Koda was just finishing the wonderful meal she'd treated herself to 
in the dining hall, when Ribbon relayed the emergence call form 
Kirimith.

<A healer is need right away,> the purple told her, then added 
before her rider could ask. < Kirimith said they have found a rider 
who was burned bad by a wider queen.>

<<Got'cha, pick me up out front of the dining hall.>> Koda replied 
as she got up from the table and began pushing past people to get 
outside.

The purple was waiting and soon was dropping her rider off in front 
of the medical hall so Koda could gather the supplies she thought 
she would be needing.

"I thought I'd told you to go home," She heard a voice call out to 
her and turned to see a frowning C'tain coming down the hall way 
towards her.

" 'Fraid this can't wait," she told him pushing past him on her way 
to the supply room. "Ribbon just relayed and emergency call from one 
of the dragons out on search for Roland. They found an injured rider 
and needed a healer to look at him before they tried to move him."

She began pulling things down off of the shelf and putting them into 
a bag.

"I could have gotten a ride there from someone," C'tain told her. 
"They didn't need to call you."

"I'm sure you could have," she replied while slipping a roll of gauss 
into the bag. "But Ribbon's already set up to deal with this kind of 
thing. It would take to long to set up a harness on another dragon."

"It could be dangerous out there," he persisted. Especially if Roland 
is still any where around."

" 'Tain, quit worrying so much," she turned to look at him. "I'll 
have a whole fighting wing out there to protect me and Ribbon. It's 
not as if I'm foolish enough to go out there on my own."

"Knowing you the way I'm beginning too, somehow I don't think that 
would stop you."

"Probably not," she grinned while picking up the bag. "But I'm not 
foolish enough to put Ribbon in any danger."

"I still don't like the idea of you going into something like 
this," his frown deepened.

" 'Tain, I'm a healer," her eyes held his. "I'm sworn to respond 
when I'm called to heal. I have to go. I need you here to get the 
burn room set up. We each have our jobs to do and right now I'm the 
right person for this one."

"Good luck," he finally said realizing she was right. He was just 
worried that it wouldn't be to much for her. After what  Arri told 
him about how the marsh sickness affected her when she was over 
tiered, he'd tried to see to it that she didn't over stretch 
herself. Not that she appreciated his concerns.

"Thanks," she turned to go, retracing her steps until she came to 
where Ribbon was waiting for her outside. 

<<Do you have a picture of where we are to go, love?>>

<Jindalie has shown me,> ribbon confirmed.

<<Then let's go!>>

****

Araminta was waiting for them on the outside ledge of the cave when 
they landed and quickly led them inside to where the young man had 
been found.

After a quick preliminary examination, she knew she needed to get 
him back to the Warren for better care than she could give him right 
now. The burns to his body looked worse than she had first thought.

As quickly as she could , she applied a thick coating of the burn 
salve to those places she could easily reach, but knew his legs would 
have to wait until they could remove the leather pants from where the 
stout hide had been fused in with the rider's own skin.

After redressing the open burns with strips of the clean white gauss, 
she called out to a male rider and asked hi to retrieve the stretcher 
from where it was succored to the harness on Ribbon's saddle.

While she waited she walked over to where Minty and Baeta were 
supervising the removal of the three remaining wilder eggs.

"I wonder why they left these three," she said to no one in 
particular.

"Who knows?" Baeta said. Maybe they left them here just to make us 
wonder."  

"Koda grinned at the girls humor. "Have they found a brood mother 
for them yet?"

"I'm sure they'll come up with something," Minty replied just as 
the male rider came back with the stretcher.

Carefully she had the man help her load the patient onto it and 
then help her carry him out to where Ribbon stood ready.

Koda could hear Z'lec calling out to the helpful rider to escort 
the healer back to the Warren and keep an eye on the injured rider's 
dragon when  rose to follow where ever his rider was being taken.

"No use taking chances with our healer just in case those rouges are 
still here hiding out of sight somewhere." the Wingleader shouted.

Koda had Ribbon relay a picture of the green in front of the medical 
center to the injured man's dragon just before giving her beast the 
order to teleport. Seconds later they were descending to land.

The medical center was ready to receive them the minute the dragon's 
feet hit the ground. C'tain was standing there with two big orderlies, 
who took charge of the stretcher and carried in inside to the burn 
ward.

***

It took several hours of soaking the man in a deep tub filled with a
specially prepared liquid, before they were able to remove and 
separate the man from the scorched and stiffening leather pants. 

After carefully cleaning each and every burn spot on his body, they
slathered a poultice stuffed full of antibiotics to reduce the risk 
of infection before they had him moved onto a special burn pad. Then 
they left him there in a drug induced state of sleep. They would know 
if their efforts had done him any good by morning. 

"I'll keep watch over him tonight, and hand him back over to you in 
the morning!!" C'tain told Koda as they walked out of the room and 
back into the hall way. "We've done all we can for him right now."

Out side the room they found a man dressed in the uniform of the 
member's of the Guide of Swords. "Warrenlady Waylene sent orders 
that the man inside this room is to be guarded at all times while 
he is here." Tristan Blademaster told them when they questioned his presence.

"Very well," C'tain said thinking it a good idea. "I'm going to 
amend that order slightly so that you are to accompany Healer's 
Lakoda, Sina, and the Queenrider Arri into the room whenever they 
attend to him."

"Very well Healer C'tain."

C'tain took Koda by the arm then and marched her down the hall way 
towards the entrance. When she tried to turn towards her office, he 
steered her back towards the door leading outside.
  
"He'll be fine tonight, go home," he told her. "If there's any 
changes in his condition I'll be sure to have someone come get 
you."

"I need to write up my report before I go," she insisted.

"In the morning," he replied all but pushing her out the door. 
"And don't forget to eat something when you get home."

Koda stood there fuming. 'How dare he keep treating me like an 
invalid!!' she swore to herself then turned and stomped across 
the ground towards her dragon. "I'm a healer and a damned good one 
too. Why won't they both see I can take care of myself?!? She swore 
adding Arri to the list. She was getting real tired of having them 
both looking over her shoulder all the time just waiting for her to 
faint dead away form exhaustion. It was starting to get ridiculous.

"I'm not the one he should be worrying about," she mumbled to 
herself as she mounted Ribbon and the two flew off towards their 
apartment. "Try taking a good look at your own father once in 
awhile. He's the one who has something wrong with him. Worry about 
him and leave me alone."

---------------------------------------------------------
(nrpg: Well Ranon is safely in the med center. I'll let someone 
else decide when he wakes up.....

Any luck finding a brood mother for the unhatched eggs?

******Submitted by: ********

Barbara (a.k.a.

Lakoda & Ribbon
Marrid Warren Healer