Regularity [Phlox]

[Dragon]

Since late spring, shortly before Raev had been elected Wherleader, Amaata had been meeting with the garnethandler for a weekly morning meal. It was pleasant, with Kuroth slowly waking back in their Weyr while Amaata (and sometimes Skatha) joined Raev in the dining hall. Amaata really liked the stocky blonde; she had a blunt, forthright manner that the bluerider found endearing. And she really seemed to care about the Weyr as a whole, about everyone pulling together and doing their best for High Reaches.

Amaata was running a little early for their standing meal today; she grabbed a cup of klah and some sausage rolls and went to find a good table in an area that wasn't too crowded (a hard thing, with how crowded the Weyr was lately) and settled into her seat to wait for Raev. She didn't have Skatha with her this morning - the green flit was asleep on Amaata's pillow - but that was probably not a bad thing. Skatha had yet to get more than lukewarm towards Raev and Rask. Honestly, even lukewarm was impressive since Skatha didn't like anyone besides Amaata and Kuroth.

Hopefully, Raev would arrive soon. She'd been so busy since taking her new office ...

[FirebrandPhlox]

Raev was running late to her standing mealtime with Amaata. Since taking the office of Wherleader, she had been impossibly busy. Little progress had been made on finding more housing for the increasingly crowded weyr, she had a new ex-holdless handler to closely monitor, and her desk was piling high with reports and rumors about poisonings at High Reaches. Raev grabbed a stack as she left her office, she would review them before bed, if she actually managed to sleep tonight.

Part of her wondered if she should cancel he weekly meal with Amaata, just to give herself one less commitment she had to adhere to, but she quickly shooed the thought away. Amaata still didn't seem to have many friends or companions to look out for her, and Raev wasn't about to abandon her check-ins. Yes, she was tired and stressed from the workload, but it was once a week. If she couldn't keep up with such a simple task, was she really cut out to be Wherleader? She would keep on keeping on.

Reaching the dining hall, Raev quickly assessed the offerings. She grabbed a few sausage rolls and an apple, but hesitated at the beverage options. Did she want the caffeine to stay awake tonight and review these reports? After a moment, she opted for a hot mug of tea that was less stimulating than the spiced Klah that kept her up most the night.

"Sorry, been busy," Raev grunted as she took a seat at a table opposite of Amaata. The bluerider had picked a table to the side of the hall, which Raev was appreciative of. She just wanted to have her meal in peace, she didn't need anyone coming to bother her with problems for the Wherleader. She wanted to eat as just Raev.

"Alright, checking in," she said, getting straight to business. "How was your week? Any issues I should know about?"

[Dragon]

While Raev wasn't quite Amaata's only friend, it was a near thing, and the new Wherleader was the only one that Amaata saw regularly. She was used to being lonely - she'd been lonely long before she'd arrived in High Reaches - and she didn't really know how to rectify that. She could hardly trouble Raev further, not now that she had been elected to the council and was responsible for the wherhandlers. And Amaata was happy for her, really happy for her. This had been the second time Raev had run that she knew of, and if anyone deserved the position it was Raev, who obviously cared about doing a good job.

Amaata knew that the answer was to make more friends, or seek out the very few she already had more regularly, but it was hard. Her natural reticence made it difficult for her to put herself forward, and she frequently felt like she was bothering people by inserting herself into their lives.

She wondered, briefly, if she was a nuisance to Raev. If the other woman felt like she had to do this ...

Surely not. She hoped not.

"I understand, really. You've got a lot of responsibility now." Amaata smiled at Raev as she took her seat, glad at least for these weekly meals. At least if Raev was eating with her, that was one meal a week that she couldn't work through ... something she suspected Raev did. "We can make this short if you need to. There's not really any pressing issues. I've been focusing on work a lot, and I don't think I've had anything else critical left out."

She still wasn't close to her Wing, and she could count her friends on one hand with fingers left over, but Amaata wasn't exactly going to complain about that. Raev was too practical for those sorts of complaints, and if Amaata did say anything she'd probably have some extremely blunt and eminently reasonable advice on the subject. You know, like to just talk to people.

"I imagine you're especially busy, with things in the Weyr being so - tense." Tense was a good word for it. She remembered talking to one of the weyrfolk who thought they should demand more tithes, and the way she'd heard some people grumbling about the ex-holdless like everything was their fault despite the fact there were still displaced holders taking up space as well. "I've been trying to stay out of the middle of things as much as I can."

[FirebrandPhlox]

"No, no. It's fine, we don't need to truncate our meal because I'm busy. I have all day to go through these reports," Raev said, placing the paperwork to the side. She didn't want to make Amaata feel like their meal together was a burden or a waste of her time. Raev did enjoy their meals together, even if Amaata still seemed a bit distant. It made Raev suspect that Amaata still was having trouble finding friends and settling in at High Reaches.

"Don't overwork yourself," Raev grunted, taking a sip of her tea, fulling ignoring her own advice.

"It's definitely not a casual stroll around the weyrbowl," Raev responded to the comment on her own workload. "It's impossible to make everyone happy, so we just have to figure out how to make the least number of people unhappy, which is much harder than you'd think. You'd be smart to save yourself the headache and keep out of the problems as much as you can."

She sighed, rubbing her eyes. She was tired, with visible bags under her eyes. Even anticipating the worst, the position of Wherleader was more demanding than she had expected it to be. Or perhaps she was just putting too much of herself into the workload, though she would never admit that to herself.

[Dragon]

Raev's assurances made Amaata smile. She both liked and respected the other woman, and it was important to her that Raev feel she was doing her best for the Weyr. Amaata very much wanted to impress the other woman.

"That's excellent advice," she said, a touch of amusement in her voice, when Raev said not to overwork herself. Somehow she doubted that Raev took her own advice there. "I'm not overworking, I don't think. Although I suppose I should do better at making the most of my leisure time."

She leaned forward slightly as Raev talked in generalities about what she was doing as Wherleader. Trying to make the fewest people unhappy didn't sound easy at all, especially not with how many people were currently stuffed into the Weyr.

"It sounds pretty difficult, so if it's even harder than that I don't envy you at all," Amaata said lightly. Raev looked tired, really tired, and as much as Amaata wished there was something she could do to help, she had no idea how she might. "I don't know why people are so intent on blaming the ex-holdless for things like the overcrowding and the issues with the stores, though. They're not the only extra people here right now."

She shifted, sipping her klah and inspecting Raev, taking in the bags under her eyes and the way that she was rubbing her eyes. She didn't quite want to actually ask if she was getting enough sleep, but ... "Are you all right?"

[FirebrandPhlox]

"I'm fine," Raev grumbled, pulling her hand away from her eyes. She was exhausted, but wasn't going to admit that to Amaata. Raev didn't need to worry the other woman or place her own burdens on her. What kind of leader would she be if she couldn't handle a bit of extra work alongside some sleep deprivation?

No, she absolutely couldn't show that kind of weakness. She was a council member, she needed to be an example of fortitude and strength. If she faltered, everything she had worked so hard to build could easily come crashing down around her.

She took another sip of her tea. "Everyone wants to blame someone else for their problems, it's just easiest to blame the ex-holdless," she said, trying to steer the conversation away from her current condition. "A bunch of vagabonds and criminals? It's easy to blame all of our problems on them, whether they actually caused them or not."

[Dragon]

Hesitantly, Amaata watched Raev, then nodded slowly. She didn't really believe that the other woman was fine, but ... well, if Raev wanted to pretend then it was hardly her place to insist she was lying.

"I suppose I understand that," Amaata sighed, "but the truth of the matter is that it seems to have been a streak of bad luck rather than one specific event that led to things being this complicated." She hadn't been here for all of it, but ... "There was a problem with the crops, right? And a mudslide. And then that winter was horrible and those first few holdless ot rescued, and then we decided to let more come if they could show they'd reformed. Which ... really, there were a lot of holders here before the holdless."

Honestly, Amaata was kind of proud of herself for paying enough attention to have a decent grasp of the situation. Still ... "You're right, though, that most people will have an easier time blaming the ex-holdless than the holders, or even then spreading the blame around to everyone."

[FirebrandPhlox]

Raev shook her head. "It's a whole line of messes that just keeps compounding on itself. Then again, I don't think any council has ever inherited a perfect situation where they can just maintain course and everything is fine." The council had been founded in the wake of Golre's reign, after all.

She took another sip of her tea, feeling her eye twitch. Was she really that tired? Maybe she'd need to actually spend the day sleeping instead of going over those reports. She hated to admit she was that worn out, though, so she would just push through the meal and see how she was feeling later.

Putting down her mug, she blinked a few times, attempting to stave off any more unwelcome spasms in her eyelids. She looked back to Amaata to continue the conversation, but found she could not remember where it left off. She frowned. "Wait, what were we talking about again?"

[Dragon]

Amaata frowned when Raev asked what they'd been talking about. If she was that tired ...

"I think you need to get some rest," the bluerider said delicately. "I could walk you back to your quarters?" She hoped that wasn't too bold of her to offer, but Amaata really was concerned about her friend. If she was tired enough that she was forgetting things, then she definitely needed to put off doing more work until she'd gotten some sleep. Lightly, she tried, "You'll only miss things if you try to look at any paperwork when you're this tired."

[FirebrandPhlox]

Raev blinked a few times, her mind taking far to long to process what Amaata was saying. "The reports?" She asked, her voice hazy and distant. She looked around the table, her eyes unfocused. They landed on the pile of paperwork sitting next to her, and after another long moment of processing, she said, "oh right, those reports."

Raev reached for the pile of paperwork, her movements as sluggish as her mind. Then, her arm uncontrollably jerked to the side, knocking the stack off the table and onto the dining hall floor.

"Shit," Raev mumbled, bending down to recover the papers. As she did so, her side jolted with a sudden pain. She toppled to the floor on top of her paperwork. Her mind was far behind her body, still trying to process what was happening while she lay on the floor. Random muscles spasmed as fog swirled her thoughts.

[Dragon]

"OH FORSKING SHARDING -!" Amaata bit off further oaths, practically diving after Raev. She cared a great deal about this woman, her friend, and the sudden onset of forgetfulness and spasms alarmed her to no end. Kuroth! she shouted mentally. Kuroth, contact someone, anyone - Raev's collapsed in the dining hall!

!!! Kuroth liked Raev almost as much as Amaata did; it was no wonder that he was alarmed. I'll contact the Healer's Wing. See if you can't start on the way to the Infirmary.

Anxiously, Amaata tried to get Raev back to her feet, cursing under her breath at the inconvenience of her own height. She was too tall to easily get Raev's arm over her shoulder in a stable way. "Come on, you need a Healer, Raev. I need you around - I'll never manage without you." She meant the last bit to be teasing, but it felt uncomfortably true.

[FirebrandPhlox]

Raev's body continued to spasm beyond her control as Amaata leaned over her. Her eyes lost focus, turning the taller woman above her into a blur. Raev squinted, trying to focus. What was she focusing on? Why was she on the ground?

She tried to take a deep breath to clear her head, only to find that the breath didn't want to come. The air caught in her throat, forcing her to choke and gasp for the air. Her chest rattled with thin, insufficient breaths that only clouded her thoughts further.

Feeling Amaata's arms around her, Raev tried to stand up, but one of her legs gave out from under her, sending her back to the floor. Gritting her teeth, Raev tried again, shakily standing and leaning heavily against Amaata.

"Healer..." She gasped through ragged breaths. She couldn't recall where the Healers were. Amaata would know. She was with Amaata, right?

Having sensed something terribly wrong with her handler, Rask burst into the dining hall, rushing over to Raev. Her gallop was wild and unruly, pushing tables to the side and sending dishes shattering to the floor. The wher sidled up to her handler, putting her body underneath the woman's arm.

Rask here! What happen? The Wher barked, her mindvoice panicked. She looked up at Amaata, eyes seeking answers. Raev mind murky. Amaata know?

[Dragon]

Amaata's eyes were wide, her heart in her throat as Raev struggled to breathe, her legs failing to hold her the first time despite the offered support. At least she was coherent enough to sort of ask for a Healer.

"We're going to get you to a Healer," Amaata said, trying to sound sure and soothing.

It was almost a relief when Rask barged in, a ball of panicked energy. "I don't know what happened, Rask, but Raev's ill. Kuroth is calling for a Healer, but we need to get her to the Infirmary. They'll take care of her there."

She wished she could calm the garnet more thoroughly, but honestly, Amaata was feeling pretty panicked herself. Kuroth?

The Healer's Wing has been notified, Kuroth shared with his rider and Rask. Someone should meet you on the way to the Infirmary.

"Hear that, Rask?" Amaata said, trying to keep Raev steady on her side. "We're going to get Raev help."

[FirebrandPhlox]

Raev's legs buckled underneath her as another spasm shook them. She did not fall again, thanks to the support of Rask and Amaata. But as the pair attempted to take her towards the Healer's Hall, Raev continued to struggle with breathing.

With each shallow, raspy breath her handler made, Rask whined in concern. Why Raev sick? The wher asked, despondent. Rask was carefully shuffling next to the women, making an obvious effort to control her normally bounding gait so as to not cause more harm to her handler. Raev no think. Rask worried!

As the trio walked, Raev's mind grew cloudier, even less focused. She blinked with increased frequency, as if that would clear her thoughts. She couldn't discern the space around her, unable to recognize where she was. If she could breathe, she would've panicked at the severe reduction of her mental faculties, but since her lungs were still unable to draw anything more substantial than a shallow gasp, she was more concerned with that.

Through the uncontrollable jolts and twitches firing off in her body, she clasped her hand tightly around one of Rask's back ridges. Even in her delirium, the feel of the wher's hide was familiar, her ridge something physical Raev could cling to as the world and her health crumbled around her.

[Dragon]

"I don't know," Amaata said, trying to keep her voice even. She didn't want to further upset the already worried wher - but she was worried. Scared, even. This - this shouldn't be happening. Except there was a truly terrifying reason it might have ...

"She might have ... her tea might have been bad." Maybe she should have brought the tea with them to the infirmary so the Healers could inspect it? Not that she could have carried the cup and helped Rask with Raev.

Kuroth? Can you see if someone can take the teacup to the infirmary?

On it.

"I'm sure they'll be able to fix her right up once we get her to a Healer," Amaata said, trying to soothe the worried wher. Maybe it was even true; Amaata's symptoms had cleared up in two days, and Kuroth's in one, and she'd been admonished for waiting hours before seeking help. Not that either of them had been nearly as bad as Raev.

Amaata grunted softly as Raev stumbled against her. She could feel the shorter woman's muscles twitching under her skin. And her breathing sounded awful, too shallow, too ragged.

"We've got to be close, now. We should meet someone coming to help us get her there soon."