1 The Nine-tailed Fox wakes up

The hall of the Jade Emperor shines with the brilliance of a thousand stars ground into fine powder. On the central dais, sits a throne of jade so grand it blinds the eyes of all who look at it.

The pillars in the hall are so tall as to disappear into infinity, the marble floors are as smooth as silk. The tranquil sound of a guqin permeates the air.

The emperor himself sits on the throne with his face resting on his open palm. He is beautiful, ageless, eternal. His voice cuts through the melody like thunder rending the skies.

"Siming, have you done as we ordered you?"

At the feet of the dais a man is prostrating himself, his eyes demurely fixed on the floor. His black robe pools around him like waves on a dark sea.

"It has been done as his Heavenly Majesty commanded. Both will be reincarnated into beasts, with no memory of their lives as Gods."

"You have done well, favoured subject. What have you set out for their fates?" the emperor asks leaning back into the soft cushions of his throne with a beatific smile.

Siming, the Master of Fate, remains prostrated while answering. "They will never meet again. They will live out their existence as beasts, with no hope of achieving human form or godly ascension ever again. After their death, adjustments have been made to keep them in the Underworld, and away from the cycle of reincarnation."

"You may rise, Siming, you have done well, we are pleased. Tell me what you'll be telling the other Gods regarding their departure?"

Siming rises to his feet and bows to the emperor with his arms circled in front of his chest.

"I will be informing the other gods that due to their love for each other, and shared sympathy for humanity, they have descended to the mortal world, to live in seclusion from the Heavens for a few millennia, and use their powers to help humanity directly, instead of answering their prayers."

The Jade Emperor's smile widens, but no mirth reaches his cold dark eyes. "We are pleased to hear that the weave of fates suits our needs. You may go, favoured subject. We will call on you again, when we have need of you."

Siming bows to the emperor and leaves the hall, his steps make no sound on the marble floor, but each footfall weighs heavily on his soul.

---

In the human realm, a small nine-tailed fox opens his eyes, blinking against the harsh glare of the sun. The day ahead promises hunting, sleeping, and mischief. It is then that a sudden thought flits through his mind. "I need to kill the Jade Emperor".

The fox shakes his head. That's not the kind of thing he's used to thinking about. Other than sleeping, eating and causing trouble for the humans he encounters he doesn't have many concerns. Why does he suddenly want to kill the sovereign of the Heavens? How can a small, powerless nine-tailed fox like him do that?

The fox realizes something else. He's thinking very big thoughts. The fox is sure that it didn't know who or what a Jade Emperor was the day before. Could it be something he ate?

He tries to remember the events of the previous day. He woke up, chased some humans until they screamed in fright, climbed up a tree and ate a few eggs right from the nest, slept for the whole afternoon, and then he went down to the river to have some water. It was then that he saw something round and shiny in the riverbanks, multicoloured like a rainbow. He didn't know what it was, so he sniffed at it. It smelled faintly metallic but not poisonous, so the fox decided to eat it.

The shiny object was neither soft, nor chewy, nor warm, nor cold. It went down the fox's gullet and settled on his stomach like a stone.

After that. After that...the nine-tailed fox realizes he can't remember anything. But he can think. He can think a lot. All these thoughts are very messy and complicated, but the fox likes them.

At the centre of jumble of new information one thing shines bright and clear: "kill the Jade Emperor".

The little fox has nothing better to do, so why not?

Invigorated and filled with energy, he sets out into the world ready to learn how a nine-tailed fox can kill a God.

---

In the days that follow the little fox learns a lot of things very quickly, as if his brain is a sponge and it assimilates knowledge out of thin air. The fox now knows that in order to kill the Jade Emperor and become more powerful he needs to cultivate. There are several ways to do that, he can meditate for years and become one with the Dao, he can consume other being's essence, or he can stumble upon a magic artefact like he did at the river.

The little fox is very proud of all the words he knows now. He thinks himself very clever, not only for knowing so many words, but also for knowing the two last options are clearly the fastest ways to achieve his goals. And he happens to know where to find more pearls.

The fox lives in a valley between very tall, majestic mountains. There are all manner of other creatures living in this valley, besides the humans. The fox is very clever, so he keeps away from all of them, unless he wants to eat them.

He has seen his reflexion in the river water, so the fox knows he's black all over, and not very big. His black fur and nine tails spreading behind him like a fan are very eye-catching and would make him an easy meal for bigger creatures.

But he's fast, and during the years he was just another mindless fox he has learned how to vanish into a puff of smoke and reappear a few zhang away.

It's still early to visit the river, there are usually other creatures there at this time, but the fox is in a hurry to find more pearls and eat them, before anything else gets to them.

The fox runs through the forest, keeping close to the shrubs and hiding in the shade of the tall trees, until he arrives at the river, with its crystalline waters and croaking frogs.

He sniffs around the riverbank trying to catch that faint metallic scent. His whiskers twist in the breeze once he catches it. Just the barest hint of it, but it's there.

The fox follows the scent until he reaches one part of the river he had never been to before. Hiding among a few smooth river stones he finds the source of the smell. A little cache of pearls just like the one he ate all those days ago. Now he has the knowledge to know they were pearls, and when he eats one, this time it doesn't feel like a stone in his stomach. He can feel warmth spreading from his middle all through his four limbs.

He eats another pearl and the warmth increases, like a forest fire in his belly. That means it's working, and the little nine-tailed fox is excited with how much his cultivation will advance if he eats all the pearls.

The water ripples close by, but lost in his excitement the fox doesn't notice.

Not until it's too late and a large, scaly head with jade white horns is staring right at him.

"What are you doing in my river?" asks a guttural voice, a water mist coming out of its nostrils with each breath.

The little fox yips and hides in the bush, flattening his ears to make himself smaller. "I'm just a small nine-tailed fox, please don't eat me."

"Why would I eat you? Are you good to eat?" the dragon asks. His voice is terrifying, so low and powerful that it creates ripples in the water.

"I'm not, I'm just skin and bones, and I taste terrible. If you ate me it would upset your stomach."

"How would you know what you taste like?" Asks the dragon, exhaling strongly through his nostrils. The water spray drenches the fox to his bones.

"Do you think you'd taste good if I ate you?" asks the fox.

The dragon huffs, his long twin whiskers curl up in thought. "I don't think so."

"How would you know?" asks the fox, grinning toothily.

The dragon huffs, this time the fox dodges the spray of water. "You wouldn't be able to eat me, you're very small and I'm very large."

"You don't know that, us nine-tailed foxes are very powerful." The fox doesn't actually know how powerful nine-tailed foxes are supposed to be, he just knows he is one.

He just ate a lot of pearls, so no matter what, he won't stay weak for long. Maybe he will eat this dragon and consume his essence. That would make him even stronger.

"You won't eat me, and I won't eat you. Now leave my river," the dragon says, he stomps one of his legs underwater and it makes the ground the fox stands on shake.

"I won't! I still haven't eaten all my pearls." The fox noses in the water again, trying to find the pearls the dragon's brutish movements disturbed.

"Your what?" the dragon roars, moving his serpentine body to where the fox is standing. "I'm supposed to guard those!"

The fox laughs and jumps over the dragon's scaly blue body to land just behind his horns. "You haven't been doing a very good job have you? If you're talking with me it means you ate them as well."

The dragon roars and shakes his head around, trying to dislodge the fox from his body. The nine-tailed fox vanishes out of thin air and reapers again in the riverbank.

"I'm going to eat those pearls whether you want it or not!"

The fox jumps into the water and starts overturning rocks with his paws. He soon catches the rainbow glint of a pearl and sinks his snout into the water to eat it in one swallow.

"Not if I eat them first!" the dragon dives into the water and starts searching for pearls too.

The fox can only see the top of his horns above the surface, moving in a snaking motion.

It becomes a race between the two of them to see who can eat the most pearls, they jump over and under each other, and once the fox tries to scratch one of the dragon's amber eyes. But the dragon blows a stream of water into his face, distracting him.

In the middle of the fight the little fox notices something weird happening to him. His bones start hurting, and light starts streaming through his wet fur. In front of him, the dragon starts screaming and coiling on himself, his scales start lifting with every pulse of light.

The light becomes too much for the fox, and he closes his eyes against the brightness.

When he opens them again the dragon is gone, and in his place sits a young man with long black hair and amber eyes. His sopping wet hair falls down to his waist, obscuring half his face and his naked chest.

The fox starts laughing, filled with mirth at the former dragon's sorry state. "You've become a human! You must be so weak now that I could eat you without chewing."

The dragon tries to roar menacingly, but his weak human throat only lets out a scratchy croak. "You laugh fox, but that's because you haven't looked at yourself!"

He looks down at himself, and sees long black hair and slim limbs, ungainly and oddly shaped. He runs his new human hands over his face and takes stock of himself. Gone are his long majestic whiskers, and large pointed ears. Now he just has a pointy nose and a sharp chin. Instead of a snout, he has two soft lips. What can he do with a mouth like this? How can he rip open anything and eat it?

He points at the dragon, and recoils at the sight of his pale arm. "You did this, this was all your pearls' fault."

The dragon is still struggling with his wet hair, trying to get it away from his face.

"You were the one eating the pearls, how was this my fault?"

"I'm even weaker now! How can I kill the Jade Emperor like this?"

"What do you want to kill the Jade Emperor for?" asks the dragon, now cupping water in his hands and watching it trickle through his fingers.

"I woke up one day and it was all I could think about," the fox says.

"You can do what you want. I want to find a way to return to my original shape, I have no interest in being a puny human." says the dragon trying to stand up in the water, and promptly slipping on the rocks at the bottom of the river.

"I want that too, but how do we do that?" asks the fox.

"We go ask the humans! Who better than them to learn how to stop being a human?"