Cessilia’s heart dropped. The banquet! She had completely forgotten all about it. She had spent hours in the tent, caring for the sick and getting completely absorbed in treating one patient after the next, she hadn’t realized how late it had gotten outside. She nodded, a bit stunned as if she had been sucked back into reality.
“I’ll go grab Nana and Sab,” said Tessandra. “See you in a minute.”
Cessilia agreed, and as her cousin left, her eyes fell on Ashen, who had been waiting behind. She sighed and walked up to him.
“Is it v-very late?” she asked, worried.
“Not as late as she made it sound. But we should go back now. We’ve done plenty here, the rain is calming down, and I think you deserve some rest before the next battle...”
Cessilia chuckled nervously. Indeed... She had been standing up for hours with only a couple of beignets in her stomach. Now that she had stopped focusing so much, she could almost feel the fatigue weighing on her. After a quick word to say she was leaving to the doctors in the tent, which no one opposed, she stepped out, holding Ashen’s hand.
The scene outside had changed quite considerably. The queue for the beignets was now reduced to a few dozen people, and no one was looking as famished or desperate as before. In fact, the streets were much emptier, and instead, people had gone toward the dozens of tents that had appeared outside, scattered between the streets. Naptunie and Sabael came out from one of those streets, looking a bit tired as well, but calm. The rain was no more than a gentle drizzle now, nothing that they couldn’t handle on a daily basis.
“I still can’t believe so many people came,” muttered Tessandra, glancing at the queue. “I never thought I’d ever get sick of handing out fish beignets...”
“I was surprised too,” said Nana with a sad expression, “but I chatted with a few people, and they said a lot of them came from nearby villages a bit farther away, not all of them are from the Outer Capital. The flood was worse in the lowlands and midlands, and this is the highest part of the Outer Capital, so they gathered here, hoping the Ki–I mean, someone would help them out... There really aren’t normally this many people in the Outer Capital, but they didn’t have a choice. The word spread quickly after we began distributing food too! Many people arrived later, I think by word-of-mouth...”
Cessilia had that feeling too. A lot of the patients they had treated today looked exhausted, not from the downpour but from the journey to the Outer Capital. She had treated many foot wounds, twisted ankles, and other injuries that indicated the people had come from perhaps even farther away. Had the rain taken over all of the Kingdom, driving people all the way here? As the little group was getting ready to head back to the castle, she couldn’t help but glance around, surprised by the difference from the previous situation of the Outer Capital. Now that the flood was completely avoided and left as a scary memory, people looked a lot more relaxed, not so bothered anymore by the rain, even for those hanging around against the buildings’ walls, shielding themselves under the edges of the rooftops.
“What about the t-tents?” she asked. “And c-clothes. Where d-did those come from...?”
“Many tribes had to come here because of the rain too,” explained Sabael. “When they heard what we were doing, they simply installed their tents here and offered people to come in. I heard the Yonchaa Tribe and Hashat Family brought some of their people back here from the outer lands just to help out, and the word spread...”
Cessilia was shocked. This many people were all tribes from outside? She knew there were more tribes than the ones with a head seated at the Council, but looking around, she could see so many different kinds of people, attires, and body decorations, giving many clues about all the vibrant tribes that existed outside the Capital’s walls. Many were comfortably chatting with people from different tribes too, and food, money, or clothes changed hands like that. What had happened here? It looked like the former Outer Capital that was so insecure and its people reserved had now become a cultural crossroad!
“I’m so glad many people showed up to help,” sighed Nana. “I don’t mean to complain, but I think we almost emptied my tribe’s food stocks... We usually have a lot, but I think my uncles will have to fish twice as much from now on! You know, we even worked with the Yonchaa Tribe to make new types of buns! They were so nice, and they helped us make a ton more. We had meat-filled ones!”
“God, don’t ever let Krai hear about that,” chuckled Tessandra, “or any dragon, for that matter. I swear your tribe’s cupboards will be raided by something bigger and hungrier than a mob...”
Nana chuckled and glanced toward the large mountain of dark scales lying against the wall. Krai had apparently decided to simply wait there, a bit bored and taking a nap at the periphery of the streets. There was a continuous crowd of shocked and fascinated people glancing at the dragon, pretending to walk around in the rain or staring from the windows. Some children were even playing to see who would dare to get the closest to the dragon, screaming and running back when it suddenly breathed out or moved its eyes to them. Now that they were fed and the water had gone down, the children weren’t scared to play around anymore and actually seemed to have a lot of fun distracting themselves with that giant, scary toy.
“...You can tell that big boy is used to kids,” chuckled Tessandra.
Cessilia, however, had her eyes a bit away from the group of bashful kids. A young girl was crouched down, staring at the others with her head in her arms, scared and crying. There was no adult near her, but she had proper clothes on, and Cessilia was sure she had seen that child with locals earlier.
“...J-just a minute,” Cessilia muttered to their little group.
She walked away from them, going to the scared little girl. The child raised her head as she heard her approach, surprised. Cessilia crouched down to her level, smiling at her.
“...You’re n-not having fun?” Cessilia asked. “Are you p-perhaps hungry?”
The girl shook her head, her eyes going to Krai with absolute fear in them. As soon as she thought the dragon’s red eyes had crossed with hers, she jumped and hid her face.
“K-Krai is not scary,” said Cessilia. “D-dragons are nice.”
The little girl shook her head vehemently.
“No. Dragons are so scary...”
Cessilia frowned, a bit confused. Has that child seen a dragon before? She extended her hand, offering to help the girl stand up. The child took it after some hesitation. She was visibly scared of Krai, but also intrigued by the Princess, staring at her green eyes with curiosity.
“D-do you want me t-to show you? K-Krai really is nice.”
The girl stood there, her eyes riveted on the dragon. Cessilia smiled and very softly, began humming. Her voice was low, soft, but a continuous flow of sounds. It was a song, but she wasn’t singing any lyrics. Still, something strange happened. Her voice began echoing. There weren’t any walls, but Cessilia’s voice seemed to be gently bouncing off around them as if the rain was her instrument as much as her voice. Hundreds of very faint, small, and high-pitched echoes of her voice resonated around them.
Everyone close enough to hear stopped whatever they were doing, mesmerized by this unique music. On the other side, Krai rose its head and got up, walking to her. The little girl noticed and curled her body up even more, retreating against the wall. She watched as the dragon’s snout appeared under Cessilia’s arm, rubbing itself against her. Krai was growling very softly, to the same rhythm as the song.
“...He will eat you,” muttered the little girl, still scared.
Cessilia stopped humming and petted Krai’s nose, her song still echoing a bit around them.
“He won’t. ...See? He’s my f-friend...”
The little girl shook her head.
“No... Dragons eat people. Dragons are so scary...”
“N-no,” Cessilia said, “he won’t...”
“But I’ve seen it,” muttered the little girl. “Dragons eat people.”
She suddenly stood up and ran away, leaving Cessilia confused.
“...What the heck was that about?” muttered Tessandra.
Just as perplexed, Cessilia kept staring in the direction the little girl had left. How could that child have witnessed dragons eating humans? She wasn’t even ten years old, and living in the Eastern Kingdom too... She pensively kept patting Krai’s warm snout, thinking.
“I d-don’t understand...”
