A Gilded Dawn

Chapter 2: Iris

"If you ever come back, I'll kill you."

The words rang in Iris's ears as she stumbled into the forest, trying to make sense of everything that had happened. Even after she had left Han, the plea continued to leave her tongue.

"It was an accident. It was an accident. It was an accident." After what seemed like minutes the words were only a whisper. "It was an accident." Did she mean to do it? No, it was an accident. She would never do that.

At some point Iris had stopped moving and was on the ground. She pressed her hands into the earth, feeling the cool grass beneath, and, for the first time, surveyed the area around her. She recognized the pattern of the trees and, seeing a distinct dirt trail to her left, concluded that she was in the southeast outskirts of the Blackfish Forest. With her body pressed against the earth and knowledge of her bearings Iris took a breath and went through the events in her head.

She and Han were trying to fool his older brother Ronan. It was only a joke. The image of his lifeless body from the balcony flashed before her. She had killed the heir to the throne.

"It was an accident." Her hand came back slick after wiping her eyes.

The first night was the hardest. Iris knew she had to go deeper into the woods in order to be safe. There was bound to be a bounty on her head and soon enough the whole kingdom would know her name.

Luckily, along with her limited druid spell casting abilities, Iris had had a knack for directions. She could easily pinpoint her location on her map and, beside a small fire she casted, planned a route for the morning towards a small village.

Thinking about her next move helped to distract her from her thoughts. She continued to look at her map and draw a route. She had never liked being alone, and now, the realization hit that she may be alone forever. Her eyes began to sting once again.

"You killed him so you could be queen one day", Han had screamed at her. His once warm brown eyes had become dark.

No. She couldn't think about any of that right now.

"Soldryn, please help me", She began to play with her Sun necklace, the skin behind it growing red.

Maybe Soldryn had planned this; forcing her out of Grym. Elves weren't meant to follow him anyways. She felt even more alone than before. She thought of her father– what he would say to her right now and how it would be the exact right thing to calm her down. She thought of their life; a good life just outside the walls of Grym. How, when she was little, her father would let her try on the armor he had made. Once, on the first day of school, she had taken a helmet without him knowing, hoping to hide her pointed ears. She had worn it all day, boasting to the other kids about how her dad makes the king's armor. Now, of course at that time she didn't know that it was knights armor, but, nonetheless, all of the human children had coined her the leader of her class. When he had picked her up that day, he could have gotten angry about how she had ruined his hours of creation and made it unsellable, but instead he had told her she looked brave. The next day when she had arrived at school without a helmet, she was perceived differently.

Sleep was no easier on her mind than the previous night and Iris awoke multiple times. She got up as the sun rose and began her trek along a lesser-known path. She had always woken early, always feeling the most clarity at dawn.

The trees grew thicker and grew closer like the massive nets of fish Han and she would pull in, the fish coming together entangled and breathing as one entity. She thought about her last embrace with him, there at the edge of the forest. The fierce grip he had on her and his simultaneous disgust of what she had done. She was disgusted too.

Crunch.

A twig had been snapped to her left, instantly drawing her eyes to the thick vines and brush surrounding her. These types of sounds in the forest had never scared her. In fact, this one engulfed her in hope. Could it be an animal that she could tame? Maybe she was about to break her consuming aloneness.

She called out softly towards the brush, kneeling down.

"It's ok, you can come out."

The first thing she noticed were the teeth. Sharp and pointed and molded into a yellow smile. The figure walked out: trunk-like grey skin, beady eyes, and no more than three feet in height. A goblin. In his hand was a wooden pike and in the other a small leather pouch.

"Thank you sweetheart, I think I will" He sneered through those pointed teeth.

Iris panicked. She had never come across a hostile animal before, much less a goblin.

"I don't have any gold or anything valuable." She spat, trying to keep her voice level.

The goblin stopped, surveying her leather cloak and bag.

"What's that in your pocket?"

Thora instantly pulled it out, revealing her common map of Grym and the surrounding woods.

"You can have it, I don't want any trouble."

It grabbed the paper and, after a glance, threw it to the ground. Pointing to her pocket once again, it made another demand.

"I want that paper."

Iris was beginning to get annoyed now.

"Walk away and I won't hurt you", she warned, but the goblin raised his pike.

Instantly entangling vines grew at his feet, precisely where she had cast them. The goblin squirmed, trying to reach her with his wooden point. Iris scoffed and continued walking, but more noise came from the brush. This time it wasn't a russell but a stampede. Goblins tore through the greenery, various weapons swinging in their scrawny arms: rusted knives, spears, and clubs. Their warty skin ranged from gray to a deep yellow and, this time their mouths were fixed into a shroud scream.

After a split second of panic, Iris stood her ground and began casting. She didn't cast perfectly, but, with the help of Han, she had studied and learned numerous druidic spells. Rings of fire surrounded multiple goblins and entangling roots took hold of others. After minutes, she was surrounded by so many entrapped creatures that the free ones began to climb their comrades in order to get to her.

The sheer amount of noise became overwhelming as iris continued to cast, wounding some with sunbeams and continuing previous spells with others. A pile of screaming bodies surrounded her, creating a prison cell as she kept going.

One larger goblin had climbed the piled and prepared to jump onto her when suddenly a flying knife cut through its eye with sheer force enough to pin its lifeless body to the massive trunk behind it. Iris turned in circles, searching for the origin of the polished black dagger, but was still surrounded by walls of trapped goblins.

In one vertical swipe, a short sword cut through a wall of goblins, severing limbs, heads, and for some, completely cutting the body in half. Iris instantly tasted warm iron. The sword must have grazed her face. The cell collapsed, revealing a hooded figure. The jet black full body cloak enveloped the body with multiple daggers fitted on the outside and another short sword in the belt. Iris knew that the visible weapons were only a fraction of the ones this person had, surely put there intentionally.

The figure lifted the hood, revealing long silver hair and a girl's face.

She had to be an assassin. Iris was about to die. Her breath caught in her throat and stomach churned, but only for a moment before she got into a fighting stance. She was not good at close range combat, but had to do everything possible if she had a chance of survival. As Iris moved her arms to begin casting a sun beam spell, the girl lifted an eyebrow, almost amused. 

She pulled out her other sword, now one in each hand, and sliced through a screaming goblin.

Was it possible she had come to help Iris? There wasn't much time to further assess as a final wave came out from all around. The girl had begun to kill the goblins one by one, blood pouring from their bodies and staining the grass.

Iris continued to trap the creatures until there were no more. The screaming continued to ring in her ears as she turned towards the silver haired girl.

"Thank y-", she began when, in a split second, she was pinned to the ground with a dagger to her throat.