IriS|SirI
Leaving King's End had been a mistake. However, Iris wasn't quite ready to face this reality yet.
Rolling hills dissolved into swampland, cold, wet and putrid. And the brown-haired girl traveled on, jumping to and from gnarled, ancient roots, deeper into the mouth of the swamp. She held her dagger tight and her bow strung and strapped around her chest. Her hair was tied behind in a tight braid, the hems of her long, gray woolen coat flowing damp and muddy around her legs. She was transfixed and resolute to inch a little bit further. To see what lay beyond each new cluster of deep-rooted trees.
Even when the swamp was screaming danger. The incessant buzz of insects was hard to ignore, but Iris focused beyond it, flinching at each creak in the wood and suspicious splash in the murky waters below. And then, the silence grew louder as a call in the distance cut through it like a cleaver. "Meat!" In an instant, she was hugging the side of a tree, eyes darting from mounds of land to the canopies above. The fog was creeping, obscuring the threat in the distance. Echoes of the initial call followed, croaking and chilling her to the bone.
She waited, and it came again. "Flesh." It was closer.
She looked around as her heart's pace spiked, drowning out all other thoughts. Spotting a hollowed out tree trunk broken and bent in half by lighting strike, she left her hiding place behind. In three long leaps she reached the island where her new shelter stood, white with thick cobwebs. Swatting them away with her dagger's edge and evicting a colorful spider, she sat inside the trunk and listened intently.
The voices were shrill and merciless, calling for blood, flesh and murder. Followed by occasional caws, they swooped above her before she could think of a plan. And then, they flew on, leaving her behind in her dirty refuge. Some distance away, she heard them descend on a pack of animals, unknown to her apart from the squeals they emitted as the murderous corvids feasted.
She waited for what felt like a long time after the sounds died out, huddled in the tree trunk... until she heard something that was very akin to footsteps trekking the marshland outside.
Rolling hills dissolved into swampland, cold, wet and putrid. And the brown-haired girl traveled on, jumping to and from gnarled, ancient roots, deeper into the mouth of the swamp. She held her dagger tight and her bow strung and strapped around her chest. Her hair was tied behind in a tight braid, the hems of her long, gray woolen coat flowing damp and muddy around her legs. She was transfixed and resolute to inch a little bit further. To see what lay beyond each new cluster of deep-rooted trees.
Even when the swamp was screaming danger. The incessant buzz of insects was hard to ignore, but Iris focused beyond it, flinching at each creak in the wood and suspicious splash in the murky waters below. And then, the silence grew louder as a call in the distance cut through it like a cleaver. "Meat!" In an instant, she was hugging the side of a tree, eyes darting from mounds of land to the canopies above. The fog was creeping, obscuring the threat in the distance. Echoes of the initial call followed, croaking and chilling her to the bone.
She waited, and it came again. "Flesh." It was closer.
She looked around as her heart's pace spiked, drowning out all other thoughts. Spotting a hollowed out tree trunk broken and bent in half by lighting strike, she left her hiding place behind. In three long leaps she reached the island where her new shelter stood, white with thick cobwebs. Swatting them away with her dagger's edge and evicting a colorful spider, she sat inside the trunk and listened intently.
The voices were shrill and merciless, calling for blood, flesh and murder. Followed by occasional caws, they swooped above her before she could think of a plan. And then, they flew on, leaving her behind in her dirty refuge. Some distance away, she heard them descend on a pack of animals, unknown to her apart from the squeals they emitted as the murderous corvids feasted.
She waited for what felt like a long time after the sounds died out, huddled in the tree trunk... until she heard something that was very akin to footsteps trekking the marshland outside.
Embers in her footsteps
A fire burns within
A fire burns within
