Chapter 115
“That thing.” Cane tapped her shoulder and looked at the top of her hair, his brows knitted. If that little lizard breathed fire right now, her hair would be burned. “Don’t let anyone else see it.”
“Okay.” Iris reached into her hair and caressed the little lizard, as it nuzzled her finger.
After that, Cane led the way back.
“Why is that thing hiding in your hair?” Redmond frowned, he was displeased to see such a creature.
Not only him, but the rest of them also didn’t understand why they had to take that lizard with them when they could kill it or let it back in nature.
Cane only told them Iris found the little lizard inside the cave, but he didn’t tell them how it appeared, since they didn’t know about the fire magic stone, thus there was no need to alarm them over it.
Especially when Redmond was here. Cane didn’t have the slightest intention to explain a single thing to him.
“I don’t know…” Iris replied. “Maybe the lizard likes it.” She couldn’t come up with a better excuse and Redmond scoffed.
“Come on, we need to go, you have delayed us enough!” Redmond said, as he grabbed Iris’ hand to walk toward his horse.
He was always acting so brashly, but because Iris had gotten used to it, she didn’t complain and followed him to the horse, as he helped her to mount it.
Even before they started moving, Iris could feel her butt burning in pain. The pain from yesterday had not yet been relieved.
“This will only be a day ride, hold on.” Redmond’s voice was curt, it was not clear whether he was still encouraging her or not at this moment.
Sighing deeply, Iris wrapped her arms around his waist, because she knew there was no point in keeping distance while riding the horse together, and rested her head on his back.
From the side, Cane glanced at them, but said nothing, as he mounted his own horse and led this small party.
The journey to the Moon Dew Pack would only take a day from here and after a short break in the afternoon, when all of the men, except for the alpha, surrounded her to watch the lizard breathe out fire, they resumed their journey.
It was midnight when they arrived at the Moon Dew pack, where they would stay the night and move to Aarleen city, in order to participate in the auction for the access to enter the black market.
Redmond went to find an inn for them to stay the night and once Iris cleaned herself up and laid on the bed, she fell asleep almost immediately.
She was so tired and was in so much pain from a whole day riding, she slept without trouble, but once again she dreamed about the five swords in that empty hall.
Iris opened her eyes sluggishly when she felt uncomfortable, as if she was suddenly being put in a spotlight and the intense stare that she received gave her a start.
She opened her eyes groggily only to find Cane staring at her, she almost jumped in fear because of how shocked she was, her eyes widened in apprehension, as she put a distance between them out of instinct.
Iris probably tried to act normally with him, but it didn’t mean the dreadful thing that happened between them could be forgotten so easily.
She used to bury all ’bad memories’ in the back of her mind, she pretended as if that thing happened to someone else instead. In that way, she could prevent herself from the heartache.
She used this method when her father killed that stable boy, also to unmind all the things that Mason had done to her. Some of them had been forgotten intentionally, except for a few that plagued her mind too deeply. She buried them in the back of her mind instead.
In that way, she not only did not seek futile revenge, but at the same time she also avoided being in so much agony and despair because of the grudge.
However, it didn’t mean it had disappeared completely… all of them were still there, in the back of her mind, lurking for a chance to rear their ugly head.
“Wh- what are you doing here?” Iris was studying his expression. Did he have another outburst again like when they were in the library?
“I came to wake you up because we need to go now.” Cane could sense her distrustful eyes, thus he stood up from the edge of the bed and nodded at the small table beside the bed. “Eat now, or that thing will finish your breakfast.”
“Hm?” Iris didn’t understand, but when she followed his line of sight, she found her little companion gobbling up her sandwiches. This little thing had already finished one third of the portion. “Ah!”
Iris immediately scrambled to get the lizard away from her food. She didn’t know that this little thing could be so gluttonous.
“We will leave in ten minutes.”
After that, Cane left her to prepare herself for their journey to the Aarleen city. It was only a four hour trip from what Redmond said last night.
That was why when they arrived in that city, it was still noon and they could walk around this place to see a few things, which was the first time for Iris.
She went with Redmond and Ethan, who kept bickering every second of it. Thankfully, she could ignore them just fine and indulged herself in her surroundings.
“Redmond, buy me this,” Iris said, as she tugged at his sleeve. She pointed at a book about magic stones. She was really curious about them and the only way to understand them was by reading a few books to get the information.
There was another way to learn about magic stones, where they needed to find a magic user and ask them for the explanation, but those magic users wouldn’t utter a single word if it was not to their own kind.
“How shameless of you to ask me for money, I don’t have any,” Redmond replied, grumbling because he finished it in the brothels and now, he had nothing left.