FSE

Furry search engine

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Grug trudged through the dense foliage of the Skull Jungle. Truth be told, he liked being there in the dark, on a ranger's 'natural habitat' despite being from the North, running between the trees and with the only noise being the nightly calls of the wildlife all around him. But one might be wondering, was there another reason from the barbarian human to leave the safety of the camp? Yes: scouting the place to make sure they wouldn't be jumped upon by uninvited guests, be they gnolls or not.

Then, he finally found them: gnoll footprints, and going by the number and the dept of the prints, there had to be some sixty gnolls, a small army. Not enough to actually match the hundred lionfolk warriors and his friends in a straight fight, but if they attacked from the bush... Then, there was the other prints he found, and these ones didn't belong to gnolls: five-toed, too large and heavy to belong to humans, and no signs of claws. Grug had seen them and what made them before, and it freaked him out because such creatures did not live in the Tablelands.

The discovery put the caveman into a dilemma: go deeper into the jungle to catch the gnolls and follow them to whatever lair they had, or go back to camp to report to Ajabu.

'This is what I get for leaving the thinking to Kerkeg' He cursed himself. Truth be told Grug didn't consider himself stupid, but when it came to important decisions and talking to others, he left the task to Kergek

And then, just before he could choose what to do, he heard it, even through the jungle cover, so loudly that it even caused the wildlife to fall silent.

The scream of terror from a female... followed by the guttural roar of something big. Both coming from the direction of the camp

Grug didn't waste time to rush back. By the time he reached the camp, it was already under attack

The beasts were humanoid in shape, but that was the end of it. Clawed, fanged, long noses protruding from their horrible faces... and several feet taller than Grug was.

Trolls.

Strong, deceptively fast, and above all capable of regenerating from all but those wounds inflicted by fire or acid, or the destruction of their brain, trolls belonged to the larger family of giants, being part of the so-called bastard offspring of the Mother, the goddess all giants and giantking worshipped. They were also utterly savage, nearly feral monsters that were always hungry, a side effect of their healing. Grug watched as one didn't bother to kill a lion warrior before biting out an enormous chunk of his torso and swallowing it.

The Tablelands' warriors, not knowing or even having heard about trolls, plus many of them being asleep or tired after marching all day, and the simple terror of fighting such creatures, were at odds at what to do. At least before Kergek and Stompy joined the fray.

"Burn your bastards, fall to Gehenna and below!" He half roared, half cackled as he casted bolts of fire upon the trolls closest to him, while also emboldening the troops. As for Stompy, he, well, stomped on any troll the dwarf missed to a bloody pulp. Regenerative factor or not, a troll's head just wasn't made to withstand eight tons of angry pachyderm mulching it (although it helped he had faced and killed trolls before); the seven-foot long tusks and prehensile trunk helped.

Realizing the troll's weakness, and their morale restored by Kergek's song, the warriors grabbed torches and used them. Still, the fear of burning like kindle only served to make the trolls fight harder

Still, how no one noticed the approach of ten-foot, stench-ridden monsters was a question for another day. For now, it was time to fight.

Ajabu was being manhandled by what had to be the leader of the pack. The largest of the lot by far, the troll had to be at least twelve feet tall. Why was it playing with its food like that instead of eating her right then, Grug didn't care, but it gave him time to ram into it's legs and force it to release Ajabu, and focus on him.

The troll roared, and Grug roared back. It was larger, stronger, it could regrow parts of its body, but Grug had killed dozenz of its brethen in the North. Grug dodged a swipe from its claws by jumping, then ducked under another.

But then, either by a stroke of bad luck or him understimating its dexterity, the troll managed to grab Grug by his arms, after which it began to pull with all its strength, clearly wanting to dismember him limb by limg... only for Grug to do little more than grunt in pain.

The troll's face went from evil glee to confused astonishment as its would-be prey not only was not screaming, but in fact didn't even bulge!

What the beast didn't know was that cavemen like Grug, due to their harsh upbringing, were stronger and tougher than their more civilized cousins, and those who sharpened their skills even more so, being more than able of matching and even surpassing the likes of the largest orcs, bugbears, and even ogres; in fact, Grug had caved the skull of a giant once, with nothing but his bare hands. However, Grug did not want to test his strength in a situation like that, and so he spat at the troll's face to make it drop him.

Grug took the chance to grab Ajabu and drag her to safety.

"Are you alright?"

Dazzled and scared out of her wits, the lioness nonetheless nodded in affirmation, too spooked to actually speak. Nodding at this, Grug set her in the ground and ran back to the troll, who recovered.

The caveman then lunged at the roaring fiend, or more exactly its head, and after a short brawl, he inserted his thick, calloused thumbs into its eye sockets

The beast shrieked in agony as Grug's gouged its eyes. Using his thumbs as a rudder, Grug directed the flailing monster towards the closest one fighting a group of warriors. The smaller troll, too stupid to realize its leader had been hijacked, didn't have time to react as its head was neatly cut by it's leader's sharpened nails. Grug's thumbs were deep inside the troll's skull Even then, Grug could feel the disgusting sensation of its eyes regrowing around his thumbs.

He somersaulted over the troll's shoulders and struck its knees, forcing it to the ground in a heap. He felt the thing's claws rake across his back, but aside from a grunt off pain it didn't do much, for it was nothing compared to a dragon's jaws clamping on his legs. There was a fire close to him, but Grug already had his club on his hands. The troll, its eyes not yet fully regrown, could only watch a

He smashed it again, and again, and again, not stopping until it was nearly literal gruel. Nodding at the carnage, Grug ran back to Ajabu, who seemed to have recovered, but something seemed... different about her.

Upon closer inspection, he realized Ajabu was practically naked, her large bust out for all to see, bouncing with each pant she gave, and her nethers too. The usually arousing sight only helped Grug get an idea of what the troll wanted from her: either it wanted to eat her without stringy clothing... or rape her.

Grug shuddered at the thought of a freak that size having its way with a much smaller female.

Ajabu, either being even prouder than she looked, or not realizing the troll wanted to do much worse than just eating her, seemed to be more angry than scared

Grug helped her up. "Are you alright?"

"W-what the hell are those things?!" She screamed, not realizing she was naked.

"Trolls, and I think they're in cahoots with your gnolls"

Gnolls and trolls all across the known world shared one thing in common: both loved the taste of living, screaming flesh. Granted, just because they shared tastes didn't mean they liked each other, but still, from time to time bands of gnolls and packs of trolls formed alliances for mutual benefit: the gnolls got muscle and increased numbers, the trolls the scraps and intelligence.

But why, when and how did monsters from out of the Tablelands come here?

Ajabu then looked down and realized she didn't have anything on her, and that a nearly naked, sweaty and blood-splattered caveman was staring at her.

"G-go kill the others you thug!"

With a last look of annoyance yet relief, Grug rejoined the battle to mop up the remaining trolls, not taking notice of the strange gaze Ajabu sent him.