FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Cadmus sighed as he looked to the badly scrawled map in his hand. He returned his gaze back to the path through the towns shopping district. The place was bustling with businesses and customers, positively alive and crowded. In such a busy place he struggled to believe that the blacksmiths shop he had been given, was floundering.

Smoke wafted lazily from the stacks of the blacksmith once he finally spotted it, and the sound of metal being forged drifted from inside as he got closer. Yet the place looked neglected, the buildings paint was peeling, the sign barely legible, broken windows boarded up and door, despite having a sign stating it was open, looked like it it hadn't been opened in some time.

"How is this place still in business?" Cadmus asked himself as he heaved the door open. The inside of the place was dark, courtesy of the broken, boarded up windows and the magirock lights having run out of power.

The only illumination came from the four forges, each one glowing a different colour. He knew the forge with red flames was for standard steel or iron, while the blue, green and purple forges each handled different types of magical metals. What he hadn't been expecting was who was manning them.

Looking up at him, with surprise and some curiosity, was ten dragonoid Kobolds. Three in the middle of hammering away at chunks of metal on low anvils, four were heating ingots on the forges while the last few were restocking quenching troughs or the forges themselves with their required fuel.

They all looked grossly undernourished, under slept and overworked, a couple even appeared to have burns or other kinds of injures. The burns confused Cadmus somewhat, as Dragonoid Kobolds were known for being resistant to fire and heat much like Dragons themselves. For some reason, they all seemed terrified of him.

"Um... Hi?" Cadmus queried and he didn't miss how they all flinched. He gave a sigh and shook his head. He knew Kobolds were sometimes fearful little guys but he hadn't expected them to be this bad.

"Calm down, I'm Cadmus, the new owner," he announced to the room and he watched as they all started querying and muttering to each other. He attempted to listen to them, deciding to try to get some illumination in the room.

He walked to the mana crystal on the wall and placed his hand on it to start charging it, making a mental note of the fact it was dusty, and covered in cobwebs. They were a standard installation in most homes and businesses, one simply stored magic energy in it and they would pump it out to whatever magic devices were in the room. He noted how old this one in particular was, seeing as plenty of the newer ones could generate small amounts of mana on their own.

As the crystal took in his energy and started to power the lighting, Cadmus was shocked with how empty it was, clearly it hadn't been filled for a long time. The room was as bad as he had expected it to be. Floors filthy, a thick layer of dust on everything that the small creatures couldn't reach or need for their tasks. What stuck out however was the distinct lack of any goods. They clearly had been hard at work crafting and had been for quite a while, yet there were no swords, no armour, nothing anywhere that could be sold other than what they were working on.

"Which one of you is your leader?" he asked looking around the room. They all did the same, looking between each other timidly. Kobolds always had a leader, even if it was only because they were more confident than the rest... or forced into it by the more cowardly ones. Eventually one timidly stepped forward, fidgeting with his hands and his muzzle pointed to the floor while his eyes darted up to look at him before back to his feet.

"I...I am s...sir," he said softly, a small whine hidden in his voice.

"What is you name, Kobold?" Cadmus asked, getting a confused yip in return making him smile "I can't just call you 'Kobold one' now can I?"

"I...I understand sir, I...I am called Brusk s...sir."

"Brusk," Cadmus confirmed with a smile before he squat down, not missing when the smaller creature flinched. The human reached out and gently raised the reptiles chin to make him look him in the eye "Pleasure to meet you, Brusk. Now, I have some questions for you all and I expect the truth in return... first and foremost however is, when did you all last eat anything substantial?"

Brusk gave a soft whimper and squirmed, the others in the room all whispering to each other as they watched on. Cadmus could almost see the thought process working through the little Kobolds mind. He seemed to be trying to think of what to answer with, of what he could say that wouldn't result in some punishment.

"It... It has been a while... sir." he eventually answered. The human nodded giving a sigh, his hand moved to pat the creature on the top of the head gently.

"Good Kobold," he praised, almost able to feel the bliss from the praise buzz through Brusk "Ok... I have some orders for all of you, and I would like you to fulfil them to the best of your abilities. First, I would like you to close down all but the red forge and store away the tools, we are going to be closed for a few days. Then, I would like you all to clean whatever you can reach. That means floors swept, counters and cabinets dusted and wiped down, so on. While some of you work down here, I would like some to clean the quarters upstairs. While you do all that, I will head to the shops outside and get food for all of you. Can you all do that for me?" There was a collective of affirmative yips from them all, drawing a smile from Cadmus who stood upright then looked at his hand which was covered in soot.

"Good Kobolds," he praised them all with a smile "Once I return, you will ALL have a nice thorough bath. Once you are all clean, you will each tell me your name as I hand you your food, understood?" There was another noise of confirmation that they understood his orders which only widened his smile.

"Excellent... Ok boys, jump to it, I will be back." he announced and watched as they suddenly turned into a hive of activity. He slipped out the door, taking down the 'open' sign and locking the door before he head off into the market in search of food.

He returned an hour later with a large stack of food parcels, he also got enough food to cook dinner and breakfast for that night and the next morning. Three of the chimneys were no longer releasing any smoke, and there was the sound of bustling around coming from within. He listened closely as he unlocked the door, hearing startled yips and worried whines from inside. He nearly chuckled but just shook his head as he opened the door and stepped inside.

The room was much cleaner than it had been when he left. The shelves and cabinets were all clean of dust, the cobwebs removed from around the room and floors swept. He could see six of the Kobolds cleaning, he could hear the remaining four upstairs still following his orders. He was impressed by how much they had done, even if it wasn't one hundred percent.

While the place looked cleaner, they looked dirtier, if that was at all possible. The six around him had stopped what they were doing to look at him in fear, possibly fearing that they hadn't done good enough and would be denied their food. Cadmus would never dream of it.

"Good work guys!" he praised and placed the food on a clean bench top "time to bathe, One of the quenching basins should be deep enough, we will probably be replacing the water plenty anyway. Each of you get a bucket and gather some water."

They all chirped and rushed off to do that while he emptied two of the quenching basins. He placed one on the remaining forge and the other he placed nearby. As they returned, one at a time, he had them poor their water into the metal tub on the fire. Once full, he had them return to cleaning while it warmed up. Once it was hot, he transferred the water from one to the other and pulled out some soap and a cleaning brush from the bag of supplies he had gotten.

"Brusk, you're first up," he called to the lizard who stepped forward timidly. Cadmus chuckled and shook his head a little seeing him still in his filthy smock and pants "Strip off Brusk, I can't clean you in those now can I?"

He jumped a little before shaking his head with a light whimper before stripping off. Cadmus smiled once he was bare and picked him up with ease and sat him in the makeshift bathtub and gave him a pat on the top of his head.

"Good boy, the rest of you strip off too and refill the basin on the fire," he instructed, seeing them start to strip bare. He turned his attention to the Kobold in front of him and tipped some water over his head before starting to scrub him with the brush and soap.

Under the thick grime and soot, he found Brusk's scales were a pleasing red colour, with a light pink on his chest and belly. The short horns on his head were pearly white once clean and the short spines down his back were a dark red. He confirmed that the kobold was thin, almost disturbingly so.

Once clean he helped him from the basin and stood him to one side then tipped out the now filthy water out the back door before refilling it with freshly heated water. He waved for the next one to step forward for him to bathe, being pleasantly surprised when the rest started to refill the water.

They all still appeared fearful of him as he cleaned them, yet excited at being cleaned personally. Each was in as bad a condition as the last, skinny and in desperate need of healthy meals and some TLC. Yet they all looked so much more comfortable once they had been scrubbed.

What had originally appeared to be a group of ten black scaled kobolds turned out to be three red, two copper, two green, a blue, a purple, and a white. They all seemed like different Kobolds once they were cleaned. Each had a different personality he could pick up small traces off, yet it was hidden under their fear and trepidation.

Once he returned the two quenching basins to their homes, Cadmus moved to the stack of meals he had placed carefully down on a bench and picked up one then turned to look at them.

"Ok, one at a time now," he instructed and motioned for the first to step forward, Brusk, as he almost predicted. He held the food just out of the little Kobold's reach and smiled kindly "Name?"

"B...Brusk s...sir." Brusk answered.

"Just your name, no need for the 'sir'" Cadmus informed them before handing over the package "But good boy." The Kobold looked so ecstatic over receiving the package and stepped to one side as the next stepped forward.

"Brag." The second red Kobold said, voice holding some uncertainty. He was missing part of one of his horns, and his belly scales were a pleasing copper colour. His face split into a cheerful grin as he was rewarded with his package, something which continued with every one of them.

"Skurc." the third red Kobold introduced himself. Cadmus made the mental note that his horns were black and he had a white belly.

"Ezid." the first Green scaled one said. White horns, white belly.

"Zais." Green scales, light green belly, grey horns.

"Xaang." Copper with red belly and white horns.

"Qreeb." Copper with white belly and snapped off white horns.

"Adisz." Blue with pale blue belly and white horns.

"Von." Purple with copper belly and horns.

"Braax." White, entirely, belly, body and horns.

"Good boys!" the human praised loudly as he handed over the last meal "Such good Kobolds. Now remember, my name is Cadmus. I only expect to be called 'Sir' if we have customers. Now tuck in, you have earned it."

They all gave slightly confused yips looking to him but did as told. Unwrapping the meals and started eating, each one giving off happy yips after their first bite and ate more intently. Cadmus nearly gave a chuckle but managed to hold it back. He walked off to inspect his new shop and their cleaning job.

Looking upstairs, he found two bedrooms, one for himself which, other than needing more dusting and maybe some new sheets on the bed, was in ok condition. The other side was a room which had to be the Kobolds den. It was cleaner than he expected, a large nest like set up for them in the middle of the room. The sheets that made it up were filthy, showing that at the end of the day, they just went and crashed to sleep in a big huddle.

He made a mental note to assign some of them to wash their bedding while the rest finished up the cleaning. Descending back down, he spotted a trap door to the cellar and chose to inspect it. It would probably take the entire Grovel of Kobolds to clean with his help. Heaving the door open he was met with an odd smell as he descended. The sound of claws scrabbling over the flooring towards him met his ears as he turned the lighting on.

The floor was bare earth, mushrooms were growing from the damp walls and all around were broken tools, barrels and display stands. Every corner had long abandoned cobwebs, yet what alarmed him the most, was the ten mounds of dirt and stone at the far end of the room. Cadmus didn't need to be a wizard to know what they were, especially given their distinctive shape and uniform size.

Looking up to the entrance, he saw the faces of each of his new Kobolds looking back down at him. They all looked terrified and more was making sense, he suppressed his anger at having not been told as he made his way back up. Before the Kobolds could retreat out of reach, he reached out and grabbed Brusk, pulling him close with an unrelenting, yet gentle, grasp.

"Tell me the truth boys," he commanded firmly, yet wasn't harsh enough to outright terrify them "How many, and what happened?"

"I...I...I..." Brusk started, giving whimpers and visibly shivered.

"Brusk... I gave you an order and asked you a question."

"S...Sorry..." he finally said and whined loudly, a sound that was joined by the other kobolds "T...ten... we were a band of twenty and..." before he could continue the back door burst open, a tall man stepping in.

"You Rats better have those wares finished! And why is the front door locked!?" he demanded. Cadmus recognised him, he was the weapons and armour vendor from a few stalls up. He had stopped to look at what he had to check out his competition.

"Excuse me? This is My business and we are currently closed, what do you want?" Cadmus asked, letting go of Brusk and gently pushed him to one side.

"My business is with these Rats, not with you," he sneered "Shove off Pipsqueek, or you'll end up like the others did last year!"

Cadmus blinked and then looked down to Brusk who gave a whimper and nodded a little. The final piece of the puzzle falling into place. The business was failing because others were stealing whatever was made and selling it off. There were dead Kobolds in his basement because, if they had disobeyed, they were punished. In turn, the ones who remained were TERRIFIED of anyone who was not a fellow Kobold.

"Get out, your business here is over." Cadmus said coldly and started taking a few steps towards him. The man rolled his eyes and raised his hands, a spell starting to form. Magic, that explained the burns and injuries on his new boys. All of the Kobolds gave terrified yips and squeaks as the spell impacted, sending Cadmus sprawling to the floor only a few feet back in a cloud of dust and soot.

"Well, I warned him... Now, where are my Wares!?" the man said turning on the band of lizards. They all cowered away from him as he slowly approached them, readying another spell. However he stopped mid step when Cadmus gave a cough and rose to his feet.

"Not bad, has a good kick, but a firebolt spell? Really? Against something bigger than a Kobold you want something at least twice that strength." Cadmus remarked as he dusted himself off and looked up at the intruder. However what left the other human most confused, was where the spell had struck on Cadmus's chest, there were now red scales.

"You know, I was a patient man once..." Cadmus added as he pulled off his destroyed shirt, the scales slowly spreading over his body, turning to black over his shoulders and sides "but that was quite a while ago... now however, I have a business, and a band of Kobolds of my own... It will take much more than that pitiful little spell to hurt me."

The changes continued at an impressive pace, his body becoming covered in deep red scales. Two large wings grew from his back, a tail from just above his rear. His head morphed to have a mid length snout, large horns growing from the top of his head.

"Who...What the hell are you!?" the intruder asked as Cadmus kicked off his shoes, feet changing to digitigrade stance with three large taloned toes on each foot paw.

"Who I am, is the new proprietor of this establishment," he answered simply, not missing the look of awe on the faces of his band of Kobolds "I'm sure it is clear what I am. But in case you need a reminder, I am both a Dragon, and more than you can handle."

Transformation finished, Cadmus was now covered from head to toe in shiny, tough scales. Those on his chin, neck, belly, underside of his tail, palms of his hands and soles of his feet were red. He had two large black horns stretching from the top of his head, bands of blue breaking up the obsidian looking spikes. Two large black and red wings extended from his back with blue spikes starting just below where they sprouted from and continued down his tail.

He began to walk towards the would be thief again, a deep growl starting to emanate from his throat. The man started to prep another spell, making Cadmus shake his head a little.

"Have you been having fun? Tormenting these Kobolds? Killing them? Stealing the fruits of their labours and running this business into the ground?" Cadmus asked as he continued his slow, deliberate approach "Does Heph know what you have been doing here? I can't believe she would approve..."

The firebolt spell impacted him in the chest again, not even causing him to flinch. He had endured worse in the past, moreover to his dragon biology, the mans spells were as annoying as having small pebbles thrown at him.

"Give it up, that spell won't even scuff my scales." Cadmus taunted and the man gave a growl of irritation.

"Fine then, you asked for it!" he said, aiming both hands at Cadmus "Breath of a Salamander, touch of the abyss, open eternity and breath hell upon my enemy..."

"Oh? An chanted spell?" The dragon mused with a raised eye ridge. Giving a sigh and shake of his head, he was already casting a spell of his own in his mind.

"Demons Kiss!" he finished chanting, a large blast of blue fire rushing towards Cadmus.

"Dismantle." The spell appeared to burst and implode on itself at the same time, vanishing in less than a second without hurting anyone. The man looked stunned, stuck in place while his brain seemed to try to compute what was going on.

"That the best you have?" Cadmus asked raising one of his eye ridges again "That isn't even a level three... I can dis-spell up to a level seven... Bastile of stone."

Rocks erupted from the ground and wrapped themselves around the man, tying his arms behind his back and pinned him to the floor. Cadmus watched as he struggled, smiling knowing he wouldn't be able to escape.

"Brusk," he called out, seeing the little redscale scamper towards him "I would like a scale from you please, just the one." He seemed confused but did as requested, plucking and handing over one of his scales.

"Good boy," Cadmus praised before dropped it to the floor and planted his foot down on it firmly "Hephaestus!"

A spell circle formed around the small scale, glowing a bright blue before a tall woman started to appear above it. She was petite, and had an air of effortless grace about her. Her gown was simple in design yet had complicated patterns sewn into the edges. The last garment to appear was her hat, denoting her to be a high ranking mage/witch. The spell finished with a pop noise and she looked around confused.

"Huh wha... where am I?" she asked before seeing Cadmus "Caddy! It's been too long! Why are you all... lizzardy?"

"Heh, sorry to summon you without warning, my lady." he replied giving a slight bow. She seemed to catch on that this was for business, not pleasure, quickly. Hephaestus dropped her bubbly personality and put on a stern expression.

"What is it Cadmus?" she asked before noticing the man on the floor "Oh, Douglas, I didn't see you down there."

"My lady," Cadmus interrupted, getting her attention again "This gentleman barged into my shop, assaulted me, and attempted to steal any goods we possess. By his own admission, he has been doing this for quite some time."

"I did no such thing!" the man on the floor, Douglas, declared loudly "He dragged me in here and did this to me!"

Cadmus rolled his eyes and held out his hand, a magical image appearing and replaying the entire encounter, from when the man broke in, to summoning Hephaestus. She watched enwrapped, taking interest in every tiny detail as it played through.

"You are getting better at magic," she finally said with a smile as it finished then looked down at Douglas "You are coming with me, your trading license is hereby revoked and the contents of your store is now the property of this establishment as payment for the damages you have caused."

After Hephaestus left, Cadmus sent his band of Kobolds to clean out Douglas's stall. He heaved a sigh as he watched, only Brusk remaining by his side while the others travelled back and forth from one store to the other. Brusk seemed interested in Cadmus, more than he had been before.

"L...Lord?" Brusk pipped up after a few minutes and Cadmus gave a sigh.

"I told you Brusk, my name is Cadmus."

"B...But you are a dragon... you are our master."

"I may look like a dragon Brusk, but I am your boss, not your master. I do not wish to be treated any different than you would treat another human."

"B...But you..."

"I am not a dragon by choice Brusk, nor by birth, I was born human and turned into this."

"W...why hide it though?"

"Because I don't want to be treated any differently, I don't want to be feared. Not by other humans, and not by you guys. I just want to have a happy, comfortable life, with you guys in it now I have this shop. I definitely don't want to be worshipped... make sure the others know that."

When he finished talking, Cadmus began changing back to human form. It wasn't exactly quick, but did require some concentration and quite a bit of magic for him to pull off. The little Kobold watched him, likely thinking over his answer in his head before finally nodding. A smile spread over his face and he gave a happy yip with his tail wagging behind him.

"Yes sir." he answered as the changes finished.

"Excellent... well then, I have a few tasks already in mind for everyone once we have this finished. I have never heard of Kobolds sleeping above grounds, and I know you guys are actually more comfortable in subterranean dens. So we shall start digging some home tunnels for you all. Then, we shall make a few trips to the town dungeon, as a group."

A year later Cadmus sat in a safe-cave within the town dungeon. Each large town had one; a large labyrinthine like cave system hidden below ground. Filled with dangerous monsters and rare treasures found nowhere else. Cadmus had been delving its depths for the last year with some of his Kobolds to get some of those rare resources.

Around him was a band of his closest boys. Brusk, Von, Braax, and one new Kobold, a large red named Kirg. He was double the size of the others, in muscle as well as just general size. Having been born of a Kobold egg that had 'appeared' in the dens under the forge, Cadmus had tried to infuse some of his own genetics into it resulting in the buff boy.

His Kobolds thought he was unaware of where the clutch of eggs had come from. However he was not so dense to not be aware that at least two of his original ten were intersex, Von and Braax. He wasn't entirely sure which one had laid the batch of eggs, but he was glad that their numbers were once again increasing.

Having started with a band of ten, that number had increased to almost fifty. They were randy little buggers, and once they breached forty, Cadmus had to impose a limitation on their reproduction. If they grew to a large number too fast, they wouldn't be able to remain undetected by the town officials.

That however was the least of his concerns. Inside the dungeons, he didn't bother with his human guise, dropping the illusion which granted him more flexibility with his magic. What concerned him was what he could see happening before his eyes.

He looked intently at his hand, watching as a few of the fine scales seemed to be loosing some of their lustre, starting to dull, a couple even falling free when he brushed over them.

"Lord?" Brusk asked from his side and Cadmus heaved a sigh.

"I told you before Brusk, it's just Cadmus." he replied sternly. It had grown to become a point of irritation to him over the last year.

"Sorry sir... it... it's getting faster... isn't it?" the red asked looking at him worriedly.

"Yes... it is," the dragon replied "the affliction is speeding up."

"Did lady Heph work it out?"

"Yes, Heph has told me what it is. when I was... made... this way, they didn't put in place the required larger mana generation required... they left me with the human one I was born with. My body as it is now requires a substantially greater generation than what I was born with. For now I am burning through what reserves I have... but even that is starting to become strained..."

"Then that means you will..." Von yipped from nearby looking up at him

"I will die... yes... six months possibly at most," Cadmus answered and looked out of their hideaway to the dungeon beyond "I just hope what I need is down here somewhere... It has to be..."

"Sir... about the others of the clan..." Brusk started only for the dragon to snap his gaze to him.

"They are Not to know!" he commanded, making the four Kobolds flinch back a little.

"But..." Kirg then tried

"THEY ARE NOT TO KNOW!" he interrupted irritably "Knowledge of my condition is NOT to go beyond you four! Am I clear?"

"Yes Sir" Brusk, Kirg and Braax. Von however said 'Lord' earning a small rock thrown at his head.

"It's Cadmus!"