Chapter 4 ~ Stupidly Curious
Kanan ignores Iris for the rest of the day. She knocks on his door once but he doesn't answer. So, she let him be, not entirely sure why he'd act like that. Instead, she goes to Hannah for advice on what to wear to the gala. She doesn't exactly have formal clothes, her wardrobe existing mostly out of riding clothes.
"You can wear one of my dresses! Daniel and I are also attending the gala and my dress is already picked out," Hannah says when Iris tells her this.
So, the girls set off on a quest to find the perfect dress for Iris to wear. They talk and laugh at each other and it finally feels like Iris has a friend again. She's missed it, even when she told herself being alone was better. She really likes Hannah
"You look amazing," Hannah gasps when Iris, smiling brightly, steps out of the bathroom. She's wearing a figure hugging black dress that comes down just above her knees.
"I think this is the dress," Iris says, feeling excited for the gala despite her earlier disinterest. "Thank you so much Hannah."
She takes the dress off and takes it with her to her room. There, she decides to dress in a baggy shirt and shorts. She should get some sleep. She has a long day tomorrow.
After tossing and turning for what seems like forever, Iris finally resigns to the fact that she can't sleep. She feels uneasy and nervous for reasons despite the obvious. She can't quite put her finger on it, but something doesn't feel right.
Of course, her nerves are most likely getting to her. The show this weekend will be her first in years. The last time she showed didn't end quite as planned. She fell and broke three ribs. This weekend needs to be perfect.
Finally, she gets up and decides to get some fresh air. The starry night sky greets her when she steps out onto her balcony. It's chilly outside, the winter air crisp against her skin.
The property is surrounded by woods and Iris finds herself staring intently at the trees. She's always loved the woods. When she still lived on her own, back in high school, she used to take her dog, Everest, for walks all the time.
The woods were right behind her house and, since there is no fence separating her back yard from the trees, Everest spent the time she wasn't home exploring. He sometimes slept out there, too, when he felt like it.
She found Everest in those exact woods the day she moved there, actually. She still remembers seeing the wolf-like dog, injured and bleeding on the forest floor. Thinking he was a wolf at the time, she was hesitant in taking him home but, as soon as he looked at her with those sad brown eyes, her heart melted and she knew she had to help him.
Kanan came by her house later that day to welcome her to the neighbourhood and found the dog lying in her living room, completely stitched up and on his way to recovery. Kanan said he knew the dog was the previous occupant of the house's and said he was a wolf mix, which explained his appearance.
As she stares at the trees, she also remembers when he ran away. At first, she just thought that it was another one of his adventure episodes where he would stay in the woods for weeks on end. She last saw him the morning Kanan left.
She still misses him. She'd never had a dog before him and it was fun. He was very intelligent and took care of her more than she'd like to admit.
Movement in the trees catches Iris' attention. She frowns, straining to catch a glimpse of whatever it was. It was to her far left, just a small flicker, but she could swear she saw something.
When she doesn't see anything else, Iris fixes her gaze on the trees right in front of her. She only now notices a narrow dirt road leading in between the trees. She wonders why she's never seen it before since it's quite prominent, basically the only solid gap between the dense trees.
Iris gasps as wolves suddenly come out of the trees and into view. One by one, they run over the road and disappear back into the trees. At first, she thought she imagined it because surely, a wolf could never be as large as the ones that were running across the small dirt road in front of her.
One wolf pauses in the road. It looks around and sniffs the air, before shaking it's head and disappearing into the trees like his comrades.
When there aren't any more wolves crossing over the road, Iris' original disbelief and shock turns to irrational curiosity. She's always been the undeniably stupid kind when she's curious.
So, without thinking, she vaults expertly over the rail of the balcony and catches herself on the ledge. With strength no normal twenty-two year old woman possesses, she swings herself on to the deck to her far left.
She was trained to do that back home, when her parents were enrolled in the military. She trained as a boxer since she was twelve and as a soldier since she was fourteen.
Even after coming to North America as a junior, she often found herself doing drills off muscle memory in the woods behind her house.
Iris jogs over the damp grass before coming face to face with the tall trees she saw the wolves disappear into. She stands there for a moment, staring into the darkness, trying to spot something that shows her what she saw wasn't just a trick of her imagination.
She can't see much of anything, she realises. She can see about as far as two trees away from where she's standing before the woods are obscured by darkness.
For some reason, Iris isn't thinking straight. Her mind is fogged as some kind of invisible force pulls her towards the trees. She finally steps through the treeline and into the woods, against her better judgement.
Iris stumbles along through the darkness, completely unsure of where she's going. Her walk soon turns to a jog and finally she's sprinting through the trees, pulled in a direction she's not sure she wants to go. Her rational side is fighting hard to break through the fog that is her mind.
After a few minutes, she reaches a clearing, tired and out of breath. The clearing isn't big, only big enough for her to be able to see the night sky and the stars above her head.
There's a large boulder in the very center of the clearing. Iris walks towards it in a dream-like state. Her fingers trace the cold, hard exterior of the stone. She freezes suddenly, frowning.
At the top of the boulder is a glowing red light. Curiously, Iris carefully scales the side of the rock. Her feet slip once, making her heartbeat quicken when she glances down and realises she must be at least ten feet off the ground.
When she gets close enough, Iris grabs at the light. It gives way easily, nearly making her fall backwards since she expected it to be more solid. She clutches the warm object in her hand as she descends.
She opens her hand to view the object. It's a long, carved black stone, maybe three centimetres long and one in diameter. It's wrapped in a thin silver metal, snaking around it like a single vine. Attached to it is a black strap that hooks together like a necklace.
Iris, controlled by some kind of instinct, fastens the strap around her neck. As soon as she lets the stone rest on her chest, it glows a bright red for a fraction of a moment before going dark again.
The sound of a branch snapping close by partially brings her out of her daze. She looks in the direction of the sound just to find a familiar figure standing in the shadows, watching her.
The grey and white wolf hybrid tilts his head to the side as realisation dawns on Iris. Everest lowers his head in a sign of recognition before turning around abruptly and leaving.
Not willing to loose him again, Iris stumbles on behind him and gets swallowed up in the darkness of the trees once again.
*â*
"She's badass with a good heart, soft but strong. Unapologetic and honest. She's the type of woman you go to war beside, the type of woman you marry."
It's a late update but the WiFi's down. Thanks so much for reading, though! I am literally so tired right nowð©. Like, my horses are time consuming anough as it is, but now with exams, it's nearly impossible to get any writing done.
That's why I'm here at 1 am, updating this chapter after looking at my textbook for ten minutes and just deciding to fail. I'm so good at procrastination it's scary. I'm writing tomorrow and I literally haven't studied at all.
Please vote and leave a comment if you liked this chapter! Or just if you don't want me to fail! Whichever motivates you, I guess...
~ Danielle