FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The storage shed for the Brass Bull was located at the back of the lot behind the inn, on the other side of the herb garden that had a few smaller light spheres on sticks dotted around it. It was built up against the cavern wall and it was always damp, so there was a strong musty smell. You didn't keep anything back there if you cared about the mold, so it was filled with old chairs, broken tables and rusty tools.

Zeynep had been asked to 'wear something you don't mind getting dirty,' so she'd unpacked her patched traveling clothes, leaving the outer robe in her room. She met Calpha also on his way out the back door, he was a ferret in an apron with pink-scrubbed hands, one of the cooks, not much taller than the little desert fox, with the skinny build of a noodle.

"Heya Zey. Did anyone tell you what the boss wanted?"

She shook her head. "Guessing it's not moving furniture if it's the two of us."

"Better not be."

The owner, Baxter, was standing outside of the open shed, watching as one of the porters was rearranging stacks of broken chairs, moving them away from a section of wall. He smiled his coyote grin at them, but there was something apologetic about the angle of his ears. Calpha and Zey shared a dubious glance.

"Sooooo," Baxter said. "This is a bit of an odd request, but this has to do with the Bull's profits, which are all of our livelihood. There were a few odd coins in the till the past few days, I didn't pay too much attention to it, maybe they were clipped, that happens. But then one that I had on my desk because I was looking at it was MORE clipped the next day. Look," he said, holding out a golden coin that he had been playing with. The edge of it was chewed away as if by dozens of little droplets of acid, maybe a third of the coin was gone.

"Bummer," the ferret said flatly. "And you keep the cash in the shed?"

"No, no. I had the witch do a divination on it, to see where the rest went...apparently that's pretty easy, when you have part of it left..."

"...and it's in the shed?" Zey said dubiously.

"No. Well....here." He waved them in and stepped into the shed, stepping around the burly stableboy. "There." he pointed at a fold in the cave wall. Some gravel clung to the wall-slime below a narrow passageway of unworked stone, maybe two feet across. "That wasn't there before. And that's where the divination trail ends."

"And we're the smallest people here."

"You have an investment in our profits not going down a hole...AND you are the smallest people here. I just need someone to have a look, and I want everyone to be safe, so I wanted to ask the two of you to....well, just nip in and look around, if you can see where the missing gold went to, then bring it back."

The ferret wrinkled his brow. "I don't like it. I am a pastry chef, I do not stick my nose in dun...Zey, why on earth are you wagging?"

"I'll do it. Not a problem! Calpha, c'mon and back me up, I can protect you. I was a caravan guard for a few years, you know." The ferret rolled his eyes at that, but she insisted. "Hey, did I ask you to prove that you were writing that novel by showing it to me? I believed you about that!"

"My mind is struggling with that analogy, Zey. How is that even..."

"Do you have a knife I can borrow, Mr. Baxter?"

The coyote looked a bit surprised himself, but handed her the dagger from his belt. "I really appreciate the positivity, Zey." He raised his eyebrows at the ferret.

"I don't think her hips will fit in there," Calapha muttered. But she was standing on a box and clambering in already.

"I don't want anyone to get hurt, Calpha. If anything looks dubious, just turn around and leave."

"It already looks dubious." The ferret crossed his arms. 'You're going to pay us for this."

"Of course. Five should...no? Ten? Maybe twelve? Honestly?" The coyote huffed. "Twenty?"

The stableboy had been looking into the passageway, and he turned towards them. "I think the fox is asking for a push," he rumbled.

The ferret shook his head but said "Fine. EACH. If I die I'll haunt you." He untied his apron and draped it over the coyote's hands.

"Sure. Each. Be careful. Do you need anything?"

"More sense." The ferret hopped up and was into the narrow space, moving like a fish in its element.

The cave walls were tight, but at least not slimy. They were smooth, like river-rounded rock, dry and mostly clean. It wasn't the same kind of stone that made up the walls of the cavern that the town was located in.

The glass decoration in the pommel of Baxter's dagger glowed a little bit, just a decorative feature normally but enough to get by with. Also, hey, a dagger. She was keeping it in its sheath for now though. Hopefully Baxter wouldn't be too put out with a few scratches. And a bit of dirt.

There was noise behind her and a glow at her back. Calpha had caught up, holding a twig with a dried berry shedding light, one of the temporary light sticks.

"Oh hey, great!" she said to him. "It looks like it opens up a bit up here."

The ferret ducked around her and sniffed the air. "Not stale at least. Listen, I should go first, I can move a lot faster than you down here."

"Sure, sounds good. I'll protect your back."

The mustelid looked dubious but darted down the passageway. There was a split, and he was following the left wall. Zey tucked the dagger in her shirt to free up her hands. Good idea. Wait, how could she protect his back?...well he was out of sight anyways. Mustelids were speedy. She went the other way, splitting up to save time.

It was less tight this far in, but the floor was just as wavy as the walls, undulating in patterns a foot or so across. Walking wasn't possible unless she very carefully picked where each paw went, so she just crawled and made better time.

Even though she couldn't see more than a few feet, it sounded different ahead...echo-y and wet. When the tunnel opened up, she wasn't surprised by it. The floor just dropped away into darkness. She held on to the walls and leaned into it to get a better look and listen...

...and then a little comet of light streaked downwards. The dagger had slipped from her shirt. There was a clatter that echoed and it shot outwards after hitting something, then a wet bloop and it was gone. Oops.

There was a muffled, distorted sound of anguish behind her.

"Calpha? Wait, I'm coming! ...owch!" She turned around and rose partway to her feet to take a stride and immediately rammed a knee into stone. She cursed and shuffled back the way she came as fast as she could.

She could hear his claws on stone barreling ahead in the dark ahead of her, and...other things moving. "Calpha!" she shouted.

The yellow-green stick glow came into view, attached to a ferret moving at high speed, leaping from wall to wall in four-legged locomotion. "RUN!" he yelled, and was gone in an instant.

"I can't...what! Dammit!" She was trying to track the sound in his wake, but he was too fast. And there was another sound approaching from the way he had come, many many feet.

It was pitch black. Her large ears were sliding along the ceiling, keeping her from cracking her skull against it at least. Light, light, didn't she have a light stick somewhere? But a sword, she could call her sword. That could make fire, that'd be a little light right? Maybe scare anything used to the darkness away?

She held a hand out and called to her sword, for the first time in a while.

Her wrist was yanked backwards HARD, painfully. There was a tortured metal scape, sparks from the ceiling, and then a BANG and the sword wasn't there any more.

It was a stupidly large sword, she thought. And then clutched her wrist, which was screaming with pain from being wrenched away when the sword tried to manifest. Stupid stupid!

There was a little stick in her pocket on the side where she was cradling her arm to her side. Right where it was all along. She reached across, fumbling, and pulled it out, then shook it wildly to activate it.

As it slowly came to life, she could see her company in the cave, coming to a stop confronted with the dim light. A dozen little black eyes reflecting the glow, naked tails, and hesitating paws. One of them darted forwards, tail lashing angrily.

Make cat run! Kill cat! it squeaked to the other rats.

"I'm not actually a cat. Please don't kill me," Zey responded.

The rat who had advanced jumped back and the other rats milled uncomfortably. Scary cat!, squeaking cat!, run from cat!, came from different rats. But the lead rat was insistent. Chased cat, chase new cat! Kill cat! It hopped around authoritatively, squeaking little rat huffs of agression. But the other rats were uncertain, crowding into the space behind it.

"How about if...ow. Just a second." She grimaced and held her hand against herself while rummaging in her pocket with the other, and pulled out a little honey candy, wrapped in waxed paper. "If I give you this because I'm scared, will you not kill me?"

No! Squeaked the lead rat. Kill and take! But another rat ran past it, getting close to Zey and standing on its hind legs. Take sweet, not kill cat! it postulated to Zey.

She put it on the ground and pushed it towards the rat, who snatched it and ran back to its fellows, who all attacked the treat greedily. Only the angry rat stood aside, trying to glare at her and the other rats at the same time. Nice cat, dead rat! It declared, but the other rats ignored it. Zey shrugged apologetically.

"I know you don't trust me, but I don't want to kill rats. I'm looking for shiny things down here."

Can't eat shiny things!, one of the rats said through a mouthful of honey taffy.

"I know. I just want to decorate my den with them and attract other cats."

Dumb cats!, more than one squeak informed her. But one of them looked thoughtful, grooming its whiskers while looking at her.

Some shiny down tunnel!, it said. Take shiny, tell other cats shiny gone!

"I will definitely do that. I'm not a tunnel cat, I'm only here for the shinies"

Go down that tunnel! Take shiny, have many little cats, stay out of tunnels! it suggested.

"That's an excellent plan. I will, I promise."

Little cats eat rats! The angry rat squeaked furiously.

Big fat cats catch no rats! Too big, too slow! angry rat was told. And then to Zey, the sardonic observation: Bite rat has no mate! Takes out frustration with teeth!

Zey laughed. "I got that impression. Thank you." The rats turned as a group and retreated, followed reluctantly by the sputtering angry rat.

Calpha eventually returned. Zey hadn't made it that far, walking on her knees and one hand, the injured one mostly kept cradled against her torso. (except when she forgot, and there was a lot of cursing)

"Zeynep...I'm sorry." He sat back on his hind legs, wringing his hands. "I didn't mean to leave you like that...you're hurt! What happened? He darted forwards and started gingerly tug at her, backing off when she inhaled sharply when her arm was jostled.

"S'okay," Zey said in reassurance. "Just did something dumb and hurt my wrist. It'll be okay. Don't worry about it, Calpha, glad you came back. Hey, I got a lead, I think the stuff may be down here, that's good right?"

"It's NOT okay," Calpha said with a strident tone. "It's dangerous down hereI We shouldn't be here at all! I could have come back and found you a rat-covered corpse! I have a wife and children at home, I shouldn't be down here just because my boss doesn't want to hire a professional! This is not worth the risk!"

"Well, those professionals have families too. A lot of them anyways. And I bet you can run faster than a rat, even in a tunnel. I may not be able to but you sure can."

"That's no guarantee of anything! One surprise bite and a rat can give you a disease and you die a horrible wasting death."

Zey blinked. "Uh, maybe? Those rats looked pretty healthy. And even if a sick rat could make you sick by biting you, I don't think they'd know that. It'd just be sick and grumpy and probably wanting to stay home in its den, not trying to bite some cat way bigger than they are." She laughed at that. "They think you're a cat by the way."

Calpha was silent for a long moment. "I don't think that is reassuring, if you were trying to reassure me."

Reassuring the ferret probably would have been a smarter option, true. "I bribed them with food and they went away. We're okay now, no rats! Want to help me poke around in this tunnel? If we can find Baxter's stuff then we can get out of here."

"You carry food on your person when going into a cave with flesh-eating vermin."

"We didn't know, did we? Ow."

"Hm. I guess." Calpha scampered past her and then stood there waiting as she laboriously caught up. "Don't you have a family? I thought I remembered hearing that. Even though you do, ah, stage stuff."

"Two kids! Yeah!"

"How does your partner not worry sick about you? How long have you been away?"

Zey paused and thought. "Ummm. Four months so far?"

"And you're still married?"

"She knew what she was getting into when we got married. Well, ah, mostly anyways. She has told me that she has a backup choice in mind if I don't come back one day."

Capha just stared at her and spread his hands in disbelief.

"Well, it's been a lot of years and we're still married so I guess we're pretty okay." Zey flashed a smile in the dim light.

"Uh. I guess I can't argue with results. However unlikely. The cave opens up over here," he said, looking away from her and spreading his whiskers as he sniffed.

"Yeah, watch out, there's a drop....oh there you go." The ferret was over the side in an instant, and she leaned over to watch his form limmed in greenish light as he darted downwards, holding on to her own twig firmly. "I'll wait here and watch you!"

"I feel so safe," the ferret's voice echoed. "It's wet on the floor down here. Disgusting." She could barely make out the circle of light around him, the image was colorless and hard to make out except for the deep shadows from the rippled stone of the floor. "So it's supposed to be down here somewhere? I don't...say, that's shiny."

"What is?" Zey shouted.

"Don't be so loud, you might...it's like a little line of paint curving along back and forth, like someone illuminated the floor with gold leaf. And it's clean, it's the only thing that's clean...hey! It comes up in one piece! Mostly."

"Oh nice! Need help with that?"

"No. This is easy. It's like wire. And there, another one, parallel to this one." She could see the ferret-shadow against the little patch of glow darting back and forth. "This stuff crumples up to almost nothing, But it's soft, it's definitely gold. These lines are starting to get closer together, they..."

His voice cut off. After a moment, there was a skittering of paws across the floor, and Calpha shot past her like a fuzzy grey-and-white missile. She reached for him to reassure him, but he flinched back. "What was it?"

Calpha shook his head. "Bugs. BIG bugs. I'm not going back there." He shoved a ball of golden wire into her hand, wet with slime. "Here. I'm leaving." The ferret shook his head. "I'm sorry," he pleaded, paws shaking, but turned around and shot back up the tunnel.

"CALPHA!" she shouted. "HOW BIG?" But he didn't respond.

Well, poop.

When Zey emerged from the passageway, returning to the relative brightness of the storage shed, her knees, paws and hands were all mud-brown, and the rest of her wasn't much better. The tips of her tall fennec ears were slick with a mix of black and yellow slime. She spat out the faded light twig that she had been carrying in her mouth.

Baxter was there, and helped her down despite her muddy hands. Zey didn't see the ferret. "Did Cal make it back okay?"

"Yes, he came out a few minutes ago. He said to apologize to you."

"Oh good!" She rummaged around in a pocket and pulled out a heavy lump, soft wires compressed into an irregular ball, mostly mud-colored but shining gold where it had been rubbed clean in her pocket. "Here you go!"

Baxter frowned. "Wire?" He turned the lump around, wiping it with a thumb.

"There were funny bugs there, shiny ones. They had threads of gold all over their nest, and in lines on the ground running to it. It was really pretty! I felt kinda bad pulling up the patterns they made, but, eh. They didn't like that, but they just ran around and looked upset. They didn't hassle me any though, just ran around wriggling their feelers."

The coyote stood there, hefting the lump thoughtfully. And then turned to her. "Sorry. Thanks, Zeynep. Here, Calpha said you could have what I would have paid him too." He put a pile of coins in her hand, and she had to hold them in both palms together. Her jaw dropped.

"...wait, you said half of this was for Calpha? I can't take that!"

Baxter waved a hand dismissively while wiping the other one. "Don't worry. I need to go talk to him, I'll make it right with him somehow. Is your hand all right, Zeynep?"

She looked at her wrist. It still hurt, but she was still amazed at the money and not noticing it anymore, ears and tail quivering. "I am totally fine! Thank you, Baxter!" She wagged, wandering back to the main building dazedly. Mia was going to be SO PROUD of her.