FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

When he opened his eyes, there was a moment of confusion before James remembered the events of the previous day. He sat up, stretched, and then looked around the small room. His friends were lying next to him, still sound asleep. James yawned, and stood up, shrugging on his coat from where he had tossed it before going to bed.

Stepping outside, he noted that the air was bright and the morning sun was shining through the trees. It was a stark contrast to the darkness they had witnessed in the jungle, now much more cheerful and alive. Many Ikirian were already making their way around the city.

A buzz drew his attention upwards and he saw Captain Aur descending to meet him.

"Ah, you're finally up!"

"Finally? Have you been waiting a while?"

Aur shrugged, which looked funny on an insect. "Not really, but I didn't have anything else to do. One major difference between my people and yours is that we only rest once every several days."

That would explain the bustling outside, James though. His stomach growled suddenly, reminding him that he hadn't eaten since the previous day.

"Sorry for asking, but do you have anything to eat? I'm a bit starving."

Aur made a sort of clicking laughter. "The Queens anticipated you might need sustenance before embarking to the temple. Follow me; a meal has already been prepared."

James was led across a series of bridges that connected the various structures in the trees. Each was made out of wood and was very sturdy, although he still felt uneasy due to the lack of a railing. The Ikirian would save him if he fell, but it still would not be a fun experience.

Luckily, they made it to a large central building with no issues. This was a meeting hall of some sort, judging by the large amount of Ikirian walking in and out. It even had a large hole in the roof to allow them to fly directly inside if they couldn't be troubled to take the bridges.

Entering, James was surprised to see that the interior was much smaller than he had expected. Then he felt a bit silly, as most of the buildings in Rioyda and the Arcane Quintessium were augmented with Celestial magic.

"Jeez, I've come such a long way, I've forgotten what 'normal' Earth-buildings even look like."

James was led through the halls of the building by Aur, stopping every so often as the captain said hello to a fellow Ikirian. Eventually, he walked into a small room that had several stumps placed in a circle.

"There are several fruits that the Queens picked for you and your friends," Aur said, pointed towards a set of wide wooden bowls that were placed at the edge of the room. "The rest of your party should arrive shortly; when you are finished I will take you once again to see the Queens."

He began to leave, but James stopped him hesitantly.

"Um, not really trying to sound rude, but... is it alright for us to eat this stuff? I mean, being of a different species and all?"

Aur nodded. "The Queens thought you might have that notion. Be assured, it is not our first time hosting mages. As such, the food is perfectly safe. Enjoy with a sound mind."

He left and James walked over to the bowls to see what was for breakfast. Inside were a multitude of tennis ball-sized fruits, each with purple skin and several fluffy green leaves coating the top. Picking out one, he noted that they were very plump and surprisingly heavy for their size.

"Oh well," he thought, shrugging. "It can't taste that bad. Down the hatch!"

He took a large bite. It was delicious, melting on his tongue and tasting sweet, but filling. Spying a stack of carved cups nearby, he took one and filled it to the brim before sitting down on one of the stumps. He began to eat eagerly and waited for his friends to pull themselves up.

Finally, when James was on his 3rd cup of fruit, the others walked in, still yawning.

Algon looked over at James. "Getting Delta up before he wants to is downright impossible. I don't know how you managed to tolerate it back at the Quintessium!"

"Well, I've gotten very talented and creative with my wakeup calls." He held out cups, each already filled. "Here, the Queens made us breakfast."

Lydia glanced dubiously at the berries. "Is it safe?"

"I had the same thought, but Captain Aur said that it's perfectly fine to eat. Apparently, we're not the first mages to make contact with the Ikirian."

"Well duh. How do you think that Rioyda was established in the first place? Someone would have had to come and ask permission from the native species first." Algon stopped talking to take a bite. "Holy cow, these are amazing!"

All of the friends had the same idea. Between the four of them, the bowls were finished very quickly, as soon Captain Aur came back to take them to visit the Queens. They walked outside, where they were met by a squad of Ikirian, and were flown up to the tree-like the previous day. Even in the morning sun, the bark and leaves still glowed with light, even if it was slightly harder to make out.

The Queens were sitting on their thrones like before, still surrounded by their guards.

"Greetings, young mages. How was your rest?"

"Very good," James answered, his friends nodding alongside him. "And the food was good as well."

"We are pleased that you were satisfied. Now, are you ready for your mission?"

Nods came from everyone.

"Good. Allow me to explain the details." The Queen brought up the globe like before, spinning it around to the backside of the planet.

"This is the temple we would like you to investigate," she said, pointing to a pulsing dot. "We will escort you there, but will be unable to enter due to the corruption, so it is imperative that you be ready for anything."

James glanced at the others before answering. "Understood."

The Queen motioned to her guard, who brought the box from the previous day forward.

"In here lies the Ulnth, the orb that allows us to translate any language. The runes present in the temple are written in Void; this will help you understand their meanings. We lend this to you in good faith, and trust that you will not harm our most precious artifact."

"Thank you." Lydia took the box in surprise, holding it gingerly. She stored it away in her amulet.

"We hope that you will discover the source of the corruption. Your efforts shall aid us great young mages. Go in the knowledge that our hearts are behind you."

James and his friends thanked the Queens once more before following Aur outside.

"We're only going a short distance," he said, his squad landing around them and picking the group up. "It'd be a pain for us to carry you the entire way, so we've got another ride arranged for you."

They carried the friends away from the city and it soon disappeared into the jungle. The trees went by at a much slower pace than before, and they flew much closer to the ground as well.

"Where are we going?" Delta yelled at Aur.

"You'll have to wait and see. We're almost there."

They traveled for another 5 minutes or so before the trees opened up into a massive clearing, complete with a stream and a small waterfall. After releasing the group, the other Ikirian went into the jungle, leaving behind the Captain. He remained next to James, watching the trees ahead intently.

"Buzz, this is taking a bit too long," he muttered. "They should be here by now."

"Who should be?"

"Your escort."

A massive hum filled the air and Air sighed. "Finally! It took them long enough."

The sun went away, casting the clearing into the shade. James looked up and saw a huge shape covering the sky, descending towards them. Two more appeared over the trees as well, flying down and creating even more noise.

"What the heck is going on?" Lydia yelled, for once having no problem with being too loud. "They're huge!"

The new arrivals, apparently, were gigantic black beetles. As they landed, they towered over the group and even reached the midpoints of many of the jungle trees.

The beetle in front stared at them with huge eyes and Aur walked over. He bowed and said, "Hail, Captain Foh."

A deep rumbling voice came out of nowhere, causing the trees to shake and almost knocking James and his friends over. "Hail, Captain Aur."

The Captain turned back and clicked at them. "Meet Captain Foh. He'll be escorting you to the temple and will be overseeing your investigation."

"Wait, he's an Ikirian too?" Algon asked, voicing the thought of the entire group.

"Yes! There are many different tribes, remember, and they don't all look like mine. Foh is from the southern region closest to where the temple is. His tribe is also uniquely suited to transportation as you've probably guessed."

"When the Queens requested my assistance, I could not refuse. I am happy to escort you to the temple." Foh's voice echoed through the clearing, rattling the trees.

"Ok, cool," James said. "Um, how do you want us to do this exactly?"

In response, Foh bent down, touching his body to the ground. Aur waved a glowing hand and a tree bent a branch down, forming a ramp up to his back.

"We're attuned to the planet, remember?" Aur said in amusement, seeing their shocked expressions. "Come on now; up you go."

Aur watched as they climbed onto Foh's back. The group sat down in front of the wings, where the carapace was relatively flat. Lydia gulped as the beetle stood, shifting his weight around.

"I'm not sure this is safe. Are certain we won't fall off?"

Foh chuckled, making his entire body rumble. "Of course. However, I will also use my magic to keep you on, so do not be afraid."

His antennae glowed and James felt his legs seem to stick to the carapace. He tried to move them and found that it was incredibly hard to even shift the tiniest bit.

"Captain Aur, we will take our leave. I hope to report a successful mission in the upcoming days."

"Thank you, Captain Foh. James, Algon, Delta, and Lydia, we wish you good luck."

With an earsplitting buzz, Foh's emerged behind them, right before his magic blocked their ears, cutting out most of the noise. The carapace shifted as he stood up higher, but as he promised they didn't fall. Aur waved as the squad lifted off the ground.

The trees fell beneath the group as they flew into the sky. The beetles could move very fast despite their size and it was much more comfortable than flying with Aur. Eventually, most of the friends relaxed, with the exception of Lydia.

"I'm still not too sure about this," she yelled, gripping onto the carapace's ridges as best she could.

"You should relax," Algon called back, holding his arms out. "This is fun!"

Lydia shook her head and accidentally glanced down at the ground. She sat up ramrod straight and gulped, turning a funny white color and breathing deeply.

The green trees beneath the squad slowly grew thinner as they traveled across the continent. Several large meadows appeared and James could see mountain ranges materializing off in the distance.

"Hey, look!" Algon pointed suddenly. "It's more of Ran's species!"

A herd of Oucu ran below, flying through the grass and vanishing into the trees.

"They are still pure, untouched by the evil of the Void," rumbled Foh. "It is things like this temple that pose a threat to them and our entire planet."

"Holy realms," Algon breathed.

James looked up to see a structure emerging in front of them. Grey stone-like metal arched upward in huge beams. The architecture was strange, having a twisting lattice pattern etched into each surface, and crackles of white and purple energy shooting up and down the exterior.

Foh let them down a far distance from the central building.

"This is as far as I take you," he rumbled. "The corruption is already potent."

James saw that there was a glimmer of light surrounding each of the Ikirian. A thin shield blocked the energy from reaching their bodies, but he got the impression that it could shatter at any moment.

Foh created a ladder of vines for them to climb down. "Your magic should remain intact while you are inside, but still remain vigilant. These temples are mostly unknown to us, and we do not know what dangers lie within. When you are finished, come outside and we shall be waiting. The Queens wish you the best of luck."

"Thanks," James said. "We'll do our best. Lydia, got the Ulnth orb?"

Lydia checked her storage and nodded. "Safe and sound. Let's go."

As soon as they left the shield surrounding the Ikirian, the air turned darker and James felt a shiver go up how spine.

"Did you feel that?"

"Yeah," Lydia said, swallowing hard. "This is the same feeling I got outside Rioyda. My Weird senses don't like this place."

"Then let's get this over with."

There was no door into the temple, only an opening that disappeared into the depths.

Delta glanced at James. "After you."

"Fine," he said, drawing Ruin. "But I'm so getting you back for this later."

He led the way into the door, pausing for a moment when he entered. Luckily, there weren't any traps that appeared, although Space seemed to shiver as they crossed the threshold. The hall had the same patterns as the outside and was lit with a purple glow, which gave the place a dark feeling.

The only direction was forward, so James took the front while Delta watched the rear. Lydia was in the middle, constantly on edge and shaking, so Algon took her hand and they walked alongside each other.

The sound of their footsteps echoed through the temple as they traveled along. The air was still and silent.

"Man this is nerve-wracking," Delta said. "So, what are looking for exactly?"

"I'm not sure," James said. "We need something that explains why there's such a large amount of corruption around Rioyda, so everyone just keep your eyes open."

The hallway opened up into a huge room with ramps leading to other floors. James turned to the rest of the group.

"So, do we go up or down, or both?"

"There's no way we're splitting up," Algon said. "We have no idea what's waiting for us."

"There's also some more passages on the side over here."

"Great, more options."

"You know, I could always quickly scope out the routes," Delta said. "It wouldn't take long..."

"NO. FLIPPING. WAY! We're staying together, just like Algon said."

"But I'd be fine!" Delta protested. "And if I got into any trouble, I could just zip away."

"Still not happening. It's still too risky."

"But we don't have enough time to look around. This temple could be enormous; how do we know that we'll even be able to find what we're looking for by just wandering around? I still say my idea's the best."

A noise caught James' attention, and he glanced up.

"Hey guys, cut it out for a second. Did you just hear footsteps?"

The trio stopped arguing and listened.

"I think you're just paranoid, bud. We're the only ones in here."

"No, no, I think I do hear something," Lydia said. "But its really faint."

The steps suddenly echoed through the room as the person entered the huge room somewhere above them.

"Actually, I'm wrong. Let's hide!"

The floor below them was the lowest in the room, so they all silently dashed down and snuck under the ramp. From their position, they could hear more than one person walking down the ramps.

"The additional notes you requested have been retrieved, sir. We are returning now."

James glanced at his friends when he heard the voice and peeked out from behind their cover.

"Who is it?" Delta whispered.

"It's... Mr. Teilion! And a couple of Headmaster Nu's guards!"

"The Rioyda guard? What the heck are they doing here?"

The guards walked down to where the friends had been sitting and stopped. Mr. Teilion listened to an invisible answer and turned to his guards.

"Contact the remaining groups and order them to extract. When everyone is out, extinguish the artifact. It draws too much power."

"Yes, sir," said one of the guards. He was holding an odd lantern that flared every so often with a blue light. "Prepping the teams for extraction and shutting down the artifact. Let's move!"

The guards and Mr. Teilion left, each going down separate tunnels. James and his friends scampered out of their hiding spot and crept back up the ramp.

"Why are they here?" Delta asked, rattled by the experience.

"I'm not sure," said James. "I wonder what notes they were talking about."

"They might help us out. We should go and see, especially while the guards are busy."

"They could come back at any time, though. I really don't want them to catch us."

Lydia thought for a moment, then interjected. "The guards all use communication sigils to talk with each other. I should be able to modify an amulet while we walk to pick up their conversations."

"Good, finish that. Let's head to where they came from and see if we find anything useful."

The group agreed and they all climbed up to the top floors of the room. There, they found another passageway leading deeper into the temple.

The path was very long and twisted and turned back on itself, confusing the group. Luckily, there weren't any alternate routes or doors leading off, or else they would have gotten severely lost.

"I think I see something up ahead," James said as he rounded a corner.

Another huge room appeared, this one not containing any ramps or doors. Instead, a large map was engraved into a wall, with runes layered all over.

"I can't read these. What do they say?"

Lydia pulled out the Ulnth and held it up. "The Ikirian said it should translate them. Let's see."

Light blossomed from the orb and fell over the walls. The runes shifted around and formed blocks of text.

"Holy realms, that's a lot of notes!"

The translated text was now huge, covering all of the formerly-open wall space.

"Let's spread out and each take a wall. Call if you find anything interesting."

James took the wall with the map. It looked roughly the shape of Dorian-5, with each continent on the map similar to the ones on the orb that the Queens showed them.

White and purple lines suddenly lit up and flashed over the map, creating jagged gashes and scars.

"What was that?"

"Sorry," Algon said sheepishly. "I touched a part of the wall and it lit up."

"Well, it did something to the map. Come and see."

The rest of the group crowded around and looked up at the wall.

"That's Dorian-5 right?" Delta asked.

"Yeah, I had guessed that. But what do the lines mean?"

Algon furrowed his brow. "The text that I touched was talking about rifts, but it was really confusing."

Delta zipped over to where Algon had been and scanned the wall.

"Well, that explains the corruption. Jeez!."

"Why? What's wrong?"

He pointed at a section that seemed to be talking about the Origin War. "Remember how the Queens said that this planet was used by the Void? I think they had portals to their dimension here!"

"So then those lines are the rifts in Reality that they used to cross? There's so many!"

James thought back to the globe the Queens had shown. "I think that most of them are underneath the temples and ruins. That must be where the corruption is coming from."

"Then what about Rioyda's? There's no rift where the school is."

Algon shrugged. "Landmasses can shift over time. One of the old rifts is probably beneath the school."

"Hey, look at this," Lydia called. She was still looking around the room at the rest of the writing. "Apparently this wasn't just some Void outpost. There was something called an Omega Rift here."

"What's that?" James asked, coming to stand next to her.

"One second; I'm looking. According to these notes, the Omega Rift was used as... a primary entrance point for Lord Iter's army."

"You're joking."

"No, see? Right here." She touched the wall.

"Oh. My. Dear. God. That's not good."

They both spun around at Algon's gasp. He pointed at the map.

"Something else popped up, and I think we know where the school's problem is coming from now."

A rift had appeared where Rioyda was located, only this one was absolutely massive and much brighter than the rest.

"That must be the Omega Rift. It's beneath Rioyda!"

"So that's why the school's leaking Void energy. Yikes!"

"We need to find out whatever we can about that rift. Scan the room."

Right as they separated, the temple shook and the walls flashed.

"What was that?"

"I don't know! Maybe there's something else going on in the temple?"

"Wait a minute, remember the guards from earlier?" Lydia said.

"What, you think they might be behind this? Why would they do that, though?"

"I don't know! It was just a guess!"

"Did you finish patching into their communication sigils?

Lydia shook her head. "No, the notes interrupted me. Uh, give me a minute."

Her eyes glowed and she yanked out her amulet, beginning to fiddle with the sigils engraved on it.

"One second, one second... there! Patching us in now!"

A while came out of the amulet before a shaky sigil appeared in the air.

"Yes, sir. Teams are finished and extracting now. 1 minute until artifact shutdown."

The friends all reacted at the same time. "The lantern! It's causing this!"

James looked over at the walls, which were beginning to glow a deep purple. "Whatever that thing's doing, I don't think it's good! Let's go!"

They raced out of the room, storing the Ulnth away and heading for the ramps.

"James, let's carry them like before!" Delta yelled, zipping over.

He tried to use his elements but failed. "I can't! Something's blocking my powers; I think it's the temple."

Lydia's amulet crackled. "30 seconds to artifact shutdown."

Delta's suddenly failed as well, causing him to go sprawling on the ground. He sprang to his feet. "Fine, normal running then! Let's hurry!"

They made it down the ramp and raced for the door.

"Look, there's the exit!"

It shone in front of them, light from the sun pouring through.

"Artifact shutdown in 10...9...8..."

"HURRY!"

Right as they made it to the doorway, the temple gave a huge shake.

"Artifact shutdown in 2...1..."

The amulet went silent and they crashed through the door.

"Wha...HOLY HELLS!!!"

"AHHH!!!"

The walls had returned to their normal grey color and the rumbling had stopped, but the group hadn't reached the outside. Instead, they found themselves in free fall, plummeting down a bottomless chasm to an unknown fate.