The Hidden Crystal

Chapter 60

Something was still bothering Iris.

She was trying to be upbeat, but whenever the conversation waned, she fell into a gloom especially out of place under the bright summer sun. And Char had a pretty good idea of what—or rather, who—was on her mind.

Even dead and gone, Micah was a sickness Char couldn't cure.

Fortunately, Rath exercised his gift for reading people and talking them into better moods to the fullest, recounting every embarrassing story he could think of about Char. And Char couldn't complain too much. Iris would hear it all anyway, whether now or at a later date, and he would rather have her smile and laugh at his expense than see her retreating within herself to some dark place.

So he grumbled where appropriate and endured the discomfort, and when Rath was running low on material, Char repaid the favor.

"Rath's first near-death experience happened when he was three."

"Oh?" Iris looked at Rath with that gorgeous smile, making it easy for Char to ignore Rath's groan.

"When we were kids, we used to go on family picnics and play this game where we'd jump off of a cliff, and Father would fly in and catch us. I was just a baby when this happened, but the way I hear it, Father had played the game for a while until he was tired, and then he'd told Rath it was time to stop, and he'd left to go hunting. Mother said she took her eyes off of Rath for a minute to change me, and then she heard him saying, 'Catch me!' And when she looked, Rath jumped off the side of the mountain."

Iris' dark brown eyes widened. "I bet that scared her to death."

"Yeah, but luckily enough, Father hadn't gone too far, so he caught Rath before he splattered all over the place."

Rath shrugged. "I trusted him to catch me, and he did. But if we're telling hunting stories—"

Char groaned. "Not this one."

"So, we share our western border with the elves. Nobody really knows where the exact boundary line is, so we just avoid hunting in that area, because elves are vegetarians, and they freak out if they see us killing anything. Well, Char was after an elk that led him straight into the danger zone, right when the one elf who is the biggest pain in our rear happened to be there."

"I was kind of focused on catching the elk, not watching my surroundings," Char mumbled.

"Anyway, he kills it right in front of her, she gets mad, he and I both transform to try to talk her down, except he also has a cold—you know his fire-breathing trick?"

"Oh, no," Iris said, covering her smile with her hand.

"Yeah. He sneezed, lit the carcass on fire, and started a whole international incident."

It worked well enough to keep her distracted for most of the morning.

The temperature rose with the sun. Char tugged at his collar. Rath had sweat stains on his back and under his arms, and Char knew he had them, too. He wished he could take his shirt off. Rath caught his eye and mouthed 'do it,' but when Char looked at Iris, withdrawn into herself again, he decided against it.

Humor and lighthearted banter were good ways to draw her out. Shock? Not so much. She'd experienced enough of that in recent days.

Rath sighed. "That's it." He stopped in his tracks and tossed his packs to the ground. "I can't stand this heat anymore. After lunch, we're flying."

"Just a test flight," Char reminded his brother, dropping his pack with the other two. "Why is it so hot, anyway? It's been so cold lately, and then today, it's back to summer."