Never Poke A Sleeping Moster

And when it did, he realised what it was. There were two animals. One big and the other one small. A deer and its fawn.

He raised his bow when the deer's head poked from behind one of the bushes, and released his arrow, shooting straight for the deer's neck.

The dear ran, stumbling, bawling and collapsed a few soots away.

Iris jumped off her horse and trailed behind him. It wasn't as big as he thought. A young deer.

Pulling out his hunting knife, he lowered himself on his heels next to the deer. And in one single swipe, he cut the jugular staining the yellowed leaves and the forest ground with its blood. Iris shrieked and covered her mouth as the light in the deer's eyes faded, and disappeared.

From behind a tree, a fawn appeared and he stood up gripping tightly on the knife's hilt.

Their presence didn't deter the fawn from approaching its mother and sniffing her body.

It was young, far too young to survive on its own.

Engrossed in sniffling its mother, the fawn didn't even notice him, as he placed the knife at the scruff of its neck. One push, he told himself.

" No," Iris roared, and he felt his heart stop for a few beats, at the sound of her booming voice.

The fawn startled and ran away. The crackling sound that he'd heard before wasn't as faint. It became louder, as he gripped tightly on his knife and watched the green flame blaze within those emerald green eyes. The crackling got louder, and his grip on the hilt got tighter. Any tighter and would imbed itself in the palm of his hand.

" No," She raised her bow and arrow and released the arrow. A sharp pang of pain shot through his shoulder, and felt it pierce his skin on the other side. And from there, he saw nothing but pure unadulterated rage within her eyes. A tear fell, made of liquid fire as it dripped down her cheek and then onto the forest floor.

" No more," She whispered, and another fell, and extinguished when it touched the soil.

" Iris, " He took a step forward and swallowed the pain," Your tears," He couldn't quite find the words to explain that she was crying fire," Fire," That was what he could think of, but her eyes, searched for something on him. Perhaps a reason to spare him. He had pushed his luck

He let go of his knife to catch the liquid flame of her cheek, and sure enough, it rapidly coiled around his finger, growing, and then around his arm, and sure enough it engulfed him faster than his heart could beat as if listening to her command.

" No more," She said again, and exploded in a burst of flames, cocooning herself in it. Impenetrable.

The fire surrounding him uncoiled just as fast as it coiled, and returned to her. He lowered his hand to the side and looked at himself. Not even one patch of burnt skin was left behind.

Stretching his hand, he touched the flames trying to reach her, but it felt more like glass, even though they were moving, alive. Coiling, swirling around her, roaring at him, at everything.

" Iris," He pushed, but to no avail. It was hard.

When she screamed again, he jumped for the hunting knife and struck the cocoon of flames that shattered just like glass and disappeared into the forest floor. She collapsed, into a pile on the ground.

He knelt next to her, calling her name, lightly patting her face, trying to bring some sense into her. He stopped and placed a finger under her nose, she was breathing, barely.

At a loss, Corvin made one last attempt to wake her up. She hated his touch. Leaning, wavering he pressed his lips onto hers and slowly tasted her lips. Iris whimpered and languidly opened her eyes, which grew wider when she realised what he was doing.

" Why are you kissing me?" She asked as he pulled away from her lips.

Corvin chuckled, and shrugged," Well, I know how much you hate it when I touch you," He took a deep breath, " I figured, that kissing you should drag you back from wherever you were," He chuckled, and lowered himself on the ground, grimacing at the throbbing pain in the shoulder.

Pushing herself on her elbows, Iris looked at the roe deer and then at him, " The fawn," She gulped and scoured the forest with her eyes," Did you..." She set her lips in a thin line and closed her eyes when he shook his head as a no.

" We should head back," He pushed himself off the ground, to pick up the deer. The kitchen would deal with it, this time around.

" Your shoulder," She cleared her throat and pushed herself to stand up, as he lugged the deer on his back," I don't care," He grumbled as he walked past her, and made his way towards the horses.

Nothing more was said, as he threw the deer on the horse's back, and mounted the horse, turned around, to head back to the castle.

Iris trailed behind him, there was a sort of thickness in the air as if she wanted to say something, but not even a whisper left her lips.

Most women talked his ear off, and he found her morose spirit rather disconcerting. Redkite loomed, as they approached the citadel, resounding with the clatter of carts wheeling in, horses snorting, and people chatting and laughing under the greyish sky of an early winter morning.

The gates were in the making, but no guards were protecting the hole in the wall, awaiting its keeper.

Evin clambered down the stairs and halted looking at Iris behind him. The plonker smiled when he noticed the arrow in his shoulder.

" Take this to the kitchen," He said as he jumped off the horse, by a way of greeting and walked past Evin.

Evin mumbled something under his breath, but at that point, he couldn't give a toss about Evin.