Finding the Light

Chapter 3- Understanding

Iris's life quickly started to revolve around Cole's daily visits. He came everyday without fail after his daily chores, and would stay for hours at a time. He used his notebook to draw pictures of things outside the room to show her, everyday things that she couldn't have imagined in her wildest dreams. Things like horses and trees, a picture of the castle. Once the guards became to lazy to search him every time he came to visit he started to bring things to show her. Things like flowers for her to admire and different foods she had never tried. He even once brought a small pair of silver scissors to cut off her dirty matted hair.

It took Cole the better half of a year to teach Iris how to speak, mostly because she was so shy. There were days when she would just be content to let his voice fill the silence of the room. He would describe the sun, moon and sky to her. It was difficult, to tell someone of something that he had always taken for granted but she had never seen. She had a beautiful voice, a little ruff around the edges and she tended to roll her 'R's, but her voice had a kind of accent that was unique only to her. There were days when Cole's teaching abilities were challenged, like when Iris ask a question that he would be unsure how to answer. Like what was a soul? And she didn't always take everything he said at face value either. She would question everything he said until she understood it completely. Saying that he didn't know frustrated her more then anything else he could do.

He also took the time to teach her how to read and write. She would practice for hours after he left tracing the letters in the dirt over and over again. Cole found her fascinating, no one in the palace understood him quite like she did, not even his master. Her questions and thoughts were different then his own, and she quite often had him thinking in a manner he was unused to. She challenged him. The biggest problem he had was the suspicion that the people of the castle had for him. Many had heard that he spent a goodly part of his evenings in the darkest part of the castle with a monster. He never told Iris about this of course, but some days his visits to her caused him a lot of grief.

After almost a year and a half Iris was no longer the ignorant, half feral savage that Cole had first met. She was an intelligent young woman, closing in on her sixteenth birthday. Thanks to the extra food that Cole would bring her she had filled out and even grown a little taller, although she would likely always be small for her age. She understood the words the guards would mutter outside her door when it was dark and Cole had left for the day.

"Cole?"

Cole looked up from observing his old notes and journal entries. His first entry was quite funny with hindsight. They were taking a break from learning some basic math. Iris had no problems with her reading or writing, but her math skills were horrendous. She loathed practicing what she had dubbed 'stinking numbers' like some children loathed their vegetables.

"Yes Iris?"

"Why do the guards call me a monster?"

She had asked this question before, but he had always been unwilling to answer and usually changed the subject. He could see in her eyes that this time she was determined to get an answer. When she was determined her expressive eyes would become like icy daggers that seemed to pierce right through you. He sighed.

"You know already don't you?" He asked.

"I have a good idea yes. But I want to hear the whole story, from you."

He told her the story. Of the witch, the prophesy, the moon shaped birth mark in her back, and of the kings fear that someday the monster, the daughter he was unable to kill, would destroy the kingdom. They both sat in silence for a long time. Cole couldn't read her expression in the dark, he didn't have the sensitive night vision that she had. Iris didn't know what to think, or what to feel. The man she was supposed to call father, her only family, had locked her in this dark room as a mere baby. She was still unfamiliar with emotions but recognised that her heart was being gripped with despair.