The Great Hero is a Schoolteacher

That’s it. That’s the Demon Lord’s attack!

We ducked, and the guards swiftly shielded king Esthar. They helped him retreat to the chapel. Two of them offered to shelter me under their shields, too, but I was too fascinated by the long strip of scorched lawn and smoking bushes. It all felt like it was happening to someone else, somewhere else, in a fairy tale.

I couldn’t move, so I stayed there, crouching by the parapet, smelling the fire. Screams of terror rose from the moat below when the dragon flew in a half-circle and breathed a long flame at the golden dome.

Is he after me or after the king? What a magnificent creature!

Kossi, if that was him, had a long tail, four legs tucked under him as he flew, and the noble triangular head of a dragon from a picture book. Most of his body was a rich metallic dark brown that shimmered in the sunlight, but the underside of his wings looked like pure gold. He was as beautiful as he was deadly. And after failing, twice, to melt the dome, he looked at the moat, possibly pondering an attack.

Oh no, the people!

Given the density of the crowd, a stampede could kill even if the dragon didn’t. I’m pretty sure safety regulations haven’t been invented yet. Maybe it’s time for me to step in. I sprang up and tried to assess the situation.

“Great Hero Al, what are you doing?” asked a guard.

“Thinking!”

All nobles and other distinguished guests had sheltered in the chapel, with the heavy verdigris doors now safely closed. Only a handful of guards remained around me, and crossbowmen shot at the dragon, who dodged most of the bolts and didn’t seem to notice the ones that did reach him. No siege engines in sight. There really hadn’t been a battle around here for a long time.

The five Senior Magi carefully poked their heads out of the chapel. When they saw the dragon, they began casting spells at him, and I witnessed true magic for the first time: glowing bolts of pure energy, iridescent and majestic, shot at the sky. The dragon had to gracefully twist and somersault mid-air to avoid them. He breathed other flames at the scenery, setting fire to new bushes.

No movie SFX gets even close to how beautiful this is.

The moat, however, was another story. People rushed to the stairs in an effort to flee the dragon, panic funneling them, their sheer number preventing them from reaching safety. The streets were emptying, so whoever reached the top of the stairs could run away – but to get there, the pressure was unbelievable. The stairways were too narrow. The place clearly wasn’t designed for emergency evacuations.

Some people must be suffocating already.

Kossi burned a tree right over the parapet, causing another round of screams and stampede. I grabbed the nearest guard by his tabard.

“Please!” I begged. “Is there a way to make my voice louder, so everyone can hear it?”

He lifted his helmet to scratch his temple.

“Well, I remember Sir Pernel once used a spell for that. He’s one of the Senior Magi over there. Shall I go get him?”

“Yes, please! Bring him here, quick!”

The guard ran to one of the five sorcerers who’d summoned me, said a few words to him, and brought him back.

Sir Pernel looked my age, give or take a few years, with a round face and steel-gray eyes. He still wore his ornate purple robe from the ritual, and his shoulder-length straight hair was the color of rose gold. From the look on his face, he was annoyed at being pulled out of his spectacular, if useless, display of magical power.

He glared at me.

“Great Hero Al? Shouldn’t you be fighting the dragon, like us?”

“I don’t think so.” I pointed a finger at the creature. “I’ve been watching him. He could have burned down a dozen houses by now, but all he’s done so far is breathe fire at vegetation. I don’t think he’s trying to destroy the city. He just wants to scare us.”

Pernel looked at the sky and frowned. “What do you want from me, Great Hero Al?”

“Please, I need your magic, so everyone can hear me.”

I’m no dragon hunter, but I conducted my share of evacuation drills in my school, and if these people do think of me as their hero, they’ll listen.

“This sounds pointless,” he sighed.

He still muttered strange words I couldn’t understand.

Cherub told me I was able to speak all common languages of this world. I didn’t think I’d bump into an uncommon one half an hour into my new life, but I suppose that’s magic for you.

Pernel traced odd shapes between us, a glowing symbol appeared inside his palm, and he finally held out his cupped hand in front of my face. “You can talk now.”

I took a deep breath, then shouted over the increasing echoes of panic. “People of Carastra, listen to me! This is the Great Hero Al speaking, and I need you to remain calm!”

My voice seemed to come out of every stone of the old fortifications at the same time. It was fully audible, yet not deafening. I smiled briefly at Pernel while the citizens calmed down a little.

“Please stop pushing, everyone will get out of the moat eventually!” I added. “Only run once you reach the top of the stairs, and try to spread across the whole space in the meantime! I was summoned to bring you peace. I don’t want you to get crushed to death on the day of my arrival!”

The crowd slowly unpacked around the stairs.

Suddenly, the dragon’s body jerked mid-air, as if he’d been hit by lightning. Kossi seemed to wrestle with an invisible opponent. Had one of the sorcerers finally managed to put a spell on him? Pernel was busy helping me. When I looked at the other four, they were pointing at the dragon in confusion.

They don’t know what’s going on, either. It’s not them.

Kossi’s head looked held at a weird angle by a hand we couldn’t see. He struggled, but the next fire breath shot directly at the moat. Panic increased in a blink, with terrified screams and a stampede to the other side of the fortifications.

What happened? They won’t listen to me anymore, they’ll run for their lives, and there still aren’t enough stairways to get them all out before some people get crushed to death…

Pernel gave me a look of disbelief, his hand still held in front of me like a megaphone.

“Just scaring us, really?”

“I don’t know what’s going on and we have no time to think of it now.”

I turned away from him. Talking was pointless, now. We needed a way to get everyone out, quick.

I ran to the nearest guards, waving frantically. “Please, we need to get these citizens to safety! Can we let them in the yard?”

If centuries of peace turned the curtain walls into a simple parapet, perhaps there’s a way to get inside the old fortress from the moat.

“What will King Esthar think?” asked a guard.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s his subjects we’re talking about. I don’t think he’d like them to die today. Besides, as the Great Hero Al, I take full responsibility!”

I pointed at the dragon, who was still dodging physical and magical attacks, and possibly gathering energy for his next fire breath.

“Tell me, is it possible to let people in, directly from the moat to the castle yard?”

They shared uneasy glances, obviously not knowing whether they should trust me. It took another dragon flame in the moat for an older guard to explain there was a way.

“Filio Tower and Marandas Tower have posterns at moat level.”

He showed me the two round corner towers in front of me.

“We always keep them closed, but we can open them if you ask us to, Great Hero Al.”

“Then let’s go and save as many people as possible!”

I was barefoot and dressed in an oversized white robe, but I still ran through the yard into the nearest corner tower, while a second group of guards went into the other. The spiral stone staircase felt cold and slippery. The thick walls still sported defensive arrow slits that hardly let any light in. I almost fell in the dark, but the terrified screams were too loud to ignore. I ran all the way down with the guards.

We unbarred the door, told everyone to come inside, and I stood there, watching people pour in, as a guard led them up to the yard. There were children and elders, pale skins and dark skins, dresses and tunics and sashes and shirts. The overall diversity looked greater than the one I’d seen in the chapel. I could swear some animal ears weren’t cat-like, but these people ran too fast for me to really make out what they looked like.

As they went past me, I kept thinking.

The dragon is still out there, so all these people won’t be much safer if we just pack them in the castle courtyard. We should shelter them in buildings, preferably ones that can resist fire like the chapel, but the chapel is already full, and it’s too dangerous to go there, right under the dragon’s nose. What’s our best option?

“Mama! Mama!”

The call, though barely audible amidst all that noise, immediately caught my attention. A small child was crying for help, not far.

“I’m scared, Mama, don’t leave me!”

Some heads turned, but everyone was caught in the flow, and it was too late for people to go back and get the child. I couldn’t do much, either.

Or could I?

Will it be easier for me to go against the general movement, now that I’m someone important and not just another teacher?

“I’m the Great Hero Al and I need to get out!” I shouted at the top of my lungs.

A few surprised glances showed that I’d gotten the crowd’s attention. I walked, and the miracle occurred: the flow parted. I was able to head out to the moat, drawn to the cries.

A few steps away from the postern, a little boy stood against the tower base, too scared to follow the general movement. I held out my hand to him, and he looked up at me in confusion. He had dark green hair and a short horn on his forehead.

“Where’s my Mama?”

“I’ll help you find her. I’m the Great Hero Al.”

I took him in my arms and held him firmly.

He’s too small. Someone will step on him if I let him flee on his own.

Now, I had no choice but to take him to safety myself. I followed the crowd back into the tower and walked up the stairs, careful not to trip on my robe.

In the yard, guards made sure the crowd remained on the path and didn’t set foot in the garden, or what was left of it. The chapel with its golden dome stood untouched behind a thick curtain of smoke, and hopefully, all the distinguished guests were safe in there.

The people we were helping out of the moat either went to the stables, or ran across the main bridge into the city.

Stables. Good. The guards opened them for people to shelter in.

Many citizens stopped, looking for relatives. There had to be one woman in there who’d lost her son.

“Where’s your Mama?” I asked.

The boy shook his head and clung to my robe. He didn’t know. He was too scared to go on his own and I couldn’t leave him unattended in the middle of a confused crowd, so I walked to the garden, still carrying him. While the guards stopped other commoners, they let me through. They knew who I was.

Now, the moat was emptying fast, and the dragon’s breath only burned the grass that grew at the bottom, but I could see motionless bodies scattered here and there. Were they lifeless or just hurt?

Please, let them be alive. They gathered here to celebrate. Nobody deserves to die like this.

I held the little boy closer in my arms. I didn’t know his name or anything about him, but I couldn’t help fearing that his mother might be lying down there, too.

As I walked towards the chapel, Kossi turned to me, the beating of his wings keeping him stable above the two of us. The Senior Magi had stopped sending bolts at him and were now inside some kind of bubble.

A forcefield, just like in superhero movies. They must have run out of attack spells, so they’re protecting themselves.

“Go away, dragon!” I shouted. “I was summoned to be this kingdom’s Great Hero, these people are under my protection, and you’re doing no more harm today!”

I didn’t think these words would make much of a difference, but I needed to get them out. I was supposed to help people and the first attack I stumbled upon found me helpless. The frustration hurt so much that I just had to vent.

Much to my surprise, Kossi bowed his head, turned around and flew away.