FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Author's Notes: This is a work-in-progress of one of my current projects, which will be updated as and when I write new material, rather than only when I finish a chapter. It's something of an experiment, with hopes of ensuring more frequent new material for you the readers, and more impetus to write for me. Feedback, comments and thoughts are very gratefully received, since this is very much a growing, evolving story, and your input would help the process of growth immensely. This will not feature any explicit sexual content, but there is (naturally) copious nudity, sensitive themes are addressed and, well, this is me writing, so an adult rating seems best. It's still almost exclusively the obligatory scene-setting and character-introducing stuff, but hopefully not too dull for it. Onward to story...

Chapter Two

Welcome to Willowisp

Max woke slowly, consciousness seeping in at a lazy pace. He stretched, joints popping, and gave a massive, gaping yawn, then propped himself groggily up on his elbows, looking round for his sister. Tamsin proved to be standing by the window, gazing intently out, paws resting on the sill, tail tip swaying gently.

"What's so fascinating?" Max asked, blinking dust from his eyes.

Tamsin twisted round just enough to smile at him. "Everything. Gerry wasn't exaggerating - it's huge. And peculiar..." She flicked her head toward the window. "Take a look."

Max bundled himself out of bed and padded over to join her, embracing her softly from behind and, after a warm good morning kiss, settling his head against hers. Outside the world was crisp and bright, the storm a distant memory recalled only by a scant few puffs of cloud drifting across a powder blue sky. A broad sweep of trees was visible in the distance, the shimmering gleam of water to the far left, and directly opposite stood the other wing of the house, three weathered stories of red-grey stone that was stuck on at a drunken, askew angle, wider than the neat ninety degrees of their side. He narrowed his eyes, focusing in on a particular window toward the far end, noticing something rather curious.

"There's a face looking out, there," he remarked, pointing it out to his sister. "Statue, I think."

Tamsin peered closely as well, her vision a little better than his. "Yeah - pretty sure, which makes four I can see out there."

"Oh?"

"One." She indicated the figure of what looked to be a teenage male sitting on a bench in the corner of the house opposite, gazing peacefully out at the world. "Two." A pleasantly plump, probably middle-aged female right in the middle of the grassy enclosure formed by the house, a broad-brimmed hat shading her face as she smiled brightly up over her shoulder at a point just along from the cub's window. "And three." A tall, powerfully built male standing almost right beneath them, a longbow tightly drawn in his large paws, his eyes locked on a point right across the area.

"Huh. There's a lot of them about." He scratched his nose thoughtfully. "Guess that's how you're remembered around here. I like it."

"Much better than a gravestone," Tamsin concurred.

"In fact, I like everything." His eyes finally settled on what they'd been carefully skirting around up till now - the squat, brooding, slate-grey bulk of the Keep. "Well, almost everything. Talk about a mood spoiler. Why no windows? Or doors?"

"Why such a dull, glum stone?" Tam was looking at it with visible distaste, a frown tainting her lips. "It's depressing..."

"True, but it's part of our heritage, so we have to live with it," Gerry's voice put in, a moment before his paws and lips caressed both cubs between the ears. "Besides, plenty to balance it out."

"Can't wait to see!" Max released his sister to firmly hug his father, voluminous tail swaying with real energy.

Gerald laughed, scooping his son into his arms then starting for the door, Tamsin right on his heels, lightly gripping the end of his tail in one paw. "Bath first, tour later."

Max rested his chin on his father's shoulder. "Hope this isn't the only time we get to mess about in water today."

"We'll see." Gerry pushed his way through the bathroom door. "If we have time."

Inside Hannah and Erin were already comfortably ensconced in the huge circular tub, the former assiduously scrubbing the latter's tail, threading her fingers through every last inch of fur. Gerald let his son down then joined them, settling himself next to his wife. Once they'd taken care of the necessaries, and Tamsin had disposed of her pad, the twins climbed in as well, sitting side by side opposite their parents.

Max took a deep breath, twining his fingers together nervously. "Gerry..."

"Yes?" Gerald cocked his ears politely toward his son.

"We..." He swallowed. "We think we've seen a ghost..."

Gerry started, leaning forward. "What, already? Who and where?"

"A young boy cub, fox or wolf, looking out of the gatehouse as we drove up to it," Max told him, relieved and energised by his father's reaction. "Only for a second, though. I thought I'd imagined it until Tam said she'd seen it too."

"Really?" Gerry cocked his head to one side. "Now, that's interesting..."

"Why?" Tamsin leaned forward, ears perked, as she groomed a leg. "Who was he?"

"Not really sure," Hannah answered, carefully untangling a mat of fur on Erin's hip. "All we have are guesses and rumours."

Max was positively agog, all thought of washing forgotten. "Like...?"

"Well, the obvious one is that he's waiting for someone who never came." Gerry shifted round, gathering his son close, stroking the cub's chest fur with both hands as a softly indulgent smile creased his lips. "Another story has him murdered in the guardhouse, though no-one seems to know why or who by. A third insists he was simply trapped up there until he starved."

"Poor kid," Tamsin murmured, leaning against her mother's side. "Do we even know his name?"

Gerry shook his head. "No. We're not even sure if he's a fox or a wolf, he's seen so briefly, and so rarely. It doesn't help no-one's been able to get into the guardhouse for generations - the main doorway was bricked up at some point, and though there's evidence of another way in it's never been found."

"You think there might still be something up there?" Max asked, spinning round to stare intently at his father, mind whirring.

"Quite possibly. Whoever the cub was, he probably spent a lot of time up there, so there's a chance he left more than echoes of himself behind." Gerry set to grooming the small of his son's back. "And since no-one's been up there to remove or disturb it..."

"I think I know one thing I'll be doing while I'm here, then!" Max was now grinning like a loon.

Hannah chuckled softly. "Many have tried, all have failed."

"Then I'll be the first not to. Fail, I mean." Her son's enthusiasm didn't dim in the slightest.

"Don't get too carried away, love." Gerry patted the cub's head affectionately. "We're only here for a few weeks, and there's a lot more than ghost stories to get your teeth into."

"What, like...ghost lights?" Max ventured, tentatively, ears dipping slightly.

Gerry's paws fell still against his pelt, several long seconds inching past before anyone spoke.

"Ghost lights?" Hannah eventually enquired, having stilled her own grooming of Erin's belly, eyes bright with curiosity.

"Well...light," Max amended, even more hesitant in the face of such intent interest. "I, uh, woke up needing to go to the bathroom..."

"Knew it!" Tamsin grinned. "They have started again."

Max stuck his tongue out at her, and with a flick of his wrist sent a cascade of water splashing over her head. "One-off. Anyway, I woke up, and the night-light was out. I think the power was too - it was pitch dark...that is, until a light popped up in the middle of the room. Small - bout the size of an eye - quite bright, and it almost seemed..." A long pause. "Alive. It, uh, responded to what I said - bobbing, moving. It helped me get to the bathroom before I, well, before...then took me to a room further down the corridor, which had a tall statue and a bit of paper on a stand. I read the paper - didn't really understand it - then the light helped me back to bed."

"A wisp?!" Gerry husked, a tremble seeping into his form that transmitted itself into his son. "Already?!"

"Is...that...good or bad...?" A deeply nonplussed Max asked, unable to make sense of his parent's behaviour.

Until Gerry caught him up in a truly ferocious hug, laughing in uproarious delight, the resultant splash sending a mini tidal wave washing up against Hannah and a grimacing Tamsin, and cresting over a giggling Erin.

"Good!" Gerald whooped, kissing the cub repeatedly across the top of his head and muzzle. "Very good! Fantastic!"

"What's so fantastic about seeing a light?" Tamsin muttered, glaring daggers at her sibling. "Final proof he really is nuts?"

Hannah clipped her ear sharply. "No, proof he really is a Robertson, as if we needed any. They only show themselves to family here."

Her daughter's ears dipped, and a pout began to form. "So why didn't I see it?"

"Because they found you by the side of the road and took pity on YOW!" Max's tease was cut off by a paw smacking him across the nose, not hard enough to hurt much, but certainly hard enough to make him jump.

"Don't," Gerald admonished, releasing the cub. "She'll see one before long, if they're being that forward. Me too, I hope. Kinda missed them." He rubbed his muzzle thoughtfully. "Curious that one led you to the family enigma, though."

"Who was he?" Max set to assiduously cleaning his ears, inside and out, pointedly not looking at his sister.

"That's the enigma; beyond his name - Samuel - we don't know. All we have of him is the statue, the paper, and a painting in the main hall. No matter how hard people look, they've never found the slightest thing more."

"Then I'll be the first!" Max proclaimed, eyes shining.

"Oh, really?" Hannah's tone was a mixture of amusement and gentle scepticism. "You'll do in five weeks what Nick couldn't do in sixty years?"

"Y..Yeah!" Max faltered just a smidgen - sixty years? "New pair of eyes, and all."

"Maybe." Gerry lightly ruffled one of his son's ears. "But I wouldn't get your hopes up."

Max shrugged. "Doesn't hurt to try."

"Patience!" Tamsin, one leg held high as she groomed it, couldn't resist interjecting.

"Tam," Gerry warned, fixing her with a quietly remonstrative stare. "Stop letting your jealousy think for you. You'll see a wisp before long - they're inquisitive little things."

A shamefaced young vixen nodded meekly. "Yes, Dad. Sorry, Max."

Her twin started to stick his tongue out in triumph, and wiggle his paws either side of his face, only for his father's eyes to fix on him. "And you need to stop overreacting so much, okay?"

"Yes, Dad." Max sighed, swallowing the last of his petulance. "Sorry, Tam. If one comes in the night again I'll make sure to wake you up."

Tam shifted close enough to take up and lightly squeeze one of his paws. "Thank you. Mind if I help with the detecting, too?"

"'Course not!" Max assured her, with a smile. "You're the A-student, after all."

Gerry beamed, gathering both cubs into a fulsome hug, and kissing them on the muzzle. "Much better! We'll make siblings of you yet! Now..." His gaze switched back and forth between the two. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"One thing." Max took a deep breath, then as succinctly as he could filled his father in on Cor's abuse and threat.

Gerald listened intently, his mouth thinning to a rigid line, his eyes hardening. Once his son had finished he got him to stand up then carefully examined his genitals, noting every last cut. Finally, he got to his feet, his paws trembling just a little.

"Excuse me. I have a phone call to make." He strode out of the bath and the room without even pausing to dry off.

Max watched after him, sagging back into the water, his ears hanging limp. "I hope I haven't gotten him expelled..."

Hannah gathered him into a squeezing hug, kissing between his eyes. "No, he has. He's just run out of last chances. You're not the only one he's been bullying." She shook her head, sighing. "That boy's got some serious insecurities; not that I blame him, with his parents..."

Max, nestling back into the cosseting warmth of his mother's breasts almost without thinking, looked up at her. "Not nice people?"

"Very judgmental, and short-tempered, and they rarely seem to have much time for him. Why have a child when you're only going to see them as a burden? No wonder he ended up so damaged."

"Some people say you're damaging us," Tam ventured, as she helped Erin climb from the bath then stepped out herself. "By living like we do, I mean."

"I do wonder that myself, sometimes," Hannah admitted, softly, a distant, faintly troubled cast to her expression, her muzzle dipping.

Maxwell tilted his back, nuzzling hers in tender concern. His mother responded just as softly, suddenly keenly aware of his warmth against her, and the peaceful rhythm of his heartbeat. She stroked both paws through his chest and stomach fur, feeling his tail flex in response, her lips starting to twitch into a smile. It bloomed fully on seeing Tamsin and Erin were playfully tussling over a towel, somehow contriving to dry each other in the process.

"But never for long." Hannah kissed the tip of Max's muzzle then ushered him up and out of the bath with paws to his back and bottom.

He plunged right into the tussle, while she collected a towel of her own and set to rubbing and patting her coat dry from top to bottom. She'd just reached her navel, rubbing a towel-covered finger into it, when she heard two sets of footfalls pad into the room.

One proved to be Amelia, the lithe little weasel passing her with a bright "Good morning!" then moving over to the trio of Robertson cubs; towel forgotten, Erin and Tamsin were now trying to pin their brother down, but Max was putting up a very spirited resistance. Both parties, on spotting Amy, pleaded for her to help them; after a brief moment of indecision she dived into the fray, though it wasn't at all obvious whose side she was on.

Hannah chuckled as she dried her thighs, and turned to the originator of the other footsteps, Sam, now standing alongside her wearing an expression of such pure delight tears were pricking her eyes.

More to come soon...