Okay. That was enough cut off. Time to staunch the bleeding and start cleaning the wound.

I worked swiftly as I packed the deeper part of the wound, and then went to picking out the little bits of wood inside of her. She'd been pierced by a sharp chunk of wood, one unluckily too big to have left inside of her. They had pulled her off the spike of wood and brought her to me, and hadn't been too gentle while doing so.

It was hard to blame people though. Especially considering what was going on.

The whole room vibrated as a distant roar pierced the world. My whole body shivered as I tried to focus through the monarch's roar, it was so loud and so… strong that I could almost my bones ache from the sound alone.

The roar wasn't the only thing screaming. The girl cried out as I pulled out a tiny piece of a splinter, one that looked insignificant… but must have gotten lodged into a nerve or something like it. She started to thrash as I pulled it out of her wound and tossed it aside.

Luckily the girl's brother, or whoever he was, was holding her down. I had given her something for pain, but didn't have the time to wait for her to become fully numb. That was still many minutes away from happening.

I had no time to spare. I knew, thanks to the loud roars of the monarch nearby and the cries of pain and fear from everyone around the tent that she was not going to be my last patient. It was a shock she was even the first one, to be honest.

As the monarch roared, and the ground shook, I began to debate if I should close the wound or not. Although she had been punctured rather deeply, it was more of a giant gash than anything else. She was lucky enough for it to have not really damaged or impacted any of her intestines or other major organs. The piece of wood that had hit her had been somewhat blunt, so it had pushed aside most of the stuff as it punctured her. Odds are she would have… complications, as she healed. But for now she was in no immediate danger of dying. At least, as long as I hadn't missed anything obvious…

"Tosh!"

I ignored the speaker for a moment as I studied the girl's wound. I pulled back some of the linen I'd packed in already, to check where it had been bleeding the worst and found it to be looking rather good. There were still little blotches of fresh blood, seeping from the flesh walls, but nothing spurted and none of it was a deep black.

"Tosh!" the woman shouted again, and I finally turned to look at her. I found Sally, which was odd. Why hadn't I recognized her voice? She looked fine, though covered in mud. Had she fallen somewhere…? This tent was set up on grass, the thick kind. I wasn't sure where such mud was nearby…

"What?" I asked. She should know better than to distract me while operating. She usually did…

Sally simply pointed. I followed her point and found one of the beds a few sections over had a person in it.

One missing their lower half.

Taking a deep breath I nodded and turned my attention back to the girl. I decided to leave the wound open for now, to let it drain a bit, so I quickly packed it and then looked to the man who had been holding her down. He didn't need to do so as fiercely as before, she was now lying on her back though white in the face.

"She'll be fine. Keep her here, don't let her touch the wound. If it starts bleeding again let me know," I said, and then turned and hurried over to the man missing his bottom half.

"Doctor!" A woman was clinging to the man's arm. Or rather, he was clinging to her. He was breathing quickly, but awake and aware of his surroundings… and…

"You're going to die," I said to the man, confirming what he already knew.

"No!" the woman screamed at me, but I ignored her as the man held my gaze. I didn't look away from his eyes since I'd already verified it. The man wasn't just missing his legs… but half his torso, and although whoever had brought him in here had scooped up some of his organs as they did they hadn't done it properly.

There was no chance I could save him. The man wasn't even bleeding anymore, half the bed was marred with blood and organs but it wasn't soaked. He'd already bled out before being brought into here.

"Tosh, please!" Sally grabbed my arm, reminding me she was here. I glanced at her, noted her look of utter sorrow beneath her mud-caked face, and then looked back to the man.

With a nod I stepped closer, and went to better examine his injuries… but every moment that went by that I did, only further confirmed what I'd already assessed.

This wasn't triage. I wasn't being cruel. I was simply stating a fact.

I don't think even Vim could save this man. I wasn't sure if a saint could even do it either. That was how…

Then the man went still. The bed creaked a bit as he fell back a bit, going limp. The woman who he had been clinging to shrieked at the sight and began shouting his name, grabbing at his face and head as she did.

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Her screams broke my heart, but I didn't let it affect me. Because someone else was being brought into the tent.

I turned to watch two men carry a third into the tent. The injured man had a huge grin on his face as I pointed them to one of the empty beds. "Lost my leg'doc!" the man said, proclaiming loudly as if it was a great feat he'd just accomplished.

"Yes you did," I said as I pulled out my scissors and went to cutting at his pants. His leg was missing from above his knee, but the pant leg still remained under it. It was tattered and torn, and soaked in blood, but I quickly got it off and found…

"Crazy isn't it? The monarch's tail did it," one of the men who had carried the injured man said as I studied the almost impossible wound.

It looked like his leg had been cut off by the sharpest blade known to man. It was so perfect it almost made me woozy, because I couldn't outright comprehend it. Even the sharpest axe cut couldn't do this…

As I went to tie a tourniquet, since they hadn't done so, I clicked my tongue and shook my head. "You're a lucky man," I said.

"So they sayin'," the injured man said.

"Does anyone know where his leg is?" I asked. If the cut was this clean… then if we preserved it, and tendered his wound well enough, then when one of the saints showed up they'd be able to attach it and heal him. I'd seen it done before.

There was no answer, so I looked up from the wound I was examining to find the two men who had carried him in to be distracted. I turned to follow their gaze, and realized they were staring at the bed I'd just walked away from.

The woman was weeping uncontrollably as she held the dead man who was missing half his body. And Sally was standing there before them, glaring at me.

She must have said something.

No matter. Deal with it later. If I dallied not only was there no chance this man would ever walk again, there was a chance he'd die. Although the cut was as flawless as it were, it didn't make his injury any less real.

Returning my attention to the man's leg, I thanked the dead gods for creating such a dangerous beast. The wound being so clean and flawless made it easy to address and handle, so I was able to finish with him in time to address the next wounded individual.

She wasn't carried in. She ran into the tent, falling to her knees. Sally was next to her before I was, and we both got her to her feet and to a bed.

I recognized this woman. I knew her name. I remembered saying it as I amputated her destroyed arm, talking to her and calming her down as Sally and I tended to her… but somehow forgot everything about her the moment the next patient arrived.

Then another.

And another.

Some I was able to save. Some, like the man who had lost half his body, I wasn't able to do anything for. A few of them, I was able to at least make their last moments painless. For others, I tried everything and yet accomplished nothing.

A few I allowed Sally or others to tend to, since their wounds weren't drastic enough to prioritize over others. While others got to my tent too late. I tried not to keep count of the ones who were brought in already dead, but in the back of my mind the six of them lingered even as I focused on surgeries.

Then… as I realized there was no new patients, and I had been lately checking on and working on people I'd already administered aid to… like the very first patient of the day, who had been pierced by sharp wood, I also realized the world had gone quiet.

The tent was still noisy. There were dozens of people in here, and not just the patients. There were family and friends, tending the people I'd operated on. There were those like Sally, doing all they could to help in any way they could. There were people bringing in fresh supplies, such as boiled water and linen, and then…

Frowning up at Vim, I wondered what he was doing standing in front of me.

"Vim? Why aren't you killing that monarch?" I asked, a little upset with him. The longer he took the more work I had! Usually he wasn't so rude!

Vim though simply smiled as he reached over and patted my shoulder. As he did, I realized how… weak I felt. Before I realized it, I was sitting down… in a chair, and Sally was standing next to me.

"Well done Tosh. Go ahead and rest a bit. Take care of him Sally," Vim said as he squeezed my shoulder, enough so to make me flinch.

"What? Vim! I still need to!" I started to stand up, to complain. There were still things I needed to do! I needed to check that man again, the one with the cut off leg! They had found his leg, supposedly, and I wanted to see if it was… But I couldn't stand up. Someone else was holding me down, on my other shoulder.

"Hush Tosh. Relax. Vim and the rest can handle it from here," Sally said, her hand the one keeping me seated.

I wanted to growl at her, since she was usually not one to tell me to stop trying to help people. In fact she usually got angry with me when I didn't try hard enough… yet…

As I studied her face, I realized she wasn't muddy anymore… in fact she looked a tad too clean. Where were the bloodstains? A few of the people we had helped had been rather hurt. She and I had been drenched in blood a few times as we operated and saved them… yet Sally looked… clean… almost too clean. As if she'd just recently bathed and put on a new set of clothes.

The sight of Sally, looking rested and cleaned up, forced my mind to understand.

"Huh…?" I mumbled as I realized what happened, or was happening.

I was out of it. I had been so focused, that I had not been aware of the passing of time… or even the world around me. It was likely long over. Vim had slain the monarch, and had likely done it a long time ago. The chaos was over.

I suddenly felt how dry my mouth was, and how I had a slight tremor… particularly in my hands. That wasn't from cold. This shaking was rather obvious. It was from a lack of rest and overexertion… possibly even from dehydration…

"It's okay. Well done," Sally whispered as she patted my shoulder. She did so much gentler than Vim had done, for which I was thankful. My other shoulder still stung a little.

I glanced around… and found that she was right.

Vim wasn't the only one here now. The familiar gray robes of the church folk were scattered in the room, and off in the distance I saw the glow of a saint's eyes. She was kneeling in front of the man whose leg had been cut off. He was in a chair, and smiling like mad. Was she healing him? Connecting his leg with her divine powers…?

Good… very good…

Blinking heavy eyes, I took a small breath and nodded.

Right. Time to rest.

I could go back to helping once I did.

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