Grasscutter_Resources/Resources/Readable/EN/Book9_EN.txt

Having failed to catch the fox, I went to sleep with only tasteless boiled carrots in my stomach. If not for what happened next, I would have forgotten about the fox by now.
I awoke with a start to strange noises coming from outside my door.
"Perhaps boars have come to eat my carrots?"
I hopped out of bed and opened my door. To my surprise, there stood a tiny little white fox. Its fur was so white that it glowed in the dark, not unlike the way sunlight sparkles on water after filtering through the treetops.
"This must be the same fox from earlier!"
I thought again of those eyes that looked like gemstones in the water, gazing at me as if from the depths of my heart.
And so I walked over to the fox, unarmed and with tired eyes.
This time it stayed still and waited for me in silence.
The closer I drew, the greater in stature it became.
By the time I stood before it, it had magically transformed into a human.
She was a tall and slender woman, with a swan-like neck and pearly skin. Her eyes sparkled like gemstone fragments in pools of water — in the darkness they seemed to shine like rays of sunlight on water after filtering through the treetops.
"What a beauty. She looks a lot like the girl I fell in love with long ago, though I barely remember her name. Those eyes tell me she must be her."
I thought to myself.
"This can't be. Must be some type of fox magic."
Stranger still, the idea of "fox magic" had only occurred to me in that instant. You'd believe anything after you'd seen those eyes.
For all the magic and transformation I had witnessed, nothing amazed me quite as much as the gemstone lakes of her eyes. For a while, we stood silently in the dead of night.
And at last she spoke. Though not in our common tongue, I could somehow understand her. Some other magic, perhaps.
"I would have died by that lake, if you had not come in my hour of need."
She paused and continued:
"Although to die by that gemstone lake is no bad thing,"
"We foxes are grateful beings, so you must let me return the favor."
She bowed to me, her long silky black hair flowing down her shoulders like streams.