The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 48: Two Dragon Kings

You'd think that if peasants were going to starve to death, they'd do it in the middle of winter when nothing could grow, right? I mean, didn't that make the most sense? But no – as it turned out, the most dangerous time of year was actually early spring, when their stores of turnips and yams were running out, but nothing in their fields or vegetable patches had grown enough to pick yet.

And this spring, with their neighbors unwilling to lend them so much as a spare onion, the Jeks were slowly but surely starving. The boys' rowdy games vanished. The parents dragged themselves from chore to chore and collapsed into dull-eyed silence in between. Taila faded from a miniature whirlwind into a withered heap of rags. If I tried to coax her into sitting up and practicing her handwriting, she'd just stare at me blankly.

And all this when they had livestock right in front of them, ready for eating! The pig – fine, they'd invested significant resources into raising it, and I could understand why they didn't want to butcher it. But –

You have chickens! You have chickens right there! I stabbed a foreleg at the coop. Can't you just eat one hen and buy another one to make up for it later?!

In a listless voice, Mistress Jek mumbled something about needing the eggs to sell.

Okay, if you can't eat the hens, then eat some of the eggs! I urged. They lay them every day. You can go back to selling the eggs later, when you're not all starving to death!

In an equally lethargic voice, Master Jek muttered something about needing to save up for rent.

You're not going to need to pay rent if you all starve to death first!

Seeing my frustration, Mistress Jek marshalled enough strength to force a wobbly smile. "Don't worry, emissary. We'll get through this. We do every year."

And so, as the pig continued to loll about in its pigsty, the hens continued to lay eggs that Mistress Jek trudged to town to sell every morning, and the landscape grew lush around them, the Jeks continued to starve. It was the absolute most infuriating thing I'd seen.

In a moment of madness, I started marching towards the castle so I could threaten that greedy baron with Flicker, but sanity prevailed before I got too far down Persimmon Tree Lane.

Instead, I turned around and stomped off to Caltrop Pond. I'd already given that lazy dragon a full moon to "think about" how to ameliorate Taila's living conditions. It was time for him to deliver.

Den was drowsing in that pleasant, peaceful state just before waking, lingering at the tail end of his favorite dream. The one in which he was the guest of honor at a special banquet in Heaven, seated to the right of the Dragon Commander himself, as a reward for extraordinary services rendered. Sweeping his gaze across the hall, he basked in the awed, admiring, envious stares of the other dragon kings, all of whom were older and wiser and more powerful than he, yet none of whom had had the ingenuity and grit to – well, the dream never specified what he had done, only that it had been extraordinary.

Now a star sprite attendant was floating up to him, bearing the casket that contained his reward. But instead of presenting it to him as she was supposed to do, she shot out a hand, pinched his ear between her fingers, and started shaking him.

Den shot up with a yelp.

He found himself on his bed in his bedchamber, surrounded by his rice paddy snake friends, who were all snoring away on neighboring caltrop rosettes. The Dragon Commander, the banquet hall, the special award – they had all been a dream.