"What is this?"
"Wine." Hebe smiled. "Dragons like drinking, don't they?"
"Miss A-Long has never drunk before." A-Long shook her head, brought it close to the gourd, and took a deep sniff of the fine wine.
In an instant, the great serpent on the verge of becoming a dragon collapsed to the ground in a drunken haze, revealing her true form.
Her amber eyes were half-lidded, half her tongue hanging from her mouth, and she still wore a lingering smile, as if she had dreamed of some beautiful fantasy beyond words.
Without saying a word, Hebe rose to her feet.
The third tail behind her blazed with light and pressed against Miss A-Long's body.
Her third tail could exchange the fate of a designated target for a time.
Misfortune could become good fortune, and good fortune could likewise become misfortune.
It had been fated that Miss A-Long would be nailed to Mount Takachiho by Ama-no-Sakahoko.
Now, that fate belonged to Hebe.
She placed a hand on Miss A-Long. The serpent large enough to span two mountains instantly shrank into a little snake thinner than a finger, lying limply before the collapsed altar in the shrine.
Dark clouds rolled in from the north, and the wind carried the furious roar of thunder.
Hebe smiled.
Standing where she was, she caught the hem of her clothes and spun, transforming into a golden demon fox with three tails.
The demon fox shifted with the wind. In an instant, she became a black flood dragon stretching across two mountains, a chimu branch growing from her head.
The flood dragon coiled its way up Mount Takachiho, thrust its head into the clouds, and roared at the divine white horse among them.
Minamoto no Yorimitsu sat astride the white horse, a spear in her left hand