Iris

@Orcalot

What could they mean? Why would she leave? The pack wouldn't look at her, instead casting glances to the ground, or the heavens, or any nearby tree. What was she saying again?

“-that's why, Iris, we as a pack have determined that you are not fit to be among us.” The clan leader, bigger in her life than ever before, stood locking her gaze with her own.

Iris shook her head, and began to scrabble her claws in the ground.

“I won't read your pictures today. There is nothing you can say to change my mind.”

“Yeah, what Leader said Iris. You're out.” A male Mirror she recognized as cruel stepped forwards from the crowd and laughed at her. “Did you really think being so nice to the little bunny-wabbits was a good thing? My lil' sis could have eaten those, you know.”

“Enough.” The bite in her leaders words only stung.

He blustered on, “We're in a famine, we can't afford to be soft.”

The pack leader growled, “Stop, before I make you.”

“Yeah, and what about the time you tried to give me your own food? What was the deal with that? Did you think I couldn't catch my own?!” A female she had tried to help once stepped forwards now. Why was this happening?

The pack leader scratched the females leg. Dragons who had been in the process of stepping forward swiftly fell back, and order lay supreme again as the injured dragon fled to the back of the group.

“As I was saying,” the packs leader looked around herself, daring another to interfere. “From this moment onwards, you are nothing to us. No better than dying prey by the roadside, not even fit as carrion. If we see you again,” she flexed her claws and snapped her teeth to hiss out, “its the last time we ever will.”

Iris shook all over. It was cold. The dragons she knew and trusted were turning their backs on her. Even the children, cautioned by their parents, turned to leave. And then one broke away. He ran up to her, on his little legs, tongue slightly out. She couldn't let him be exiled too.

“Iri-” Quickly, carefully, she slammed her tail on the ground just in front of him. Then made the only sound she could since birth, a savage hiss. She would memorize how his face churned from innocent friendliness to fear in the coming months. When he stumbled backwards a little, she whipped her tail over his head and bounded away.

Her chest felt like her rib cage became too small to hold in her heart. Blood rushed to her ears, her face, and through her legs as she ran fast as she go. Branches tugged her mantle, rocks stuck between her toes, and still she ran. Finally she tripped, and landed in a patch of thorns and brambles. Then the sorrow she had run so desperately from came rushing out. She cried, and sobbed, and fell asleep in the brambles.

She awoke to pain. Hissing out shock, she tried to rise from the uncomfortable nest but found herself stuck. Her mantle had protected most of her from the sharp thorns, but scratches scabbed all over her limbs and neck.

A bunny quivered its nose at her. The weight on her back most likely belonged to another bunny, then. Her stomach chose a bad time to gurgle. Both bunnies leapt away from her and hid in the bushes. She had unknowingly ran along the way her pack... her former pack had traveled. There would be a river nearby where she could fish and wash out her wounds. Making sure not to pull tender skin, she rose from the brambles and snipped what was caught with her teeth. Agonizingly, she walked to the riverside.

There had been other dragons here. Besides her former pack. Ignoring her sense of insecurity, she limped to the river and began the excruciating process of cleaning the scratches. Without any ingredients to make a balm, they would scar badly. But there was nothing she could do about it now.

Her skin began to feel soothed by the running water, and she could relax enough to watch a small fish come too close. Water sprayed as jaws snapped and her stomach began to feel a little better. She took stock of what she had and who she was again. Claws were sharp, though she had chipped some on her mad dash. Her mantle was completely ruined. Branches from the thorny bush still stuck to it, and they poked her when she walked. Hunger, a constant companion, reminded her of all the events of yesterday. For now, hunger could be dealt with by eating the scarce fish.

So she stumbled along the path to feeling somewhat full again, splashing and swiping at any unwise fish, before she noticed she had traveled a great deal downriver. Iris had other problems. The clan who stayed at the packs campsite had also traveled downriver, and they had already seen her. Wearily, it registered to her she could talk to them, but she couldn't draw on a river. She thought about walking to the bank, then decided against it as she saw the multitude of dragons surrounding her. Everything was tired. She didn't think she could stay standing any longer. Dumbly, she sat down in the river, and a monstrous sleep took her over.

When Iris awoke again, the sky moved above her. Though she wouldn't know it then, the clan felt pity for her, and nursed her through a fever to health. In only a few days, she could walk on her own again as the clan of many races taught her written speech. Before even two weeks had passed, Iris began to itch to travel on her own. She said her goodbyes, through the many offers to stay, and set out to face the world armed with new knowledge and the compassion she always had.



"And that's my story," she wrote.

"Woah.." was the collective call of the hatchlings she wrote too.

"Miss Iris, what does that word say over there?" One of them pointed.

The teacher of the class said, "It says excruciating. So like really painful and takes a long time. Okay kids," he started, "time to thank Miss Iris for sharing today!"

"Thank you Miss Iris!"

"And what did we learn today?"

"About Mirror culture!"

"Miss Iris is cool!"

"Brambles aren't fun to lie on!"

Iris chuckled to herself at the kids. Things were more at peace now. She could be more at peace. The events of the past were only those, and while it made a fun story for the hatchlings, it was her own life and her own memories she laid out before them. Watching these kids, playing with them, it helped her forget. She knew having bad times was a part of life, but sometimes they were too much.

The sunlight caught her eye. Time to get going back home. To the pack in Murkwood.