SFS - Chapter 6 (Patreon)

“Who was it?” A pleasant woman’s voice chimed across the small courtyard in front of the Ancient Shrine. The scent of sul—no, the powder-scent radiated with the breeze, making me instinctively take a step back.

On the slender branch of the plum blossom tree, a woman leaned back and stared through the pink canopy toward the snow storm. Her back held an ornate bow, and a quiver of arrows dangled from her side. With the combo of the scent, I had no doubt in my mind—she was the archer from before. 

The bow wasn’t her only weapon. A weird hexagonal box dangled from her other hip, and another weird barreled-thing hung from her back. The barrel-thing was split into two parts, though looked like it’d easily be taller than her once put together. 

Snowflakes drifted lazily around her in the soft winds as if to frame her face. Her long silver hair flowed down alongside the folds of her robes like a layer of moonlit frost. One leg dangled idly over the side of the branch with effortless grace. 

Her expression, calm and aloof, seemed like it’d been masterfully sculpted from ice. Her eyes looked like they were carved from the finest ice-jade found in a ten-thousand year old glacier. She dangled a jade-like hand and gently swirled around a bottle of something. 

Despite the beauty of the scene—I gagged on the sharp powder-scent and retched lightly off to the side. My eyes watered, and I shot the scholar a pitiful look. How can someone walk around reeking like that?!

“A friend.” The scholar, Zeteoh, stretched the bo staff over his back and lightly hung his arms on it. Of course he didn’t notice. Just like he didn’t help me out with the three thousand steps up here, I’d be left alone to suffer this by myself.

The woman lifted her head to look down—and froze. “A fox?!”

”Yip?” My head tilted to the side, and I met her eyes.

“Eep!” Her ice queen-like aura abruptly vanished. She bolted from the tree and disappeared into a side room connected to a cloister lining the cliffside of the courtyard. The eye-watering powder-scent thankfully disappeared with her… or, at least, dissipated enough I could breath without choking.

”Forgive Meilin, my friend. She’s… skitterish around animals.” Zeteoh shrugged and walked ahead of me to a stone table resting on the cliff face of the shrine. The wall opened up, and gave a breath-taking view of the valley—or it would’ve if not for the heavy blizzard that blocked visibility. Interestingly, the snow only fell lightly up here. “We were just about to have tea when I sensed you, little friend. What’s your name?"

”Yip?” I bounded up onto the table across from him and sat down on my haunches. Sitting down felt so good. I’d been going non-stop, and now that I could rest? I didn’t want to leave ever again.

“Ah, you haven’t unlocked your speech.” The man brushed a hand through his beard and looked down on me. Unlocking my speech? Could I speak human too? Ew. “Do you have a name yet?“

“Yip!” I pointed toward a snowdrift on the side of the courtyard. It’d been swept up into a large mound brushed up against the courtyard wall.

“Ah, I see! Little Snowdrift.” Zeteoh nodded his head sagely and sat down opposite me. “It certainly fits.”

”Yow—“ I shook my head fiercely, but he seemed to miss my message.

“You’re injured, Little Snowdrift. Come—rest” Zeteoh reached out to a teapot on the stone table and poured a cup of tea. It had a soft, fragrant scent to it that made me salivate. “Meilin meant to drink with me. Tea is wasted without pleasant company. You may join me.”

I shook my head and stared at the man. How could he just have tea calmly up here on the shrine? Not to mention the serpent-scent didn’t linger on him in the slightest. He appeared entirely uninfected. That Meilin woman left before I could get a proper read of her. Literally at the base of this place, though, there’d been an entire pack of monstrous blighted. “Yip-yip? Yip-yipyip.”

He stopped mid pour of a second cup, and lifted his head. His eyes held a sad tinge to them. “I’ve done all I can, and do more still for those that remain. The Ophidian Blight is not something so simply fought.”

Ophidian Blight… well, there was one answer, if nothing else. Calling the humans blighted wasn’t the wrong thing afterall. There was a name for whatever was happening in this valley, so there must be a cure, right? Not to mention the man before me bore no signs of the blight. Or maybe not. I doubted it would’ve gotten to this extent if there was a true cure.

“Hmph…” A huff left me and I pulled out the map with my teeth. Regardless, there was no point sticking around this cursed place. I did my duty and bore Graft’s gift for the scholar. I did want to check on her and make sure she was okay, but that was secondary to survival. Currently, survival looked best if I simply left this place.

I sprawled out the map with my paws and pointed to the edge of it with my tail. The sooner I could flake out of here, the better. “Yip?”

”You wish to leave?” The man sighed heavily and poured a second cup for me. “I’m afraid the matter isn't simple, Little Snowdrift. When poison seeps into the well, wise men seal it.”

”Kek-kek?” Where did the well come from? One of my ears arched up higher than the other, and I stared at the old scholar in confusion. These humans—their thinking was all twisted.

He chuckled softly and brushed a hand through his beard. “Ghost Dragon Mountain Range has been quarantined. The Heaven-Earth Illusory Fog Array and the Imperial Army hold the borders.”

So… I can’t drift away? My thoughts traced back to that thick fog that the snowfield seemed to just rise out of. Or the fog underneath the cliff face, for that matter. I had no idea what a Heaven-Earth Illusory Fog Array was, but it didn’t sound like something I could bypass just by walking into it.

My mood rapidly plummeted, and I rolled the map back up with a heavy heart. My tail drooped off the side of the table behind me. What now? Delivering the pills and then escaping had been my entire goal up to this point. How was I supposed to live with monsters and blighted all over the place?

A cup of steaming tea scraped across the table to me on its own, and the scholar lifted his own to sip at. “Don’t despair, Little Snowdrift. If you really must leave, maybe someone down in the Dragon Vein Village knows of a way out. This old fool knows little of such things. I simply read and watch the snow fall.“

“Yip…” I eyed the cup of tea. Dragon Vein Village, huh? No—before that, how the heck did he do that?

I pushed the cup around back and forth with my paw. Was there a string attached to it somewhere—oh! Wait, no. Maybe it was like that Throw Voice ability that the giant monster down the mountain used. I shifted the cup around and picked it up with my teeth. 

“Are you interested in my technique, Little Snowdrift?” The man stirred his hand, and his staff flew up to his palm. He waved it once more, and it drifted to rest against the plum blossom tree. “It’s simple Qi Manipulation.”

“Yip?” Could I do something like that? I waved a paw—and nothing happened. Not even the snow shifted. Of course it didn’t. What was I expecting? 

I downed the cup of tea to cheer myself up. The warmth instantly flushed my body—not that I needed it. The temperature was pretty comfortable all things considered. The was surprisingly muted, though it did a wonderful job quenching my thirst.

”If you wish to follow the martial path, you must first feel Qi.” The man waved his hand, and the drifting snow flowed around into a circular shape.

“Nyehhh?” A low whine came out of the back of my throat. Why’d he have to be so esoteric? Just tell me you don’t want to teach me…

“It is not something that is seen, but rather felt.” Zeteoh chuckled softly and stretched out. He sipped at his cup and looked out toward the blizzard. His eyes seemed to settle on something for a moment. “I’ll be back, Little Snowdrift.”

”Yip-yip…” I settled down onto the cool stone table and stared out at the blizzard for whatever caught his eye. Just the dozens of flakes falling drew my attention.

That was—until a pair of eyes in the cloister behind me caught the light. Just as quickly as I looked toward them, they vanished. Based on the pungent powder-scent and the soft footsteps, it was that mysterious archer watching me. What’s her issue?

“Ahem.” The scholar took the tea kettle and cups into a side room next to the main hall of the temple. He returned a few minutes later with a fresh roll of bandages. “Graft, that old physician, is as skilled as ever, it seems. To use Soulthread on you, though… she must see a lot of potential.”

“Yi-yip?” What did she use on me? I glanced down at my injury and shuffled around my hind leg. I didn’t feel any different. How could he tell what thread—ah, wait, he mentioned something about sensing me earlier. Maybe he saw deeper than just the surface of all things… Woah, I kinda sounded super profound there. I can see how the old scholar got addicted to this.

“We’ll have to wait and see.” He casually moved on like he hadn’t just set my curiosity on fire. “I imagine the journey here was rigorous, yet her stitches hold. Come, come, best we still change your bandages lest the blight seep in.”

I froze at the mention of the Ophidian Blight getting to me and allowed him access to my side. I’d rather not have scales bloom out of my beautiful fur! I’d look horrible—I mean, my ability to hide in the snow would go away. That was my most important survival ability!

He carefully pulled off the satchel and rewrapped my bandages. Just like he said, Graft’s stitches along my side and down into my hind leg hadn’t torn even a bit. The three-armed healer definitely knew what she was doing. Since I couldn’t leave, I could go back down to her, maybe.

”The remaining disciples of the Shoalong Sect hold south of the Dragon Vein Village with the other survivors.” He tightened the bandage and a sting of pain shot up my side. “The survivors there may know a way out.”

”Yip?” Just how many survivors were there? So far I’d only seen the devastation of the blight in the north, but the south may be entirely different. 

“Be careful, though, little friend. Most won’t be able to recognize you as a Spirit Beast. Those that do might be a larger danger still.” He patted my side lightly. “Watch yourself should you find them.”

”Yip-yip…” Right, there were the Purity Scholars too. I’d have to be careful if I wanted to find other humans, yip. Before all of that, maybe I should try and learn something from the Record? Anything would do as long as it could protect me.

Once he finished rewrapping me, he helped put my satchel back on. He grabbed the map, though, and lightly tapped me playfully on the top of the head with it. “I’ll fill this out for you tonight. As they say, to know the path ahead, ask those who’ve walked it.”

”Yip!” Thanks, old man. Although he wasn’t teaching me his ability to move stuff with simple motions, knowing the terrain certainly wouldn’t hurt. Escape hinged on finding someone in the Dragon Vein Village who knew a way out, anyway.

He bowed lightly and then left me at the table. He paused just before entering a side room similar to the one Meilin stayed in. “Ah, right. You may sleep anywhere you wish. Meilin is in the third room from the right, and this old fool has the first.”

I looked toward the cloister and shook my head. I’d rather not sleep in somewhere like that. I stood up and dropped down to the ground. It took a minute, but eventually I settled on a snowdrift looking out into the blizzard. It was just next to the table off to the side of the courtyard.

After digging a small divot, I flopped down into it and wrapped my fluffy tail around my paws and up to my nose to conserve heat. It acted like the perfect blanket-pillow combo. Although I was exhausted, I didn’t fall asleep immediately.

Now that I had time to breathe and think, a rush of thoughts churned in the back of my head. Who am I? Snow, obviously, but who am I really? Waking up in that broken shrine up there… I had a feeling that wasn’t normal. My memory was almost entirely empty, and yet I knew what stuff was instinctually.

I stared out at the columns making up the cloister on the far side of the courtyard. I shouldn’t know these words—not without something else going on. Curiosity burned at the back of my head, but I didn't have any one I could ask. Getting answers might just mean crawling back up the mountain to that treasure room…

A small tremble went down my spine, and I burrowed deeper into the cold snow for comfort. Getting up there wasn’t impossible, but surviving was a whole different matter. Although… if I was bound to be imprisoned here along with the humans, then getting up there wouldn’t be a bad secondary goal.

What even is a Spirit Fox? The way Zeteoh looked and called me made me feel a little weird. Is it something special—wait, no, of course I’m a special snowflake. That much is only natural.

I adjusted my tail and let out a heavy huff. My mind churned with thoughts, and refused to settle for a long time. With the plush white fur wrapped around me, I drifted into sleep while watching the snow gently fall.

— — —

AN: Another fact! Snow foxes have the warmest fur of all land animals! Big things come in small packages. With their fluffy coats of white, snow foxes, aka arctic foxes, they can withstand temperatures down to -90F(-70C) with barely a shiver. Can you imagine being exposed to that kind of cold?

To put that into perspective. That’s cold enough to instantaneously get frostbite and hypothermia without specialized polar gear. Just blinking could basically weld your eyes shut as the moisture freezes. Your lungs would seize from breathing the cold air, and it’d be a little like getting an asthma attack. Brr…. And yet our little friends can survive that no issue. Not to mention their special tails that they use like a blanket to keep warm. Pretty impressive, no?