Part 8
It's been a few days since, I last saw Toka. Me and my team left Lupin that night after Marco generously aided us by getting us supplies. I honestly felt bad for unloading on him, what the trial he missed was about. But whenever I try to tell him to stop Rain made sure, I didn't come close to saying anything. Who knew a changeling could be so, scary and demanding.
Despite him looking depressed, when he glanced at his wallet; Marco still wished us good luck for our epic journey ahead. Marco did offering Rain, Shadow and Saphyre a place to stay for a while. He didn’t offer me a place to stay but he just met me. They choose to decline his offer to stay with them for different reasons. Rain might have felt guilty for making Marco help us earlier that day. Shadow and Saphyre didn’t specify why they did want to stay though. After Marco departed, we decided to leave for Iris right after sunset.
That night, the temperature dropped to a comfortable level. I wouldn’t have guessed we are in the desert from the weather. But the sun scorched sand for miles, snakes, rabbits…etc. running about. As the moon raised high in the sky, we travelled for a few miles before taking break. Rain created a magical bubble around our improvised camp site. I announced “Okay, I think I waited long enough. So Shadow, Saphyre why are you are?” They looked at each other, and then back at me like was speaking another language. Well I looked away saying “Well, it’s great you two want to get a license but it would have been easier for you two to go back with Marco or went back home to your parents. Until you work things out and get other jobs. Only me and Rain have large debts to pay it back.”
Rain jumped in to say “back off Mr. Filer, they are here because they want to be.” Both of them nodded their heads to agree. Shadow says “It's not like we're ungrateful for what you did. However, our reasons for coming are personal.” I was a little disappointed, since they're right. I looked over to Rain and saw her doing something extremely weird. She pulled out a picnic blanket from a small hole floating in midair. Rain laid out the blanket and sat on it, then changed back to a changeling. With a confused look, I turned back to the pair with wolves. I said “I'm sorry, you're right but I like to know who my teammates are and what the can do.”
Saphyre raised an eyebrow while Shadow said “what you don't trust us? We can handle ourselves, you saw that.” Rain cut in saying I should chill, while pulling the sub sandwich she packed in her bag from a few days ago. The sandwich had a slight glow around it. That must have been slate by now. It stopped glowing for a second and she took a bite. “What it's still good” she said between bites. I turned back say “no, that's not what I meant. I want know what we can do separately. So, if something happens like a bomb going to blow. I can depend you guys to handle it. Besides, I showed you guys everything, I can do.”
“Fine, I’ll humor you by telling you some things I can do. I know how to use some forms of fire, water, and plant magic.” Rain said after pulling napkins from her miniature black hole. I said “What about teleporting, the bubble thing, the glowing thing with the food and that” I was pointing to the floating next to her. She wiped her muzzle saying “You would be surprised what you can find when you're raiding a unicorn’s room.” I was going to say something about that but she said that was a long time ago. So, I continued saying instead “so any magic tricks we should know about?” She said “nope, a lady must have her secrets” I gave her a face saying are you kidding me?
Shadow was next, saying “Okay, you may have a point. My clan is specializes in weather manipulation. I excel in electricity and thunder, from what my teacher told me.” Saphyre says “I’m fast, strong and stealthy.” I asked if there was anything else. She said ”I’m really chatty and making quips.”
Shadow then asked me “So Eclipse, what do you think? About Ariel I mean?” I told him “Ariel,
would make a very scary mother.” Rain sighed saying “Did my sister threaten to torture you? She kind of does that with every guy I seem ‘chummy’ with since we were foals.” I decided not to pursue the topic any farther. That seemed like it was a really personal question to ask. So I asked Shadow and he replied” she seemed like a really strong leader, dependable and a good sister.” While Saphyre was looked a bit disinterested and took some food from her bag and had a small meal. Rain said “Gross, you guys are fawning over my sister. Are you two going to join her fan club next too? I hope Saphyre isn’t getting jealous.” Saphyre, chimed in with audible “pttf‘’ saying she looks better than the bug bite overlord.
I then asked her and Rain “What do you to think Iris is going to be like?” While me and Shadow are chowing down on some of the food we packed. Saphyre told us she has never been there before. She said Iris was one of the first places to pass inter-species relationships. Another thing was Iris has a fairly large population of species. Rain took over saying “Iris, is wonderful place to stay. I actually lived here for a little while. But I don't want say in one of the hotels in the city. Besides, the wait staffs in most of them are like soulless drones. I couldn't even get some of the male workers to tell me the time of day. Iris is also known to be one of the few diarchy systems. If I remember right, the current leaders are siblings.”
I asked what's a diarchy was? She told me it was like a monarchy but with two leaders. After finishing our meal, I said “That sounds like an interesting city. You know what would make it cooler, if the rulers were god like alicorns controlling the very sun and the moon.” Shadow said “No, they sound really overpowered. But I do want to get to know who they are though.”
Rain got up and said “Mealtime is over, come on let's get going, we're burning moonlight here.” We packed up our things, while Rain made the little pocket dimension disappear. Then we continued our track to Iris. After walking and talking breaks, we arrived at our destination a day later.