FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As my first story I'm still trying to find out how all this... Stuff works, so bear with me. If you catch any mistakes in grammar, punctuation, or the like feel free to comment on it.

For all those who have yet to find out that home is where your heart is.

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The blurred world is floating past, bobbing slightly and occasionally jerking dizzily... No, it is I that is dizzy. All night I've been seeing something, just barely, but I know that something was following me. I thought that I had eluded it, escaped it's senses. But something pierced my neck this morning... Then I wake up like this... It must have been some sort of toxin... And now all I can do is wait for death, my entire body having only the solidity of a cloud.

But no! I can feel some of my head! It's faint but there! I try, try to make some sort of noise but I have no clue if I am succeeding or not until the voice of an angry goddess growls at me from every direction at once.

"Silence!"

The sound reverberates against my skull and batters my consciousness into pieces. It finally settles and meaning very slowly begins to emanate from it. The word brings back a flood of memories, of things forgotten for good reasons or shoved into the deepest reaches of the subconscious. Faint mental images of huge buildings and so many people throwing things or hitting things. Something big was rending apart the land and I am but a child to stop it. I see myself cry for a savior instead of leap for safety as my own body is thrown about in the mass of horrible faces. I was so weak... But... There was something else back then, and this strange new sound was willing me to try to find it.

The madness and the other beings left me... Left me completely alone in a wasteland.

Days pass in a flash and I see myself inside a deep forest, recklessly tripping through the same trails and shrubs that I live off of today, and until today have been the only thing that exists in my life. My heart and mind have been hardened by the other creature's constant threats.

When something horrible happens that sends you into far more than shock; Something that your body cannot even comprehend, it can have strange effects. Emotions can fill you for no reason or every reason, and not just sadness. Anger. Those events of my younger days have shaped my life. Grief. I see no one without letting them know of what allows me to do what I can, the fuel that sets me aflame to make my land the beautiful nightmare it is. Revenge. These are my grounds, and all who cross them cross under my attention...

But then what happened today? The thing was hunting me!

I now remember the last time I cried for my past life before accepting this new one.

It was a nearly silent weeping from a high, thick tree branch. Low and mournful... And I hear me talking to myself! Language! Something clicks in me, something hidden so long ago, a part of that past life I have left behind!

The sound 'Silence' is connecting with the quiet of the dead hour of night.

This is no feral beast that is carrying me away for a meal. This is much worse.

My neck begins to regain feeling, tingling with the pent up energy of waking.

The being must be noticing how I quieted.

"Do you speak!?"

The words grate against my ears and I flinch then growl as something pulls on my hairs. To my despair I find that I have been tied up. Ropes nearly immobilize my whole body.

The meaning of these words slowly condensate from the void of my past into the solid present. Even while I fight with my child-mind to remember this old world my instincts are on as full of an alert as they can be. All I can see is colored blots passing by me, so I must still be under whatever hit my neck. My acute hearing is picking up footsteps and materials rubbing together. All I can smell is the putrescence of this... This thing carrying me. It smells not of nature but of some alien climate, like one of those plains creatures from far away.

My upper spine tingles and I begin to flex my jaw. No! Best to act helpless until I can turn around and kill it, yes. Perhaps this language can help me appeal to it.

So gathering what strength I can I say "Ye... Yes."

Oh no. It sounds pitiful; But pitifully weak, not defeated.

The sound of footsteps and the constant bob of the blobs stops.

"Who are you?" It asks. By it's voice I can tell that it is trying to hide some emotion. Perhaps just interest? If so, that is good. More chance for me to escape. To live.

But who am I? What does that mean? Aren't I me? My body, my thoughts, and all I leave behind? I am... Me. I think that won't work, but what else is there?

Once again I try to gather what strength I have from my slowly coalescing body into my voice. "I am me."

That was straight, no stutters, but still weak. I don't think I'll make it too far unless I find out what works and soon. Something needs to happen.

The footsteps and bobbing begin again, and to my slowly regrowing sight huge brown and gray lines reach from arbitrary bottom to arbitrary top of the world.

It seems disappointed now. I have to figure this thing out. "Name!"

Name? It sounds familiar of course, everything does, but the meaning evades me like the shadow you always see only from the corner of your eye. Every time you look to see it it is replaced by something else. But what if the thing it is not supposed to be is it? If I hear the air blowing though the tree's leaves and 'wind' comes to mind... Then I just need to picture myself.

I see first my home, the great forest glades, the life of the world and the only known in it's unknowns. A canopy of leaves ensure that little if any sunlight reaches the dirt of the ground. Lesser creatures, tiny roving insects or unintelligent birds, crawl or fly about on their unknown businesses. The calls and sounds of larger, more advanced species is always clear. Dark bushes or spots where no light makes it through provide a comfortable and safe veil of darkness to avoid the harsh and exposing light.

Then in the center of such a glade stands me as I am now. Standing tall my full height is somewhere close to seven feet, but I never stand up straight. Years of creeping on strong digitigrade feet and of hunting in a crowded black forrest have ensured that. I am usually ready to pounce, my strong triple-jointed legs taking me straight to my unsuspecting prey's heart, where devastating three-inch claws will deliver the fatal blows, dexterously wielded by two flexible hands and ten strong fingers. I know the arms that ultimately support them are not as strong as many other's, but I have never had to use them in straight combat. I prefer a different, less risky type of hunt.

All of these limbs attach to my body, clearly masculine and very rugged. A flexible if soft tail separates from it to serve as a balance. It is lined with hard yet low dorsal scales leading to my neck and clearly draconic head. My sensitive senses such as smell and hearing take up a slightly larger portion of my head then would normally, as if they were adopted from a canine. My black, reflective eyes have been one of those things I prefer to ignore on my hunts, and have long been unable to distinguish smaller details.

A jet black fur covers all of this in brutal elegance with harder scales underneath providing me with what little personal protection I have.

I am a creature of the night, a hunter of the moon.

I am... I am "Menth."

My sight is beginning to collect itself and I am recognizing the patterns in the dirt and the roots of trees among them. They are all terribly bright and vivid.

It is daytime?

The bobbing of the Earth just stops momentarily, then heaves to the left and leaves me on the ground, unable to even wiggle against whatever has me bound. The blinding sun is staring straight into my eyes from a break in the canopy, making the unblinkable organs water and burn... Until the creature bends down before me and covers the rays with it's silhouetted figure.

It is obviously female and canine, I can even smell that much. From my eyes I deduct that her fur color is a rich brown, with a slightly lighter underbelly. She seems to be considerably built and it gives me the impression that she has gone through alot. Her eyes are hazel, or something close to it, and surrounded by white, unlike mine. Some sort of garment is covering most of her body, and over the chest and legs are links of metal loops, deceivingly scale-like. Around her neck a string wraps, carrying a tiny blue jewel, magnificently refracting and reflecting all the light that hit it.

"Menth..." The being repeats, "Menth, if you struggle you will hurt yourself. If you try to escape you will die. If you talk too much I will muzzle you. Do you understand?"

Of course most of the words are almost totally unknown to my mind, but I can tell her meaning by her voice.

"Yes."

"Good." And she smiles at me, "Then you will have a pleasant journey with me."

Journey? What... I'm going away with her! This world is getting harsher with every word that she says. This new fate is not just taking me away from home, it is playing my emotions. I am powerless to do anything, and while all my trusted instincts are telling me to escape my dangerous and unpredictable mind is becoming strangely fascinated with all these new smells and words.

There is no chance to force my way out. I can only do one thing now. I must get her to loose my bonds. I must get her to trust me.

I can feel most of my body now and I believe that I can muster a decent voice; So I try.

"Where?"

That was confident, but not challenging. Perfect.

"You are coming to my home. There you will learn how to be civilized." She says so matter-of-factly.

"Civi-Civileized?"

She smiles again at my attempt to speak.

"... Er... How to... Not be a beast. How to eat and live right. It's complicated."

So many new words...

"What is beast?"

She laughs and looks straight into my eyes as she says, "You, silly!"

When I put together all the information she is giving me I only become more confused. "You come to my home and hunt me... To make me not me? To make me right?"

Is this too straightforward? No, this is what she would expect any intelligent one to ask.

"Uhm... Yeeaah. Well, you'll be happier when you are done. When you are done you get to go back out wherever and not worry about me anymore."

Her voice is showing tiny signs of guilt. Should I press on? Yes.

"But I was happy home."

"No you weren't! You just knew your happiness. Your happiness is less than the rest of our's."

"But I-"

"Quiet! Or I'll muzzle you." She flares, "Besides, it's time to start off, and I don't want you talking near anyone else on the road."

So she picks me up roughly and I try to hold back wimpers, feelings that I have forgotten now assaulting me. It wasn't the pain; The pain I can bear forever. It is being forcefully removed from my own life... Yet... Something deep inside me is trying to push me to ask more, to find out what this thing is. If I could escape right now and just sneak back home I know I would... But I would never forget this, be it nightmare or dream.

I see the changing woods, the ancient, hollow trees giving way to the newer generations. The steady and faint cries of the day-creatures of which I have never heard before. The aromas of flowers assault me with questions, but I am unable to have any of them answered.

The only constant is the antipathic canine hauling me from my home.

We travel for hours with stops every now and then. The effects of whatever pinched through my neck has worn off, and in the silence my mind is busy remembering relics of language. During one of the stops she takes out a pouch filled with water. Perhaps I might try for some, I'm parched.

"W-Water?"

She leans over towards me with the pouch in her hands.

"Are you thirsty, Menth?"

"Yes."

I have a couple sips of water; Fresh, clean water hand-poured down my throat that makes me cough after-wards until I come to a sputtering stop by saying what felt right, "Thank you."

I've had several of these 'kind' moments with her and she finally decides to stop carrying me, to let me walk beside her. On our last stop the rope tying together my legs is loosened and removed. One step closer... I can probably run, but not fast or far enough without my arms for balance. But as soon as those are let loose...

The sun slowly nears the horizon, and it's burning embrace is soon to be replaced by the soft glow of the moon when the sound of rushing water reaches me. I ignore it until I notice that it is coming from multiple directions. There is a river in front of us!

Should I risk telling her? I don't think she can hear it yet, and it may be a chance to show her I can help. Still, I better say it quietly.

"There's... A river in front."

Her tense muscles give way a bit. The talking was going to do me good.

"There's a bridge over the river we'll walk across. You have never been over here before?"

"No."

"We've only been walking about three hours."

The world is big... I am small. That is becoming all the more apparent the farther away from familiar lands I get.

"This place is weird."

"What? We aren't even out of the forest yet! There's still a day's journey until we hit my home. Lets see... We should cross the Hanging Bridge right in a minute, then rest in the plains... Then in the morning we set off straight to town. Ah, I hear the river now."

I smell something too. It is a strange musk not unlike my captor's but more pronounced, more sharp.

"I smell someone."

"It's probably just a traveler. Don't do anything foolish for your own sake! Remember that you are probably one of the most frightening things they have ever seen."

Good?

She is walking me towards a rise in the ground and as we walk to it's top we come into sight of the bridge she called the 'Hanging Bridge.' It looks ancient with chips of it's gray mossy stone fallen or falling off everywhere. It's length is about twenty feet from just over the edge of the banks on both sides of it. Below the water rushes blue and white over rocks, old logs, and against it's steep shore. On the other side of it the trees become scarce and in the distance long rolling hills are visible.

Two people are reclining on the stone railings of the bridge. One is a dark-blue reptile, tall and broad with a sharp tail trailing awkwardly behind it and wearing a vest and pants of cloth-like material. Behind him a chubby male feline of orang-ish color examines and fusses over some odd instrument.

The reptile glances over us, then does a double take at me before making some hand motion at the feline and starting off towards us.

We meet at the forest side of the bridge with my captor blocked by the two bodies of the 'travelers' who continuously give me weird looks. I can sense the hostility from them and I try to look fearsome despite having my arms tied.

The reptile looks at my captor and smiles widely, "Hello, madam. How goes your travels, if I may ask so?"

She is tensing up. Something is about to happen.

"Out of my way. Don't make trouble with me!"

She attempts to walk forward, but the reptile blocks her advance.

"Oh, but my family in Mishnu is starving. You look like a successful hunter, perhaps you would be willing to share a meager portion of your gains with fellow woodsme-"

"I said OUT OF MY WAY!" The power in her voice startles even me, it sounds almost as if I am still drugged! The two accosters flinch for an instant, then grow angrier. What is she doing?

I look to her and see what I thought I would never from her. Her ears are flat against her head, her hackles raised, and her canines showing in a horrifying display of anger. I have seen that face many times. It is the face of my prey when they find out that this second is their last.

Something touches my leg and I whip my head around to see it... And there is the neck-rope without a firm hand grasping it. There is nothing binding me to her! I am... Am I free?

I stand dumbfounded, then look up as I hear a painful metallic screech. The flash of polished metal shines instantaneously, masking the weapon she now holds with both hands. It is like a giant claw with a slightly curved blade and an ornamented handle.

The change in the two other males from anger to fear is visible, but they do not run. Neither do I. Why?

The omnipresent smile of the reptile grows even wider, and without any visible movement a pair of wicked daggers seems to just appear in his hands. The feline backs off and hefts the mechanical device, sporting a sharp metal head on a wooden stick.

This is trouble. I could be the one killed! I must get away! I just barely begin to start running when my captor takes one hand off her weapon and snatches up my neck-rope, pulling on it until I am stuck in front of her. Her uncomfortably warm fur and chain chest-piece on one side and a set of weapons now aimed directly at helpless little me on the other...

"You want him?" She says.

The reptile raises one bony eyebrow, "Finally get the idea, Hmm? Hand it over, if you will."

Very slowly she steps forward and nudges me forward by the tip of her weapon.

Is she really going to do this? Will I have a chance of returning home against these cruel others? Why do they want me so much?

She leans in towards me, putting her mouth close to my sensitive ears. "Save me, please Menth..."

The voice; The way she said my name... I feel something for her, the need to protect this helpless and troubled one assaulted by the enemies of my culture. The will to stand straight against this threat fills me, but it is hollow in comparison to the call of my home. Still, she sounds so sincere... She needs me...

She continues nudging me forward until I am right in front of the half snarling and half smiling scaled one, her weapon pokes at my fur covered scales unsteadily. She breathes in behind me, taking in a huge lungful of air. The soft shivering scrape of her artificial claw stills. The two opponents silent in expectation, with weapons at the ready.

...

"Something wrong, madam?" The reptile breaks the silence, "Please be quick about thi-"

My captor's weapon slides down my back, just barely being felt gliding through my parting fur an inch from the surface and towards my arms strapped behind me which snap apart to the side when their bonds are cut. Before I can react, much less these 'civilized' opponents, I feel the force of a falling tree in the shape of a foot hit me square in the back, so strong that my vision blurs as I fly into the reptile, knocking both of us to the ground in a dazed heap. I am the first to recover. Taking a moment to look around before getting to my feet I notice the feline has brought it's device up to it's eyes. A sharp flint-like stone glints evilly at me, but it is pointed at my captor. She is merely starring back, both hands on her enormous artificial claw held straight before her.

Now's my chance! No one is paying attention to me and I'm not bound!

As fast as my sore body will allow I scramble off of the fallen enemy and take one step away from him and to the nearest shelter I can sense; A thick and darkened patch of tall trees... But as I raise my other foot to sprint to cover I trip again. Looking back I dimly see a clawed blue hand firmly grasping my leg. It's other hand still grasps it's weapon. All the smile is gone from his face, replaced by malice.

Must! Get! Away!

Using all the strength I can draw from I drag my opponent forward by bringing my grasped leg in, then kick it out hard to send him out of my reach.

"Aaaaaaargh!"

Twang!

Something whizzes through the air past me and to my captor who quickly twists her weapon to the side, deflecting whatever was launched at her. It must have come from the feline's tool.

Getting up once again, this time with no opposition, I run towards the nearest high tree and at it's base I leap. I leap with the strength of the promise of death below me. I leap with the fear of the unknown to propel me, and alight on the highest sturdy branch 50 feet above the ground.

I am ready to begin my journey back home, back to where I know I belong... But I take one fateful look back at the scene of combat. Back to her, with her back to a tree she swings at the reptile who easily back-steps then advances again. The feline is still back towards the bridge fitting another projectile onto it's launcher.

The reptile begins it's smiling again. "You could have just handed him over and been on your way. You'll pay it's worth in your own hide now!"

Looking upon the scene... It- It fills me with something. Something I have never felt before but seems so familiar as to be a part of my heart.

My home calls me from deep in my mind though. It says to me, "Come to me Menth. Come back to where the very earth itself is yours."

Then the clear sound of hopelessness; My captor's call. "Menth!"

"Ignore her. She has only caused you pain and put you in danger. You must go back to your lands or die here in the unknown."

"MENTH!!!"

Another sharp Twang! rang out, followed by a feminine gasp.

The argument took forever, but the decision is instantaneous. I turn around... Fury filling my senses with the dying forms of my prey. These worthless, heartless beings are going to harm the only comrade I may get to know in life? The only one who shows herself to me as one of kindness; A tiny glimmer of hope for me shining in her hazel eyes???

The evening sun's last golden rays die.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

My own voice awakes me from my blind rage. I find myself falling through the air, directly over the panicking feline. Nature-sharpened claws fall before me. Ropes hanging from each limb fall after. Bodily hatred forms the core. Fear I am.

It just turns to run from me when I land on it, fore-claws digging into my target's shoulders as it falls to the ground and shrieks in pain. Dimly in the background I can hear it's reptile comrade yell, "Toby! Run Toby!"

But he is too late. This one is mine!

Jumping off the back-fallen enemy and onto the ground before him, I look into his face. I look into pure terror. I look into the sudden epiphany that no more of his dreams are ever going to come true, but all I see inside him is the forgotten hatred that once was directed at her.

"Ack... Demon!" The thing whispers before I put my digitigrade foot on it's throat.

Squeeze. Harder. Harder.

"I'm coming To-" The reptile begins before the shing of my captors long blade silences it.

Harder. Tighter. All you deserve. Blood begins to flow from the holes my claws have dug through fur, skin, and muscle. Harder. My foe's breath comes gurgling now. Harder!

"Menth... You came back!"

Her voice only refreshes my anger! I give one final, triumphant squeeze, brutalizing the poor creature's neck, severing it's spine, and instantly killing it!

I withdraw my dripping foot from it's work, pride washing all over me for so easily defeating this one that threatened my safety.

Then my neck-rope pulls me backwards and I stumble to avoid falling, and a soft furry hand clasps my shoulder. There she is, one hand on me and the other over a bloody spot on her torso, but where is the gratefulness? Something else occupies her face... Horror? Wonder? I cannot tell.

"Why- Menth, why all the blood? That was... That was evil!" She's sobbing!

Why? I look down at my red toe-claws, then back up to her stricken face. "It was for you. I don't want you to die."

She lets her head hang low, still grasping my shoulder. A lone drop of moisture flashes through the moon's brilliance and splatters on the upset land.

"Thank you. Thank you soo much... But never do that again!"

"You're hurt."

"I'll deal with it later tonight! We'll make camp in the plains in just a few minutes, now c'mon."

She begins to walk off, her paw still covering the wound from the dead feline. The neck-rope hangs idly to my side.

"Menth, aren't you coming?"

I turn around. Away from her. Away from the bridge. Away from where the trees grow sparsely and then not at all. My body is torn in two. My mind is pulling me forward and my heart backwards. What do I follow? My instincts want me to run. They almost force me to run... But the thought of leaving this wounded and friendly creature alone in these unfamiliar lands is just too much. I- I am here. No escape. I have no choice in what I do. I must follow.

Over the Hanging bridge we cross. She now holds my neck-rope for her sake, not mine. I'm no longer any lesser being. When I'm with her, I feel like I can brave this new world. This world with only a single tiny tree ever in sight, where all the land beside us is covered in golden fields of grass, where softly rolling hills are the only thing stopping you from looking out on the horizon and seeing infinity.

When we are just out of sight of the dark line behind us that was the forest's edge, she stops our march and lays down on the springy mat of field-grass atop a hill, followed by me.

"So many of them..." I say, looking up into the clear night sky. I have never seen that many stars before, both because of the thick tree canopy and usual layer of moisture above my home... No. It's best not to think of that. It will come later. That home can wait.

"Yeah... I wonder what they are and why they twinkle like that. You know, some people say that they all fell off of the moon, and that soon the entire sky is going to be filled with stars and no moon."

I look at her beside me, staring up with the same wonder on her face as I have in mine. "Do you think they right?"

She giggles a bit. "They are right, not they right. And no, I don't believe them. If I did I wouldn't be very happy because the moon is one of my favorite things to look at. It's so far away... But it can seem almost alive sometimes. Almost like it has it's own little people living on it, looking back at us and wondering the same things we are. When you look closely enough at certain spots you can even catch a faint glimmer of some other light... Like the moon itself it twinkling and-"

She caught me staring at her.

I say, "You seem so happy, even hurt."

"It's nothing." She had wrapped her wound in cloth when we stopped for the night. "And I am happy. Thanks to you."

"Hmm? Why?"

She yawns sleepily, her open mouth's teeth a bright white against the black and brown that surrounds them. "Well... You can be content forever. You can feel like asking for anything more is greedy...But it always takes more to be happy. Things have to align perfectly, and they did."

"Hmm..."

"And I owe this happy moment to you. I owe my life to you. I owe my home to you."

Home. That home can wait. I have found a new one. I have found the one that dwells in my heart.