Beyond the manor, deeper into the valley, Mr. Strife and his party were not faring so well. Glenn had a cure materia, but he was mentally exhausted and could only pull of the spell once on Dale who had been the most injured by the flames of the dragon. Despite this, Dale still suffered from numerous burns as did Mr. Strife who had ignored his injuries during the heat of the battle due to his great adrenaline, was now barely able to move. Mr. Zander had three gashes and was bleeding a bit, but thanks to Brian's quick effort of using Zander's shirt as a make shift bandage, it was slowed dramatically. Glenn too had suffered a nasty gash himself and had to dress his wounds doing something similar to what Brian had did for Mr. Zander. As if all of that wasn't enough, Brian was the only one who came out unscathed. Two of them were immobile, one was almost immobilized, and one was slowed a bit. Brian worried that if misfortune were to frown upon them again with another monster attack, the bulk of the defending would come down on him.

"This is not good!" Brian muttered under his breath but at the same time grateful to have survived facing a monster that none have seen in almost a century.

"Brian, you use this materia" Glenn said slowly walking over handing him his cure materia.

"I'm not very good with it, but I'll try" Brian admitted.

"Just focus on the desired effect... everyone needs a little relief from the pain, especially Mr. Strife and Dale"

"Ok..." Brian said jogging over to Mr. Strife and Dale. Dale was curled up in a fetal position with his teeth gritting in pain caused by the burns. Brian closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Within ten seconds, cool green light began to flow from the materia in his hands and bathe Dale in its glow.

"Keep focusing!" Glenn told Brian. Almost a couple minutes went by until Brian could no longer sustain his concentration. "I'm... I'm sorry" Brian shook his head.

"It's fine... now take a minute and repeat the same method for Mr. Strife" Glenn said now noticing that Dale wasn't grinding his teeth and the tension in his body seemed to ease a bit. Glenn knew that cure materia for physical conditions like burns required a stronger healing than a simple cure materia could offer. He also knew that conventional healing would still have to be in the equation.

Brian walked over to Mr. Strife now lying on the ground as well trying to keep a touch visage, he held out his hands and began focusing on Mr. Strife's body recovering. The same process took place bathing Mr. Strife in a lite green glow easing his pain. The relief quickly became apparent on Mr. Strife's face as his muscles seem to relax a little.

"You feeling better Mr. Strife?" Brian asked softly.

"I am, thank you son" Mr. Strife lied there resting a little longer.

Brian then walked over to Mr. Zander leaning against a tree with his cut off shirt wrapped around him stained crimson. Mr. Zander too was in a lot of pain and he was still bleeding a little. He was hunched over in pain cursing under his breath. Brian held the cure materia in his hand and began concentrating on his wounds healing. Again, the same process of a soft green glow began to swirl around Mr. Zander. Brian focused harder causing the light to grow in intensity, but he could not keep the concentration for too long, as he began to feel mentally drained. He held his focus for another ten seconds then almost dropped the materia when he dropped to his knees sweating. Mr. Zander seemed visibly in less pain and his bleeding began to slow dramatically, but his shirt was still stained a bright crimson red.

"Thanks Brian, I didn't know you knew how to use materia" Mr. Zander said slowly turning to him.

"I don't..." Brian said exhausted taking a minute to regain his composure.

"I feel a bit better, but I'm afraid I will only be able to walk slowly. My wounds are still serious"

"We need to get you back to town and get the doctor to treat you" Brian stood up.

"We got problems" Glenn walked over to them as Brian and Mr. Zander gave a horrified look thinking there were more monsters or worse, the dragon wasn't dead.

"Mr. Strife and Dale cannot walk and will have to be carried, their burns make walking almost impossible" Glenn assessed.

"We're stuck then..." Brian's face turned into despair.

"You will have to return to town on your own and get help" Glenn said at length.

"It will take almost an hour there and about the same returning, what if all of you get attacked?" Brian said looking at Mr. Strife and Dale who were in no position to even move.

"If we do not return by sundown, the watch will send a group to find us" Mr. Zander said confidently.

"How do you know?" Glenn asked a bit confused.

"I'm a councilman, that's how we do these patrols and have it just in case a situation like this arises" Mr. Zander said now slowly reloading this gun with two more powerful shells.

"So you're saying we should wait until sundown?" Glenn asked a bit incredulously.

"Son, I can barely take a few steps without hurting despite that materia healing. You do realize we just took down a creature that hasn't been seen in decades" Mr. Zander took a deep breath. Brian walked over to the corpse of the dragon taking note of the hits their party had scored against this fabled creature. Then he noticed there were other wounds which the dragon had which was not put there by any of them. There were multiple other nicks in its back via bullets, some deeper than others, while there were several slash injuries. Two in particular were quite deep.

"Brian! Get away from that thing, you never know if it's really dead" Mr. Zander warned.

"I'm pretty sure it's dead councilman, it's not breathing" Brian assured seeing no sign of life.

"With a little rest and some food, perhaps we can use the cure materia some more after we've regained some of our strength" Glenn suggested seeing that Councilman Zander was stubborn in his thinking.

"I'm... I'm... not hungry" Dale finally managed to get out.

"You're going to have to try" Brian shook his head.

"I'm not going to be able... to make much... headway walking myself..." Mr. Strife said lying down still in pain. Brian retrieved his backpack and began to take out some provisions they had. Mainly sandwiches which their wives had packed with a canteen of water.

"Guess we make the most of it then..." Glenn said helping Brian unpack the rest of the provisions.

"Make a fire... we'll need it if we're going to be here for a bit" Mr. Strife choked out coughing in pain.

Brian began collecting some sticks and leaves, then took some of the stones and formed a circle making a makeshift pit to start a fire. Then once he gathered enough resources, he took out his flint rock and used his knife to get the fire started. He and Glenn helped the other three get in a position around the fire. It wasn't cold right now, but as the sun would set, the Mount Nibel air would descend causing the temperature to drop. Three hours went by after they ate and Brian and Glenn used the cure materia again on everyone who was still injured, but to little avail except for Glenn. His wounds had completely stopped bleeding and had scarred up, but he knew if he got injured in the same place that it would nullify the healing already done. Both of the young men decided they would focus on keeping the fire going.

The sun was already beginning to set as the orange and crimson horizon set an ominous tone. Dale leaned against his backpack as did Mr. Strife quietly suffering in silence despite the healing they received. Mr. Zander wasn't doing too much better. Glenn and Brian too sat quietly and vigilantly watching their camp hoping that a search party would soon find and be able to help them. As the day gave way to dusk, twilight loomed as a long howl could be heard far off in the distance getting the attention of Glenn, Brian, and Mr. Zander.

"Keep your weapons ready" Mr. Zander whispered as Brian began reloading his rifle and Glenn put his axe in front of him. Mr. Strife and Dale seemed to be silently resting oblivious of the new possible threat.

Back in town, Claudia helped her mother set the table and the sun was setting. The last hints of sunrays were shining through town. Thea was at home with her mom and dad nervously sitting by her window looking out waiting for Brian and his party to emerge. Both young ladies usually wouldn't have been so worried but something inside them was telling them otherwise. Claudia's mother even seemed a bit on edge even though she would dismiss the notion. Thea was at her breaking point until she got a knock on their door. Thea dashed to it beating her mom and dad. It was Beryl and Thea's heart sank.

"Thea, have you seen Dale or do you know anything?"

"No, I was just going to ask you the same about Brian" Thea gasped.

"Something isn't right, I can feel it in my bones" Beryl shot a concerned glance toward the back exit of the village.

"You're right, I feel the same way..." Thea ran up to her room leaving the door open.

"Hi Beryl!" Thea's mom waved looking a bit confused and concerned.

"Mrs. Craven, just concerned about Dale is all..." Beryl sighed standing at the front door.

A few moments later Thea came down with two rifles, wearing her denim pants, boots, and her yellow pullover.

"Thea! What do you think you're doing?!" her father chided.

"I'm going looking for Brian and the others... Beryl, you're welcome to join me if you like" Thea said handing a rifle to her getting a bewildered look.

"You will do no such thing, there's been a slight uptick in monsters" Thea's father argued.

"Which is exactly why someone needs to go looking for them" Thea said resolutely dashing out the door past Beryl.

"Thea!" her father shouted.

"We got to inform the watch" Thea's mother suggested.

"I'll go do it" Beryl suggested. Thea's father grabbed his boots fastidiously and began putting them on.

When Thea ran out, Claudia was already arriving at her front door with a pair of boots, a pistol, and a pine green below the knee skirt.

"Great minds think alike" Thea winked. "To the mayor's house" Thea pointed towards where the chocobos were. Without missing a beat, the two young women sprinted. The birds seemed happy to see them again and quickly came to them.

"We have another mission for you two Skye, Blueberry" Thea informed getting some soft chirps out of them.

"Yes, we need you to carry us swiftly!" Claudia emphasized.

After they quickly mounted the birds, they were off to the races zooming through town and luckily not many were out during this time of the evening.

"Thea! Claudia!" Thea's dad shouted as they flew by him towards Shinra Manor.

"If only I had that kind of courage" Beryl sighed. The sun was slowly beginning to disappear as Thea's father and Beryl quickly made their way to the front entrance of the village to inform the watch.