The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 179: Facing Down a Five-Tailed Fox

Sand-gold cliff flashed past Lodia's eyes as she plummeted towards the sea below. She wasn't going to dive gracefully into the smoke-grey water. She was going to be smashed on the rocks that jutted out of it.

I'm going to die!

She threw out her arms, flailing for a bush, a ledge – anything she could grab. Her fingertips scraped over a crack, but before she could wedge them in, her nails skidded off and she was falling again.

I want to go home!

Her father, her grandmother, her baby brother. Katu and their grumpy cook. The lychee sellers in the market.

I miss home! Home is safe!

Once, when she had been very young, she'd leaned too far over the balcony railing and fallen. She still remembered watching the kitchen windows swoosh past, upside-down, followed by the stilts that held up the upper floors, the stone of the foundation, and finally the shining river getting closer and closer. And then her grandmother's voice had shouted, "Float!" and something had struck her calf hard enough to bruise. The seal had splashed into the water while Lodia followed more slowly. Her skirts had pulled her under before the spell sent her bobbing back up. Coughing and spluttering, she'd been carried a whole house downstream before a fisherman hauled her into his boat.

Her grandmother had had to hire a catfish spirit to retrieve her seal. His teeth had left little scratches on the bronze, but she'd never said a word.

Why did I leave home? Why did I ever leave home? Grandmother, help!

"Heeeelp!" she shrieked, but home and her grandmother were too far away.

I can't die yet! I'm not done with the Temple!

"Help!" she shrieked again. "King Den! Heeeelp!"

"Den!" cried Bobo. "Sssave her!"

Her friend was hovering behind Floridiana in case she fell, when it was Lodia who'd fallen!

"Den, Den, Den, catch her!"

"I – "

She could see him remembering the last time he crossed the Western Sea border.

"It's okay! The Dragon King won't attack us this time!" she urged. "You've already talked to him!"

As Den had said, the Dragon King of the Western Sea had never returned with his authorization for the typhoon. So this time, if he accused Den of invading, they would explain that it was an emergency, and if he still wanted to fight, then they'd ask to see the typhoon authorization again. Easy peasy.

Den must have figured that out too, because he flipped over the cliff and plunged after Lodia.

"Yeah! Go Den! You can do it!" Bobo yelled after him.

He caught up to Lodia, wrapped his tail around her, and slowed to a stop right above a very pointy rock. Sea spray soaked the two of them. Then he reversed direction and flew back up to set Lodia on the grass, far, far away from the cliff edge.

Bobo slithered over as fast as she could. She expected the girl to be sobbing from terror, but Lodia was only shaking. Bobo flattened her tail to make a seat. "There, there. It's okay. It's over now. You're sssafe."

Lodia's eyes were wide and unfocused as she sat down, and she kept saying, "I can't die. I can't die. I can't die yet."

"Of courssse not! You're not going to die for a long, long time!"