The tale of the fox and the dragon egg

Chapter 7 - Within the rain

Wei Ying needed to stop within his motion of smothering A-Yuan with kisses. Silver orbs were speechless, watching the Lan with shock and wonder. Clouds were beginning to slow within the sky, heavy with sunlight. One of them shoved itself in front of the sunlight, a shadow crossing the clearing.

"Cultivate? Him?"

The foxes face hardened.

"You want to take him away, away from me?"

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A-Yuan was staring at Lan Wangji.

The other returned the gaze.

Both without blinking once.

It made Wei Ying curious and amused at the same time.

They sat within the yan-clearing on a sunny day while clouds were providing cool shadows. They sat just like they did almost every day now. Scratch that. Every day. Just like Wei Ying did before with the child, the only difference being the calming presence next to him, making three out of two.

There was a change between them since Wei Ying told Lan Wangji the name of A-Yuan. Even before that maybe. When he showed him the clearing, his own safe place, full of live. It seemed that Lan Wangji knew that the fox bared himself open that time.

It hasn't been trusting just then; only the beginning of a long, long journey towards a destination that was yet unknown to them.

After Lan Wangji asked him of A-Yuan and told Wei Ying what the little one regarded him as, they had sat for a long time. And the fox had asked him multiple things, his curiosity flaming.

"So, Lan Wangji, when you told me that A-Yuan calls me – calls me his mother – you said that those words are rare within Cloud Recess. Why?"

The cultivator had regarded him with a thoughtful look, still considering the results of answering his questions. Wei Ying sat still for once in his life.

It was a miracle that the other even answered him. Or considered answering his questions. Wei Ying knew of his own persistence, but Lan Wangji was more than capable of ignoring him regardless of the whining voice he could use. Or how he crowded his personal space.

"Children, directly born into the Lan sect, are rare between years. It is a rule and necessary that the mother goes into seclusion with the egg, helping it hatch and raising it until its first year."

The fox had hummed and regarded A-Yuan with an understanding gaze, scratching the little one under the chin. With the movement came warmth and his brain jumped to the word mother again, repeating it countless times.

"She teaches it speech, manners and cultivation, until she deems it safe and it may survive on its own."

"And then she comes out and everything is all happy once again?", the fox had asked with a huge grin, but the Lan only returned a stoic look. "That means you learn speech, manners and form the beginnings of a golden core within your first year? That's so cool! But why is the word so absent? Is it because of all your rules?"

Wei Ying had imagined his little A-Yuan, calling him mother in a language he could understand. It warmed his heart and made him sad at the same time, for he never understood his own child most of the time.

How would the little one speak? What sound would his voice occupy? High? Or the deep trembling of Lan Wangji?

"But Lan Wangji, why seclusion? Isn't it easier to, you know, teach with more people and children? They learn better from and with each other", a shocked noise escaped him, "And they can't play with each other! How cruel!"