FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

II

With a groan, Sil wished he could curl up into a melodramatic ball and simply cease to exist. This whole adventure had been running less than optimally.

One might even argue it was a total disaster.

At the end of the first day, Sil got soaked to the bone in a freak rainstorm before he could even get his crappy camp set up. The wind made off with his tarp, his fire didn’t light, and he spent the night mostly sleepless under a bush, fat drops of rain rolling down his neck.

By the end of the second day, still no wolf in sight and worse still, Sil ran out of food. Realising a loaf of bread and some slices of ham made for crappy camping rations, he went to bed (in a metaphorical sense, as he was supremely missing his bed at this point) still hungry.

Wet, tired and hungry on the third day, it was with a sense of failure that Sil decided to pack it in. But that’s where Sil found himself in a particular quandary that made the heart beat just a little faster. He was lost.

Somehow, he’d gotten turned around, and with a grumbling stomach, aching limbs and a deep sense of foolishness, Sil figured he was wandering in circles. Every part of the forest looked the damn same, and despite how far he walked in what he perceived to be a straight line, the terrain seemed to force him into constant U-turns. He’d come to a sheer cliff, or a chest high carpet of thorny bushes as far as the eye could see.

And now a rocky chasm cut across his path, too wide for him to leap across and stretched on for infinity in either direction. It was like the wilderness was alive and somehow conspiring against him.

With a grumble, Sil kicked a loose stone into a nearby rocky chasm. There was a clatter that echoed slightly as the stone bounced into the yawning darkness below. What the hell was he thinking, gallivanting off into the wild thinking he could track and take down a wolf!? A werewolf no less – if his eyes were to be believed.

Rubbing the same eyes he was starting to think had betrayed him, Sil figured his father had been right to be disappointed in him. What the hell was he doing with his life? He wasn’t getting anything right. He couldn’t even do the simplest thing, like watch the sheep so they didn’t wander off.

Stewing in self-loathing, Sil picked a direction and kept on trudging. It wasn’t as if he could get any more lost. However, lucky for young Sil, there seemed to be some light at the end of this miserable tunnel.

After nearly thirty minutes of following the chasm and avoiding patches of violent looking thorny bushes, Sil came to a clearing. The forest came to an abrupt halt and gave way to what had at one point been the saplings of civilisation. That had been a hundred years ago going by the faintly familiar architecture that still stood moss and ivy plants seemingly having replaced the mortar between stones.

Much of the village had crumbled away, but some of the structures still stood among the dilapidated ruins and clusters of rubble that had once been houses. Many wooden supports and much of the thatch had rotted away leaving just a few standing stone structures in a rough approximation of a family dwelling here and there.

Shrugging the sling of his crossbow a little higher onto his shoulder, Sil set out into the knee-high grass. It didn’t seem like there were any signs of life. Peeking into a well situated near the edge of the ruins he noted the muddy earth below. All the buildings he inspected were totally gutted, by either time or looters. Aside from that he didn’t note any tracks in the tall grass, the first indicator that anything, human or animal, had passed through.

In fact, the air was deathly silent here. Disturbingly so.

Pausing, Sil noted there were no bird songs, nor chirp of crickets. Even the wind didn’t seem to make a sound here, as if even the elements didn’t want to loiter in this dead place.

A little unsettled, Sil decided to pass through quickly and move on. But something stopped him.

As Sil was making his way to the opposite edge of the clearing, he spotted a figure standing in the shadow of a building that still partially stood upright. The figure was clearly humanoid, dressed in grey and was facing away.

Cocking his head, Sil stopped in his tracks and changed course. Maybe someone lived in these ruins after all, no doubt a vagrant of some sort. It would be worth asking for directions.

“Hello!” Sil called out, raising a hand in greeting.

No reply. The man didn’t even shift.

“Uh… hello?”

He started moving closer when silence met him again. And very quickly, Sil came to realise why nobody answered his call.

Rounding the figure, Sil realised this man was made of stone. A statue, just a little taller than he was, cracked and faded with age. The statue was holding a short sword, his worn features twisted into a focused snarl as he seemed pressed into a partial attack.

Sil scratched his head. This wasn’t an effigy to any hero he recognised. And frankly, without a pedestal to mount the statue on, this seemed a strange place to put a statue, in the shadows instead of a centralised square equidistant from all the community.

Reaching out, Sil gave the statue a light knock with his knuckles. The stone was cold and brittle, and before Sil could even begin to regret his actions, the statue began to crumble. Slowly at first, the part he touched at the arm turned to gravel and crumbled away. Then as it fell apart, the collapse picked up momentum and in large chunks of featureless grey stone the effigy to some unknown hero became a shapeless pile of rocks in the grass.

Sil was swearing in a way that would have made his father laugh and his mother cuff him one, trying to hold up the statue and put pieces back even as the thing reduced practically to sand.

“He was very old,” a voice said suddenly, singing from seemingly nowhere. The tone was gentle, but its sudden appearance nearly made Sil leap out of his skin.

Jumping to his feet, Sil span on the spot trying to spot where the voice had come from. Then he eyed the darker shadows within the nearest ruin.

Sliding out to meet him came a woman, as if formless one second then materialising from the darkness in the next. She had her hands on her hips which swayed seductively as she moved, snaking forward in a way that was hardly human.

But then as her features resolved before Sil’s widening eyes, she was revealed to be fairly far detached from humanity.

From her hips up was the sleek mocha skin of a ravishing young woman. She was clearly older than Sil, in her mid-twenties somewhere. Her hourglass figure and lovely features reminded him of Tasha, his eldest sister’s BFF. A woman Sil had a mad crush on. When his sister found out, Sil wasn’t sure what had been worse. Every girl in Den laughing at him, or Tasha being ever so nice about it, reminding him why he had a stupid crush in the first place.

This creature’s similarities ended with the soft, friendly gaze however. What terrified Sil despite the charming friendliness behind her aspect, were the bundle of snakes that formed her hair. Shoulder length and emerald green like her eyes, the hissing tresses watched Sil with voracious interest. It was enough to make him gulp, the discomfort having nothing to do with the fact the only shred of clothing this part-human woman wore were two strips of light silk covering her breasts and forming an X over her chest before wrapping about her neck. The bumps of her nipples were very clear to see between the folds and ruffles in the scant garb.

Wrapped about her wide hips was another length of light material, like a short skirt, that gave way to the powerful and enormous tail end of a snake. Over a dozen metres in length by first glance, her serpent body was covered in more emerald scales, with pale brown visible on the underside.

She slid effortlessly forward, swaying in a serpentine pattern, her eyes fixed on his and an intrigued smile on her ruby lips.

“But you,” came her kind tone, crackling ever so slightly like embers on a fire. “You are something new, aren’t you? I haven’t had visitors in such a long time.”

Sil took a step back, his hand drifting down to his crossbow. It was with a pang of regret he realised he hadn’t loaded it yet, and wished he had a bolt notched and ready to go.

The creature however noticed the motions towards his weapon and looked hurt. “Oh, there’s no need for that, dearie.” Her voice was sugary sweet and soothing, but that gaze of hers failed to put Sil at ease. “I’m not going to hurt you. Why would I do such a thing?”

Sil eyed her serpentine features and figured the answer should have been obvious. “I seem just the right snack-size.”

“Silly goose.” With a giggle the woman darted forward with unsettling speed.

It was like a striking snake, she moved so fast it made Sil’s heart stop for a second. But instead of pouncing she whipped around his side and coiled about his back. Her tail flexed to circle him lightly and he felt her slender digits press through his shirt on the shoulders.

Pressing him from behind she gently stroked her cheek against his, her flesh silky smooth to the touch and sending eclectic shivers of joy down Sil’s spine. “Why would I eat such a handsome young boy? I’d much more enjoy your company for a while.”

Sil slowly turned on the spot. Though as he did her unabashed proximity brushed her ruby red lips against his. She pressed in a little trying to make firmer contact, but Sil leaned away awkwardly. Despite the kiss slipping away from her, she managed a giggle at the blush on his cheeks.

“What’s your name then?” she asked lightly. “Mine is Stheno.”

He swallowed before answering and rubbed his neck trying to avoid her gaze. “Sil.”

As he tried to move Stheno bobbed back into his field of vision, her large emerald eyes never wavering from his. “Such a lovely name for a lovely boy. And what brings you to my home, Silvius?”

That was an astoundingly good guess for what ‘Sil’ was short for, but it didn’t stop him from uttering his customary correction. “It’s just Sil.”

She weaved to capture his gaze with a hand on his cheek. The forked tip of a serpentine tongue was just about visible as it ran over her lips. “Whatever you like, darling.”

In that instant Sil lost his motor function. His muscles stiffened, and for the while he still had the ability to consciously try, Sil couldn’t seem to break whatever hold was enveloping him. But even those attempts were short lived.

He lost himself in Stheno’s beautiful eyes, a magic sort of pulsing to them that was almost hypnotic. Sil felt a little drowsy, but suddenly totally at ease. His blush faded and he wasn’t ashamed of looking at the bare parts of her body anymore.

Stheno placed a slender hand on her neck and gently slid it down until her fingers teased the soft valley between her breasts, drawing Sil’s eyes downward.

“Do you think I’m pretty, Sil?” she asked, a hint of a coy tone.

“Um… yes?”

Stheno bit her lip, like a predator eying her prey or a young woman sighting a desirable partner, Sil couldn’t tell. Though both comparisons seemed to work.

“I’m glad you think so. Would you like to stay with me?”

“I… I really should be going.”

“Oh, but why?” She pouted, looking hurt again. If looks could harm, Sil was pretty sure he would have been laid out and eviscerated in the grass. “You can just stay here with me. It’s dangerous to be out in the woods all alone. But if you ssssssstay…”

Her voice took on a sultry, low hiss that was like silk to Sil’s ears. The tone made his head spin. The glow in her eyes fixed his attention and made his knees wobble. All his worries about the sheep, the wolf, being lost in the woods; it had all passed, and all that mattered in that moment was Stheno’s voice, the touch of her cool, marble smooth skin…

Stheno reached back and unclasped her bra, the garment sliding smoothly about her neck and falling into the grass between them, forgotten forever. Sil could feel his cheeks begin to burn, but couldn’t look away as Stheno moved closer, lips slightly parted and breath hotter than the fires of a smith’s forge on his face.

One of her hands caught his wrist and forced his palm against her ribs, guiding him up along he gentle curvature of her firm flesh. The hard edges of her nipple grazed over his hand and Sil felt himself shudder with a mixture of relief and joy again. There was a feint ringing somewhere in the centre of his brain, drowning out all sound bar Stheno’s soft words in his ear.

“I’ll keep you sssssssafe.” The softness of a serpentine tongue teased at his earlobe. “Forever.”

Every muscle in Sil’s went stiff… every muscle. He could feel the strain on the front of his pants, and then a grinding of the fabric as Stheno’s hand drifted down to his crotch. She grasped the rigid pole of flesh with a coy smile.

“For me?” she teased. “Silvius, you’re such a flatterer.”

Sil wasn’t sure what put him off more. The fact he was totally at the mercy of her touch, or the fact he was screaming in his head ‘It’s Sil!’

Stheno pushed him to the ground. It didn’t take much, just a light shove and stiff as a board Sil keeled backwards. He didn’t land with a thump though, as Stheno caught him at the last minute, and next thing he knew he was looking up at the beautiful woman portion of the snake framed by the dull sky above as she straddled him.

She planted several kisses on his face, her soft lips pecking a trail down his cheek then along his jaw while he snake tresses watched with rapt interest. He felt one of her hands slip under his shirt and work its way up over his chest while the other kept a firm grasp on the rigid prize she seemed to adore above everything else laid before her.

While athletic, Sil was no hard-bodied hunk like the other boys in Den. He had some fatty trimmings. But Stheno seemed to relish the feel of him never the less. He’d become something of a banquet to her desires, every inch of him something new and exciting for this stranger to molest and enjoy.

Sil was rather thick skinned. He had to be, considering his track record. But where as having a ravishing woman so close would not generally bother Sil, the fact he was powerless to rebuke some of her grossly decadent promiscuity was becoming a grave concern.

“Ohhh~, it’s been so long since I’ve had the feel of warm flesh.” One of her hands slid down the sleek curves of her own body. Sil couldn’t see what she was doing, but going by the heavy lidded bliss in her gorgeous eyes and an ecstatic hiss escaping her full lips, he could hazard a fairly good guess as to where her fingers had gone. “I’m ssssssso lucky you fell into my lap. I’m going to take my time with you, my little darling.”

With her hands planted in the grass to either side of Sil’s head, Stheno arched her back and ground her pelvic region against the bulge in his pants. With all his muscles tensed, Sil couldn’t look down to see exactly how Stheno was going to make this work logistically. He wasn’t some innocent young lad who didn’t know where babies came from, but at the same time he wasn’t totally up to scratch when it came to the subject of serpentine reproduction.

Luckily for him, he didn’t have to learn the hard way – a second later Stheno was brained by a flying rock.

The woman tumbled sideways, falling off of Sil and coiling in the grass with pain. Her hands gripped the side of her head where the stone had hit, several of the snakes in her hair going limp and hissing angrily. At the same time, Sil’s muscles relaxed as he broke free from her enchanting gaze, and he wasted no time in scrambling away while looking to see where the rock had come from.

Dashing towards him came a furry grey streak. It was swinging a sling with one hand and unloaded another rock into Stheno, making her cry out and slither away for cover. The figure stooped in its run, free hand scooping up Sil by his arm and pulling him to his feet, before dragging him away and shoving him over the top of a low wall.

As Sil was righting himself where he’d landed upside-down, he noted the furry streak land beside him, catching her breath and loading the next rock into her sling.

The sight of her was almost as surreal as Stheno with her snake features. Only this girl was covered from her wolven head down to her feet in gradient shades of light and dark grey fur like a natural camouflage pattern for shadows. She had alert triangular ears and a bushy tail completing her humanoid, but at the same time wolven appearance.

The first word that popped into Sil’s head was ‘werewolf.’ But this was more of an anthropomorphic wolf for lack of any other better description. The girl was clad in slightly tattered clothes, but not to the extent one would expect from the exponential growth from human into a hulking werewolf. In addition to that, she didn’t have an imposing, rippling musculature, quadruped legs and oversized killing claws generally associated with werewolves.

To put it bluntly, she was very much of human. Sil’s height, approximately his build. Her black hair was clipped short, kind of boyish as it seemed to have been chopped short with a knife by herself rather than a hairdresser with a pair of scissors and an iota of skill. Her figure was lean and she seemed flat chested and tomboyish, not many feminine curves despite her well fitted clothes.

Her shirt sleeves were rolled up to the elbows, her pants were tightly fitted over her long legs and she had a pair of boots with protective leather plates over her shins with a similar carapace vest protecting her torso and hips. Slung diagonally across her back was a wooden sword with a pouch on her belt for several rocks for her sling.

She was still unlike any wolf – or girl – Sil had ever seen before.

“W-what?” he stammered, staring and caught between the decision to stay in cover or turn and bolt, taking his chances with Stheno.

She caught on to his urge to run by the way he scrambled and grabbed him by the shirt. With a yank she effortlessly pulled Sil back down and said simply, “I’m Tayen.”

“Sil,” he answered, the instinct for good manners overriding all his confusion and fear.

With a grin, Tayen grasped his hand and shook vigorously. “That’s a nice name. Nice to meet you Silvius. Now run for your life.”

Leaping to her feet and swinging her sling, she vaulted over the low wall and charged back into battle.

“It’s Sil!” he called after her, slightly irritated despite everything going on.

Tayen didn’t react. Not because she didn’t hear him despite her blood being up and a dull heartbeat throbbing in her ears. She just had different things to focus on right now than get Silvius’ name right.

Her sling wound up with a loud swishing noise before she unloaded on the run. A rock bounced against Stheno’s forearms as the wolf dropped her ranged weapon and dashed in closer while reaching over her shoulder. Her wooden sword came free with a tug and she swung into a downward arc at the same time.

Stheno reeled to one side to avoid the first blow but was caught across the arm with a back-swing, her muscles going numb as the weapon smacked into her with an almighty ‘CRACK!’ She gave a cry and slumped to one side, pushing herself up and whipping out of the way with a serpentine motion, her tail lashing out at the same time.

Tayen dove over, tucked and rolled, landing neatly on her feet several feet away. Something from her utility belt now in her hand, she straightened and flung the object at the same time, hitting Stheno in the face.

The flash bomb exploded on impact, filling Stheno’s lungs with acrid smoke and giving off a thousand-candela flash that left multi-coloured spots in her vision. She winced away, flailing wildly and blinking fiercely.

When the smears of colour resolved back to normality however the first thing she noted was a wooden sword coming at her face.

Tayen, having used the few seconds of surprise to close the gap, caught the woman in the neck with her sword, shoving Stheno into the deck before catching her in the gut with a powerful kick. As the woman reeled, Tayen brought her sword up over her head for a coup-de-gras…

At least, what she thought would be the ending blow. Her wooden sword came down when Stheno’s hand snatched upward and caught Tayen by the wrist. Her head turned to look up at the wolf, a scowl forming across Stheno’s features as the large bruises left by the beatdown shrank and then faded from existence.

“My turn,” she snarled.