Friendly Gossip {{Nasira}}

[Faerie Fyre]

The annoying thing about bandages is that they needed to be rewrapped daily. Shell's morning would be so much easier if she didn't need to constantly wrap bandages around her scarred and blistered arms. They were fairly nice arms, underneath the Threadscore and numbweed blisters, but Shell had found that they unnerved people. Since her goal was not to intimidate others, but to help them, she did her best to minimize the horrific damage done to her.

And it was simply impractical to sleep in bandages when no one would see her save for herself and Aurath. She slept with bare arms, and so every morning, without fail, iridescent rider Shell spent time she could have better spent over a cup of really good, hot klah, and wrapped long lengths of cloth around her arms. This morning was no different, save that Shell had not tended her plants before doing her bandages.

Another morning chore, though it was hardly a chore, was to tend the veritable garden of medicinal and culinary herbs she grew in a wooden box kept in the patch of sunlight streaming in through the connection of room to weyr. Included in that garden patch was a nearly-mature numbweed bush with evidence of broken leaves and stems. When not panicking from Threadscore, Shell was actually fairly proficient at using raw numbweed on things like sunburn - which a redhead seemed to get a lot of on the Southern Continent.

You fret too much, Shelli. Couldn't you leave off the bandages? You look fine without them, honest!

Shell ignored her iridescent's comment, instead focusing her attention on binding the edge of the wrapped bandage with a well worn leather strap. The leather helped the bandage not unravel during the day while she worked, but it was tricky to tie with one hand.

So involved did she become in this work that she didn't notice when someone entered her weyr.

[Celeste]

Then again, it was far too easy to miss whenever Nasira entered a room, the door gaining a life of its own and swinging itself slowly open, welcoming her with silence as it waited patiently as she stepped into the room before moving to close itself once more, settling back down for the while when she had no need of its assistance. It wasn't often that she entered the personal quarters of others, but Shell was one individual she truly called a friend, and had no qualms about entering without permission. For a moment, she watched in silence as Shell wrapped her arms, frowning slightly to herself. It was an awful thing to watch your friends in pain, which Shell would be in if it wasn't for her skill with numbweed.

She stepped forward and smiled brightly to her good friend, "Here, let me help you with that," she said softly reaching out her hand to her friend's shoulder. The bandages slowly pulled themselves from Shell's grasp before beginning to crawl around her arm with a mind of their own. "Just say if they need to be tighter or looser, I'm afraid I'm not so well trained as you in the ways of medicine."

Ever since Fort had turned out to be so violent, Nasira had been quite close to those she considered her friend, both making sure that they were still okay and doing her best to keep herself from worrying too much by being available for them. At the moment, she wasn't entirely sure if she was truly helping or being a bother to Shell, as it was quite possible the woman had managed her wrappings just fine. Not only today, but every day that she required them. Some people had too much pride to take help when it was offered, though she didn't think that Shell was one of those types of people.

"You really don't look so bad. Anyone who says otherwise is a blind fool," she said comfortingly, not wanting to keep the room too quiet.

[Faerie Fyre]

The bandages seemed to tug themselves out of Shell's hands, until she connected the appearance of her friend Nasira with the bandages' sudden independance. Pre-klah Shell was none too bright, particularly not in the morning. Pale brown eyes watched as the other iridescent rider wrapped and tightened the concealing bandages.

"You could pull them a little tighter, Nasira," she told the other woman. Loose bandages were obviously more comfortable, but tight bandages meant less time spent rewrapping them over the course of the day. Given her druthers, Shell would druther not spend all day on a cosmetic function.

"Thank you, Nasi," came the quite response to that optimistic remark. It wasn't just for the others that Shell spent the time to hide her scars. Some mornings, she could stomach the sight of the scores, blisters, and burns, but other mornings, she got sick to see the mutilation done to her skin. The worst part was knowing that she had caused most of the damage herself. The burns were from too-hot gathers that had exploded when she blew into the blowpipe; self inflicted. The Threadscores were also her own fault, she hadn't been fast enough to dodge when Aurath didn't transfer between fast enough to avoid a scoring; her fault. The numbweed blisters, too, were self inflicted; she had used raw numbweed to banish the burning sensation of being scored, and rubbed the uncured medicine too deeply.

All her own fault, and all equally stomach turning at this hour of the morning.

"Sleep well?"

Shell didn't think that anyone had slept particularly well since the attack on Zarinth's clutch. The damage done on the Sands that day had scarred Skysong the way ill-treatment had scarred her arms. They now had a queen who would stutter all her life, a crimson who seemed ready to kill in his turn, and countless damaged weyrlings, human and dragon. It was heartbreaking, and Shell hadn't slept well since. Bad dreams always came, usually about what was becoming known as The Incident, but the scene always changed. Sometimes she was Standing to Impress Aurath, while other time, dragons dragged her precious Aurath between to die. She always woke up from such nightmares in a fever-sweat, which just felt different from the normal sweat one garnered on the Southern Continent.

[Celeste]

Rather obediently, the bandages tugged at themselves, pulling tighter against the woman's arms, spreading the pressure evenly so that there were no areas that would be too loose. Nasira didn't watch the bandages as they moved about her arms, looking down to the floor. She really couldn't help but feel bad for Shell, to be so brutalized the way she was, it simply wasn't fair. So many had been scarred and mutilated, and then to add threadscores and all the responsibility of dragonriding? As well as the disgust that the riders of Fort felt for them simply because their dragons were so unusual? It was really too much to bear at points, and Nasira couldn't help but feel that she had been let off easier in some ways than others.

She said nothing with Shell's thanks, merely offered a gentle smile as her eyes found the face of her friend. It was true that Nasira did not believe that there was anything worth hiding on Shell's arms, and that any who shied away from the truth was a dimglow. Shell was a woman who needed to know that some people, at the very least, didn't think too much on something so simple and foolish as her outward appearance. Shell was an amazing woman, and was so strong in the face of all of her obstacles that it made Nasira feel weak in comparison.

Her smile faded with the next question that came from her friend, and she pulled her eyes away from Shell's face to stare rather blankly at the wall, "I'm sure I have slept as well as anyone," she said simply. Thinking too much on the events was quite literally painful, horrors from the happenings would haunt the Weyr forever. No one would be left unscathed, at least not emotionally. Still, she and everyone else would be a fool to forget those events. The atrocities that now plagued them, and the meanings behind them. They truly were alone, weren't they? Fort hated them so much to try such a devastatingly low blow that could never be bandaged over.

Her small form trembled slightly at the thoughts, the memories. "You don't think they will try it again, do you?" she asked in a very quiet voice, almost as if she was afraid to ask, afraid to know Shell's answer.

They would not be so foolish to try an evil act twice. Emerith said simply to her bonded, her voice filled with trust and love. There were far too many wounds in the Weyr to allow such events to happen again, and she certainly did not want her beloved rider to live in fear.

[Faerie Fyre]

Meeting a fellow humans eyes was often considered common courtesy when speaking, but Shell too averted her eyes from Nasira's face. Fort's attack had hurt something deep within Shell. These were people who had helped her, had fed her and clothed her while she was a candidate. And yes, being cast out of the weyr had hurt, but never had Shell thought the hatred would spread to, to killing hatchlings! It could just as easily have been her, if Weyrwoman Valoryn had realized what was happening during the hatchling. It could have been Aurath killed - could still be Aurath. Dead from a traditional dragon's claws.

It was a fight to keep the tears from coming again, a fight Shell won only narrowly. She did not quite win the battle to keep the fear from her voice.

"I don't doubt it, Nasi. And next time, it could be Aurath."

Her voice shook, barely avoiding a stutter like the poor citrine hatchling. It would take Turns for the weyr to recover, and even then, war might not be avoided. Dragon had fought dragon at the Hatching - imagine! Dragon fighting dragon, such a thing had not happened in recorded history! Or at least the history a Journeywoman Glassmaker would know; it had happened before, but not in centuries.

"It could be Aurath, it could be Emerith, it could be Lyrath, it could be Tillenth, or Anmedlath, or Zarinth. Fort won't stop, Nasi. That's what has me so scared."

The herbs in her garden box had been chosen specifically so she could grow a great many of them at once without over crowding. They were unable to reach her, though no such compunction had been placed on the bush of numbweed. It reached for her, bruising its leaves against her hands and cheek in its attempt to comfort her.

Shelli won't listen to me, Emerith.

"Aurath doesn't think it's that bad, but, Nasi, dragon fought dragon! Dragon fought dragon."

The thought made her sick to her stomach. If the weyrs fought, who would protect Pern from Thread? Wasn't their first duty to the planet that housed them?