Cut & Burn [Allendris but Talian and Lymsleia are welcome!]

Were Allendris a more expressive or humorous man, the look that he directed at the man who first joined him in the Healing Hall might have been droll - as it was, the narrow-eyed gaze that met Valerian's apparently amused green eyes conveyed little more than an utter lack of enthusiasm or gratitude for the fellow candidate's company. He sat up in his bed and nodded curtly, obviously the kindest greeting Allendris was willing to give. Oh, he remembered this one - how could he forget? He'd been stuck on that accursed island for nearly a week with him, and despite the young harper's professed lack of interest in anything other than his guitar and naps, the other man seemed to take an almost perverse interest in his affairs. Mainly to insult him.

It seemed today would be no different.

At least this time he could understand the source of Valerian's mirth. While he had done nothing to invite the other Stolen's smart remarks before, Allendris could acknowledge that at this particular moment in time he probably looked ridiculous. He hadn't the heart to look at his face, but from what he could see of his shoulders and arms, his formerly pale skin - bared from the waist up - was as red as steamed shellfish... and he imagined the stinging pain he was feeling was more or less equivalent to being stuck in a pot of boiling water, just the same. But it hadn't been the burn or even the discomfort that had brought him here to the healers' domain - those things had been a recent discovery of just the past few minutes, when he'd awoken to find himself not toiling away in the fields through his headache and an intense wave of nausea as he last remembered, but rather tucked into this strange bed, a cool, moistened cloth balanced precariously on his forehead.

So he imagined he must have fainted away out there like a hysteria-prone Lady.

It was a predictable outcome for a high-born glass-smith's first time on the farm, to be certain. Especially when that first time came in mid-summer, when the Southern sun was at its very hottest, and he just recently displaced from Ista's reasonably chilly Northern beaches... but at all of that didn't mean that Allendris was feeling particularly keen to share the details of his failure to contribute to Katila's farmwork that day with or even in front of Valerian. Which was why he was quite glad to turn his attention away from the abrasive young man across from him towards the hesitating healer, greeting Talian with a polite nod and a pleasant smile as he gestured graciously towards the other patient.

"I believe you should tend to him first, if you don't mind my saying. He seems to have skinned his knees quite badly."