Of a Wrist [Nine | Y'ang]

[Dragon]

Cradling her right wrist, Amaata made her way from drills to the infirmary. Kuroth was in the back of her head, watching and wary; Skatha would actually fit in the infirmary with Amaata and so was fluttering around the tall rider's head and shoulders, eyes swirling a concerned yellow as she watched the dragonrider for signs of pain.

There was pain, but Amaata was mostly embarrassed. One of her straps had been a little loose - a mistake she had not made in turns, if ever - and she'd smacked her wrist hard against Kuroth's cloudy blue hide.

Looking for a healer, she continued to cradle her wrist while at the same time trying to soothe Skatha. Spotting someone with the appropriate knots, she waited for her to notice the curly-haired young woman and then said, "I knocked my wrist pretty badly in drills; I think I might have sprained it."

[nineofswords]

Y'ang was bored. So bored, in fact, that she'd gotten caught up on paperwork. So bored that she was waiting around to help see to walk-ins. Maybe she'd get lucky and someone would come in with a really nasty injury she'd have to use her expertise on. After all, winter was supposed to be boring, and they'd had those holdless come in unexpectedly, right? Injuries could happen any time.

Still, she was a professional and was at least trying to appear busy, so she hadn't noticed at first when Amaata came in. Bokhee was the one who drew her attention to the younger woman, the green firelizard flying over to the bluerider's own flit to try and provide comfort and get her to give Amaata enough space that Y'ang could look at Amaata without having to shoo the pet away constantly. Y'ang's face lit up, and then fell just as quickly when Amaata explained her issue.

With a sigh, Y'ang said "Alright. Let me take a look." She took Amaata's wrist and started pressing on it and feeling it. She wasn't being gentle about it, but she wasn't being unnecessarily rough, either. Her scowl was not clearing up as she prodded at the wrist. "Just a sprain," she confirmed, seeming annoyed by this. "No breaks."

Please forgive my rider's tone, Kullilth interjected smoothly, having eavesdropped through Y'ang. We are both pleased the injury is not worse. She's simply caught up on work and looking for productive tasks to fill her time with, and a sprain will not take long to address. You are most fortunate! Wrists can be quite finnicky. We will have you out of here in no time.

Y'ang just grunted a vaguely affirmative-sounding noise at that.

[Dragon]

There was a brief flash of excitement on the older woman's face when she saw Amaata, and then her face fell again. What - why? Amaata wasn't the best judge of what people were thinking or feeling, but that seemed odd.

The woman was bored-looking and scowling as she examined Amaata's wrist, being none to gentle with the injured body part. Skatha reluctantly let the other green flit soothe her somewhat, finding a shelf to land on and tolerating the other firelizard's attentions.

"Ow. Oh, that's good. A sprain shouldn't take long to heal thankfully." Now she just needed to have it wrapped up or whatever, and maybe ice it or ... well, she'd listen to the healer's instructions. She glanced over at Skatha and sighed; her suspicious flit was curled up in a tight ball and glaring out from under one wing.

Kuroth gave the older, larger dragon a polite mental nod. Thank you. Mine is so very bad at watching out for herself. Kuroth was teasing, a little ... but mostly he was relieved that Amaata wasn't injured worse.

"I feel so stupid," Amaata admitted. "I had a strap loose, I checked them but somehow I missed one. I'm just glad that it didn't happen during Threadfall ..."

She was highly embarrassed by the whole incident. Compliant with the older woman's actions, Amaata waited patiently for this to be over so that she could slink back to her weyr and try to forget about this. "I'm Amaata, by the way. Kuroth and I are newly transferred in from Igen."

[nineofswords]

"Yes, sprains heal quickly, especially if you treat them right," Y'ang agreed. She went to get some bandages and a sling and deftly started wrapping the wrist. Bokhee was still fussing over the other green, and so didn't want to fetch them for Y'ang. That was fine. Gave Y'ang an excuse to feel useful at least.

I know how that goes, Kullilth commiserated with the cloudy blue. Mine could probably take care of herself, but I shudder to think where she'd be now without me to be personable on her behalf. I swear, if she could get away with answering question exclusively via grunt when she's in a sulkier mood, she'd try it.

"Everyone's clumsy," Y'ang said, though she wasn't making too much attempt to be soothing. She was privately mourning the fact that it hadn't happened during threadfall. Then she'd have something to do...

She finished wrapping the wrist, carefully inspecting the tips of the younger woman's fingers to make sure it wasn't too tight. "Right," Y'ang sighed, already basically done. "Baby your wrist over the next few days. Keep it elevated, this sling should help with that. You can remove the bandages to wash, but try to rewrap them as tightly as they are now. Get a friend or weyrmate to help you, or else come back here to have us do it. It's not like we have anything going on right now," she said, gesturing despondently at the quiet infirmary. "Ice it a couple of times a day to keep the swelling down, no more than half a candlemark at a time. In a few days come back and have someone check it out for you. If you have any stiffness once it's healed, that's normal, we can show you some good stretches to help with it."

She stared at Amaata in surprise, as if it hadn't occurred to her to get to know a patient's name or birthplace. "Uh...I'm...Y'ang. Healer's Wingleader. From High Reaches Hold and then the Healer's hall. I came here...oh Faranth..." She scowled, doing mental math. "Oh Faranth, it's been two or three decades now?" Now she felt old and useless. What a combination.

[Dragon]

Amaata definitely intended to treat her sprained wrist right. She did not want to drag this out longer than she had to and she wanted to get back to normal functions as quickly as possible. "What am I restricted from doing in the meantime, ma'am?" How badly had she messed up?

They do so need us, Kuroth told the brown, wheeling around and spreading his wings to drive him further aloft. Amaata-mine wouldn't actually mind a conversation comprised wholly of grunts, I think.

The bluerider shifted slightly at the comment that everyone was clumsy. It didn't really make her feel better, but it was true enough. Everyone was imperfect. No one was right all the time. One thing Amaata was sure of was that it wasn't going to happen again. She wasn't going to repeat her mistake.

She listened carefully to the healer's instructions, nodding along as she noted what was being said to her. She wasn't sure who she could get to rewrap her wrist, but she'd find someone. One of her new wingmates, perhaps? Some of them seemed nice enough to not make fun of her for having had a loose strap.

Y'ang. The Healer's Wingleader. And she was giving Amaata the time of day? That was certainly different. The only wingleader she'd interacted with in Igen was her own.

"It's nice to meet you, Wingleader," Amaata said politely. She felt decidedly young, not even thirty with a five-turn-old dragon. One day, of course, they would be the ones saying they'd been in one place for twenty or thirty turns. In High Reaches? Maybe.

So far so good.

[nineofswords]

"I mean...it's not a broken wrist, you can still use it," Y'ang said, not really sure what the younger woman needed explained here. It was basic first aid training even, the sort of thing every dragonrider had been taught at one point or another (admittedly, Y'ang did not have the best sense of what was common knowledge and what wasn't as far as the healing arts went). "Just...I don't know, use your common sense? Try not to lift anything with it if you don't have to, don't put your whole weight on it. And I don't mean handstands, I mean like if you're getting out of bed, try not to push yourself up with it. Just...try not to use it? But if you really need two hands for something, you'll be fine."

Kullilth was relaxing on the ground in a sunbeam and was content to watch as Kuroth wheeled above. He laughed when the blue admitted to him that Amaata wouldn't mind a grunt conversation. It would no doubt be most amusing to see that, but I wonder how much they could truly manage to convey using that method. Far simpler to simply speak, in my opinion.

Well, at least this young woman seemed to be listening to her instructions, which not everyone did. Still, even some who seemed to listen didn't actually follow instructions, so they'd see if the bluerider was still complaining of wrist pain and soreness.

"Please," Y'ang said with a dismissive gesture. "It's just Y'ang unless thread is actively falling or you're in my squad." She was proud of her title, sure, but it was a waste of time to stand on ceremony, and for the purposes of healer/patient relations, she was no different from any other healer. The only reason she'd fought so hard for it was so she could get first pick of the more interesting cases and wouldn't have to be stuck with sprains when things were busier and more interesting injuries were available. "Sucks a bit, though, I'm sure, to know you won't have anyone higher up to complain to about my technique or advice if you're dissatisfied with how I've handled it," Y'ang said. She was trying for a joke. She wasn't entirely sure she'd hit that particular nail on the head.

[Dragon]

Amaata was listening and fully intended to comply with what the healer told her. She'd never actually sprained anything before, so this was all a little bit new. Which meant that she was taking in everything that Y'ang told her and saving it for later use. She'd be using common sense, too - but she really didn't want to lengthen her time healing or reinjure the wrist when it was almost healed.

Kuroth gave a mental huff of laughter as he pictured a grunted conversation between his and Kullilth's. I'm sure they'd find a way to manage it if they could - but yes, much simpler to just say what you mean.

Not that Kuroth wasn't guilty of keeping secrets. Not that he had much to keep secret ... which was a pity, since he was so good at it.

Amaata cracked a smile as Y'ang gestured dismissively when the bluerider called her Wingleader. It was always, in her experience, better to give the respect due and then be told to back off on it than the other way around, so she'd take it. "Alright then. Y'ang." Pretty for a woman of her age, Y'ang was obviously farther on in life than Amaata in more ways than just age, and Amaata respected that.

Her smile widened slightly in amusement at Y'ang's joke. Not that Amaata thought she'd have anything to complain about when it came to the other woman, but it was still amusing. "I'll just have to find your weyr and short sheet your bed if you need complaining about," Amaata commented casually.

[nineofswords]

After Y'ang had finished explaining all the do's and don't's of sprain recovery, she looked Amaata over, a slight scowl on her face. "You're probably young enough still that even if you aren't that careful, you'll still bounce back from it relatively soon," she said. Faranth. To be young again, to not wake up every morning with back pain despite doing everything right.

Such a simple thing! And yet, Kullilth said with a sigh. So many people struggle to just put their thoughts or feelings into words, don't they? He thought it a tragedy, really. He could sort of understand it - how could he not, being partnered with Y'ang? - but it was always his first go-to to try using his words. Images and feelings were far too flexible and vague for his purposes.

Y'ang gave the first smile of her interaction when Amaata just called her Y'ang. It was a small one, but it was a smile. "Well that's encouraging; you do know how to follow instructions." Kullilth gave Y'ang alone a very long-suffering sigh, which she ignored.

She let out a bark of surprised laughter at Amaata's response to her joke. "Alright, I like you," she said. "Amaata, right?" She nodded. "I'll remember you. You ever have an issue, you ask for me, I'll make sure you get taken care of."

[Dragon]

Y'ang said 'young' like it was a bad thing somehow. That scowl! It wasn't Amaata's fault she was not quite thirty yet. "I'll do my best to get older," Amaata said dryly. Honestly, you'd think that Y'ang was annoyed because Amaata was young!

It's amazing what a struggle it is, Kuroth said, amused. He was starting to relax now that it was clear that Amaata was not badly hurt, and he came in to land on his ledge and settle in to wait to bring Amaata up.

The bluerider smiled slightly as Y'ang commented on her following instructions. "I do try to do as I'm told." Within reason. She could be stubborn at times. Dig her heals in when she had to. But it wasn't exactly like she was hard to work with or anything. "Especially when it comes to healers; I've never once met someone who served by not listening to healers."

She smiled slightly again as Y'ang declared that she liked her. That was nice. "That's right. And I'll be sure to ask for you if anything happens." She was thinking of medical issues since that was within Y'ang's purview ... but it was always nice to have people in power in your corner ... something that Amaata had never really experienced before. "Thank you."

[nineofswords]

"Ugh...don't," Y'ang advised when Amaata said she'd try to get older. "Put that off for as long as you possibly can. Unless you relish random aches and pains, that is. Right now, you can probably sleep off most problems. When you get old, sleep just adds to your problems."

"Then you are sadly in the minority," Y'ang told Amaata when the younger woman said she tried especially to listen to healers. "Plenty of people think they want a healer's advice, but try telling a wingleader that they need to rest - really rest - after a concussion, or trying to explain to a rider that they cannot just strap themselves to their dragon's back to get around if they've broken their leg, or telling a dragon they should not be engaging in mating flight behaviors because they are injured." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "People think they'll listen to a healer until a healer tells them to do something they don't want to, like lying in bed for six weeks or drinking a foul-tasting medicine every day."

Y'ang just gave a nod at Amaata's thanks. It was fairly apparent that she didn't know how to take compliments, so she just didn't acknowledge them very much so she wouldn't be expected to say anything.

[Dragon]

She didn't like young, didn't advise growing older ... Amaata was starting to think that Y'ang didn't like anything. Maybe she was just grumpy ... Amaata didn't really know the woman enough to say whether or not this was normal behavior.

The bluerider cracked a smile when the healer said she was in the minority for actually listening to healers. Maybe it was because illness and injury weren't things that had happened often to Amaata in the past, but on the rare occasion she had needed a healer, she had listened to them! Everything seemed so severe the way they put it ...

"Can't say that I'm not looking forward to being back to drills and fighting Thread, but I'm not going to risk making things worse!" The foul-tasting medicine, though ... "I also can't say that I'm ever eager to drink the medicines that come with being sick ... do they have to taste so awful?" Surely there was a way to make them taste better!

She smiled again, just slightly, when Y'ang just nodded at her thanks. A woman after her own heart. Amaata had never taken well to thanks or compliments, and it seemed like Y'ang didn't either.

[nineofswords]

"Glad you're smart enough to let yourself heal. And it's not that medicines [/i]have[/i] to taste awful, exactly," Y'ang said with a sigh. She didn't usually have time to explain this to people, but they weren't busy now and Amaata seemed reasonable enough. Maybe she'd get it. "But the herbs we use to make them are strong. They're hard to mask with other flavors, and if we tried to, the amounts we'd need would dilute the mixtures too much for them to be effective. Not to mention the fact that you can't just combine flavors at will. Some herb combinations will completely nullify the benefits of the medicine, or else will become dangerous to you. It's very difficult to hit the right balance, so it's easiest to just make the foul-tasting concoction and tell people to drink it down fast. Better that than risk poisoning someone trying to make the medicine taste better." The testing process alone would be an ethical nightmare.

She ran a hand through her hair. "Maybe it's not the answer you're looking for, but things involving healing are rarely as straightforward as we'd like. Things that work in one instance might be the complete wrong thing to do in a similar one. Shells, during plagues, sometimes people recover with minimal help from us and no real explanation as to why, and some people waste away despite us doing everything we can. It's part of why it's so frustrating when people don't just trust us to know our jobs."

Y'ang smiled a little ruefully at Amaata's own smile. She appreciated that Amaata wasn't trying to push her to accept the compliment, and could guess that Amaata felt the same about compliments.

[Dragon]

"I hadn't thought of that before," Amaata said thoughtfully. She didn't know much about mixing herbs, that was sure - even during her exploration of crafts she'd never really thought she might become a Healer and so she didn't know any more about first aid and Healing than your average rider.

It did make sense, though, that changing the mixture of herbs in a remedy would change the remedy's effectiveness, and she didn't fancy dying just because she wanted something that tasted better! "I suppose now I can never complain about my medicine being foul-tasting again, can I?" she said with a sigh. Now that she knew ... yep. She was going to have to take her medicine without grumbling or complaint.

The shy bluerider was glad that the other woman had smiled at her letting Y'ang react to the compliment as she would. Amaata didn't like to be forced into reacting a certain way to things and she doubted anyone else did, either. She turned the conversation back to her wrist to make sure she wasn't missing anything. "So hopefully I'll be all healed up and back to drills in what - a week or two?"

[nineofswords]

"Oh, you can absolutely complain," Y'ang said. "Medicine tastes bad, it's not pleasant, there's not much we can do about that, and the one good thing about that is that you get to moan about it as much as you want. As long as you actually take it, that is," she added. Her smile turned rueful. "I sometimes find that complaining makes it go down a little easier, personally." But maybe that was just Y'ang. Onerous tasks were always easier to bear if she could complain to someone about them.

Y'ang gave a professionally sharp nod. "Correct," she said. "After a week, as long as you've babied it sufficiently, you should be feeling better. Once it's feeling normal again, I'd give it one more day, then come back for a follow-up. As long as you're good to it, you'll be good to get back in the saddle." She was still a little disappointed that the injury wasn't worse, but this hadn't been the worst interaction with a patient she'd ever had, and for that she was tentatively willing to think it was even a good one.

"Any other complaints?" Y'ang asked, just to be sure. "No new, inexplicable aches and pains? You haven't secretly been bleeding this whole time and were just trying not to bother me with it?" She was joking. Mostly. She'd seen some weird priorities from patients before, had then come in for a headache only to casually reveal at the last moment that they were having a medical issue that was a good deal more serious and should've been what they brought up first.

[Dragon]

While she wasn't by nature a complainer, it was nice to be given permission to whine about the taste of medicine. She thought that she could survive without actually complaining, but she was going to have to pull faces at least. You couldn't take your foul-tasting medicine and not make a face over it!

"I'll keep that in mind and be sure to protest enough over my medicines." Amaata said with a slight, wry smile. Healer's orders! Anything to make the medicine go down easier. Not that she got sick frequently, thankfully.

She was glad that she wasn't grounded from drills and Threadfighting for long. A week was plenty of time to have to baby her wrist, and she was going to baby it! Following a Healer's orders was just smart. "I can do that," she said compliantly. "Better than making it worse and being down for longer."

Amaata assumed she was still allowed to have Kuroth take her up and down from their weyr.

When Y'ang asked if there were any other complaints, the bluerider shook her head. "I'm as healthy as a runner." She wondered if the other woman ever got a yes to that question. It seemed silly not to go in to see a Healer when you had a problem ... and to go doubly quickly when your dragon had one.

Skatha, who was still in a tight ball on a shelf, mumbled at her person and the Healer as she glared out at them suspiciously. Amaata smiled at the flit. "She'll be glad when I'm out of here and somewhere she and Kuroth can keep an eye on me."

You know I will be too.