FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A thin figure slinks through the midnight forest, a vibrant red cloak wrapped tightly around her bony shoulders. The doe attempts to tread lightly on the frozen ground, carefully angling her dainty hooves to avoid branches and patches of slick mud. Yet despite her diminutive size, and the smallness of her hooves, and the unnatural grace with which she moves, the heavy, violent, beat of her footsteps betrays her true nature. This was no doe at all.

Streaks of pale moonlight shine through the bare branches above and illuminate the forest around her. As she trudges forward a new sight comes into view, through a tangle of thornbushes she sees a clearing. The clearing is barren, not even a blade of grass dare grow within it, and at its center lies a quaint wooden cabin. The doe stops and turns her nose to the air, sniffing the chilly October air. She detects a familiar scent, then lowers her head, trudging forward to the edge of the clearing. She stops just within the tree line, silently observing the area around her.

Target not within sight, she sighs and rubs her hands together for warmth.

"Damn her, damn her, damn her." She mutters with increasing intensity. "I'll punish her for this. Rip out some hide for a new cloak. Infest her with fleas. Make her teeth fall out. Or maybe just a devious hex will do. A little bit of bad luck to follow her around, heh, heh, heh." She softly cackles, her lips forming a malicious smile.

As the doe talks to herself an unseen figure closes from behind.

Wrapped in a slick leather coat the figure is tall and sturdy, with stout shoulders and a muscled frame. A wide hood hides her face in shadow and a large cloth sack hangs on her back. She moves without the grace of the doe, not caring where her hooves fall as they flatten anything under her path. Branches break and fall as she clears her way through the forest, the doe's ears flicking back as she hears the figure approach.

The doe turns around and stares at the figure, crossing her arms disapprovingly.

"About damn time you showed up!" She stomps her hoof with an angry huff.

The figure pauses, then shifts into a relaxed posture.

"Who were you talking to?" The figure says, her voice low and flat compared to the doe.

"Oh, no one, just cursing the chimeras." She waves a hand nonchalantly. "Now why the hell were you compelled to come out here? I told you to meet me by the crossroads, where no one could see us."

"I felt like doing a little scouting."

"Scouting?! You'll have all the time you need tomorrow! How dare you disobey my direct orders Griselda. Don't forget who's paying your bill this time, sister."

Griselda steps forward, an angry finger pointed at the doe.

"And don't tell me how to do my job, Malvina. Illegal beast smuggling and screwing townsfolk out of their jewelry may be your area of expertise but dealing with violent, rogue witches is mine. Make no mistake, you try to screw me out of my rightfully earned gold and I'll put you in the ground same as any other cheapskate that hires me. I didn't come all the way out here for a family reunion."

The doe pauses, then puts a hand to her mouth, quietly chuckling.

"Oh? And if I don't pay you, you'll do what? Shoot me with that crossbow of yours? Using bolts that I enchanted? You may find they don't fly so straight when they're aimed at their maker." She gloats with a smug smile.

"I have bolts that are free of your touch. And knives. And scalpels." Griselda lowers her muzzle, a stern look on her face. "Don't think that just because you give me a little assistance from time to time that I'm dependent on you. I'm self-sufficient, always have been."

"A little assistance? That's an odd way of putting it. If the witch hunters guild found out that you're using my enchanted bolts I don't think they'd be very happy about it. They may revoke your license, then your rank, then your life."

"Then I'll just have to make sure they don't find out. And if they did, I know _exactly_who I'd make sure felt my retribution before I became worm food."

"Yes, yes, you're just threatening me because you're jealous that I was blessed with magical ability and you weren't. It's not my fault the gods looked upon me more favorably in the womb."

"The words 'blessed' and 'magical ability' don't belong in the same sentence. I've seen what the more deviant among your kind do in their spare time, Malvina. I ought to consider myself 'blessed' that I get to take them down before they ruin society at large."

Malvina sighs and shakes her head.

"You do not understand, sister. You poor, blind thing. You will never experience the simple joy of crafting something out of nothing, of shaping the magical ether that surrounds us all into what pleases you, of taking those energies and turning them against your enemies. What a boring life it must be, to be magicless."

Malvina brings an open palm up to mouth and blows into it, a wispy white cloud of glowing energy forming above her palm. She then blows it forward and out of her hand. The wispy cloud floats lackadaisically through the air towards Griselda. Expressionless, Griselda takes the floating orb into her hand and quickly crushes it, small arcs of energy and mist escaping between her fingers as the orb shrinks into nothing. When she reopens her hand a faint spray of sparkling dust moves with the wind. Griselda shifts her gaze back to the doe.

"Take off that ridiculous disguise. You won't be fooling anyone considering you only bathe once in a fortnight, if that."

Malvina scowls before waving a hand in front of her face. Gradually the doe's disguise fades away as she takes her true form. The red cloak turns dark and battered, several stitches and large slashes torn through its cloth. The doe grows to a height of seven feet tall while her features turn from deer to moose. Her hooves widen, her muzzle turns long and bulbous, a set of large antlers grow from between her ears as trinkets and demonic medallions appear tied to her points. As she reaches her full height she acquires a hunched forward posture, arms dangling in front of her.

Griselda removes her hood and gasps, taking in a sight most strange.

"Sister, you have antlers? What accursed magic caused this?" She gawps, eyes wide and mouth agape.

"Oh, these things?" Malvina laughs, rubbing an antler. "I needed a place to keep my protective charms is all. I had a fellow member of the thorny coven who was skilled in body transmorgrification do them for me last year. They look nice, don't you think?"

Griselda's lips gradually turn into a frown.

"Only our menfolk are supposed to have them, Malvina."

"Female moose folk aren't supposed to have antlers and witch hunters aren't supposed to have enchanted weaponry. So what?" She fires back in an annoyed tone, hands on her hips.

Griselda shakes her head and looks down, sighing before her gaze rises to the cabin.

"So that's where they live."

"Yes. It's an unassuming little hovel they inhabit."

"And these deviant witches, tell me about them. The more information I have the better I can do my job."

Malvina rushes to her side and puts a lanky arm around her back, together they walk to the edge of the forest.

"Griselda, dearest sibling, I know that you've always had some...qualms...about how I make my living."

"An understatement, but true." Griselda flatly replies.

"And that you have prejudices against those of magical ability."

"Well earned prejudices."

"And that you took a long, arduous journey out here at the bequest of your favorite sister."

"I agree with most of that statement."

"And I'm telling you, it was all worth it!" Malvina cackles before quickly hiding it behind a cough. "All worth it!" She points to the cabin. "Two witches most foul inhabit that decrepit pit of evil. Two witches, both chimeric in nature and bearing traits of their ungodly nature. One is a doe, but with fangs as long as a wolf's! She likes to pose as a prostitute out in the town, luring in innocent young men to the cabin before plunging her fangs right into their virgin necks!" Malvina wipes a tear from her eye. "She bleeds the poor men dry then discards their bodies in a red melon grove some distance away. The cold-hearted bitch." The despondent moose puts a hand to her heart and weeps a little.

Griselda takes a deep breath and looks to the cabin, unmoved from her sister's display of emotion.

"So a doe with fangs and blood sucking tendencies, got it. And what of the other chimera?"

"The other one isn't any better, believe me. The doe's sister is named Urmine and she's a bear, well, mostly a bear. She has a great set of twisted antlers atop her head. She likes to maraud the countryside straddling her broom. She harasses the poor farmers and cattle ranchers like you would not believe, wounding some, killing others, but she always steals something of theirs before departing. Often it's a bag of crops or a dead carcass of one of their cattle. But sometimes she steals...other things..." Malvina looks to her left, then her right, leaning toward Griselda and speaking in a whisper. "...like children. She makes soup out of their frail little bones in a big cauldron and eats it with her sister. Oh Griselda, I wish you could hear the sorrow filled screams of grieving mothers that fill the air after that foul horned bear had made off with one of her little ones. It would turn your heart to stone, I tell you."

Malvina leans onto her sister's shoulder and sniffles pitifully. Griselda nudges her away.

"And a horned bear with a proclivity for stealing children. Got it. Hardly the worst I've dealt with, but I believe this town would be better off without them around."

"I agree dear sister, I agree wholeheartedly. So, you promise to help me get rid of them then?"

"Yes, I will take them alive so they can be burned at the stake after their trial, or kill them if they prove too difficult."

Malvina recoils from her.

"Take them...alive? For a...trial?" Malvina stutters, clearly confused.

"I am not some hired killer, Malvina. I aim to bring justice to the land by disposing of rogue magical agents, that's what the guild does, it brings order. Wantonly killing those only suspected of malicious tendencies doesn't do the land a whole lot of good. We capture our prey, give them a fair but often brief trial, then they are either burned or set free. They are only killed in situ if it proves impossible to make them submit to a trial."

"Hmm..." Malvina sounds, walking around the back of her sister. "Would it be possible to say, I don't know, find some way to ensure that these chimeras meet their end tomorrow night? They have done such damage to the town, I don't believe it would even be possible to trial them fairly. Any trial would surely be met with pitchforks and torches."

"No. Only as a last resort." Griselda firmly replies.

Malvina growls, then rushes towards her, their muzzles almost touching.

"I need them dead, sister. They've not only caused trouble for the town but for me as well! If you refuse to put a final end to their existence then I'll...I'll...I'll refuse to enchant any more of your bolts!"

Griselda pushes her away.

"Don't tell me how to do my job. They're getting a-"

"How many times have my enchanted bolts saved your life?" She cuts her off.

Griselda pauses, seeing her sister's point.

"More than once." She reluctantly admits.

"And if you want to remain among the living you'll need me to keep helping you! Please Griselda, I'm begging you to help out your dear baby sister just this once. It's just a little favor. You'll be doing no wrong, those chimeras are truly evil!" Malvina cranes her neck forward, a subtle smile on her muzzle. "And you'll get a weighty bag of gold by the end of it too. If you agree to help me, I may even give you a little something extra."

Malvina reaches into her cloak and pulls out a small leather bag. She shakes it a few times so Griselda could hear the gold inside jingle. Griselda pauses, then reaches for the bag. But just before her fingers touch it she retracts her hand with a slight shake of the head.

"No, if I'm going to go with this dubious deal of yours I might as well receive something that can help me in my mission. I'll ensure the sisters meet their demise tomorrow if you give me forty of your enchanted bolts, so that forty more deviant witches may meet their end at my hand. In addition to my regular payment, of course."

Malvina shrugs her shoulders and places the bag back in her raggedy cloak.

"Very well, forty bolts it is. We assault their cabin tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night? Why not now?"

"I need to run an errand in the town in the morning. Just to ensure that things go to plan." Malvina begins to walk away before suddenly turning around. "Oh, and one last thing."

"That being?"

"The chimeric sisters, they have in their possession a certain object of a certain importance to me. It's a simple thing, a golden chain they keep wrapped around a pointed witch's hat in their cabin. If you find it after the fighting is done tomorrow it would be a great help to me if you could hand it over. It's of no danger or use to one not gifted with magic, like you, but if it fell into the wrong hands the consequences could be grave."

Griselda's expression turns cold.

"You hired me to kill some rival witches so you could...steal their jewelry? Seriously? Are you truly so petty?" The disbelief in her words is palpable.

Malvina puts her hands up.

"No-no-no, you have it all wrong. That golden chain is one half of a magical artifact. If it's joined with its medallion then the one who wears it is granted a minor enhancement to their magical ability. The sisters, as far as I can tell, have no idea of its significance. They leave it sitting on that rotting hat above their fireplace like it's some kind of dusty family heirloom. It would be so easy for a deviant witch to steal it and use its power for their own nefarious ends. Which is why I must secure it Griselda, to keep it safe from those who would use it for evil."

Griselda shakes her head and sighs.

"And you'll be the one to do that...riiiight. If anything I ought to hand it over to the witch hunter's guild so they can keep it safe."

Malvina raises an eyebrow and rubs her chin.

"Oh, the witch hunter's guild keeps magical artifacts? In a big vault somewhere I presume? Could you maybe give me a tour of it sometime? Or should I just let myself in?"

"Shut up, forget I said anything." Griselda huffs, waving her hand dismissively. "I'll give you your shiny chain if you double my extra payment to eighty bolts, how does that sound?"

"It's a deal!" She cackles, turning away. "Now if you don't mind I need to make a quick visit to the village before dawn breaks."

And with that Malvina waves a hand across her face, once more turning a dainty little red cloaked doe. Her heavy hoofbeats echo through the bare branches of the forest, soon turning into a distant, ominous rhythm.