Choices

3 - Revelations

A/N: So I know this goes without saying (since this is AU and all), but there might be a bit of OC-ness in this fic, owing to the different decisions made as well as the change in setting. As it is, DH will always be DH and FJ will always be FJ, so I hope you guys continue to love this version of them as well in the Choices universe.

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Around two thousand years ago, Fengjiu ran away from one of the many courtship meetings forced on her by her father, Bai Yi, and somehow found herself lost in Qin Yao Mountain.

Curious kit as she was, amazement overran her apprehension of being in a strange place. Soon enough she was sniffing around the bushes and running all over the stony terrain in her fox form (taking care to twist her nine tails into one as a precautionary measure), scrambling up boulders and trying to see as far she could over the distance.

The roar reverberated through the otherwise empty landscape and startled her out of her exploration of a bubbling creek. In an instinctive act of self-preservation, she jumped back and bared her fangs, hoping to drive away whatever it was that dared to scare her.

From the bushes, a tiger lion emerged. It stalked through the sparse vegetation with measured footsteps, its muscles taut as it prepared to pounce. At the sight of the beast she turned tail and ran, knowing that while she might not be a match for the tiger lion's strength, she could at least be quick enough to outrun it.

She raced through the boulders and the bushes, tumbled all over her paws in the stony ground and scratched her precious fur on the stones' jagged edges, but didn't dare stop even as her lungs burned with exertion. When she thought she could run no longer and felt the breath of the tiger lion as it snapped its jaws from behind, she curved into a little ball and summoned whatever remaining cultivation she had to make a fairy barrier, and make it as hard as possible for the beast to devour her.

Then, at the last moment before the tiger lion made contact, it yelped and was dragged away. Fengjiu snapped out of the furball she'd turned herself into and half-ran, half-rolled down the slope of the mountain several times until she hit a boulder.

Overhead, a Bifang bird circled. Its sharp eyes spotted her, then swooped down at once to pick her up as gently as it could with its claws.

"Jingwei," she murmured in gratitude, before her vision darkened and she lost consciousness.

She woke up much later at the Ten Miles Peach Orchard, her wounds dressed and energy restored, and the disapproving faces of her Fourth Uncle and High Deity Zheyan looming over the bed as soon as she opened her eyes.

The expected scolding came, as well as the repeated warnings not to do any more silly things, but in the end her Uncle intervened with her father and allowed her to escape heavier punishment, while Zheyan made some medical excuse so that she can stay for awhile longer in the Orchard and save face from her suitors' families.

One thing, however, remained heavy in Fengjiu's mind. "Someone saved me from the tiger lion," she told Jingwei, as they sat atop the branches of the biggest peach tree munching on some of the fruits. "Did you see who the person was, Jingwei?"