The tale of the fox and the dragon egg

Chapter 43 - Live

Deciding it would be truly the best to leave the little family be for today, Wen Ning excused himself with a small smile and a bow.

As his feet took him back to his own room and the door closed behind him, the phoenix couldn't help but to swallow heavily.

To see his good friends with a family on his own now, one that truly loved him without fault, it made him very happy. At the same time, there was this heavy weight settling within his chest.

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Wen Ning was truly not a really courageous person.

Even in the very early years of his life, back when he was but a hatchling, he was not as strong nor as self-assured as all the others around him. The phoenix by itself was a proud spirit, something that was reflected in every extravagant colour and the flames around him. But not for him.

Wen Ning was born rather shy and timid. A fearful little phoenix and a stuttering mess. It was a characteristic of his that made the others bully him to no ends, but even when he loathed such behaviour, he did not do anything against it.

When it came to the balance in energies within his body, he always had the upper hand, much to his and others surprise. What he lacked in strength, he made up in the perfect regulation of yin and yan in his body, making him one of the best to use the fire to his full advantage. Not that he did back then, but the whole chance that he was better than others in that regard made the bullying only worse.

The adventure he had with his sister, back when she taught him everything she knew about medicine, served to take him out of those surroundings that held him down. And on that journey, both of them met a young fox that made him realize the true potential within himself.

It was so different to the other phoenixes that did not like him from the start, because Wei Ying did. Sometimes it was too much, even for him. All the teasing, all the grinning laughs and talks with the stranger, but he found himself quickly taking a liking to it.

Talking with others was never his strong suit, but the fox had made it look so easy. Especially talking to his elder sister Wen Qing, who was usually so closed off to the point that others didn't even try to approach her.

To see this new possibility, to see the person that was the whole opposite of himself made him realize that maybe, yes, he could be strong. And that he could be like that one day, even only for a tiny part.

It gave him the courage to truly get stronger, for his loved ones.

Maybe that was what brought him the strength to survive. Maybe it was the one thing that made his soul hold onto the flame within him, but he would never know for sure.

His elder sister would be proud of him right now. But he couldn't help but to imagine how she would look at him with that glare that made even the strongest man shrink into himself and scold him:

>You knew he would find out eventually. Good try at trying to outsmart a fox. <

Wen Ning slipped his head into his hands with a sigh, for the probably tenth time that day. Just before, he had told Wei Ying of the possibility that would probably ruin him – but he could never stay quiet in front of his friends.

When he remembered that pale look on his face and how those grey eyes grew huge with shocking understanding, he felt terrible. But it was on the same scale as staying quiet about something that could give him so much hope.

Up to the moment he told him what could be, Wen Ning was torn between the options.

He would have chosen to stay with the child until A-Yuan could push his soul out on his own, but that would have taken years and years. Or he would never really gather the strength to do that, making them stay like this for the rest of their lives. A possibility where even Wen Ning didn't know how it would turn out. But if it meant to protect them, the child and Wei Ying, that would be a small price to pay.