"Yan Xuequi! Where did you run off to?!"The princess of the fox clan ran straight into the arms of her Aunt, a woman dressed in simple yellow robes with a plain hair pin of brown wood on her hair.
"Aunt Hairong! I missed you so much! The food at the fox clan don"t taste as good after you left."
When the twins half fox and half human saw their cousin from the fox clan, they tossed the bamboo dragon fly that they were playing with on the floor to latch onto the feet of their cousin.
"Quiqui!!!!!"
The twin toddlers called out to the fox princess, while playfully tugging on the hem of her robes. After a while the two women finally broke from the embrace, as Mou Hairong gazed into the eyes of her niece. It was then that the twin took off to continue playing around the room.
"Did you bring anything from the market on your way back?"
Yan Xuequi could not meet the eyes of her aunt, for she had been distracted on her way to visit the Mou family.
"Yan Xuequi, what are you hiding from your aunt?"
The daughter of the Fox king, Princess Mou Hairong began tickling the stomach of her niece.
"N..N..othing!..Stop..I"ll...tell you!"
That was when Mou Hairong let go of the fox princess to here what the other had to say.
"You won"t believe this! But I actually saw a male cultivator from a BaoXu sect!"
The look on Mou Hairong mirrored the same wariness her niece had when she first encountered Lin Cheng in the woods.
"Stay away from their kind! They are trouble! I"ll try to keep it away from father! But please, do not go near any of them! They only know how to use others like us! While going about parading themselves as the paragon of virtue!"
Yan Xuequi could see the distaste that her aunt had for any one that came from any of the cultivation sects, she had heard her grandfather say on numerous times not to go near anyone that came from there, "What could they have done to warrant such hatred from my clan?!"
Almost as if she knew what her niece was thinking, Mou Hairong said, "Don"t even think of trying to understand them or making friends with any of them! They are not worth it! They are all pretenders, every single one of them!"
"I didn"t say anything!"
"You don"t need to say a thing! I can see it written all over your face! You want to believe that they are not who your grandfather and I say they are, if that"s what you want to do, take off your t.i.tle as princess of the fox clan! Only then can you do as you please without dragging the fox kingdom with you!"
While the two were in a heated discussion, the twin boys were floating around the room, each had a green flame surrounding the simple blue robes that they wore.
"Aunt Hairong! The twins can now use fox fire?! That took me a hundred years to form a tiny flame from the palm of my hand!Look! Their"s is covering their whole body! "
One thing about half fox children was that they didn"t share the pointed ears as seen in children from the fox clan, their growth was slower than those of a child with full fox blood in them.
"Mou Yidan! Mou Zimu! Stop fooling around and get down from there!"
The little boys kept on flying around with their fox fire, angry that they were not listening to her, their mother whipped out her own green fire from the tip of her fingers to drag them from where they were, as the two fell to the floor.
"Don"t even think about crying! Do you want to follow your cousin to back to the fox fortress?!"
The twins stifled their cry, recalling the time their mother had taken them to see their grandfather on his birthday, the fox clan was a cold, dark place to the children. In as much as they loved to have their cousin around, they never wanted to visit her home since that day. They saw the eyes of their mother switch for a moment from black to slate blue. They didn"t need anyone to tell them that she was already fed up with the way they were acting.
"Who is making my baby boys cry."
When they heard the sound of their father"s voice from outside the door of the room. The twins ran out to meet him. Holding each toddler in his arms, Mou Yaxin gazed with his eyes full of love on the face of sons who were like mirror image of the other.
"Ma wants us to go to grandpa"s house!"
Although they looked like they were four years of age, the half fox half human children were very advanced in their manner of speech.
"Don"t worry, I"ll talk to your mother about going to see your grandfather. No one can take you there unless I say so!"
The twins so the look of anger on their father"s face in defense of them, thinking he was really going to rebuke their mother harshly for wanting to take them to the fox clan.
"And Pa! Mom is so scary!"
"How so?"
That was when the both of them buried their head into the shoulders of their father, not wanting to reveal what their mother did, because doing so would also uncover what they also did, which was using their fox powers when they were in the mortal realm. Although, Mou Yaxin knew of his wife"s family in the other world unseen to human eyes, he hadn"t been there since his body didn"t possess any of their powers for him to cross through. He couldn"t see the fox powers in action because he lacked spiritual sense, but when someone floats in front of him, he knew without been told that they were definitely not human like him!
He and Yan hairong met when he was drowning, due his boat that turned upside down from the force of the current was rapidly approaching those of the fis.h.i.+ng boat. Although, it is said that foxes have an aversion to water, yet the fox princess drove into the raging water and rescued the local fisherman from being swept away by the current of water.
"You can fly?"
Mou Yaxin asked the woman that rescued him out of the water, while carried in her arms.
"What a strange thing for a human to say. Shouldn"t you be screaming or shouting for someone to save you?"
Yan Hairong looked at the man she just saved from the depth of the water, he was very calm while speaking to her as though they were acquainted with each other for a long time.
"Do you want me to shout now?"
"Are you seriously asking me if you should call for help?"
"Alright, I"ll shout now."
"Don"t!"
Mou Yaxin was about to open his mouth wide and shout at the top of his lungs when he heard Yan Hairong ask him not to, he smiled back at her, while leaning closer as the two finally landed on dry land.
"Ha!"
Yan Hairong winced in pain from the backlash that came from stepping into a large body of water. She didn"t have affinity for water like some of the fox immortals from her clan. Not long after, the fox princess fell to the ground by the side of the human she just rescued.
"I didn"t even get to ask her name."
Mou Yaxin placed the unconscious Yan Hairong on his back, as the two made their way into his hut not too far from the river.
Day and night the human kept watch over his savior until finally on the ninth day, she began showing signing up recovering.
Thirteenth night Princess Yan Hairong was already on her feet, as her spiritual energy was already restored from recuperating in the mortal realm, while unconsciously feeding from the emotion of the human that kept watch on her.
Mou Yaxin dozed off and suddenly realized the the bed was empty, all this while, he slept on the floor while Yan Hairong took the bed.
"Where is she?!"
He frantically searched within the hut for her, it was only when he stepped out did he see her about to take to the air.
"Were you going to leave without telling me your name?!"
Yan Hairong turned to face the human that had saved her life while in the mortal realm, the water had drained a portion of her spiritual energy, causing her to succ.u.mb to a deep sleep.
"Fox Princess Yan Hairong."
"Are you as legend says? Would I bewitched by you after spending many days together?"
"Why would I take to a miserly human like you?!"
The fox princess looked down her nose at the human, whom she considered beneath her, she couldn"t believe he dared to think that she would entice him and make him her mate.
"Even if he is the last man in the entire universe! There is no way that. I, Yan Hairong of the fox clan would take such a man to be my mate!"
Just as the thought filtered through her mind, she heard the man laugh out.
"Why did you laugh?!"
"You look angry that I said you would lure me with your powers. I"m Mou Yaxin, thank you for rescuing me at the river."
The fox princess looked at the human in front of her, he was neither good looking nor came from a good family, she couldn"t stop from looking at him for one last time, before taking off to the air far from the reach of any human eye.
"She really is a fox."
Mou Yaxin smiled sadly as he looked at the midnight sky until he could no longer make out the shape of the white robes of Yan Hairong.
"You stole my heart! At least come back and see me at least before I die, Princess Yan Hairong!"
Mou Yaxin shouted the words to the night, not knowing that the sharp ears of the fox princess had picked up on what he said, "Silly human! It is not my fault that you foolishly opened your heart to me!"
Shrugging her shoulders to dismiss Mou Yaxin"s declaration to her, Yan Hairong used her aura to open the gateway to the fox clan, putting away her experience in the mortal realm. But fate had a something planned for the fox princess, in as much as she didn"t want to see the human anymore.
Yan Hairong will use her green flames to see what was happening in the mortal realm, "It"s not because I want to see him. I only want to know if anyone is in trouble!"
That was what she used to justify her action, but when she saw him s.h.i.+ver from not having enough firewood to keep the night cold from entering his hut. The fox princess abandoned rational thought and left her room in the fox kingdom to the mortal realm.
"You fool! Why didn"t you get more firewood?!"
Yan Hairong sent the door flying from the fury that dwelt within her.
"You came back!"
She went straight for the fire, adding her spiritual energy which made the flame gain strength and burn brighter. Taking off the cloak whose collar had white fur to drape across the body of Mou Yaxin.
"Come closer."
Mou Yaxin begged the proud fox princess with his eyes, who after a while succ.u.mbed to the pull of his gaze. He made way for her, as the two laid side by side on the narrow bed. It wasn"t long before Yan Hairong yield to the warmth of Mou Yaxin, as she snuggled against his chest in sleep, soon after Mou Yaxin was fast asleep. This marked the beginning of how a fox princess from the fox clan became the wife of a human.