8. Zhang Xiao Dan
Chapter 8
Zhang Xiao Dan
985 CE
Luoyang, near Zhang manor
T he basket swung on Xiao Dan’s wrist as he ducked under a low branch. He plucked another plum from the tree and added it to his growing collection. Bright moonlight filled the orchard, caressing each of the plump fruits waiting for him. He might have teased Chen about wanting to make a fresh batch of plum wine when none of them could get drunk on the liquor any longer, but the peace of picking plums by moonlight was just what he’d needed.
In Junjie’s defense, Xiang had started the argument, but it had spiraled out of control to swoop up Mei Lian, Yichen, Chen, and even Ming Yu. After sending them all out to the practice yard to run through a series of exhausting drills, Xiao Dan had grabbed a basket and left the manor for the orchard.
This kind of fractiousness was to be expected; they’d been together for well over a thousand years at this point.
A thousand years of nights, of hunting humans for their blood, of hiding away from the world.
After shedding Jiang Chong at last, they’d enjoyed a lengthy peace, but there had been others who wished to cause trouble for their clan. Other vampires and witches who’d wished to stir up trouble for them, but one by one, they’d all fallen to the combined might of the Zhang clan.
Yet, after too much quiet solitude, his clan mates grew restless. And if some of them—namely Xiang—didn’t find some kind of outlet for distraction, they picked fights.
Sadly, Xiao Dan didn’t know what to do for them.
In the time prior to becoming vampires, when people would come to the Sword of the Heavenly Garden sect to study, they’d arrive as children and most would leave in their late teens or early twenties, going out to make their own lives. They’d go out to serve their families or the emperor. They’d join the military or government. Some would go home to take over the family business and marry who they were told to marry.
A handful would stay behind to continue their studies and to teach the next generation of disciples.
If not for Jiang Chong, Xiang would have likely become a general for the emperor and led armies into battle. Chen would have become a crafty minister in the government. Possibly even one of the emperor’s chief advisors. Yichen would have returned home to his father king and sat on the throne in the Wu Kingdom. Junjie would have remained in Luoyang to become a teacher of the disciples, while Mei Lian would have married Cao Zimo according to her family’s wishes. Ming Yu would have remained a servant dutifully caring for the Zhang clan.
Of course, if not for Jiang Chong, they would have all died centuries ago.
Instead, they were all still alive a thousand years later and feeling agitated and edgy. What was he supposed to tell them? Go out into the world and find yourself?
What did they know of this world? Was it safe for them to wander out in all directions?
Maybe he was the problem. He didn’t want them to go.
After everything they’d lost, the lives that had been stolen away so young, Xiao Dan clung to those who remained within the clan, not wanting any of them to come to harm. But that also meant they weren’t living the lives they had. He was holding them back because he couldn’t deal with his own fears.
A sigh tripped from his parted lips as he moved to another tree to search for ripe plums. The rich, sweet scent drifted on a breeze that stirred the leaves and grasses, whispering of warm sunny days long gone from his world.
He missed Huli.
Xiao Dan froze as he reached for a plum and replayed that thought. Huli. The little fox that had stuck so close to him for nearly fifty years had vanished. More than twenty years had passed since he’d seen him. He’d initially thought the huli jing had gone off to live a life of adventure and mischief, but now he wondered if maybe something darker had happened to the creature. Should he have spent more time searching for him?
Despite his frequent visits, Huli was always a wild creature, free to come and go, but the sweet fox spirit had clung to him so. Why would he leave with no warning?
Xiao Dan snorted at his thoughts. No warning? What was the fox supposed to do to warn him he needed to go on a long journey?
Regardless, he missed their nightly ambles through the woods. He missed having Huli curl up in his lap while he talked to him about so many random thoughts in his head that he didn’t dare share with the rest of his clan. Huli alone had been the repository of all his doubts and fears. Maybe Huli had tired of listening to all his whining.
“Zhang-ge!”
Xiao Dan jerked around, searching the dark shadows of the nearby forest for the person who’d called out to him. But the shadows didn’t move, and no one stepped forward. His fist tightened on the handle of the basket, and he stepped away from the tree he’d been inspecting to move into a clearing.
“Who’s there?”
Seconds ticked by, and there was only the breeze and the moon.
As he was turning back to the plum tree, convinced he’d imagined the soft voice, something moved to his left.
“Does Zhang-ge remember me?”
He turned toward the voice, his lips parting to say that he had no memory of a disembodied voice, when the basket slipped from his fingers at the sight of a large fox perched on a fallen log. His heart lodged in his throat.
“Huli?” he choked out.
“Yes! I am your Huli!” The fox bounded across the orchard to Xiao Dan as his knees gave out and he sank to the soft ground.
Huli was alive, and he could talk!
The world was spinning, but it came into sharp focus as that wet tongue swiped across his face again and again. The fox pressed his paws into Xiao Dan’s chest as Huli licked and nuzzled him with a frightening ferocity. Apparently, he wasn’t the only one who’d been melancholy. He’d stopped talking and given in to his excited, high-pitched barks and other odd noises.
Xiao Dan laughed and spat out mouthfuls of fur as he tried to get his hands on the fox. When he could get the creature in hand, he pushed it away so he could get a good look at him.
“Huli, you can talk now? How? Where have you been?”
The wild huli jing broke free and rolled onto his back, throwing all his black feet into the air. “Huli can talk! Huli can talk just like a human now.”
“Yes, you can. I’m so impressed…and…and…stunned. I never…” Huli might have learned how to speak, but Xiao Dan found himself speechless, as if the fox had stolen away all of his words.
Huli rolled over and bounced to his feet. “I am a huli jing, and we are magic.”
“Yes, I know. I?—”
Huli paced in front of him, seeming to flick his tails.
Tails!
Huli had two tails now. They looked identical, as if it were a trick of his eyes or some kind of illusion, but it wasn’t. They both brushed across his hand. The fur was soft and so very fluffy.
“You have two tails,” Xiao Dan exhaled, still unable to tear his eyes away from them.
“I do!” Huli sat, his chest puffed out as if he were exceptionally proud. His tails flicked and moved constantly. “I traveled far away and cultivated for many years in a magical, secret place. The moment I was strong enough, my second tail appeared, and I could speak. I could return to Zhang-ge.”
“I’m so proud of you, Huli!” Xiao Dan lifted his hands to cup Huli’s cheeks and scratch his ears with his long fingers. The fox’s tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth and his eyes rolled up into his head as if he were in heaven. Huli didn’t need words for Xiao Dan to know this was his very favorite spot to be scratched. He’d learned that trick years ago, and it still held true.
“Does this mean you’ll stay now?” he asked, and the fox stiffened in his hands. Huli’s triangular ears drooped, and the fox moved closer, bumping his head against the center of Xiao Dan’s chest. It was like he wanted to be picked up and cuddled—something he’d done as a tiny pup. But Huli was now bigger than every fox he’d ever seen. It wasn’t a matter of Huli being too big to cuddle, but rather that his size now made it awkward.
“Huli?” he prodded at the fox’s sudden silence.
“Don’t be mad.”
“Why would I be mad? What’s wrong?”
“Huli can’t stay, and Huli wants to stay with Zhang-ge forever.”
Joy and fear warred in Xiao Dan’s chest, but he pushed all those feelings away so he could focus on his sad fox. “Look at me and tell me what’s going on. Is someone forcing you to leave? If that’s the case, I will help you. I would never allow anyone to threaten or harm you.”
“This is why Huli loves his Zhang-ge. He always protects Huli and keeps him safe.”
“Of course. You are precious to me.”
Huli rubbed his head on the palm of Xiao Dan’s hand once before sitting up to face him. “I…I must leave because there isn’t enough magic here for me to cultivate, and I will become a true jiuweihu. I want all my nine tails.” The fierceness of Huli’s words brought a smile to Xiao Dan’s lips even as his throat tightened. “I returned when I could speak, so I could tell Zhang-ge why I was gone. I want Zhang-ge to wait for me while I become more powerful.”
“Will you return to visit each time you gain a new tail?”
“I don’t know. The places I must travel are very far away. It will take me a long time to return to you each time.”
Xiao Dan put a hand under Huli’s chin and forced the fox to lift his head so he could stare into those warm amber eyes. “I will be here waiting for Huli, no matter how long it takes you to return. This is important to you, and I support you. If you wish to be a powerful jiuweihu, then you do whatever you must do to become that.”
The fox whined and pushed into his lap, startling a laugh out of Xiao Dan. “But I miss Zhang-ge so much. I don’t want to leave!”
Xiao Dan hugged the fox as best he could, despite all his wiggling and flicking tails. “I miss you too. But each time you return from your adventures, you’ll have so many stories to tell me and new tails to show off.”
That lifted Huli’s spirits in a flash. The fox bounded out of his arms and raced around the orchard as if he had to once again show off his new tail. He zoomed over to Xiao Dan, his mouth open wide. “One night, I will come back to Zhang-ge and I will shift into a human. Zhang-ge will fall hopelessly in love with me!”
Xiao Dan’s heart skipped, and he found himself tongue-tied. In love with a huli jing? That was the focus of so many cautionary tales about the creatures, and ended in the human’s ruin. And yet, it wasn’t fear that he first felt when Huli spoke of falling for him.
He cleared his throat. “Huli is already precious to me. You’re my dear friend. How could I not love you?”
“No!” Huli bristled, and his tails stood up straight behind him. “Not as friends. You will love me as your mate. I want you with me forever!” Huli’s fierce determination had him trembling one second and wilting in the next. “But I must leave my Zhang-ge so I can become stronger.”
Xiao Dan reached out and scratched behind his left ear. “But you can stay with me for a little while, right?”
“Just two nights,” the fox mumbled.
Xiao Dan’s heart squeezed. That wasn’t enough time to spend with his fox, but he had to make the best of it. He didn’t allow his smile to waver. “Two nights is enough time for you to tell me about all the things you’ve seen while you’ve been away.”
“Yes!”
And like that, Huli’s spirits rebounded. The fox launched into tale after tale of distant forests, small villages, winding wild rivers, and epic mountains. Xiao Dan snagged his forgotten basket and resumed picking plums, hanging on Huli’s every word. For a time, he forgot about his worries with his clan and their growing restlessness. Huli opened up an entire world for him he’d never seen.
When the sun was rising on the second night, he hugged his beloved fox with two tails tightly and sent him into the world with a bounce in his step. Instantly, he missed Huli’s enthusiasm and simple joy in everything that surrounded him. He missed the fox’s playful mischief and fearless determination. There might have been a bit of worry in his heart that he would fall hopelessly in love with Huli. Could he dare to love a huli jing?
Yet, if his most recent encounter with the huli jing had taught him anything, it was that it was time for his clan mates to venture out in the world. Even if it was only for a short time. If a young huli jing could do it and return safely, thousand-year-old vampires had to be able to manage easily enough. Zhang manor would always be their home, but it was time for them to see a bit of the world after being hidden away for so long.