60 Perils of Miscommunication (2)

Running is not an easy thing. After about five minutes of the chase, Iris felt seriously short of breath. It became harder to dodge Kyro's grabs, every reach of his becoming a near thing.

Should she just give up? No, that wasn't an option. Every extra minute might have them late for wherever he planned to take her, and that could only be a good thing. She simply didn't wish to leave this house for anything.

She surprised him by dashing between his legs, and he only touched the hairs of her tail, not getting any grip. The freedom of movement in the living room was about to become the death of her, for she was the one rushing about while he just mostly stalked after her like a long-legged bird, some stork or flamingo.

In a moment, she found herself under the bed, right where everything had started. Her breath came in labored puffs, and now that she had stopped, she wondered how she would have to start moving again. Her body wasn't used to this much exercise; it pained her to even think about forcing herself to stand up again.

But she did, the moment he came over and bent down, all of his patience long gone. His words were already a background noise to her. She paid no heed to his commands and pushed her tired body further.

When he came around and prepared to block her path under the bed, she jumped up, almost slipping and falling, but still managing to get up. The unexpected action bought her a fraction of a second, but she was too tired to make good use of it.

He was the first to move to block her way, and she had to dodge into the study, which was a death trap. Inside it, there was no place for her to hide nor any room to evade his reaching hands.

She ran away as far as she could, right to the window, and turned around. There was little chance she was about to escape, but might as well try. When he started walking over in slow steps, she lay down as if accepting her defeat. Even her tail went down in a submissive motion.

Kyro didn't seem affected, though. He continued to advance, his eyes focused solely on her, not about to miss a single flex of a muscle. If she so much as took a deeper breath, he would be on her before she could even exhale it.

Iris felt outmatched, but she still made a last desperate attempt when he was a couple steps away. Instead of going straight past him, she rushed to the side, under the small table which would make it difficult for him to catch her.

It was all to no avail. He waited for the moment she was out in the open and caught her in a vice grip. He actually didn't even bother to win honorably and went for the shameless victory of catching her by her tail. She whirled on him, biting into his hand for being so indecent, but he was past the point of caring.

She was lifted up—luckily not by the tail—and thrown into the carrier with little gentleness. For a moment after, he sat by the side and just breathed heavily. He didn't say anything, but she wouldn't have cared if he had anyway.

She felt as if the sword of Damocles was hanging over her head, and she had just lost her battle against fate. Curling up into a pitiful ball, she hid her face inside her fluffy tail. There was a chance that she was overreacting, but the last time he had taken her out wasn't a good memory.

Back then, he had brought her to the shelter and checked if he could give her away to someone. Luckily, the fox she came to be had no owner, so he was stuck with her. But was he really? Could he have found someone to pass her onto?

Tears showed up in her eyes as she thought of yesterday. Just half a day ago, she had been thinking about how to ensure this house was nice and free of inappropriate stuff for her, yet today she might be leaving.

A part of her told her it was probably not true, they might just be going to a vet, but she couldn't help dreading it. Only now did she fully grasp how little control over her life she now had. If he wanted to give her away, she would have no chance of refusing it. Couldn't even say half a word in the matter.

It was scary. Terrifying, really. She shivered and hid deeper into her tail. Maybe if she closed her eyes, everything would come to pass and she would be back in the room without the carrier locking her up and with all her worries nothing but a misunderstanding to laugh about.

The carrier was lifted, and she closed her eyes tighter. The bobbing was uncomfortable and she kept sliding around, but she didn't move a muscle. Once they got into the car, a stranger entered the passenger seat and said, "So this is the troublesome devil that the woman wants? It's cute."

Iris' mind went blank. On instinct, she raised her head to look at Kyro, who nodded to the stranger. So this was it. She was going to be given away to some woman.

All her fears and worries were crushed by the heavy reality. It was one thing to guess that something bad was going to happen, and a whole different one to become certain of it. The knowledge drained her of energy, any thoughts of resistance.

Her head fell silently back down, and she closed her eyes, hiding the teardrops collecting in them. He didn't deserve to see her pain. If he was heartless enough to give her up, then she could be heartless enough to leave him without a care.

Once she saw her new 'owner', Iris promised to express great joy and excitement. Better make him think that she didn't care one whit about him. Maybe he'll even feel betrayed then. If so, good. He deserved that.

But even as she though that, a tear fell from her eye and got lost in the hair of her tail. She didn't really want to go, to leave this home she had grown accustomed to. Kyro was kind and caring, while Lucifer was a patient monster that saw her as a little cub that needed watching over.

So why did she have to leave? Why?