FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 21

At first going through the portal left about as much sensation as walking between rooms. No feeling of movement, no disorientation, nothing. Then several things hit me at once screaming out that we were in another place. First the blast of heat, the room we had been in had been just slightly on the chilly side of comfortable now it felt like we were standing in the middle of an inferno.

The second assault on our senses came in the form of smell, sulfurous smoke with a hint of burned flesh and hair filled both mine and Chase's nostrils causing both of us to cough slightly and cover our noses. Then we got our first look of my grandfathers realm as our eyes adjusted to the new light level. This above all else drove home the fact that we were no longer on earth as we knew it.

Stretching out before us was a vast cavern easily several times larger than the forest Chase and his pack called home. High above us giant stalactites hung from the ceiling in rows of varying lengths. They are so high in fact that blood red clouds have formed amongst them. Along the floor of the cavern is a vast lake of boiling lava filling the expanse with a yellowish glow and stifling heat.

The lake is fed by several cascading lava falls flowing over the edges of several floating islands topped by several small structures and large volcanoes which are continuously pouring fourth magma and smoke. Along the shores near us there are patches of scraggly black grass with serrated edges along the leaves. A stone path stretches out from the shore into the lava providing a path towards what can only be described as a castle in the distance. Its obsidian parapets covered in spikes its windows lit from within in red and blue lights.

Taking in a deep breath feeling the fumes of the lava enter my lungs with a searing pain that is both excruciating and exhilarating in a way only a demon could enjoy. Chase coughs beside me again before saying in a scratchy voice, "So this is your home? I can see why you left."

I give him a half smile before unfurling my wings wide behind us and lifting my muzzle to the air letting out a roar loud enough to shake the small pebbles on the ground beside us. Chase slams his paws over his ears then glares at me as I finish and fold my wings back around my shoulders. Growling he almost yells at me as he lowers his paws, "What the hell was that for? Are you trying to alert the entire place that we are here?"

Looking down at him I blink once before saying, "That was exactly what I was doing. The last thing we need is to be thought of as intruders. I was just announcing our presence and saying we were responding to a summons."

As soon as I finish explaining an answering roar comes from the castle in the lake and the doors on the front swing open letting out a bank of dark fog which quickly dissipates into the air. Gesturing to the door, "And now we have been granted entrance so it is safer to approach."

He looks up at me with apprehension on his face, "Only safer? What if we had approached with announcing ourselves?"

I shrug and begin walking towards the stone path leading into the lake, "Pain, torture, dismemberment, death.... though probably not in that order."

Chase jogs for a second to get even with me before matching my pace, "How could that fall in any other order?"

This time as I look down at him I give a grin that shows more than a touch of malice, "In my grandfathers realm, death is not guaranteed to be permanent. Not if they really want you to suffer."

With that we walk in silence the rest of the way to the castle careful to watch our steps as the boiling lava along the path occasionally splashes liquid rock to sizzle and cool near our feet. As we near the front doors the enormity of their size becomes apparent as they are easily thirty feet higher than my own large form. Setting foot on the main island two shadows detach themselves from either side of the doors and quickly form into very large, very angry looking hound like animals with a very defining characteristic.

Chase falters beside me as he comes to a very sudden stop gasping, "Uhm.... Ebony.... do those dogs have.... three heads?"

I look up at the two hounds on either side of the door and look into each of the six pair of eyes in turn. Each hound is easily twenty feet tall with three heads each. They are covered in fur even blacker than mine with red flames running up and down their bodies. All six heads are staring at us intently with bright red eyes. More than one mouth even has a bit of drool dripping from it.

Turning to Chase I say, "Did you think Hades was the only one to have a three headed hell hound for a guard dog? My grandmother used to breed them in her spare time."

He looks from me to the hounds with a bit of horror on his face, "There are more of those? They look like they want us for lunch."

I chuckle at his comment, "They don't think we are for lunch."

Relief grows in his eyes before I take a small amount of pleasure at destroying it, "They think we will be new chew toys for a few hours."

His jaw drops as I guide him through the doors under the hungry gazes of the two hounds. Once we are inside the doors slam shut behind us with an echoing boom causing both of us to jump as I reflexively pull my tail close to me. With the doors shut the glow from the lava vanishes leaving us in near total darkness.

Before our eyes can adjust to the darkness however, torches of blue flame burst to life in alcoves along the wall casting the hall in a pale ethereal light. As the light travels down the hallway it reveals massive columns of marble on either side of a dark colored carpet. As the torches continue lighting in sequence the light leads towards a raised dais with two thrones carved from bleached white stone. Swallowing hard I look down to Chase and say, "Don't speak unless spoken to and do exactly what I do. Failure to do so could get us killed."

He nods doing his best to project an air of calm authority but the smell of his fear betrays him. With a sigh I turn and begin striding purposely down the center with Chase close beside me. About halfway down the hallway a tall slender figure steps out from behind one of the columns and moves into our path.

The female demon stands a few inches taller than Chase and exudes a confident superiority about her. Stoping a few feet from her I look her over from head to toe. Her body is covered in scales so fine as to almost look like glittering sand. Two horns curve back over the top of her head, the bases of which are hidden in long flowing red hair.

Her body, arms, and head are mostly human in shape though her glowing red eyes have cat like pupils. Behind her a long slender tail whips back and forth in an almost lazy manner. Her legs move down from curvy hips before turning into cloven hooves for feet. What little clothing she has on barely covers her ample breasts and more intimate areas. Modesty and imagination are two things the outfit does not allow for.

As I stand there watching her she saunters closer and reaches out a clawed finger trace under Chases's chin forcing him to look up as she studies him. With a silky almost seductive voice she says, "Well well, what do we have hear? Someone has brought a new play thing for us hmmm....?"

She circles around Chase dragging a clawed finger around him as she does, "Bit more sturdy than the usual offerings petty demons bring before my lord. Maybe he will bring you more favor than most young whelp. To bad the master of this realm is not taking visitors today. Though I would be happy to take him off your hands."

I growl and grab her wrist pulling her hand away from Chase and force her to look up at me for the first time, "He is under my protection. Keep your claws away from him Circe."

For a moment she stares at me in confusion before ripping her hand away saying, "Who are you and how dare you tell me what to do? I could rip your throat out and no one would care."

I grin exposing all of my teeth before saying, "You could try, but then you would have to explain why you attacked guests of the Thrice Crowned Lord when they arrived at his personal summoning."

Her eyes narrow as she takes a step back and asks with a quavering voice, "The lord summoned you? But he said the only person he summoned was.....the..... pri..."

Cutting her off before she can continue, "You can bite that snake tongue of yours if you know whats good for you. I don't want to hear the venom you call compliments or curses. Why the lord has kept you around all this time is beyond me."

The speed at which her eyes widen makes me think her over long eyelashes were going fly off her face, "You? After all this time you have returned?"

Her gaze now takes on a hungry look as she looks me over, "Well the young Ebony has sure grown up now hasn't he."

She raises a hand up to touch my lower right horn but before she can I quickly turn my head and snap my jaws a fraction of an inch from her outstretched fingers snapping one of the claws off. Spitting the fowl tasting talon out of my mouth so that it bounces off her face and falls to the floor I fix her with my most threatening gaze, "You will leave our presence and not breathe a single word about our being here or I will personally hunt you down, rip your tongue out of your mouth and feed it to the serpents of the lake. Am I clear?"

She swallows hard as she visibly pales before turning and running out a side door. Chase looks after her then up to me and opens his mouth to speak but I cut him off, "I'll explain later, just remain silent and don't talk to anyone without me around, especially the females."

He glares at me for a moment then nods and we resume our march through the hallway uninterrupted. Upon reaching the base of the thrones we can barely make out the shape of a figure seated in the right throne though they are cloaked and hidden in shadows. Quickly I unfold my wings from my shoulders and fold them behind me as I lower myself to one knee, head bowed, pausing only long enough to make certain Chase has mimicked my stance.

Once I am satisfied he is showing proper deference and respect I speak in a clear voice, "I, Ebony Wolf, have come before the Thrice Crowned Lord as summoned. With me I bring Chase, Alpha of his own pack, to whom I owe my life and who is under my protection for the duration of my stay here. Provided my lord sees fit to allow it."

For several long moments silence echoes around the room following my announcement before a soft feminine voice asks, "Ebony? Are you really my little Ebby all grown up?"

My head jerks up so fast in surprise at the voice my neck pops loudly, "Grandma?"

With that the figure in the throne quickly gets up and rushes forward. Instead of the demon lord I was expecting a slender elderly wolfess steps from the shadows. Her fur is a soft auburn with a fair bit of grey around the muzzle and eyes. Despite the signs of age on her face her eyes are alight with life and joy.

Before I can react she races forward down the short flight of steps, her elegant blue and gold gown waving behind her as she jumps up and wraps her arms as far around my chest as she can. She buries her nose into my collar as she weeps in joy. At first I sit there in shock then quickly wrap my own, much larger limbs around her relatively small frame.

For several moments she holds me tight before gently pushing away from me and looking me in the face. In her eyes I see nothing but joy and the love I always saw in them. She reaches out a paw and runs it along my top left horn before looking me in the eye smiling, "It is you, when your grandfather said he had finally made contact I was afraid to believe him. It has been so long and you have grown so much."

Her gaze falls down till she notices the network of scars across my body and makes a clucking noise with her tongue, "Tsk tsk, life has not been easy for you has it my boy. If you would have just come back sooner...."

She trails off and looks at me with a sad smile, "But that's in the past. What matters is that you are here now."

She turns and looks at Chase before saying, "And what is this about my Ebby owing his life to you?"

Chase looks between us a bit startled before glancing at me for a moment then answering, "Well a pack mate and I stumbled upon Ebony being attacked during a snowstorm and we managed to save him."

My grandmother looks Chase over appraisingly before saying, "Well mister Chase you have my gratitude for saving my grandson. You may address me as Lady Celestra when in public, though if it is just the three of us Celes or grandma will do."

I give Chase a quick sharp glance and thankfully he picks up on it cause he says, "Yes, Lady Celestra."

She gives him a quick smile before turning back to me saying, "I suppose you are wanting to speak with your grandfather then?"

I nodded, "Yes ma'am, his summons is why we came after all."

With a slight pout she says, "Well I suppose it would take nothing less than a personal summons from him to get you home. Hell knows we have been trying to get in touch with you for centuries now."

She turns away from me and strides back up the steps and slips between the thrones before banging hard on the black wall behind them while yelling, "Hey wake up! Your grandson is here to see you!"

For a moment I am confused why she just rudely banged on a wall like that, then the wall moved. My mouth falls slightly open as what I had thought to be a large intricately carved wall begins to shift and vibrate as a low growl reverberates around the room. Before long I finally understand that what I had thought was a wall was actually the back of a large scaled creature.

As it shifts and moves a deep rumbling voice echoes, "I told you Celes not to wake me up early unless he arrived."

Then a great head almost twice as large as my entire body rises above the side of the creatures bulk revealing a great dragon head with green eyes that are scanning the room before their gaze falls on me. In an instant the sleep vanishes from their depths as the slitted pupils narrow and fix on me. Swallowing hard I hold my gaze and say in a horse voice, "Hello grandfather."

With a speed I would never have expected possible from such a massive form the dragon quickly rolls onto his four giant clawed feet and reveals two more heads attached to long muscular necks. The right head has eyes of a deep crimson red, above those eyes settled between two long ivory horns is a crown of red flames dancing in a circle.

As the left head moves around the glowing blue eyes within search the room carefully before focusing on us and revealing a crown carved from what looks like frozen waves of water set securely on top of four horns. The center head, whose green eyes have never once left me continues to stare as the crown of woven branches wreathed in green leaves.

Moving as one all three heads of the great dragon move and level their gazes upon me before all speaking in one loud voice, "Finally you have answered my summons young demon. You have made me wait long enough and tried my patience. Such insolence should not be...."

A snort of irritation draws the attention of everyone in the room as all three dragon heads as well as mine and Chase shift to look at my grandmother as she says, "Oh cut out the theatrics, there is no one here but the four of us. Ebony sent Circe packing on his way in."

With a disgruntled huff all three heads pull back behind the thrones as the dragons body begins to shrink and pull in on itself in a transformation even more rapid than my own. In the span of a heart beat all that is left is a tall humanoid figure which moves around in front of the seats. The demon lords smaller form is roughly twelve feet tall with two large horns forming above his eyes which taper back tightly across his skull. Perched above his horns is now a single crown that is a combination of the three his dragon heads wore.

Draped around his shoulders are a pair of ruby colored wings. His clothes are done in a up in a fancy red and black pattern that imitates the scales of his dragon form. As he sits a long dragon tail slithers out a slot in the back of the throne as he crosses on taloned foot over the other. Once he is comfortable he says, "I had a whole speech all prepared but apparently your grandmother doesn't want to hear it."

Celestra reaches over with a paw that she rests gently on his arm as she replies, "Honey, you know your speeches go on far longer than necessary and it would have been wasted on the lack of crowd."

He looks at her for a moment before his gaze softens and he nods, "You're right of course."

Then he turns his gaze back on me, revealing tricolored iris of red, blue, and green, before it hardens back to stone as he demands, "But I still want to know why it took me eight hundred years to get you to come back and then only after you force me to threaten to burn down the entire forest that my tracer tracked you to."

I look up at him holding his gaze despite the terror as I reply, "That was your tracer that killed the branches of the tree?"

He waves a hand in the air saying, "I had to give it a way to stay alive long enough to find you and report back. Giving it the ability to pull life out of plants seem the easiest way. But you still haven't answered my question. Why have you not returned in all this time despite our attempts to reach you?"

Feeling more than a little bit of rage build in my chest I have a very hard time keeping my voice level as I give stiff question of my own, "And why would I willingly return to a place where I was marked for death and told I would be executed if I returned?"

What ever reply my grandparents had expected, this clearly was not it. The shock alone that spread across their faces made that all to clear.