29 Her Name (14)

It was obvious to Iris that things weren't going well. Her desperate attempt to distract him had worked out, but it wasn't going to last forever. And Kyro didn't look too good, either. His face had paled while his eyes were jumping all around. Whatever was going on in his head, it wasn't good.

Iris really needed a Plan B, or was it C now? Her original had failed, while the emergency one was showing to be paper thin. Couple minutes were probably all she had before he would return to his senses and start to investigate.

'What to do, what to do…' With her mind in a turmoil, she stepped away and looked around herself. Escape wasn't really an option, so she had to work with what she had, which was pretty much just the cuteness of a fennec fox. It wasn't enough, though.

Her eyes landed on the monitor behind her, and an idea struck her. With haste, she dashed to the keyboard, where she stilled for a moment. This was a dangerous game, but she couldn't think of anything better.

With Kyro watching her every move, she raised her right paw and after some aiming clicking on the 'i' key. Satisfied it went well, she stood up and ventured to the left of the keyboard where she located the 'r' key. Then came the letter 'i' again, and then she messed up. Instead of clicking solely on 's', her paw slipped and clicked 'sdddd'. Her heart skipped a beat and she stole a glance at Kyro.

There didn't seem to be any changes—he was still looking at her like she was a monster. Fear gnawed at her heart, but she banished it to the deepest recesses and rose up as if this was something she did every day.

Her legs shook a little as she ran over the couple steps to him, but it was something only she knew. Her voice when she began cooing, asking for a treat, was strong and resonant.

She didn't want to leave this place. Maybe she'll never be able to turn back into a human, but that wasn't the point. She genuinely liked Kyro and wanted to know more about him. He seemed like a great guy, somebody who wouldn't abandon her just because they were in a bad mood. If she was human, they might have been able to become the best of friends.

She had messed up this time, revealing more than he was wiling to accept, but she hoped it might still work out. Somehow.

Her cries gained a desperation to them, turning into pleas more than anything else. If this failed, she didn't know what else to do. This was already the last resort of the last resort. Why had she been so easy-going with her plans, not considering the bigger picture? Having a stupid name was much better than being alone. She wanted to cry, but no tears came. This was all her own fault.

Kyro pushed the fox away and sat down in the chair. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, then started laughing. What was wrong with him? Why was he thinking so much?

This was just a normal fox, nothing more. It was trained for a circus or something, that was why it was so smart. There was nothing supernatural about it. Why then did he keep getting a feeling that something wasn't right here?

Even now as the little fox looked at him with hurt in its eyes, he caught himself thinking of its eyes as 'hurt'. This was such a human emotion after being rejected, so how could an animal understand it? Not straight away, anyway. They were more persistent, more forgiving, if one could call it that. Not one of them looked like their world was breaking apart after their owner pushed them away a single time.

"Come," he told the little fox, and it ventured closer, one careful step at a time.

Here it was again, that unnatural perceptiveness. It was as if it could understand his words, like there was no language barrier between them.

Only when his hand touched the fox's head did Kyro notice that the little thing was shivering with its whole body. The eyes that stared at him were full of a plea he couldn't understand, but he didn't need to understand it to know that the little fox was terrified.

"Hey, did I scare you that much?" he asked, softening his voice as much as he could. "You don't need to be afraid of me, I'd never hurt you. Haven't I told you that before? Why are you shivering so then? There's no need for that, all right?"

His words were mostly nonsense, something he said just to keep speaking. Their value lay in the pet hearing him, getting to understand that he wasn't threatening it in any way.

With a conflicted heart, Kyro picked up the little fox. He didn't know why it acted so abnormally, but it couldn't be from a good living. Maybe somebody beat or starved it after failing a task, like writing its name incorrect as just now? His heart pained at such a thought, but it suddenly seemed like the explanation that connected all the dots.

Someone must have obtained the fox illegally, planning to prey on people in fairs or something like that with the unusual but lovely appearance of the fennec. They must have started teaching it tricks while the little one was still a newborn, with failure being met with punishment. If that was so, it would explain how the fox was so perceptive of human emotions and aware of what was expected of it even without any commands.

Kyro was almost certain he was letting his imagination run wild, but the origin of this little fox couldn't be normal. Its kind didn't wander the streets by themselves, let alone were without documents and knew somewhat complicated party tricks by the age of a couple months. Didn't people say that foxes were still only partly domesticated and were extremely resistant to being trained?

However, he shouldn't be letting his worries spill out onto his pets. The little one didn't seem to have had a good life this far, and he wasn't making it any better with his constant worrying. If the fox revealed anything unexpected, he should just accept it and pretend like it's normal. There was no need to stress the little thing.

Just as he thought that, he remembered something. 'Damn, I need to leave, now!' He wasn't late yet, but if he wasted anymore time, he would certainly be so. Although it was usually a minor matter—no one would even notice—today they had a meeting right at the start.

'What horrible timing…' he cursed, wondering if this would end up as another blow to the little fox in his hands.