Chereads / Legends of Varlaurea: The Dragon Emperor / Chapter 17 - THE MISTY FOX OF THE BAMBOO FOREST 5

Chapter 17 - THE MISTY FOX OF THE BAMBOO FOREST 5

The next morning, Emperor Lam head to the bamboo forest. Accompany him are: Taosih Yung, Hunter Tao, Seven Finger and several Brocade Cloak Guards and Lizardmen Infantries. They surveyed all the missing cases scene in the forest, including the place where Captain Vu died but find nothing. At near midday they follow hunter Tao deep into the bamboo forest, to the area of the forest where fox had been frequently spotted. After an hours of searching, they finally found some fresh tracks, fox footprint quadruple the size of normal fox and surrounded with many set of normal fox footprints, and according to Hunter Tao these tracks was here approximately only a few hours ago. The tracks lead deep into the denser part of the forest, they follow the track for an hour, to a small hill with many dense bamboo bushes, and from a distain they can see a very large hole, the size of a Velelis on middle of the hill. When they came near the hole, Emperor Lam and Taosih Yung immediately felt a strong qigun aura emitting from the hole. This mean, whatever the entity in the hole is, it have magic. When the group came closer to the hole, a stream of mist suddenly bust out of the hole, engulf the entire area. The mist are so thick they barely can see anything, but Emperor Lam still can feel the qigun aura inside the hole had leave it hiding place and running away from them. Emperor Lam rush after the qigun aura despite the poor visibility, after 15 minutes of chasing the entity in this thick mist Emperor starting to feel strange, his mind is fuzzy and his heart slightly racing, and he felt a slight tingling on his skin, like a person who had consumed a stimulant substance. The qigun aura suddenly stop and stand still in front of him. Emperor Lam approaching cautiously, his right hand firmly grasping his sword hander, ready to draw the blade. But then when he come closer to the qigun aura and to his surprise, he can see a humanoid shadow standing in the mist.

"who's there? Name yourself." Emperor Lam said.

"my… my… Lam, don't you recognize me?" a woman voice answered him. Then that shadow walk out of the mist, revealing a beautiful, blonde hair woman, she gracefully walking toward him. The young woman wearing a thin, tight and slightly see through long white dress, revealing her slender body and her white smooth skin, her long and pointed ears half hidden in her knee length, thick and bouncy blonde hair, it look like a stream made of liquid gold. She stand in front Emperor Lam staring at him with her icy blue eyes, and a seductive smile on her red juicy, glossy lips. The women look just like Emperor Lam's wife, Empress Aucelen.

"Au…Aucelen? H…how… what are you doing here?" Emperor Lam asked his wife.

"do you remember Lam?" Empress Aucelen asked.

"remember? Remember what? Why are you here?" Emperor Lam said

"YOU PROMISED TO STOP THEM!!!!!!" Empress Aucelen yelled and let out a shill scream, then vanished into the mist.

"what!!?!!!" Emperor Lam staggered, but before he can make sense of what happening, a soft voice come from behind him "why don't you stop them Lam? You had promised." Emperor Lam turn back and see his wife sitting on the forest floor, her arms holding a charred corpse "my people, my friends, most of them I know from birth." she said, stroking the charred corpse face lovingly, her face fill with pain. "they are all death, Lam, all death, you had promised me. Now their blood are on you hand." Empress Aucelen said and starting to cry, her tears are blood red, streaming down her elegance face. And then Emperor Lam realize his hands are now soaked in blood and he himself no longer standing in the bamboo forest anymore, beneath his feet now is a pile of charred corpses, surround him are trees, mighty and old trees with extremely deep root. But they all laying on top of each other, some charred. All were uprooted and flatted by some incredible invisible force, the devastated scene stretching many kelias away, their roots all pointed to one direction. And at that direction, a city is burning, above that city is a smoke cloud raise high, shape like a mushroom. Tears pouring out of Emperor Lam eyes "I'm so sorry my love. So, so sorry. I was too late." He murmur "I was too late." Emperor Lam then kneel down, his hand holding his head and cry, keep saying sorry to his wife.

"WAKE UP!" A voice echoing from a distain, Emperor lam raise his face and saw a tall shadow approaching him, then a pair of scaly hands from that shadow grasp Emperor Lam's robe collard pulling him up, and a flat face with a big slanted amber eyes rush close to his face.

"WAKE UP YOUR MAJESTY!!! IT'S NOT REAL." Seven Finger scream at Emperor Lam face.

"S…Seven Finger?" Emperor Lam murmur

"wake up! It not real, it just a hallucination, you had been effected by the mist." Seven Finger said shaking him intensively.

A few seconds late, Emperor Lam finally come back to his sense, drawn his sword, he stand back to back with Seven Finger. That entity is still near, but the mist surround them is still too thick to see anything clearly. "can you see it, Your Grace? I can smell its scent nearby." Seven Finger asked. "No, the mist is too thick, but I can still feel it qigun nearby." Emperor Lam said. "FIGHT ME! FIGHT ME!! COME OUT AND FIGHT ME!!" Seven Finger yell out challenging. The qigun aura of the entity starting to move again and kept circling 2 of them. Emperor Lam then chant a spell and created a gush of wind, blow away the surrounding mist, give them a brief look on the entity. Taosih Yung theory was right, it is a fox. Stand behind that mist veil is a fox with white fur and quadruple the size of a normal fox, its eyes are blood red, its mouth full of shape teeth with 2 long canines protrude out from the upper jaw, and another pair from the lower jaw. The giant fox immediately turn around and run into where the mist still thick after being seen. Emperor Lam quickly chasing after it, Seven Finger closely behind, they chasing the white fox through the thick mist by follow it qigun aura for a few minutes. Then out of nowhere, a red fox jump on Seven Finger, another one charging at Emperor Lam, then another and another. Soon dozens and dozens of red fox came out of the mist surrounding and suicidally charging at 2 of them. After Emperor Lam and Seven Finger truck down ten or twenty of them, the mist dispersing and the qigun aura of the white fox had disappeared, then the red foxes retreat to the thick of the bamboo forest.