The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 135: The Black-Necked Crane

The snow leopard demons, as it turned out, didn't know what was going on either. "The barking deer of the Azure Lake are in charge," they told us.

So Bobo and I went to the barking deer. Their clan chief, whose long canines made her face look as if it were frozen in a snarl, told us, "It's the red pandas you want."

The red pandas, for their part, told us, "Go talk to the pikas."

The pikas told us, "It's the antelopes."

From there, spreading our tale of delicious non-human foods, we went from the antelopes to the gazelles, the gazelles to the black bears, the black bears to the musk deer, the musk deer to the squirrels, the squirrels to the rhesus macaques, the rhesus macaques to the wild asses (yes, in case you were wondering, they were – what else would you expect from demons?), and the wild asses to the black-necked cranes.

As for the cranes, they shrieked and chased us away from the carrying pouches for their eggs, which were apparently prized delicacies to other demon clans. It took some doing, but eventually we convinced them that we weren't there for dinner.

Their clan chief turned out to be significantly smaller than the rest of them. He was a whitish-greyish fellow with a black head and neck and a crimson spot on his forehead. When he reared up at our approach and spread his black-edged wings, they didn't even extend four feet to either side. I assumed he was posturing to overawe us – but then he dove at us.

Aaaaaahhhh! I shrieked, which was thankfully drowned out by Bobo's equally undignified, "Eeeeeeek!"

I shot to the side as blackand white feathers engulfed the snake.

Bobo! trumpeted the crane.

Wait.

Bobo, it's you! It's really you! What are you doing here, of all places?

Somewhere from inside all those feathers, Bobo's muffled voice asked, "Ssstripey? Is that you???"

Yes! Yes, it's me!

"But you look ssso different!"

The crane laughed, and in the deep chortle, I heard echoes of the duck's chuckle. I reincarnated as a crane this time, Bobo. Of course I look different.

"You sssound different too!"

Well, I'm not actually a crane spirit. I'm an awakened soul inside a crane's body. So my voice isn't really coming from my throat.

Bobo's long, bright green tail whipped out from under the feathers and looped around the crane's body several times. "Ssstripey! Ssstripey Ssstripey Ssstripey! I misssed you ssso much!"

I missed you too, Bobo.

I was about to fly at Stripey and fling my wings around his neck too when a terrible thought struck me. Why would Heaven allow Stripey to reincarnate with his mind? Was this a horrible trick played by some god?

Probably. But which one?

The Kitchen God? No. I was doing good work on his Temple, good work that was nowhere near complete. Even if he planned to eliminate me afterwards, he wouldn't act at this juncture.

Aurelia? No. As much as we had...disagreed on certain issues (such as whether she should have been Empress – or alive, for that matter), she wasn't a raccoon dog. She wasn't that spiteful.

By – by Cassius?

Hiding in a shrub a safe distance away, I demanded in my best Bobo voice, reminding her of our ventriloquist act, Wait. How do I know you're really Ssstripey?