Fox Life

The passing of feet and fragments of overheard conversations were surprisingly good at lulling one into the dreamland. After a while of spying on those passing by, Iris actually fell asleep. Her body was tired from all the exertion this morning, and even if her mind was unwilling, it lost the battle.     

By the time she woke up, it was already late in the day. However, unlike what she had expected, the traffic hadn't slowed down in the least. In truth, it had even increased. There were so much people now that she couldn't cross the pathway unobserved even if she waited for an hour.     

Somebody was always walking their dog or jogging past. Old couples were slowly enjoying their evening walks. Groups of friends passed with alcohol in hand and loud, cheerful voices.     

When she was about to risk it and dash behind an elderly couple, a familiar voice reached her ears. She looked up and saw Kyro bending the corner. He was dressed in the same clothes, so even if his voice didn't sound quite right, it was certainly him.     

'What's he still doing here?'     

Warmth and joy overflowed her, but she quickly shook her head and poured a bucket of cold water on her head. He had abandoned her first. So what if he was searching for her now? It must be because he looked like a fool in front of the woman he planned to give her away to.     

She looked away and curled up into an even smaller ball so he wouldn't be able to see her. Once he went past, she stood up and walked by the bush on the inner side, the opposite one to the path humans walked through.     

Her stomach growled since she hadn't eaten anything since morning, and she raised her head to really look at the sky. It was past noon for certain, but anything more specific was beyond her capabilities.     

Soon, the smell of a hotdog caught her attention. She sneaked over there and saw half of it on the ground by an overfilled trashcan. Had she fallen low enough to eat from the ground? Probably not yet.     

As she thought that, though, two crows descended and attacked the hotdog. One of them noticed Iris and waddled off toward her. She chuckled at its weird walk, which looked even funnier when seen from the same height, but then she saw a giant beak coming for her head.     

Screeching, Iris tried to dodge, but she had been too lax. The crow landed a hit on her shoulder, drawing blood, and cawed with pride. Iris whimpered and turned tail, running away as fast she could.     

Who knew crows were such heartless things? She hadn't even wanted their dirty hotdog!     

A good distance away, Iris found shelter and took a look at her wound. It wasn't deep, but a couple drops of blood had been drawn out. Her excessive movement hadn't done any good, but didn't seem to have damaged anything, either. Moving the shoulder hurt, but it was just a flesh wound.     

Like she'd seen animals do, she licked the damaged area clean and sat down for a moment to think about her next course of action. Looking for food was clearly a dangerous act, so she should probably go in search of a kind person. The sooner she found someone to take her in the better.     

But that wasn't as easy as she had expected. When she approached two elderly gentlemen, hoping to listen and see if they seemed like good men, she heard them talking about Kyro of all people. They were discussing the young man who lost his pet fox and had been here for hours now. In their words, it was a real pity such a caring man was befallen by such a disaster.     

'You wouldn't be saying that if you knew the whole truth!'     

She scowled at them and walked away, since talking with them now would be pointless. The moment they saw her, they would call that man who was so good at acting like he cared.     

While walking away from them, she suddenly stopped and stared back. Didn't they say he was here for hours and asking everyone about her? If that was the case, how was she going to find a new roommate? Everyone, not just these two old men, would send her back to be given away.     

Furious, Iris stamped on the ground, then decided to just walk around the park and see if she could find anything useful. It seemed like today was already destroyed and she would have to spend the night in this place. Most of the people now were spoiled, but tomorrow morning new ones would come and she'd have her chance. It was as simple as that.