Pushing through

"Speech"

Nearly there, the trip through the mountain pass had gone without a hitch. The climb to the village was a little more difficult but again no issues. Other than being very tiring, but hey, we ARE kids.

Master Roubaul had informed me before we'd left, that we shouldn't be in any additional danger this time around and everything on the quest was above board, though they hadn't heard from the small mining camp/town since the request was posted.

That wasn't too strange though, workers were busy, and the trip could be difficult.

It was no wonder they called for mages though, I seriously doubt any actual doctors would be able to get their equipment up here.

"Nearly there," I commented aloud this time.

"Then can you let go?" The embarrassed girl asked meekly.

I kept a constant hold of Wendy after she'd nearly tripped off a damn ledge, giving me and Carla duel heart attacks in the process.

Luckily, Carla's flight and agility had stopped that disaster, and now I refused to let go of the small bluette, much to Carla's agreement and Wendy's embarrassment.

"No," Was my immediate response, "Not until we're in the town, and even then, Carla's staying with you constantly."

"Yes, I am," The flying white cat agreed. Causing the team healer to pout.

After another ten minutes, we had finally arrived panting and exhausted as the twilight hour arrived.

"Finally," I'm not doing this again until I've learned to fly..." Carla, I don't suppose you can teach us Aera magic?" I panted.

"Maybe later, when I can feel my wings," Carla had been paranoid, with good reason mind you, and had been flying by Wendy's side since she tripped.

Which is probably why I had to catch her as her magic finally ran dry. Luckily, there was someone standing at the village entrance as we approached meaning it wouldn't be for much longer.

Oh, thank Hestia, people. I don't know why he's at the entrance and I don't care, "Evening." I raised my voice slightly so it would carry.

"Hoho, now, are you children lost? It's dangerous around these parts," Said a rather burly Man with short black hair and with a booming voice. Shit, he was like 7 feet tall and built like a tank, but his eyes were soft and that smile said he meant no harm... I don't like him, why?

"Trust me we're aware," I shot a look at Wendy who blushed. I looked back at the, what I'm guessing is a gate guard, "Is this Pitt, perchance?"

"Why, yes, yes it is, whatever are two children and their cat doing all the way out here?" He questioned. His accent was noticeably Queens English, interesting.

Carla responded from my grasp, rather off-put by being called what amounted to a pet, "The three of us are Wizards of Cait Shelter, responding to your mission request."

The man blinked dumbly for a moment, "My word, how peculiar." He was eyeing Carla in wonder, which caused the she-cat to twitch.

I cleared my throat, "Mage's, job?"

"Aha, yes quite, allow me to introduce myself, Alistair Anderson I'm the leader of this group, a pleasure," He introduced himself, not a guard then, but can you blame me, the man flexed happily proving my point, he was huge.

"Now I hope you don't mind, but are you children up to the task?" He changed his flex. My eye twitched, this trope seemed very familiar.

Wendy was busy between staring in wonder at the huge loud man, and twisting my arm as she decided to hide behind me.

I sighed, "Yes sir we've fought rogue Mercenaries and dire wolves before, Wendy's our healer, Carla is our Scout, and I'm demolitions and assault." I had to nod at the individual girls in lieu of my occupied hands.

"WONDERFUL! Your youth burns bright," He practically roared then began laughing, and it clicked... Please, no. He's like Might Guy and Alex Louis Armstrong all rolled into one.

The man's light skin twinkled as he wept in, joy? "I'm so very glad you've come, those under my command have come to harm, and I cannot allow their pain to continue," He dried his eyes roughly with his forearm, and a deep determination flowed through him.

"I do hope your healer is able to help us," He said earnestly. "But for now, please follow me. I'm sure you're all quite tired at the moment," The large man began pointing out several things of interest, such as the mine entrance, the medical building, mess hall, and restrooms on the way toward a small rustic log cabin. The small town was filled with small log cabins around the bigger buildings, and the grey stone made the dark brown logs really stand out.

"There should be enough space for you in here," He slammed open the door, revealing a small housing area with several white cots.

As we followed Alistair in, I released Wendy and placed Carla onto the ground while giving the man a, "Thank you." Annoying or not, the man didn't need to accommodate us, he had certainly earned my thanks.

Looking around the interior of the cabin, I realized it looked lived in, small changes in design for curtains and rugs along with carvings in the wooden bed tables, but no personal effects at all.

Strange. Maybe they'd left the site?

Wendy bowed in thanks as Carla curtsied, tired or not we all had manners.

"Think nothing of it children, breakfast will be at o'six hundred tomorrow, and then we'll see about getting to work, Haha," The man exited the cabin obviously overjoyed, but I think that was his standard.

"Sleep?" I asked.

"Sleep," Came twin responses in the affirmative. Going to need to set an alarm.

The morning came too fast, the three of us had slept well, though we were still tired and sore from yesterday.

We arrived in short order at the mess hall, where several dozen people were already gathered, a large number of them sporting small wounds and bandages.

"Aha, here they are now," Alistair bellowed. Oh, wonderful, he'd been talking about us. And from how disappointed some of these people looked now we'd walked in, age was one thing he hadn't mentioned.

Chattering started almost immediately, and Wendy was already behind me. "Tikhiy!" A woman's voice rang out, silencing the lot of them. "If they're from a guild they are authorized by their Master, deti please, introduce yourselves." The woman's accent was Russian sounding, I'm guessing the unfamiliar words are as well. She was small at just under 5 feet but muscular and extremely pale with brown hair and ice-blue eyes.

"Ah, yes, thank you dear," Alistair from yesterday said rather softly then cleared his throat, "If you would children."

I sighed, but Carla started first, "We are wizards from Cait Shelter." She paused as jaws dropped and people began again.

Ok, that's it I raised my left arm and pulled back the sleeve as I did revealing my guild mark, then before the Russian-sounding woman from before had the chance to silence them again, I did.

Bang!

A ringing like a gunshot going off pierced the noise and silenced the crowd. It was a very weak version of my back blast, tailored as a flashbang technique that I'd literally just made up that second to shut them up.

"Right, are you going to act like adults instead of just looking like them, and let us talk?" A rather embarrassed silence overtook the mess hall, except for the small woman who had begun to laugh like a mad woman. I rolled my eyes and nodded to Carla to continue.

"Right then, as I was trying to say, we are wizards from Cait Shelter here to assist with your problems. As you can see, Salem here specializes in explosives, one touch, and he can make something detonate, including himself and the air," What Carla had said got my attention, is that what I've been doing?

Carla continued unknowing of my thoughts, "Next is Wendy she uses Sky Dragon Slayer magic to enchant and heal." Wendy gave a small timid wave from behind me.

"And I am Carla, I can fly and provide overwatch. Make no mistake we've fought mercenaries and deadly creatures. Salem here fought against the Black Cat of the Northern Lions for those of you that know, don't insult us simply because we are young," The yet unknown Exceed huffed at the end of her little rant/lecture.

A number of people paled at the mention of the Lions and the Black Cat, so I guess they knew who they were. Ultimately, though that wasn't a large achievement, we'd barely proven ourselves there were far stronger out there.

The Russian-sounding woman snorted in amusement, "Khorosho! Get back to it."

"Terribly sorry about that," Alistair walked up to us with the same smaller woman in tow.

"A-ah it's alright Mister Anderson," Wendy was quiet as a mouse but had, to my surprise, spoken up. Though she WAS still behind me.

"Da, you worry too much Ali, they're cute but tough, I like them," The woman leaned into the man, making him blush while she basically purred as he wrapped an arm around her. Oh, Hestia must love these two.

"M-may I i-introduce you to my w-wife Sasha," Alistair the loud man from earlier had been replaced with a blushing tongue-tied mess. Oh, yeah, Hestia must definitely love these two.

"Thank you," Carla was the one to greet the tough-looking, if small, woman with a nod in thanks. This was followed by Wendy actually coming out from behind me with a timid smile and a wave.

"Nice to meet you," I greeted.

"Private, it is nice to meet you too, now l think you could use some Yeda," She turned, patting her husband's arm, and walked over toward the kitchen.

"Yeda?" Carla tried the word.

"She means food, apologies she tries to stay close to her mother tongue and forgets that others don't understand," Alistair defended his wife.

"I think it's nice," Wendy commented.

The man chuckled as the noise began to build up again in the mess hall.

Breakfast wasn't too bad, just some porridge, but it was filling and warm. The meal was mostly silent, considering how hungry the three of us were. Sasha was also pleased with our appetites going by her smile as we ate... Note to self, find a way to check for poison, still need that flak jacket too.

No one bothered us at least, though I think that was Sasha's doing as she glared at any other miners that approached us, which was... Concerning.

Once we were done though, the work started, and we were led to the infirmary.

And honestly it, it didn't look good. Around two dozen people were crowding a relatively small space and two people were apparently looking after them all, they looked haggard with bags under their eyes.

These wounds were bad as well. It wasn't just the side effects like the obvious fevers and gangrene, there were mangled or just straight-up missing limbs and bruising that looked internal, and two had missing eyes.

They'd been here a while as well because the smell was bad even for me. But it's the groaning and crying that can get to you if you let it because it reminded you these were people.

For Wendy, it was worsened because of her heightened senses, and caring personality, she was busy staring in horror at the scene in front of her.

I looked toward the now somber husband and wife, they were far stronger than I had given them credit, to remain upbeat when something like this was going on.

"Wendy?" Carla was taking this somewhat better and was tugging on the Dragon Slayers dress, not getting a response.

"How long have they been like this?" I could at least get some basic information that might help our small healer. While Carla continued to try and break Wendy out of her shock, trying to tug her backward.

"About two weeks now, there were others but..." The man trailed off, the implication clear. Oh, I should've expected that, I kind of did, I just didn't want to think about it. Triage gets messy quickly if not handled right, and considering the state of the infirmary, it wasn't.

"The mission asked for help with a cave-in, I'm guessing that was the cause," I wanted confirmation, and I got it, both shaking their heads up and down.

"I'm guessing not everyone made it out," I dreaded the answer.

"I'm afraid not, no," The loud man was being quiet and respectful right now, his lively face the picture of sorrow. That meant I'd be clearing bodies out during the demo, shit.

I nodded in thanks and moved in front of Wendy, the young girl hadn't moved yet, and I was getting concerned.

"Wendy?" I shook her, no response. Ok, now I am concerned. I leveled a finger at her chest. And hoped for a response.

Crack

It was a tiny explosion that had barely scorched her dress, akin to a firecracker. But it shocked her back to reality, and she was immediately latched on to me crying. I patted the girl's back, shit she's really not taking this well. I mean, I knew it would be difficult for her. But yeah, this was a bit much considering her lack of practical experience.

I was sympathetic to her, but time was of the essence here. I pushed her back and held her shoulders, "Wendy, listen to me, there's no one else that can do this, you have to try, I know you're scared but so are they. They have families waiting for them, your job is to get as many home as you can." I tried getting her to focus on healing and not the mess the patients were in, to no avail.

The girl was shaking her head, overcome with seeing these injuries at such a young age and perhaps a lack of confidence in her own abilities.

Time to be hard, "Do you want them to die?" Wendy shook her head harder this time, eyes wide in terror at the thought. Carla began my name, but I silenced her with my hand held out, luckily she trusted me enough to let me speak.

"They will if you don't try," I brought the small girl back into a hug, she was trembling. "Some might give up, but don't you dare, you're better than that, strong enough to do this. I know you can, please try," I was begging her at this point. The kind girl would never forgive herself if she left them to die, I wouldn't let that happen.

Minutes passed, but before I could speak again the young girl nodded and quietly began to move, her eyes hollow like she was on autopilot attempting to cope. Her tears said otherwise, she was bottling it up, that's not good.

"I'll help with demo later, I'm needed here right now," I told the couple watching and nodding toward my friend.

I moved to assist her, wrapping bandages, restraining patients... Removing the dead. Whatever I had to do, that I could do to help her. Right now, my friend was pushing herself hard mentally and emotionally, I'd take whatever strain I could off of her.

Carla was already following Wendy trying to help along with the staff medics as I approached, while the couple was already leaving to organize the workers for the day.

Wendy was, however, overwhelmed and paused.

"Wendy, what do you need to do, what do you need us to do?" I asked firmly.

She approached a woman with a missing eye, who was calling for a Sylvie, an obvious sign of delusion or hallucination. Her face was swollen, and she had puss in her broken left eye, it was definitely infected.

"She's too far gone," One of the medics stated, they were both wearing medical-style personal protective equipment, and I was having difficulty telling them apart.

But even so, I made my opinion known, "Shut up and help or move." I growled toward the end.

The girl held her hand above the wound and cast her healing spell then stopped, "T-the eye's d-dead, I-I can't." She looked defeated.

"You got painkillers? Morphine?" I asked. Before either of the medics could comment.

"Yes? But it won't help," The second medic spoke, this time in a tone that suggested I was an idiot.

"She allergic?" I asked.

"What? No, that's not th-" Number 2 replied.

"Get some, or I will," I commanded, cutting them off.

"What! No, we don't have enough to last a week now stop playing around," Number 2 was getting on my last nerve. I know medics and doctors are protective of their patients, but this is someone they'd already given up on.

"Carla," I got the girls' attention. "Morphine, please," I begged, the young feline looked me in the eyes and then shot off toward one of the cupboards, trust her to have the area memorized already. She returned within seconds, a vial of Morphine and syringe ready to go.

The medics closed in for the medication and the air around me crackled, stopping them, "Am I doing this or you? Choose because one will determine if I keep you in here."

With my ultimatum in place, the first medic decided that it was best to assist, much to their partner's irritation, and the medication was swiftly administered.

"Salem?" Carla questioned.

"If the eye is the problem, then it needs removing," I stepped up to the patient. They all looked a little concerned now.

"Are you crazy, you're not a surgeon," Number 2 chattered on, I ignored him.

I looked at number 1, "Magical healing is fast and effective when it has something to work on, that's why she's here." Thank you for the lessons, Carla.

"Wendy," I got the scared girls' attention, "I'm going to pull it out and cauterize the attachment, then it's up to you, I know you can do this."

The timid girl nodded shakily. My hand descended and the screaming started.

It had been hours, and the medics hadn't complained again after Wendy had closed up the wound and removed the puss and swelling. While Carla began giving water to the patients and collecting items that were needed. Though they were terrified of me... I probably should have handled it better.

Lunch had come and gone. I had to force Wendy to eat, Carla had eaten of her own volition but slowly and not much, she had thrown up earlier. I think Wendy's sky magic was helping in keeping her from throwing up. Regardless, the two had eaten. I knew better and ate without compliant stomaching it.

I thanked whatever was responsible that I had first aid training in my prior life. I'd worked in a hospital before, not as medical staff, but we all helped where we could, I've seen it all, at all ages. It numbs you, I'd forgotten. But I was used to it, it let me focus on the task at hand.

But what this stress was doing to my friends, though, that hurt to watch.

Not long after midday, nearly an hour after lunch, Wendy finally ran out of juice, she'd been healing all day, successfully I might add, and I'd had to physically stop her and return her to our lodgings with Carla.

I held the two until Wendy finally fell asleep only minutes later, it was quiet the entire time.

I breathed deep, the cleaner air.

"Carla," I got the white-furred girls' attention as I stood. She was trying, but she was almost as affected as Wendy.

"I need to move the dead from the tunnels," I was being as gentle as I could, but Carla let out a quiet whimper at the thought.

I gave the little Exceed a hug, "Stay with her, it might not feel like it, but you're doing great."

"Don't die," Carla commanded softly.

I smiled at her, "I'll be back as soon as I can." I held her head for a moment and looked her in the eyes, she was still there mentally at the moment, I put her on top of the sleeping girl and hoped they would be OK.

Exiting the room, I moved toward the tunnels with purpose, the sooner this was done the better.

It was at the entrance I spotted Alistair talking to the other miners, though I only caught the tail end "... Them rest for now."

"Not necessary," I announced my presence.

"Ah, young Salem, shouldn't you be resting?" The man smiled sadly at me.

"I'm good, my magic reserves are still full," I got right to business.

"That's not what I meant young man," Alistair, bless his heart, was trying to be gentle for me. I mean I was still covered in blood from earlier, so I must have looked a sight.

"It's fine, I've worked with medics before, believe it or not, I've seen worse," I said honestly, and realized I'd vaguely said something about my past life without issue.

"Khorosho, let's get going," Sasha got the miners going with no further questions preventing her husband from commenting further. Then she nodded at me, "I knew you were tough." It didn't escape me that she didn't use Russian when she said that.

Alistair caved to his wife not long after, they were holding one another as we entered the mining lift.

Alistair broke the silence, trying to bring some cheer to the lift, "Well then, any idea on what we're mining here lad?"

"Can't say I do, I'd guess metal of some kind?" I continued the banter.

"Correct, iron ore to be precise," He stated.

"With how close the mountain is to the settlement I'm surprised it hasn't all been claimed already," I mentioned.

"Oh it has, we're all from the settlement you see, different people from all around Ishgar. We came to Fiore for different reasons, but well, here we are," He explained. Ah, immigration, that'd explain all the different types of people in the area.

Before any more conversations could begin, the large lift we were in stopped. And we started moving again, I was completely lost, but the miners knew the way and before long we'd arrived at the cave-in.

I sighed and got to work being careful to only use the bare minimum amount of magic needed, which amounted to basically shattering the rocks with internal flashbangs, which broke down the biggest pieces of rubble as the miners cleared it out. The shrapnel was still a pain in the ass though, so I had to have everyone stand clear when I detonated.

When I wasn't using magic, I was using a hammer I'd gotten from Sasha, who was happy to have another hand on the smaller pieces, where explosives weren't needed.

We continued for an hour, putting up new support's as we went. Then we found our first body, and it was a mess, I won't go into detail but the word paste comes to mind.

We worked long into the night and at around ten pm, and another dozen bodies later, we'd actually managed to clear the way. We were tired, sweaty and my magic was running very low, but we'd done it. Faster than I would have thought as well, magic really does help.

I'd been thanked a few times for my help to which I responded appropriately, but I had remained quiet mostly, the miners had just told me where to hit and what to detonate to which I was thankful. But I just wanted to get back to the girls at this point and make sure they're doing alright, well better at least.

We came back up the lift with the dead in tow, if I was tired before, I felt ready to collapse now. It was Alistair that basically ordered me to get some rest, and I was in no position to complain.

A few minutes later and I was back at the cabin. Hours had passed, and the work had been tedious, but we were a step closer to leaving.

I had to enter in the dark, night had long descended on the camp, both girls were awake waiting and turned to me the moment I entered. For seconds silence reigned, then I spoke, "It's done."

Wendy let out a sob, Carla had likely told her where I was, so I moved over to both of them and held Wendy as she cried. I stroked Carla's head in what I hoped was comfort while Wendy held her.

We eventually fell asleep like that. My exhaustion had caught up to me.

The next day was off to a bad start, Wendy hadn't wanted to go back, and I don't blame the young girl, it was so much pressure on her.

"Wendy," I began.

"NO!" she was sniffling again and hugging her legs. The stress had finally caught up to the young girl.

"Salem please, she can't," Carla was trying to play peacemaker, she cared about Wendy but also knew that without her people would, ultimately, die. In the end though, Wendy would always be her priority.

"Carla, she's emotional right now, that WILL pass, but when she's recovered, how would she feel knowing she left them?" I was doing this for Wendy as much as the dying. And with the way Carla deflated I think she knew that, I also think she was blaming herself for this because she was the one who originally brought the mission up.

Wendy, however, covered her ears and sank her head into her knees. She was taking this hard, understandably so. But it made me think, had something similar happened in the original timeline? She was always able to work on the wounded in the story.

This situation is so messed up, people are on their death beds and only an 8-year-old girl can save them.

I pulled Wendy up and held her hands in her lap, not easy considering her strength, "This is a bad situation to start with, we knew there'd be injured, just not how bad."

The girl remained silent, so I continued, "I'm scared too, you know? Not that people could die though, I've seen it before. But that this will break you, that terrifies me."

"You've seen this before?" Carla questioned, looking me in the eyes, Wendy leaned into me but didn't speak.

"Yeah, I've helped out some doctors before, it wasn't pretty," Again vague, but it was the truth, I'll test it later but for now. "What do you know about triage?" I asked.

The silence I got told me what I needed. It makes sense I guess, healer or not, neither were medically trained, not doctors nor nurses.

So, I continued, "Triage is prioritizing the wounded, saving those you can but in turn leaving the rest to die."

That got a reaction, Carla was wide-eyed and Wendy was looking at me horrified all over again.

"You save some rather than trying to save them all and saving no one. It's what the medics were doing," I finished.

Carla, it seemed understood but didn't like it and clenched her paws and jaw shaking but not speaking. Wendy though was in denial, "N-no, no that's, that's."

"Rational," I interrupted, "Not everyone has your abilities, they have to make do with what they can, and make hard decisions. You remember that woman, yesterday with the damaged eye I removed for you?"

Wendy went pale again and shakily nodded a yes, I'm honestly surprised neither of them had tried to leave yet, they're strong in ways that surprise me.

"She was triaged, she wasn't going to make it. Because of you, she's stable, you saved her life. I know you can do this because you already have," I informed her.

"Because of you, someone has their life back," Apart from the loss of eye I didn't say, it could be compensated for.

Wendy, bless her, took a deep shuddering breath, "Will you come with me? Both of you?"

"Always," Was my immediate response. As was Carla's, "Of course."

We returned to the medical station together, no one had died through the night, thank Hestia, and got back to work. Wendy, while still distraught, was focusing instead of trying to go on autopilot and being broken out of it constantly.

I still had to force her to take breaks and eat, but by the end of the day, everyone was stable. Giving us mages the ability to clean up a bit in the local showers.

After cleaning up some, patients that had been worked on yesterday were beginning to come around and none had died. To the civilians, it was a miracle.

Wendy was the hero of the hour, there was crying all around and I spotted Alistair posing with his shirt off crying his heart out as the news was delivered. Wendy had broken down again at it all, but this time in relief.

A/N: So Salems learn that he can talk vaguely about his past, and wendy and Carla get a taste of how the real world can be, but only a small taste.

Not every mission will be sunshine and rainbows, the fact on one died however could contradict that. Wendy is a healer, in combat instinct rules and you act. Here though you have to take it all in and while both are emotionally jarring, in a medical ward you have time to second-guess and question yourself. Wendy might be a healer but she isn't trained as one, there's a big difference. One knows what to do, maybe not entirely but they have information to fall back on and handle a situation, while as the other doesn't and is learning through experience.