Iris Story

I am posting my Iris story, in celebration of writing 1,000 words today!!!!! That's the first time I've written anything (other than poems) in months. :D Hopefully I'll continue with it. I wrote the first chapter sometime after christmas, the second chapter today. This story was born from a picture prompt so it's pretty much all improv.

Chapter One
A girl flitted into the room, her long braid flying in behind her. She stood at the edge very still, her face distant. A breeze played with her long loose skirt and she turned to the window, eagerly seeking out the pale moon.
“We cannot move tonight,” a whisper came from the shadows outside the house. “It’s too soon, he’ll suspect something.”
‘I wish I had wings,’ the girl thought suddenly, her eyes flicking back upwards. The shadows were too deep, she couldn’t see who had spoken. ‘I’d fly away from here, up to the moon even. Don’t be silly,’ her voice of reason told her sternly. ‘You wouldn’t make it to the moon, you’d suffocate from lack of air. Oh be quiet,’ she ordered her V. o. R. ‘I know it’d never happen. I’m surprised you didn’t point out that wings wouldn’t support humans, either.’
“When will we move then?” A different voice spoke up, this one higher and smoother. “If we wait too long our chance will be lost.”
“Tomorrow night,” the first voice decided, as the girl again tried to make out anything in the darkness. The moon shone dully on fountains and perfectly manicured grass, but it didn’t touch the sides of the house. “Tomorrow will be perfect.”
“It had better be,” the second voice said crisply. “Come on.” There was the sound of something crunching-- ‘that’d be the gravel path,’ the girl thought and hurriedly looked over to it. All she saw were shadows shifting-- and then a barely discernable dark shape was moving down the path, along with the retreating sound of footsteps.
The girl stared after the shape, her eyes narrowed in a frown. They were going towards the shed house where she supposed they were hiding out.
“I still wish I could fly away,” She whispered to herself glumly. “If I really could fly I’d go to the mountains, where I would dance with the wind.”
“Who are you talking to, Iris?” A teasing voice came from behind her, Iris spun around already smiling.
“Only myself,” she replied. “I though you were on the harp tonight, Mari?”
“I am, we’re taking a break,” the young woman in front of Iris grinned again. “It’s about time, I was parched.” The music had stopped, Iris noticed. She couldn’t hear it much here, though in the front of the hall she knew it swirled around the dancers like it was their partner.
“You seem preoccupied,” Mari glanced out at the half-dark lawn, and came forward to the window beside Iris.
“This place is mysterious, is all,” Iris shrugged. “I should have guessed it would be. But it looks so normal…”
“Appearances are often misleading,” Mari said, her gray eyes troubled. “Be careful, Iris. After all,” she grinned again suddenly “People might think you’re normal, to look at you!”
“Mari!” Iris burst out laughing, the sound bouncing off the walls. “I’m wounded,” she gasped, trying to stop. “You’ve finally killed me with your jokes.”
“You’ll forgive me,” Mari giggled with Iris. “Someone has to make you laugh now and then.”
“It’s just as well, you’d make the jokes anyways.” It felt good to laugh, Iris breathed deeply and smiled again.
“That I would,” Mari sighed and glanced back into the hall. “I’d better get back, they’re tuning up.”
“Good luck,” Iris said.
“Like I need it,” Mari snorted at herself and walked off, Iris smiled and watched her go.
She moved forward a step and caught sight of the dancers, lining up and getting ready. The nobles of the castle and their guests stood in groups around them, talking and laughing politely. She’d have to tell them about the whisperers, she supposed, and then the guards would go catch whoever it was and lock them up.
Iris moved towards one of the servants standing by the door. “Excuse me,” she said, the servant turned to look at her with an expression of cool indifference. “I was standing by the window and I heard whispering,” Iris explained, ignoring the expression. “It sounds like two people are planning to do something tomorrow night.”
“Did you see them?” The servant asked, looking alarmed now.
“No, but they went in the shed house.” The servant said thank you quickly and hurried off to tell the news to a superior. Iris watched him go then turned to watch the dancers again. They were doing their scarf dance now, leap swish leap swish. She would be up there with them tomorrow night, with the music to her back, it’s rhythms pounding their way into her body. She smiled thinking of it.
She watched as a servant scurried up to the lord of the house and whispered something in his ear, the man spoke a few words and turned back to his party. His face was as smooth and smiling as ever as he talked to a beautiful lady-- how often did those kind of things happen? Iris wondered. There was a noise behind her and she turned, some guards were trying to sneak up to the shed house. They weren’t doing a very good job of it, one stumbled and grimaced as the gravel path clattered noisily.
“What’s going on?” A high voice said imperiously behind Iris. Iris turned around and stepped back, one of the ornately dressed ladies was staring out at the guards. “What on earth are they doing, Gerald?”
“One of the servants saw someone go into the shed house,” Gerald, the lord of the house explained. “They’re just checking up on it.”
“What, you don’t want any uninvited guests at your party?” The lady laughed shrilly at herself, Gerald laughed politely along.
“Any guests are welcome, as long as they wish me no harm,” he said seriously. “A man of my importance can never be too sure who is friend and who is foe.”
“I’m sure you’re right, Gerald,” she said sighing airily and suppressing a smile. Another noise drew Iris’s attention outside, the guards had flung open the shed house door and now someone was struggling in the guard’s grasp.
“Let go of me, let go of me!” The person yelled, her hair flying as she jerked away from the guard. There was a boom and the guard fell over.
“Martin, reinforcements,” Gerald said to a servant as the witch tried to run away. She instantly stunned anyone who got a hold of her, but when another ten guards rounded the corner she sank to the ground, weeping. Iris caught sight of a shadow slipping past the guards and thought she saw the witch nod to it as it passed-- but she wasn’t sure.
The guards picked up the witch and carried her into the house, as she passed by Gerald she turned to look at him. Her eyes shone red and she bared her teeth, snarling. Gerald shuddered as she passed out of sight.
“Well, you got to see a normal piece of my life there,” Gerald said to the lady, trying to pretend all was fine.
“It must be a hard life,” the lady said softly, her eyes searching the yard for the second person. With a bright smile she wiped away her frown and took Gerald’s arm, chattering away about something.
Iris watched them go and tried to ignore the feeling of danger in her stomach. She couldn’t explain to anyone what she was guessing, that the witch and her partner were much smarter than anyone thought. And she couldn’t even explain to herself why she thought the obnoxious lady knew something. She shivered and turned away from the window, the moon looked cold now as it shone down on this house full of conspiracies and secrets.

Iris stayed and watched the dancers for a while more, but her eyes grew heavy and her thoughts sluggish and she went to bed. Or tried to: outside the room two dancer girls came running up to her.
“Iris!” The older one of the two, Sandra, squealed. “We heard you discovered a witch hiding in the shed!”
“Is it true?” Bri asked breathlessly.
“I just saw her going in,” Iris said uncomfortably. They were nice girls, but a little air headed.
“But how did you know she was a witch?” Sandra asked.
“I didn’t, but she was talking about a plot that had to do with the lord of this castle. It seemed an odd thing for a gardener or a soldier to be talking about.”
“Ooh,” Bri shivered. “Talking to who? Was there a second one?”
“Yes,” Iris sighed. Her head was pounding and she wanted to go to sleep. “I don’t know what happened to him. He might have gotten away.”
“Did you tell the Lord?” Sandra asked, looking alarmed.
“No,” Iris almost laughed. “You’ve heard the stories about this place-- and him-- would you go up to the Lord and tell him they missed one?”
“Probably not,” Sandra still looked troubled, but she shook the thought aside. “Come on Bri,” she said, grinning. “Let’s see if we can find the dungeons.”
“No!” Bri yelped, laughing as Sandra dragged her off. Iris shook her head and went into the room, wishing she had a friend to laugh with. She had Mari, but Mari was more like a protective older sister than a best friend.
‘So talk more,’ her V. o. R. told her sternly. ‘Ask Sandra and Bri if you can sit with them during the travels. Hang out after dinner in the common room, instead of going off and reading.’
‘Be quiet,’ Iris said wearily, too tired to have any control over her V. o. R. ‘I have enough on my mind without adding friend troubles.’
Iris laid out on the bed, her eyes automatically closing. Her mind was already going into that half asleep stage where thoughts swirled and enlarged and mutated until they were moving, living things inside her head. Then her thoughts picked up a sound, footsteps. They were cautious footsteps, stopping every few moments. When they stopped there would be the rustle of skirts as if someone was looking behind them. Iris’s thoughts recognized the oddness of this and wouldn’t let it go, making the footsteps sound louder and louder until each rustle was a boom in her head.
Groaning, Iris sat up. Immediately the sound disappeared. “Hello?” Iris said and reached for the door, struggling to look awake. It opened and Iris blinked. The obnoxious lady was standing frozen in the shadows of the hallway, her eyebrows arched in surprise.
“Hello,” the lady said, slowly releasing her silk skirts which had been bunched up in her hands. “I’m sorry, I think I’m lost,” she said, tittering. “Could you tell me which direction the Hall is in?”
“That way,” Iris said, pointing to her right.
“Thank you ever so much,” the lady smiled condescendingly and walked off in that direction. Iris frowned and stared after her, finally shaking her head and returning to the bed.

Chapter Two
The whole castle woke up feeling groggy. Some of the guests stumbled around holding their heads like they had had too much to drink, and the dancers rubbed their eyes blearily in the kitchen as they ate breakfast.
“How late did the dancing go last night?” Iris asked a half awake Mari who was inhaling her coffee.
“Late,” Mari groaned. “Some of them got ridiculously drunk. You should have seen one lady spill her drink all over herself and run off crying to the kitchen to try to get the stain off.”
“And she got lost coming here too,” one of the kitchen helpers said laughing. “She was halfway to the dungeons when Henri the footman found her and brought her back!”
“Oh, really?” Iris said, her brain waking up a little at this. “Did you get the stain out?”
“Not really,” the kitchen helper sighed. “And it was such a gorgeous dress too.”
“It was pretty, but I wouldn’t be caught dead in that shade of pink,” a cook said, which made the others laugh. Iris only frowned, looking worriedly into her hot chocolate. The obnoxious, frivolous lady whom she had found outside her rooms last night had been wearing pink.
Iris contemplated what she should do while gazing outside after breakfast. She couldn’t see a single break in the clouds-- they hung low on the sky like a blanket. If she told Mari she would be dragged off on some spying mission that would certainly get them caught by the lady, if not thrown out of the castle by the guards. But if she went alone… not spying, just looking to see what she would find…
“Where are you going?” Mari asked as Iris headed for the kitchen door.
“I thought I’d explore the castle,” Iris said, flashing a mischievous smile.
“Good for you,” Mari said. “I would join you, but I’d probably fall asleep on my feet. See you this afternoon then.”
“Bye,” Iris said and ducked into the hall. “Are we allowed to look around?” She asked a servant who was hurrying by.
“Um… I guess so,” the servant said, shrugging. “Just stay out of sight. There are servant passages that go all over the castle, you can use those and peek into the rooms. There‘s a door right there.”
“Thank you,” Iris said, smiling. Servant passages. Those would be useful.
“Just don’t get lost, it’s a maze!” the servant called over her shoulder as she went on her way. Iris opened the door the servant had pointed to and stepped to the side to avoid a group of servant girls carrying half-filled trays of breakfast food. ‘Here I go,’ Iris thought, nervousness and excitement filling her stomach.
She looked into every room she passed, there were little windows to the side of the doors. There was the breakfast room-- and another one-- and a day room where guests sat about-- and a drawing room where important guests sat about-- and the large dining room, and the huge ballroom which doubled as the throne room. There was nothing of interest in any of those rooms, just yawning guests and busy servants. So, to the dungeons Iris went.
It was dark down there, it wasn’t much below the ground but there weren’t any windows. The torches on the walls flickered and danced around quite dramatically. Iris opened the door and stepped quickly off into the shadows, the guard was looking the other way and missed her entrance. She sidled along the wall trying to be as quiet as she could. The guard’s eyes skimmed over her once and she froze, but he just turned the other way and sighed.
Then the dungeon cells came in sight, and Iris stopped and looked at the witch. She was lying on the bench, her red hair almost covering her face. She breathed evenly and deeply but Iris didn’t think she was asleep, her body looked stiff. Then the witch’s eyes suddenly flew open, and she was staring straight at Iris.
“Girl,” the witch whispered, barely mouthing the word but the sound floated to where Iris stood frozen. “Who sent you?”
“I sent myself,” Iris breathed, her mind racing. This had not been a good idea.
“If you merely wanted to see the captive witch out of curiosity,” the witch’s face twisted at the word captive, “You would have come giggling down with your friends, and would be staring at me with horror and fascination.”
‘What am I staring at her with, then?’ Iris thought to herself. But no, she supposed her face was a mask of calm nothingness. It felt like stone.
“Gerald wouldn’t have sent you,” the witch went on. “He would have barged down here himself. The person who sent you would have had some trouble getting down here.” The witch’s eyes narrowed. “She’s interfering again,” she hissed, suddenly livid. “I should have known she would. What message did she give you to tell me, girl?”
“She said to say,” Iris whispered, already regretting getting herself into this. But she couldn’t walk away now. “That we’ll find him before tonight.”
She broke their fierce gaze and stepped back into thick shadows. The witch’s eyes closed again but her face was tense and her hands were clenched into fists.
Iris tiptoed out of the dungeon like she had come and slumped against the wall of the passage as soon as she was inside. ‘I have to find the lady and tell her what I know,’ She was able to pick out from her whirling thoughts. With that decided she straightened up and set off.


Kelia