FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sunbeams passed through the cracks in the walls, festooned with kudzu and vines filling the engravings of winged serpents curling out from the distant past. There were crumbling fountains, probably clear once but now miniature swamps overflowing with slimy vines and cattails.

Fox moved out into the open space of the arena. Wolf was waiting for him, having removed all but his bone codpiece and standing unarmed.

"Where is she, Wolf?"

"Don't know. But I'll uproot the planet until I have her in my lap,"

"No. I kicked you and your lizard gang's asses before. I'll do it again,"

Wolf chuckled.

"Heh..I didn't really expect things to escalate so much. Thought I'd just grab that slut by the throat and rape her against a tree a few times then go on. Boom, single chapter story. Now? She's got me so pent up I could fucking explode. So I figure it's time to wrap things up with you already,"

Fox drew his blaster and tossed it aside, then whipped his vest and shirt off. Cracked his knuckles and then stepped forward with fists clenched, straight and deliberate with long strides. Wolf looked amused, a hand on a hip and leg cocked as he waited for his runt of an opponent to come within range.

Whipping into motion, Fox sprinted forward. Wolf bristled and bared his teeth, swiping a claw, only for Fox to duck under and put his entire body weight behind an elbow strike into the lupine's stomach. Akin to hitting a brick wall, causing Fox's arm to go numb. It buckled Wolf but only for a moment before he was back on the attack.

Wind lashed the fox as he dodged brutal fists. The punches or kicks he returned only bounced off the muscular body to little effect. They battled across the arena, until Fox was backed up against the edge and a long drop into thorny tangled jungle below.

Wolf's eyes went white as he roared, drawing a fist back and muscles rippling while he lunged forward. Fox sidestepped the blow, delivering a jumpkick to the ribs which threw Wolf off balance. Speeding on his own momentum, he plowed shoulder-first into a pillar.

Both combatants backed away as a chain of cracks snapped up the ancient stone. The pillar and garden of vines it held aloft, began to lean and then collapse in chunks. They crashed right through the arena's floor, dragging it down in a cascade of bricks swallowed up by darkness.

They had to run a gauntlet of collapsing, zigzagging ground but eventually the noise and rumbling halted. Fox leapt over a void, rolled on the other side and came up ready in front of Wolf. Wasting no time, he launched a flurry of blows with Wolf's head bouncing between rights and lefts. A fist came speeding for an uppercut and Fox crossed his arms to block but was still knocked over backwards. He rolled aside from a stomp that would have flattened him toothpaste tube style. But Wolf's foot crashed straight through the bricks, prompting the section they were on to crumble out from under them.

Krystal emerged into the torchlight of the den, finding a single occupant in the center of the space. It was the Thorntail elder, just then lifting his head to orient on her. His feet were tied and a gag was shoved into his mouth. He shook his head back and forth as she approached.

Kneeling beside him, she pulled the gag from his mouth.

"You can't be here, my dear. They're looking for you!" He choked out at a whisper.

"Me? But.."

Her head drooped and she shook it in disbelief. Some part of her already knew. It was on orders from the wolf. If anyone fit in with them, it would be him. It was one thing to come after her, but getting others involved, hurt, because of her? She couldn't stand it.

She gave a deep sigh and placed a hand to his neck.

"I'm sorry. If that's true, then this is all my fault. I'll surrender and maybe they'll-"

A shake of the old dinosaur's head, "I won't hear that sort of talk. The Sharpclaw have never been reasonable. Just imagine what they'd do to you if you were taken prisoner,"

Krystal raised an eyebrow and her gaze drifted. She bit her lower lip.

"Fox is here," The elder wheezed and regained her attention, "He's fighting the Sharpclaw from the air,"

"Fox.." She whispered to herself.

The floors below the arena had been pulverized into slopes of debris. Not a lethal drop, but a long, sharp and bumpy one. Fox finally tumbled to a halt somewhere in the depths of the temple.

There were echoing splashes as debris plunked into water, booms of various intensity as chunks of the ceiling landed.

Sunbeams fanned in from above, revealing a wide landscape of jagged walls and pathways, columns and stairs barely distinguishable as stone under thick carpets of algae and mushroom clusters. Water had flooded in from rain filtering down, turning this uppermost level into a maze of stone pathways over watery depths.

Fox hauled himself to his feet, scanning for his opponent amid the dusty light. He crept toward an archway and swept aside the curtain of vines there. Wolf was waiting on the other side. A twitch of a thick arm and Fox was hit in the gut with the force of a cannon ball, flying up and backward off his feet.

Yep. Can't take too many more of those

Fox felt like he was in slow motion as he pulled himself up. Too slow- claws were inbound for his throat and he was still at a kneel. Fox jumped backwards, reverse somersaulted and managed to spring to his feet, getting his wind back.

Wolf's eyes flicked aside briefly. He turned his head to one side then the other, returning to Fox with a little less blood lust than usual.

"I don't think it's just you and me down here, fox boy. Might need to call this shindig off for now,"

Now they could both hear it. An incessant tapping sound. It would pause, then an identical sound would answer from different locations. Something moving out in the shadows.

"I accept," Fox replied.

The two gave a simultaneous nod, a second later standing back to back.

The pharoah raptors made their entrance then. These were creatures only found stalking the depths of pyramids or temples, lurking near burial chambers. They were covered in parchment-white scales, constantly molting and hanging off them in tattered scraps akin to mummy wrappings. Large golden eyes bulged out with pinprick pupils, and the cracked lips were pulled back into perpetual morbid grins to reveal many long and needle like teeth. They chattered with rapid jaw movements, clicking signals to each other in their own morse code.

One of the beasts lunged out of an archway straight for Wolf, but he siezed it by the head and snapped its neck easily. Another had come from behind, but Fox bashed its head in with a chunk of stone. Snaking around corners or crouched on walls above, they harassed Fox and Wolf as the two fought their way through the ruins. But covering each other, the two canids gave the raptors no openings.

Up a set of steps was a landing and a circular bronze door visible under the plant growth. Wolf swept aside the moss but found only bare brick. He punched a dent in the door in frustration.

"Ain't no switch here,"

Fox glanced up, catching sight of a catwalk splitting a sunbeam above them. It led to a platform with a crystalline stalactite hanging down, contained in a metal brazier and shining with its own light.

"Uh, I think it's up there. That blue crystal thing. Probably supposed to shoot it with magic, but touching them usually works too. Toss me up there,"

Wolf shook his head, "Whatever dumpster crackhead designs these fucking places, has got to do better,"

He knelt and caught Fox's boot, tossing him upwards. Grabbing a dangling vine, Fox was able to use long thorns like ladder rungs to climb up and jog over to activate the switch. Vines ripped as the door rolled to one side and crystal lights winked on in the corridor beyond.

Fox and Wolf stepped out of the corridor side by side, into the daylight once more. They found themselves in a chamber high up in one of the towers overlooking the battered arena. The afternoon had just begun but they both looked like they had been through hell, battered bodies under dust laden fur.

A waterfall fell through a hole in the roof, nice and clean where it pooled in an old fountain before continuing to depths unknown via a crack in the wall. A statue waded in it, of some draconian humanoid. Its arm had fallen off, still clutching a weapon- a greatsword formed of a dinosaur's femur. A masterfully crafted weapon now laying on the floor being covered by moss.

"So, are we back on?" Fox asked.

"No reason to rush, is there?"

Wolf squatted on the crook of the statue's arm. He plucked a couple of black leaves growing from between a crack in the floor. One he tore up and piled on the other, rolling them up into a baneweed joint. Fox declined the offer to roll one for him.

Drawing a lighter from a pouch at his waist, Wolf lit up and released a billow of smoke from his nose. Fox meanwhile stood with arms crossed, leaning on a pillar. His pants were shredded, more of a loincloth by now. It flapped in the breeze.

"Hmm. I think I get it now,"

Fox only gave him a questioning look.

The joint bobbed in Wolf's mouth as he explained.

"Thought it was weird. You've been shacked up with your wifey for a while now. But there aren't a ton of little foxes running around Sauria,"

"That's none of your business," Fox snapped. Perhaps a bit too late he realized his wardrobe malfunction and slapped it down to cover himself again.

Wolf laughed, "You've maybe got a squirt in those fluffy grapes of yours. But that sweet ass of hers is too much when it's in your face. You end up squirting on her tail, and that tiny cock is about as good as cold macaroni,"

There was a brief dip in Fox's ears, eyes shifting away from the wolf's gaze. His face flinched in a snarl but quickly resumed his poker face. Catching himself before an outburst that would all but confirm that a sore spot had been found.

"You're a lunatic," Fox huffed.

Wolf adjusted his codpiece and his giant, pendulous nuts plopped out. They stretched down to rest on the floor from their own weight. He sucked in the rest of his joint and flicked the butt away.

"See, it takes big balls to be the King of the Sharpclaw. But they're good for waterboarding that blue whore's pussy too. I'll set her up with her first litter in no time,"

Fox punched a fist into his palm, then assumed a combat stance, "Truce is over right now,"

Wolf reached down and wrenched the sword he noticed earlier, prying it out of the statue's crumbling fingers.

"Fine by me,"

He leapt up and took a swing, the weapon's tip nearly brushing Fox's chest. Fox nearly tripped over a loose brick as he backed up only to slam into the wall. His hand found something. It was a thorn from one of the vines creeping up the wall. Long, wickedly curved and about a foot long.

Wolf raised the sword over his head, poised to bisect his opponent. Fox ripped the thorn free, dashed forward and drove the thorn into Wolf's side. Straight through the ribs and into the heart. Wolf's lips peeled back into a jagged hiss, eyes bulging as he dropped the sword and gripped the thorn.

"You..runt...bastard,"

He toppled over backwards, the savage beast defeated at last.

"I said you weren't going to get her," Fox said, breathing hard as exhaustion flooded in from fading adrenaline.

It never felt so good to slide back into his arwing. He scooped up the communicator. Nothing on the other end, but he left it on as he lifted off and flew back towards the village. Eventually traces of static began filtering in. Finally a beep.

"Fox? You there?" the Thorntail elder answered.

"On the way back. Just took care of the Sharpclaw's leader. Are you guys alright?"

"Still alive and kicking here. The Sharpclaw are leaving. But...it's Krystal. I-I could not talk her out of it. She surrendered to them. Didn't want any more of us getting hurt,"

Fox was no longer as fatigued as he was a second ago. A bitter smile came to his face. That was Krystal all right. Kind, caring. She wouldn't hesitate if she believed it would spare some pain or suffering. He knew what Wolf's intentions were, and would likely have ordered her to be unharmed. In a bizarre twisting of emotions, Fox was actually thankful for Wolf's obession with her in that moment.

"They took her up into the airship. It's still parked over the hollow,"

Fox gulped a dry throat, "I'll handle it. I can't thank you enough, elder,"