Feng Jiu grew from an adorable baby to a charming toddler, that could wrap anyone around her pinky with a toothless smile. She was so clingy and so heartbreakingly cute that people often stopped to aww at her and to try to pet her.

This made her confident in her charms and she quickly learnt on how to take advantage of her cute looks.

She often ditched her caretakers by singing them lullabies with her sweet, soft voice. Her aunties and uncles and ever Mi Gu tended to fall asleep after the first 3 minutes of her singing. Little Jiu privately considered this her most powerful magic in her disposal.

She loved to sneak out to the market in Qing Qiu and play sticks with other kids. Then she would tour the stalls. Feng Jiu would go up to people selling the goods, smile, look at them with her big brown eyes and say:

"Greetings from Bai Feng Jiu, how is the business today?"

The hearts would melt and shopkeepers would turn to mush in front of their little princess. She would leave the market with pockets full of treats from locals and a cheeky smile.

Feng Jiu always aimed to return to the Fox Cave before her babysitter of the day woke up. And her escapades were generally kept quiet from her parents and grandparents as people who were tasked to look after her were often still asleep when she came back or too embarrassed to be bested by the little fox.

On one particular occasion when the fox princess was just 7,000 years old she attempted to pull this trick on her father. Everything was going as expected and Feng Jui spent the day playing with her friends and eating snacks at the market.

Upon return, she witnessed Fox Cave in an uproar. Fox King was pacing, Fox Queen was interrogating her father and Mi Gu - the two people responsible for her lessons today.

Bai Feng Jiu just wanted to melt on the floor or become invisible. But she was taught from an early age to face the challenges in life head-on and take responsibility for her actions.

The princess clenched her fists, took a deep breath and revealed herself to her family.

"Jiu Jiu!" her grandmother exclaimed, "There you are!"

"Where have you been?" Bai Yi, the second son of Fox King shouted, his spit flying into Jiu's face.

Feng Jiu shrank into herself a bit, but still attempted in her sweetest tone "Father, Jiu was just playing outside. Father was sleeping so sweetly, Jiu was scared to wake you."

Bai Yi's face changed colours rapidly from angry red to furious purple: "You, you are ... "

"Husband, let's not be upset. Little Jiu Jiu was just playing. She is still only a cub.'' Kumiho hastily came to her daughter's defence. She really did not for Bai Yi to finish that sentence. He could become stubborn and entirely unreasonable over the smallest things.

"And you did fall asleep..." she added quietly.

Bai Yi turned his glare on his wife. She chose to ignore it and carried on, now addressing Fox Queen:

"It seems like little Jiu Jiu is ready for more intense schooling as she clearly has too much energy to just stay at home all day and take her lessons."

Fox Queen grew thoughtful and approved the daughter-in-law's idea:

"Indeed, Kumiho, you are right. It's time to find a good master for Feng Jiu. She is ready to learn. Little Jiu has as much cunning and energy as my children had when they were 20,000 years old. It's our job as her elders to prepare her for the future."

And so the decision was made. Fox Queen would be looking for a master for young Bai Feng Jiu.

Jiu's uncles, aunty and Mi Gu were all silently relieved with this arrangement. They never believed themselves to be great tutors and/or babysitters. Although they all also agreed that those lovely afternoon naps would be sorely missed.

(*^_^*)

Finding a master for little Jiu was not a simple matter. The first master immortals had while young often influenced their life further on. Bai Qian and Mo Yuan's situation was the best example of what she desperately wanted to avoid.

After visiting all her friends and gathering all the latest chatter in the immortal world, the High Goddess was still wholly undecided and nowhere near a solution. So she did what women do when they are not sure - ask for advice.

This particular advisee was Queen's godmother - Nu Wa, the deity in charge of keeping the Stone of Destiny safe and registering all the immortal marriages. It's not like Fox Queen was aiming to cheat destiny, she just wanted a small nudge in the right direction. And what a nudge she got.

"Oh, don't be daft, just send the girl here," was the response she got after a carefully worded request for advice.

"I have a lot of work around this place. You know, everyone just has to get married these days. Whatever happened to all those lovely couples who just eloped or lived in sin? Now even spiritual rocks that can't talk, want to register their marriage. The world has gone crazy! Crazy, I tell you!"

Fox Queen looked around the empty temple. Only the wind blew from the East. She was used to her godmother's not very funny jokes by now. However, this was an unusual idea. She did not hate it immediately.

"And what sort of lessons would you focus on?"

"Well, I would teach her whatever is useful for survival, obviously, " Nu Wa said in a very serious tone as she looked at her goddaughter. "Feng Jiu's fate is not a joking matter."

Fox Queen paled and closed her eyes. The matter was settled.

(*^_^*)

Bai Feng Jiu was nervous. Today she would meet her new Master for the first time. Nu Wa was one of those legendary immortals that all other immortals heard about.

Her new Master was responsible for officiating all the unions between couples in Four Seas and Eight Wildernesses. Two immortals would not count as married until Nu Wa made a record of it.

Jiu's parents took her up to the entrance of the Temple of Destiny in the Nine Heavens. The family said their goodbyes on the bottom of a massive staircase that seemingly went on forever into thick clouds.

"Do us proud, Bai Feng Jiu," father gently patted her on the head. "You are a nine-tailed fox from the Bai clan, there is nothing in this world you can't achieve."

"Eat well, don't stay up too late and don't be naughty to your teacher," mother hugged Jiu with tears in her eyes.

Jiu smiled and bowed to her parents, then turned towards the stairs and started the long climb towards her new challenge.