FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

5: The Truth

Feih sank to her knees and stared at the fading glow from the explosion and resultant mushroom cloud as it rose into the sky. "No," she cried, "This can't be happening to me again." The powerful explosion and it's shockwave had stunned everyone, but her most of all because of the painful memories it had evoked.

Daihas moved to his sister's side and tried to keep her hopes up; he pointed to his battle suit and said, "I'm sure he survived; he was wearing one of these."

When she looked up at him he saw something in her face that he had not seen since the Soriss had killed their parents, sister and her first mate; Hafnias had died in a similar blast after he had saved them during the first Soriss attack. He said nothing else and embraced her. The rest of her family soon imitated him.

Minutes later everyone's ears went erect and swung toward the trees in front of them. Daihas broke away from his sister and the others, stood and sniffed at the air, but the traces of smoke and ozone that blew in their direction obscured his sense of smell. He redoubled his concentration and, after a few seconds, he identified what had pulled him from his sister's side.

He shouted "He's alive!" just as a large form emerged from the bush. His eyes widened when he saw a faint blue glow around Matt's body. It disappeared just before Feih and all of the members of her family stood and looked in the same direction.

Overjoyed, Feih ran toward him, but when he did not look at her she slowed to a stop and called out his name. She was surprised by the mix of anger and disgust she saw in his eyes when he looked at her, along with the large amount of blood that was on his mouth, and the burnt patch on his left arm.

She continued forward and met him halfway between the edge of the forest and the rest of her family where she greeted him with a lick kiss to the left side of his face when he stopped. His lack of reaction worried her, but the familiar taste of Soriss blood and the slight bulge she saw in his upper abdomen told her that he had followed her orders. She stepped aside and hand signaled the others to let him pass unmolested when he resumed walking toward where she had dropped his weapon,

Daihas disobeyed her, ran up to him, but before he could ask what had happened. Matt seized him by his throat and lifted into the air with his right arm. Daihas struggled to break Matt's grip but found that the former human's strength had somehow increased since their first physical confrontation.

Matt frowned and released the shocked Dorzeli.

Daihas fell onto his back and looked up at Matt; any thought of retaliation left his mind when he saw the anger that was still on his face. He became submissive and crawled out of his path.

Satisfied that he had made his point clear, that he did not want to be bothered, Matt resumed walking until he was next to his weapon. He sat down, bent his neck forward until his head almost touched his knees and wrapped his arms around his legs.

Daihas stood, rubbed his neck for the second time in the last two days and looked to his sister as if to ask, "What's his problem now?" Feih shook her head at the density of her brother's skull in such matters.

She ordered him to, "Get the box from where Bisafak has hidden it."

He obeyed this command without question and left.

The others had just started to move off to allow the two lovers to have some privacy when Bisafah broke away from his mother and ran toward Matt.

Feih moved to intercept him with the fear that he would react in a similar manner to the young Dorzeli as he had with Daihas, but he was too swift and beat her to him.

Matt looked up at the young Dorzeli, smiled and raised his right hand so that it faced palm side up. Bisafah sniffed it then licked at the dried blood that was still sticking to it and did not stop until it and its claws had been thoroughly cleaned off. With a huge smile on his face, he nuzzled Matt's left cheek. She smiled and watched him return to his relieved parents.

"Feih?"

Startled by his first spoken word since his return she hesitated before she answered, "Yes Matt?"

Ears laid back, he turned his head and growled, "You should've warned me about how it was going to feel!" She opened her mouth to respond but he continued, "I was so distracted that I almost didn't see that the Soriss had set all of his hidden weapons to self-destruct."

Because he was not making any threatening gestures she showed him a smirk and said, "That sounds very familiar."

His ears popped up and at her remark that obviously referred back to his own self destruct device from when he had first met her. He almost smiled then he stood up and turned toward her.

She thought he had gotten over whatever had changed his behavior until he asked, "Were the Dorzeli genetically engineered to hunt and kill the Soriss?" He looked down at his claws. "When I tasted his blood I felt my energy and...and sexual desire increase to the point that I almost became erect in my suit...I couldn't stop myself after that."

He heard sadness in her voice when she answered, "Yes." She paused and watched him lick at the last remnants blood from his snout and his other hand. This should have pleased her but for some reason it did not. "Not too long after Daihas was born, my parents revealed to me that the original Dorzel were ordered by the Kroon to develop the perfect warrior to fight the Soriss who were slowly overwhelming their defenses. Both the Dorzeli-An and my people were the initial results; the Mu's and the Primes came along just before the last war.

"What you experienced was their insurance that we would always want to track down and kill them and that we would enjoy doing it. The ability to convert a minority of Soriss into Dorzeli, about two percent of them, our venom would kill all the rest, was one of their last crowning achievements."

He looked at her in shock, "You mean you could've killed me?"

"No, no. Jason was told by Freerah that humans would be immune, that your people would only be knocked unconscious if we kept our dose low. I don't know how or why but you're proof that it was true; the dose I gave you could kill over twenty Soriss."

She waited to see if her explanation had satisfied him, but was surprised to still hear anger in his voice when he said, "I can tell that you're still hiding something from me so before I move from this spot I want to know what it is."

She seemed to struggle for almost a full minute before she began; she now knew that she had to tell him everything or face the prospect of losing him, and any hopes of getting her people back to their home world, forever.

"Our exile here has a dual purpose: It was rumored that an ancient Dorzel craft was lost on this world soon after the first war with the Soriss. It's supposed to be immensely powerful and nearly indestructible.

"A condition for ending our exile would've been for us to find that ship and hand it over to the Empire." An expression of extreme sadness appeared on her face. "My parents didn't live long enough to locate it."

His voice lost some of its anger after he heard her bring up the subject of her murdered parents. "So that's why Jason wants to attack that base."

"Yes. He believes that they've found it and are trying to get it to work for them. he wasn't powerful enough to take it on and as you saw he probably wasn't."

His eyes narrowed; "You have your own plans for it don't you?"

She nodded her head. "I want to use its power to force the ruling council to restore the citizenship of all of the Dorzeli on this planet and those that had fled the purges, among other things."

"Did those 'other things' include attacking Earth or Mendall?"

She was shocked and angered by his accusation, but pushed down her building urge to punish him and told him the truth. "Only in self defense; we had a very tragic first contact with the Mendall and thought they might retaliate someday, but now that we know that they won't and that Earth has not fallen to the Soriss we can use it against our enemies."

Matt knew about that incident from the data packs the earth forces had received when they entered Mendall's orbit. An earlier attack by disguised Soriss ships had caused the Dorzeli to attack the Mendall delegation when they decided to break the quarantine and ask for their help. It was only because of the Cherrodon's force field projection powers that any members of that landing party had survived.

He looked her in her eyes and braced himself for the worst possible reaction she could have to the question he was about to as as it was something he had to know before he could go on, "It's very difficult for me to ask this of you Feih, but I don't want to go through the same pain Christine put me through last year when she left me after we had been engaged for over half a year; I...I must know if you truly love me or am I just a means to an end?"

He braced himself for a possible violent response from her, but was surprised by the soft tone of her voice. "Matt, if I didn't love you I wouldn't have taken the risk of starting your transformation." She reached out to him with both of her hands. He responded by taking them into his. "But in a way you are right. You're the key to convincing the other families to join together with Jason and the Alliance in order to regain possession of that ship so that we can return to our home worlds.

"By successfully completing this task you've proven that humans can become one of us and act as we do, and as you've felt something in Soriss blood that drives us to attack them. We can resist it but it is very difficult and as you know I had a very different reaction when I bit you; I wanted you as a mate more than ever." She tightened the grip she had on his hands and turned the tables on him. "But what I have to know is if you are you willing to leave your birth race behind and return with me to the Empire once they lift our banishment?"

He was not surprised by this revelation, but, even after what she had just put him through, his mind had already been made up long before they were re-united at the Alliance base. His love for her had transcended all his problems and the possible trials he might have to go through, including being with her brother or the other members of her family.

He nodded his head and smiled. "In a mating ceremony on my world there is a passage that goes, 'For better or worse'. I believe that in our case it would be for the better." Without releasing her hands he stepped closer to her. "I'll go wherever you need or want me to; I love you too much to ever leave you." He leaned forward and kissed her on her left cheek.

She became as happy as when she had first seen him return from his hunt and embraced him in a hug that crushed her ample bosom into his chest. "Thank you Matt. You don't know how much that means to me. That Christine was a fool to leave you."

He winced in pain from his injury, but the discomfort was forgotten when the joy he had always felt whenever they touched returned. "You know, for the first time since she broke off our engagement I'm glad she did." Neither one of them notice the brief blue glow his horns gave off for a few seconds.

Matt opened his eyes when he heard Daihas return and saw that he had a small (by Dorzeli standards, it was the size of a small suitcase) emerald colored box cradled in his hands. It was the same one that he had seen Bisafak carrying during their march. Despite being otherwise friendly toward him Feih's cousin had rebuffed him when he had inquired about it.

Daihas gave off a low cough to get his sister's attention. She separated from Matt and turned to receive the box from him. He showed Matt a wide toothy grin before he departed which confused the former human.

She turned back and held it up so that he could get a clear view of it. "This box contains one of the few items that the other wings of my family were able to smuggle onto this world before we were cut off."

She opened the lid, reached in and removed an object and held before him. Matt stared opened mouthed at the platinum chain that dangled from her hand to which was connected a single brilliant azure jewel. He knew what it represented even before she spoke.

"Lieutenant Matthew Thorn of Earth, I, Feih Desslat of the Jareken Dorzeli, formally requests of you the honor of becoming my primary and possibly only mate for life; to share in all my possessions and territories and co-mates, if any, until my last breath."

Stunned by the suddenness of Feih's proposal, Matt looked to her face and saw an almost desperate hope that his response would be positive. There was only one answer he could give her; "Chire Feih Desslat, with all the love in my heart, I accept."

She almost dropped the box when she moved forward and hugged him a second time. "Thank you Matt. You've made me one of the happiest Dorzeli on the entire planet."

She gave him deep human style kiss, something he had taught her to do on their third night together. The pain from his injury rapidly became a faint memory.

When she finally separated from him she said, "I again apologize for not warning you about the reaction you were going to have to the Soriss. It shouldn't be as intense the next time." She looked to his injured arm and gasped, "I'm so sorry does it hurt?"

He shook his head as indeed there was no longer any pain from it. Then he thought about having to repeat that act, but found himself unconsciously licking his lips. He caught himself and brought up another important fact about his first kill; about how the Soriss knew he was originally a human.

"That's an ability of theirs that was discovered during the first war: they can somehow tell a pure Dorzeli from a transformed one. That's why I couldn't allow Hatelo to return to her people; they would've sensed the start of her transformation in a few weeks and would've killed her." A look of deep concern came to her face. "I never expected they would also be able to do that with transformed humans. We'll have to tell Jason about this when we meet him."

She watched Matt lick the last few traces of Soriss blood from his face and for a few seconds he seemed to go into a state of bliss. When it faded he looked at Feih and rhetorically asked, "So this is what a high feels like?"

Knowing more about human history since their first 'communion' she fully understood his question; "It is a very difficult thing to resist."

"And is that the other reason why we're going to attack the Soriss base?" She replied with a toothy smile. He imitated her expression then said, "Then let's go get them."

Glad that he seemed to accept, in full or part, all of her peoples' characteristics she said, "Patience Matt; you forget that we have to meet your forces first."

"I wasn't talking about the Soriss." An evil smile that exposed all of his sharp front teeth appeared on his face.

Her eyes widened in horror until he laughed. A mischievous look then came over hers. "Matt can you do me a favor?"

"Anything you want my little raptor."

"Can you change back into your human form for me please?" she held up the necklace. "I want to see how this will fit around your neck in that shape."

He eyed her with an air of suspicion although from its size it should fit with the jewel hanging down to his groin.. "I know that Jason said that I could, but he told me that I'll only be able to hold it for a few hours at a time for the first few months."

"That's all right," she assured him. "This shouldn't take long."

He wondered what she was up to as he took a few steps backward and concentrated. A blue glow surrounded his body and within a matter of seconds he had shrunk down to his original height; his uniform had also adapted itself from a Dorzeli fit to a human one. He was surprised when he looked up and saw that she was still looking at where he was a few seconds ago.

She said, "Just as I thought," without looking down at him.

He wondered what she was looking at until he turned around and saw a peculiar sight; to his rear stood his Dorzeli form. When it looked down at him and smiled his perception of the world changed and he found that he was also looking down at his human form.

"This is crazy" were the only words that he could utter from both his human and Dorzeli mouths as this new sensation started to make him dizzy.

Feih placed her hand along the left side of his snout and caressed it. Matt stabilized when he felt her hand on both his Dorzeli and human face. He looked back at her and saw her through both sets of eyes.

She looked down at him and explained; "Only Dorzeli Primes can condense their bodies down to your size and remain stable. They can also do what you've just done: split off a part of their bodies and transfer all or part of their consciousness to the new form. It seems he has given you that ability." She smiled showing off her long canines. He had seen that particular smile of hers before.

He managed to evade her diving attack by jumping up onto her head when she snapped her jaws shut just short of the space he had just vacated. He grabbed onto her horns as she reared up to prevent her from shaking him off and taunted her for missing him.

"You're starting to slow down Feih."

She play growled, "I'll show you slow," as she reached for him.

She almost had him when his Dorzeli form lunged forward and pushed her onto the ground front first which caused Matt to roll off of her.

She recovered from his attack and found that his larger self had disappeared and that his human body had already put quite some distance between them. She snarled in mock anger when he stuck out his tongue at her then turned and ran into the dense foliage.

She shouted, "You know you can't out run me in either form, so surrender now and I'll be merciful."

His voice seemed to come from somewhere in front of her when he shouted, "As merciful as you were with Hatelo the other day?"

"Maybe," she shouted back.

He replied with mocking laughter that seemed to her to retreat from her position at a high rate of speed so she sped up her pursuit.

She enjoyed this reversal of their first mating chase, but when, after several minutes, she lost both of his scents she stopped and intensified her search for them. When she rediscovered his human one she continued on until she came upon his empty human sized suit on the forest floor. She resumed her search and worried that he may not have had full control over his Dorzeli form as, without a guiding conscious, it may react only on pure feral instinct. She picked it up and resumed her search, but after additional fifteen minutes when she found herself near the scene of the ambush she called out with what would later be categorized as the Dorzeli mating call: a low pitched almost wolf-like howl. She was caught off guard when two hands came up from behind and cupped each of her breasts.

When his head came along side of hers he asked, "You called?"

She made no move to resist him and grinned when he massaged them while he used his tails to undo the fasteners of the lower half of her suit.

"You're definitely getting better at this, but before we go too far..." she lifted the chain up to where he could see it.

He understood what she wanted to do and lowered his head so that she could put it on him. She did so and adjusted into a comfortable fit.

"Now tell me how you evaded me so easily and aren't you afraid that the others will hear us?"

He gave her neck a long sensual lick and dropped her "pants" to the forest floor; "I knew you'd be searching for my human scent so I'd sent my other self off ahead and stripped off my suit to send you off my trail. I later rejoined it - that was a very odd experience - then climbed up into one of the thicker trees as added insurance. It was just a matter of doubling back on you after you passed by, and after last night I no longer care if they hear us." He kissed her behind her ear then whispered, "And what better way can you think to show them how much I actually love you?"

She nodded in agreement and peeled the upper portion of her suit from her body.

Javfeis was worried about Daihas. He had not said anything since he had returned from delivering his parent's betrothal necklace to his sister.

He sat next to him and asked, "Dai', what's wrong?"

He sighed, "It's over."

His cousin was bewildered. "What do you mean? Matt has proved himself and..."

"It's not that," he snapped. He turned toward his long time lover and friend. "Didn't you see how easily he lifted me from the ground?" He did not wait for an answer. "He's become almost as strong as my sister and he survived an explosion that should've killed him." He returned to his original position. "If what I suspect is true there's no way I can ever defeat him now. I'll have to resign myself to a position under."

"I'd thought you'd like that."

Daihas turned back to Javfeis and smirked. "You know I didn't mean what I said before."

He sniffed the air and smiled. "I could never stay mad at you Dai'. I always expected you to find a female, although not a Soriss like Hatelo. And thanks for allowing me to finish off that female Soriss."

Daihas relaxed and sniffed at the air, "We've always shared everything since we found you and there'll be no exceptions in the future." He grinned.

Javfeis' ears perked up. "You mean...?"

"That she knows of our customs?" He chuckled. "She seemed to know more than I did; she's agreed to all of them."

Javfeis' face brightened at this news, but his expression turned to one of puzzlement when Daihas stood, stripped his suit off and took up a position on all fours that was usually reserved for him.

Daihas raised his tails high and looked backward; "I think you'll need to put in some practice before that day comes."

The smaller Dorzeli rapidly rid himself of his suit and revealed that he already had started to become erect; "I put in more than that." And he did so, but before he let the aroma from the mating couple overpower him he said, "Thank you."

Daihas said nothing and, for one of the few times since the beginning of their sexual relationship, let the group's omega have his way with him. He would cherish the memory of that night for the rest of his life.