It took a while, but eventually, the small group of Town Guard managed to get close enough to the Manor's front gate for Eris to cry out, "Mom!"
Upon hearing the voice of her daughter, Sasha instantly locked her gaze onto her and pushed through the crowd, "Eris!"
The mother and daughter were soon reunited, with Sasha swiftly sweeping her child up into her arms and hugging her tight, a stone finally lifting from her heart, "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
"No, Mom, I'm fine! But… but Lucas…"
As soon as the boy's name left Eris' lips, Sasha turned her head to see a bloodied Lucas. Quickly putting down her daughter, Sasha hurriedly bent down to check on her best friend's son, wondering how she was going to explain to Anna how he had ended up injured after she left him in her care.
"It's not as bad as it looks," Lucas waved his free hand and said calmly, repeating this line for the who knows how manyth time.
"He's telling the truth," Carl backed up the boy, "There's a nasty cut on his brow, and it'll probably leave a scar, but he doesn't have any trouble turning his head, walking on his own, or holding a conversation."
Hearing the assessment from Carl, who was used to dealing with injuries as the Vice Captain of the Town Guard, Sasha was able to calm down slightly, but she still insisted, "We need to get Lucas treated as quickly as possible. Bring him inside and get him cleaned up, now."
"Wait!" Lucas shouted abruptly, drawing many people's attention. Realizing that a lot of eyes were now staring at him, the young boy froze up for a moment before lowering his tone and whispering, "I have messages from Uncle Charles and Senior Farah I need to give you first."
Sasha frowned slightly hearing this, wondering just what her husband was doing sending Eris and Lucas over to deliver a message instead of returning himself to take charge of the situation.
This was just a passing thought, though, as Sasha knew that in a situation like this, every second counted. She trusted Charles enough to know he wouldn't act carelessly in a time of crisis, and even if her husband had been flustered, the fact that Farah had also agreed to this plan showed that there really wasn't any better option.
Forcing herself to remain calm, Sasha nodded before getting up and ordering, "Carl, take over for me here. Organize the Town Guard and keep everyone as calm as you can. I'll be back soon."
After giving some more basic instructions, Sasha led Eris and Lucas into the Manor to hear what they had to say.
…..
Once the trio were inside and away from the ears of the crowd, Sasha turned to Lucas with a solemn expression and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to get your wound dressed first?"
Shaking his head, Lucas replied in an equally serious tone, "Unfortunately, this can't wait. We're short on time as it is already."
Raising a brow, Sasha motioned for the young boy to continue.
Lucas began explaining the situation, sticking only to the facts and summarizing things as succinctly as possible, all while emphasizing the immediate dangers. He avoided speculations about the cause of the explosion, or the possible long-term ramifications of the crisis, as such things were currently irrelevant.
Eris added a point here and there, but it was mainly just extraneous details and wild descriptors, rather than useful information.
By the time Lucas was done relaying everything, Sasha's expression had become incomparably grim.
Up until now, all her energy had been focused on controlling the initial chaos which had erupted. She hadn't had time to sit and contemplate what kind of after-effects Redwood Town would suffer, so hearing Lucas' dire warnings of the approaching calamity had naturally put her in a difficult position.
There was so much Sasha immediately thought of that needed to be done, but the time and manpower she had available was extremely limited.
In the worst-case scenario she could envision, a giant stampede filled with Second and Third Order Beasts would soon descend upon Redwood Town, so evacuations needed to be made and a defence perimeter needed to be established.
However, the only 'troops' Sasha had at her disposal were the Town Guard, which was by no means a crack team of elite fighters.
The sudden immense weight of responsibility caused Sasha's head to go blank for a moment. It was all so overwhelming that she couldn't help losing confidence in her ability to handle it.
It wasn't until she felt a tug at her sleeve that Sasha came back to her senses.
Looking down and seeing the worried look on her daughter's face, Sasha felt her stomach drop.
Slapping her cheeks, Sasha chastised herself, What am I doing, showing my daughter such an unsightly face? If I panic now, everything will fall apart!
Taking a deep breath, Sasha pressed down her worries and said in as calm a tone as she could muster, "Lucas, go get cleaned up first. Once your wound has been dressed, head to the dining hall and wait there. I will come meet you as soon as I am free."
"Eris, go with Lucas and stay with him."
Finished what she needed to say here, Sasha turned around and strode out to address the crowd once more, her mind churning as she tried to come up with some semblance of a plan.
...
Sitting in the Town Lord Manor's dining hall, Lucas' thoughts raced as he madly scribbled onto some loose sheets of paper he had swiped from his Uncle Charles' office.
If one were to peek over the 10-year-old boy's shoulder, they would find a messy string of notes about what had just happened, the possible consequences, as well as possible solutions to those possible consequences. There was no organizing principle to these notes as Lucas was just writing down everything that came to mind, hoping some of it would be useful.
In all honesty, Lucas was mainly doing this because he felt uncomfortable not being able to immediately contribute.
It had been about half-an-hour since he and Eris had returned from the western outskirts or roughly an hour after the explosion occurred. Right now, everyone around them seemed to be busy with something, leaving just his big sister and himself doing nothing.
Of course, this was only normal as 2 young children would likely just get in the way at the moment; but, even if he knew that, it didn't make Lucas feel any better.
Sasha had asked Lucas to wait for her here, probably because she wanted to consult with him further about the situation, but obviously she had been delayed by more urgent matters.
Lucas understood that in this situation, triaging immediate problems came first and that all the adults were focusing on that. As such, he figured the best thing he could do was try to think further ahead and develop plans for what came next.
While it was true that no future plans would matter if they didn't manage to survive the coming night, not having any long-term strategy also wasn't a good idea.
Planning ahead would allow them to make better decisions in the present; at least, that was what Lucas hoped.
However, Lucas quickly discovered there were far too many issues that needed to be addressed, making him realize that trying to create a comprehensive crisis management plan on the fly wasn't feasible. Such a plan should have been in place long ago; but obviously, it wasn't.
It was a clear oversight on Redwood Town's part.
Lucas didn't blame his uncle and aunt for his, though. It just wasn't in human nature to plan for the unexpected, much less the unimaginable, and this situation definitely belonged to the latter category.
Was this a smart way to live life? No, but it was how most people lived life; after all, who had time to worry about the sky falling tomorrow when they had to feed themselves today?
Suddenly, a faint rumbling sound rang out, drawing the young boy's eyes to his blushing big sister's face.
A moment later, Lucas' stomach also cried out in protest.
The 2 of them had been out the whole day for the field inspections, and just as dinnertime had rolled around, all Hell had broken loose. As a result, they basically hadn't eaten anything since morning.
Up until recently, adrenaline had been suppressing their desire for food, but now that they were just sitting around, their young bodies began audibly complaining.
"Maybe there's something in the pantry we can snack on," Lucas suggested, to which Eris nodded faintly before hopping to her feet and dashing over to the kitchen.
Normally, Lucas would have gone with her, but gently rubbing the bandages wrapped around his forehead and remembering how overprotective Eris had been acting since he was injured, he decided to stay in his chair for the moment.
A short while later, Eris returned with a couple of hard buns and a few pieces of smoked meat. It wasn't exactly a feast, but it would sate their hunger for now.
"There was a big pot on the stove that looked like stew, but the fire was out and it didn't look finished," Eris said as she put the tray down and handed a bun to Lucas.
"Thanks, Big Sister Eris" Lucas said while accepting the bun before slicing it open and stuffing meat into it, "Aunt Sasha must have been cooking dinner when the explosion happened."
"En," Eris nodded as she munched on her own sandwich.
The room fell silent again as the children didn't know how to continue the conversation, deciding instead to fill their stomachs for now.