Top priority

Wura did not know why she held Mero's gaze longer than she should have, there was just something with the way he looked at her... it was like he was no longer upset with her, and that made her happy. 

It made her very happy, but now was not the time to think about that, there was a very important matter on ground that needed to be handled.

For one, this noise was starting to become maddening, it did nothing but make everywhere feel disorganized and tumultuous, there were certainly people in the crowd, such as the elderly and young children who did not need this kind of noise. Wura could promise you that she could hear the faint crying of young children mixed into the loud noises.

"And how exactly do we do that Sir Mero? The people are disorganized, we have tried everything to calm them down, but they will not listen" said one of the guards as Mero looked at him and seemed to be deep in his own thoughts, thinking of what exactly he should do.

This was certainly not what he thought the camp would be like once Wura was finally ready to meet the people, this was a sharp contrast to the peaceful setting that they had arrived in. It certainly was intimidating and daunting, seeing and hearing such shouts and displays of anger.

"Have you tried to maybe separate the crowd into tinier groups? That way there would be some calmness" said Wura as the guard looked at her.

"It is almost impossible for us to be able to do that without harming some people my Queen, there are some that are extremely aggressive, and I believe that you would not want to resort to brute force your Majesty" said the guard as Wura agreed with him as she nodded her head, she certainly did not want to harm anyone even though she wanted this huge commotion to be silenced already.

Wura sighed, she was in a very tough situation, and it looked like Mero did not know what to do as much as she did not know what to do.

"A major reason that they are this unrestful, is because they do not believe that I am actually present here" said Wura.

"So if there was a way to alert them and show them that I am truly here, maybe that will make them calm down" said Wura as she nodded.

"Yes, that should be the top priority, we need to get them all to calm down" said Wura as that was easier said than done, how was she to alert them of her presence when she could barely hear herself think?

"How are we supposed to do that?" asked the guard as that was exactly what Wura was asking herself.

Wura knew that there was no time to think about that logically, if they dallied anymore a full blown riot could breakout and end up hurting innocent people, so without thinking she started to shout at the top of her lungs that everyone calm down.

"Everyone calm down, please calm down!" she said as she shouted, but all to no avail, she would achieve nothing but straining her voice by shouting, she could not even hear herself amidst all the noise.

"This is not going to work" said Wura as she sighed in frustration.

"The two of you, rally three other guards and find wooden boxes from anywhere that you can stack up" said Mero as he finally spoke up and Wura along with the two guards turned to look at him as the guards nodded and immediately rushed to carry out his orders.

"Mero what are you trying to do?" asked Wura as she was confused as to what Mero was trying to achieve by telling the guards to stack up wooden boxes.

"It is clear that everyone is not going to calm down any time soon, and you are the only one that can make them calm down, but they cannot see or hear you" said Mero as one of the guards showed him a wooden box that he was carrying as Mero gestured with his hands that he set it right there and the guard nodded, telling his other counterparts to do the same with their own boxes.

The wooden boxes were actually wooden crates that were used by people in the markets to store their fresh produce like onions, potatoes and more, and they were lying around this area since this was where the aid carriages would often stop and distribute the relief items and in this case it was very convenient for what Mero was trying to achieve.

"The best way to combat that is to make sure that they can see you and hear you, and in order for that to happen, you need a platform" said Mero as he gently pulled Wura out of the way of a guard who was carrying a heavy looking wooden box and he could not see ahead of himself as the box was blocking his view.

"I see, but do you really think the guards will be able to find so many wooden boxes?" asked Wura as she looked at him and internally thanked him for moving her out of the way.

"The platform does not need to be too high, only high enough for everyone's attention to be on you" said Mero as Wura nodded.

"Sir Mero, we are done, these are all the empty wooden boxes we could find" said the guard as Mero turned to look at him and then at the makeshift platform that they had made, it consisted of what Mero thought were ten wooden boxes all stacked up together, the bottom part of the boxes were four, then layered on top of it were three boxes, and then on top of that were the two last boxes, and beside the stacked up boxes were two left out.

"That was quick" said Wura as she looked at the platform and Mero agreed, the guards were very efficient.

"So I stand on top of that?" asked Wura as Mero nodded.

"Alright..." said Wura as she and Mero walked to the boxes, to be honest, she was not sure if this makeshift platform was steady... it looked steady enough, but at the same time it also looked like if wind was to start blowing it would come tumbling down.

That did give Wura some concern, but she was not too worried about falling, she knew that Mero would never let her fall.

Mero stood on the first wooden box as he stretched his hand out and Wura took his hand as he helped her up and as she looked at the platform she was supposed to stand on, she was sure that it was definitely not as sturdy as she would have preferred it to be, but the aim was just to get the attention of the people and then she could get down from there very quickly.

"Are you alright?" asked Mero as Wura looked at him and nodded, he could see that she was having doubts concerning the safety of this platform.

"I am fine Mero, just help me up" said Wura as Mero nodded and he held her by her waist and lifted her up onto the top of of the platform as if she weighed nothing at all.

Wura made sure that she was standing firmly as she took one look down and immediately wanted to get this over and done with. She did not consider herself someone who was afraid of heights, but this height that she was at was making her feel uneasy.

Mero gently let go of her as he made sure to standby in case something happened and she fell.

"Everyone listen to me please" said Wura as she shouted, curving her hands around her mouth in order to make her voice louder but it was all to no avail, it seemed like no one was listening to her, so she tried again, and again, and it was clear that she was just straining her voice.

Wura sighed in frustration, this was annoying, how else was she supposed to get everyone's attention? They could see her up here but they did not seem to care at all.

Wura looked down at Mero and he seemed to be more irritated than she was he gestured to the guards and said something to them that Wura was unable to hear, all she saw was the guards nodding and leaving as the next moment the loud sound that sounded like loud crashing startled everyone and caused them to be silent.

Even Wura herself was startled and would have fell if not that she saw the guards moving around.

"Everyone listen now and be silent, the Queen wants to speak to you" said Mero as he shouted and his voice could be heard by everyone loud and clear.

Wura looked up as she could see everyone and they were completely quiet... she was not used to this kind of silence, if you has asked her a moment ago if the loud commotion could have been stopped she would have said no, but here it was, peaceful and silent once again.

"Now you can speak" said Mero as Wura looked at him and nodded and looked back at the crowd as all their attention was on her.