A giggle was right there, hovering on the edge of the snowy cub’s lips.
Bai Yue held her breath, her heart soaring into her throat. I’m doing it! I’m actually doing it! He’s going to smile!
SWOOSH! The heavy hide curtain at the entrance of the hut was violently flung aside, letting in a blinding, aggressive shaft of midday sunlight.
"I cannot believe her! The absolute, unmitigated, celestial audacity!"
Cāng Jì bellowed at the top of his lungs, marching into the hut and throwing his hands dramatically into the air. His heavy golden robes swished aggressively, kicking up a cloud of dust from the dirt floor.
Ruì Xuě flinched violently.
The tiny, precious, world-saving smile instantly vanished, replaced imdiately by his usual wide-eyed, terrified stare.
The cub shrank backward with a pathetic little whimper, burying his little nose completely beneath his fluffy tail, turning himself into a tight, inaccessible ball of snowy fur.
Bai Yue slowly closed her eyes.
If she suddenly developed the magical ability to shoot lethal lasers from her pupils, the Golden Dragon Prince would currently be a pile of very expensive, sparkling ash.
"My own sister! Ejecting into the dirt like a common, wingless lizard!" Cāng Jì continued to rant, pacing back and forth, completely oblivious to the murderous, dark aura suffocating the woman lying on the floor. "And she wouldn’t even let take my jade hair comb! Do you know what this humidity does to draconic split ends?!"
Before Bai Yue could leap up and physically strangle him with his own silk sash, a chaotic tumbling of fur burst into the hut right behind him. The panther triplets and the little fox kit had followed the loud noise, swarming the oblivious dragon prince.
"Shiny man!" Miao Miao squeaked, instantly grabbing a handful of Cāng Jì’s elaborate robes and attempting to climb his leg.
"Why is the shiny lady outside so loud?" Yòu Lín asked, tilting his head and sitting obediently at the dragon’s feet, his bushy little tail thumping against the dirt. "Why doesn’t she want to play tag with us? Can we bite her?"
"Because she is a tyrant, little furballs," Cāng Jì groaned.
He dramatically sank to the floor in defeat, not even fighting it as the cubs imdiately began to crawl all over him. Xiao Hei imdiately started gnawing on his golden belt.
"She’s not going to leave. She never leaves when she finds a new treasure she wants to hoard. I’m dood to sleep in the dirt forever, surrounded by feral children."
"Where are Mo Xiao and Zhāo Yàn?" Bai Yue asked as she slowly pushed herself up from the floor, dusting off her skirt.
"They went to the western ridge," Cāng Jì sighed, absently patting A-Li on the head as the panther cub tried to chew on his earlobe. "Sothing about finding sweet tubers and fresh at for the cubs. Said they needed to keep their strength up to deal with the ’golden pest problem’ in the front yard."
CRASH! "Watch where you cast your filthy shadows, you primitive mongrels!"
A loud, distressed yelp, followed imdiately by the sharp, crackling sound of a magical blast, echoed from just outside the hut. The ground trembled slightly from the impact.
Bai Yue’s head snapped toward the entrance. She looked back at Ruì Xuě, who was shivering slightly in the corner of his nest.
The mory of his almost-smile, the smile that was going to literally save her soul, burned brightly and painfully in her mind.
That arrogant, overgrown lizard ruined my son’s smile. And now she’s terrorizing my neighbors.
"I’m going to give that over-privileged, scaled nace a piece of my mind," Bai Yue seethed, aggressively cracking her knuckles. "Nobody ruins my fluff-ti."
She marched past Cāng Jì, who looked up in sudden alarm, and threw the hide curtain open with enough force to tear it off its wooden hinges.
Outside, the clearing was a chaotic, terrifying ss.
Cāng Yáo stood imperiously on the newly ford, pristine white jade steps of her obnoxious golden pavilion.
At the bottom of the steps, a large grey wolf beastman was entirely laid out in the dirt, clutching a scorched, smoking patch of fur on his arm. A slender crane beastman was hovering over him, desperately trying to help him up while casting terrified glances at the glowing woman.
"You dared to let your shadow fall upon my pavilion’s threshold," Cāng Yáo sneered, her chin tilted up in disgust as she looked down at the two trembling males. "Consider yourselves incredibly lucky I only singed your fur instead of boiling your blood."
"Hey! Princess Sparkle-Scales!"
Bai Yue roared, stomping into the clearing.
Cāng Yáo paused. The magical glow in her hand dimd slightly as her golden eyes narrowed, locking onto the muddy, furious female marching aggressively toward her. Slowly, the dragoness’s irritated scowl morphed into a mocking smile.
"Ah, you," Cāng Yáo drawled lazily.
She waved her hand dismissively, allowing the injured wolf and the panicked crane to scurry away into the safety of the treeline. She leaned casually against a carved jade pillar, the gold chains of her headdress chiming in the breeze. "The little, loud mud-rat. Tell , where is my pet?"
"He is not your pet!" Bai Yue snapped, stopping at the base of the jade stairs and pointing a firm finger directly at the dragoness. "And you need to stop blowing up my tribemates just because you’re throwing a celestial temper tantrum!"
"A tantrum?" Cāng Yáo echoed, her eyes flashing. "I am simply enforcing basic hygiene in my imdiate vicinity. But since you are so fiercely protective of what obviously doesn’t belong to you... shall we test it?"
Bai Yue crossed her arms over her chest, her jaw set stubbornly. "Test what?"
"Your absurd, pathetic little claim," Cāng Yáo purred, slowly descending the jade stairs. "You truly think you are worthy of the Fox Lord? Let us make a wager. A battle of sorts."
Cāng Yáo stopped on the bottom step, looking down her nose at Bai Yue. "If you can complete a task of my choosing.....I will pack up my pavilion, take my utterly useless brother, and leave this miserable forest. I will never look twice at your precious fox again."
Bai Yue narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "And if I can’t?"
Cāng Yáo’s smirk widened, stretching across her beautiful face to show off a flash of perfectly sharp, pearlescent teeth. "If you can’t.....you publicly renounce your claim. You leave him, and he belongs to . Forever."
"Wait, Bai Yue, don’t do it!"
Cāng Jì’s panicked shout echoed from the hut as he tumbled out into the dirt, the cubs still clinging tenaciously to his robes. "Don’t agree to it! Dragon wagers are bound by ancient magic! It’s an unbreakable contract! Once you accept, the magic will force you to comply!"
To Bai Yue, it sounded exactly like taking out a massive, high-interest loan on pure impulse just to settle a petty score, knowing full well the crushing debt would inevitably ruin her life later.
It was reckless. It was a terrible, horrible idea.
But as she looked up at Cāng Yáo’s unbearably smug face, and rembered the traumatized shiver of her snow leopard cub inside the hut... her spite completely overrode her logic.
"Fine," Bai Yue declared, sealing her fate. "I accept your wager."
"Excellent," the Dragon Princess whispered, her eyes glowing like twin suns. "Let the gas begin."
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