FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Quiet permeated the land, every sound muted almost to silence. With long, confident strides the huntress strolled across the snowy field, examining the vast expanse of white and grey. The horizon was almost invisible between the competing shades of distant, ice-entombed trees and the gloomy sky. Her bare feet danced across the fluffy surface of the ground, neither sinking into the drift that stretched down almost a yard beneath her nor leaving any footprints behind. Snowflakes began to cascade from the sky, joining her in a slow waltz as they met their kin below. The wind murmured, distant trees groaning beneath the weight piled upon their branches as they stirred. It spoke to her, whispered of predator and prey, brought gifts of fresh blood and sweat and fear. A hunt in these lands was rare, even in her long life she knew how long it had been since the ground there was stained crimson through tooth and claw. She sprinted off, eager to watch the challenge. Her long tails whipped behind her as she raced like a gale, the still and pristine snowdrift tossed high into the air. She twisted and dove around the trees at the edge of the forest as she plunged into their darkness. The frost thinned under her, the timbers above instead bearing the burden of winter. Guided by instinct, she came to the small pool, its surface black with ice. A hunger told her to watch for prey she might surprise, but she pushed it aside. A different hunt was on. She leapt to the air as graceful as a stag. Her body stretched and shimmered, shedding a haze of frozen vapor into the air around her. The beast plunged through the ice as though it simply wasn't there, vanishing through it while leaving its hard surface undisturbed.

The wolf emerged from a lake as seamlessly as she entered the pond, leaping up to the bank. Thunder cracked through the air and echoed across the wide-open space. It was darker here, the sun set back in its path. Her piercing azure gaze turned in the direction of the roar, repeated once more, and chased after it. She closed almost instantly upon the struggle, her nose keen on the scent of smoke and blood. She came upon the wounded creature first, still struggling to keep its feet, now wheeling to face its would-be killers. The moose lowered its head and prepared to move on them, but a third time the chilled, hard air shattered beneath the crack of flame and metal. The strike was true, and the beast collapsed to the ground, its wounds and final breath steaming against the frozen ground. She eyed the predators. They did not seem the sort to be able to commit such a kill. They were tall, lanky, and frail, both aged beyond the strength of youth. She was disappointed how quickly the chase was over. She huffed and lay down, eyes flitting back and forth between the moose and the humans. Hunger crawled into her belly once more. Perhaps she should take their kill from them. Was she not more deserving of it anyway? Could they even stop her? No. She desired their kill. They were weak, she was strong. It would be hers.

"Got 'em!" one said to the other. The hunter, eager for his spoils, walked to his quarry. He rested his weapon against his shoulder as he went while his partner scanned the clearing. His eyes passed over her as he turned, but on the return pass he froze, spotting her outline in the underbrush.

"Bill, wait!" He shouldered his rifle and leveled it at her. She was impressed by his nerve, spotting an obvious predator and without hesitation fighting back against it, and with a fantastically clever tool as well. But while determination and focus were crucial qualities of any hunter, one needed speed as well. She gracefully dodged the attack, dancing around them in a blur of circling motion.

"What the hell was that?" said the one called Bill, fear making his voice rattle. He shouldered his rifle and pointed it where he last thought he saw the beast.

"I don't know, looked like a wolf, but it was way, way too big."

"Can't be a wolf, haven't been wolves here in decades."

The huntress lowered her body to the ground, enveloped in brush and darkness. Her eyes narrowed and a slow grin stretched her lupine face. They amused her.

"I am no wolf," she hissed from the shadows. They both reflexively shivered upon hearing the unnatural tone press upon them. It sighed like the wind and sang crystalline like ice. It was melodic and smooth yet edged with a bestial growl, snarling promises of bitterness and the struggle to survive. "I am merely borrowing its face."

The two franticly whipped their heads back and forth, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound.

"Are you afraid?" It seemed the very creaking of the frozen trees of the clearing was forming the words.

"What are you?" the unnamed one demanded.

"Christ, James, are you trying to get us killed?"

"What are you?" James repeated.

"I am Winter."

"Is...that what we call you?"

"If it pleases you. I have had many names, lost sons, many in tongues not spoken since your ancestors stole fire from the gods. In these lands, your kind called me Wendigo. Elsewhere I have been called Adlet, Jami, Himamanav, Jotun, Kitsune. One village I hunted near for centuries named me Skadi. I hear the name still from time to time. Some young ones even called me Skinwalker. I asked what they meant, but they only screamed and tried to run. But...I am personally fond of Kurai. It has a nice ring to it, do you not think so?"

Silence.

"You do not like it?"

"What do you want?" said the one called Bill.

Kurai's chilling gaze swept over him. He was short, flabby, and appeared to have never been one to truly hunt, to chase, to kill. He reeked of sweat, spoiled maize, and smoke. She could track him with her eyes closed. Indeed, she humored herself and did so, smelling his stench, his fear. Her ears swiveled toward him, fanning slightly to pick up the slightest sounds. He was breathing quickly, shallowly, and even from there she could hear the thrill of his heart. He might die just standing there, she mused.

"I am hungry," she started, but was immediately interrupted.

"And you're gonna eat us?" said the one called Bill.

"Bill, shut-"

"You dare interrupt me, fool?" she roared. The wind rose sharply with her anger and the very air shook with its intensity. Thunder rumbled overhead as the sky rapidly choked with grey clouds. Snow and ice tumbled from the branches overhead, covering the pair in frozen debris. They dropped to the ground, Bill in terror and disorientation flopping into the snow, James taking a knee and balancing himself.

"Kurai," James called out as clearly as he could, "My friend has wronged you; he was a fool to do so. We beg your pardon, and ask that you continue. What was your desire?"

While he tried to remain calm, the beast could feel the fear in the other man as well. He was used to working under such conditions. He was tall and lean, and while time had robbed him of the strength that likely once filled his limbs, he still walked with a posture and ease that suggested years of harsh survival. The man gritted his teeth, equal parts keeping his composure in the face of an unknown and frighteningly superior foe and keeping his teeth from chattering as the temperature plummeted perceptibly.

"Your kill, it is mine."

James turned his head slightly to glance at the moose, while not looking so far as to present his back to where he thought she was. Clever...he was no fool, he knew how to act around predators. Her vision drilled into the back of his head. Clever, certainly, but still too blind to find her. Instinctively she raised her hackles and bared her fangs, but she remained silent and otherwise motionless.

"Do you mean this moose? That's all?"

"Yes," she hissed.

"Done, it is yours."

"That is all? No fight?"

"Hungry Winter," he called, "We hardly fought for this prey, as you would judge it. We give it up as freely."

Kurai tilted her head. That was surprising. It had been countless ages since she encountered someone on this island that knew how to bargain properly. She stopped as Bill sat up and got to his knees. She fluidly turned back to James.

"Very well, let it be so."

The wolf confidently strode forth from the bush that concealed it. The rustling startled the men and both turned as fast as they could to face her. They gasped as they took in her appearance, fur in strange patterns, shades of blue like viewing light trapped in a glacier. Horns curving back adorned her head and shimmered with cold, condensed air. How freezing must they be to make even this frozen, winter air condense in its presence? Her claws were no different from the horns, seemingly glowing in the twilight with chilling illumination. She remained still for a moment and the air, now prolonged in its contact with them, further condensed, the water falling from it as snow. Her tails fanned and twisted casually behind her, the six swaying gently like reeds in the breeze. There was an eerie beauty to her. When she felt sure they would not react further, she walked over to the moose and sank her enormous, sharp teeth into its gut. The blood was still hot on her tongue and steamed on contact with such coldness. With quick efficiency she devoured its choicest parts, taking time only to savor the liver. In the corner of her eye she watched the men rise while she ate. She turned sharply to them, licking the gore from her face. What she did not scoop away quickly began to freeze, turn brittle, and flake off her coat.

"I did not say you may leave." Even without the echo of her voice to hide her position, it was unsettling to see such an inhuman head make such human sounds.

"I thought we traded," said the one called James.

"For the kill, yes," she continued, facing Bill, "But this one owes me for his transgression." She looked back at James. "You, however, will leave, and will not return for a year and a day if you ever wish safe passage in these lands again."

"What do you want with me?" Bill stammered.

"You tried to take my words from me, mortal," she growled. "I will try to take them from you."

"What?"

"Run."

"You can't!" James shouted.

"And why not?" She stomped a paw as she stepped forward again. It impacted the ground with far too much force for a creature her size. But...with the shape she was taking... Her features began to stretch and grow. Indeed, everything was growing, and her voice deepened in kind. "The imbecile is not surrendering his life to me, he has a chance to flee like the coward he is. Help him, if you must, but you risk the same fate."

Their rifles began to coat with frost, becoming so cold even through the thick gloves they were wearing they both reflexively dropped them. James quickly plunged an arm around Bill's and dragged him off, sprinting in the direction they had left their car. He glanced over his shoulder, seeing her now so massive she gazed down upon them.

"You humans have forgotten the feeling of Winter's teeth. Run, prey, run!"

Kurai's enormous lungs rushed full of air. She dropped her spine and threw back her head in a sky-shattering howl, reverberating off the ceiling of clouds now so dense it seemed as though night were about to fall again. A chorus answered it as spectral wolves of frosty blue light burst into life from the snow around her. They took only a moment to catch the scent of their quarry before sprinting off after them. She watched their illumination fade into trees, passing through branch and bramble as though the wolves were made of wind. She was unnaturally still, just listening.

And then she shrank, flakes of snow shaking off her form, as she flopped onto her laugh in a fit of giggles. Her nose became pointed, her face narrow, and body leaner overall. The vulpine laugh echoed loudly, continuing long after she stopped and merely lay there, relaxing in the embrace of snow. The illusory predators would chase the men down, mostly assuredly, but would do no more direct harm than winter air. The one called Bill proved to be a craven jackanapes, and so she treated him as much. If they should stumble and break a bone, or get lost and succumb to exposure, that was hardly her fault. They should have been better prepared for winter.

Kurai rolled again and rose, coming up on knee and foot, before standing humanoid once more. She returned to her kill and, using the fine claws on her fingers, stripped away at its flesh to retrieve the richest cuts of meat. She took care to chew them only as much as was necessary to swallow, otherwise keeping them whole, and gorged as much as she could stomach. Satisfied, her gut feeling heavy and warm, she left the rest of the carcass for other scavengers and predators to come across. She lifted her arms high above her head and brought them down in a silent flutter of snowy wings. The owl took flight, lazily drifting back to the lake whence she came. She dove through it and emerged through not much more than a puddle near the mouth of a shallow cave high in the mountains. The wind billowed and snow pelted through the air, though it did nothing to slow her. Night claimed the land, but her knowledge of the terrain, sharp eyes, and familiarity with the elements guided her home. She dropped down through a narrow passage in the stone and came into a cavern that seemed as though it was encased in glass. What little light made its way in danced and shimmered off the walls. In the back corner, two tiny, light gray wolves picked up their heads from a nest of straw and pelts from a number of wintry beasts. The cubs scampered excitedly over to her as her features shivered and shifted into a wolf, herself. She lowered her head and wretched, once, twice, thrice, before the thick, unchewed meat tumbled from her belly in a wet mess on the floor. The pups set to their meal with vigor, their diminutive jaws holding just enough strength to tear apart the tenderized fibers.

While her adopted wards satisfied themselves, she turned back to entrance and surveyed the dark majesty outside, the white mountains towering higher than humanity had ever built even their greatest monuments. With preternatural vision she picked out a snow leopard on the other side of the pass carefully making its way across the sharp ledges. She shared her mind with it, felt its chill even through its thick coat. She smelled him following his own scent trail, making his way through the driving snow to shelter. Indeed, was not a storm for even the greatest beasts. Tiny growling met her ears. Speaking of beasts, she thought to herself as she turned to see the cubs wrestling with each other for the last bit of meat. She grinned with delight, seeing them struggle, play, learn. They would grow to be fantastic hunters. They were well matched, and it was always a joy to watch them fight for the final scrap as it was hard to guess which would be victorious. In moments, it was decided. With their meal done, she gently shooed them back to their bed with her snout. She curled up beside the nest, unwilling to get too close and harm them with her cold. They tried burrowing into her tails, as they did each night, but she picked them up by the scruff and replaced them a few times each before they grew tired and accepted it. Satisfied they wouldn't try to sneak back over to her, she laid down her head, curling her many fluffy tails around her body, and joined them in slumber.