<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/fd/Valdar.jpg)</div><strong>Character name:</strong>Galvren Valynar (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=234819.msg11585469#msg11585469)<br/><strong>Position:</strong>Valdar (Newly Risen)<br/><strong>Bondmate:</strong>Open<br/><strong>Tag:</strong>Shayella Sedai, mentions Avalyn Sedai.<br/><strong>Time:</strong>Morning, Saven 6th, 990NE<br/><strong>Place:</strong>Infirmary, Main Ward<br/><strong>Warning:</strong><br/><hr/><br/>He blinked in momentary surprise at her apparent confusion; he had assumed that Shayella Sedai had been absent from Tar Valon the previous week simply because she wasn't in the infirmary when he was wheeled in; Not only was it extremely rare for Shayella Sedai to leave the medical facility during the day - and sometimes during the night, if conversations with some of the volunteer Accepted could be trusted as a reliable source of information - but it was relatively well known that Shayella Sedai and Galvren were, at the very least, particularly friendly with each other (honestly, nothing that happened in the infirmary ever stayed in the infirmary; both Accepted and Trainee Warders gossiped in their own ways and their own little circles, so word of anything even remotely interesting would inevitably be leaked to<em>somebody</em>) so whenever Galvren was brought in, the general attitude he gleaned was that the Accepted tended to run off to see if Shayella Sedai was available. If she was, she appeared to be the Accepted's first choice of Sister to bring back to see to him. Sometimes she was busy, in which case he was assigned a different Aes Sedai, so that latter scenario on its own could have been shrugged off, but the fact was that he was stuck in the infirmary for a good few hours at the very least, and not once did Shayella Sedai even walk past to look in on him. Call him arrogant if you must, but that just didn't seem like Shayella Sedai; so, either she hadn't heard that he was injured, or she wasn't in Tar Valon at all. He had assumed that the latter was more likely...but he also assumed that she would have heard at least gossip about it when she returned to The White Tower, especially given how prone to gossip the Infirmary itself was. He was actually<em>extremely</em>surprised that she hadn't even heard that he was injured, especially considering that she worked in the place where they treated people who were seriously injured, after all.<br/><br/>But then, perhaps he was putting too much stock in the rumour mill. There was a good chance that it had churned out something more interesting by the time Shayella Sedai returned, or even that she simply didn't pay any attention to it. Either way...if she didn't know about his injury, than the chances were good that she didn't even know about his "promotion" to full-fledged Gaidin...which honestly? Galvren<em>loved.</em>It just meant that he got to tell one of his friends the good news himself, rather than have her be yet<em>another</em>person who heard it from a third party. However, he wanted to do it<em>properly;</em>he needed to build up to it a little, rather than just blurting it out...he was suddenly extremely glad that he was injured to the point where he had to revisit the infirmary, simply because it gave him the opportunity to<em>finally</em>tell somebody who didn't already know the story! Yes, he was bursting to tell her - as evidenced by the sudden small-but-bright smile - but he needed to pace himself. As it was, she didn't really give him much of a chance to respond to her question since she presumably saw his tightened expression of discomfort and dismissed the initial question as largely irrelevant for the time being, instead directing him to a nearby "private bed." Personally, Galvren had no issue stripping off his shirt in the middle of the foyer, but some other patients might, and it would be extremely distracting for people trying to get the attention of one of the Accepted. He inclined his head a little with a casual, offhand "Of course, Aes Sedai," as he turned around and approached the indicated bed. It was only a few steps away, which he covered fairly quickly, then turned and began to lower himself down.<br/><br/>He didn't put any weight on his left arm - he made that mistake once, and the resulting stab of pain actually served to almost bring tears to his eyes - instead using his right arm to latch onto the side of the bed and lower himself down onto it slowly and gradually. Once settled, he gripped the hem of his casual, simple white tunic and peeled it up and over his head, before shifting it and slowly peeling it off of his arm. It was relatively slow going - he didn't want to snag the tunic on anything or pull too hard - but he managed to get it off without any real issue, revealing the strips of bandaging that covered most of his upper left arm, all of his shoulder and about two thirds of his left pectoral and shoulder blade area. Despite the large area of the bandaging, there were a few slightly discoloured sections peaking out from beneath the strips of fabric, creeping onto the center of his chest, a slightly blue and yellow colouration that he guessed continued on under the bandages. The slight draft from the entrance of the Infirmary tickled along the rest of his now-bare chest....honestly, that was why he was wearing such loose clothing that day. Less chance of it snagging when he removed it in the infirmary, and much easier to slip on and off. Tight-fitting clothing had a habit of being extremely difficult to get on and off with an injury. He dropped the tunic in a pile by his side on the bed, and took a moment to recollect himself before slowly shifting his left arm up onto his lap, his right arm moving to start pulling at the edge of the bandaging. He looked up at Shayella Sedai, now fully settled, as he began to slowly unwind the bandaging covering up what remained of his injury, took a deep breath, and figured he should start by answering her medical questions one by one: She asked him a lot without really giving him a chance to respond, so he hoped he was listening closely enough to answer all of them. Sisters of the Yellow Ajah were as different from each other as anybody else, but they always seemed to ask rapid fire questions when treating a patient....the trait of a doctor, he supposed; get as much information as quickly as you can, so you could solve the issue as soon as possible.<br/><br/>"No regular pain, Shayella Sedai, just a dull ache. The only time it's actually hurt has been when somebody has bumped into me or I've put too much weight on it. Carella Sedai didn't recommend any immediate physical therapy, instead advising that I keep it as still as possible until the bruising fades." It was as he finished that sentence that the last of the bandaging was removed, revealing the extent of his aforementioned bruising; Galvren glanced down at it for a moment, and winced in self-sympathy; whilst the swelling had decreased enormously since the previous week, the bruising remained relatively untouched; there was a single, almost completely red and black circle where his shoulder met his collarbone - where the bolt struck, evidently - and out from there spiderwebbed a large network of purple, yellow and light red splotches that pockmarked a slightly more greyish blue area of his body than the rest of the skin around it, radiating out to the edge of his collarbone, about a quarter of the way around the front of his neck, then out along the shoulder, stopping just short of the joint that connected it to his upper arm. It had the look of a large, greyish bruise with a series of other, more focused and yellowing and reddening bruises overlayed over the top of it, with a small buffer of redder, more tender looking skin around said bruise. He pulled a face, and looked up at Shayella Sedai after only a moment, not really giving her a chance to respond to his answers to her questions.<br/><br/>"If you can believe it, that's the best it's looked since before last week." Ah right! She said she didn't know what happened to him...he was busy answering her important questions, but now that he had a moment....why not? He continued quickly, once again before she had a chance to cut him off. "You...really haven't heard about my visit last week? I'd assumed this lot," he gestured lazily to the infirmary in general with his head "would have at least gossiped about it for a day or two after the actual event...but that just means I get to tell you myself, which is much more satisfying." He grinned at her. "Are you familiar with the training bolts that the Valdar use? Weighted, but blunted so you can't kill anybody, primarily used to demonstrate the crossbows power against heavy armour? I took one to the shoulder from close range." He grimaced briefly. "With all due respect, Shayella Sedai, I don't recommend it in the slightest. I didn't awaken until after the healing had been completed, but they told me that it fractured my collarbone and probably shattered by shoulder. Luckily for me, Carella Sedai was available for emergency healing." He shifted his left arm a little, wincing slightly at the throb it sent through his shoulder, and rested the hand on his right wrist. Time for the stinger!<br/><br/>His grimace transformed back into a broad, bright grin as he was barely able to contain his excitement. "There is some good news, though; as it turns out, taking that bolt to the shoulder means that I passed my Final Test; I've been officially recognised as a qualified Gaidin!" His grin broke into a parted-lip beam. He had been dreaming about becoming a warder for seven years, training for it, working until he puked, then working again, through broken bones, sprained wrists, bruises, illness, rain, snow, sleet, manual labour, tedious theory lectures...through it all, what kept him going was the idea of becoming an Aes Sedai's Warder. And now...well, he had the latter part<em>done.</em>It felt too good to fully describe in words. He just wanted to hug everybody in sight...which he might end up doing, once his shoulder was fully healed. Men couldn't be Aes Sedai...but they could be the people who protected the Aes Sedai, and that was almost as great an honour in Galvren's mind. He'd worked hard for almost a decade...and that work paid off. The feeling was....indescribable. It truly, truly was, and no amount of pain or ache in his shoulder would ever take that feeling away from him, he was certain. Breaking his shoulder to become a Gaidin? Totally worth it. He would do it again in a heartbeat without any hesitation. No question. Being a Warder was...well, it was simply the greatest feeling in the world, bar none, and no level of pain would diminish it. For Galvren, it really was that simple.