Chap. 337 The Dragonhealer

Chap. 337 The Dragonhealer

Raventh lay flat out, his neck stretched forward to allow K’ndar to flush his eyes.

K’ndar poured several buckets of water from the dragon trough, watching the nictitating membranes flick over Raventh’s eyes.

That’s better. I can see now.

He heaved a sigh of relief. He was dying to jump into the water trough, but didn’t want to contaminate the water with the dust that coated him.

My shoulders are really beginning to hurt Raventh had said.

The only dragon healer in the area is at Cove Hold. Can you make it there?

The brown dragon flexed his wings. K’ndar noted several damp spots on the heavily dusted skin. Oh, my stars, he thought, it’s blood. He’s got holes in his wings.

I can launch, and go between. Flying hurts.

If you wait just a few moments, I’ll go inside, get a change of clothes, and we’ll go to Cove Hold. There we can get a good bath in the sea, and the healer will look at your wings.

And maybe my face, he thought. It feels like someone took sandpaper to it.

————————————————————————————————–

“Well, K’ndar, I can honestly say that I’ve never met anyone who survived flying in a dust storm,” the dragonhealer said.

K’ndar grimaced. “Trust me, it wasn’t intentional. I’ve never seen anything like it. One minute it’s merely hot, barely a cloud in the sky, then out of nowhere, wham! we’re in the middle of the ugliest cloud I’ve ever seen. It was a sand tsunami. It moved like a live thing and it went FAST.”

The dragonhealer nodded her head. “I’ve heard of them, apparently, this is the second one Igen’s been hit with in less than a month. Usually they get them MAYBE once a year. Oh, dear, here’s another hole.”

She was carefully examining Raventh’s wings.

“You were smart to immediately wash off in seawater. It makes it much easier for me to find the wounds. Like this one,” she said. “That, and sea water makes it far less likely that they’ll get infected. Who knows what was in that dust? Ichor has a lot of antibiotic qualities, but still, clean wounds heal better.”

The moment they’d landed on the dragon’s beach at Cove Hold, K’ndar had pulled the harness off. Raventh trundled into the water, still dragging his wings, while K’ndar had stripped to bare skin before following. Siskin had joined them.

Despite his fear of being in deep water, K’ndar purposefully dunked his head under the surface, hoping to get the dust out of his hair-and ears. The salt water stung his face and ears, confirming his conviction that his head had suffered from the dust as much as Raventh’s wings. I was so stupid to not wear my helmet, just because it was too hot, he chided himself.

A trio of dolphins swam up to them. One of them approached him underwater. He heard a low purring sound. At the same time, he felt an odd, tingling pressure in his bones and organs. His inner ears rang and spun for a brief moment. He shivered despite the warm water.

“What the…!” he shouted in alarm. The dolphin stopped purring.

Fear gripped him. I’m in chest deep water and I can’t swim well enough to escape if they attack.

The other two dolphins circled Raventh. One was smaller than the other.

They purred as they circled Raventh, only his head above the water, groaning in pleasure at its warmth.

Are you okay? Why did you shout? Raventh asked

I’m okay. I felt dizzy, I got this odd feeling, like something was vibrating my insides. What about you? Are you hurting?

Everything stings but the water feels good. I felt it too. It was the dolphins. They make sounds that I can feel inside! It feels like a touch without fingers.

You felt it too?

Yes. It tickles. Don’t fear them. They are our friends. You are afraid of the deep water. I won’t let you drown. They won’t let you drown. They won’t ever hurt you Raventh said.

He felt reassured by Raventh’s courage. He mastered his fear, the presence of the dolphins reassuring him. I’m an idiot, he thought, thinking a dolphin would attack?

The water around their bodies grew cloudy as the dust came away from their skins. Bobbing on the surface was the detritus of the desert-bits of leaves and grasses, feathers, spines, seeds, fish scales, hair from mammals, and hundreds of insects, alive and dead. Within a few minutes, tiny fish surrounded them, snapping up the struggling insects. Siskin chased the tiny fishes underwater, but the fish were much faster than the fire lizard.

One of the dolphins snapped up a few of the fish, more out of opportunity than hunger. She got a mouthful of the dust. “What this? Sand?” she asked.

“Not sand,” K’ndar said, still feeling filthy with it. I should have brought a scrub, he thought, but the water will wash most of it off.

“Small sand, called dust. Like sand, but dry.”

She clopped her jaws. “Taste different than sand. All come off you and dragon. Dragon hurt in middle flippers. What call them? Not for swimming, for fly, yes?”

“Yes. They’re called wings. How do you know where he hurts?”

She giggled. “Me dolphin! We hear the pain in the body. We see bones inside dragon and you and little dragon. Dragon not bad hurt but in pain. Heat near wing bone,” she said.

“Is that what I felt? My bones and insides were tingling?”

“Yes. I see inside you. You are not hurt. Why your heart beating so fast? Fear of us? It silly to fear us. We never hurt humans.”

Oh, shaff, he thought, embarrassed, if I admit I was afraid of them, I’ll never live it down. If there’s one thing I know about dolphins, it’s that they’re dreadful gossips.

“I’m afraid of deep water. I don’t swim well,” he lied, only partially.

Thank the stars they can’t hear me think, like Raventh can. Can they?

The dolphin chuckled. “We never let you drown. Never.”

Siskin swooped past him, still underwater.

“Little dragon swimming like a fish! Not hurt, though,” the small dolphin observed, a bit scornfully. “Not good fisher. Fish too fast.”

“Not always,” K’ndar said, and just then, Siskin caught a fish. He carried it to the surface and flew to the beach.

“You wrong, calf. Little dragon GOOD fisher!” said the large dolphin.

His fear gone, he said, “I’ve forgotten to introduce myself. I’m K’ndar, and my dragon is Raventh.”

The three clicked to each other, their tones rising in excitement.

“You Keeendar! Hello Keeendar! Swash friend. Tillek friend. We know you help dolphins all time.”

“Yes, Swash and Leap are my friends, and I’ve met the honorable Tillek. Give her my regards,” he said, thanking the day he helped remove a bloodfish from Swash. It had forever raised him high in the estimation of all dolphins.

“Re gards?”

“Tell her, K’ndar remembers meeting her. Tell her I respect her very much. Very great dolphin, wise.”

“You meet Tillek. That great honor. Not many human meet her.”

“It was an honor for me, as well. What are your names?”

“Me Cori. Him, Diver and calf is Alta.”

“How you get all sand?” Alta asked.

How to describe a dust storm to a sea creature? Ah.

“You know tsunami? Giant wave?”

Alta shook his head, but the two adult dolphins gave out worried tones. Cori explained the concept to the calf with a cascade of clicks.

“Know soo nah mee. Not hurt dolphins, we too far out. When we hear seafloor move, we know soo nam mee come. But many fish near shore die. Get thrown out of water. Much dead came back with big wave. When space rock hit sea, many soo nah mi hit shore. Many dead things come back. Many ann ee mal? Even human. Big wood things, tree? Even fisher boat. Soo nam mee big danger,” Diver said.

I would love to discuss the asteroid strike with a dolphin, what a different point of view, he thought. But not right now.

“Yes. Dust storm like tsunami but with wind, not sea. Very big wave, very fast.”

“You fly in it on dragon?” Diver asked, unbelieving.

“Not on purpose. We were caught in it. Never seen it before. Never do it again, I was scared!”

The dolphins nodded. Alta snickered at the idea of being afraid of the wind.

“Hello, dragonrider! Hello!” he heard from the shore.

——————————————————————————————————

They were in a large hall, built specifically for dragons. Along one wall was a shelf with a series of cupboards. A young girl sat next to the shelf, mixing pots of what his nose, despite still being tinged with the stench of dust, told him was numbweed. Next to her on the bench was a datalink, a blinking light on its screen indicating it was activated.

Siskin searched the upper regions of the hall for a suitable perch upon which to nap. Finding none, he came down to perch on K’ndar’s shoulder. He projected happy satiation.

“You’ve met our dolphins,” the dragonhealer said, her eyes looking at every part of Raventh’s body.

“Yes. They said Raventh has heat in his body, in his wings. I think they meant a strain.”

She turned to face him. “They’re excellent diagnosticians, K’ndar,” the woman said. “They use their navigational sonar to ‘see’ inside us. I will of course give him a thorough examination, but I usually agree with the dolphin’s diagnosis. In cases like this, they’re seldom wrong.”

She ran her hand into the shoulder joint, then down the wing to the tip, then moved around the dragon to repeat the exam of the other wing.

“He’s strained his ligaments,” she said, “You said his wings were snapped backwards? I’m astonished they weren’t dislocated, if not completely broken. You were lucky, K’ndar.”

He shook his head.

“It wasn’t luck that brought us through, ma’am, it was Raventh’s incredible flying. We were both immediately blinded, I couldn’t even see Raventh’s neck spines. The wind snatched him up like he weighed nothing, and flipped us upside down. Oh, shaff, I was so scared, only my harness kept me aboard! Somehow he flipped upright, without anything to push against, he regained control of his wings from brute strength. Then we went between. It seemed like hours but I bet we weren’t in the storm for more than a minute. A shaffing long one.”

She completed her exam of the wing.

“Raventh,” she said, keeping a hand on the wing bone, “Can you lift this wing? Please? Move it forward and back, like you are flying. I know it will hurt, but I need to feel it move.”

As he moved the wing, she kept her hand on the joint, moving with it while ducking underneath the great sail. K’ndar was happy at how comfortable the woman was in communicating with Raventh. So many people don’t realize how much they understand, he thought.

Raventh rowed the wing forward and back. But not very far. His eyes turned orange with pain.

She didn’t need K’ndar to translate. She could easily feel Raventh’s reluctance to fully press his wing forward or backwards. “I’m sorry, Raventh, but I’ll need to do the same to your other wing. I know it hurts. I’ll just need a moment, please.” Raventh rumbled.

She sighed in relief. “No breakage, thank the stars. No swelling. That’s good news.”

Tell her it hurts in my chest, now, too. Raventh said.

“He says it hurts in his chest, too,” K’ndar said.

She ran her hands over his pectoral muscles. My hands are my most valuable instruments, she thought, trusting what they were saying. They’re far better than my eyes. Oh, my. He IS hurting. These pecs are quivering. And he’s so stoic about it. So typical of a dragon.

“No doubt it hurts. He’s strained every muscle that powers his wings.”

Raventh dropped his head to her level, meeting her eyes. She looked in them, always thrilled to see the sparkling intelligence in a dragon’s eye. What incredible creatures you are, she thought.

She touched under his jaw, feeling for the artery to take his pulse. His heart rate was slow and steady. Even the underside of his jaw had been scoured by dust.

She scratched, gently. “You’re a very brave dragon, Raventh, I know it hurts. Your skin is all abraded from the dust. We’ll put some numbweed on it, okay?”

Raventh snorted, softly. A trickle of dust ran down his nostril.

Siskin launched from his shoulder and landed in his usual spot on Raventh’s neck.

“Your fire lizard isn’t hurt, is he?”

“I don’t think so, ma’am. He was lodged in pretty tight to Raventh’s neck, and I think I covered the rest of him. I would have known if he was in pain, and he would have told Raventh.”

“That’s a relief. Fire lizards can be hard to doctor, they’re just too wiggly at times. And there’s no way to keep them from going between if you’re trying to do something that’s uncomfortable.”

She ran her hand down Raventh’s nearest foreleg. Not his leg, dolt, he’s not a horse, she reminded herself. But she’d grown up handling horses, and loved them above all other creatures. Checking the legs, no matter the species, was a habit impossible to stop. Besides, she reminded herself, sometimes there are issues not related to the case at hand. Better to find it right away then have it crop up later in worse shape.

“K’ndar, numbweed will help with the pain in his skin. Oil him, tonight, if you can. As for his muscles, massage them. Do the pectorals, the scapulars, the rhomboids. And the back muscles, but he’ll tell you if they need it. You DO know those muscles, I trust? Remember what you learned in Weyrling school, work against the grain. That will help a lot. I’ll show you a few acupressure points, too. Keel?”

“Of course I know the muscles,” he said, a bit insulted. “I’m a biologist as well as a horseman and a dragonrider.”

“Don’t take it too hard, I am finding that these days, I need to ask. Some of the newer riders don’t bother learning the muscles. They’ve never flown against Thread, so they’ve never really FLOWN, you know? They say muscles are boring. Keel, is that numbweed ready?”

“Yes,m,” the young girl said, carrying two pots of numbweed and paddles.

“Thank you, my dear. Would you please start working on Raventh’s off side, and I’ll work on this side. Start in the armpits and work your way over the entire side. If you find any wounds, dress them, please.”

“Yes’m,” the girl said, handing the healer a pot and a paddle.

“I can help,” K’ndar said, feeling suddenly useless.

“No, you can’t, K’ndar. You’ve not felt it just yet, but I bet my boots tonight you’ll be just as sore as Raventh. You, sir, will now go into Healer Hall’s main lobby, tell the staffer there that you just went through a meat grinder of a dust storm and your face needs attention. AND your ears, they’re probably full of the damned dust. You were smart to wear your goggles. You could have lost your eyes.”

“I wish I’d worn the bandana Flight Ops had given me. I didn’t even think of it.”

“Ah, well. Anyway, go talk to the healers. Please.”

“Um,”

“Go on. Raventh will be just fine. We’ve been caring for dragons for a long time, haven’t we, Keel?”

“No’m, ma’am, not officially but I’ve been helping at my Weyr since I was a tot. Now I’m just an apprentice, but I love dragons,” the girl said. “I wish I had been born a boy, then I could have a brown dragon just like Raventh. He’s so pretty! He has the most beautiful wings!”

Raventh gurgled, his expression goofy whenever females-of any genus- gushed over him.

“Before I do, ma’am, what, um, what is our flying status? I need to report to my boss at Landing.”

“I was about to decide that. Obviously he can still fly, but I am going to ground you for, um, well, I don’t want him going a week without eating, but I don’t think he should hunt. Right now he needs rest and recuperation. Let me think for a moment.”

For several moments she was silent. Keel studiously went about applying numbweed. She crooned very softly to Raventh. The brown turned his head to hers, snuffling her hair. She reached up to stroke his cheek, then returned to her work. Oh, she’s a natural, he thought, born with the healer’s touch.

Does she hear you?

I don’t think so. But I’ve been told sometimes humans need to grow a little more before they can hear us.

I’ll tell B’rant she might be Searchable

Tell the girl the numbweed helps.

“He says, thank you, Keel, you are making him feel better,” he said.

“I know. I think brown dragons are the smartest. I like greens, but they can be sassy. Blues, they don’t ever seem to get hurt, ever! Bronzes are just too serious and I’ve never worked on a gold but they think they’re better than anybody else. Stuck up.”

He grinned. “I happen to think the same thing,” he said.

The dragonhealer turned back to Raventh. “Raventh, I don’t want you straining those ligaments. You need to rest them. When you don’t feel the pain anymore, then you can fly. “

Raventh’s eyes turned a light blue in amusement.

“K’ndar, apply numbweed every day to his body under the wings, see how abraded his armpit is? Pay special attention to that. The holes in the wings, well, as you undoubtedly know, they’re painless. Still, they’ll ooze ichor for a couple weeks until they heal over. And the skin on the wings has been pretty much evenly abraded all over, it will take a while for them to return to normal thickness. I want you to oil the rest of his body fairly thickly. So, for at least a week, NO unnecessary flying, launch and between ONLY.”

“Okay.”

“As for grounding-yes. You are grounded. But I know you work at Landing, and I don’t know how your boss will feel about it. We’ve been recording this session, so if he needs an official diagnosis, we can send it to him by datalink. If he approves, I’d like you to stay here for a week. I want to see Raventh in the sea every day, for an hour or so. It will help with healing and ease the muscle strain. I’ll ask the dolphins to herd some fish for him. Raventh, will you do that for me?”

I will.

Raventh went full blue eyed. K’ndar’s heart swelled with pride and affection for his dragon.

She patted his neck. “You’re a beautiful dragon, Raventh. So refined, you’re like a race horse.”

She turned to K’ndar. “He’s lovely, K’ndar,” she said, wishing, yet again, that she’d had that Certain Something that caused a dragon to make one it’s lifelong partner. This is as close as I’ll ever get to that mind meld, she thought, feeling the sadness paining her heart yet again. Why not me? Why was I not good enough?

And yet-I can still communicate with him, even without the voice in my head.

“Ma’am, may I tell you what he said after we came out of between, over Landing?”

“Of course.”

“He said, had it not been for the dust, he would have enjoyed staying in it to fight the wind.”

“What?”

“He said it was fun.”

She shook her head. “Raventh,” she said, “You’re just plain crazy.”

Raventh laughed.