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Writers: AmajoS, Estelle
Date Posted: 18th January 2019

Characters: R'fal, Dorana
Description: R'fal keeps injured drudge Dorana company in the infirmary
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 6, day 23 of Turn 9

R'fal finished washing out his mop and squeezed the last drops of water
into the bucket with a sigh of relief. He'd gained a great deal of
admiration for the healer apprentices and how they coped with waking up
each morning, never knowing what messes they'd have to clean up that
day. Even mucking out the barns back home had been better than this.

He left the mop and bucket in the supply cupboard, hoping he wouldn't
need them again that day, and returned to the infirmary. "I've finished,
Journeywoman."

The healer on duty gave him a sympathetic look. "Well, it's looking
exceptionally neat and tidy in here now. Why don't you go and keep the
patients company for a while? There's a drudge who's laid up with a knee
injury, and it's been rather dull for her sitting in bed all day. Go and
see if she wants a drink or a game or anything."

"Yes, ma'am." R'fal headed for the patients' ward, delighted at the
respite from scrubbing floors. When he got there, he was instantly
thrown into confusion by the fact that the drudge was a young woman,
only a few Turns older than himself. He hesitated in the doorway, then
firmly told himself that he was a dragonrider, and dragonriders were
supposed to be good at talking to girls.

"Um...hello?" He took a few steps into the room, and waved. "I'm R'fal.
I'm on duty here, and I came to see if there was anything you needed?"

"Hello, R'fal, I'm Dorana." She gave the weyrling a tired smile. She
hadn't slept well since the accident the day before. At first, because
she hurt too much, but then because she kept having nightmares about
falling. The medicine she'd been given made her drowsy once it kicked
in, but everytime she started drifting off she would jerk awake, the
sensation of falling making her heart pound. And, of course, the
jerking did nothing to help the pain of her injuries.

"I could use some company, if you aren't too busy. I don't want to
keep you from your duties." Chatting with someone would keep her from
dozing off and keep her mind off the throbbing in her leg.

"Oh no, I'm not busy. The Journeywoman said I could take a break."
R'fal pulled a chair over to the bed. "Can I get you some water, or
juice? It's no trouble - I wouldn't mind a drink myself after all the
cleaning I've been doing."

She nodded, "That would be nice, thank you." She was pleased that he
seemed eager for a visit, though she didn't doubt it was driven more
by the chance to get away from the cleaning he mentioned than
anything. "Why have you been doing so much cleaning? If you don't mind
me asking?" She didn't think that was normal weyrling duty, not in the
infirmary anyway.

"Ah, well." Although he could hide his blushes by going to fetch a glass
from the water jug, it was clear from R'fal's voice that he was rather
ashamed of himself. "I had a party in my weyr the other night, to
celebrate our graduation to senior weyrlings, and things, um, got a bit
out of hand. So the Weyrlingmaster said I have to help out the healers
in my free time for a few sevendays."

"That was you!" Dorana laughed, her discomfort momentarily forgotten
in her amusement. "I heard about it from some others who had to help
clean up after that. Must have been some party," she added as she
accepted the glass of water.

"It was! And it was going so well at first. We had food, and harper
music, and dancing. But then... well, most of us had had a lot to
drink, but one of the young ones in particular had too much and
started to feel ill and...I tried to clean it up, really, but no
matter how much I scrubbed, I couldn't get it out," R'fal said
apologetically. "I hope your friends aren't too mad at me for the
mess. If it's any consolation, I felt really, really awful the next
day."

She shook her head, though part of her was tempted to exaggerate her
fellows' ire, he was so obviously ashamed looking that it would be
mean. "If drudges got really angry about every mess we had to clean
up, we'd all die of old age before we were thirty." She shifted a bit,
trying to find a comfortable position for her leg. "Was the youngster
hold or craft-bred?"

"Hold-bred. Like me." That made R'fal feel worse, as if he'd failed his
friend and fellow holder. "I should have been looking out for him. It's
only luck he ended up with nothing worse than a sore head."

Dorana nodded with a knowing expression, "I thought so. I was
hold-bred too. There's a lot of freedom in the weyr and it takes a lot
of getting used to." She'd made a few bad decisions herself when she'd
been new to the weyr, once she'd been here long enough to realize it
-really- was a whole different world. "But, it was probably a good
lesson for him. He won't forget for a while, if he's smart enough to
attract a dragon," she added with a small sigh. She was two turns too
old to Stand anymore and the disappointment of her 21st birthingday
arriving dragon-free was still fresh.

"I don't know about him, but I certainly won't. I've only been in the
Weyr a few months, and already I'm in trouble," the weyrling said with a
rueful grimace. "I just hope my Ma never finds out. But you're from a
hold as well? Which one?"

"Emerald Falls Hold, I was Searched when I was fifteen." She gave a
little sigh, remembering the turmoil that had caused her family, who
were decidedly not pleased. "I decided to stay after I turned
twenty-one. What about you?"

"I'm from Emerald Falls too! From a cothold, though. I've never been to
the main Hold," R'fal admitted. Now he and Marlath could go /between/,
he'd be able to visit soon - or he would have been, if not for being in
disgrace over the party. Being confined to the Weyr just when he was so
close to gaining the freedom to go anywhere on Pern was more painful
than any amount of cleaning.

"I grew up in the main hold, my father is a guard there," she replied.
"He almost didn't let me come when I was Searched."

"Mine was the same. I suppose he thought I was always going to work
alongside him, and take over the cothold when he got too old. Luckily my
mother talked him into letting me go." R'fal remembered the strength of
his father's reaction, which still baffled him. He wondered why Dorana's
father had objected to the Search. He surely couldn't have been
expecting her to follow in his footsteps as a guard. "So...you didn't
want to go back there?"

"I'm not sure I'd be welcomed, even if I did." And she wasn't sure she
would ever. To say that things had gone badly when she'd declared she
was going with the Search rider was to put it mildly.

"Oh...I'm sorry." R'fal couldn't imagine what it would be like to be
parted from your family for good. Or for them not to want to see you
again, although he had heard it happened, when riders came on Search.
Some help he was to the healers, he thought. He was supposed to be
cheering up the patients, not reminding them of painful memories.

Dorana offered a smile, "That's alright. Coming to the Weyr was the
best thing for me. I haven't regretted it a moment." And that was
mostly true, even if she did sometimes miss her younger siblings. "At
least, when I'm not being a clumsy oaf and tumbling down stairs," she
added in what she hoped was a lighthearted tone.

Last updated on the January 29th 2019

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