A Dream of a Long Winter

8: 'The friendship of a gentleman is insipid as water'

Southern Qi was a different place compared to my home. There were many mortal cities and villages that resided there.  If one said Northern Qi was in an eternal winter, then Southern Qi was the opposite. From what master always taught us, the temperature there was either mild or hot. Even if the season was winter, it rarely saw snowfall. I really couldn't imagine a place like that after living in the north for so long.

"Why don't you revert to your fox form?" Erlang asked as we walked through the forest. "I could ride on your back and it would make the journey go by much quicker."

I stared at him in shock. When fox spirits were fully grown, they were a bit larger than the size of an ordinary horse but... how could a god expect a spirit to allow them to ride on its back? His absurd words could be taken as an insult to all spiritual beasts!

"Are you insane?" I sputtered, still not believing what I had heard. "I'm not some sort of pack mule!"

He reached out and patted my shoulder in reassurance. "Don't worry, don't worry. Xiao Tian would be able to keep up with us." The black hound at his side yipped as if it was confirming his words, and pranced through the snow with excitement.

I withdrew from his touch in disgust and sneered. Was this god a fool? How could I, an eight-tailed fox be treated like mere transportation? 

"No," I said through gritted teeth, "and never say something so insulting to my kind again."

His laughter was the only sound that echoed through the wintry land around us as we proceeded forward.

I prayed for master and Daji to see me through this journey in fear that I might let my anger control me. Though his presence annoyed me and his words pushed my patience to its breaking point, there was something comforting about having someone by my side on such a long journey. Perhaps I had been alone for far too long or perhaps it was my heart growing soft, but I had missed the feeling of someone next to me.

Daji was always there, always rushing head first into any excitement she could find. I longed for those days we spent playing in mortal villages and traveling the long roads of Qi, side by side. I even longed for the distant past where we had frolicked through the snow and mountains with the other children of the clan.  

I looked at the man next to me still smiling so cheerfully, and felt a slight warmth envelop my body even in the frigid cold. Xiao Tian bounded in front of us, throwing back a mist of ice with its hind legs and barking as it rolled in a pile of snow on the ground. Erlang rushed forward, laughing as he chased the animal through the desolate forest. They played and darted between the trees as if there was not a care in the world... as if nothing mattered at all.

I watched the figures move about in the distance, an odd feeling spreading through me. It was something I had not experienced in a while. I could only describe the sensation as similar to how I felt walking through the mountains with that silly child Xian, and watching her scamper through the land with such oblivious naivety. My hands twitched unconsciously, as a sourness swept over the calm. Was it regret? I didn't know. I couldn't take back the decision I had made to leave that child alone in the mortal village... yet there was something small eating away at the back of my mind. 

"Hey!" Erlang's voice pulled me from my thoughts. He was rubbing Xiao Tian's stomach as it tossed and turned on its back in the snow. "I forgot to say this before, but you never told me your name."

He was a god, yet acted like such a fool. Though I made the resolve to always keep my guard up long ago, a slight smile formed on my lips as I watched him coo at the dog.

"Huxian," I heard myself say quietly over the low whistle of the wind. "My name is Huxian."

❀❀❀❀❀❀❀