FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

PART NINETY EIGHT

T he Journey across the motorway along route seven to Obscura Forest has been a quiet affair, Jack had been somewhat distant since waking up, not that Ahsoka could blame him after the pounding he had received. But she was grateful he wasn't broken, still she was relived as he began to notice the scenery pacing them as she had turned off into obscura forest. He hadn't let any of his team sit on his lap this time nor had any asked to, she could only conclude they knew to give the space he needed, had to admit for all their rambunctiously crass behaviour they all ways had his back, she both admired this; maybe even envied it a little.

For someone like her, such a thing as expressing ones love was to be considered an act of weakness, something she could use to exploit an a chink in an opponent's armour. Yet her Jack, somehow made it his strength; it baffled her completely as it flew in the face of how she believed the world to worked. Worse yet, the longer she spent with him the more she starting to think of a life outside of team rocket. With some effort Ahsoka stopped this train of thought, pushing such concepts as far from her mind as she could, her darling Jack was little more than a resource, a mere pawn to be used in whatever agenda team rockets saw fit hen thrown away like some disposable paper plate. She had to nip these feelings for him in the bud, it would only be a matter of time until they compromised her on professional level. But as she glanced at his soft warm smile at her from the corner of her eye, she felt her heart melt that bit more, he was softly smiling at her.

“What is Loch Obscura like, Ahsoka?"

He asked curiously, the bronzed giantess gave a slow smile as they travelled down a forest road, she considered for a moment the best way to describe it before responding to his question.

“At the heart of obscura forest is a loch of crystal-clear water, it spans from its widest areas to around a good thirty-three miles, while at its deepest point it has been estimated to be over thirty thousand feet deep.** Next to the loch is an ancient tower erected under sir anthro orders, but here's where it gets really good, at the very top of that tower; is a device called, an obscura."**

Jack looked at her, the tiredness for the moment leaving his eyes, replaced by excited interest. He was hooked one every word now as she pulled into the forest's carpark, she could not help but chuckle tenderly as she ran one of her hands gently across his cheek before pulling up the hand break and turning off the engine.

*“Now an obscura, allows one to see things in a full three hundred and sixty degrees and the higher up it is the further you can see. How it works is simple, in the dome at the very top of the tower, there is a plain mirror protected with a hood of sorts and a pane of glass. *

**Now that mirror is angled in such a way as to allow natural light to reflect down through a chute running the through the centre of the tower to a dark chamber, there the light passes through three lenses and onto a highly polished metal plate affixed to a pedestal, those same lenses flip the image on the disk so it appears the right way up.

Additionally, the dome itself would be rotated by via the use of counter weights and leavers, it would have been quite spectacular in its day.**

However, this is not the only tower in the region, there are more dotted about in key locations, though in current day they are little more than crumbling ruins, except the one here. No one as of yet has been able to solve why this is."

Once more she stopped, giving him a chance to process what had just been said.

“If you look out your window and up you should see the domed top of the tower even from way back here."

Jack turned his head doing as bidden, he could just see the dome shape poking over top of the trees, but he could not make out any details or even its colour.

“It can see far into the distance, though not into the forest itself."

She finished leaning over to brush his lips with her own, as reward for paying attention to what she had to say. Jack was thinking about play back in forest city, in particular the scene where the gardevoir spirited a child away from the cruel ruler's dungeon. More so where had the pokémon village been, a discrete cough brought him back to the here and now as Ahsoka got his attention. Blushing slightly, he got out releasing his team from their pokéballs, he felt a paw slipping into his hand with a remorseful look in her fuzzy rabbit like face. Leaning down he proceeded to kiss the top of her head to show there was no hard feelings between them; soliciting a squeal of delight as she let go of his hand to reach up, grab his cheeks between hers paws, then pull him down into a deep passionate lapin kiss.

“Blaziken…Blaz...Zi…Ken!"

[Ease up, he needs to breath!]

Blaze chuckled reaching out a talon to help steady their trainer, with a huff Bunny let him go. Leaning back against the side of the car Jack found himself panting as he attempted to catch his breath, he never noticed Oni and Lucy crouching upon the vehicles bonnet, at least not until his face was suddenly being given a two pokémon tongue bath while.

'Yes, yes, we are all happy that Jack is feeling more himselfe, but this tom foolery will not get oneself closer to one's destination, now make like good little peons, and fetch the bags!'

Toph observed with a contemptuous tone to her mentally projected voice, she looked up at them with an expression that did little to hide how undignified their actions to be, the other four pokémon simply ignored her.

“HEY!...You coming for the back packs or not?"

Ahsoka called out tapping her foot on the ground, Oni; Blaze; Bunny and Lucy looked up then as one all headed towards the boot of the car, leaving Toph to look on pouting like some spoiled school girl.

“Do you want me to carry you?"

Jack asked her softly, his face still covered in pokésaliva, the Espeon wrinkled her nose at the thought of any of the drool touching her pristine fur.

'Wipe your face first, only then may you have the privilege, of carrying ones prestigious self.'

Jack swiftly brushed his face clean with his sleeves before scooping the now digested Toph up into his arms, Ahsoka meantime had his backpack comfortably slung over a shoulder while he hobbled on over.

“Punny…Lop…Lop…Unny…Pun…Lopunny…Lo…Pun…Unny…Lop?"

[You sure you can manage her, especially with the size of her ego?]

Lopunny chuckled, soliciting a venomous glare from the slightly sticky espeon.

“Well let's get going, the sooner we start, the sooner we get there"

Ahsoka barked as if giving order to some raw recruits, remotely locking her car they group left the carpark behind them. The walk was quiet as they trudged along the well-trodden path, even beneath the canopy way up above them the occasional beams of sunlight shone through just enough to clearly illuminate the way. Either side of the wide dirt path they could hear the sounds trainers battling each other or attempting to catch some pokémon, a few times a pachirisu or minccino would scamper from one side to the other pausing only to watch the two humans and their pokémon; before hurrying back up into the branches.

At one point Jack was sure he spotted a deerling from the corner of his eye, yet the moment he turned to look at the small deer only to find it had already gone leaving him feel somewhat disappointed, he would have dearly loved to have seen one as it would have been a welcome distraction form the soreness every step brought to his rear.

Half way they could see a couple of pokémon rangers lecturing a trainer on his bike, its saddle bags stuffed with pokéggs.

A good twenty minuets before they exited into the light, Jack was fairly certain it would have taken days to travel thought the forest on foot, but with laying of roads around and through it for the sake of convince it was far less of an ordeal. Even those on foot there where guest inns dotted along the way the people of the region had done what sir anthro had failed to do, conquered obscura forest by turning a bastion of refuge for pokémon into just another tourist spot.