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Rajen was awakened by Snownose's terrified scream. He sat up, grimacing and putting his hands over his ears. Well, the night hadn't done any damage to Snownose, at least not to his voice.
When Rajen saw what the runner was screaming about, however, he nearly let loose a scream to rival Snownose's. The supoprting sticks were gone and the only thing holding up the tent, which didn't quite meet the ground anymore except where Snownose was laying on the edge of it, was the huge blue muzzle of a dragon. "Ancith! Get your big nose out of there! You've probably scared them to death if they're not already frozen!" a man bellowed, and, with a defiant rumble that shook Rajen, the blue muzzle dissapeared and the tent collapsed onto Rajen and Snownose, who stopped screaming to do battle with the tent. Rajen tried to fight his way out but only suceeded in getting more tangled. Someone was helping from the other end, for a few minutes after he resigned himself to life lost in a tent Rajen was looking at the blue of the morning sky and then a man's face. "Good morning," the man said cheerfully, grasping Rajen's hand and pulling him up. Rajen stood, with some difficulty, and stepped out of the tent. Snownose's white nose had appeared in a hole in the tent. The runner hadn't waited for help, evidently. He had decided to chew himself out. "So much for the tent," Rajen grumbled and hobbled over to help the runner out before he could chew the tent beyond repair. When tent, runner, and human were untangled, Rajen turned to his rescuer. "I'm sorry, I don't think I caught your name," he said, extending a hand. "I'm Rajen." "R'lan," the man replied, declaring himself a dragonrider, which would account for the blue's muzzle. "Thank you for finding us," Rajen said a bit sheepishly. "I'm guessing we didn't make ourselves too easy to spot." R'lan chuckled. "Actually, it was my blue Ancith who spotted you. Or your runner, to be exact. His black hind-end stood out against the white snow." Rajen had to laugh at the thoguht of seeing a runner's hind end coming out of a mound of snow. "Well, thank him too. You wouldn't happen to know where we are? I was headed to Three Hills Hold but we got... sidetracked." "You're a few miles out of Ryslen Weyr," R'lan replied. "Definetly sidetracked. You're lucky we were out Searching this morning, there's a Fall due over this area this afternoon, and it doesn't stop for anything, not even snow." Rajen shuddered and tried not to think of what might have happened. "Very lucky. Any idea how to get to Three Hills Hold from here?" "I do have a very good idea," R'lan replied, "but you're not going anywhere with the shape that leg of yours is in." "What's wrong with my..." Rajen looked down at his leg and his words trailed off in disbelief. Underneath the remains of shreded trousers he could tell that his lower left leg was swollen to twice the size of his right leg and had a strange bump that had a whitish tinge to it about halfway between his knee and his foot. "When did that happen?" R'lan shrugged. "You know better than I do. But I do know one thing, you're not going to make it to Three Hills on that leg. Not in time to set it right, at least. I'm no healer, but I know a broken leg when I see one, and you've got a bad break. Just hop on Ancith and we'll take you back to the healers at Ryslen." Rajen put a protective arm around Snownose. "Whay'll happen to my runner? I can't just leave him here." After much arguing, Rajen ended up on Snownose's back with his cart in tow and an unhappy Ancith plodding along in front of them with R'lan in his usual place to lead the way back to Ryslen. It took much longer than if Ancith had flown back, but Rajen refused to abandon Snownose. By the time the four reached Ryslen, Snownose and Rajen were once again thoroughly exhausted and Ancith just wanted to get back into the air. R'lan told the impatient blue something which Rajen could not hear and Ancith lept into the sky and flew to a ledge. "Teris here can take care of your runner and cart," R'lan explained before Rajen could protest as Snownose was led away by a lanky young man, "you need to get to the infirmary." Feeling too weak to protest, Rajen allowed himself to be led to the infirmary. A kind looking healer took him from R'lan and helped him into a cot. "Here, drink this, it'll warm you up," the healer told him, holding out a cup of warm, nice-smelling liquid. Rajen obediently took the cup and drank it. The healer smiled and patted his arm before leaving. Rajen wondered at this but didn't have much time to dwell on it, for whatever the drink had been, it was making him very tired, and, though he fought agaisnt it, Rajen found himself drifting off to sleep. |