Rivers of Fate

The Only Key

The water had been a soothing balm to the aches and chills that were fast fading from him. But it was the surge of his magic that had come and gone, amplified by the water, that had snapped him back to awareness. Yet once again, as quickly as the magic had appeared, it had vanished. Through it all, Wanfeng chose to remain silent and feign being asleep. He needed to assess his surroundings and figure out what was going on. Too much was happening too fast.

The older woman speaking now spoke the same language as the healers from before. But... wait. Something was different. What was it? The woman's tone with Xia was cheerful as she told her the water was about to spill.

The Fox leaned over him and the fountain's flow stopped. Impossible for him to ignore, Wanfeng opened his eyes to look.

Xia... she'd said the name Xia earlier.

He knew that name as one that had belonged to a nine-tailed fox of long ago. His mother had told him the story of the tragic loss of the King and Queen of the Nine-Tails infant daughter during the Cataclysm. Had their daughter lived, she would have been just about the same age as him, the same apparent age of this Fox whose warm brown eyes drew him into her gaze.

Could it possibly be?

If this was the presumed dead Princess of the Nine-Tails then what was she doing here in this mortal world?!

With a groan and swashing of water, Wanfeng sat up. The rolled towel his head had been on fell to the floor.

Both women were eyeing him intently. The elder with open curiosity, Xia with guarded caution.

"Xia, I found some clothes!" It was the man's voice from before.

Wanfeng met the gaze of an elder man who now appeared in the doorway, an elder who gave him a kind smile.

_____

"Antoine! You can't be serious. What did you do, jump into a time machine you keep hidden at the back of your wardrobe?" Lucy frowned in disdain at the bundle Mr. Antoine held.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Xia couldn't help but look. A silent Wanfeng did too.

"Bah! I'll have you know that 1976 was a very good year!" Mr. Antoine insisted. "These pants in particular I bought for jogging back then. They should fit him."

And it was at that moment that it clicked in Wanfeng's mind, that which was different. Wanfeng knew the elders spoke a language he did not know, but now he could understand the gist of their words! And when Xia responded to them in kind, he could understand the gist of her words as well. This had definitely not been the case yesterday. What had happened to change it?

But not all the words made sense. Jogging? What was jogging? The elder woman had referred to him as a hot rubber ducky before. Was that a kind of fiery water beast?

So astonished was Wanfeng by this that he started a little when Xia suddenly spoke directly to him. "Can you get up yourself?" Wanfeng nodded. Water cascaded off of him as he clasped the edges of the bath and hoisted himself up. He swayed off balance a moment and both women yelped as they clutched him.

With their help, he stepped out of the tub with a slosh and onto the mat.

"Here, wrap him in this." The older woman grabbed a towel off a bar on the wall. "Uh, he'll have to take his wet undergarments off before he can put on Antoine's retro poly athletics wear," the woman observed wryly to Xia.

Wanfeng threw a helpless glance at the elder man who seemed most amused at the goings on before him. "Mesdames, if you let the man alone a minute I'm sure he can manage that part by himself."