Rivals

Feng Hei Lang looked at the unknown scribbles in front of her eyes. She had no idea what it said, but she could see that it seemed to be a multiple choice question.

She frowned and squinted at it. 'Is this a language that all beasts know or something? Because it makes ZERO sense to me!' Feng Hei Lang stared at the question before sighing. She pulled open her Skill Credit shop. 'I have 210 Skill Credits, so surely I can find a skill to help me read this?'

She scrolled through all the skills listed until she paused at two.

[Linguistics]

[Ability to write understand any language (written only)]

[Translation]

[Ability to speak and understand any language (speaking only)]

Together, they added up to one hundred and fifty Skill Credits. Feng Hei Lang quickly bought them. 'Come on! I must be able to read this!'

She activated [Linguistics] and [Translation] as soon as she got it. The scribbles on the wall of fog started clearing up, slowly. Feng Hei Lang squinted her eyes harder. 'Just a little bit more...'

The words looked like they were alive as they reformed themselves into words she could understand.

"The cloud shimmers as a shadow vast,

Thou must hide from thy past,

By which a winged snaked tread,

All thou shall past is ___"

She stared at the poem in silence. 'Are you serious... HOW DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE?! It's NOT a multiple choice! It's a freaking POEM!'

Feng Hei Lang sighed and calmed herself down. 'Alright...the words rhyme. What rhymes with tread? Fed, bread, bed, red, pled...'

She shouted a few words out. "Fed! Red! Pled!"

The wall of fog starting rumbling and the ceiling slightly descended slightly. Feng Hei Lang looked up. 'That's not good...if I give wrong answers, I'll be squashed!' She ran through the possibilities in her head. 'It can basically be anything except for verbs!'

Feng Hei Lang sighed and looked up at the poem. She murmured, "Lead, spread, shed, head..."

A voice suddenly spoke in her mind and she leapt up. 'Mommy! Mommy!' Feng Hei Lang called out, "Xing?"

'Dead!'

She froze. "Excuse me? Xing, are you okay?"

His voice appeared in her head once more before fading away. 'Mommy...answer! Dead-'

With that, their connection was cut off. Feng Hei Lang looked up at the poem once more and said, "Dead. The answer is dead."

This time, instead of the ceiling descending, the wall of fog glowed and a passageway appeared. She clenched her fist in excitement. "Yes!" Feng Hei Lang walked through the foggy tunnel as light entered her vision.

She closed her eyes and when she opened them, she could see Xing, Kang Lei, and Kirei all standing there. Kang Lei held up his paw when he saw her. "Hei Lang! You made it through!"

Feng Hei Lang grinned. "Yup! I did!" She patted Xing on the head as she bent down. "Good job, Xing."

He smiled. 'Thank you, Mommy!'

She stood up and looked around her. Trees surrounded them, along with bushes. Kirei saw her looking and said, "We're inside Celio Forest. We should head to the Iron Fanged Clan at once."

Feng Hei Lang nodded. "Alright, lead the way."

~~~~~

As they were walking and sneaking through, Feng Hei Lang murmured, "What was that poem back at the trial?"

Kang Lei looked shocked. "What?! You didn't know it? How could you have passed?!"

She sighed. "Xing told me the answer. I've never heard of that poem."

Kirei turned back to her. "That's unusual. That poem is passed down for generation through spiritual beasts. It's a legend. I can give you a proper translation of the entire poem."

"The cloud shimmers as a shadow vast,

Thou must hide from thy past,

By which a winged snake tread,

All thou shall past is dead."

Kang Lei nodded. "That's the first verse. It means that soon a calamity brought from the shadows is a winged snake. The person in the legend must hide from their past and if they cross the winged snake, they'll die or something like that." He shrugged.

Kirei cleared his throat. "Close enough. Here is the second verse."

"The future depends on thou,

Thy must be helped and bowed,

Rejection shall mean death,

And the ocean shall take thou last breath."

Feng Hei Lang shivered as she heard it. "Sounds dark enough. Will that legend come true?"

Kang Lei shrugged again. "No one knows. Some say it's a prophecy, while others say that it's just a child's poem."

Kirei quickly shushed them. "Shh...we're getting closer to the Iron Fanged Clan's hideout."

As they got closer to the dens, they leapt into a bush to hide, but crashed into a something.

Feng Hei Lang whispered, "Ouch! Who is this?"

She quickly brushed herself off and looked. There were a few other foxes other than them. A white female fox, a female yellow one, and a male green one.

Feng Hei Lang quickly used [Appraisal] on them.

[Fo Lau]

Species: Glacial Fox

Special Ability: Ice Field (A)

[Mian Li]

Species: Dragon Sun Fox

Special Ability: Shapeshifting (B)

[Ge Xiao]

Species: Bush Fox

Special Ability: Chameleon (B)

She hissed, "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

Fo Lau hissed right back at her. "Who are you and what are YOU doing here? We're clearly here for the Iron Fanged Wolf Clan!"

Kirei butted in. "Sorry, but we'll be taking that wolf."

Ge Xiao growled at him. "We were here first. We're taking the wolf!"

Sparks of conflict could be seen brewing up between the two groups of foxes.