Finishing up February

I think I'll start my Friday Five tomorrow and Sunday Six this weekend, give a fresh start with March. So here's some more from what I wrote the other day, just to finished up the month.

Xiang tucked his crutch under one arm and hobbled toward the infirmary. He'd been on his feet all day which was why his tired overworked leg needed that extra support. He was actually supposed to be off-shift by now, but they were a bit short-staffed since a couple traveling crews had come through town looking for a doctor to come along with them. It happened sometimes. People stopped by to pick up some medicine and decided it'd be better to hire a willing medic to join their crew so they could have someone around to fix their wounds at all times. They never seemed to pick Xiang.

Xiang told himself it was because he was still just an apprentice, too young to go off gallivanting in airships while he was still learning his trade. Of course, traveling would lend to his experience, he knew that, but how was he to convince others? It didn't matter how skilled he was, his natural aptitude, and his ability to pinpoint symptoms: people looked at him and passed him right over.

Doctor Carswell had gone as well as Doctor Heyward and even Doctor Malhotra, who'd barely been a doctor long enough to qualify, Xiang thought. He couldn't be jealous. Indira Malhotra had been his closest friend at the hospital and it was an incredible opportunity. Maybe within six months or a year, he too could be boarding a ship for his first space travel.

Xiang and Fox (from yesterday) are both major characters in a novel series I'm working on. However, this vignette is a scene that won't be in the series proper, so I figured I could smut it up and send it off to bb_shousetsu.