58: PEOPLE LOOKED AT HER STRANGELY

PEOPLE LOOKED AT HER STRANGELY

"But, you just woke up." Hanna immediately stood up and followed Iris, who changed her dress into a simple one, so she could move around freely. "You need to rest more."

"I am fine. It only means I have rested enough, right?" Iris smiled softly to reassure Hanna, as she changed her dress. Aside from her stiff muscles, she didn't feel any pain. "I want to help. They are our people too, right?"

As they were still in the Blue Moon pack, most of the people that had died during the attack, except for the warriors, were not members of the Howling Wolf pack.

In the end, Hanna didn't have any other choice but to follow her. She led her to the front yard, where the alpha had opened the gates and built a few huge tents for those who were poisoned by the brinetallon's venom, because it could be fatal to the shifters, especially the younger ones. Their healing ability couldn't heal them quick enough before the venom reached their hearts and killed them.

At the front yard, there were seven huge tents, three tents for the patients poisoned by the venom of the brinetallon, two tents for those who were injured severely and the other two for the dead bodies, waiting to be buried, as they listed the people who had died and their families.

This attack resulted in a lot of children without parents and right now, they were in the warrior's dormitory, staying there until the alpha made his decision, where he would place those children.

Iris saw Amee from afar, she was talking to Grace, the healer, thus she walked toward her and greeted both of them.

"What can you do to help?" Grace looked at her skeptically.

"I know, I am not proficient with herbs, but I can help with feeding them and changing their bandages." Iris was so eager to help.

"I don't need your help," Grace said, as she turned on her heel before walking away.

"It's okay, miss. You still need to rest," Hanna said cheerfully, trying to lighten up Iris' mood after the rejection, but she was not yet done.

Iris then turned toward Amee, who was still standing there. "Amee, I am sure there is something that I can do to help you guys." Iris looked around her. "There are not many healers in the Blue Moon pack and Grace is the only healer in the Howling Wolf pack, moreover, there were many servants and slaves that died during the attack. I just want to help."

Amee looked conflicted. She was right, they were short of helping hands and any help would be appreciated, but she was not sure how to make this decision. "You can end up sick and become a patient instead."

"I am not that weak," Iris interjected, but then she knew that she would easily fall sick. "I can handle myself and will try not to add to your burden."

It needed a lot of convincing from Iris to finally make Amee relent and then give her a task.

"I need people to change the bandages, because the wounds from the brinetallon's tail makes the flesh rot very fast and we need to change the bandage and apply ointment every three hours. You can go to that tent and ask Grilla about the patients that need to be changed. There are around thirty people inside the tent." Amee pointed to one of the tents not too far from them.

"Okay, I will do it." Iris smiled brightly and then rushed toward the tent that Amee had pointed out.

Meanwhile, the old lady stood there, staring at the young woman's back, her auburn hair was braided behind her back and she looked so skinny for a young woman around her age. She was a runt after all.

But then, Amee still couldn't imagine that the girl's father was the one who had put them through those hellish days, when she was so caring and gentle.

Amee shook her head, there were a lot of things that she needed to do.

On the other hand, Iris immediately found Grilla, the head of servants, inside the tent. She was instructing someone to bring a bucket of cold water because there were five warriors that got a fever from the venom.

"You are here to help?" Grilla furrowed her brows. "The last time I heard, you are the luna of this pack." She was mocking Iris when she called her the luna, because all of them knew what kind of pact that the alpha needed to make for her to become the luna of the pack. They resented Iris for that.

Iris became nervous. "Isn't that all the more reason for me to help? Because I am the luna of the pack?" She asked in a matter of fact tone.

Grilla calculated the situation and she indeed needed a helping hand here. "Okay. You can bring cold water and wipe down those five men, make sure their bodies are not too hot and change their bandages too in an hour. Make sure you change their bandages every three hours. After you have done that, come to me and I will give you more tasks."

Hanna wanted to complain because it was too much to ask Iris to do that, but she immediately agreed.

"Okay, I will do it." Iris nodded, she took this task seriously.

"I will get the cold water for you," Hanna said and immediately went to fetch a bucket of water, while Iris checked on the five men. All of them looked miserable, as they writhed in pain. The wounds from the brinetallon's tail had turned blue.

"Let me know if the wounds turned darker, because we need to amputate the affected part before the venom reaches their hearts." Grilla grimaced. "It will be the end of them as a warrior."

Iris flinched at the incitement. She knew nothing about this monster's venom, but if the victim had to get amputated in order to stay alive, Iris was grateful the lycan killed the monster without so much of a fight.

"Understood." Iris nodded and checked on the five men, making sure none of them had to go through such a fate. She knew well how proud they were to be the warriors of the pack. Even the stable boy wanted to be a warrior when he grew up, unfortunately, because of her, he couldn't even reach that age.

Not long after that, Hanna returned with a bucket of cold water and both of them started to wipe the five men, while the other people took care of the other twenty five. Hanna wanted to help them as well when Iris said that she could handle it, and she just needed Hanna to bring another bucket of cold water.

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"The destruction is very severe." Jace approached the alpha, as both of them inspected the fortification around the mines.

To build this stronghold alone, they needed a lot of money, while their funds were a little bit strained, not to mention the houses that were destroyed during the attack and also the fund for medicine for those who were injured. This would hurt their finances.

"You can't build the two packs at the same time, Cane. In this situation, you should let go of the Blue Moon pack."

"Their resources are too valuable to let go. We don't have a strong economy back in the Howling Wolf pack either." Due to bad management, the Howling Wolf pack was almost dead. The only income that they got was by selling slaves and providing prostitution services alongside a gambling area, which was led by none other than the members of the Howling Wolf pack itself.

"We can get all the resources here and build our own pack."

"Do you mean you want to abandon the people here, while we rob them of their fortune?"

"I know that sounds so awful, but you need to choose. You can't build two packs, at the very least, you need to save one of those." The damages from last night's attack were too great for them to handle.

Hearing that, Cane didn't say anything and Jace added more information.

"We can't rely on the mines, Stone said himself that the production has decreased greatly these past two months. The demand is high, but we can't meet their numbers." It was hard to find the magic stones, especially when there was a conflict between the slaves and the slave trainers every now and then.

Most of the mining slaves were the warriors from the Blue Moon pack and their pride and ego hurt to do this job.

"Magic stones…" Cane contemplated for a while over what Jace said. "Call Iris here."

Jace frowned, but then his eyes lit up. "Do you think she can find a lot of magic stones?"

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Iris was keeping tabs on the five men, as she didn't want them to lose their arms or legs, they were unconscious and would occasionally whimper in pain.

Iris kept them hydrated by wetting the towel and dabbing it on their lips, so the water could seep into their mouths. She diligently changed their bandages and applied ointment.

People there looked at her skeptically at first, mocking her for trying so hard to look good. They didn't believe she was genuine about what she was doing, but Iris didn't hear that, she couldn't hear them.

This was the first time for her to be grateful to actually being unable to hear, so she didn't need to be hurt by what they were saying, after all, she knew how they felt about her and no matter what she did, they would only see her that way.

Thus, she focused her attention on the five men in her care.

Iris didn't realize that the sun had set and it had been the third time she was in the tent, which meant, more or less, she had been here for eight hours and her stomach was rumbling. She was hungry, but she was afraid to ask where she could get food.

Right now, because the five men had been taken care of and their fever had subsided, she was helping the other patients by changing their bandages or grinding herbs with Grilla or Amee, who would come occasionally.

All of the people there looked at her strangely, because they expected her to give up within one or two hours, but the fact that she was still there even after the sun set made them frown.

"Miss Iris, you need to eat." Hanna came with two bowls of warm porridge, she approached her and pulled her to the side, as she told her to put down the herbs. "You will not be able to help anyone if you fall sick yourself."

Iris put down the herbs and followed Hanna outside the tent, as they sat down on the ground, a little bit away from the commotion.

Hanna had asked for permission for her and Iris from Grilla to go and eat.

"Here, this is not tasty, but at least, we have something to eat. It seems the pack has trouble with food because the attack last night destroyed our food reserves." Hanna sighed.

Iris looked at the bland porridge. It was warm, but the look of it made her frown, yet she didn't have any other choice. It was either eating this bland porridge or staying hungry.

The taste must not be as bad as it looked…

However, she was wrong. The taste was way worse than anything that she had ever eaten, but Hanna ate it without much difficulty, thus Iris could only swallow the porridge. After all, she was hungry.

Before her second spoon, Jace came toward her. It was easy for the beta to find her because he remembered her scent.2

"The alpha is looking for you," Jace said, as he saw Iris lift her head and look at him.

"Why?" Iris felt her stomach rumbling, wanting that not so delicious bland porridge. "But, I am eating."

"You can eat later, get up and follow me. This is more important."

Reluctantly, Iris got up and followed the beta.

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