Fox Life

On that day, Iris had learned nothing of significance. Tyler became close-mouthed about everything, changing the topic the moment she tried to bring it to their kind. It was as if he had suddenly become ashamed of it.     

Annoyed, Iris came over earlier the next day when he might not have been at home. And she was in luck. All of the men were away, with only the children and mother left behind. As Iris walked around, she was surprised that she didn't see Mila anywhere.     

But it wasn't too unbelievable. The little child was an adorable baby weasel which could hide anywhere. Maybe she was just tired of everyone exclaiming how cute she was and decided to hide.     

"Welcome, welcome," Tyler's mother welcomed Iris with a warm smile. "I'm happy to see you back here."     

"You've got a nice atmosphere here," Iris said, meaning it. There was a feeling of a family living in the place. There were toys in random corners, locked up studies to protect them from children, and a mother always in the kitchen.     

The two of them chatting about nothing for a time, drinking tea, then Iris came to her reason for being there. If Tyler wasn't speaking, there were still his family members.     

"Could you tell me more about this curse we suffer from?" Iris asked in a soft voice, her eyes down. It wasn't right to pretend, but she was starting to learn that sometimes it was necessary. "My parents died when I was young and I don't know anything about it…"     

"Oh you poor thing!" Tyler's mother came to her side, pulling her into a hug.     

It was a nice gesture, but Iris found it hard to appreciate it. First, she wasn't that sad about her parents' deaths since she couldn't even remember it; second, she only knew the woman for a couple days and such show of motherly affection felt alien to her who had never felt it before; third and most importantly, she didn't know if she could trust the other.     

Iris knew herself to be too trusting, and so she forced herself to disbelief, to look for things that might not be okay, and there were plenty of them that had to do with Tyler. Until she found some explanation to them, she couldn't let her guard down.     

"So what do you want to know?" the mother asked in a warm voice.     

"All you can tell me," Iris said, her head still lowered. "I know nothing."     

Tyler's mother patted her back in a reassuring manner. "You should ask my boy about that. It's good for young people to interact between themselves. But let me see, what can I tell you…"     

She then proceeded to repeat the same legend that Tyler had told, and then mentioned some basic information, like everyone would change soon after they were born for the first time and that it couldn't be controlled. Just like her son, she also shared no embarrassing or funny stories about the transformations nor talked about her personal experiences.     

Once she was done with all Iris already knew, she left to cook lunch for the men who would soon return, and Iris was left with a distinct feeling that something wasn't totally right. While thinking about that, she walked to the end of the corridor where there was only one door.     

'You shouldn't go through another's place like that…' her inner voice said a moment before she opened the door. The room was covered in straw just like before, but there was no one inside it.     

'Had the cousin changed back? But wouldn't Tyler or his mother have mentioned it?' Iris closed the door, ready to get away from the crime scene, but there were already footsteps behind her. The smile she forced out was strained, but it was all she could manage as she turned around pretending it was nothing.     

"Iris! What are you doing here?" Tyler asked, his expression betraying nothing on his mind. "Were you looking for Sean? He's out now."     

"I noticed." Iris laughed awkwardly. 'My spying abilities might need a little improvement…' But it seemed like she was going to have a lot of practice in the future, based on how shady everything around her seemed.     

"Come," Tyler called, taking her by the arm to pull her into the kitchen.     

Iris wanted to throw him away, but then changed her mind. She could survive such indignation if that allowed her to remain inconspicuous. Or well, less conspicuous than she already was. There was no way that Tyler wasn't clear on the fact that she'd been snooping around.     

He just didn't know for what purpose, and if she acted like a dunce, which truth be told wasn't far from her character, he wouldn't think much of it. Nobody would ever peg her for being good spy material.     

'When your strength lies in the fact you're horrible at something…'     

Upon finishing her pity-party, Iris realized that she was once again helping Tyler's mother with lunch. It wasn't hard, but she was locked in place, under mother's watchful eyes. Tyler was sitting nearby, sharing what he'd faced that day while trying to trim the hedges of one family and a dog came at him.     

It might have been fun had it not been the opposite of what Iris wanted to hear. When they were done, she managed to sneak away after lunch when no one was looking and catch up to Owen, who was a brother to Tyler's father.     

When she asked him about what she wanted to know, he smiled and told her the exact same legend to her, word for word. Tyler had been a bit more free with his recounting, but both his mother and Owen were identical.     

And so were the others when Iris caught them alone the next day. Even the children. The little ones didn't even bother to pretend that it wasn't memorized. They hesitated and told her to wait while they tried to remember the right word, which Iris herself could supply after hearing the same story so many times.     

When she returned home that day, she sat down at her desk and just stared at her laptop, not opening it. The children had claimed that parents had taught them the story, but during the recounting they had looked scared. There was genuine fear in their expressions when they faltered on a word, and the younger one even trembled like an aspen tree.     

If that wasn't abnormal, Iris didn't know what was.