Foreverland

Chapter VIII

Chapter VIII

-

Iris was in the lake room practicing her throwing. She breathed heavily as she threw one dagger after another, each hitting the center of the circle. Her arms were sore from the repetitiveness of moving it in the same motion over and over again- but she needed to perfect her throwing in order to defend herself when the time would come. 

"You're getting good at that." Iris turned and looked at Cam who was leaning on the wall, watching her throw. His chest had been healing well in the few days since he'd been hit. It was still bruised, and you could still hear his wheezing, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been. 

Iris dropped her arm and wiped her forehead. "Thank you." She gave him a small smile. 

He pushed himself off the wall. "Maybe you should move on to moving targets." She gave him a questioning look. "We can go hunting."

"Out in the woods?" Every time she thought about going back into the woods, she thought about the shadowy reaper that almost cost Peter his life. 

He nodded. "I know a place to hunt, where we'll be relatively safe."

Iris walked over to the wall and pulled her daggers from the earthy surface. "Relatively," she repeated.

"Yes," he said. "You should know by now you're never safe here, no matter where you are. None of us are."

"I know that," she said. Iris was about to say that she didn't want to put anyone, including herself, in danger unless it was absolutely necessary, but then she remembered that she was doing all of this training for a reason. "Alright. We'll go hunting," she said with a nod. 

"Okay," he smiled. "I'll tell the others."

Iris stopped him. "No. Just us." She didn't want to face Peter just yet. The past couple of days had been tense between them. They had probably exchanged no more than five words to each other, and she would rather focus on practicing her throwing than worrying about him.

Cam's eyebrows knit together for a second before he shrugged. "Okay. If Peter finds out I took you out into the woods without him he'll probably skin me alive, but some rebellion would be healthy for you anyways. I'll go get the stuff we'll need." Iris watched him leave as she tied the sack containing her daggers to her waist, and felt for her other dagger. It's cool metal felt good in her hand and made her feel safe. 

She walked to the main den where Cam was rustling around, putting random things into a sac. "Where's Peter?" Iris asked. 

"I think he's off with Liam and Max somewhere," he said shrugging. 

Iris nodded. Cam put one last thing into the sac, before standing up. "Ready. Oh, one last thing." He tossed her a small leather sac. "Fairy dust. Just in case."

Iris rolled the bag around in her hand before stuffing it into her pocket and giving him a smile. "Let's go."  

-

"Aim in front of it," Cam whispered from next to Iris. They were currently crouched behind some foliage, waiting for a hare or squirrel to run by. So far, Iris had made three attempts to hit one of the fast-moving animals, but failed each time. The third time she came close, but was off by a few inches. 

Cam had delivered on his promise to find a safe place for them to hunt. There was a small expanse of thinning forest east to where they usually travelled through with an abundance of small animals. Iris felt much safer here than she did anywhere else in the forest. 

In the blink of an eye, a squirrel came darting through the trees. Iris aimed and threw her dagger. It skimmed the side of the rodent, making it squeal and run away even faster. Iris huffed in frustration.