FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I stepped out of the portal.

The small 'Displacer' still held my hand, while she guided me through the shifting rift of collapsing space and carried me there when I wished for quiet time to rest and think, leaving the busy stronghold behind, along with the organised chaos our horde brought within.

I took in the surroundings.

We were, once again, at the pagoda's grounds. It was barely recognizable now. The former shrine had been entirely converted to something in the veins of Mai's personal grove, completely overrun with lavishly colourful, fluorescent flowers and alien vines creeping over. The original, human structures were reduced to a vague outline upon a feverish dream.

Rather than a ruin where nature took over, this place was a fairyland where every single plant was a subject of Mai's whimsies and wishes, taking shapes and colours ranging from vibrant purple to toxic green, with the blooms covering an even larger spectrum, all the way to a painful, dark fluorescent fuchsia.

A location drowned in complete silence, equally tranquil and it was eerie, devoid of sounds of birds, insects, or even the remote human settlements. A library paled in comparison.

Only a few of Mai's little sisters - and likely assistants - loitered around, using and abusing her power to make adjustments to the plants, adding the new, oddly shaped fruits into the collection of the weirdness that made this place an unexpected haven, so divorced from the familiar world, I could forget about the worries beyond and bask in the local wonders.

My attention turned to the de facto owner of this place - Mai also seemed to take a liking to colours, judging from the outfit likely taken from one of the human villages, with or without the original owner's permission. Considering that the dyes were likely an expensive endeavour in this primitive world, it must be considerably pricy.

I should probably do something about my girls taking whatever they liked from the occupied villages, though I doubted that the feuding human factions were any better.

"My Master!" My reptilian companion greeted me warmly and enthusiastically, " I want to show you the garden!"

"Mai," I interrupted, embracing her, "It's beautiful. You are beautiful."

It was strange to act with such intimacy, but something within me, horrified by the past events, drove me to the point I was all too eager, if not starved for affirmation. I hungered for both emotional intimacy and comforting contact.

Mai gave me both. I felt her eagerness even. Of course, the little 'Displacer' and the two little 'Corruptors' decided to join in too, and I didn't mind.

I was getting far too familiar with the menagerie my girls represented, and their affectionate behaviour.

"Do you have a place to sit?" I asked. The bedrolls and such were usually the first things procured from the captured homes.

"Yes, my Master." She said, gesturing to the collection of plants that could be only described as the sofa of wood, leaves and moss. I found myself mysteriously eager to test how comfortable they truly were.

The floral furniture faced the pagoda, even though the structure was barely recognisable under the clutter of the organic improvements, and the changes were in themselves a monument to Mai's magic, as it didn't seem to take much time or resources away. The surroundings of our camps were, after all, comparatively mutated, just with less ostentatious colours.

"You are removing the statue," I remarked, noticing that the dragon idol, already defaced by bandits before our arrival, was further damaged, with the vines and mushrooms invading the interior and rotting it from within.

Despite the appearance of a frame made of shrubbery with an unnatural amount of leaves, with the addition of the clearly parasitic wines, along with the moss-like organism, the seating itself was shockingly comfortable to sit in and somehow managed to work like springs inside the mattress. It was hard to believe this was once a living plant.

"I would make a statue of you, my Master, but I don't know how," Mai replied, snatching the place on my side, while the other was occupied by the 'Displacer' tagalong, and the little lizardlings took their place sitting on the ground by our side.

I was unsure if should I feel awkward about the gathering.

"I thank you for your work." I said, looking first into Mai's reptilian eyes and then into the sky, "But I don't need a statue. I'll have to ask your sisters for more work - the riverbank barriers."

"Yes, my Master." She replied without hesitation, looping her hand around me. It was pleasant, and I didn't protest.

"The Ravagers would dig the earthworks and make a palisade, but I asked them to do the same in the hills too, to make a fort there, should humans try to clear the collapsed passage. Then we need to deforest the area around the ruins..." I said,

While the ruins were merely a carved stone slab, a stone clearing that might have once been a courtyard to the long-gone building, it must have had some importance, and who knew what has been buried hidden under all the foliage.

The moment I realised that Mai wasn't around when we had searched the ruined surroundings, I could sense her mind touching mine, and immediate comprehension in her eyes.

The connection wasn't as distressing as it should. She was part of me as much as I was part of her.

"We would need fewer plants there to sift through whatever may be buried there," I said, "You focus on fortifying the riverbank"

Then I took in that 'Corruptors' did the civilian work, and I didn't do anything but add to their long list of tasks even since I decided we were in need to make our horde self-sustaining, rather relying on the constant raids on human's food supplies.

"I guess I asking too much of you." I blurted out

"Oh, no, my Master!" Mai perked up, "It would be easier now! Fertile ground! And there is one Defiler for two of my sisters! We can convert the land in no time!"

Despite everything, she wasn't displeased about having yet another task on her, it was something different than the fields surrounding the local settlements, especially after I decided that the humans should be allowed to gather their harvests, keeping a supply of the unmodified crops.

I almost felt her disgust for humans, and her desire to stay away from the creatures she considered slimy, but she didn't mention them this time.

Mai was an anthropomorphic partially feathered lizard, but I thought of her as attractive, one of my people, and I was terrified I would agree with her disposition that humans are disgusting.

I hurried to make my brain focus on everything, anything, else.

Mai gazed into the distance, on the unspecific point above the twisted treeline, and mentally commanded her sisters scattered throughout the land, to divert them to the shores.

It would take a while.

Our old objective was completed, and the eastern bank was under our control, and ready to be fortified against further incursion. We achieved what I had originally planned in order to prevent further bloodshed: isolation.

Nestled between the mountains and the river, we wouldn't be bothered by more humans, except those who were essentially trapped within our territory already. While natural barriers were far from being impassable - the 'elite' who could run up the vertical wall wouldn't be stopped by little water - it would deter the random peddlers and vagrants and gave cause for the rest to pause to think.

The air swivelled in front of us, and the portal spat out Miwah and Narita, along with 'Displacer' facilitating the transfer. I was starting to be more used to the vertigo they normally produced from the seemingly rapid changes in perceived distances combined with unreal angles.

"Master. We are working on the cremation of the bodies, Tama says it will be a spectacular fire." Miwah reported, in a pleasant tone. It was quite unusual the vixen didn't come here, but the 'Purifiers' obsessed with all things scorching were quite excited about the prospect of the massive pyre, so she might have been social with her kin.

I didn't consider it fun, as I blamed myself for the fact we had corpses to burn in the first place.

"Are you feeling well, Master?" Narita added, concerned. She came near the little 'Displacer' which insisted on never leaving touching distance and even made a space for her.

"Yes, yes." I lied. Although physically I felt better than ever before, psychologically it wasn't that good and I drove myself to focus on different matters.

"Is Ari willing to perform the ritual?" I asked, to change the topic.

"Yes. Master. She is quite ecstatic."

If I understood the explanation I pried from the Sage correctly, the cremation was an acceptable way to dispose of the human body after some unspecified and poorly understood funeral rites have been performed to send off the souls to the afterlife, so the natives believed.

The problem was that normally, such a ritual would have to be performed by the priestess, and considering the local clergy was so far actively trying to harm or kill us with their magic, this was impossible.

Ari, being a native, and the friendly human, and of course female as all the priestesses we encountered were, was the best candidate that could be entrusted with the task without the risk of angering the locals too much.

She wasn't trained as far I know - and the human priesthood was magic - but from the logical perspective, she must be very familiar with the norms of local culture and would be unlikely to do or say something inherently offensive

I was worried that we would botch the task in question out of ignorance, so I gave the human girl my full trust.

My thoughts were interrupted by the 'Displacer' - a little one, named, that made our company. Sora, constantly absent and often restless, left the role of the face to her smaller siblings, opting the roam instead - it made me wonder whether she disliked me. .

"For Master!" The little one said, a girlish voice, trailing into an excited meow. At least she didn't call me "Meowster" - they might be repeating the single phrase, but they never made any error in pronunciation, despite the occasional tendency to make a sound very typical to a domestic cat.

She seemed to default to telepathic communication, which I was hesitant to try for fear of losing my sense of self in the sea of minds, the real risk I wanted to mitigate

"Sora and her sisters are mapping the area towards the human capital, Master. It is a wider area, more heavily settled, with many towns between us..." Miwah helpfully translated, now taking the place on my side vacated by the little kitten, warming my body and soul with the little bit of furry contact.

Mai did the same, albeit she was more scaly.

"No point in rushing." I decided, "Recall them, we just need to scout for enemies heading our way. We must secure the valley, somehow..."

"Yes, Master," Miwah confirmed,

More of the small 'Displacers' dropped from their rifts, a dozen or so, to rest on the flagstone pavement of the former courtyard. Narita gave them a little jolt, judging from the glow, harvesting a little bit of life essence from our surroundings, but apparently didn't want to destroy Mai's work.

The anthropomorphic felines cheered a little bit but decided to stay around, slack and lounge, some even digging into the fruit brought by the present 'Corruptors'.

I never thought I would see a cat eating fruit, but still, the little 'Displacers' did.

"Master! Master!" They giggled, passing around the weird parody of the oversized pear that contained far too much red, almost bloody liquid.

Mai, once she got her hands on the more varied produce, started to quite literally re-interpret them, and was getting much better with her powers, very quickly. Once something got under the conceptual restriction of her magic, it was a fair game.

I suddenly recognized my long-ignored desire for more diverse sustenance. So far my diet primarily consisted of caught and cooked game. When did I last taste fruit? Before my incarnation into this cursed world?

Mai's interpretation of the fruit was a strange produce that somehow managed to keep certain aspects of the Earth-like tastes of a somewhat spiced plum, or perhaps a cider, through the coopery aftertaste was something one would associate with blood instead.

It was still a fruit, even if a strange one, leaving me with the impression as if if the 'Corruptors' didn't know - or care - where the definition of fruit ended, only where it began.

Weird as it was, my girls apparently enjoyed it, and for all its weirdness it was energizing.

Satisfied with my own share, I quietly watched my girls frolic and enjoy the very real "fruits" of our long struggle for sustainable foods.

I let them be.

They deserved a little rest.

There was no point in rushing them to dangers for little to no gain, yet with too much to lose - our understanding of the world behind this valley was limited at best, and nought but flat-out wrong assumptions at worst, and the unknown magic represented a very real threat to them.

We had to scout, but we had to do it carefully, I mentally lectured myself.

I used to be far too enamoured with the idea of quick, easy solutions.

Narita, despite being the anthropomorphic rat, albeit with the mystical horns, was quite friendly to the bunch of cat-like girls, and I was certain they did chat telepathically even if I couldn't hear them.

The 'Defilers' were, though rodent-like in appearance, entirely undisturbed by the feline monsters - as far I knew, they thought of themselves as cousins

I left them to their own devices.

There were minds touching mine, pleasantly warm and welcoming, which provided me with a little solace from the guilt as I contemplated our next step.

I decided on the said 'next step' already, I allowed it but was increasingly more hesitant when it came to specific moves

When I attempted to ease my consciousness through the quest to obtain the Scrolls, the mysterious artefacts the human natives feared or fought over, I did it to reclaim a semblance of control, a sense of self, one threatened to be taken away by the forceful feedback from my poorly understood power.

Maybe I did it to understand the system with its unreliable windows and cryptic messages, or to truly comprehend what this red fog that gave my people life really was, along with the meaning behind my very presence in this accursed world, and its seemingly endless cycle of violence.

Be as it may, it was not a simple task I could do immediately to shake off the unpleasantness of the present.

When I made the decision, it was as such, a quick solution to pretty much everything.

It may actually be the solution when I thought of it a little bit more after my conversation with the Sage, but it was anything but simple - it was an enduring campaign, not a trivial task to complete over the course of an afternoon.

I embarked on the same long journey more than one generation of conquerors, scholars and treasure hunters alike had attempted and failed over the agest, but for me, it wasn't a question of ambition. It was something else.

I wasn't scared by difficulty, I was scared by the flow of time.

This time I would have to learn to live with what I had to do, while I searched for a way to understand, restrict and rein in the power I was gifted - or cursed - with.

The past six days have filled my frantic, desperate attempts to gain a footing in the world I didn't know about, facing forces I didn't understand, and wrangling issues I didn't know how to solve, lashing against the enemies whose motives I couldn't comprehend.

I did it in the false hope that a miraculous solution would soon fall into my lap if only I made the correct choice, and did the right thing, then everything would be over.

It wasn't over.

There wasn't a life on Earth I could return back to.

Just like that, the metaphorical gates thudded closed on a chapter of my life.

Similarly, in that fateful moment when I decided that I would erase my guilt through the mastery of my powers, by obtaining the local equivalent of the legendary magical grimoire - or rather its parts - I didn't quite think about the fact it wouldn't be done quickly.

I would have to come to terms with my own emotions the hard way.

Perhaps it was about time I thought about the problem, without pitying myself.

As far as I knew, the mysterious artefacts were essentially hidden in the most guarded place in this accursed country, weeks of a journey away, currently contested by the two different armies, hidden deep inside the vast labyrinth of catacombs and behind who-knew-how-many magical wards and traps in the treasury accessible only by a handful of privileged people.

The distance was the least of the issues.

We could bypass the large stretch of land through the copious use of 'Displacer' portals, but that was where our advantage ended.

Not only did we not have any idea about the surrounding area, but we didn't exactly know how formidable the defences were, or how powerful the guardians of such a place were. There would be priestesses, undoubtedly, with magic specifically tailored to harm and torment us.

The idea that the capital city which housed the most guarded secret in the land wouldn't have even a single priestess in it was laughable.

So far, I have run into six or so of them, all of them magically gifted individuals, and we are supposedly in what is considered a backward province.

The Sage, whose name of Hyun-Ki I struggled to memorise, was assigned here as some form of punishment after he tried to weasel himself into the so-called Forbidden Library - which was a vault for the scrolls per se.

Hyun-Ki, being exiled, couldn't simply walk into the king's palace without an invitation, and a pardon, I supposed.

Sneaking in was out of the question too.

From what I knew, the royal residence could host entire layers of those magical barriers around it, not to mention there could be spell effects I hadn't yet encountered, and of course, it would be defended.

I didn't know how common the local superpowered warriors - the 'elites' as I dubbed them - were, but if there was any place they would likely be present, it would be in the retinue of the king. I should learn what the natives called them, perhaps the name would shed insight into their nature.

Alternatively, in the retinue of his enemies, since the human kingdoms are at war.

To make things worse, the locals were in fact already mobilized, which means thousands of soldiers on top of that all, and it was merely one faction, assuming they successfully deterred their rival's attack.

In the worst-case scenario, there would be two entire armies, temporarily allied against us, even chasing us down should we snatch away the prize through our teleporters!

I didn't want to make a choice which would demand to fight our way through at the cost of enormous bloodshed, but I refused to send my precious teleporting kittens to their doom only to be sealed, or otherwise violated by the priestesses' magic.

We would have to devise a better strategy than 'portal in' and 'portal out'.

I never dreamed of being a warlord, and I was already getting a headache.

What was a split decision in the moment of weakness seemed like a good solution to ease my consciousness, was turning into the entire military campaign that would get more humans killed, and cause more of my girls to suffer.

I would be willing to reconsider, but neither I nor my people had any place to go.

We were, for better or worse, finding a home in this valley, and using it at the very least as our semi-permanent fallback location while we looked for the safest path to the capital, or even the means to reason with one or both native factions.

The Viceroy who ruled this valley yet lived, but sadly remained either unconscious or slightly delirious from Narita's healing.

At the very least, he was alive and was hopefully willing to help us convince at least the people of this province to resolve the conflict without further bloodshed.

In the meantime, we will dispose of the bodies of the humans who were killed in the battle in a respectful way, hopefully convincing the locals we could be negotiated with.

After all, with the garrison of the castle gone, they might need someone else to defend this province. I was going to make this offer to the Viceroy later on.

The original plan involved us simply sticking to our side of the basin, and letting the humans sort themselves out, but it might be more complicated now if the largest portion of the local militia was dead.

Assuming it was dead - there was only one castle, but the provincial city remained a large mystery since I never demanded any reports from the scouts I sent to gather the information about it. They ought to know something.

"Master?" Miwah crooned, almost purring to my ear, likely sensing my upcoming question. Mai seemed to like the snuggle instead.

"Do the humans have more soldiers around? There is only one castle?" I asked

"Yes, Master. Only the city has some defences, but no fort. They do have soldiers to guard the gates." Miwah answered, shooting a glance at the 'Displacers' kittens almost like she wanted to get the complete report. They, however, seem to relax.

The 'Displacers' giggled, which made me wonder whether the fruits were in fact intoxicating, but the fact they didn't seem to feel bad was an instant relief.

My mind wandered back to the burdens of command, and of thinking strategies I wasn't nearly proficient in making.

"More soldiers?" I continued, trying to force a recollection of how such things were organised in the past.

"Yes, but only a few." Miwah pondered, almost as if she queried my memories. I was getting used to this as well, "The portion of the valley you left to humans is much larger than ours with more massive fields, and there are scattered villages and homesteads. Few of my sisters haunt the roads, there are places where the city gets its food."

Her beautiful blue eyes flashed with comprehension

"We saw only soldiers at the city gates. Three gates, each manned, with a small group of soldiers, around ten." My werewolf mate summarised, "The second largest town doesn't have a wall. It does have large storage though. And there must be a barracks, more like a fortified house."

"How many men outside the city?"

"Ten? Twenty?" She guessed.

"The second largest town has twenty armed men for protection?"

"Yes. Master."

"There were more men in the castle than there were in the rest of the province combined?" I asked, doing the maths in my head for the total number of armed men that could - and without their lord's solidifying the agreement would - attack us.

"With the city we saw on the horizon?" I verified, since in spite of everything the city wasn't exactly small. Maybe tiny compared to the modern ones, yes, but otherwise, still quite large, and more populous.

Miwah sight briefly searched the skies while her telepathic link scoured for answers and after the moment of silence interrupted only by the quiet raffle from the teleporting kittens amusing themselves, she confirmed: "Yes, Master."

I considered my options once again

Our quest, quite poorly defined, and without a guaranteed result, was out there, and it involved reaching out into the mostly hostile territories, inside the country that was already embroiled in a disastrous war with its neighbours even without our improvement.

We had no information, no intelligence, and more importantly, no allies.

The lord of this land was eventually convinced to join us at the negotiation table, but it was neither easy nor fast, and had to guarantee results - in fact, his decision to even speak with us caused no small degree of internal strife among the natives, resulting in mutiny.

This suggested that the local lord - and I had to remind myself that Viceroy is the appropriate title for provincial governor around here - was one who thought outside the box by even being approachable by the outside force, otherwise, he wouldn't have to contend with rebellion amidst another crisis.

Although I could pray that our experience with this valley was the growing pains, albeit bathed in blood, I was hesitant to let the opportunity go.

Instead of futilely attempting to find the approachable, amiable humans, I should cultivate our own and not only release the Viceroy from our care but offer his province a defence in exchange for protection from outside forces.

We could be protectors, I thought.

Before I could hatch the plan, however, the air in front of us split as another 'Displacer' tear broke through the space itself, and Helmy accompanied by Sora stepped through. It was unexpected, as I presumed that the vixen was captivated by the idea of playing the castle manager, and Sora likely preferred some peace and quiet in the wilds.

"We are prepared to conduct the ritual, Master." Helmy announced, while Sora wordlessly overlooked her gathered siblings with the expression of someone who caught her underlings drinking on the job.

"The fire would be splendid..."

"So early?" I asked, confused, never expecting that the task would be done so quickly, but I gathered myself soon after and extracted myself from the embrace.

"Let's go then," I said, and Sora, impatient as always, took me through the portal.

The void in between didn't feel as incomprehensible as before, but I still ended up slightly dazed by the experience from the sudden transitions and relied on Sora's support to maintain my footing. My feline, restless, yet faithful, remained on my side, while the rest of my company took the ride with the remaining 'Displacers'.

It took them a while to allow me to take in the surroundings once again, but the once grassed pasturage in front of the fortress wasn't as impressive, or colourful, as Mai's personal grove had been. They, nevertheless, left a strong impression.

The fields turned lifeless by Narita's verdict were now the place where my people had gathered the dead bodies, and casualties of our assault on the fortress. Dried-out husks that were once human beings didn't have any smell, as the 'Defiler' power affected anything considered alive, down to the bacteria responsible for decomposition. Corpses lay in rows, arranged atop each other, like the pile that resembled the collection of firewood rather than the funeral.

Tama herded the kitted-out 'Purifiers' to form a circle around, behind which the other observers stood, and the little firefoxes visibly struggled to keep any resemblance of seriousness in expectation of the massive conflagration they were about to cause.

Then I noticed Ari.

The human girl apparently took the event with the seriousness my little 'Purifiers' didn't have, and decided to address the crowd - and the dead - in some official-sounding proclamation, and despite the fact I didn't understand the word from the local tongue, it did sound plausibly like a funeral speech.

She did try to make some gestures, walk around, yell some more, attempt a more melodic type of expression, still completely incomprehensible, and hit the small, portable gong a few times.

I didn't question it - I assumed she did the best interpretation of the native's ritual she wasn't trained to perform, and I was hoping she was supposedly respectful enough to pass as the Priestess. She, however, didn't take that robe I learned to hate, so there supposedly shouldn't be confusion.

My eyes searched the crowd instead.

While my girls largely didn't care and weren't around, quite a few present were I presume the named ones considering the numbers.

The humans were also present - even the Viceroy.

It seems he recovered in time to join the ceremony after all, even if exhausted from the ordeal, and I was planning to give him an offer once this was over.

His men, a few dozen survivors of this entire debacle, watched the entire performance with mixed expressions, some more open to what they were witnessing, others displeased with the performance. Compared to the dead-eyes puppets, enthralled by the will of the 'Fleshspeakers' they did have an unspoken opinion.

The tempo of Ari's voice rose, as she finished her funeral speech, and then ...

"For Master!" She said - I understood that, and seriously doubted it was an intentional part of the normal funeral, making me consider a protest since it was going against the original idea of appeasing the few survivors by respecting their culture. I didn't understand even the slightest.

Foolish for us, but Ari should have known better.

"For Master! Master! Master!" The voices of my girls echoed.

A blast.

I instinctively shielded my eyes as the pile of bodies disappeared in the massive pillar of fire, and the intensity of the heat made me shield my eyes as the pyromaniacal foxes directed their magic into the circle.

The fire turned blue when Tama's power joined in, and it was like I was standing next to the blazing furnace.

The 'Purifiers' apparently had a great time.

There were screams of shock from the humans.

And then.

A spike - a sudden, unexplainable sensation, sharp as the needle, not exactly unpleasant but thoroughly indescribable - pierced my mind.

Hundreds of voices cried in unison and then were silenced all at once.

This time, however, there wasn't any pain, or hidden urge, or a need, it didn't prompt me to do anything, yet it was there.

It reminded me of Mai's fruit.

It was wrong, it was right, it was everything in between, at the same time.

The sensation of taste inside my brain instead of on my tongue was still a synaesthesia personified, a distressing experience in the way it simply refused to compute within the limits of the human imagination, or words.

I wasn't quite sure how I was expected to react.

Then, the strange gamified overlay decided to show itself, blinking furiously, insisting I take it into consideration, while my brain tried to process the concept of blood fruit in my thoughts.

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Incompatible Element! Selection will expand!

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I waved it away, in surprise rather than desire to make it go away, and cursed at the misfortune:

"What did I do wrong this time?!"