The Nine-tailed Fox sneaks around

Lu Jiao isn't amused when she reads Zou Qiao's note. She scrunches up the thin sheet of paper in her hand, and glares up at Wu Yun, from her place on the floor at her writing desk.

"Wasn't this what your conversation with him was supposed do avoid?"

"I thought everything was fine yesterday. He seemed calm, only a little regretful." Wu Yun says, his ears flat against his head.

"I think he's going to try and confront Lian Feng," Bai Xiaoli says. "What else could 'I'm going to make it right' mean?"

Wu Yun bites his bottom lip and exchanges a worried look with Lan Tian. That's what he fears, as well.

"We can find him," Lan Tian says. His reassuring grip on Wu Yun's shoulder does little to dispel his concern.

Wan Mi burst in through the sliding doors, and throws herself at Lu Jiao's feet, out of breath.

"Master, Zou Qiao isn't anywhere in Kunlun, no one has seen him since last night," she says, bowing her head.

"He must have gone to Immortal Mountain," Wu Yun says. He can't see any other explanation, and he worries what it could mean, for both Zou Qiao and Kunlun.

"Lian Feng is bidding her time, if her intention is attacking us, as that Zhao Yi said, she should have done it already. If she hasn't it's because she's waiting for something," Lu Jiao says, staring resolutely ahead.

"Or someone," Wu Yun says, and turns to Bai Xiaoli. "Do you know anything about the Gods who might be helping them keep the captured beasts under control?"

She shakes her head, regret pinching her scholarly features. "I've done all I could, but I couldn't find anything about their identities. But there must be gods helping them, no other person, cultivator of beast, can affect another's mind."

"Shouldn't this be forbidden? Didn't you say gods couldn't do anything that went against a human's free will?" Wu Yun wonders if there will come a day when gods won't be a source of problems in one of his lives.

"A human's. Not a beast's. Gods have no accountability towards beasts," Bai Xiaoli says, lowering her head.

Bai Xiaoli's words fall on the room like a sword, and it's as if a curtain has descended between her and everyone else. She notices the change in atmosphere, and steps away from Lu Jiao, giving her room to get up from her pillow.

Lu Jiao paces the room with her hands behind her back, a crease of concentration between her brows.

Finally, she turns towards Wan Mi.

"Wan Mi, go with them to Immortal Mountain, and bring back Zou Qiao." Wan Mi's head shoots up at her command as if being pulled by a string. "Don't be found, either of you."

"What if we can't find Zou Qiao?" Wan Mi asks, getting up to her feet.

Lu Jiao sighs, "It's paramount that the three of you aren't found, we can't end up losing yet more people. If you can't find him, come back."

That doesn't sit well with Wu Yun, especially considering that he is the one to blame for Zou Qiao leaving in the first place.

"We'll find him," he says, not sure if the words are supposed to convince Lu Jiao or himself.

---

Wan Mi changes into her phoenix form as soon as they are outside of the Phoenix's Perch, and Wu Yun and Lan Tian climb onto her back. Wu Yun goes first, and as soon as Lan Tian sits behind him, he wraps all his tails around his waist.

"For safety," he says, in reply to Lan Tian's amused chuckle.

"He can fly too, you know?" Wan Mi says, rolling a huge emerald eye at the two of them.

"I'm not sure I'm willing to try this soon after the antidote's effects," Lan Tian says, tangling his fingers in one of the tails around his middle. "And I don't mind."

Wu Yun smiles privately to himself at the feeling of Lan Tian's soft touch.

---

Arriving in Immortal Mountain isn't the problem, but once there, they have the issue of slipping through the sect's gates unnoticed.

"Lets just go in with our beast forms," Wan Mi says, and closes her eyes to change from the giant phoenix who carried them across the skies to the pheasant sized bird Wu Yun first met.

"Little chicken, I missed you," he says, trying to pet her crested head.

She, predictably, tries to peck his fingers. "Now you two, stop wasting time," she says, ruffling her feathers.

Wu Yun isn't sure how he's supposed to do it, but it shouldn't be too hard. He tries to conjure the mental image of himself as the small fox of the previous day, and tries to focus his qi into his limbs, keeping that picture in mind.

When he opens his eyes again, he's staring straight into Wan Mi's emerald eyes. He looks down and sees black velvety paws instead of arms and hands.

"Uh, easier than I thought," he says, twisting around to try and catch a glimpse at his own tails.

Lan Tian smiles at both of them, and closes his eyes, concentrating on changing his form.

He succeeds, except he almost crushes Wu Yun and Wan Mi under the bulk of his body.

Wu Yun yips and jumps out of the way, landing on Lan Tian's massive head.

He peers down, to look into one of his huge amber eyes. "Maybe a little smaller than that, we're trying to be inconspicuous."

Lan Tian is as large, if not larger, than when Wu Yun first met him in the river, all those months ago. It's a good thing Wan Mi landed in a secluded clearing, because there's no way someone wouldn't notice his current size.

"I'll try," Lan Tian says, his voice comes out gravely and rumbling.

The ground seems to shake each time he moves. He closes his eyes, and concentrates. Blinding light shimmers through his blue scales until it consumes all of him.

When it's gone in a flash, Lan Tian is no bigger than the small snake he changed into due to the antidote's side effects.

Wu Yun lowers his muzzle to Lan Tian's spiky crown of scales, and rubs against it gently. "No inbetween uh?"

"I think not," Lan Tian says, flicking his tongue against Wu Yun's wet nose, and climbing up his legs to curl himself on the fluffy mane of fur around his neck.

Wan Mi squeaks and starts flapping her wings, "Can we go, now?"

She leads the way, walking quietly through the underbrush, and flying only when she needs to see if the way ahead is clear, otherwise her red feathers and long colourful tail might catch too much attention. Wu Yun walks with his belly close to the floor, his black fur isn't eye-catching, and disappears seamlessly in the shadows between the low foliage.

Lan Tian hides himself in Wu Yun's fur until only two small amber eyes peek out.

Their first hurdle comes when they reach the tall stone wall surrounding Immortal Mountain grounds. 

Wan Mi could potentially fly over, and Lan Tian can scuttle up the rough stone like any lizard.

But what about Wu Yun? Even if he was much larger, he isn't sure he would be able to jump the entirety of the wall. 

"Can you carry me?" he asks Wan Mi.

She cocks her head doubtfully at him, but still jumps over his back and tries to lift him by the scruff of his neck.

Her wings flap furiously, but Wu Yun doesn't rise a single cun from the floor.

"Sorry," she says, releasing his fur from her beak.

It was worth the try, but that still leaves them on the wrong side of the wall.

That's when Wu Yun remembers that when he was just a fox, before having a human form, he was able to teleport himself across short distances.

Maybe he can do it again. 

He doesn't have a strong recollection of how he managed to do it before. He just imagined himself somewhere, and then he was there.

Wu Yun closes his eyes, and imagines himself on the other side of the wall, next to a squat wooden building, hiding in some bushes and out of sight of any passing disciples.

Something tickles his nose, and when he opens his eyes again, he finds that his face is inside the dense branches of a stubby lilac tree. The small flowers make his eyes itch, but at least there's no one around.

"Uh, what just happened? " Lan Tian asks, his sharp claws digging into Wu Yun's shoulder.

"Oh, I didn't know I'd be able to bring you with me," Wu Yun says, moving behind the bush so no passing disciples can see them. "I teleported us around the wall."

"Very useful, if dizzying."

They hear the flapping of wings, and soon after Wan Mi lands besides them.

"If you could do that, why did you have me make a fool of myself trying to lift you?" 

Wu Yun didn't know he could do it until he tried, but he can never resist teasing Wan Mi when she speaks in that tone of put-upon indignation.

"It's fun seeing a chicken fruitlessly flapping her wings."

She squawks at him and tries to peck him the eye.

Lan Tian intervenes. "We should get going, we're wasting time here."

They walk around the complex of buildings, keeping close the the elm trees and the flat bushes, until they come upon Lian Feng's private pavilion. The most likely place to find information about Zou Qiao's whereabouts.

One of the windows is left open, and all three of them climb easily inside.

The window leads into an empty library, and the pavilion is mostly silent. Wu Yun sniffs the air around them, and finds a strong trace of Zou Qiao's scent.

"He's here," Wu Yun says turning to the other two.

Lan Tian's small nostrils widen as he takes in big lungfuls of air. "Third room on the right."

Wu Yun shakes his head. "Show off."

He could swear Lan Tian almost smirks, even though his dragon's snout isn't really built for that. "Superior sense of smell."

"If the two of you are done, I'm going first," says Wan Mi, prying the door open with her beak.

They walk silently through the deserted hallway until finally finding the room where the smell is strongest.

The door isn't locked, which doesn't bode well for Zou Qiao's physical condition.

Wu Yun sucks on a sharp breath when he walks inside and finds him suspended from his bound hands to a wooden beam on the ceiling. A thin trickle of blood runs down an open gash on his forehead.

"Zou Qiao! Can you hear us?" Wu Yun asks, and after getting no answer pulls on Zou Qiao's robes with his teeth.

Zou Qiao groans and tries to open his eyes, his eyelids fluttering desperately.

One of Wu Yun's ears flicks backwards with the sound of approaching footsteps. "Someone is coming! Hide."

There aren't many available hiding places in the empty room, but some wooden barrels stacked against a corner provide sufficient cover.

The three of them squeeze behind the barrels and wait for whoever is approaching the room.

"We've kept him here, until sect leader arrived," says a female disciple Wu Yun recognizes as the one who found him in the temple.

She opens the door to let Lian Feng enter the room first.

"You've done well, you can leave now," Lian Feng says, walking towards Zou Qiao's unconscious form. 

The disciple nods and closes the door behind her as she leaves.

Lian Feng clasps her fingers into a hand seal, and then presses them against Zou Qiao's chest.

He opens his eyes with a pained gasp.

"Zou Qiao, Zou Qiao, why did you have to go around poking sleeping tigers?" She lifts his chin with a finger and clicks her tongue in distaste.

Zou Qiao glowers at her, his chin trembling with barely restrained emotion. "You tricked me! You made me betray my own clan."

Lian Feng snorts. "Because they were so kind to you? Ignoring you at every turn, dismissing you because you were so weak? What kind of loyalty did you owe them, really?"

 Zou Qiao turns his face away, even at a distance Wu Yun can see the thin film of tears clouding his eyes. "At least they never used me, never took advantage of me," he says softly, the words barely a whisper.

She smiles sweetly and takes his face between her fingers, digging her fingernails into his cheeks. "No, darling, I found a use for you. There's a difference." 

She lets go of Zou Qiao's face and takes a paper talisman from inside her sleeve, and holds it in front of her face between two fingers. "But now, you've outlived your usefulness."