86 His Friends (19)

Once her heart calmed down, Iris squirmed out of Kyro's hands and landed in the water again. As terrified as she was, she didn't want to gain a phobia of swimming. With a glare Kyro's way, she stood still for a moment, feeling the water lap against her nose.

Once she got accustomed to that, she slowly took a step deeper in and started swimming. Every movement of the collar sent a wave of terror through her muscles, and they almost froze, but she didn't drown. What luck.

There was a sound nearby, and Iris made a small circle in the water to see what was happening on the shore. Lucifer had stepped out and was shaking his thousands of water-laden strands. Droplets flew far and wide, even hitting Kyro and reaching Iris.

She screamed out in indignation, then swam to the shore as Kyro stood up. Once on the ground, she came close to Lucifer and started shaking her own fur. It wasn't as majestic a sight, but the cat still hissed in anger. They were about to enter another confrontation when a barking of a dog interrupted them.

Both of them instantly turned around and saw a golden burst of light as a large dog rounded the corner. Before its owner even came into view, it rushed toward the two of them while barking joyously.

'What's wrong with these people!' Iris couldn't help screaming out as she rushed back toward the water. 'Why can't they keep some pocket dogs instead of giants like mastiffs and golden retrievers!'

Her escape came to a half, though, when she heard the yelp of the dog. Uncertain, she slowed down and turned around to see the dog falling back with its tail between its legs. It was also whining softly.

'Huh? What just happened?'

Right then, the owner, who was a middle-aged man with a frown on his face, finally showed up, and his dog gained a resurgence of confidence. It circled around Lucifer, more interested in going for Iris, but the cat hissed and ran to her side. The moment the dog came close, Lucifer raised his paw and smacked the retriever on the nose.

Another yelp left the large dog's mouth, and it retreated to its master's side, whining to him about unfairness of life.

Iris in the meantime looked at Lucifer with worshiping eyes. This cat was larger than her, but it was nothing compared to that giant dog. Yet this size difference didn't get in the way of Lucifer winning both rounds of the duel and sending his opponent crying home. 'That's how a true superhero looks!'

As she marveled at his techniques, the cat watched the dog for a bit more with weary eyes, then seemed to decide it was no threat and turned to Iris. She fell back, thinking he was going to scold her, but Lucifer just bumped his head into hers in some sign language she wasn't well-versed in and stepped away.

Kyro walked onto the shore, and only now Iris noticed that he'd been absent during the whole confrontation. 'How useless! Lucifer is so much better than you!' she told him straight away.

"Sorry, sorry," he murmured, patting her then Lucifer. "Good job, Lucy. I knew I could trust you." The cat purred, happy with the praise. He raised his head high and straightened his back, but the image was a bit distorted by the fact that his fur was hanging wet and he looked like a thin, malnourished kitten.

"Leash that damn cat of yours for once," the owner of the golden retrieved said, his voice full of disgust. He glared at them from high up, but not once did he lower his hand to give reassurance to the pet by his side.

Normally, Iris would have never noticed that last part, but after living as a pet for a couple weeks, she personally knew how much a gentle touch was worth. Even though she blamed Kyro for being slow, she knew he'd have been by her side if he had felt any real threat to her. That pat on the head just then promised that he would take care of the problems that she couldn't because he had taken the responsibility of keeping her.

"My cat wasn't antagonizing anyone. It didn't even move from its position until your dog aimed for the fox, which is on a leash as you can see. That didn't stop your dog from attacking it, though." Kyro's voice was calm, but there was an edge to it. He wasn't going to take undue admonishment with his head lowered.

"Not my fault you keep such stupid pets. Foxes should be hunted down, not kept at home. Same goes for cats, too." As he said that, the man turned around and dragged his dog away. Just when he was about to round the corner, he stopped and turned around. "If I see that cat without a leash one more time, I'm gonna have you fined!" he threatened.

Kyro just smiled, his eyes dark and dangerous. "Try it."

When the man was gone, Kyro turned to Iris, the coldness on his face gone as if a summer breeze had blown it away. "Are you all right? Don't be scared of him. Lucy once fell off a tree when the guy was underneath and then tried to catch himself on his clothes. I reimbursed the man later, but his view on cats and Lucy in particular was damaged for all time."

'What?' Iris couldn't help chuckling. 'Lucy actually did that?'

The two of them turned to the cat who was cleaning himself without a care for anyone around him. 'Wait, cleaning? Aren't you already all wet? What are you licking your fur for then!'

Some questions can never be answered, and this was one of them.

The three of them then went to the bench by the water and sat down to dry up. The heat wasn't as great in the evening as during midday, but the sun was still around, so in a while they started looking like themselves again.

Kyro wasn't happy about his pants being wet, so he walked around most of the time to dry up, and they moved out only once he looked acceptable as well. At that time, they no longer went farther, but went straight back home. Evening was closing in, and all of them were tired of the long venture.

On the way, Iris didn't fight anymore and just walked by Kyro's side normally. He had to slow down so she wouldn't need to run all the time, but that was it. Peacefully, they came back home and each found their own business to attend to: Lucifer jumped on the sofa and sprawled out on its backrest to sleep, Kyro changed and went to sit by his computer, while Iris peeked from the corner, trying to see that last missing letter of his password.