BOOK 2 CHAPTER 15
“You want to go and stop them?” Maria asked to confirm what she had already guessed.
“Hold on, you kids don’t want to go out there,” The old captain, said as the others moved to go prepare for the incoming wounded. “You might not have ever seen a Beast before but they’re not something to be handled casually. You should go home for now, Beast attacks aren’t pretty…” He went to go help the others, leaving them with that final warning.
“Isn’t that a good way to spread my name and earn people’s trust?” Tirr whispered once they were alone. “If we handle this before the Water Temple does, we can speed this whole problem up. We can get there a lot faster on Garm and take care of everything before the water people even show up!”
“Nerida said it’d be bad if we stood out too quickly remember?” Maria whispered back, “We do this, and everyone here will know about you, good or bad.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here and do nothing right?” Tirr added frustrated. “It took us 2 hours to get here from the temple and they said it’s another two hours to the town where the attack is right? It’s going to take them forever to get there even if Nerida leaves right away!”
“That’s…” Maria couldn’t argue “ she pursed her lips thinking, “Fine, but we won’t ride Garm, he’d stand out too much, and we’ll stick to the outside and just help with the wounded until the water priests arrive. The guards should be able to hold out that long at least.”
“Okay!” Tirr replied happily, agreeing to her conditions as he quickly pulled her along. They left quickly, saying a quick goodbye to the staff who were disappointed to see them go, but couldn’t ask a volunteer to help them with such an influx of patients.
As they got outside, they quickly found the carriage Nerida had hired for them for their trips around the City. After giving the driver the name of the town they needed to head to, they took off, Tirr’s impatience clear as they moved slowly through the city’s streets.
The capital of Lutel was split between the Central city where the palace and Water temple resided, and a series of smaller port towns that resided on the Coastline nearby. As they traveled along, the atmosphere changed as they got closer and closer to the site of the attack. The streets seemed to empty, and more and more guards seemed to stream by, all heading in the same direction as them.
Eventually, they reached a blockade set up by some of Lutel’s guards, turning away travelers and warning them of the danger up ahead.
“You’ll want to turn back, this is no place for women and children right now…” One of the guards said as he came up to the carriage.
Before Tirr could get frustrated, Maria spoke up quickly, “We’re healers! We heard about the attacks and wanted to help with the wounded…”
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The guard looked skeptical but relented as Maria quickly lifted and showed him her bag of herbs and tonics. “They’ve set up a temporary hospital in a warehouse about a mile or two up ahead, they could use all the help they can get…”
“That’s why we’re here…” Maria agreed.
The Guard nodded thankfully, “The hospital is far enough from their landing point that it’s pretty safe for now, especially with the water priests showing up in the next few hours.” The Guard gave Tirr a quick look frowning, “Still you might want to leave the child behind.”
“He’s my assistant…” Maria lied quickly, putting a hand on Tirr’s shoulder to calm him.
The guard nodded waving them through and other guards moved the blockades out of the way to let them pass. The carriage continued down the road and deserted buildings until they reached the large warehouse that they had been told about it.
Teams of guards moved around the building, guarding the perimeter and bringing in the wounded from further into the town. As the carriage stopped, Maria quickly explained why they were there to the waiting guards and instructed the carriage to leave before entering with Tirr and Garm.
They were greeted with the smell of blood and burnt flesh and Maria could not help but frown at the memories it brought up. In front of them were rows and rows of injured set up on cots with people running this way and that, trying their best to keep them all alive.
Nearby was a wounded man who’s arm seemed to be missing most of its skin. What kind of Beast did that? Maria could not help but think to herself.
She reached out to one of the healers there and after a quick demonstration of her Blessing was quickly shown to the patients with the worst injuries. She went to work immediately, with Tirr mostly watching and occasionally lending her some of his Faith.
As they worked, more and more wounded came in, and soon Maria was healing each person just enough to be moved out, conserving as much energy as possible. Even then, the wounded only grew in numbers and she heard the guards whispering about the Beasts coming closer.
Tirr frowned, it had already been a few hours since they had arrived, and the water temple hadn’t shown up yet. The healers in the warehouse whispered in concerned tones, trying to hide their fear from the wounded nearby.
Tirr looked towards Maria impatiently with a silent request, but Maria shook her head before moving to the next patient. They kept the healing going for another hour, while the mood around the hospital slowly grew grimmer.
Suddenly there was a yell outside, followed by the sounds of fighting. The guards streamed out to assist, leaving the hospital workers to shrink in fear.
As the fighting outside seemed to intensify, Tirr looked at Maria again. Only for one of the boarded-up windows nearby to suddenly be smashed open.
Through the now open shutter, a strange rough-textured arm entered, and grabbing the window, pulled the rest of its body up and over, landing with a crash.
As the injured and workers scream and ran, Tirr got a good look at the beast for the first time. It was a starfish, with an almost rocky skin and star-like shape, but was the size of a large dog. It pulled itself upright, waving slightly on its arms as it adjusted to the new area. Sensing its prey moving, it waddled after them with surprising speed until it came face to face with someone who didn’t run.
Confused, it slowed down deciding on caution. It lifted itself, showing the mouth that lay hidden at its center, and spat a sizzling yellow liquid at the strange prey.
Tirr watched calmly as the liquid came flying at him. He held out a hand and a wall of light appeared, stopping the liquid just in front of him. Tirr started at the strange Beast with anger pulsing through him as he held Garm with his other arm.
“Are you stupid?” He asked, looking down at the Beast…