it." He used his hand to indicate on himself. "The good news is, none of the Thread got into your ribcage or organs."

Her eyes were fluttering, but she managed, "Longterm damage?"

"Too early to tell. You know there's a lot of nerves, tendons, and muscles in the shoulder complex, and we'll have to see how damaged they were. You'll need rehabilitation, for sure."

"The arm?" she mumbled, eyes closed and head tilting backwards onto the pillow.

"You're not going to lose it," Xehanis said. **Not yet,** he added in his head.

After a moment, he looked at C'rin. "Can you step out and request a journeyman? We'll clean the wounds and change the bandages while she sleeps. Then you can come back in and sit with her. Or perhaps you'll summon her family," he suggested.

C'rin was tight-lipped from Xehanis' demonstration, and from Riveenata's obvious fatigue. It was much worse than he had feared. **Dasveth?**

}:Yes?:{

**I need you to send word to Xmrenth that Riveenata has been awake.** Even though C'rin viewed K'lvin as the person that stood between him and Riveenata, he couldn't in good faith let the man go unaware.

"Yes, sir," C'rin told Xehanis, giving Riveenata's good hand a gentle squeeze before departing.

Xehanis watched C'rin go. There was something going on between the brownrider and the greenrider, he suspected. She'd never talked of a weyrmate in shifts, but the tenderness with which he viewed her, the way she'd sought his remaining, it seemed clear to him.

Last updated on the October 27th 2020

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