The tale of the fox and the dragon egg

Chapter 64 - Darkness and gold

A bright day greeted them outside and Wei Ying had a better feeling about this than yesterday. He had confined in Lan Zhan once before, the dreadful feeling lingering in his chest still because this would finally be the day for them to separate A-Yuan and Wen Ning.

*************************

"Mama."

A deep sigh freed itself from his chest and the fox turned his face more into the pillow beneath him.

"Mama! Wake up!"

Two little hands started to pick over the blanket on his right leg and began to shake everything underneath. The motion was unsettling and annoying, a reason one of Wei Ying's tail came up and swept the hands off him. There was a resounding huff in the room, then blissful silence and the lazy fox allowed himself to dose more and more in his still cloudy mind.

"Step to the side, let me handle this", there was an arrogant, but young voice and the fox couldn't come around to remember it just yet. Although his memory was still fuzzy and he decided to ignore what was going on, he quickly came to regret it, "Hey, you lazy fox! Wake up!"

Then the blanket was harshly ripped from his body.

But that was not enough; the piece of fabric had slung itself around his body like a vine in his restless sleep. And now that someone had tugged it right into the direction of the end of the bed, his whole body followed. With a loud crash, Wei Ying gasped in a truly undignified way and tumbled to the ground with a harsh noise.

A harsh hiss of his and his seven tails angrily moved all around.

"What are you doing! Mama is hurt!", the voice of a young boy called out and not long after, two hands took a hold of Wei Ying's arm.

He was still confused and shook his head to get rid of the stinging in his neck, but he caught on that it was his own son looking at him with worried eyes. Suddenly he knew what had happened.

"What? He's awake, isn't he?", the voice of Jin Ling reached his ears. It was quieter than the time before, a tint of seldom worry intertwining with his rough demeanour, "Maybe - Maybe I was a little too harsh."

"How nice of you to think of that now!", Wei Ying hissed and rubbed his poor shoulder. He would surely get one bluer tint there, from a different cause than the several marks his lover had left on his skin just the night before. Quickly, to shield at least A-Yuan, he tugged the robe on his body tighter across himself, "Maybe the young master finally developed empathy! After all the years with that uncle of his, it's finally time."

Of course, Jin Ling didn't let it sit on himself.

"You say that of all people!"

That hit, but Wei Ying didn't want to show it. It was still a little hard to get along completely. Even Jin Ling looked like he regretted that sentence right now and recoiled, but he didn't regard it further.

"Mama, don't listen", A-Yuan said and hugged Wei Ying's arm close to his chest, "Ling-Ling is a bad child. But mama, did you eat breakfast? Papa said to get some!"

A-Yuan's bright grin was wonderous. In no time, Wei Ying followed his grin closely and was quick to dress himself, to the bewilderment of Jin Ling. Maybe he stumbled sometimes over his own robe in the knowledge of eating with his family, but that wouldn't stop him from following A-Yuan and dragging the golden boy right after them.

A bright day greeted them outside and Wei Ying had a better feeling about this than yesterday. He had confined in Lan Zhan once before, the dreadful feeling lingering in his chest still because this would finally be the day for them to separate A-Yuan and Wen Ning.