Chapter 18: The Nine-tailed Fox steals food

The phoenix starts talking as soon as they're out of Yangli, and stop seeing humans along the road.

"I have no idea why you thought this was an appropriate means of transportation for me," she says, from the back of the cart.

"You are welcome to walk," Wu Yun replies, blowing out an annoyed breath.

"Do you have a name? I'm Lan Tian and he's Wu Yun," Lan Tian says, always diplomatic in the presence of someone Wu Yun finds utterly unbearable.

"I'm Wan Mi," she says. "After I have some fresh fruit I'll probably be strong enough to change into my human form."

"Will that make you talk less?" Wu Yun asks, because hope springs eternal.

"You're really annoying, has anyone told you that?" She says with a huff. "Anyway, I still won't have my powers back, but at least I can stop hiding here like stolen cargo."

"We'll find you some fruit as soon as we can," Lan Tian says.

Wu Yun spots some berries sprouting from a shrub and bends down to pick it up. He throws an entire spindly branch onto the back of the cart and tells Wan Mi, "Here, some fruits."

Wan Mi shrieks in outrage and picks up the branch with her beak to throw it off the cart. "I'm not going to eat this like some common partridge, who do you take me for?"

Wu Yun turns around on the saddle to glare at Wan Mi. "Right now? I take you for an overbearing chicken."

"How dare you talk to me like that? You know phoenixes outrank nine-tailed foxes don't you? We are under heavenly protection, whereas you are mostly a nuisance some minor deities might want to use against someone they have a feud with, or to torment particularly annoying humans."

Her words make Wu Yun want to jump into the cart and throttle her. No one tells him what to do, much less some "minor deity".

"I don't answer to anyone, and the Heavens have no authority over me. If I want to roast you over an open fire no one can stop me. Keep talking and I might just do it."

"I'd like to see you try once I regain my powers. You know this isn't even the full extent of my size? After I've drunk from the fountain of restoration in the Kunlun mountains I'll be several zheng tall, and my feathers will burn all who try to touch them," Wan Mi says, hissing the words through her beak.

"So what you're saying is that until we take you there you're powerless and completely at our mercy?" Wu Yun smirks. "Good to know."

Wan Mi turns to Lan Tian with a pleading look."Great dragon, we share equal ranks, why do you allow him to speak to me thus."

Lan Tian glances at Wu Yun from the corner of his eyes and smiles faintly. "He amuses me. Also, I don't know what rank you speak of."

Wen Mi falls silent after that and they continue to ride silently through the narrow road, lulled by the musical chirps of birds hiding high above tree copses, and the noises of small animals startled by their approach skittering away in the underbrush.

Normally Wu Yun would fill the silence with inane chatter, but his thoughts are still overtaken by the dream and the things he experienced. He avoids remembering too closely, because the memory of Shu Luan moving within him makes his robes uncomfortably tight. It's the second time he dreams he was Ling Yan, and he's no closer to understanding why the dreams feel more like some memory he's inhabiting than something his sleeping mind is conjuring.

Who are Ling Yan and Shu Luan, and what his is connection to them?

"Have you heard of the names Ling Yan and Shu Luan?" He asks Wan Mi, startling even himself with the suddenness of his question.

"I haven't, they can't be the names of any beasts born in Kunlun, I know all of them," she says, cocking her long neck to the side. "Could they be gods?"

Wu Yun is frozen still by her question. Could they? He never considered that possibility.

"I don't know, I just know their names."

"Well, my master might know. Master knows everything," Wan Mi says puffing out her feathers. "Master will know what to do with the two of you as well."

Somehow her words don't bring Wu Yun any comfort.

They ride along for a few more hours, until the sky starts to darken and the winds pick up with the creeping approach of night.

"We should stop soon," Lan Tian says, eyeing the way Wu Yun clutches his robes tight around his neck to prevent the chill from reaching the exposed sliver of skin where the two sides meet. "We need to eat something, and maybe find some place to rest for the night."

Wu Yun nods, he's sore from riding all day and could use the break.

They ride for two more li before they see a low wooden building in the distance. A faded red banner hanging from the squat eaves announces it as the Bin Jiang inn.

"Let's go in," Lan Tian says, riding his horse towards the ramshackle building.

They tie the horses to the horizontal post of the makeshift stable, and leave Wan Mi in the cart.

She voices her thoughts about this. "Are you leaving me here alone? This place looks deserted, it smells like something died in here."

Wu Yun ignores her and walks into the inn, being trailed by Lan Tian.

The inside of the building is in no better shape than the outside. A thick layer of dust covers every available surface, and there's no one in sight.

"Shouldn't there be humans here?" Wu Yun asks, remembering the liveliness of the restaurant they went to in Yangli.

Lan Tian cups his hands in front of his mouth and shouts, "We are guests looking for food and lodging."

He's answered by the creaking of the wind beating against the wooden structure.

"I think that means we can just come right in," Wu Yun says, and starts opening doors looking for a kitchen.

"Something isn't right." Lan Tian looks around at the dirty tables and toppled chairs, and feels a creeping sense of unease crawling up his spine.

Wu Yun rolls his eyes. "You always say that."

"And I'm always right!" Lan Tian says, frowning.

"Well, we need a place to sleep, and I'm not setting up a tent outside, the wind is too strong. You are welcome to find someplace else."

Lan Tian shakes his head, and fixes him with a piercing look. "I'm not leaving you here alone if I think it's dangerous."

Wu Yun bristles. "I can look after myself."

Lan Tian approaches him and places a gentle hand on his back, rubbing slowly back and forth, as if he is a startled cat who needs to be soothed back into cooperation. "I know you can, but I want to look after you, too."

Just like that, the fight drains out of Wu Yun, replaced by some unnamed feeling that makes Lan Tian's hand feel like a scorching brand on his back, burning him even through the robes.

He steps away from him, saying with forced levity, "Bring that cursed chicken inside and you'll be saving me from an incense stick's time of her presence."

Lan Tian smiles fondly. "Whatever you want."

He stops just outside the doorway. "Who were those people you asked Wan Mi about?"

"Ah, no one important, just names that popped into my head." Wu Yun turns around from Lan Tian ashamed at having lied, and resumes looking for the kitchen.

He finds it just as dusty as the rest of the inn. Most of the food is beyond rotten, but some of the glutinous rice looks fresh. The kitchen has a door leading to a small courtyard, which is where Wu Yun finds a small altar piled high with fresh fruit, two bowls of cooked rice, and a plate of what looks like soft flower shaped desserts. The ash of burnt incense sticks sprinkles the altar's rough surface.

Wu Yun has no idea why the humans would leave the food outside and not in the kitchen, but there's no point leaving it out to rot. He makes several trips to and from the kitchen until he has everything set up on a table he cleans up with a rag he found lying on the floor.

Lan Tian comes back carrying a suspiciously mellow Wan Mi in his arms, to find him proudly sitting down next to his scavenged meal.

"Where did you find all that?" Lan Tian asks, picking up a shiny yellow pear and inspecting it.

"Outside, humans are really wasteful." He picks up chopsticks and takes a bite of the rice, it's unsurprisingly cold, but well seasoned.

"Wait, you found this outside? Was it on top of some sort of altar, was there incense nearby?" Wan Mi jumps out of Lan Tian's arms in a flurry and lands on the table, sniffing around the food.

"Yes, why?"

"Then that means this food was an offering, either to a god or to the deceased." Wan Mi shrieks and tries to peck the pear out of Lan Tian's hands.

"There was no tomb outside, nor any plaque with a name on it," Wu Yun says, trying to get his rice out of Wan Mi's reach.

"That's a little odd, but the only reason why a human would leave out food like that would be to make an offering, which means that food belongs either to a god who will be angered that you stole what belongs to them, or to a dead human, that can come back as a hungry ghost to get revenge on you. Don't think that because you're a nine-tailed fox you won't suffer karmic consequences for desecrating food offerings."

"Well, I'm hungrier than any ghost," Wu Yun says, and eats another bite of rice.

Lan Tian looks from him to Wan Mi and sits down at the table next to him. He polishes off the pear on his robes and takes a loud crunchy bite. "These are good pears, didn't you say you wanted fruit?"

Wu Yun exchanges an impish smile with Lan Tian and leans over to take a bite of his pear.

"He's right, these are the juiciest pears I've ever had." He's never had pears before, but Wan Mi doesn't need to know that.

"You'll both be punished for your disrespect in the underworld," Wan Mi says, spreading her wings and cawing in a throaty shriek

"I feel like I'm already being punished." Wu Yun says, flinching at the her harsh, dissonant cries.

Lan Tian is about to say something when they hear a sound coming from the upper floor, like something large rolling on the ground. At that exact moment the wind picks up and hisses through the trees like the sibilant warning of a snake.

Wan Mi turns her pale beady eyes on Wu Yun and says, in a hoarse voice, "I warned you."