Numbers, Figures and Faces (1/2)

Writers: Avery, Aaron
Date Posted: 16th November 2017

Characters: K'ran, K'don, L'gren, Callis
Description: Kedon gets a taste of checking on injured riders with K'ran
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 2, day 13 of Turn 9

K'ran

K'don

Now that they'd both eaten breakfast, and that he'd filled Kedon in on
what the plans for the day were, it was time to actually get started
on that plan. K'ran led the Candidate towards the Infirmary. He liked
to handle this early in the morning so that the part of the day that
was emotionally toughest was out of the way quickly.
The apprentice greeting people as they walked in was a short boy with
brown hair. Callis was weyrbred, around 15 Turns, and had never wanted
to Stand.

"Good morning, Wingleader. And hello there," Callis said, giving Kedon
a little wave.

"Candidate Kedon is accompanying me on my rounds today," K'ran said
cheerfully.

"That's neat," he said.

"Good morning," Kedon answered Callis, smiling warmly and waving back.
He wondered how much overlap there was between the infirmaries for
humans and for dragons. Would he be seeing more of Callis once he
Impressed and apprenticed to the dragonhealers, he wondered? Would
they become friends? Thoughts like this were often on Kedon's mind. He
wanted to be friends with everyone if he could.

"Should I wash my hands?" he asked.

"You should rinse them in redwort just to be safe if you'll be
touching anyone," the apprentice said, before turning away to peer at
a hide.

K'ran headed over to a bin and rinsed his hands with it. "You probably
won't need to touch anyone, but I clean my hands just to be
extra-safe," he said.

Kedon nodded and rinsed his hands also. "I did want to ask first, but
anytime I was sick, I always felt better if someone held my hand or
rubbed my back." He blushed. "And I know people and beasts aren't the
same, but touch helps calm them down sometimes, too, if they're
scared. So. You know. I just wanted to be sure I'm doing this right,
sir."

"The first person we're going to drop in on probably isn't the
touchy-feely type. But there's a girl we'll be seeing who might
appreciate that."

They walked down to one of the rooms. There were two beds in the small
room. One was currently empty and neatly made. Lying on the other one
was a man in middle age, maybe his fifties or so, bedsheet pulled up
to cover his waist down. He had no visible injuries.

"Who's the kid?" he asked, pointing at Kedon.

"That's Kedon. He's a Candidate, and he's assigned to watch me in my
duties today," K'ran said.

"You wanna be a dragonrider, boy? Why?" the rider asked.

Kedon lifted his hand in a bit of a half-wave, near-salute. I see you,
I hear you, I acknowledge you.

"Yes, sir," he said. "I want to protect the people from Thread."

"Nice words. Are you ready for what it costs?" he muttered. "I nearly
lost my foot and they don't know if I'll fly Fall again."

"L'grel," K'ran said. "Don't harass the Candidate."

"He needs to know what can happen," the man said.

Kedon touched K'ran's arm, though he pulled it back as he realized he
had not asked about whether he could touch him yet.

"It's all right, sir. He deserves for me to listen to him. Sir, I'm
just thirteen. I don't know what it really means to be ready for
something like that," Kedon admitted. "But I know that only certain
people can do this. Maybe I'm one of those people. If I don't help,
then who will? Maybe I'll get hurt really bad, and maybe I'll die. But
if I don't, then other people definitely will get hurt really bad and
maybe die. So, that's why I'm going to Stand."

Kedon walked closer, but he did not try to take L'grel's hand. "I'm
sorry this happened to you, sir. Thank you so much for your service."
His eyes were misty. This was always going to be hard, he already
knew. But that did not mean he could choose not to do it. The riders
here deserved for him to listen to them.

Since Kedon seemed determined to stick it out, even when L'grel was
being rude, K'ran quietly observed the conversation.

The bluerider snorted. "It sounds nice when you say it like that, kid.
But Thread _hurts_. It burns you and maybe kills you. And you say
other people get hurt, but what about all the holders who call us
names and accuse of of stealin' their folk? Maybe they don't deserve
it."

Then, suddenly, he waved his hand in the air as if to dismiss a VTOL.
The missing pinky finger was visible.

"Or maybe they don't matter at all and I'm a cranky older man who's
just trying to scare the Candidates off."

Kedon moved all the closer, standing right by the old man's bed. His
heart ached for him. Did he not have children, grandchildren of his
own to come hold his hand? Kedon knew without hesitation that if
K'sedel or K'deren were hurt like this, he would be by their bedside
every day.

"You matter," he said. "Even if they don't appreciate what you gave
for them, I do. I do." He winced to keep the tears from falling.

"Huh. You're a good kid," L'grel said. "Don't let the world break you."

"Do you need anything else, L'grel?" K'ran asked.

"Make sure that Vikarath gets washed? He says that they're getting him
but it's not every day."

"We can get that done," K'ran said.

Kedon nodded. He would most definitely make sure that got done. Before
they left, he gave into his instinct and took L'grel's hand and gave
it a quick squeeze.

"I'll wash Vikarath if there's no one else to do it," said Kedon. "I
do know how to do that much." He gave K'ran his best smile.

"Thanks, kid," L'grel said, pressing back as best he could.

When they headed back into the corridor, K'ran smiled at Kedon. "You
handled him very well. L'grel is a solid rider, but he's been
depressed since his daughter died at River Bluff in the accident. If
they have to remove his foot or his leg and he's retired, I worry that
Vikarath would be the only thing keeping him here."

Ah, so that explained it. Kedon frowned, saddened at learning
everything the man had lost. He was too preoccupied thinking still
about L'grel to be too proud of himself for how he had dealt with the
man. "Can I come back to visit him again?" he asked. "If he doesn't
have anyone left to come see him, I want to."

"If you'd asked me before you'd met him, I would have thought he
wouldn't welcome a visit. But you got him to show a nicer side. I
think he'd like that, especially if you could tell him how Vikarath is
doing. It's really hard to not be able to _see_ your dragon when
you're wounded," K'ran explained.

Kedon smiled, already looking forward to the next visit. He felt so
happy to have made that much of a difference for someone who was very
clearly hurting.

"I'll be sure to tell him," Kedon promised. He wondered, then, what
sort of situation the young woman they were visiting next might be in.

Last updated on the December 10th 2017

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Numbers, Figures and Faces (1/2)