Lady Bastat quickly left without discussing Cessilia’s orders. She was wearing a strange colored wooden hat that kept the rain away from her, but also got her many surprised stares.
“You seem to have a plan in mind, Lady Cessilia?” asked Ishira, stepping forward.
“We need to c-create a temporary hospital,” she explained.
“A hospital? But there’s none here, and we can’t possibly accommodate all the patients in a tent! We do have a few White Houses in the Capital, but...”
“We d-don’t need to t-take anyone sick to the Capital,” Cessilia shook her head. “C-can you have healers come here t-to help us?”
“There’s ten of them already, but I can ask my cousin to send more. He said we’ll provide you with anything you need to the best of our ability. He sent word to the family outside too, so more might be coming here to help out.”
“That would be g-great. We need the d-doctors to look at the p-people here and find out who needs urgent c-care. If they c-can treat them where th-they are, they d-don’t need to send them to our t-tent. In the t-tent, we can assess who c-can be taken care of here, or send them t-to the Capital for further c-care.”
Ishira stayed stunned for a few seconds, taking the time to process everything Cessilia had said.
“...You want the doctors to go and find the patients?”
“Everyone is already g-gathered here. We c-can spot p-people with the first signs of d-disease... P-people are more worried about g-getting food than looking after th-their injuries or symptoms right now, b-but if we send the d-doctors to them, we c-can find and heal injuries, or g-give them medication early.”
“We can separate them from the crowd, give them first care before they get any sicker and contaminate more people,” gasped Ishira. “Lady Cessilia, it’s brilliant! We can even use our medical students to catch something as simple as symptoms or make bandages!”
Cessilia nodded, blushing a bit.
“D-do you think we’ll have enough p-people?”
Ishira glanced at the crowd, and nodded.
“We’ll have to! The Hashat Family always takes pride in being the best healers in the Kingdom! Even if there’s not enough of us, I can assure you, everyone is going to work twice as hard to make sure the tiniest wound gets treated!”
“G-Good. C-can you ask Lord Hephael if we d–!”
A terrible uproar cut her off.
Everyone who wasn’t already looking turned their heads toward the wall, where a large crack had appeared after the men’s repeated hits. The wall began to crumble, fast… too fast. Ashen and the others had to run as fast as they could against the water to get out of there. The King and the man with the ax even had to each grab someone else to help them get out of there as the rocks fell. The water being sucked through so suddenly caused the flood to rage toward them. Despite the water going down rapidly, two men were too late to evacuate the area. A large rock fell, seemingly toward them.
Just as everyone thought they were about to get crushed, a gigantic maw appeared, grabbing the rock like a toy between its fangs.
“K-Krai!” Cessilia exclaimed in joy.
The dragon had just flown in from the side, coming out of nowhere. It spat the stones into the river, glancing at the large water stream that was going under its body as if trying to grasp what was going on. Its eyes finally fell on Ashen, the only human in the area it probably recognized. It growled.
“Ugh,” Ashen groaned back. “Of course you only come now to help, huh?”
Krai swung its large tail left and right and lowered its head to sniff the King. Ashen took a step back. He had very limited trust in the War God’s dragon.
“Sir Dragon!” exclaimed Naptunie, who had just run to Cessilia’s side. “When did he arrive?”
“I d-don’t know.” Cessilia shook her head. “He p-probably can’t fly in this weather, he must have b-been hunting in the c-countryside...”
As long as the dragon hadn’t been hunting unreasonably again, she didn’t mind much. Dragons weren’t too fond of downpours like this, as it stuck them to the ground. Especially for Krai, who, unlike her siblings’ dragons, didn’t have a body made for water...
“I hope he’s not hungry,” muttered Nana in Cessilia’s ear. “We are already very busy making food for the people...”
“He’ll b-be fine,” said Cessilia. “...K-Krai!”
The dragon immediately popped its head up, the red eyes finally finding the Princess amongst the crowd. With the rain covering the smells and pretty much everyone wearing cloaks and hoods, Krai was probably having trouble finding anyone. As soon as the dragon saw Cessilia, its large tail swung again, hitting and demolishing a small portion of the wall in one blow. Ashen rolled his eyes, exasperated.
Still, the dragon ran to Cessilia, its large snout releasing large puffs of hot steam. She patted it, happy to see the familiar large figure.
“K-Krai, I need you t-to stay still for now,” she said. “S-stay with Ashen, p-please?”
The Black Dragon growled softly against her, and its head then suddenly turned to Nana, the red irises growing larger. Poor Naptunie jumped.
“Later!” she promised. “L-later, I’ll give Sir Dragon tons of fresh beignets!”
She received a loud growl in response, and Krai turned around, crawling back to Ashen. Everyone else was completely shocked at the scene. Most were seeing a dragon for the first time, and the gigantic creature was just effortlessly tamed by a few pats and the promise of fish beignets...
“...I’ll go and share your plan with the rest of my family,” said Ishira. “The sooner we start seeing people, the better. We can send the worst cases to the Capital if there are any. I’ll tell them to sort out some space for us.”
She left and Cessilia turned to Nana.
“Is everything g-going alright?”
“We’re still distributing food, and the Yonchaa Tribe just came with more meat and people to help!” exclaimed Naptunie, excited. “But Lady Bastat is setting the tents to shield the people, and they could use more arms to help set it up! I was supposed to go ask His Majesty...”
Nana glanced toward the men now walking away from the wall. She was probably too intimidated by her King to go and ask for help, but she was now waving at one of the larger men, not the one with the ax, but a middle-aged man with a large hammer, and the round face shape characteristic of many of her family members.
“Uncle Yamam!” she said. “Are you alright? Can you come help? We need strong men to erect wooden pillars, they are heavy!”
