While Elvire and Jaana were done cleaning up Mala, they dried her up, and Jaana gave Elvire a comb.
"Can you please comb her hair for me? I will see if I still have something in our belongings that we could use for this situation." Jaana asked with a smile before she goes through her and Levin's spatial bags.
Mala only had a wild hair that was crudely cut off above the shoulders, probably making it easier to take care of it while traveling, but it was uneven and not that well-cut. It seemed the one who did cut it was in a hurry.
Elvire did her best to solve the tangles and straighten the hair. When she was finally done, Jaana came to replace her.
"Mala, I will cut your hair now, so do you want it to be a little bit shorter, or will I keep it at the same length and just make it even?" Jaana asked while preparing herself.
"Just a little shorter compared to now, thank you." Mala happily replied while humming something.
"Okay, here is a mirror so you can give me directions and advice on how you want your hair," Jaana said before she started to cut Mala's hair shorter and make it more even.
"Now, let's get you dressed up, my dear," Jaana said satisfied and happy how the hair turned out. She also noticed that Mala was dry enough, making her nod approvingly.
They helped Mala put the dress on, and when it was finished, Jaana asked Elvire,
"What do you think about the shoes? I think she's quite beautiful without the shoes and that her feet are showing a little bit.
But otherwise, I think we don't need to add much as I don't have any earrings nor other jewelry to add." Jaana finished while sizing Mala up and down.
Suddenly an old voice said, "You have done your part now, it is ours as she still belongs to our tribe, so let our tribe handle the rest. Thank you.
We will also arrange the wedding twice once in a human way and once in our way." The elder said before clapping his hands, and ten older dark elf woman came and surrounded Mala and immediately started doing their own task with her.
"In the meantime, your daughter is a priestess, and I can sense that you were once a priestess yourself, right?" The elder asked, put, and continued to speak.
"So as you see, we have thirty brethren who can still stand up. From those, fifteen are women of various ages, and then there are five men who are already near their death, and the rest are children, but we also have twenty injured ones. Could you two take a look at them and maybe relive some of them from their pain?" The elder asked sincerely while bowing down in front of Jaana and Elvire.
"No need to bow. We will take a look at them, okay? So let me help you to get up again." Jaana said while helping the elder up once again.
"Thank you so much! Please follow me to the sick." The elder said while heading towards the only tent that was set up to the church.
It was a large tent enough to fit twenty people inside, and when Jaana and Elvire went inside, they smelled the horrible stench inside. It was a mixture of blood and rotten flesh.
"We tried our best with the limited medicine we had. However, as you see, some of the wounds are infected, and there are people cleaning them up every day." The elder said dejectedly while looking around the tent and seeing his people to be in pain.
"If they are at this state, I cannot do anything else than try to relive the pain. I already cut off my contact with the god I once served because of various reasons.
But because of that, I lost my ability to cast healing, but it wouldn't have done much anyway as it would have been a light spell that would have been harmful to your bodies." Jaana said while looking at the injured at the tent.
Some had already lost their limbs entirely. There were various wounds in their bodies, indicating that they were injured in a fight.
"I know, but you should know the herbs, and maybe you have some knowledge we still don't know. I ask you to try at least and help them out." The elder said while looking at Jaana, clearly expecting something more from her than she could do.
Even the elder knew that all of the hope was lost for the injured as those who were slightly wounded had gotten up already. Only those who had deep and fatal ones were left still suffering.
However, he didn't want to abandon them or cast them away even when some of them had pleaded to die.
Some even did the deed themselves or disappeared, trying to help the tribe to get over and move on quickly.
But still, the elder wanted to believe that there would be a chance to save them and that they all would be together once again.