Krohska.

Krohska woke up to the sound of humming, and immediately wished she hadn't woken up from her blissful sleep, as the pain from her injuries was unbearable.

But followed on instantly from that thought was assurances to herself that she had to stay awake - it was weak if she fell back to sleep. Utterly weak.

As much as she tried to stay quiet so the other person in the room (whose humming was amazingly annoying), Krohska after a moment groaned, but stifled it: not before the other person was alerted though.

"Oh, so you're awake!" A young female voice said happily. Krohska opened her eyes, dismayed to find she could only see out of one of them, but still didn't utter a sound. She was surrounded by a white curtain on all sides, except for one that faced a wall. She could tell the room she was in was large.

"Are you awake?" The young voice ventured when there was no response. Krohska kept quiet, and obviously the girl decided that she'd imagined it. But Krohska found her quiet mumblings to herself rather interesting - but still she didn't move, mostly because she was too sore, and didn't utter a sound.

"Well, lets see, I'm supposed to give her this..." There was a pause. "But I'm not allowed to go in there until she's waken up. I'll wake her up, I think... she's slept long enough, no matter what Geralden says. But then, I'm supposed to- oh!"

There was another pause and then the curtain was swept back. Krohska blinked as light flooded through, squinting as she raised herself on one elbow painfully from the cot she was in, peering at the young girl who stood there with a large grin on her face.

The grin quickly faded, and the girl gave a gasp and recoiled, her eyes wide and filling with tears.

Unsure of why she'd done it, Krohska looked at her curiously, though her expression showed nothing but indifference.

"You're... you're..." The girl gaped at her a moment longer, and then burst into tears. "You..."

"Minella! Who are you talking to? Has she woken up yet?" Krohska heard footsteps from outside, and her good eye darted towards the door, where an older man stood, frowning at Minella. When he saw Krohska his expression immediately softened.

"Minella, she'll be okay," The man told the girl firmly. "Leave us for a moment, will you?"

The girl gaped at Krohska, apparently unable to tear her eyes from the older woman. "She's..."

"Minella. You're not helping." The man put a firm hand on her shoulder, and guided her out the door. "Go and get one of the bubblies the Headwoman's cooking, ok, Minella?" Krohska could only guess that Minella obeyed, as where the pair were standing was out of range of her one eye.

She heard the retreating footsteps of the girl, and then the louder ones of the man coming over to her. Krohska was tempted to sigh, wondering what Minella had been so horrified at. But she remained silent, her eye closing. Krohska put a hand to her face, wondering if she had some sort of scar - not that it would bother her too much, anyway, since then people would leave her alone as she'd always wanted.

Her hand traced the line of her mouth on the right side of her face, and she could feel that her face was normal. What had Minella been gasping at? Krohska gave a silent snort, feeling like rolling her eyes at flightly girls.

A gentle hand stopped her own as it felt along her face. Krohska froze, stiffening and jerking her hand away from the contact.

"It's not there," The man said softly. Krohska's eyes flew open, and her own brown ones met concerned green eyes of the man. Reclaiming her hand despite Krohska's unwillingness, he put her fingers on her left cheek. Wincing from the pain but trying not to show it. The man must have felt her reaction, but didn't move her fingers from her cheek.

Krohska could feel it now. The skin of her cheek was dry, marred by deep gouges. It was rough, like untreated leather - not as skin should be. The fleshy part of her cheek was swollen, and was hot to the touch; she wasn't a healer, but she could feel the infection. The ache in her nose was identified as being charred on one side as the man moved her fingers. Her forehead was basically untouched, but her eye was... her eye just wasn't there. She couldn't feel any skin on her jawbone, just the same rough texture.

As the man's hands moved hers around the left side of her face, Krohska gave a jerk and brought her hand to her mouth, which he had been avoiding. Only the corner of her lips were harmed, but they were glued together, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't prise the corner of her mouth apart. She eventually gave up because it hurt too much.

The man had stepped back, and Krohska could feel his eyes on hers. She didn't know what to think - she had said she wouldn't mind if she had scars, but now that she knew she did... she didn't understand. She didn't know. She didn't know whether it would be accpetable to cry, or whether that would be viewed as self-pity. Her mind chased answers, but then came to a grinding halt as they weren't forthcoming.

She just didn't know.

Krohska knew life was cruel - it was what kept her going. Her life hadn't ever been exactly kind to her, but she enjoyed it because of that; things weren't meant to be perfect, things weren't meant to be kind. When she'd seen the hatching of the dragons, she'd been affected because it had been so perfect. Not like how life was meant to be, not cruel and harsh as she had expected things to be. Scars... they were only physical. They were cruel.

Her head was bowed as she finally came to a conclusion on how she felt about having horrid scars on her face: she didn't care.

Krohska, with that resolve in mind, jerked her chin up and glared at the healer, who looked taken aback. "I want to get out of here. I don't belong in a Weyr." Her voice was low, and hoarse, but no-one in their right mind would want to argue with her. Including the healer, no matter what he deducted from his patient's strange behaviour.

The man inclined his head, though his brow was furrowed. "As you wish," He said quietly. "Tripaldi will supply you with anything you need to-"

"I don't need anyone's help." Krohska stated, her voice a monotone. It had no inflections, no timbre to it at all.

There was a long pause as the healer considered. "As you wish." The man repeated, inclining his head once again and retreating in confusion. He supposed it was just shock, and she'd reconsider whatever strange ideas she had in her head. He hadn't mentioned the death of the greenrider that the young woman had no doubt caused; she had enough grief, without dealing with guilt as well.

The healer didn't know what to think, when he returned later to find Krohska's cot empty. Immediately he sent workers to look for her - she wasn't in any state to be travelling. He wanted her at the Weyr, no matter what the girl thought she was doing.

Continue...