FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

She could hear Torren come down the steps. He raced over to the edge of the table that held Sylvia. Reya was still leaning over the motionless body. Staring. It was morbidly quiet. For whatever reason, she felt an urge to break the silence.

'This isn't Sylvia's paw,' she signed the sentence, struggling with her bandaged paws. She had no idea who might be listening around the corner and she didn't want to deal with any other hysterical animals for the moment.

'W-what do you mean?'

'The size, smell, and fur color are all wrong.'

'Wouldn't it -um,' Torren's paws fumbled for a moment, 'shrink and fade or something? Dead things do look pale, right?'

'Skin does. The fur doesn't lose color nearly as fast. Definitely not in the first two hours.'

'How did she die?'

Reya shot him a look. 'What's with you?' She jumped down from the table and started to walk towards the stairs. 'She's dead. That's it.'

'Should we find Aris.'

'Go ahead.'

'Reya?'

Her face tightened in anger. 'What!?'

Torren backed up a step. 'I just... Are you ok?'

"Does it look like it?" She nearly spat the words at him. She turned her head away to avoid his reply and ran up the stairs. Talip wasn't there anymore. She went straight out the door without looking back. A ferret was waiting outside.

"Hey!" It called out, "have you heard anything about Sylvia yet?"

Reya bored into it with glare that could have stopped a cheetah in its tracks. "Where's the mole?"

"I-I don't know!"

She shoved her face up against his, a hiss escaping her maw. "Well what direction did he go, then?"

The ferret waited no time pointing her to the north.

"And why the hell didn't you stop him?"

"W-What? Its Talip though! He's just-"

"Didn't you see the blood on his claws?" Reya accused. She left the confused and terrified ferret as she raced into the forest. She had to catch Talip.

She had to.

Every single step on the gravely pathway felt like she was stepping on a knife. She kept going though. She'd had enough pain in the last few days that it barely registered over her anger. The smooth grass felt a bit better on her feet, but it was still sporadic pressure on burns that were definitely not trivial.

She ran forward with purpose. Straight forward. She had no idea how to track the mole, she didn't even know where to start looking! But she decided not to think about such thoughts. She had to find him.

Reya ran and ran. Her paws were numb against the ground as she moved through the forest. Everything blurred against the small otter's vision. She barely dodged the brown of the trees as it swirled and mixed with the greenery everywhere. She couldn't even register feeling below her shoulders. She was just moving forward. Forward and forward. On and on. She went and went ignoring everything around her.

Ignoring her purpose at even running. It wasn't even about the mole that had taken the life of a dear friend anymore. It was about pulling herself away. Getting away from everything. All of the pain. All of the confusion. And all of the drama that had started to show up around her.

It felt good. She couldn't focus on her thoughts as her mind focused on the heavy beating of her own heart. As her mind focused on the crunch of leaves underneath her as she moved forward almost mechanically. The rush of the wind against her face.

However, ignoring the pain didn't make the wounds heal. Her paws couldn't take it. She tripped at some point, she didn't remember when. She flew head over tail into the dirt. There was few minutes where she heard nothing but her own panting. She dragged herself up. Gods above, her paws hurt. They hurt enough that she could no command them and she could no longer ignore them. She fell back to the dirt having pulled herself less than an inch off the ground.

Reya was lucky. As she stared in front of her, she saw that she was close to a tree. It could have ended in a concussion if her paws had died on her a few moments later. She lay on the dirt and the long roots that stretched out underneath and around her. She was exhausted. Everything was exhausting.

She wearily lifted her head up and looked behind herself. She didn't see anything back there. Torren must not have followed. It figured, given how she had run off. She had been furious at the larger otter and incredibly short with him. Besides, she had just learned about some stuff that she really needed to be alone for. Having knowing Torren for the past half year, she figured that the other otter would wait for her to return. If she didn't, he'd probably try to get her back tomorrow. It was getting late. It had been a hell of a day.

Reya squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn't in the soft comfortable bed, but she was tired enough that it didn't matter to her. The soft lichen under her fur was enough of a mattress. The root her head rested on was a feathery and buoyant pillow. Her head was almost floating as her mind wandered off from the material world.

"Ughh..." the small otter moaned as she felt something jabbing at her.

"Ey! You! You're the Reya otter, right? Can never tell you mustelids apart."

"Yeah... Ow... Can you stop poking me with that stick?"

"That's no stick, honey. There's no stick sharp as a genuine one hundred percent eagle beak. Hell, ain't even no beak like a genuine one hundred percent eagle beak! You should be thankin' me for the experience."

"Shut up Weisk. Hey, I didn't even realize you were here. Thought you were in Lenwick town this time of year."

"I was, but someone had to go and get herself lost. Needed an aerial ace like me to track you down."

"Really? That's like a flight of five hours!" Reya was fully awake at this point, looking intently at the eagle in front of her. He had his knapsack slung tightly and firmly in a sash stretching from his short neck down to underneath his wing; Reya never saw Weisk without the oddly good looking accessory. He was very prideful about his work and real stickler for duty. He wouldn't be caught dead without it even when he was on he own time.

"Well yeah, we was lookin for a lot of the night. Townsfolk was pretty worried for you. Afraid you'd get yourself hurt or your paws wouldn't be holdin' you. Said you got burned pretty bad and ya know..." He wrinkled his beak, "it really is pretty nasty."

"Gee, thanks," Reya responded, rolling her eyes, "I appreciate the concern."

"Don't mention it honey. Anyway, I better be grabbin' the rest of search party. I'd bring ya back myself, but I don't think my wings'd hold. And hell, if you got beautiful eagle wings like these, sky'd have to be poison to make me walk instead of fly." Weisk spread his wings as impressively as he could manage. "No offense to you poor wingless types, of course. Your legs gotta be pretty strong to take you all the way out here. I mean damn, honey! We're at least an hour or two from the village. Even if your feet wasn't all disfigured and messed up they gotta be now!"

"Thanks Weisk. Now if you're done telling me how much I wish I could fly, I think I'll be heading back to town."

"Not like this you're not! Did you miss that stuff 'bout your paws? Fuckin' wrecked. I guarantee. As someone who don't got a secondary mode of transportation like us great winged peoples does, you'd be a fool to go walking now! You'd be stuck gettin' pulled in a cart for the rest of your life, I'm tellin' ya."

"Again, I appreciate the concern, but its really not necessary. Its not as bad as it looks," Reya lied.

"Your paws are super bloody Reya! You ain't goin nowhere. Now one sec, I gotta let people know you're here."

A shrill caw echoed through the air as Weisk turned his head to the sky. A second followed, clear and distinct behind the first. It reverberated through the trees and left Reya stunned for a second. The sound seemed to take on a whole new quality when it was this close.

"Fuckin' Majestic, am I right?"

"Ugh... Just calm it down with the swearing, ok? You know it gets on my nerves."

"Didn't realize ya got one of those roots stuck up your ass when ya landed..."

"I'd be happy to return the favor," Reya insisted.

The eagle took a step back. "Can't reach me now, otter girl."

Reya growled at the cocky eagle. She started to move a paw out from under her body, but stopped immediately with a near scream of pain. Heavens above, her paws felt like they were torn apart. The look on Weisks face told her that he must have been expecting the reaction.

"Girl, your paws look bloody as a groundhog tryin' to pick on an eagle. Fuckin'. True. Story."

"Shut up you - oww - you assss," Reya was groaning in pain. The adrenaline was wearing off and the movement had brought her brain's attention to the nerves that were crying out.

The eagle stepped forward. He was quite shocked. He'd never heard the small otter swear before in the entire time he'd been working at the village. "Hey girl... Reya... I didn't mean it that way. You good?"

"Yeah. I'm good. You can tell from the tears," Reya sarcastically replied. She was using all of her willpower to try to keep her limbs perfectly still. It was like fire coursing through her veins. Oh god she was never going to do this again. Hell, she felt like she might never even walk again.

She was taking big breaths and trying to keep herself from shaking. Shaking moved her paws. And her paws were torture at the moment.

"Just... Just go away. For a minute. I don't want to deal. With you now," She was speaking in bursts now, trying to focus on heavy and steady breathing with all of her concentration.

"Uh, sure. I'll just, ya know, try to find more guys who was lookin' for you."

He spread his wings and pushed off of the ground. It was everything Reya could do not to scream out into the sky as the wind caused her paws to push against the ground. She could feel the tears on her face. She had no real plan for this.

"Oh shit, otter! Forgot about that! Sorry. I'll be right out!"

There were no pain diluting herbs nearby. Even if there were, there was no one to get them for her. She'd idiotically send the bird off - although she questioned whether the pain might be preferable to him being around - and she'd run away from Torren.

This was the root of her problems, she decided. She was too rash, too willing to let the spur of the moment take her up and carry her away. She relied on her emotions too much to make her decisions for her. She wished she was more like Torren. He was level headed. He knew what to do when there was danger or crazy weird drama like that awful mole that had just killed Sylvia.

Reya shuddered, blinking away tears of pain. It wasn't that bad at least. She had more than Sylvia did. And Sylvia probably deserved life more than most. More than Reya. For a moment Reya thought that it would have been better if she had died instead of the poor rabbit, but then she squashed the thought. She was just lecturing herself on being rash. She could imagine how Torren would react. She could practically see his paws waving through the air.

'If you value your life relative to everyone else, you'll only ever get depressed. You're a good person. You care about other people and forget about yourself a lot. You're humble." She almost chuckled to herself. How humble was she really? This wasn't really Torren, it was just her pumping her own ego in her brain. Torren would never say that stuff anyway; he wasn't really the philosophic type.

She heard Torren coming as he raced towards her. She wished he was there right now. She didn't want to wait another minute as he made his way under the branches and through the ferns. But he did come. She didn't have to wait. And Reya was glad, she felt like she couldn't take another minute of the rough ground. It felt like every pebble and sharp stone in the entire forest had been piled up underneath the tree in a nice little convenient bed for her.

"Took you long enough," she groaned.

The spotted otter moved himself into her field of view so he could talk.

'You didn't exactly make it easy..."

"How bad are my paws? Weisk got here before you. He said that they look like a hamster he beat up or something like that. " Reya giggled despite herself. Torren only winced.

'Yeah, they're bad...'

"How bad?"

'A lot of the gauze on the bottom is torn away,' he paused, obviously wondering if he should go on.

"Its OK Torren, I can take it. I'm the one who fixed up your tongue, remember?"

'Right... One of your paws is a bit bent underneath you in a... not so good way. I think it might be broken. It doesn't look horrible on the bottom, but I can see a bunch of blood. I - is that good enough? I'm sorry, I don't want to go on.'

Reya sighed. "Its fine." She gave a very pained laugh, "I don't think it's as bad as the bird made it seem. The broken bone is probably the worst of it. Its also probably the paw I tried to move a few minutes ago..."

Torren winced. 'I've had broken bones before. I'll try to be as careful as possible.'

Reya's eyes shot wide. "No! No! You're not touching my paws. Get the friggin' beagle! He actually knows how to be careful!" She put a ton of emphasis on the last two words.

Torren just laughed. 'Don't worry! I won't touch it! Aris'll be here in a minute. He had to find someone to keep charge of the mole. We were together when I heard Weisk. In fact, I think he'll take over for Aris.'

"Trying to get him to commit suicide, I see. Fine by me."

Torren smirked. 'I only got to talk to him for ten minutes and I know what you mean.' Reya was quiet for a moment.

"You caught Talip?"

'Yeah.'

"Good."

Torren frowned. He must not have liked something about it. Reya could tell that he was considering saying something. And, as he always did, he relented and fessed up.

'He didn't mean to hurt her, you know...'

Reya narrowed her eyes. "He didn't just hurt her. He killed her. He murdered her and left her in that cold lifeless basement."

'You should see him. I think he's more of a wreck than you are right now.'

"Good."

'I mean it. You know what you said about suicide? You were right. That's why Weisk's there. He's doing it as much for Talip's sake as for Aris.'

"Well maybe he should have thought about it before he snapped Sylvia's neck."

'He didn't snap her neck.'

"Whatever. It doesn't matter. You seem to keep missing my point. The rabbit is dead. The mole killed her. I hope he rots in hell."

Torren frowned, his eyes looked slightly unfocused as he slowly lifted a paw back up to speak.

'Do you want the same for me?'

Reya stared at him. She was stunned that he would even suggest something like that. It was completely ridiculous!

"What are you talking about? Of course not! I don't see what this has to do with anything! You didn't kill her, Talip did!"

'I know... I caused the fire.'

"You said that before. I don't get it. I don't freaking get it. You were always good at fire! We had a good fire-pit with some nice flint and tinder and you must have lit the thing before that at least twenty times! At least!"

Torren squeezed his eyes shut. He had a line of worry showing even through the fur on his forehead. He breathed fast. Reya was still breathing as slow as possible. The conversation wasn't fixing her paws and she was still fully aware of each and every one of them. Especially the broken one.

'The lynx came back. It was all the way down by the den.'

"What?! Why would -" Torren just ignored her and kept signing.

'There were a few more with it. Listen, Reya, we can't talk about this anywhere else. You can't let people know.'

Torren suddenly grimaced. A small stick about halfway between the two otters suddenly burst into flame. It flared almost a foot and a half into the air for a second, dancing magnificently and entrancingly. It died down almost as soon as it rose, however. The charred black stick and scorched earth underneath were the only reminders of its existence.

Reya didn't quite know what to think. She stared for a moment. Torren wasn't meeting her eyes. He looked incredibly nervous. He had every right to be.

"What?"

Torren shakily started to move his paws again.

'They surrounded me. They were laughing at me. Mocking me. They mentioned you too Reya and - and I was just absolutely terrified! It happened. I didn't want it to happen again! I'm sorry Reya. I'm so sorry!' Reya believed him. She'd never seen the male fake tears before and his cheeks were already running wet with his sorrow.

"I - I don't get it," Reya choked out. She had a huge lump in her throat making it very hard to talk. "I never - I thought... You're really... able to do that?"

He nodded. 'I don't mean for it to happen... It just does. When I'm afraid - More than that, when I'm terrified! This right here was the first time I've ever done it and meant to... I don't know, I'm just so sorry for what I did to you.'

"Shut up!" She snapped back, "you were backed into a corner by all those stupid cats! Blame them! They did this to me. They tore up my paws with those evil yellow teeth of theirs." Reya winced then, her broken limb continually reminding her of its presence. "Well, I kinda made it worse, but still!"

Torren looked up a bit. Reya was sure that he had expected worse. She pulled in a deep breath and looked him straight in the eyes. She wanted to help him feel better for once.

"Torren, I'd bite these paws off right now - with my own fucking teeth - if I so much as thought it'd save you."