Warning: Depiction of PTSD
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Before Hu Lijing could say even so much as a word of consolation, he saw the younger fox spirit stumble backwards, nearly collapsing into the stream, his legs losing their strength.
"!!" Hu Lijing's eyes widened in alarm. He launched forward swiftly to try and catch him. But then he stopped.
No, more aptly, the raw anguish in the four-tailed fox's eyes forced him to a halt. Almost instantaneously, he could feel the frigidity in the air. Stiffly, his amber gaze flickered to glance down—
And there he saw it—the alarmingly quick spread of ice on the forest floor. Instinctively, he flinched, memories of the disgraced ten-tails barging into his mind. Like a crisp, throbbing slap, it struck across his cheek, all but flinging him backwards.
Wracked with the fear of the past, his hands trembled, his fingers shook, his face paling while his heart and breath faltered together.
