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Post by horsegal on Feb 4, 2009 16:54:04 GMT -6
It was one of those amazingly warm, sticky days when it felt like the sky might drop great buckets-full of water on you at any moment. It was for this reason that Roslynn had decided instead to remain indoors. She was not exactly a candidate, but she was quietly hopeful for it. For the time being she was known simply as an Apprentice Healer whose purpose was to help the collection of healers dwelling at the weyr. It was something she was rather good at.
"Quiet before the storm." Roslynn muttered to herself as she wandered past one door after another. The entire weyr was full of a tense, uncomfortable energy and she could feel it as much as she could feel the humidity in the air.
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 4, 2009 17:05:55 GMT -6
R'lyn could feel the tension in the air. The riders hated this time of the turn, the storms were unpredictable, hurricanes were frequent and they rarely completed a full day of drills and exercises. The dragons were grumpy from lack of exercise and overabundance of rain and their riders were just as jumpy. Duels and fights were common in the Weyr as honor was smudged, tempers flared and men just got bored. R'lyn usually authorized raids at this time of the turn and no doubt he'd authorize a few more this turn as well. Especially in Tillek and Benden Holds, the riders would like to gather quite a few of their wine skins and the Northern riders rarely knew what was going before it was too late. They couldn't guard the whole continent after all.
"I'm sorry dear, what was that?", he asked, catching a mutter out of his ear as he passed a young woman. He paused and waited for her apology, explanation or introduction. everyone knew the Weyrleader, his knots, face and characteristic limp made it easy to recognize him.
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Post by horsegal on Feb 4, 2009 17:11:54 GMT -6
Roslynn turned quickly, her blonde hairs whipping by her face. Her deep orbs flashed over the taller figure, from the hardened face to the shoulder knots, washing over the man. Her gaze lowered temporarily as she gave a respectful bow of her head. "Pardon me, Weyrleader." She spoke quietly, confidently and waited a short moment. He didn't know who she was, but she knew him. There were few in all of Southern who didn't know the brave and courageous leader of the wings.
"I was remarking on the irony between the weather and current condition of the weyr." Roslynn added, sensing the question was there in the air between them. "I had merely said that it is the 'quiet before the storm'. Was I wrong to remark so?" An eyebrow was raised inquiringly as she asked her question.
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 4, 2009 17:19:12 GMT -6
"No need dear I was just wondering if I was finally hearing Castogath with my ears or was talking to myself", he smiled benignly at her, leaning heavily on his cane. "No you were quite right. With the Hatching over the Weyr does seem to be holding it's breath today", he replied thoughtfully then shook his head as he caught her shoulder knots. Another female Healer? How did the Weyr get so lucky? "I am R'lyn my dear, you may call me that", he told her. He was old enough to be her grandfather he was betting but he was not going to say anything about that.
"No doubt tonight at dinner I will be bombarded by the wingleaders and wingseconds asking to go raiding. I shall have to gran them their requests, our supply of Benden and Tillek is getting dangerously low", the Southern wines were still new compared to the Northern wines and not as good. The Southern riders as a whole preferred the older northern wines. "Walk with me, it's days like this my hip kills me".
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Post by horsegal on Feb 4, 2009 20:18:47 GMT -6
Roslynn listened to the voice of the Weyrleader R'lyn, it was wizened, grisled, gravelly. It sounded precisely like the kind of voice she would expect, though it held more kindness to it than she had expected it to. It was a bit of a pleasant surprise, as was his gentle reception of her. "Yes, sir, if you would like me to." Roslynn replied, feeling a little gratified that she was now on a first name basis with the Weyrleader. "I am Roslynn, an Apprentice Healer as you can tell, though I do have a preferred occupation to it."
She listened to the concerns of R'lyn. He seemed neither bothered, nor pleased with what he said. The weyr was eager to strike at the North again. Roslynn was not adverse to it herself. She had seen the terrible things that the North could do and if they could return the favor than all the more the better. Still, doing too much altogether could have serious repercussions. She was momentarilly taken aback by the simple request, but seeing as she walking already, this was a good chance to learn more about a Weyrleader, his job, and the weyr itself.
"Yes, I will." Roslynn replied and looked up at R'lyn. "Do you take anyhing for the pain? Some fellis tea would help, even at a very low dose."
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 4, 2009 20:28:23 GMT -6
"A pleasure to meet you Roslynn", he said warmly, limping slowly down the long hall. "I take some fellis wine from time to time but I don't like the effects. This weather", he shook his head. During the dry season his leg didn't hurt at all, except when he had done too much walking, whereas in the wet season his leg was just one continuous ache. Taking fellis wine everyday was just not feasible for him. "it makes my leg hurt all the time. Fellis doesn't really help me anymore. I've been taking it for Turns", he explained.
He'd been injured fairly young and never healed correctly, hence the limp. In the thirty odd turns since his injury he'd built up an immunity to fellis wine. It seemed every turn it took more and more to dull the ache. Now he tried to live without it. "I get the healers to give me massages every sevenday or so, and during the wet season they use hot poultices. It's something I have to live with is all. It doesn't even bother me that much anymore", he shrugged it off. "Where were you for out Hatching?"
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Post by horsegal on Feb 4, 2009 20:39:42 GMT -6
"Oh no, R'lyn, the pleasure is surely mine." She replied, smiling warmly, her face lighting and softening her sharp features. Where she usually looked cold, she suddenly came to appear warm, a characteristic of hers that she had hardly noticed.
"Yes, I suppose you have developed an immunity, aside from numbweed there is not much else but a good poultice and a rub that can help any further." Roslynn mused aloud as she spoke. In truth, she had been around healers all her life, but that did not mean that she knew all there was to it. Granted, she knew a good deal more than some people would give her credit for. She breathed deeply, trying to push her mind through it, but as R'lyn said, it was something to be lived with. "I am sorry I cannot be of more help."
As R'lyn asked his question, she grew a little rigid. Roslynn wasn't visited by any Searchriders, though she had seen more riders than some of the holder girls ever would. She knew more, held their hands, watched some die and others heal. She felt tied closer to them, their kind, more strongly than some ever would. "I would have liked to have been here, but my presence was needed more at the Healer Hall for the injured riders where my hands were put to use." Roslynn said, her voice even but her eyes saying that she so very much wished to be there. In her mind, she belonged at the Weyr, belonged on the sands then.
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 4, 2009 20:55:40 GMT -6
He gave her a fatherly smile, "It's alright dear at least you are smart enough to realize that you cannot help", he could not tell her how often Healers had prescribed treatments that didn't work or made the pain worse. It was ridiculous, R'lyn was a human being not some experiment. The good old fashioned treatments were still best. "During the rainy season I'll just hike my way down to the Healer's twice a sevenday instead of once and Castogath will help me out. I'll probably make a bed down in the Lower Caverns as well, there is a drudge or two who will help me out". He had never been embarrassed by having to sleep in the Lower Caverns, it was just a simple fact of his life.
So no one had thought to go to Healers' Hall when two healers here had been Searched out? He'd have to have a talk with I'tel about that, the greenrider was slacking off in his Searches. Or maybe Regryth had known Siten would Impress the gold and had been leary of Searching elsewhere. Still, where two girls were Searched more might also be searched. Though with one of the girl's having Impressed a green maybe it was best Roslynn had not been Searched. "When we have more eggs, make sure you go to I'tel and Regryth. They'll search you", he told her.
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Post by horsegal on Feb 4, 2009 21:07:16 GMT -6
"I do try to use common sense, it is a sense so liberally given to all and misused by many." Roslynn replied with some thought to her words. Many a person was smart, but had lapses, or those who just simply weren't when they ought to be. "But any good healer would do all that they could if they thought that it might improve the good health of a patient. They would also have the good sense to know when enough is enough." Perhaps she was using too much opinion than being subjective, yet, it was true more or less. "If you would like, I would be happy to help you as well, R'lyn, it would be an honor."
"I most certainly will, R'lyn, I shall not let another chance go by. I made a promise to myself once that I would impress gold and I intend to come through with my promise one way or another." Roslynn spoke strongly, firmly, and with great conviction as if what she said was entirely within her power. In that respect, she backstepped with her words as she added, "I know that is it not up to me if I do, but I will do all that I can to see it happen."She kept pace with R'lyn and looked forward, just like she did in life. Never looking back, always to the future.
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 4, 2009 21:19:55 GMT -6
He gave a faint chuckle. "Too right. Though I have noticed several riders are throwing away their common sense in order to follow this absurd code", he knew it was just an offshoot of the Holder's code, that ridiculous list of rules the Overholder had given his holders turns ago. Pity the riders felt they had to apply that code to their own lives. It was part of the problem R'lyn had with his riders. The men jumped to orders given by the Overholder but barely took notice of his own orders and Faranth forbid if the Weyrleader's orders went against the Overholder's. He waved off her offer, "No, i doubt there is not much you can do that is not already being done".
They entered the large dining cavern which was almost unbearably humid with the weight of the moisture laden air outside. Outside the natural cliff arches could be sun the wide beach and the dark blue ocean. It seemed a storm was brewing off the coast, it couldn't break soon enough. "For someone as single-minded as you seem to be", he replied, "I don't doubt it will happen. I think a gold would fit your personality well but then I don't know very much about dragons. Every morning i still check Castogath's hide trying to see if he is just a large blue", he laughed.
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Post by horsegal on Feb 4, 2009 21:28:10 GMT -6
"The Overholder's Code?" Roslynn inquired. It was a curious thing and as it was somehting put up long ago, she had lived it by it as her parents had instructed. It hadn't seemed to her like anyone shouldn't, but then, what about the dragonriders? Did they have to apply to it? "I see." She said, not hurt by it, but accepting it.
"Thank you, R'lyn, it is encouraging, but even I do not know everything and dragons are among those." Roslynn smiled again. She felt understood, accepted. It was a kind of confirmation that her being at the weyr was right, that she was walking the correct path and she would find her destiny there. "You are very honorable, I think bronzes find that appealing." She offered as her compliment to him. Thus far he had been good company and she was curious to ask him questions. "You do not mind if I ask you a question or two, do you?"
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 4, 2009 21:35:42 GMT -6
He gave her a smile, "No not at all. I was on my way to have a late meal, why don't you join?", he asked, leading her to the raised table whee he usually sat. During the wetter months he rarely got out of bed early, preferring to wait until it warmed up or dried out a bit. Hence his meals were always late. The good thing is, staying up later at night meant he was bothered less and less by other people. He pulled a chair out for her before taking the one next to it.
"You flatter me with the honor. I simply follow my heart", he explained as a drudge came up to the table. "Some wine please and klah", he told her as she set a platter of fresh bread with melted butter on the slices in front of them. "Yes sir", the drudge said walking away to get the drinks and order two plates of whatever cook had on the menu. "And please, go ahead and ask any questions you want. I don't mind at all. Knowledge should be passed on. It is one of the few legacies a man can hand down".
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Post by horsegal on Feb 9, 2009 11:32:01 GMT -6
Roslynn had to admit that she liked this man. He was both her elder and her leader, but he was not obnoxious about it. He was an intelligent man, much like her father, and for that she was slowly beginning to admire him. The mere fact that he believed in passing down knowledge was one thing that helped her along that way.
"Thank you, R'lyn, I wanted to know about dragons." Roslynn said, not giving it a form of a question, using it only as a way to introduce that which she was curious about. "Dragons hatch from eggs much like firelizards, but firelizards do not need to make a human connection like dragons do. I have seen that they do not look the same, but they are very similar, like cousins. Why is it that way? Why do dragons need us?"
It had been something that had bothered her. They were so large, strong, smart, and quite capable of living on their own, so why would they need people who were smaller and had the tendancy to loose common sense? Perhaps R'yn could provide an answer.
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 9, 2009 16:45:28 GMT -6
"Dragons eh?", he smiled, "Well can't say that I am an expert or anything but I know a bit", he added pouring himself a glass of wine when the drudge put the requested drinks on the table. He offered a glass to her then the wineskin and klah pitcher. "Please, help yourself", he added while he listened to her question. "Flitts and dragons is it?", he asked sipping his wine. "Now mind what I know about eh subject I learned from the Harpers who have passed it down through the turns, since Lessa and F'lar's time", he admonished her, setting his glass on the table and leaning forward.
"Apaprently they were told that dragons were created by our ancestors for the purpose of Flaming thread. The flitts", he rubbed his chin, "I believe they were the template for our dragons those thousands of turns ago", he began. "as for Impression, we both know flitts are not smart but I think flitts don't need humans. They have each other", it was true that flitts were friendly little buggers in and of themselves, always together unless they were alone. "I have always believed that dragons are just extensions of ourselves. Some people are complete and some aren't. Those who aren't Impress", it was a simple explanation but then R'lyn had always been a simple man.
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Post by horsegal on Feb 9, 2009 17:34:27 GMT -6
"Thank you." Roslynn replied quietly as she accepted the cup and took to the klah pitcher rather than the wine. Nothing against the stuff, but it made fools of good men and she'd not go that way. She listened intently to R'lyn as he replied, cupping the cup of klah in both hands, she blew lightly at the steam as it rose from it.
"So..." Roslynn began, but stopped, her rose to her chin as she thought a moment. "You hypthesize that it isn't the dragon who needs the man, it is really the man who needs the dragon." Her statement was solid and made sense to her. "Our ancestors made dragons because they knew that we would need them not just for our own safety, but to make ourselves be all whom we could be." She smiled a little at that.
"Now that is a legacy." Roslynn's smile vanished behind the cup of klah. "Do you know just what it is about firestone that makes a dragon flame and how it makes a gold sterile?"
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 9, 2009 17:41:32 GMT -6
"I suppose you could say that. Some men and women, the majority of our population, have no room in their heads for another being. Nothing wrong with them though", he shrugged, running his fingers down the side of his cup. "But people like me? We are lacking something that the dragons can give us so we Impress. I think maybe that is what helps a dragon make Impression as well. I am not missing the piece that a greenrider is". It was simple enough he supposed whether it was right or wrong he'd probably never guess.
"It is a very good legacy", he agreed then frowned. "As far as I am aware it is the juices in a dragon's second stomach that react with something in the stone that produces a kind of mist that ignites when it hits the air. Much like the firetanks", he mused, "And I am not sure firestone makes goldd sterile they just lack the juices to make it catch flame. But then I have never seen a gold chew firestone so I couldn't tell you. And I doubt Siten would risk Isiloth to prove the theory".
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Post by horsegal on Feb 9, 2009 18:06:10 GMT -6
Roslynn could completely agree with that. She could hardly see her father or mother with a dragon, their heads were full of too many other things. Her sisters, one always after boys and the other trying to sew, might have light heads, but not roomy ones. As for herself, she always ate everything she could up. It was as if there was never enough for her. It was why she always thought there was something else for her beyond the healing. That and she just couldn't sit back with her people dying and being hurt.
She didn't say anything else on the topic, but let it lay. She wanted to look in herself and really see if she was missing something.
"Two stomachs? Sort of like herdbeasts, only seperate, not in contingency and able to go back up?" Roslynn found that fascinating. She leaned forward on the table as she grew excited. "Do you suppose that since the dragons were designed by our ancestors that they modeled that stomach after the firetanks? Goldriders use those, don't they?" It was a bit of a stretch, but if their ancestors did make dragons based on firelizards, how much farther could it be?
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 9, 2009 18:41:41 GMT -6
"Herdbeasts only have one stomach", he told her, "I should know I cut one open one day to see", of course Castogath had barely let him pull said stomach out, "But it had four little compartments in it, each one looked different", he explained with a shrug. Castogath had given him a reproachful look for such desecration of his meal but the bronze had been quick to eat the dissected stomach anyway. Silly bronze was often nothing more than a flying stomach. Am not. I have a head as weel. R'lyn covered his mouth to hide his smile. "As for dragons, mind I am not sure anyone has cut a dragon open", not many dragon bodies lying around anyway, and no rider would allow a healer to cut one up even if a corpse had been lying around, "but they have two seperate and distinct stomachs. One for eating and one for stone. I'm sure flitts are the same way so no they were not designed on firetanks. If the dragons were designed by the ancients then I'm fairly sure firetanks came second", he took a sip of his wine one more and sighed. Benden was delicious, "Mind though, I could be wrong about all of this".
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Post by horsegal on Feb 9, 2009 18:49:54 GMT -6
"It is fascinating, though." Roslynn said, her eyes bright and glowing so that dark indigo orbs flashed like light reflecting off of the water. She rested her head on her hand and bore a small thoughtful smile. Her other hand spun round her mug, her finger running on the lip of it, around and around. "You learn something new every day." It was how things shoud be, Roslynn believed. She liked to think she knew a lot, but she also knew that there was so much more out there.
"It's all theory, isn't it? Another question I have is about how they talk. Someone told me that it is like thinking and feeling everything else. Is that how it really is? Like a thought?" Roslynn asked. It was an intriguing thing for her and she wished very much to know what it was like, but how do you go about such a thing? "Or a feeling?"
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Post by stolenhart on Feb 9, 2009 18:57:31 GMT -6
"I suppose if you like that sort of thing", he gently teased her. She was an Apprentice Healer so she must have some sort of fascination for gory details like this. R'lyn had merely butchered the herdbeast to prove a point to a fellow Weyrling, he hadn't liked doing it at all. He smiled at her next sentiment, "Exactly and a smart person makes that their goal. How else are we to improve ourselves if we do not learn? That is the problem with the North, they are too stuck in old traditions and do not see the challenges of the future", he took a deep sigh and stared off into space thoughtfully for a moment.
"Talking to a dragon? It's different", he began. "For me it's like hearing my own voice repeated back, like from a cave or something, only I know it's not me. There is this sense of self talking and yet the knowledge it's not me. It is confusing for new Weyrlings which is why they are kept isolated from the rest of the Weyr until they can bring that under control. "It's more thought. I have been told the flitts are more feeling, which makes sense. Flitts aren't intelligent like a dragon is".
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