In The Rain

"What?" Although Kies face and body showed that he was still calm and composed, in reality, he was confused and panicking at the same time. A million questions popped up in his mind. How did she find out? Since when did she know this? Why hasn't she told the others? Where did he mess up?

"No use playing dumb. You haven't eaten in two entire days and somehow you still have energy despite what we went through. Your stomach isn't even growling. Also, you didn't sleep at all that night. I saw you shifting around and staring at the stars outside the whole time. Lastly, the number of magic items you have... No human can have that many," Iris lists out all the evidence and reasons that she has gathered so far from him.

"Not to mention, when I got close to you earlier, you didn't smell like anything... You smelled like nothing. No sweat, no odor, nothing. Compared to us, you're still full of energy and look like you're still in peak condition which makes no sense," she also adds. Iris gets up and slowly walks to Kies and sits down on top of his legs which he had crossed and grabbed his shoulders. "So... What are you?"

It was dark but Kies could see the lines of Iris's face and the bags under her eyes. This was the first time that he had a clear look at her face. He could see that she was quite beautiful but her face was a mess from all the sweat and grime. Speaking of which, she also smells heavily of it. From a distance, Kies couldn't see it but her red hair was a mess with tangles everywhere and had dirt in it. Overall, she looked like a wreck. Despite this, she had been trying to stay cheerful the entire time. It was now that Kies realized that everything she had been doing was to keep the other two's spirits up. They were probably just as tired and down as her.

"Answer me. What are you?" Iris asks him again. Her voice was slow and monotone. She was tired and was trying her best to stay awake. She probably spent the entire night yesterday awake as well keeping an eye on him to make sure that he wouldn't do anything to them. She was a lot more responsible than she looked.

"What do you think I am?" Kies asked her back. "If you don't know what I am, tell me the things that I am not."

"You're not human," she pointed out the obvious. "Nor beastmen, dwarf, elf, or demon..." she quickly lists out a couple of more things before taking a second to think and continuing. "You're also not a spirit, an undead, a dragon, seafolk... You're not any of those... What in the world are you?" Iris had absolutely no idea what Kies is. She knew what he was not but she couldn't figure out what he was.

"Does it matter what I am?"

Iris stares at Kies with her fiery red eyes. Because of how tired she is, the fire wasn't there and it looked rather empty. "No, but can I trust you to keep your promise?"

Kies is quiet for a moment. "Yes," he answers. "You can trust me. As long as you keep your promise, I will keep mine."

"Good..." Iris' voice fades off as her hands suddenly loosen their grip on Kies' shoulders and slip off. Her body falls forward and Kies catches her before her head could hit him.

"Iris?" Was she dead? Kies quickly checks her pulse and feels that it is still there. Kies sighs a breath of relief. For a moment, he really did think that she might've died and he would have to explain this to the other two who would have probably thought that he was responsible for her death.

Iris was just unconscious. The fatigue had caught up to her and she couldn't stay awake any longer. Kies gently picks her up and gets up from the ground. He carries her over to the wall she had been sitting at before and lays her down against the wall.

Kies looks at Iris for a minute. Right now, he could take the necklace from her and leave without anyone knowing. They were the only two people in the cave and Sirks and Wompa were outside. It wouldn't take ten seconds for him to snatch the fragment and leave into the night. But, Kies wasn't going to do that. He made a promise to her and he was going to keep true to his word.

Kies then turns and heads to the entrance of the cave. Sirks and Wompa were indeed nowhere on sight and Kies had no idea where they went. But considering how they didn't have many supplies, they were probably scavenging for material to start a fire. The villagers gave them a small bag of food before they left but they lost it during the encounter with the soldiers and therefore, they were probably looking for that as well.

"I guess I can help them out a little." Seeing how terrible of a state all of them were in, Kies should probably do something to lighten the load on them. Since he couldn't feel pain or fatigue, he has forgotten about the fact that other living things have to go through a lot of suffering and hard work to survive.

Kies surveyed the surrounding area of the cave with his winds and sensed the two not that far away from them gathering sticks and grass. After confirming that they wouldn't be close enough to hear him, Kies extends his hands and calls upon the winds to bring him all the sticks and grass within a certain radius of the cave. Following his command, a bunch of sticks and dried grass flew into the cave and landed on the floor. Kies gave some of the grass to the horses, unsure if they would eat it or not, but after seeing that they did, he gave them some more. And then with the rest, Kies constructed three grass beds so that they wouldn't have to sleep on the hard floor.

Kies finished this all in a minute with his magic. He had no idea how to create a campfire as he never needed one since the cold did nothing to him so he left the stack of sticks and the remaining grass on the other side of the beds against the wall and went outside.

They were lucky that there is a small stream nearby to use as a source for water. And since there is a stream, it also means that there is vegetation and animals nearby as well. Kies used the winds to find the location of four rabbits and killed them with his magic, making it look like a knife kill. It was pretty simple since he could command the winds to do whatever he wanted them to do. Kies found out what Arc meant by "imagery" magic sometime back when he left the tower. As it turned out, Kies could literally create anything he wants out of air. Be it an animal or weapon, as long as Kies could imagine it, it was possible.

Kies brought the rabbits back to the cave and left them by the sticks and grass. And it was perfect timing as well. The moment he put the rabbits down, the sound of thunder exploded above them, scaring the horses. Kies went over to them and tried to calm them down. But seeing how his words had no use, Kies instead put a layer of wind around their ears to muffle the sound and went back to sitting down against the wall. Following the thunder, a few seconds later, Kies heard the sound of raindrops pattering against the grass. Since the cave they were in had an upwards slope, they didn't have to worry about water coming in.

A couple of minutes after it started raining, Sirks and Wompa barged into the cave, soaked head to toe from the storm. In their hands were some sticks and grass but they were useless now that they were wet. The two tossed them back outside and sat down, disappointed that their work had been for naught.

"Don't look so down. I picked up a few things while you two were out," Kies tells them. He points at the pile of sticks and grass and also the four rabbits lying next to it.

Sirks squints to see what Kies was pointing at and his eyes widen when he realizes what he was looking at. "Wait, you got this all on your own?"

"Sort of."

"You're a real lifesaver!" Sirks hurries over to the pile and stops in front of it. He contemplates what to do before scratching his head and going, "Argh!" He goes over to the horses and fetches the sword he took from the soldiers and begins digging a small hole in the middle of the cave. He then makes a campfire out of the sticks and grass that Kies gathered with the help of Wompa, all the while Kies watched.

After they finish, the only thing left is to start the fire and skin the rabbits so that they can cook them. That wasn't a problem since they had someone who could use fire magic... Or so that was the plan, but there was a slight issue with it.

"Hey, where is Iris?" Sirks and Wompa have been so busy making the campfire that they've forgotten about Iris.

"She's there sleeping," Kies points at a big pile of grass. Kies had made a bed for her and also covered her body in a blanket of grass so that she wouldn't freeze. She was wearing very light clothing (a short-sleeved shirt and short pants as well) and Kies thought that it would be a good idea to do that to keep her warm.

"Great, while we're working our a*ses off, our little fire starter is happily sleeping away." Sirks goes over to Iris and tries to wake her up. Kies said nothing and just watched. After shaking for the tenth or so time, Iris finally wakes up.

"Ugh... my head..." Iris groggily gets up from underneath the layer of grass and looks at Sirks. "Is it morning already? Why don't I feel like I've slept at all..." Iris' voice fades off as she suddenly drops down onto the bed again, falling back asleep almost instantaneously.

Sirks was about to wake Iris back up again but her sister stopped him, noticing the condition she was in, and advised him not to do that. She didn't say anything but she did shake her head to get the message across to Sirks. It made Kies wonder, was there a reason why she never speaks. Kies has yet to hear Wompa open her mouth once since he began traveling with them. And although two days wasn't that long of a time, it sure was a long time for someone to go without speaking at all.

Wompa went over to her older sister and cradled her in her lap. She checked her forehead with the back of her hand to see if she had a fever.

"Does she need water?" Sirks asks her. They had plenty of water outside as it was raining. They can catch it in a container and give it to her. Wompa nods her head. Sirks goes outside to fill a bucket of water and comes in to give it to her. They had nothing to use for a towel and so Wompa decided to use the bottom of her shirt instead. It was a bit dirty but it was better than nothing.

While they did that, Sirks began to skin the rabbits. Kies sat quietly and watched the two for a while before growing bored and closing his eyes and dozing off.

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