The fox knows there's a village in the valley. That's where they'll find more humans.
There's only a small issue. "We need names, the humans always call each other by names, we need names to introduce ourselves," he says, inspecting his small human hands as if between his fingers hides a name.
"Being a human is a lot of work" says the dragon, sitting down on his rump with a sigh.
The fox nods, and sits down in the water next to him. There's a lot of rules to being a human, from what he has seen. If they want to blend in, there's much they still need to learn. Being a nine-tailed fox was less troublesome.
After thinking for a moment, the dragon turns to him and says, "Your black fur was fluffy like a cloud. It looked nice; your name should be black cloud. Wu Yun."
The fox is pleased that the dragon noticed the softness of his fur, it had always been his best feature.
Since the dragon was nice to him, he decides he should return the favour. "Your scales were very pretty, and blue like the sky. I think blue sky sounds like a nice name, Lan Tian."
The dragon repeats the words to himself a few times. He turns to Wu Yun and smiles, a shy smile that barely lifts the corners of his lips. "I really like it."
Of course, he does, Wu Yun has great taste. "That settles it, let's go find the village where the humans live."
Lan Tian's shadow of a smile is gone as fast as it appeared. He scoffs at Wu Yun. "Fool, have you never noticed that the humans wear clothes? We don't have any. We can't walk naked among them."
Now that he mentions it, Wu Yun is starting to feel a little chilly in the cold water. With their lack of fur or scales, the humans probably need clothes to protect themselves from the elements. They are very odd creatures, almost unfit to survive.
That's probably why they've created all manner of buildings and tools, otherwise they would just die of exposure if they tried to live freely like the fox had for all these years.
"Where do we find clothes?" Wu Yun turns to Lan Tian, and examines his profile. His brows furrow when he's deep in thought, it makes him look serious. Some of his dragon appearance shines through the severe lines of his human face.
"I have an idea," he announces, and dives into the water, splashing an already drenched Wu Yun.
His head breaks the surface a few zhang away, and he motions Wu Yan over with his raised arm. Wu Yan is already chilled to the bone, and isn't looking forward to spending more time in the water, but Lan Tian hasn't tried to trick him yet, so he reluctantly swims after him.
---
Lan Tian tells Wu Yun that the humans sometimes swim in his river, and they always take off their clothes before getting in the water. They just need to wait for some humans to approach the river and steal their clothes.
They hide in the water behind the drooping branches of a cypress tree, while they wait.
Wu Yun grows bored quickly. "Why didn't you eat the humans who approached your river?"
Lan Tian looks at him as if he grew another head. "Have you looked at them? Do they look good enough to eat?"
Lan Tian's human body is taller and broader than Wu Yun's, there seems to be more muscle on his bones as well. Wu Yun doesn't think he'd make a bad meal.
He shrugs in answer to Lan Tian's question. If his fox form was as big as a dragon's he probably would have eaten a few humans. Now that he knows that it would also advance his cultivation and bring him one step closer to killing the Jade Emperor, the idea seems even more tempting. Unfortunately, humans have really small mouths, so he can't do it in his current form. They're good for making a lot of noise, and little else.
A shiver runs through Wu Yun's body. The water has grown colder, and in the shade of the cypress tree he doesn't even have the sun to warm his exposed skin.
"I hate this body, I'm cold all the time," he says, wrapping his arms around himself, trying to trap some body heat against his skin.
Lan Tian, shrugs his shoulders. "I feel fine."
"That does nothing to warm me up," Wu Yun snaps back, biting his lower lip to keep it from trembling.
Lan Tian lets out a put-upon sigh and envelops Wu Yun from behind, pulling him against the cradle of his chest, and runs his hands over his bloodless arms, trying to generate some friction. "You're very annoying."
Wu Yun says nothing because Lan Tian's hands feel good on him, and he is starting to feel a little warmer.
They stay like this for a few moments, in companionable silence, until the sound of voices approaching them alerts them. Wu Yun lowers himself into the water, until only his eyes and nose are above the surface and swims closer to the tree branches, hiding among the dense leaves. Lan Tian props his chin on the top of his head, to his great consternation.
"Meng-er is certain no one will find us here?" asks one of the humans walking towards the river. His voice his melodic and has a sweet lilt to it.
"A-Tan doesn't need to worry. I've been here multiple times and I never saw anyone else," answers the other voice, deeper and rumblier.
From his position Wu Yun can see two youths, whose bodies appear to be around the same age as his and Lan Tian's. The two of them start undressing while giggling.
One of them, the one called Meng-er runs into the water with big strides and starts splashing water at the boy who remained on shore. A-Tan eventually joins him, diving into the water with a graceful arch.
"Should we steal their clothes now?" Asks Wu Yun.
Lan Tian shakes his head. "Let's wait until they are distracted."
The two humans are now swimming around each other and laughing, and seem pretty distracted to Wu Yun, but Lan Tian knows more about rivers, so he'll trust his judgement for now.
Eventually the two youths get tired of swimming and stand still in the water, waving their arms to keep themselves afloat and talking with their heads very close together. Then they embrace each other, like Wu Yun and Lan Tian had earlier, but while standing face to face. Meng-er presses his lips against A-Tan, who lets out a gasp, before wrapping his arms around Meng-er's neck.
"What are they doing?" asks Wu Yun, looking up at Lan Tian.
Lan Tian frowns. "How should I know? I know as much about humans as you do?"
The two humans in the water hold on tightly to each other, they're making noises now. Like gasps of pain, but as if they are enjoying it. Wu Yun is really confused, and the whole thing cements in him the idea that humans are creatures far beyond his comprehension.
"I think they are distracted now," Wu Yun says, and starts silently swimming to shore. He doesn't look back to see if Lan Tian is following him.
He walks over the soft grass with careful steps and circles the cypress tree. On the other side he can see two piles of neatly folded robes laying on a rock. He takes a peek at the river where the two humans are still tangled together, and disturbing a lot of water with their movements.
Wu Yun crouches low on the ground and picks up the pile of clothes, including the weird looking cuffs and pins laying on top of it.
He makes a run for the nearest patch of woods he can see. He looks over his shoulder and spots Lan Tian running behind him. The thrill of being caught makes laughter bubble out of him. When he comes to a stop in a clearing in the woods he's still giggling.
"That was fun, we should steal things more often," he tells Lan Tian, still heaving from the run.
It's only then that he notices that Lan Tian's chest and face are red all over, and his eyes look a little glazed.
"What's the matter with you?"
It takes some time for Lan Tian to answer him. "I think those humans were doing something weird." He shakes his head as if trying to dislodge water from his ears. "I don't know."
Wu Yun can't see how that matters. "I can't see how that matters." He hands one of the bundles of clothes to Lan Tian. "Here, let's put these on and go find the human village."
They struggle to make sense of the human clothes, but from their combined memories of having seen humans wear them, they figure it out. Wu Yun's outer robe is made from a nice satiny material, with haitang blossom patterns embroidered on the cream fabric. Lan Tian's robe looks more coarse and is solid blue all over, with a black waist sash.
They're only left with the weird headpieces. Lan Tian takes the simple cuff and pin that looks to be made out of dried bamboo wood, which leaves Wu Yun to make sense of the white jade thing in his hands.
"We should try to look like them as much as possible, if we want to blend in," says Lan Tian trying to wrestle the top half of his hair into a pony tail, like he has seen the humans wear theirs.
Wu Yun tries to do the same, but after several failed attempts, he just gathers his entire hair on a pony-tail on top of his head, and secures if with the cuff and pin. Some shorter hairs fall out of the queue and around his face, but he really can't be bothered with it.
Getting dressed took them ages. Wu Yun has no idea how the humans can go to all this trouble every day. He takes a cursory look at Lan Tian, he looks like every other human man he's ever seen. Maybe a little better looking, because he used to be a dragon, and beasts are naturally superior to humans.
Wu Yun widens his arms to show Lan Tian the complete ensemble. "How do I look?"
Lan Tian looks him up in down with a serious expression, as if he's truly looking for flaws. It makes Wu Yun want to laugh for some reason. "You look good, very human. Your hair is maybe a little messy, but it'll do."
Wu Yun runs his hands over his hair. "I like a little mess," he says with a smirk that shows his sharp canine teeth. "Now let's go find the village."