𝘕𝘦𝘸 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 // 𝙁𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙃𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙢 𝙓 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧

Cʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 14 {𝚠𝚘𝚎𝚋𝚎𝚐𝚘𝚗𝚎}

You needed to find her. You needed to find her soon.
.
.
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You eventually were granted a short tour of the inner oasis of Windigo by Iris. However, this wasn't as delightful as one might think.

You were allured by the beauty of the village surrounding the spring water basin. The life was bustling.. until you and Iris would walk past. The people of Windigo would take a glance at you and either yell profanities or seek shelter inside their homes. You couldn't understand why they were so unaccepting of you. Did you really pose that much of a threat?

Iris just told you to ignore them as the two of you went along.

"Many of their family members were murdered or captured by humans, so please don't hold it against them." Iris spoke sadly, but continued walking along, eventually returning your bag to you that you had left back in forest. You sighed in relief with Echidna's book now safe and sound. You could always replace clothes, or your sabre for that fact... but you could never replace this book.

Iris led you back to her own home. It was a quaint little hut, similar to the ones you saw around. The technology here was far less innovative than other nations you have been through so far. It was odd that these different nations seemed so closed off from one another.

"Gambs should be back any time now, his tantrums usually don't last too long." Iris hummed, stretching her arms back before she moved over inside the hut to begin crushing some herbs.

"Oh.." You just seemed a little distant as you set your bag down in the corner of the room. You could hear the chirping of birds and the trickle of water outside. This somehow set you more at ease. Your village back home wasn't quite so tropical, but the sounds of nature could always put you at peace. "Tomorrow I'll start trying to fix up the boat I came in.. so hopefully I won't bother you too long."

"Nah, you're fine. I don't mind how long you stay. It gets pretty boring around here, talking to the same people and doing the same things." Iris shrugged, she seemed pretty nonchalant about this whole human thing when everyone else took it so seriously.

"Iris.. why aren't you.. scared of me?"

Iris stopped crushing the herbs for a moment, like your comment had halted her muscles. "Well... I... I guess I promised myself I'd stop living in fear, you know? And I'm sure my species wasn't always the kindest to humans either. So it's a two way street. I... just want to prove to the world that you don't need violence to live, but my brother is the literal personification of violence.." She grumbled, continuing to crush the plants with a new found vigor.

"If you don't mind me asking... what happened to you and your brother? Did humans do something to you?"

Iris didn't stop moving this time. It's like she expected the question. "We were only little children when we got here. A lot of things happened before that... but I try not to think about it." She claimed, her black hair swishing in her eyes. She pushed the stray hairs out of her eyes before she looked at you. "We've encountered some nice humans before though.. so I don't know why Gambino assumes all humans are bad.. oh well..." Iris just breathed out, returning to what she was doing.

Her words prodded your mind uncomfortably. You weren't going to push on any sort of specifics though, it was clear that she didn't want to say anymore than that. Instead, you turned and started to dig around in your bag, pulling out Echidna's book after a moment. The condition of said book made your heart pang with guilt. It had gotten trapped in rain and now ship-wrecked alongside you. Although it was in your bag, which lessened the damage. The leather was peeling back on the lower corner of the cover, the edges frayed and in disarray. The golden printed World Travels title still seemed to glitter and gleam as you turned the book in the light. The edges of pages were slightly water-damaged, but most of the pages were in a good enough condition that you could still read and observe the drawings Echidna sketched out.