Some Little Girls

Writers: Kaysea, Vix
Date Posted: 18th April 2007

Characters: Taia
Description: Taia is asked to help solve a child's allergy problem.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 3, day 12 of Turn 4

"Tink needs help, very badly." The little girl had planted herself in front of the Beasthealer in the dining cavern and did not appear to be willing to take no for an answer.

Taia looked down at the child and tried hard to keep the smile from her face. The attitude! That's what it was, so familiar, because Taia could picture herself at the same approximate age, with the same attitude. "And who's Tink?" she asked, schooling both her voice and her expression to one of strict obedience and concern.

"My kitty, of course." She placed one hand on her hip and sighed heavily at the end of the statement, a pose that was common for her mother when dealing with recalcitrant four-turn-olds.

"Oh, your kitty, she's not well?" Taia asked, leaning forward, her hand clasping her chin firmly, her elbow resting forcefully on her knee. Taia was trying to inflict as much discomfort on herself as possible, to stem the laughter she felt bubbling inside her, at the child's posturing. "Would you like me to come and look at her?"

Another sigh as the child threw out her hands and glanced skyward. "If you don't look at her, how will you know what's wrong?" Drisha turned and stalked off, stopping to glance back at the woman. "Well? Are you coming?"

Taia gave the most unladylike snort, as she stumbled forward after the child. Had her mother given birth to another daughter and no one had told her she had a new sibling? Her eyes watered from holding back the laughter, but she calmed herself a little as she followed the child, considering that maybe the kitten _was_ ill? She really shouldn't have been distracted by the child's attitude, and considered instead, what the child had said.

The little girl led the way confidently through hallways, working her way lower into the caverns and stopping at a closed door. "My mum isn't here right now, but Tink is inside. Don't let her out." She turned the knob on the door and opened it only far enough to quickly ease her own body in.

Taia slipped in behind the child, and saw at once the small kitten, probably only a month or so old. A small bundle of black and white fluff, that gamboled across the floor. Taia couldn't see anything that was obviously, physically wrong with the kitten, so waited expectantly to hear what the child thought.

Drisha glanced from the beasthealer to the kitten and back again. "Are you going to look at her?" The child's eyes filled with tears. "If you don't fix her, my mum might make me give her away."

"Yes, yes.." Taia walked forward a pace and found the kitten pouncing on her boots. "I'll look at her, but -" how should she phrase things so a child might understand, "why don't you tell me what _you_ think is wrong?" she asked, bending and picking up the fluffball that was determinedly attacking her boot. What had made the child think her mother would give the kitten away - maybe the woman didn't want the added responsibility a kitten would impose.

Again the girl sighed heavily, though this time accompanied by frustrated tears. "She makes my little brother sneeze."

"Oh...sweetheart." Taia felt herself beginning to melt as the child's eyes filled with tears. Holding the kitten in her hands, she looked from the child back to the feline. "Your brother sneezes around the kitty?"

"All of the time - he sneezes and his nose gets all snotty and Mum says it's because of Tink." The girl reached out and stroked the animal's fur, staring at the beast mournfully. "Please? Can you help her?"

"Well sweetheart, it's not really Tink's fault that your brother sneezes, but its not your brothers either. I think we may need to talk to your mummy first, but I think I may be able to help a little. Is that okay?"

Drisha bit her lip, holding back the tears. "You'll fix it so that I'll be able to keep her?"

"Maybe, sweetheart, maybe." Taia nodded, her fingers were crooked around the now comfortably sleeping kitten, whose purring was sending vibrations through her hands. She looked down at the child, "Come on, let's go and find your mother, shall we?"

The girl nodded solemnly. "She's helping in the kitchen right now." Her expression changed suddenly. "I was supposed to stay close by."

"Oh, I see." Taia stopped stroking the kitten, she didn't want to help the child disobey her mother, but she also didn't want the child worrying, maybe needlessly. "I'll tell you what we'll do ....." she stopped for a moment, realising that in all the time they had been together she didn't know what the child's name was. All the weyrbrats tended to be grouped together, and even though she knew a few by name, this one she didn't. "Tell me, what is your name?"

The girl looked at her as if she could not believe that the woman did not know that information. "I'm Drisha."

The attitude was getting to be a little disconcerting, Taia wondered if she behaved this way around her mother, but chose to ignore it for the moment. "Alright Drisha, let's go and find your mummy, ok? And we'll see what we can do about this little fella."

Drisha again nodded. "Should we take him with us or leave him here? Mum might be angry if we take him into the kitchens."

"No, we'll leave her here, and we'll come back up here with your mummy once she has finished her work in the kitchens." Taia dropped the kitten into the little basket she presumed was the kitten's temporary bed. "Let's go!" she took Drisha's hand and led her to the door. The kitten hadn't wakened and lay fast asleep where Taia had placed her.

The girl glanced back at the kitten but accompanied the woman trustingly. She looked up at the beasthealer, biting her lower lip. "I didn't bother you, did I? Mum says that I'm not to bother grown-ups when they're at work."

"No, you didn't bother me. I had finished my meal, and was about to go back to my work, you just brought my work to me, instead." Taia smiled down at the child, "It's alright, I will explain to your mum." She gave the child's hand a small squeeze in reassurance.

Though the woman's words were reassuring, Drisha's expression did not change as they made their way back through the corridors to the kitchen.

"There you are!" A young woman with the same eyes as the child and an even more worried expression ran toward them, falling to her knees and embracing the child. "Drisha, I was so worried." She held the child away from her, addressing the girl in exasperation. "I asked you to stay here and to help with the little ones. I need you to do as I say so that I'll know that you're safe." She drew the child to her in another desperate hug, though her eyes went to the beasthealer. "Thank you for bringing her here. I hope she wasn't in any trouble?"

"Oh no!" Taia was quick to jump to the child's defence. "She wasn't any trouble at all, except to you, it seems." Taia smiled from mother to daughter. "She just... she's a little concerned about how her new kitten is affecting her brother. I'm sorry if her absence worried you, it was...my fault, I'm afraid."

The distraught mother shoved her hair back from her face with one hand and sighed. "I know she's attached to the animal, but I committed to taking in foster children. Unfortunately, the kitten isn't agreeing with one of them and I've been trying to help her see that the animal would probably be better off elsewhere."

"Oh," Taia's face fell almost as quickly as she saw Drisha's had. "I'm sorry to hear that, because, well I did think I might be able to help you all out. There might be a way that Drisha could keep the kitten, but if you've already decided..."

"There's a way?" The other woman looked confused, but shook her head as if to clear it. "I thought I had two choices. I could either keep the kitten and have a fosterchild who was miserable through constant sneezing and eyes watering or I could get rid of the kitten and make my own daughter miserable. Neither sounds good to me, but I thought maybe since we hadn't had the kitten for long Drisha would get over it and I'd try to make it up to her some other way. It's not what I wanted to do but what I thought I had to do."

"Do you have time, now, to sit and we'll go through some possible solutions?" Taia asked, grateful that the woman wasn't completely set on getting rid of the feline.

"I've been helping in the kitchen, but most is prepared for the next meal." The woman turned to the child. "Drisha, please check on the other children for me. You promised that you'd help look after them, remember?"

The girl nodded sulkily and slouched to an area of the kitchens where several children played quietly.

The woman watched her go before turning back to the beasthealer. "I really want to keep the kitten. I thought that having it would help to calm her and give her a sense of responsibility, but figured that it just hadn't worked out."

"I think she may have started on the road to responsibility.." Taia smiled, remembering the girls approach earlier, and the earnest entreaty to help cure the feline. "Anyway, let's see if I can't help you both out, okay?" She turned and walked across to one of the tables, "Let's sit, and I'll give you an outline of what we need to do."

With a quick glance back to Drisha and her other charges, the young mother followed the craftswoman. "Are you certain that you have time for this? After all, you probably have more important things to do."

"I'm a beast healer, this _is_ my work." Taia smiled reassuringly at the woman. "Now, first off I need to know just _how_ severe the child's allergy is to the feline? It's most important, because if it to the point where he truly can't breathe, then I'm afraid anything we may try will be useless, and cause the child more discomfort. So, on a scale of one to ten, one being mild and ten - the worst, how would you rate his reaction to the feline?"

The woman sighed. "I suppose it isn't that serious of a reaction - probably a three or four. But I'm a fostermother and when a child continually has a runny nose, I feel as if I'm not doing my job properly. Of course, it doesn't help that he wants to follow the kitten around whenever we're in our rooms either."

"Well you've relieved my mind a little, I must say." Taia smiled encouragingly. "I think I can reduce that to maybe a sniffle on a cold day." She pulled her seat a little closer to the table. "And Drisha can have the responsibility of making sure the chore is done daily, too. How does that sound?"

Drisha's mother nodded. "I'll do whatever needs to be done if this can be solved so that I don't have to make my daughter unhappy."

"Well to start with, Drisha will need to dry bathe the feline daily, it's a chore, but the kitten is still young enough that she will accept it without a struggle. If the animal was any older I would be less inclined to suggest Drisha do it herself." Taia watched for any sign of negativity from the woman, but sensing none, she carried on.

"By dry bathing, I mean a damp cloth is to be run over the feline daily, to collect dander and fur that will become airborne and affect your son's senses."

The woman nodded. "The first few times might earn Drisha a scratch or two, but none worse than when she insists on carrying Tink when the kitten wants to run."

"I'd give her a couple of days and they'll boths ettle into a routine. But, there's more to it than just the dry bathing each day." Taia chuckled, "I think Drisha will be wondering if it's at all worth it by the time I'm finished." She glanced around the cavern, and spotted the girl with more children over in the far corner, "A little responsibility never does any child any harm." she nodded, as if to herself, "So, she will also need to daily sweep your rooms with a broom covered in a dampened cloth. This is to ensure all the fluff, hair and dander are collected. After that, just a short exposure to the feline, every day for a sevenday, and building up to a longer exposure, should help the boy's system adjust to Tink."

"Drisha will be happy to help." Her mother smiled, the fondness for her daughter showing in her expression. "She's a good child, even though she tends to wander away at times and to be too curious to suit some of the old aunties in the kitchen. She's a help to me with the younger children and she'll do these tasks well."

"Well, I think that should be it, to go on with," Taia said nodding,"if there's no change over the next sevenday or so, we'll figure out something else. But for now, with just the mild reaction he is having, I think this treatment will be enough." Taia once again let her gaze drift across to the youngster with her playmates,"Yes,I think she will, she reminds me a little of another little girl I knew..."

Last updated on the April 19th 2007

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Some Little Girls