Chapter 9: Jrum jumped, and spun around. “What- Why- How are you here? You scared the living daylights out of me-“ Iris grinned. “Hello to you too!” She frowned at the items spread out in front of him, picking each up and making a big show of examining it. When she got to the belt, she froze. With trembling fingers, she traced its outline, staring at it with a mixture of shock, sadness, anger and… Fear. Her face was wiped blank in an instant, but he had seen the flood of emotion. “Where did you find this?” “I- Iris, are you-“ “I’m fine.” She snapped. Then seem to realise it and smiled apologetically. There was always something hesitant about her smiles, he noted, most of them seeming almost unnatural, almost *wrong*. He was definitely reading too much into this. “I’m sorry. But…” She dragged a hand down her platinum-blonde hair, “…It’s been a lot. Recently. Especially with all the d- I mean… *danger*” He wondered what she’d meant to say, what she’d almost said. It probably didn’t matter, but he was curious all the same. Jrum realised that he didn’t really know anything about Iris. Which, he protested silently to himself, was to be expected. After all, he had only met her, well, a couple of hours ago! After a while, she took a deep breath, bracing for something. “Whoever’s got your parents have got mine too. I- Jrumbot?” she looked at him. “You’re my brother.” Jrum blinked. He didn’t know what to do with this information. “Oh! Uh. Cool.” He said, realising she expected an answer. Iris laughed half-exasperatedly. “Really? That’s all you can say?” “Well yeah, what did you expect me to do?” That only made her laugh harder. It was infectious. It was, for the most part, a hysterical, panicky laugh, of everything that had happened lately, of all this madness. But it felt like ages since he’d laughed. “So, who’s your creator then? Grian or Mumbo?” “Mumbo.” She sighed, adverting his gaze. There was plainly a lot she wasn’t telling him. “You don’t seem like a big fan of him.” Scowling, she turned away, her sign for ‘shut up’. “Like, what… Happened?” Jrum pushed, realising too late that it was a mistake. Her patience snapped. “You wouldn’t know!” she shouted, whirling around, “*You*, who were coddled by your precious ‘dads’, who they kept so close, away from the outside world, away from danger, away from the TRUTH! Oh no, you wouldn’t know anything, not the little baby they see you as, that needs protection, and that you are! I see that now. No wonder my brother hates you! All whilst-” “You – we – have a brother?” Jrum had to focus his attention on that one bit of information, to block out the rest, to keep away the tears that came so easily. Eye widening, Iris instinctively clasped a hand over her mouth. Realising it did not help her case, she put it down promptly. “I- Yes. We do.” She kept her tone steady, her face blank. No sign to betray any emotion. “This just proves my point. You know nothing. You are not meant to know anything.” Jrum swallowed. “Look,” she lowered her voice, “Grum – that’s his name – thinks he knows who’s behind this. We are trying to *help* you.” “Who then?” “That’s it. He won’t tell me. *Oh Iris, I don’t want to put you in danger* and *Oh do you really want to look for them after what happened?*” She glared at him as if daring him to ask again what had happened. When he didn’t respond, she continued. “He did say something though. He mentioned that some of the Hermits have… Evil versions of themselves. That one of them may be responsible. I don’t think he meant to. That is, I don’t think I was supposed to hear it. He was discussing it with someone, and no I don’t know who, and I…” “Eavesdropped?” Jrum provided, smiling despite himself. “Well I didn’t *mean* to.” Sensing more shouting, he took a step back, holding his hands up. “I’m not complaining! In fact, this is great! I don’t know this Grum guy, but he has, potentially, helped us a tonne!” He knew that listening to random strangers, jumping to conclusions, and trusting said random stranger’s judgement is… Not that great, but he had to cling on to any hope. Iris almost smiled. “But should we though? I mean he doesn’t want me to go, he made that very clear, trust me.” “If you don’t go, I’ll go alone.” “You are NOT going alone. You’re my brother!” He snorted. “Pulling out the ‘protective sister’ card, are you?” “And we still don’t really know who it is. I’ll try to get it out of him, but…” she didn’t look like she had very high hopes, “Don’t you think we should think this through?” “What’s gotten in to you? You sound like Xisuma!” Iris rolled her eyes. “You sound like you actually know me.” Grinning, Jrum reached out to shove her, mouth falling open when… His hand went right through her arm.
(Continued below, read the top part first!) | | | | \/ * * * “I think – ah – it’s best if we split up! More area covered! Five groups of two, is that right? Now-“ “Scar,” Cleo interrupted, tying her hair back into a braid, “You’ve been through this twice already.” “Oh have I?” He chuckled, and went on. Xisuma half-listened to Scar’s nervous ramblings, his attempts at being in charge. Well, he couldn’t say anything. Lately… He felt like he’d been letting the others down. That they deserved better than *him*. He stared down at his hands, at the armour that did not quite fit, that had once belonged to his father. That had been entrusted to him. “X?” he glanced up at his name, seeing Scar, “Would you team up with me?” “Sure!” he put on a cheery tone. No need to worry them any *more*. Scar beamed at him. With everyone suited up in armour, Scar’s instructions repeated over and over again (that they were probably drilled into everyone’s minds), bearing backpacks of essential items, and heads lifted in determination, there was no more excuse for delay. “Let us begin the search!” ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Previous - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/506747618 First - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/467888420 Next - https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/527873752 ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ Notes: Hehe Why do you think Jrum’s hand ‘went right through her arm’? Ooo I’ve been waiting for this moment since Iris appeared in this story lol- Which wasn’t that long ago I don’t think- Yeah she has overloaded him with a load of info he hasn’t had time to process yet Also X doesn’t have enough confidence in himself (in this story I literally wrote-) someone needs to tell him that he is awesome!! And he probably needs a hug- Aaaaaaa Ok I need to make the thumb now- *disappears* *Reappears* hhhhh I am running out of ideas- So uh have an angry Iris lol It’s a bit hard to see-
