FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Shadi's trip with through Hyrule since her run-in at the ruins of Typhlo had been far more relaxing and invigorating that the weeks before, that much was certain! She'd plotted a course to the south east, skirting death mountain for lack of suitable equipment, and dodging the forest that the Korok apparently inhabited quiet handily. Nobody had seen anything of them since or after the Calamity regardless, and she doubted her luck would be any better.

Plus, after her unexpected trip into Typhlo and its perpetual darkness, she was done with mysterious fog. She'd had more than her share, and had no strong desires to check out more mysteriously fog covered locations in the near future. To a word, the fog could go and do unspeakable things to itself.

Castle town was at least far more lively than anywhere else she had been thus far. With the calamity ended, and the beasts within the walls driven off, Zelda herself and the Hero as well had taken to the task of securing the old structure, and restoring the town to its former glory. Streets had to be cleared, homes rebuilt, the walls refortified, windows replaced, roads repaved, and wells re-dug.

Speaking with some of the workers who had been hired from the outlying villages, she learned it had taken a month alone for them to remove the ruins of the guardians and get the roads back into something resembling a traversable condition. Compared to the stories she'd heard, this almost seemed like a functioning town again rather than an ominous, death filled ruin.

The castle stood mighty and imposing over the northern end of the town, scaffolding and wooden cranes dotting the superstructure seemingly at random, moving great slabs of granite and quartz to patch up the walls and towers. She took several photos, but when she inquired about possibly meeting the Princess herself, the guards had flatly turned her down. Apparently, she would be busy for the next several months, far longer than Shadi had allocated for this trip.

She stayed several nights at an inn just within the castle walls, trading stories and rumors while filling pages of her journal with all the new knowledge she could gather, pages upon pages of sketches and maps requiring her to stop for a day while she found a store that could sell her a new book to continue her note taking.

On the third day, she leased a horse from one of the stables, and headed out south across Hyrule field. Romani ranch had stood out here for generations before the calamity, and it was with a pleased smile that she saw several workers in the field with a brace of oxen. With a bellow, the oxen moved forward as one, and pulled the remains of a guardian free from where it had sank into the earth, dragging it back towards the fences and barns of the new ranch that was coming together over the remains of the old one.

The world was healing itself from the tormented time it had spent beneath the heel of the calamity. Everywhere in central Hyrule that Shadi traveled, she saw it more and more. Construction crews restoring ruins to houses, farmers planting new crops in fields once overrun by guardians, and caravans of goods moving between towns as normal trade picked up again.

Still, despite all this, there was a few things she noticed. While Gorons on laboring crews were a common sight, she saw only a single Rito during her entire visit, and not a single member of the Zora. Perhaps that was more because to reach the castle, they would have followed the rivers in, but when she inquired about this, most people simply confessed they'd never even seen one.

Determined and curious as well, she returned her horse to its owner, and set her sights east, following the upstream flow to their source at the mouth of the Zora river.

---

Supposedly, Ganon's forces had used flooding to great effect in the early days of the calamity, using rising waters to divert rivers and lakes into towns and villages, forcing the occupants to leave or drown with their belongings, or make easy pickings against the rising tides. She saw this first hand a few days after leaving the castle. The road she had followed pitched downwards into a gentle valley, though at its foot lay little but waist deep water, ruined structures rising from the waters surface, like silent sentinels.

They were a stark reminder of the extent of the calamity, and just how far Ganon's influence reached. Not wanting to circumvent the entire lake an add an extra day to her trip, Shadi double checked her shoes, and tied the top of her backpack tightly closed. It was a sturdy leather build, so at the least, it should have kept the contents dry for a little while, even if she did stumble over and get wet.

Her shortsword slid from its scabbard with a satisfying rasp of steel, and holding the blade above the water, she made her way down the path into the semi-sunken village. The water sloshed around her knees, quickly growing deeper the further into town she moved. She had barely passed the first few ruined houses, yet already the water had reached her waistline, her feet barely visible outlines beneath the surface as she trudged onwards. The walls of the homes here were crumbling and overgrown with moss and creeper vines, and Shadi stopped occasionally to take a photo of one of the structures with her Sheikah Slate. As far as she could tell, the water didn't affect it in any way that she had discovered, which was helpful at least as she dropped it twice.

She stopped by one of the few structures that did seem intact, almost ironically, a well. The wall of it sat just above the waterline, though the water inside was still level with everything else around it. She clambered up, sitting longways on the edge of the rim, pulling her legs up out of the water. It had taken her almost half an hour to trudge this far, but considering the size of the lake, she wouldn't be even a third of the way around if she had decided to take the long route to stay dry.

I need to buy a horse... She thought with a shake of her head. It would make her travels much easier, but that also meant she had to pay for it's care, and stables, and gear, and she wasn't sure if she planned on staying for long enough to make the investment worth it. Besides, she had never needed a horse in her homeland to get places...

She set her pack in her lap, untying it to pull out a strip of jerky, chowing down on her lunch as she listened to the birds in the nearby trees chirping and singing to one another.Truly, Hyrule had some amazing sights to behold. She was glad she had made the journey, even if it had almost gotten her killed twice now.

She looked up, distracted by a flock of stalk-like birds flying overhead, the feline stretching out across the lip of the well, letting the sunlight warm her chilled legs. In the distance, she could have sworn she heard the faint sound of an accordion playing, and her curiosity raised, she lifted herself up, holding on to what was left of the well's bucket support. She scanned the horizon with her mismatched green and brown eyes, looking out over beyond the edges of the lake to see if perhaps she could locate the source.

In the afternoon light, it only took her a moment, her fine tuned, fluffy ears swiveling to get a bearing on the sweet melody. She recognized it right away as the same tune that he had played while she drew the massive Rito in her journal! It had to be him, but where.... There!

The spotted Kass beneath a string of apple trees, the bright blue male playing that familiar tune as he looked out across the flooded valley. He was a few hundred meters away, and at such a distance, it gave the accordion a soft, whispering tone. Evidently, he had been the one to spot her first and start playing, When he saw her looking, he raised a great feathered wing in greeting, before motioning out towards her.

Perhaps that rendezvous with my favorite bard would come a little sooner rather than later, she mused, a grin playing on her lips. Kass waved from the distant edge of the lake again, seeming more urgent this time... Shadi tilted her head, confused.

A strong blast of water struck the back of her head, and the next thing she knew, she was tumbling into the murky lake, her forehead bouncing off the lip of the well as she went down, darkness engulfing her just before the water did.

---

Shadi's head swam pleasantly, her thoughts drifting in and out of coherency. She saw the spectacular vista's from the northern mountains, the plains rolling out before her like mats of green that she soared over, witnessing them from a brand new angle above the fluffy cloud tops.

That same sweet accordion tune played distantly, but it was all out of tune, the notes disjointed. She... she knew something had happened... She'd been looking when something struck her... The music had stopped. The fields vanished back into blackness... The back of her head ached something fierce.

Out of the darkness, a pair of blue eyes watched her silently, scrutinizing the feline.

"Wh... Where..." Shadi croaked, but her voice was hoarse and dry, like she hadn't drank for days. She couldn't muster the energy to finish her question.

Not where you were... The voice replied to her question, a sleek, vulpine figure stalking around her, far to many tails following his steps gracefully as he walked. Was this the true form of the beast she had met?

But you're also not dead, which is useful. You should wake up. It's morning.

Before she had the chance to try and work out what the mysterious fox was going on about, her eyes snapped open, the feline blinking a few times rapidly, trying to bring the world back into focus. She watched as the road trudged by beneath her, jumping up and down as if she were bouncing, and it took just a moment longer before the ache in her limbs caught up with her, and the reptilian chatter to full come into focus in her ears.

Her wrists and ankles were bound by a strong rope to a length of bamboo pole, being carried between a pair of blue Lizfols who chattered and warbled in their strange tongue. She went to shout, but a thick strip of fabric had her mouth gagged, and her tail as well had been lashed to the pole they carried her upon.

She struggled and shook herself, trying to see if she could perhaps get a hand free and get to her swo-

She looked down across her body, and quickly realized that rather than just take her weapons, the Lizfols had instead opted to strip her down to her fur, and looking back down past her feet, she could see a third guard trudging along after the others with all of her belongings bound together in a large bundle.

She cursed, or tried to anyway, and one of the reptiles carrying her lashed its tongue out, swatting her across the thigh sharply to silence her, before it carried on in the conversation.

It stung like she'd been whipped, but she'd had worse. She was more just surprised it had hurt as much as it had! Deciding that she probably shouldn't test her luck, she slumped her head back down, watching the ground trundle past as she tried to think of how the hell she was going to get herself out of this one.

---

They carried her like this for several hours, stopping once to provide her with a few sips of water from the flowing river nearby and an apple one of them collected by snapping it out of a tree by the road with his tongue, but always they gagged and tied her hands immediately after. She'd been smarter than to try and run. At least if she could perhaps gain their trust as a prisoner, she would have a slight advantage when she did finally try to escape.

They must have covered several miles. She didn't recognize any of the scenery along this route, but they were still heading north she estimated based on the position of the sun. She knew at once they had reached their destination when the ground below her turned to water, and they had to float her on her back across the deeper parts while they swam with reptilian grace through the murky liquid, their long, powerful tails propelling them at speed towards the platform islands.

It was a crude thing, made of thick pieces of bamboo and wood, constructed underneath the skeleton of some massive sea beast. Shadi would have loved to have been able to capture some images of the sight, but as she was naked and strapped to a pole, she doubted she would get the opportunity.

They released her from her bindings, tying her quickly the another, more sturdy beam by a simple leather collar around her neck. She fought them the entire time, but they overpowered her with ease, two holding her limbs out while the third, finished restraining her with the neck piece. The rope leading from it ran perhaps fifteen feet, and her island in particular used the skeletons ribs and bamboo logs to form a crude cage. They dragged her in, her tail thrashing every step of the way, before unceremoniously tossing her to the floor of the cage, tying her 'leash' around one of the thick bones.

Mercifully, they left her after that, chittering and laughing in the tongue she had come to loathe now. She tried kicking the bamboo stalks the made up the edge of her cage, but they were strong enough to not break, yet flexible enough that when she did strike them, they bounced and wobbled slightly before springing back into place.

She tried gnawing on the rope, but gave up on that only a few moments after starting when a foul taste made her gag and retch, leaning over a small hole in the floor as she spat away whatever disgusting substance they had coated it in. She decided against trying it again. It was far too thick to bite her way through anyway...

She spent half an hour fiddling with the collar around her neck, but despite herself, she couldn't manage to find a way to open the small locking clasp on the buckle.

She groaned in dismay, sitting her bare rump down on the floor so that she could pout in misery about her situation. The sun was still fairly high in the sky, casting shadows from the bars across the floor of her cell. Maybe if she waited, she could try and slip between the bars on one side by pushing them apart... But they seem to have taken that into consideration.

She guessed it was at least twenty feet down to the water below... Her leash was only fifteen... That would be a short drop with a sudden stop. It might still be an option, but only after she'd exhausted all the others first...

Not considering giving up are you?

"So what if I-" Shadi paused, looking around quickly as her ears swiveled. "Wait! How can you-"

The shadow at her feet seemed to dance across the floor, melding with the lines of those cast by her cell walls as they reshaped themselves into a vulpine like figure. It sat up before her, seeming almost corporeal. She could still see the opposite wall through him.

I did say that I would never be far away... The shadows make as good a place to stay as any. Daylight is far too harsh for the likes of us since our banishment. The shadow laughed at her, a fan of tails spreading out neatly behind it. Those icy blue eyes seemed to stare her down, as if admonishing her for even thinking the things she had. Now that he had a muzzle she could see, his expression seemed to bleed disappointment.

"Just... What are you?" Shadi frowned, still trying to ponder that out herself... She had an idea, but... Weren't Keaton said to have been gold, and not black?

You already have the answer to that from that look in your eyes... A hundred years of banishment and being under Ganon's influence caused some... Changes. Many of my kind did not adapt as well to life in the twilight, if it could even be called that. I'm not sure that there are any more who have realized escape is now possible, but readapting to this new and changed world could take another hundred years.

She nodded quietly, covering her breasts with her paws as a breeze gusted through, making her shiver quietly.

"What is this place? Do you know how I can escape?" She tried a new line of questions instead, still more focused on her immediate plight than learning anything new. Perhaps he could help her in some way...

I would suggest the water, but I imagine you've already done the math with that... This is the western Lanayru region... I watched them take you, and hid in their shadows until they brought you here. Your bird friend I last saw taking off to the east as soon as he saw they had captured you. It's possible he's gone to warn the Zora at the bottom of the river of your plight, but I cannot say for sure... You were the one who freed me. It seems I can't go far from you, so... The vulpine paused, his spectre laying out on the floor of her cell, before he melded back into the shadow of her leg.

I am free from one prison, only to be trapped in another.

"Wait... How exactly did I free you? You weren't exactly very specific on that whole deal..." She blinked as she realized it, looking down at the shadow beneath her legs. It felt... Weird to be talking to her shadow, but at the same time, should she have spoken to the wall instead?

Ahhh... If I had the answer to that, I wouldn't need to be following you around, would I? Truthfully, I do not know. I was minding my own business when a gateway opened before me. Those only lead one place, so I took my chance and leapt through into the shadows on the wall of that cave. When I arrived, you and the Bird were already... preoccupied.

Shadi felt her nose flush, one paw brushing over the tip of her pinkening nose.

"He did kind of save my life..."

A most nobel venture. As I recall, I did as well.

"Yes, but he asked nicely."

There was a long moment of pause.

Touche.

The vulpine was silent for a long moment before he spoke again.

Typhlo was also the only place dark enough for me to possibly materialize fully... Even here, I can only move between dark patches that are barely in shadow enough to show you my physical form, but not assume it.

He sounded almost... Upset by that, but she could relate in her current situation. She was trapped in a prison of bars and ropes. He was trapped in a prison of shadows and proximity to her.

"So why me in specific then? Why not Kass?"

Again, I do not have the answers. I don't make the rules, I'm just forced to abide by them... Perhaps the gods know. Perhaps not. Maybe if we can escape from this situation, we can find out together. I tremble to think what may become of me if you were to perish.

Shadi wasn't quite sure to respond to that... It was a nice sentiment that he was worried for her, even if it was for somewhat self-serving reasons. It seemed like one way or another, their fates had become intertwined, but not in any neat, intentional way. More in the way that a piece of yarn placed in one's bag would find a way to form intricate, complex knots if left alone kind of way.

"It would make for a good story, I suppose. Maybe something worth Kass singing about." She managed a soft, self-reassuring smile.

"So.. Any idea how we can get out of here?" She spoke again after a long moment's silence, her tail twitching on the bamboo floor.

If I knew, we wouldn't be here. Give it some time. Perhaps opportunity will present itself.

That was... Less helpful that she had helped.

"So what do I call you then? If we're stuck together, I can't just call you shadow."

He was silent for a long moment, before his voice finally did return with a frustrated growl.

I... I do not know. Ganon robbed us of names when we were banished. I had a name once, generations ago, but it escapes me like trying to grasp at the wind. Call me what you will for now... Perhaps in time, it will come to me again.

Shadi frowned, thinking hard. How could you lose your name and still call yourself something? In her history books, often a name was all that was left of a person once they were gone... She couldn't imagine not having one, but something that would fit for the time being did come to her quickly, a cheeky sort of grin crossing her lips.

"I'm going to call you Stay." She declared, unable to help herself the playful little jab. It provided her some small measure of comfort in her current predicament.

Ha ha. I'm going to ignore you now.

She sensed just a slight hint of an eyeroll with his words.

---

The skies darkened soon after, rolling with deep grey clouds that brought with them a sudden downpour in their wake. It was just on sunset she guessed by the rapidly fading light, and so far, the only interruption to her thoughts she had was when a green scaled Lizfols came by to check her cell, and leave a hunk of bread and water in a crude wooden cup for her.

She drank and ate quickly, before returning to her corner the huddle from the rain. At least beneath the arch of the great sea-beasts skeleton, she had shelter from that much, but she kept her tail tightly curled around herself, wishing to all the world that she had a fire to lay by at least.

From what she could tell, her Lizfols captors weren't enjoying the biting chill of the wind blowing in from the Layranu mountains. She looked longingly out the the north, wishing instead that it would shift and bring a dry, hot breeze sweeping into the wetlands...

She tugged against the leather of her collar, managing to wriggle a finger into the gap between the smooth material and her throat, scratching at the skin beneath her fur where it was beginning to rub.

A torch burned quietly on the edge of her cell, the flames flickering erratically in the wind. Through the crude bars confining her, she could see a few of her guards patrolling back and forth along the seemingly random walkways between platforms. Every so often they stopped, flickering their entire bodies in very reptilian and alien way to shake off the droplets of water clinging to their scales.

She figured their had to be some kind of hierarchy amongst them. The chromatic ones seemed to be lowest, and typically they were the ones who brought her food and checked torches. Lookouts and low guards. Once, she had seen a silver scaled one snapping orders and having the rest hasten to obey. And then, there was the gold one, who she had witnessed striking a green one with his sword, knocking it clean into the lake.

That one she figured had to be the one in charge, and it was the gold one who seemed most interested in her. She could make him out in the distance, scales gleaming in the light of a fire as they prepared a boar to roar across the flames.

The smell of the meat made her mouth water, and her stomach growled with a renewed fury at its current mistreatment.

"You had your bread. Quiet." She scolded her stomach, but it didn't help the hunger pangs any. She rolled over on her side, tucking her arm beneath her head as a makeshift pillow as she tried to sleep, but the pelting rain and lighting outside didn't help on that front. She'd never liked storms since her first encounter with thunder and lightning as a child.

The whole experience had left her curled into a tight ball beneath the corner of her bed, frightened and wide eyed. In her current situation, it wasn't much better, and she watched with her heart racing as blinding bolts struck the lake around her at random. She curled in on herself in the center of her cage, her ears folding each time the storm crashed overhead. The torch on the edge of her cell flickered against the wind, threatening to go out at any moment.

"Stay?" She cautiously raised her voice, but her shadowy companion was nowhere to be found. That made sense. It was dark, and he could move more freely now, even if it wasn't enough around the camp for him to become fully formed. There were too many torches and lights for that, she reasoned...

She hugged her tail. She could hardly blame him for wanting to test the boundaries of his own confinement, but at the same time, misery loves company. Her nose twitched as a droplet of water splashed against the leathery skin, and she recoiled back with a quiet sneeze.

She curled back up and tried to sleep in vain. It worked for a short time, but it was also hard to gauge how much time had passed between the storm clouds overhead, and the flickering light of the dying torch on the walkway outside her cage. There was just no way for her to reliably know.

A shadow fell across her, interrupting her sleep, and groggily, she sat up, blinking as a pair of strong, leathery claws grabbed her by the shoulders. Sharp, slitted eyes looked down at her, as the golden scaled Lizfols made a loud, warbling cry. Shadi was awake instantly at that, squirming and trying to get away from his grip as the beast marched her over to one of the bars of her cell, carrying her with all the effort of a giant lifting a mere child.

She kicked against his hide, but her feet did little more than tickle his scales, and her claws simply scraped off of his firm hide without catching. His low growl made her freeze, and his tongue whipped out, slapping her hard enough across the cheek to make her head spin momentarily as the creature asserted his dominance.

Still dazed, she didn't fight when it gripped her wrists tightly, raising them above her head. Her face was pressed against the bamboo bars of her cell as he bound her hands to the wall above her, binding them tight enough for it to sting and snap her thoughts back into focus. The rope attached to her collar fell away as the creature slashed it off of her neck, all the while making those warbling reptilian clicks, watching her every motion with his beady, wide eyes.

The Lizfols stood an easy four or more feet over her own diminutive barely five foot frame, and it showed by the reptiles manhandling of her, pushing and shifting her as it shoved her chest against the rails for the cage, hunching down overtop of her. She knew what was coming, even if she didn't want to admit it, and tilting her head, she sank her teeth into the bamboo bars of her cage, preparing for the worst.

The Lizfols was neither considerate or gentle, but at least having his cocks stored internally meant that he was somewhat naturally lubed. The first touch as it started humping against her back was so foreign and alien that it made her shudder in revulsion. Under another set of circumstances, she might have been able to enjoy the male's attention, but like this, in the middle of the night, it proved almost impossible.

His twin lengths probed for her body's entrance, sliding messily between her thighs as he hiked her unwilling tail up for him, and found not one, but two warm and accepting holes to stuff himself into.

With a bark of triumph, he thrust home, and Shadi winced as her unprepared body was forced open, both her womanhood and tailhole violated by the beast as it took her with all the savagery the Lizfols were known for.

Hers claws tore at the surface of the bamboo as the Lizfols's thrusts picked up pace now that he was snugly inside of her, breeding her like a good slave, and introducing her to her new position within the camp with no measure of gentleness to be found. He pounded her like a beast, and Shadi did her best to retreat within herself, but between the lengths spearing into her unprepared body and the animalistic, reptilian noises from behind her, her luck on that front was slim.

It wasn't her first time being forced into such a posistion, but it was certainly the worst. At least the Rito had just been after her coin, and hadn't been outwardly cruel about it. Even Stay had taken the time to prepare her for what he wanted. The Lizfols made no such concessions as the beast raped her. It was probably unheard of in their culture. The strongest simply took whichever females they wanted, and lesser members of the tribe either got stronger, sneakier, or had their lineage die off with them.

The gold was the strongest of the tribe, and he took her like his position warranted him to. Shadi let out a groan as he hilted himself inside of her, twisting, tappered cocktips twitching against her cervix and bowels as she was rutted like a common breeding bitch, the male above her gripping her waist tightly with his scaled hands, forcing her back into his thrusts.

Her body ached as she was forced to accommodate him, her curvy, feline figure certainly not made for a male his size, but the Lizfols didn't care. She was warm and tight, and he fucked her all the same.

Lightning cracked overhead, And briefly, Shadi swore she saw some shadowy beast watching her from the shore of the lake, but as quickly as the flash came, it was gone, replaced by the glowing torchlight and the silhouettes on the walls of her prison of the small feline being fucked by a far too large reptile.

She was no stranger to anal, but then again, the one male who had gotten away with it had also earned a facefull of claws for his trouble. It was painful, and it didn't help her any that the Lizfols hadn't even tried to attempt any foreplay. He was simply taking what he wanted, and she was forced to grit her teeth and bite down harder to endure it, huffing loudly through her nose as she panted, her rapist growling and snapping behind her.

Fortunately for her, the Lizfols wasn't as long lasting as many of her other partners, the beast letting out a screech as it claimed her ass and cunt for its own. Shadi shuddered as she felt each hot splash of seed across her insides, trying to fight back a wave of nausea as it yanked itself harshly from her body with a wet pop. Sticky strings of off white cum leaked from her abused body onto the floor beneath, before dripping down further to fall into the lake below.

She sighed, taking a deep, heaving breath as she tried to push what of the beasts deposit she could from herself. She was sore, but intact and alive, and that was a start at least.

Lightning cracked again as the Lizfols turned about, grabbing her by the hips again as it crawled over her still throbbing body, looking for a second round. She growled, squirming as the beast pushed himself into position again, mounting her barely a minute after he'd just finished. He forced her head back down against the bars as his cocks slid once again between her spread thighs, thrusting roughly up into her.

At least this time, the cum still dripping from her helped to lubricate his passage, wet, messy slaps echoing out in the night against the pouring rain as the beast fucked her again against the bars of her cage, like she was nothing more than a convenient hole for him to blow a load into. She shivered as cold seeped into her limbs, her wrists sore and burning from the awkward position that the Lizfols insisted fucking her in, but she didn't cry out. She wouldn't allow them the satisfaction, nor would she allow herself to break.

She panted, trying to think of anything else but the throbbing lengths violating her body, or the wet slaps as the lizard's hips collided with her ass. She tried to ignore the stinging of the way he forced her body open around his twin pricks, or the chafing against her wrists from the rope while he thrust brutally into her.

The creature shoved her harshly up against the bars, scaled fingers gripped around the soft mounds of her breasts, treating the sensitive flesh to a far to rough treatment as it continued to savage her body without a care in the world. It warbled as warmth flooded her insides again, and pulled out with a messy splash of cum leaving her body as it stepped back to recover, giving Shadi a few moments of respite before it would no doubt come back looking for more.

Another crack made her jump anxiously, her body already on edge as she trembled, the cold finally catching up with her as she tried to curl her tail about herself to fend off the chill. The world lit up with a flash of light from the lightning, and a rolling boom followed in its wake. Blue eyes watched her from the darkness outside her cage.

Stay strong a moment longer... Just a few moments more.

Another flash and Shadi winced, her body tensing up as the thunderclap rolled after it. But when she realized that it was no flash of lighting, she dared to peek across her shoulder. The golden Lizfols was on the other end of the cage, looking out over the camp.

Several of the platforms were on fire, and it was only then when another explosion occurred that she realized what the boom had been. From the water on the far end of the camp, several slender figures cut through the water, silver bows raised as they rained bomb arrows down onto the startled Lizfols on the platforms.

A breeze suddenly kicked up, and the torch on the outside of her cell went out, the flames drowned under a torrent of rain.

Now.

It happened so fast she could barely track Stay's movements as he formed in the sudden darkness, blue eyes burning with a righteous fury. His frame landed on the reptile leader's back, teeth snapping and tails flailing as he clamped his teeth about its throat. With an utterly savage tear, he ripped the creatures throat out, its dying cries gaining the attention of several of the other Lizfols in the camp, a horn sounding in alarm.

As the golden scaled beast faded into a purple mist, her shadowy companion dashed back across to her, rearing up the rip the ropes holding her wrists apart, almost pushing her over with his bulk. The Lizfols outside were closing in quickly, trying to head off this sudden and unexpected assassination of their leader.

Now or never. Jump! His voice shouted in her head as he slipped back into shadows, and Shadi hesitated only a moment, squeezing her way between the bamboo bars and out onto one of the rib bones of the giant creature that had been the foundation of her cage.

Anywhere is better than here. She thought, taking a deep breath before she threw herself into the darkness of the night air, praying that the water beneath her was more gentle with her than these beasts had been as she fell.

She hit the surface with a hard splash, icy cold and dark embracing her like an old friend as she sank beneath the surface, her consciousness fleeing as darkness overtook her.