When she was born the sky gave way to the clouds and their friends thunder and lightning. It was an ominous sign for her parents and for her clan. Never before was a hulijing, fox demon,  brought into the world with such a tumultuous fanfare of yin and yang. To the world around the hulijing, it had been a bright sunny day perfect for a good day's worth of labour except for the freak storm that rolled in like an invading army of darkness. All of the mortals whispered about bad omens, but for the hulijings it was a blessing. The misconception was that every fox demon was the same, but they were not.  The newborn baby was destined to usher in a new reign of terror and control. She was the heir of the infamous nine tailed fox. Her father was the only boy in a long line of fantastic choos creators dating all the way back to the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 BC–c. 1046 BC), Of course there were those that doubted her family's legacy but the cruelty of Daji, Empress of the Shang dynasty was all to the credit of her great great great grandmother. The sly fox had the forethought and the blessing of the goddess Nuwa to possess the beauty and ensnare the Emperor of Shang.  The clan hoped that with the birth of the new baby, she could revive their glory.  The truth was the clan suffered since the days of the great matriarch. Even though she was given permission by the goddess of human creation, things were taken too far and war broke out. In the end, the matriarch hulijing was punished and her clan fell out of favor with the gods. With all their hopes placed in the baby born in the storm, they named her Ling'er.  Her name had a double meaning and her parents hoped that it would allowed her to walk among the mortals more easily.  Ling written 灵 meant spirit or soul and she was a fox demon while ling written 铃 was a bell or a chime. She grew up to be a beautiful young girl and a beautiful hulijing.<br/><br/><a class="link link--external" data-proxy-href="/proxy.php?link=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.ibb.co%2FbP7k0n%2FQIKx_ZJOe_Rks.jpg&amp;hash=5ef4b00a5f3e4466f6d4b5d42dab9d8b" href="https://image.ibb.co/bP7k0n/QIKx_ZJOe_Rks.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">Ling'er</a>was a gifted little one. She learned to control her true nature at a very young age and even though she was well aware the hopes and dreams that her clan placed on her, she did not want to be a hulijing.  The others in her age group enjoyed playing games and toying with the villagers and innocent bystanders, but she never felt the need to embrace that sort of thing. Linger had a dream, an impossible dream that she wanted to reach. As a young kit she follwed her father and her mother and listened to everything that they would tell her as well as asked many questions. She learned that there were three realms of existence: the top realm of heaven where the gods mingled with the xian, mortals who achieved immortality, the middle realm of mortals lived out their short lives, and the bottom realm of demons, ghost, spirits and the dead. She also learned that only the mortal realm was allowed to experience emotions and most of all love. Gods, immortals, and demons were devoid of that one aspect. Ling'er made up her mind not to be a demon. She wanted to experience love.  And so when she was near a hundred years old she learned of a way to change her fate. She was out and about traveling from one city to the next in her<a class="link link--external" data-proxy-href="/proxy.php?link=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.ibb.co%2FmpOxD7%2Fa2263b958f6ef1cfc5265df925702421.jpg&amp;hash=a52f861d8e68e4a81778e9580dbc080c" href="https://image.ibb.co/mpOxD7/a2263b958f6ef1cfc5265df925702421.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">human form</a>, a twenty and some year old. It was hard to pin her down to a specific age because she was ethereal and did not age in the same way that mortals did. On her travels, she kept her ear open for any sort of philosophical chit chat she might overhear.  It was one of her favorite past times to sit and debate with the scholars, theologians, philosophers, taoist and buddhist alike, though she often stayed away from the latter two in case they discovered her true nature and try to eradicate her.<br/><br/>As it so happened, luck or perhaps fate brought her to a rode side noodle stand and cafe where a taoist priest had stopped to rest. He was enjoying some tea while waiting for his bowl of plain vegetarian noodles to cool down a bit. She'd smelled the noodles from at least the last ten lis (approximately a little over three miles, a li is a measurement of distance) and though it was not common for fox demons to eat mortal food, Ling'er was not a stranger to it plus it would help her blend in more. She didn't even stop to sit at a table and let the scrawny boy who was the waiter to come and take her order. She walked right up to the cook and ordered two bowls of noodles with meat and then half a chicken. The cook looked at her with a raised eyebrow as if to question if she had enough money, but she paid him no attention. Money was never an issue for her. She found herself a table near the taoist and settle in. She knew right away that he wasn't a low level taoist, he was a well traveled master. If she wasn't careful, he might trap her but she found her curiosity drawing her back to him. When her food came to her table, the man joined her and they exchanged a few words. He clued her in that he knew what she was and yet he had no intention of trapping her. They fell into a deep conversation on the fate of beings and that was when the taoist encourage her to change her fate. He told her that if she could abstain from evil and pleasures of the flesh for a thousand years she could change her fate.<br/><br/>That was nearly eight hundred years ago. The decision she made back then still clung to her like a new skin. She had broken the heart of her parents when she turned her back on them and revealed that she wanted to be a human above all else. He was so furious with her that she locked her up and try to get her blooded but she escaped and never looked back. She traveled all over China and watched as the times changed, as the mortal realm evolved, as wars ripped the lad and families apart, as her own kind faded from existence. She left her homeland and traveled to other places far and wide and yet now she found herself back home. Her parents had passed nearly three hundred years ago and for the first time she was visiting them. it was a weird situation for her because a noodle business had been erupted on top of their burial site. Ironically, there was a statue of a happy Buddha sitting where the headstones ought to have been.<a class="link link--external" data-proxy-href="/proxy.php?link=https%3A%2F%2Fimage.ibb.co%2FgHAcD7%2Fbeautiful_chinese_woman_painting_women_paintings_00401722.jpg&amp;hash=aec3e4c30117f279cbea2e0304e55247" href="https://image.ibb.co/gHAcD7/beautiful_chinese_woman_painting_women_paintings_00401722.jpg" rel="nofollow ugc noopener" target="_blank">Ling'er</a>walked in and pretended to look around the place as if it was her first time there and she didn't know what she wanted yet. It was her first time there, but she knew that she would have probably have a  bowl of noodles. Then again that was before she realized that there was a statue of the merciful one on her parents grave. It was plain rude! How could Buddha be blind to the injustice? Then again she couldn't really blame the, for not knowing that their shop was built on top of  her parents. She sighed and kept near the statue whispering, "Father and mother, your wayward child has return to see you."<br/><br/>She felt the tears in her eyes threaten to flow out and she knew that if she allowed herself to cry she'd end up on the news as a mad woman so she held back and stepped away from the spot. Nope! On second thought she would not eat there. She made a mental note to return later, after hours, so that she could have a proper conversation with them. She smiled at the waitress and shook her head indicating that she wasn't interested in anything the shop had to offer. She knew that she had probably pissed off the waitress so she opened her crossbody style purse and took out nineteen yuan ( equivalent of three US dollars) placing it on the table for her. Ling'er didn't mind leaving the money for the woman because whatever issues she had, had nothing to do with her. She headed out hurrying away so the woman couldn't stop her and try to give the money back. She walked until she was in a safe spot, an empty alley and turned into a snow white fox with just one tailed and walked out of the city.<br/><br/>Traveling in her fox form allowed her to take in the sights and sounds of her homeland in a more indepth way. In addition men left her alone. She was always attracting them even when she wasn't trying. She knew that the undeniable attractiveness was a bonus of her birthright, but it could be such a drag and sometimes it was a pain in the ass altogether. How was she supposed to remain pure when men practically threw themselves at her and offered to deflower her in so many tempting ways? If her resolve was any less she would have failed long ago. For now she kept her purity in tact and the preying men away from her. She longed to feel the grass on her paws again and let the fresh dirt fill her nostrils. It was so hard to enjoy nature in the bustling cities. She didn't know she was running so fast until she felt grass underneath her and she stopped in her tracks breathing hard. She was finally home again. She took it all in and frolic too and fro leading her memories lead her onward without a destination in sight. She rolled and rumbled until her fur was matted and dirty. Luck was truly on her side since it brought her strait to a waterfall.  She didn't even think about twice before diving in and making a huge splash. She dove under and swam, pawing her way until she came back up in her human form and began stripping her wet clothes off.