*A Healer's Duty*

Sarrine
********

She heard the screaming, but it took her a moment to figure out where it was
coming from. Then it stopped. Sarrine didn't need to be told who it had
been. All she had to do was follow the rush of nurses down the hall to the
room where Sandor had been staying to figure it out.

She hurried after them and arrived just as an orderly was helping the man up
off of the floor and leading him back to the bed he had been living in for
the last few weeks.

"My eyes... my eyes..." he kept repeating over and over as Sarrine turned to
a nurse in the door way. 

"You there," she said to a wide eyed woman. "Quick standing there staring at
the man and go get me a syringe and a vile of Asperace.

The nurse went quickly to do the healers bidding.

Sarrine moved into the room and shut the door behind her as she advance
towards the bed. Reaching it she motioned the orderly back and then sat on
the bed beside the blind dragonrider.  

"Sandor.. it's Sarrine..." she said in the gentlest voice she could manage.
"It's okay... You're going to be all right."

How the hell can it be all right!" he snapped. "I can't see! I'm blind!!"

"I know... but it's not the end of the world... even thought it might seem
like it to you right now... We haven't given up hope that you eye sight will
return... but the damage caused by the stuff you were drinking...."

"Could you blame me for wanting a drink now and then! But I'd gotten drunk
before and never had this kind of problem. How could whiskey have caused
this!" he asked, clinging to the hands she had reached out to him. 

"It wasn't regular you were drinking... but something else... and we need to
know where you got it. Can you tell me that?"

"Wasn't regular whiskey.... then what?" he avoided answering the question
about his supplier. 

"Someone was trying to poison you... and nearly succeeded," she didn't even
try to hide it from him. "We need to know who and why, then maybe we can
find out what else they put in the drink. We found something we couldn't
identify and we need to know just what that was. You're life could depend on
it... Please... if you know then tell me and we can start working on some
kind of antidote that might help. the longer we wait the worse the
digression of your optic nerves will grow, and you may end up permanently
blind."

[[nrpg: Okay so it's a twist... one way maybe for him to have an out in case
his eyes sight ever does want to come back...and a way for us to get him to
tell us who gave him the wood grain cocktail and we can find out why?]]

Abby
*****

They'd been going at it for a few hours now, and Abby and the other healers
where nearly exhausted. Even with just the minor scrapes and burns they had
to deal with.

Word had it that the worse of those injured had stayed behind in Geode and
her heart went out to the healers there who would be tending them. A thought
of offering to go there and help if she could had entered her mind, but she
knew right now she was needed in Telnor more.

As she left one room to check on another rider she saw Eleanora who'd been
so helpful where ever she'd been needed. The girl now looked almost as tired
as Abby herself was feeling.

*Hanging in there?*  Abby smiled gently as she signed.  *We're past the
worst of it. Since we're going to need some new beds, I'm going to send
Danielle ... home.  Could you change the bed?*

Eleanora nodded and headed for the linen cabinet. She was back by Abby's
side within minutes and the healer was just about to thank her for her help
when two things happened at once. Things that left Abby feeling torn between
duty and family loyalties. 

<They bring his body home,> the thoughts from a dragon's  voice filled her
mind and she was never quite sure which one.

At the same time two women entered the hall and Abby being the only healer
free at the moment went to tend the one with bloody scratches on her hands
and arms.

Duty had won out.

Abby was still tending to Kashya when Eleanora came into the room. Abby had
asked the girl to come in and keep watch over the other woman for the few
minutes it would take for her to look at the woman's companion, and Abby
hadn't wanted to leave her alone. She knew Kashya would be scared by that. 

>>"This is Kashya," Abby told her motioning to the woman watching them.
Eleanora smiled at the burn scarred woman whose dark hair was riddled with
gray strands. "She signs fluently and I think she would like some company
while I tend to her companion."

*Okay, I can do that,* Eleanora signed and turned to smile at Kashya, *My
name is Eleanora.*

*Do you sing?* Abby read the woman's words as her hands moved. Somehow she
wasn't surprised that Kashya responded to Eleanora 

Abby stayed by the door just long enough to make sure things were going okay
then she went to tend Timari who was anxiously waiting in the next room.

"She's fine," Abby assured her. "I didn't leave her alone, but with someone
who knows how to sign."

She went on to tell her about Eleanora while she cleaned and bandaged the
scratches on the other woman's arm. 

"They were happily *signing* when I left them. But now that I'm finished
with you we can go back and you can see she's okay for yourself," she
grinned knowing how deeply Timari worried about Kashya.

Abby opened the door and allowed Timari to go in before her. "See... she's
fine. But maybe you'd better take her on home where's she'd more comfortable."

Timari thanked her and moved inside the room and over to where her charge
could see her.

*We can go home now, Kashya.*

*She sings good.* Kashya signed when she saw her friend and pointed back at
he girl with her.

Eleanora flushed a little at the compliment.  *Thank you.  Maybe we can sing
together another time.*

Kashya nodded and bundled her doll close and then followed her companion.

*You look tired.*  Abby signed, looking at Eleanora after the others had
left the room.  *Why don't you head home too?*

Eleanora nodded.  Home sounded good.

...........

Abby walked with the younger girl back down the hall and gave her a hug and
a thanks before she left the hall, then turned to see her mother standing there.

"You heard?" Sarrine asked.

Abby nodded her head. "I was going out there to see.. him when someone came in."

Sarrine reached for her hand. "It's not easy on any of us right now with
everything else happening. But I need to ask you to stay here for a little
while longer if you would."

"But I wanted to go see..." Abby started by stopped when she saw the tears
in her mothers eyes. "I'll stay."

"Abby I know you want to go see him. and I wouldn't ask you to wait, but I
can't leave this place with so little help right now and someone has to go
check on Tera and Treb to see how they're taking Ga'brin's death. You're
father is seeing to ... his body being moved... And Ben'sar is taking care
of the..."

Abby could hear as well as see how much this was tearing her mother apart.
She herself had wanted to see to her brother when the wing had returned with
his body, but she knew her mother's need was greater.

"Go.. Tell Tera... I'm sorry... and I'll come see her later."

"I'm sure she will appreciate that."

................

Abby stayed in the med center far longer then she had intended too, but some
of the injured riders had needed the extra care and several of them had just
wanted to talk to someone. 

She stayed and listened to them when she could and offered comfort when she
was able.

It was around dinner time when her mate showed up looking for her, and she
had never been so happy to see him and the basket he was carrying in his hands.

"I hope there's food in there, and it's for me?" she asked, even as the
aroma of freshly baked bread reached her nose.

*I thought you might be hungry by now,* he signed after placing the basket
down on her desk, then reached for her. *How are you holding up?*

Abby snuggled into his arms and allowed herself a few minutes of self
indulgence. 

"I can't believe he's gone. I mean Ga'brin has always been the strong one of
us kids and he's always been there when we've needed him..." she told Marcus
as her tears fell unchecked now. "I don't know what we're going to do
without him... I mean Ben'sar... he looked up to Ga'brin, and Tera and
Trebin... I know they won't be alone. Not with my mother and father around
and Tera has Trap and her father here... Bastine is so good with Treb... but.."

*I know love...I know...* Marcus just held her and let her speak, then cry.
Then speak some more until the worst of her immediate grief had worked it's
way through her system. But he knew it would always be there with her, and
they still had the funeral to deal with.

A little while later Marcus's dragon Vartex spoke to her with and urgent
message.

<You are needed NOW... it's the Queen. Her time is near and there are
problems. You are asked to come right away!!> he told her and Abby could
tell by the near panic in his usual calm tone that something really bad was
happening.

Near... It was no where near Beryth's time!

"Did you hear?" she turned to look at her mate even as she was getting her
bag ready. As she waited for Marcus to answer she was carrying on a
conversation with Vartex and the young Queen Calishandra, who was trying her
best to explain what was going on. 

"I need a ride to the hatching caves," she told Marcus when she had
retrieved everything she thought she would need. Even as she spoke she was
starting to feel a small discomfort in her middle.

A empathic flash she sometimes got from an injured dragon she was or had
treated before. It was sort of a feed back from the dragons own feelings and
Abby knew she had better make good time getting there if this *flash* was
and indication of what Beryth was going through.

He grabbed her arm and led her thought the hallways and out onto the green
where his dragon was waiting for them. mounted behind her and gave the order
to go. Landing just behind the others. 

>The healer ducked as sand sprayed them and Ophelia curled up in pain.  When
the pain stopped, the Warrenlady slid off Calishandra and made her way to
where Abby was trying to administer a shot to the huge writhing queen.  The
healer finally got clear of the spasming claws and quickly climbed up on the
queen's heaving flank, where the took advantage of her slightly-
more-stable vantage point to administer the drug. 

Before the drug took effect, Beryth was writhing so badly the healer was
thrown off and nearly crushed as the dragon rolled. 

Abby moved quickly. Rolling out of the way as the Queen thrashing around
sent her body over the place the healer had landed. But she sadly noticed
the glass syringe hadn't been as lucky. In the back of her mind she mourned
it's loss. The syringe, one of four, had been a gift from a glass blower
after she had saved his son's life, and now she had but two of them left.

The empathic *flash* she'd been feeling seemed to be fading as the drug
began to take effect. Abby picked herself up off the floor and cautiously
moved closer to the Queen. 

"What's wrong with her?" she heard Ophelia's voice behind her as the Queens
rider joined her.

"I'm trying to find that out," Abby answered.

Abby moved even closer, stopped to pick up her bag which had landed in the
opposite direction she had when she'd been throw, and removed a few things
she thought she'd be needing then stepped up to the Queen and began her exam.

She worked quickly, separating her emotions with a professional detachment.
For sometimes the dragon's pain nearly overwhelmed her. So in defense she'd
learned how to block out, or partially block out the bond that sprang up
between her and the injured dragon she was tending at that time.

It wasn't always an easy thing to do.

As her exam progressed, she was liking less and less what she was finding.
Then setting aside the listening device she had been using, she took a deep
breath and opened her mind to it's fullest as she stepped forward and laid
her hands palms flat against the dragons hide. Letting her mind feel along
the pains path.

This led her to the birth cannel where she plunged her arm inside feeling
her way carefully. But even so nearly sliced her hand on the sharp edge of
an egg shard.

She really didn't like what she was beginning to feel, but it all seemed to
fit. The Queen's pain caused by the blockage of the birth cannel. Then the
almost rock like density of the egg shards she was beginning to remove.

An egg shell that shouldn't have been this hard even at it's hatching.

Yes it all fit and as her figured pressed back along the path, she could
feel the hardness of the next egg and regretted the news she was going to
have to give Ophelia.

This was going to be one of those times that she hated being a healer, for
to save two lives.. Dragon's and Rider's, she was going to have to ask the
rider to make a very difficult decision. One that would change her life forever.

"What is it?"

Abby turned to her, the concern obvious on her face.  "For some reason, the
eggs have hardened within her.  She's got one halfway down the canal that's
broken and is tearing her up inside."

"Hardened within her?" Ophelia asked, her hand stroking the soft opal hide
of her dragon.

Abby nodded.  "It's a rare condition.  The last reported case of T'nral's
Condition was... seventy-odd years ago.  We don't know what causes it, but
the eggs can't be laid." 

She went on to explain the rest of it and had to turn her head aside briefly
to keep from seeing the woman's shock.

"I understand," Ophelia said.  "And Beryth?"

"Unless we have really major complications, she should live... but..."

"But?"

This was the part Abby hated the most, but she knew she had to give Ophelia
the option. 

"T'nral's is chronic. All her layings would be like this in the future. It's
my suggestion that she be sterilized to avoid that pain. I'm sorry, Ophelia."

"Ophelia?" Said her name a second time when the woman didn't respond. 

"When would you need to do this?"

"Well, it would be easiest to do while we were in there removing the eggs
anyway..."

Ophelia nodded. "I can't let her suffer through this again.  And I can't
make the warren live through hatchings like you've described." She paused
and took a breath. "I'll... I'll approve the sterilization."  

"Oh, Kitty..." she said, and could say no more.

Abby wanted to give the woman time to adjust to the news but knew the sooner
she got started the better it would be all around. Why put it off only to
cause more pain later on.

"Okay I need to be taken back to the med center to get the things I'm going
to need," she looked at her mate who nodded his head.

*Whenever you are ready,* he signed.

Abby gave him a long loving look then turned back in time to see the fearful
expression on the Warrenlady's face as the other woman was looking at the
still body of her Queen.

She reached out and touch her arm "I know this is hard for you and it comes
at a bad time... but it would be crueler to wait and do it later or try to
let her go through it again and have her end up in pain again."

"I know..."

But Abby wasn't sure she really did. It might be days.. or even weeks until
Ophelia realized the full scope of the changes this operation on her Queen
would meant to her life. She wondered how long it would take her to *really*
realize that with Beryth unable to fly to mate any longer.. the leadership
of the Warren would have to be passed to the new Queen who could.

Abby looked back at Marcus and could see he was thinking the same thing. She
lifted her hand out to him and he walked her back to where Vartex was waiting.

<<Vartex... I'm going to be needing some help from other riders to remove
the eggs if they are to live and hatch. It must be done quickly. Will you
send out the word?>>

<I will, and we dragons understand and thank you for helping Beryth.>

They returned quickly and found quite a few riders there waiting to pitch in
and help out. Vartex had been true to his word and gotten her the help she
would be needing. Then she summoned them all in a circle around her and
explained in detail what she would be doing and mentioned that if anyone
felt they wouldn't be able to handle the details that they should leave
now... without anyone thinking them the worse for it.

She was pleased to see no one left, but several faces had turned pale with
her graphic descriptions. Good because she was sure she would need them all.
Even just laid eggs were heavy and hard for one person alone to handle...
and by the time they were finished she was sure every rider here would be
exhausted.

Soon she was ready to begin and she called two of the biggest riders
forward. She would need their help to ease open the incision she would soon
be making.

"I need to open her up right about here," she said, keeping up a running
monologue as she went about preparing to do just what she said. Next to her
was a bucket filled with a strange smelling red liquid, and a mop soaking in
it. Abby lifted the mop and turned back towards the Queen, swabbing the area
she had indicated before handing the mop back to waiting hands.

Next she reached inside her bag and using one of the two remaining glass
syringes, she gave the Queen a shot of something that would keep her under
for a long while. It just wouldn't do to have her wake up before they were
finished.

Then finally she reached over and picked up a rather large scalpel and moved
to make the first cut.....

       [Tags to anyone who wants to help out....]

.... "Okay that's the last of the eggs... Kitty can you please make sure
your Queen stays here and keeps them as warm as she can until Beryth is up
and able to take over," Abby asked looking pointedly at Kitty who had gone
up a mark or two in her book for staying around and keeping Ophelia company
during the event. She knew it couldn't have been easy on the timid girl.

"I'll need you and .. you over there," Abby pointed at H'nry and another
rider. "To stay and help me stitch her up. H'nry she knew and trusted having
worked with him before dealing with the hellspawns. She knew she could count
on his help. The other rider she'd picked for his size and hopefully
strength... for she needed them to hold together the sides of the dragons
hide so she could stitch it back together.

"Kay I will need you to keep check on Beryth's mind and let me know if you
feel her coming around." The deaf rider nodded his head, but Abby couldn't
help think he looked miserable. She wondered where Danielle was....but let
the thought pass.

An hour later she was finished and just in time as Sabbith told her that Kay
said he could *hear* the Queen rousing from her drug induced sleep. Abby
thanked the Red and his rider and moved over to the Warrenlady, who didn't
look as if she'd moved one muscle in the last three hours.

"Beryth is waking now and I need you to stay here with her and keep her as
*Calm* as you possible can so she doesn't tear the stitches I put in her."

Ophelia turned to her. "Thank you Abby... I...Ah..."

Abby shook her head. "I was only doing my job... I'm just sorry that it has
to turn out this way..."

"She's still alive and that's what matters the most."

Abby couldn't help but agree as she turned back to her mate and asked him to
take her home.

It was there later that she began getting *flashes*. But at the time she had
no idea what was causing them. 

Something.. but what?

She tried to shake them off but the more she tried to ignore them the
stronger they got.. it was as if she was being called....

She dresses and began walking. She didn't know where or why. Just felt she
had too. The feeling started to grow stronger as she mounted the steps of an
apartment she'd never been in before. 

But she knew who's it was.

Still the knowing didn't help.

Not until she ventured inside and saw *him* sitting there talking to Laria,
R'chein and Tahlaya. 

All eyes turned to see her there. R'chein looked at the others then came to
stand in front of her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I was called," Abby told him, not taking her eyes off the man who had been
responsible for killing her brother... 

No... Ash`chenon the man wasn't... she knew that. She'd worked with enough
people over the last year infested with that damn hellspawn to know what had
happened to him.

No Ash`chenon was not to blame.

She saw but didn't react when Laya pulled her sword from the scarab she now
wore on her side. She did see Ash place his hand on her arm to stop her from
advancing at what she thought to be a threat to her lover.

"I'm not here to take revenge Laya. You can relax," Abby said finally. "I
know Ash wasn't to blame for what happened to Ga'brin.. or the others. Even
if deep inside I do what to blame someone for his death...."

"How do I know you're telling the truth," Laya questioned her, still on
guard against any tricks the healer might try. He eyes darted quickly back
down the hall from where the healer had come as if expecting others to arive.

"You don't and I don't blame you for being concerned. You should be because
there are riders and others around here who will blame him," this she said
while her eyes stayed glued to Ash's face.

"But you forget... I have seen what a hellspawn can do to a human and I
know. No I believe... deep in my heart that it was not Ash who killed my
brother. But the hellspawn who controlled him."

"Then why are you here and how did you find out he was here?" Laria asked
her in a kinder tone then Laya had used.

"I told you... I was called. I know not by whom.. but that doesn't change
anything..." she stated. "I know as well as the rest of you do that Ash will
take some heat for what has happened but maybe in some small way I might be
able to help."

"How?" Laya asked still suspicious of the healer.

"As I said. I have had dealings with hellspawns... more so then anyone
around here.. except maybe Ash`chenon," she nodded her head towards him in
understanding. "I know what signs to look for and if I examine him and can
testify that the thing.. is no longer part of him.. I don't know.. maybe it
might help."

"You would do this for him?"

Abby nodded.

"Why?"

"Because I am a healer, and I would hate to see an innocent man judged for a
wrong that was not of his making... I want to help if I can... and if you
decide against my being involved I will walk out of here and keep your being
here to myself. I swear this on everything I hold dear. As someone sworn to
heal and protect. Will you let me try?"

============================== 

Nrpg: If you all say no to her she'll just go away and keep her mouth shut..
but Abby is on Ash's side. She KNOWS Ash the man would never have done what
Ash the hellspawn did... and she wants to help others see that.... Even if
it makes Tera angry towards her....

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

Abbien, Healer
Sarrine, Healer
Telnor Warren 

aka
Barbara