The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

I was a fox again.

I was a fox again.

I was the cutest fox kit that ever walked the Earth. I knew it from the instant I was born, when the cold air hit my wet fur, even though I couldn't see or hear a thing for ages. But I could feel, and as I squirmed around in a heap with my siblings and fought with them for the most milk, their fur brushed against mine, and I knew that mine was the softest and fluffiest of them all.

I was A FOX again!

Because I was lucky enough to be assigned to the nicest, kindest, bestest clerk in the whole Bureau of Reincarnation – no, in all of Heaven! I hope you're watching me, Flicker! I thought up at him. I hope you see how adorable I am. Just a glimpse of me will erase all your cares and dissolve all your woes!

I couldn't wait to open my eyes and see myself for myself!

Forever later, my eyelids started to flutter, to crack open in slits that shut quickly at the painful brightness of the outside world. Sounds began to penetrate the silence – the rustling when I moved, the warbling when my parents greeted each other, the wow wow wow barks that came out of my throat (with no conscious command on my part) when I wanted their attention.

I was a fox again, and I was ADORABLE!

My baby fur was the most luxurious shade of warm brown-grey, like the finest black sesame powder in the Imperial kitchens. It was amazingly soft and fluffy and made me yearn to pet it, only I didn't have hands (yet). I couldn't wait for it to change color, to transform into the auburn and cream and ebony of adulthood!

Since I had no puddle of water in which to admire myself, I used my siblings as my mirror. A week after I opened my eyes, the fur on their faces darkened into black eye streaks. A few days later, their cheeks reddened, so subtly at first that I feared it was wishful thinking or a trick of the light, but no! Soon they were all sporting orange patches! White spots appeared on the tips of their muzzles, which I could just barely glimpse on my own if I crossed my eyes as hard as I could. The orange and white grew and spread, and the brown-grey retreated until all that was left of our baby color was the dark fur on our legs and ears.

I was a fox again! A real fox! With a luxuriant coat of thick auburn fur and a creamy underbelly and the longest, fluffiest tail known in existence! I leaped and danced and played with my siblings and my parents all day long, reveling in my form until I wore myself out and crawled back into our den to sleep until I woke and bounded out to celebrate once more.

I was a fox, I was a fox, I was a fox! All was right with the world!

If I recalled correctly from fifteen hundred years ago, I'd be full grown at half a year old. After that, I'd focus on surviving my first hundred years so my body would transcend its mortal limits and catch up to my mind, and then I'd wait another nine hundred years, and finally I'd have all my tails and all my powers back! I'd be myself again in all senses of the word, and all would be perfect with the world!

To that end, I stayed in my parents' territory when I was full grown instead of striking out to claim my own domain like my siblings. It did gall me to crouch and pull back my ears in submission whenever I saw my parents, but I was safer on familiar, established ground. And anyway, there was a wonderful little pond with a mirror-like surface, and on calm days I would pose on its banks and study myself for hours on end until the evening breeze rose to ruffle my fur and ripple my reflection.

I was a fox again, and I was gorgeous.

There never was a more elegant, more refined, more beautiful fox. Look at the way my muzzle tapers to a fine point. See the way my tail extends over half the length of my body and is nearly as thick and comes to a cloud-like tip. Watch how I sit up straight and curl it gracefully around my slender legs. Now picture me with eight more tails, fanned out behind me like a glorious version of a peacock! Imagine me in all my splendor as a resplendent nine-tailed fox!

Now I just had to make sure I didn't fall prey in the next thousand years to any wolves, leopards, lynxes, golden eagles, eagle-owls, various diseases, human hunters, demons of all forms – and angry gods.

Angry gods.

Cassius.

The Goddess of Life.

Lady Fate.

Stars and demons! I froze mid-leap and crashed back to the ground. What happened to Flicker after he reincarnated me? Had Glitter found out yet? Had Cassius? What was Lady Fate doing? What would she do to me? I was supposed to be re-establishing the Serican Empire. That was what I'd told her I was going to do, what I'd chosen to do, because I couldn't fathom abandoning my friends in the middle of their – our – great mission.

And here I was, gleefully abandoning them so I could gambol through the glade and sit on the edge of a pond to watch my own reflection. How Cassius must be laughing! How Lady Fate must be clenching her moon blocks! How the Goddess of Life must be readying her next plague!

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I didn't even know where I was. In all of my previous reincarnations, I'd set out immediately to determine where I was and how to return to my friends. This time – how had I forgotten them so completely? Where in Serica was I?

I paced in circles around the pond (totally not because I could admire the rippling of my fur and the graceful lines of my legs while I agonized over my own narcissism). The wild lilies that bloomed in profusion around the glassy surface, as pure white as my belly, bobbed when I brushed past them. Where was I? How could I figure out where I was without leaving the safety of my parents' borders? Who could I ask in this middle-of-nowhere forest where I hadn't glimpsed so much as a single squirrel spirit?

The wild lilies filled the air with their sweet perfume.

Oh! I'm an idiot! I exclaimed out loud.

I'd literally been spending all my days on the edge of a pond. A body of water. In other words, the fief of some minor dragon king!

Before I could talk myself out of it, I plunged my head into the clean, clear water and called, Greetings, Your Majesty! I bring glad tidings!

Then I yanked my head out, shook myself off, sat down with my tail curved beautifully around my legs, and waited. Such a tiny Water Court wouldn't have the layers and layers of protocol of a larger lake, and the dragon king should respond fast to my appeal.

And indeed, within moments, the surface of the pond rippled, and a dragon king the same size as me rose to stand on its surface. Den?! I blurted out.

He had the same brownish-grey scales on his back and sides, the same pale-yellow belly – basically, the same origins in a rice paddy snake spirit that had lived long enough to grow legs and horns. But on closer examination, his markings were subtly different, and his horns had barely forked at their tips.

Forgive me – I began at the same time the little dragon king gasped, "You know Den?"

Remembering himself, he coughed. "I mean, you are acquainted with Our dear friend Densissimus Imber, the Dragon King of Caltrop Pond?"

Yes, yes! I am a close friend of his, Your Majesty!

A memory stirred: a pair of pond dragons at the Meeting of the Dragon Host, seen through the eyes of a catfish. One of them had been Den, and the other –

It is an honor to meet the Dragon King of Sweet Lily Pond. I sank into a genuflection, lowering the tip of my nose to my paws.

"We welcome you to Our domain." Then, as if he could no longer contain his eagerness, the little dragon bounced forward. "What news of Den? How's he doing? What's he up to? I haven't seen him in ages. He's missed the last – oh, I don't even know how many! – Meetings of the Dragon Host, and I heard it's because he's off on a special mission, but nobody will say what it is." Floating closer, he whispered, "I heard it has something to do with the Dragon King of the Western Sea!"

Oh, how rumors spread!

He is on an important mission. It's not on behalf of the Dragon King of the Western Sea, however, but of a far greater goddess.

The little dragon's snout scrunched up as he thought very, very hard. I could practically see him cycling down a mental scroll of the names of all the goddesses. "You mean – he's working for the Mistress of the Winds?"

If a mere employee at the Ministry of Weather were the highest goddess he could think of, then his mental scroll needed serious lengthening.

Even higher than that.

"The Duchess of Lightning?!"

Since she was the Assistant Director of Weather, at least that was an improvement.

Even higher than that, Your Majesty.

He fell into such a long silence that I was about to give him the answer when he started rattling off names in no order I could discern. "One of the Weaver Maidens, the Queen Mother of the West, Lady Chang of the Moon, She Who Hears the Cries of the World, She Who Sees the Suffering of the World, Lady Sweeper, the Goddess of Life – "

Not her, I couldn't help interjecting with a bitter twist of my neck. It is Lady Fate, Your Majesty. Den is on a mission for Lady Fate. As am I.

I expected a flood of questions about the nature of this mission, culminating in how he could assist us, at which point I'd ask him where we were and whether he could transport me to Norcap (that awful name still made me cringe). Instead –

"Huh. You're working for Lady Fate? No offense or anything, but you're a fox."

Yes. Yes! I was! I was a fox! A real fox!

"And not even...not even a fox spirit?" he gasped, taking a good look at me at last. "But you talk! In real words!"

Barks and warbles were a perfectly valid method of communication, thank you very much. It wasn't our fault he'd never bothered to learn the highest language of all.

Fate works in mysterious ways, Majesty. I dipped my head and tossed him an arch glance, followed by a toothy grin. I wouldn't question her, if I were you.

He sank back into a long, perplexed silence. Now that I stopped to think about it, if you knew Lady Fate's history with me (which every Serican old enough to be weaned or awakened did), another fox did seem like an odd choice.

If you didn't know either of us personally, that was. Which this minor, minuscule dragon patently did not.

"Ah, yes. I see," he said, not at all convincingly. "What brings you to Sweet Lily Pond?"

Finally the opening I'd been waiting for!

I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to divulge the specifics of my mission here – not least because there was none – but I was hoping you might assist me in returning to the city of Norcap.

"Norcap? Whoo boy, how'd you end up in the Snowy Mountains if you're trying to get to Norcap?"

Aha! That was where I was! It also happened to be where I'd sent Sphaera, Steelfang, Cornelius, One Ear, and the rest of the wolves.

I am here to inspect the progress of the reunification of the Serican Empire, I explained.

I expected the dragon king to brag about how Sphaera had come through and how he'd entertained her with all the lavish hospitality of his Water Court.

He blinked multiple times. "And you came here? Into the Wilds?"

They are no longer the Wilds, I said, getting worried. They are part of the Serican Empire.

"That...may be so...officially," he said slowly and carefully, "but you may need to convince a rather large number of demons of that."

What!

That couldn't be. Sphaera had express orders to conquer the Wilds so Eldon could rule over them. And not just anyone's orders, but MINE. The foxling would never contravene a direct command from Flos Piri, the greatest nine-tailed fox of all time.

The Dragon King of Sweet Lily Pond backed away from me. "I'm afraid so. She's established a stronghold here, with the aid of Steelfang and his wolf demons, but their progress has been…slow."

Take me to them at once.

Did I have words for that five-tailed runt!