Closed A Proper Patching Up (Waisana)

[Dinah]

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.....Fall 21, 514av

White was such a strange color. Dinah never could tell if it was supposed to be a representation of all colors put together or a complete lack of them that had been bleached out; she guessed it depended on your perspective. For most of her life the teen had found herself surrounded by the warm tones of the Ruby clan, brilliant shades of vermillion that reflected all the passion her former pavilion was capable of, for good or ill. Now though, her life was bound by the greens of the Emerald clan, colored shared by the grasses they lived among in the more lively seasons. The crisp clean whites of the Opal clan always seemed foreign to her, and Dinah wondered - even now - if that would ever change.

Of course a great deal of that may have had to do with why she was among those known for their skills in healing. Oh sure, Dinah could say it was to seek out the girl who had patched her up days ago to get a second opinion on how everything was healing and to find if there was some way to minimize scarring at these later stages - and she did mean to ask about that - but she also would have been lying if she wasn't there to see about reducing scarring in other areas of her life. Ever since she had left the healers' tent at the beginning of the season, Dinah couldn't help but think how good it had been to actually talk to Waisana again, even if just for a little bit. The self isolation that the new hunter had cast upon herself after her childhood pavilion had been destroyed was something she had come to rely upon, only letting it slip so much as to join a new family. It was a far cry from the plethora of individuals she had once had in her daily life, that was for certain. Dinah didn't miss her siblings - well, most of them anyway - and any thoughts that turned to her father were always met with an immediate feeling of aggravation. But Waisana? The Opal girl that had once been her closest friend? She had driven all thought of her from her mind after Dinah had rather harshly cut the girl from her life. It very well could have continued to be the same, but then had come that day when Dinah had to go and hurt herself and had to be placed under Waisana's care and...

Alright, alright! I get it! Dinah felt a low groan escape her throat at the realization that had hit her once again washed over. She had been lonely. Oh sure there was always her husband and his brother and their father to talk with, but it wasn't the same.

The Emerald Clan girl watched as the last of Syna's rays began to slip below the horizon as she swung down off of Niamh's back, still far more gingerly than she would have done only a season ago. She wasn't entirely sure if she got the pavilion right, memories could be fickle things sometimes after all, but if she was right then Waisana was bound to be around somewhere. If she's even home, Dinah couldn't help but think. There was no good to come from such thoughts though, soon they would turn into a raging river of excuses to leave as quickly as possible and if she did that, well, at least it wouldn't be much to add another thing to the list of things that Dinah could never forgive herself for.

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"

[Waisana]

It had been such a long day that Waisana was convinced a few extra bells had snuck in to the normal day. There was no way that so many tasks could have been fit in between the times of sunrise and sunset but somehow it had happened. There had been a partial leg amputation, treatments for infections, stitching of wounds and two births, including a breached one. The young healer hadn't had to deliver a baby in breach before but she was glad that she hadn't been alone when it had happened or it would no doubt have been disastrous. When feet had appeared instead of a head, the teen had been about to try to readjust the baby when a more senior healer had stopped her.

"Never touch a breached baby until the head is outside. If you touch it when it's still inside, it'll try to breathe."

The words had upset the girl to no end when she realised how close she'd come to the possibility of ending the young life before it had even begun. The teen had had no idea what she ought to do after that horrible revelation and it had come as an even greater shock to find out that she should reposition the mother and let the newborn fall out. It had turned out all right but the teen would find herself immensely glad if she wasn't faced with such a situation again. It was an unlikely event, she'd been told so it was always possible that she wouldn't have to participate in such a delivery again.

The breached birth was her last bit of work, the young Opal woman dismissed as Syna bid the plains goodnight. She was exhausted but also nervous after her scare, the two conditions combining in such a way that she wasn't going to sleep easily unless she could unwind first, an unlikely occurrence. Plant watering offered the only means of calming herself and that probably wouldn't do anything for her.

The doctor walked in something of a daze, catching her feet on pavilion ropes in the dimming light and barely avoiding bumping into others as she made her way homewards. When she came across a Strider, it hardly registered in her mind. They were a people intimately linked with their horses and so the sight of one of the Drykas mounts was far from unusual. It might have been familiar in the dying light but all Waisana knew was that it wasn't her own one. A few paces more brought a familiar silhouette into view. She squinted at it, trying to work out who it was until she caught a glimpse of the woman's features in a lingering ray. The healer came to a stop a few feet away, eyes swivelling to the Strider, which was now identifiable as Niamh, and her visitor.

"Dinah!" She called her name rather than trying to sign a greeting. "What are you doing around here? You're well, I hope?" Waisana gestured to encompass the surrounding white pavilions. The other was an Emerald girl now so this wasn't where the teen would have expected to find her unless... Her eyes moved to her own pavilion. Surely she hadn't come to see her! Hope rose within her, the idea of a true reconciliation blossoming inside her until she quashed it. There was no guarantee that that was why she was here or, if it was, that reconciliation was her purpose. Maybe she wanted someone to check her injuries and was too embarrassed to go to someone else. The girl waited impatiently to find out whether this encounter would lead to something good between them or not.

[Dinah]

There was an honest moment where Dinah considered running, or at least pretending that she hadn't heard Waisana and that she just happened to be passing through. Sure it would have been obvious it was a farce, but whatever damage that particular little stunt would cause seemed a might bit easier to deal with than the very real possibility of ripping open older wounds that were quite content to fester beneath the surface. Emotional ones, that was. Her arm and leg were doing much better thanks to Waisana's initial treatment and instructions and herbs that had been provided for aftercare. Almost as good as new, or usual, or normal - Whatever term it was that Dinah couldn't exactly come to make a decision on.

The temptation to flee was strong, but Dinah was nothing if not brutally stubborn and for once she opted to turn that on herself. This was going to be good for her, and just like any sort of medicine she may cringe and gag and choke on it but by all the gods she was going to take it and be glad for the end result just the same. She almost laughed at how the inner stern pep talk sounded an awful lot like how her twin used to when she finally pushed him past a breaking point on the extremely rare times they would argue.The laugh was cut off before it could even start by the pang of the emptiness within her that followed on the heels of that particular notion and she was forced to withdraw from her own self awareness and actually face facts. Waisana had seen her and she wasn't going to be able to back out of this foolish decision.

A small halfhearted wave in greeting was given, a bit more formal in nature than she would have liked but she couldn't quite press herself into the casualness that felt wrong somehow.

"Hey," her voice echoed the same sentiment her hands had given off all too well before another wave of stubborn courage shoved its way forward. The shrug of her shoulders that followed was far more lackadaisical and the obviously forced smirk that came with it completed the picture of her own imprudent self perfectly. "I'm well enough, I suppose. At least my memory isn't going, wasn't sure if I had the right tent for a bit there, to be honest. All you Opals' pavilions look too much alike, you know that?"

A rough heh left her and a hand reached up under her hair to rest against the back of her head, fingers tugging at the base of a few strands in a nervous tick she had never really managed to shake. "As for the whys... Well, I guess I came to see my favorite healer. You know, get a follow up check up, maybe see if she wanted to just, you know, talk for a change. Maybe, I don't know, catch up a bit with less about falling off horses and more about... How you've been?"

"Pavi" | "Common" | "Tukant"