Fox Life

When Kyro left, Iris waited for a bit and went out through the back entrance. The house Gale had prepared for her was some distance away, but she didn't take a bus or taxi.     

Why should she hurry there? There was no one waiting for her, and her heart was in too much turmoil to think straight. It was better to just walk around and let the familiar noise of the city calm her down.     

When she reached her new place, she found it without much hardship. It was a single room apartment in a building like hundreds of others around it.     

The inside had the basic necessities, but that's it. Clearly, no one had lived in it before, just cleaned it prior to her arrival. But she didn't meet any people. It was just as good, for all she wanted was to lie on the bed and do nothing.     

She wondered about Kyro and Lucy, but those thoughts were too raw. It wasn't a permanent separation, but who knew if it would not turn into such? Life often went the wrong way, and being in her home country wasn't doing anything good for Iris. She was reminded of how her life had a tendency to crumble every time she thought it was getting better.     

When she was a child, her parents died early. When she started going to school, she was avoided by other children because she was said to bring bad luck. When she finally found a best friend, the girl soon had to leave with her parents. When she wanted to enter college with her friends, she got sick and had to stay in a hospital for a year.     

It was a dark memory Iris wasn't fond of revisiting, and she pushed it away once more. What happened in the past didn't have to determine what happened in the future. Even if her luck was abysmal, she had encountered Kyro in her moment of need.     

Maybe all her bad experiences were to counteract how good the event later in her life would be so there would be balance.     

"I'm being silly again," Iris murmured and shook her head while pulling her knees up to her chest. Life was just a random set of happenings without any set sequence or reasoning. It was thus within her own power to make things go the way she wanted.     

She fell asleep with such thoughts, and when she woke up the next day, she was full of energy and determination. Her situation was unenviable, but it wasn't like she could do nothing.     

First thing that came to her mind was visiting Tyler again. This time, she would ask him all about who he was and what he knew about their kind. If she wanted to figure out why people were hunting her, the best course of action was to arm herself with knowledge.     

It might be a bit dangerous to visit Tyler by herself when there was no one to look for her if she didn't return home, but she was ready. She might not be strong, but she had the spirit of a fox within her. Tyler and his family would never expect that she could change shape at will, and it would be her hidden card in case things went in a less than favorable direction.     

There was also Aunt Maddie. It was impossible that she didn't know more about Iris' parents and what had transpired back in the day. Most importantly, who was her father? Why didn't she know anything about his side of the family? Her mother's side was cold and indifferent toward her, but they at least existed.     

Her father's family on the other hand… She hadn't even heard about them, let alone knew their names or addresses. It was as if they had disappeared from the face of earth.     

"Couldn't have…" Iris murmured, then opened a laptop on the desk and wrote down everything she knew about herself, her family, and what she could do.     

It was a pitifully small list, all of it fitting into half a page with letter size 12. With this little understanding of her own life, it was no wonder that she couldn't help Kyro and Gale in trying to figure out what had happened to her.     

She didn't even know if her body structure was identical to that of a normal human or not! Could the authorities have figured out something wrong with her when she stayed in the hospital and they did extensive tests on her? But that was over three years ago. It shouldn't have taken so much time, should it?     

And what about it all starting in the states and not at her home? Besides, if they wanted her for research, why would they have sent her abroad in an animal trafficking ship? What if she had died on the journey? Based on her nightmares, her situation there had been beyond abysmal.     

Wait, could there be two different powers vying to catch her? But that would complicate matters so much more…     

Iris wrote down her ideas as well, then saved the file and closed the laptop. It was time for her to take a hand in her own future. With a steadying breath, she picked the keys and left the house.     

Gale had told her to lay low and not visit places and people her old self frequented, so she decided to first work on Tyler's side. Since he said he knew so much about their kind, it was time he shared all of it instead of just throwing tidbits at her.     

When Iris reached his house, he was surprised but delighted to see her. His trademark smile curled up his lips, and he brought her inside to get some refreshments. It was still before twelve, but his mother was already in the kitchen, making preparations for the large family's lunch.     

Iris volunteered to help to enter the older woman's good graces, and they chatted about various things as they worked on bread dough then peeled potatoes and so on. Tyler sat in the kitchen all throughout, but didn't join in to help them. He instead acted like a background noise, chattering about everything and nothing.     

Not once did he mention anything about their kind, though. It annoyed Iris, but she said nothing. Once they were done, she was going to drill him with her questions until his throat ran dry from speaking.     

And it wasn't like she had learned nothing from his speech. Now that she paid attention, she realized that he was actually avoiding any mention of what happened when anyone changed. The moment it could have entered the story, he would switch to another event from the past.     

It almost felt like it was a taboo subject, which didn't sit well with Iris. Didn't he say that they were all descendants of some real-life wizards or such? That the curse was proof of their noble lineage? Then what was with avoiding any mention of what it did to their lives?     

Iris continued to peel potatoes without saying anything, but her mind whirled with speculation. Maybe everything wasn't as simple as she'd thought. It was very likely that whatever she was going to learn from Tyler would only be half of the story, the part about which he was proud.