The Vault
Kezzra is here.
Linora drags in, still clutching her book, and flops on a comfy chair, just a little out of breath. "Hey, Kezz." She opens the book, almost randomly, and begins to study.
Kezzra glances up. "Morning Lin..."
Linora turns a page with a sigh. For a long moment she seems absorbed, then she looks up. "What'd P'rru want?" Of course she can't help wondering what would bring a dragonrider to the Hall. 'Specially one she kinda knows.
Kezzra smiles. "He was looking for some charts." Kezzra says, "what were you and cress up to earlier?"
Linora ohs softly, nodding a bit, and puts her face back in the book. Until she hears Kezz's next question, that is. Her head snaps up, the quick intake of breath setting off a coughing fit. "I was trying to start my project," she manages to say.
"Oh, you aren't sick too. Are you Lin?" Kezzra asks.
Linora nods. "I been at the infirmary all week," she says, her voice still raspy and soft. "I'm mostly better, though." Mostly. She thinks.
Kezzra looks worried now. "You shore, Lin?"
Linora shrugs. And nods again. "I'm a lot better'n I was." Well, she's only wheezing a little now.
Kezzra nods. "Alright. If you're shore.."
Linora coughs. And nods again. And looks back into the book. After a moment, she looks up again. Too? "Is somebody else sick, too?"
Kezzra nods. "Yeah. I thought you would have known."
Linora blinks. And shakes her head, feeling oddly stupid. Did she miss seeing someone she knew in the infirmary? Not that she'd been all that lucid... "Who?"
Kezzra says, "Cress.."
Linora's eyes get big. "He said he was fine." But he /had/ been coughing, hadn't he? Hm.
Kezzra shrugs. "He was out here just a bit before you were. He said he had a bit of a cold but he'd be fine in a day or so.."
Linora's brow furrows a bit. Well. Maybe he hadn't wanted to worry her. "Musta been the cold," she muses, half to herself.
Kezzra says, "The cold?"
"At Reaches." Abruptly, Linora seems to catch herself before continuing. "I was freezing up there, an' wet besides." Well, she'd had a pretty good idea that going between soaking wet was a bad idea, but she hadn't dared risk being left behind at Southern.
Kezzra nods. "I see."
Linora takes a deep breath -ow- and lets it out slowly, returning her eyes to the book.
Kezzra looks back up over at Linora. "Are you shore you're going to be alright?"
Linora isn't. Not at all. She hasn't felt like herself since she got back from 'Reaches. So if her eyes look a little scared, that might be why. "I think so." Trying to remind herself that she /does/ feel better than she had.
Kezzra nods. "Maybe you should get some rest yet Lin. Don't worry so much about getting your project done. Get better first."
Linora smiles weakly. "Thanks, Kezz." Not much over a whisper. But she doesn't get up, just closes the book on her lap and slumps back in the comfy chair.
Kezzra nods. "Don't mention it."
Cress moves slowly in from the Male Apprentice Quarters.
Cress shuffles out from the dorms, his blanket still wrapped around him. He slumps into a chair before noticing that Lin is here, and beams her a smile.
Linora opens her eyes a bit at the sound of someone entering the room, still sprawled on her chair, and smiles back at Cress. "You /are/ sick, aren'tcha?" Not really a question; why else would he be wrapped in a blanket? He's always complaining about how hot it is around here.
"Noo, I'm not, Lin," Cress still denies that he /might/ be sick. "It's just a cold. I told ya that before, didn't I?"
Linora just smiles, too much trouble to move. "Mmmhmmm." She doesn't believe him, though.
Cress eyes her, through halfclosed lids. "What?" he asks hoarsly. "I'm telling ya, it's just a cold. Nothing to get worried about...."
Linora nods, pulling herself up to sit forward on her chair, her chin in her hands. "Maybe you oughtta get to the infirmary yourself," she suggests.
Cress sniffs, shaking his head - slowly as not to get a headache again - at the thought of the infirmary. "I'd much rather sleep in my own cot," he says, and pulls his legs up under him to sit crosslegged. "It's just a cold," he repeats to make sure she understands that.
"Fine." Lin shrugs. She can't drag him there, after all. But if he's anywhere near as sick as she's been... She fixes searching eyes on him, chin still in her hands.
"I'm not," Cress says as if he's read her mind, "nearly as sick as you were, Lin." But he draws the blanket closer around his body as he shivers, and sets into a cough.
Linora gets to her feet at that, barely giving Kezz a glance as she moves over to Cress's chair. "I dunno if you are or not, but you're /going/ to see a healer." She sets her jaw, her own discomfort forgotten in her concern for him, and folds her arms across her chest to glare down at him.
Cress gives her his best puppy-eye look, which only makes his face crumble in a strange 'lizard-looking expression. "I'm not sick," he croaks in a hoarse whisper.
Linora isn't fooled, nope. "Get up." She holds out a hand, looks like he could use some help. "I'll walk you there." And make good and sure he goes.
Cress sighs, and takes her hand, getting up from the chair, almost getting caught in the blanket. "Allright." Poor boy can't say no to her.
Linora smiles as Cress gets to his feet. Much better. "Seeya, Kezz." She stops just long enough to retrieve the book from her chair, tucking it under one arm before she hauls Cress off to the infirmary. Nicely.
Gar Hold Infirmary
Cress is led in by Linora.
Linora walks Cress right over to an empty cot and sits him down, one hand smoothing his hair back off his forehead. "You oughtta lie down and stuff," she whispers. Her eyes are really concerned now, she remembers how bad she felt.
Roles shifted, Cress does as she says, after all she'd been a good patient, right? "Allright, allright. But I'm not /that/ sick, really." Just a cold. A bad one maybe, but no pneumonia, he's sure of that.
Linora walks round to pull off Cress's boots for him. Can't sleep in those, nope. A bit winded from the effort and the walk, she sits down on the cot next to him, smoothing the blankets over him and looking down at him with a worried expression. "Better?"
"Yes, but you didn't have to do this, ya know," Cress says, seeing that she's not feeling too good herself. "I wouldn't want you to get sick again..." See, how can he be sick, when he has strengh enough to worry about her?
Linora smiles a bit weakly, "Don't worry," she says. "I just gotta rest and stuff." At least, she hopes she's not going to get any sicker... hopes in fact that it won't be long before she's better. She reaches with one hand to caress his face.
Cress sighs, and shoves the blanket down around his midriff, suddenly feeling hot. Hot, cold, hot, cold. Why couldn't his body make up its mind? Actually, he'd rather be cold as it reminded him of 'home'. Well, the north anyway. "Go ahead and rest then," he says giving her a halfsmile, "I'll be allright."
Linora leans down to kiss his forehead. Finding it hot, she gets to her feet and crosses the room to retrieve a soft cloth. She soaks it in a pail of cool water and crosses back to Cress's cot, folding it carefully and laying it gently across his forehead. "I'll stay here a little while," she says softly, seeing no sign of healer or assistants.
Cress is certainly grateful that she'll stay. However he doesn't want to be the reason that she might get sick again. "You shouldn't, you know?" Stay that is. As she obviously isn't completely well herself, and doesn't really look it either.
Linora isn't. But if she thinks about Cress, she won't be so... worried. It does seem to be taking such a long time to feel better. She sits back down on the cot beside him, facing him, and turns the cloth so the cooler side is against his forehead, smoothing his hair with one hand. "It's okay. I want to."
Cress is starting to feel slighty uncomfortable. He's never had anyone treat him this way, when he was sick. At least not since he was a kid, and that seems like such a long time ago. His face flushes, and it's not because he has a fever..
Linora notices the flush... she might have thought it was fever if she couldn't also feel him stiffen slightly. She withdraws her hand and folds it over the other in her lap. "I can go, ifya want." Just a whisper. She doesn't dare look into his eyes, for fear he'll see just how much she doesn't want to do that.
Leave? He didn't /want/ her to leave, but he didn't want her to get sick again either. "No, you can stay," he mumbles. "Just do me a favour and get under the covers..."
Linora blinks. Once. Twice. Did she hear him properly? She takes a look around the infirmary. And shrugs. And slips off her sandals. Surely nobody will mind. The cot's plenty big enough. And she /is/ tired. But she checks. "You won't be too warm?"
Cress blinks too. He hadn't meant to come under /his/ covers, just under /some/ covers. Preferable in the next cot! But he wasn't gonna say anything now, was he? 'Cus this was kinda nice, and there weren't anyone around to see 'em. And they weren't really doing anything. Just lying side by side....
Not doing anything. Linora sighs as she settles back. Who feels well enough to do anything? She shifts a bit to make herself more comfortable, ending up with her head on Cress's shoulder and one arm across him. Too forward? Just tell her, and she'll go away... if she's still awake, that is.
They're here now, together. No reason to mess with that is Cress' philosophy at the moment. Besides he doesn't have the energy to consider if they're doing anything wrong. Not that he ever /did/ consider if they did anything wrong. He's a traveller after all, and things were.. diffent, in a caravan.
Another soft sigh, and Lin's breathing evens out. It's only a little raspy now, really. And she's so comfortable... how could she ever want to be anyplace else? She's completely forgotten all the reasons she shouldn't be right where she is... maybe she'll remember when she wakes up...
Cress curls his arm up and around her shoulders, holding her lightly. "Mmmmm," he rumbles, not being able to find any words as to what he's feeling at the moment. Good just didn't cover it.
Linora mmms and snuggles a bit closer as Cress's arm wraps around her. Definitely beyond good.
Cress can't keep his eyes open, and turns his head so that it rest on top of Lin's. Mmmm, this is a good way to sleep, can't think of anything better really, is his last thought before drifting away.
Linora is only half aware that Cress has fallen asleep, her ears filled with the steady beating of his heart and the even rhythm of his breathing. She only thinks that she's never felt quite so safe, quite so content... and soon she can't think of anything at all.