FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

First and foremost this story is copyright by me and may not be used in part or wholly without my express consent

Secondly I am "NOT' an English major I scraped by with a d average in school and do not need criticism on my writing abilities. This is a story of MY mind. There is no reason to tell me that I flunked in the English department.

This book is ongoing and I'm not sure when or how it will end as of yet. I have spells of inspiration and dry spells where I can't think of anything to write about. My real life is so boring that I created this world in my mind to have something to do.

Otherwise enjoy the story and understand that my life was influenced by authors such as Terry Brooks, J.J.R. Tolkien, and Ray Bradbury and several of the artists in SoFurry and the old Yiffstar.

Chapter 6

About ten minutes later Herod returned with the rods I mentioned and said, "I believe you are right these are strong enough."

A short time later Doreen and Navaja came into the house. I asked the three of them to get some seats and hear my idea.

"As you know the moon will be full soon again. I intend to be prepared for another attempt on my life by the same beast that did this to me. But I want to have a better ability to stop them. Firstly Herod is working on some braces to help me exercise my muscles so I can get strong enough to sit. Secondly I want any of you to find me a log that is about six inches around and about a yard long with a hole in it about a foot deep into it and about 2 inches in diameter."

I saw the quizzical looks as I told them about the makings of my gun. They didn't have a clue as to what it was I wanted to make.

"Once that is found I want some hide strings wrapped around the hollowed out part of the stick and allowed to dry. I also want some Locust Tree thorns as well as some wolfs bane or what is known here as the monkshood plant. I know it is very poison, I'm counting on that. This is the part I need from you Navaja; I need the powder you use to make the plants grow fast. In my world we call it potassium nitrate and some raw sulfur powder. I also need some charcoal, the unburnt pieces of wood after a fire. With those items I intend to make a weapon that will stop the thing in its tracks."

Navaja asked, "How much of the items do you need?"

I replied, "I would like enough of the powders to make about a glass worth each. That way I can experiment and see which will burn faster by experimenting a bit."

"What I'm going to need the most however is your promises that when I finish this thing you will forget that I made it.

It is an abomination and has killed many a being on my world. For that reason I want to forget how to make them after I am sure the one to challenge me is passed."

They looked at me with a strange look on their face as if to say that I was nuts. I then raised my hands out to them and said softly, "Promise me, please."

The three in unison then said, "We promise."

The next day Herod brought my pulling devices as well as the log with the hole in it. He said, "I had a bit of luck with that, it's a leftover from the watering pipes in my place. We didn't drill out the hole completely because we had all we needed already made."

I looked it over and thought it was perfect. I then asked if he would make a hole into the tube part about the size of the wire I brought over through the side."

He said, "That will pose no problem."

I began my muscle strengthening exercises using Herod's devices. The first night I was so sore I could hardly move. Navaja had a medicine to relax my muscles and allow me to get some sleep.

The next morning Navaja asked, "Are you sure that thing will return, after all you did hurt it as well?"

"It knows that if I am alive that I am weakened and an easy target. This is why I want to be as ready as I can for it."

I had my breakfast and started my work out again and straining till I was totally exhausted, which was about ten minutes. I rested up and began again forcing myself to continue till I just couldn't go on then I rested for several hours including a nap.

When I awoke, it was because of a knock on the door. Navaja opened it and Herod entered with my cannon in hand all wrapped as I asked and the hole bored into it like I asked for.

"Is this what you wanted?" he asked of me.

"That is absolutely perfect my friend."

I didn't hear Doreen enter and she came over to me with the thorns and the wolvesbane and said, "The kids picked the thorns and I got the flower you asked for."

I said to her, "set the flowers on the nightstand I'm using to eat off of and I'll strip the plants to be extracted and the thorns soaked in it."

That evening I had stripped the flowers, leaves and seeds from the wolvesbane and had Doreen cooking them down for me over the fireplace.

Navaja came in with the potassium nitrate and the sulfur that evening as well and I said, "All I need is the charcoal."

Suddenly the door opened and Aramis came in the house carrying some black powder material and handed it to his dad saying, "Will this do dad?"

He handed me the mixture and I saw it was ground coal dust and I nodded to them both and said, "Perfect."

With all that was happening I was worn out and I said to them, "I'm very tired and am going to eat and go to sleep soon after. I thanked them all and said good evenings to them that were going to their places. I knew that it was again Navaja's turn to babysit me.

As I had said I ate dinner and went to sleep soon after dinner.

When I awoke it was still dark but I could tell the sun was about to rise so I tested my strength to sit up by myself. By the time Navaja had entered the room I was sitting upright on the bed edge. She was shocked to see me sitting there.

"I don't have the time to be a slow healer so I'm going to force myself to this position as often as I can."

She looked at me and saw that I was pale and she said, "You are pushing it too hard and your body is telling me so."

"I know I look weak but if I survive the full moon I promise to do just what you tell me to do. But that is only if I make it past the moon phase."

I then asked, "Would you bring me the container with the soaking thorns please?"

Navaja brought the thorn filled bowl to me and I reached into it and took a thorn out and looked at it. It had changed color from the wolvesbane essence soaked into it. I was pleased with that and put it back into the bowl and set it down on the stand.

I then asked "Will you take me to the table to sit?"

She looked as if I had just slapped her across the face. "You're not ready for getting over there yet."

I then said, "Well, Take me to the table or bring it to me so I can start testing my powder mixing."

"You don't know how to relax, do you?" she said.

"I did that last night, very early if you remember."

She brought in a table about one third the size of my table in the kitchen but just as sturdy. She sat it in front of me and said, "Herod was thinking ahead in this case and brought this over last evening while you slept."

"Remind me to thank him." I asked her.

I then started mixing powders in small amounts and testing their burn rate with an ember from the fireplace. When I finally got the mix about right I made a large batch of it and then took a little of it and tested it and it was very volatile.

I had my room smelling of burnt gunpowder quickly and when Herod arrived he wrinkled his snout and asked, "What is that stink?

I then said, "It is my powder for the log you brought me."

He then said, "I hope this will work like you think."

I said, "We all will know next week won't we."

With that I asked him to bring me a stick that I could use to put a rag around to push the powder to the back of the log with. He brought me just such a stick and I poured my powder into the muzzle and tamped it into place.

I then said, "Herod would you take and put the thorns outside somewhere to dry out."

He then asked, "Will this kill anything else?"

"I'm not sure so be careful with it."

He did as I asked and by nightfall the thorns had dried out quite well. I asked that they be left in a window for one more day of drying before I load them into my log. I had by that time worked myself to exhaustion again and was so tired that I forgot to eat.

When Navaja had returned she was flat irate with me for not taking in any food for the day.

"How are you going to get stronger if you don't eat you dummy?" she yelled at me.

She then made me a big meal and sat there making sure that I ate most all of it. When I finished it off she helped me lay back down and I was asleep about as soon as my head hit the bed.

When I awoke again it was before dawn. I decided that I could use more sleep and tried to go back to sleep and just tossed and turned for the next couple of hours. I heard Navaja as she entered my room even though she was trying to be quiet and not wake me.

"I'm awake already."

She said, "I'm surprised you're not trying to get up yet then."

"I decided to relax for a bit today before I start working out."

She then said, "I'll be right back with your breakfast then." She then went to the kitchen to make breakfast.

I decided I would get myself up and proceeded to pull myself to a sitting position. Surprisingly it hurt less today to do this. When Navaja reentered the room and saw me sitting she sort of smiled at me.

"You seem to be better today. You're not as white as yesterday when you sat up by yourself."

Looking at her shapely body I smiled back and said, "When you have someone as lovely as you are, taking care of you it helps the pain to ease some."

Again even through her black fur I could see her blush. She stammered over saying, "You are too kind."

I replied with, "I only speak the truth and if I survive what I think is coming; I would love the chance to prove it to you."

She brought my food over and sat and watched me eat it and then said as she stood up, "I really hope you are still here after this full moon, whether you really want to be with me or not. It would have been a huge waste of time on

Doreen, Herod and myself if you don't."

I then started working my upper body with Herod's equipment as Navaja took the dished and went to the kitchen with them. I was still doing my exercised when Doreen came into the house.

"Herod has some business to tend to so I will be here until he gets back. How are you doing today?"

I smiled at her as I rested for a bit and said, "I'm getting better a little at a time."

Navaja came into the room and told Doreen about my being upright by myself and then said, "Time for me to tend to a few matters of my own as well. I'll see you tonight." She then left to do her normal business.

When gone, Doreen looked at me and asked bluntly, "Do you like her?"

I was flabbergasted by the blunt question and I sat there and thought about it for awhile. I then looked into those big doe eyes of Doreen's and said, "I believe it I had time, I could come to love her."

Doreen was looking in my eyes and saw I was telling the truth and said, "That's good. I believe she really likes you as well. I think that you two could become more than just friends if you let it."

I smiled at her and said, "If I survive the full moon, I might take up the idea of dating her, if she would have me. I'm not too much to look at right now with all of these wounds."

She then smiled at me and said, "You know that the injuries you have was the reason we brought her here to you but I must admit, Herod and I had other ideas as well after she dressed your wounds."

I looked at her and she saw the questioning look I had on my face.

"We both thought that she seemed to be a little more interested in you than just to get you as close to healed as she did, she seemed to take a genuine liking to you and it showed in her caring for you, she demanded to be the one to watch over you overnight, saying that it was then that most people quit living. She then was the one who has been giving you your baths. She seems to want to make sure you are well all by herself and I feel she would do just that if need be."

Doreen then smiled at me and continued, "She would of exhausted herself to take care of you if not for Herod and I making her take time to tend to herself. And just a little more to think about before she came here and met you she was nowhere as nice looking. She had let her fur get all matted and she quit trying to look good for others."

I then asked her, "Why is someone as pretty as her not attached to someone?"

I saw the look of sadness in Doreen's eyes she replied, "When the creator made us she was the only panther that he found. She being solid colored made the males of the cat species shy away from her afraid of the offspring she would make. Who would want a black lion, tiger, or even house cat. They all refused to even look at her as she grew up alone."

"That's horrible. Just because she is a black panthress they didn't want anything to do with her?"

Doreen nodded to me. She then said, "She is still a virgin as far as Herod and I know. She has never had anyone that would love her for who she was and not worry about the outcome of the coupling."

She then looked down at the floor and said softly, "Please don't tell her I said this to you. She might feel as if we were making the decisions for her and she is very independent because of her aloneness."

"I will keep it to myself. I like the three of you too much to make something like that to come between us."

With that Doreen smiled at me and said, "I trust you will. Is there anything I can do for you?"

I looked at my present state and said, "Would you bring me some water so as I get hot I can use it to cool down?"

She left for a few then came back with a pitcher of water and sat it on my nightstand and then said, "I'll be puttering around, if you need anything just holler."

She then left to do whatever she felt necessary and I continued to exercise. After I worked myself to exhaustion again I lie back in the bed and fell asleep. When I awoke Herod was there and when he saw I was awake he said,

"Doreen told me that she told you about the situation with Navaja. I hope you don't take offence that she and I have kind of helped her make a decision to try to go with you."

"Herod my friend, you must think a lot of me to have someone as beautiful as she is to give me, a injured cripple a chance to be her mate."

He shook his head, "Not at all my friend. She already seemed to care about you when she bandaged you up. We just tried to give her the idea that you may be receptive to her if she gave you a chance to."

"No wonder why she blushed so when I flirt with her."

Herod looked at me and with a grin as wide as his muzzle would allow. He then said, "So you have been trying to make her smile."

"Herod, I think with a little time I could come to love her."

He looked at me with the goofiest expression I had ever seen on his muzzle as he was grinning from ear to ear. He made the Cheshire cat of Alice in Wonderland look like an amateur at smiling.

Then he said, "I hope something comes from both your neediness. You both seem made for each other anyway."

I then looked at him and said, "I just don't want to press it too much till after I'm sure of my attacker's intent."

He then took on a more somber look and asked, "Do you really think this thing you made will do the trick?"

"I believe if it does not cause it death, it will hurt it beyond anything it has ever experienced before. And if my thoughts about the were's, the others will sense it's weakness and turn on her."

He then said, "We will know for sure soon then, won't we?"

"I believe we will indeed know very soon."

For the next few days it was the same thing. Herod or Doreen watching me most of the day and Navaja looking after me at night. My exercising had got me to the point that I could sit without any pain and I started working on my legs to stand. I was getting good at it but I was still too weak to stand for very long or walk.

Then the day came I was sort of hating. This was the night before the full moon and I had explained to Herod and

Navaja that I was going to stay in bed for most of the day resting up to stay awake for the night.

Both Herod and Navaja was staying with me this night for fear that I would need help. I then got up around sunset and asked to be helped into the living room to sit facing my front door.

After getting me there I was exhausted and I rested for a few minutes.

I then asked Herod, "Bring my log, with the tamper and thorns over to me so I can finish getting it ready."

Herod did as I asked. I took the straw that I had previously filled with powder and checked it for leaks and saw none.

I then took the thorns and carefully wadded them up in a ball with the tips facing the same way. I took the extra wadding out of the gun and placed the thorns into the barrel tips out and gently tamped them into place. I then took the small stick I had readied for the purpose of making a hole in the powder for the makeshift fuse. I used the stick and pushed it into the small hole Herod had bore in through the side of the homemade cannon. I then took the straw full of powder and placed it into the hole I just made. I then said to them both that I would need a fire of some kind to touch off the powder.

Herod made a small fire in the fireplace and had a long stick slowly turning to embers.

The moon was out in almost fullness when the three of us heard the sound at my front door. I had instructed the two of them to leave it openable and for them to stay out of sight. I also said that it was going to be loud when this weapon I made goes off so they might want to cover their ears.

Herod gave me the stick with the ember burning on the end of it and then he and Navaja went into the nearest bedroom.

I didn't have long to wait. The door crashed open and there stood the skunk-morph Herminie.

She just said, "Now you die!!!"

As she stepped towards me I placed the hot coal to my makeshift fuse. It lit with a flash and a split second later there was a flash and a bang so loud that my ears would ring for three days later. The force of the blast blew my chair over backwards. I scrambled to get myself oriented to see if my gun had worked. Upon turning I saw that it indeed had done quite well. Herminie was blown back outside my door with what looked like most of the thorns making contact with her. She was writhing in pain and screaming as the wolvesbane poison entered her from the thorns that pierced her body.

Herod and Navaja rushed out of the bedroom to check on me and both had a look of relief as they saw the situation.

Though I was down I was still able to move and I got up to my knees and asked, "Someone help me to the couch."

Herod reached me first and gently lifted me and sat me on the couch and asked, "Are you alright?"

I nodded and said, "Close the door before something else decides to investigate."

As Herod went to the door and looked at the skunk as he closed the door, Navaja came over to me and proceeded to give me a complete examination.

When I started to protest she just cut me off saying, "Just let me check you out to make sure you're all right, and then you can gripe about me being too much of a worrier."

I let her examine me as Herod walked over and said, "Man that thing is vicious. If she makes it to leave the porch she won't get far. She has several holes in her throat that have pierced her artery. Even if she makes it away from here she will die later and if her being a Were, she will be killed by her kind for being in a weakened state."

I looked at the stick now laying on the floor where it fell after it blew me backwards. "Make a bigger fire and throw that thing into it. I never want to have to resort to that thing again."

Herod nodded and proceeded to make a larger fire in my fireplace. As it got up to a larger fire he tossed the makeshift cannon into it. I smiled at them both and then said, "I'm ready for some sleep."

They both looked at me as if to say how.

I just said, "I am still recovering from the wounds I received from my previous meeting with that thing." I then slumped back and before I did anything else Navaja came over and slipped her arms around me and gently lifted me up and took me to my bedroom.

As she laid me in my bed I reached up and brought her muzzle to mine and placed a kiss on her cheek and then I said, "Thank you so very much beautiful."

Her face flushed as she blushed again and looked everywhere but at me. I reached up and again gently brought her to look at me and said, "The thing is gone and now I think I should tell you the truth. I think I am falling in love with you my sweet little kitty."

Suddenly I saw several emotions race through her facial features and it seemed to finish with fear. She then said, "I think you are just saying that to make sure I continue to care for you."

I gently slid my arm around her waist and said, "Would you be surprised if I said I want you to become my life mate then? I don't want to rush into it but I do indeed want us to try, that is if you want to. If you don't then I will do as I have before and continue my lonely search for a mate."

When I said that she just stared at me and after what seemed like an eternity to me she said, "You don't even know about me or my past. How can you just blurt out what you did without wanting to know about my past? How could you fall in love with an almost stranger?"

Before she could say anything else I put a finger to her lips and said softly, "I have never cared about ones past. The only thing I am interested in is a possible future and I would love the honor to spend it with you."

I then pulled her gently to me and hugged her to me. To my surprise I felt something fall to my arm and I realized it was a tear. I then looked at her face and asked, "Why are you crying. Did I do something wrong?"

She then looked at me and said, "I have never been proposed to before. I don't know what to do."

"Just say you'll give it a try."

She then grabbed and hugged me back and said, "Yes, I will give you a try and when you wake back up I will tell you my full story if you will hear it."