92 Party (6)

Some time after the night had set in, footsteps came into the bedroom. Iris' ears twitched as she listened to the sound, but she didn't move otherwise. The party was in full bloom by then, and there was nothing for her to do there.

"Hey, little fox, where are you? Little fox!" called the amazon woman, turning on the light. "Where are you hiding, little one?"

"Do you actually believe it's gonna answer to little fox?" her husband mocked her from the living room. "Kyro, call it. It should listen to you, no?"

"Mhm… Iris! Iris! Come, Iris!" he shouted for her, and she stood up, but then hesitated. Did she really want to go there? Out into that light in which she didn't really belong?

He called her again, and she ran out from under the bed. If he wanted something from her, then there was no reason for her to refuse, and if it became uncomfortable staying around them, she could always just leave once more.

When she ran over and jumped straight onto Kyro's knees, the girls aww'ed in unison. They called out how cute she was again, and one of the sisters reached her hand out to touch her.

At this moment in time, Iris had no patience for such people. She fell into a fighting pose, with her head lowered and pushed forward slightly while all her fur stood up to make her look bigger, and screamed out. This display scared the girl enough to retract her hand, and Iris relaxed, satisfied.

"Told you she doesn't like strangers," Kyro said with a shrug.

While he spoke, the amazon woman returned to her seat. She leaned back against her husband and grinned at Iris as if they were some kind of conspirators. 'Huh? What is she smirking at me for?'

As she thought that, Kyro placed her on the little space of sofa still available. "I actually don't even know how many commands she knows. It always surprises me how much she understands."

"Try the basic ones first," Ted suggested right away.

"All right. Iris, sit." She sat down.

"Iris, down." She lay down.

"Stand. Now, Iris, sit, stay." She stood up, then sat down and did not move.

"Iris, remote control." At this one, she smiled, then jumped down and rushed to the cabinet by the wall. From it, she grabbed the remote control and dragged it over to Kyro, who beamed at her. "Good girl," he said and gave her a strawberry from the table.

It was tasty, and she swallowed it while barely chewing on it as she listened to amazon woman's heated praise. She didn't hold back and called her the fox of the century, smartest animal, and a young genius.

'If you only knew I was human…' Iris thought, but she was still happy from so much praise.

"How did you do that?" Gale asked, watching Kyro with suspicious eyes. He was sitting with one of the sister's in his lap and looking much redder than everyone else. While others were only little color to their cheeks, his were tomato red, and his eyes were shining like faraway stars.

Kyro thought for a moment, then grinned down at Iris. "She's a quick study."

'When did you teach me anything?' she asked, rising her head lazily to bark at him.

'Wait… Bark? Since when do foxes bark?' Yet the sound that left her throat was really like that of a dog's bark, and she was even producing it with a closed mouth. 'What kind of sorcery is this?!'

She wasn't the only one with such questions in her mind. The whole table went quiet, and everyone's eyes focused on her.

"Did it just…" Emily said in a wonder-filled voice.

Gale narrowed his eyes and stated, "Kyro, your fox just turned into a dog."

Everyone's eyes then shifted from Iris onto the crazy man. He smiled at them and pointed at Iris. "It barked!"

She rolled her eyes at him and turned away. That guy was drunk, no questions about it—what a lightweight.

Just as she thought that, he pushed his girl away and reached for another beer. Iris saw Kyro's gaze growing serious for a moment, but he didn't say anything, pretending that it didn't concern him. An awkward silence settled on the room for a moment.

Then, Gale laughed. "I've got a great idea!" he stated and picked a small plate that had been emptied of some kind of snacks. He poured beer from his can into and sloshing the liquid everywhere brought it over to Iris. "Hey, try it!" he suggested.

'If you're drunk, then leave me out of it,' she muttered to herself. If no one else dared to do anything, then she might as well take the fall for them. Kyro grabbed for her, thinking to stop her from drinking the alcohol, but she wasn't even going for it, so it wasn't hard to avoid his grasp.

She instead jumped over a couple legs to reach Gale. He stared at her, surprised and delighted to see her come to him, but she wasn't here to socialize. Like an angry spirit, she pounced on his hand holding the can and bit into his finger. Instinctively, he relaxed his grip, and she swiftly pushed the can out of his hand, to the ground.

He rose in outrage, crying out at her actions, but she was faster. Before he could grab for her, she rushed to Kyro's side and ran up his chest to lay down on his shoulder. From there, she flicked her tail right and left, taunting Gale to come for her.

His hands rose, as if he was really going to come over and do something to her, but then he just cursed and looked down at his beer can. He picked it up, shook it to see that it was empty, and cursed again.

"That's not good, we need to clean it up," the amazon woman said, being the first to react. She went over the hand rest on the side, avoiding the beer puddle under the table. "Do you have a rag or something?"

"Yeah, I'll get it," Kyro instantly said. He first moved Iris away, then stood up and went into the bathroom to get something to clean up the mess.

While he was away, the amazon woman came to Iris' side of the sofa and patted her head. "You're a smart thing, but I doubt you'll get anything nice from Gale ever again," she whispered in a voice only Iris could hear.