Fox Life

Somewhere within herself, Iris knew that she should be shocked, horrified, in disbelief, but all she could think about was the words 'straddled with their child'. She'd known that she wasn't what her aunt had wanted since she was five, but to hear her put it so crudely… Her heart bled at the thought of it.     

It wasn't like she had never considered that her aunt hated her, but she was always taken care of, never going to sleep hungry or cold. That had to mean something, didn't it? Although she wasn't showered in loving gestures like others, she had still been happy. So why then?     

"Did anything unusual happen while Iris was growing up? Something to prove that she was being hunted as you put it?" Kyro asked in a terse voice. He was staring up at Iris' aunt without a thought to act meek and unassuming, let her go without drilling her of all information.     

"Unusual?" Aunt Maddie stayed in the middle of the room, watching him with a calculating gaze. There seemed to be an invisible war going above Iris, but she didn't have the heart to join it or try to stop it. "No. She grew up like any child would, slowly and painfully. I couldn't believe anyone would do it to themselves willingly."     

The scathing words should have pushed the dagger even deeper into Iris' heart, but she raised her head instead, finding an inexorable feeling rising within her. She could swear that something wasn't right.     

Her emotions were in turmoil at first, but as her aunt kept piling one insult over another, they lost their effect. It was true that her aunt wasn't the kindest person, but she was never rude in another person's face. Even when she hated a person, she knew to keep her tongue and follow the social norms. Somewhat at least.     

Yet now, out of nowhere, she lost all of her decorum. As if Iris was a hated enemy, she began to hammer her with words, trying her best to hurt her. It didn't make sense. Her aunt had to have had a personality replacement in the half a year Iris was gone, or something had happened. Something serious.     

"Aunt, thank you for your hospitality, but I think we should get going," she said. The hawk-like eyes moved to her, and she wondered if she was just thinking too much, but she pushed that thought away. Her aunt would never be this cruel to her.     

Outside, Kyro didn't say anything for a time, and they returned to the hotel, Iris feeling too tired to do anything else that day. There was still time, so there was no reason for them to hurry.     

As they ate dinner, Iris shared her considerations with Kyro. He listened without interruption, then met her eyes. "How sure are you of that? Didn't you mention that she was always cold?"     

She was… But not so in the face about it? No, that would be a lie. Her aunt was an iceberg and everyone knew it. Yet her speech this time was more hateful than Iris had ever heard before.     

Noticing her lost expression, Kyro sighed and changed the topic. "What was the relationship between the two sisters? Do you know anything of it?"     

"Just what aunt told me. I was too young when my parents died to remember anything, and I don't have any other close family. But from what she said, they were always at odds, fighting over this and that. They were opposites, but they were family as well, ready to claw out the eyes of anyone who endangered the other."     

It was rare for aunt to talk about her mom, but when she did, there would always be a sort of nostalgic air around her. There were also a few times Iris found her just staring at her mom's portrait with a sad smile, lost in thought or memory.     

"What about your father then?"     

Iris looked down at her food, stabbing it with the fork like it had personally insulted her. "Nothing. I don't even know how he looked. Aunt always told me to go do something when I brought him up and wouldn't talk to me for a day or two after. I quickly learned my lesson and never mentioned him again."     

When she was young, in kindergarten and primary school, she had kept on wondering why her father was gone. All the other children had both parents while she only had a mom she wasn't allowed to call mom. She'd caused a few scenes, hoping that would bring him back, but it didn't work; she never saw or heard of him.     

Later on, she found out that gone in her case meant dead. She probably should have cried then, or screamed, but all she could do was wonder about whom everyone was speaking. How could she grieve for people she didn't know? They had died many years ago, and she couldn't remember them at all.     

What she had grieved for instead then was her childhood, a happy family that could've been but wasn't.     

"I know he died in the hospital, having survived a few hours longer than my mom. But that's it. I don't really know anything about either of them."     

Kyro was about to say something, but his phone rang at that moment. His expression grew sour, but he still picked it up. "Gale?"     

"Is everything all right on your side?"     

"I'd say so, why?"     

He stood up to leave the dining table and walked away while speaking as to not disturb her, but Iris wasn't fully human. Her hearing was much better than he expected, and she could still hear both ends of the conversation.     

And that Gale sounded really irritated.     

"Something's brewing. Three hours after you landed, some news came in that set the whole Homeland abuzz. It's like a disturbed bee's nest. But the information is being kept private by the top brass, so I can't get a hold of it on a short notice."     

"You sure it has to do with me landing here?" Kyro asked in a low voice, glancing at Iris. She pretended to take a bite so he wouldn't know that she could hear their conversation.     

Gale was silent for a moment, considering it, then said, "Yeah. There's nothing else of significance that happened at that moment, and I know it's connected to Iris' case. I'm guessing that you two were spotted, and that someone even reported it to here."     

"How long do you think you'll need to clear it up?"     

"Longer if I keep getting interrupted by new developments. Can you, I don't know, stay quiet for a bit?"     

"We went to visit her aunt and returned to the hotel. How more quiet can we be?" Kyro asked with a sneer. He then sighed and shook his head. "Something's afoot here as well. Do you have any contacts in this place?"     

"Some. You?"     

"Not enough, that's why I'm asking. I'll need to draw on yours as well."     

"Sure, I'll send them to you in a bit. On my way to Dioscuri now, since someone is taking a holiday."     

"Next time, I'll send YOU on this kind of holiday," Kyro muttered, ending the call.     

At the table, Iris chuckled against her own better judgment. It was showing up that a holiday was the last thing they were going to have here. On every turn they were faced with what she was, and none of it looked good. Her own aunt called her father monster for being able to change shape.     

'But she didn't mean it,' Iris tried to assure herself, and failed. She didn't know what was going on, but hoped with all she had that it wasn't just her imagination. Otherwise, she'd have to accept that the only family she had hated her and she was all alone in the world.