Bite the Hand

Writers: Avery
Date Posted: 13th November 2020

Characters: Kadira, T'leri, Cerys
Description: Apprentice Kadira gets a bit tetchy with weyrling T'leri.
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 2, day 13 of Turn 10
Notes: LOA means fuzzytime

As a Senior Apprentice Healer, Kadira wasn't allowed to treat incredibly
complicated patients on her own. But unlike Juniors, who just got to
observe and do classes, she was allowed more time with patients and the
chance to do direct diagnoses - checked past the Journeyman overseeing
them, of course, but _still_. Every month she was doing better, and she
felt sure she'd qualify for her own Journeyman status if she just kept
working hard.

Today's patient was a young brownrider who was sitting on the end of the
cot, holding his hand with a grimace. She stepped in and cleared her
throat. "Healer Kadira, at your service. What seems to be the problem
today, brownrider…"

"T'leri, of Girath," he replied.

"Good day to you and Girath, I hope he's well," she said politely.

He looked over the Healer, wondering if he'd seen her around. Brown
eyes, brown hair, a plain face, build a bit on the curvy side… pretty
average looking, except for that rear, he thought.

"He's fine, but I'm not. My thumb's killing me."

"What happened?" she asked.

"Drills today was high-speed firestone passing, and I must have caught
something wrong. I felt this awful stabbing pain in it then. I came here
right after drills ended."

She raised an eyebrow. "You kept going with drills? Instead of telling
Girath tot ell your wingleader you needed to stop?"

"Well, yeah. It just felt like a single bad catch and there was only a
little time left," he said. "Maybe a quarter candlemark?"

"And you kept doing the same motions with it?"

"Not quite. When I realized it was hurting, I tried to change things."

"Show me your hand so I can feel it. Both of them," she said.

When he complied, she took them in hers, palpating along the thumb, back
of the hand, down the side towards the elbow, and then up the underside
to feel around the wrist and palm. First, on the hand he said was fine.
Second, on the affected one. She felt the warmth just under the thumb on
the side, near the radial protuberence, and observed the winces in his
expression as she touched below there.

"Was that supposed to be a hand massage? Because that felt really nice,"
he said.

"Strictly diagnostic," she answered.

"That's a shame. Because I think that helped even my good hand relax."
He batted his lashes. "Any chance I could _arrange_ for a private hand
massage?"

Kadira was plain-looking and she knew she was and she knew boys never
looked her way. She was here to do her job as his Healer, and for him to
fake flirt with her, when she was trying to check off another shift and
another step towards being a Journeywoman, rankled her.

"Do you want your diagnosis, or do you just want to flirt with me?" she
snapped.

"I wasn't flirting," he said, chastened. Well, okay, he had been. A
little. With the lash batting. But he had meant that he appreciated it.
"I use my hands a lot, between being a dragonrider and a Harper, and
whatever you were doing when you were pressing on the inside of my wrist
and palm felt good. I was serious about that."

Kadira felt embarrassed for snapping at him, when his apology sounded
genuine. "All right, brownrider."

"So what is wrong?" he prompted, after the silence fell awkwardly.

"It looked like this hurt when I press on it?" She touched the affected
area very lightly with her index finger.

"Yes."

"Do these motions hurt?" She demonstrated making a gist and turning her
wrist, as well as grasping like she was holding an invisible sack.

He mimicked her with the affected hand. "Yes, this hurts, and this, and
- " The corners of his eyes tightened and he hissed out a breath as he
showed her.

She held up a hand. "It's what I thought. There's tendons that make your
hand move. You probably already knew that from harper training, right?
If not you learned about your dragon's, I'm sure."

He nodded. "Harpers have hand exercises."

She cast a shrewd glance at him. "If you're playing a lot less and
riding more, are you out of the habit of doing them?"

"I strained one with the catch, just like if I hadn't warmed up before
an instrument," he said, getting where she was going with this.

Kadira nodded. "I can prescribe a salve to rub into it to reduce the
pain and inflammation, but you'll need rest of the thumb and wrist and
to not do those motions again for a sevenday, or else you're running the
risk of making it worse and being out for even longer. I'll write a note
for your wingleader."

"Weyrlingmaster, we're not graduated yet," he corrected. Then his face
when white. "Shards, what if I miss graduation or something? We're in
the last month!"

"There are other drills you can do without use of your hand. Rope
drills, flame drills, /betweening/ practice, repeated recitations of
classroom work you were fuzzy on. Talk to him about it. Send him down to
the Infirmary if he needs more proof."

"Are you a Candidate?" he asked, trying again to place her.

"My father was a Weyrlingmaster for a bit, I know what the drills are,"
she answered. "Sit here for a moment while I bring in the journeyman."

She headed out to talk to the Journeyman on duty to go over the tests
she'd run and her diagnosis. Journeywoman Cerys came in to feel the hand
and nod along. "Apprentice Kadira is correct. It's a straining of the
thumb tendon and her proposed salve is correct. She'll be the one to mix
it up and bring it in. Go on, girl," she said.

Kadira left, obediently.

Cerys continued, "If you find yourself inadvertently using the hand in
ways that make it worse, come back in and we'll temporarily splint the
thumb and wrist to force immobility. Do you have any questions,
brownrider?"

"No, ma'am. Thank your apprentice she did really well," T'leri said.

Cerys' stern gaze softened slightly. "I will keep that in mind."

Kadira came in a few minutes later with the salve. "Three times a day,
on the thumb and side and middle wrist. Here," she said, showing him.
"There's a note too, for the weyrlingmasters, signed by the Journeyman."

"Thanks. A lot." He took the items in his good hand. "Have a good day,
Kadira."

"You too, brownrider."

When he left, she shook her head as she started cleaning up the little
room. **Stupid, charming brownriders.**

She was so plain looking that everyone overlooked her. And the one time
she'd thought someone meant it, it had turned out to be a _dare_ of all
things. So Kadira didn't like it happening when she was on duty. And
she'd snapped at him for it. And he'd _said_ he didn't mean it like that
and he just appreciated the hand touch and, she knew some Healers did
physiotheraputical massages and that the hands were a good target
especially for people from particular jobs, so maybe he had wanted the
hand massage and it hadn't just been trying to drag her back to his
weyr, but…

Ugh. It was all too confusing to think about. She'd just have to put him
out her mind and get back to work.

Last updated on the November 22nd 2020

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Bite the Hand