What The Fox? (Completely Free!)

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I woke up at the first light of dawn as I always have. But Alix was long gone. For once, I wasn't tied up or subjected to Alix's constant supervision. He must have thought that the guards would keep me locked up inside his well-appointed yurt. Unfortunately, he forgot that even though I was now a mortal woman, I still had the heart of a fox.

And as the saying goes, the wolf might have teeth, but a fox has wiles. I found a ragged cloak that looked like it had seen its share of muddy battlefields. Perfect. I threw it on and concealed my porcelain skin. Although my sunless skin helped me fit in like a caged songbird in the gilded households of the Imperial City, it would do me no favors here in the sun-baked grasslands.

Our tent was unguarded. I was in luck. Perhaps, even werewolves tired and changed shifts with the coming of dawn. As I tiptoed past Zirui's decorated tent, I instantly saw that I was wrong. The settlement wasn't unguarded because the pack was careless; they had gone off to deal with an outside threat.

A large brown wolf with deep orange eyes, a mangled right ear, and a scraggly white beard appeared on the other side of the tent. Two other smaller wolves followed the furry brown leader. Their fur glistened with the droplets of morning dew. In the light of the advancing dawn, they looked out-worldly. Glowing with the iridescent rays of the dawn light, I felt as though I was looking at beasts that had been carved out of shimmering jade. 

With every move, the majestic wolves inspired awe. Seeing their muscular forms and powerful jaws made me rethink my plan to escape. The realization hit me like the water of a winter's stream drank from the bitter stem of a lotus leaf. I wasn't going to make it past these wolves using my human feet no matter how softly I crept.

As Zirui neared his tent, he stood up on his hind legs, and his snout receded into his face. The brown hair turned into a fuzzy, neatly trimmed beard. Where his paws had been, there was a pair of dirty human hands holding a mud-encased Jian. Within seconds, his wolf form melted like a moonlit illusion brought on by too much hawthorn beer.

"I can smell her from here, the Imperial City human," Zirui complained and turned to face the Eastern wind. I was lucky that he was facing away from my hiding spot behind some rice bags. Otherwise, he would realize that the abhorrent human traveling with his brother Alix was much closer than he could have imagined. 

But as I watched, it became apparent to me that Zurui wasn't as threatened by the new mortal woman that appeared with the sudden arrival of his older brother, as much as the source of that eastern wind which originated hundreds of li away, back at the capital. That wind would carry with it a human army hell-bent on enslaving or killing his entire pack.

"If what your brother tells us is true, that the Prince is marching on our camp, our scouts will report back," one of Zirui's generals replied.

"I only hope there will be enough time for us to prepare," Zirui said and rubbed his chin. "This is not the first time the humans have attacked. They will not rest, not so long as they believe we hold in our marrows the power of immortality."

"Perhaps your brother leads them to us. He has lived among the humans, has he not? He even has one of them accompanying him."

"My brother is no traitor," Zirui snapped, his eyes momentarily glowing orange again. Then they returned to their dim, unremarkable hazel as his emotions quelled. "My brother hates that one, the one they called the Sixth Prince more than even you or I. But the Prince is a sneaky bastard. He sends cowardly assassins because his men are no match for our wolves. At least if my brother wishes to kill me, he'll do it to my face, in the light of the new moon, where we are both at our strongest."

"Your brother is in love with that human girl. A man will do desperate things for love. Perhaps she is a spy for the Prince. Have you considered that?"

"Do you have any proof? Anything more than blind speculation?"

"I have heard that a girl who much looked like that one was in the company of the Prince some years back. She was left behind when she was mortality wounded by some villagers. Is she the same girl? That I do not know. They say she hasn't aged a day. As for the wounds she suffered, she should have died. I have come to believe that she's not human, yet she's not one of us. What is she?"

"Kill her," Zirui said with an exhausted sigh. "I do not have the energy to as any more questions. Poison her tonight. Do it while my brother is away from the camp."