The Librarian and the Fox Princess: a Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu story, V.I

Chapter 85 - The First Casualty

A/N: Warning - violence, blood and gore (Image of ancient Chinese halberd borrowed from hanbonforge.com)

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Drinking and flying was going to be her new favorite activity, she decided. Dijun didn't drink wine but perhaps she could fill a gourd up with his favorite tea and they could both drink and fly with Mogu at night amongst the stars. She could even pack treats for them and she could sit backwards facing Dijun and they could have a picnic on the immortal beast's back. 

But wouldn't she be susceptible to falling off from sitting that way? Perhaps Dijun could make her a special saddle where she would be strapped in.

She smirked and nodded at her ingenuity while taking another swig. They were passing over mountains topped with lush green forests. She peered down at the deep blue rivers that resembled winding snakes over the terrain. The sun graced them with its full warmth and the wind was doing something awful to her hair. She decided she needed to put her hair up in a braid next time. Dijun always liked her hair in a braid.

Suddenly, a jolt knocked her whole body almost sending her flying off the beast's back. The force made her drop her wine bottle and she watched it plummet like a little black dot down into the greenery below. 

Her wine had fallen into Nothingness. 

To get her bearings, she lowered her chest into Mogu's back and tightly grabbed his fur in her fists. She clamped her thighs down over the beast and braced for turbulence.

Mogu roared out in a way she had never heard him before. To her left she peripherally saw red. Dark red.

"Mogu!!" She cried out as the wind competed to fill her lungs.

"Mistress, we are under attack. I will fight each and every one of them to the death who dare harms you!!" He snarled out against the gusty winds.

She looked over again to see that his wing had been punctured through with three spears. His massive flapping wing was obviously burdened with the lodged weapons that were dangerously continuing to tear through his flesh.

He swerved in the air to avoid another onslaught of multiple spears being shot at them, the force almost sending her flying off.

Her loyal ferocious mount roared out again in pain as he soared through the air with deafening growls. He glided and dipped through the sky as he dodged more attacks. She knew he could not stay airborne for long before he would bleed out.

"Mogu, we have to land!! Downward, Mogu!" she shouted out.

Unlike his usual graceful and weightless landings, this one was a crash-landing that cratered into the earth. He had placed a protective white shield around them as he knew they would be forced to land in an ambush.

They were standing on the banks of a river next to a forest. She jumped off Mogu to survey the scene. A horde of about thirty demons and one huge chained Chiyan beast manifested from their deep plume of black smoke that flew out like a swarm of bees from the forest. After a rancorous and ear-splitting battle cry, they began launching what seemed like an endless supply of hazy black energetic blasts, sharp-edged weapons, and the Chiyan beast spit out massive fireballs that sizzled dangerously onto Mogu's protective field. 

She looked back to see the wide river behind them. They were trapped.

Mogu growled, roared and stomped his large white forepaw into the ground making the earth quake around them as the demons lost their footing, many of them spilling over and falling into one another, dropping their weapons. Amazingly, the earth beneath her was completely still, leaving her steady on her feet.