Med Center
***

	Kai Ho looked more like a lunatic hermit than a dragon healer, 
but one would suppose that people came in all shapes and sizes.  Kai 
slowly sipped the hot tea as Arri explained her cuurent findings, or not 
findings.  The lack of any evidence that this was bacterial or viral or 
that it was contagious.  She was at a dead end, with hopefully some 
possible leads with the blood samples.

	Arri had some doubts about this man.  His appearance formed the 
impression of someone uneducated, but she had no leads and hopefully he 
could help them.  She had some doubts thought.  Her thoughts on what this 
dragonhealer from the wastes would look like before he came had somewhat 
shocked her and confused her.  She hoped he could help though, for the 
dragons sake.

	Kai took a long sip of the tea before putting it down.

	"Well lets go see the dragons."

	"Alright, follow me."  Arri got up out of her chair and lead the 
way out of her office to where the sick dragons were being kept.  Kai 
followed right behind her.

	They entered the large room to encounter varied levels of curosity.

	"Well this is where..."  Arri turned to see Kai grabbing his head 
and bracing himself against the wall as he slid to the ground.  She 
rushed over to help him up as the weak dragon healer laid on the ground 
crying in pain.

		"Whats wrong, are you alright."

	He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, before slowly getting 
back up to his feet.

	"Are you alright."

	"I am fine now.  I thought myself prepared, but the pain was 
too numerous for me to block out."

	"What do you mean."

	"I am sorry my dear, I should have told you earlier I am empathic with 
dragons.  I can feel their emotions and pain.  This supposed gift is 
what helps me diagnose dragons easier, but as you can see it is not always 
without its drawbacks."

	"Are they really in so much pain."

	"No but I think your blood samples now will explain much more."

	"Alright, sure they're over in the lab."

	They walked over to the lab in silence.  Arri was more confused 
about this man than ever before.  Arri wandered over to the microscope 
and sat down.  She looked over the samples of healthy blood and was 
rather confused.  It didn't seem any different than the others.  No 
bacterial infection, no viral contanaments.

	"Would you like to take a see."

	"Yes, thank you."

	Arri got up from out of the seat to let the elderly man sit down.
	He squinted a bit as he looked into the microscope at the healthy 
blood samples.  It was as she had said, normal.

	"May I take a look at the sick samples."

	"Certainly."

	Arri changed the slides with one from the sick dragons.  Kai 
squinted his eyes again as he looked down, refocusing the microscope.

	"Ahuh, yes, I see now."

	"What is it."

	"Nothing but something.  I can see why you did not see it earlier."

	"What?"

	"I'm not certain, it is still to early to tell, but you say the 
first dragon has gotten sick three days ago."

	"Yes, but would you mind telling me what you found."

	"Think child, you said it couldn't be viral, bacterial, mold, 
spores, and that it didn't appear to be contagious, due to the fact that 
some dragons caught it and some didn't.  Take a step back and look.  
You've done an excellent job of eliminating the possible, now what could 
be the impossible."

	"Some kind of mutating viral strands, I don't know."

	"No, no, no.  Lets review.  What are the symptoms."

	"Severe weakness.  Fever.  Pain throughout the body in muscles 
and joints."

	"What else."

	"Fainting, lack of apitite, thats about it I suppose.  I don't 
get what you're trying to point out Mr. Ho."

	"Child you are young and a very gifted healer, and one day you 
will become a great healer.  But not until you can relate and feel the 
pain of your patients and until you can go beyond your knowledge and step 
back and look at all the possiblities.  You are on the right track, now 
step forward beyond that line and see what you have in front of you."

	Kai stood up from the chair and waved his hands in front of the 
same blood sample that Arri had been staring at for almost three days.  
She looked down at the sample, her hand bracing her self against the 
table with one hand and focusing the microscope with the other.

	She saw nothing different.  Still no virii, no fungi, no nothing 
out of the ordinary.  Perhaps this Kai ho was more of a lunatic than a 
real healer.  But suddenly it dawned on her.  The blood samples literally 
screamed it out to her now that she understood.  

	She quickly turned to face him, eye to eye.  Kai ho stood there 
with a smile on his face as he knew she finally understood.  She had had 
the answer all along but was too close to see it.

	"Parasites"

	"Correct."  Kai Ho smiled at her.  "You are truly on the road to 
becoming a great healer child."

	"But what now?"

	"We wait and watch.  We must know what type has decided to find a 
habitat within your dragons.  But from the pain I felt earlier, it 
appears to be a deadly one."

	Arri nodded in agreement.  Perhaps this old man was not so much a 
lunatic afterall.

NRPG
I couldn't think of too many things after you eliminated so many except a 
parasitic infection.  If you have something else in mind though we could 
try to rework it somehow.


--------------------------------
"Any system which fears new ideas is destined to self-destruct."
"New ideas are essential to growth."
"And growth is essential to the survival of any system or being."
"Not the sort of growth that one pursues with conquest after conquest," 
"But instead the growth of the spirit."
				-Surak of Vulcan-

Norman Lee	n-lee5@uiuc.edu
Homepage- http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~n-lee5/index.html

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