FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Everyone in the room turned towards the voice. It was deep, resonant, and yet still seemed somehow soothing. Leaning in the doorway, ears brushing the top of the opening, was the most extraordinary sight. There had been some drastic changes going on within the palace walls, but whoever this was had gone over the top. Talea was quick to assess the newcomer. She tapped Dari on the shoulder. "Uh, I take that back. Your description was dead on."

The feline standing there, coolly looking over those assembled, was indeed tiger-like. Yet that description hardly gave a proper assessment of the stranger. Its legs were longer than a tiger's, and while rippling with muscle, still seemed dainty on the massive frame. The eyes were a rainbow. From one moment to the next they ran the gamut of color, like oil swirling on water in sunshine. There were stripes of solid ebony lacing across the fur, black as the midnight sky. Mingled with these were stripes of orange; gold even, made up of rosettes. They ran across the hide like a painter's dream. The tail, long and sleek, finished the effect very efficiently.

Talea had courage, no one could doubt that. But even she was wary. "Who are you? You must know that the queen has declared the plains off limits to hunting. You will change to your normal self and explain yourself!" Dari would have bristled at the overstepping of her authority, but really, she was glad to have someone run interference for her. The stranger simply oozed with raw power. The voice that shook bones spoke. "I may now go where I will and do as I please. I will certainly not be told what is proper for me by one of my own children." Dari stepped back a few steps. "You are not a parent of mine!" The palace echoed with roaring laughter. "But child, you are. All of you are my children. Without me, none of you would be alive today. Even those whose bodies are decayed and have returned to the soil, even they remain my children. Without me their spirits would have withered with their corporeal form. They know their mother regardless of her present incarnation. I would suggest you learn it as well."

Dari stepped down and approached the stranger. In turn the stranger watched the approach with obvious amusement. All at once the queen knelt on one knee. "I am so sorry Goddess. I never expected to ever see you in anything but my dreams!"  Kuja-Yotay, for it was she, extended a paw the size of a plate. "Get up, dear daughter. I need no pledges of allegiance, nor fealty, nor affirmations of your loyalty. You have done well over the centuries. You are done with me now. Live your life, as your grandmother said. I am free now. There is no longer a requirement for you to wear a groove in the Ten Thousand stairs, nor do you need to pluck your fur and give it to me. As you see, I have no need for stairs, and quite honestly, I have more than enough fur to cover my hide." She turned in place to show them her full body, and in an instant vanished. Before they could react, she was back, sitting rather cramped on the throne.

"Dasterdly uncomfortable things," she exclaimed. "With a job as tedious as this, one would expect more comfort and less pomp." She vanished again only to reappear back in the doorway. "Little daughter," here she was talking to Dari again. "I have no need of food, though I may choose to consume it. If I chose to "hunt", it was merely to experience this body. My husband has told me of the many delights a solid form may partake of. Food, he said, was one great pleasure, right up there with freedom, sex and love. I have found freedom to be exhilarating; sex to be equal to it, and love to be indescribably soul enhancing. I have long wondered what it could feel like to be in love. I have watched enviously as so much of it was shared amongst my children. You have no idea how maddeningly horrible it was to see it and not experience it. There was never anyone strong enough to bring it to me"

Talea was full of questions. Putting caution aside, she stepped up even closer. "If you are indeed the Goddess, then might I ask where my husband is?" Kuja-Yotay smiled down. "Your husband? That is very small of you to think of him as merely yours. You know full well his love went to many. As each of them is a child of mine, that makes him more tightly connected to me that to any individual among you. But I digress. I am here because he had the kindness, the power, the love, and the ability to do what no one has been able to do since I was locked in this world. He freed me from my prison!"

If the Goddess thought that her answer was sufficient, she was mistaken. Talea came right up and glared at her. "I know my husband still lives. I can feel him here," she said, holding her chest. "If he dies, I will know it. So I shall ask again, where is my husband?" The Goddess roared with laughter. "You, my spunky daughter of the dark allies of Trendasek, you have much courage. You believe that he is alive? Why?" Talea turned into her red-headed self. "Because I love him. If you understand that, then you must know it to be true!"

Kuja-Yotay bowed, bringing her head nearly to Talea's level. "Little woman, you had many chances at loving him, but you wasted them. Do you know why?" Talea frowned at the mention of this. "No, I guess I don't." The voice boomed out. "Because I made it so. He needed to find out that his ability to love was not confined to one person. Over time, his soul grew to make room for all those for whom he had feelings. Only then did I allow him the chance at gaining your affection. I do not often interfere with my children, but he is only one of two on this world who isn't from my loins." This information was not well known throughout the highlands, but Talea knew it all too well. There had one other who had been brought over. She had not been of much use for their purposes at the time and had drifted away.

Talea was still intent on pressing her question. "Yes, good, good. But you still haven't answered my question. Where is my husband?" A huge paw came down and ruffled her scalp. "You are impetuous, aren't you? I assume that once you found out that you loved him, you made it a habit to keep your claws in him, so to speak. It is better to gain wisdom late than not at all. Your husband fulfilled a need. I was dying. Even one who can live for millennia still has a limited amount of time. The fates decreed it so when they imprisoned me here, connecting my life to the life of this planet. Through my will life emerged here. I watched it grow and multiply and change. Eventually the forms became complex enough to harbor magic. That was the one thing that was never expected by the fates. That I would put so  much of myself put into this world that it meant less longevity for me in the long run was outside their ability to contemplate. Your husband was the key to undoing everything they had conspired to do."

The redhead was growing cross. The Goddess knew it. "Little one, please sit. You already know your husband is still alive. You can feel it. But he is now more than you will remember him. He is far greater than anyone here has ever been. He will remain so until the cosmos folds back in on itself. Only on that day will he cease to exist, as will the universe from all its outer edges. He is here, for without  him I could not be free; without him the world would stop in its spinning; without him the fates would have won. You are alive; all of us are alive thanks to his willingness to sacrifice." She stopped for a moment to let it sink in. "You see, I needed life and power to keep me going. He gave me an even greater gift, that which you see before me. He gave me a life of freedom. But the cost was dear." Talea felt a tear in her eye. "You mean that he is now taking your place deep within this world to keep it alive?"  Kuja-Yotay remained motionless, and said nothing. The various lionesses began weeping, tears of sadness commingled with tears of joy. He truly loved them all.

A voice thundered from the back of the room. "What the hell Eve! You hardly need to go giving them a heart attack with your epic story. Tell the truth!" All eyes rotated to catch a look at the source of this newest voice. It resonated just as deeply in their bones as did that of the Goddess', but it was definitely masculine. Try as they might, they could not locate the source of the voice. It was coming from everywhere at once. They heard a "Ahem!" and focused on the sound. There, fading in from some other dimension was her counterpart. Talea walked through the crowd, which parted to make way for her. She stood right in front of this looming giant and said one word. "Husband?"

The huge feline broke into a grin. "Hello Talea. You look good! But then, you've always looked good to me." He spread his gaze across the room. "Hello Dari, Deethy, Ortie, Mallepo..." until he named every lady in the room. As each one heard their name called, they ran to him, giving him the best hug they could. The lionesses were not short on stature in any way, and he still stood even taller. One of them got the courage to ask the question others had not the courage to ask. "Just what are you now Jon-Tom?" He made a funny face, which looked out of place on his present face. "You mean besides a lecherous, horny, hormone ridden male who wants nothing more to bed you all to show you how glad I am to be back?" Talea gave him a reproving look. He settled down and explained his present appearance..

"According to Eve, we are presently Mavros Tigers. They have been extinct on this world for a long time. I have no idea if there was ever a counterpart on my world. I'm not into paleontology all that much. Anyway, she remembered a time when they roamed the entire world. They were her favorites. For that reason alone, the fates conspired to eliminated them for good." Talea looked from him to the Goddess. "Who is this Eve he speaks of." The goddess actually blushed and looked embarrassed. "It's from a story he told me. I think he likes the irony in it." Talea stared hard at the huge male. "Jon-Tom, tell me you didn't." He wrinkled his nose at her, daring her to challenge him. "I never lie. I had to inject the necessary biology into her otherwise formless self somehow and I figured I might as well breathe some life into that old story."

Dari had edged up to stand next to Talea. "What story?" Talea bumped her head into the queens, making her squeal in protest. The redhead carried on unperturbed. "You know, the first humans that were created on Jon-Tom's world? Their God took a rib from the male he had created and constructed a female." Jon-Tom ran his fingers along his left side. "And I purposely didn't replace it as evidence of the love I feel towards this most wonderful, beauteous being. I don't know how anyone with a conscience could possibly have done such a cruel thing, but they will pay. It may take me until the end of time to do it, but they will pay." Talea could feel the mixture of emotions coming off of his body. She wanted to touch him, but hazarded a guess that she might not come away intact.

"So husband, do you still love me?" He looked down with sudden kindness. "As much today as any day. I love everyone who has found a place in my heart. Because of all of you, my heart had room for enough love to help free Eve. Even after all the love and power I expended to free her, there is still plenty inside." He opened his arms and held his paws up high. A wave of cool warmth bathed the room. Every lady there felt it. It was that feeling they got when he whispered in their ear; the feeling just seconds after they climaxed. It was the feeling of being complete, with the other half of their soul melding with their own. It was pure love.

The Goddess quietly disappeared when no one was paying attention. She would have plenty of time with him later. There were a lot of things he had promised to show her that these bodies could do. But for now she was content to allow him time with those who had made this event possible. He diminished in size until he was the handsome lion again. His cubs made a beeline for him, and in no time covered him from head to toe. He fell back on the ground, laughing with such high spirits, the Goddess was driven to envy. He mentally called to her. "Come on and join me. Like you said, they are all your children too. You might as well get the hang of parenting!" She popped  back into being next to him. She was soon covered with joyful, rambunctious cubs. She was having a ball, absorbing all of the feelings and emotions when it hit her. "Excuse me my husband and savior, what did you mean by that?" He just reverted to his usual mode of dealing with things like that and put his dumb face on.