Never Together, Never Apart
Dragonsfall Weyr
Amber Hills Hold
Vintner Hall
Healer Hall
Hidden Meadows
Dolphin Cove Weyr
Dolphin Hall
Emerald Falls Hold
Harper Hall
Printer Hall
Green Valley Hold
Leeward Lagoon Hold
Barrier Lake Weyr
Sunstone Seahold
Citrus Bay Hold
Writers: Heather
Date Posted: 10th February 2024
Characters: D'erik, K'yne, Saibra
Description: D'erik shows off his skills as a healer while assisting an injured K'yne. And where K'yne is, Saibra's there, too.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 1, day 26 of Turn 11
Notes: Mentioned: Erivana
"You have got to be kidding me," K'yne barked to himself, cradling his right hand while hastily wrapping a rag around it with his left.
}:Do I need to call someone?:{ Arinoth questioned, a tinge of worry laced in his tone.
K'yne closed his eyes for a moment, holding his hand up to his chest above his heart as he inhaled and exhaled slowly through his nose.
**No, I've got it. I can walk myself to the infirmary.**
The brownrider pushed to his feet, wobbling for a second against a rush of dizziness and nausea.
Gritting his teeth, reminding himself to breathe, K'yne forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, even though his head felt oddly detached from his body as he walked.
Blood dripped from his right hand, leaving a little trail behind him as he entered the infirmary. Shards, how hot was it in the infirmary? He was sweating profusely.
A familiar face was seated behind the main desk.
"K'yne?" the familiar bluerider's voice echoed around in his brain as his vision began to blur at the edges.
"I need some help up here!" D'erik shouted over his shoulder as he raced around the front desk. He should have moved faster, but he hadn't expected the Wingsecond to just pass out like that.
Some of the other healer staff came scurrying from the back. It took four of them to lift the tall brownrider and carry him over to an examination table.
Lifting K'yne's right hand, D'erik hissed through his teeth. "Yikes."
"What's going on here?" The unexpected voice of the Weyrwoman made the healers gathered around K'yne freeze. "His Arinoth was alarmed when he lost consciousness," Saibra explained, even as the other part of her brain listened to Chioneth calming the brown.
"He just came in, Weyrwoman. We're assessing him now," D'erik said without stopping. "But it looks like... he might lose this thumb."
Saibra brushed aside one of the healers so she could get a better look. What she saw made her jaw clench. K'yne's right thumb was barely there, bone showed through the cleanly sliced cut.
"Well, D'erik, it's time for you to prove you're as good as you say." Her blue eyes were hard as flint. "I'm going to go see to his dragon. He'd better have a usable thumb when you update me on his condition later."
D'erik didn't look at her, he was already gently cleaning the wound. While younger, less experienced healers or dragonriders might have cowered under the Weyrwoman's order, he was familiar with the bluster of Weyrleaders and Weyrwomen. He understood it made them feel better to deal out threats when a situation was out of their control.
"I'll update you as soon as I am finished," he said softly. The healer's eyes were focused on the tray of tools another healer had set up beside him.
Out in the weyrbowl, Arinoth was anxiously taking up space in front of the entrance to the infirmary. Chioneth sat beside him, wings demurely folded against her back, her tail stroking the brown's soothingly.
"What happened, Arinoth?" Saibra asked, standing in front of him. She'd known Arinoth and his rider for most of her life. Having been weyrmated to K'yne's brother had linked them together forever.
}:He was working with those animal skin things that he does in that little room in our weyr.:{ Arinoth said, although he hadn't really been paying his rider any mind at the time, since K'yne was often in his workroom.
Saibra's eyes slid shut. His workroom? K'yne had been a part of the tannercraft before Impression. She wondered what kind of tool he'd been using to nearly cut his thumb off. And she wondered where his head had been for something like this to have happened.
"He's going to be fine, Arinoth," she reached up and placed a hand on the brown's snout. "The pain must have made him pass out. The healers are working on his hand right now. They'll keep him asleep until they're finished."
--
It was dark, but it wasn't quiet. Not exactly. There were soft sounds of footsteps, the telltale ring of a curtain being drawn, and the murmur of voices nearby.
}:You're awake.:{ Arinoth's relieved voice flooded into his mind, along with a rush of emotions that washed over K'yne comfortingly.
**Where...**
"Hey," the husky, familiar voice of a certain woman made him wince.
"Ugh," he groaned, his head feeling wooly. "It must be bad if you're here."
"Tell me about it," she replied. "There I was, enjoying a nice dinner, and then Chioneth felt Arinoth's panic."
K'yne rolled his head to the left, looking at Saibra's face, half-hidden in the dim light of the Weyr's infirmary. This was their familiar dance. Pushed apart, drawn back together, over and over again.
As he studied the glitter of her eyes, the set of her full lips, his brain began doing an inventory of his body. He felt so... heavy... and his hand...
"Oh, feck," he hissed, face scrunching. It was on fire and throbbed in time with his pulse.
Saibra stood, pushing the curtains aside. "D'erik," she called.
The bluerider appeared less than a second later, a bottle in his hand. "Here we go, for the pain," he instructed, pouring the liquid into a tiny cup.
Out of instinct, K'yne tried to use his right hand to take the cup, but it was trapped in a sling against his chest.
Saibra's hand slid to the back of K'yne's head, helping him raise a bit as D'erik held the cup to his lips.
The fellis tasted awful.
"What happened?" K'yne asked, trying to dig through his muddled memories.
D'erik's arms folded over his chest. "You walked into the infimary, bleeding everywhere I should add, with your hand wrapped in a rag. You passed out. When we got you to the bed and looked at your hand, your thumb was barely there. Cut down to the bone."
The brownrider sank back into the pillow again, but Saibra's hand remained nearby, idly stroking the top of his blonde hair.
"What were you doing?" D'erik asked. "The cut was clean at least. It made the repair work easier than it would have been otherwise."
"I was working on a piece of hide with my fleshing knife," K'yne said, the memories now revived in his mind's eye.
D'erik and Saibra winced in unison, both imagining what it must have been like when the blade sliced into his hand.
"Well, you're lucky I was on duty." The bluerider wiggled his fingers. "These hands saved your thumb. It'll be unusable for a while, so prepare to use your left hand quite a bit. Once everything heals we'll get you in for some physical therapy with it. After not using it for a while it's going to be stiffer than a bronzerider's...." he trailed off as he remembered that the Weyrwoman was standing on the other side of the bed. "Well, it's going to need some exercising."
K'yne could already feel the fellis making his body feel heavy and warm again.
Saibra exchanged a glance with D'erik, who nodded. "I'll check back in on you in a bit," he patted the brownrider's knee through the sheet and then turned and left, closing the curtain again behind him.
"What were you doing? Really?" Saibra asked, looking down K'yne and trying not to see her former weyrmate's face.
"Like I said, I was usin' the fleshin' knife..." he slurred softly. He really couldn't remember much about what had been going through his mind. He'd been working on the leather hide with the knife one minute, and sitting there staring at the bone in his hand the next.
Her lips pursed but Saibra refrained from any more scolding. Instead, she kept her hands busy, straightening the sheet that lay over him, tucking it in smartly around his hips.
"Get some rest. I'll check on you in the morning."
"'smy night with Keriv," he mumbled.
"I'll let his foster mother know," Saibra assured him. She watched his eyelids finally close and his breathing deepen as sleep claimed him again.
In another life, they would have been perfect for each other. There was a sliver of her heart that would always love him, despite also hating him sometimes. And she knew a part of him loved her still, even though he'd moved on enough to find himself heartbroken by Erivana.
They would never be together but they would never be apart either.
Last updated on the February 10th 2024