FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Kesis was nearly there. The Great Library of Port Lion loomed in the distance. It wasn't a particularly extravagant building. The architect designed the building to be a basic box shape four stories tall, and four basements deep. It was made, at least from what Kesis could see, out of red granite with three narrow black tinted windows on each side that ran from top to bottom across all the floors of the building. Kesis felt a rush of excitement. He was finally here. After all those years of reading about the place he finally got to see it. He was going to get to do more than just see the building he was there with a purpose. Port Lion's library was the only one on the planet with volumes detailing demonic magic. It was this magic, he thought, that lured his father away all those years ago when he was just a little boy. He had waited so many years in Bishop's bluff reading and re-reading any manuscript he could on runic magic.

Runic magic, from what Kesis had read, was the only human magic that was similar to demonic magic. No one that ever went to the Northlands had ever returned with any useful information about demons, or beast men, as the common folk called them. The one's that did return horribly disfigured and were driven so mad that they were not able to communicate. The very thoughts about what could have caused this made Kesis shudder a little. He was a little frightened about what he might find in this grand library.

Kesis put any bad thoughts and apprehension to rest and grabbed onto the handle of the front door of the library and pulled it open. What Kesis saw did much to calm him. "It is just a normal library, see?" he told himself. They even had a material guidance desk just like the one in the library at Bishop's Bluff. This desk was much bigger and was manned by a sizable team. At least 15 people from what Kesis could see to count. He strode up to the guidance desk with a smile beaming across his face. A young girl of at least 20 caught his gaze and raised her hand to get his attention. She was short and slender with brown hair and crystal blue-white eyes.

"Hello sir!" she greeted Kesis. "New here are you?" she asked, already knowing the answer. "I'm Alys, a material handler for the library. Anything in particular I can help you locate?"

"My name is Kesis," Kesis started "I'm looking for a book with no title. It has only the Northman's rune for Hell carved on to its surface."

The young librarian's smile faded. "That book is restricted." She said plainly crossing her arms. If you want to take it from the library, I'm afraid it isn't allowed to leave the premises. And, I should warn you," she said with a grave look on her face. "People who seek out that book have bad things happen to them. I know you're a scholar and you probably don't believe in such things, but I'm telling you that book is bad news. Don't spend too much time with it.

"I assure you," Kesis insisted "I'll stay here as long as it takes to learn what I need to." You'll have no funny business from me. I'm only after the location of the entrance to the underworld. I won't be needing the tome after I mark the location on my map."

"Even so," she mentioned, "The less time you spend in that section with that book the better as far as I'm concerned." She pointed to Kesis' right indicating a stairwell down. "You'll find what you're looking for down on sub level four. It's the restricted section marked 'DT'. You'll no doubt have the whole section to yourself. That section is believed to be cursed.

"Ha!" Kesis boomed loudly wincing when realized how disrupted the outburst was. "I don't think I'm going in completely ignorant. I'll take care of myself. Thank you for your time miss. Farewell."

The young lady said nothing. She simply smiled and turned away as Kesis did the same heading for the stairwell. He peered over the railing and looked down through all four basements' landings. At the bottom it was dark. Kesis huffed. He looked down to the first landing. There was a torch on the wall in the center of the landing. Kesis trotted down the stairs and removed the torch from the wall. It was actually quite heavy. He hefted it up with both hands and started his descent. He moved quickly downward. Landing after landing he could feel himself getting quite excited.

Kesis arrived at the darkness at the bottom of the stairs. He lifted the torch higher to try to find himself and guide himself towards his destination. "She said it's in a section marked 'DT'" Kesis' eye caught a small sign that marked the way to section "D" he quickly shuffled down the path in between gigantic shelves that rose 12 feet in the air loaded down with dust covered, neglected books. As he got closer to section D he began to hear something. A faint rapid rushing of air. Finally, he rounded a corner torch in hand and beheld a surprising site.

Two young scholars lay on the floor. One on his back with his legs resting on the shoulders of his companion. His companion was feverishly jerking and bucking himself in to the eagerly awaiting anus of his companion. The one on top was a dark haired, bearded, muscular young man with a large patch of chest hair that ran all the way from his neck to his loins. The man on bottom was slender elfish looking young man with long flowing blond hair, and a hairless body.

The light startled them. They quickly stopped and stood up and began frantically dressing themselves. "Sorry sir!" the burlier youth said tucking his blue tunic into his waste band. "We're supposed to be down here cataloging. You're not with the LP staff, are you?" He questioned. "My name is Christoff." He said reaching down to help his slender companion off of the floor. "If there's anything you need found down here we can help you find it. This is Slater." He mentioned motioning to his friend. We've been working down here for as long as we can remember."

Slater smiled quietly and waved to Kesis. Kesis beamed back at Slater and said "Actually I'm looking for a book with the Northman's symbol for hell etched into the cover."

Slater and Christoff looked at one another. The mention of this book made them uneasy. Slater turned around and reached upwards under a sign marked "DT" he picked up a black leather book. It wasn't a very impressive book. It was poorly bound. Pages inside of it were loose. "Here." He said. He looked visibly fearful of the tome. "Chris lets get back to work and let this gentleman get to his study session."

Both young men took up their torches turned and disappeared down a row of books. Kesis turned around and walked the opposite direction back toward a table he had noticed on his way. He found a conveniently placed holder for his torch, pulled back a rickety chair, sat down, and opened the book. He nearly let a few pages spill out on to the floor. He caught them before they left the book's bindings. This was going to be hard work, all the language in the book was in runes or runic script. The language of the runes was centuries dead, and even after a lifetime of study there was no accounting for how they should be interpreted. Many of the old runic scholars used allegories and metaphors with the runic picture symbols. It was generally very difficult to decipher the script.

He flipped through a few pages and began to quickly thumb through the pages just to get an idea of how long he was probably going to be dealing with the work. As he thumbed through he felt a flash of heat under his thumb. He stopped and opened up curiously feverish page. There was a rune ward scrawled in a big circle on the page. It was the first demon rune he had ever seen. They were said to be magical, but no one ever knew how to use them. This one was a large outer circle ringing in a smaller inner circle. Messy runes were scribbled in the outer ring. The inner ring was a hand print, but it didn't look human. It looked like a wolf's paw, but somehow still slightly human. "Tell me please," He pleaded with the page. "What does this mean?"

He looked again at the hand print at the center of the runic seal. He felt a strange desire to be closer to the seal. Without realizing what he was doing he raised his hand and slowly it made its way closer to the seal. He knew he shouldn't touch it because it could have magical consequences, but he couldn't stop himself. The closer his hand got to the hand print on the seal the foggier his thoughts got. His mind was filled with images of carnal delights. He could feel his own arousal welling up inside him his hand touched the hand print on the seal and a light filled his eyes. As soon as it came it was gone and Kesis found himself laying on the cold dark floor of sub level four. His torch had burned out.

"How long was I unconscious?" he asked himself in the darkness. He still had so many questions. He reached for the book, but it was gone, and he had no way of finding it in the darkness. Suddenly he felt another flash of light cross his vision. He could now somehow see in the blackness. It was silhouettes of bookshelves, but it was better than nothing at all. "Didn't Christoff or Slater find me at any point?" he thought out loud. "They were probably too scared of some stupid curse. He was sure he'd be alright though he found the stairwell and climbed to the top. It wasn't just the basement either. The library upstairs looked brighter too. The light made him feel strangely weak. He just wanted to get to an inn and rest.

Kesis bounded for the door shoving a few other students aside as he burst through to the outside of the library. There were several inns across the streets from any side of the library. Kesis pointed his head towards the nearest one, feeling weaker by the second, and trotted to it crashing through the door. His instincts took over. He was feeling too weak. He managed to make pleasantries with the innkeeper and quickly paid for the night and made his way to his room upstairs. Just as he was feeling completely out of energy he collapsed onto the cheap cot in the corner of the room. He quickly fell out of consciousness again.