"If everyone would please quiet down, His Majesty has an announcement to make. If everyone would please quiet down, His Majesty has an announcement to make."
I could barely make out the crab servant's clackety voice above the hubbub. For New Year's Eve, a bigger crowd of partyers had showed up at Caltrop Pond than usual, bringing a lot more alcohol than usual – and believe me, everyone there knew what to do with it! Although I'd shown up expecting another sorry "banquet" like the one on the Eighth, the dance floor was still a dance floor, and the musicians were playing cheery tunes onstage. About half the guests were dancing while the rest drank, chatted, shouted greetings to newcomers, and speculated on the program for the evening.
The poor crab scuttled side-to-side in front of the stage, waved his pincers to stop the musicians, and made another valiant effort to get our attention. "If everyone would please quiet down, His Majesty has an announcement to make – "
"SHUT UP EVERYBODY!" bellowed His Most Dignified Majesty.
That worked.
The room went silent, leaving only Bobo to shrill at her normal volume, "And then ssshe sssaid – "
"Shut up!" hissed the people around us. "His Majesty's making an announcement!"
Mortified, Bobo snapped her jaws shut and curled into a ball, while I cringed into my shell. Stripey looked entirely unconcerned.
With a glare in our direction, the Dragon King declared, "Listen up, y'all! We're invited to Black Sand Creek for dinner! So we're gonna head over right now, eat until our bellies explode, and then come back. For. Some. DANCING!"
The room erupted into whoops and chanting. "Din-ner. Din-NER. DIN-NER!"
Forgetting her embarrassment, Bobo bounced up. "Ooh! I remember going to Black Sssand Creek! When was it – the year before lassst? Ssstripey, d'you remember?"
The duck demon cocked his head to a side. "Longer, I think. It was the year the drought broke. They invited us over to celebrate."
"Ooh! Yeah! I remember now! It was the year the mage came!"
As for me, I'd barely heard anything after the Dragon King uttered those fatal words: "Black Sand Creek."
I couldn't go.
Drunk or not, the Caltrop Pond spirits must have figured out by now that I wasn't a real spirit, but such was the nature of this group that no one cared. As long as I could keep up with their partying, I could be the Jade Emperor Himself and no one would bat an eye.
Well, apart from asking, "Hey, how's the booze in Heaven?"
The Black Sand Creek spirits, on the other hand.... The Black Sand Creek spirits were uptight and persnickety and convinced of their own undemonstrated superiority. They'd realize I wasn't a spirit and goggle until Nagi noticed. One look at me, and she'd would be badgering Yulus to demand that the Dragon King of Caltrop Pond hand me over so she could send me off to the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea for vivisection.
Once upon a time, that had been an attractive option. But not anymore.
A scaley coil nudged me, jolting me from my thoughts. "Hey, Rosssie, you're from Black Sssand Creek, right?"
Mmm, I answered, confirming it in the vaguest way possible.
Most unfortunately, I'd been born on the banks of Black Sand Creek, which meant that Yulus wouldn't even have to demand that the lower-ranked dragon hand me over. I already belonged to him.
YOU ARE READING
The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox
FantasyAfter Piri the nine-tailed fox follows an order from Heaven to destroy a dynasty, she finds herself on trial in Heaven for that very act. Executed by the gods for the "crime," she is cast into the cycle of reincarnation, starting at the very bottom...
