**Day 14**

-= Xanthia =-

Vague voices started filtering in through the darkness. Her eyes
fluttered, the light seeming intensely bright as she tried to focus.
She heard Maxima roaring in delight and wondered what her dragon was
so happy about.

"I think she's waking up." She recognized Th'rin's voice.

A familiar voice, a voice from the past, greeted her as a familiar
hand stroked her titian hair. "Good morning, Glory."

Xanthia giggled weakly at the pun, and looked up into the deep brown
eyes of... Corra? 

She rubbed her eyes in groggy disbelief.

"Mamma... Corra?" she asked in puzzlement, wondering what her foster
mother was doing there.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, child," the elder healer
smiled warmly. "You gave Healer Th'rin and I quite a fright."

"Wha???" Xanthia recognized her surroundings at last and wondered what
she was doing in a bed in the med center. She attempted to raise
herself up, and lay back with a groan and a grimace as pain wracked
through her left leg.

"Your leg got infected. I had to operate." Th'rin explained.

"Operate?!?" Xanthia's eyes grew wide with panicky as she knew the
common surgical cure for an infected limb and she groped frantically
down her leg. Relief washed over her as she found that the leg was
still there.

"Easy..." Th'rin said calmly, "I managed to remove just the area of
infection."

"Ah... I see..." Xanthia trailed off, mulling over the meaning of
those words.

"Healer Th'rin saved you're leg, dear. And your life. All this cutting
nonsense... I thought you'd stopped that."

Xanthia scowled accusingly at Th'rin, dark circles under her eyes
making her ice blue orbs even more intense, "You told."

"Ease up on him. He didn't have to. In fact, he tried not to," Corra
defended the young man. "If you're going to be mad at anyone, be mad
at yourself for not tending to the wound and letting it get this bad."

"Sorry..." Xanthia cringed at the parental tone. "Oberon... I need to
go take care of him." 

"Lay back, you're not going anywhere," Corra chastised.

"Oberon is fine. He's with Racine. Now relax. You have can't do
anything til that leg is healed," Th'rin added.

"But the med center! My shift!" Xanthia protested.

"Corra's got that covered," Th'rin told her.

"But what about..."

"Lily, my intern, she has the practice in hand. She's quite capable,"
Corra assured her, with the silent thought, {Though not as much as
you.} But unfortunately, Xanthia could not hear it as Corra did not
share Xanthia's gift.

Xanthia stared blankly at the wall while Corra and Th'rin examined her
leg. Tears ran silently down her face, outraged at her helplessness to
do anything, the reality of her situation sinking in. 

As she lay there, needing something else to think about she opened her
mind to her best friends, the dragons, to catch up on all the news. 

<Why is Vasra so upset?> she asked Maxima.

<Her rider is... catatonic is what Areena calls it,> Maxima explained.


<Moira! But how? What happened?> Xanthia asked her friend's dragon, as
her expression turned to shock.

<Reading some coins. Too much!> the indigo and black dragon replied
sorrowfully.

"Moira... How's Moira?" Xanthia asked.

"She's sleeping." Th'rin replied.

"And Lisha?"

"Released this morning."

"And..."

"Now I can't stand here all day and tell you about every patient!"
Th'rin grinned. 

"What about Oberon? And Cill?" Xanthia asked, partial to the children.

"They are fine. Cill's glasses arrived from Tinobal. You can visit
with them later," Th'rin laughed.

"Now quit your fussing and go to sleep. You need your rest" Corra
reprimanded her.

"Here, this will help, it'll take the edge off the pain," Th'rin
injected her with the medication.

"You too ganging up on me?" Xanthia scowled.

Th'rin and Corra exchanged an amused glance "Now whatever gave you
that idea?" the head healer replied.

***

-= Tarv'renon =-

<My rider, Maxima says her rider is awake,> Murkash announced
informatively.

<Xanthia, she's awake?> The young man brightened. He knew the surgery
went well, but the young redhead had been slow to awaken, which had
him concerned. <When can I see her? No wait, take me to the med
center, I'll ask Th'rin myself.>

***

-= Oberon =-

The large toddler's violet eyes glistened happily as his aunt's mind
voice greeted him, <Oberon, I love you!>

The boy rocked excitedly. "An Xan! An Xan! An Xan!" he shreeked, his
voice increasing in pitch. He'd thought his aunt had forgotten him. It
had been days since he'd seen her or had any mental contact.

<I've been sick, I'm sorry.> Xanthia answered the boy's query as to
where she'd been.

"An Xan! An Xan! An Xan!" the boy pounded on the table before him with
fervor as he continued to shreek.

"Oberon... Settle!" Racine urged. "Aunt Xanthia is sick, honey."

"An Xan!" He shrilly replied. It was clear the boy would not be
readily calmed.

"Mara, go see if Merissa can come see to him..." Racine sighed,
wishing she were telepathic. Why on earth was he carrying on so about
Xanthia?

<<NRPG: Tag Arlene!>>

***

-= Tarv'renon =-

** Med Center **

He grabbed Th'rin by the arm as he came out of Xanthia's room. "How is
she? I want to know everything!"

"Let's go to my office, we'll talk there."

"Right... the office..." His mind went to the feeling that stirred
within him their last meeting in the office and he felt the stirrings
begin anew. Damn, why did his mind keep going to that? He cursed
himself silently even though he knew the guilt was senseless. After
all, they didn't do anything.... that time.

The two walked into the office and sat down on the couch, side by
side. Tarv'renon looked at Th'rin anxiously. 

"She's healing at last." Th'rin sighed. "She's awake and talking, and
eager to get back to work."

"But how long will that be?" Tarv'renon asked out of curiosity.

"Depends on how fast she heals, and how soon til the parcel arrives
from Tinobal."

Tarv'renon wasn't quite following. "What parcel?" he frowned.

"A brace... and crutches... and then she will need to learn to use
them."

"But I thought the operation was a success. You said you saved her
leg," the larger rider was perplexed.

"It was. But I had to remove the infection, and so one of the leg
muscles had to be removed. Without a brace, there's no stability to
the leg."

"Does she know?" Tarv'renon asked.

"She's a healer. She knows anatomy." Th'rin replied.

"I know..." Tarv'renon was somber.

***

NRPG: Tag Kris! Anyone who wants, feel free to visit Xanthia. The
medication will make her a little drowsy, but not knock her out. She's
too feisty to be "out of it" any more than she has been.

				
                \=/,         _-===-_-===-_-===-_-=======-_-===-_
                |  @___oo   (    Submitted by:                  )
      /\  /\   / (___,,,}_--=    Jacqueline "Morgan" Allgood    )
     ) /^\) ^\/ _)        =__    morgie@iquest.net               )
     )   /^\/   _)          (_                                   )
     )   _ /  / _)            (   The heart and soul of:          )
 /\  )/\/ ||  | )_)            (_  Xanthia/Maxima of Whiteriver   )
<  >      |(,,) )__)             ( Kattibrie/Calishandra of Telnor )
 ||      /    \)___)\             (_                              )
 | \____(      )___) )___           -==-_____-====-_____-===-___==
  \______(_______;;; __;;;

Morgan's World http://members.xoom.com/Morgie/

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