201 Unwelcome Visitor (4)

Kyro had just led Iris onto the fishing boat when she latched onto the railing. The smile on her face became strained, then fell altogether. Her eyes went wide.

It didn't seem like she was seeing anything, however. Her pupils flitted right and left, and her body began to sway like they were in turbulent waters. Shocked, Kyro grabbed her by the shoulder, but she didn't notice.

Her eyes were still moving in all directions, blind to the world before them.

"Iris?" he called out to her softly, but his words landed in deaf ears.

Instead, she started shivering and tears collected in her eyes. The next moment, her fingers let go of the railing, and she lurched to the side. Her movements were uncoordinated, her body posed at a weird angle.

"Iris!" Kyro shouted out this time, holding her by the shoulders with force. It attracted the attention of everyone else on board, but he couldn't care less.

There was something wrong with Iris, and he had no idea what it was. Not once had she mentioned being panicky about being on boats. If she was, why would she have ever stepped on one? Did she think she had to do it to not stand out or be accepted?

Cursing himself for not having noticed her discomfort earlier, he got ready to take her away from the boat. For the last time, he called out her name, and the eyes staring at him suddenly cleared. They focused on him, filled with an intensity that spoke volumes about something he didn't understand.

Her mouth opened, and she tried to say a word, but it came out as nothing more than a squeak. She gulped a few times, licked her dry lips, and tried again. This time, she managed to say, "C-can we get b-back to t-the shore?"

He nodded and called out to the rest saying that they would should go without them.

"What's wrong?" Marge asked, coming closer to look at the shaking Iris.

"Don't know. We'll go back to the villa first," Kyro said, wrapping his arm around Iris' waist to help her get back to the pier. He no longer trusted her ability to move on her own.

Once they returned to the pier, Marge followed after them. "Should we all go back ? We can just stay around the villa."

Kyro glanced at Iris. She was shaking her head, not looking at anyone. It was clear that celebrating was the last thing on her mind now. Some quiet and peace would do a lot more good, and he might even learn about what had happened if they were alone.

"No need to do this on our account. Just go and have fun. It's not every day that your best friend accepts a marriage proposal."

"You sure?" Marge didn't seem convinced. Troubled, she kept looking between the boat where the other three were standing in uncertainty and Iris. "I don't think it's okay to leave her alone."

"Thanks for treating me like air," Kyro muttered and turned away from the boat. "Just go. I'll take care of her."

Without waiting for more, he led Iris away. She had calmed down some by then, but her steps were still unsteady. In the dim light of the moon, her face glistened with sweat.

"I'm sorry," she whispered in a shaky voice when they were far enough for Marge not to hear them. "I didn't mean…"

Just as she said that, the body under Kyro's hands disappeared. His eyes widened as his eyes roamed over the place that Iris had stood in moments ago.

A high-pitched whine came from below, and he looked down. Under a pile of clothes, something was moving. He bent down to move them away, and a pointed nose pushed through, then a whole face with dark beady eyes and large ears.

"Ah." His heartbeat calmed as he realized what had happened. A glance back told him that they were still in view of the boat, but hopefully no one had been watching them. Or at least didn't get a good sight of what happened because of the darkness.

He collected the clothes and picked up the fennec. Iris looked at him with her soulful eyes, but he couldn't tell what she wanted to say. Maybe an explanation as to what had happened?

It bothered him that he had no idea what had transpired there, on the boat. He'd seen that Iris wasn't fully comfortable with the group, but it was something he couldn't really help. If it was any other occasion, he would have changed the topic to make it more inclusive, but this time…

'I didn't think it through when bringing her here. Although Jimmy suggested it, I should have known better.'

The fennec made some more whiny noises, and he sighed. "I really can't understand you like this," he told her in a low voice. Although they were alone, it felt weird to talk to a fox. It was a while since he last did it. Clearly, it was a habit that needed constant cultivation to stay around.

Once they reached the villa, Kyro entered and went up the stairs to the second floor. Jimmy had mentioned that the bedrooms were there, so he chose one at random. The light turned on after a few flickers, welcoming him into a kind of room he'd never seen before.

The blue paint on the walls was faded and falling off. An antique commode stood in one corner, its wood having gone light from staying in the sun for too long. Next to it was a bed. Its age was apparent, but there were new covers on the top.

Kyro stepped toward the bed, and the floor creaked. He looked down, but it didn't seem like the boards were going to give way any time soon.

Once he put Iris on the bed, she curled up into a ball, hiding her face with her tail. He sat down by her side, placing the clothes a bit farther away. "Can you tell me what happened?" he asked.

At first, there was no reaction, but then the tail moved away from the face. A whine answered him. When he just kept staring at Iris, she shook her head and screamed at him.

'Her lack of ability to speak does complicate the matter…'

His eyes caught sight of her phone, and he took out his own. Upon unlocking it and opening a notebook, he put it on the side before Iris. "Try this."

She rose, thought for a moment, then raised her right front paw. It covered five or so letters, clicking all of them at once. When she tried to delete some of them, she clicked not only on backspace, but also letter m, period, and enter. The next few tries resulted in similar things.

Like this, Kyro wasn't going to learn anything. Thus, he took the phone, deleted everything, and put it before her again. "Write, and then tell me which letter to keep with a number of short screams. Otherwise, there's no way I'll understand anything."

Iris nodded, and they restarted. It was semi-quick work, but Kyro soon felt his back ache from leaning over in an uncomfortable position. He then lay down on the side, his head lifted with his right arm. The fennec came to rest near it, rising its right paw once in a while to click on a number of letters at once.

Their writing and deleting took some time, but in the end Kyro received some kind of an explanation. Only bad thing was that it left him even more confused, despite him adding spaces and punctuation marks into her writing.

[been on boat before. not afraid. now saw dark. no escape. terified]