Mischief of a small fox

One Dandy Morning

Soft snoring came from inside the room of one Wei Wuxian. It was almost noon yet the head disciple of YunmengJiang was still sleeping in his bed instead of leading the training of the other disciples. Though... said disciples had already guessed yesterday that this would happen since their da-shixiong had spent the entire night going over nighthunts with them and the junior disciples, it was so the younger ones could get more of an idea how nighthunts worked and what one had to expect. Needless to say, their dear shixiong also went and showcased a few of the regular talismans that were useful and stressed the importance of taking signal flares along.

So while the disciples weren't bothered by their head disciples absence from his duties, the same could not be said for some others. One being Jiang Cheng, who had to go wake up his idiot of a dumb  brother since his mother found out that the other wasn't doing anything yet despite it being noon. He sighed. He steeled himself to berate Wei Wuxian for staying up late so often. He was almost in the premise where their rooms where when all of a sudden the loudest noise he ever heard erupted inside their sect peremiters. It was a shrill sound, high and on a somewhat feminine note, it was like a small animal...

An absurdly loud one.

CRASH!

A door flung open and footsteps rushed towards his direction. He looked to see who it was. When he saw who.. he had to close his eyes for a moment before turning to stare at them. The other, seeing him, rushed to him freeting like crazy as if he was about to be eaten by something behind him.
"JIANG CHENG HELP! THERE'S A DOG GET IT AWAY GET IT AWAY!!"

Wei Wuxian, dressed only in his white underrobe, grabbed onto his arms and tried to hide behind him as if he wasn't almost an adult. He was shaking while his brother was like a stone statue. A few looked, and looked, and looked.. then stared at the person hiding behind their sect heir.

A disciple whispered absently, "Hey, pinch me". The other gave him a weak slobby punch since he couldn't move his eyes away from the sight either. Both disciples felt the physical force and contact and, oh, this was not a hallucination. Their da-shixiong...

"Wei... Wuxian?" Jiang Cheng called out, did he see things? God knows the training to be a sect heir was stressing him with his mother breathing down his neck while trying to get her husband's, his father's, attention on his behalf even though it was futile for who knows why really. Everything was just so emotionally draining. Did he finally get so stressed that his mind was playing tricks on him..?

"Get it away, get it away!" the trembling vibrations shook him out of his thought and he finally decided to look at the familiar figure being him.

... 'Was he smaller? Wait, are those...' while Wei Wuxian's head was about up to his eyebrows - yeah he was definitely a bit smaller that usually - , there were niffty dark EARS on his head. He turned around and looked at the other, "Wei Wuxian. Hey you idiot look at me, there's no dog".

Wei Ying raised his head looking at him a bit frightened. Damn was this a rare case. "Huh..?" the other said dumbfounded. But he saw it in his room..?

There was a shift under Wei Wuxian's white clothes and a tip of something big and dark brown peaked out from under the robe near his feet. Jiang Cheng's eyes looked down without his notice.
It was a tail.
His brother, their da-shixiong, had friggin' ears and a tail.

"What's going on here?"

Jiang Cheng turned his head around to see his father and sister coming over. 'Leave it to Wei Wuxian to make father leave his office. Well, he has screamed rather loudly, - wait he was the one who screamed oh my God! - on second note mother must already be on her way over too... '

Both Jiang Fengmian and Yanli stilled at the sight that Jiang Cheng revealed after moving his head a bit. His father blinked while his Shijie's mouth fell open. They both stared. "A-die, Shijie" he greeted sounding the slightest bit lost. They can understand that.

Then, in the Sword Hall, where all four Jiang's were regarding Wei Wuxian's new appearance, Yu Ziyuan could not even begin to think what she had to say about this. Should she berate the boy on sleeping in and forgetting to do his duties first? Maybe scold him for lowering their sects image by screaming in fear of a dog (even though there had been none and she knows why he would've)? Or should she for once be weak minded like the rest of her family and voice her confusion? No, she wouldn't do that. She would stay her ground.

'... Why did he look younger?'

"A-Xian you look so cute!" Yanli hugged him. Wow he was around her size if not for the ears.

"Sh-Sjijie" his head almost disappeared in her arms, and was he embarrassed..?
Jiang Cheng turned to where his parents were sitting and pointed with a thump behind him "A-die, A-Niang what's wrong when him? Why is he looking like that?".

Yu Ziyuan's eyes narrowed, "Maybe he got possessed by some dark creature. I'll whip him with Zidian and then we can see".
"No San-niang we will not do that" Jiang Fengmian interfered, "If he is not possessed then you would unnecessarily hurt him". She glowered at him, "Not if he is. Then this will be over with very quickly".

Yanli noticed that something beside her changed. She had looked at her parents talking but turned to look at her brother whose new fox ears were pointed backwards. It was cute, sure, but it was the most obvious sign of fear she had ever seen from him; not like he knew he was doing it. Of course, Yanli wasn't the only one to take note of the ears, the rest of the family could also infer what the lowered ears meant. For once Yu Ziyuan felt smug to know that the brat actually respected her presence, feared her even. A case that her husband didn't approve. Jiang Cheng was concerned.

In the end they decided that Wei Wuxian either got cursed or possessed, since it didn't go away like a talisman effect. Since that was the case, Jiang Fengmian had  written a letter to Lan Qiren. Noting, that the head disciple that will come to study with their heir needed their sects expertise.