Shadewalker || ONC 2024

Chapter 5: Friend

They kept to the woods instead of the main road. Talan set a breakneck pace through the dense shadows, seeming to predict every bramble and fallen log. Meanwhile, Iris trailed behind. She'd hitched up her skirts, but they kept snagging on sticks. At one point, a stray branch caught her braid, yanking her head back. It wasn't until she ran face-first into a cobweb, yelping and coughing and spitting, that Talan finally stopped and turned around.

"Iris, hush," he insisted, "You'll bring the whole Veil family down on us."

"It's Miss McClaine to you," she insisted, not for the first time, and likely not for the last either. There had already been one or two instances where she'd caught snatches of Talan muttering something that sounded suspiciously like Miss Stick-up-her-ass in response. She wiped the remaining cobwebs from her mouth. They were not friends. They barely knew one another. All that kept them tied together was the faint thread of circumstance, which Talan could break at any time.

"And that's easy enough for you to say!" Iris continued. "I can hardly keep up at this ridiculous pace in this ridiculous dress and this ridiculous time of night being chased by a bloodthirsty shadewalker because of my absolute fool of a brother..." She was rambling now, and sobbing. "And who knows if he's even still alive?" She sank to the ground, wincing as a stick poked into her back. "Ouch! How are you not constantly impaling yourself on branches? Is it some fancy shadewalker trick of yours?"

Talan's glowing eyes took in the sight of her rumpled dress and mangled braid. Iris was sure that she had a small bird's nest stuck in her hair by now. She didn't know how much he could see in this poor lighting though. After a moment, he seemed to deflate.

"Sorry," he said. "Hang on a moment, I think I can help with that, at least." He crouched down and rifled through the thick leaf litter that coated the ground. Whatever it was that he was looking for, he found it quickly, picking it up and cradling it in his palm. Within seconds, a faint light emanated from it. "There we go," he said, satisfied. He tossed the glowing object to Iris, who caught it reflexively and quickly brought it closer to her face to examine it.

It was just a small stone, hardly any bigger than her thumb. It wasn't very bright. A candle would have been preferred. And yet, it gave off just enough light so as to chase away the shadows immediately about her.

Iris looked up. "Thank you," she said.

"Don't mention it," he said. And then he paused, as if trying to come to a decision. "I was friends with Tilda Veil once, a long time ago," he said, slowly. "Us shadewalkers tend to know each other. Anyways, she was always known to care very deeply for her family, and I'm sorry about what happened to her brother, but that doesn't make this right. I'll get you out of here, and I was being serious earlier about my dad. He'll keep your family safe, at least for tonight."

"How can you be so sure?" asked Iris, thickly.

"Because he's my dad. He's been in far deeper shit than this before."

Something that Talan had just said a moment ago was starting to bother Iris. She rubbed her thumb over the stone in her palm, tentatively.

"Mister Colt," she began, "You said that you were friends with Tilda Veil a long time ago. What changed?"

Talan's luminescent eyes flicked up to meet hers. "I disliked her methods," he said. A bit of silver flashed before her. Talan had taken another swig of water from his flask. He wiped his mouth and stood. "Now, break's over. We're nearly to Whychfeld," he announced. He flipped out a pocket watch and checked the time. Iris had trouble believing that he could see the watch face in this light. "It's a quarter-past-three in the morning," he added. "We should make it in time for the first train."