FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The cabin in the forest stood isolated and destitute, decayed by the absence of its' long lost inhabitants. Local legends told of this place and its' significance in the Great Awakening that propelled the land of Shar Na-har into the Age of Enlightenment. It's location, lost to all but the most dedicated of history buffs, remained a secret well into the modern age.

The legend, as it is known to most, goes:

In the house of tooth and claw,

In the beastly, gaping maw,

In the wood where darkness lies,

Are secrets known to olden eyes.

The world asleep did stir and wake

As heroes met with ghastly fates.

Important is this olden home

For in it lies a golden tome.

A book of spells not meant for man,

Nor bird, nor beast, nor lowly pan.

Those with wisdom rightly know,

Do not unearth this book laid low.

Do not seek this house or barn.

With this verse you have been warned.

For centuries people searching for adventure and treasure have heard the tale and sought out the dingy old cabin for the prize which the legend describes, completely and fool heartily ignoring the final verse. But in this, the year MMLIV, there was one young adventurer who found what all others had spent their lives in pursuit of.

The dirty young thing burst through the trees, and in her excitement forgot to watch where her feet landed. In her hurry to get to her prize she failed to notice the small hole in the ground which her foot fit into perfectly. As the absence of surface was understood in her mind she no time to react before falling flat on her face with a “thwump".

Getting up, she dusted herself off, readjusted her clothing and glasses, and looked around to make sure that no one saw her forward pratfall.

Of course no one did. This area hadn't seen an intelligent in ages. The only audience she had now were the trees and occasional stray squirrel. Once she was finished with her embarrassment she looked forward again to see an old two story log cabin whose wooden walls showed clear signs of rot and parts of the roof were caved in. The door, which once was fastened to its' frame by ornate wrought iron hinges now lay broken on the ground its' only use now was to provided a place for beetles, roaches, and other creepy crawlers to take solitude and nest.

After climbing the steps onto the decaying porch the young adventuress slowly crossed over the threshold and into the main hallway of the cabin. Her heart was beating hard in her chest from her excitement at finding this place. She heard the legend from the time she was able to walk and it had fascinated her her whole life. She wanted to take pictures of her find, but unfortunately all of the film she had had gotten wet in an extremely strong downpour at the beginning of her journey. She adjusted her back pack as she entered the large den area. There she saw what she presumed to be the remains of an enormous fire place; though it was hard to tell since in another age the gigantic hearth had suffered irreparable damage and now looked more like a pile of broken bricks and rubble.

As much fun as she was having exploring this wooden ruin she knew her reason for being here and hurriedly started searching for a book made of gold which supposedly held spells powerful enough to change the entire world. She spent well over a day and a half combing through the entire cabin. Shifting rubble, tossing decayed clothing all over the place as she tore through old dressers and cabinets. Search as she might, though, she found no trace of the book, nor of the fabled heroes who supposedly died in this place, save their laundry of course.

At the end of the second day she placed her pack on the floor and rolled out her sleeping bag. As she settled herself on the floor she kept repeating the legend over and over to herself hoping that it would tell her what to was that she was overlooking.

“In the house of tooth and claw,

In the beastly, gaping maw,

In the wood where darkness lies,

Are secrets known to olden eyes.

The world asleep did stir and wake

As heroes met with ghastly fates.

Important is this olden home

For in it lies a golden tome.

A book of spells not meant for man,

Nor bird, nor beast, nor lowly pan.

Those with wisdom rightly know,

Do not unearth this book laid low.

Do not seek this house or barn.

With this verse you have been warned."

She pursed her lips as she thought about what it was she was missing and exclaimed, “Frick! What the heck am I missing!? It took me a month to find this place and now it looks like the whole legend was just some stupid wild goose chase. 'Heroes met with ghastly fates'!? I ain't seen no bones! Nor even the slightest trace of gold! The only thing I've seen is a bunch of dingy drawers and old scraps of cloth!" She covered her face and screamed into her hands in frustration. “This is pissing me off! Maybe I'm not supposed to find the book. Maybe the journey is its' own reward!" she yelled sarcastically. “I swear to Shiva, if that's true I'm burning this place to the ground before I leave." With that she crossed her arms and tried to go to sleep. She was cold, tired, hungry, dirty, and pissed off. She decided that she would look around for one more day before she started heading back. The time limit actually wasn't any kind of personal or rash choice, but rather due to necessity as her water ration was getting low and the last place that she saw with fresh water was at least half a day away.

The night air blew through the decayed structure with very little resistance, and the chill it brought with it cut through the young adventurer as she slept. In her sleep she began to shiver, and as she shivered she thought that she could hear voices. She slowly started to wake up as the voices got louder. She hadn't eaten for a couple of days, but she knew that the hallucinations shouldn't start this early. She rolled over in her bag as she began to make out what was being said.

The first voice was masculine with a hint of forced gruffness. “Sidney, you can't keep doing this. You're going to attract way too much attention. I know that that book is powerful, but it's also dangerous." Upon hearing these words the young woman's heart lept. At least now she knew she was in the right place. “You need to put that thing back where you found it. If you keep using those spells someone will notice and come to take the book. I've seen what you can do with it, and it scares me to think what anyone who isn't you would use it for."

The second voice was very feminine and sounded very flirty. “Oh you~ Do you really care about me so much~? You know I usually do listen to your advice, but this is magic we're talking about, and you know that that is my forte, si? Trust me, you big bad puppy, if anyone comes for this book no one will ever find their bodies."

The first voice had a great deal of concern in it as it spoke the second time. “I hope that doesn't mean you'll be using killing spells. We have a deal remember. NO. KILLING."

“Yes. Yes. I know. But we did also agreed that I could defend myself if provoked. I give you my word, no one who comes for this book will be killed." A sigh echoed through the cabin then the voice continued, “I don't want to argue with you, love. Just help me down the basement so that I may put this away. I never can remember where you put the trap door."

“You know it's at the foot of the stair case. Just pull on this railing and the floor opens up. Honestly, I don't know how you can remember all that complex magic mumbo jumbo, but can't ever remember how to get to the basement unless I'm hear. I built this area just for you, ya know."

“It's because you're here, pup~ You should know that by now~"

As the voices faded the night got deathly quiet once again.

“HOLYSHITWHATWASTHAT!?!?!?" The young woman quickly unzipped her sleeping bag and reached for her flashlight. Shining it around she expected to see two people standing in the darkness ready to murder her for intruding in the house. But try as she might her light only showed that she was truly alone. She quickly re-rolled her sleeping bag and attached it to her pack which she then slung onto her back as she ran to the base of the rotting stairway. Her heart was pounding again. After all of her searching, she wasn't sure why, but the gods had decided to smile upon her and gave her this vision which would lead her to her fate.

As she reached the stairs she slowly started to pull on each of the railings that hadn't fallen out or been broken. The first few she tried gave way and simply broke free from the staircase. But at last she found one that didn't break free; in fact, it didn't move at all. She tried others until only that one was left standing. She pushed and pulled at it with all of her strength, but it gave no way to her efforts. Once she had exhausted herself her anger started to take over again. She went into the kitchen area of the large cabin and came back moments later with an old, rusted frying pan.

“TAKE THIS YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" She yelled as she swung the frying pan with such great form and power that the great bambino himself would have been proud to see it. The force with which the pan hit the rail was enough that it not only moved it, but it broke it clean off of the staircase as well. As the adventurer huffed and puffed from her exertion she heard the sound of metal gears and pulleys under her feet, and she saw the floor open up as the stairs continued downward. Grabbing her flashlight she proceeded cautiously down the stairs. She noticed that the decay wasn't nearly as prevalent down here as it was on the ground level. Aside from some spider webs and a foul smell she noticed that things down here where still more or less intact.

As she followed the stairs downward she could feel the air getting thick and an uneasiness started to form in her stomach. She had a feeling that she shouldn't be down here, but her sense of adventure and curiosity wouldn't let her turn away. As she reached the bottom of the stairs the foul smell only got stronger. She noticed a door to her right, and as she pushed it open the rusted hinges made a frightful squeaking noise. Just as soon as it did something shot out of the darkness and ran over the young woman's foot.

“Aah! Whatisthat!?" She screamed as she moved her feet out of the way and tried to shine her light on the thing that darted past her. Her light landed on a large, grey wood rat. She sighed a sigh of relief then addressed the rat. “You scared the ever loving crap out of me, you ass!" Shaking her head, she turned away from the rat and slowly proceeded to finish opening the door. As she shined her light inside she saw that the walls were lined with bookshelves that were pack full of ancient texts. She went inside and walked around, and as she marveled at the collection of literature she stepped on something that went “Crack!" Shining her light at the floor reveal a skeleton, still wearing the tattered clothes in which it died, now with a freshly broken femur.

“Oh crap! Sorry! Sorry! I didn't see you there." she apologized to the skeleton. As she examined the body it didn't take her long to notice the arrows sticking out of the back of its' tunic. She shined her light around some more and noticed a much smaller skeleton, but there was something odd about that one. “You stay right there." she said to the first before getting up to examine the other.

As she approached the other body she saw what it was that made it seem strange from where the first one lay. This body had a tail, as well as a canine skull and digitigrade legs. But other than that, from the clothes that it was wearing as well as the way its' arms and torso were, she could only assume that this was some sort of intelligent bi-pedal animal/human hybrid. Even if she wasn't able to find the spell book she was sure that this skeleton alone would make her famous.

As she continued searching the body the light from her flashlight passed over something shiny sitting on a desk. Her excitement peaked as she got from her knees to her feet. The shiny thing was covered by a piece of ancient cloth save for the corner which was now reflecting light. She grabbed the cloth and cautiously pulled it off of the mysterious thing. What was revealed was the very thing she had been searching for, a book made of thin golden tablets; the cover of which was etched with strange runes and other marking that she couldn't make out.

“I finally found you…" she whispered in a hushed voice. Then she set her pack on the ground and reached inside to receive a large, plastic zip seal bag. She lifted the book with every intent to place in into her flexible container, but as soon as her bare skin came in contact with the ancient tome her body burned like fire. She let out a pain riddled scream as her body seemed to burst into flames and disintegrate leaving only her back pack and flash light in the small basement, under the desecrated cabin, in the wood where darkness grows. The sound of silence was all that could be heard once the echoes of her scream died down.

Here ends the story of our young adventuress who ignored the warnings of old. For in life one finds that it is best to leave some things alone or else you may find yourself paying the ultimate price.

….But then sometimes, in the most peculiar of ways, the end of one story can become the beginning of a legend.

((To be continued))