FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Bramble enjoyed many days exploring the lands around her family home, but once she grew to know the birds, plants, and all manner of crawling creature she found herself wishing for more. She had been told by her parents that they kept to themselves away from the other villagers for her own good. They had trouble understanding how special she was she was told, and with time her parents hoped that she would grow to be able to contribute in a meaningful way and help them see past her physical differences. But as is the case for most young ones, curiosity supersedes most other emotions, and today she'd learn that making friends can sometimes be an arduous task.

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Bramble had wandered farther than usual from her home today in her explorations, and poking her head around a large tree she saw the many sloped shapes that made up the neighboring village near her home. She was excited to get the chance to watch other people for a while as they were busy going about their daily lives: bartering at the market, hanging laundry to dry, or most fun to her were the games that the other kids her age played that were so different than the ones she made up on her own.

Bramble sneaked around the outskirts of the village and paused near a spaced wooden fence to get a closer look at the village kids playing a jumping game with one another. They used a mix of short and longer sticks to measure distance against each other. They would jog back a good distance before running forward with all their might to clear their previous mark. From what she could gather the kids were practicing for an upcoming competition in their village. For what sort of prize she did not know, but the whole affair was new and exciting, just what she had been seeking. She had to learn more, and so she chose to hop over the fence waving her hand with a friendly swish of her tail behind her only to have the kids stop and stare with the game immediately halted.

"Hi, um...that game you were playing looked like a lot of fun. You think you could show me how it works?" Bramble asked, hoping she hadn't broken their concentration by suddenly intruding.

The oldest boy of the group broke out into a roar of laughter, and all the other boys except only one followed in his lead.

"Game? We're practicing for our village's challenge! It's a course that spans across the village and into the forest beyond that tests a man's strength! It's set up every year at the summer's zenith when the two shadows align with the medicine man's hut. You don't have a place here in this village you mudanti, and you certainly don't have what it takes to pass the challenge."

Bramble was taken aback by the boy's hostility and now embarrassed, only wanted to slink back home.

"Come on Bodaway, you don't have to talk to her like that. That's not right." the boy who had stayed silent during the group's laughter said as he laid down a fresh pair of sticks. "Let's just get back to practicing for the challenge."

Bodaway was not to be corrected on matters he felt were right or justified. "What are you going to do Dakota? Give her a kiss? You think that'll take that mudanti blood back to the spirits?"

The other boys loosed a fresh round of laughter. The boy called Dakota's brow furrowed and with a strong heave, shoved the older Bodaway down into the ground where he landed on a lingering small puddle of mud that stained the back of his loincloth a deep brown in a conspicuous manner.

Several of the boys tucked their faces into their elbows to keep from laughing at Bodaway which only fueled his anger further.

"Oh, that's it!" Bodaway roared as he flung himself at Dakota and worked to pin him to the ground.

The two boys tumbled and flung fists and elbows at each other, coated in loose dirt and grime until their commotion brought the attention of one of the men of the village passing through who rushed over to break the two boys apart. Bodaway strained against the man's arm while Dakota only breathed hard with a hint of a grin at the edges of his lips.

"What is this nonsense! Are you in training or are you suckling infants because right now I can't tell the difference!" the man screamed to the boys. Then the man caught sight of Bramble who was wide-eyed with shock, thinking that she had been the root cause of the boys' fight.

"You! If you had any part in this then you'd do best to stay away. We don't want trouble with your kind. We leave you alone. You leave us alone." the man hollered at her

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Bramble ran as quickly as she could back home with tears in her eyes. This hadn't gone how she had wanted in the least. She ran and ran until she came across her father near their home scanning through the trees frantically. He was in his mixed shape, standing on powerfully sculpted hindlegs as more horse than man now. Bramble had noticed he sometimes adopted this form in times of great stress. His longer sloped neck swung back and forth as he called out to his daughter until his ears swiveled back in her direction hearing her approach. Relief was clear in his large, pale-green eyes as Bramble crashed against his side and he knelt down to wrap her up in his arms. His wide, flat nostrils flared as he looked her over to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"Where were you?! Your mother and I had called for you, but you weren't anywhere to be found. I've been searching through the forest for you all afternoon."

"Papa, I'm sorry. I went to the village and I watched some of the boys train for their challenge. I only wanted to join in. It looked like fun. One boy said I couldn't play with them because I was a mudanti. Papa, what does that mean?"

Her father heaved a great sigh and finally eased back against a tree trunk with Bramble leaning up in his lap. "Sweetie, you were born different from others. I won't lie to you and tell you that you are the same. The word the boy used is a word sometimes used for people like you or me who are born of mixed spirits. The ones who use the word feel that because we carry a part of us that isn't human like them that it means we are less, that our spirits have mud within them."

Her father looked straight into Bramble's eyes that were a deep blue with splashes of green scattered about the edges. A splendid mix of both of them he thought.

"But that doesn't mean that your heritage has to be a source of shame. Be proud of who you are. I know I am. I have watched you grow and I hope to continue watching you grow for many many more years to come. What others fail to remember is that people are animals too, that they have needs and wants just like any other wild creature. Perhaps though they are the most dangerous by sometimes closing themselves off to the true nature of things. Not everyone in this world you meet will treat you kindly Bramble. Some may fear you. Many more will misunderstand you. But you must still carry love in your heart always, do you understand?"

Bramble soaked in her father's words and bit her lower lip. "I think so Papa, but Mama is all human too isn't she?"

"She is, but your mother is one who saw past what I looked like and has always given me all the love inside her heart. Because she did and that love between us grew and was shared that's how you ended up coming to be my darling little foal. Now let's put the bad thoughts of the day behind us. Your mother will be glad you are safe and sound now too."

Bramble headed back home atop her father's shoulders, but all the while she kept glancing back in the direction of the village thinking of the two boys fighting, the grin on the face of the one called Dakota who didn't laugh when the other boys did, and a challenge that was barred from her for something outside of her control.