Fox Life

The plan was simple. Iris would jump on the sofa, then rush up the backseat to push Lucifer off. There were only two stages to it, so she swiftly passed the first one and reached the second.

Yet the moment she tried going up, a large paw of a certain somebody hit her head and pushed her down. It didn't hurt, but it pissed her off. 'You evil cat!' With anger fueling her movements, she rushed for the backrest once more. Right at the top, the paw came at her again.

Shaking herself off from her fall, Iris stood up and ran to the other side of the sofa. There, she peacefully climbed up. The backrest was a bit tilted backwards, so it wasn't too comfortable to walk on, but nothing she couldn't manage.

With quick steps, she reached where Lucifer was lying . There wasn't much space around, so Iris lowered her head, preparing to pounce right on the head of the evil cat who was now watching her with hooded eyes.

Her jump took her right where she wanted—the training with the rainbow-colored mouse had born result!—but the rest didn't go so well. Lucifer raised his right paw this time and hit her still in the air.

Like a kite whose string was cut away, Iris spiraled away, landing with a loud thud on the sofa. The hit pushed the air out of her lungs, and she lay dazed for a moment. That had clearly not been a good idea. She forgot that if she slipped or the cat managed to push her away, the ground would be a good distance away. It was only her good luck that she was sent on the sofa and not the hard ground on the other side.

While she was thanking her lucky stars for saving her this time, Lucifer came down. He stopped by her side and started grooming her. Iris' first reaction was to jump and run away, but she was feeling a bit dizzy and the cat's ministrations didn't feel bad. The opposite actually.

They reminded her of how her aunt would sit her down in the mornings to brush and braid her long hair when she was young and had just lost her parents. She wasn't close to her aunt, not before or after the incident, but during those mornings when the aunt fussed over her appearance, she felt safe and cared for, like she wasn't actually all alone in the world.

A tear rolled down her cheek as she recalled the old woman. Aunt Maddie was probably going crazy now. The woman didn't like children or people in general, but she had always tried her best for Iris, being as patient and caring as she could. In Iris' eyes, she was a saint of a person. Who else could have put themselves aside for twenty years to raise another's child? As far as Iris knew, Aunt Maddie had never even been close with her sister, Iris' mom.

( ಥ‿ಥ )

'I'm sorry,' she told Lucifer right away.

It was boorish of her to think something like that. Why couldn't a cat be good enough for a family member? They were smart enough. And she was a fox now, so who was she to talk.

Once Lucifer finished, he lay down to rest, and Iris curled up by his side. After thinking of Aunt Maddie, she was no longer in the mood to frolic about. Friends were one thing, they would get used to her disappearance and go on to live their lives, but it wasn't the same for her beloved aunt.

The woman had lived through her father dying and her mother wasting away in a few years after, her sister and her husband losing their lives in a car crash. She then spent years taking care of their young daughter only to have her disappear one day without an explanation, become one of the missing people who were never found.

What would such a burden do to a person?