It's (not) Fine

Writers: Shawna, Sia
Date Posted: 3rd July 2024

Characters: O'rosin, Cirina
Description: Cirina delivers feast snacks and offers to help with Aeoluth
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 10, day 5 of Turn 11

O'rosin

Cirina bustled into the infirmary on a mission. Walking with a purpose and looking busy kept anyone from questioning or stopping her in most cases, and it worked in this one, too. No one stopped her or questioned what she was doing as she abandoned the festivities for the more somber setting of the infirmary.

“Pst, Obrosin, are you awake? Are you alive? I brought food.”

She was carrying an overloaded tray of food from the Feast.

Obrosin was alive and mostly awake, and entirely bored out of his mind. Aeoluth snored in the corner of the little alcove, looking almost tiny on a couch designed for a much bigger dragon. The brown's exhaustion permeated in corners that Obrosin didn't know existed. His hunger had, too, and Obrosin had hardly felt his own until Cirina mentioned food.

"Awake, alive." He called back, though he double checked that he buttoned up enough buttons on his shirt for propriety's sake. "Thank you, I'm starving. How's the Feast?"

“It’s… you know. Fine.” It would have been much better if she was in a better mood. “So I figured I would just make myself useful and bring you clumsy new weyrlings a snack. Save some for Vytian.” She didn’t know his new name, either.

"I couldn't eat all of this if I tried." Obrosin said, though he reached for a meatroll and popped it into his mouth. "Vytian's here somewhere. It's almost nice that I wasn't the only one that ended up here." He glanced up at her, curious and questioning. "What happened with you? I saw Naradis and Saedyna…"

“And Tirraze. She got a blue. But nothing for me.” Cirina aggressively shoved a pastry into her mouth. She wasn’t even hungry. “So, how bad are you hurt?”

"Oh. I'm sorry." Obrosin said lamely. He remembered being too young to go out on the boats like his brothers and feeling all the worse for it, though he expected it wasn't quite the same. He grabbed another couple of meatrolls. "Healers said I'm lucky Aeoluth didn't go deep enough to really damage anything. I'd be real worse off if those talons had dug in…but I'm all stitched up, so I just gotta layer on the numbweed and try not to move too much."

“‘Try not to move too much’ is going to be a real problem with a baby dragon,” Cirina pointed out carefully. “Do you need help?”

"Please. Would you mind? I don't know who fed him today but I saw Ç'pier with the Weyrlingstaff. And I know that R'ayl kid has his own dragon and did this before, but…" He didn't really want a kid around Aeoluth, not when he was so big and unaware of himself (dangerous, a little part of him supplied). He didn't really want Cirina to get hurt, either, but he didn't have many options.

“I…” she hesitated, just a moment, then said, “yes. I can help. It would be good to keep busy for a few days anyway.” Her voice got more confident as she kept talking, “And I can leave Digger with you or have him check in so I’ll know when you need help. That way… what's his name? Your brown? He won't have to talk to anyone else if he doesn't want to. Of course Ç’pier or R’ayl would have dragons, but I just don't trust, Ç’pier, you know?”

"Yeah, it's not that I don't think they can do it, but R'ayl's only small. And Ç’pier…" He didn't think the guy was dangerous, really, not to him (not like Aeoluth) but he knew having him around meant that the others would stay away, too. "Aeoluth." Obrosin said instead. "His name is Aeoluth. I don't really know about the talking, but Digger alerting you sounds easiest. He's trained to do that?"

“Aeoluth,” Cirina said, committing it to memory. “Yeah, he's a baby. Maybe he'll be a big talker who wouldn't mind calling someone for help, but no sense in pushing him. Digger’s a good boy, just tell him to fetch Cirina and he'll come get me. I use him to fetch me fresh socks all the time.” The firelizard perked up, trilling at her before leaping into the air and disappearing.

“Sometimes a little too eager. He thinks he'll get a treat.”

"Big talker." Obrosin repeated incredulously. He knew the dragons communicated in some way, and that they usually preferred their riders. He hadn't gotten any words from Aeoluth yet, just the intense emotions.

“Sure. Like my brother’s brown, Dasveth, he’ll talk to me directly, but a lot of dragons won’t.” Cirina said patiently. “Aeoluth is welcome to,” she reassured, “but I won’t be offended if he didn’t want to, especially at first.”

"He hasn't spoken to me yet. Panicked at me, mostly." Obrosin said, as Digger reappeared and dropped a rolled up pair of socks into Cirina’s lap.

“Obviously he can't drop me in your lap, but he will fetch me; he knows my name,” Cirina said dryly, offering the little brown the meat out of one of the meat rolls.

"Well, sounds easy enough." Obrosin said. "I owe you big time. The healers were very clear about what would happen if I tore out the stitches."

“You definitely owe me,” Cirina agreed, “I’m expecting rides to every single fun Gather once you guys are free to leave the Weyr. Oh! And you can take me to Dragonsfall to visit my brother. It’s going to be rough for you, how much you’re going to owe me,” she was teasing, and for the first time that evening she had something like her normal grin.

Obrosin's heart sank momentarily. In all the chaos, he'd temporarily forgotten what was going to come next. He still couldn't imagine flying, but they had at least a few months to go before he had to think too hard about that. Instead he tried to match her grin and reached for another meatroll. "Anywhere you want." He agreed. "So, anything else happen at the Feast?"

“Oh, just the usual…” Cirina started a story about a certain Weyr resident always prone to drinking too much at these events.

Last updated on the July 10th 2024

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It's (not) Fine