Flashback Get it Right

[Einla Frostfawn]

Spring, Day 78, 510 AV

"No, Einie, you don't take the pressure off yet, you leave it on until the bleeding stops..."

The girl looked up, shifting her dark hair out of her face. "It's not bleeding," she said flatly. "It's the floor."

Her mother sighed. Exaggeratedly. Einla frowned, eyebrows drawing together into the center of her forehead. She really did not like that sound, and she really did not like sitting around holding down cloth rags for no reason. Honestly, what exactly was this supposed to help her learn? Medicine? She was pretty sure Whitevine didn't do it like this, not that living in a hospital was her idea of a dream come true, but at least she'd have sensible teachers...

Unlike her mother. Who had been born and raised Frostfawn, with nothing at all to explain this sudden fascination with medicine. Was she worried about something? What? She wasn't in danger of getting hurt, and Einla certainly wasn't going to allow herself to be injured. Besides, she sincerely doubted that her mother knew enough to do any good at all if they did need medical skill. Holding rags to a stone floor. Please. That was supposed to -

"Einie, are you listening to me?"

Oh. Seemed mother dear wanted to say something. Einla rolled her eyes, finally casting aside the worn strip of cloth she'd been holding down. "What the shyke do you want?" she hissed.

Her mother took the bait, even if its offer was only half intentional. Strange how anger worked - it kept itself alive by provoking confrontation. Neither mother nor daughter needed much prodding. "I just want you to learn!" the older Vantha said hotly. "I'm trying to teach you a valuable life lesson here, and I'd appreciate - "

"Valuable!" the younger cried, rising to her feet. "Valuable! Oh, that's good, that's really good. What exactly have you taught me - "

"I've taught you plenty - "

"Funny I didn't realize - "

"There's a lot you don't realize - "

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Einla crossed her arms, leaning forward into the argument. "What hidden depths are there to this.. this activity? What am I learning here, hmm?"

Her mother closed her eyes for a moment, biting her lip as if to seal in anger. "I... thought first aid would be a useful skill for you to have."

"You don't know anything about first aid," Einla said.

"I do! I broke my leg badly when I was around your age, got taken to the Healing Center. I watched people getting treated, and it was interesting, Einie! I saw all sorts of things! Well, I don't know how to do them, of course. I can't remember most of them, even. But I remembered a few little things, how to stop things bleeding and so forth. And I just thought, after your dad, there'd be no harm in..."

She trailed off. Thinks she's smart, Einla thought, her anger escalated irrationally. How dare her mother drag her father into this? He was dead! He wasn't relevant, not at all, not at all, not even a little bit at all! Stopping stone floors from bleeding, ha, that was just great, wasn't it? So useful. I have a stupid woman taking care of me, she told herself, a stupid, stupid, idiotic, stupid -

"Einie?" said her mother.

Einla turned away. "I'm going out."

[Einla Frostfawn]

She snatched her cloak from its wrinkled repose on her bed and tied its strings around her neck, sliding the hood over her head. Her mother caught at the woolen garment, but she twitched it out of the way.

"You can't now - Einie, it's too cold - "

Einla didn't even let the words register. She shoved her feet into her boots and shouldered open the heavy door. A heap of snow she'd dislodged fell off the doorstep with a soft thump.

The cold hit her like the inverse of an oven. Flurries of snow darted every which way, hiding her surroundings completely under a haze of white. Of course, it was too cold for anyone not marked by Morwen to be out here now - and they would still need protective clothing. But she wasn't marked, not yet. She wasn't of age. She had to go back inside.

She couldn't. She simply couldn't open that door again and go and shout some more. She couldn't end the argument either, because it was her mother who had started it by being ridiculous - and anyway, she'd be made to do more pointless 'medical' tasks. She paced back and forth for a couple seconds, trembling uncontrollably in the fierce wind, then squatted down at the edge of the doorstep.

She glanced at her hands. They were pink. They'd be white before long, and that would mean frostbite, and she might lose her fingers. She'd heard people had. She balled her hands into fists and shoved them into her armpits.

Her toes were so cold they hurt. She wiggled them, not sure what she should do, trying to keep them from going numb because that might be bad although she didn't know why. She didn't know enough about this sort of thing! And then she became aware that her nose was stinging - and her ears, even from their place inside her hood. So what now? She couldn't wiggle her ears to keep them warm. She really ought to go in, no matter what mother would say.. she ought to go in, but she didn't want to, she'd get yelled at again or something...

The door slammed open next to her, and then her mother was standing there, her own cloak skewed to one side with the hood only half on. "Come on!" she shouted over the wind. "Come inside! Come on!" She grasped Einla's elbow through the cloak and tugged her to her feet. "Come on!"

Einla stumbled through the door after her mother. It felt a lot warmer in here than before - almost uncomfortably so - but she didn't bother paying attention to that. Her mother was shouting again, as loudly as if she was still straining to be heard over the wind. "That was stupid! That was a stupid, stupid, stupid thing!"

[Einla Frostfawn]

Einla glanced up at her mother; the older woman's eyes were bright gold with worry. "Mother!" she protested. "I was only out there a minute!"

Her mother ignored her. "That was a blizzard! You do not go outside in a blizzard! Do you hear me, Einie? You do not do that again!" She paused for a moment, then added in a somewhat quieter voice, "Understood?"

Einla nodded, watching her feet. "I knew you'd yell at me," she muttered sullenly.

Her mother pressed a hand to her mouth and sank down into a chair. "I'm sorry, Einie. I was frightened... This is all my fault anyway, isn't it?"

She couldn't have chosen a better way to make her daughter feel guilty. Einla, biting her lip fiercely, stepped over and put her arms around her mother's shoulders. No, it's not your fault, she wanted to say. And then, because she wasn't that saintly, at least not all of it. But she couldn't bring herself to say any of that, couldn't bring herself to publicly take any blame even if she'd already done it privately. So she just hugged, resting her cheek atop her mother's head.

Well, there was something she could bring herself to say. As long as her mother saw the strings attached to it; namely, don't be stupid again. There was no harm in learning a bit, she supposed, if it would make her mother feel safer. "D'you want to teach me more about medicine and stuff?" she asked hesitantly.

"Oh!" Her mother looked up in surprise, forcing Einla to shift position. "But wasn't that what..."

"Well, yes," Einla replied with a shrug. "But that was only because you were teaching me wrong. It was boring, and it took a really long time."

"I wanted to give you some hands-on experience," her mother said, slightly stung.

"Well, this time just tell me about it or something. Anyway, don't take so long."

"I'm the one who - oh, all right." She sighed slightly. "I won't start all that again."

E]inla chose not to point out the fact that she herself was the one who had been rude. It didn't really matter, after all. "So what did Whitevine do to treat you?" she asked instead, trying to sound as interested as possible.

"I'm not sure about most of it," her mother admitted. "I think maybe I fainted, or wasn't paying attention, or something. But I remember they tied a couple of poles to my leg."

"Poles?" Einla's brow furrowed, and she stared at her mother. "Why..."

"I don't know - to hold it still? It was like this." She held her arm out and gestured up and down its length. "Except on my leg, of course."

"Oh, I see," Einla said. She'd been imagining a stick tied perpendicular to her mother's ankle. Swinging around, knocking into everyone. It had been a funny image, but it hadn't seemed like it would help a broken bone. She frowned suddenly. "But wouldn't you still be able to move your leg? I mean, couldn't the poles just be twisted out of the way?"

"No, it wasn't like that - here, I'll show you." She fetched the rag she'd had Einla hold to the floor, and tore it lengthwise into thirds. Then she crossed to the hearth and grabbed a couple of sticks from their pile of unused fuel. "They put the poles on either side of my leg, like this." She let one arm rest on the table, and set a stick down by each side. "Then they tied both of them down." She reached for the rags and fumbled for a minute. "I can't get them tied one-handed. Could you?"

"How?" Einla asked. "I mean, where do I tie it?"

"Put one on each end of my arm, and one in the middle," her mother instructed. Einla nodded. After another few moments of fiddling with the cloths, she'd done as she was asked. Her mother frowned at the clumsily splinted arm. "I think there were more ties... I can't remember. Well, that was it, basically. See, now my arm stays still." She moved it stiffly from the shoulder, demonstrating.

"Why didn't you show me this before?" Einla said. "It was much more interesting than sitting on the floor doing nothing."

[Einla Frostfawn]

Her mother's lips thinned, but she didn't reply angrily. "I didn't think of it, Einie," she said instead - then, eager to change the subject, went on. "Now, as for what I learned by watching the doctors. Other than stopping a wound from bleeding - "

At this point, Einla sighed. "Don't go over that again. I get it."

"I know, Einie!" This time there was a definite sharpness in the woman's tone. Realizing that she might start the argument again, Einla sat up and listened. "Go on, mother."

"Well, other than that, I think it was mainly rest. I mean the patients had to rest. Simple, I know."

Despite trying not to antagonize her mother, Einla couldn't resist a slight eye-roll. Rest. Well, wasn't that amazing. What did people do when they caught a bad cold? When they had a stomachache so painful they couldn't work through it? Did her mother really not realize exactly how obvious her advice was?

Her mother was still speaking. "There were a lot of healers with Rak'keli's gnosis, too, but that's not helpful to us. And that's really it!"

"That's it?" Einla couldn't quite believe it. They'd had an argument over that? Well, she supposed it hadn't really been over the rest of the information, but only over the silliness of their previous activity. But the thought still annoyed her. "That's everything you remember?" she added, as if the older Vantha might have thought something wasn't important enough to mention.

"That's all." Her mother shrugged. "I thought it would be good for you to know. There are traditional Frostfawn careers that involve medicine! You could be a veterinarian..."

"And tell the horses to get plenty of rest?" Einla shook her head at her mother. "Well, thanks anyway. I guess."

"Einie..."

"Oh, come on." She looked up, raising her eyebrows. "What do you want me to do, promise you my undying gratitude?" She made a face. "I don't go in for that. Can we have dinner now?"

[Una Tanta]

Please update your CS ledger with the appropriate seasonal deductions. When this has been done feel free to PM me and I will post your Grade here.
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