FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

“Ha-ha! There it is!” Gothetta yelps, a finger pointed downward.

James looks to the ground and squints. Sure enough, they were coming up on the entrance to the crystal caverns. Torn into the side of a large hill, as if formed by the detonation of a massive subterranean bomb, a dark void reaching into the Earth is all that remains of one of its sides. Jagged rocks line the mouth of the entrance, the faint sparkling of gems embedded within the rock alluding to what fills the caverns below, as if baiting curious explorers to enter its depths. Gothetta swoops low and lands near the lip of the void, dismounting along with James.

“Look familiar?” She asks.

“Yes, looks just as decrepit as the day me and Branwen decided to spend a day exploring it.”

“How far did you get?”

“Not very. Neither of us cared for what lays below the Earth very much. She hated the claustrophobic passageways; I hated the omnipresent darkness. We made a day trip out of it but had no motivation to return after it we made it back topside.”

“The caverns are beautiful though, you have to admit that much.”

He reluctantly nods in agreement.

“Beautiful, yes, but also dangerous. I’m surprised Branwen let you and your sister explore the caverns by yourselves.”

Gothetta chuckles nervously and scratches her cheek.

“Not every exploration was…sanctioned…so to speak. Urmine and I had a habit of coming out here whenever an explorative mood hit us.”

“Tsk-tsk-tsk.” James scolds her, wagging a finger in the air. “You should have listened to your mother. Going somewhere dangerous like a cave without supervision is dangerous.”

“Oh come on, no need to lecture me on it, that was years ago!”

“And as your father it’s up to me to ensure you behave from now on. So watch my back as explore the caverns and don’t even think about going on any solo expeditions, we’ll stick together or die trying. Got it?”

“Got it.” She huffs, slightly humiliated.

“Good. Now come on Gothetta, let’s begin the search for the medallion. We shouldn’t waste any more time.” He says, adjusting the backpack of eggs on his shoulders.

“Agreed.”

They approach the lip of the cave entrance, the ground beginning to slope downwards into a featureless black maw. James takes a lighter out from his pocket and thumbs the igniter, a small orange flame coming to life. Gothetta pauses and holds her hands out in front of her.

“Brighten the dark and show me my way, I summon an orb as bright as day!”

A ball of white light forms in front of her hands. She reaches out and grabs the orb, placing it above her shoulder where it stays. Each armed with a way to beat back the darkness, they venture forth into the rocky abyss.

Almost immediately after passing the threshold the air grows cool, and calm. The sounds of the outside fade away as their footsteps echo across the cave walls. Small gems, no bigger than a fingernail, gleam in the dark as the light touches them, hinting at the path forward. James and Gothetta walk in total silence through the first passageway, the walls seeming to close in on them as they descend deeper and deeper. The way forth grows so constricted that they’re practically shoulder to shoulder until coming up on the first main cavern. When it comes into view James gasps.

The small cave opens into a massive empty space, so large that you could fit two or three football stadiums within. In front of them lies a field of massive crystals submerged in a few feet of water, some glowing with a strange internal light while others are illuminated by the bioluminescent fauna that inhabit the pool. Stalactites the size of small buildings hang from the center of the room and all around the walls of the space more crystals glow, glimmer, and glisten. Though the center of the cavern is covered in water, the perimeter is above the waterline. A cloud of bats pass overhead and James finally gathers his senses.

“Pretty, huh?” Gothetta remarks.

“Yes, it’s just been so long since I’ve been here. Forgot how awe inspiring this place is.”

“It’s well named, that’s for sure. This is only the first main cavern, we’ll pass at least three more on the way down.”

“But to get to each cavern we’ll have to navigate a maze of winding passageways, right? I seem to recall Branwen warning me about them.”

Gothetta nods, a look of foreboding on her face.

“Yes, miles upon miles of winding, dark, cold, passageways. That’s the most dangerous part, the journey between caverns. The passageways are like a bowl of jumbled up spaghetti, all going in different directions until either leading to a dead end or a crossroads. Then there’s the ever-present threat of cave ins, the occasional magma flow, falling stalactites, sudden cliffs, and so on.”

James stares into the cavern, then back to Gothetta.

“But did you and your sister ever find any animal, or insect, or lizard down here that could be a threat to a man? Any ‘here there be monsters’ sort of things?”

Gothetta looks down and rubs her chin, recalling her many trips into the caverns.

“Well, there are strange fish and squids down there in the water, and we did encounter the occasional wandering cave bear, but besides that we’ve never seen any nasty beasties down here.”

“So no sentient shadows, or giant spiders, or tentacles dragging me to my doom. Good to know.”

Gothetta shrugs.

“I suppose there could be monsters lurking in the fifth cavern, but Urmine and I have never been there.”

“Why not?”

“All the passageways that lead to it are flooded, which means the cavern itself is likely underwater as well. I suppose we could try swimming but-“

He cuts her off.

“No Gothetta, we will not be doing any exploratory cave diving today. My memory may be fuzzy, but I’m sure that I didn’t have to put on a diving suit to make it to the chamber I plucked the chain from.”

“Good, because I'm not exactly a strong swimmer. Does like me weren’t meant to tread water.” Gothetta puts her hands on her hips and looks around the cavern, ears perked up as she takes an excited breath. “So dad, which way do you think that chamber might be?”

“Hmmm…” He looks to the left, then right, then the way they came, then back to the center of the cavern. “…I'm pretty sure I came upon it while exploring some of the passageways that lead between the first and second caverns. Let’s head to the end of this cavern and see if anything jogs my memory. Who knows, we might get lucky and find my old footprints.”

“I don’t think we’ll encounter any luck down here, dad.”

Together, they begin marching around the edge of the cavern, dodging the pool of brackish water that sat in its center. Upon coming to the other end of the cavern they choose one of the many small passageways that lead further underground and follow it for some time, James’ old footprints proving to be missing in action. After tromping through passageway after passageway, navigating the many crossroads that lay between them, and gazing into the inky abyss that always lay ahead they stop at another featureless crossroads and pause.

James puts his back against a wall, breathing heavily.

“Something wrong?” Gothetta asks.

“No, I'm fine. There’s just something about the air around here, it’s stale. Takes me a while to catch my breath. My lungs are used to fresh air tinged with salt, not whatever fills these musty depths.”

“Take a minute to catch your breath, we’ve been traveling for a while. And here, let me carry the eggs for you. They likely need warming anyway.”

He hands her the backpack and Gothetta takes out each egg, warming them up with her own body heat and the help of a small magical flame from her hand. Task complete, she then gently places each egg back into the backpack’s cottony interior and places it on her shoulders.

“Well James, time to-Oh! Look at that!” She smiles, pointing to the ceiling.

James looks upward, seeing a few faint chalky lines marked onto the stone above.

“What are those lines?”

“Those are old marks from Urmine’s antlers! When her horns had just come in she’d leave marks on the cave ceilings wherever she went, it took her a while to get used to keeping her head down.” Gothetta sighs, looking towards the ground with a frown. “I hope she’s okay.”

“I'm sure she is, Gothetta. But it’s best not to dwell on these things, we have a job to do.”

James straightens his back, not content to rest any longer for fear of their minds being filled with thoughts as dark as the caverns themselves. He points to one of the many possible paths.

“Let’s head that way. Something about it calls to me.”

“Does it look familiar?”

He squints and cocks his head.

“Something about it does seem a little…familiar. Let’s see what we can see.”

They venture forth and are met with a warm orange glow from somewhere deeper in the cave. Continuing forward, they’re soon met with its source. A large river of magma flows below them, and in front of them lies a thin strip of rock serving as a bridge to the other side of the river. They pause, putting hands over their faces to shield themselves from the heat.

“This ring any bells?” Asks Gothetta.

“Oh yeah, they’re being rung alright. It’s all coming back to me.” He grimaces. “I could have sworn the bridge was wider last time though!”

“What’s on the other side?”

“Should be the chamber I found chain in.”

“You crossed a river of magma just to find something cool to show mom?”

James shrugs.

“I was young, I wanted to impress her.”

“If what you’re saying is true then the medallion is close.”

“Very close, we just have to cross that damned river of bubbling magma. The bridge looks sturdy enough to hold a person but…” James steps forward, testing the rock bridge’s integrity with a stomp. It remains solid. He looks back to Gothetta. “I’ll cross first, then you follow.”

The doe considers arguing, she is lighter after all, but shuts herself up as he takes the first couple hesitant steps onto the bridge. James crosses cautiously, step by step, until finally reaching the other end.

“Okay, now you.” He shouts over.

Gothetta crosses slightly faster than James did, her anxiety pushing her forward the entire way. Upon reaching the other end she breathes a sigh of relief and looks at the dim room that lay ahead. Lighter held in front of him, James enters the room and walks around its perimeter followed by the doe.

The room is oddly shaped, with four smooth inward sloping walls coming to a point above them, like a hollowed-out pyramid. In the center of the room sits a large red crystal, slowly pulsing with a dull light.

“What do you think this place is? It’s clearly not natural.” James says, putting his lighter against a wall to study its surface.

“I'm not sure dad. I’ve never seen a place like it.”

“If what Murdy said back at the séance was true keep your eyes open. Whatever this place is, it’s likely that a couple of very malicious and crafty people had a hand in its making.”

They investigate the room for several minutes, finding no doors, switches, or any sort of lead as to where the medallion might be. Growing low on options, James rubs his hand across one of the walls, hoping to find some hidden button or covered up text. But what he feels is an indent in the wall and below it something smooth, very smooth. He rubs away the layers of dust and caked on dirt that had developed on the wall over the decades and brings his lighter back up. What he sees is a shiny strip of brass inlaid into the wall. He begins uncovering more lines of brass and shouts over to Gothetta to do the same.

When they had finally uncovered every line of brass they stand next to the crystal and look over their work. Like a spiderweb, the strips of metal lay in criss cross patterns all over the walls and floor of the room.

“Wha-…what is it?” The doe whispers, dumbfounded.

“It looks almost like a…like a lightning rod on a mast, with all these metal strips going in so many different directions. And all they seem to end right here, at the crystal.”

“A lightning rod? But it’s impossible for lightning to reach all the way down here.”

“Correct. So maybe instead of catching lightning all these bits of metal are supposed to catch, I don’t know, some kind of energy coming from the crystal? I mean…it is glowing.”

Gothetta weakly shrugs in agreement.

“I suppose. But then where does all that energy go? I don’t see any other rooms around here.”

James looks down, tracing the metal strips on the floor.

“And…yes! Right here!” He smiles, pointing to the ground. “See these strips? They appear to go right into the wall, what we’re after must be behind this this stone block.”

He puts a hand on the stone and it begins to rumble, moving backwards and out of the way as a new passageway reveals itself in the wall. He looks to Gothetta with a raised eyebrow.

“That was easy.”

“Too easy.”

He smiles.

“Agreed. Follow me and keep your head on a swivel.”

They begin to explore the hallway within, eyes wide with suspicion as every shifting shadow and distant creak puts the pair on edge. The inner complex is simple in design, with one primary chamber and several adjacent rooms taking up most of the floorspace. The pair go room by room, searching for the medallion in the dim light. They find rooms filled with strange potions and enchanting tables, storage rooms filled with food that’s long since gone bad and casks of wine turned to vinegar, a small bedroom with two moth eaten beds, a single large forge room, and most worryingly, an entire room filled with steel cages containing nothing but the dusty bones of their former occupants. All these spaces had one trait in common, it was clear no one had been there in ages. Cobwebs in every corner, thick layers of dust on every table and chair, this subterranean hideout had been abandoned decades ago.

After an exhaustive search of most of the complex the pair exits a room and closes the door behind them.

“Have you seen any sign of the medallion? Any trace at all?” Asks James.

“No, not as much as an empty jewelry box or glimmer of gold.”

He sighs, and looks at the last unopened door.

“One last place it could be, let’s give it a look.”

He walks up to the closed door and hears something odd below his feet, like a metallic ringing sound. He scrapes at the ground with his shoe to find more traces of brass metal below him.

“This must be where the metal strips led to.” He remarks.

They give each other a look of mutual concern, then James slowly opens the door. Inside nothing can be seen but a dark empty void, this room is much larger than the others. Steeling their nerves, they slowly advance into the oddly spartan space. Eventually an object comes into view, placed right in the center of the room like a kind of centerpiece. Too regal and decorated to be a simple chair, it appeared to be a throne. Made of dull brass and inlaid with crystals in odd spiraling patterns the thing reeked of a dark ritualistic purpose. As their lights begin to encompass the throne James breaks the silence.

“Well Gothetta, I suppose the good news is that we won’t have to worry about The Crone or Helena causing us trouble anytime soon.”

The throne bears a grim sight. At its feet and on the seat are a pile of scattered bones. Hanging to the headrest courtesy of a sword stuck through its entire length is the skull of a bird creature, her beak locked in a permanent silent scream. At the foot of the throne rests the shattered skull of a large feline, her teeth and jaw fragments scattered about the floor.

“They must have died fighting, but over what? With both the chain and its medallion in their possession they already had an immense amount of power in their hands.”

“Perhaps the hunger for even more power drew them to blows, or perhaps it was jealousy, an argument, the need to eliminate some competition. We’ll likely never know and frankly I don’t want to know. Here, look, is that what I think it is?”

They approach the throne and look down at its seat. There, almost hidden amongst the pile of bones, is a gilded medallion in the shape of a snake’s head. Its eyes, made of dark green gems, seem to shimmer in the light. Gothetta titters on her hooves with a happy clap, but when she looks back up she nearly falls over in fright.

“Ah! Look!” She shouts.

James looks up and steps back. There, lurking in the darkness behind the throne, are two large brass statues. Each is in the shape of a snake-like creature with a serpent tail below the waist, human-esque torso and arms, and a serpent head paired with a wide hood. The pair freeze, then slowly start moving again once it was clear the statues were no threat.

“W-what are those?” Gothetta whimpers.

“Guards, soldiers, decorations, who the hell knows. Let’s get the medallion and get out of here.”

“Let’s!”

James moves back to the throne and peers down at the pile of bones. Gothetta waits a few steps behind him and observes with bated breath. With a careful hand he removes some of the bones surrounding the amulet and reaches downward for it. Yet just as he lifts the medallion upward it slips between his fingers and attaches itself to the bare metal of the throne as if it were magnetized. As soon as they meet a surge of crackling red energy pulses down through the throne and into the brass traces on the floor, surging into the darkness. James immediately grasps the medallion and pulls it free from the throne.

He looks at it in his hand, flabbergasted at what just happened.

“What the-“

“Dad look out!”

He looks back up just in time to see one of the brass statues thrust its spear towards him. He jumps backward and onto the ground, scrambling to get back up as Gothetta readies a spell, hands held above her.

“I harness the flame of an endlessly turning sun, and will it to maim and burn until it is done!”

A ball of roaring fire appears between her hands and she throws it forward into the brass statue. It hits the statue square in the chest, its metal body glowing red as small spits of metal droop and fall from its chest. Yet the statue doesn’t even flinch, slithering forward as it readies one of its spears for a throw. James grabs Gothetta by the shoulder and pulls her with him.

“I’ve got the medallion let’s go!”

They run out of the room just in time to dodge a spear thrown by the statue, its metal tip easily piercing the wall and sticking out the other side. Gothetta and James rush through the complex as the ceiling above them begins to rumble and break apart, rocks falling all around them as they race towards the exit.

The pair makes it to the room with the large red crystal to find it cracked, pulsing violently and emitting a high-pitched scream. But they don’t have time to do much more than glance at it with the statues closing on their position. They run out of the room and back to the magma river. Gothetta rushes to cross the bridge but James pulls her backwards.

“No! Wait!”

A stalactite falls and pierces the center of the bridge, smashing it into fragments as it breaks apart. They look down at the river of magma and see what remains of the bridge sink below its gooey red surface.

“Dad, what are we going to do? That was the only way out!” Gothetta cries.

He looks to the bridge, then to the four piercing red eyes slowly coming closer from the crystal room, then to Gothetta.

“Use the potion Murdy gave you. Throw it against the side of the rock face and it’ll give us a new bridge!”

“A bridge made of ice dad! With all the heat coming from that magma it’ll only last a few seconds!”

“A few seconds is all we need!”

“But there’s no way I’ll make it across without slipping off, my hooves aren’t made for ice.”

He puts a firm hand on her shoulder.

“Then we’ll cross together. Now throw it against the rock face, quickly!”

The doe takes the potion bottle out from her dress and walks up to where the bridge once stood, smashing it against the rock. Immediately a pillar of ice shoots outward and connects with the other side of the river. James wraps an arm around Gothetta’s waist and the pair jog across the river of magma. Their makeshift bridge begins to sag and melt, the surface turning slippery as the magma underneath begins to liquify it. They almost lose their footing once, then twice, then three times, but each time James is able to recover their balance and push forward.

When they had crossed, they look back to see the two brass statues attempting to cross behind them. The one closest only makes it to the center of the bridge before the ice finally cracks into pieces, the statue falling into the river of magma with a high-pitched sizzle. The next one soon follows his compatriot’s fate, trying and failing to throw another spear before disappearing under the red flow.

Danger apparently over, Gothetta and James peer over the side of the cliff face at the magma river.

“Those slithering monstrosities won’t be bothering us again.” James declares.

“You have the medallion, right?”

“Yes, right here. Now all we have to do is throw it into the deepest, darkest, pit of the Earth. The big holey.”

Gothetta suddenly turns her head, ears struggling to find the source of a far-off sound.

“I hear something.”

“What is it?”

“It sounds like…Henry.”

*************************************************************

Urmine’s claws dig into her broom as she approaches the town, blood boiling with a righteous anger.

“I'm going to tear her antlers off one by one and beat her into a moosey tasting soup. Then I’ll pluck one of her witch hunter lackey’s bolts from its quiver and stick her in the eye with it. They’ll pay tenfold for what they’ve done.” She growls, the town’s tall church steeple coming into view.

Urmine descends to just above the treetops, intending to surprise Malvina with her sudden appearance. After all, with the odds stacked against her she’s going to need every advantage she can get. After skimming past treetops and avoiding flocks of frightened birds she finally sees the spot where the trees ended and the town began. She accelerates and makes a quick decision on what spell to cast the moment she sees her target. A flaming fireball? A flurry of icy spikes? A sudden bolt of lightning from her fingertips? That’s the one, lightning should be easy to cast from a fast-moving broom, it practically finds its own way to the target. Method of attack decided, she shoots past the last few trees and begins a slow turn around the perimeter of town.

Paws raised, spell on the tip of her tongue, she surveys the town square and sees…no one. Not a soul. Annoyed at the lack of targets, she puts her paws back on her broom and executes a low pass of the town, glancing into windows for any sign of life. No one in the church, or the courthouse, or any shops or homes. The horned bear comes to a simple conclusion, Malvina must be hiding from her. Angered at the moose’s apparent display of cowardice, Urmine swoops in low and stops next to the town’s well. She quickly dismounts and walks in a slow circle around the well.

“Malvina!” She roars. “Come out and fight me you coward!”

Yet the only response she gets is her own echo.

“You treacherous hooved whore! Give me back my Henry! Come out and face me, witch to witch!”

She looks around the buildings, seeing no one.

“Bring your witch hunter friend too! So you’ll have a fair fight!”

Yet Urmine’s goading proves fruitless. She huffs and kicks the ground in frustration. Her mortal enemy isn’t even here.

Blood slowly cooling, Urmine walks to the center of town and looks to the ground. She sees a flurry of footprints along with two long indentations in the dirt, likely from the wheels of a wagon. Yet she also detects something else, something on the wind. Her nose takes her to a patch of disturbed dirt on the ground. She smells the distinct scents of human, moose, blood, and sweat. This must be where Henry was resummoned, and where he fought Malvina!

A smile comes across her muzzle as she sees a few broken antler tips and a smashed totem laying on the ground next to the patch of dirt. Not only did Henry fight back, but he gave Malvina a beating she’ll remember for the rest of her life! A glimmer of hope wells within Urmine. It’s a slim chance, but perhaps Henry managed to escape her grasp after being resummoned.

Urmine tracks his scent across the ground, ending up in front of the courthouse. She opens its doors to find the place empty, nothing but scattered chairs and an unattended judge’s podium in the building’s sole courtroom. She does find one oddity though, a single chair sitting in front of the podium. She walks closer to find two lengths of rope next to the chair, both cut.

*******************************************************

Gothetta rushes through the darkness, James barely able to keep up behind her.

“Henry! Is that you? Say something to me my sweet!”

“Gothetta? Gothetta! It’s me.” Comes a raspy reply from deeper in the cave.

The doe picks up her pace and eventually a ragged form comes into view.

Henry leans against a wall. His clothes are torn to shreds and stained with drops of blood, a bandanna is wrapped tightly around his eyes and streaks of dried blood show beneath it.

“Oh Henry!” Gothetta cries, running up to him and holding him up in a hug. “What happened? We thought you captured!”

Henry groans in pain, weakly returning her hug before slinking down to the floor.

“After Malvina resummoned me she took me to the courthouse and interrogated me for the location of you and the medallion.”

He speaks with an odd flatness that James and Gothetta dismiss as the result of severe fatigue and the clear beating he’s sustained.

“Did you tell her anything? Should we worry about her showing up anytime soon?” James asks.

Henry shakes his head.

“No. She tried all sorts of things to try and make me talk but I…resisted.”

“Poorest love companion, what she did she do to your-“

Gothetta tries to raise the bandanna around Henry’s eyes but he stops her, grabbing her wrist and pulling it away with a sniffle.

“Malvina grew angrier and more devious as the torture went on. Eventually she got tired of my resistance and blinded me with some foul spell. Then she threw me in the crystal caverns to die, I guess. It’s a miracle you were able to hear me.”

“Yes, it is. Perhaps our luck is finally turning around.” Gothetta responds, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and bringing him to a standing position. “On the bright side we’ve got the medallion in our possession so now all we’ve got to do is throw it in the big holey. Then we can get you a healing potion and assist Urmine in the fight against Malvina.”

“You have the medallion?”

“Yes, James and I retrieved it from the former hideout of its creators. We escaped by the skin of our teeth, but it’s ours nonetheless.”

“That’s great.” A smile creeps onto his face. “Now let’s get topside. I can’t stand this musty air any longer.”

****************************************************

Urmine leans down and examines one of the cut lengths of rope. It’s a clean break, as if done with a knife. Perhaps Henry was able to sneak a knife in and cut his restraints himself? Urmine drops the rope as a new smell comes across the air. It’s a sweet smell, with a faint citrusy undercurrent, but underneath the sweetness she detects the unnatural tones of a witch’s brew.

She follows her nose to the judge’s podium and opens one of the storage cubbies that make up its interior. There, sitting on a silver platter, is an empty glass pitcher. She brings the pitcher to her muzzle and takes a deep sniff, detecting the undeniable scent of a mind control potion. A horrible realization coming upon her, she opens the other cabinets to find they all contain the same thing. Empty pitchers each harboring the scent of a mind control potion long since drunk.

She backs away from the podium. If Malvina forced Henry to imbibe so many pitchers of potion then there’s no way he could have resisted, not even with herculean effort could a mortal mind resist so much arcane coercion. And if Henry was under her control then he must have told her-

Urmine brings her right hand up and looks at her wedding ring, rubbing its surface to obtain the locations of Henry and Gothetta.

To her horror, they’re both at the entrance to the crystal caverns. She concentrates further and tries to get a clearer idea of where Gothetta is. Her sister is by the crystal caverns…sitting in a wagon…a wagon with metal bars going all around it.

“Damnit!” She roars in anger.

Urmine was supposed to be the one in dire need of rescue right about now, not them! Gothetta, James, and the eggs were now captured at the mouth of the crystal caverns and confined in a prisoner’s wagon. And if they hadn’t already handed Malvina the medallion of mindbreaking then it was only a matter of time until she found it. To make matters even worse, with Henry on her side Malvina knows everything he does, including Urmine’s location thanks to their enchanted wedding rings.

Urmine takes the ring off her finger and storms out of the courthouse towards the town’s well. Ring in hand, she raises it above the well and prepares to drop it. But then an idea comes across her mind.

Throwing the ring away would prevent them from knowing her location, sure. But this could be turned into a boon. She still has something Malvina desperately wants, so why not lead Malvina to it and meet her on advantageous ground? A devious trap, from which Malvina’s doom can be born.

Urmine removes her hand from above the well and puts the ring back on her finger. She marches back to her broom and takes off into the darkening afternoon sky. It’s a precarious plan she has, with a slim chance of success, but it’s also the last opportunity she has to protect against a dark fate for her and all she loves. Urmine will be getting her final showdown with that drooling moose, even if it has to be her final blaze of glory.