The Heavenly Fox Read Online Free PDF Page A

Springshadow resumed her true fox form, contemplating a little sport hunting mice and bugs under the trees and flowers, but whenever she tried to slip quietly through the undergrowth and bushes she found that her nine tails flared out behind her almost like the broad tail of a peacock, and brushed limbs, dislodged petals, and basically rendered the idea of moving quietly anywhere except the open areas completely moot.
    "What use are nine tails to a fox?!" she demanded of the universe, not really expecting an answer. She got one anyway.
    "You're no longer a simple fox, Immortal One. Forgive my impertinence, but I thought that was the point." The voice was low-pitched and male, but Springshadow saw nothing and smelled only earth and green growing things.
    She looked around. "Who said that?"
    "I did."
    Springshadow used her sensitive ears to get a better bearing on the voice, and once she had a direction, she finally spotted the one who spoke. He was a small man dressed in green robes that blended almost perfectly into the hedge he stood against. He carried a short staff, and his head was large compared to his body.
    "I'm sorry, I didn't see you, Honored Sir. To whom am I speaking?"
    "My name is Hsien Se. This is my garden."
    "I am sorry. I didn't mean to trespass."
    He smiled. "Not at all. When I say that this is my garden, I meant rather that I am responsible for it. The garden belongs to the Jade Emperor, who has decreed that it be open to everyone, so that all the inhabitants of the Celestial City may enjoy it. What do you think of my garden?"
    "It's beautiful. I have never seen a finer one," Springshadow said, and it was the truth.
    "Thank you. One does try to take pride in one's work."
    Springshadow frowned. The man's name was familiar. It finally came to her. "You are a god of plants and growing things, are you not?"
    "I am. I have duties back in the Middle Kingdom as well as here. It does keep one busy." The man's staff transformed into a scythe, which he used to trim a weed from a bed of peonies. In even less than a blink of an eye, the scythe was a simple staff again. Hsien Se leaned on that staff as he studied his handiwork and finally nodded. "It was its own fault, you know. I warned that dandelion not to grow there. I keep telling it, 'a weed is simply a flower that grows out of its place'. It never listens. Tomorrow I'll have to trim it again. Oh, where are my manners? There's a bench here. Please sit and rest yourself."
    Springshadow transformed herself into a human girl again, to take advantage of Hsien Se's kind offer, but it took her a little more effort to get all nine of her tails to disappear. Even so, her human form was the only one where her extra appendages seemed manageable. "I'm starting to feel a bit like a weed myself," Springshadow said, as she finally managed to sit down.
    "You're newly immortal. I can tell. It does take some adjustment."
    "How did you adjust? If it's not impolite to ask."
    "Not at all, but I'm afraid my experience might not be of any use to you."
    "Why not?"
    "Because it doesn't have much resemblance to your own. You are a fox, correct? You achieved immortality by living for one thousand years of mortal time? I would guess that you expended a great deal of effort and sacrifice to achieve this?"
    "Yes," Springshadow said, "though in honesty not all the sacrifices were my own."
    "That's as may be. I, on the other hand, was given very little say in the matter. In the Middle Kingdom, I began my existence as a peasant farmer. My sole distinction was that I was a very skilled farmer. Others came to me for advice, which they often followed to their advantage. When I died, those who knew me began to pray to my spirit for the same sort of aid. Soon people who didn't even know me were doing the same. Do you have any idea what that sort of prayer and reverence does to a human spirit after a while?"
    Springshadow admitted that she did not. Hsien Se nodded and went on, "That sort of reverence