Three days of travel by cart passed by quickly. Stepping out, Iris handed the man a handful of copper coins and set her sights upon her hometown. A large central road cut straight through the middle. Houses lined the right side of the road with their chimneys burning, most likely mothers preparing supper for their families. Shops lined the left side. From Timothy's Goods and Supplies to Jessica's Needle Works, she recognized every store she walked past. Reaching the edge of town she stopped at the last store, The Caldera Smithery.
Approaching the building, the nostalgic smell of smoke and hot iron seared the inside of her nostrils. Unfazed by the fumes, she tried to open the door. It didn't budge. Looking down at the base of the door, she saw two large stones on either side of it. She rolled the stone on the right over and unsurprisingly found a key hidden beneath it.
"The same place after all these years," she said, chuckling to herself.
Unlocking it, she entered the smithery. Heat radiated from the forge making sweat form on her brow. Iris drew close to the forge and peered inside to see the coals still glowing a familiar, orange color. The bricks were covered in a thick layer of ash, and she took it upon herself to grab a rag and clean it. Stepping away from the forge, Iris wandered through the shop's interior, examining the weapons and armor on the walls and displays. Iris started to clean and reorganize the store. These simple tasks put Iris's mind at ease, being able to take her mind of the battle ahead. Her body moved naturally and without thought while completing each task; She polished the helmets till she could see her reflection looking back at her, organized the daggers on display from smallest to largest, and sharpened the blunt edges of the weapons. As time passed, she looked over to see the night sky had quickly risen while she was working. Putting a two-handed ax back in its display, she locked the door to the smithery, put the key back, and kept walking down the road.
The path soon became uneven, houses became more spaced out, and the slope steepened. Reaching the end of the dirt path, Iris found herself in front of her home. Approaching the house, she came upon a beaten-up scarecrow, with a rusted helmet on top of his head. Looking at him, he had dents, scratches, and gashes covering him from head to toe. She didn't understand how he was still upright.
"You look like you could take a few more hits." she said, adjusting the helmet on its head.
Diverting her attention back, Iris neared the house and spotted a faint light glowing in one of its windows. Iris stood in front of the door to her home. She hesitated before opening the door, thinking of the last time she saw her father.
"Nine years it's been," she exhaled.
Nine years of silence that's been between the two of them. Iris's hatred and pain overtook her mind. In an attempt to calm herself down, she tried to think pleasant thoughts of her father. The time her father gifted her a recurve bow with a wolf chasing a hare carved into the shaft of the bow. The times where they would go into the forest to hunt rabbits for hours until her mother would drag them back home. The time where her father found her sobbing on the forest floor next to her snapped bowstring and then he taught her how to restring it. These memories soothed the melting pot of emotions bubbling inside her. Taking one last deep breath, she opened the door to the house.
Sitting alone at the dinner table with only a candle as light was Iris's father. Seeing him there, she hoped, she desperately hoped that he would look away disappointed that it was just her. That he would yell at her to get out, blaming her for everything that had happened to her mother, but when he saw her, he stood up, shocked that she was standing in front of him. He held his hand out towards her face,
"Is it really you...? Iris...?"
He walked towards her attempting to embrace her, but she could no longer hold back the tremors of anguish inside her after seeing his face. Not even meeting his eyes, she shoved him to the side and marched towards her room.
"I'm not here to see you. I'm here to see my mother," She said angrily.
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
Iris stormed into her old room and slammed the door shut. Her legs gave out as soon she entered, and she slumped to the ground with her back against the door.
"Why did you come back here, Iris? Why did you think you could face him? How could you think you could forgive him?" she thought to herself.
A shadow crept from below the door, standing there unmoving. Iris winced, preparing for a knock on the door, for him to speak, but he didn't. Ten minutes passed until it disappeared down the hallway. Wiping her eyes and nose, she crawled her way to her bed and fell on top of it, her mind plagued from the events that transpired just now.
The night passed slowly, and Iris rose out of bed, getting only a wink of sleep. She peered into the hallway. Seeing that there was no one there, she exited her room and then the house. The sky was dim, covered with dark gray clouds and rain poured down overhead, but Iris walked out from beneath the awning and took a right, straight towards the forest she used to play in. She soon came upon a stream flowing through it. Reaching down into the flowing water, she picked two smoothed over stones, each one the size of her palm. She exited the forest and made her way back towards the house, but walked past it and up the hill behind it. The slope was slick as the rain continued to pour down, yet she dug her feet farther in and kept climbing. Reaching the top of the hill, her father sat kneeling with his hands together and eyes closed. In front of him sat a tombstone made of shining metal protruding in the ground. On either side sat two piles of stones. Passing her father, Iris set a stone in each stack. Looking at the tombstone, she saw a body etched into it, her mother's. Her mother's eyes were filled with life, and her lips formed an infectious smile. Iris reached out, hoping to feel her warmth but only felt the uninviting metal. Iris took a step back and kneeled next to her father, her legs sank into the wet mud, but she stayed there motionless. Closing her eyes and clasping her hands together, she spoke to her mother in her thoughts,
"I've thought about you every day since you left us, and not a single day goes by where I don't blame myself. If only I were stronger, I could have protected you, but now I'll finally be able to take revenge on the people who did this to you. I hope that after this is done, your soul will find peace and be able to move on."
Iris opened her eyes to see her father standing before her. The once giant man looked shriveled and small in front of her, yet he still gazed up to meet her eyes.
"Iris, I'm so sorry," he said. "I can't imagine the pain that you have felt for the last nine years. After your mother passed, I felt as if I lost everything, everything felt dull and meaningless and I pushed you away out of fear, thinking nobody could understand what I was feeling. Whenever I saw your face I saw hers and I couldn’t bear seeing her again. But I failed to see I needed to cherish you instead of push you away. that I didn't lose everything I still had you, my sweet daughter. You don't have to forgive me right now or ever, but please know I'm here for you."
The mention of her mother struck a string, she shouted back at him, her raw emotions flowing out.
“You've never been here for me. Why start now! You abandoned me, shipped me off to your brother so you would never have to see me again. I waited for you. I thought I knew my father and that you left to fight for us, to take vengeance for our family. But I found out from Amiel that you stayed back. That you choose to live by yourself and make your weapons pretending like life was normal. That day, I swore that I would pick up a sword and fight. Fight for what I believed in, fight for my nation, fight for my mother murdered in front of me. And now I'm finally able to. I have a chance to atone for everything. Everything you blame me for.
He took all of the hate and detest. He felt the shame and guilt of not being there for his daughter.
"Iris, please, you have nothing to atone for, and I don't blame you for anything. I was wrong," he begged.
He tried to reason with Iris and give her the answers she had been deprived of for the last nine years.
"I needed time. I thought at the time you needed some too. I have no right to stop you, but don't leave. I've lost your mother, I can't lose you to this war too.”
He begged her to stay, but Iris was done with this argument. She decided long ago that nothing would stop her from doing this, especially not this man.
The rain was no longer able to hide the tears flowing down her face. Her anger, her frustration. Her feelings of abandonment and rejection. Everything she had felt for the last nine years surfaced. She cried out, holding nothing back at the pleading man in front of her,
"I DIDN'T NEED TIME, I NEEDED MY FATHER! I FAILED TO REALIZE HE DIED THAT DAY.”
As the words left her mouth, she ran past him down the hill. He yelled out her name, but she didn't dare look back. She ran past her once-happy family home, past the scarecrow that gave her days of endless enjoyment, down the dirt path, past The Caldera, the place she once thought would be hers, and now at the edge of town, she around and looked at the place that had been called home, the place her family lived all together happily. She remembered when she believed that those peaceful days would never end, but she was foolish to ever think that. There was nothing left here for her now, only tainted memories. Turning her back to the town, she walked forward down the road, ready for awaited her.