FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Out in the Western seas of the Animalands, we see a young Chimpanzee Anthro sailing on his small pirate ship. His name is Clive. He became a pirate to live out his desire of finding treasure and undiscovered islands. Clive is a fresh face in the pirate community and many of the burly men and feisty women of the sea had their doubts that he would make it big. In fact they sometimes set him up with fake maps that lead him to a pitfall trap or find a treasure chest containing junk. No matter how often they pick on him, he didn't let that dissuade him. He continues to sail the seas on his small but modest pirate ship.

One day, he wakes up bright and early so he can prepare for his next adventure. He steps onto the dock and walks towards the small Caribbean village he stayed at. Clive sees little bird anthros playing at the park where fountains are constructed to play in the water, Gorilla Anthros doing construction to expand and add more cabins in the residential area, and Iguana mercenaries doing their patrol around the village. They wave hello to Clive, so he waves back at them before entering the tavern. Some Manatee and Shark anthro pirates are eating breakfast. Clive walks up to the bar and waits for a Parrot Anthro working as a waiter to walk up to him.

"Ahoy. Could you fill up my jug with drinking water?" Clive asked while setting his large empty mead jug on the bar table.

"Certainly, Clive." The waiter grabs it and puts it in the deep sink before running water to fill it up.

"Off on another seafaring trip, Clive?"

"Aye. This side of the Animalands is full of islands just waiting to be explored. I plan to collect treasure and record any undiscovered islands on my map."

"You best be careful. Folks around here often gossip about the islands off in the Northwest." The waiter grabs his jug and hands it to him while sealing it with a new cork.

"What kind of gossip?" Asked Clive.

A large Manate Anthro wearing pirate clothing overhears and walks over to him. "You hadn't heard, mate? Those islands are cursed." He leans towards Clive and glares at him with cold eyes.

"C-cursed?" Clive tried not to shudder.

"Yeaaah. There was a bloody turf war for some valuable loot that two opposing pirate groups tried to snatch, but they all got their heads cut off and left for Davy Jones's locker. Now the lads and lasses are saying ghosts haunt the very islands at night and protect the treasure. No buccaneer three sheets to the wind or not would dare explore those islands, savvy?" Clive's eyes widened. Because he's too used to other pirates setting him up for pranks, he thought he was joking. So he laughed and drank out of his water jug.

"You trying to run a rig on me? There's no such thing as ghosts."

"This isn't a rig. I be telling the truth, matey." "Well nice try. You all keep playing pranks on me. I'm going to those islands and bringing back treasure." He jumps off his seat and grabs his jug of water. "Thanks again for the water." He waves goodbye and leaves the tavern.

The waiter shakes his head while sighing. "Don't feel bad, Makaio. Clive is known for being a rather gullible pirate. The meaner pirates often prank him around these parts." "Is that so?" The waiter nods. "Are you gonna stop him?" Makaio shakes his head. "Nay. I'll give him a day and see if he succeeds or not."

Clive returns to his ship and cranks the anchor up. He pulls down his sails and grabs a compass out of his pocket while putting a hand on the helm.

"Ghosts. Tch. I'll find that island and put those rumors to rest." He has everything he needs. Drinking water, food to last him for a few days, his Cutlass sword and pistol for combat, and his trusty map. The winds blow Northwest, the very direction he desired to go. Leaving behind the Caribbean village, he sets sail on his next adventure.

The hours flew by. Although he was alone in the middle of the ocean, he didn't mind. He's used to being alone. (I'm tired of everyone looking at me like I'm some clown. I'll admit that I can be silly at times, but I really want to prove that I am an awesome pirate. I'll discover new islands, get rich off of treasure, and then open my own ferry to take Anthros to the islands I discover. We're bound to discover new things. After all, the Animalands is a world that encourages all of us to explore and be part of nature.) That was his desire. The reason he turned to being a pirate is because he loved riding ships and reading pirate stories. One day he'd love to be the star of his own Odyssey. Perhaps this will be the journey that'll make his desires come true. He then made a realization that made his tail straighten and rise to his head. "Arrrrrgh! I forgot to ask for a landmark! Without that I can't find that island- Wah!"

Suddenly a large feral whale bumps into his ship! Clive nearly falls over while turning the helm left so his ship could make a sharp turn away from the whale.

"Crap! I'm not gonna sink am I? I better land on that island and check for damages." He steers the ship towards a large island covered in thick jungle trees and vines. After dropping anchor and the wooden plank to get on land, he goes to the basement room of his ship and checks for any holes. Luckily, the whale only made a small dent.

"Phew. I thought that would have been the end of me. I better patch this up before the damage gets worse." He grabs one of the wooden planks in his storage crate and covers the dent with a plank. Then he hammers nails to keep the plank up on the hole.

"There. I should be fine. Time to do some exploring! Hoo hoo!" He excitedly runs out his ship and slides down the plank while cheering like a chimp. His Cutlass and pistol are attached to holsters on his belt and he's holding his compass and map.

"As long as I don't find any other Anthros taking residence here, I'll strike gold. Now, to find evidence of that alleged turf war." He starts his trek around the island. First he walks along the shore line to get a good feel for how big the island is. There are rock platforms, seashells, and starfish on the shore that Clive picks up and throws back in the ocean. So far there were no signs of other life. He felt like he was walking for hours until he stopped in front of the side of a large mountain.

"Not going around the island. Then... I'll go through the jungle." The jungle is very thick with overgrown grass, moss rocks, and giant trees with long vines drooping down branches. Clive uses his cutlass sword to cut down large bushes that block his path. He emerges from the thick bushes and comes into a slightly open area.

"So far there are no signs of Anthros. Hmm?" He looks up and sees feral monkeys staring at him. "Feral Creatures? I hope they aren't territorial." The monkeys glance at each other before jumping across the tree branches. "Oh. Guess they don't care that I'm exploring. Lucky me!"

Suddenly a large Feral Gorilla jumps down and lands behind him! Clive gasps and backs away from it. "Spoke too soon!" The large feral gorilla's fur stands on end as he roars and beats on his chest. Clive quickly pulls out his pirate pistol and fires a bullet at its chest. The gorilla grunts in pain and staggers back, giving Clive time to start running away from it. The gorilla chases after him.

"Blimey! I bet those monkeys earlier told that big paloka about me! I gotta cover my tracks." He puts his pistol away and starts swinging from vine to vine. The gorilla sees this and starts swinging off of vines too. "Gah!" Clive grabs a vine and swings around the tree instead of going forward. While the Gorilla swings past him, Clive starts swinging to the North and away from the feral gorilla.

"Yes! I outsmarted a feral! No one catches Clive the Pirate!" While boasting, he neglects to watch in front of him and crashes into a stone wall. He grunts and groans while sliding down the stone wall. He lands on his butt and falls over backwards.

"Ow... I should have kept my eyes facing forward. I hope that feral didn't hear that." He stands up, rubs his neck, and opens his eyes. He looks up at the tall stone wall with his jaw dropped. He walks around the wall and runs towards a large open door and stone steps.

"What in Davy Jones's locker did I just crash into?" He runs down the stairs, turns around and looks up. He found ruins! "Ahh! Discovery!" He pulls a piece of paper and quickly sketches half of the island while alternating looking at his compass. He shades most of the island with green to indicate the jungle and then draws a gray rectangle to mark where the ruins are.

"Alright. I'm going in." He takes a deep breath and walks inside the ruins. The sun was starting to set. Little did he know, someone was behind the tree watching him enter the ruins.

Going inside, the ruins were pretty dark with little sunlight shining inside to light his way, so Clive had to grab a branch, tear off a piece of his sleeve to wrap the tip of it, and then set it on fire with magic. He lifts the torch forward and starts walking.

"This is exactly what I was hoping to find. I bet there is some fabulous treasure somewhere inside." While walking, he steps on something that makes a loud crunch sound. He looks down and sees a pile of bones and a manatee shaped skull. Clive screams and backs away, almost dropping his torch. He gasps while looking at the horrid sight in front of him. Piles of bones and ash scattered all around. He walks forward and looks around him slowly and silently until he reaches the end of the hall.

"Who could have burned all those Anthros to death?" Something glistened by his feet. He looks down and finds a locket covered in dust and ash. He blows on it and pushes the little button that opens the locket. There was a picture of a large Manatee pirate and his family. It showed his wife and daughter.

"A pirate? Then... These are all the remains of pirates?" (Does this mean that the pirate from the village was telling the truth? I got to explore more of these ruins.) He turns towards a set of stairs that lead underground. They spiral down until he finds another hallway with a mural on the wall.

"This mural. It tells a story." First, it depicts a tribe of Monkey Anthros in ancient garb offering their prayer to their King who is a Dragon. Next, it shows them collecting rare ore called Orichalcum and shaping it into their King's image. Then, the shamans enchant this statue with powerful magic that shines a powerful light. The following panel shows it banishing shadows from their island. Finally, the mural depicts two opposing factions fighting to the death while the King is in the middle summoning a torrent of fire while holding the statue.

Clive looks down and sees ancient writing on the bottom of the mural. He reads it aloud, "Here lies King Maui, the Trickster God. Our Lord hath protected our Island for generations by scaring scavengers with his pranks. We thank our Lord with an Orichalcum statue of his presence to honor for all eternity. Its light swathes us with its protection against the dreaded shadows. We are heartbroken that the greed and selfishness of pirates lead to a battle over our treasure. Try as we might, we could not protect our lord, so he made the ultimate sacrifice and burned the intruders with his divine fire." Clive felt a chill up his spine. He shakes his body to get that feeling out of him.

"So this island was home to a hidden tribe that worshiped Maui, and the pirates found their home and fought over the treasure. Is it gone?" He turns around and walks down the hallway. A large stone door blocks his way, so he uses every ounce of his strength to push it open. Dust fell on his body and the ground rumbled as he pushed the heavy door open. He finds a large room with a glowing statue of Lord Maui. His eyes widened and sparkled as he walked towards it.

"Shiver me timbers. It's still here. No one was able to rediscover it. Except me!" Clive was about to grab the statue and take it with him when a loud booming voice stopped him. "Do not touch our Lord's statue!"

Clive turns around and sees Makaio walking inside with a serious look on his face. "It's you? Did you follow me!?"

"I'm afraid so, Clive. My name is Makaio, and I am one of Lord Maui's followers." "No way...." Clive backs up. "Yes. It happened 50 years ago. Lord Maui is a Dragon that did not become a god, but was instead given the role of protector of this nameless island. My Grandfather was one of his followers and found Orichalcum to forge and enchant that statue in Maui's honor. Then those blasted pirates found our home and tried to take the statue for themselves. It started with one band of pirates that we managed to scare off with our pranks. Just when we thought we were safe, another band of pirates invaded and engaged in a turf war with the other pirates. Our entire tribe was killed. My Grandfather and one of the Manatee pirates barely escaped with their lives, so Lord Maui made the ultimate sacrifice. He trapped all the pirates into our temple, and used all of his power to set the ruins ablaze, burning the remaining pirates to ash."

Clive shuddered and wrapped himself with his arms. "Just imagining it makes my fur stand on end. Makaio..." "Ever since that day, My Grandfather and the pirate swore to keep the island a secret. They fell in love and gave birth to My father. Then my father and I made a vow to keep this island a secret so that no one would ever defile our sacred temple and Lord Maui's statue. We started that rumor about the island being haunted by ghosts."

"I almost turned into one when I saw all those corpses!" Clive's fur stood on end thinking about that skeleton he stepped on. "Makaio. You really expect me to leave this statue in this temple forever? Think of the money we'd make! Anthros would pay big to get a tour of these ruins and historians would love to chronicle their tale!"

Makaio shakes his head. "Exposing this island to the world would turn our tragic past into some show. I won't allow it." "Sorry, mate. You're just a fake pirate. You can't stop me." While Clive reaches for the statue, Makaio pulls out a pistol and fires a bullet that flies right by Clive's head. It pierces a stone brick and smoke flies out of it, making Clive gasp in horror. He slowly turns and sees Makaio pointing his pistol at him. "Who said I was a fake pirate?"

Clive grabs his pistol and points it at Makaio. "No." Makaio said while throwing his pistol. "Let's step outside. We'll duel with our swords. Winner gets the statue." Clive sets his pistol on the floor. "Fine. Let's do this."

They both walk back upstairs and into the room where all the corpses lay. Clive glares at Makaio trying to intimidate him, but all Makaio could do was sigh. Just as they reach the middle of the room, they notice that it is now night time. They felt a chill in the air.

"Clive. Can you sense it too?" "What? That chill? Yes..." Suddenly the shadows start emerging from the darkness and surround them! "Damnit! Why now!?" Shouted Clive.

"Shadows. You could say they are the ghosts that haunt these very ruins too." The shadows resembled monstrous manatees, gorillas, and large parrots with sharp pointed beaks.

"You just love to rub it in do ya? This proves my point that you are a trickster! I can't stand tricksters!" Shouted Clive while pulling out his cutlass.

"I understand. Can we please put aside our differences and help each other survive this encounter?"

"Then we have our duel for the statue?" Makaio sighs. A Gorilla shadow charges at them. Before it attacks Clive, Makaio blocks the attack with his large body and punches its chest with his fist. Then he swings his cutlass and pushes the shadow back.

"Whoa! Thankee kindly!" Clive dodges an incoming attack from two of the flying shadows. With his strong leg muscles, he jumps high into the air and performs a spinning attack with his sword, hitting one of the shadows, then he bounces off one of the manatee shadows, and performs a spin attack at the other flying shadow. Makaio blocks an attack from a Gorilla shadow and then swings his sword downward, pushing the gorilla off.

He back steps, concentrates, and casts a water spell. "Water! Cast down and form a torrential vortex! Whirlpool!" A large whirlpool rises from below the shadows and traps them in a violent vortex of water. While they are trapped, Makaio charges forth and swings his sword, upon impact the shadows shatter into dark mist. Two of them are down. He turns and sees Clive running around and dodging attacks before performing a counter attack with his sword. Makaio then turns to another large shadow and casts another water spell. This time he fires five large orbs of water that drench the shadow.

While it shakes the water off its body, Makaio jumps and swings his sword downward. "Helm Splitter!" He strikes at the shadow's head and shatters it into dark mist. Makaio started to run out of energy. He failed to notice the shadow creeping up from behind and hitting him with a double claw attack. He grunts in pain and falls over on his belly.

Clive hears this and gasps. He stabs the last flying shadow through the chest and runs over to his side. "Makaio!" He shouts while jumping over him and kicking the shadow in the face. He lands, spins, and throws a mana bomb at the shadow. It explodes releasing ice and freezes it solid. Then Clive runs forward and thrust his sword through the frozen shadow, shattering the ice and the shadow into mist.

"Thank you, Clive." Clive turns towards Makaio. "Now we're even." Suddenly more shadows emerge from the darkness! "It's no use. They keep multiplying. I knew I should have stopped you from coming here, Clive. Now we're both keeling over."

Clive looks at the shadows slowly walking towards them. He grunts in anger and taps his head over and over. (Think Clive! Think! What do we do!?) Then he recalled the mural he read and how the statue gave off a powerful light. He gasps. "Ahoy! I got it! I'll be right back, Makaio!" He runs off.

"Wait! What are you doing!?" "Trust me!" Clive's voice echoed out of the hallway. Makaio gets up. He stomps his foot and concentrates. Water magical energy swirls around him while he slowly raises his hands to the sky. "Waterfall!" He summons a wall of water to block the shadows from attacking him. He shuts his eyes tight and focuses so his spell lasts long enough for Clive to return.

Clive goes back to the room where the statue stands and grabs it. Then he runs back upstairs as fast as he can. "Come on, Clive! Where are you!?" Makaio shouts. The shadows were beginning to break through. Makaio loses his concentration and falls on his back. The water collapses and falls, pushing the shadows away and scattering the skeletons around.

Just when Makaio was about to give up, Clive runs past him and raises Maui's statue high. "Lord Maui, I implore you! I offer my magic in exchange for your divine light! Protect us and the island you once called home!" The statue shined a bright and powerful light. Clive and Makaio close their eyes while the light banishes the remaining shadows from the ruins and to the skies in dark mist.

"Lord Maui." Makaio said softly while looking at Clive still holding the statue skyward. "Clive. You can open your eyes now." Clive opened his eyes and looked around. The shadows were gone!

"It worked. It worked! Wohoo! I mean- Arrr!" He walks over, sits by Makaio, and gives the statue back to him. "Sorry. I touched your beloved statue." Makaio chuckles and grabs it. He sits the statue next to him.

"Using Maui's light to banish the shadows. That was smart." Clive smiles and scratches his nose.

"I remembered what the mural depicted. I understand now. Lord Maui left a part of himself in that statue to protect these ruins and the tribe." Makaio softly smiled. "It's pretty sad that the tribe is gone though." Clive looked down and felt ashamed. "I can't take this statue now, or expose the ruins to the general public."

"So you don't want to put the island on the map?" Clive shook his head. "I'll keep it a secret." Makaio gets on his knees and hugs Clive. "Thank you." He said softly. Clive pats him on the back.

"No prob. ...Umm, are you as tired as I am?" He asked. "I want to pass out right now." Makaio said while falling backwards. He was still hugging Clive. "Me too." Clive yawned and fell asleep on Makaio's soft body. While the two slept, the statue gave off a soft glow, protecting them from any shadows or feral creatures that tried to attack them.

Dawn came. Clive and Makaio walk out of the ruins and stretch their bodies. "I haven't slept that good in a long time. You're a lot more comfortable than you look, matey."

Makaio slightly blushed while clearing his throat. "So Clive. What will you do now?"

"I think I'll go back to the village and plan my next adventure. There are plenty of islands to discover out there. I'll just move on to the next."

Makaio nods. "Then would it be alright if I joined you?"

Clive turns to Makaio and tilts his head. "What about the ruins?"

"No one has stepped foot on this island for 50 years before you. I'm confident that no one will ever find this island again. I can always visit whenever I please to check on Lord Maui. Also..." He softly smiles at Clive. "I've grown fond of you. It would be great if we could work together on pirate outings."

Clive gasps. He tilts his hat down to hide his eyes out of shyness. "In that case..." He lifts his hat up, revealing a smile. "You are more than welcome to join me! You can be my first mate."

"Aye, Captain Clive." They both shake hands and start walking down the stone steps. Clive then remembered the pendant he picked up last night. He grabs it and shows it to Makaio.

"Say. I think this might belong to you." Makaio grabs it and opens the locket. The sighy of two Manate parents and their daughter brought back memories of his family. He softly smiles.

"No, but seeing this family brings back memories. I'll hang onto it." He puts it in his pocket.

"Say Makaio. This island could use a name. If that's okay."

"What name are you thinking, Captain?"

"Well... From now on, this'll be called Maui Island!"

Makaio chuckled. "Maui Island. I love it." They both laugh and start singing a pirate shanty while they cross the jungle and back to their pirate ships. It was the beginning of their partnership.

(Even though it is our little secret, I finally got the epic Odyssey I wanted. I look forward to going on more adventures with Makaio by my side.)

The End!