Veronik looked at the flabbergasted injured fox staring at her in disbelief, and she knew that she had already gained what she wanted. "So? Will you and your children make the bond of equals with me?" she asked after a moment.
Hearing Veronik's question, the fox looked at her children for a moment. "Why are you doing this, human? You could have just killed me and forced the bond of subordinate upon my children, and you would have benefited more than by making a deal with me." It couldn't understand why Veronik was being so kind to it.
To its surprise, Veronik smiled. "I told you, didn't I? You remind me of something I have seen once." With that, Veronik bit into her thumb and let the blood drip upon the runes she carved into the dirt. Then, she stood up. "Will you?" she looked at the injured fox.
Seeing that Veronik was really serious, the fox stood up weakly and pressed her bloodstained paw upon the rune. The rune then shone, and the light then spread to Veronik and the fox.
After it disappeared, Veronik found her cultivation, raised, but she wasn't entirely sure how much, and she still wanted to bond with the fox cubs, so she didn't check it.
She carved into the dirt the same rune three more times and dripped her blood into it. Then, the fox gently bit on each of its children's paws and let their blood smear the runes, forming the bond between Veronik and the cubs.
Veronik then smiled and took one of the cubs into her arms. "Do you have names?" she asked the mother fox.
The mother fox shook her head. "We had no need to have names till now, and we really aren't good at giving names. How about you name us? You, humans, should know more names than us beasts."
Hearing that, Veronik couldn't help but snicker. "Let me think about it for a moment." She closed her eyes and searched her memory for good names for foxes.
After a while, she decided. "You will be Ariel." She looked at the mother fox. "And the cubs will be Helen, Luna and Silver, respectively from oldest to youngest. You are all descendants of divine snow foxes, so those names are quite suitable, even though your bloodline isn't awakened yet. Don't you think so?" Veronik smiled lightly.
Ariel nodded slightly. "They are beautiful names."
Veronik smiled when she heard that. "How are your wounds?" she asked as she looked at Ariel with concern.
Before she could even properly finish her sentence, Ariel clstaggered and fell to the ground weakly.
Seeing that, Veronik instantly rushed to her and started checking her condition. After a moment, she found out that Ariel was being affected by the massive blood loss, and since she relaxed now, her body gave in.
Aware of that, Veronik relaxed her mind a bit, but her hands didn't stop moving as she used leaves of medical trees filling the forest to cover up Ariel's wounds and used some vines and twigs to tie the wounds up securely.
"Who did this to you?" Veronik asked when she finished tying Ariel's wounds.
Ariel sighed helplessly. "The forest king..." she said after a while.
Hearing that, Veronik raised a brow. "Why would the strongest beast in the forest want to harm you? Is it because of your bloodline? Or did something else happen?"
"It was because of the bloodline, but not mine but Silver's. The forest king is a nine-tailed fox and when he found out that Silver inherited from me the bloodline of divine snow foxes, and he wanted to take her away, because someone told him that by devouring a young divine snow fox, even if she isn't awakened, would raise his strength, and as he lately had trouble with a breakthrough, he decided to sacrifice my daughter." Ariel gritted her teeth in anger and hatred as she spoke.
Listening to that, Veronik felt her blood boil, but she took a deep breath to calm down, as with her measly strength, she stood no chance against the forest king. She gritted her teeth and swooped the three small foxes into her arms and looked at Ariel. "Can you walk? We should leave this place in case the forest king returns for Silver!" Veronik's eyes flashed with anger as she said so. She knew when she had to flee, but she hated when she had to do so in the face of an enemy.
Ariel stood up, and when they prepared to leave, a deafening roar erupted behind them. Ariel's body stiffened and she looked at Veronik. "Take the children away, I'll distract him!" she shouted, but it was too late. The forest king appeared behind Veronik and growled angrily when it saw her holding the three fox cubs, peacefully sleeping in her embrace.
Veronik instantly retreated a few steps back and swooped the three fox cubs into her sleeve, carefully closing it using a string she used to tie her hair before.
Seeing Veronik hiding the fox cubs, the forest king roared in anger and lunged at her at high speed.
Veronik dodged to the side, but the wind that swept by her as the forest king missed her blew her a few meters backwards, causing her to crash with her back into a tree. She coughed in pain as she felt slightly dizzy from the crash, but she didn't have the time to clear her head as the forest king was lunging at her once again.
This time, she made sure to jump away a fair distance, but the current of the wind that crashed into her as she dodged was still enough to make her nearly fall over.
Seeing that both of his attacks were dodged, the forest king got even more furious and started enlarging. When his head was above the trees as he stood on all four, he sent one of his nine tails crushing down towards Veronik, because of his anger, no longer caring whatever he would crush the fox cubs in her sleeve.
"Damn!" Veronik cursed under her breath. "A guardian grade beast!" She gritted her teeth and raised her hands up, gathering her spiritual energy to her palms, creating a small sphere around her.
The tail crushed with immense strength into the sphere and cracked it, but still bounced off, not harming Veronik directly, but the fact that it cracked the sphere caused Veronik to feel like her insides were being torn apart. She coughed in pain and looked towards Ariel, who was highly wounded from the currents of wind that the forest king kept kicking up. [Ariel, take them away!] Using the bond of equals, Veronik sent the message to Ariel, and when the forest king wasn't paying attention, she threw the three fox cubs towards Ariel.
Ariel wanted to stay behind and help Veronik, but knowing her own condition, she knew that she would only be a burden, so she picked up the three fox cubs and ran away, while the forest king was being distracted by Veronik.