Through The Smoke

"Something I shouldn't see?"

"Let's just say there's a lot of blood," the soldier simply put it for her.

"Oh..." Nina didn't look in that direction yet since she had been facing the other way when she was searching for a stick to use as a crutch.

"Anyway, let's move. We need to find out what happened to the dragon and if the rest of the city is also like this."

"Oh!" Nina had been so distracted by the things that happened here that she forgot something very important. Was her family alright? Around this time, her father would usually be outside checking on the status of his territory and overseeing repairs. That meant that there was the chance he might have been caught in the dragon's attack.

She needed to go find him quickly and make sure that he was safe. And her mother too in case she decided to go outside with him during his inspection today. Nina hurriedly got up, using the stick to push herself. But since she was in a rush, she was careless and accidentally used her injured leg to stand up and almost fell back down again. "Ah!"

The soldier just noticed that she was injured and rushed over to her. He helped her steady herself and let go of her once she was on her feet. "Is it your leg or your foot?" he asked, not sure of which part it is that was hurt.

"I think it's my leg," she replied. It was the area just above her foot and it didn't really matter what she answered with since it could have been either one that was injured. She wasn't sure since the part where she felt pain could be either her foot or leg or even both.

"Well, if it's your leg, it's not that big of a deal since you can still walk, but if it's your foot..." then it was a different story.

"What do you mean?" Did it really matter whether it was her foot or leg that was injured? Either way, she was going to have trouble walking.

"You're going to be needing that stick either way, but if it's your foot and not your leg then you need to be extra careful."

"Why?"

"If I'm not wrong, the place where you are hurting is where the talus is. If it's your talus that is broken then you definitely shouldn't move at all?"

"Talus?"

"The bone that connects the foot and leg. I've broken it before and you shouldn't be moving around if it is broken."

"Oh."

"Anyway, you shouldn't be moving with any injuries in the first place," the soldier pointed out. Regardless of what bone was broken, if possible, it was best if the person didn't move, but it wasn't like they could rest easy here and wait for someone to come and help her.

"You know what? I'll just carry you," the soldier suggested.

"No, you don't have to. I can walk by myself."

"I'm against that. Don't worry, I carry heavy equipment all the time as a soldier." He assured her that carrying her on his back wouldn't be a problem.

"No-"

An eruption interrupted their conversation and the two turned to see what was going on in the city. In front of them, there was a pillar of flame that was touching the sky not too far away from them. In fact, they could even feel some of the heat from here.

"Dear God..." the soldier took a few steps towards the flame before stopping and watching it. The flames spun around like a cylinder and disappeared after a short amount of time.

Looks like that answers a couple of their questions. The dragon was still alive and kicking and the city was still under attack. Chances were that the entire city looked just like this area right now.

"Are the knights fighting it?" Nina asked.

"Seems like it." For the dragon to use such an attack, it was probably fighting against the knights right now. What this meant was that the knights were still alive as well and were doing their best to take down the beast. There was still hope and the kingdom wasn't doomed... at least not yet.

"I need to go there." Nina didn't care if she had a broken bone or not. She needed to go into the city to see if her father was okay even if it meant risking her life for it. She already lost Kies and she wasn't going to stand by this time and watch someone else she loved die.

The soldier saw that Nina was forcing herself to walk with her injury and quickly went over to stop her. "Don't push yourself, it'll only make the injury worse."

"I can't just sit here and do nothing."

"You're a civilian, so you technically can just sit here and watch as everything plays out."

But she wasn't going to do that. There was nothing worse in her opinion than just standing by and doing nothing when she had the power to do something. She was born with the ability to heal people and it was her responsibility to help people with her magic if they needed it.

It goes without saying that there were definitely going to be wounded soldiers and knights where the dragon is. If she could, she wanted to help them. They were fighting for their sake and she wanted to assist them in their fight too. But then there was her family too... She needed to check if they were okay.

The soldier saw the look on Nina's face and knew exactly what she was thinking. "That's not a good idea," he told her. "You're not a soldier, there is no need for you to be putting your life on the line for something that it's our responsibility to handle." Furthermore, Nina was also hurt herself, and she should be recovering instead of doing something like this.

After some consideration, Nina figured out what she should do. "How about this, I'll come with you and heal all the injured people along the way until I get close to home. Then I'll leave," she suggested to the soldier. This wasn't as dangerous as confronting the dragon, and she could both help out people and check on her family at the same time.

The soldier thought about it for a second and nodded his head. "I guess that's fine." He still sounded a bit reluctant about having a civilian do all of this, but they needed all the help they could get right now. "Let's go."

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