A Gilded Dawn

Chapter 4: Iris

Iris's main priority the first night in the forest was securing the map. She laid it on the ground face down and cast roots to entangle it.

"If anything touches it, the roots will pull it into the earth and probably destroy it." She said quietly, needing no probe from the girl.

Iris knew that putting it on her body while she slept was simply not enough to keep Thora's swift and greedy hands away. She wasn't dumb enough to not know that she would be killed in a second once Thora had the location of the riches.

The walk had been silent after leaving the tavern. Iris was forced to lead with Thora behind. The girl's steps were near silent, but Iris had felt her daggerish stare on her back the entire way.

The first few hours of walking were hard. Iris fought to keep her legs from shaking and making any sounds that could have hinted she was crying after her interrogation. She felt stupid for showing such weakness. Death had never so readily, or ever, stared her in the eyes before– able to take her in an instant.

Now, even as she laid against a tree with her arms and legs tied for the night and her head throbbing from the hits, she couldn't help but feel a flicker of control as she watched Thora stare at the entangled map.

Growing up, Iris had developed a sense for assessing one's threshold. She knew how much she could jokingly make fun of her friends before they would make an elf joke, how long she could go out into the woods before her father would notice and get mad, and how deep into the castle's resources she and Han could go before she was kicked out by the guards.

Han had warped this ability for her. His smile and the way his sun-filled eyes would fix on Iris deluded her to the fact that she was an elf in a human city, and his golden hair and body up against hers at night made her forget she ever had to go home. He had also led her to believe that she could do more as a druid: that she could learn more spells all at once, cast more difficult cantrips, and push past any boundaries she had.

It was pitch black now and Iris was closing her eyes, trying to fall asleep, if that was even possible. For the first time since the tavern, Thora spoke up.

"Why did you kill the prince?" Her words were methodical, steady.

Iris couldn't tell whether she was trying to torture her or was simply curious. Either way, it felt like torture. Han had pushed her, helped her learn more than she could take at one time. She should have known that cantrip cast would not have worked, that she was not ready to use such complex spells without mistake.

"What, will you kill me if I don't tell you?" Iris had slipped up again, unable to distinguish whether her words would push the killer over the edge. Still, her sardonic remark had genuine curiosity to it. How far could she go before Thora had had enough? And, would she ever be able to reach a point in this long journey where she didn't have to be tied up every night? She wasn't sure whether the assassin even knew what trust was.

Surprisingly, Thora was silent after her comment. Iris knew she was angry, but there was no doubt that she was able to harness and hide her emotion.

Iris was soon unable to fight the exhaustion from the previous night, and awoke as the sun rose. Her head still throbbed, and, with her hands tied, she wasn't able to cast a spell to lessen the pain.

She instead focused on her environment. A light mist covered the forest floor and orange light poked through the thick trees. Beside her was Thora, still asleep and curled up, almost cat-like.

She took the time to really analyze the girl she would be spending so much time with. Her silver hair, even while pressed against the forest floor, was cleanly placed in one straight bunch, shining ever so slightly in the morning mist. But her face did look different now. Thora's sharp features had softened in her sleep, her jawline not as defined and cheekbones relaxed. Iris could see that she, although seemingly older due to the long scar cutting across her skin and her confident demeanor, couldn't have been more than one or two years older than Iris.​​