[prp] Maybe some help? (Rhiyn, Nim)

[Thaliawen]

It’d been going on for a while, but this recent Threadfall had Rhiyn shaken. Demanthra could’ve died. She’d gotten hurt, maybe not as much as she could have, but Monath had gotten hurt. He’d fretted, and while not quite panicked, Rhiyn knew something needed done. He needed to talk to someone, and Demanthra wouldn’t understand. He couldn’t talk to his foster mother, she’d start crying.

“Are you in?” He asked, knocking at the door. Hopefully Nim would be. Hopefully talking it through would help. Hopefully, he wouldn’t have to tell Demanthra how he felt.  

[Sinders Path]

Nimueh was sitting at her desk as usual, her head bent over a note book as her quill busily ordered her thoughts down onto to the paper. So much better than the old hide scrolls and it held ink much more easily.
When she heard a knock at the door she raised her head, set down her quill and turned towards the entrance of the small room.

"I'm here, you can come in." She replied her voice warm and welcoming.
In fact everything about Nim was quietly comforting. She had an open welcoming face and an ever present smile. She was older as well, adding a slight motherly air to her as the years had come with mild love handles and a few laughter lines around her eyes.

The room itself had a similar vibe with old worn padded chairs set up by an unlit fire and a pot of Klah sat on a side table with filled the area with its rich homely aroma. "Do you have an appointment?" Nim asked gently, reaching for her dairy as she spoke.  

[Thaliawen]

Rhiyn opened the door and stepped into the small room. The teenager seemed nervous, but seemed to settle when he looked around. This woman seemed nice enough. “Appointment? No. Was I supposed to?” He asked. “My name’s Rhiyn. It’s a rest day and I thought... You talk to people, don’t you?”

Talking would help, wouldn’t it? “My best friend’s a dragonrider, so she fights Thread, and I recently lost my brother to Thread so...” It was hard for Rhiyn to admit that. It’d taken him a long time to acknowledge that G’ret was dead.  

[Sinders Path]

Nim's smile didn't fade but she raised one brow slightly. "Yes, an appointment is standard but I think we can make an exception this once I don't have any one else due for a few hours at least." she assured him setting the diary back in place without opening it.
"And yes. I suppose that is essentially what I do. I'm a good listener as well." She stood up slowly and and walked over to the two well padded arm chairs. She patted one gently. "Come sit down. You're not the first person to come here because of thread related loss. I sadly doubt you will be the last." She told him before pouring two mugs of the steaming Klah and pressing one into his hands once he had taken a seat.

She claimed the one opposite him and took the note pad and quill into one hand while balanced the large mug of warm beverage in the other. "My name is Nimueh. And I'm sorry I didn't mean to interrupt you Rhiyn, when did you loose your brother?"  

[Thaliawen]

Oh. He hasn’t really thought about that. “I’ll make an appointment next time,” he promised. If there was a next time. He sat in the chair indicated, blinking when a mug of Klah was provided. This was nice. It was as if Nim really cared. Maybe she did.

“Last turn,” Rhiyn said, and took a sip of the steaming klah. “We were pretty close, we did everything together.” G’ret had even taken him up on his dragon a couple times. “I keep remembering that scream, and I expect to hear it from Monath. She’s my friend’s dragon.”  

[Sinders Path]

Nim studied Rhiyn with a calm measured gaze and expression that only impressed on her patients that she did care. The meeting was of a professional nature and so certain limits would be imposed, however the women would not have entered her profession or stuck at it for 20 years if her desire to help those around her with her training was not genuine.

"And have you spoken to anyone about that Rhiyn? Have you told other family or friends about how it has effected you? Or even someone like the candidate master? Coming to talk to me like this makes me think you might have struggled in that regard, though it's obviously been bubbling under the surface for a long time." She observed pausing to take a sip of her steaming Klah while it also gave him opportunity to answer the questions posed

Nim did not want to flood him with questions or make the poor boy feel like he was being interrogated though the way he had practically spilled into her office and spewed out his source of grief and anxiety right in the door way before entering the room proper showed fairly clearly he was desperate to get it off his chest. She had to wonder how long it had been eating at him to cause such a reaction and push him to seek her out.  

[Thaliawen]

"The candidate master?" Rhiyn echoed in surprise. "I guess I've talked to my friend's dragon about it..." That didn't really count, did it? "And a friend, but..." What if he spoke about it with the wrong person? What if he was deemed unfit to Impress? "I guess I probably should've talked to Gr'del first," he muttered, "but I didn't know what to do."

He took a sip of klah, watching her from over the rim of his mug. "How do I stop being so afraid?" he asked. "I hate seeing that image. I don't know how to push past it."  

[Sinders Path]

Nim shook her head slowly. "It was only a question Rhiyn, you do not have to talk to the candidate master if you don't feel comfortable doing that, and dragons aren't a bad place to start they quite often have insights that people don't after all they spend most of their days guiding and advising their hapless riders." She smiled. "Mharlith is the first soul I reach out to when I need council and comfort.
so I encourage you to do the same if it gives you some peace."

It would be the next question which shook free some of Nicara's calm. " You want to eliminate your fear? Oh my dear boy I might be a healer but you still shouldn't ask me to work magic. Fear never goes away, all i can do is help you manage it. " she scolded him gently. "I will tell you this, every single rider in this weyr and every weyr is a fool if they are not afraid of thread. After all when we fly we are risking the most vital part of our lives, our dragons. most riders are terrified of loosing their soul bonded partner to survive and become a shell of your former self, it is fate worse than between. Yet we still fly, we still risk it because we manage our fear with training, the knowledge we are prepared as we can be, by putting trust in our fellow wing riders and any number of other factors, need to protect family or the fight for a cause much greater than ourselves. But none of those mean riders aren't still afraid."

As she spoke she reached out instinctively to Mharlith and found the comforting cushion of his sleeping muddled thoughts.

"If we all functions without fear Rhiyn I don't think we would be human. Would you still choose to eliminate tat fear while knowing that your dear friend is controlling her own terror?"  

[Thaliawen]

He couldn't be rid of his fear? But he'd thought... But... He bit his lip, looking uncertain. "I could try reaching out a dragon," he said. He knew Demanthra's dragon, but would that be enough of a bond? He didn't think so. Maybe his firelizards would help? "I have my gold flit," he offered.

"How do I manage it?" he asked, leaning forward a bit. Every rider was afraid? But how did they manage to fight Thread with all that fear? He hesitated, then when Nim continued. He thought she was right. If he lived without fear, would he be him? "I didn't know she was afraid too," he admitted, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "I don't think I could do that. But how do I deal with it as well as Demanthra does?"  

[Sinders Path]

Nimueh nodded. "It sounds like you have a decent relationship with your friends dragon so if they are willing to talk to you, that would be a good place. Or I can introduce you to my own dear Mharlith." Her smile widened and her whole expression softened with love just saying his name out loud. But Maharlith was an easy dragon to love. A gentle and truly kind hearted creature that often helped her with patients. "Mharlith is rather an unusual dragon, he will talk with almost anyone quite happily." Even though it was a physical effort for him to reach those that were not his rider of particularly in tune with him, he would always try. Part of the reason he made such a good therapy dragon. "As for you firelizard I have no doubt she can offer you some comfort, but I would not go to a flitt for advice, they are not on the same level as dragons. I don't think they even have the capacity to understand such complex emotional problems."

From somewhere within the weyr there was a rumble and trumpet of a dragon waking up and greeting the weyr and Nim turned her head towards the window on instinct. Well a good thing he was up. He couldn't just sleep the day away.

"Well Rhiyn if you want to manage fear first I need you to tell me why is it effecting you so much? Is it stopping you doing your day to day tasks? Making you shut down with your friend? Because it's clear to me you are only afraid for her because you care so deeply. Is it causing you a lot of anxiety or any sleepless nights?"