FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The forest swayed in the soft breeze, the chirping of crickets sticking out like a sore thumb from the horror that had unfolded earlier that evening. Mono could feel the thick bile and digestive fluids covering his clothes and exposed arms, heart pumping as he tried to regain his senses. He had always tried to avoid the wolf who'd eaten him, timing out his trips to the bar and living in human-only communities to try and mitigate the risk of being devoured, but all it took was one slip up and he'd been swallowed alive. Yet curiously he'd survived, blinking in shock as he sat on the cold ground, face-to-face with a feral dragoness unlike any he'd ever seen before.

She eyed him down in a mixture of emotions he couldn't quite place, her head pulled back in shock as her tail flicked back and forth behind her. The blurry image of the forest hid behind her translucent body, sharp claw-like markings painting her scales from just under her eyes to the tip of her tail. A wispy aura emanated around her in purple trails much like hair, showing the magical power she possessed. Her maw was held slightly agape, looking him over as he took in a deep gulp, uncertain as to who she was or what she wanted. "W-who are you?!" He gasped, wet hand on his chest as he glanced back at the lake behind him before meeting her eyes once more.

She tilted her head, breathing out as she took a step towards him, each movement slow and calculated. As she approached, he took notice of something abnormal on the left side of her neck, a purple crack among her otherwise beautiful scales. He barely had time to focus on it though as she whispered aloud more to herself than him, "You... You can see me?" She blinked again, looking over her wings and tail, seemingly lost in thought.

He stuttered, shaking his head and closing his eyes for a moment, "I, uh... Yeah? What's... what's going on?" He tried to steady his breathing but everything had happened so fast that he wondered if he was still dreaming. He moved his hands to the grass, feeling the cold touch of the soft blade between his fingers, exhaling as he looked back at her.

"What...?" She pondered, looking him straight in the eyes before turning her side to him, her ears perked as she closed her mouth and flapped her wings in confusion before they rested on her back once more. "How could you... This..." She stopped short, seemingly continuing her broken conversation in her head as her tail flicked back and forth.

He watched her numbly, his mind still unable to get the image out of his head of what he'd just nearly died to, the horrible clench of the hands around his body, guiding him down the throat of the predator. That disgusting feeling of fluids still covering his body accompanied by the tightness that seemed to crush him. It was all so real and the thought of Flare among it all only made the pain worsen. But now that he was free, sitting at the lake, he couldn't decide how to feel, hands shaking slightly from the endeavor.

"What... What happened in there? With the wolf before? W-who are you?" He muttered out, slowly starting to come back to his senses as he tried to hold himself together once again.

She met his gaze, her eyes closed only slightly as she looked him over. He couldn't help but feel smaller beneath her gaze, those symbols over her form only enhancing the uncertainty that mingled among his thoughts. After a few moments though, she responded in an annoyed and yet calculated tone, "I... I don't know exactly, but I have an idea..." She paused as if only now processing some of his words as she answered in a brash voice, muttering under her breath for a moment, "Three years and the first person that sees me is some human... great... Fine, if you must know, my name is Vera. I'm not used to people- well, anyone being able to see me for a long time so... Well, let's just say this was the last thing I expected to happen, yet here we are..."

She stomped a paw on the ground, eyeing him up and down as he continued in a hesitant voice, "Wait... are you saying you were the crystal? W-why can I see you now and not before?" He asked, mind jumbled with so many questions, "If so, why did you appear to me? What happened to the wolf, and why are you... see-through?"

"Listen, just... Shut up, okay? I'm just as confused as you are here." She growled back, swerving her head around to pace back and forth slightly. He took the moment to look over her form, noticing the bladeless end of her tail, for some reason an unexpected detail for a dragoness with such sharp markings. He found his heart flutter slightly at the sight of her, such a slender body complemented by the confident tone in her voice that made him think of the dragons he'd look at on his computer back at home. He quickly shook the train of thought from his mind, waiting for a long moment before she began, stopping before him as she huffed regrettably, "Okay, I guess if you're able to see me I should probably explain who I am and why I am this way..." She continued, looking around at the forest as she huffed in exasperation.

"I'll make this short and simple. There's an evil witch in The Dark Forest that put a spell on me when I was younger. She took away the physical form I had and made me into her Familiar. This." She motioned with a paw to herself, moving her talon through her chest, phasing through her in a way that was unsettling to Mono, having never seen anything like it.

He could feel a shiver pass through him as he tried to make sense of it all, "Are you... dead?"

She blinked, shaking her head for a moment before asking in disbelief, "What? What the fuck kind of question is that? No, I'm not dead, I'm a Familiar." She then waited for a moment, searching his gaze for something before growling softly, "Do you seriously not know what that is?"

He blinked, still dazed from it all as he tried to make sense, "N-no. If that's some sort of Pure or Dark Magic spell then I wouldn't be the person to ask. That's only reserved for Approved Casters."

She huffed, maw agape in disbelief before stomping her paw on the ground, "Well that's just great. Seems the whole world likes to hide away the most important things that once kept us all at peace... I always knew The Tamed Lands were bad but this? That's just stupid." She lashed her tail back and forth, shaking her head to try and calm herself. "I can't say that's unlike where I'm from though... Well, here's a little bit of a lesson in magic: Don't trust a Witch, or Dark Magic in general really. She put a curse on me, the curse of being a Familiar, taking away my physical body and hiding me away inside the crystal you saw before. By doing this she's in turn created a bond that she can use to control me, in turn making me invisible to the entire world except to her. But now, somehow, you can see me too."

She hummed softly to herself, looking down at her talons with a flick of her ear as she thought to herself. He attempted to clean off the liquids on the grass from his arms and head, grunting in discomfort as it refused to wipe away. "What happened though? You were in a gem earlier... what changed?"

She growled softly, taking a few steps closer to the edge of the water beside him, gazing across the lake mindlessly "I... I think it had something to do with the process of digestion." She then glanced over at him, sighing in disappointment before returning the look to the water, "From what I understand, when you become a Familiar, your body is taken control of by the one who cast the spell. Because of this, I wasn't able to control my body or change between forms like I can now, it was almost like I was a puppet for her. I was chained to her will."

She gripped the grass beneath her talons, tail slowing to a more even sway, "To my luck though, she'd fallen prey eventually to another animal as all eventually do, but with the spell of reformation she'd granted me, I was able to... bring her back to life. Oddly enough though, and unbeknownst to her, there was a side effect."

"After that encounter, I slowly found my consciousness returning back to me, able to think freely, finding I could change forms whenever I wanted without having to wait on her command. I hid this from her obviously, knowing if she found out that I may not get a chance like this again. So, I left just the other day when I was able to escape, hoping to find someone who could try and help me to learn more about how to break free and look more into if digestion can break one free from a spell."

He looked over at her, trying to follow everything, the fear that had taken hold of his heart at first starting to quell as he heard her story. Still, he spoke up, confused, watching as she moved from the lake and turned to the forest. "B-but, why did you show yourself to me? If you can go anywhere now, why would you need someone else to help you?"

She paused, opening her maw to speak before halting. She then spoke at a slower pace, looking away, "I... I needed someone who would be more easily preyed upon by other predators. Humans are a natural choice as they have no natural defenses and while I had no idea that this wolf was planning to eat you tonight, it further proves my point that you were the right choice." She then stared down at him, her blue eyes watching him, "Plus, you're allowed to feel grateful that I saved you. You wouldn't be sitting here otherwise."

He blinked, trying to piece it together as he spoke aloud. "So, you're saying that you're stuck in this... Familiar form and the only way out is to be digested?"

"Well, I..." She bit back her words, looking over at him before the sky above, taking a deep breath as she held her head high, "I'm not certain, but it is my hypothesis. I wanted to try and read about it in some of the spell books she had in her lair, but..." She let out a long breath, sneering, "I can't move or touch anything other than the ground. Besides, she had magic surrounding all the rooms with any sort of information I could glean, giving me no choice but to leave and seek help from someone else, even if I could only do so as a crystal." She then fluttered her wings once more before the lashing of her tail returned, glaring at him and his wet clothing, "There, I told my story. You happy now?"

"But, that still doesn't answer my question. How can I see you? What changed between the digestion? Maybe everyone can see you now?"

She rolled her eyes, "More questions? Huh... fine." She thought about it for the moment, pacing back and forth in front of him, "I... don't really know. She wouldn't let me see anything to give me any knowledge about how the connection between me and her truly worked but... As I mentioned before, when Rekali captured me and cast the spell, she created a bond, a link between us. It acted as a one-way path of communication, revealing my spirit body, and voice only to her. My guess is that somehow we bonded as well as we were being digested, but to what extent though I'm unsure of."

She then gave him a serious look, finishing, "This wasn't supposed to happen, okay, but regardless we're bonded now and in turn so are you. This has never happened to me before so if I'm ever going to escape you're gonna have to be my one-way ticket out of here, whether one of us likes it or not."

He blinked, starting to calm down only for his heart to race again as he came to understand what she was asking of him. "Wait... No, no I can't do that. I'm not about to volunteer myself to get... eaten again. Hell no." He then looked over himself, grunting at his soaked clothes before pulling himself to his feet and moving to his guitar, putting it back into its case.

Vera paused, seemingly shocked, her mouth agape slightly before sneering, "Excuse me? I thought most creatures had a kink for vore."

"Yeah, well I don't!" He shouted, looking over his shoulder as he placed the instrument carefully into the fabric, turning back to it as he closed the lid and snapped each of the latches in place to secure it. "Listen, I know you're going through something... really hard and I wish I could help you but... You've got the wrong person."

He couldn't lie, he had a hard time trying to think about what she must have been put through, taken away from wherever she once lived, forced into submission by a Witch. But he was just a guy, a person who'd rather spend his time alone in his room. He then hoisted the case over his back, pulling the straps connected to the back over his arms, fixing them as he gave her a final look, "I can't say yes to something that scares me so much."

She let out a growl at his response, pulling back her lips to show her teeth. After a moment though she veered her head away, tail lashing. "You don't fucking get it! You, um..."

"Mono..."

"Mono." She then widened her eyes as he began walking away back the direction towards the city, following after him, "You can't just... walk away from this! The fact is that we bonded somehow, so you being able to see me means that we're tethered to one another. Our paths are interwoven now and even if you try and run away you can't just... disappear." He shook his head at her words, not wanting to listen, wanting nothing more than to curl up in bed and forget all this happened. He let out a saddened grunt, stepping over a log in the path.

He could hear his voice in his right ear, knowing she must be trailing after him despite the lack of noise as she was most likely just passing through the objects as she walked. "We're stuck now and you be that I hate this just as damn much as you." He looked over at her for a moment, trying to calm his breathing as she glared at him.

He then shifted his gaze to the road as they eventually broke through to the outskirts, passing around the barrier at the end of the road as he walked onto the sidewalk. He blinked against the lights of the streetlamps, feeling slightly dazed from everything that was being revealed to him at once. "Well, that doesn't change the fact that I have no fucking idea what I'd do to help you! Who do you think I am? Do I look like some kind of hero?"

He stopped in his tracks, gesturing with his hands to himself, squinting back at her in anger with his own huff. After a moment though, he took a step back, breathing softly before continuing his walk back home at an even pace. "I'm just a guy who sits in a chair all day and does nothing, so how could I ever amount to anything more? You telling me I have to do this doesn't make it easier. I'm sorry, but... I... I can't." He looked down at his feet, minding the gaps in the sidewalk as he made his way forward, wanting to focus on anything else. He grimaced as the sloppy wetness of his pants slopped down onto the pavement, telling himself he'd take a nice long shower at home as he hated getting messy.

He glanced to the right as they passed by the bar again, The Prancing Fawn still as bright and alive as ever. He felt a chill run through his bones as he wondered in horror if the wolf had returned. 'I have to stay away from here as often as possible. If he thinks I'm... dead, then maybe he won't stop preying on me anymore...' The thought both comforted and set him on edge, finding himself quickly rounding the corner to the left at the intersection, wanting to get as far away from the building as possible. She paced alongside him on the left through it all, Mono taking notice that, as they passed by a car at the stoplight, the driver of the car didn't seem to notice her. Well, they at least didn't seem to notice anything out of the normal, continuing their own way while the two unlikely companions bickered amongst one another.

They walked for a while, passing by a few streets as they grew closer to the center of the city, the taller buildings growing larger as they approached. It was only as they began coming up upon his house that he realized how quiet she had gotten, looking down at her as her tail seemed to be doing most of the conversation for her. She seemed to notice him looking at her, glancing into his eyes before sighing and admitting, "Mono, as much as I'd gladly love for us to part ways, the fact is you're the only person who can help me. I haven't spent three years working for the witch because I get some sort of high off of doing her bidding, I fucking hate it. It's horrifying. Now though I finally have a chance to escape, but I can't do it without you. Just..." She then huffed, growling lowly once more before finishing, "I'm already humiliated enough to have to ask you this, just at least think about it? You aren't going to be safe anymore so even if you returned and pretended nothing ever happened, she would find you sooner or later and dispose of you."

He let out a breath of relief as they reached his apartment, the front of the modern house split into two sides to be rented out. He saw his roommate's car parked on the side of the street, his red truck in front of Mono's blue car. He noticed the familiar glow of lights from the window on the left side of the building, fixing the straps on his arms as he thought to himself.

As much as he hated to think about it, if she was telling the truth then there would be no point in running and trying to ignore their bond. But this? To be vored, willingly? That was against every fiber of his being... And yet as he thought about it, looking over the fluids covering his form, something crawled up from the recesses of his mind, a memory and desire from long ago that he'd buried away rising to the surface.

His dad worked at an expensive company in the city, experimenting on new projects to make the world safer for humans and omnivores. One serum, in particular, they wanted to create though was a liquid one could drink to either make themselves immune to digestion for a time or to make the acids of the one who drank it lose their ability to break down. By doing this, the hope was to make the dream of safe-vore a reality as well as to arm the more defenseless creatures with a way to protect themselves in the event they are eaten against their will. But in the end, the project had to be abandoned as the only way to make such a serum would be to gather the digestive fluids from within many different creatures as each animal had their own genetic makeup in their bodily fluids that would need to be hand collected. In the end, while they certainly made their best attempts to retrieve them, many of the researchers were lost by giving themselves up to be eaten to retrieve such fluids only to be betrayed and digested, leaving the only hope for the serum to drift away into the past.

As he sat there now though, the once impossible idea seemed to hang over the situation. He ran a hand along the bile on his shirt, still present even after the digestion, looking it over. If this could happen again, despite how horrifying it was, he could collect the samples of other creatures. 'Maybe it is possible after all...' He couldn't deny that the idea of bringing hope to so many others with this cure brought him a sense of long-forgotten purpose, the intrinsic desire to help others causing him to consider it even in the aftermath of the situation that nearly took his life.

As he reached the steps to the house he paused, turning to her. He inhaled softly, closing his eyes with a pit in his chest that cried out, "I... I'm not promising anything but... I'll think about it. Just for tonight though. If I say no then you need to leave. Understood?" He couldn't believe he was even considering this, but if his life was now at stake and there was nothing he could do, maybe this was exactly what he needed. Still, the task at hand he knew wouldn't be just as simple as being eaten by a random predator surely, and the fact that she was so uncertain about the exact details only made him more unnerved.

She sighed in a somewhat annoyed gesture, shaking her body a little before looking into his eyes cautiously, "Fine. Just, please actually think about it rather than shrugging it off?"

He nodded, gazing at her seriously without a word before nodding towards the left door of the apartment that he lived in, reaching into his pocket to pull out the keys, "Yeah, I got it." He then walked up to the door, reaching for the keyhole before finishing, "I know he won't be able to see you but... I don't know, just behave yourself inside?" He blinked, not quite sure how to end the conversation.

She huffed in confusion, wings flaring for a moment, "And what is that supposed to mean? I'm not some wild dog."

"Just... you get the idea."

Then, with a deep breath, he opened the front door to the apartment, looking around to see if his roommate was anywhere to be seen. He glanced down at the saliva covering his body, knowing he would call him out for it if he saw him, praying he could get into the bathroom before he was noticed. The living room stood before him, a long couch sitting beside the wall, a TV mounted on the opposite side. He checked the kitchen to his right, the small countertop encircling the small area, happy to see he wasn't out of his room. He could numbly hear him speaking to some of his friends on his desktop in the room upstairs though, taking caution as he closed the front door softly behind him.

He paused for a moment as he did, realizing he forgot about Vera, but much to his amazement and uncertainty, she just walked through the walls of the house to stand beside him, facing the living quarters. He shivered slightly, making his way to the staircase on the right of the entrance to the bedrooms upstairs, walking down the hall at the top. The first door on the left was his roommate's place, checking that the door wasn't cracked open before making his way past the door to his room on the right and rushing inside.

He looked over his idle computer to the left under the window, the warm yellow LED lights left on as he always had them, setting his room in the soft glow. He glanced quickly over the large dresser to the left of his queen-size bed, the blanket on his mattress bunched up from earlier that day. He promptly turned on the lights in the room with the two light switches on the wall beside the door, watching them flicker to life before moving to the foot of his bed. Lucky for him he had set out some clothes earlier that day on the bed to change into as he was planning on taking a shower anyways when he got back, grabbing those and bringing them out and into the bathroom at the end of the hall. Once he entered he promptly locked himself inside, setting his clothes on top of the closed toilet seat, letting out a sigh in thanks as he turned to the mirror to look himself over.

Much as he'd seen before, his clothes were soaked in the fluids of the wolf, somewhat washed off by this point as he'd tried to clean some off while walking, turning around to look at himself in the mirror only to find his back similarly coated. He grimaced, eyeing the ground as he tried to decide where to put the soaked garments. He then looked to the laundry basket in the corner behind the door, promising to wash the clothes afterward as he began casually stripping. He groaned as the sloppy clothes seemed to cling to him as he peeled them off his body, making him feel awkward and uncomfortable. But thankfully he was alive and that was all that really mattered.

He put his overcoat in the hamper, quickly pulling off his shirt afterward. He tried to ignore the stench of the belly of the best, hoping it wouldn't linger in the house for too long, closing his eyes as the wetness from the cloth rubbed over his nose and face before he threw it in the basket. It felt so yucky, his bare chest still smeared with the fluids as he stood there, bending over to take off his pants. But just as he managed to unbutton them and slide them down to his ankles, he let out a yell, his gaze shot up to the glowing blue light of Vera's form suddenly walking into the room unannounced, phasing through the very door he'd locked! He nearly fell over with his pants bunched up around his ankles, catching himself on the counter behind him, "Ah, Vera, get out!"

She let out a similar yell at the sight of him, covering her face with a wing, peering just over the top, "Hey, I ju- WOAH, FUCK! What are you doing?!"

"What the hell do you think I'm doing? I locked the door for a reason you know!" He moved his hands to his crotch, eyes widening at his growing member within his underwear as he hid himself behind them. "I'm taking a shower here!" He could feel a blush forming on his cheeks amongst his flustered reaction, the beautiful dragoness giving a loud and confused growl as she turned away from him.

"God, fuck, fine! I'll be in your room then." She huffed, spinning around and exiting through the closed door, her tail lashing back and forth before she disappeared. He put a hand on his chest, suddenly feeling much more vulnerable that she could just walk in at any time. He slowly slipped his pants off him, checking the door constantly despite her having walked out, finally taking some time to think about her as his erection pulsed within its packaging.

He hadn't been able to think about it much after nearly being digested alive, but he couldn't lie about her beauty. She had that slim and modest frame he adored, the smooth legs and long tail. But as if to throw it all off, the sharp markings along her body seemed to attempt to scare others off, her personality more confusing to Mono than anything. She sounded like she wasn't from the city, or what she seemed to call "The Tamed Lands" from their conversation before. He'd never heard it called anything like that before, but perhaps that was something they called it from where she came from? It would make sense if she was from The Wilds in that case, making him wonder if she thought of the forest with that name or if she was unaware of it as he was with her name for the town.

He then let out another yell as someone knocked on the door, his heart racing as he blinked as his roommate called out, "Hey, you okay in there? I thought I heard you talking to someone."

He then put a hand over his wet chest, trying to calm his breathing as he rolled his eyes at how scared he got before responding, "Yeah, uh, I'm fine, Kyle! Just about to take a shower and was talking to myself, sorry!"

"Ah, oooookay..." Kyle mused, unable to see what he was thinking before he finished, "Well, I'm going to eat some dinner now but, you know, try to keep it down. I'm on a call with some friends so please..."

"Yeah, I won't play any guitar... got it." He groaned softly, hearing the soft steps of his roommate walking down the stairs to the kitchen as Mono began stripping once more with calm breath. He huffed as he slipped out of his slim-fit underwear, watching his dick popping up and out to stand before him as he tossed the last article into the hamper. He glanced at the towel hanging on the rack to the side, making sure he had everything he needed before stepping into the bath and turning on the shower. He made sure to step back as he turned it on so he could avoid the freezing water as it heated up. Once it did he happily let it envelop his body, relishing in the warmth that poured over his back as it did, quickly grabbing the body wash and loofah to get the fluids off him.

It still was unreal that any of this was even happening, finding himself able to close his eyes and forget about things for just a moment. He'd showered many times before, just like any normal day, so he relished in the relaxation for a few moments. But just as quickly as it rushed in it was torn away, finding the bile a little harder to wash off than he would have liked. He took care in getting rid of it all, starting at his face, and neck and working downwards.

'She's been trapped for over three years in that crystal... And I have to break her out? Why did I have to get tangled up in this?' It was the last thing he wanted, to get dragged into something out of his comfort zone, but this was much more than he could have ever anticipated. Sure, he was sympathetic by nature and could imagine how hard this must be for her... He wanted to help her, but... She was asking him to willingly be eaten by predators, the one thing he despised the most. How could he just say yes to something like that?

Yet at the same time, if he could make the serum to help save others, as far-fetched as it may sound despite how simple the idea was, maybe it would be worth it. He hated the idea of doing something for his father, but if he chose to do this he would be doing it for himself and the people who needed it. Being able to stave off the digestion would be an incredible feat and with the desire of wanting to make others feel happy and safe, he couldn't help but linger on the opportunity before him. He didn't like that it had to fall onto him of course, but he knew that the chances of someone being able to create a potion such as this again would be slim if to none. Still, though, could he do it? Him?

He thought deeply about it as he finished cleaning himself off, washing his hair, and drying himself off once he was done. Slowly he dressed himself up with the clothes on the toilet he'd set aside, pulling on his underwear, pants, and shirt. But as he gripped the necklace and traced a finger over the wings, he thought back to the same glow he'd faintly noticed in the stomach. Some sort of wisps, flowing golden magic that reached out around them in a strand-like formation. He blinked in thought, clicking the necklace around the back of his neck before checking himself in the mirror and carrying the hamper to the washer to rid them of the sticky liquid. He made quick work of them, dumping the load into the machine downstairs before starting it up and heading back to his room.

He had to admit though, walking into his room and seeing someone else inside made him a little nervous, the glowing 'ness flicking her tail back and forth as she sat on the other side, looking out one of the windows to the right of his bed. Her gaze shifted to him as he entered, huffing in annoyance, "So?"

He sighed, giving her a tired look before shutting the door quietly and moving to his computer. He answered, hitting the power button on the top of his desktop before pulling his chair up to his computer. "Just, give me a moment. It's already weird enough with you being in my room as it is..." He tried to ignore her, typing in his passcode before he sat back and waited for the screen to turn on. When it did though, his eyes went wide and he let out a yell, quickly trying to move the mouse to close the window. Open from the night before was a tab of a dragoness, sharing the same slim body as Vera, grinding on another dragon with a leash in her maw and the collar around the male. He scrambled to close it, Vera eyeing it for a moment before it shut."Ah, sorry sorry!"

He blushed deeply when he noticed her looking at his computer, holding his mouth shut for the moment. He could feel the arousal growing in his loins, trying to ignore it as he knew a beautiful dragoness like the one in the image was behind him, unable to stop imagining her being the one domming the male. Eventually, he was able to somewhat shake it off though, opening his messaging app and noticing a few pings from his gaming party. As he responded back to them, he briefly caught sight of Vera out of the corner of his eye phasing through his bed as she moved, pacing in a circle, muttering to herself. He looked down at his hands, thinking about how she was held captive, stuck with only him to help her escape.

He closed his eyes, letting out a soft hum, sympathizing with how alone she must feel. He wondered what happened to her family after she disappeared, if they were okay and what she would do after she broke free. Still, all that seemed to ride on him helping her, but with the looming threat now unwillingly taking up a presence in his mind, he couldn't stop himself from trying to plan out what he'd say to her. The familiar ping from his game clan reached his attention, tapping on his keyboard to let them know he'd be busy for tonight before checking on a few sites. He cleared the notifications for new submissions on some art tabs, sitting back in his chair for a moment as he thought about it all.

'Now what... I... I have no idea what to do.' He spent most of his days inside, just playing on his computer or practicing his guitar. He wasn't accustomed to spending time with someone else, let alone in his own bedroom. It made him feel somewhat vulnerable, glancing back at her as she sat down and looked out the window on the other side of his bed. He then changed his gaze to his necklace, staring idly at it with a sigh. 'Flare... If I could have saved him I sure as hell would've, but Vera... How could I risk my life for someone I don't even know?'

He could feel the pressure in his mind building, two sides yammering back and forth about what was right and what was logical. But his heart seemed to quell them both, speaking up in a soft voice in his head, 'She's been taken away from her home, stuck in that crystal for years and now she has a chance to escape...'

'But me? I... This isn't some sort of fairytale where you always win, I'm just... useless.' He frowned, an image of his father appearing in his mind before trying to shake it away. His brain continued, 'If she could reform me once, she can do it again... just... that's a lot of faith on some sort of hunch. But if I'm already intertwined with her connection with the Witch... staying here won't keep me safe.' He gripped his jeans with a hand, grumbling softly at the predicament despite how much that tension in his chest built up at the thought of being willingly eaten.

Instead, he stood back up, taking a deep breath before moving to the edge of his bed and sitting down. Vera looked over from where she sat on the other end of the room, tail flicking back and forth before she stood back up. He could see the impatience in her steps, wings at her side, "Have you made a decision then? I can't keep waiting forever."

"Just, calm down for a moment, jeez... I know you're going through hell, okay Vera? ...I'm sorry. But that doesn't make this decision any easier for me. I'm... it's scary to think about... being eaten again. You don't understand the fear that I'm still getting over from earlier..." He could feel his hands shaking slightly, remembering the hopelessness that washed over him as he was squished between those fleshy walls, calming himself before it got out of hand.

She huffed, walking back and forth in a circle before him. He shook his head, unable to understand her frustration, blinking as he felt some irritation rising up in him at her impatience, "I don't understand. Why are you so angry? You're asking me to face my worst fear and you show your thanks by... growling at me?"

She hissed under her breath, looking back at him with a glare before looking back at her talons, pausing for a moment with her side facing him. A small moment of silence passed between them, her staring out the window, speaking as she did in a quieter voice, "I just want to be free of this shit. Sure, you might feel bad for me, but you don't understand me. You haven't spent the last few years of your life torn from your home, forced to hurt others against your will." She then turned to glare at him softly, "I'm not here to try and make friends with you. I'd much rather work alone, but here we are..."

He gulped, avoiding her gaze for a moment as her words seemed to pluck at his heartstrings. He closed his eyes, humming softly as he tried to comprehend it all. "But just because we're forced to work together doesn't make me any less scared. I don't even know you. I'd..." He didn't want to piss her off anymore, treading lightly around her temper as he exhaled.

She seemed to calm down for a second, looking back into his eyes as if searching for something before rumbling and glaring back at the window as if her gaze alone could melt the glass. He shifted himself on the blankets he was sitting on, admiring her body for a moment. As he did, he took notice of the scar on the left side of her neck facing him, the scales charred dark purple from something long past, realizing that as confusing as her personality was, she really had seemed to have gone through a lot. She was asking him for help and as much as he hated the thought of going along with it, he knew that there would be something in it for him if he did.

The serum. His father's company could have made it, still could, but reformation wasn't something one could just do. But with Vera's ability, he could collect the fluids and use those to help others. He nodded at the thought, taking another deep breath as he imagined the people in the future, getting the serums, the city becoming a safer place. If he could make that become real, to make others happier in a world where so much darkness threatened to consume them, maybe it was worth it after all.

"Where would we start?"

Her gaze snapped to his, raising an eyebrow, "Huh? What do you mean?"

"W-well, you said that to be free you assumed digestion may help do that. But you also said you weren't able to access any of the books that could give you any definitive proof on if that or anything else could break the spell. I'm... I'm not just gonna say yes to something with no plan in mind." He admitted, still apprehensive about it all but feeling a sense of purpose that had been long forgotten filling an empty spot in his heart, giving him the courage he needed, at least for now.

She growled softly to herself, glancing at the window again, "I don't know. I mean, for each spell exists a way to break them, I just don't know where to start. There was a forgotten library in The Dark Forest I'd heard her mention about once or twice but... I'm not going back there, not with the idea of being captured again so easily. Besides, a human like you wouldn't last a second against the creatures that roam there."

He hummed to himself in thought, happy she wasn't sneering at him for the moment as he tapped his fingers on his knee. He then stood back up, walking over and sitting down at his computer as he started typing away. She followed him, tilting her head curiously as she gazed over his left shoulder, "What are you doing?"

He grimaced, a pang of annoyance rising inside him, hating when anyone spoke to him on the side of his deaf ear. He tried to ignore it for now though, "Well, if you think we might be able to find some info at the library, we have one here in town that we could take a look at. I'm not sure if we'll find anything useful there though. Most of the books around magic are kept in a cellar below the main room and most of the books available to the public are more for entertainment and educational purposes than anything else. Still, I figured it couldn't hurt to look." The tab loaded soon after, scrolling the web page to find the search bar before speaking up, "So, what exactly should we be looking for? What kind of book?"

"Um..." She blinked, straightening herself, "Something about digestion? I still think it's infuriating that your society separates the higher knowledge for only those who are eligible."

"Yeah, me too... I mean, I don't really care about that stuff much, I'm pretty happy where I am but... yeah..." He rambled, looking over into her blue eyes before glancing away, cheeks heating up slightly, "Okay: Digestion." He clicked the response into the box, waiting for a moment before some books popped up in a descending list. "Okay, good, we got options. Hmm, it seems most of the books are fantasy... A lot of them, eh... erotic." He grumbled at the sight, "God... Anyways, it looks like there are some educational books in here. We could check those out tomorrow and see if there's anything useful."

He then paused, listening to himself as he talked about it like he was planning on going along with it. He could feel the hairs on his skin standing on end, thinking about even reading about such things, but the remembrance of the serum and being able to help others helped to calm him a bit. She added to this, reading his thoughts, "Does this mean you're gonna help?"

"I... I'm still thinking about it, but..." He then breathed in and out, the goosebumps on his arms not helping, "I'm going to try. I'll at least show you the library. After we read the books, who knows, maybe you'll be able to break out on your own. I can do that at least." He nodded, running one hand over the other to calm his nerves, pushing a strand of hair behind his left ear as he glanced at her and then back to the computer.

"Good. Let's go." She finished, moving to turn to the door.

"Wait, what? We can't go now!"

"...and why not?" She asked in an annoyed tone, looking over her wing at him with a disapproving glare, "Wait, let me guess. Your libraries are closed at night, aren't they?"

He stumbled over his words, unsure as to what she was getting at. "Um, yeah? Is that abnormal somehow?" She seethed, growling and prowling around the room once more. He turned himself on his chair to look at her, quickly turning off his computer before the screen shut off and he focused back on her. He then turned to watch the dragoness, the magic covering her form blowing around in soft wisps, only slightly visible among her bright outline. "I thought you said you'd never been to the library in the... uh, The Dark Forest?"

"You are aware I had a life before all this right? I didn't spend my entire life captured by her! I had a life before all this before everything went to shit." She bared her teeth, eyes piercing back at his before tearing them away from him as she answered, "We had a library back where I used to live, but that was always open for whoever to learn. Your world is just..."

She paused, huffing out again with a thrashing tail. He tried to add on to her words, "Different?"

"Fucked up. But, to be fair, everything in the world is messed up. Let's just... do it in the morning then if we have to." She hissed, paying no attention to him as she reached out her wings to flutter them, shaking them as if she could blow away the irritation that continued lighting the ever-lingering flame in her mind. He let out a gasp as she did, her wing coming right at him before passing through his face, a chill running through him at the unfamiliar sight.

She pulled it back soon after, Mono standing up and moving to his bed once more as he asked, "So, do you, like, need to sleep at all? Sorry if that sounds dumb, I just haven't really spoken to a Familiar before."

She shook her head, avoiding his gaze, "No. I can't eat, sleep or touch anything, you get that?" Her gaze shifted to his once more, staring him sternly back before breaking it and turning her back to him. She continued in a softer voice, "It doesn't matter anyways. I'm just going to think about things, maybe go back in the crystal to think to myself."

He sat down on his bed slowly, not looking at her as he apologized, "I'm sorry. I can't understand what you're going through, but... I'm sorry you have to go through it regardless."

"Yeah? Me too..." She finished, catching sight of her ears lowering ever slightly before she moved to the side of his bed and laid down on her stomach. She looked at the wall, huffing before curling her tail over her talons, making herself smaller. She then spoke up, not bothering to move, "Do you have a question for me, or..?"

"Ah, sorry. I uh, don't." He then looked away, feeling somewhat unsure what to do. He could feel the tiredness from the long day weighing down on him more now that he had a plan in mind, but regardless he felt somewhat flustered now at having such a gorgeous dragoness in his room. Besides, he usually only slept with his underwear on so the idea of stripping down to those with her in the room... He felt his member grow at the thought, biting his lip before shaking his head. Taking a deep breath, he then spoke up, "I, uh... I typically don't sleep with my shirt or pants on. Do you m-mind if I..."

"Huh?" She muttered, only the tips of her horns visible from the side of the bed, "Listen, I don't fucking care what you do, just... Don't jerk yourself off next to me. I had no intention of looking at your body in the first place." She glowered, Mono feeling his cheeks flush as she spoke so blatantly about it all.

He gulped, moving to the opposite side of the bed she was on before walking over to the light switch and flicking it off, stopping at the desk to switch off the LEDs as well. He then sat back on the comforter, taking a deep breath before pulling off his shirt and pants. He kept them beside his bed, the air on his body so much more apparent than ever before with the female in his room, quickly slipping under the covers of his bed as he lay back on his pillow and stared up at the ceiling.

It was only now in the darkness that he noticed how odd it was that, while her body glowed softly along with the purple aura surrounding her, the light didn't seem to reflect on any of the objects or walls in the room. He pondered on it for a moment, putting together that it must have to do with her being invisible to the naked eye, the lack of light casting on things around her helping to mask her presence. It was still a little unnerving in all honesty, like he was seeing things or dreaming about it all. In reality, part of him hoped he still was somehow, that he could wake up in his bed and not have to worry about the journey ahead of him.

But that wouldn't happen. Life was taking a turn, something he'd never expected, and as worrisome as he was he knew that if he could come out of it alive that it would bring happiness to so many people, to give him a goal to strive for in his life where nothing felt important. It was scary, but maybe that was why he had felt so empty for so long. Chasing after things that were within grasp always left him feeling hollow, so maybe the idea of failing was the very thing that would help him want to push on.

He cleared his thoughts as much as he could soon, yawing softly as he tried to get comfortable before laying on his side, looking over at her. It was only as he turned that the metal wings on his chest became apparent, the pendant still attached to the thin rope as he reached around his neck and unclipped it. He placed it before him on the covers, looking it over as he wondered what Flare would have said about all this. 'He'd believe in me, he always did. Even when it seemed stupid and impossible, he would keep pushing, keep reminding me that what I was fighting for was worth the pain and fear. That I was worth it.'

He hummed sadly, clutching it in his hand before a thought crossed his mind as the orange coloring reminded him, "Oh, um, I did want to ask you something Vera, if that's okay." He waited, expecting her to respond, but instead, he just heard her huff, noticing her tail flick. He continued cautiously, "When I was being... digested, I saw something happen before I blacked out. It was like... a swirl of gold, expanding from the crystal. What was that?"

What followed was a long moment of silence, blinking as he waited patiently for her. Her tail seemed to still once more, hearing her soft breaths as she contemplated before responding. "That's just part of the reformation process. It's basically... my power reaching out to protect the one being digested." She quieted down after that, her previous words having come out in a slower and somewhat precise tone before she finished, "Listen, can we just relax? I just want to get this over with. Believe me, once I'm free I'll be glad to leave you alone, so let's just pretend we're both asleep for now, okay?"

His heart tightened at her words, unsure exactly why he felt that way other than the obvious coldness. He obliged wordlessly regardless, turning to face the other side of the bed as he closed his eyes and tried to sleep. It was much harder than he liked, spending the first hour tossing and turning as thoughts of Vera filled his mind along with the terrifying experience of earlier. It all felt so conflicting and so real that any sleep was hard to come by. But as if by some miracle he managed to eventually drift off, letting his worries drift into the back of his mind for now as he rested before the long adventure ahead of them.

As his mind began to calm down and his eyelids began to droop, he noticed the glow of Vera rise up from where she was lying and walking out of sight, leaving him in darkness. Soon after though he swore he could have noticed the flicker of light from out of his window. A flash of purple, a soft hum that he took for his roommates in the other room. Distant voices mumbling out of his comprehension. But all that mattered not, falling out of consciousness into a land of nightmares as he was plagued with the scene of being vored by the wolf through the night. It was terrifying, but he could do it. If Flare would have believed in him and he could save the lives of so many others, then he'd give all he had to push past his fears for now. He had to.