Triage of Tragedy [1-24-17][Healers]

[Millian]

It had been more than a fortnight since Millian had been back to Great Cliffs Weyr. She should have been back there by now, their normal route took only a sevenday and a half to finish. With A'ric being kind enough to fly the Healer between each stop, betweening everywhere sped up the trek, she had more time to spend at each place. At their last stop, the Weyrleader K'ivan had ordered them to assist the solo healer of Crashing Seas.

With her hands wrist deep in red tinted water, a mixture or redwort and soupsand, the healer made ready for the next victim of the earthquake. Millian let out a sigh as she shook off her hands as a drudge offered her a towel. There were many others in this temp healers hall, both injured and those who were helping. Many had limited knowledge of the healers craft but followed instructions easy enough. Those who had minor injuries were see to by the helpers if it was minor enough to bandage and set them back out to help dig out the people trapped by the cave-ins. Others with more serious injuries were directed to one of the healer's waiting lines. If they could stand, they would be asked to stand to save the cots for those who couldn't. Any who came in with grave injuries took priority, even to the point were a helper would have to take over for the healer on their current case.


Turning to face her next charge, her eyes skimmed over the others present in the makeshift healers' hall. Many injured in various degrees, ranging from abrasions to broken bones, a few covered individuals waiting to get extracted from the area. The poor man that sat on the cot next to her had a long lacerations down his arm that required stitches. Lucky for Millian there wasn't anyone in the first tier of injury at the moment, those nearest to death's door, so she and the other healers could focus on the second tier of triage, the bleeding.

Reapplying the redwort to her hands, she carefully peeled back the makeshift bangles on the man's arms. "Now lets see how bad it is." The pained expression on his face told her that is was going to be a nasty one. He had been near one of the cave-ins, the shards of rock that broke free were to blame for his current care requirement. Starting from the furthest point from the heart, this allowed Millian the ability to tighten the bandage if the wound began to bleed too much. The gnarled edge of the slash told her that she was going to end skilled hands for this one. "A'ric, if you are free. I need help with this one."

[A'ric]

“That troublemaker went home without us!” A’ric spoke to Millian with a sudden laugh in his words, his voice steady and soft despite the surrounding chaos. They’d been expecting the new weyrwoman but A'ric hadn’t expected the bronze’s reaction. His back to Millian as the other healer washed her hands, the bronzerider knelt on the floor near a pallot upon which a drugged woman slept in a felis-induced nap. He heard only the sounds that she made and she on the other hand saw only his short hair and broad back and shoulders - and where some of his shirt had been torn in the effort to pull a survivor free from the collapsed tunnels. The rend in the cloth framed a glimpse of the twisted flesh of a dark scar.

"The new gold rider arrived and it seems the new blood’s stirred everyone’s curiosity including Caldreth's.” A’ric heard his dragon greet the gold. Who are they? I have been too busy to learn them. A moment’s pause commenced as the bronze conveyed the answer. His elbow visible again, he twisted in place enough to allow the upward stroke of his next stitch. “Cal says they are Raine and her Imolith."

Replenish in the herb and elixir colors of his craft, A'ric too had his sleeves rolled to the elbow and his hands swathed in gloves as he knelt by the wounded woman. He wast all too aware of the lines of groaning people. The murmured calls for help accompanied by the occasional plea for water or something else. For the first-tier to get the gravely injured fixed as fast as possible, the three healers teamed up but the overwhelming casualties caused A’ric to decide it would be better to split their efforts and each attend a second-tier patient. So had he selected this woman whilst the senior healer reset her wash-attend-wash cycle.

The bronzerider twisted his wrist as he shifted his posture to check again if he had staunched the bleeding of her flayed leg. A’ric took visual stock of his patient - her hair splayed out on the folded cloth showed the first signs of graying, toughened skin from Turns under the Daystar, and the slow steady breathing of someone in gentle repose. One of those caught in the avalanche that took the lives of at least four so far, the woman was one of the fortunate. There were others less fortunate who they’d had to amputate a limb to save their life. One of the precious dragonriders here lost a leg at the knee. While Millian applied redwort, A’ric began to stitch closed the nasty laceration. Ten-fifteen stitches and she’d have a scar and (possibly) a limp. But now that he’d removed her bandages and started the procedure, he had to persist until the end.

“I cannot help you,” A’ric replied to his partner’s hopeful inquiry with a quick, apologetic phrase. His voice turned grim again. “I’ll ask Caldreth to find Luezairaith's rider. The brown is friendly enough so we’ll receive a reply soon.” He spoke with some contempt about the “solo healer of Crashing Seas”, another capable journeyman but one most mysterious and this irritated A’ric despite their near Turn interactions whilst he recovered from his injury.

[Millian]

Millian gave a soft chuckle to report of their ride. "Who can blame him for wanting to see a new gold?" With A'ric busy, Millian spied one of the helpers walking by. "You there, come here and hold this... Yes just like that." Grateful for the extra hands, at least now she could start treating this man's injury. Well versed in the healers craft, she grabbed what tools she needed with hesitation. Giving the man a reassuring smile she began to sew the slash closed. "I'll have you patched up and out of here soon enough." Turns of practice afforded her the ability to sew quickly and with ease, besides the groans the man gave due to the dulling pain, her motions were not a cause of his discomfort.

"Raine and Imolith?" Millian recalled a message about a transfer in the works before she had left on her route. "Ah! Yes that was set for today. Which we would have been back for if everything went to plan." There wasn't anything they could have done to predict or prevent something like this from happening. She took stock of the room again, still many that needed some level of help. Her eyes moved back to their work as she finished tying the first of the two slashes the needed closing. The man's other arm was in a sling, thus he was unable to help with his care at all. As she had done with the first, she moved onto the second stitching.

"I do wonder where our friend is." With the flurry of activities, Millian lost track of the Crashing Seas Healer. He might have gone to the cave-in to aid any that were too bad off to move here first. Some had come in with bandages holding things in place. Maybe he had gone to the healers hall to request more aid from healers without dragons. He could have been on the other side of this room helping save someone's life. Millian just did not know where he was at that given moment. She couldn't spend too long looking around to find him. "I do know that at some point after this, I really need to go to the tables. Aren't you due to go soon as well?"

[A'ric]

The offer of the other dragonrider’s assistance not taken, so A’ric put it to rest. He had little desire to contact the reclusive brownrider if he did not need to do so. Should the woman desire the other healer, A’ric would have Caldreth fetch him. But those interactions not withstanding A’ric too didn’t spent long on the other healer’s immediate absence. No doubt there wert many an other disaster victim that needed assistance. When Millian recruited another weyrfolk to assist her, the Wingleader shifted on a’knee so as to turn his back to her again and concentrate on the wounded woman’s leg. Her injury, longer than the man’s arm, took A’ric longer to repair.

“Yes, those are they - I should like to meet them too but I’m not in as much of a rush, Cal has a head start on us. We’ll have Threadfall soon and the gold can test her mettle against the strands.” He’d read the file that accompanied the gold rider’s transfer, and realized that she was young enough he might have sired her. Despite being weyrbred, the thought of bedding someone young enough to be his daughter made A’ric uncomfortable. The Wingleader knew that like any male dragon, his Caldreth would chase Imolith; however, he had no ambition per se to become the Weyrleader. If Caldreth won, so be it, he meant to put his all into the position as he did with his Craft. Why does the age difference matter? I - I don’t have a good answer for you, Cal... because you might chase your daughter but for us, it is fundamentally wrong. In the past, it was thought that if father and daughter have children together, they could be deformed but that is not the case. Perhaps it is a leftover from when such thoughts lingered in the minds of men.

Millian reading his mind or so t’would seem as she brought up the very thing he considered, A’ric spared a moment to twist his torso in place and look to the woman again. “I’d like to see you as a JM3. You work with the entire continent not just the Weyr. If anyone deserves to walk, it is you.” Another chuckle accompanied his words as he spoke in sheer surprise and amusement at the idea he might walk the tables again so soon. “Me? Faranath knows I’ve seen enough Turns. But I only walked to level 1 earlier this Turn, Milli - I have more studying to go yet before I’m eligible for Level 2. After Impressing Cal, I hadn’t the time to study properly until last Turn’s injury. If I kept at it, I’d’ve made Master sixteen Turns on already."

[Millian]

"Only earlier this turn? Well then if you need more study you could join Mimi in her lessons." Millain chuckled. "It would be a good excuse to test her on more difficult subjects. Faranath knows that girl is smart, sometimes it gets her into trouble." With all the times Millain left her daughter to watch over the weyr while she was gone had given Mimi the experience that most others her rank hadn't had. It helped to develop her ability to work under pressure.

With a practiced hand, the healer expertly executed each stitch in a fluid motion. The second slash was longer than the first, so would take longer to close. Once Millian hit the rhythm she was used to, it wouldn't be too long before she'd be able to move onto someone else. Hands able to work independent of her eyes and mouth. The healer looked around the room again, keeping tabs on what was going on. New injured were arriving, a man with cuts and a slip lip helped a woman with small cuts across her face to one of the cots. Two men had begun to carry out the fallen for transport to a burial site. Candidates carried in boxes of medical supplies over to the supply corner, healing helpers torn into the boxes almost as soon as they were set down. Doling out herbs and bandages to refill stations to allow those who worked on the wounded to keep their speedy pace.

Her eyes returned to the gash she was attending. There was a section that was wider than the rest, the healer had to press the edges of torn flesh together in order to correctly heal the area. Eyes focused at the moment, she tilted her head towards the helper. "Apply numbweed on what I have stitched already." The helper nodded. "Yes, ma'm." The pause in the healers conversation happened often for the both of them, as it would when one had to concentrate on details. After Millain managed to get past the wider sections, she allowed herself a sign. "Almost finished." She reassured the man as the numbweed took effected agaisnts his pains. He muttered his thanks as the ordeal was wearing off and his body wished to rest. Millain paused in her work to give the man a moment, this allowed her to continue their conversation.

"Well my friend, I may have to ask for a ride when I finally do get to that walk." Millain had heard some of the rumors about the two of them. She didn't care for them, it wasn't like she was ordering him to take her places. It started when she had received an urgent dispatch and A'ric happened to be there at the time. After that, him joining her on the route had been of double benefit, shorter time traveling and two healers to deal with cases. 

[A'ric]

A’ric found a modicum of amusement in the surprised tone of his colleague. “Mhm,” he concurred, not turning from his patient as he neared the end of his task. "Not for a lack of studying but a lack of time, and in the past inclination. Being a dragonrider took precedent. These last seven Turns proved chaotic too.” The final stitch completed then, he soothed the woman’s injury by slathering it with numbweed for a second time. She had fallen into semi-consciously. The bulk of his initial application having been wiped away as he closed the laceration. He laughed at the idea of joining Mimi. “I thought her still an apprentice, or is she so much further advanced in her studies than I at that age? She should study as much as possible while she has yet the time. If she is to Impress - well...” he shrugged and let the phrase fall away for he had mentioned the reason in his previous breath and saw no need to circle ‘round to the same topic again. Though considered he to ask how old the lass, A’ric knew her to be old enough to Impress and that was all that mattered in the end. Healing too, was important of course, but the Thread came first.

Caldreth hissed through their mental bond. The sheer thought of the Enemy sent waves of subdued rage through Caldreth and he shivered despite the early morning warmth of their weyr’s ledge. His eyes waxed into swift streaks of crimson yet this emotion remained fleeting for as of now there was nothing to fight above. Only new and old dragons landing and rising aloft. Soon, soon. For now, be at peace. A’ric reassured his dragon and Caldreth rumbled softly as he settled his emotions once more.

“Maybe giving her energies a challenge could prove beneficial? I could bring her to assist us here - what do you think?” A grunt and a groan accompanied him standing as he wiped his hands first on a rag meant for the purpose, and then on his trousers and spared a moment to smooth out his clothing too. He set his hands onto his lower back and pushed upward as he stretched and arched his spine and more grunts and groans accompanied the moments. Being in stillness for too long still left him with more soreness and tension than ere his injury. Yet his words remained in the realm of the light-hearted banter they’d been exchanging. When he turned, the smile lay evident on his features. “Of course, Caldreth and I will be happy to give you that lift. I enjoy our sojourns. Given enough time, I may be joining you to walk for the second rank.” He paused a moment and with a dry laugh added, “or all three of us may go, one for each Journeyman rank, if Mimi continues her healer studies too."

[Millian]

"There you go." Millain finished up the man's arm, she tied the last stitch as her helper readied the bandage. "Keep it clean and don't use that arm any time soon." With one last pass to ensure everything was how she wanted it, the healer dressed the wound and sent the man off to the resting area. He'd be able to sit there for a time before needing to move. If he stayed long enough and not head out to help bring others in. Washing her hands once more, Millian could turn to face her friend. "Well even so. I'd be willing to make the trek again to see you walk."

Millian mused to herself about her daughter's rank. "Hmm she should be the third level by now. Just haven't given it to her yet." The healer didn't want to remember the chaos in the last seven turns, it had been less than that when her husband was taken from her by those vile people. Millian would rather spend her memory space on how to heal and who hurt what when. "Mimi still has six turns before she ages out. Til then or if she impresses, I'll still make her study. Farneth knows the weyr needs as many healers as we can get." She pondered his offer while crushing some soapsand between her fingers. "Having more knowing hands here would help us. See if she can handle what Journeyman can do may do her some good as well." Millain nodded to A'ric, he had a good idea. "That sounds like a good idea. Maybe call in our missing healer friend as well. Or at least find out what happened to him. Would be a shame to lose his knowledge if he ended trapped somewhere."

[A'ric]

Behind him, two Weyrfolk came and lofted the woman, and they muttered words of caution and care to each other as they coordinated the lift. Following the wounded man, the two carried her away to a place of quiet that she might sleep off the rest of the fellis and recuperate in a betters stillness than the triage area. He spared a glance to ensure they held her correctly, and watched her go ere he turned his attention back to Millian. The amusement of each walking for a different Journeyman ranked lingered in his eyes and on the edges of his mouth as their conversation continued. He witnessed the brief shadow that passed through the other healer’s features and though he did not know the details of her story could with ease guess that she too had her stories about those troubled times. He wondered what tragedy had befallen her but did not break her thoughts to ask such things this was too invasive plus their relationship in his mind did not go so far as to ask these personal questions.

“Aye, we do need healers. Though we have another in our ranks as the new gold rider, Raine? Yes, Raine - she too is a healer.” A’ric nodded as he listened to the senior healer’s words. By the Weyr standards he as Wingleader and bronzerider outranked her yet what use as being bonded to a bronze dragon when they worked underground in a space too small for even the shortest of dragons? Not even Speranth could fit in these chambers. "I’ll go back to the Weyr to fetch Mimi and have Caldreth bespeak the brown Lueiza... eh... the healer’s brown.”

Luezairaith. He is friendly and knows many good jokes. Caldreth commented. As with most dragons, Caldreth did not interact with the other dragon’s rider and did not care for human politics at all insofar as they didn’t concern stealing eggs or otherwise bothering his life.

“Luezairaith,” A’ric repeated the word slowly because it was a mouthful. Caldreth, to me. We’re going to fetch Mimi if she’s available. Contact Luezairaith too. Ensure his rider’s safety. Even if the other is not here, knowing he is not dead is important. His impartial tone suggested his disinterest in the matter. Not that he wished for any human death but he knew well the mysterious brownrider had been a Syndicate member and he did not take well to the idea of interacting with the other man, no matter their commonality. In the moment after he accomplished his final stretch, he added with a soft chuckle. “What about Raine? She too is a healer, a journeyman at that. Shall I recruit her as well?"

[Unknown]

A message between dragons did not take long to send or receive, and so, soon, he appeared. Swathed into anonymity in the forest hued colors of their craft, his garments covered in dirt and blood - both dried and fresh - the Crashing Seas healer entered the cavern. He followed the trail of the couple supporting each other; stood aside when the litter bearers carried their burden from the room. The man wended his way through the cots and soon came to the other healers.

"Hello, Wingleader..." The cowled head nodded to the bronzerider as he greeted the other.

He kept walking until he reached Millian's side, and stood near the wall so he wasn't in the way. When he stopped moving, the edges of his cloak settled and revealed his tool belt, a large belt pouch with a hinge that contained his essential instruments, and a satchel. Under his arm, he had a clipboard with a single hide pinned to it.

"Luezairaith said you wanted to see me?" Said the man. His voice sounded familiar to them both, as it always did. Something about him reminded them of someone they knew. This odd trait carried a hidden secret in it. Perhaps his identity? "I have the report on the other casualties, if you want the list." His voice hinted at a question as much as the statement. 

[Millian]

It wasn't known to Millian what acts the healer of Crashing Seas Wyer took part in during the dark times. All she wanted to know was that he was using his craft for the betterment of Pern. The oath of a healer, to heal all who needed it. Be they friend or foe, so long as they upheld that all was right in their world. Ready for her next charge, Millian looked at the waiting line to see who needed medical care next. It wasn't always to the one who was waiting the longest. "While I wouldn't want to leave Great Cliffs without healers for too long I believe having as many hands here for the time being would be best. Raine might be busy with weyrwoman work with the transfer, but yes see if she will join us."

In the que for care, a young lad with a broken nose being tended to by a helper and a man cradling his hand. The fingers sticking out at odd angles, Millian dreaded what had happened, if it was too badly off then he'd lose it. "You there. Come here." She'd be able to determine what he needed quickly. As she peeled back the rag around his hand, the infamous Crashing Seas healer appeared near her. "The list, ah yes please. And we could use the help here." She spared a moment to look up from pulling the rag away to cast her gaze about the room. "The rescue crews are doing an excellent job of finding the injured." A running joke between healers when massive injuries happened and the number of those needing care seemed to never end.

[A'ric]

"I’ll meet Caldreth out in the Weyrbowl and we’ll return with Mimi shortly. I don’t know Raine so it is impossible to say how sound that decision.” A’ric said with a nod toward Millian as he commented about the gold rider’s healing abilities and the senior healer’s decision to her as the only healer at the Weyr. The Wingleader acknowledged the other dragonrider with a grunt but did not spare the cloaked man a single glance. He stood up fully and turned to face Millian. A'ric twisted his head from one side to the other, a final stretch as he rubbed it while their conversation concluded. “I’m off then.” There seemed no reason to spare more words for a discussion since they finished it prior to the unknown healer’s arrival.So did A’ric head out from the cavern.

[Unknown]

A smooth chuckle issued forth from the facial wrap. "Yes, they did. We've come to a section that requires more than brute strength. Ra'shin's directing the others to build a reinforcement frame to keep the ceiling aloft so that we can continue the search. However, I've accounted for almost every resident - " he offered the clipboard to Millian." - so far there are four dead and three as-yet unaccounted for."

The other healer waited only long enough for her to take the clipboard before he turned away. The list had names of the current Crashing Seas Weyr residents on it with a (D) next to four names and a (M) next to three. On the other side, a list of needed supplies, including the ever-dwindling supplies of bandages, numbweed salve, redwort applique, etc...

"We'll keep looking but the time threshold may be reached soon." That precious threshold for how long someone trapped under rocks with limited air could potentially survive. No exact number, of course, as each instance had a different circumstance. Yet, they'd been searching for hours now...


The brownrider beckoned one of those waiting over to him, a woman doubled-over with her hands wrapped around her chest. She sat down on the ground and he knelt in front of her. "Let me see it, Aerosa."

"It hurts," she complained though she obliged him and partially lifted her tattered shirt as she leaned to one side. Several long, blood-encrusted streaks and swollen, already purpling flesh became visible. "Why did I have to wait so long? I'm sure I'm dying."

"No, you're not dying." The healer reassured her. He withdrew a jar of redwort from his satchel, and ran his index finger inside the jar to gather some onto the tip. "I know it hurts, but we're running low on numbweed salve, and as I said at the cave-in, the bruising will subside. No broken bones. Only nasty lacerations - those are cuts." He brushed his gloved fingers across the exposed flesh and left a pungent, red trail in his wake. "You see here? These are shallow cuts. They'll heal faster than Aramen's broken fingers."

He pulled her shirt down and reached over to squeeze her shoulder. "I think your home is still fine. Go and lay down in bed. Give it a few days rest and you'll feel much better. As soon as we have more, I'll make felis juice for you to help with the pain, all right?"

Aerosa, somewhat mollified, nodded with a morose: "All right." She grunted as she began to drag herself off the floor, and with the healer's assistance, managed to stand.

The brownrider offered his support as far as the doorway. Then rather then returning to Mellian's work area, he went to the next person waiting in line. If she wanted to talk to him, he was but a loud word away.

[Millian]

Before she continued with the lad's broken hand, Millian took the clipboard from the healer and skimmed the list. Narrowing her eyes at the three listed as missing. "Well we will just have to keep going as if they are alive til proven wrong. Which I hope we wont be." Setting the clip board aside, she focused on her charge.

Rag removed down to one layer left covering his ring and little finger, Millian stopped. She could feel the bones in his hand were bad. "You may want to look away. No shame in not looking at this." The young lad swallowed hard, if a healer said something like that it must have meant it was bad. Following her orders, he averted his gaze. Millian finished uncovering the injury, cradled in a ruin cloth she examined it more closely. "Hmm." She applied a generous amount of numb weed. "Right, I can save most of it. I'm sorry, but the smallest one is beyond saving."

He gave a soft grunt, doing his best not to be too loud, when the healer shifted his hand. Crushed bones hurt and any movement caused more damaged to soft tissues. "Don't worry, you'll be asleep when we do it. You wont feel a thing. And when we are done it will look much better than what it looks like now. Besides, girls like a good story." A small smile managed to come out from hiding behind the pain he felt fading now that the numb weed was taking effect.

With very little in the way of conversation topics at the given moment, Millian was quiet save for the instructions she gave to the helpers. Tightly wrapping the finger that was to be removed as well as setting and bandaging the rest of his hand.

[Mimi]

It had been some time before A'ric returned with Mimi. Her mother would be done with her current charge by the Mimi entered the room. Laided with two of the smaller boxes, some other weyr folk behind her and (mostly) A'ric carrying the rest into the healer's hall. Mimi looked around the room to find where to place her load, finally having a moment to see what injuries there were. Her mother had trained her to be fine around gnarled wounds, but they had been wounds inflicted into hunks of meat not people that were still moving, and she had to take a breath to steady herself. This is just another test. Yes, its a test...eeeeh...

Her smile falling somewhat as she took in the scene. Making her way over to the supply stack, she set down the two crates with a bit of hesitation.

[A'ric]

The Wingleader entered the less crowded chamber a few steps behind Mimi. He set his load down not far from hers and put his hands on his back as he straightened with a groan and a grunt. He gave himself a moment to rub his back before he did anything else. Piercing gaze scanned the room till they laid eyes upon Millian, and shortly thereafter, the brown rider Healer. He spared a moment to watch the latter work and satisfied that their mysterious comrade knew what to do despite his recindience to interact with them, A’ric turned his attentions to Mimi, noting that the blood had drained from her features and her usual smile disappeared from her fair features.

He knew this to be one of her first - more than likely her first - encountered with the horrific injuries caused by a landfall. Thread scores cauterized instantly so they lacked the blood of the Weyrfolk’s injuries. “C’mon on. We should talk to your mother now. When we get there, tell her what we’ve brought. It will help focus your mind.” With a quick wink, he added, “and you’ll impress her by reciting the inventory, eh?” A’ric nudged her with his shoulder to spur her into action.

Not waiting for her to reply, and with the assumption that Mimi would follow him, A'ric crossed the room and made his way to Millian. “Hello,” he said to Millian. “How goes it all? I - we - brought you somethings that should prove helpful."