IRIS

“Iris, Iris!” my twin sister Fenix called. I lay on the lush teal grass as the blood moon passed through the fluffy cotton candy clouds. I loved my home, when I was left alone to enjoy it. 

“What.” I yawned, rolling over. 

“It is Father…” 

“What about him?” I replied lazily. 

“Father is dead.” The words jolted my heart, my mind, the Isle. It all just froze into oblivion. I had never felt so much hurt, like a dagger had ripped through my mind. 

Her voice hung in the air like a crisp, cold memory. After that dream faded, another emerged--it was the hierarchy. They were planning to meet me at the gates of the portal, ready to take us, prisoner. Panic started to rise as I shook my head to rid the nightmare.

Waking up, I rolled on my back to see four wooden panels above me. The roof was tall and the room spacious. All I could hear was a buzz of voices, reminding me where I was. I had to focus in order to hear one particular voice, and that voice was aware of our presence. While I didn’t know the reason for his interest in us, I could take a good guess. I knew someone had paid him to look for us, and I didn’t know if it was mother, or the elders of Sugarland. 

What I did know was that this deal Bear had made with the Greenie would be just about over. One thing I had come to learn was, if something sounded too good to be true, then it probably was. 

“Wake up,” I hissed in the direction of the other sleeping occupants. Bear stirred, the Mermaid did not. “Siren.” My words cut through the air like a knife.

“It's Violet,” she said as she rolled over to face me from her place on the floor.

“We need to go. Our luck will run out soon, and I don’t want to be caught by that weird guy downstairs. There is something about him that isn’t right. I don’t know what it is, but I don’t want to find out, either.”

“Alright, alright.” She sat up. We both looked at Bear, who was still comfortably dosing.

“Get up.” I kicked him in his side, a bit harder than was probably necessary. My claws dug in between his ribs. I felt one of the bones crack lightly. Human bones were so much weaker. 

“I’m up.” He sat quickly, looking dazed as if still dreaming. His hair was in a ridiculous mess on the top of his head, which seemingly matched his personality. He groaned as he rubbed at the rib my claw had intruded, “Why does my side hurt?” 

“You are sick, or did you forget that?” 

“But my side didn’t hurt before.” He looked at his ribs with confusion. “Besides, the Greenie healed me!” He attempted to stand. “I feel better, see?” He turned around in a circle to display his health and fell to the ground. “Oh.”

“See, that good for nothing Greenie didn’t heal you. It was all a lie.” I laughed.

“Let me suck out some more of the poison.” Violet rushed to his side, picking up his arm from the floor. 

I groaned, “Let’s go, c’mon.” I threw the ragged cloth off me and walked toward the door, but my wings stopped me as I tried to leave. “Agh… damn wings.” I tensed my back to retract them from their large size to a slightly smaller span. 

When I was free, I straightened up, tucking my hair behind my ear, slightly embarrassed by my confrontation with the doorframe. “Let’s go.” 

The hard-wood staircase creaked with every foot that touched upon their wooden surface. With the six of ours, we weren't quiet. I braced myself, nervous for who we might see in the bar. More, for who might see us. I peered into the room as I came around the corner. The collection of people hadn’t changed, as if no time had passed from last night. I looked toward the bar and saw the caped man sitting steadily in his chair, looking down at his lager. As I turned toward the door, a shriek rang loudly in my ears and my mind went black before visions flooded in. 

My eyes burned and it only got worse as I rubbed them to ease the pain. I was placed in an empty dirt field. As I looked around, I felt a strong feeling of unease creep in around me. Suddenly, a black cloud started to seep around me. I felt my skin, as well as each muscle in my body, tighten as it hugged me. I tried to breathe but the tight grip it had on me made it impossible. A hum began, followed by a buzz, which increased in tempo each moment I tried to keep my breathing steady. I looked around with what strength I had left to turn my head. I found the will to turn my neck ever so slightly, and I saw thousands of creatures coming toward me. Each direction was filled with different races--Mermaids, Vikings, faeries, and beasts like those I had seen in Sugarland, along with others I couldn’t even recognize.

There was a war happening, and I was in the middle of it. It all made sense. The black cloud that was wrapped around me was the Great Evil, and this was the war of our ancestors. I breathed a sigh of relief knowing it couldn’t be real. And then it occurred to me that this could be a vision of the future. I panicked, trying to free my arms to run, but the more I struggled, the tighter the evil grasped me. When I felt that I couldn’t struggle anymore, I took my last breath. The ground shifted beneath me and I was back in the bar. 

The hooded man was staring straight into my eyes, not letting me see anything else. I sucked in a much-needed breath. He possessed the Great Evil, and he had come to complete his mission to show me what was coming. 

“We need to go!” I breathed sharply in the direction of my accomplices. They looked at me, confused. “Go! Go, now! We are in trouble. We never should have come here. I never should have come here.” The man began to stand, one large heavy boot after another on the wooden planks. “We need to get to my home before it’s too late.” I grabbed them both by the scruff of their garments and pulled them out the door. I took off in flight so we could gain speed.

“A new war is starting, and we are going to be in the middle of it.” I braced myself, hardly able to comprehend what I had envisioned. 

Violet breathed. “How do you know?” 

“Because I just saw the old one and it’s not finished.” I inhaled, tightness crippling my bones. The war left an aftereffect on my body.

“Who was involved?” Bear was quick to show his concern. A true Viking, always ready for war.

“All of us. All of our families, our races, Sugarland, and others.”

“Others?” Violet pressed.

“I’m not sure who or what they were… I've never seen anything like them.”

We ran like our lives depended on it, because well, they did. I flew ahead. I didn’t know if we were being followed, but I didn’t want to find out, either. I spotted a small entryway into a house of worship. “In here. Quickly.” I gestured to the door.  It had brought us backstage where a service was happening. I listened carefully, thinking of what our next move should be. We had outrun the dark evil. For now, that would be our main focus. I snuck out into the crowd, making sure to stay low to the ground. A churchgoer spied me from his spot in the back row of pews and picked something up from the ground. 

“Here,” he said, handing me a pair of camouflage-green shoes. I didn’t trust him. He looked at my shoeless feet and held the pair out to me, gesturing for me to take them with his eyebrows raised. 

I took the shoes he was offering and continued to creep along the pews. Why was he being generous? The thought played on my mind. It was obvious that we didn’t belong… or was it? The farther we got into the depths of Sugarland, the stranger the creatures appeared. Although, at this point, most of Sugarland knew of our intrusion. Unless… maybe he also wasn't a local? He did look somewhat more human than the rest; perhaps he was taking pity on a fellow explorer. 

We finally made our way unseen to another entryway of the church. It was beginning to become clear that this was more than just a church. Perhaps an escape tunnel. The entryway led us through a tunnel, which we followed through to an open area. The sun shone brightly, and I covered my eyes, suddenly realising I still had the shoes in hand as a loose lace hit me in the eye. I put them on, concealing my taloned feet. I had to squeeze my claws together to make them fit properly.

There was a cluster of markets up ahead, and I turned to the others. “Whatever you do, do not act suspicious and do not talk to anyone. By now it’s likely that everyone knows we are here.” I knew in my heart of hearts that Bear would be fighting the urge to say something. And Violet... Mer were mesmerised by trinkets, with a lure so strong it was impossible to resist.

A small woman, looking no more than five feet tall, with a small and fragile physique to match was calling out to whoever would listen. “Music boxes, just a penny.”

I looked at Bear, specifically giving him a mental note to not engage. I didn’t have to hear his thoughts to know that he was planning to. I held my breath as we passed. “Music boxes for sale!” the woman called again. We made no interaction.  “A song for every style...” Once again, we ignored her. “Have you folks heard any news about the whereabouts of the intruders?” Her voice drifted in our direction.

“No,” I replied blankly, hoping she would drop it.

“Well, it was worth an ask… I've got some coin, you see, if I am the one to turn them in, I get to keep it… Well, anyone who finds them does.” She smiled sweetly. “You folks look like you’re not from these parts.” She eyed us curiously.

I knew at this point it would be stupid not to engage at risk of looking suspicious. “What do you have there?” I asked without much interest. It was very hard for me to pretend as it went against every fibre in my honest being.

“Music boxes. Would you like to hear a tune?” she asked as she began winding one up. It was blue in decoration and had a unique patterning on its exterior. I smiled slightly as a response.

“I have a coin or two,” Bear said, reaching into a pocket inside his shirt. I glared at him, for first engaging, and second, for having secret coin that none of us knew about. 

“Thank you, sir.” The woman smiled at him, placing the coin into her pocket.

Once the music had stopped playing, I hastily thanked her for her time and insisted that we must be on our way. Once we got moving, I turned to Bear angrily. “Where did you get that money, and why did you not tell us you had any? Do you realise how far that could have gotten us at this point?”

“I got it from the Greenie. I found this in my pocket as we reached the inn.” He pulled out a large hessian bag filled with loot. My eyes widened at the size while Violet’s eyes narrowed.

Furiously, I tried to snatch it from him, but he pulled away before I could grasp it and tucked it safely away inside his cloak, patting his pocket. Violet sighed before ordering her fingers in a position that looked like a duck's head, and suddenly, the bag was in her hand. “Ha!” she mocked, tucking it into her garment. 

I sneered at him. “Let's keep moving.” My talons folded into my palms, leaving crescent moons indented in the skin. “I can feel eyes on us.” I felt Bear shift in the grass. “Don’t look back,” I warned him.