FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sorry about the wait, I had a uber case of writers block, but thanks to some imput from a couple of friends, Lilsprout thanks for the suggestions again by the way, I've come up with another chapter. In addition their may be some sparks of passion between a couple of characters, but that's for time to tell. Anyway, Kenshi, Sherro, and the others are my characters and Zoroark belongs to its perspective owners, so on and so forth. Hope you enjoy, please comment!

(Kenshi POV)

Settling his back into the more comfortable position it once was, Kenshi swore he heard the fox say something about him being as dumb as a bag of rocks or something but dismissed it as usual. He let out a long sign and closed his eyes, trying to remember that dream he just had; his dreams, which were usually normally a jumbled mess was focused on a certain individual, Benaji. This wasn't the first time he'd dreamt of her but over the years when his dreams shifted to her, it made his heart speed up and palms started to sweat, his stomach felt uneasy and his mouth dry. Now thinking back this really wasn't the only reaction he got when he thought of her, just being around her made him feel more at ease, like all in the world was peaceful and there was no such thing as pain or sorrow. The sound of someone giggling snapped him out of his reverie, making him sit up suddenly which he immediately regretted and hit his head on a low branch. The branch, catching him square in the nose knocked him slightly to the left and lost his balance as he groaned and leaned back on the now non-existent tree trunk and fell to the ground with a dull thud. The sound of laughter grew from a small giggling to flat out laughter, Kenshi sitting up, one hand on his nose the other on his back looked around for the source only to look up and see Benaji nearly rolling as she laughed, tears rolling down her face.

"What the hell's so funny?" Kenshi growled nasally his hand still holding his sore nose and rubbing his back standing up and staring daggers at Benaji.

"You, first; ...you turned down one of the prettiest girls... at school and go back to chillin' like its nothing, second you dose off and start blushing like a lava lamp, and lastly... you get so startled by me that you smash your nose and pull of one of the best impersonations of a crash-test dummy I've ever seen!" Benaji gasped as she tried to breath before she started to laugh again

"Oh, by the way, judging by how quickly you jumped when I barely made a sound it sounds like you were thinking naughty thoughts about someone huh? You, say no, but your blush says yes." said Benaji coyly a questioning look in her eyes.

"Crap crap crap, what do I say? Do I tell her it was her I was thinking about? But wait, what if she's disgusted by it or gets angry? I don't want to lose her, what the hell do I say!?" Kenshi thought his eyes darting around looking for an answer. Even when she was laughing, her voice, feminine and angelic already, still sent shivers down his spine when she talked. Benaji started giggling again and noticed that he was blushing even more.

"I-It was no one in particular, j-just random chick I guess." He stammered out, the sound of the bell ringing brought him back to attention and let out a quick sigh.

"Well school's out guess I'll see you later to study right?" He quickly said and ran off leaving Benaji with a puzzled yet coy look on her face.

"Man that was close, for a second there I thought I was gonna to melt. Why is this happening to me, I've never felt this way before so why now, and why do I feel that way around Benaji? Maybe I'm in love with her? Nah, can't be. We've been best friends for nearly eight years, maybe I'm just coming down with something." Kenshi made his way down the main corridor toward the main entrance he could his Toshi clone storming him towards saying things that probably would make Samuel L. Jackson (if you've never seen him in a movie, he swears and cusses more than anyone I've ever seen, but is very creative with swears) step back and try to visualize what he just said. Kenshi, nowhere near paying attention was still thinking.

"Now that I think about it, she'd probably laugh and say that I was probably too horny to think straight." Kenshi was chuckling as he thought about it oblivious as the clone got closer and closer its voice getting louder and louder.

"WHAT THE HELL YOU BE THINKING BOY AVOIDING ME LIKE THAT!? I OUGHT TO STICK MY FOOT SO FAR UP YOUR ASS THAT THE FUR FROM MY LEG WOULD GIVE YOU HAIRBALLS! I SHOULD HIT YOU SO HARD YOU'D STARVE TO DEATH ROLLING!" The Toshi clone roared, Kenshi was brought back to attention as the clone started yelling again.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ROYALTY, TO POTENTIALLY BE THE NEXT KING!? IT MEANS THAT ANY OF YOUR FATHER'S ENEMIES WHO WANT THE THRONE OR REVENGE WILL GO AFTER YOU OR YOUR SIBLINGS! AND IF YOU THINK I'M MAD NOW JUST YOU WAIT, I'M JUST A CLONE. WHEN I DISSAPEAR AND THE ORIGINAL FINDS OUT HE'S GONNA HAVE YOUR FURRY NUTS MOUNTED ON THE WALL, TO GO WITH YOUR CLUELESS DISPOSITION YOU NUMB NUTS!" The clone roared again, but before Kenshi could answer there was a puff of smoke and the clone was gone. Kenshi sighed again and walked back to where Benaji was a few minutes ago.

"**Sigh** If I'm gonna lose my nuts later" said Kenshi jokingly "I may as well gather them while I can and tell Benaji how I really feel about her." said Kenshi as he headed back down the corridor as the sun began its descent into darkness. As day turned to night, shadows came to life and stretched out with gnarled hands taking back what the sun had stolen with its light to be returned to the shadows. But alll was not what it seemed; an unnatural chill beset the courtyard, leaves on trees and bushes quickly shriveled in the cold to fall lifelessly on the ground.

Kenshi looked around as the last dying ray of light flickered and died in the courtyard leaving the place illuminated by brilliant stars and full moon. His breath quickly becoming visible as puffs of smoke as the temperature quickly dropped from the normal 80 degrees. As the cold quickly set in the courtyard a feeling of danger and dread built up inside Kenshi as well.

"This isn't natural, its the middle of summer no way is it" Kenshi looked around the empty courtyard and found a thermometer "Forty Degrees!?" his thoughts were racing as his normal calm and passive demeanor gone and an alert and defensive position. Battle instincts, training and adrenaline all tried to fight their way to the front of his mind as he tried to focus on the cause of this unnatural disturbance.

As the shadows reached and stretched there was one difference the shadow of the tree that had been the perch for Kensh and Benaji never moved with the others, frozen with the rest of the courtyard. While the tree was beautiful and graceful in nature like a hybrid bonsai and cherry blossom rich with smooth looping curves and magnificent leaves. Its shadow was another matter entirely, with pointed branches and sharp corners the tree's shadow looked like something broken its branches and trunk and stitched it back together at sharp angles. Only something truly malevolent and evil could disrupt the flow of the natural order of day and night. Even the moon, which was full and emitted a light so beautiful it could cleanse the soul, was starting to taper off narrowing down until its light was extinguished. Kenshi around and noticed that it was getting darker still, he looked up and what he saw drove home the dread that was in his stomach. This is not natural whoever is doing this is far more powerful than he is, he needs to get out now. But just as he started heading back the way he came a bolt of fear and panic ran up his spine. Benaji was still in the school with him and this thing! All thoughts of his own safety gone as he ran down the other corridor towards Benaji, he WOULD get to her before that thing did and he WILL keep her safe no matter what and gods help whoever got in his way.

Once Kenshi had gone and his footsteps faded the tree's shadow gave a sickening jerk and straightened out and then it slowly shrank as a figure started to materialize and rise from the shadow on the ground with bits of the shadow dripping off it mud as is started taking shape. As the shadow figure solidified and the receding shadow completely dissapeared it took its first breath, it sounded like the last ragged breath of a dying man, strained and broken between its non-existent black heart. Taking its firsts steps, the grass around its footfalls quickly dying. The shadow figure looked around the empty courtyard and saw Kenshi's footprints and saw his residual aura (which is blue) leading around a corner down a corridor. Like a wound-ridden soldier the shadow figure lumbered forward on Kenshi and Benaji's trail, as its hand brushed by the tree which had hosted it, the spot where it touched it became black and quickly spread throughout the rest of the tree, its petals a vivid blood red color quickly shriveled and fell to the ground its trunk whining and creaking as the weight tree crushed the spot of rapid decay turning the tree into nothing but a pile of dark...red...mulch.

(Toshi POV )

Toshi stood by Sherro, occasionally whispering in his ear who would be coming up next to greet him and give him a breifing of what has been taking place over the past month. As the last of the overseers bowed and left the throne room Toshi looked around and gave a sigh he saw the room was empty. Finally no more whiny business men wanting a tax break so they could hoard even more money while others starved and lived in poverty, or overseers who kept speaking numbers to them like they really knew what they really meant. Toshi and Sherro just nodded their heads and said "yes" or "no" or "wow that really interesting, I'll get back to you on that" every now and then but that changed when some unannounced idiot barged in and came to the throne. At first Toshi quickly stepped forward in front of Sherro with one hand on his sword the other at his side with a kunai in his hand but stood down when the intruder announced himself as the envoy of a neighboring country who wanted to negotiate a peace treaty with Persa. Toshi looked back and noticed that Sherro had fallen asleep utterly bored by the day's events

"Sherro wake up, there's an envoy here that wants to talk about a peace negotiation." Toshi whispered out the side of his mouth but Sherro didn't move. Toshi gave a quick sigh and tried to think of a way to get him up without alerting the envoy to what was happening, thankfully the envoy was still bowed his head pointed at the ground so he didn't see Toshi stomp on Sherro's tail near his feet. Sherro jumped up and was about to yell out when Toshi put a hand over his mouth. "Don't make a scene in front of a foreign dignitary, especially an envoy." whispered Toshi the only thing he got in response was a low growl and a sharp pain in his hand where Sherro bit him

"Was stomping my tail really necessary?" Sherro said while massaging his stinging tail "A simple 'hey foreign dignitary here put on your happy face!' out of the question" Sherro said through gritted teeth.

"I know you too well Sherro I could have said hot naked lionesses are in front of you and you wouldn't have moved, you would've kept on dreaming except instead of dreaming whatever you just were you'd be massaging some lioness's nipples. and that really doesn't really make a good impression on foreign dignitaries." whispered while slightly chuckling. Sherro was about to say some smart-ass comment but the envoy looked up and Sherro had to put on his "happy face" for him. However, Toshi met Sherro eyes and they said 'you know I'm going to get you for this.' The envoy left and once again they both let out sighs. Just as Toshi was about to say something his eyes glazed over for a quick second as the knowledge from the clone that tailed Kenshi came back. Toshi shook in anger his fist clenched, Sherro looked over and saw the look of rage on his face.

"Toshi what's the matter something happen?" Sherro asked his concern growing.

"THAT IDIOT WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON HIM I STRANGLE HIM WITH HIS OWN TAIL! I-I'LL BEAT THE SENSE BACK INTO HIM HE ALWAYS DOES THIS WHY CAN'T HE REALIZE THE DANGER HE'S IN!" Toshi roared he started stalking back and forward. Sherro was deeply concerned for his friend now he jumped up and stopped him in his tracks.

"Toshi what is wrong what happened?!" Sherro asked Toshi looked at him with anger and confusion on his face then, he stepped back took a few deep breaths and calmed down. He looked at Sherro and said

"Kenshi managed to elude my clone again and then just up an vanished like he usually does, I just figure out why he does that, he has to know that he has a target on his back and is in danger from assassins." Sherro looked at him for a second and started to laugh, Toshi looked at him with hurt on his face.

"I don't see what's so funny about this I care for the boy and his siblings just they were my own young ones too you know?" Sherro stopped laughing and explained

"Either you must be getting old or maybe you should turn off the brain for a second and look at it from his perspective; he's a young adult, about to set off on his own, do you get it yet?" Sherro asked again, and Toshi could only shrug his shoulders in response.

"**Sign** Toshi...its a girl, come on even you should see the signs and if my guess is right the girl he's interested in is one that we both know." Sherro looked at him again and felt his brain shutting down and his gut feelings take over

"Benaji? They've been friends for years now" said Toshi as a quick flash of enlightenment passed his face. Slapping his forehead at the obviousness of the answer "Of course it would have been her, now that you think about he acts differently around her than with the others students, he seems more calmer, which is a feat by itself seeing as he's as laid back as laid back can get. But he's also nerveous around her too I j-." Toshi's last words were cut off as he remembered something about the last memory of his clone, he noticed that the tree in the courtyard, its shadow, was different from the tree and the rest of the shadows. Toshi's eyes widened in horror at his conclusion something is in the works and they're going for the knockout. Sherro saw the look of horror on his face

"What's wrong is everything okay?" he asked his concern back again, Toshi looked at him and shook his head.

"I have to get to the school now, there's something coming, I don't know what but it's something big and it's coming for us."

Sorry about that, hate to leave you guys hanging like that but I just couldn't help it! The temptation was too much. please comment and tell me how I did.