FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

You make your way down to her with your new catch, hoping she'll be in a better mood. You call out quietly near her chamber's entrance, "Scarlett?" You get no reply. You peer cautiously into the room and find her slumped over on her right side at the base of the slab. She looks like she's sleeping. "Scarlett?" you call again approaching swiftly but carefully, not wanting to rouse her too suddenly. She doesn't move at all.

As you get closer you can see that she looks horribly ill, her flesh paler than ever. It looks like she may have thrown up a few times judging from the puddles around her. The exposed left arm looks terrible. It's festered horrendously, the wound nearly all black save for what seems like Scarlett's attempts to use the whitish healing salve on it. You can see dark lines radiating out of it reaching hungrily for the rest of her untainted flesh and smell the decay in the stuffy air.

You drop the fish and kneel down before her reaching out to shake her awake. Her skin is hot. You brush the back of your hand over her forehead and find she is burning up with fever. You panic, feeling a cold sweat manifest on your skin, and look around not sure what to do. She grumbles and shifts weakly. "Scarlett?" you call out to her. "Red Nose?" she groans, her half closed green eyes rolling up to you. "Come to watch me die, eh? The inglorious end of Captain Scarlett Waters." She announces weakly. "You're not gonna die. But your arm, it..." "Aye, it's got the rot, can feel it poisonin' meh as we speak." She scowls lazily at it, then she sees the fish you dropped and turns back to you, "You're a kind lad, but let me go. Got higher seas to sail."

You feel your eyes burn a bit and your vision blur, "No, we just have to do something about your arm." "What's to do? The salve won't work. It needs to come off, but I can't do it meself. Already tried." She replies weakly, her head rolling unfocused. "I can." You say firmly. She twitches as if just coming to the same realization. "You can." she whispers. "You can." She says louder after a few moments emphasizing the "you." She takes some time to think before muttering, "Alright then, now's better than later."

You start to feel a bit of excitement, "How?" She holds out her dagger and you take it from her clammy hot palm, your excitement vanishing. She wraps her hot sweaty fingers over your hand making you grasp the handle. She puts some pressure on your hand and looks intensely into your eyes. "Cut fast and don't stop till it's done." You swallow hard before nodding. You half lift and half drag her up over the slab she was laying on the first time the two of you met. She tries to help, but mostly just holds on to you as you position her body atop it. You place her, leaving room enough on her left side to extend the terribly wounded arm.

She holds it close to her chest, her right clasping her left hand gingerly. Scarlett looks up at the ceiling and takes a deep breathe. She then says, "No matter what I say, no matter what I do, you don't fuckin' stop till it's off, you hear?" You nod. "Say it!" she screams with an unexpected surge of energy, making you flinch. "I won't stop until it's done." She nods up at the ceiling and places a long flat stone in her mouth to bite down on before placing her rotting left arm out over the edge of the slab before you.

You both take deep breaths, the long dagger in your right hand, and the nearly empty salve skin nearby on the ground. She looks away, the long stone firmly gripped in her jaws. "Bur eh." She commands around the stone. You swallow hard and bring the dagger down about half way up her forearm above the reach of the rot. Suddenly grabbing her dead left hand at the wrist in your left and bearing down with everything you have on her arm with the dirk in your right you start to cut. She screams around the stone as you part her skin and muscle, fresh dark blood oozing free from her. You reach the bones quickly and try to saw through them but the straight edge of the knife was never meant for such a task and its slow going. You can't help but look as Scarlett spits the stone from her mouth and cries, "AHHHH!! STOP! Please, stop! I've changed me mind, AGHHH!!!" Tears stream down her face. You feel her trying to jerk away from you, her left hand clenching into a loose fist, and you have to put a leg over her chest and right arm to keep her from flailing as you gradually saw through her bones.

You feel one of them give with a sudden drop in tension and Scarlett screams herself hoarse. "AGHHHH! You mother fucking shit rag, I'll kill you and eat your children! AHHH!! STOP!" She snarls and cries as she snaps her teeth at you. You try to keep focused on your task and not on how close her jaws are to your thigh while keeping pressure on your leg, desperately trying to hold her still. The blood readily spilling from her is making your grip on the knife slippery but you try to finish as quickly as possible. A few more moments of curses and sawing and you're through.

But your work isn't done yet. Scarlett howls in pain, and you shout "It's off, it's off!" You drop the bloody dagger and the now relaxed severed hand to the floor, awkwardly scooping up the salve sack while simultaneously keeping the shark woman from ripping into your leg. You cram the stump of her left arm into the nearly empty bag, hoping whatever is left will help seal the wound and tie the close string as tightly as you can as a sort of tourniquet. Then you hold the strap of the skin in both bloody hands and look to an enraged, squirming, and snapping, Scarlett. You need to get the strap over her shoulders to hold it in place.

Considering options for a moment, you take a chance and slap the bottom of the salve sack and by proxy, her bloody stump. She screams in agony before finally being overcome with pain and passing out. You quickly have the strap over her shoulders and tight enough that it won't easily fall off, though you had to place it under one breast and over the over, which pulls at them awkwardly. You take a few minutes to catch your breath and hope you didn't make things worse for the shark woman. As your heart rate gets a bit closer to normal, you pick up the blood soaked dagger, you see her severed hand still lying on the ground and can't think of anything to do with it. You wander over and sit beside the pool of ever present cool water and begin cleaning yourself of Scarlett's slick life fluid. The dagger too gets a thorough washing.

As you do this, you let your hooves dangle in the water finding it very soothing. Once your done cleaning you let your legs into the pool, and then your torso finding the pool is quite deep nearly taking all of you. You hear Scarlett moan in her pain induced sleep and look to see her shift uncomfortably. You find her rumpled rag of a shirt nearby and dunk it in the pool before getting out and approaching the prone woman. You dab the damp cloth over her forehead and watch her shift fitfully while moaning in her uneasy slumber.

You do this until the cloth seems only just damp, then soak it again and continue. The light shining in from outside begins to dim before you see her emerald eyes peek from under heavy lids. Her mouth open a bit and you place a finger over it whispering,"Shhhh, it's done, just try to rest now." You're not sure she heard you, but her eyes shut and she drifts off again seemingly more relaxed.

You pick up the fish you dropped when entering and place it on the slab beside her in easy reach. You've done all you can today and decide it's time to head back to camp and let her rest.