Morgana reached the clearing and stopped.
Fifteen students scattered across the grass and roots and dirt.
Most of them flat on their backs or crumpled against the trees at the clearing's edge.
Some were breathing visibly. Some were still enough that she had to look twice.
She moved immediately.
She went from student to student in quick succession, two fingers to each throat.
Checking pulses and breathing and the visible severity of injuries.
Her expression stayed controlled throughout.
Not because she wasn't feeling anything but because falling apart in the next thirty seconds would help nobody.
Most were alive. Injured, some badly, but they were still alive.
She found Damien on one side of the clearing.
He was lumped against a root with his sword still somehow in his hand.
She checked him. His pulse were normal, breathing regular, cuts and bruising across his arms and torso but nothing immediately life threatening.
She exhaled through her nose and moved on.
