FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sometimes what we know as the truth isn't always the whole truth; it's just a pretty lie made to make us feel safe, loved, protected, to lull us into a false sense of security, and keep us calm behind a smokescreen.

"Ymerc, wake up my son, happy fifth hatch day!"

Dad's voice roused me from my rest. He wrapped his wing around me while I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. It took me a moment to make sense of dad's words.

"It's my hatch day!" I yelled while my tail raised and wagging like a happy pup's.

"Come, Ymerc, we have a surprise for you," mother's sweet voice resonated through the air, reaching my still half-asleep brain. Trodding over, I rubbed my scales against mother's forepaws, my chest rumbling in contentment, a sound much like that of a purring cat's.

What is it? What is it? I hurriedly asked, my words spilling forth like a broken dam.

Father walked over, picking me up and placing me in the crook of his arm, his well-muscled paw a firm foundation under my stomach.

"You will see my son; you must be patient; otherwise, the surprise will be spoiled."

"But Dad, I don't wanna wait!" I whined.

"If you do, the surprise will be sweeter, I promise," mom said, her voice sweet like honey reaching my ears.

Mom, please tell me, I can't wait! My tail wagged even faster; my scales felt like they were gonna fly off; I just couldn't wait!

Mom's eyes flashed with an emotion I didn't recognize, my instincts telling me to shut my jabbering mouth, so with a resigned sigh escaping my lips, I shut my mouth.

Without missing another moment, dad jumped into the sky, his well-muscled legs launching through the air like an arrow shot from a bow before his wings caught the wind and held him aloft in the air. It wasn't long before mother caught up with us, their wingtips nearly touching as if they didn't want to drift apart from each other.

Wanting to feel the wind flowing across my wings, I tried to unfold them, but my father's body was in the way; I looked forward to the day when my wings were strong enough I could fly.

The sun had risen to its highest point by the time we landed; the mountains became visible on the horizon long ago, their points like stars in the sky but quickly becoming bigger until they towered over mom and dad's flying forms. A cliff stuck out from the mountain like a tree sticks out from the dirt, large and noticeable. The shadows in the cave brought about from the sun's rays seemed to move like ghosts, shivering in the recesses of the cave, Stalactites hung from the ceiling, drops of water dripping from the sharp points, the impact of water on stone sending high pitched echoes through the room like rain falling from the sky. A shiver raced across my scales; something felt very wrong here.

"Mom, where are we? I'd never been here before." I certainly haven't seen this place before.

"You mean you don't remember? This is your favorite spot? Every year we come here on your birthday, and you have a blast!"

An image of an underground lake with glowing algae growing just underneath the surface drifted lazily through my memories the way the clouds drift through the sky.

Mom, Dad, thank you so much! I love this place! I said as my lips lifted as high as they could in a draconic smile, My tail wagging uncontrollably behind me.

"Calm down, you haven't even seen it yet," mother said, fighting back a chuckle.

"Come on, let's go, let's not keep our son waiting any longer," said Dad as he could sense my eagerness.

Unlike me, my parents didn't like to swim, but I couldn't get enough of it; the way the water drifts over my wings and scales, I imagined it felt much like the way it feels to fly, but since I hadn't yet I wasn't so sure. The glowing Algae that grew under the waters rippling surface lit the walls up in different shades of green and Blue.

In my excitement, I had walked ahead of my parents, my tail wagging faster with each step. Meanwhile, I hadn't noticed my parent's gazes drift to me, staring at me with scorn, their pupils turning to slits, their lips lifted slightly, revealing their teeth, and their muscles flexed in preparedness.

It wasn't long before a glow could be seen emanating from further down the cave tunnel.

Mom! Dad! I see it! Running forward, I had completely forgotten about my parents, my scales trembling with excitement. When the tunnel opened up, the lake wasn't there. Instead, different colored torches of blood-red, blue-sapphire, and forest green hung on nailed sconces, their flames flickering like lightning, there one second gone the next then reappearing again, only to repeat the cycle.

In the center of the grey stone room sat a raised stone table that seemed to grow from the same floor, symbols embedded in the side and top that glowed in a dull brown the color of rust.

"Mom? Dad? What happened to the lake?" they were upon me before I had even turned. Dad's claws were smashing into my side, breaking my wing bones the way someone would crack a stick in half.

The force sent me flying into the stone table. In my pain, I didn't register the way the symbols changed color from a rustic brown to a blood-red as if it was anticipating a new sacrifice. My chest heaved, my heart racing with the onslaught of pain, a tsunami crushing me under pain and confusion.

Mom was upon me in seconds, picking me up by my shattered wings placing me on the stone table.

"You think we wanted you? Do you think we wanted a son?! We would have been happier without you! You are nothing but a pile of scales, worthless to us in every way." dad's voice hit me with as much scorn as a creature's voice could hold, his eyes solely focused on mine. Mother's paws slammed into my chest, and with an oomph, the air was forced from my lungs; her paw didn't leave, forcing me to stay in place no matter how much I wiggled in pain. Tears flowed from my eyes and down my scales in thick rivers, hot like a dragon's fire.

"Dear, let's start; I've been pent up for far too long."

"Gladly, honey." The torchlight flashed off claws briefly before they raked through my wings, adding even further injury to them.

I wanted to fly; I wanted to be able to feel the wind caress my scales and buffet my wings, feel the freedom mother often spoke about when she described flying. But now, my wings were broken and shredded beyond repair; blood flowed from them like a geyser spraying onto mom's scales, painting them from deep forest green to a bright red that glowed in the torchlight.

"Save some for me, dear," father said.

"Your turn, honey."

Fathers jaw opened before they clamped down over my scales, piercing my ribs and shattering them into broken pieces of bones; blood flowed between dad's teeth and poured in rivers onto his tongue; he must have liked the taste of my blood. After his jaws released my pinned body, he licked the blood from my side and swallowed; an audible gulp followed, his lips raised in joy, revealing bloodied teeth.

"Honestly, dear, you like the taste of our son's blood far too much; you never leave any for me." mom said before ducking her head in an S shape and slaked her long tongue over my bloodied scales.

"you know, dear, the one good thing that has come from us having a child is how good his blood tastes, but there's one thing I love more than blood, can you guess what it is?"

"The sound of our son's screams as we rake our claws in his scales?" mom said just before her claws tore into my neck. Mom, please stop; it hurts.

"oh dear, you hear that, Draconus? He says it hurts," mom said to her mate.

"As if we care, Ymerc, what a tasteless name we gave you, in the human language it means mercy, we should have named you something else, for you certainly have not been merciful to us, but that doesn't change the fact you were a mistake, we never wanted you, if it hadn't been for mother nature and the problems she gave us you wouldn't even exist, you are worthless to us, if it hadn't been for this table we would have killed you years ago, but we don't want the smell of your blood sticking to us for months, letting every dragon who passes by our den know that we killed our son, that would become a problem for us, so we created this table, it allows us to hurt you as much as we want without actually killing you, we can get revenge for all the times we heard your whiny bratty voice, for every time we let you sleep peacefully beside us, again we never wanted you and we certainly hate you, but by doing this it allows us to get our hatred for you out of us at least until we feel the need to do this again."

All the memories of waking up injured in the den came rushing back. Every time they said an excuse, their explanations of me falling from a cliff or getting hit by a falling tree, I foolishly believed it all, the way they tamper with my memories afterward replacing this with happier fake memories, so I don't remember a thing. Sometimes I wake up as many as four times a year bedridden for weeks, unable to move. Others it was only once.

"gosh, look, he remembers it all, seven years of torture, and he remembers every second of it; I love that look every time, it sends shivers down my scales, come Draconus, the table hasn't been properly drenched yet."

Mom? Please stop; you love me, right? I asked.

"Love? Hah, we haven't loved you for even a second; everything you've felt since birth is fake; my magic allows me to create fake emotions in someone, doing it on a hatchling? Trivially easy." mom responded.

Mom's alto voice cut through the air, drawing my attention, but I never should have moved my head; when my eyes met mother's dad swung at me again, his claws raking all the way from the base of my tail to the tip, blood splattered onto his scaled arm, dripping off them and onto the stone table. Drip..drip..drip, a steady beat of blood smacking against stone echoed through the room; it wasn't the last mark they left me with today, on my hatch day of all day's, using her front claw, mom cut my eye, making me go blind on one side as blood quickly spilled from my socket like a rushing river.

Dad went next, with my jaws still split in a silent roar. He stuck his paw inside and ripped several teeth from my mouth, blood gushing from each one and spilling across my tongue and down into my throat, coating it with the taste of rust.

The blood entered my lungs when I tried to breathe, my broken ribs heaving with each cough that racked my side, sending even more pain flaring up and down my sides like a wildfire enveloping a forest in red and leaving nothing but ash. Instead of ash, it was my very life fading away like a boat on the sea drifting further and further away. For me, the fire was my blood quickly draining from my ever-weakening body; the air became thick with wet blood floating in the air coughed up and out from my lungs.

They took turns; dad was next, using the same claw he raked through my other eye, blinding me completely; mom used her tail, splitting through the air and sending whistles through the air. When it pierced my stomach, a squelching sound reverberated through the air, withdrawing it sent another splatter of blood spraying through the air; it wasn't long before the entire room smelled thick with my blood.

"while you can still hear, let me explain why we do this rather than just straight up killing you." mother said, leaning her snout right next to my ear flap, making it twitch in response to the sudden noise.

"if we killed you, the scent of your blood upon our scales would linger for months, long ago a dragon cursed all of the dragon species, because of this curse any dragon who kills their child will have their scent linger on them for months if not years, but doing this, allows us to take our anger raising you out, and in the best way, on you!"

A slight breeze wafted past my ear before mom stuck her thumb claw directly into my ear as far as it would go. When her claw withdrew, blood sprayed like an erupting volcano from my ear; it wasn't long before another talon went in my left ear, making me go deaf. With the loss of blood, the feeling of pain wasn't sharp like a knife; it was dull as a rock on the beach; it seemed far away as if it were happening to someone else. A paw pressed down on my horns, relieving me of them; I wondered if a snap sounded or if it was silent the way everything was now. Teeth bit down on my tail, ripping it from my body.

I stared down at my body mangled, bloody, and broken; I watched as my parents stepped back, their toothy grins wide, the symbols etched into the table faded from red to green glowing brighter with each passing moment until nothing could be seen but a bright white light, when it faded my body was whole again except for a few scratches and broken bones I would live, my eyes and ears were fully repaired, my broken horns were reattached, and my tail hung limply from my body whole and healthy.

"now fix his memories."

Mom said to her mate.

"why do we do this? Change is memories? Why don't we chain him up so he can't leave and torture him day after day? It would be so much easier." Draconus spoke.

"because it's part of the damn curse, we've been over this, don't tell me you're going soft."

"No dear, never that; I'm really sick of wasting my magic on a worthless creature like this."

"Just hurry up and get it over with Draconus we don't have all day; the longer we are here, the higher the chances we are discovered."

"Very well." da- no, never again would I call him dad, never again, Draconus strode forward until his claw rested on my head; a while passed before he stepped away, his chest heaving with exhaustion.

"Honey, wow, we really did a number on him this time; it took a lot of magic to change his memories."

"It's not like he didn't deserve it. Now let's get cleaned up and head home; I'm tired now; I could use a nice nap."

***

The moon was at its highest peak, and the wind was cold like an autumn day; on the ground, a pile of ashes drifted on the breeze, not even bones left to the poor creature who met such an atrocious end.

A roar louder than thunder shook the air, the ground shaking from the ferocity, animals of the night scurrying away, owls flying into the night. All was silent again when the roar ended; not even the wind screeched; it seemed as if even the very air mourned the poor creature who had been burned to dust.

Animals soon returned to the area searching for food; an owl hooted as it swooped down and caught a rat picking it up with its talons and flying away to feed its owlets. Clouds slowly began to cover the moon; a storm had Begun its approach, the wind starting to screech, its mourning was long forgotten. Rain starts to fall, droplets of water wetting the dry ground and covering the dry ashes, steam forming when they hit, the ashes still far too hot even hours later.

Another roar shook the trees, crows taking flight, squirrels scurrying away underneath the brush.

The ashes of the poor creature who was killed by dragon fire began to glow, growing hot until the grass around it caught fire, the trees just mere feet away grew hot, the leaves closest to the ashes caught fire but just as soon as they did the rain snuffed it out.

The ashes grew in intensity, growing brighter until the entire area was bright like mid-day. The roar stopped abruptly as it started, and the light slowly faded, revealing a red dragon. However, all the scars of his past tortures were now plain to see on his scales; his tail was marred with scar tissue, not a single healthy scale to be seen, his hearing vastly diminished, and his eyesight blurred, His wings...it would be hard for him to fly if he even could, Scars the same width apart raked across his wings, his belly was the cleanest part, they bore healthy red scales except for marks that looked much like teeth had torn the scales placed periodically across his belly.

His chest inflated and deflated quickly, his legs bent in exhaustion, his tail hung limply on the ground, his neck bent in an S shape. All around, creatures would look at its mangled form, but they felt nothing for him as animals, only capable of acting on their instincts. When the red-scaled dragon caught its breath, it moved; a single paw stepped forward but collapsed underneath him, his body falling to the now soaked dirt.

The dragon's legs were shaking, either from weakness or the cold rain pelting across its scales only the dragon knew.

On shaking legs, the dragon stood, placing a paw in front of him and slowly putting his weight on it, then the next one and the next one until the dragon entered the forest, the shadows encasing its body until they swallowed him whole.