All That Matters

Writers: AL, Vix
Date Posted: 31st May 2008

Characters: Hantala, Marsten
Description: Tala consults a dolphin about her concerns.
Location: Dolphin Hall
Date: month 9, day 25 of Turn 4

Marsten smiled at the young woman as she made her way down the path to him. "Tala?" He asked softly, his eyes crinkling as he smiled. "You are Tala?"

She nodded solemnly, her hands clutching tightly at the ends of the towel that was draped across her shoulders. "You received the report from the healer?" "Yes, I did." Marsten's nod echoed his words. "Are you ready to take a look? Shaisti is waiting."

"Now is as good a time as any," she replied. She slipped off the loose-fitting trousers sand tunic she wore over her bathing suit, folding the garments and placing them on the ground near the path, her shoes next to them and her towel atop the pile.

"Come then." He motioned for the young woman to follow and turned, picking his way down the path and to the beach. Further out where the water deepened a little, he could see the head of a dolphin poking above the water, mouth open in a grin and laughter carrying across to them. Marsten lifted his hand in greeting and walked right into the water.

She swam with dolphins often enough – just about every day, halted only by exceedingly bad weather – but this was different. She stepped gingerly through the water, almost as if she had never been near a dolphin, approaching this one reluctantly.

"She won't bite." Marsten grinned, though he knew enough of Tala to know it wasn't fear of dolphin or water that held her back. "Unless you bite first, of course."

She bristled slightly at that suggestion but reminded herself that at the moment she was not an apprentice dolphineer but a patient. In fact, most of what she had learned of dolphin diagnosis skills had left her in the face of that change of roles. "What. . . what can we expect of her today?" "She's just going to have a look at you." Marsten moved deeper into the water as he spoke, "And let me know if she sees anything unusual. I can tell you right away if she does or does not."

"Can't all dolphins sense problems?" Tala asked as she followed.

"All dolphins can, but some pay more attention than others to certain things." Marsten moved to the deeper water, to where his toes could no longer touch bottom. Shaisti moved over to greet the two, clittering and clattering, as if she were laughing at them, sharing some silly secret. "Okay old girl," Marsten reached out to glide his hand over her head and then under her elongated nose and mouth, scritching her playfully. "This is Tala."

"Hello Shaisti," she spoke the greeting respectfully, remembering the dolphin's name from the man's earlier mention. She moved slowly into the water, allowing it to buoy her up to join him.

The dolphin circled the girl for a moment, then drew to her front side, eyes hidden by the water. She came up again and jumped, laughing her high pitched laughter. "See nothing!" She tittered, then decided it was time to play and splashed both of them with a mighty slap to the water with her tail.

Tala ducked her face away to avoid the splashing water, hardly daring to hope what she thought she was hearing. "Does that mean. . . is that it?" "Sounds to me like there's nothing wrong. Let me have her look again, just to be sure." Marsten calmed the dolphin down and conversed with her, urging her to check again and carefully to be sure. After a moment, she replied in the negative once more and went back to splashing. Marsten smiled. "It looks like that's it. Nothing unusual, no obstructions, no cysts. You're normal. That's good news."

"It is," she agreed, using her hands against the water to keep herself afloat. "But why. . ." her voice trailed off as she realized that she was talking to a dolphineer, not a healer. "Never mind. It's good news and that's all that matters." "If you're still concerned," Marsten began to make his way back to the shore, "Maybe you should see Kerador again."

She gave a quick rub of the dolphin's head in thanks before following Marsten to the beach. "I'll be fine. Now that I know there's nothing really wrong, I'll be fine." Marsten nodded slowly. "All right. Well, if you'll come with me for a moment, I have some paperwork I need to fill out."

Tala stopped in her tracks. "What type of paperwork?" "Just a description of what we did and your signature." Marsten explained. "Don't worry, you won't be signing away your life."

The girl nodded. "Who sees this paperwork?" "Well, eventually it goes through to the Master, and then is filed away into records." Marsten found it odd that the girl was questioning him so, but there wasn't any reason to hide that information.

"The Master?" Tala clenched her hands into fists at her side, trying to channel her nervousness from her voice. "Which Master?" "Usually Mahantan." Marsten's brow furrowed, "Is something wrong?"

"Only that. . ." she paused, taking a deep breath. "No, nothing wrong." "All right then," Obviously something was wrong, but Marsten wasn't about to push the woman into anything she didn't want. "Come on, this won't take long."

With a sigh, the apprentice followed him. At least there was nothing wrong with her, nothing that the dolphin had detected. Now her only real worry was how to explain to her father why she had needed this appointment in the first place.

Last updated on the June 1st 2008

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