103 The Mansion 5 (2/2)
'You can't be serious! There really are ghosts here!' she shouted out, retreating swiftly. But her quick movement aggravated her leg, and a soft whimper escaped her lips.
The white shadow came over to her then, and she suddenly realized that it was no ghost but a giant white dog. A Chow Chow. Its white fur was glossy and rich, glistening in the faint moonlight from outside.
'Hi?' Iris ventured, cursing everyone and everything for keeping only giants. Did people here have a prejudice against small dogs or something? Why all of them were different breeds of I'm-ten-times-bigger-than-you-little-fox?
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
The white-furred beast sniffed Iris, then went away, not giving her a second glance.
'Well… that was uneventful…'
Iris wasn't certain how to take such a dismissal. She was happy the dog didn't attack her, but her pride was a bit damaged by how unimportant she now seemed to be. The kingly—or wait, was this the rumored Queen?—beast couldn't even be bothered to react to her.
'Whatever, I have more important things to do now, like finding a place to rest.' She didn't want to just lie down in a random spot. Although nothing would probably happen, she didn't feel safe sleeping out in the open like this. This was a strange new place, and she had no way to tell if the white Chow Chow was the only ghost wandering these halls at night.
At this moment, she remembered that she was a fox and had more reliable senses than her eyes at night. With her nose to the ground, she started sniffing for any familiar scents.
For a time, there was nothing, but then she caught a whiff of Kyro. Looking around, she saw that she had limped near a staircase to the second floor, and her good mood at having found him instantly fell. How was she to get up there? There were over a a dozen steps!
But she really, really didn't want to sleep in the middle of nowhere, and getting back into her room was impossible now even if she wanted to return there, which she didn't.
There was no escaping it then. She approached the first step and looked at the staircase like it was Mt. Everest. Could she really do it? 'No knowing it if I won't try.'
Ignoring her aching back leg, she stood up on her hind legs and climbed up. It wasn't a comfortable action and she almost rolled backwards, but in a couple minutes she managed to get up the first step. Her action was more of a crawl than anything, but she had succeeded in conquering the first challenge in her journey to the top.
She glanced at her back foot that hurt a lot more at that moment, then looked away and concentrated back on her climb. One step after another, she pushed herself up and up. Soon, she lost track of time and only the climb remained in her eyes. Whatever came, she would finish this.
When she got to the top, she went to climb higher once more, but there was nothing there. She almost fell over her own feet, trying to stand up against the step that wasn't there.
The temptation to fall into an exhausted sleep right there and then and rest till Ragnarok came was nigh impossible to resist, but the smell was stronger here, and it was coming from somewhere close. Very close.
'Soon, I'll rest soon,' she murmured to herself, walking mostly on autopilot.
The door to Kyro's room wasn't closed, and she entered without a care that it was an unfamiliar place. With him around, nothing would ever happen to her no matter where they were. She was absolutely certain of this.
Using up the last of her energy, she jumped onto the bed and curled up by Kyro's side. The steady beating of his heart was a familiar melody, and she fell asleep the moment she put her head down.