FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Venturi spent most of his time wandering alone in the orchard these days; though even the solace he sought there brought little comfort since his parents died.

It had only been a year since the plague ravaged Alexinos, but it seemed like much of the land had already forgotten its effects. Perhaps the people merely wished to move on and forget the horrors the disease wrought.

Venturi could never move on, however. Even if by some blessing from the gods it passed him over, he may as well still be standing beside the pyre where his parents withered corpses were consumed in flames, the memory forever seared in his mind.

The olive trees danced in the gentle breeze rolling up the cliffs along the coast, the Great Sea stretching far in the distance, an endless abyss that seemed to reach to eternity itself. Before the plague had claimed his parents, Venturi remembered carefree days spent playing among the trees here, the backdrop of the expanse beyond inspiring wanderlust and a thirst for adventure. Now, he both craved and despised the serenity of the orchard.

The lynx shuffled to the edge of the neatly arranged rows of trees, which parted at their border to reveal the edge of the cliff, and that vast sea beyond. There, he shifted his garment, the tebenna cloak his mother had made him, open so that the breeze could ruffle through his bare fur and sat down with his foot-paws dangling over the cliff edge.

The scent of saltwater hung thick on cool sea air, which did feel nice in his fur against the heat of the sun.

Venturi wondered what it would be like to have the thick heavy fur of the northern lynx, which lived in the lands where snow fell. Even his own fur seemed too thick on days such as this, and he was one of the people from the high scrublands along the Great Sea, where the weather stayed mild to hot year round. His ancestors had long since had to rely on their winter coats to fight off the cold.

He had met one of their northern cousins once. He was visiting his father on business, and Venturi had been fascinated by the northerner's thick bluish-gray fur, compared with his family's thin (by comparison) creamy tan.

Gulls soared into view, their shrieking calls drawing him from his reverie. Venturi envied the way they seemed so damn carefree as they drifted on invisible air currents above.

He flicked his tufted ears, his paw absentmindedly fiddling with the bronze bracelet on his wrist. A full year had passed.

Weight seemed to press against his chest at the thought. He had inherited the orchard from his father, and now the responsibility to run it would fall on him, eventually. He knew next to nothing about the operations of the orchard, and was just now reaching the threshold of adulthood.

Though, Venturi supposed, he never really had to learn much before. They had slaves for the labor, and the family's long-time client, Enyo, had entered into a business arrangement with his father a few years ago. Enyo was a golden jackal from some island in the Great Sea that Venturi could never remember the name of, and who managed the day to day operations of the orchard. Enyo had promised to stay on and help Venturi for the same fee his father had paid, and for that, the young lynx was grateful.

He had just left a meeting with the jackal, who had gone over various legal documents which required his authorization. They were mostly just things about trade agreements and whatnot.

The sound of paw-steps caused his ears to twitch back. It was unusual for workers to be this far out at midday, as most gathered in the shade by the worker's stable and waited out the heat of the sun.

The lynx rose and turned, careful to adjust his tebenna so it fell closed to conceal his modesty.

Movement to his left caught his eye. "Who's there?" he called out as he took a step toward the movement.

A wolf stepped out from his hiding place between rows of olive trees. Venturi didn't recognize him as one of the workers, and indeed, he didn't have a collar around his neck, and wore a chiton tunic opposed to a slaves loincloth.

"Well hello, little agathoi." The wolf's smile bared his yellow teeth.

"Who are you, w-what do you want?" Venturi demanded, though the effect was blunted when his voice broke.

In Alexinos, the term agathoi referred to the people of good blood, those whose ancestors settled the land and passed it on to their inheritors. This separated them from the kakoi, who by a curse of the gods or the shortcoming of their blood, were landless.

Venturi knew that many kakoi were violent criminals, and just then, his eyes fell to the bronze dagger tucked into the hemp belt around the canine's waist.

"I just wanna talk, little agathoi." His laugh grew into a growl.

Panic seized the young lynx, who made to bolt right, but just then, another creature stepped out from the trees, blocking his escape.

The newcomer was an ibex, as Venturi noted instantly by his large curved horns and odd rectangular pupils. He had a bronze dagger that was identical to the wolf's, though his weapon was held firmly in his hoofed grip.

"W-what do you want?" Venturi repeated as he took a step backwards toward the cliff edge.

"We heard a young agathoi liked to play around alone up here. Thought you'd might like some playmates." The wolf replied, slipping his dagger from his hip with a quick motion and brandishing it threateningly.

"Help! The lynx shouted to no avail, knowing full well he was out of earshot to all but the keenest eared foxes.

"Get him." The wolf growled to the ibex, who lunged forward and grabbed a hoof-full of the lynx's tebenna and pulled, yanking him forward.

Venturi tumbled to the ground before them, the cloth of his tebenna tearing away and leaving him exposed.

"Stop!" he yelled as he tried to push himself up. Rough paws shoved him to the dirt and held him there as the wolf moved to pin him with his weight.

Something sharp poked through the fur between the lynx's shoulder blades, causing him to freeze.

"Smart boy." The wolf growled in Venturi's ear. The stench of his breath nearly made the feline gag.

"Now, here's how I see it. I'm gonna poke you one way or another. You can keep struggling, and I can press this nice and easy through the back here." He increased the pressure of the blade tip slightly, "See how great agathoi blood really is."

Venturi was trembling uncontrollably, the sound of his own heartbeat thudding in his ears making it difficult to hear the wolf's words. His vision was beginning to dim as he grew light-headed. He didn't understand what was happening. It almost felt surreal or dreamlike.

"Or we could also toss you off the cliff their like we were paid to." The wolf continued. "But that's such a waste. Now here's my offer. You let me and my friend take what we want, and we won't just take it anyways."

Tears swelled in Venturi's eyes, and a sob rocked his chest. He didn't want to face death like this. He wanted to summon the strength of all the great heroes, and scream out, punch out, do something, but his body refused to act. He just shook.

"I take that as agreement?" the wolf laughed, withdrawing the dagger and plunging it into the soil beside them. He grabbed the lynx roughly by the scruff and yanked him back, before pushing him forward again. "On your knees, cat."

Venturi obeyed, bracing himself up on his paws and knees, trying to ignore the pain from the wolf's nails digging into his neck scruff. He cried in shock when the canines other paw slapped him across the rump suddenly.

"If it weren't for the cock between your legs, I'd have thought old Makarios had a daughter." He laughed as he ran his paw across the lynx's sore butt.

The feline whimpered at the mention of his father's name and as the wolf roughly spread his buttocks.

The ibex kneeled down before Venturi then, his chiton tunic lifted up to reveal an obscene pair of testicles dangling below a long narrow cock.

"Open" he grunted as he began to stroke himself.

Venturi hesitated only because he didn't understand the order at first, but the ibex didn't ask twice, cuffing him on the muzzle and drawing a yelp of pain.

The moment he opened his mouth from surprise, the Ibex drove his long shaft in, ramming it nearly down the lynx's throat.

His musky taste would have been enough to make him gag alone, and the added length of ibex pressing against the back of his throat had him choking desperately for breath.

He felt something pressing against the entrance beneath his tail then, pushing roughly inside and forcing his muzzle further into the ibex's groin.

Pain like he had never felt slammed through him and he choked and whimpered desperately for air. Darkness grew at the edge of his vision, creeping inwardly until he felt himself drifting weightless as the cruel chaos of the word drew further and further from memory, until he was cast about for an eternity, unable to form thoughts and unaware that he once could.

Venturi traced the grains of the wood above him with his eyes as the fog of infinity slowly rolled back to return him to the world. His head, jaw, and rear throbbed painfully and his fur was gritty.

Memories of his attack slowly began to return as the fog retreated, sending jolts of panic through him. He tried to sit up, but his body tingled horribly all over, and he seemed to lack the strength. The world seemed to be rocking about him, causing his head to spin and sending his stomach churning.

The musky smell of ibex still clung to his nose and tongue, and he managed to roll over just as he vomited up his stomach contents.

"Rough day?" a high voice said from somewhere to his left.

He heaved again before he could answer, pain stabbing at the effort. He collapsed back against the floor, constructed of the same wood that made up the ceiling and walls of the room he was now in.

Venturi clenched his eyes shut, trying desperately to block out the stimulus, wishing only to return to the ignorance of the eternity he just left, and only succeeded in making the physical sensations assaulting him that much more effective.

He didn't know how long he lay there whimpering, but eventually the void did claim him once again.

When he awoke this time, the first thing he noticed was the pain in his head had mellowed into a dull ache. Metal rubbed against his tender wrists and he was able to acknowledge the wooden floor against his naked body.

And then the voices carried to him. Low murmuring that seemed to grow louder the more he focused on it. He couldn't quite make out the words.

He forced his eyes open and pushed himself to sit up, noting the rattle of shackles around his wrists.

The room was full of creatures of all kinds, about twenty in all, ranging from wolves to bears to equids; all shackled much like himself, iron chains connected to metal loops mounted on the walls.

He was in the far corner of the room from the single door, which was reinforced with iron.

"Ah, you're awake." A high voice said. It sounded familiar to Venturi, and it took him a moment to realize it was the voice he heard earlier.

The speaker was definitely a stranger to the lynx. He was one of the black-furred squirrels which were common in the southern regions of Alexinos. He was bound to the wall in the corner beside the lynx.

Venturi opened his muzzle to speak, but his throat screamed at the attempt and he just coughed instead, only leading to more agony.

"Easy, there, kitten." The squirrel chirped. "You look like you've been to death and back."

"I can smell him from here. He's been fucked real good." A lion chained on the opposite wall commented, an odd grin growing on his muzzle as he appraised Venturi. "If it were me, I'd have stayed dead rather than endure that shame."

Other creatures began to look Venturi's way now, and the lynx lowered his eyes and tried to will himself to melt into the wood behind him in a futile attempt to avoid their gaze. Oblivion certainly felt preferable to this.

"Not everyone is strong enough to be a survivor." The squirrel rebutted sarcastically.

The lion gave a low growl. "Is that what you tell yourself to make yourself feel better, rodent? You've probably been taken hundreds of times, tiny as you are. Surprised you still got a cocky mouth, with how many you must have tasted in it."

The black squirrel gave a chittering laugh before replying. "You big preds are all so emotionally fragile."

The lion roared as he tried to leap up from the wall, but the chains caught before he could rise past his knees. "I'll show you fragile, rodent!"

The squirrel never so much as twitched. "Well, you certainly just did."

Restrained chuckles went around the room at that, and the lion glared around angrily before casting a very predatory look on the squirrel, who was now leaning carelessly back against his wall with his eyes half closed and the hint of a smug grin on his muzzle.

Venturi knew if that lion was free there would be black fur shredded everywhere. However, the lion seemed to realize just how helpless he was to teach the snarky squirrel a lesson, and sat back against the wall.

"So, how ya feelin?" the squirrel asked the lynx now, much quieter than before. "Can't imagine well?"

Venturi weighed the squirrel for a moment. Like most of his kind, he was short, even shorter than the lynx, and he was by no definition a large cat. It was hard to tell with them chained against the wall as they were, but Venturi would have guessed that he stood nearly a full head and a half taller. The lion likely towered at least that much above the lynx, so he was shocked the tiny creature seemed so careless in the face of the large predators rage. Not everything about the squirrel was small though. His large dark eyes would have disappeared in the sea of black fur in the unlit room if it weren't for a single glint of reflection. His tail was also impossible to overlook as it nearly matched his body in size, though the lynx couldn't be sure how much of that was just fluff.

There was certainly something off about the creature. He stood out sharply in this room. Sure, he was just as filthy as the others and clad in the same sort of threadbare loincloth. Normally, the lynx would have probably thought nothing of him. Perhaps it was the way he carried himself, as if he could be humming a jovial tune right now, and it wouldn't seem out of place, save for his surroundings. Or maybe it was the way he wore his shackles with a lightness that suggested they were merely decorative jewelry.

Venturi cleared his throat painfully before replying. "I-Where am I?"

"Somewhere in the Great Sea." The squirrel replied.

"G-great Sea?" the lynx considered the room again, noting the gently rocking motion which he thought was from his head still spinning. He realized then they were on a boat.

"Yeah, that big stretch of water that drowns the edge of Alexinos?" The squirrel frowned.

"H-how?" Venturi choked out, though he was pretty sure he knew. If he was chained to a wall on a boat beside a bunch of other filthy creatures, that could only mean one thing.

"You're on a ship, kitten. You were sold. We're all destined for the Slave Markets of Aarus."