Rebellious

Thump thump thump... Click-clack, zip. Although Iris was still deep asleep from what happened yesterday night, the noises were too much and woke her up. She slowly opened her eyes and saw a wooden ceiling.

"W-where... Is this...?" Iris slowly sat upright, surprised that her body wasn't sore or hurting from the injuries that she sustained. Wait... Iris patted her body with her hands, checking for bruises, cuts, anything. There was nothing. Even the giant lump on the side of her was gone. There was a small lingering pain, but it was nothing compared to what it had been before. Someone healed her...

Taking a look at her surroundings. Iris saw that she was back in her room in the inn. "The inn..." Did that mean that yesterday night was all a dream? Was it all just a bad dream? Her memories were hazy and fogged up.

Wait... No, it couldn't have been a dream. If it had been, why was the side of her head still aching? That means... Iris' cheeks turned red as she suddenly recounted who it was that saved her. If he hadn't been there at that exact moment, she wouldn't be alive right now. She owed her life to him.

Iris slid off the bed and dropped onto the floor with a thump. The moment she did, the door slammed open. "Iris!" a voice yelled.

"Ah!" Iris jumped up in surprise and slipped. "Oooh!" She fell and banged her head on the edge of her bed.

"Iris!" Sirks ran over to her, slipping, and almost falling in the process himself. Luckily, he caught himself and didn't accidentally crush Iris. "Are you okay?" Sirks helped Iris back onto her feet.

"Yes, I'm fine," Iris answered.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course! I feel like I can outrun a horse!" she said with a big smile, trying to prove to Sirks that she was completely healed.

"Absolutely sure?"

"Um... Yes?"

The questioning tone of her answer wasn't convincing Sirks. "Go lay back down," he told her.

"No, really, I'm fine," Iris tried to tell Sirks, but he didn't listen. From his perspective, Iris was a patient who just recovered, and not fully either.

"You need more rest." Sirks didn't care how much Iris protested or said otherwise. He took the girl and sat her back down on the bed.

"Hey!" Iris tried to push Sirks away from her, but she was far too weak to do so. Sirks forced Iris to sit back down on the bed.

"Just lay down for the love of God! It's not like there's anything that you need to do today," he said.

"Nothing important?" Didn't hoodie have a match today? Unless she had been in a coma for some time and the tournament had already ended, there was something important to do today and tomorrow. "How many days was I out for?" Iris asked Sirks, worried that she might have missed out on the matches, or a singular match if he lost.

"Days? You weren't out for days. You were only asleep for half a day at most," Sirks corrected her.

"Huh? What time is it now then!?" Iris jumped back off the bed and almost headbutted Sirks in the chin.

"What are you doing!? Go lay back down on the bed!" he ordered her.

"No! Tell me what time it is now!" Iris shouted, rebelling against Sirks.

"You want to know what time it is!? It's time for you to rest!" Sirks shouted, reaching out at Iris with his arms. He tried to get Iris to lay back down on the bed, but before he had the chance to grab her again, Iris ducked under his arms and ran to the door.

"Iris!"

Successfully evading the middle-aged man, Iris turned around and stuck out her tongue. "If you're not going to tell me, I'll find out for myself." She turned and ran down the hallway and then down the stairs.

"Hey, get back here!" Sirks called out after her, demanding that she stop, but Iris didn't listen. She ran through the semi-crowded first floor where there were people eating, surprising them with her appearance.

Iris barged out the door, just in time to hear Sirks tumble down the stairs after her. "Ugh! F*ck!" he cursed, rubbing his bottom from the impact. "D*mn it, get back here!"

"No way!" she shouted back at him.

"Iris!"

She slammed the door close behind her and ran into the streets. There was no way for Sirks to find her among the mass here. There weren't as many people as she thought though...

Iris looked up at the sky to see the position of the sun, but she didn't really need to as she could already feel the immense heat, giving her a clue where the sun was without having to even look. But anyway, she checked with her eyes just in case, holding her hand above her eyebrows to block out the glare.

As expected, it was high up in the sky. " It looks like it's high noon...?" Shouldn't the match have started by now? "Oh no, I might miss it!" Panic surged through her body as she saw the time. Iris turned towards the direction of the colosseum, which wasn't hard as the massive building could be spotted from a mile away. Without thinking, she sprinted as fast as her legs could allow her to.

Seconds after she started running, sweat trickled down her head and neck. In less than a minute she was soaked in sweat and out of breath.

*Huff* *Huff*

Lacking the stamina to continue, Iris couldn't run anymore. What a mistake it was to run in this heat...

"Are you alright?" a concerned voice asked her.

"Yes," Iris answered, turning around to face the woman that asked her that. The woman looked like she was in her fifties, and beside her was an old man of the same age, presumably her husband.

"Are you sure, little lad? If there's a scoundrel chasing you, I'll gladly teach them a lesson!" he enthusiastically said, looking around for whoever it was that had been chasing her.

"No, no one is chasing me," Iris explained to the old man. "And also, I'm not a lad..." she also added.

"What? You're not a lad?" The man leaned towards Iris, squinting at her from an uncomfortably close angle. Iris backed away a little bit, but this only caused the man to lean even closer.

The wife slapped her husband and said, "Stop it you fool. Can't you see that you're making her uneasy?"

"I am?" the man asked, looking at his wife with a confused expression. "Geez, well forgive me lassie. Well, forgive me twice," he corrected himself, seeing that he messed up two times, the first being him mistaking her as a boy and the second being him getting too close to her. "My eyes aren't what they used to be."

"I forgive you," Iris said, accepting his apology. "Thank you though," she told the old couple, grateful that they were trying to look out for her. Even if nothing happened, their intentions were enough for her to thank them.

Iris and the old couple exchanged a quick goodbye before she ran off again.

"Why is it so far..." she mumbled, annoyed that she was still so far away from the colosseum despite having run as fast as she could for several minutes now.

Their inn was one of the closer ones to the colosseum too. It was built there with the purpose of attracting visitors after the war had ended, and it was certainly serving its purpose. The majority of the people staying there were visiting to take part or watch the tournament. But still, for it to be this far away...

Iris stopped to catch her breath again. Her throat was parched and she was thirsting for water. However, there was nothing nearby. The river was on the other side of the colosseum and she really doubted that she could make it there without collapsing.

"D-d*mn it..." Her clothes were also soaked with sweat, and not just sweat. There was dried blood on it and also sweat from the previous days. This combination made her smell like a walking corpse.

This was terrible... Forget making it to the colosseum. She needed a bath and a change of clothes first. There was no way the staff was going to let her in when she looked and smelled like this.

"Ah... Sorry, but I don't think I can make it to the fight..." she apologized silently to hoodie, disappointed that she wouldn't be able to cheer him on. At least Wompa and the elf were there to cheer for him. Iris hadn't seen the two of them, but she was certain that they went with him to the colosseum.

*Piff* *Pat*

Iris heard footsteps behind her and her heart almost stopped.

"Hm? Aren't you-"

Crap! Iris didn't wait for the person to finish speaking and made a break for it, afraid that it was a guard. Without a doubt, she looked very suspicious right now, with blood and sweat all over her clothes.

"Wait! Why are you running away from us!?"

"Huh?" Iris stopped in her tracks, recognizing the voice now that she heard it a second time, and turned back around to see who it was. Standing in front of her were two people. The first was an elf, the one that had been with them the past few days, and the second was her sister.

Wompa ran over and gave Iris a hug, happy to see that her sister was okay now. Well, or at least she tried to. After she got close enough, she got a whiff of how smelly she was and stopped herself, giving Iris an apologetic look.

"Yeah, I stink, don't I?" Iris didn't blame Wompa for not wanting to touch her. She really needed a bath and some new clothes. But they don't exactly have the money for that. The only bathhouse that she knew was open to the public was the one in the wealthy part of the city and there was definitely no way that they were going to let her in when she looked like this.

Moving away from that, Wompa pointed at Iris' head and made a frown, asking her if her injury was completely fine now.

"No worries. I'm good as new!" Iris assured her sister with a smile, helping ease her worry. "But who was it that healed me?" she asked curiously. An injury as big as the one she had was supposed to take months to heal, and yet it disappeared like magic. Wait... Actually... It probably was magic. There was no other explanation for it.

"It was me," Nyana answered her question. "I heal you with my magic," she told her, verifying what Iris thought was the case.

"Oh, thanks!" So she guessed right. It was the elf that healed her... Anyhow, Iris stared at the elf and Wompa. "What are you two doing out here," and together nevertheless.

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