From: John Pepper
<trissana@aol.com > Date: Wed Jun 19, 2002 12:23
am Subject: [DL-T] Office Visits - By Appointment Only!
Dalmar
(Early Evening, dragon clinic)
*Open your mouth and say 'aaah!'* Dalmar told the large brown dragon.
Nhorit complied, and Dalmar peered cautiously inside.
"See anything?" K'vrey asked.
"Yeah, a large draconic tongue and some very big teeth," Dalmar replied.
He was interrupted by a tremendous sneeze from Nhorit, which sent the
unfortunate dragonhealer tumbling head over heels. [Sorry,] the dragon
apologized. [I've been doing that a lot lately.]
"Are you ok?" K'very asked, hurrying over to help Dalmar back up.
"Yeah," said the dragonhealer. "When you apply to train as a
dragonhealer, the first thing they do is hit you over the head with a hammer
to make sure your head's hard enough for the job."
"Oh, I see," said K'vrey, though never having worked as a dragonhealer
himself, he probably didn't. "Well, what about my dragon?"
Dalmar frowned as he reluctantly looked back into the dragon's mouth.
"Well, the symptoms are similar to those of a cold. Of course, colds are
fairly rare with dragons, so cold symptoms usually mean something else."
"And that would be...?" K'vrey prompted.
"Not sure yet," came the echo of Dalmar's voice from within the dragon's
mouth. "He's got the sneezing, but none of the other symptoms I usually
associate with colds, in either humans or dragons. Is he allergic to
anything?"
"Well, work of course," K'vrey said.
[Funny, verrrry funny,] said Nhorit, and followed this up with a
tremendous sneeze that Dalmar only barely avoided by throwing himself to the
floor.
"I don't think that counts," said the dragonhealer, picking himself up
off the floor yet again. "But quick, before he sneezes again, come look at
this!" At Dalmar's direction, K'vrey looked into the dragon's mouth. "See
that unusual growth under his tongue? How long has he had that?"
"Hm, not sure," K'vrey admitted. "I don't stick my head in there very
often, you know.":
"Could be an infection of some sort," said Dalmar, rubbing his chin
thoughtfully. He turned and walked over to a cabinet, returning a moment
later with a double handful of white pills, each the size of a ping-pong
ball. Have him take one of these tonight, and another tomorrow
morning...then bring him back and we'll have another look at him."
"What are these?" K'vrey asked, taking the large pills from Dalmar.
"Theyr'e pills to help with the sneezing," Dalmar replied.
"They don't exactly smell great," K'vrey remarked, sniffing at one of
them. "How do they taste?"
"Awful, just...awful," Dalmar whispered. "Just don't tell *him* that
before you give him one!"
[I heard that!] said Nhorit, and followed up with another
hurricane-sneeze that almost bowled both Dalmar and K'vrey over.
/snip from Andre's post/
Soucivi managed to drag himself inside the building with a still
incredibly active dragon in tow.
<So what are we doing here again? > Dargen said joyfully as he walked
behind Soucivi.
*We're here to find Dalmar and see what those bumps on your chin are.*
Soucivi groaned exhausted.
<Okay, where do we find Dalmar?>
Suddenly a mind-shattering sneeze was heard and a sudden flash of fire
was seen a bit further inside the cave.
*Well, I think we should probably follow the sneezing of poor Nhorit,
right?*
/end snip/
"Well, I hope this works," said K'vrey, helping a slightly singed Dalmar
steady himself after the last sneeze. "Oh, looks like you've got another
patient!"
Dalmar saw young Soucivi standing in the doorway, with his new dragon
Dargen peering over his shoulder at the goings-on inside the clinic. "Hello
there!" Soucivi said. "Look, I know you're busy, but I was wondering if you
could have a quick look at Dargen here?"
"Does he have a cold, or anything? Sneezing?" Dalmar asked warily.
"No, nothing like that," said Soucivi. "I just wanted to show you a
couple of odd lumps he's got on him."
"Oh, ok," said Dalmar, feeling a bit relieved. A couple of lumps didn't
sound dangerous, in fact it wasn't too uncommon for hatchlings to develop
such things early on. They usually went away quickly. After seeing K'vrey
and Nhorit out, he motioned for Soucivi and Dargen to come over to the
examining area. Once the dark blue dragon had settled himself down, Dalmar
gave him a quick lookover. "Now, where are those lumps you'd mentioned?"
"Right...here," said Soucivi, reaching down to point at two odd
protrusions on either side of Dargen's jaw.
"Hm," said Dalmar, frowning. "Those aren't lumps...they're *bumps!*"
"What's the difference?" Soucivi wanted to know.
"It's complicated," Dalmar told him, peering underneath Dargen's chin.
*So how long have you had these, my friend?*
[Not long,] said Dargen.
*Well, considering that you haven't been around very long yourself, I
guess that makes sense,* Dalmar conceded. He wondered whether the
protrusions had bone underneath them, or were simple fleshy knobs. He
reached out and touched one. It seemed somewhat hard, but he couldn't tell
if it had bone underneath it or not so he pressed a bit harder. At the same
time, he reached out to touch the other one...
The next thing Dalmar knew, he was shaking his head to clear out the
cobwebs while an agitated Soucivi was all but trying to peel him off the far
wall.
[Sorry,] Dargen told him.
"What the HELL just happened?" Dalmar wanted to know.
"Well, you're the dragonhealer, I thought you'd know," Soucivi remarked.
"But your hair is standing straight up on end!"
"It was almost like...a lightning bolt!" said Dalmar, staring at Dargen
from what he *hoped* was a safe distance. "Has he, um, done that before?"
"Not like that," Soucivi admitted. "I touched one earlier and thought
I felt something, that's one reason I wanted to check. I didn't know he
could do that!"
[Gee, I wonder if I could do that to wraiths?!] Dargen wondered aloud.
"Not sure about that one," said Dalmar. "I *heard* of a dragon who once
lived here...his name was Themis...who could breathe lightning, and I think
he did use it against wraiths. But that was different, a magical ability
that replaced his ability to breathe fire. Abbien left some entries about
him and his rider. Still...what your dragon does is different, I think.
Since the electricity doesn't come out of his mouth, I'll bet he can still
breathe fire like any other dragon."
[Wow!] said Dargen, looking very smug.
"You'd better keep a close eye on this one," Dalmar whispered to
Soucivi. "You might find yourself with some explaining to do if he decides
to go practice this new talent by zapping one or two of his clutchmates in
the rump with electric sparks."
Soucivi nodded, looking worried. "How come he can do this when the
others can't?" he asked. "I mean, none of his clutchmates have those bumps
like he does."
"Some recessive genetic trait," Dalmar speculated. "Seadragons have a
similar ability, you know...they can give electric shocks, but still retain
the equivalent of a firebreathing ability...though in their case, it's
superheated steam they expel from their mouths."
Soucivi blinked. "You're not saying that Dargen could have...seadragon
blood in him?"
Dalmar shook his head. "No, I wasn't saying that. There have been one
or two cases of hybrid dragons, but neither of Dargen's parents is a
seadragon, so that doesn't fly. Although..."
"Although...?" Soucivi prompted.
"Well, Zareena is from the Lost Dragonlands," he said. "That's where
seadragons come from too. I guess there *could* be a seadragon or two
somewhere in her ancestry." He chuckled at the thought of how Zareena would
react to such a notion!
(Tag Andre - ok, the patients have been diagnosed, what happens from here?)
NRPG: Got another post coming, to pick up with Dalmar at the hatching party.
Should have that one out in a day or so.