The smell from outside stayed in Iris' mind for the next couple days, but nothing happened. Her days passed in a comfortable blur, with Kyro taking good care of her and making sure she didn't overexert herself and aggravate her injury again. There wasn't much to do around this place, so most of the time she just napped on his legs, annoying Lucifer, or posed for mother.
The old woman even went as far as to bring in a couple of her friends so they could all exclaim at how pretty Iris was. One of the women had seen a fox before, and she was actually the most amazed. In her words, foxes were usually much more wild, reluctant to learn commands, and didn't like human contact.
'What can I do, I wasn't born a fox,' Iris told her, not bothering to change her acting whatsoever. After all, Kyro's mother was glowing from all the praise aimed at her son's pet. It wasn't as good as a pretty grandchild, but one had to take their joys where they could.
For her participation, Iris received a handful or blueberries. Happy with this great feast, she then willingly did whatever Kyro's mother asked of her. It was to the point that Kyro started wondering whose pet she was in the end.
"Why I'm the one carrying it?" he asked as they we were all walking to a nearby lake in the evening. "I thought you've become best friends already."
His mother looked over at him with a smile. "Is it too heavy? Your spindly arms are starting to hurt?"
'What?' Iris instantly screamed out. 'I'm not heavy! Neither as a human, nor a fox! You weakling!'
Her furious scratching brought Kyro's attention back to her, and he gently shifted how he held her, probably thinking she was uncomfortable. 'That's not it,' she told him in a deadpan voice, but did not struggle more. It was pointless anyway.
Below, she saw Queen giving her a roll of the eyes. Since that fateful meeting at night, the two of them had never progressed in their relationship. The white mountain simply didn't put Iris in her eyes.
When they reached the lake and the people sat down on the bench to watch the sun going down, Kyro let Iris down and she ran straight into the water. This was the first time she was going to have a swim since they left his apartment, and that was four days ago!
Ignoring his call to be careful, she dived straight in. The water was cool and refreshing, and she relaxed, enjoying the sensation. Once she pushed her head out, she saw Lucifer walking by the shore. Like before, he was only getting up to his knees and searching for something on the ground.
Queen didn't come even close. She lay down by the people and closed her eyes.
It was pretty sad that no one wanted to play with her, and after swimming about by herself, she walked out. There was little fun in enjoying the water by herself. Annoyed, she went to Kyro to complain. He was the one who usually kept her company while she swam around.
"—think so. I'll be really busy after this," he was saying at that moment.
His father was looking into the distance, ignoring the conversation, but his mother was looking at him with disbelief. "It's your cousin's birthday!"
"I'll send a gift to Julia, don't worry," he promised. From his wry tone, it was obvious that he knew the gift wasn't the problem here.
"But you must go!" his mother declared. "How else are you going to find a wife? Your cousin is a young woman and will invite plenty of her friends, so you simply MUST attend."
"Right…"
There was little agreement in Kyro's voice, and Iris was starting to grasp why he was returning home so rarely. If he faced this kind of drilling every time he came back, it was no wonder he had no wish to visit his parents every other day. Even the most patient person could go mad from such dedicated pestering.
Yet she couldn't help but feel a little envious of his family. She hadn't ever had a mom or a dad. Aunt Maddie was her favorite person in the world, but she was a person who didn't care for friendly banter or shows of affection. Iris had grown up not knowing that adults should care about your future beyond the fact that you were alive and healthy.
It was a bittersweet feeling, remembering how surprised she'd been when she found out about that from her classmates.
As she thought about that, she started walking by the shore, seeing nothing. Various moments from her previous life came back, and she wondered if it had actually been real. The memories were already blurry somehow, faded away.
Some events might have happened just a month ago, but even they seemed alien, like something from a different world. She could hardly even imagine living as a human now, going to school, grocery shopping, cooking for herself. All of it seemed to have been part of her eons ago, before her current incarnation.
'Have I gotten so used to this kind of life?' The simple answer was actually - yes, she had. It would soon be a month since she became a fox and got sent a world away, and she already felt like she had always lived like that. At the moment, she really wished there would be no more turning back accidents, that it would have been a freak occurrence that wouldn't happen again.
By then, she had walked quite a distance away. When she looked around, the humans and the pets were nowhere to be seen. 'Seems like I've wandered off too far, time to go back.'
She turned around, ready to go back the way she'd come, but then something flew past her. Her eyes shifted to track the object, and she saw a white fabric ball falling apart a meter away. Puzzled, she looked around, but couldn't see the thrower.
'Huh?' It was a bit weird, and she went to investigate the once-ball of white fabric.
The scent of chemicals overwhelmed her. She couldn't tell what it was, but the moment she took in a deep whiff, her consciousness started to fade away, and her muscles went slack.
As she fell down, she could see a blurry figure running toward her. When it came close enough to grab her from the ground, she smelled the familiar scent that had worried her before. This was the thing that she'd sensed near the mansion, she—
Her thoughts were then cut short by the effects of the drug, and she fell limp in the hands of the blurry figure.