FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The forest was pristine at that time of day, with the rays of sun glimpsing down through the foliage, the birds calling out the arrival of summer and the gentle breeze that seemed to caress its way through the trees. All the more reason for the first summer-stroll of the year, which had been the reasoning behind the rat's arrival there. As he entered beneath the canopy of the old and towering forest, he felt the cool shade on his brow and his own shoulders fall in relief. There was just something divine about the forest. Something that made it almost smell of old magic, like it was locked in time and never moved with the surrounding world.

The path the rat followed was only there due to the movement of feral animals and the few visitors. Worn down through the years, it provided a small trail to follow which he knew would lead to a small clearing. There he'd eat the food he'd brought along in a satchel, before returning back to get home, refreshed in both body and mind. Perfectly planned summer's day.

As he moved down the path, feeling the damp soil underneath his paws, he noticed something in the distance. A small glisten, a shine that seemed to shiver and shake with some kind of movement. Intrigued, partly due to his own nature, he continued on the path. Judging by the distance, the shining light came from the same clearing he'd been headed towards. Brushing a branch aside, he soon exited into the circular opening, where the sun shone down warmly on the grass. In the middle of the area, a large stone rose from the ground and ended in a flat plateau, roughly at his chest-height. And on top of that stone, he noticed the source of the light.

A miniscule lizard-like being was basking in the sun, no doubt recharging its energy. Moving with the best secrecy he could muster, the rat moved closer. There was clearly more to the small, scaled being and as he drew nearer he could see exactly what it was. A tiny dragon.

It was chalk-white for most of its body, with an accentuated ivory-color running down the front of its neck, chest and underbelly. Adorning its back were a pair of leathery wings, a much darker and powerful shade of red, almost like wine. Horns crowned the head along with a ridged spine, the same color of the wings.

The rat just stared at his discovery for a moment, barely drawing breath. This was amazing, he'd never seen a dragon before! Slowly he extended a hand to touch the small thing, but right as he was about to, it leapt to those small legs, let out a hissing sound before darting away, hopping off the stone and disappearing into the nearby bushes.

"Wait, no!" the rat called out, holding out his hand in the direction the dragon had disappeared to, heartbroken that he'd scared the poor little thing. With a sigh, he plopped himself down on the stone, mulling his discovery over. With an idle hand, he rummaged around in his pocket when an idea struck his head about the same time as his fingers ran over the face of a golden coin, he kept in his pocket for good luck. Dragons liked gold, didn't they?

Hopping down again from the stone, he got down on his knees and held the coin out towards the bushes, the metallic surface catching the rays of the sun above, making it shine as brightly as the dragon's scales.

"Come on. Come on out..." he lured carefully, making sure not to speak too loudly or in any way cause any further distress for the tiny thing.

His heart leapt when he saw the white scales poking back out of the brushes, the snout of the miniscule dragon appearing slowly and carefully. Its eyes were focused intently on the coin and before the rat could act, the dragon leapt forward, darting forward on tiny legs before grabbing hold of the coin with both that tiny mouth and the small claws. Hanging from it, the dragon let out small growls and hisses, clearly considering the coin its property by now.

The rat chuckled and put both dragon and coin down on the grass.

"You can keep it. I think I've already gotten all the luck I could, from it." He said, digging a hand into the satchel of food he'd brought. "You hungry, little fella?" he asked, not even sure if the dragon was male or female. As he asked, he pulled out a piece of dried beef-jerky and held it out towards the small beast. Small sniffs were had as the dragon let go of the coin with its jaws and instead looked towards the meat. It was still clinging greedily to the coin with the rest of its body, but it bit out towards the offered gift eagerly. The rat just let his little companion chomp down on the food.

"You're really something." He said, almost sounding enchanted by the fantastical being he was faced with. "And kinda cute!" he added.

The scowl he suddenly received from the dragon was burning. With a sudden jolt, it bit down on his finger before darting back into the bushes with both coin and jerky in its possession.

"Hey, come back!" the rat yelled fruitlessly and got back on his feet, almost tempted to run after it. Not that he'd ever catch the dragon in the underbrush of the woods. "Aw, nuts." He muttered to himself and kicked at the ground. A piercing crack rung through the air, the moment he kicked and he jumped in surprise. It sounded almost as if a tree had suddenly snapped in two but the forest was too thick for him to see through. Was it the dragon? Surely such a tiny thing couldn't have produced that sound, though.

Another loud crack, followed by the creaking and snapping of smaller trees and twigs. Looking up, the rat could suddenly see several treetops bending and falling away from the collective canopy, as if something was pushing it all to the side. Then came a deep and rumbling growl, powerful enough that he could feel tremors in the ground beneath him. From the blackness of the deep woods came claws, each the size of scythes and wrapped themselves around the nearest trees, cutting deeply into the bark. With a low, almost agonizing sound, the trees were uprooted before being flung away, landing Heavens know where. The claws settled on the ground as he finally spotted what it was. The giant feet were covered in shining-white scales and as the being rose upwards, he could see the ivory-golden plates that had adorned the tiny dragon just moments before. Finally a head broke through the remaining forest-top and threw itself upwards, basking in the sun and sending a blinding light of reflection in all directions. The rat gasped and backed away, hiding himself behind the rock for what good it did.

"Foolish little RAT!" a sudden voice rang, powerful and deep like the roots of a mountain, but with a distinct feminine tone to it. "I gave you my company and you squander it with petty compliments!" the dragon continued, having reached her full height. Those wings once again came into view, but this time they were like clouds, blotting out the sun, as the dragon's true shape and size was revealed to the meek rat. Twice as tall as the biggest tree of the forest, with legs like bastion towers, the dragon was truly a mighty sight indeed. The rat was dumbstruck, whimpering and cowering behind the useless cover he'd taken.

"No more words of endearment? No final wishes?" she continued, as she lowered her face just a bit to look menacingly at him. Those scaled lips parted as the dragon showed rows upon rows of sharp teeth, each easily the size of her tiny victim. "Fine." She finished, clearly very pleased with it all, as one of those front-legs lifted itself and her claw moved down towards the stone with the rat. With almost surgical precision, the razor-sharp claws pinched at the rat's naked tail and lifted him into the air, slowly. Savoring it.

"No! Wait! I-I-I didn't me-mean to.." the rat started frantically babbling as he felt where it was all going. Evolution mattered little, prey remained prey.

"SILENCE!" the dragon's voice echoed over the forest, making trees bend as the shockwave of her shout rolled over them. The silence that did indeed follow was almost reverent. As if the forest and all things in it knew their place beneath the dragon. Even the rat, terrified of his approaching fate grew white with fear, paralyzed by the thundering cry. And all the while, she hadn't stopped lifting him upwards, bringing her claw closer and closer to her might jaws. With eyes as round as they could be, the rat could only stare in disbelief as a cavern of flesh opened up in front of him. Jaws parted to reveal the battalion of teeth, which again made way for the pink, fleshy insides of her maw. A long, cleft tongue lolled out, hanging beneath her chin as he was lifted in over that gaping doom. He hung there, suspended by his own tail and could only stare, wide-eyed into her gullet that so eagerly seemed to await his arrival.

"P-Please..." he whispered, closing his eyes. But it was too late. He felt her claws detach from his tail. He felt the wind rush past him and his own weightlessness, before it was promptly interrupted as his tiny form disappeared, as the dragon's teeth clamped shut with a loud snap. The only thing revealing the rat having existed was a twitching, bloody tail dangling from between those pristine, white teeth.