“There you are,” squealed Misty Peak in, what Sen assumed, was feigned joy.

She dashed across the room, wrapped herself around him in a manner that Sen thought was probably inappropriate for any situation outside of a bedroom, and kissed him. Sen felt the hateful looks from at least three other men in the common room of the inn where he’d left the fox woman and her grandfather. It had been one day. One day! How could she have possibly ensnared three men that fast? She’s a fox, Sen reminded himself. It’s what they do. He wasn’t sure how much longer the kiss might have lasted, but an icy wave of danger washed over him and Misty Peak. The fox froze. Her eyes snapped open, and her head swiveled over to where Falling Leaf was smiling at them. A smile that was all teeth and no friendliness.

“Ghost panther,” whispered Misty Peak in a hushed tone of fear and no little awe.

Sen shook his head and took a half step back. His eyes scanned the room and fell on Laughing River. The elder fox was looking on with unrepentant glee in his eyes at the scene unfolding before him. The old fox had been the source of a lot of trouble in Sen’s life just recently. Trouble that had culminated in Sen taking possession of an extremely potent spatial treasure and fighting a true devil. He gritted his teeth a little at that thought. The results of that fight were mostly a mystery, and Sen didn’t like the idea of a devil out there biding its time and plotting vengeance. Not that he could do much about it right now. He gave Laughing River an annoyed glare. The elder fox had clearly decided not to tell his granddaughter they’d meet a ghost panther, probably so he could enjoy this very spectacle.

Falling Leaf took a step closer to Misty Peak, her smile growing even bigger if that was possible.

“Prey,” said Falling Leaf.

The fox woman took a hasty step back, clearly unprepared to pick a fight with something she saw as a superior predator. Then, Misty Peak turned an accusing look on Sen.

“What?” he asked in an annoyed tone. “I didn’t tell you to make a spectacle of yourself in front of strangers.”

“You could have warned me,” she pouted.

Sen shrugged. “Probably.”

Before anyone could do anything that everyone in the vicinity would regret, he started walking over toward Laughing River. Falling Leaf kept glancing at him with looks he couldn’t interpret. That struck him as odd. He thought he’d learned most of her expressions. Misty Peak trailed behind them, looking very put out by the recent turn of events. He didn’t know what to make of that either. What had she been expecting? It wasn’t like he’d been enthusiastic about her presence. Once they got close enough, Laughing River opened his arms wide. His appearance at that moment had a strange quality to it like he was a sly but benevolent grandfather. This time, it was Falling Leaf who looked uncertain in the face of a superior predator. She gave Sen a questioning look.

“He’ll behave,” muttered Sen. “He’s paying off a favor to me.”

The ghost panther instantly relaxed. She eyed the elder fox with open curiosity. He supposed that spirit beasts at her level didn’t often cross paths with spirit beasts of Laughing River’s level, at least not and live to tell the tale. The old fox seemed almost as curious about her as she did about him. He eyed the ghost panther in a way that Sen did not like at all. That displeasure must have been written clearly on Sen’s face because Laughing River held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.

“Easy, nephew. I’m here to help, not indulge myself. I’ll keep it professional,” said Laughing River.

“Do that,” said Sen in a tone hard enough to shatter steel.

Sen was amused to note that the three men who had been glaring hatefully at him earlier abruptly decided that they had pressing business elsewhere. They fled the inn, two of them leaving half-eaten meals behind. Sen sat down without an invitation. A moment later, Falling Leaf and Misty Peak joined them. Both the ghost panther and the fox woman wore expressions that told him they wouldn’t have dared speak to the elder fox that way. Already weary of the foxes and their silliness, Sen got right down to business.

“Falling Leaf, this is Laughing River and Misty Peak,” said Sen, gesturing at the foxes.

Falling Leaf inclined her head to Laughing River in a gesture of muted respect. She eyed Misty Peak askance for a moment before issuing a little sigh and nodding to the other woman.

“Hello,” said the ghost panther.

“Laughing River, Misty Peak, this is Falling Leaf. My friend,” said Sen, before he added something he thought was necessary. “I will note that should I discover she’s been drawn into any kind of fox plot, scheme, or foolishness, I will become profoundly unhappy.”Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

The foxes looked a little sheepish at that last statement. Maybe they’d both been thinking of some way to rope the all-but-mythical ghost panther into something. More to the point, they’d both gotten a good look at what it meant when Sen decided he wasn’t happy about something. Misty Peak already knew that she couldn’t take him in a fight if he got serious about it. Sen sincerely doubted he could win in a fight with Laughing River, but that didn’t make the elder fox eager to soak up whatever damage Sen could dish out. He reasoned that simply suggesting there would be consequences ought to be enough to keep the foxes in line for now. At least, he hoped it would. The last thing he wanted to be doing was chastising the foxes when he had other things to do.

Sen had been a little worried that Falling Leaf might take issue with him issuing threats on her behalf. She was plenty dangerous in her own right, but he’d been worried that the whole spirit animal hierarchy might inhibit what she said to Laughing River. He worried a lot less about how Falling Leaf would deal with Misty Peak. He expected any friction there would be solved with swift and bloody action. He snuck a glance at the ghost panther to try to gauge her reaction. She seemed perfectly content with how things were playing out. If anything, she might have even looked a touch smug. Laughing River spoke up again.

“Like I said, just here to help.”

Sen wasn’t sure he actually believed those words, but his next thoughts disappeared as someone burst through the inn door. A look over his shoulder revealed someone vaguely familiar. A young man that Sen thought was a local. The young man was battered and even a little bloody. The man looked around the room with wild eyes.

“I need help!” the man shouted. “A tree came down bad. My father’s trapped under it.”

Damn it, thought Sen. He’d crashed through enough trees to have a sense of how heavy they were. It’d probably take a dozen of the local men to move it, and then only with the assistance of ropes. That was assuming that they could even set them up properly. On top of that, the man would likely be injured. Depending on where the tree landed, the man might be too injured to move safely. This isn’t my problem, thought Sen. I can’t help everyone. The excuse sounded weak even to him. No, he couldn’t help everyone, but this problem was right in front of him. More to the point, he was probably better equipped than anyone else to actually render aid. He gave Falling Leaf an apologetic look, but she just shrugged. He gave the foxes a flat look.

“Behave,” he ordered, before standing up and walking over to the frantic young man. “Let’s go.”

“Thank you,” gushed the young man. “As soon as we gather up—”

“You’ll only need me,” said Sen, and then added, “I’m a cultivator.”

The young man looked, in order, surprised, elated, confused, and then worried. He abruptly bowed, as though remembering something very important. “Honored cultivator, we have no treasures to offer.”

Sen waved it off. “I don’t need anything from you. Just take me there while there’s still time to help.”

The young man looked very uncertain but nodded. Sen followed as the young man led him outside and then out of the town. The pace seemed excruciatingly slow to Sen, despite the fact that the young man was all but running. Sen kept his spiritual sense extended and soon felt the flickering life of someone ahead. They didn’t have time to move at the young man’s pace. Sen grabbed the guy, threw him over his shoulder, and activated his qinggong technique. The guy shouted in surprise and fear as they sped through the trees. In no time at all, they were there. Sen put the young man down and focused on the scene before him. There was a mortal man in his middle years pinned beneath a tree. A quick look around showed that the man and his son had been doing some logging. There were a few other felled trees nearby along with discarded axes.

Sen suppressed the urge to simply lift the log away with brute strength. That could make things worse just as easily as make them better. It could shift broken ribs, which might then pierce the lungs or heart. Instead, Sen knelt down next to the man and did a quick scan with his qi and spiritual sense. He still lacked anything even remotely like Auntie Caihong’s skill at discerning injuries, but he got the general picture. The young man was almost vibrating in concern and his desire to do something. Sen decided to explain himself before the guy acted out of sheer impatience.

“I need to make sure moving the tree won’t hurt him more than help him,” said Sen. “Just give me a moment.”

Having looked at the man’s injuries, Sen was pretty confident that moving the tree was the worst thing they could do at the moment. Instead, he started searching the elixirs in his storage rings. Too strong, too strong, too strong, he thought as his mental fingers brushed the vials he had stored. It had been a long while since he last made something intended for a mortal. Anything useful to heal him would rip a mortal apart. He finally found some older elixirs tucked away and summoned one. He pulled the cork and slowly tipped the liquid into the pinned man’s mouth.

“What are you doing?” demanded the young man, trying and failing to sound respectful.

“It’s a minor healing elixir,” said Sen. “It should help some of his injuries. Make it safe to move the tree.”

The young man looked dubious. He obviously believed moving the tree right the hells now was the right answer to this problem. Sen paused at that. He supposed that for anyone who didn’t have a ready store of high-quality healing elixirs, that probably was the right answer. It was probably the only answer, now that Sen considered it. Fortunately for the man under the tree, Sen did have a ready store of elixirs. The young man grew increasingly impatient and even angry as they waited. Sen’s attention was taken up with monitoring the pinned man’s condition. The elixir was doing its work and stabilizing the man. Right around the time that the young man looked like he might tear out his hair, attack Sen, or try to move the tree by himself, Sen rose.

“Alright, it should be safe to move the tree now,” he announced.

“What should I do?” asked the young man.

“Just stand back,” said Sen.

Sen repositioned himself, grabbed the tree, and lifted it off the man. He tossed it over by the other felled trees. Once the tree was gone, the young man was kneeling next to his father, interspersing whispered prayers and pleas for his father to wake up.

“Let’s get him back to the town,” said Sen, waving a hand and lifting the injured man on a platform of solid qi. “No reason he shouldn’t heal somewhere more comfortable.”