Wilderness - High Plateau
This surely would be runner heaven if they could stomach that bridge. High up above anything else, this plateau is covered in high, sweet grasses. Stunted trees and scrub brush dot the plateau. Far away you can see the jungles steaming faintly and a volcano rising out of the canopy. Immediately to the south is a grassland if you can get there. To the north is a swinging rope bridge.
Some people are all smoke and no fire. Delenn shakes his head again in regards to Arkoss and recaps his waterskin. Dropping his pack heavily before him, he leans over between his parted knees and rummages with a bit. "Heeva, come here so I can take a look at that scrape." he says, more command in his voice than likely anyone has ever heard from the usually quiet and gentle healer. A small black zipped pouch is brought into view, sitting up straight long enough to peer over at Lorena barking at Arkoss. Arching a brow, his attention is drawn to Orla as she wanders over his way, her comment bringing a smile to replace the scowl on his face. "I imagine so. Though two marks says he tries to play it off for the rest of our little outing," he chuckles, "I don't see Keziah or Ryski letting him get off without a proper amount of teasing."
Arkoss sees Lorena coming his way and warily steps out toward the bridge, wincing. He stares over the edge and gulps. "You sure it won't break?" he asks uncertainly. Yeah, Arkoss is having a bit of a problem getting…. 'Akross'. Nar har har.
Heeva looks over at Delenn's almost but not quite command that she come over to him to have her shins examined. Getting up somewhat awkwardly, she moves over in his direction and settles down again next to him, and wordlessly offers her legs for inspection, a feeling of confidence in his ability to ease her discomfort. "Thanks Delenn," she offers in anticipation of his help. "Whatever you can do to ease the pain will be welcome." She smiles tenuously up at him. "I have some Numbweed here if you need it though," and she holds up the small amulet bag in his direction.
Lorena smirks a bit as the kid clearly doesn't want little 120 pound Lory dragging is sore bum across the bridge. "It won't… but harp on anymore and I'll make sure that injury to your backside isn't the only embarassing event you'll have happen." She snaps, standing in the middle of the bridge without the bat of an eye at it's height or sway in the breeze. "If it makes you feel any better I'll come stand on the ground so it's only you on here." But of course she'll stand on -his- side so she can give him a doubly painful kick in the rear.
Amarante crosses her arms at her chest. She's been silent and obedient thus far, but at Arkoss' new development, she grumps quietly, "Shards! How are you ever going up on the back of a dragon if you can't even get across a rope bridge?" She shakes her head a bit and simply waits her turn. She's been enjoying this, more or less, so far.
Keziah is in her element out here in the wilds of nowhere, she's this way and that way, remembering area's she's been through in the past, so many turns ago as it comes back to her. Course, some things look different as there are no different vegetation replacing those that may have died away. She snorts at Arkoss as she peers right over the edge of the bridge "It'll hold." she states with a grin. "You should take a look over the side, it's a really nice view." she states as she looks like she's ready to pull him right over. "Don't be such a baby."
Delenn bobs his head once to Heeva, already pulling things out of his medical kit. A small plastic bottle with a nozzle, a glass vial with some red-tinted powder in it, and a decent size slide-top tin containing a strong scented compound that couldn't be anything but numbweed. "I have some, thank you though." Unscrewing the top of the bottle, the healer pours some of the water from his skin into it until it's three quarters full. A set of tiny measuring spoons are drawn out of the bag, and used to get the right amount of the powder in there as well. Spoons and the remaining powder are put away again, looking briefly towards Lorena and Arkoss, a grin threatening to split his face in two. Yes, it was going to be a good day. Recapped, the bottle is shaken until both powder and water are mixed thoroughly. Delenn then pulls the wounded shin over his lap, checking it for any excess particles or dirt. "This is going to sting…quite a bit." he warns Heeva beforehand, and then starts to squeeze the redwort wash he'd prepared over her wound.
"My arse won't be stabbed a dozen times." Arkoss snaps back peevishly to Amarante. "I didn't have a problem mounting a dragon on the way here, but what if the numbweed wears off when I'm halfway across and I fall?" Ah, so he's being /wary/, not cowardly. /Right/. Gripping the rope sides, he starts taking steps across. "Dragons and rickety bridges are entirely different!" plus, with dragons you get to be strapped on. Hardly anyone's ever fallen off a dragon.
Keziah rolls her eyes at Arkoss "You know, if you fall off the bridge? Your butts gonna be the least of your worries." She stalks towards him "If you're lucky, you'll fall on your head. Nothin' there to damage." her eyes twinkle however. "I'll start bouncing up and down if you don't keep a moving." she threatens gleefully. Course the way she's going, she just might anyways.
Heeva screws up her face in pain as the stinging potion is poured over her wounds, determined not to be a sissy-girl and either cry or make a sound. She lets out a prolonged whoosh of air from pursed lips as the initial sting subsides. "Thanks Delenn, I think" she says tight-lipped as she scrounges in the pocket of her trousers to find some sort of cloth to tie over the still-bleeding scrape.
Lorena snorts at his reasoning there. "Then hold the rope. Worst case scenario you get smacked into the rock face if you hold on." And her brother survived things like that so needle-bum should be fine. At Keziah's threat, Lor snickers but shakes her head. "No sense tempting faith, Keziah, with us three… come on ahead… if he doesn't, I'll pick him up and carrying him." In a way that faces him down too, yep. She looks over at the others already across, but they seem fine for now.
Amarante is about to say something when Keziah offers another zinger instead. She chuckles a little and shakes her head, choosing not to say what she was about to. There's mean and then /mean/. She's not the latter, not really. Besides, it's still the truth.
"Let me finish, Heeva." Delenn suggests, tucking the empty wash bottle into his pocket and withdrawing a clean sanitary cloth from a sealed plastic bag after ripping it open with his teeth. Very carefully the healer pats the area around the wound dry and then even more tenderly over it as well. Next to go on is the numbweed salve, smearing the strong medicine scented stuff around the outer part of the scrape with a finger. Everyone else is ignored, given the look of concentration currently fixed on Delenn's visage. A length of gauze is cut, and bandages wrapped tightly around it after it's placed on Heeva's shin, clipping it off with a specially designed clip that hooks into the bandage. "All done." he quips, patting the top of her foot and starts to clean up.
Arkoss turns to glare at Keziah behind him. "Don't you dare." he growls at her, then gingerly continues on. If she /does/ happen to start rocking the bridge, he'll just stay where he is and not move an inch further.
Heeva sits absolutely still, fascinated by Delenn's ministrations to her shin, watching his every move. As the Numbweed takes effect, she relaxes visibly, "Thanks soo much Delenn, that feels wonderful!" she looks up at him through her shaggy fringe, her head still bowed over her leg. "I'll have to stay near you on this walk - just in case I need your help again." She adds hastily, lest he get the wrong idea. Then her attention is drawn to the hapless Arkoss and his battle with fear on the bridge. "Just look straight ahead Arkoss, then it won't seem so far and what ever you do, DON'T look down!" she adds, fervently hoping that he wouldn't.
Keziah awws, what's the fun in that? But she nods and doesn't bounce, least not to wildly. Course she keeps peering over the edge as she moves on. She leans forward a little closer to Arkoss and whispers "Not too much further now." THen she's back to peering over the side, leeeaaaannn."
Clean up takes a bit longer than the the fixing, but Delenn doesn't seem to mind, taking his time as long as Arkoss continues to prove his true colors over there. "You're welcome." Eventually everything is disposed of or put back away, the medical kit being put back into his pack, and then the pack's flap is flipped back over and tied down firmly in place. Without looking, he points to the pile of harnesses like the one Lorena is already wearing. "I think we're going to be climbing, not walking." he says to her, figuring them and the ropes. It doesn't take a genius to put one and one together.
Lorena moves back to the rim, seemingly placated by the slow progress of the boy. "C'mon, hurry up now or I'll leave you all out here to fend for yourselves." And as if she heard Delenn… "I want to get at least some of you up and down this cliffside before lunch… or you'll only have a short time to prepare your meals and I'll let you all starve. Let's go!" She moves back over to those waiting. "Come forward and lets get harnesses on you lot while we can. Keziah? Make sure he doesn't leave." She asks with a bit of a smirk.
Orla had sat herself down on the ground near to where Delenn and Heeva are, she stays silent through most of what is happening, her disparaging comments aimed at Arkoss were delivered when he first froze on the other side of the canyon. "Almost there." She murmurs to the pair before she raises a hand. "I'll go first." She calls to Lorena with a grin, "I've been sat on my arse for too long waiting." She tells her as she gets to her feet and wanders over.
Pulling himself up and off his boulder, Delenn leaves his back and skin there by it as he makes his way with several others towards the stack of harnesses. Selecting one that looks sturdy enough, he fixes those green eyes of his on Lorena, narrowing them as he tries to figure out how she's got the darned thing on. Pulling it on, it actually takes a few attempts to get it sitting just right, but before too long he's strapping the thing down good and tight with an audible creek of leather. He has Ryski give it a yank from all sides, nodding silently as each yields little movement. Good, now he won't fall out of it. Stepping back as Orla claims first dibs on the cliff, he lifts a hand. "Second." That's right, lets get this over and done with.
Heeva stands and walks over to the equipment lying near Lorena and looks to see how she is draped with it. "You're brave," she comments quietly to Orla who is volunteering to go first, what ever that may be. She has no idea what's about to follow next, and decides to wait near the back of the line to see what the others do before committing herself to anything. Erring on the side of caution is never a bad thing, and Heeva's learnt /that/ lesson well.
There's a shaky moment when Keziah leans over the edge that makes Arkoss feel like he's losing his balance and he doesn't move until it straightens, but then he finally gets across and clings to a tree. Never again.
Once Arkoss finally makes it off, Keziah bounces off after him. "Now that wasn't so bad was it?" she asks Arkoss with a grin, though at the moment she's making no comment about him clinging to anything. "Isn't it wonderful out here? You know you should take a look back over the way we came, great view."
Orla selects one of the harnesses and starts strapping herself in, she's done this before with buildings, but not on an actual cliff before. It doesn't take her long to get herself in and strapped up before she wanders over to Lorena at the edge. "This do?" She checks with the person who likely has more experience than the others.
Amarante stands back and watches the proceedings, by and large. She's waiting for her turn, but also waiting for Lorena to tell them what's going on.
Lorena goes around and checks them all. "Arkoss… it's up to you if you want to do this. If so, have one of them help you put a harness on." She turns to the rest. "I'm going to go down… Orla, come watch me clip myself on. You'll do the same and help everyone else, alright? You're all going to repell down and start the climb back up." She motions Orla over to the lines, showing her how to check the snugness of the harness and where to clip to. "You got that?"
Having helped Delenn out a bit, Ryski moves right along to..a harness! He makes a slight face as he works at getting it on, tightening things here and there, giving his brother a poke in order to get him to check things over. "Is this tight enough?" He shifts about, not exactly /comfortable/..but it'll do.
Heeva quietly watches the others and mimics what they do, pulling the harness into place. Then she turns to the nearest person who seems to know what's going on which happens to be Delenn, "Is this right? Is it tight enough?" she asks, once Ryski's harness has been checked out by him.
Orla bobs her head. "I've done this kind of thing down the walls of some of the big holds." She replies, "Though those descents were controlled by other people, this'll be interesting to see how I fare." She's grinning though as she takes up position, clipping herself on to the rope well away from the edge so she can get other people connected in safety before they go to the edge. "Who's first?" She calls out, suddenly all businesslike.
Arkoss looks at the harness and how it's worn, and preemptively winces. "I don't think that'd be a good idea, numbweed or no." considering the straps go all around the behind and all.
Ryski's poke gets Delenn to look to the boy, and he nods. Yeah, he'll check him over. Each strap, and even the leather is checked, giving a tug now and then and making an adjustment or three. After all, this is his baby brother and not some random stranger. He wants the kid to be safe, and not a red spot at the bottom of the cliff. "You're good." he tells his sibling, tipping the boy's chin up and smiling. His expression clearly reads, I love you, please be careful. Turning then, at Heeva's request for assistance, the healer bobs his head once and sees about checking her as well. After some less then gentle tugs, and a single adjustment he steps back. "Done. You should be fine."
Keziah checks out the harnesses and then goes over it much like she would tack and harness. She glances over at Arkoss. She looks as if she's going to say something and then she closes her mouth and works at getting herself hooked into it. "You'll be okay by yourself then Arkoss?" she asks curiously.
Lorena takes a look around and just… hopes they all take care of each other. She puts on a pair of gloves and with the lowline in one hand she backes off the edge belaying herself down. Wheeee! It's like flying! Okay, or not with the bouncing off the wall with her feet and the warm rope flying through her hand. Once on the ground she takes a few steps back, adjusts the ropes with a few rhythmic swings and nods. "Alright Orla! Just like I did and then you'll climb back up!"
Orla moves down the line towards the edge and peeks over. "It looks a lot farther down than the facings at Telgar is." She murmurs before shrugging she starts to feed the rope through slowly till the slack is taken up then she starts to lean back over the edge, taking a few small steps to get her balance and make sure her weight is fully supported before she starts off down properly. She walks the first little bit before she tries a tentative push away from the wall, she fudges the rope work though and lands right where she pushed off from with a muttered curse. She does a dry run with the rope side and falls a foot or so before regaining her posture and does it properly, pushing off with a mighty heave and down she goes with a scream, not quite fear, more an adrenalin filled cry of pleasure. The rest is almost easy after that.
"I'll let you know if a feline tries and eats me. I'll be fine." Arkoss tells Keziah. He watches Lorena seemingly fall off the cliff and shakes his head. Nope, not for him. He jumps when Orla screams, and backs away from the edge a little bit more.
Amarante peers over the side a little as Orla and Lorena go over, brows lifting suddenly. "Oh," she breathes. "Excellent." She pulls back flushed already. When it's her time, she will definitely be going over, though she can't really seem to decide between being pale from fear or pink from excitement - so she swings between them both.
Ryski gives Delenn's hand a little push away from his chin, eyes rolling. Yeah yeah. He'll be /fine/. He grins though as Orla goes, moving to lean over the edge just a bit..and peek. Any nasty splats? No? Ah well. There's a small bounce he gives as he waits his turn.
Keziah snorts a bit at Arkoss and then glances back towards the cliff edge at the scream "Oh this is gonna be such a rush." she exclaims brightly "Well don't give it indigestion and all. Though if you do get eaten' Alara's gonna be mad at you."
Now that Heeva and Ryski are taken care of, Delenn turns his back to them and heads over to where the lines are fixed to the cliff side. Fearless, he gets as close to the edge as possible and peers over as the women go down and up again along the rocky wall. Courage, balance and a bit of luck is all someone really needs. Setting himself up to be next after Orla is safely back with the rest of the candidates, a pair of gloves are pulled on over his hands after he gets his hair straight. That stuff falling into your eyes while your hands are otherwise occupied, not a good thing.
"Don't touch the lowline, girl!" Lorey snaps when the slack becomes evident. The girls's sudden weight jerks her up a bit and she yelps. "Let go! I've got you! You don't trust me?" She tightens the slack as she lands. "Now climb back up." She instructs, bracing herself. "And when you get up there tell them all to let -me- control their speed. If I go too fast they can say but no touching the rope!" Grumble. She's still sore from that unexpected jerk.
Orla is giggling with the rush of adrenalin by the time she reaches the bottom she nods her head to Lorena, attempting to get the proper amount of demure recalcitrance composed onto her features as she replies. "Sorry ma'am." She turns back to the rock face in front of her and makes sure her hat is tied on tight before its' pushed back behind her to hang on it's tie round her neck. "Okay I can do this." She murmurs as she examines the way ahead, trying to pick out a good path up before she sets off. Feet onto the first ledge, find the handhold, right hand up to the next hold, move her left foot to the next space, shift weight move other foot. She makes her way up, slow progress as she tests each hold on the way, she's a heavy lass so she's making sure of her hand holds before trusting her weight to them. Eventually though she makes it to the top and hauls herself over, fingers trembling as she holds out a hand to whoever is closest to get them to help pull her up.
Lorena shouts out from below to Orla as she takes up the slack. "Rely on your legs more! There! Yep… good job Orla! Send down the next one!" She braces ready to control teh rope.
Orla offers up a thankful smile to xxxxxxx when she is been helped up. "Thanks." She murmurs softly her voice about as shaky as her legs and arms feel after the strenuous climb. "Okay next one, make sure you're clipped on properly. Oh and let Lorena guide you down on the rope, don't do it yourself, or you'll get shouted at like I did." She offers the advice in a quiet enough tone that Lorena won't be able to hear her at the bottom of the cliff.
Up in the air above the plateau, a long midnight blue comes into view, roaring a greeting to the brown dragon in the air above them, as well. Lazily circling above them, Kieranth is peering down at the spectacle from above— and Miir is on his shoulders. After a few minutes, and a good distance away to not cause any rope swaying, the dragon lands, and Miir just lays out on Kieranth's shoulders, watching.
When Orla does in fact come back up, Delenn grabs her wrist and helps her get her footing, nodding to her thanks. Grabbing the line as the woodcrafter unhooks it, he snaps it into place on his own harness and gives it a little tug. Can't be too careful after all, and plummeting to his death in some Faranth forsaken jungle wasn't how the healer pictured checking out. He blinks at the whispered advice, nodding when she's through and starts to lean back against the edge only when he's certain that Lorena has got plenty of time to brace herself. "Aren't you glad I'm not some fat holder's son?" he asks her, winking a bit before he goes over and lets the brownrider lower him, walking backwards at a very peculiar angle. You bet he's holding onto that line for dear life. "I swear you drop me Rider Lorena and I'm coming back to haunt you." he calls up, about half way down. Eventually though, there he is, at the bottom, and ready to come up.
Ryski moves a little closer to the ledge as Delenn starts his descent, watching his brother's progress critically. "Don't fall!" He calls the rather unnecessary reminder, finally settling down on his knees so that he can better peer down the cliff-face. Once Delenn touches bottom, the boy gives a cheer, however. See? He can be proud of his brother, too.
Arkoss is away from the cliff edge, leaning against a tree. He'd /love/ to sit down, but it's just too darn painful. The next he'll try is lying flat on his stomach if his legs start hurting from standing so long.
Lorena is at the base of the plateau, anchoring the lines for their descent while everyone is at the top, having crossed the bridge. Delenn is hooked up and on his way down, the order having been given that Orla will help them hook up, Lorena belays them down, and then they climb back up and the next person does the same. "Yes, but all the same, he's be lighter than you if he lept now and again!" She calls, "I'm not going to drop you, ya'know… You have give a -bit- of a hop and ease my pain down here! Just push off from the-" Meh… too late. "Well, that was passable." She states to him moving forward. "Alright… head back on up. Rely more on your legs and your balance than your arms and see if you can plan your course… it'll help." She picks up the slack and backs up again. "Go ahead."
Delenn glares at the little bouncing black tipped spot that represents his brother, shaking his head as he gets ready to ascend back up the cliff again. He puts more stock into his legs, using those to walk back up, and tries not to do anything with his arms other than to hold on and balance himself. It's slow going, frowning as he tries to figure out where to put his feet before he gets there, to try and make this part at least easier on the woman holding the line. Finally, a brunette head pops up and Delenn comes into view, the front of his tunic a little wet, and another long line signifying his spine at the back. Sweat. He reaches up to someone for a hand up and drags himself up and over the edge, pushing himself to his feet. He's no more winded than the walk made him, and he brushes his hand over his cheek leaving a smudge of dirt. "Fun." he states in such a way as to signify the opposite effect of the experience on him, unhooking the line and handing off to Ryski. "Don't die." he suggests, clapping his sibling on the shoulder and heading off to find his water skin.
Myesha watches curiously as Delenn makes it down the cliff and back up again, peering over the edge but keeping her body stock still and as far away from the edge as possible. "Oh," She says a little shakily, giggling to herself nervously. "Does not seem so hard. Yes. It is not /that/ high up after all." She tells herself, and as she braves a few steps closer to the edge but immediately jumps back, clearly regretting it. Scared much?
While Kereth flew most of the way out here with the larger dragons after a nearly failed attempt at hunting breakfast. Please don't tell the candidates! Laera of course joined the group for the walk out here wearing her Cargo pants, tank top, a light jacket and sturdy shoes. She walks along the edge of the plateau as the candidates go down and up the cliffside, though at least has the decency not to make any jokes as the people dangle off the cliffside. As Delenn returns up she grins, "I see you are not splatted down below." She comments..Ok I didn't say she wouldn't make jokes once they came back up!
Lorena keeps taking slack, and taking slack till Delenn makes his way up then braces for him to climb up. "Good job!" She calls, then raises her eyes to those teetering on the edge. "Don't be dumb!" She growls at them. "I'm not cleaning up after your remains! Felines'll have a feast if you fall!" Snort. "Next?!"
Ryski smirks a little bit at Delenn, even as he takes his own position, gloves on and clipping himself secure. "Gee, thanks. I'll remember that." Although really, with Lorena down there holding on, he doesn't have too much fear of plummeting to his doom. He does move then, situating himself to begin his descent. He leans back, ever so slowly starting out until he finally disappears from the top of the cliff. A few more feet, and he takes a shot with pushing off from the rocky surface, moving steadily downward with a grunt as his feet make contact with the wall again. A few more times, and some more inching downward, and the boy's feet touch down, letting out a whoop of delight.
Keziah is peering down as well and as Lorena yells back up she steps away from the edge. She can't help but peek again as Ryski makes his way down. She lets out a cheer as he makes. She looks at Arkoss "See, easy enough even a kid can do it?" A dig? Nah… well. Maybe.
Lorena is actually grinning a bit again as she give and gives the slack. "That's it! Good job Ryski! Very well done." She commends, as he lands. "Alright… as I said to your brother, use your legs more than your arms and plan ahead… small bursts of a few movements help and I got you if you need to rest." She takes a few steps back and pulls the rop taught. "Go ahead."
"Cute." Delenn snorts at Laera, reaching up and ruffling her fair hair before he plunks down on that rock from earlier and drinks himself some water. He's confident that Ryski'll make him proud, and if he doesn't well, he certainly didn't want to see the boy reformat himself into liquid form. That's for sure. He goes right ahead and pulls the tie from his sweat soaked hair, shaking out the wet tendrils before squeezing some of the water over his head from the skin, tipping his face up under it and taking a gulp or two. Ahhh, refreshing.
Myesha doesn't have time to cheer for the others, she's too busy pacing back and forth and talking to herself. "Delenn and Ryski made it." She begins her pep talk, muttering the words quickly in between shooting dirty looks to the cliff. Evil! Pausing in her pacing she seems to decide to try looking over the cliff again. She makes it this time and manages to stay planted, sending a funny looking grin to Ryski and Lorena as a form of greeting. "Not so bad."
Arkoss comes forward at this, going towards Delenn even though that guy's such a jerk to him. "I think I need more numbweed, it's starting to hurt again." glower.
Ryski is down…and now time for the going up part. He tilts his head up for a moment, simply looking at the rocky wall, and then begins the climb. One hand..one foot..over and over he repeats the process. Sure, he's a bit slow at it, but he's not exactly used to doing the whole..climbing thing. Finding a good foodhold, he puts his weight onto the small ledge, although his weight seems to be a bit more than the rocky lump can handle. It crumbles beneath his foot, taking him with it only a short ways with Lorena holding the line, although he crashes heavily into the rocky wall, dust and bits of rock falling in a cloud to the ground below. "Ngh.." His feet scrabble a bit to find proper footing again, able to haul himself upward again. "I'm okay.." He huffs, crawling the last few feet to pull himself up and over the ledge. Nothing's broken, that's for sure, though the boy's a bit skinned up in places, including a nice red scrape across his cheek.
M'iri climbs gracefully up Kieranth's forelimb, grasping onto a riding strap and swinging into the spot between neckridges.
Laera grins as her hair is ruffled and reaches down into one of the pockets of her pants and draws out two rolled notes and hands them off to Delenn, "From Healercraft about your boy here, arrived this morning." As Arkoss moves over to them she grins, "Well the word is that those needle thorns in that bush..well they…were clean. Your arse shouldn't fall off." She says with a nodd of her head. Ok so she read one of the notes at least.
Lorena braces against the line as Ryski drops suddly, bending her knees and leaning back. "Ooph! You okay, kiddo?" She calls. At his confirmation she nods and holds the line. "Rest a moment… think it through and try again." And indeed he makes it up. "Good job boyo!" She calls. "Next!" Delenn, she knows, will dote on his brother just fine without her nagging.
Keziah is there by the edge as Ryski comes up "Ya okay there?" she asks him and then gets into place. Gloves? Check. Harness? Check. Henway? Hmm. She clips herself in and then she peers over and a thoughful look crosses her face as she backs up onto the very edge. "Talk about an odd sensation." she murmurs more to herself than anything. Then down she goes, step, step, step and the edge disappears from view and the faces rock. She pushes off and then out and down she goes. "Yaaahoooo!" she squeals with utter delight, the wind in her hair, the freedom the… Ooof. Not quite a splat but her feet don't quite catch and there's the scrambling of pebbles. She gives herself a little shake and heads downwards again, but this time not pushing off quite so hard until she reaches the bottom. "Woah, what a rush."
When numbweed is slathered on his nether region again, Arkoss looks over towards the cliff. Then, making up his mind, no doubt to try and save face over being such a wimp earlier in regards to the bridge, he gets himself into a harness, face set. Looks like he wants to have a go too.
Ryski just shimmies out of his harness, sitting on the ground to rest after all that climbing and stuff. And that's where he'll stay until it's time to move, yes.
"Easy!" Lorena calls out and scarmbles to catch her when she falters on the wall. Zzzz-zip! She braces, then lowers as Keziah resumes. "Much better… I know, hehe, it's a fun feeling isn't it? Just keep your landing point in mind or you'll meet that rock a lot more intimately than I'm sure you want." Slack is drawn up, Lorena wiggles her butt a bit and tries to adjust the harness into a more comfortable place. Okay. "Alright, go on ahead… All about strategy and your legs more than you arms… It's a thinking activity as much as a physical one." She braces.
Keziah wipes at her brow a bit as she eyes the rock face "Yeah, don't wanna get into that intimate with anything just yet. But it is a fun feeling. Almost like diving. I love that free falling feeling." She grins and then sets herself and starts back up. There's a little shifting and almost dangling as she works her way back up the face as she tries to get the hang out of walking up as opposed to climbing. Oh my, feel the burn. Again the edge is in view and there's a bit of a blink. Can't exactly walk up onto thin air. She pauses there for a few breaths and then hauls herself over and onto the top. "Wow." she murmurs and then blinks "Wait? This can't be the right place. Arkoss is in a harness."
Myesha takes a moment to glance over at Laera and Delenn but doesn't keep her eyes off that drop for long. When her eyes move back to it however she gasps and loses her balance, coming to land on her fortunately nicely cushioned rear. "Oh!" Is hissed out as she gets up slowly, dusting herself off. Looking around to see if anyone caught that she sighs, the ominous cliff seemingly forgotten for now. Keziah's reaction to repelling causing her to smile weakly. Least someone's enjoying this.
Lorena keeps the rope taught as with the others, but braces as Keziah leans into the rope a few times. No biggie. She expected more would actually. And she's up. "Good job!" She adjusts herself and could ahve sworn she heard something about Arkoss in a harness? Hm. "Next!"
Arkoss takes a deep breath and grabs the rope, attaching it to his harness like he's seen everyone else do, then slowly edges over the side, keeping himself well away from the edge of the cliff with one extended hand, the other keeping a death grip on the rope he's attached to. He makes it to the bottom, then stares up, somewhat appalled. Right then. Good thing he's got a numb butt.
Laera winces as she sees Arkoss put on the harness, "Oh dear, good thing you slathered his arse with that salve…that has got to be uncomfortable." She moves to the edge of the cliff to look over the edge again, "Well falling off a dragon is further, I reckon I can do this." She says with a nod and goes to grab a pair of gloves and the harness vacated by Keziah as she waits for Arkoss to return.
Lorena smirks in amusement as Arkoss takes to the wire and lowers him down. "Good job for having a numb arse." She muses, adjusting the rope as he lands. "Now, as I told them, rely on your footholds, plan your hand holds, and think it through. Focus on your goal… and up you go." She encourages, stepping back and pulling the rope taught for him.
Myesha watches nervously as Arkoss disappears over the cliff edge, biting at her finger nails. She knows what's next and her pale face shows how she feels about it. She gives a nervous chuckle at Laera's comment on the Candidates rear end, dropping her hands to her side. But she can't keep from fidgeting and raises them back up, scratching at her neck now.
Arkoss regards the rock face dubiously, looking around to scope out the best strategy for going up. He got a good look on the way down, so maybe that'll help. As it is, he makes his way up to the top finally, looking somewhat pale. Darnit, that /hurt/. He's got less scratches than Ryski, probably due to the fact that he went slowly and carefully and plotted out where he was going. Whew, glad that's over. See! Not a wimp!
Laera looks over to Myesha and grins, "Don't ya worry about me, she drops me Kereth eats her…So I am not worried." She says with a wink, just trying to distract the girl a little from jaunt ahead. She pulls a thong out of her pocket and pulls her hair up into a runner's tail before looking over the edge again to check Arkoss progress and pulling on the gloves and crouches down to give Arkoss a hand over the top once he gets there, "Thought you would never make it." She says with a grin before she hitches herself to a harness with a look toward her lifemate, luckily dozing. Whew. This could make the clingy Blue nervy. "Ready down there?" She calls down to Lorena.
Lorena watches Arkoss go up with a nod as she pulls and pulls the slack up and up. "Good job Arkoss… have a flop in the grass or something!" She suggests. Laera's up? She steps back, tightens the rope and nods. "C'mon down! Push off from the rock with your feet in hops!" She reminds.
Taking the notes from Laera as they're passed, Delenn arches a brow at there being two. For now he tucks them away inside his tunic. After tending to Arkoss, the healer then moves to Ryski, after washing his hands of course, because no one wants their face touched after they've been on someone else' backside. No fuss is made, everything very professional as he cleans the wound, and applies a little numbweed for the pain. Careful not to get any near the child's eyes. That done, he wanders back to his rock and washes his hands again with a little soap and water, drying them on a clean towel. It's then at he sits on his rock and pulls out the note with the purple ribbon, finding out in fact that the needles were clean and Arkoss wasn't going to die after all. As this was good news, he bobs his head and slips the information into his pack. Next he pulls out the white ribbon wrapped note and unrolls it. A smile breaks out as he leans over his own parted knees, growing wider and wider the further he progresses.
Laera eases herself over the cliff, one hand on the rope above her and one hand below she looks down at Lorena and nods before looking back up once more. There are a few tentative hops, before she gets the hang of things (no pun intended) and swings out a bit more and back to the wall. Several more jumps later she is down on the ground with a squeel of delight. Up top there is an odd warble and the weyrling blue wakes up and moves to the edge of the cliff and gives a concerned warble down to his rider. Leara laughs at her lifemate, eyes unfocusing. The blue quickly settles and lowers down on his haunches at the top of the cliff. Curious indeed, his rider just 'flew'.
Laera's words Myesha laughs nervously, her pitch coming out much higher than usual. "Too bad I do not have a blue of my own to threaten her with." She's shaky still but the weyrlings words seem to keep her mind a bit occupied on something else. When Arkoss returns she offers him a weak smile. "Nicely done." Is rushed out before she sets to chewing on some nails again. She's next and she is very much aware of that fact. All she can do however is wait.
Keziah heads over to Arkoss now that her legs have more strength in them and "You did it." she says with a touch of admirition in her voice, after all, that had to be worse than walking across a bridge right? "Wasn't it fun though?" she asks and then flops onto her back on the ground and stares up at the sky. "Isn't this great?"
Lorena smirks a bit as Laera gets the hand of it and appears to be enjoying herself. This turns into a chuckles as the blue head peers over the edge. "She's good. I got her!" She calls to the blue. "Good job," She says to Laera, moving forward to loosen again. "Now for going up, as I told everyone else… climb with your legs more than your arms and work in bursts of movements. Think them through before you act. This is more a thinking exercise than most others. " She steps back, pulls taught. "Ready when you are."
"I guess." Arkoss replies, flopping stomach down on the grass. Bleh on Delenn's parasites though. "That bridge was a lot less safe than going down that cliff face." he tells Keziah. "Especially with you leaning this way and that."
Indeed Kereth has settled down to just looking over the cliff as his lifemate does silly stuff like climbing walls he could just fly her up to if they let him! A sigh and he just waits. Laera nods at Lorena and removes her gloves and tucks them into her waist band as she looks up at the cliff. After a few moments contemplation she finds her first foot and handholes and slowly pulls herself up the cliffface. Luckily weyrling training has added more strength to her lithe form them she had before, no muscled mass, but there is a little bulges of muscle visable as she pulls up with her arms then pushes with her legs till finally she is at the top and pulls herself over with a tired grin and falls to her back at Kereth's feet, "Yes Next time you can fly me up…NExt!" Gasps!
Delenn finishes with the second note, having gotten up and wandered off a bit. Still in the area, just standing with his back to the group. Tucking this one back away in his pocket, he stands there, alone for a while, just looking around a bit. Eventually he turns and heads back to his rock, plunking down on it and pulling a brush from his bag. Hair tended to with a few strokes, he draws back the slightly damp strands and ties them off into a tiny runnertail again at the back of his head.
Myesha is silent now and still as Laera reappears. When the weyrling shouts that dreaded little word she just nods and moves to take the equipment. She just stares for a moment, rather shocked it seems until finally something seems to click and she gets herself ready. She takes one look at that cliff edge however, peering down at Lorena and squeaks. "High!" Gulping down she moves back away, sweat starting to bead her forehead now as she looks to the others for help.
Lorena watches and maintains the line as Laera goes up with a smirk at Kereth. Loyauth from above bespeaks the blue. « It'll make yers all the better as climbin' up ya to get those hard ta' reach places for scrubbin'. » Yup. "Good job! Next!" But Laera's beater her to it. "Myesha!" She calls. "You next?"
Ryski is messing with his nails. Because there's dirt under them, you see. It happens, when there's a lot of camping going on, without a proper place for cleaning. ..Or at least when there isn't an older brother breathing down his neck to scrub /extra/ hard. They're roughing it out in the wild, aren't they? He's allowed to get dirty fingers. Still sitting, however, he looks around, grinning when Laera manages to get back to the top. "..Delenn! Come back over here already!"
Delenn perks up at the sound of his name, pulling himself up off that rock and plucking up his pack. Slipping the thing back on, he walks on over to Ryski and arches a brow. "What's wrong with where I was?" he asks, pointing to the rock near the bridge where he was sitting, closer to the group than he'd been when he'd taken a few paces off to read his note in privacy. Still, there was no arguing with his sibling really, so…he hunkers down next to the boy. He draws his knees up a little, hooking his elbows on the outside of them and locking the position into place by grasping the wrist of one arm with the opposite hand.
Keziah sits up a moment as Rysk calls to Delenn, but then seeing there is nothing untoward gong on, she lays back and stares up at the sky again. She peers over at Arkoss. "You asleep over there?"
When no one comes to her aide Myesha gulps down the large lump that has formed in her throat. "Okay, I am coming down now." She yells to Lorena, her voice cracking a little. Moving slowly to the cliffs edge she stares and finally sits down before slowly twisting her body to face cliff. She lets out a little meep as a few pieces of gravel become dislodged near her and fall down. "Okay, I am coming down now." She repeats, clearly having forgotten her earlier words in her anxiety. Finally she lets go of the edge and makes her way down very slowly and carefully, never looking down. With a white and sweat covered face she comes to land next to Lorena. Alive!
Lorena smirks just a little as she braces to hold the girl's weight. "There ya go… I got you." She lowers the girls on down and smiles at her when she reaches the bottom. "Next time you should try pushing off just a little and see what it's like. I'm not going to let you fall. Okay… now to go back up… Look where you want to go. Take as long as you need. Might try leaning against the rope a bit when you get nervous to remind you I'm here. I won't let you fall, babe. Ready? Take a look over the cliff and strategize… what can you grab where? Rely on your legs more than your arms… especially us gals. Up you go." She steps back and pulls the line taught with a tug to remind her that she isn't going to let her fall.
Ryski looks quite a bit happier when Delenn settles next to him, fingers poking and prodding just a little at the scrape across his face. "Because it was over /there/." And not over /here/. So there. He does eye his brother for a moment though, lips quirking up slightly. "So..you really think we'll be able to find all that stuff?"
Delenn nods, "Zevida said she'd cook it, I'll help you and Laera look for them and double check everything so we don't accidentally poison ourselves." he comments, offering his water skin to Ryski. The second one anyway. The first, was used up the last time he washed his hands. The boy must be thirsty. "I don't see any reason why we shouldn't be able to. I saw several of them, when was wandering about the clearing. I might throw in some mint too, though. We'll see."
"So what's next then?" Arkoss asks Keziah, since it seems she's the one who's done this already. "There isn't /really/ a volcano, is there?"
Myesha just nods at Lorena a slightly dumb looking smile on her face before she gets ready to go back up. This time however her progression is much smoother, seems it was going down that was the problem. She uses her legs more as instructed, only having to pause once in order to get her nerves under control. Finally she's back up and smiling her and it's not the dumb looking one. "Well, that went better than I hoped!" And she takes off the gear, waving at Lorena before saying. "Who is next?"
Water! Ryski quite hurriedly grabs hold of that skin, tipping his head back to guzzle down a few gulps. Mm..yum. "Thanks.." He manages, once he can breathe again, offering the skin back to his brother. "I guess so. I mean..geez, don't you think it's a little..overdoing it? Just sounds pretty complicated, is all." And horrendously lacking in meat. They should be allowed to go../spear/ something. ..Yeah.
Keziah glances over at Arkoss and nods solomnly "There is a volcano." she notes quietly "Some caves and a lake, there's a river. Lots of thing." she notes and then hmms "Well, we're taught stuff and well last time they dropped us off in pairs in various areas. Took us a dragonback in between so we wouldn't know were we were."
Ah, but Delenn was voted to pick the meal because he knew all the items in the basket you see, and how to identify them. Lorena said nothing about meat, she said stuff in the basket. There was no meat in the basket. Taking the skin back, Delenn helps himself to a few swallows and then recaps the thing at the tip. "Zevida said she could make it as long as we got her the things she needed." he notes, and tilts his head to the side, regarding his brother. "You want to eat plain tubers and berries straight from the bush? That can be arranged." he teases, nudging Ryski with his shoulder and chuckling. "But only because it's you."
Lorena does a few more candidates before she secures a ratchetting lock and starts to climb her way back up, pausing to pull tight the excess cord as she does incase she slips. At the top she vaults up with ease and unhitches herself. Loyauth circles in from above as she pulls the line out and starts to wrap it. "Alright guys… someone do me a favor and grabe the harnessed… stow 'em in Loyauth's bags. Ryski? Do me a favor? In the chest bag there should be some canvas bags for you all to gather your foodstuffs in. Can you pass those out?"
Laera finally peels herself off the plateau top and pats Kereth's neck before removing her harness and setting it with the gloves for someone else to use. Kereth gives a warble up to Lorena's dragon at his input «She already climbs up, but I have to give her leg up.» He replies before following Laera to where Delenn and Ryski are sitting, "Spare the skin for a tired old weyrling?" She asks hopefully at the waterskin as she plops down next to them, "I can help cook too iffin you need it…I ain't spent a couple turns helping out in the kitchen and learn nothing."
Ryski makes a face at Delenn for that, huffing. "Meh. Heck no, I want properly cooked food, thanks." Then his name is being called, and the boy blinks, perking up to look 'round to Lorena. "Huh? Oh. Yeah, kay." Shifting, he gets to his feet, brushing off his hands a little on his pants before making a quick trot over. Bags aquired, he hefts them around to other candidates, tossing them when he's close enough. And if people don't pay attention, well..they might end up with a sack hat. "Here…here..here's one..there ya go.. All done!"
Keziah glances at Arkoss "Help me with the harnesses?" she asks with a tilt of her head as she gets up brushes herself before heading over to start picking them up. She then blinks as a sack lands on her. THere's a giggle heard and then "Thanks Ryski." she pull it off her head and tucks it into her belt for the moment.
"Okay." Arkoss states, carefully getting to his feet. "I can do tha-" he catches the bag before it hits him, startled, and glances over at Ryski. Eyeroll. "Ok then." he tells Keziah, leaning to grab a harness or five.
Having stripped off his harness sometime between reading notes and sitting beside Ryski, Delenn catches a sack as it's tossed his way after handing the water skin off to Laera. "Well…" he starts, green eyes darting about as he looks for Zevida, but doesn't actually see her anymore. That's strange. "…I gave you the list last night and what I have in mind. Did you read it?" he asks, brow lifting. "Do you think you can prepare all those things?" He frowns though as his group has been reduced from four to three, so now he'll have to help gather, help prep and maybe even help cook. Bummer.
Laera takes a swig of the waterskin before handing it back and digging into another cargo pocket for a neatly folded list. She reads over it again and nods, "The food bits no problem, ain't made many drinks but can't be that hard surely?" She says encouragingly as she ducks out of the way of the thrown sack automatically, Kereth extending his neck to snap playfully at the attack, missing. "You find me food worth cooking, and I can cook it probably. Aunty Liza taught me a few things around the kitchen." Well that one isn't REALLY her aunt, just one of the head Cooks.
Keziah looks around a bit as she makes sure all the harnesses were picked up and spots a couple of gloves that didn't make it in yet. Snagging them, she stashes them in the bag with the others 'I think that about does it, don't you Arkoss?" she asks as she continues to look around and then hmms "So, whatcha think would be good to eat? Hops dressed in berries with a side of mushroom?" Yes, she's joking.
Lorena pats Loyauth's shoulder as she stores the rope and her own harness. When all is packed up, he croons and takes to the skies again. "Okay folks! You've got your bags… And you teams… hopefully -some- idea of what you're getting… Follow me!" She heads off down the trail to the grasslands below.
"I can make the drink," Delenn says, taking back the water skin and latching it to the side of his pack. Cause there's a hook latch on the side exactly for that purpose. "I'll leave the rest to you." That said, he pushes himself to his feet, stretching his arms up over his head and yawning. It'd been a long morning, and muscles he'd never used in such a way were protesting with their tightness. Sore too.
Wilderness - Rolling Grasslands
Beneath a blanket of short, thick grasses and small, colorful flowers, the land rises and falls in gentle crests and shallow valleys. The occasional burrow appears dug into the side of the hillocks, and the obvious markings of unseen animals are everywhere.
People:- Keziah Chaitra Delenn Ryski Arkoss L'alie Lorena
Obvious exits:
Watering Hole <S> Ravine Trail <NW> Mountains <SE> Grasslands <N>
Lorena leads them across the grasses to a field not far from a revine and water hole. Here they should find everything they need if they look hard enough. "Alright folks, have fun. Any questions, ask me." She flops down on a grassy hill to watch.
Arkoss snorts. "What I wish we could do is snare a wherry or something." he tells Keziah as they walk off, and he's got about half a dozen harnesses draped around himself as he walks. "I don't know about you, but I like meat." his gaze swerves over to Delenn with a somewhat resentful glare.
Ryski tromps along, giving his arm a little rub every now and then. Hey, he's a bit sore, after all. He does look around, however, once in the field, brows arching upward slowly. "Wow..we get to run around all over the place here?" Hope there's none of those wild felines, anyway. He steps up on his toes then, trying to see farther. "Hey, there's water that way!" He gives Delenn's arm a light shake then, peering at his brother. "I'm gonna head that way."
Questions? Yes. Chaitra has two. Where, and who, are his group? The hunter trails along side one edge of the group following Lorena, looking around and observing his settings as he thinks about - once more - what to grab.
Keziah mmms a little "I love meat, wherry would be good." she murmurs and then look at Ryski and his comments "YEah, that wouldn't be too hot." she notes and then look around at the ground "Course, some tubers would make a nice start of something, don't you think?" she asks as she looks over her shoulder at Arkoss a she drops to the ground and pulls out her belt knife to dig into the dirt some. "Gonna have to sharpen it anyways."
Resentful glare or not, Delenn is completely ignoring Arkoss. As his arm is shook, the healer looks down at Ryski, nodding to the boy. "Just, please be careful and don't wander off too far." he gently reminds, concern flickering over his features. The tall grass of this place was making the hair stand up on the back of his neck, and so he didn't like it. "I'd rather eat something bland then have to explain to our father why he's down one son."
Laera follows along after the group with Kereth, so he had to look at things along the way. Finally the trott a bit faster to catch up with their group and looks down at her list, "So tubers…" She says as she looks around the field. At the mention of getting fresh meat she looks up to her lifemate then just shakes her head a bit at that. Na, won't offer up his wonderful hunting skills.
Ryski just rolls his eyes a little at Delenn, making a face before he trots off a ways. "Yeah yeah. I'm not gonna get /eaten/ or anything." At least not unless there's a big..scary animal out there with plans /on/ eating him. He does at least look like he's paying attention for proper plantlife as he goes, toeing around in the brush now and again at something that looks promising.
"Yeah….I'll go find, uh…something." Arkoss was told separately about what's safe to eat and what's not safe to eat, since he had missed the group lesson due to being in the infirmary. Let's just hope what he finds is the real stuff.
Keziah looks around "Where's that basket?" she asks and then shrugs "Go look in the basket, there's some wild onions in it. Should see if you can find some." she notes and then looks around and notice Chai "And you." she grins "Think you can find some of those mushroom as well?" she asks. Yes, she's an idea. And with that she uproots some of the tubers. "NIce onces."
Lorena rests back on her arms, eyes closed and just listening to the banter about her and feeling the gentle breeze on her skin. Her hands and arms are a bit sore, from holding them all as they climbed, but she was very pleased with how they did. Loyauth, I love my job. Her eyes flick open again and she surveys the grasses to see where they're looking as to what they might decide to pick.
Chaitra's eyebrow arches at Keziah, his mood already soured by the fact the other people who said they would work with him are /no where/ to be seen. The hunter departs with little more than a nod to the beastcraft girl, his machete drawn to help shift through the tall grasses as his eyes are bent on the ground, searching. As he searches, he carefully reaches for his belt pouch every now and then, drawing something out to nibble upon very slowly, not that it's all that big. "'Nice ones'." He grumbles to himself, quite far away from the others as he continues to look for a specific kind of mushroom. "As if Eh'd feed us poison…" Grump.
Bag in hand, Delenn wanders off in search of the ingredients on the list, a copy of it given to the members of his group. First and foremost he heads off to find himself some mint bushes. His travels take him further than he would like, but along the way runs across a few bushes that are on his list. So, very carefully he snaps off several sprigs of mulberry, service berries and snowberry. Sadly this means he'll have to be very careful with what else is put in his sack, else he squish the delicate fruits. Which would be a waste.
Laera looks up to her lifemate curiously before nodding and her eyes unfocus, "Get this image…this is what I am looking for.." She murmurs. Might as well do her imaging practice here. A weyrling's lessons are never really done. Kereth warbles his assent and moves off a few feet away, lowering his head to the ground and snuffling through the grasslands. Laera moves through the grass a few feet away, slowly drawing away from the group before she crouches to examine an exposed roothead of a tuber and gives it a yank with a grin, "Gotcha!" She says patting off the dirt before stuffing it in her sack.
Arkoss goes in search of leaves and stuff that are edible, disappearing. For a wonder, he manages to come back without getting lost, several branches held triumphantly in his hands. "Klah bark!" he exclaims, looking at Keziah for approval.
Keziah chuckles as she heads over to Arkoss, two point for entusiasm "That's great, it's not wild onion, but that' okay." she states and she gets up after harvesting more tubers. "We can grind it up." a pause as she looks around Lorena "We've a morter and pestle right?" she calls out to the rider and then hmms "Course I guess a rounded stone and a stone with a depression will work." she notes thoughtfully. "I guess I can try to find some wild onions. Just umm, keep looking." At the very least he'll remember maybe what he found before?
With a shadow behind him and his group spreading out to either side, Nalkor has begun sifting through the tall grasses, ignoring most of the plants but careful not to miss any which resemble those in which they are in search of. A pause here and there indicate that he's searching when he slinks down toward the ground, shoulders hunched as his fingers plunk, tweak, roll, and finger various plants. More than once he comes up empty handed, face tight with concentration, eyes squinted with determination. Foot falls are quiet as he heads for an out cropping of what look like large weeds with purple flowers on the top. Falling silent to his knees, he cuts the top off with a twist of fingers, leaning over to catch the wafting of the plant. Smirking, he begins to work at gathering wild onions.
Chaitra's frown is only deepening as he heads vaguely in the direction of the watering hole, in shouting distance of others, but not so much the sprinting distance unless he /really/ booked it. The hunter is looking very much annoyed at the lack of shaggy mane mushrooms, which is exactly what he's looking for, seeing not one grouping - rotting or otherwise - of the shroom.
The first hint that something is wrong starts as something innocuous. A rustle in the high grass near the candidates. The few dragons lazing around in the fading sunlight lift their heads, eyes alert and restless red. The firelizards, too, turn their heads and stare with intent to the spot where the grass sighed.
Ah ha! Delenn is happy to see that mint bush just a few feet away from the grouping of berries, trotting over in that direction to snap off a few long branches as they give way. Into the sack it goes. Check, and check. What's next? Taking the list out of his tunic, he carefully unfolds it and does a quick scan. Hmmm. Ah! Redfruit…Sweet chestnuts. Trees. Need trees. Scanning his eyes over the area, he sees a grouping that just might be what he's looking for. That's the good thing about plants above ground, you can at least see them from a distance. "Nalkor!!" he calls out, needing someone tall who can take the brunt of his weight to reach the good fruit higher up.
Ryski makes a face after a moment, having not been too successful thusfar in finding things. At least not what he should be collecting. Oh sure, there's a few mushrooms that have been tossed in the sack. ..Ones that probably won't be of much use. But hey. At least he'll have /something/. Heading a bit farther, the boy finally does spot at least a few bits of plantlife he recalls, nearly pouncing on them. "Ha! Here we go../alright/..come on.." There's a bit of a struggle then, to get his prize..a tuber..from the ground.
"I didn't see any but I found this so that's good." Arkoss remarks, unruffled. "We could use something to drink too." Arkoss' firelizards show up suddenly, squeaking at Arkoss, who snorts. "Off exploring, were you?" miffed, he heads towards the area next to the rustling grass, oblivious. "If I were wild onion, where would I be?" he mutters.
The first hint that something is wrong starts as something innocuous. A rustle in the high grass near the candidates. The few dragons lazing around in the fading sunlight lift their heads, eyes alert and restless red. The firelizards, too, turn their heads and stare with intent to the spot where the grass sighed. (re for Delenn and Rhalin)
Content with the bushel of wild onions he pulled from the earth, he's about to hunt down another grouping of the plants, tucking away what he had already gathered into the satchel provided. Despite his intentions though, his foot falls short of the next patch of onions as he hears his name called out over the grass land. Figuring he can always return to where he found the patch, the man tries to pin point Delenn from the rest of the candidates bobbing around the landscape. The hurl of arms in a wave is what nabs his attention. He turns from the onions as he starts packing himself up toward Delenn. He's not slacking either as he goes to join his group member, his pace significantly fast as if he means to beat the other groups to whatever Delenn has found. In fact, upon seeing some other's turn interest that way, Nalkor starts jogging, one hand held down against his satchel to keep from losing what's already gathered…. When he finally nears Delenn, he scans the area, "Seems you did good in finding what we needed. Great work Delenn."
Laera continues to move toward the edge of the grasslands as she hunts down more of the items on her list. Finding a group of more shoots she crouches down into the grasses to examine them closer. Not this one, not ripe enough yet. "oooh yeah…here we go…" She plucks an onion from the ground and holds it up in the air to inspect. "Yep…that's an onion." She stuffs into her bag and plucks a few more from the little batch she has ground. Kereth has moved a bit further away, his muzzle close to the ground but before he could find anything he notices the feelings from the other dragons and looks to them first with a low curious warble then around the grasslands, his own eyes whirling orange. Whether he is picking up on it as well, or just feeding off the other dragons it is hard to tell.
Keziah is oblivious to the warning signs as she lets out a squeal and hurries to a spor and drops to the ground to start digging at a plant "Ginger root!" she exclaims and looks quite pleased. "This will add some spice to things." she states and then nods "Klahs always a good thing, provided we can get it ground. Too bad there's no milk for it though." she hmms a little and then snarls at the ground "Give me my ginger root.!" she yanks and then suddenly goes sprawling "Hah! Got it!" she yells as she holds it up proud as can be.
Lorena looks at Loyauth with a frown as he sends distress her way. "What's up?" But Loyauth cannot be certain, gazing intently into the grasses. "You don't think…" She sits up a bit straighter… then stands, looking towards that direction. She's subtle though. No sense in causing a panic. « Ah dun' like it Lory. » Laera's exclaimation gets a head turn from the rider, but Loyauth is still very intent. "I'll go take a look?" She murmurs to him, hand subtly resting on her cutlass hilt at her side. Soft rumble. "I'll be fine." She moves casually that way, watching Arkoss and his lizards.
Chaitra is still searching for that elusive shaggy mane mushroom, the machete in his hand sweeping dangerously close to the ground. "Ah H-…ha.." Comes the cut off exclaimation has he finally finds a grouping of the shroom, but saddly it's a rotted grouping, unfit for harvesting. "Fardlin' shrooms…" He curses under his breath, but instead of wandering aimlessly now, he circles around the area, searching. Where one grouping rots, another is sure to be growing /somewhere/ nearby.
Adinaeth had been doing sweeps above when his rider spotted something peculiar. Now he comes in for a landing, his rider dropping to the ground with a heavy thump and heading for Lorena, a crossbow clutched in her hand.
On the way towards the grove, a few more things are plucked here and there, either from bushes or yanked free from the ground and things shifted around in the sack to accommodate them. He flushes lightly at the praise given him once Nalkor catches up and sees that he is useful for things other than a reliable source of bathing supplies. A clearing of his throat and he grabs the older candidate's arm, giving him a pull. "You can thank me later. I don't want to be out here forever, I have a very bad feeling. A really, really bad feeling." he mutters as he continues on, letting go of his fellow as they indeed reach the trees to find not only redfruit but sweet chestnuts as well. The final ingredients on the list, besides tubers and onions. Hopefully someone else grabbed those, otherwise lunch was going to be interesting indeed. He stops, turns too Nalkor purses his own lips together. "How good are you at climbing trees?"
A low growl sounds across the grassland, almost lost in the noise of so many people. There is another rustle, the sound coming closer slowly, ever slowly. The grass waves and parts, passing unnoticed between several candidates. On the opposite side of the group, two more trails through the grass can be seen. Something is coming this way, and it isnt alone.
Ryski can climb trees. Alas, he's nowhere near Delenn to be asked such a thing. He does toss his tuber..and a second one into his sack though, promptly slinging the thing over his shoulder. For safekeeping, of course. "Don't see why we gotta make like we're living on /plants/ anyway.. Plenty of stuff to catch.." Yes, he's taken to muttering to himself a bit. Ryski just isn't one to enjoy a whole lot of foraging. Or eating his greens, for that matter. A nearby rock earns a kick through the grass though, even as he turns around to look for the rest of his group. ..Or Delenn, really, calling across the field rather loudly. It's better than going all the way over /there/, after all. "Hey! Delenn! How many tubers do we /need/ anyway?"
Lorena looks up at L'alie as she comes near, but before she can ask the other woman the growl is herd. Loyauth lurches to his feet and Lorena's blade is drawn in a flash. "Candidates!" Lorena says in a very steady but loud voice. "Drop what you're doing and move towards the dragons now, quickly but do -not- run!" Loyauth lopes through the grass towards them with a deep growl and a lashing of his tail. A fearful look is shot at L'alie.
Nalkor pins his hands on his hips, his breathing a little heavy as he got to the point of being where Delenn was, nearly a span across the current site. He abruptly laughs after feeling his arm jostled when grabbed to be pulled along with Delenn. The older candidate is good natured about it and staggers alongside Delenn, regarding the shadows of the trees more than what they plants they hide. He can feel his brow twitch with a restless unease, though for Delenn's sake, he lets an easy smile slide into place. "Don't worry about it," he tries to ease his younger counterpart, "our protection are the dragons and firelizards. They'll call out if they notice anything. I think you're just nervous around me," he nudges Delenn with a waggle of his brows as they reach the tree of question. His eyes fling up the length of it, "Ahh. Climb…" A glance over to Delenn, "you'd fit up there easier than myself. How about I boost you up there?" He glances over his shoulder, having thought he heard something, or perhaps it's the -nothing- that he hears which disturbs him.
Laera seems quite intent on collecting from this little bundle of onions, though the heat from Kereth's mind does finally distract her and she looks over toward her lifemate. The carefree smile is still in place, "What's up? Hungry ag…" She starts to ask as the smile fades as she notices a different feel to this heat. Kereth warbles toward his chosen and starts toward her, wings extended. Big scary dragon coming through. "Calm down Kereth…" Laera leans down to pick up her sack again and looks over to Lorena as she hears the instructions, looking over her shoulder once before taking a breath and slowly walking toward her lifemate.
Arkoss pauses, hand reaching for a clump of wild onions he finally found. "But…." shrugging, he glances up at his firelizards, who are shrilly scolding him, and moves as ordered, though hopefully he won't get stepped on.
Adinaeth paces along with Loyauth, trumpeting a warning, wings outspread. L'alie frowns and glances at Lorena, "I've called M'iri. We don't have enough dragons to transport them out of there." She whispers quietly. "If we can get them to the bridge we will be okay. We just need to keep walking.."
Rhalin had wandered off a bit from the main group of candidates, basket in hand and leaving his groupmates behind. Easier to find things when you spread out after all, so he most definitely spread out. As the instructions are called out his head pops up above the grass where he was sitting. A trowel holding hand is lifted to his forehead to shield from the sun as he attempts to peer, leaving a nice smudge of dirt on his face as he gets to his feet. Ominous feelings are rather absent for him at the moment but with a shrug he grabs his basket and starts heading towards the dragons. Does this mean they get to go home now? Drop things? Well, obviously he's not good at listening and following directions.
Keziah blinks a little from where she's laying on the ground staring up at the sky. She's about to call out and then she stops and a hand goes over her mouth. Not again. She sits up slowly and carefully gets up from the ground. The ginger is slipped into the bag and the carefully creeps towards Loyauth. She winces a little as she steps on some small branch. She looks around for Arkoss and Chai and frowns as one is further away than the other. "Arkoss." she calls as softly as she can. "come on." she's looking quite worried and murmurs to herself. Please let it be a drill, please let it be a… a blink, a thoughful look as she looks around. "Maybe.. maybe I can get one now." a gleam comes into her eyes.
With a snarl, the first of the felines leaps for the youngest of the gathering group, wandering off by himself towards the watering hole. It is a sound strategy, and as if triggered by the firsts attack, three more leap into view, charging in a blur of tawny floor and darker spots for a short girl with blonde hair and freckles.
But Chaitra had just bent down to inspect a grouping of mushrooms! The candidate looks up, then looks around. Well. If it's normalcy the riders want, he puts the machete down for a minute, inspecting the stalk and cap of the mushroom. And slicing his beltknife across the bottom of the stem, and a few others, which he carefully stows in his sack, along with his private stash of wild avacados. Nums. Sheathing his beltknife, he stands up with machete in hand once more and warily starts to cross the expanse of grasslands without shifting through the tall grasses this time. As a snarl sounds, the hunter's muscles tighten in response, looking for just /where/ that snarl came from.
A few chestnuts and apples are collected eventually, likely with the healer dropping out of a tree without Nalkor's assistance. He'd just stared at the vinter, tsked, and done it himself. His boots after all were designed to grip! "You are very attractive, Nalkor…" Delenn says, dusting his hands off together and then on his pants which were ruined anyway, "…but you know it, and in that lies the problem." he teases back, startled however by the alarmed sound of Lorena's voice. He can only make out a word or two. Luckily those are 'candidates' 'move towards dragons' and 'don't run'. "I seriously do not like the sound of that…" he says, "…we should do what she says." Sage advice. And so Delenn doesn't give Nalkor a choice and grabs him again, pulling him along at a brisk pace, but avoiding said running.
Ryski stops at the call, blinking just a bit. They're being called back? With agitated dragons? The boy tenses somewhat at the direction, but tightens his grip on that sack in his hands. There's a breath then, and he moves, taking a few steps back in the direction of the riders. Well he would have taken more, if there wasn't a rather hard, heavy crash against his back. Certainly not expecting that, the boy is quick to lose his footing, tumbling into the grass with a loud exclamation.
"HEY!" Arkoss exclaims when Ryski gets tackled by a feline, and scoops up a rock, hurling it at the feline. His firelizards shriek and dive down to attack, though Arkoss stays well away.
Lorena's gaze goes towards Nalkor and Delenn by the trees. But Delenn is on it and heading towards them. The flash of movement far beyond catches her eyes however and she yelps, unable to hold it in as Ryski is tackled by the feline. For a moment she's unable to move, overcome with panic. « Lorena! Duties! » Comes the pistol shot in her mind and she hurries forward, blade drawn. Loyauth strides foward with flared wings to herd the candidates together.
Nalkor was about to start collecting the items Delenn had dropped from the tree, Nal's hands spread wide as if wondering what he was supposed to have done which earned him the tsk. The following makes him laugh, "Wine is attractive," he corrects, rolling his eyes at the teasing jest. A moment later, Nalkor hears the warning. A high state of awareness is grasped, his eyes narrowed as fights the pull on his arm, instead trying to grab Delenn back toward the trees, "Best we both get up there." The snarls and possibly the screams from the grass land indicate his fears to be correct, "I don't think we'd make it." A moment of contemplation as he hears the yells, immediately on the alert, his shoulders rising as he starts to crouch. "Up in a tree might be the best bet right now, especially if something is targeting people that run…"
L'alie swears loudly as a fifth feline appears from the grass. "We're surrounded." No kidding. Adinaeth fans his wings, rearing up on his hind legs and leaping into the air. He is airborne at once, flying low and fast to snatch the feline from Ryski's back before it can do more but sink it's claws into his shoulder blades. Knocked thusly, the feline rolls a few times before leaping to its feet again, hissing and seeking out a new victim. Perhaps the thing yelling and throwing rocks. The feline circles warily, growling.
From the sky above, all is clear— then from the darkness of between comes the trumpetting form of Kieranth, arching his wings high before flapping them down, the midnight blue makes for a decent close to Adinaeth but not exactly landing, mearly depositing M'iri on the ground. "You called?" Miir says a little quirkily, a sheathed beltknife at her waist, and from the looks of it, another in her boot. Turning just in time to see two or three felines suddenly pop out of nowhere, "Ah shells!" Pulling both her blades out, M'iri is charging in to help, where she can, while Kieranth makes a dive for the feline Adinaeth just knocked over, wicked laugh echoing the entire way.
"Don' /attac'/ th'fardlin' thing unless it's somethin' t'pierce their shardin' /hides/!" Chaitra bellows at Arkoss, angry that the other candidate would try something as stupid as that, even with the distance, because distance is a problem easily solved. For a moment he's indesicive about which way to go, but as he see's Lorena heading for the rescued Ryski, /he/ heads towards Arkoss. "It's a bloody /idiodic/ thin' t'do!" He continues on, scolding the other candidate.
Keziah screams "RYSKI!" and then the others are spotted and she lets out another blood curdling scream. Forget the not running, she's booting it as fast as she can to the dragons. Dragon mean safety, and maybe weapons better than a belt knife? She does have it in hand though as she's tackled from the side. Once more there's a scream as she goes down and she tries to plunge the knife into the felines chest.
Amarante freezes for a moment at the sounds of warning, and the growling and snarling. Heart racing, she doesn't dare run. Instead, she looks around and slowly starts to move for the dragons. Loyauth's fanned wings are a beacon to her, so she heads that way. "Arkoss!" she calls. "Back away slowly and don't turn 'round!" She's trying to keep an eye on things, herself, so she doesn't actually back into any of them either. She's suddenly wishing she had that stick she brought into camp when Arkoss was hurt….
Take a snapshot, this is definately one of the rare moments that Laera isn't smiling. No there is a rather serious look on her face. "Kereth hunt.." Laera calls out to her dragon with the force of mind and voice. Kereth's gaze is whirling red as he looks from his chosen to sway around the field. After this mornings amusing hunt…or lack there of for breakfast, the other dragons may well not think this young dragon to fend for himself in a hunt…but this is different. One of these walking bits of food may hurt his chosen, that is all it takes for Kereth to take the sky in a bounding of muscles. His attention flitting between his chosen and the movements in the grass, trying to pick out the candidates from the felines. Laera pauses in her course to watch her lifemate take off before heading towards the center of the field again.
Arkoss doesn't have a very good beltknife, it being more of a butter knife, but it's better than nothing. When his name is called and instructions yelled, he stares at the felines stalking towards him. "Something had to get them off!" he shouts back at Chaitra, holding out his belt knife uselessly. His firelizards, however, have teeth and fangs, and they try to fend the felines off, small as they are.
Delenn hisses, "Idiot," at Nalkor when the larger older man decides to resist the instructions that were given. "Felines can climb trees." His throat flashing like a nervous gazelle, the healer is torn as to what to do. He can't see Ryski, though he thought that he heard him at one point. Nalkor is being about as stubborn as any man his age would be, and everything that makes him who he is, is telling him to do what Lorena told them to do. All is chaos, and when Keziah screams his brother's name, well…Delenn's eyes get very wide. People he knows, and even love, might die today. As Nalkor starts to crouch, the former nanny is snapped out of his reverie and glares down at the vinter. "Get up, Faranth, Lorena will be heartbroken if you die. She loves you. Get up! GET UP!" he says as he pulls. "We need to head for the dragons."
One of the three charging upon Keziah veers off towards the trees, attracted by the brisk pace Delenn has set. With a burst of speed, the lanky feline breaks into a sprint, the speed bringing her within a meter of the crouching Nalkor. And then it leaps for him, claws extended, terrible jaws gaping. The second feline latches onto Keziahs leg with its claws, refusing to let go even after her beltknife hits its chest, connects with bone, slicing through muscle and cartilidge and into the bowl. The feline howls, blood foaming out between its terrible teeth. Its claws spasm, and then release as the beast shudders and falls atop the young woman, burying her beneath.
Ryski gives a bit of a jerk as that feline is ripped off of him..and subsequently, claws torn out of his shoulders. There's a cry for that shot of pain, fingers digging into the ground for a moment. Really../what/ just happened there? It takes his brain a moment to catch up with things, and then he's moving, scrambling up to his feet again. The bloodstain spreading into his tunic will just have to wait until there's no more four-legged critters trying to bite him. Chest heaving, he looks around, breaking into a dead run for the dragons.
Loyauth trumpets and lopes into the air, following Lorena's path. "Loyauth!" She's talking aloud out of nervousness. "Arkoss!" « Yes'm! » And spins off towards the whitehaired boy, diving low with talons outstretched, but Kieranth's already headed there so he veers away and drops low towards where Keziah has been tackled. Though she stabs one feline, the other comes and he drops in and rips it away from her and flings it into a tree. Meanwhile Lorena screams, yes, screams, at Delenn and Nalkor. "RUN YOU IDIOTS!" She'll make up for that later. "GET WITH THE OTHERS!" She's still heading for Ryski for now, but then Nalkor is attacked and she bolts towards him, cutlass raised.
Rhalin starts hearing things in the grass as he moves along, swinging his basket. Maybe things actually click now, the concern in the rider's voice being one of them. His pace gets faster as his feet carry him back to the group just in time for screaming to start. Question is, where do you run? Towards people is towards… oh, felines. Wait.. felines? The boy comes to a dead standstill and stares, gripping his basket in one hand and the trowel like a knife in the other. Um? Keziah happens to be the closest to him, and embaressingly enough he wasn't able to do anything. As the dragon appears though he slips in and drops beside the girl. He can be 'brave' now, right? Since a large dragon is nearby. "Kez?" Yeah, he does know who it is, he's paid attention.
Chaitra would love to pin Arkoss down with his eyes, but those are busy scanning the grasses around him and the person he's heading towards. "If y'didn' notice somethin' /did/." He's itching to help, but between the dragons and their riders, he's half afraid he'll only get in the way. Though if anything attacks him, dear Faranth will it be /sorry/. He finally reaches Arkoss and looks around again, pointing a hand towards the dragonriders and the mass of candidates that aren't being attacked. "You. Withou' weapons. Do. No'. Attack." He says once more as he turns full-circle, scanning.
Keziah is laying there buried and all of a sudden she's not. There's pain, there's agony "I'm alive." There's blood on her. Hers? It's? A blink "Ryski? Ryski! You're alive!" she starts to sit up and then cries out in pain and takes it a little easier. "Sharding feline. It tried to eat me." she's indignant, though it comes out a bit weak sounding. A glance towards the dragon and rider "Thanks" She winces a little and looks around. "The others?"
Nalkor seems to go stiff at the blood curdling screams coming from the lower field, "Shards…" is all he breathes, mind flashing with all the women down there. His hand instinctively switches to pressing against his belt, noting the lack of anything weapon like there. "Shells man," he snaps back at Delenn, "I don't know anything about this continent! Dumb Northern cluck I am!!" He calls himself that, "We better move it then. I don't want any of those things to come at us in here…" It was either run or climb. It looks like he's following behind someone whose lived in these parts longer than he has. So, Nalkor slaps Delenn on the shoulder, "You're right. Let's go." He's still crouched down, so he see's it coming.. "MOVE!!!" Since he was in a crouched ready position he's able to leap at Delenn at the same time that he leaps away from the feline attempting to ensnare him with claws and fangs. Something sharp rents the one side of his leg, though he's able to keep his balance, wobbling to his feet, eyes flashed over his shoulder toward the feline…
The remaining two felines veer in opposite directions. The first makes for Amarante, charging at her with ferocious speed. The second makes for Chaitra and Arkoss. These things are fast. Before Adinaeth can bank and return, the felines have made their targets.
Kereth circles over the field, whirling red eyes intent on the motions in the grass and he tucks in his wings and dives down toward one on the fringes of the field, extending his talongs only to sweep up empty clawed. At the swoop, Laera stumbles in the grass, half caught up in her lifemate's mind in his strong heat of his mind, powerful emotions keeping her connected to him. She quickly scurries back to her feet, this time the bag forgotten as she moves again through the field. She notices the movement near Amarante, "Kereth that way!" She yells out and the blue sways in his flight, looking to his lifemate then to the movement near the candidate.
Good grief! First the needlethorns, now a feline attack?! Arkoss yells and stabs at the feline's eyes, his firelizards frantically savaging the feline's head and neck. Arkoss gets knocked over onto his arse, which naturally causes him to yell again, and he kicks and knees the feline, trying to get it off him as he gets clawed and bitten in the shoulder.
Amarante squeaks as one dragon takes to the air. Loyauth was sort of her beacon there, and now that he's airborne and heading off again, she's without a clue as to where the other Candidates have gone. She's starting to panic slightly, especially when she sees and hears Kezi go down. This… is not a good time for her. Especially when she realizes there's one headed for her. If only she had a patch of needlethorn…. She does the only thing that she can: she drops to the ground when she spots it leaping for her and hopes it'll miss her so that she can just /run/ for dear life. She's unarmed. Maybe Kereth can save her before she becomes some feline's dinner…
M'iri is almost near Chaitra and Arkoss, pumping limbs moving as fast as she can, even as Kieranth moves faster then her. Giving a loud roar to the felines before, Kieranth dips low and grabs ahold of the feline mear inches from Arkoss. One can't be sure if it latched on for a second, but it's dragged away none the less. With swift movement, the midnight blue has both sides of the feline, and it's jaws around it's middle, pulling claws and mouth in opposite directions as it's torn apart… Possibly splattering Chaitra and Arkoss in remnants of feline guts. Veering a little away from Arkoss, Miir heads towards the feline going for Chaitra, even as Kieranth turns to make another pass…
With the dragons in the air, Ryski's at a bit of a loss as to where he /should/ be running for cover. Legs grind him to a halt, however, taking a wild look around the field. "Amarante! Move!" Yeah, that's certainly not good. There's a frantic look as he scans the field for his brother, grip remaining tight on the sack in his hands. Maybe it'll work well as a thing to pummel animals with if they come close again.
Loyauth whuffs to Keziah and Rhalin. « The bridge! » Comes another gunshot of instruction through their minds before he whips around towards Lorena's screams and notes the pursuit of Nalkor and Delenn by a beastie. Lorena is running towards them, blade in hand, closing the gap but will she be fast enough. "Keep running! Head for the bridge!" Though this is a descent distance away still. Yay for grasslands?
Rhalin glances over the girl and around and "Oh." is the only response from Keziah's assertion of her non-deadness. And then there's something pelting his mind and a wince. Getting back to his feet he leaves the basket behind and offers that freed han d to Keziah. "Can… you walk? He wants us to go." He being the dragon that just invaded their brains, admittedly with good reason. Dragon protection is leaving them it seems. "Come on!" Oh, he'd totally run for the bridge if common decency wasn't keeping him behind to help the girl.
"What the shell has that got to do with anything?!" Delenn yells back at Nalkor, about to kick him in the shin with the amount of stupid he's being right now. He all but growls as he's slapped on the shoulder, hearing Lorena screaming at them again. Distracted as he is, he doesn't see the feline making for Nalkor, not even having a chance to turn his head at the growl before the creature is leaping through the air and the vinter is pushing him off his feet and into a summersault over the ground. This lands him flat on his face and earns him a cut over one eye, but he's not stopping this time. Scrambling to his feet, he pushes up and launches himself into a dead run away from Nalkor and Lorena. With all the confusion, he'll likely be rapt with guilt but being hero with no weapon just made a dead hero. There he goes at a dead run in the direction of the bridge.
"Get your sorry asses moving!" L'alie screams, jogging around to start smacking the ones just standing gawking on the backside with her crossbow. "Run for the bridge!" What Lorena said. The beast on Nalkor snarles angrily and turns on Delenn. L'alie raises her crossbow and takes aim, sighting on the feline. When she releases, the arrow flies true until the wind grabs it, throwing it off course. It grazes Delenn's shoulder, cutting through material (and possibly flesh as well) before landing with a solid thunk into the meaty flesh of the feline's haunch.
Keziah gives a nod. "I can walk." she looks longingly at the dead one at the trees "Shards and it's such a nice pelt too." she almost cries. Leave it to Kezi to whine about a pelt while her life is on the line. She stands carefully and wavers on her feet. "Shardit. I…can…walk." she groans with each step and warmth fills her side, seem like some of that blood is hers. "Will not faint."
There is the command for the Bridge and Laera looks over to L'alie before she looks over to her lifemate and Amarante. The blue does another sweep over the area trying to get a good trajectory on the feline. Laera's steps pick up as she moves in that direction as well, "Amarante get up!" She yells out to the girl as she runs in that direction.
At least there's enough movement for Ryski to figure out where he's supposed to be going. Legs push him into a run once more, streaking through the field as fast as he can. Why does that bridge have to be so far away? Whoever suggested they come out /here/ of all places, anyway? He skitters almost to a stop, however, near Keziah and Rhalin. There's a quick look sent to the other boy then, even as he goes about grabbing hold of one side of Keziah. "Walking ain't what we need to do, we need to /run!/ Rhalin, get her other arm, let's go!"
Arkoss scrambles to his feet when Kieranth rips the feline off him, and then runs towards the bridge. Can't say he doesn't listen to orders!
The sound of his heart beating is loud in his ears as the adrenaline causes the excess noises to dwindle and his mind to think on only one thing - that feline with blood lust in its eyes. Nalkor's mind is absent of thought then, his body filling with pure instinct derived of thousands of Turns of man kind's genetics. Something was going to harm him and it meant too. He felt himself searching again for something, anything but a rusty belt knife that barely cut through bread. Kill or be killed. He didn't even remember breathing or grasping for air as he faced down a beast that his eyes have never seen before - at least alive; skins are very different. Before he knew it, the beast changed targets - surprising him needless to say to watch the beast charge after Delenn. "DELENN—-" he yells in after thought of watching the beast charge for Delenn… subsequently both beast and candidate hit with an arrow. The feline now angry and wounded wouldn't makes for a deadly combination. Seeing Delenn still alive, Nalkor is getting out of there; only his third running step out does he feel the consequences. A sharp searing pain rips up his leg and he all but falls, catching himself last minute on a tree.
As Arkoss goes down with a feline in his shoulder, Chaitra shifts his stance to stab at the cat's chest, but has that torn away from him as Kieranth rips it off the other. However, that doesn't stop the one still prowling from tackling the off-balance hunter. "THA' WAS MI-UHGCK!" He makes funny noises when he's tackled. The machete tumbles out of his hands, and as a jaw comes for his face, he shoves his left hand into it instead, grimacing as his right fumbles for his long belt knife. Ahhh. We all knew he carried this for a reason! The long knife is drawn, and shoved into the base of the feline's skull as he whimpers around the pain shooting through his arm and other areas where the cat's claws have found purchase. Dead kitty? Hopefully?
Rhalin doesn't believe the strange girl for some reason or another, even if she is making some sort or progress. He was slipping next to her and under an arm when Ryski grabs the other side. There's a nod and he quickly trys to pace with the other boy. "You can grab the pelt later.. really… come on." No looking back.
Yeah, that crossbow bolt there whizzing by cuts through the material of Delenn's shirt but misses any actual skin thanks to the vigorous pumping action of both of the healer's arms in his current state of 'flying like the wind'. He doesn't even notice that the feline decided to change it's course and go after him, squeezing his eyes closed keeps running despite hearing Nalkor screaming his name. 'I'm sorry Lorena' tears through his mind as he kicks up the speed, ignoring the fact his lungs are burning, his legs are screaming at him, and he might very well have just left his friends love interest to be feline food. It had started out to be such a nice day too.
Amarante just seems to not have any luck. She goes down, but the feline is on her like an oncoming dragon before she can do more than get halfway up. She can't help but utter a high-pitched shriek as the fangs find her shoulder and /crunch/. She can't even do much, given she's on her belly. Claws find their way into her, the feline growling dangerously - it has dinner, and by all that's holy you will NOT be taking it from it! This is given to the oncoming Kereth, no less. It releases her to growl at the smallish blue, and she makes the mistake, in her terror, of trying to get away. Another chomp grabs her upper arm, giving her enough room to twist under the heavy beast and pummel it about the head with a fist, trying to kick it or find an eye. Whatever she's screaming at it is only half coherent given her adrenaline, but it translates to anyone listening, man or dragon, to, PLZ HALP BEIN EATEN BY KITTEH! She manages to poke one eye too, and it releases her to back off, shaking its head with rather angry sounds.
Keziah cries out in pain as she's grabbed, her side is a mess after all. But she doesn't say anything more in complaint as she at least tries to keep her feet moving, though the loss of blood is leaving her quite faint. "Must… hurry." she urges herself on, despite pain, agony, misery. But a couple of cute kids, well one maybe not so much, but both to young, the shame of it all.
M'iri is to Chaitra and with both blades drawn, she plunges them into the felines back— just at Chaitra plunges it into the cat's skull, which would obviously make mincem eat of the feline's brain. "Holy crap Chaitra…" Miir comments, eyes wide as she sees blood bubbling out of the feline's mouth(Possibly even the end poking through the top, if the blade is long enough?). Kieranth on the other hand is making swiftly ahead of the candidates, even as a feline tries to block the way. clipping his wings together low to the ground, Kieranth simply smashes it with his weight, crashing back feet on top of it, with gravity as his "umph". Ofcourse, this distracts the midnight blue from yet another feline, that leaps into the air and latches onto his shoulder. If Kieranth's roar was loud before, it's just hit a few decibles higher in his pain and rage. With this, it catches M'iri's attention, leaving Chaitra to handle his feline corpse while she goes a-running in to save her dragon, "You thread bitten, wherry spawned, grub eatting… I'm gonna make you regret that!" The bluerider growls, charging at her victim atop Kieranth…
Lorena pass Delenn with a blink and woah! Arrow! Duck. The chaos makes her head swim as she spins to see what all is going on. She finds herself facing Nalkor and the big cat as he tries to pull himself up on a tree. Loyauth dives out of the sky but they are too close to the trees! "Nalkor!" She's running again without realizing when she resumed it, but moves past him with the blade. Sometimes… people do stupid things. This is one of those. Lory throws herself at the beast blade first to get it -away- from Nalkor. It recoils back and she barely saves to end up crouched between him and the beast, blade raised. "Run… for the bridge!"
L'alie continues to herd the candidates towards the bridge, keeping an eye out for any more felines attacking from the grasses. The ones that are hurt are scooped up and deposited on Adinaeth's back as the brown brings up the rear. The Weyrsecond does not look pleased. Or even remotely happy. "Keep moving!" she bellows once more, turning back to round up Keziah, Ryski, and Rhalin as Adinaeth keeps the others moving.
Arkoss is bleeding heavily from his shoulder and chest, and most likely also opened up the wounds on his arse, but that doesn't affect his legs much, so he runs to the bridge. He doesn't have a problem with the bridge right now, considering there's CERTAIN DEATH chasing them. What's a little fall to their deaths on sharp rocks hundreds of feet down compared to being mauled and eaten by felines?
Nalkor affords himself a moment to look down at the reason for his stumble, bracing himself up /against/ a tree. "Damn…" he whispers under his breath for the flesh and torn cloth hanging there. What had felt like a simple knick had actually made a wicked line down the side of Nalkor's calf all the way to his ankle. Looking back at the wounded creature, he wills himself to hurry down the slope toward that bridge which everyone is yelling for them to run at. "So much for being the fastest runner…" he snorts a moment before he notices Lorena trying to bravely lunge at the creature. Wide eyed, what the hell is a guy supposed to do. Suck it up. He takes a breath, forces the pain to the back of his mind and launches himself at Lorena when he sees the feline recoil, "Lets go! Forget it! It'll just fight to the death Lor. It's injured!" A pause, "You've got the weapon. Let's back away from this now." Enough talk, he tries to force her to come with him, a hasty jerk to her elbow. If he fails at that, he'll simply out right face the beast with her…
Ryski just keeps on moving. It's not as fast as he'd like to go, but it's a little difficult to flat out run while dragging a person, even if there's the added help of another on the side. "Yeah, that's right. Gotta hurry." Adrenaline pumping, he's hardly aware of anything else, or the blood trailing down his own back. "See? Almost there." Well…maybe they are. L'alie being near, however, he focuses on the rider, panting. "Keziah needs a ride!" Because..well. She's all torn up. Probably best for her to piggyback on a dragon, right?
Chaitra just looks up at M'iri while she's still there, and blinks around the pain. "Y'jus' ruined a pelt, ma'am!" He calls after her, pulling his blade out of the cat's head and stabbing in into the ground next to him, and pries the jaws off from around his left arm. Haa… he's thinking of pelts when he should be thinking about running. He shoves the carcass off of him, now very nicely smeared with blood, and shoves the dirty blade back into it's sheath as he slowly stands up. Finding the machete only a few paces off, he retrieves it with his good arm, and then starts to hobble-jog after the train of candidates. Apparently, the feline must have gotten one of the muscles in his upper thigh, because tears are silently streaming down his face as his lower lip is caught between his own teeth. Bridge. Bridge. That direction. Right.
Rhalin is helping drag, and at least Kez's feet are helping a little, actually it's quite possible that they're hindering slightly but that's besides the point. He's attempting to keep up as well, and on both of his feet. Better piggybacking the dragon then the two boys. "Yeah…" is breathed out in agreement to one of the other's comments, it's hard to tell exactly.
What Weyrsecond would be happy to have their group turned into hamburger? Well, maybe a sadistic one, but that's an entirely different story. Keziah hardly notices when Ryski calls out to Alie. Waiter? Check please. She's a mess, she knows it and is greatful to the two boys, even if she's givin up on speaking. Nope, she's concentrating on putting on foot in front of the other. Nothing else matters at the moment. Just get away, pelt or no pelt.
Amarante is pretty sure that if she has to be kitty food this afternoon, she's gonna fight all the way down and give it heartburn while chewing her way back out. Or something. That said, as the feline shakes its head and looks ready to pounce the injured Candidate again, it's Kereth who barrels out of the sky and thunks into the creature, rolling it away before pulling up again. Lifted by the weyrling, Amarante proceeds to run like mad towards the bridge. Not that she is conscious of having heard them say go there, but that's where everyone else seems to be fleeing, so she's headed there as well - staggering now and then, but Laera is somewhere close behind her along with the watchful (and rather hungry) Kereth, who is still hoping for a snack of feline out of this venture. Shock has yet to set in just yet. Survival instinct is still pumping through her about as fast as her blood is pumping out of her wounds. Pain will hit shortly. AFTER she gets standing still, if all goes well.
Delenn has to open his eyes eventually, which he does after a few seconds of keeping them closed as the voices behind him are drowned out by the pounding of his own heart and the sound of his own hurried footsteps. One can only run so far so fast before you start to slow down, and the healer notices that he's starting to do just that. The sound of a dragon screaming in pain startles him into a dead halt, which is a bad thing considering it leaves him rather disoriented on where he is and where he needs to go. He spots M'iri, charging towards where a feline is trying to take down Kieranth and with all the natural drugs his body is pumping into his system filling him with stupidity he quickly looks around and grabs a large branch he finds on the ground before once again his legs carry him rapidly to try and fend off the animal. He might even beat the bluerider to her own charge, letting out a mighty battle cry as he brings the heavy branch up like a club and bashes the thing over the head with it. If anything, that kitty is going to be seeing starts. Delenn on the other hand, could soon be seeing a light.
Lorena is trembling, staring into the eyes of the feline as if hypnotized. Loyauth's bellow in her mind shakes her more than the tug on her elbow. « GIT OUTTA THERE! » She lets Nalkor tug her up and backwards. The feline hesitates, unsure exactly what to do now… but the pain of the bolt in his haunch must be enough and he slinks off into the trees. Loyauth has landed beyond the trees and croons nervously, head whipping back and forth at the rest beyond and then back towards them as they leave the trees. « C'mon! Hurry! » Comes a waft of gunpowder to them both.
L'alie simply scoops Keziah up gently and pushes her up onto Adinaeth's back along with the other injured, and then she turns to the two boys, "You too." She orders. « Gather the injured. » Adinaeth projects to the other dragons. « Mayikooth and Kunaseth aid with supplies. »
M'iri really isn't paying attention to Chaitra's comment, if she even heard it at her pace of running towards her dragon. If she had, she likely would've laughed at the boy and helped him off the ground. But, given that her lifemate is howling like a banchee, attempting to reach over his shoulder to latch onto the feline digging into his shoulder, Miir's doesn't really much care what the feline's look like, as long as their dead. Moving just a tad slower then Delenn, the feline lets out a painful roar at the sudden assault on it's head, turning from the midnight blue to face Delenn— right as M'iri arrives and starts plowing her belt knives into it like a possessed animal. Pissing off the feline even more, luck doesn't favor the candidate and dragonrider at the moment, given the sheer size of the creature. One large paw comes out and with swift movement smacks towards Miir and Delenn's face, claws extented. With the smack, poor Miir is sent careening to the ground, as she is a lightweight in comparison, her full body taking the brunt of it. But, given the distraction presented, Kieranth finally reaches over and latches his jaws around the male feline, pulling upwards and disconnecting the head from the body— sending arterial spray all over the midnight blue's side, and those close by. Atleast the feline is done for, though, ne?
Temporary relief floods Nalkor as he watches the beast sulk off back toward the trees and cover, probably going to be one of the only ones to survive this ordeal by the sounds of the rest of the field. Nalkor flashes a look over at Lorena, "Don't ever do that again" he raises a finger at her, "your life by far is worth twice that of mine" to emphasise this, he thrusts a finger toward the shadow flying over them. Yet, a second later he delivers her a quick embrace, should she allow it. "Thank Faranth it didn't attack you," his hand slides low to reach for her own, squeeze, "let's hurry and get to the others…" he's in agreement of that as he makes for the shape of Loyauth, having landed outside of the trees as it were. Nalkor and Lorena break through the tree line together, getting out into the open now with only a slight difficulty of a bum leg slowing Nalkor up.
Ryski looks a tad relieved as Keziah gets hoisted on up, but also..isn't about to deny a ride for himself, either. His legs burn from the running, and his lungs are already complaining from it as well. His back aches, as well, but he does nod, managing to haul himself up onto Adinaeth's back, clutching slightly. "Where's Delenn..?" Where /did/ his brother get to? Oh. He's attacking a feline with a branch. Cue a wide-eyed, panicked look from the boy, already struggling to get back /down/ to the ground again. "Delenn!"
Arkoss had pulled his shirt off to wrap it clumsily around his shoulder to try and stop the bleeding, and now that felines aren't attacking anymore he approaches the dragons. "At this rate I'll be in the infirmary until the hatching!" he declares mournfully.
L'alie places a restraining hand on Ryski's ankle. "Stay, child. You can do nothing for your brother. He will be fine. My riders will protect him as best they can." She eyes Arkoss appraisingly and says, "And perhaps you should be greatful that you will at least be alive to make it there." She tells him, and turns her attention back to the scene. When M'iri goes down, she bolts, running for the bluerider awkwardly with her swollen belly in the way. "Miir!"
Keziah is scooped up, gentle or nots it's still painful, but she can't help but whisper "Arkoss. Chaitra." Yup, she'll worry about her group before oblivion claims her and lets her sink into that gentle darkness. Least Ryski and Rhalin are safe too now.
"Okay, that wasn't very bright." Delenn manages to get out after conking what he finds up close to be an enormous feline, all the adrenaline rushing out of him all at once as he drops the branch and manages to take a few steps back as M'iri starts to stab at the creature like something out of bad horror movie. He hears his name called and instantly recognizes the voice, turning his head as his expression shifts to joy. Ryski's still alive! Unfortunately for the healer he doesn't get to celebrate for too long for the feline he forgot in those few precious seconds turns on the two humans after relinquishing his hold on the the dragon. One of the paws manages to swipe at the right side of his face with those claws in an upwards motion, causing his face to erupt in a gush of blood as well as knocking him back to the ground hard. The lights go out, and he's out cold.
Arkoss nods at L'alie, chastened. "I'm just glad everyone's all right." and he'll just do whatever he's told, that's all.
Lorena is visibly shaken. Whether by her own nerve or Loyauth's panic at it, or simply the look if the eyes that watched her, it's hard to tell. She winces visibly as she's told off for what she did. Are those tears in her eyes? No time to tell as she is held tightly, though still trembling, but best to watch that she doesn't stab him. Loyauth settles in the grass as they exit and croons. They are a decent distance from the others at this rate, and this unsettles him, though the main threat seems to have been fended off. Lorena, who had done her best to help support him, moves to Loyauth's side. "Come here." It's teh first thing she's said since the staredown. She crawls up on the raised arm of Loyauth and reaches out to help him up.
Ryski is told to stay put, while a pregnant rider runs into battle? How is /that/ fair? And apparently..well. The whole 'protecting' thing doesn't do much good, since he can only watch in horror as his brother's /face/ gushes. Told to or not, Ryski's down, flinging himself to the ground again to take off running. That is his /brother/, not just another candidate.
Rhalin is glancing around frantically once they make it and Keziah is lifted up onto dragonback. Admittedly he attempts helping some but the boy is obviously distracted. "Cal?" No, not called out, just a rather quiet question to nobody in particular. And then he's scrambling up onto the dragon's back on cue, using the higher altitude as an opportunity to get a better glance around. And then Ryski is back off the dragon and the boy sits there, looking well, confused and in shock.
Amarante may want to run herself back to Xanadu at this rate, but she starts to slow down as nature takes its course. If a dragon and its rider offers her a ride, so be it - if not, she's going to cross the bridge on her own two feet - and possibly at a higher velocity than the first time she crossed it. Thankfully, she IS one of the ones picked up by the dragons as they start collecting the wounded, and that's when the cold of shock starts to slowly permeate her. She merely cradles her left arm as it begins to throb and the warmth she feels is recognized as her own blood. She couldn't fight now if she wanted.
M'iri is shaking like a leaf as she pulls herself upward, amazingly not blacking out, though she feels like it. Lifting herself up a little, the bluerider shudders and throws up on the ground, before she's able to refocus herself and pay attention… Maybe it's the adreniline in her system, or the fact that she's covered in blood with a midnight blue roaring defiance over her. «Delenn.» Is the singular word used, and Miir locks her eyes onto the unconsious boy… Crawling over to him, since she has not the strength to lift herself. "Delenn?? Delenn!!" She gets over to him, trying to check him even as she shakes horribly. The nshe hears L'alie and she turns, "L'alie! Come help me!" Is her agonized cry, trying her best to ignore any of her pain, even as the salt of her tears run into her cheek wound.
Chaitra somehow manages to catch up with the rest of the group, hobbling, but for the moment declining a ride as he still has the machete in hand, ready to use it should any more felines decide that hey, they're weakened now, so let's play! The silent tears have stopped now, but not his pain. Reaching M'iri and Delenn, he pauses. L'alie could lift Delenn, but Chai places a hand on M'iri's back in a silent offer to help. He's not good with the medical side of herbs, so the best /he/ can do is to get people to a place with healers. Camp. Maybe.
Nalkor considers the group clustered along the bridge, feeling himself swayed not to walk that far he aims for Lorena's lifemate instead. Shaken? That's an understatement. Suddenly he feels exhausted. The adrenaline that fades away also steals his energy. His eyes follow Lorena up the side of her dragon, he sort of makes it toward the dragon with only a slight show of a limp as he favours his left leg. "Lunch is postponed isn't it?" some where along the lines he had lost his satchel, his hand grabbing air to make a gesture of what was once there… Sighing, he glances up at Lor, taking her hand to help himself manage the climb.
L'alie grabs M'iri by the arm, looking her up and down, "Get to the others, get Kieranth. We'll put him on his back. We have to get them back to camp. R'in has medical supplies. Get up, M'iri!" she urges the blue rider. "I'll get Delenn." She tries hard not ot be worried for her friend, though she doesn't speak it. Instead, she grabs Delenn like a sack of tubers, hoisting him over her shoulder in a fireman's carry. Not good for broken bones, but it'll get him up and out in a hurry. Oh, the healer would kill her if she saw her now.
Ryski does manage to reach the bloodied bunch, almost falling down as he skitters himself to a stop. "Delenn?!" It's a panicked, broken sound that comes out of the boy at the sight of his brother like that, but then, the other candidate is being lifted up and away.
The right side of Delenn's face is, not pretty. With him laying like he is, the blood has pooled on the damaged side, making the entire thing look far, far worse than it actually is. Probably. Maybe. One can hope. The healer is breathing at least, but he's unresponsive to the screaming of his name over and over by the weeping bluerider. He makes no complaint as he's hoisted and thrown over L'alie's shoulder like the week's dirty laundry being hauled off towards the cleaners. If he had been awake, he might of chastised the woman for carrying a fully grown man over her shoulder in her delicate condition. Delenn doesn't answer Ryski either, his arms hanging down lifelessly down L'alie's back, blood running into his hair and dripping down to the ground.
Kereth knocked the feline out of the way of mauling up Amarante too badly, but still had not gotten his blood up for the kill, not wanting to accidently hurt Amarante or his chosen on the ground. He swings up again to try to track the feline he bowled over. Laera is behind Amarante pushing her ahead of her, "Run faster, he is still out there.." She looks back to her lifemate with a worried look on her face when suddenly Kereth bellows in her direction and dives down to the grass even as the wild cat attacks Laera and she goes down with a cry as teeth sink into the flesh of her thigh, "Kereth!!!!!!" She screams out even as the dragon barrels in on the Feline and well there is no lacking in the efficiency he uses to dispatch this feline. No doubt his quickest kill to date. Muzzle still bloodied he nuzzles his lifemate and lowers himself to the ground as low as he can, trying to get his chosen to climb on his back. Without straps and with a mucked up leg it takes some effort but she gets there sprawled over his back before he catches up with Amarante to guard her as well.
L'alie practically roars at Ryski, "Candidate Ryski, I gave you an order, and when I give orders, I expect them to be followed. You will return to the other candidates and you will keep Keziah on Adinaeth's back, and anyone else who needs your help." Her voice softens, "I will take care of Delenn. There is nothing you can dof or him right now. Please stay with Keziah. That's the best help you can give."
Ryski looks completely startled by the yell, staring at L'alie for a moment in uncomprehending shock, before he turns tail, fleeing back to Adinaeth. He's silent, at least, as he climbs up, hooking an arm right around Keziah to make sure the girl does in fact stay on. And if he's crying…well..he /is/ crying, anyway..he does it completely silently.
M'iri is in shock for a second, just sitting there on the ground next to her dragon, and isn't fully brought out of it until Chaitra lays a hand on her back. She nearly jumps, then, almost as if in fear of another attack from behind, but when she looks at Chaitra, she sighs in relief. Thankfully, L'aliei s there to help her up, and steadying herself a little with Chai's shoulder, she removes her hand and gets herself back to Kieranth, who's crooning in worry at Miir, ignoring his own ichor stained shoulder. Halfway up her dragon, after calming him down, Miir suddenly looks to L'alie "Lorena? Sister!" The bluerider looks wildly about, and once she locks her sight on the brownrider, she's alright again… She's not paying attention to all the blood— maybe she's just used to it, with her connection with Kieranth and all. "Kie, lower yourself as best ya can…" She says softly, and the midnight blue complies, Miir trying to help as best she can to get Delenn safely aboard her beast. Miir is just into much shock right now to pay attention to anything else. "Xanad— n-no, camp?" She seemingly queries L'alie.
Lorena braces against Loyauth and between her remaining strength, his and Loyauth's leg raising even higher, she somehow manages to get him up onto his neck, abeit less than gracefully. And she follows, awkwardly from her own exhaustion. But damned if she was going to lose him in flight after all this an buckles him into Loyauth's straps as if he's a little kid. She pauses, a while after his question, to look at him with an tired but amused expression. Then she kisses him, straight on, without warning. Not for very long either, drawing back to resume teh same look. "Forget lunch." She murmurs, climbing around and settling into the straps behind him and buckling up. Loyauth moves out and lopes across the grass. He could fly, but incase they spot anyone else. Lorena lets him to the spotting though, resting her forhead against the back of Nalkor's shoulder. « Adinaeth! Needn' me ta take any'un else? What's goin' on? »
"Xanadu." L'alie replies firmly, "We'd never get them all to Xanadu, half of them wouldn't make the jump between with their wounds." She nods to Chaitra, "Keep an eye on him and M'iri for me, Chaitra." She assigns the hunter. "Lorena, you take Amarante and Laera. Kereth can follow." She glances around to be sure no one is left behind, lips pressed together tightly.
Rhalin blinks back into this universe has Ryski returns to the dragon, glancing at the younger boy and opening his mouth. Admittedly closing his mouth happens quite quickly afterwards without so much as a peep in between. His pale eyes move away again and search the surrounding candidates in silence now, with a bit of guilt encroaching on his worried expression.
Kereth bellows toward the other dragons, the sound of a deep bass organ pipe, so unlike his normal soft melodic chimes.«I killed the beast that hurt mine. I have her, I will protect her. Where do I go to make her better?!!» Laera is slowly adjusting herself to straddle her good leg of his shoulder, and leaning down over his neck and holding on as tight as she can. She hears the calls of names around her and she looks up with pained features, "I don't know if he can carry any others…" She calls out as her dragon meets with the group finally. Her gaze shifts around the faces and her eyes widen as she sees Delenn and she tries to move to get off Kereth but he just rises up so she can't. «Danger on ground!!»
Chaitra nods up to L'alie, his own strength wanning as this just drags on and on. Stupid felines. "Will do, ma'am." He verbally salutes L'alie as he looks at Kieranth's side. Oh bloody… how /is/ he going to get up there? Finally silver eyes look up to M'iri and they nearly go puppy-dog as he's just starting to get tired. Watchful, but tired. "M'iri ma'am…?" He starts, guesturing helplessly at Kieranth's side. He's never /been/ on a dragon. At all.
M'iri hears L'alie and nods demurely, putting a hand out to try to steady a unconsious Delenn. Hearing Chaitra, she finally turns towards the lad and extends a hand… Only to see it bloodied, and attempts to wipe in on her jacket… WHich is bloody, too, "Ah shells…" She looks to Chaitra again and offers her hand and wrist, to leverage himself, "C'mere and steady Delenn." Then she's watching L'alie, waiting to take to the skies with her charges atop Kieranth.
The leg is forgotten as he tries to carry himself up the side of Loyauth without having Lor strain herself so much. The man grunts as he bumps his torn leg quite a few times on the climb up, sagging over the neck of the brown, righting himself with a wincing hiss. Once up there between those neck ridges, Nalkor tries to administer some pressure to the torn calf, sticking his hand full on it. His foot feels wet. The man will have to worry about it later, on the ground. It's not that deep, not as deep as some other candidate's wounds were. It did snag a muscle, but the muscle is what saved his leg. Needless to say, he tries to assist Lorena as she had assisted him, grabbing her underneath an arm to hoist her on her own dragon. So much for a picnics… He looks completely astonished for a second when he's surprised by the kiss bestowed on him by the woman.. He nods at her, a soft smile there for her in gratitude, though there aren't any words right now from this vintner..
Laera closes her eyes and pats her lifemate's shoulder, "You aren't wearing straps Kereth, I don't think I can hold on…" She murmurs through the pain, one pant lag soaked in blood and a bit torn. Kereth's whirling red gaze shifts around clearing to hunt out any other felines before he lowers himself to the ground once more, as flat as he can go, «Someone fly my chosen. Keep her safe from the furry ones.» His mind is still in those rick organ tones, still heated from the hunt.
Amarante realizes in due time that she's being shifted to Loyauth, though she can't climb all the way up there. It's a case of getting hauled up onto the brown, given her entire left side is rather torn up from the shoulder down. At least it has given her something to focus on so that she can combat the onset of shock that's hitting her, but she winds up whimpering, tears rising in her eyes, by the time she's settled.
L'alie waves Kieranth into the sky, and then walks towards Lorena. She artfully ignores the kiss, and once Lorena's cargo is secure, she waves them up too before attending her own dragon and her group.
Survival Camp - Campfire Square(#8362RJp)
During the day this area is a small clearing that sits just big enough to land four dragons in it, though by night it becomes an inferno where a fire is built up that licks its stray bits of lights to the ground just before the barracks nearby. The two barracks sit across from each other in strong contrast, the leader barracks being a comfortable modern barracks that looks clean and kept in good eminence while the follower barracks has a sharp destitute about it, looking that the ivy and decay is a day away from making the whole thing collapse.
People:- Keziah Delynni Ryski R'in Z'kiel L'alie
Dragons:- Kunaseth Ciniterrath
Firelizards:- Rogan Kioku Ricotta
Obvious exits:
Forest Alcove <FA> Forest Path <FP> Small Clearing <SC> Follower Barracks <FB> Leader Barracks <LB> South <S>
The landing is quick, one of the emergency response landings Z'kiel and Kunaseth have drilled time and time again. This one, however, does not go according to drill. There's not really enough space, and it's too dark to entirely see till it's too late. Z'kiel does see, however, just before it is in fact too late. As a result Kunaseth manages to mostly avoid injury, and only a wall is taken out as the bronze lands just off the side of the cabin with a heavy thump.
Mayikooth is in the clearing outside camp, leaving room for those injured within. R'in already has the fire roaring to life and water boiling in a large, beaten pot. With that done, she's running back into the Leader Barracks to grab the first aid kits. She stops suddenly halfway down the steps as Kunaseth lands and one wall of the barracks comes crashing down. "Shards…" she's muttering and racing to the fire again. And in classic Rae-form, in which things happen that should seemingly go very wrong, but go right. Maybe it's that there's just enough mud to pull it off. She doesn't slow by the fire: she instead tips her feet so she /slides/ by the fire, dropping the first aid kids neatly into the dirt. One is still retained, though, as she continues towards Z'kiel and Kunaseth. "Is he alright?" she's shouting.
"I don't know!" Z'kiel calls back, sliding off Kunaseth with a stream of muttered swearwords. "He seems fine, but that wing really hurts." There's a pause. "Then again my arm would hurt if I punched it through a wall by accident." There's a bow slung across his back, and he's carrying several bags. The bronze is slowly stretching his wing experimentally, though he seems unwilling to move it.
"Get over by the fire, get the bandages out. We have injured candidates coming in and they'll need to be looked after." R'in has fallen into a very official mood, despite her various antics. She swings the strap on the specialized kit she's got across her chest, coming up to Kunaseth. Forget the wall: there's a potentially injured dragon who may need to be in action to take someone back to the Weyr, or go out and hunt. She tips her head, relaying a question.
"Makes sense." Z'kiel agrees with R'in. His own attitude is likewise a fairly official one, but then he's probably here as part of his official duty in many ways. He moves over to the fire to begin preperations, well practiced at this.
"Thank you," R'in says to Kunaseth, before climbing up the bronze to settle near his wings. "Show me," and at the same time, the request is relayed through Mayikooth, "how far you can move your wing without it hurting too much?" She's also looking out, towards the forest, for the incoming injured so that she can send warning to Z'kiel by the fire.
Kunaseth does indeed stretch out his wing a little way, though it's clear doing so pains him. Eventually he stops with a rumble, explaining through Mayikooth he cannot extend it any futher do to the pain. At least there's no evident breaks, but the bronze is definitely going to be sore for a while.
R'in scowls a little as she watches, before reaching out and gingerly feeling around the joint. "Nothing's broken," she reports, crouching upon the large bronze's back to go through the bag she brought up there. "But it's gonna ache for a while." She surfaces from the bag with what she was seeking. A fairly large pot of numbweed. "Hold your wing as close as you can," she instructs, "so I can put this on it. I hate to ask, Kunaseth, but we may need you to transport people back to the weyr if there's too many needing to go back."
"Good to hear." Z'kiel calls back, Kunaseth folding his Wing in so that R'in can apply the numbdweed. At her latter comment there's a proud rumble from the bronze. "He says of course we'll do that, if that's what's necessary." Z'kiel relays with a fond smile. "We're not about to drop the ball while we can still fly."
"I'll make the first trip back," R'in says, firmly, to both bronze and his rider. "I'd rather you rest a bit," she continues, as she applies the numbweed to the sore places, as Mayikooth gets this information, "than pull something." Once done, she tucks it away in the bag and commences getting back groundside. "Now, Kunaseth… remember those oh-so-fun wing stretches as a weyrling? I want you to practice those while we wait. Just to the extent that it doesn't hurt too much. It may work out some of the excess pain." And then she's jogging back towards the fire. "How many bandages do we have?" she asks Z'kiel.
Kunaseth begins working on the wing stretches, taking it slow at first. Z'kiel looks up as R'in jogs over, spreading a hand over the bandages he's been laying out. "Several hundred. Should be more than enough." There's a glance to the entrance way. "I'm thinking of going out there with the bow, see if I can't find them."
An eyebrow quirks. "No, you are not. I need you here." It's not often that R'in will use her rank. Not yet, at least. Once there's Weyrlings is another story, but right now seems to be one of those times where she's ready to use it if need be. Mayikooth lets her know the candidates are nearing, "Go into the Leader Barracks. There's some alcohol. We may need it for cleaning cuts out." What a waste. She'll mourn later. And hopefully L'alie won't mind the stash being used /too/ bad. "And sheets! We may need some makeshift stretchers." And extra bandages. She has water boiling on a fire that's been built up quite big and a few first aid kids with their contents spread out by the fire. Oh, you can bet any candidates who /aren't/ injured will be helping patch up those who are.
"You're outside my chain of command." Z'kiel points out calmly, with a quirk of his own eyebrow. Apparently he's unimpressed with the threat of R'in pulling rank. He's not about to fight about it right this second however, instead heading toward the Leader Barracks at a fast jog to get the requested supplies.
Laera gingerly makes her way off whatever dragon brought her, Kereth doing his best to keep up with his chosen, eyes still whirling red as they land. Laera just drops down into the dirt of the campgrounds and is removing her light jacket to wrap around her leg with shaking hands. Kereth lands and stands over her with his wings mantled. Laera's emerald gaze finally shifts around the clearing, trying to get a bearing on who is here and who is not. Her green flitter disapeared somewhere on the plateau after the attacks.
As soon as the candidates are unloaded, L'alie starts giving directions, "Chaitra, can you carry Delenn?" She asks the boy who came in on Kieranth. "M'iri, you're to sit down by the fire. No protests, you won't change my mind." She motions Adinaeth to crouch and carefully pulls Keziah down into her arms. The group themselves are a mess, covered in blood and bits of gore, shredded legs and bitten shoulders and ripped clothing to be had everywhere.
One quite notable thing upon arriving in the clearing that people will notice: one entire wall of the follower barracks has been pretty much destroyed, with wood shrapnel all over. The remaining walls don't look too good either.
Flying in low and bringing himself as close to the camp as he can without ruining stuff, Kieranth lands with a bit of a thud, his shoulder shaking a bit, but overall the damage to the dragon seems shallow, even if a little ichor runs down his leg. The same cannot be said for his passangers, for M'iri slides down wit han ungraceful thump, looking like she just bathed herself in blood, hair and clothes soaked with it, save for a few clean spots. One can't be sure what ish er blood, and what isn't. Turning back to her blue, she looks up at Chaitra, Kieranth once again lowering himself as much as possible. "Think ya can lower him to me, and keep hold on his cheek while ya slide down yourself?" She's obviously more assured of herself, though minute signs of tell tale shaking can be seen. "And try to a-avoid…" And she indicates the wound. But, her command is thwarted by a certain Weyrsecond. "A-a-ah, yes'm." Is all she says, and she makes her way over to the campfire, sitting down on a log and attempting to keep pressure on her own ripped up cheek.
Delenn still hasn't come around, and that bump he got to the back of his head is likely the cause of it. He's still wearing his pack, but two of his three firelizards disappeared shortly after he went down. His runnertail loosed, the elastic gone, blood matted in his hair and crusted to his neck, still oozing freely from whatever is going on with the right side of his face. He does not protest as he is lifted, shifted or tossed in a game of catch, his entire body dead weight.
Chaitra looks at Delenn for a moment, who's leaning against him, and also has Chai's good hand pressed against his ravaged face. Hugs and love, hugs and love. The hunter's brows crease for a moment as he shifts one arm this way, and another arm that way, and somehow - despite the pain - gets the other lad settled in his arms, head resting on one clawed shoulder, where pressure is being kept on the cheek. Ponder. Ponder. With a little help from the blue, Chai literally slides down the arm, yelping as a deeply-clawed leg braces against the ground. "Yes." Wait, was that Chai's voice just raising an octive? Ayup! But the hunter - who has injuries himself - manages to get the unconscious Delenn over to the fire. Someone. Please. Take? Now?
When the Masterhealer gets a group of firelizards in his office with incoherent alarm, well it does not take long to rally the troops. A dragon arrives bearing Healer Craft colors and two healers, one of them the MasterHealer himself. Popping between are Lya, Arsenic and Lotus, firelizards of Laera and Delenn. Kristhalis usual cane is nowhere in sight, just two armloads of medical kits each for him and the journeyman accompanying him. "Have they been triaged yet?" Are his first words, keeping calm even his his gaze shifts around the yard for his niece and the Journeyman healer. Seeing his niece is conscious, and quickly that Delenn is not he moves with a heavy limp towards Delenn. "What happened?"
Ryski doesn't want to let go of Keziah at first. He was told to help keep her on Adinaeth! Right? But with L'alie pulling, he does let go after a moment, allowing the girl to be taken. Himself? Well, he's still got tears falling, a glazed look being sent toward Kieranth..where Delenn is unconscious. The back of his torn tunic is soaked through by this point, stained dark red. He does manage to get himself down, however, giving L'alie a small glance. "..I'll take Keziah." Though he may have to drag her. She is, after all, a bit larger than himself.
Keziah is still out of it as well, a dead wait in Alie's arms. The blood flow as slowed down some with the shirt being plastered to the body. Probably for her sake, it' a good thing she's out of it. After all, moving of that side has got to hurt.
Z'kiel returns from the Leader Barracks with the alcohol and the sheets and the like, depositing them next to R'in so she has easy access to them. As he glances around, a rather thoughtful frown comes over his face and he attempts to catch L'alie's attention.
Trial by fire. That's got to be what this is. She's new to the healing schtick, even if one of the things Galaxy requires of its riders is knowledge of extensive first aid and she's also new to the Weyrling thing. Upon seeing Laera's blue, her eyes widen and she starts running for the weyrling pair. "L'alie, do you have any /uninjured/?" it may sound almost accusatory, but not entirely so. Just surprised and maybe a little scared. "They can start cleaning up wounds if so." And then the healers are there and her shoulders fall back as she exhales in a sigh. Good, /good/. That leaves her to focus on Kereth. "Laera," she's saying after taking a deep breath, "this will be hard. I know it will be. But you need to go to the Healers and be looked at. Mayikooth and I will look after Kereth." It is said in a very firm, but not unkind tone.
Amarante comes in on Loyauth along with Nalkor and anyone else on Lorena's lifemate. She'll be helped down in her own turn, unable to catch herself with a horribly mangled and chewed shoulder and arm, other spots of blood on her proving that claws were in effect as well. There are dragons-full here, but she makes her way to one side and sinks down to wait her turn. Someone has helped her turn her vest into a makeshift sling for her arm, and has taken another garment to wrap around her wounded left shoulder. She's cold and pale, shivering too, but alive - and she's going to wait her turn to be seen to silently yet stubbornly given she knows there are worse injured out there.
L'alie lays Keziah out gently on the ground and turns to relieve Chaitra, laying Delenn out beside Keziah. "Ryski, I want you to come sit by the fire with M'iri." If anyone so much as protests the pregnant woman carrying her injured candidates, they'll wish they were still with the felines. The MasterHealer's arrival is given a frank appraisal. "We were doing a herbology class, felines attacked." She tells him. "I hope your journeyman can stitch well." To R'in,s he replies, "I am uninjured." Please ignore the blood soaking her clothes. "Please see to Kieranth. He took a shoulder wound. I will assist the healers." She licks her lips, "Send anyone else who is wounded and in shock this way, as well." A deep breath and she returns her attention to Kristhalis, "Tell me what I can do. I'm not much for healing, but I can do something."
Kereth remains mantled over his rider until he gets the mental blast from the brown Mayikooth. He raises up further for a moment, as if to challenge when Laera pats his chest from where she is sitting, "I will be safe here…go to the heights and keep watch with the other dragons." She tries to keep her voice steady and mind clear as she speaks to her dragon. After a moment he subsides and lowers his head and touches upon Laera's before looking around the clearing and springing up to the dragon clearing. Laera takes a shaky breath before pushing herself to at least a crawling position, "What can I do?" She asks the nearest rider, before hearing about treating the injured dragons, "I used to help Ma treat Liraeth.." She offers helpfully to R'in. Her gaze shifts over to her Uncle, then to Delenn eyes widening a bit, "Oh Faranth.."
Z'kiel comes up beside L'alie, whispering something to the Weyrsecond. From the expression on his face and the way he glances around, it's probably something troubling.
Ryski blinks for a moment as he's told to go sit. "I want to help.." It's a protest, even if it's rather feeble, considering that he wanders right over to the fire. He sinks then, drooping down to land on his knees, hands settling on the ground between them tiredly. He doesn't make any other comment, a slight shake going through him as he sits there. Maybe if he stares at the fire, it'll suppress the overpowering urge to force his way to Delenn.
Looking towards Kieranth, R'in's pupils contract a bit. The felines have gotten more bold. Or maybe the blue just wasn't smart. She won't utter that one aloud, though. She looks back to Laera and her eyebrows raise as she comes back to herself, shaking her head. "Until you've been cleared by a Healer, I won't have you exerting yourself." She nods to the large fire, "Go sit down. Be seen to. Help them first. If Kieranth's the only injured dragon, I should be okay." And with that, she adjusts the more specialized kit she already had slung over her shoulder and jobs in the direction of where Kieranth landed.
Chaitra sighs quietly as L'alie relieves him of Delenn. Not that Delenn was any great burden, but well, he was. For a moment Chaitra looks around, and then finds a seat next to Delenn, where he resumes putting pressure on the young man's face. SMUSH. The hunter has a very well chewed-upon left forearm, light claw marks on both shoulders, and a heavier gash where the feline must have used his legs for traction on his upper thighs, his left leg a bit worse than his right. Other than that? He's just bloody.
"Xanadu Healers have been allerted, they are gathering supplies.." Kristhalis says as he kneels down next to Delenn, his face paling at the sight of the young Journeyman. He is quickly diving into his medkit for supplies. Powdered herbs to stop the bleeding, antiseptics to clean the wounds and so forth. The Healer that accompanied him , Waine,is moving through out the camp. "Anyone not wounded needs to partner up with anyone that is. Check your partner for any bleeding, pain, shortness of breath." He calls out in a base voice about the clearing. "If your partner has any of the above raise your hand." With that the young Emergency specialist is moving around the camp.
L'alie glances at Z'kiel and sighs, rubbing her forehead, "It can't be helped. They can't be transported in this condition. As soon as the healer has cleaned the worst of them up, we can take them back to Xanadu. Until then…I will have Adinaeth keep watch." As if on cue, the brown rises into the sky, his shape a shadow on the ground as he wheels. She clears her throat and says to Kristhalis, "There is no one uninjured, MasterHealer." This said dully. "The best I can do for you is to put the less injured with the most injured." She indicates Keziah and Delenn on the ground. "I suggest you see to them first, however."
«My master, first! Master!» Kieranth is setting up a fit again, even though his shoulder is shaking in his uproar, arching his wings a little as he tries to back away. "Kieranth, do as your told or I'll make that shoulder feel like a walk around Xanadu!" The Nebula Wingleader snaps, looking sternly at Kieranth before he settles. "Your pain isn't doing me any good, either…" She mutters, trying to calm herself down so that the blood will quit flowing through her fingers. Turning back to Kristhalis, and Delenn being unconsious, she seemingly says to Ryski mutely, never taking her eyes away from what she's looking at. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for Delenn…" She closes her eyes for a moment, then turns to Ryski, "He is a very brave man, and I am eternally greatful." Her eyes flick to R'in, then, to watch R'in work on Kieranth's shoulder. "Chaitra… Come sit with me…?" She mumbles, looking to the hunter. "You should probably get some cloth knotted around your leg…" She's still talking awkwardly, like someone drunk, but still somewhere concentrated.
"If you find anyone you can spare, send them my way." Z'kiel nods in reply to L'alie. "The injuries seem to have plenty to tend them…I'm going to light fires around the edges of the camp, help keep anything that follows you here away. Let me know if Adinaeth sees anything." There's a gesture of his head to the bow on his back, before the bronzerider moves off to do as he said.
Mayikooth is bigger. And Kieranth will soon feel the force of the brown's mindvoice. « Yours will be helped! However, YOU cannot help HER unless you are seen to! » R'in waits, but not patiently. The Weyrlingmaster is not in any mood to just stand around. There's a long pair of marks in the mud from where she skidded while running to Kunaseth earlier. "M'iri," she calls back, towards the bluerider, "I need him to crouch as low as possible so I can reach the shoulder and see it." Rae isn't short, but. Dragons are big.
There's..apologizing? Ryski tilts his head a little to look at M'iri for a moment, tears still rather thick in his eyes. "..He's a stupid, wherry-brained, thick-skulled, wobbly-legged idiot." Brave man? HA! There's /his/ tearful opinion of his brother right now. He leans forward just a little bit then, eyes closing tight. The adrenaline rush is wearing off by now, after all, and his back is quite..shredded, really. "Stupid..stupid idiot.."
Keziah is glad, or would be if she knew, that she's out of it and not a dragon to be yelled at in the head. Yup. That's a good thing. And aww, she's missing out on Ryski calling his brother names. Of all the times to be unconcious. You miss out on the good stuff.
Laera looks up to R'in for a moment, her mind still connected with her heated lifemate and she looks about to contradict her before she finally nods and drops back down to her rump extending her legs out in front of her. Her gaze shifts around the clearing at the injured around her and her gaze shifts again to Delenn and Kris. There is definate worry there and finally she wrenches her gaze from that scene to look toward the fire and she scoots her way over there toward M'iri, then to Ryski and extends her hand to the young boy, "Uncle Kris will make him all better, he is the best healer in all of Pern.." Even saying that there are tears in her own eyes, but that could be the pain of her leg.
Amarante stirs after a few moments (and the urging of a lesser-injured Candidate) to move to the fire. She moves to it and more or less collapses down onto it. She's wounded, but with the makeshift tourniquets on and her arm slung as it is, she's not going to die anytime soon - provided the shock can be handled and dealt with. She huddles and waits and tries to stay awake by mentally counting out the number of days that there should be until the Hatching. More or less. Mental math isn't her strong suit, but it gives her something to chew over, per se, and focus on. She's not much for being verbal right now.
"Eh'm a bi' more worried 'bout m'arm." Chaitra mumbles up towards M'iri as he scoots over her direction. Yes, scoot. His un-injured arm is dragging him across the ground propelled by his less-hurt leg. He'll just … sit there, leaning against whatever M'iri is sitting on. "Eh wouldn' worry /too/ much 'bout Delenn there, Ryski." He continues now, blinking to keep focused. "Eh be' he jus' go' his brains rattled some."
Still no movement from the unconscious journeyman healer, an arm draped over his own chest where he lays beside Keziah on the ground. The right side of his face is just red and clumps of darker red from where clotting has attempted to take place. Starting somewhere under his hairline where the flesh was rendered seemingly from the bone of his skull, is where the blood is still cheerfully bubbling from. Head wounds do tend to bleed rather badly after all. What isn't red on his face, is about as ashen as one gets with darker hued skin, blood drenching the front half of him, though most of it isn't his, but rather that from the creature who did this to him, before getting its head torn off by an angry blue dragon.
Waine makes his way through the group triaging, "3…3…2…4…3…" He gives each person a number, "4 and 3's help 2's…Put pressure on any bleeding until we can get to it. His steps hurry toward Keziah as he sees her and her state of wounding and drops down to his knees beside her. He quickly opens his medkit and goes about the business of cleaning out the gash in her side and stopping the bleeding. Not the best conditions to perfoming any type of medical treatments in, but with this many there is no other choice.
Kristhalis continues to tend to Delenn, getting medications into his wounds and into him to try to stop the bleeding. Hands are quickly scrubbed in redwort before he goes about the business of suturing up the laceration on the young man's face. Thank farenth he is unconscious. Kristhalis's hands are trembling at first before he makes the first stitch, but a steadying breath settles things and he goes to work.
Ryski is..what number? He doesn't even know. But either way, he starts to straighten himself up a little bit, breath hitching in his throat. Oh yes, he's /quite/ aware of the pain now. Laera's hand gets his attention though, staring at the weyrling blearily. "Y..yeah?" Well, it's a small comfort, at least. He does move, however, pulling himself just a little bit to get closer to Laera, voice quieting. "Can I help?" It's easier to deal with when he doesn't think about Delenn. Or the way his back burns.
Oh look, she's still alive, there as a fraction of a moan from Keziah's lips as the healer begins cleaning her wound. Or well, she can still feel pain at least. Perhaps that's a good thing. It'll certainly be a story to tell the children of the Weyr if she makes it back alive and in one piece instead of nearly two.
L'alie decides that the MasterHealer isn't going to give her instructions, she'll leave the injured in his hands, going to walk the perimeter with Z'kiel. "I don't think the felines will be back. We took out six of them." She frowns and clears her throat, "I'd like to retrieve their carcases. The pelts are valuable, and if I go back, the wherries won't have had time to pick them down."
Laera looks down at her leg at the offer of help as if the question has brought her attention back to the burning in her thigh. "Yeah…ouch." Nicely put. Her light jacket is tied over the holes in her pants to stop the blood flow. Daughter of a S&R flyer at least knew enough to deal with that. "I haven't really …looked at it yet…" There is a bit pain seen on her face as she tries to untie the shirt with fumbling trembling fingers. "So did you see Kereth out there…" She says trying to muster a smile on her lips, though it is strained. Just trying to keep her mind off the pain of her leg.
Waine looks over to the Masterhealer for a moment, seeing he is distracted with his patient he looks up to the riders as they plan to retrieve the pelts, "That wise, I think we have quite enough patients here." He says tersely before he looks around the yard and goes back to tending Keziah's wound and stitching it close before wrapping a belly bandage around her with the help of one of the few unwounded Candidates. An NPC of course. They miss out on all the fun. Well until between lessons.
"I can see the wisdom in that." Z'kiel agrees with a nod to L'alie. Waine's comments either go unheard or ignored. "You shouldn't go on your own, and we're probably safer bringing the bodies back here to remove the pelts than doing it in the field. But broadly speaking, I'm in favor."
Chaitra looks up at M'iri, blinking as if he can't keep his eyes open any longer. It's a far cry to say this is the dangerous sort of exhaustion, since he's not really in shock, he's just tired. "Eh don' think y'wanna clamp your han's 'round m'arm…" He says, his words starting to slur. "Th'others're jus' cuts…" He lifts his left arm, and blinks in confusion as he lays his head on M'iri's lap. "Eh can' feel m'fingers… Won'er why…" And indeed, his hand is more or less in the fist position of when he stuck his arm into the cat's mouth instead of letting it have his face. But, he isn't exactly able to answer any more questions as the next sound that comes from him is a polite little snore. Weird sleeping positions /will/ breed that noise.
Kristhalis finishes the stitching and wraps a bandage over the young journeyman's forehead and sticks down some more bandages down the laceration. Plastic surgery may not be his field of study, but it is a fairly neat stitch job for an OB/GYN doc. Once satisfied with the work he brings out some smelling salts to try to revive the young man, drawing Delenn's head into his lap as he waits for him to wake up. "Come on Delenn, come back to us…I got few enough healers as it is.."
"Thank you," R'in says to Kieranth as the blue settles down. She relaxes a fair bit once the fight with the frantic dragon. She begins looking over the wound carefully, touching it carefully at the edges to get an idea of how bad it's bleeding, how deep it goes, etc. "You stay put," she tells the blue, "while I get some cloths and water to clean that with." A shame — for her, not for them — that she doesn't hear Z'kiel and L'alie's building plans. She'd be one unhappy Weyrlingmaster. And she's already happen. This trip has brought out the worst in R'in.
"No." It's a dull answer from Ryski, but it is in fact.. the truth. He wasn't paying attention at all to Kereth. And though closer..well. He doesn't do a whole lot to help. That jacket seems to be doing a good job with stemming the bloodflow, after all. The boy just wobbles somewhat where he's settled. And…well. He's leaking. Water, anyway, despite his efforts to contain the fact that there's a distinct bit of crying going on.
Keziah moans a few more times as she's wrapped up as snug as a bug in a rug. Least the scar she's bound to have will be hidden. Course Delenn will at least get to look more rugged looking? Yeah, fawt a tooted fee-line bar handed and leeved to tell. But yeah, some of the candidate have all the luck. Guess it does pay to skip lessons from time to time.
L'alie nods her head, "The dragons can pick them up, we won't have to even get off. If we bring them back two at a time, it's three short jumps. It'll give us a c hance to scout around the area, too." See,s he's not that stupid. Besides, /who/ came back uninjured out of all of this? Okay, fine, that's because her player was too busy doling out THE PAIN! to receive any herself.. but I can pretend. She holds up a hand to Z'kiel, "A moment." And walks back to the MasterHealer, placing a hand on his shoulder. (AHEM, KRIS!) "Check M'iri." She tells him. "I'm worried she took a bad knock to the stomach. She's pregnant." No more pregnant than L'alie, which means the bluerider is starting to grow large indeed, so the last part should be redundnat, but healers are obtuse, and sometimes things have to be pointed out to them.
Blissfully unaware of the fact that he's being sewn up, Delenn does not stir as Kristhalis' needle pierces his flesh over and over and pulls the flesh closed again with tiny little stitches that will certainly help to reduce what's going to be quite the scar. Still, having the smelling salts passed under one's nose does tend to get people to come too quickly, this process only slowed by the fact that the Journeyman's realizes just how much the back of his head hurts as he comes to. Only to find how much the front part does to. Oh the swelling, the bruising, the headaches to come. "Uhhnnnn…" he moans, the eye on his unaffected side fluttering open, the other side not so fortunate and will requite less puffiness to oblige. "Kris?" A groan, and he winces. Owwie.
"And if we're doing it entirely from dragonback, that leaves my hands free to have an arrow ready on the bow just in case." Z'kiel observes thoughtfully, looking distant for a moment as he checks that Kunaseth is feeling up to it. He nods to L'alie then, as she heads off toward the MasterHealer.
Waine leaves Keziah in the care of the candidate, and turns to Kristhalis "I got him.." He says as he hears L'alie's comments about the pregnant rider. Kristhalis looks down at Delenn as he wakes up, "I am right here…" He says and looks up reluctantly as he is needed elsewhere. "Everything is going to be alright ..Journeyman." He finally nods to Waine, "I will be back Delenn, there are other injured." He slowly rises to his feet and makes his wait to M'iri, the limp quite heavy as he moves toward her and sits down next to the woman, "Are you having any cramps?" He asks directly as his hands slide over the woman's belly, trying to feel for movement of the fetus, eyes closing as he concentrates.
L'alie nods her head as she turns back to Z'kiel, "If you're ready, former charge of mine." For someone who just suffered massive injuries to her charges, she's in a pretty good mood. "Adinaeth will share the image with Kunaseth."
Laera takes a shaky breath and looks toward where her lifemate flew, "He took out that feline…I was so proud of him.." And scared to death as well. Her voice is shaky and trembling as she fiddles with the makeshift bandage around her leg. One of the healer candidates finally comes up upon the pair with redwort and bandages, "Best get to cleaning these wounds." She says as she looks first over the boy then the weyrling. Laera motions to Rysky, "Him first…so he can get back to his brother."
M'iri is slowly brushing her free hand through Chaitra's hair, even if she really isn't paying attention to what she's doing, looking more wrapper up in her thoughts. That is, until she catches the comment by L'alie to Kris, and she's looking up wide eyed, hand released from her face in her shock to let the blood flow… Gapping singular cut on cheek = no clot so well. The bluerider almost acts like she forgot all about the life she is carrying, and with little cerimony, she has both hands on her eyes, crying in great sobbing bursts. Maybe this is just too much on the bluerider, for Kieranth is crooning soothingly from his spot on the ground— trying to stay put, but stretching his neck out as far as he can towards Miir, shoulder forgot in his need to comfort his rider. She's gasping in great breaths as she tries to control herself, trying to tell Kris.. "A-a little. Dizzy, threw up when I got back up… V-very sick." She says, between gasps.
"Ready." Z'kiel confirms, heading towards his bronze. At the comment about being a former charge, he shakes his head. "This does rather bring back memories." And then he's mounting up, Kunaseth stretching his wings slowly in preperation for takeoff.
Not happy. R'in will be so very /not happy/ when she finds out that Z'kiel took Kunaseth out, risking straining the poor bronze's wing. Fortunately for the bronzerider, she's quite caught up in patching up the blue. While she's back by the fire collecting a bowl full of hot water and cloths, she informs the MasterHealer (KRIS!): "My brown is uninjured, as I had remained at camp, and quite capable of transporting anyone back to the Weyr. He is willing, if needed, to go without me." He wouldn't be /thrilled/ to go without her, but he'd do it. Back to Kieranth and she sets down the bowl, "This will probably hurt," she tells the blue and Mayikooth backs up her words, "but for M'iri's sake… contain yourself, okay?" Rule number 1 of DragonHealing: remind them how proud their lifemate will be if they behave! Taking a breath, the brownrider dips the cloths into the water and begins clearing up the wounds the blue has upon his shoulder. She winces as she hears M'iri crying. "Kieranth, you can support her telepathically. I can't let you further into the clearing right now." She sounds pained to have to do that, "there's so many injured, we need all the room we can get for them." She tries to go faster with cleaning the injury, so that the pair can be left to one another, but does her best to not sacrifice comfort for speed.
Lightheaded, certainly disoriented, and not knowing who Waine is, get Delenn to push himself upward when he should really be laying down. His pack still strapped to his back, he clenches his teeth as he wrenches the thing off his back and dropping it before him. He searches for Kristhalis, finds him with a balling M'iri, and leaves the man to his work. "I'm fine." he says in a crisp voice that leaves no room for argument. "Ryski…where's Ryski…" he mumbles, ignoring the smell of blood, and the lovely sobering pain. It was keeping him awake after all.
Amazingly, somehow, Chaitra keeps sleeping with his head in M'iri's lap while Kris checks M'iri over and M'iri sobs. Awww, poor wittle boy is tired.
Keziah is left in the care of a candidate? Oh no! She'll never survive! Oh wait, maybe this one doesn't have it in for her, not like that…hmm. Course just wait until she wakes and discovers the state of her vest. Nothing like a big gash in it and it soaked with yet more blood to make it in need of being burned. The poor vest, and it was such a nice vest too. All those pockets….
Ryski first? The boy looks a little surprised even as there might be some wound-tending to be done. It's likely not going to be too comfortable though. He sighs though, moving his arms up…and then right back down again with a muted little whimper. Okay, so taking the tunic /off/ isn't about to happen. "My back… Got cut up." Or sliced up. Clawed up. Whatever.
With Kristhalis focused now on M'iri, It is Waine that responds to R'in, "We will get all the 3's back as soon as we can..Anyone with their bleeding controlled can go back." He looks over to Keziah as she wakes up, "I want to make sure her bleeding stays stop and she can go back…" He looks around the clearing once more before he looks down to Delenn as he sits up and puts a restraining hand on his shoulder, "You need to stay down Journeyman, you got a nasty head wound there. I am sure your brother is alright."
Kristhalis continues to feel around the woman's abdomen and looks up to R'in, "We need to get her back right away, I need to get her and the baby on a monitor." There is just a touch of strain in his voice as he calls the order, "We are gonna get you and your baby through this Miss, you are just going to need to stay calm and takes a deep breath for me…and another.." His hand comes up to her cheek to place a bandage to the cheek and taping it in place.
The little apprentice healer moves behind Ryski to examine the back of the lad, "I can clean it up better iffin you remove your shirt Ryski.." Laera gives a wavering encouraging smile at the boy, "Its ok, ain't noone looking right now.." Her voice is just a touch shaky with pain and she looks down at the leg once more, her shirt slowly becoming redder and redder about her thigh. She reaches down to tighten the sleeves to stop the flow with a wince. She looks over to Delenn once more before she looks over to her Uncle with the bluerider, just catching his words.
Keziah groans a little as she shift and then lets out a bit of a yelp. "Shards that hurts." She blinks her eyes a few times and then blinks again. "We're back?" she asks after a moment as she looks up at the candi tending her and who's insisting that she stay laying down.
Ryski blinks, looking rather irritated for a moment. "I'm not../shy/." Not about the nekkid, anyway. But with how long he's kept that tunic on with the bleeding, blood has started to clot, practically attaching the fabric to his wounds. Still, as he's told to remove the tunic, the boy lifts his arms again, gripping the bottom of the tunic tightly…and then ripping it upward in one, quick stroke. There's a cry that comes from him, unable to choke it down. Fresh blood appears along those clawmarks.
M'iri takes deep breaths as instructed by the man before her, eyes closed as she concentrates on just this, and the grey soothing going through her mind in the form of Kieranth. "Right. I-I think I can make it…" She says with as much strength as she has, pushing herself up. "T-t-there is an infirmary in those barracks…" She's stating matter of factly, taking off her jacket, though bloody, and making sure Chai is comfortable before she tries to steady herself, though shaking. Taking care of this, and making sure = make Miir much better. Kieranth is sitting still for R'in, drawing back a little as he does so, though obviously still aggitated. He growls lowly fro mthe pain of being tended to, for sure, eyes whirling reds, oranges and yellows in panic and hurt.
Bloody cloths. Eeew. R'in, fortunately, has never had a problem with blood or injuries. Probably because she got into so many scrapes herself. And the best part about her getting mad at Z'kiel is that one would likely lose count of all the times that she probably tried to go hunting with him when they were younger and got herself hurt. "Mayikooth is just outside in the clearing," where there's more room for takeoff, "and is ready to take anyone back. I can have him come closer?" She speaks loudly, so that the healers can hear, in a voice that barely keeps steady. "Alright, Kieranth," she returns to her running commentary to the blue — "I'm going to put something on this to get out anything that may cause an infection. This part /will/ hurt." And then she's flushing out the wounds a bit and applying redwort. "Next I'll put numbweed on, I promise," she adds. She doesn't wanna be eaten!
Gana winces as Ryski pulls off the shirt and quickly goes to work with the redwort to clean the wound, "Sorry this is gonna sting…" is about all the warning the little apprentice gives before she sets to it. Damping it away before applying numbweed salve to the wound and then rolling a bandage around the shoulder. Not the neatest bandaging job, but give her a break she is an apprentice! Laera just leans back against a log and closes her eyes, and there is a bellow from where the dragons are waiting. Her face knit in concentration as she focuses on her dragon instead of the pain of her leg.
Delenn doesn't want to stay down, shardit. Growling at the strange man touching him, the journeyman pushes himself away from Waine's touch and blatantly disregards whatever comes out of his mouth. He's still his father's son after all, and he looks more like Ryski right now with the half of his face that actually works. "He's my /brother/." he states with a hiss, his head feeling like it's splitting in two which was making it hard to think clearly. Grabbing the medical kit from his satchel, the rest of it is abandoned as he wobbly forces himself to his feet, and not so steadily walks with no direction in mind. Though as he hears Ryski scream, his head swims as it quickly snaps in that direction, causing him to sway. Using some poor unsuspecting person standing there as a leaning post, he puts himself together enough to actually make it over there, plopping down somewhere nearby the boy.
"I do not think these barracks have a fetal monitor M'iri or drugs to stop you from going into early labor." Kristhalis stakes looking incredously to the barracks. "We need to get you back to Xanadu if you think you are up to flying." He looks up to the dragons for a moment, "Is yours the one injured? Will he be able to fly you straight?" The question is partially directed to the Dragonhealer as well. His gaze is distracted as he sees Delenn move nearby to tend to Rysky, "Delenn sit down…" He calls over to the young Man, concern yet force in his voice. Waine gives the Masterhealer a helpless look and continues to move around the courtyard tending to the /2s/ now that the 1s are dealt with. Chaitra is dealt with on that list then back to Keziah now that she is fully conscious, "Any dizzy spells?" He asks of the girl as he reaches down to touch his fingers to her wrist and look at her pupils.
Ryski shuts his eyes tightly as the redwort is applied, a faint tremor going through him. Oh yes, that hurts. It hurts a /lot/, and he has to take in a few heavy breaths to steady himself. ..And then there's a Delenn plopping down? The boy tenses, straightening up just a little bit, eyes wide. "What the sharding bloody mess of Faranth's ingrown toenails are you /DOING/?!" ..Well. There's an outburst, if there ever was one. Even shocked as he is that his brother is actually awake and..up…he's not about to assume it's safe for him to be doing so. "I'm getting taken care of, ya idiot, lay down or something!"
Keziah winces a bit as she shifts "No. Just pain." she mutters a bit and then starts to sit up some, her face paling a bit as she does "That didn't feel all too hot." she murmurs as she closes her eyes. She opens them again and looks down at herself "Did a number, didn't I?" she groans and then glanecs over towards Ryski, and then Delenn, her eyes widening as she takes in his bandaged face.
Kieranth is… literally gritting his teeth as his wounds are cleaned, lips pulled back to show his sharp teeth in the process. This response from Kieranth makes Miir reach for Kristhalis' shoulder to steady herself. "Ah, your probably right…" Her dazeness is apparent as she doesn't realise at first that the infirmary would not have the proper equipment. Looking around her at the moment, M'iri takes in the injured and sniffs once, twice, then another deep breat hand she's looking at R'in, see what her diagnosis is for her dragon, and his ability to make it back to Xanadu.
More hard decisions. R'in doesn't look up from tending to Kieranth, but she frowns. M'iri does need to get back to Xanadu. It'd be best for both dragon and rider's mental states if they went together. But it's his shoulder that was injured. "I'd rather he not fly yet," the woman admits, in a voice that's just barely steady, "but I can request ahead for a dragonhealer to be on standby. If he goes up, betweens, lands, and goes straight to the dragon infirmary so they can get him better examined… Then I'll allow it." She looks to the blue, trying not to shy away from those teeth. She /is/ the nearest squishy thing. "You hear me, Kieranth? You can go with her /if/ you consent to do as I said." She also looks to M'iri, awaiting the bluerider's confirmation.
Delenn is not feeling great no, and at Ryski's outburst well, it likely doesn't make him feel any better. The boy was notorious for speaking the first thing that popped into his head and not perhaps something worded a bit more delicately. Wincing at not only the pitch, but the tone and volume as well. The content isn't fantastic either, not for someone as packed with more guilt then a Catholic Church on Easter morning. With Kristhalis barking at him too, well, what can he do? Nauseous, he has to get up again, and this time it's to lean against the decrepit follower builder with the palm of shaking hand so he can vomit. Head trauma plus vomiting equals concussion and he knows it.
T'eo enters the square in a swift carrying walk with a lot of poise for the bronzerider and just… stops… at the scene before him. His eyes gaze over the individuals and dragons slowly taking each detail in. His eyes pause on Lorena, who is sitting behind a young man with a bandaged leg. Here he sizes the kid up appropriately, with an appraising gaze, but the look of Lore's face causes him to leave his inspection at that. She's been crying for a while now it seems. He continues, taking in as Delenn moves to go vomit, but the expression is blank… and then… M'iri. He hesitates where he stands.
The look on Kris's face to R'in no doubt shows how important he thinks it is to move her, "I would prefer them together, I do not need her stressed either." Kristhalis slips an arm around M'iri's waist doing his best to support her. A gold firelizard appears suddenly over his head, "Orla, Xanadu, OB, Stat." With a squeek the dainty gold blinks between, having had similar orders in the past. Find healer flitter, tell them to get ready for pregnant people in trouble.
Waine nods at Keziah, "Well we will get you back tonight if we can." He pats her gently on the shoulder before he moves around the clearing to deal with more wounded, upgrading their triage classifications as needed and dividing them into groups. Go Now, Go later, go when stable.
Keziah blinks, wait a minute "Back?" she whispers and then in a louder voice? "Back! I don't need to go back, I'm jsut fine!" she states and starts to get up, only to slide back down with a cry of pain. "Shard that hurts. I'm fine though. REally. That was just a figment of your imagination." She sighs a little and looks disgruntled as well as looking in pain.
"He'll follow your every word, won't you, Kieranth?" M'iri states, some semblance of herself coming back, now that the bleeding of her cheek is controlled. Delenn took the blunt of the feline smack, after all. «Master.» The midnight blue comments, slipping his bloody touch to Mayikooth to confirm to R'in his compliance to this. For there isn't anything he wouldn't do to stay with his rider. Miir leans a little longer on Kris, seemingly taking his strength as her own, and then she makes her way to Kieranth… And T'eo enters, and she's brought to tears again, though still moving. "T'eo… C'mon." Is all she seems to have the energy to say, extending her arm in order to convince the man to support her a little, and maybe play comfort to her sudden spastic emotions.
Gana pats Ryski on his good shoulder, "There ya go all done…might go see to your brother he's a mess" She gets up and moves along to the vomiting Delenn, "Really should sit down Journeyman…" She says a bit nervously, he is technically a superior after all. Laera looks over to the direction of the Healers and pulls herself to her feet to go after him as well, looks like she is gonna have a matching limp to her Uncle for a little while at least. "Come on Delenn, I got a bit of thigh for you to look at." She says trying to sound light, but the pain eeks through no doubt.
"However… Kieranth, you have to follow. I'm not letting you carry her right now. Just in case you end up unable to land properly, we can't risk her getting more hurt, okay?" And then T'eo shows up. That's a relief. R'in can remain and help out and Mayikooth doesn't have to leave her. She's on thin enough ice, mentally, as it is. "Can you," she calls to T'eo, "get M'iri back to Xanadu, while Kieranth follows?" She's gotten numbweed pretty liberally applied to the blue, which will hopefully hold him over until he can get looked at more thoroughly.
T'eo is whipped? Well wouldn't you be? He moves forward at her words, slipping a strong arm around her. He doesn't as questions, no. Not now. That would just upset matters. After all, he's a Weyrleader and a sailor. He knows how to handle crisis situations, even of those he loves. Another look is shot to his sister and then R'in is speaking to him. With a nod, "Of course, Weyrlingmaster." He murmurs, "To the infirmary, obviously?" He looks between the healer and R'in. Clarification is important. Raenth croons in the distance and then goes still.
"Straight to the infirmary, they will be ready for her. She needs to get on a fetal monitor as soon as she lands, she took a hard bump." Kristhalis tells to the Weyrleader. "Use your knot if you have to." Ie The Xanadu healers need to stop whatever they are doing to tend to this. There is a serious look on his face as he passes the woman to the arms of the Weyrleader. "Once we are done here, I will be over." He steps back from the pair and moves around the clearing stopping by Nolkar and Lorena and crouching with a heavy sigh, "How is he doing?" He asks as fingers goes to the young man's wrist to check his pulse, checking his wounds visually.
M'iri smiles weakly at T'eo as he goes helps her to her dragon… Though now it seems, to Raenth instead. Kieranth looks ready to protest, but given Miir, he turns to Raenth in the clearing as if to say 'You arn't careful, and I'll /skin/ you'. Hearing Kris' words, Miir just nods, and then points to the clearing, "Lets go, T'eo…" Her energy is running down, she's just plain tired and worn down, sniffing just a little. "C'mon Kieranth." WIth a look to R'in, the midnight blue goes to follow the duo.
If Delenn had been in a better state he might have snapped at Gana when she tells him what to do, merely because his bad mood triggered by being forced out here in the first place would have been first and foremost on his mind. Right now though, he just eyes her and throws up a bit more until there is nothing coming up. Nothing is more scary than a half faced one eyed glaring vomiting thing. Right? When Laera comes over, the healer relocates himself to the stairs of the follower barracks, nodding his head one but making no comment. His head was killing him, and passing out again seemed like just the ticket. Clutched in one hand is his medical bag, and he pats his lap. "Give me the leg." he says, putting all his remaining energy into keeping his one eye focused and clear. While she's getting herself situated, Delenn goes about preparing a redwort wash, taking out some numbweed and threading a needle with some thread.
"Yes, straight to the infirmary and…" R'in tilts her head, communicating briefly with Mayikooth. Likely about the dragonhealer being on hand at Xanadu. "Please have your bronze help make sure that Kieranth does as he's been told and goes to the dragon infirmary once there? I know they'll want to be together, but the last thing we need is him permanently injuring himself." Limping dragon for the lose. No cane big enough. The rider steps back far enough to make sure she doesn't get trampled, collecting up the supplies she'd used to clean it up. She didn't even go along on the excursion, but the simple fact of running around nonestop since they got back has been wearing her thin. "Where can I help?" she asks of the Healers, once back by the fire.
T'eo nods to both again, turning to look down at M'iri. He offers her his little half-smile of assurance. Everything'd going to be alright. …right? Raenth puffs softly at Kieranth and when T'eo tells him -his- part of this, he cocks his head with whirrling eyes are Kieranth in a 'touche' sort of fashion, but it's more in jest than seriousness. Raenth would be much the same, and in fact -has- been, when it's been T'eo. As if reminding T'eo of this… "Role reversal eh? I still remember when you all pulled me out of that fishing shack." Another half-smirk to M'iri as they head to the dragons.
Lorena looks up as the healer comes by, a protective arm over Nalkor's chest, though he's asleep now, like many of them. "He-" throat crack. Ahem. "Sorry… He's… doing alright. Sleeping." Sniff. She wipes away some of the tears from her eyes. "I think he's okay though." She murmurs, and rubs again at her eyes with a hand, looking around at the others and pausing on her brother and M'iri.
Z'kiel has drifred back into camp, presumably having landed Kunaseth outside this time. His arrival isn't an obvious one, merely people will eventually notice he's back and quietly making himself useful once more.
Laera drops heavily on the stairs, "Figured I would save you from her…before you punched her." She says with that teasing voice, strained with pain. Well she does need tending to anyway. There is a deep bite wound in her leg (all four canines), most of the bleeding has stopped now due to her pressure bandage but it still has not been cleaned yet. "Kereth killed the cat…" She says proudly as she leans to the back of the doorframe.
Delenn wordlessly cuts away the fabric on the leg that needs fixing with a small pair of scissors once everything is prepared. The wound is accessed, cleaned with a redwort solution and then numbed for the sewing process. Despite not having as much practice on living flesh than the Masterhealer, he'd had plenty on heavy and silky fabrics, keeping the stitches small and evenly spaced. Gauze in place, and then a bandage clipped and held in place. It'll leave a nice little reminder, that's for sure. Head throbbing, pain increasing, and Delenn merely pats the leg a little lower down. "Done, sleep propped up tonight and have the bandages checked in the morning for seepage." He looks at Laera with his own visible eye. Yes, he probably would have decked Gana, but given his look to her, she didn't stick around for too long after that. "Last thing I remember is pain, and then blackness." he mutters, cleaning up his mess of supplies and things, returning stuff to his medical bag.
Kristhalis nods to Lorena then to Nalkor, "Alright, he can go back in the next trip them, will let him rest for now." He pats Lorena's shoulder gently, "Are you doing alright? It could have been worse, noone died." He says enouragingly to the woman, though his own hand is trembling a bit as he rights himself once more, placing most of his wieght on one leg as he looks around. Finally with all the criticals and bleeders taking care of he can look around for the two that got him to come in the first place and sees Delenn and Laera on the steps and finally makes his way, slowly to them, pain on his features from his own sore leg. There is a depth of concern on his face as he approaches them.
Lorena gives and nod to the healer. "Yes…" Sniff. Will not cry anymore… will not… though the tears threaten. "There's that." And as she says this her eyes travel to Delenn and Laera first. The image returns that which she saw from Loyauth's back, the prompting 'Lory' from her lifemate and all. She looks away before she starts bawling again, down to Nalkor, and rests her head gently against his.
Laera bites her lower lip as Delenn cuts away her pants, really trying to hold out from crying out for her lifemate's sake as much as anything though there are tears in her emerald eyes. Well there is not much someone so intuned can hold from her dragon and there is a warble as the young blue moves toward the clearing again, though stays on the outskirts of it less the brown fuss at him again. Once the leg is numbed she relaxes and watches the sewing up process with an odd interest and nods at the instructions. She looks up to Delenn finally and suddenly wraps her arms around him and hugs him tightly, "I was so worried about you…don't you ever scare me like that again, you got to promise!" And damn aren't there tears in her eyes and not just from pain either.
Sometimes, even the dragonhealer is protected a little. It isn't until Kieranth is tended to and R'in has given Laera the goahead for Kereth to return — so long as he keeps out of the way! — to camp that Mayikooth passes on some news. That Z'kiel and Kunaseth went out to collected the carcasses. Far, far too upset to even begin to properly handle the situation, she simply growls under her breath and, with hands curled into fists, stalks away from the camp towards the clearing and her lifemate.
Waine looks over Keziah sternly, "Yes you need to be in a proper infirmary…" He comments and just raises his brow as she reacts in pain, "There a proper cot for her tonight so she does not blow her stitches?" He says as he lowers down to gently lift the girl up again, to carry her if need be to the camp infirmary.
Z'kiel glances after R'in as she storms off. It doesn't occur to him that he's the cause of her sudden upset, and so he does what makes the most sense to him. Goes after her. This, of course, may not be the most intelligent of decisions.
Delenn can't focus anymore, the eye getting that distant look that dragonriders get, but for him there's no one on the other side of the line. At least Laera is patched up, his mess is cleaned up and no one is bleeding around him anymore. He isn't even aware that Kristhalis is limping back his way, the hug getting quite literally no response. "I'm going to pass out again, I'm afraid…" he mutters, "Tell Kris I have a concussion?" And with that, he goes very limp and indeed passes out.
Keziah stifles a whimper as she's lifted up, she does suppose it wouldn't be a smart idea to rish infection. But to be cooped up indoors? Oh the horror and torture of it all. She leans her head against the healer. "Wake me when the nightmare's over?" she asks faintly. "My eggs. Don't leave them." she adds weakly before closing her eyes and drifting.
The last few steps are hurried as Delenn droops in Laera's arms, Kristhalis reaches for Delenn, arm wrapping around the other side of him as Laera informs him of Delenn's last words. "I need to get him back tonight, He needs to be on a monitor." With some abvious strain he gets the young man in his arms and moves to the dragon from Healercraft now returned to the clearing from one load and two more healers on his back to look over the walking wounded. There is a great look of concern on his face, that is barely masked and perhaps moreso then warrants.
Laera stands up on one leg to try to support her uncle as best she can, "Tell my Mommas I am gonna be alright, just a flesh wound…" She gives a weak smile before she limps stiff legged alongside her uncle to get Delenn sorted.
When the girl passes out Waine just shakes his head and leans down to scoop her up and take her into the barracks, "What eggs?" He asks around curiously before stepping up into the barracks with her. Once sorted he moves back into the courtyard to continue doing the rounds and sees Kristhalis carrying Delenn and rushes over to help them get loaded on the dragon and sees them away before standing there hands on his hip. His dark eyes looking around the campgrounds for anyone else that may need tending.