NOTE: This story takes place about one month before the discovery of firelizard eggs. This is a full post especially for the sample forum.

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Ayaluka threw off her helmet and ran into the infirmary, trying to find anyone who looked like they knew anything about healing. "Where is she? Where is she?!" she cried out loudly, jerking on the arm of the closest person with healer knots. The woman jerked free and disappeared quickly into a side room, slamming the door behind her.

All around there was bustling. It was just the ending of Threadfall over FarNorth territory, and there were injuries to tend to. She herself had minor burns on her face from hot ash, but it was nothing that needed any real medical care - there were those with major Threadburns, dislocated arms from falling off their dragons due to burn safety lines, sprains, strains, etc. But she was not there for herself.

"Where is she?!" Ayaluka declared, searching around for a sign of the only person to ever come close to her weyrmate. "Where is Nakessa? She was injured during 'Fall and I cannot find her!"

The door the woman had disappeared to opened, and some somber looking people filed out. There was a slow trumpet of dragons returning from fall through the valley, and Ayaluka knew what had happened.

::Dorjoth is no longer,:: Morshanth, her green, said mournfully in her mind, and Ayaluka's helmet dropped to the ground.

"No."

The Weyrhealer came over to her. Kellven always looked somewhat somber, but today he looked especially bleak. "Are you greenrider Nakessa's weyrmate?" he asked quietly.

"As close as you could be without actually not being it," Ayaluka said under her breath, looking mournfully down at the ground. "She's dead, isn't she?"

Kellven bent down to pick up her helmet, then putting his arm around her shoulders to guide her into an office. "Nakessa suffered major wounds to her head and chest. Threadburns. She had massive blood loss. There was nothing we could do."

"There never is." Ayaluka stared straight ahead at the wall. "Someone needs to take her body /between/ to join Dorjoth."

"You do not need to be thinking about that," Kellven told her. "One of my journeymen will escort you back to your quarters."

"Who will take Nakessa /between/?"

"Her wingleader will. She was a member the Snow Wing."

"I know that," Ayaluka said angrily. She grabbed her helmet off of Kellven's desk and walked out the door just as two burly apprentices were carrying a litter with a body covered by a white sheet. She jumped backwards, her breathing heavy. "Is that Nakessa?" she asked Kellven.

"You do not want to see her, Ayaluka."

"I have to. She was best friend." Kellven did not stop her as she reached forward and pulled the sheet back. Nakessa's face was burnt and bloody, and there were entire pieces of skin missing from the thread that had bore into her face and shoulders. Ayaluka gasped, dropping the sheet. Kellven quickly hurried forward to pull the sheet back over Nakessa's face. "I would like her knots, if you do not mind. She has no family - her parents are both dead, no siblings."

Kellven reached under the sheet and detatched Nakessa's shoulder knots, handing them to Ayaluka before directing the two apprentices to take the body out to the waiting bronzerider who would complete Nakessa's last trip /between/. The greenrider watched as they took the body away, fingering Nakessa's knots. The blue defining the color of her dragon mixed with the white and gray of the Snow Wing mixed so well in her grasp as she watched her best friend being taken away.