For the past two weeks, the nine-tailed fox woman had helped him recover from his injuries. She gave him salves and medicines that he could use to treat his wounds. It was so effective that he was able to stand and walk again in just five days, but he was still not strong enough to leave her den.

It was getting hard to avoid her, but for the most part, he tried to ignore her presence. He persistently declined the fox woman’s offer since that night. Who in their right mind would agree to become her mate anyway? While he kept on dodging her advances, the woman coyly smiled at him and left him alone in her den while she hunted for his food. Never did he see her eat or feed before; neither did he had the courage to ask.

“What’s your name?” she asked as she ran her fingers on her wild locks and tied it in a braid. The general arched a brow at her. How come she knew that he was the same kid that saved her life before while not knowing his name?

“You don’t know?”

“Should I?” she grinned while he shrugged his shoulders and bit the cooked flesh of the deer she hunted earlier.

“Shen Yi,” he replied, not bothering to spare her a look, but it was enough for a wide smile to bloom on her beautiful face. “You?”

“Sorry to disappoint you, but we don’t have names.” The fox woman laughed and turned the deer’s meat to the other side to cook it properly. The light coming from the fire brightened up her face, allowing General Shen to scrutinize it.

“Why?”

“Silly human. Didn’t you know the name is a powerful thing?”

“Then I’ll give you a name if you don’t have one.” He stared on the burning coal and then shifted his gaze on her smiling face. “Xinyi.”

“What?”

“That’s your name. Keep it. That’s the only thing I can give you anyway.”

The woman stared at him as if he had grown another head before shaking her head.

“You are truly a foolish mortal, Shen Yi.”

Her long black hair cascaded down behind her small back. The thick robes she donned smartly covered up her frame. Thick white lashes touched her cheeks, her small nose scrunching up as if trying to distinguish between the scents around them. She suddenly shot up to her feet, her brows knitting in a frown.

“You should go,” she uttered, her face void of any emotion that caught the general off-guard. She was always smiling. Always happy when she was around. What could agitate her like this? Didn’t she tell him to never leave her den alone before?

“Take your sword and leave. Don’t ever return to this place. Take the exit on the other side of the cave.” The fox woman said as she swayed her long sleeve to point the unfamiliar trail within her den. “Go. Didn’t you say you don’t want to become my mate? Go and leave this place!”

She had to let him go, or the other fox would kill Shen Yi. Because Shen Yi declined to become her mate, and she had failed to mark him, the other fox would try to dominate her. Not that she would allow it.

“I thought you said you could protect me?” General Shen asked. This woman had confessed that she had waited for all of her tails to grow before she decided to pursue him. She knew she wasn’t strong enough to protect him if she took him as her mate, but still … she couldn’t stop herself from going after him when he fell from that cliff.

He could sense the fear in her eyes. Never did she let him know of her troubles because she hid them all behind her smiles.

“Shen Yi, even if I have nine tails, I’m still considered as a fledgling. I cannot protect you from another mythical creature older and stronger than I am. Now go, stop wasting time and go back to your camp. You will find them southeast of this area.”

“Xinyi.”

Tears streamed out from her eyes. This name … she would keep it in her heart. Shen Yi might forget about her soon as her magic would erase everything that he knew about her. It would save him from the guilt and pain after her passing tonight. There was no way in hell she would be able to see the sunrise after this night.

Turning her head to his direction, she lifted herself up the ground to meet him eye-to-eye, for she was a foot shorter than he was. She pushed his head down and gave him a last kiss. It was the first and last kiss they would share in this lifetime.

The fox woman stayed at the main area of her den while she watched Shen Yi took his things and left her den. Her eyes were fixated on his back until he was lost in her sight. She blinked away her tears as she waited for the other fox spirit to arrive.

“Goodbye, my love. See you in our next lifetime,” she whispered, knowing that the moment he had stepped out from her den, the moments they shared would be wiped out from his memory.

The mortal had made a big mistake, but it was the mistake that had saved her from being marked by another mythical creature. He had given her a name which meant that her soul was now engraved and connected to his.

Her eyes flashed from brown to red to yellow. She transformed into her true form: a huge white nine-tailed fox standing proud and tall in her den. She was physically weak from the last decade she had eaten a human because of Shen Yi, but that didn’t matter anymore.