Fox Life

While Iris and Tyler were talking to Sean, a startled scream came from another room. They looked at each other and hurried over there.     

In the room, Tyler's mother was standing with her hand covering her mouth. Tears were streaking down her face without a sound. There didn't seem to be anything in front of her, but then Iris let her gaze go lower.     

On the ground, a baby creature lay on its back. It was moving its legs at random, one then another, not even bothering to stand up.     

As more people rushed to the room, Iris was pushed farther in so the others could take a look at what happened. All of their faces turned grave at the sight of the little creature, but no one came closer to help it up.     

Since Iris was the closest, she crouched down and helped the little thing turn over. It was no larger than her palm, and when she could take a good look at it, she realized it was a baby weasel. Its coat was dark brown while its underbelly was snow white.     

At that moment, Iris realized that she might have competition for the cutest animal form.     

The little creature sniffed her finger while lying down, then tried to stand up and failed. It then sniffed its legs, clearly trying to figure out why they weren't working as expected.     

Tyler finally crouched down as well and brushed the baby weasel's coat. "Mila, Mila…" he whispered in a heartbroken voice. He wasn't crying like his mother, but his face was taut, emotions boiling right under the surface.     

"Mila? Wasn't she…"     

He nodded, picking his little sister up. She whined at it, trying to escape, but he didn't let her. "Mila, stay still," he ordered in a gruff voice, surprising Iris.     

She didn't understand everyone's reaction. They looked like they've seen a ghost, but it wasn't like changing meant something horrible. Why did they act like it was then? She would turn back in a while.     

The girl didn't want to follow her brother's command, but he held her in an iron grip and took her into another room in which Iris wasn't allowed to follow him. Right when she wanted to do that, Owen stopped her and apologized for making her see that. It was unlucky to have met on such a day.     

It puzzled Iris even more, so when Tyler came out, she asked him about it. Maybe it wasn't her place to know, but she just didn't get it. Weren't they shape changers as well? Didn't he say he was so proud of it? Why then the horrified expressions and tears?     

"It's because that means she's cursed as well," Tyler said after bringing Iris back into the kitchen. He sat down on the windowsill and took a swig from his glass of juice. "She was born weak, so we prayed that she wouldn't get straddled with the curse as well, but… Now we can't even bring her to the right doctors. And who knows when she'll turn back? Not to mention that it's taxing on the body."     

His voice was tired and heavy, but Iris couldn't pay attention to it when the words he said sounded so far off from her experiences. Changing had been random at first and unwelcome, but it had never been taxing on her? She couldn't remember a time when she would've been pained or tired after changing.     

"And you know how everyone changes in their first couple months? She never did. The changes back and forth are so common in the first years, but she didn't change once, so we had hoped… We really thought that the curse had avoided her."     

Tyler lowered his gaze, examining his empty glass for a moment. "I really hoped that she could have a better life than us."     

"What do you mean?" Iris asked. For a moment, she decided to avoid the elephant in the room. She hadn't changed since she was twenty plus, but she didn't feel like her saying that would help the situation.     

He looked up at her, confusion on face. "Didn't you have to go through it?" he asked, standing up. He dropped the glass into the sink before turning back to her. "Missing class for months because of 'sickness'? Not being able to even meet your friends? Just disappearing from the world for months at a time? I even had to drop out of high school because my last change lasted for a year and a half." He smiled thinly at her. "It's called a curse for a reason, right?"     

Disbelief mixed with horror rose within Iris. She had missed her last week of classes before the exams, but that was all. Most of her time as a fennec was during summer. And most of the problem had to do with her being sent an ocean away.     

Or so she'd thought. But if she had remained home, wouldn't it have been exactly the same? It wasn't like she could have attended her exams as a fennec…     

But still… If these people changed so much, how did they not manage to figure out how to control it? She had changed some ten times at most and she got the knack for it, and she had never been the brightest bulb in the batch. So how could a family of changers through generations not come to learn something like that?     

"Do you know of the trigger?" she asked in the end. For some reason, she felt that it wouldn't be good just to tell them to learn to control it since it was actually pretty easy.     

Tyler nodded and closed his eyes for a moment. "It's a subconscious reaction to save oneself. Usually it's related to fear, but not always. Any kind of situation in which you may subconsciously think that you'd be better off as an animal can trigger the transformation. Didn't you know that?"     

Iris shrugged. "I had made some guesses, but as you already know, I don't have any formal training in this. All I know is what I realized from my experiences."     

He was about to say something more, but Iris' phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag like her life depended on it and saw a message from Gale. [You should return.]     

Startled, Iris stared at it for a moment before realizing he was probably standing in for Kyro and not telling her to hurry back to the states. "I have to go now," she said to Tyler, ready to dash off outside.     

But Tyler caught her hand. "Why the hurry? I still have so much to tell you about us."     

"Next time!" As interesting as learning more about her kind would be, her priority was still Kyro. She wanted to know if he was okay or if something had happened to him.     

"Iris… are you planning to go to that man of yours?" Tyler asked without hiding his disgust. "He's not one of us."     

It was an accusation which meant nothing to Iris. She pulled her arm free and brushed it clean like it had been touched by something dirty. "I'm leaving."     

Tyler didn't try to stop her again and she passed half of the corridor before she heard his next words. "Don't forget who saved you this time! He's only going to bring you down!"     

Iris' footsteps didn't even falter. Save her? Tyler was taking too much credit. He had helped her once, while Kyro had been there for her for months. If not for him, she wasn't certain if she would even be alive or starved to death in some alley.