Chapter 151 Faring with Foxes (1/2)

”What the hell is this?!” Chongxi gasped again with shock before a musty stench of alcohol burped out of his mouth.

Sitting at the entrance of the Center was a row of short, shadowy figures obscured by the darkness of the night. They sat motionless on the ground like a line of hunched gargoyles, but we could see the steam jetting from their nostrils as they breathed in the cold weather. I took two careful steps nearer, hoping to catch enough light to see them. But much to my dismay, they remained steadfastly immobile.

Clinging to hopes of any reaction, I ventured another two steps ahead. Still, the figures did not move. Only this time, I got annoyed. I marched brusquely towards the door, only to realize that they were not hounds or dogs, but a row of foxes!

I almost laughed out loud. What is this? First, weasels, now foxes?! In my exasperation, my head shook as I chuckled weakly. Chongxi knelt them before one of the foxes and giggled, ”So why are you here so late in the night, eh?” If the foxes could understand him, they definitely made no indication of it. But even if they do, something told me that they would only heed my instructions. Hence I chuckled as I unlocked the door and barked at the foxes, ”All right now. All onboard. We'll talk inside.”

Lo and behold, the foxes stood up as one. Edelweiss was jovially cheerful as she held my arm. She was getting used to all this strangeness. Chongxi smirked and swung open the door. But the foxes gave no reaction of moving. Their eyes were still trained intently upon me. I giggled again, marveling at their human-like decorum and walked indoors. Only then, the foxes filed into the Center after me.

I went straight to the couch at the sitting area and sat down before I lighted a cigarette. The foxes sat in an orderly line in front of me like an honor guard. I took a quick swig and said quietly, ”All right now. What is it?”

One of the foxes, the middle-most one, and raised its paws in a gesture resembling a human's salute and spoke in the tongue of humans, ”We need your help, young Lordling!” All of them lowered themselves to the ground like they were kneeling to me. Chongxi, who was sitting at another couch, chuckled. ”Damned, a fox which is as good as we are in the human tongue!” I tapped my cigarette, watching the ash falling into a tray as I asked, ”What help do you need of me? Speak up then.”

But I was hardly perturbed nor surprised by the fox's addressing me of ”Lordling”; since my mother was not a human but a very ancient fox demon with magic, she might as well be one of their oldest living matriarchs. It was only acceptable that I was addressed as such, although the same could not be said for the matter they later told me about.

It was an incident which I should have made the connection and realize, the fight between the fox and the weasel which was recorded and shared on the Internet, the same one that the barbeque restaurant proprietor had shown us. As it happened, these foxes were, in fact, fox demons who were learning magic in the vicinity of the Yellow Soil Ridge. But they were still very young. Hence they know little magic to transform themselves into humans. According to the foxes' tale, there has been an influx of numerous weasels to the Yellow Soil Ridge since yesterday.

The demons that inhabited the proximity of the Yellow Soil Ridge have territories that they have staunchly defended through generations. But the weasel demons have emerged from nowhere and seized the foxes' lands by force, sparking a war between the two species. Not unlike humans though, I mused, for wars and conflicts have been waged for less.

The foxes of the Yellow Soil Ridge had tried diplomacy with these marauding weasels, but the peace talks have fallen through due to the importunate attitude of the latter. There has been peace in the Ridge for centuries, argued the foxes, as everyone studied their magic there as allowed by the deities of the mountains nearby. But the weasels then claimed the territory nevertheless, taking it by force, citing that the deities could just easily look for another spot for the foxes.