The Guardian Spirit (The Guardians of Nine Heavens #2)

Chapter 3: Dreadful Encounter

Lucy was running through the dark forest, crying and sobbing. She tripped on a tree root and fell. She sniffed and stood back up, gazing forward. She blinked - there was a water pond before her, reflecting rays of the moon. It felt calm and serene... The vision of calm water erased the evil fire from her mind. She slowly approached it, dropped to her knees at its shore, and began sobbing and shedding tears.

Ten years had already passed since her mom and dad died. The last thing they did was save her from the blazing fire. They sacrificed themselves for her, yet she missed them so much...

"Mom... Dad..."

She looked at her reflection in the water. Her icy blue hair... She always preferred cold to the warmth - the warmth would remind her of that dreadful fire, while the cold reminded her of that cool breeze at a lake, and the picnics with her mom and dad, full of joy and laughter... She had inherited the blue hair from her mother, while the brown eyes were her father's heritage. Whenever she looked in the mirror, she could remember them both by staring at her own reflection and it brought her bitterness, as well as warmth within her heart, and she was afraid of this warmth which brought more and more pain with it...

She was sobbing when suddenly, she heard a grim noise from the behind - the sound of sticks breaking beneath someone's bare feet... She started and looked back. This fright brought her back to her senses. She lost her remembrances all at once and focused on the current moment. Only now she recalled how her friends were yelling at her not to cross the... Skull Territory. She widened eyes in dread and fearfully looked ahead, awaiting something monstrous to emerge...

It jumped!

She yelled with utmost horror.

It was a bunny. It twitched its nose, surprisedly glanced at the frightened maid, and then jumped back into the bushes. She blinked in stupefaction and then sighed with relief:

Whew, it was just a harmless bunny...

She giggled a little - so funny to be scared by a mere bunny...

"You got lost, little one?"

A merciless cackle followed this question, and once Lucy tremblingly looked back at the lake, she beheld a tall, young, slender but strong, long-orange-haired, blue-eyed man, before her. However, there were several unusual and terrorizing things about him: first of all, his eyes shimmered like emotionless pieces of freezing ice, lacking any kind of remorse. His ears were not humanly - they more resembled those of a fox, as they were orange and triangle-shaped. And the most dreadful - he had tails, and not just one, but five big, soft, yet horrible orange foxtails.

Lucy shuddered and made a step back - Skull Territory, the classmates' yells, and a fox-like human appeared out of nowhere - apparently a fox spirit, with multiple tails... It meant only one thing - she was on the territory of the Huli Clan! She made yet another step back. She was terrified beyond imagination. She led a sad life, it was true, with painful memories, but it didn't mean she wanted to die! At least not yet, not before she could find out who was that vile person to kill her parents, for she was sure - there was no way her house would catch fire out of the blue on that day... it was clearly someone's doing. She trembled, turned away, and ran off at full speed and energy she had left, but the same soft and sly, freezing voice, chuckled from the behind:

"It is futile..."

She heard a few steps on the ground and a rustle of the grass, and the demonic spirit appeared right beside her. One more step and he was already blocking her way. She yelled as she was running so fast she couldn't hold herself and bumped into him, but she didn't fall back - the fox man caught her tightly, grabbed her in his arms, and grinned, showing his sharp teeth of a predator spirit. Lucy shuddered - sharp teeth, so he was truly a man-eater! Tears gathered in her eyes, and she began sobbing like a child:

"Let me go..."

Shivers ran through her whole body, so terrified she was to be clutched in the evil predator's hands.

"Aww, now look at this... You rushed in here so hastily, to pay us a visit, and now want to go so soon?" the boy gained a sad face, apparently mocking her and having fun at her misery, so cruel he seemed to be. "But how can I let you go, little one? I haven't tasted such a soft and subtle human flesh in millennia..." his fox tongue licked her cheek with affection. It sent shudders down her spine. "You are rather tasty..."

More tears poured down Lucy's cheeks. She experienced the horror she had never felt before. Only that fear of flames could be compared to this, and she could hardly decide which one was more infernal now.

"Please... Don't eat me..."

"Ohh, and why? What makes you so special that I should refrain myself from tasting my lovely dessert?"

"I... I can't afford to die yet..." tears poured down her cheeks. "Please, Mr. fox... I need to find out who killed my parents, who set fire to my house..." she sobbed even more heavily - what did it matter to this beast? He would probably swallow her now...

She felt his long red finger-nails softly touch her and wipe off her tears. She started and looked up at him. His grin had disappeared, and he looked rather serious now, even having a frown on his face.

"Your parents were killed in a fire?"

"Um, yes..." Lucy blinked with stupefaction and fear - why did he become so serious and concerned in all of a sudden, as if he truly cared?

"Go". 

He let go of her.

"Huh?"

"Go. If others see you here, they will surely guzzle your flesh. Take this," he opened his Yin-and-Yang locket, took another Yin-and-Yang amulet out of there, and handed it to her. "Whenever you're in need, take out that locket and call upon Huli Yuehong. But pay attention - you must cry either Yang or Yin when making a call. The choice is yours. And remember - I let you live because you have such a grave reason. I know it is the truth because there is no being that can lie to me without my noticing. Whenever you achieve your goal and avenge your parents, I shall come and devour you then. I shall not forgive you humans trespassing on my territory".

He jumped away, vanishing in an instant. Lucy still trembled and gazed out in stupefaction. Then she slowly came to her senses, as she felt the item in her hands - that Yin-and-Yang amulet the evil spirit had gifted her. She stroked it - it contained spiritual aura... It was a guardian item. She then recalled how he had warned her to quickly leave, and without any second thought, she rushed off to where she had come from. She crossed the skull border again and left that gruesome territory.