Blooded Heart (Dananie's Intro)

Writers: Erin
Date Posted: 22nd January 2007

Characters: Dananie
Description: Dananie finishes caring for a patient and battles a bout of depression
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 3 of Turn 4

Dananie pressed a cool cloth to her eyes to melt the burn of fatigue away.
The young green on the couch beside her had taken a turn for the worse while Dananie had been flying 'Fall yesterday, spiking a fever so high that the journeywoman dragonhealer had not even taken time to bathe after her own Enoiyath landed them directly at the mouth of the dragons' Infirmary.
The fever had abated and the green breathed deeply now; as deeply as her rider likely did in the Infirmary. Dananie had had to have him dosed with fellis not long after stripping off her riding gear and tossing it into a corner. She'd always been grateful for the journeyman Healer's knots she'd been able to earn as a weyrbred girl; but she could no longer treat humans and had had to physically restrain him before he hurt himself, his dragon, or her. She pressed her palm against the dragon's neck. The pulse beat slow and strong, her hide was comfortably warm to the touch. A huge yawn made Dananie's jaw pop.

}: You will sleep now? :{ Enoiyath asked in as close to a plaintive tone as Dananie had ever heard.

**Soon,** she promised mentally, pushing herself up from the chair she had occupied nearly all night long.

}: You care for other dragons. I care for other dragons. You care for me, and I must care for you. :{ "Oh sweetheart," Dananie sighed, rubbing her eyes as she walked to where Enoiyath sat just outside the cavern. Enoiyath dropped her head so Dananie could rub her eyeridges. The green's inner lids drooped in pleasure. "How is it that I deserve you?"

Enoiyath let out a contented breath that blew Dananie's dark ringlet curls away from her face. }: In the same way that I deserve you, :{ she replied.
She opened her eyes fully again. They whirled mostly blue, but some yellow worry clouded the edges. }: You will sleep? :{ "Yes," Dananie replied, then coughed after her voice came out in a croak.
"After I bathe." She realized that she had said nothing out loud since shouting for juice laced with fellis and and watching as the Healer practically forced the rider, nearly out of his mind with worry, to drink it. }: You ache :{ Enoiyath said at the same moment it occurred to Dananie as she raised her arms above her head in a stretch.

"K'lor is a strong man," Dananie replied smoothly. "He was afraid for Granth." She pulled the sleeve of her loose tunic over her shoulder and frowned at the bruises forming. Four fingertips and a thumbtip were obvious. Well, no harm done really, she thought as she let the fabric drop. She couldn't blame him for his fear or his temporary insanity; he'd had cause. Even Enoiyath had shouted at Granth to keep her from slipping away. Dananie gave Enoiyath a final pat and retrieved her gear from the corner. She wrinkled her nose as she shook it out; it stank of sweat, ash and firestone. She would bring it down to the laundry after her bath. Any one of the Wingleaders would have her hide if they knew she'd just tossed her flight equipment into the corner like that. The only thing she hadn't thrown haphazardly were the straps; those she had hung on one of the pegs that were there for the convenience of the patients' riders. She could skimp on her own comfort, but would never skimp on Enoiyath's. She rolled the tension out of her shoulders as she weaved through the hallways. Granth slept on, now under the watchful eye of a journeyman Healer who knew enough basic dragonhealing to know when to call for help. She dropped her riding gear at the laundry on her way to the public bathing room, swiping a clean towel off the cart with a wink and a grin at the middle-aged woman who gave her a half-hearted scold. In some ways, it seemed like yesterday that she had been a weyrbrat drudge, helping the same woman wash and fold the weyrfolks' laundry. In other ways (and here Dananie's smile slipped as she left the room), it seemed like a lifetime ago. She considered herself lucky to have come away unscored from her own Blooding, though she had bled straight from the heart after that first Threadfall of the Pass. She trailed her fingertips along the rough-hewn walls, connecting herself with the stone of River's Bluff. It helped to anchor herself to something physical when that blackness threatened to close over her head. She had been an apprentice, 15 or 16 Turns old, when the riders had flooded the Infirmary, bloody and screaming.
She had never seem so much blood, human red and dragon green; the Interval had rarely produced such devastating wounds, had never produced such prolonged grief across an entire planet.

Someone bumped into her shoulder and her head snapped up. They apologized and nodded; she nodded blankly in return while waiting for her thoughts to become coherent. She shook her head, shedding the depression. Throwing herself into her craft after that had gone a long way to help Dananie keep her head above the depression, and Enoiyath had pulled her the rest of the way out. Still, however, she slipped sometimes, like stepping into a puddle of deceptive depth. She rubbed her eyes again. She really needed that bath, and she really needed to sleep.

Last updated on the January 24th 2007

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Blooded Heart (Dananie's Intro)