Wura turned her attention from Mero as she faced ahead and her face contorted with the horror she was currently witnessing.
What was supposed to be a luscious green tiny town in a vibrant valley was reduced to nothing but rubble coloured in black and grey ash.
This was just horror. Wura had never been to Windharm before, but she had read several texts and descriptions about it.
It was supposed to be a little quiet town known for the several beautiful flowers that were indigenous to the land, but right now being here for the very first time in her life and seeing the sharp contrast between how this place used to be and how it was now.
Wura could not help but feel terrible, terrible for the land, terrible for the town, terrible for the poor people who had their beautiful town destroyed.
As Wura and Mero continued riding deeper into the town Wura was able to see a first hand account of just how bad the damage was.
She could see the sad remains of what once used to be homes and houses built from wood and stone that had been burnt down to the ground and nothing remained by ashes.
Wura could see some houses that were still standing partially, but it was basically useless as any sort of shelter, the entire roof had been burnt and was non existent leaving the cobblestone walls intact but coated in black from the intense fire that had probably been thrown on this poor house.
Wura could only imagine how much loss the townspeople had felt, it was not like you could plan for such a thing like this, she was sure that besides loosing their houses, they had lost many personal belongings as well in the fire.
Just the thought of how much pain and suffering the people had gone through made her feel like she had a hand in this outcome... if only they had found a way to stop Olamide by now, this would not happened.
He would not be able to continue terrorizing their innocent people like this, it really made her feel hurt that something as bad as this was going on and while she was safe and being protected not everyone was.
Mero glanced at Wura as he had been taking note of their silence as they rode deeper into the town, he could see from the somber expression on her face and in her eyes that seeing this magnitude of damage was making her feel sad.
He was starting to doubt if it was actually a good idea to bring her here... after all she had never seen such horror before.
She had never actually been to a raided town like this. The very first town that was set on fire by the East he had not allowed her to go, she had only heard reports from Lown and his descriptive explanations, she had never seen it first hand.
He on the other hand was used to seeing such sights, he was so used to seeing it that seeing a sight like this was nothing new to him, he did not feel angry, he did not feel sad, he only felt one thing and that was determination to make sure that this injustice would never repeat itself.
Things like this was inevitable in war, especially when you are dealing with unreasonable people like Olamide and his men, the only thing they could try to do was minimize the damage, and even then it was not guaranteed this.
The only other best thing to do would be to make sure that they were ready and present to provide relief to those affected, to show them that the Kingdom understood their pains and worries and they were trying their best to resolve everything in the best way that would favour them.
"Mero, you never told me how bad this is..." said Wura as she stopped looking at the surroundings for the first time they had arrived here and she looked at Mero who had an apologetic look on his face.
"Forgive me... I did not want to make you sad before you saw what happened" said Mero as his reply was not enough for Wura, she felt more than sad, she felt grieved, she could have not imagine how bad she could feel if it was her father's house, her childhood home that was damaged like this.
These were people's homes, where they lived with their family, there were years worth memories created in those homes and now they were gone, unfairly burnt down in a war that was not their own.
This just made Wura so angry at the injustice that had happened here, Olamide was a coward, he was nothing but a coward, hiding behind attacking innocent citizens rather than facing her himself.
"Mero you lied to me, this damage is... more than I ever expected... and you claim that you already sent them an aid, are you sure that you sent them a sufficient enough relief?" asked Wura as what she was most concerned with now was if the people were at least a little bit comfortable while they tried to gather some of their unharmed belongings from the ruin of their burnt down houses.
She w was concerned about if they had enough food to eat because dealing with such a huge loss like this and having nothing to eat was a death sentence, it was enough to make anyone angry and bitter, and even depressed to the point of even thinking of ending their lives.
After all loosing every single thing you owned in one day was not something easy to deal with, it was like your whole world had ended.
And Wura could not even begin to think of if anyone had gotten hurt, adding such a huge loss like this along with a beloved family member injured and in need of help was far far worse.
All the thoughts of what the people were going through were overflowing in Wura's head, she felt like she could almost cry, this was far more serious than she could have ever imagined.
"I assure you my Queen, the relief I sent was enough at the time, tents were provided as a temporary housing until they can recover and a portion of foodstuff was sent to each family" said Mero.
"That is still not near enough a Mero, there is still more to be done, I am sure that by now the foodstuffs that you sent over are already depleted, we cannot have people hungry in such a situation like this they could go mad in grief and kill themselves" said Wura as she was really worried about that.
"I know my Queen and that is why I sent more aids yesterday and there are more on the way following behind us, I assure you that the relief is present" said Mero as Wura sighed.
"And what about the people Mero? Are they hurt are there any casualties?" asked Wura.
"My Queen I would be lying if I said that there were none..." said Mero as he watched the look of horror unfold on Wura's face.
"But let me assure you that for such a serious attack we have minimal casualties" said Mero.
"I will be the judge of that because my definition of minimal and your definition are completely different, how many casualties are there?" asked Wura seriously as she did not need Mero sugarcoating things for her, she was mature enough to handle bad news, he should have been aware of that by now.
"There are five casualties my Queen" replied Mero.
"What are their injuries?" asked Wura as she narrowed her eyes at Mero warning him not to dare try to lie to her, because she would know if he did and she had ways to find out the truth by herself.
"One has a minor burn, two cases are burnt from being trapped in one of the burning houses, and the two last cases are from inhaling the smoke" said Mero as Wura's eyes were filled with soreness and sadness for what she had heard.
"What are their ages?" asked Wura.
"Middle aged, children and the last two are elderly" said Mero as Wura sighed, this was just too much, she did not know if she could continue to bear hearing such downhearting news.
"This is just too much to bear...please tell me that they are receiving help, please tell me that they are recovering?" asked Wura as she looked at Mero.
"Please do not worry Wura, they are doing alright, a very skilled physician is taking care of them and they should be fully recovered soon" said Mero as he brought his horse to a stop and Nolan stopped as he noticed that Mero's horse had stopped moving.
"Oh thank you Mero..." said Wura as she sighed in relief, she hoped that there was no more bad news that she should know about because hearing this news alone was already making her feel so overwhelmed.