Nyx’Sol started to think that it was indeed bad luck to leave home during daytime. He had been almost killed by a squirrel, mauled by a wolf, and stabbed to death by the most proficient swordmaster in current existence—all before the sun had even passed its highest point. Surely, leaving the safety of the path to clean up at a stream would not be a decision that he would regret, right?
He sighed. It was the literal Sword God that advised him to. Who was he to question his wisdom?
Barely four hours into his journey, he had already ruined one of his Eternal Blossom Clan robes—soaked in blood and cut apart. At least his wounds had closed properly, and the pill the swordmaster had fed him also seemed to restore his blood loss.
His sandals were still pristine, the leather holding out far better than he had hoped and the self-cleaning enchantment slowly broke down bits of leaves and dirt that had stuck to them. But that could not be said for all of his gear.
One of his wooden armguards had a deep cut through it, which could only mean one thing:
He had cheated! He did use more power than he was supposed to! Outrageous!
Sol was suddenly in a far better mood than he had been a few minutes ago. Shouldering his backpack, he hurried into the woods, looking for the promised stream.
On the way, however, he discovered a devastated section of forest just 100 meters off the side of the road. Trees had been uprooted as if something very large had left in a hurry. Large footprints cleared a path through bushes, with splinters of wood almost creating a carpet for Sol to walk on.
Following the path of a giant spirit beast in order to find some water? Yes, no problem.
On the bright side, the forest was quiet and peaceful, and there had been some rather unlucky squirrels that had died in the stampede of whatever came through. Sol picked them up wherever they had not popped open like ripe watermelons, so dinner was taken care of as well.
After two minutes of following the pathway that something had created, it turned toward the left, deeper into the woods, while the sound of rushing water ahead indicated that the desired place had been spared destruction.
Not only did Sol find a stream of water, but he also found a small pond with crystal-clear water above a suspiciously artificial stone formation. He checked the water and quickly found that it was warm to the touch. Who built something like this in the middle of nowhere?
It was so suspicious that he did not dare touch the water further and washed his body and clothes upstream in the much colder water. The last thing he needed was to accidentally trigger the entrance to someone's hidden domain. No, thank you.
As he was taking a cold but welcome bath and had cleaned off most of the blood from his body, he spotted a tiny critter observing him. It was not stalking him or intending him harm—that much was clear from the giant boulder that sat on top of it. The head of the white fox stayed perfectly still, clearly waiting for Sol to leave so it could continue digging itself out.
If that huge boulder would not kill it, nothing would. The damage to his robes was not too terrible since the cuts were clean and none of the cloth had been lost, so he built a little fire to dry them while he tried to fix them with his poor stitching skills. He had always hated that work and been glad that his sister had enjoyed it.
It took him more than twenty minutes to sew the cuts shut, cut one of the squirrels open, and put it on top of the bonfire. While the clothes dried under the scorching heat and the smell of grilled meat filled the clearing, the little observer made itself known.
“Give me some,” the white fox telepathically voiced its complaint.
After the events he had been in so far, Nyx’Sol just shrugged. “Sure, what do you want? Bloody innards or cooked meat?”
The white fox licked its snout. “Both.”
Sol sighed. “It is not done cooking yet,” he said as he dropped the bloody entrails before the little fox and took a seat with a handful of his plukar berries.
The little fox tilted its head in a confused manner, as if it was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Go ahead. I have two more squirrels if you are starving,” Sol comforted the spirit animal while eating his sour berries. “So,” he began, “what happened to you, to be stuck below this boulder?”
The fox licked the blood off the food in front of it as it explained telepathically. “A cultivator put this seal on me a while ago.” It sounded as if it was the most minute problem in the world to face. Intelligent spirit animals were usually very powerful, so that might be the case.
“I see,” Sol replied. “So, yes to the other two squirrels?”
“Thank you for the offer,” the little fox said, as if it was about to decline a gracious offer. “Yes, please.”
Nyx chuckled and rose to skin the other two squirrels. It was always something he had found rather easy to do—he had skinned horned rabbits since his father had shown him when he was four years old. His sharp claws made the effort trivial.
Preparing the other two squirrels had given the first one enough time to roast. His clothing looked almost dry on one side, so he flipped it over. In ten to fifteen minutes, he would be ready to leave again.
He sat down in front of his new friend and offered both cooked and uncooked squirrels. “Try them both. If you like them better cooked, I will roast them for you before I leave.”
The white fox did as he suggested before voicing its verdict. “It smells delightful roasted on top of flames, yet the taste of raw meat remains my preference.” Then it picked apart the three squirrels in record time. It managed to look dignified while ripping the meat skillfully off its bones.
Sol put out the campfire, put on his dried clothes, and stashed the rest of his berries in one of his pockets before going to see the fox off. As he approached, he spotted a red piece of paper on the side of the boulder, fluttering in the breeze. Curious, he approached it.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
[Heavy]
Just a single word was written on it. Sol tested how heavy the paper really was by pulling on it—
And ripped it right off the boulder, which audibly cracked and crumbled into nothingness.
“Huh, I found the seal, I think.”
The little fox squinted at him, its two beautiful white tails revealing themselves below the now-disappearing boulder. “Proceed, young cultivator,” the fox said, taking the last remaining squirrel into its mouth. “I will escort you until you get out of my forest safely.”
Nyx’Sol chuckled and bowed to his new friend. “My thanks.”
With another thought, he added, “Do you like mushrooms? I could make us some meat with mushrooms tonight if you want.”
The fox trotted along next to Sol, showing little care about the devastating condition the forest was in. “With squirrels?”
“If you want to save yours for later, we can use it, but I also have some dried meat.”
The little fox quickly agreed, and Sol added the skinned animal to his backpack as they approached the vicinity of the road.
However, fate had decided to throw a little problem his way. With audible cracks two large spirit beasts rose out of the shadows of the forest ahead.
With a sigh, Nyx’Sol eyed the two giant, four-meter-tall silverrock-back gorillas. He had read about these spirit beasts. They were aggressive about their territory, rushing to fight even opponents that were beyond their station. Their cores held a special use for alchemy. Sol was not sure what use, as it had been a long time since he had read that particular book.
The drawings in the book really did their originals justice. They looked fierce.
“Why are we stopping?” the little fox asked, casually walking ahead, its tails raised high.
Sol was about to warn it when it voiced a simple command telepathically: “Sit.”
The silverrock-back gorillas both knocked their heads into the ground with full force, trying to comply with the command, unable to raise themselves up afterward.
Completely smitten with how lucky he had been to make a new friend, Nyx passed the two giant threats and stepped onto the road, where the little fox casually followed.
“You have just earned yourself some extra meat,” Sol proclaimed happily. “Thank you for your help.”
His newfound companion just trotted along the road. “You would have done the same.”
“How do you know?” Sol argued, glancing back at the huge spirit animals still burying their heads in the dirt.
The little fox replied, “It did not escape my attention that you have already done so by freeing me from my temporary predicament.” It had already walked ahead of Sol, turned, and tapped the road impatiently. “Come along now.”
“How long are they going to stay like this?” Sol inquired. “I feel a bit bad for them; they were only defending their home.”
“Until sundown. Their hearts had been consumed by rage, clouding their feeble skulls' judgment,” the fox proclaimed happily. “It will do them well.”
“I see. I really should call you Master, since you are so kind in protecting me,” Sol mused.
The little fox audibly huffed before speaking in his mind again. “After alleviating that tedium of senseless boredom, I owe you some gratitude. While I do not intend to take disciples, you may call me ‘Great Master of Wisdom.’”
“Yes, Great Master of Wisdom,” Sol chuckled. This little spirit beast either had quite the sense of humor or was really old and really took pride in its wisdom. “What is your name?”
“You demons really do take pride in names,” the spirit beast yawned. “They have called me many names over the years.”
“Which one did you like the most?” Sol mused, picking up the occasional fallen twig as firewood for the evening campfire. “Surely there must have been one?”
The white fox transformed into a huge white fox, its body reaching Sol’s hips with ease. Its two tails split apart, forming four. “Ahh! This feels better.” It shook its pristine fur. “They called me ‘Nine-Tales of the South.’ I appreciate the name because it plays on my appearance, mentioning my beautiful nine tails, and praising the feats of my earlier journeys, of which there are nine.”
Sol could hardly resist touching the beautiful spirit animal's fur. The implications of its size were not very encouraging for his meat supply. Especially if it grew to its full size. Four tails already seemed huge, how large would it be at nine tails? “You are right; that is a nice title. What about names?”
The little fox tilted its head. “There is a difference? What about the demon you call ‘The Rise of the Dawn’? Is that not a name?”
“Hmm.” Sol reminisced about a book on the Dawn Fortress he had read a few months ago. “Maybe ‘Nine-Tales of the South’ is more of a moniker, describing your feats and exploits, while ‘The Rise of the Dawn’ might be more of a title since it describes the leader of the Dawn Fortress.”
The little fox shook its head wildly. “Are there really even more distinctions between names, titles, and these monikers? Tiresome concepts. What is your name? I never had a conversation about names before.”
Sol happily explained. “When demons are born, they are usually named after the color of their skin. It is a short name. There is ‘Nyx’ for dark gray or black skin. My sister’s skin is green, so she was called ‘Verx.’ My younger brother has blue skin, named ‘Azrx,’ and my older brother has purple skin, called ‘Nox.’ But there is also red skin. That is called ‘Rax.’”
The spirit animal thought about it for a bit. “I see. What about white?”
“There are no demons that have white skin,” Sol explained. “Not everyone is as lucky to have such beautiful white fur. It looks very soft.”
This seemed to improve the fox’s mood. “You may continue.”
While the fox had probably meant the compliment, Nyx used the opportunity to explain a little more about names. “When demons awaken—which is typically during their 16th birthday at the latest—they choose their own name, adding it to the first part of their name. ‘Nyx’ for me became ‘Nyx’Sol.’”
The fox eyed him. “Should it not have been ‘Nyx’Rax’? Because of the tone of your skin taking on a red hue in the sun?”
Sol smiled. “That would be confusing. There are a lot of demons. If someone has the same skin color and thus the same name as me, how would you know who you are talking about when naming them? A name should define who you are.”
The fox contemplated these thoughts as Nyx gathered a few more sticks for firewood. “So, the sun defines who you are? That is why you chose Sol?”
“Something like that,” Sol agreed, thinking of the fire dancing on his skin. “It fit me.”
The fox shrank down to a three-tailed version, the size of a curbear cub. “What name would you choose for me?”
Sol thought about it for a while. “Your white fur would definitely be your first name. Do you like the moon?” he asked curiously.
“Yes. The full moon is beautiful, like me,” the now little two-tailed fox agreed. Its size was apparently whatever it chose to be at any given moment. “You mean to suggest ‘Luna’ as a first name?”
Sol nodded. “And then add something that describes you best. You are a Great Wise Master, so you might choose something that invokes that?”
“But I am also the ruler of this forest. Would that not come first in describing myself?” the little fox argued. “Ruler of Great Wisdom.”
Sol thought back to one of the scrolls he had read. “I remember some accounts of a demon describing different worlds during his adventures. One of the rulers of a large empire had been called ‘Aracheos the Wise.’ A ruler of wisdom.”
His traveling companion tilted its head. “That does sound like me.”
“How about using ‘Lun’ of the moon as your first name and adding Archos?” Sol suggested. “Lun’Archos?”
The beautiful white fox grew to five tails in the blink of an eye, its head towering slightly over Nyx’Sol’s shoulders. “It sounds too male. I do not like that. But the idea is good.”
They both thought for a while before the spirit beast arrived at a choice first. “Lun’Archessa. I will call myself that. Less like a wise king and more like a wise princess.”
“Excellent choice, Great Wise Master Archessa,” Sol chuckled as they continued their travels.
