A Promise To Keep

Even though Iris was using fire magic to dry her clothes, not even she had finished drying them yet and Kies somehow dried his clothes before her. There was only one possible explanation to how Kies managed to dry his clothes that fast. Magic...

Iris rubbed her chin. Could it be that Kies... Could it be? "Could it be that you have a magic tool that can dry your clothes quickly?"

"What?"

"What do you mean, what? How did you dry your clothes faster than me when I'm using my flames? You can't use magic so you have to have another magic item. Where are you hiding it?" Iris began to search Kies body for where he was hiding the magic item.

"Get off me! I don't have anything else!"

"Liar!" Iris didn't believe that Kies didn't have something else hidden on him and began to go through his clothes to try to find them. "Where are you hiding it? It is in your pocket? Wait, what's this!?" Iris grabbed a string on Kies's neck and pulled it up to reveal a necklace. "Is this it?"

"No!" Kies tried to snatch the necklace back from her but once again, she was too fast for him and lifted the string from under his neck and over his head. She ran away while Kies gave chase and the two ran around for a bit before Iris tripped over something.

"Woah!" She rolled onto the ground and Kies jumped on top of her before she had the chance to get back up.

"Give me it!"

"No! I want to see what this is!"

Kies desperately tried to get the necklace back but Iris kept it away from his reach the entire time whilst not being able to move. Iris swept Kies' legs with hers, knocking him off balance. She rolled away and got back up on her feet. "Ah, a necklace. A pretty cute-looking bird too. So, what does it do?" Iris asked him while spinning it around on her finger.

"Ugh..." Kies jumped back onto his feet as well and walked over to Iris. "Would you believe me if I told you that it does nothing?"

"Hm... Maybe. I actually don't feel any magic from this thing. But what is it? I've never seen a bird like this before."

"Neither have I. Anyway, give it back," Kies reached out with an open hand.

"I'll give this back..." Iris held the necklace over his hand but then suddenly took it away again. "Only if you answer one question for me. And I want an honest and clear answer," she smiled.

"..."

"Don't worry, it's nothing big. I just want to know if a girl gave this to you. Cause you know, I doubt guys would like these kinds of things."

"If I say yes, would you be surprised?"

"Yes! Wait, are you serious? A girl actually gave this to you? Wow! Is she your wife or something?"

"You said one question. I answered it so give it back."

"Hmph, you're no fun." In accordance with the agreement, Iris gave the necklace back to Kies. He put it back on and concealed it under his shirt again. The moment Kies finished putting the necklace back on, Iris suddenly reached for his neck again but Kies caught her arm.

"What are you doing?"

Iris didn't say anything and had a huge grin on her face. Kies had a bad feeling about this. Iris reached with her other arm for the same exact spot on his neck. Kies grabbed her other arm with his other hand. Iris pushed with both her arms and Kies saw that she was reaching for his necklace again. "I'm not going to answer another question if you take the necklace again. Stop it!"

"But I want to know!"

"No is no!"

The two of them pushed and pulled for a couple of minutes before they were interrupted by someone next to them. "What the h*ll are you two doing so early in the morning!?" Kies turned and saw that Sirks was standing at the entrance of the cave looking at the two of them with a confused expression on his face.

"Got it!"

Kies made a mistake. Sirks' sudden appearance distracted him from Iris and she managed to snatch the necklace off Kies' neck again and she ran behind SIrks to use him as a cover against Keis who was furious and fed up with her.

"Arghh!"

"Princess... Care to explain what you are doing?"

"We're having fun."

"You're having fun," Kies corrected her. "He wasn't having any fun at all. He was losing his mind. How could there be someone so annoying in this world?

"Hey, I think you should give what you took back."

"Nope. Unless he answers a few of my questions, I'm not giving it back.

"..."

Sirks sighed and suddenly turned around and grabbed Iris. "Hey!" He lifted her up and held her in one arm like how someone would carry a sack of flour. He took the necklace from her and threw it at Kies. "Traitor! You're a traitor!"

"Shut up. Stop giving people headaches. Ugh... Your goofing around woke me up. Anyway, I apologize for her," Sirks told Kies.

"It's alright." Kies got his necklace back so it's all good. He checked it for any damages and found that it had nothing on it and hung it around his neck once more. If there's anything he learned from this, it was that he needed to stay as far away from Iris as possible. If he spends any more time with her then he might just go insane.

Kies took a look at Iris as Sirks dragged her back into the cave. When she saw that Kies was looking at her, she stuck out her tongue. "Be careful. I'll get you to spill eventually."

"Quiet! Stop giving the person that YOU hired so much trouble."

"Aren't you supposed to be on my side? Aren't you curious about him?"

"Yes, but I'm not going to annoy him about it. Instead of doing that, why don't you put your energy where it's more useful. There are three rabbits here, which I'm pretty he caught and you didn't. Go skin them or else you aren't getting breakfast."

With that, Kies finally managed to get Iris off his back... for now anyway. He could expect her to try some more things later in the afternoon and later tonight as well. He had to keep his guard up at all times with this girl.

Kies checked his clothes. It was wet again from Iris touching them with her clothes which weren't completely dry. But no matter, he didn't need to use his wind magic to dry it again since it was only a bit wet. A couple of minutes of sunshine and it'll be dry again.

Kies peered into the cave and saw that all their commotion had woken Wompa up as well. The three of them all had a rabbit in hand and were skinning them. Well, it was really only Sirks who was skimming his rabbit. They only have one blade which was the sword that Sirks picked up. The other two were waiting for him to be done with it so that they could skim theirs as well.

Iris was waiting for him to finish with a bored look on her face. She glanced over at Kies and suddenly her eyes flashed with some bright idea again.

"No! Don't even think about it! I will not lend you my sword for that!" Kies immediately told her before she had a chance to even say anything.

"Wait, how did you know I was going to ask that?"

"The only things you've been asking me for are my identity and my magic items. It's obvious what you wanted to ask for there."

"Oh true. That's a shame then."

Kies walked away from the cave and went on top of it and sat down beside a tree. Staying close to Iris wasn't a good idea. He was safe here where she couldn't see him. If she couldn't see him, she couldn't get any funny ideas... hopefully.

He took out the wooden carving of the chubby bird and examined it. Other than a slight change in its color, the carving looked identical to when he first received it. While swords will rust over the years, the carving stayed the same. He had to give credit to the craftsman who made it. It was definitely a work of great quality.

After absorbing that fragment back in Silverfield, Kies slowly regained his memories of his past life and remembered almost everything. But, his sense of emotions and feelings were still a little off. He understood them, but he couldn't feel them anymore. It was something that he forgot since he learned his real identity.

Kies ticked the carving back underneath his shirt and looked up at the sky. He thought about the person that gave him this necklace as a gift on the day of the festival. Though Silverfield got burned down by a dragon, he had no doubt that she made it out alive somewhere, and was somewhere out there. There was a high chance that she might be in Otane. Maybe if he is lucky, he could meet her again.

But until then, he could only pray that she is healthy and happy. As much as he wanted to find her, he had to prioritize his mission. Once he accomplished that, he will look for her whereabouts. Until then... "Wait for me."

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