Secrets Beyond - The Beginning (a Tangled the series original fan fiction)

The Black Cat Inn - Chapter 9

Not too long after what had transpired, both Iris and Varian had come to the decision of waking up earlier, making camp later, taking night watch turns, and sleeping up in the trees. Not to mention it wasn't the last time they saw those demonic wolves; quite frequently they would hear their hollow sounding howls, and once or twice saw them from their tree top perches.

Following the horizon continually they had gotten on a decent path. It was wider and more cleaned up and visible than the last, but it was still well covered and typically unused. While traveling on it, they had had those awkward moments when you pass a stranger and try not to stare or not stare or look shady and in the end, end up looking suspicious as heck. For the reasons of the wolves and the occasional traveler, they had decided to make camp in the tallest possible tree at least a couple feet from the road.

Iris and Varian had not seen the wolves in a long time though and hoped they really hadn't been searching for them. Despite this they had encountered one or two other wild animals. Some being deer, one being an actual bear, others being just foxes and other raccoons.

Iris sat on the incredibly thick tree branch, twirling her dagger around in practice as Varian made food. "Ya know, I don't think my knife and your stick are going to cut it if we got into real trouble..." Iris sighed, throwing the blade so it stuck out of the firm trunk. "Its not a stick, and I've already told you I have alchemic bombs!!!!" Varian sassily commented back, which made his restless friend smile. Iris found his sass funny and charming but she never told him, instead letting him keep on snarking off whenever the mood struck him.

"I'm just saying we should stop by the next town we happen to come across and buy better weapons," She chimed. "I never said your alchemy wouldn't help.... but we never know what we'll find out here... and what if we get into a close up fight? Wild animals aren't our only concern you know..." she continued, ripping the hilt out of the wood, and cleaning the sap from the blade. Varian sighed, this was the fourth time Iris had brought the subject up. "I mean yeah.. you make a point, but how much money do we have? We really can't just be throwing coins around like confetti!" Iris bobbled her head from side to side in agreement and being torn between the too decisions. She then began reaching for the jingling pouching on her belt, and peered inside. "We still have a good bit, but yeah, we should find a way to make some money..." She told him, closing it back up.

"How would we even do that???"

"I don't know.... we'll figure it out though, let's not get too ahead of ourselves!"

"I guess so.." Varian carefully made his way over, two jerky sandwiches in his hands. "Ooo! Let's see what the chef has graced us with tonight shall we?" Iris teased as she was handed her food. Varian grinned and with a cocky little hand motion sat with her. "Tis called my almost famous almost ham sandwich!" To which Iris laughed.

Ruddiger came bounding over at the smell of the food, some shiny objects in his possesion. Ruddiger cheerily traded the food for his newest finds and began to chow down. "You know, we could just keep letting Ruddiger give us all these neat things he keeps on finding, some of them are actual pieces of money..." She giggled, tucking the knick knacks away with the many others they had received.

After dinner and another night of singing the two lay in the tree looking up at the luminescent sky. countless flecks of blue white purple and limitless other colors flickered and shifted along the dark canvas of the sky. All their troubles seemed to melt away each evening. Iris took the first watch, as she usually did and quite liked it. "Life's good! And I still have a whole world ahead of me!" she whispered as all meaning of time slipped away too into this beautiful world she had come to not more than14-16 days ago. It was hard to belive it had already been half a month, she did wonder what had changed in the orphanage since she left, if anything had changed! She allowed her mind to wander senselessly as she remained attentive.