Page 104 of Lost in the Dark

“I realized I didn’t get your name yesterday,” I said as I tied the water skin onto my satchel.

“It’s Iris.”

Iris.

“After the flower?” I asked.

My mother’s favorite flower.

She nodded her head before standing and stretching with a groan.

“How do your feet feel?”

She bit her lip. “They’re a little sore.”

“I have something for you. Sit down.”

Iris sat on the bed and I passed her a tincture from the shelf before pulling several strips of leather from my bag.

“Drink that. It’ll help with the pain.” I held up the leather strips. “I’m going to wrap your feet with these. They’ll provide some extra protection from rocks and stones.”

She yanked the cork off of the tincture and gave a look of disgust as she brought it up to her nose.

I let out a warm laugh. “It’s best if you drink it quick. It tastes awful, but I promise it’ll help.”

“Fine,” she grumbled before downing the tincture in one go. “Shit. You weren’t kidding.”

There was something about her crass demeanor that I found endearing.

I finished binding her feet and took the vial from her. “I told you it was awful.” I shrugged my shoulders and smiled.

“You didn’t tell me your name, you know.” She arched a brow up at me.

“It’s Selvyn.”

“Selvyn,” she said to herself and tapped a finger to her full lips in thought. “I like it.”

“My mother was quite fond of it as well.”

She stared at me in disbelief, as if the thought of me having a mother shocked her to her very core, but I decided that now wasn’t the time to explain.

“Shall we head out then?” I said, and extended a hand out to her.

Iris looked at my palm for a moment before gripping it with her petite fingers.

“What about the fire? How will we see in the caves?” she asked.

An inquisitive little thing.

I liked it.

“The fire will be just fine,” I said as I led her down into the tunnels. ”And as for eyesight, I can see just fine. But for you, I’ve grown these.”

The tunnel illuminated with a light blue hue as we arrived at the portion I’d populated with glowing mushrooms.

“Selvyn, are these real?” Iris asked as her fingers brushed over the luminous, velvety caps.

“Yes, they’re real. I grew them myself.”