FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I thought your secrets were that you were simply tampering with gadgets, not actually talking with the Civilized!"

"M-mother?"

"You know as well as I do the dangers of talking to men!"

"Mother, l-let my hand go! You are hurting me!"

"You think me a fool? Your own mother?"

"No!"

"Who is the stranger? What are you doing with them? What are they doing to you?!"

"I cannot tell you that. You- you will harm him!"

"I will harm EVERYONE and EVERYTHING before I let another loved one die before my very eyes!"

"THAT is exactly why-"

I gasped. "You... you hit me."

"Do not disrespect me. You are talking with forces beyond your wisdom. Lives of great trickery and evil who will not hesitate to strike you down the moment you show weakness."

"That... That is not true. He loves me. He gives me things, tells me of the wonders of the Civilized. He does not miss a day in loving me. He- He tells me that I am the most beautiful man in the world!"

"So he has charmed you. But nothing has happened yet."

"Yes, and nothing will happen ever. For he loves me more than any love I have ever known."

"Then I am sorry."

"For hitting me?"

"For what I must do to you both."

"What?"

"You told me that he does not miss a day in loving you."

"No... No!"

"If I simply show you as bait..."

"Mother, please! Do not hurt him. He is the only person to keep me company. I do not wish to be alone again. Please, I will do anything!"

"You... You will do anything for a Civilized?"

"I do."

"You truly love him?"

"Yes, Mother."

"Three days. That is all you have. If you are not rid of him by then, I shall rid him myself."

A long pause.

"Thank you, Mother."

~~~

Thunder heard my sobs, and the rain echoed my tears. I was going to be alone again.

When she calmed down, she patted my back.

"One day, you shall understand. It may not be today, or tomorrow. But one day, you shall see the evil the Civilized bring."

"You are wrong, Mother. I will never understand you."

"Waling-waling." She called out my true name with a sigh. Only she knew of it, the fairies, the spirits, and Elias knew me as Orchid. "I believe you know of the abandoned mansion west of here."

I did not reply.

"Do you know why the mansion was abandoned?"

"You told me the owner died alone."

"That is but a lie. I wanted to protect you from the truth, as your innocence was too young. But now, the time is right. The man of the house was your father."

Goddess of the Mountain

He was the first mortal I had ever loved. He built his house with native wood and stone, yet was made in the ways of foreign lands. He came to the south to find peace in a time when wars were raging. Wars I bothered not to hear, for as long as they were far from my forests. He was half a rich, distant blood. The other, born just north of our kingdom. His fur, however, was just as black a feline's as I. Oh, Waling-Waling, until today you still have your father's round face, the smallness of his height and ears. Everything else of you belongs to me.

When we first met, I was vexed by his blindness to the hidden laws of the mountains with that house of his. I confronted him about it.

He listened to me, but he refused to take the house down, for he paid much already, and went through blood and sweat just to hire men to begin.

"Oh no, lovely madam. I strived hard already to be where I am today. I cannot abide by your rules, lest I lose much. Why not make a deal?"

"Deals with gods such as I only bring pain to mortals, more so for fools."

" I am speaking to a goddess? Oh, then allow me to pay my respects. But if you enable, then let me be the fool that you speak of. If pain and foolishness are the price, then so be it."

"Hmph. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure. I'll do anything, if only you allow me to build my house."

I remember smirking at him, pausing only to scare him in anticipation of what I was to ask. I came up with an answer, but I realized only now that it was too light,for a deal with a mortal. After all, it was my first deal.

"By the boundaries of the forest lie Civilized pollution of all sorts. You have seen their unclean waters, objects abandoned, and noise that frightens all my children."

"What do you want me to do about them?"

"Chase them away when they disobey the laws, clean their messes, and nurture my children."

"That's all?"

"What, you wish for more?"

"No, no!" he protested. "That's very nice, actually. I'll take up the deal then, if that's all it costs."

After that moment, I left him alone and observed him chase away the Civilized that entered the forest too deep, or littered in the forests. He did his part of the contract, and did not disappoint as he ought to be.

And then one day, it just happened. We happened. We talked to each other, and I began perceiving his true self, not of his charming affectations to me as a fearing mortal, but as a lover who found me dutiful, strong, and the most beautiful woman in the world. I would go to his mansion whenever my duties no longer called for me, and we would kiss each other in his house.

One day, I became pregnant with you. One day, he took me to the cities. The realm of the Civilized.

I remembered that day so clearly. He bought me a dress unbefitting my usual clothes to blend with the Karawabawenyos. A hat to hide the flowers on my head. But he could not hide my pink eyes. But as long as I hid my eyes from the sunlight, and as long as no one stared at me for long, they would never know their color.

When he brought me to the city, he showed me all the lovely things the Civilized had to offer. With their strange buildings, strange clothes, strange food. Everything was new to me, and so I smiled at everything too.

People gawked at your father and me that day. I heard them ask why the grumpy hermit who lived deep in the forests was with an eccentric, pregnant woman who looked at the world so newly.

I was worried what they would do, but he told me not to worry. For he would protect me with all his might before they landed any malicious touch to your unborn self and I.

One day turned to two, and two turned to three, three turned to sennights until I began slowly neglecting my duties as Goddess of the Mountains just to go to the Cities.

Sometimes it would rain, become too cloudy, or become too sunny, and I used my powers to make it right.

I kept using it, thinking things would be well. He thought otherwise, and warned me. So I did it in secret.

But it turned out that someone was investigating me for a very long while.

One day, when I cleared away the rain in the morning, someone pulled the hat off my head, and called off to the plenty about my powers and the flower on my head.

At first, people could not believe it. But when they saw me, they did. The rain I dispelled pulled away the sunshine, which revealed my pink eyes. With my hat no longer, the Civilized all saw the strange orchid flower on my head, one they had never seen before.

When they believed, they were afraid. But they did not touch me.

Until someone told the crowds that I was possibly the source of all typhoons.

That was not true. Yet they raged.

They called for my death, wanted to kill me and your father for things that I had not done.

Do you remember what I taught you about the rain, Orchid? I taught you the rain is a living, breathing thing. It has needs, like any creature eating, drinking, and releasing as it wishes, bending still to the will of the gods. Yet even as a god who can use the rain, I can not always see to it, lest I disrupt the natural order. I am the Goddess of the Mountain, not Rain.

The typhoons were a will of the rain.

"Why do you rain down on us? Give us floods?" the people said.

"It is not by my will-"

"If we kill her, we will no longer have our typhoons and El Ninos!" the crowd shouted.

"Love, run!"

And I ran. I ran while they captured your father, powerless to do anything but hide away the sun and call upon the rain. I hid in their dark, unclean alleys. It was disgusting, for it was an amalgamate of uncontrolled smells, but it was my only chance to survive.

When all was safe, I returned to the rainforest. But I could not forget your father. I needed a plan. I sent a fairy to find your father, and I learned that they imprisoned him, intending to kill him for a few days.

That was the first time that I felt true fear.

I rushed to save your father. I called on for the powers of the rain once more, even when I knew they were tired of my voice.

When I came to the prison, he was nowhere to be seen. But the fairies told me people were gathering in the town's center, with your father in its center.

I rushed as fast as I could. I learned that when I willed the rain to be as hard as it should be, the Civilized panicked, and rushed to kill him.

In those... In those final moments, I saw them cock their weapons.

And... and they shot his head. It was... It was a bloody scene.

I-I could not forgive the Civilized for what they did, Orchid. I cried and I ripped the furs of my head in agony as I forced the rain to unleash its full might.

They all thought his death would calm the rains, stop the typhoons and droughts once and for all.

They were wrong.

I flooded them. The rivers and the seas surged to the lands. The people rushed to higher places.

They all begged for the rain to stop, to give mercy as chained ferals and victims drowned.

But they NEVER showed ANY mercy to me and my love.

Especially to my love.

I never ceased the rain.

Until I sat on the rooftop of a Civilized's house, the waters, stained brown in mud, were touchable with the tip of my toes. I sang in that very same roof, of agony and grief for your father's death.

I saw the Civilized rowing their boats, past their floating junk as they stared in both fear and astonishment.

At the feline goddess with the flower on her head.

Orchid

"Do you see now, Orchid? Why the Civilized are dangerous? They will do anything in their power to get what they want. Though you have their half, I wish to have your soul untainted by their cruelty and greed. I would call myself an unworthy mother if I let you even talk to them."

"Lazaro... He is different. Different from your stories and experiences, for he has never hurt me. He loves me without condition, and until my very end. If only you knew him as much as I, you would think him to be different."

"Until he does. Once the flytrap lures you in with the sweet promises of nectar, you will be trapped in its fangs, then you will be sobbing in my arms, telling me that I was right."

"But if I was right?"

"You cannot be, Waling-Waling."

"Remember," Mother said before she turned to leave, "three days is all you have."