42. Blood in the Rain

                                    

                                          
Victor looked at Iris in disbelief, the rain blurring her image. He shook his head in frustration. "No, no, you don't know what this dragon wants, what he needs," he shouted. 
                          
Standing with more confidence now, Iris argued back, "you're not a friend to dragons, you manipulate them. You make them think that this 'equalization' has to be done."
                          
"It does have to be done," Victor spat wildly, "what I do to them, is to better their futures!"
                          
"You're taking away their special abilities," Iris yelled back as the dervish pulled his head away to watch the shouting match, "you're hurting them, not helping!"
                          
Victor hesitated before looking up into Eclipse's blood-red eyes and raged, "take, your, revenge!"
                          
The dragon looked to the pregnant woman that Victor was telling him to kill. Then, he hissed loudly, and lunged; he took his revenge. 
                          
Victor cried out at the jaws of the devilish dervish sunk into his shoulder. "Eclipse..!" He yelled in a broken voice. The dragon released him, unable to bring himself to kill his old friend. He then gently glided through the rain to stand beside Tuffnut. Sniffing his injured foot carefully, Eclipse didn't notice Victor lung for Iris. 
                          
The man whipped his sword through the air with a battle cry, but Iris stopped it quickly with her spears. But even with a brutally injured shoulder, Victor would not give up. And knowing who he really was now, she knew he never would. So Iris stopped using defensive moves and switched to offense. She shut her eyes as she saw her chance and ran a spear through his heart. 
                          
Iris kept her eyes shut, not wanting to see the dead body at the end of her weapon. Eret rushed over to her and pulled her away from the scene. She felt the weight slide off the end of her spear, thumping to the ground. Then the only noise was that of the thunder from above, and the raindrops on the leaves. 
                          
"Iris," she heard Tuff call her name. Feeling a wet hand touch her cheek, he called again, "Iris, open your eyes. Look at me."
                          
Hesitantly, she did. She was met with a big pair of baby blue eyes, the eyes she'd fallen in love with so long ago. Tuffnut was standing with the help of Eclipse, balanced on his left foot. His face was close to hers. In a bright flash of lightning, she saw that his face was speckled with crimson. Her stomach twisted up into knots; she'd killed a man. 
                          
"Iris," Tuffnut called again, as if he knew that her mind was a jumble right then. He looked deeply into her innocent lilac eyes. They looked younger than usual, almost like those of a child. "Let's go home." Finally, Iris nodded.
                          
Eclipse carried Tuff on his neck while Iris and Eret walked. But once they reached the shoreline, their ship was smoking violently. Apparently it had been struck by lightning in the storm. Eret sighed stressfully. 
                          
"..Sorry about your ship," Iris mumbled. 
                          
But Eret only gave her a small smile, "it's alright; it can be rebuilt."
                          
Iris looked to her side where Tuff sat atop the large dragon. She squinted her eyes in wonder and met Eclipse's face. "Can you take us home?" She asked. 
                          
Eclipse snorted in response and lowered his neck to the ground, allowing her and Eret to climb up. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" Tuff asked uncertainly, "I mean, don't these dragons hate the sand wraiths."
                          
Iris took, sitting in front of her husband, loomed over her shoulder to him. "No," she answered before giving Eclipse a sorrowful gaze, "if they did, they'd have killed our wraiths in their attacks. They could've, easily. But instead, they did only what was demanded of them."
                          
As the devilish dervish took flight, Iris continued, "Victor made war where there was peace, all because of his delusions."
                          
She felt Tuffnut's arms wrap around her middle and pulled her body into his. His clothes were soaked, but the heat of his body comforted her. So Iris let herself relaxed as her love gently rubbed her stomach. And soon, she found herself drifting to sleep. 
                          
***
                          
Iris was awoken by the gruff landing of Eclipse at the stables. The rain had stopped. Looking around, she saw that the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon. The dragon lowered his neck and allowed the three riders off. Iris pet his neck thoughtfully, "thank you.."
                          
Eclipse gurgled lightly in response as if to say, it was the least I could do. Then Iris turned to Tuff and Eret with a heavy sigh. There were a few crimson splotches on Eret's pants, as well as one on Tuffnut's tunic. It twisted her stomach up to imagine what she might look like. 
                          
But she pushed those thoughts away as she looked toward the village. There were vikings rumaging around everywhere, which would've been normal at noon. But the sun wasn't even up yet. Her face growing pail, Iris rushed up to the Berk with the two men; something had happened while they were gone.