FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Alaine spoke, but no one listened, not truly. He walked among dragons, their scents and bodies so familiar to him that it was like passing among ghosts of half hidden memories, but they would not listen to him. Like ghosts they would turn to hear his voice, but their eyes showed no understanding of what he was saying. They couldn't grasp what he tried to tell them, they didn't seem to care to listen to him when he tried to approach. He lived in a world that he had always wanted to be in, a world where he was not alone, and he was still cast out from them. They were obsessed with recapturing their homeland, they wanted to return to the caves they had been hatched in and dismissed his attempts to talk to them about their lives and how they lived. And oh how he saw how they lived, a stranger looking in, seeing the patterns that were so terribly unnatural.

The red drake rested his chin on his forelegs while he watched the small band of fledglings perched on the wall across from what he'd claimed as his lair. They had their wings spread open wide and were vigorously pumping them, exercising their muscles and building up the strength that they would need for their first flights. They were being cheered on by a small band of elves that were seated around a table and working on armor. No matter where he looked there were dragons and there were elves, the one followed the other like fleas on a dog. They worked the walls and tended the kitchens, they cared for the herds and helped turn eggs when the dragonesses wishes to stretch their wings. They were ingrained in the culture of his kind, a new culture, a wrong culture.

The drakes seemed to be dim, not exactly stupid, but they were childlike in their minds. When he spoke to them they would respond promptly, but didn't seek out to continue any real conversation with him. They were full of stories of battles they had fought, ships they had sank and the destruction they had caused. They boasted to one another about how they had been in the games and how fast they could fly. It was simple talk that excluded him simply because he had no wish to join it. It was disturbing for him to talk among the general population because of the way they talked. The patterns were strange, the way they talked to one another stranger still. They rarely used their names when talking about one another, it was almost unheard of unless orders were being given. They more commonly named their riders instead of their own foolish names. As if their own identities were taken entirely from the riders.

"It's a fine day, Alaine, won't you come and swim?" He roused from his thoughts and lifted his head to look at the slender golden-brown dragoness that had crept up on him.

"I tire of swimming," He pushed himself up onto his haunches and tilted his head towards Amber, one of the dragonesses that had attached herself to him.

It was confusing, and a bit frightening, to have so many females giving him attention. He could see himself, he was battered and scarred, limp winged and too thin by far, but they appeared to be completely intrigued by the sight of them. Amber was the one that paid him the most attention, but there were several others that tried to draw him into conversation and would often join him when he was sunning. He'd never been around females, at least not dragon females, and had no idea how he was supposed to react to them. He tried to speak honestly, but often he became tongue tied as their regard remained on him. Their pebbled hides seemed so soft looking to him, and spoke to parts of his mind that tugged at primal instincts he had never experienced in his life. Instincts that embarrassed him even as they were liberating with the knowledge that he was a desirable drake. They wanted his company, and perhaps even more than that.

That was the part that made him feel embarrassed and unsure. Amber often came in the evenings to sit beside him as he enjoyed his evening meal, she would almost press against his side, not quite, but almost. He enjoyed the sight of her, the scent of her, so unlike his own, the way that her voice seemed to trill instead of rumble. She was softness and potential that made him grow flustered and agitated when she came close. It was a lovely sort of agitation, a rush of energy that made him want to pose for her, to exert himself and impress her. He wanted to flare his wings and leap to the sky, showing off his prowess so that she would answer him with her own lithe body. And every time those sensations roused within his breast, they were stilled with an icy cold hit of shame and despair. He would never be able to take flight, never be able to court a female.

"Perhaps you would enjoy being groomed," Amber crooned softly, her slender tail curled itself around her front legs and paws neatly. "They might be able to help with the scales that don't lie right."

"I don't want them touching me." A shiver ran down his hide at the thought of elves touching him. "I don't know what I'm doing here. These drakes, they are stupid and they are useless. The elves have made them less than dragons, but only a bit more than animals."

"Stupid?" Amber let out a rasping laugh. "That's only because they're young and soldiers, do you think that I'm stupid?"

He looked over at her, her eyes were bright with her intelligence and a lively wit that he had experienced when she spent long hours beside him telling him stories of the hatchlings and the trouble they got into. She had made it apparent, many times, that she wanted to know him better and tried to coax the story of his life from him. He avoided it, he didn't want to see the pity and sorrow on her face, instead he spoke to her of the times, brief times, that he had enjoyed his life. The quiet moments swimming in the lake, the great ocean that spread out around him as he pushed through her. His triumph and escape, the first time he had hunted as a true dragon should have. He could never mistake her as being stupid, only misled by this place and the easy ways that it afforded her and the other dragonesses. They had no worries here, no fear that their eggs would be harmed or predators that might attempt to steal away hatchlings. It made them indolent.

"No, you are intelligent, but when I try to talk to them they ignore me. They speak only of their riders and battles that they've been in." Alaine tilted his head up to the drakes that came here for mating and breeding, their raucous voices echoed down to them.

"They are young and male and ready for battle. The couriers are a little more intelligent, but they have female Riders to stabilize them. Two males.." Amber gave a delicate sniff and shook her head. "Tirale's dragon is quite wonderful to talk to when he comes to call, he has a marvelous mind for poetry."

"What is his name?" Alaine fixed her with one bright eye. "Why do you call him Tirale's dragon? Why don't you just call him by his name instead? Why would you give your male hatchlings into a life where they are named frivolously by children as if they were pets?"

"Because we cannot back down." Amber's wings twitched against her back as she spoke, the gold of her eyes widened in reaction to his questions. "You told me that you would kill all the elves, but these ones have caused you no harm and they do great good. Thronnos would have lost all of us if they hadn't rescued us. And how would he have fed us even if we had reached an island? Would you have us all suffering the fate you did to experience your hatred or experience to love between a dragon and Rider?"

"What started this war?" Alaine shot back. "Why do they battle the other elves? Why do they drive any nonelf away from their homes and destroy these islands? You speak of great good, but I see that they have found warriors in you that they will use and breed. I've asked over and over again what has started this war and no one will answer me clearly! I have friends, other friends, that have told me that this war was started over something small and petty, that they have destroyed entire cities battling, but no one will answer me."

Alaine lunged up onto all fours and snarled his questions at the dragoness who didn't even pull away from him, she merely lifted her head back away and watched his demand answers that he had not been given. Every time he asked he was given another answer, it was for honor, it was for some great death, it was for vengeance, but nothing made sense. Rowan had told him how this war had started, she had no reason to lie or deceive him.

"Drakes!" Amber muttered, her tone holding a world of disgust on her tone. "You see a dragoness and immediately drive her into the air to twine tails with because you scent heat. You see a fat running sheep and snap it up because you're hungry. You see one thing and the next part automatically follows in an orderly progression."

"More evasions." He snorted in disgust and stepped out of the overhang of his lair and felt the warmth of the sun spilling over his scales.

"Not more evasions. War has no one cause, it happens from many things. Small events that build and build, like a cave in. A trickle of dirt, a few stones and suddenly it collapses around you leaving you unable to evade it." Amber followed him as he left his cave behind and set his sights on the paddock that kept the herd beasts. "How can you say one single thing caused all of this?"

"Because something caused it. Something started it and I distrust what I am being told it was." Alaine paused as the lithe dragoness caught up to him and gave her head a shake. "I've been out there, I've seen the world and seen what's happening. One of your dragons attacked my friends, he was going to kill them and I was the one that had to put a stop to it. He would have killed me as well!"

"There was a reason." Amber leaned over and pushed him with her soft edged muzzle. "Perhaps they were helping the enemy or perhaps they were trying to smuggle, no dragon would harm innocent creatures."

"They were good, but they were not elves. They would have killed them and Rowan as well if I hadn't stopped the drake. He died because his rider drove him on." Alaine winced away from the memory while he felt the muzzle touching his shoulder lightly. It was a distracting touch, a gentle caress that rubbed along his scales soothingly. "They are destroying other species', just as the Slokaken killed so many of our kind."'

"You should speak to them of it, they would explain. Perhaps they are at odds now, but only need a representative that would speak between the elves and them." Amber murmured softly, trilling ever so softly as she slid closer towards him. "Who is Rowan? Is he their leader?"

He'd never felt her so close to him, the sound of her voice was almost a croon as she spoke, soothing him while he felt his emotions roil with discontent and anger. She was warm against him, so terribly warm, that she was almost hot and he responded to it without thinking. His wings flared a little and spread to either side while he let out a deep throated rumble and turned his head to touch the tip of his muzzle against her cheek. She was so lovely, her hide so smooth and silken against his nose, untouched with scars or large broad scales.

"No, not their leader." He rumbled softly and shivered as she came in close, her body pressed intimately close to his side while he felt confusion building inside of himself. "Rouro is their leader, he is very intelligent and a wonderful sailor."

"Then speak to him, he is intelligent, he might become an ally and you could help sort things out. It would be better that way and then you might see that things are not so black and white as you might seem to think." Amber's muzzle pressed against his own, touching lightly so he was drawing in her breath. "You belong here."

"I don't.." He tried to step away from her, that warm weight touching his side, just barely caressing his scales. "I am no dragon. Aratha honors that can spread their wings beneath her eye, not those that stomp through the dirt."

Amber laughed, her lips pulling back from her teeth in a parody of a smile, the strange expression sending a chill down his side as she pushed against him and brushed her muzzle against his neck. Her breath was so warm, tickling against his scales and her tail casually flicked over to rest over his own while he stiffened in affront at her laughter.

"Aratha? You are such an intelligent drake, there is no Aratha. She's a story, the ones that Thronnos tells us sometimes, but nothing more than that." Her laughter edged her words. "A great dragon in the sky, do you see here there? Of course not!"

"You don't believe in our Goddess?" He jerked his head away from her in shock. "She is who we are, who created us and gave us our wings and flight. She is our very life, our heart."

"She is a myth, the way that our parents explained the world." Amber allowed him to pull away and looked at him quizzically. "It doesn't mean that its truth. Have you ever seen her? Touched her?"

"She touches us all, our lives are hers," Alaine answered stiffly.

"You are like Thronnos, he believes, still. But I know the truth, we all do. The gods are just stories, old myths and legends. The elves were once called gods, did you know that? They were heralded by smaller species' and were worshiped, but you see them as they are. They are not gods." Amber took on an almost patronizing tone. "Aratha and Oron were likely dragons like ourselves, just able to create myths about who and what they were. Nothing more."

Alaine almost replied, but he closed his muzzle and heaved himself up onto all fours and gave his wings a short shake out against his back. It hurt, the bones scraped against one another as he settled them and stepped away from her. It was more disturbing than anything he had ever heard, disturbing enough that he felt a moment of sickness that they had been so corrupted. It took away from the pleasant feel of her body against his own. He wanted to eat, he wanted to feel fresh hot blood in his jaws and tear into still kicking meat to vent his frustrations on. How could creatures that believed in no gods be good? What guided them?

~ ~ * ~ ~

"Don't let him do that, Meera!" Rowan reached out and plucked up her writhing son as the little satyr nearly got to the herbs hanging from the ceiling.

"He's getting big." The otterkin grinned over at her mischievously while she struggled to keep Oake from going back to his ambitious attempt to pull down the drying herbs.

"Yes, and ommmph... Rolli!" She called out and heard the click of her dog's claws as she placed Oake back down on his two sturdy hooves. "Go on, Rolli, take him out and keep him safe."

The big dog wagged his tail slowly back and forth as the red and white fawn launched himself to the animal and clung to the long silky fur. The sheepdog was as good as a nanny with the little fellow, one of the many reasons that she had picked him out from a litter that her cousin had had. He was large and protective of the flock, but was intelligent enough to care for youngsters as long as they were just learning to walk. She had heard the otterkin talk of their own little ones and envied them their infants that they were born unable to walk. Satyrs could stand and walk within hours of their birth, and never stopped unless they were eating or sleeping, the two things they didn't do often enough in her opinion. Oake was more stubborn than any other fawn that she had ever seen, he was determined to get himself into every bit of trouble he could find.

"He's missing Alaine." Meera set aside her mortar and pestle so she could stretch. "I saw him yesterday trying to growl like he used too. Poor lad, surprised he took to the dragon so much."

"Has Rouro had any word yet? I know that he's got those ships out keeping an eye on Hayden's Spit hoping to see if anything is happening." Rowan couldn't keep the worry out of her voice, her ears flicked back to her head as she thought about the poor broken drake.

One broken dragon, against an entire Empire that boasted wing after wing of whole dragons trained for war. It was a fever dream that he would succeed, she had known it, but she couldn't stop him. The determination that he felt to avenge his lost home was absolute, she couldn't turn him away from his goal, nor would she. The harm he had taken, the broken flesh and mind that they had left him with, it was a scar that would never heal and in some ways he was still bleeding. His soul had been bleeding with his anger and despair, she had seen it in his eyes as he talked of what he wished to do. Seen it in the way he would pace restlessly in the evenings, his eyes turned towards the ocean and all he had lost. He would die for the smallest chance of success.

She had been left with the otterkin, they had set up their own homes down the hill from her and nearer to the water. There weren't as many as there had been when Alaine had been here, but at least a dozen still passed through and checked on her. They had worked out an accord, she shipped the excess of her herd through them and helped to stock their ships, and in return they helped her with plans to plant crops in the spring. Her first attempt at crops and they were cheerfully planning on what they could bring her in exchange for part of the yield.

"Nothing, he landed, they know that much, but after that it goes blank. He's sending in some of the merchant vessels so if he escapes they can aid him." Meera twitched her ears back against her head and glanced out to where she could hear Oake bleating excitedly as he played.

Rowan sighed and stood up with a bit of a stretch, her tail flicked behind her as she balanced on her hooves and gave the otterkin a small smile. "I'm going to go take Rolli and Oake out to bring the herd in. I need to get them down to the south pasture before the snows come up here."

"Keeping busy?" Meera grinned in sympathy. "Bring him back here after, I can try swimming lessons again."

"Satyrs don't swim!" Rowan laughed and gave her head a shake. "You're going to end up half drowning him!"

"Don't swim, not can't. There's a world of difference between those two words. I could teach you too if you'd let me." The otter crinkled her nose up in a grin that showed her sharp white teeth.

"I swim when I have to, only when I have too." She retorted and stepped out of the door to whistle for the heavy bodied sheep dog.

She took Oake up into the pastures where the herds were grazing, the big dog ambled behind her as she watched the little fawn leaping and scrambling up along the rocks. The male satyrs were more animal like than the females, eventually he would learn to shape words with his muzzle, but he would always have a touch of the wild wood with him. That thought brought the smallest brush of sorrow as she watched him trying to walk on all fours to get over the worst of the rocks, almost bouncing in the air with youthful energy. He would grow up, and as he did so he would naturally want to leave her. If he had been a doe he would have stayed at her side, but bucks were wanderers and they rarely formed any close family kinships.

Once in a blue moon a doe and buck would become mated, but it was rare, very rare. They had wild flings and nights of revelry and splendor at the fireside. She had known his father for only a brief few weeks when she'd wanted to finally have a child of her own. It had been glorious and intoxicating, but he had left her in the end, as she had known he would. He made his payment for the care of her child, her home, her lands, they all came from him, taken from the territory that he had marked out as his own. That's how the males attracted mates, they would gain enough land to offer a prospective doe a home and in return they could breed. It was one of the many reasons the elves had tried wiping out so many of her kind, they believed the actions animalistic, but she disagreed. They were time honored traditions that served her kind well.

"Oake!" She startled from her thoughts as the fawn attempted to clamber onto the back of one of the sheep, his small hands clutching their wooly coats. "You are going to be a wild one, aren't you?" She plucked him from the silly creatures side and pulled him up while he blinked his slit pupiled eyes up at her and crinkled his nose up in annoyance.

"ROWAN!!! ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWAN!!!!" A shriek made doe stiffen up and turn as one of the otterkin came tearing up the hill. Meera. "RUN! DAMNIT RUN!! THE CAVES!!!"

The otter stumbled and dropped down to all fours, throwing herself into a run that made her appear a blur of brown fur and rippling muscles. The long rudder like tail was swaying back and forth behind her haunches while the paws scrabbled against the ground. Oake squirmed in her grasp as there was a sudden heavy beat above her, a cold rush of air hit around her before there was a flash of brilliant gold scales that hit hard against the side of the hill. The sky darkened above her, shadows stretching out as she clutched her son and felt frozen to the spot. She had only one glimpse of Meera before a paw swept out and slammed against her, sending her screaming down the hill. Her form hit against the rocks while the gold Imperial Dragon snapped his wings down for a final stroke as he landed against the hillside, towering above her while more shadows spilled overhead. Wing after wing, overlapping forms that circled the air high above her and the shouts of dragon and elves alike echoed down to her.

"Satyr! Capture her!" One of the men cried out as the dragons began to drop down, horrible creatures with lips twisted back to show their teeth. Gleaming with gold and gems, glittering and shining as their wings furled one by one. "Take care of the child!"

"HOLD! Stand and no harm will befall you!" An elf barked out and she stumbled backwards, her legs unfreezing as the gold drake swung his head towards her and rumbled.

They'd come, they'd finally come to Canith. She looked frantically up in the air at the forms that were coming from all corners. Their armor caught the light as distant furls of smoke could be seen at the far edges of the island. She'd always known that the war would reach Canith one day, it had too, it was stretching out all over, but she had never dreamed of this. Not an army of elves on the ground, but attackers in the sky who were already landing down near the shore where she knew that the otterkin were set up. And their attention was focused on her, not just one, but three dragons were turning towards her and her young son.

"ROLLI! GUARD!" She cast a frantic glance at the herd storming away, the large sheep dog whined near her side, he didn't even run after them. "I'm so sorry... so sorry.... Guard!"

She gave the command and turned away from her dog, he was already launching forward, snarling at the dragon that was approaching them. She didn't look back, she couldn't look back, she could only hope that Rolli could buy them some time. She was sacrificing him, but there was no other choice, no other chance of escape except to run. Oake squirmed against her as she took the hillside at full speed, the cries for her to stop echoed in her ears as the earth trembled beneath her. Her hooves scraped against the ground while she heard Rolli snarling out, the vicious sound of him attacking a creature so much larger than himself. Her ears pinned back, not wanting to hear that final shrieking cry as the drake turned the attack aside, barely slowing.

She knew this land, she knew the rocky hillside and the caves that stretched out nearly forever, she knew where the hiding spots were. The dragons wings beat through the air, she could hear them, the dull thuds as they cracked down one after another as the shouts of the elves came behind her and she turned away sharply, nearly twisting her hoof as she threw herself into the forest. The trees flashed around her as she made her way towards the thickest part of the wood, she knew where the entrances were, the holes in the trail, the way that she could keep going up. Her breath was loud in her own ears as Oake bleated and twisted against her grip, his small hooves hit against his stomach as she tried to evade the dragons.

Their shadows swept over her, they blocked out the sun, but the trees held them aloft instead of landing, but it didn't stop them from following her. She heard the sound of trees cracking behind her, of paws hitting the ground as she tried to keep just ahead of him. She could hear the crashing of the logs that hit down near either side of her, she slid away and scrambled over them. Her hands dug into the soft fur of her son, trying to keep him still as she tried to count the way. Past the two southern paths, across the shattered rock Alaine had taken down, there. With a frantic cry she threw herself past one of the largest trees and twisted back on her own path, towards the small cave system she used for water in a drought. Her lungs burned as she dove towards the narrow opening, barely large enough to admit her and her burden, but big enough to protect them.

"GROUND GROUND! GONE TO GROUND!!" A roar vibrated around her as the damp mud pressed against her chest and she squirmed deeper, smelling the moss and earth around her.

"Shh... please....hush little one.." She murmured down at Oake, the little ones bleats growing more frantic as she pushed him ahead of her. She couldn't carry him and crawl, but she just had to get to the larger opening of the caves.

Don't find the cavern entrance... Gods above don't find the cavern opening... She panted shallowly and Oake scampered away from her, his fearful noises making her croon wordlessly to him, attempting to calm him down.

"Down here, she got in through this entrance." Voices echoed behind her, Rowan could feel her heart pounding against her chest.

With a triumphant cry she stumbled out of the too small passage and into the open cavern that boasted part of an underground river system. Oake was already there, the little fawn huddled against the wall trembling with fear as she stood up on shaking hooves. Her arms were scraped, sweat trickled along her eyes as she stumbled to her fawn and gathered him to her, trying to catch her breath. The system of caverns ran directly into the mountainside and sank far below the earth. The main entrance was nearly around the hillside, they would be too large to get here. Too large to find her. She just had to find another way out, one that wouldn't reveal herself to the skies.

"Shhh... shhh...." She stroked Oake's head gently, caressing along his ears to soothe him. "It's alright, my fine buck, it's alright."

Roars, horrible roars, echoed through the cavern, the sound of dragons talking so loudly that the echoes turned into rough snarls instead of real words. She heard the elves as well, their voice higher pitched as they started to argue about where she'd gone to ground. She swallowed roughly, her tongue felt dry in her mouth as she heard them discussing the opening. She glanced around the cavern, flicking around the edges of the walls as she tried to remember what this place looked like in the light. It was dark, so dark, just a bare glow from the entrance that let her see part of the underground river and the back wall. There were other exits from here, she knew they had to exist, but she didn't know where exactly, not in the darkness.

She kept Oake pushed against her chest, her hand pressed right against the small of her back as she began to feel along the wall. The opening would distract them, she prayed, she hoped, she needed to find a way out. There had to be a way out. She closed her eyes and concentrated on touch, her heart pounding on her throat as the echoed roars and rumbled vibrated through the cavern.

Please... Please Goddess, don't let them bring the cave in around us. Please... protect my fawn. Save him. She prayed as she moved carefully towards the sound of water. _ I don't care about me, just save him..._

The oldest prayer in the world, a mother's frantic plea to save the life of her child.