FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Dar-Amon awoke to pandemonium. An alarm was sounding and he was rudely thrown from his place between Deej's breasts as the two argonians rushed to get ready. Dar-Amon remained safely out of the way in a corner as they scurried to-and-fro. In less than two minutes, they were both out the door, leaving Dar-Amon to blink at the sudden silence.

He thought briefly about the night before. Already his subconscious was trying to make him forget the unimaginable horror that was argonian sex, and he shivered again involuntarily at the thought, but refused to remember what he'd seen. Whether she knew it or not, Deej's gentle treatment of him afterwards had allowed him to return to sanity and the ability to tolerate close proximity to their race again.

"No good will come from thinking of that," he said aloud at the silence. Outside he heard the sound of many other argonians rushing about. A few minutes later and he'd managed the basket trick again and was back on the ledge. By then, no argonians were in sight but he heard quite a lot of noise from somewhere by the beach. He had to get out, and quickly!

He worked another thread loose and tried to shove his head through. It was close, but not quite. He worked at the next thread of he screen as fast as he could. Finally it broke and he SQUEEZED his head through, scrabbling with his claws on the window sill to get more grip. Another thread popped and he was through, falling unceremoniously to the ground outside. He shook his dignity back into place and loped towards where all the activity was - mostly near the dock but also farther out by the beach.

He'd never seen so many argonians in one place. An involuntary shiver ran through him. All those scaly bodies writhing over and around each other...

"NO! They're just talking!" he shouted to himself, recovering from his imagination.

They seemed to be arguing with each other, but he saw that the Dominion had already set sail. Then he also noticed there wasn't an altmer in sight. He nudged his way into the center of the crowd, and noticed Deej and Skalen were part of the outer crowd as well.

Inside an old argonian was talking loudly, answering others.

"No! They are not our friends. Listen, I don't care how well they've treated you, they are killing other sailors with that ship!"

"But not argonians!" shouted another nearby.

"That's what I'm trying to tell you. The other ships have many argonians on them! They may be from Hammerfell, but they're manned by all races, and argonians are a majority of those!"

"And besides," said a voice Dar-Amon recognized. "Since when do we kill other races anyway? That is not the way of the Hist!"

"Well, we're not killing them. We're just... letting them kill each other!"

"Not," said the elder, "if we're helping them with this ship. And besides, do we really want another race to take over this island? True, it's not Argonia, but there are lots of small islands all round us. If the other races take over all those islands, they can easily attack us after they've built up their forces."

That, Dar-Amon realized, was a good tactic. Self-defense of their homeland was a prime motivating factor for argonians. The murmuring in the crowd took on an ominous tone.

Geeus' voice came back then. He obviously had already made the assumption that the crowd was now with him. "It is not enough that we run the almer off the island either. We must destroy this entire facility. Go back to your rooms and get your belongings and bring them back to the beach. Then we must destroy."

"What do we do with the altmer? Most of them are on the ship, but there's still some hiding in the buildings and around the island."

"We are not killers, and they have magic. Let them know we are here only to destroy what they've built, not them. If they attack you though, call for help. They will fall to our numbers, magic or not. If we keep them from building on this island, they will leave on their own. We made a mistake in letting them take this island. We must fix that mistake."

A cheer went up, and even Deej and Skalen joined in, he saw. Deej looked down and saw him. She picked him up. "Mekal! What are you doing here? You're going to get stepped on!"

The argonians were splitting up, going back to gather their belongings.

"Well," Deej said to Skalen. "It was good while it lasted."

The male put his arm around his mate. "We'll do alright Deej. We'll find another place."

She nodded, and looked at Skalen and kissed him, in the argonian manner. "Yes, we will."

Suddenly someone came running up to them. "Excuse me. Ma'am? Um... that's my cat."

Deej looked at the new argonian and Dar-Amon saw Geeus when she turned her body around.

"Awwww!" she cried. "Really?"

"Sorry Ma'am. Yes. I... really need him."

The two argonians looked at each other sadly.

"Look," Geeus began, "when you get back to the mainland, look me up. Name's Geeus. I'll get you another cat, okay?"

Skalen nodded. "We will. Thanks. They're hard to find in Argonia."

Geeus took Dar-Amon and retreated behind a building.

"What happened?" they both said at once, as soon as they were alone.

"Well," Dar-Amon started, "Ra'Jirra got captured trying to sink the ship. I think she is a prisoner somewhere in that big building. I got caught by those two though and have been trying to get away ever since."

Geeus shook his head. "She's not a prisoner. We saw her on the CAT heading after the Dominion, along with an argonian. I think it was Wears-Only-Ropes but I can't be sure. As for me, once I explained the situation to the elders, they gathered every able-bodied argonian around for miles. We swam all the way across and got here just as the Dominion was leaving. But I think we got here in time to keep most of the argonians out of the ship."

"So, it's manned only by the altmer?"

Geeus shrugged. "I don't know really. We argonians are a very family-oriented lot though. When your mother is yelling at you to get out of the ship, we tend to do exactly that no matter what the altmer are threatening."

"Are you serious? Their mothers?!"

"Well, some at least."

"Good thing the altmer didn't fight back."

"They're not that stupid. We would swarm the place and rend them limb-from-limb if they tried. They probably would have if we hadn't outnumbered them."

"You've done a good thing here, Geeus. You've definitely shut down this operation. But if Ra'Jirra and Wears-Only-Ropes don't managed to protect that Hammerfell ship, a war between Cyrodiil and Hammerfell is still likely. Once a war starts, even if we can prove it was caused by the Aldmeri Dominion, it's a hell of a thing to try and stop."

Geeus nodded and they both looked out from behind the building. Already a stack of belongings from the argonians was growing, and one of the buildings was burning as the argonians began their destruction of the base. Others were dismantling the dock as they watched. But out to sea, the Hammerfell ship had sailed out of sight beyond the cove to the right and the little CAT was nowhere to be seen.

"Come on Dar," Geeus said, offering his hand to the Alfiq. "Lets get to the other side of the cove and see what's happening out there."

Dar'Amon jumped aboard the proffered hands and Geeus began running across the cove.

They'd just topped a ridge and spotted the Hammerfell ship under full sail and turning aside when a tremendous explosion was seen and the ground shook, knocking Geeus to the ground and sending Dar-Amon rolling across the sandy ground. Dar-Amon looked up to see a tower of water far out to sea where the Hammerfell ship had been. The tower resolved into a sort of cloud on the surface of the ocean, blocking view of anything within.

Dar-Amon looked to Geeus, who looked back at him, a worried expression on his scaled face.

"Damn," Dar-Amon said. "God DAMMIT."

"I guess we should get back to Elsweyr as soon as we can," Geeus said mournfully, the whole island now gone silent in the wake of the explosion. "It will take some time before Hammerfell learns of this. Maybe our story can help."

Dar-Amon nodded, still staring out to sea. "I suppose so."

Geeus picked up the little Alfiq and headed back towards the cove.

**********************

Inside the Dominion, Number 4 wasn't worried. True, the altmer that now manned the ship were woefully incompetent at actually doing the work that the argonians had been trained for, but they had plenty of time. As he watched through the periscope, he had to give the spunky khajiit respect for having managed to stop two of his torpedoes. But he had plenty more and it was obvious that the mines she'd wielded were only the surface type, and she couldn't have many aboard that little craft.

"How long before the tubes are flushed?" he called to the Captain.

"Dammit, I don't know. I'll get down there and clear them myself if I have to! XO, what is the status of the tubes!?" he called down a voice-pipe.

"It's slow, Skipper. We haven't the muscles of the argonians. Pumping the water out is taking longer than expected. Another 15 minutes and we should be done."

The Captain began to relay the update to Number 4, who shut him up.

"I heard the man, Captain," he said impatiently. Then he turned to his bodyguard. Pak-Sha had been the only argonian who hadn't left the ship when their damn relatives came ashore. He, at least, was completely loyal.

"Pak-Sha, get down there and help them with those pumps. Show them what real argonian muscle can do!"

The argonian nodded and began climbing down the ladder while Number 4 returned to his periscope. The Hammerfell ship was moving away, but that really made no difference. They could easily catch up once their weapons were functional again. Then he swung the periscope around to look for Ra'Jirra. But she was no longer where he'd last seen her. He spun the periscope farther around and his eyes went wide. She was practically on top of the periscope and the argonian with her was doing something.

Suddenly he realized what he was seeing and screamed. "PAK-SHA! STOP! NEW ORDERS!!!"