>Tair'n noted what the healer didn't say and nodded.  He didn't need to ask
>how serious internal bleeding would be.  What could they do if it
>happened?  You couldn't bandage such a wound.  And even Tair'n could see
>that surgery was out of the question.  His four companions either didn't
>notice Herin's lack of assurances on the survivability of internal
>bleeding for Cal'an, or chose to ignore it.
>
>Noni walked out just then.  "He'd like to see you," she said to him.
>
>He nodded and stood, walking into the room with dread.

"Poor fellows, both," Noni sighed sadly as she left the corridor for her
office.

She sat in her chair, heaved a tremendous sigh, and closed her eyes. She was
almost screaming out loud less than an hour ago. (People come into my care,
and every so often, die in my care,) she thought morosely. (People be damned,
Cal`an must live!)

She pulled a journal from her desk drawer and began flipping through its
pages. The small tome had not accumulated any entries of late; the healer
simply had no time to pen her thoughts and ideas. As she paged through the
leaves, she saw herself growing... Handwriting changed, drawings became more
skilled, and vocabulary developed. Some of the scribblings dated back to her
healer's training.

Noni felt that her training was a lifetime behind her.

She sighed and flipped through until she found a blank sheet on which she
could put ink. She reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a small jar of
pigment and a pen, and set about putting her thoughts onto the sheets before
her.

She wrote a few lines consisting of thoughts on the condition of the young
lad in her care, and a few more notes on recent events in Daere Warren.
Eventually she gave up words and started drawing dragons. Big dragons.

Just as she was detailing the extended pinions of the beast, Noni's
concentration was shattered by a tremendous draconic scream. She truly had no
idea from whence it came, but she knew quite well that it was most certainly
one of the loudest and most disturbing sounds to erupt within the Warren's
walls. Ammie readily agreed. 

<Ooh, what is that racket?> the lavender dragon asked as she brought her
forepaws over her ears in an attempt to buffer the noise. <Make it stop!>

*I wish I could tell you,* Noni replied, erupting from her chair. She raced
down the corridor and out the Med Center doors, finishing her flight with a
quick hop onto her dragon's back. *Let's go see what it is. Maybe we can get
it to stop.*

<I hope so, for the sake of the Warren!>

*I hope so, for the sake of my ears!*

The two searchers quickly explored every nook and cranny of the Warren,
finally finding the winged banshee and the cause for her extremely loud
distress. Noni practically fell off Ammie's back. As her feet made contact
with the ground, Noni began to throw her hands over her ears in dramatic
fashion, hoping that the small opal dragon before her would take the hint and
stop wailing. 

She didn't.

Ammie had a fair notion that such loud noise wasn't exactly healthy for her
or her rider, so she turned to the smaller dragon, rose up on her back legs,
spread her wings, and directed a fierce bellow at the smaller beast. Her eyes
began to flash with a red overcast. <Be quiet, fool dragon! My rider is here
to help yours, but she can't do anything while you're howling like a mutt! Be
silent, or we leave!> She brought her head within feet of the smaller
dragon's head and snapped her jaws open and shut once. 

The smaller dragon hissed at Ammie, sat back on her haunches, and was silent.
Ammie never took her eyes from the beast for a second.

As soon as the commotion subsided, Noni raced to the side of the fallen
rider. The woman lay on the ground, writhing and sounding as though she were
in great pain. Noni took a few moments to recognize the lass --Dyanisa, rider
of Sienra-- and then called out the woman's name. Dyanisa would not respond
through her agony.

Noni put her hands under Dyanisa's arms and dragged her to the waiting Ammie.
Ammie took the patient up in her forepaws. Sienra hissed and tried to snap at
Ammie, but Ammie pulled her precious cargo away rather abruptly to save her
forelimbs. Dyanisa groaned aloud with the sudden movement. 

Ammie carefully padded her way to a launching ledge and pushed off, hoping
she wouldn't further endanger the poor soul in her care. She let out a
dragon-sized gust of relief when she finally landed in the Medical Center
courtyard and released the trembling, groaning body to a few human orderlies.
<You humans are better equipped for this, you know,> she noted to her rider,
who was sliding down the dragon's shoulder.

*You'd have to try being human for a day before you say that.*

<Why? I make a terrible ambulance!>

*You did a proper enough job, my dear.*

Ammie preened. She turned to the smaller dragon, now pacing nervously and
peering into the medical center windows. She gave a draconic shrug, curled
up, and closed her eyes in rest. So long as Sienra wasn't screaming, she
didn't mind.

Herin met Noni at the door to the Center. He looked into the building, and
then back at Noni. "It's all right. I'll handle this one. You rest. You look
as though you could use some quiet!" Noni could not have agreed with him
more.

She made her way into her office, sat at her desk, and simply put her head
down. Within minutes, Noni was snoring softly in a late morning nap.

========================
[A few hours later]

"Noni... Ma'am... Wake up... It's Cal`an."

"Wha...?" Noni looked up from her desk, blinking her eyes. Realization dawned
and she jumped to her feet. She followed the nurse out the door and into the
boy's room.

>He
>had little doubt, however, when the woman returned with Noni.  The healer
>ignored him, going straight to the bed and examining Cal'an, frowning.
>
>"Increase the dosage of clotting agent," she instructed the nurse.  "We've
>got to get this stopped."
>
>The nurse nodded and left.  Noni finally looked up at him.
>
>"Tell me he's going to be all right, Noni.  Please..."
>
>Her eyes were gentle, but saddened.  "We won't know for a little while
>yet.  All we can do is increase the amount of clotting agent he gets, make
>him comfortable, and wait."
>
>He found a chair as his knees went weak.  "If... if you can't get it
>stopped... how long...?"
>
>"Maybe a day."
>
>"A day.  Oh, gods."
>
>"We're also going to keep him asleep.  The less movement, the better right
>now.  You ought to just go home."
>
>"I told him I'd be here when he woke up.  I promised," he said.
>
>"I'll have Amadith call you if we take him off sedation," she assured him.
>"Go home and rest."
>
>He sat stubbornly for a moment, then sighed and rose.  "Be sure you call
>me... for anything."
>
>She nodded.  "I will."

She watched forlornly as the man staggered out the door, grief-stricken.
Gods, she hoped this boy made it past that one day.

The nurse returned with the sedatives and clotting agent. Without delay, Noni
began administration. Once she was done, without delay, she crossed her
fingers and prayed to every diety whose name she could recall.

For the next two hours, Noni dared not leave the boy's bedside. Every so
often she would examine the boy, hoping beyond hope that he hadn't worsened
in the elapsed time. Relieved, she found that his bleeding had begun to taper
off.

Still, Noni would not leave.

For the longest time she sat there, looking into the boy's face, and
wondering why. Why had they decided to beat him? Why were they so superior?
Why couldn't they just leave this tortured lad alone?

Why?

For all of the knowledge she had gained in her lifetime, Noni could not find
an answer to that most pertinent question.

========================
[Two hours later]

"Noni? Are you in?"

Noni stood and walked stiffly to Cal`an's door. There stood the Beta
Wingleader, Ja`ks. He looked at her, then he looked at her surroundings, and
then he poked his head into the room to look at her patient. 

"How is he?"

"He'll live. I hope." She sighed and gestured for the dragonrider to precede
her out the door. She led him into her office. 

He promptly slumped into the first chair he saw.

Noni looked at him with eyebrows raised in surprise. "Something wrong,
Ja`ks?" she asked as she rummaged through her equipment cabinet for a bandage
and some salve. 

"In a word, yes," the dragonrider replied through his tunic as he pulled it
over his head. "I'm very annoyed over this whole mess with that damned
coal--"

"What mess?"

"You hadn't heard?"

Noni blinked. "No." 

Ja`ks took a deep breath. "Well, that fool Kellimor has been giving us cheap
coals for the longest time. This is the worst supply we've ever had!"

Noni nodded understanding. "Ohh! I see... Your wraithfighting coals from him
were substandard. Yes, I could see a source of annoyance in that."

"I'll say! What's worse, I just spent a while talking to the fool... And you
know, I didn't get anywhere. And that's annoying me all the more." 

"Why?"

"What do you mean, 'why?'" 

"Why? Why would it annoy you if you didn't get anything into his thick skull?
Certainly sounds thick by the description you're giving me."

"I tried my best to talk to the man. I usually get people to listen to me
somewhere along the line. This time, though, I didn't do it!"

"No, Ja`ks," Noni said. "You did what you were supposed to do, as you were
supposed to do it. It's no reflection on you if the damnable aristocrat had
his head stuck so far up his starched collar that he couldn't listen."

"Yeah," he said after a long moment had passed. "I guess you're right on that
point."

Noni shrugged. "Dealing with senior healers in this place can be the same
way."

Ja`ks chuckled ruefully. "You're experienced with that, are you? Bet you're
not as experienced with dragon amours, are you, innocent dear?" The broad
grin on his face took all the sting out of the comment. 

Noni whapped him on the good shoulder. "Oh, you... Get out of here, before
I..." 

The man stood, spreading his arms wide. "Before you *what*?"

"Before... Before I grab a scalpel and rip that shoulder of yours in twain!"

With a ringing laugh, Ja`ks was out the door.

Noni sighed, shook her head, slumped into her desk chair, picked up her
journal, and started flipping.
===============================================

Clear Skies and Seas,
Paula Sandusky

Noni/Ammie of Daere
Domaia/Lyric of Norwall
Karine/Andromeda of Geode