Fox Life

Without a better idea of where to go, Iris agreed to follow Tyler. She rested until he finished his work, and then he brought her in his old audi to a quite distant part of the city. Her mind began to conjure various things that could happen to her without anyone being there to see, but the car soon stopped.     

They were on the outskirts of the city where the buildings didn't look too good. They seemed ancient, but it could have been just due to the amount of disrepair. Tyler led Iris to one of the five-story buildings.     

"It doesn't look like much, but with our large family, we need a lot of space. Here we can rent a whole floor without going broke in a month," Tyler explained on the way.     

"How many people live here?"     

Tyler thought for a moment. His footsteps slowed, and he even began to count on his fingers. "Two uncles, father's brothers. Dad, mom, and her cousin. I have three brothers and a sister. Oh, and there are two cousins that come and go. They're around my age, but they felt like they needed more freedom and ran away."     

The number of people staggered Iris. Her family had always consisted of only her aunt, so the idea of living with nine other people connected to her by blood sounded outrageous. How did that even work?     

When they entered the building, a three-year-old girl tumbled out after her ball. She caught it by Iris' feet and looked up at her with clear blue eyes. For a moment, she tilted her head and stared at Iris, then scrunched up her face and ran away.     

"That was Mila, the youngest," Tyler said. He looked after the girl with an inscrutable gaze, his cheerfulness forgotten for a moment. "She was born weak and rarely returns home from the hospitals. This week is one of the few that she's back home." As he said that, he seemed to recall that he had a guest, and the smile bloomed on his face again. "She doesn't speak, but don't mind that. I'm sure she'll start one day."     

That didn't sound encouraging, but before Iris could show any polite interest, Tyler dragged her farther into the house. He shouted out for his parents, and all the rooms opened. All the adults came out at once while the children just peeked through slightly opened doorways.     

"Oh, so this is the girl you mentioned! She's so pretty!" one of the older men said while patting Tyler on the shoulder.     

Another hit the speaker over the head and pushed him away. "Ignore that pig. Nice to meet you, I'm Owen," he said extending his hand.     

"But she is pretty…" the previous man whispered as Iris shook Owen's hand.     

She pretended not to hear it. It was a bit embarrassing, but she wasn't used to compliments just thrown at her face and didn't have the slightest idea how to react to them.     

Next came full introductions, and Iris tried to put everyone's names into her mind. She wasn't certain if she'd see those people ever again, but who knew, she still had a lot to ask of them. And she still needed her evidence.     

When she thought of that, she waited until the others cleared up, returning to their work, before saying, "Thanks for the help, but I'd like to see some proof that you are who you say you are."     

Although Tyler had said that he could sense Iris being like him, she had no such sensation and decided to risk it in the end. If he found it weird that she couldn't tell, she could just say something about not being taught from youth. It was the truth anyway.     

Tyler looked caught off guard, but then a light bulb lit up over his head. He grinned and poured both of them juice in the kitchen. He finished his glass in one gulp and looked at her with a disapproving gaze. "Are you really asking for that when you've seen my whole family as humans?" He laughed. "It's not like we can just change shape as we wish."     

'We can't?' Warning bells rang out in Iris' head. What did he mean that they couldn't change shape on a whim? If she could figure out how to do that by herself, there was no way that a family with generations of people changing couldn't have. It didn't make any sense.     

As she puzzled over that, her thoughts running in circles in her head, Tyler threw his arm over her shoulders. "But you're in luck. One of my cousins just returned because he changed accidentally. Come."     

Iris freed herself from his hold, but Tyler didn't seem fazed. He motioned for her to follow and led her to a room at the end of the hallway. When he opened the door, the smell of animal assaulted Iris' nostrils.     

The ground was covered in straw, and a bucket of water stood in one corner. Next to it was a box full of hay. The room itself was quite dark, with both windows covered with thick curtains that allowed little to no light.     

Because of that, Iris almost missed a shape curled up in a far corner. It didn't move in the least when the door opened and looked just like a deeper shadow.     

"Sean, come out to meet Iris. She's also one of us!" The creature in the corner didn't even open its eyes. Tyler sighed and smiled apologetically at Iris. "He just changed and lost an important opportunity at work, so now he's sulking."     

It sounded both logical and unbelievable. Iris could imagine how infuriating such a situation would be, but how could she be certain that it was really what had happened? The fact that he said they couldn't change when they wanted still struck her as something impossible.     

"Sean…" Tyler called again and was ignored again. He then stepped into the room and went to drag out his supposed cousin.     

Iris was about to step forward to say he shouldn't bother, but she noticed him lean over to whisper in the animal's ears. Even with her good hearing, she didn't catch anything more besides 'want', 'return', 'wouldn't', but the next moment the supposed cousin jumped to his feet.     

He ran to her side as if chased by ghosts and brayed. To her great shock, Iris realized that she was looking at a donkey. Its ears were flat against his head, and he was glared behind himself.     

"I told him I won't buy him any treats for the next week if he keeps acting like a jackass," Tyler explained with a laugh. "It always works, like magic."     

'Right…' Iris just stared before her, trying to make something of her scattered thoughts. A donkey? Really?     

She didn't know what she had expected, but it was certainly not a farm animal. What would one even have to do if they turned into a donkey in the middle of the street? As much as she didn't want to discriminate against the hard-working animal, she was certain that no one would have adopted her if she had turned into one.     

It was both scary and eye-opening. Didn't that mean that people could turn into all sorts of creatures? Somehow she'd had a misconception that all of them would be pets or something like that.     

The next couple minutes Iris questioned Sean to make sure he wasn't just a trained animal, but he wasn't. His reactions, just like hers when a fox, were fully human. There could be no doubt that he had simply changed his form.     

And that forced Iris to realize that she was really not the only one like that in the world. Before, it was only an idea, but now she had solid proof. There were more shape changers. Not many, but there were some.     

As she considered that, she didn't know whether she was happy or disappointed. It was nice to see that she was not a lone freak, but at the same time, she would have preferred had it been only the universe playing a trick on her. It would have been much simpler if she could just leave the shape changing behind one day, like a grown out dress, and forget about it.     

But life was never as simple as one wished. Iris took in a deep breath and decided not to think about the problems posed by the fact that it was a hereditary condition. She would leave it for the future her, someone who might be smarter and wiser.