Meet Cute Or New Friends? [Galaxy]

[nineofswords]

Most of the healers were taking a break for the day. There weren't any major cases they needed to be on-hand for, and if an emergency cropped up, there were few things faster than dragon-to-dragon communication. And if it was really bad, Eraelth could send out an all-hands call to the whole Weyr.

F'lin was competent enough to at least get people settled and handle very basic first aid, so he was often left to mind the clinic if most of the healers wanted to take a well-earned break all around the same time. He was settled near the door, double-checking inventory. Sure, he couldn't see all that well, but he knew what the herbs should smell like, and that if he couldn't smell them they'd lost their potency. He had them sorted into different piles, a keep and a replace pile. Next, he'd sniff test the prepared medications, but he would need Rusty's help with for that and the brown flit was napping, so he was trying to put it off for as long as possible. Plus, he'd have to clean out the vials the medicine was kept in if it was turning, and he wouldn't be able to hear people coming in if he did that. He preferred to do the washing when he wasn't the one who was supposed to be minding the place.

He had his nose buried in a leaf, frowning. He was trying to remember what this one was called. The scent wasn't very strong, but some medicinal herbs didn't smell terribly strongly, so he needed to be able to identify what it was before he knew which pile to put it into.

[GalaxyMir]

"Don't say it" E'nel muttered under his breath as he made his way across the weyrbowl to the healer's clinic, walking under the shadow of Xalemeth. A sharp sting of pain emanated from his shoulder where he had taken the impact of a rather bad fall. The bronze was far too quiet, too silent, E'nel could sense his disappointment, even their bond wasn't needed to infer that.

I do not need to. You should learn to value your bones more E'nel. Xalemeth rumbled angrily, images flashing in his mind of E'nel's recklessness during drills, specifically one of E'nel on the ground.

"Don't remind me! It was a bad current that got me alri-" He rolled his eyes, making an attempt at lying to Xalemeth to get him off his back. His draconic counter part, however, had other ideas. It was a reckless stunt. Remember that you are not indestructible. If you fall, E'nel, you're gone. Where does that leave me? Xalemeth's voice rang true , leaning his head down to meet E'nel's face with one of his. His tail swished like a whip, beating his anger into the soft ground.

"Xalemeth." E'nel irritably groaned, then exclaimed in pain as he turned around. "Healers first and then we'll talk got it?"

I am not letting you out of my sight once you finish.

E'nel sighed as he entered the Clinic, suddenly hit by the smell of numbweed and the multitudinous herbs the healers used to cure all sorts of ailments. Determined to walk without a stumble of sorts, E'nel focused on everything but the pain in his shoulder, immediately spotting F'lin nose in leaf. The man had certainly matured since E'nel had last seen him, it had been turns since they both shared candidate classes.

Lost in the past for a moment , his boot caught the corner of a table. His elbow struck against a shelf, sending bandages and jars clattering downwards loudly.

"Shards!" E'nel hissed through gritted teeth, cheeks starting to burn red with embarrassment "Gosh, F'lin , I'm so sorry! He bent over trying to fix the mess he'd caused, only for pain to rise in his shoulder. He straightened , wincing, quietly swearing.

[nineofswords]

F'lin had been so engrossed in figuring out what the leaf was that he hadn't noticed someone coming in until they knocked into a shelf and sent things falling to the ground. "Whoa!" he said, jumping in surprise at the sudden noise. Rusty also jumped into consciousness at the clatter, and immediately popped between, reappearing on F'lin's shoulder, shaking with nerves. F'lin soothed the brown flit, scratching at his head while he borrowed Rusty's eyes to see who was there. The voice had been vaguely familiar, but he hadn't quite been able to place it.

He grinned when he realized who it was. "Oh hey, E'nel!" he said. He waved away E'nel's apology, getting to his feet. "Don't worry about it. You're not the first person to run into that thing. It's not in a very good place. Heck, just last week, I dumped half of the shelf onto the Healer's Wingleader, and I wasn't even trying to do it this time!" He gave a crooked grin at his own bad joke, then moved to help pick things up. He frowned at E'nel as he heard the bronzerider swearing to himself. "Oh, shards, are you hurt? Sorry, that should've occurred to me. Did you hurt yourself when all that stuff fell? I mean, I'm guessing you needed something before you got stuff dumped on you, but did you get hurt any worse just now?"

He borrowed Rusty's eyes again, using them to give E'nel a once-over. He didn't see any obvious blood, but looking through a flit's eyes also wasn't always as easy as people seemed to think that it was, so he was sure he must be missing something. His expression was serious but concerned. "What were you coming in here about anyway? Do you want a Healer?"

[GalaxyMir]

"Didn't mean to scare your firelizard, or you for that matter!" E'nel humorously said with a grin. His tone softened as he noticed the shaking brown flit . "I assume it's not fun when someone goes around making a mess when you can't see" E'nel straightened slowly, his hand holding up his shoulder as it protested against being moved. He hissed softly as the sharp pain flared up again.

"Ah don't worry I didn't hurt myself, just bruised my ego. The shelf had it coming really." He joked back with another bad joke, grinning at F'lin. "But, yes... it would be helpful if I could get a little help. Pretty sure my shoulder is out of place and I might've cracked a rib or two when I...fell of Xalemeth during drills." He muttered the last part , as if speaking too loudly would summon the bronze.

Xalemeth's voice creeped in his thoughts, stern and furious.
Admit your mistake E'nel and learn from it!

"I made no mistake!" E'nel growled, before realising he spoke aloud. He offered F'ilin a sheepish smile "Sorry... he's quite vocal today. He didn't like me getting injured. Eraelth .. was it? Is she this rentless with you too?"

[nineofswords]

F'lin offered E'nel a reassuring smile. "Don't mind Rusty, he's scared of most things. Still sticks around despite it, though, so he's braver than me." He let out a light, self-depricating chuckle. "And I don't mind people making a mess! It's easier to see than trying to read. I can pick out colors, and most messes are big patches of color, so it's actually easier for me than you'd think. And Rusty helps me spot things I miss, so it's actually one of the things I'm better at." It was nice to be helpful, and cleaning up messes was one of the easier ways for him to be helpful.

F'lin offered E'nel a broad smile in response to his joke. "This is what I'm saying! It's a terrible shelf. And bruised egos are pretty nasty injuries! They'll kill you, I'm pretty sure. Luckily, they're one of the few kinds of injuries I am qualified to treat. If you want I can run out right now and make an absolute fool of myself, and everyone will forget about whatever you did!"

His grin fell when E'nel said he might have a dislocated shoulder and cracked ribs. "Okay, that's actually more serious than what I can help with. And we should get that shoulder back in place sooner rather than later." Sunshine, please ask one of the healers to come back? We have a dislocated shoulder and possible cracked ribs.

Already done, the green replied.

"Rae's called for a healer. Here, you can sit down while we wait for one of them to come," F'lin said, putting a hand on E'nel's back and gently guiding him towards one of the exam tables. He stifled a smile, but couldn't quite keep it off his face when E'nel admitted what happened. "It's more common than you'd think," he assured E'nel. "I've fallen off Rae more times than I can count, and the bigger the dragon, the worse the fall typically is. With a bronze, I'm honestly impressed you didn't come out of that worse!"

He giggled when E'nel clearly responded to his dragon aloud. "Yeah, weirdly dragons don't seem to like their riders being in pain," he agreed. He nodded. "Yeah, Eraelth. She's less of a nagger and more of an 'I told you so' or 'Are you proud of yourself for that one?' kind of dragon. But she's also been working with healers long enough now that she knows when my pain is something she can roll her eyes at me over or if she needs to rush me over to the clinic."