FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

We reached the estate, and Renna said, "This is really different. Someone's moved in, it seems. Since yesterday morning, even. Huh."

I didn't really have a basis for comparison, having only seen it once in the dark, but it didn't look terribly overgrown, and there was no obvious way in.

A horse's head appeared over the top of the hedge - Ezi. She said, "Hello again! Come right on up!" And a moment later, a flat gray ramp appeared, leading over it. A moment later, it was recolored to appear stone, and then details filled in.

Renna was flabbergasted. "Do they know you?"

I thought I'd be able to talk about it, but I wasn't. Ezi walked up to the peak of the temporary bridge and said, "What? You're still tongue-tied from my discretion call? You must have the mental fortitude of pigeons!"

Prot passed her, and walked down towards us, in archaically dressed human male form. "Not so. I strengthened your discretion substantially. And it still wasn't enough." Then, to us, "You may speak."

I let out a breath it felt like I'd been holding. "Why did you do that without asking?"

"Without asking? Surely you recognize that if you hadn't agreed, that'd be the case we need it the most."

Renna shook me. "What's going on?"

Ezi walked down, cooing, "I'm sorry, dear. You must be the girl who crossed our land so many times only a few years ago. We just woke up, and when they crossed last evening, they were behind schedule, so we made a deal: I fly them there, and they come back and tell us what we missed."

"What you missed... when?"

I put in, "They've been sleeping for the last thousand years..."

Ezi amended, "No we weren't - just half that."

"Really? You said you were waiting for Periten to become accessible again."

"Yes, but we didn't go to sleep right away. At least, not for centuries at a time. And now Masann and Nyka are back, so we're up for good. Come on and let's get going."

Renna was distinctly uncomfortable. I tapped out to her, "That code you read was about this, not Lily." I didn't feel like letting Prot know that I had gotten something out, even incompletely, if I wasn't sure he already knew. Renna responded with a simple acknowledge.

When we reached the top of the ramp, it disappeared, which drew my attention. Renna, though, just said, "Holy shit." That in turn drew my attention, as it was the second time that she had used foul language in two hours, having not done so in the previous year or so. And so finally I looked at what she had seen - the garden was completely restored, with attractive pagodas and sculpted bushes and gushing fountains and then at the end there was a palace with broad windows and...

"Glamour?" Aresh asked.

Prot snorted. "Why would we illusion the place up? We're restoring it. Illusions would just confuse matters." We came to a clearing with cushioned reclined seats; one was occupied by a woman whose animal form was unfamiliar - hairless and wrinkled, with a long snout, pear-shaped body, and long feet - and she wore bizarre clothing, all tight white wraps, with very little of her body showing. Prot seated us, introducing her to us as Nyka; we introduced ourselves in return. She nodded to us, but remained silent.

Then the centaur walked in. We had never heard of real centaurs, let alone seen them. He, too, was enclosed in white, though instead of wraps it was a unitard. And he, unlike the others, looked seriously old; he moved more slowly as well, though it did not appear that he was in pain. Nyka got up and conversed quietly with him momentarily, then they sat together. We were not introduced, and I assumed that he was Masann. Ezi joined us, and we started.

Without really moving far, we split up into separate conversations, with Aresh speaking with Ezi, Prot with me, and the other two speaking with Renna. It came out that they had all been minor nobles of the diamond empire, the largest surviving remnant of which was Fazo - Aresh's country - and not an empire. They glossed over how it occurred that a noble was permitted to just drop off the map so thoroughly that they didn't notice the insurrection that carved Getta out of the empire.

For a while Prot's questions were a little worrisome, seeming that they could be trying to mess around with the government. When it became clear that our government was highly decentralized and bureaucratic, he lost interest, and asked about various places. Fortunately, I was reasonably strong on history, and was willing to admit when I didn't know.

Food was presented, and we were permitted to eat as we wished - freshly gathered mixed berries; a game bird of some sort, diced into cubes; wild carrots; star fruit - all food that could be gathered on short notice from the woods, but also some things we weren't familiar with at all - tomatoes, squash, and, at the end...

Ezi sniffed and whinnied in delight. "Oh... it's been hundreds of years. The gods were so cruel to take this from us."

Nyka took a small brown cube in her fingers and offered it to Renna. "You're very well read. I wonder if you can figure out what this is."

Renna took a sniff at it. "Well, it smells good. Hmm. What foods were lost with contact with Periten?"

"Every ancient cookbook would mention it."

"Well, I'm not a cook. At all. Famir?"

"Is it sweet?"

"Barely. Bitter, rich."

"Remember the great sundae of Colden?"

Renna chuckled, remembering the mock epic of the dessert era, turned to Nyka, and guessed, "Chocolate?"

Nyka, "Yes! Congratulations on being the first citizen of Getta to eat chocolate, ever."

"Umm, thanks. It may be an... acquired taste."

"Try the lighter ones. That one was extra dark. Extra powerful."

The next half hour or so was basically spent tasting chocolate, and it was only when the supply dwindled that Ezi commented that she thought we had all fulfilled our end of the bargain.

Prot paced around in front of us. "And now... Once you leave, do you promise not to talk, write, or otherwise communicate anything that might suggest or lead to the discovery that we exist, to anyone, including each other, or..." He looked pointedly to me,"...yourselves?"

We all assented, and he smiled. "Great. That makes it much stronger and totally non-intrusive."

I frowned. "I'd like to point out that if you'd just asked before, I wouldn't have even been trying to get around it."

Prot smiled condescendingly. "If you'd been trying to get around it, you wouldn't have."

Ezi moved to lead us toward the lower hedge, but Aresh said, "Actually, now that that's over, I'd instead like to get back to Allegos, to get back into my proper body, and going out the other way would make that easier."

I objected, "Will they even be open, on New Year's Day?"

"They're an emergency service, remember? Someone will be around, at least during the day when most accidents happen."

Renna slowly added, "I don't think I'd like to stick with this body. We could all go. It'd be safer getting home in the dark with all three of us; or if it gets too late, we can stay at my brother's place while they're in Clearwater."

Ezi changed direction to return us over the upper hedge, when I offered, "You don't like your form - want to change, yourself?"

She curled her lip, saying, "Seeing what they did to you, I'd rather deal with it than let them work on me. It's messy. Maybe I'll buckle down and learn to polymorph. Good day."

We walked down another temporary ramp and into the forest, up to the path and north, to Tiko. By the time we made the border, it was dinner-time. The border crossing was mercifully easy, and we made it to the refitter a few minutes before closing.

The refitter, Erndan, came out from the back. "Ah, hello. Let's see." She looked over Aresh and Renna. "You're here with the body from Pilo. and you... ah, interesting."

Renna perked an eyebrow, and Erndan continued. "Well, you're in a lot better shape than when we let her to you, but it seems you're still facing fatigue despite substantial use of stimulants."

Renna said, "I have the lethargy problem tackled - just be nocturnal... I'm exhausted now because of new year, essentially. Had to be awake for today and much of yesterday. I... suspect someone slipped me the stimulant to keep me up well past my bedtime - I have not needed it day to day, not at all."

Erndan humphed and pulled at one of her long droopy ears thoughtfully. "Really. Well, we'll see how it comes out in review. So, what can we do for you?"

"I'd like to keep looking around. And I understand that the way we've been switching around has been not so good for me?"

Erndan shook her head. "It's fine for you. It just can't be done over and over again. Most people we serve change very few times."

"Well, I'd like to be a bit more flexible. Can you use a gentler method?"

"Yes... but you'll need to stay put for another month before we can move you, if we're doing it that way."

"A month?" We looked to each other. That would be annoying.

Aresh began to say something, but Erndan cut her off, "Miss, I'm afraid this isn't your job."

I said, "She's our friend."

Erndan pursed her lips, and said, "All right. In your capacity as friend... go ahead."

"Well, Famir, you could try. We've both been men; it didn't kill us."

The idea struck me oddly, but I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong with it. I'd been curious to try ever since Renna had spent time as a man, but it hadn't been necessary...

Erndan said, "He's comfortable in his skin now, and he wouldn't be working for us like you... that's not our mission."

I really hadn't expected to be blocked like that. "Wait, what?" Her objection took me off the fence. I was going to do this.

"We are not simply a business. Fazo licenses the guild as long as we have a restricted mission. Trying out for someone else is not under that scope."

"Well then. I guess Renna's not changing, so we'll just let you get Aresh back in her own body, and we'll be going. Down to Getta, where I'll see about something there."

"Good luck with that. Definitely lock your body up tight." She said it as if it would scare us off. Again, no way.

As the two of them went to the rear to perform the switch, I sat; Renna next to me, leaned over and went to sleep. After a while, Aresh came back out in her own self, and we got Renna up.

"Want to stay at your brother's?"

"No. Now that it's night, it's energizing... I'll just push on through, sleep a lot once we get home."