FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sirus, or Niles as he called himself, was allowed to wander the marshes when his master had no use for him at the time, and was busy tapping his foot slowly in a puddle, a crooked smile framing his face as he watched his reflection dance, just for him. His second smile, for that is what he called the slit in his throat, smiled with him.

And then, a feeling snapped his head to face north-east. Someone, or something, was calling to the ragged remains of his body's soul, and he was compelled to answer.

Leaving his friend behind, he sped through the trees with unnatural speed, darting, ducking, diving under, over and through every obstacle, the blue glow was strong, and he lit up as he sped through the trees and puddles, making leaps and bounds that no mortal man could ever hope to achieve.

Something wanted him, or what was left of the mans soul, and he would not let such a thing go so easily.

Gilden was visible through the trees. He slowed, and stopped just outside the fence of the graveyard, which was an impressive ten feet tall, and he waited for the caller to appear.

The network glow of veins on his chest had died down, a thick circle of veins, two inches from the hole, his energy was spent too rapidly, and he could not afford to waste more just yet. His right eye dimmed and went out, to be replaced with a milky sheen as he heard the door of the church open.

~***~

Niles was on the verge of panic. Never had such a thing happened to him. The candles were a blur of white and gold and only when they slowed did the panic rise further until he was in hysterics. He gripped Cha'kaar's arm and screamed.

"What have you brought to my parish?! What manner of creature is it that uses the souls of mortals in this way? Tell me, Dan'kir!"

Niles gripped the side of the altar as he fell to his knees, the exertion was too much, and he choked, coughing violently on the floor and a tiny splatter of blood marked the flagstones, him panting for breath.

Darrius had been on his feet since the candles had started spinning, the constellation they made was the sign of Gilden, each prospective church was built under a certain array of stars, which meant it was somewhere near the town. He smacked Cha'kaar on the arm who was lost for words.

"We have to protect the town! Come on!" Pushing the name that the bird had screamed from his mind for the moment, he gripped Niles by the arm and lifted him to his feet despite his verbal and physical protests.

"Their's always a back door to get into the graveyard, right?"

The crow pointed a shaky finger to a door, half-hidden behind a tapestry, and wordlessly dropped a key onto the floor as he let out a shakey moan. His arm over his eyes as the headache swept back to stomp on his frontal lobe. Darrius snatched the key up and yelled for Cha'kaar to follow, the crow was gently weeping as the pain had him in a vice-like grip.

Darrius forced the key in the lock and slammed his weight against the door. Despite the relatively new hinges, they had rusted beautifully in a short time after installation. Both him and Cha'kaar spilt into the graveyard, the only place so far that had any kind of grass to speak of, and after a moment of peering amongst the new gravestones, saw the creature lurking in the treeline beside the graveyards fence.

"Hey!" Darrius called out. The figure perked up and fixed it's one blue eye onto the vulpine, which was easily visible at the fourty or fifty feet from the treeline. At that, it simply turned, took a few steps back, ran and lept into the air, clearing the fence with ease, and landed on his feet, with barely a ripple in the grass.

His very presence seemed to exude magical energies, hemorrhaging the magic into the open air and it seeped back into the ether from whence it came. It spoke with an echo, the blue band of magic that had held it's slit throat shut was fading, slowly, but surely.

"Who summons what remains of this... tattered body's soul?" a day of wandering in the swamps had not been kind to his overall look. He'd lost his sandals, his legs and trousers were splattered with mud and scratches marked his frame. Overall, he looked like he charged full pelt through several hedges and puddles. He raised his hand slowly, and pointed at them both.

"Do you... summon Niles?" His speech was slurred, ponderous and slow, his hand thumping the blue markings over his heart.

"Or did you want... need... him?" The ferrets finger tapped his temple three times, before letting his hand fall to his side.

"We just want his soul and to give it the proper rites, thats all." Cha'kaar's words seemed to mean very little to the creature before them, which tilted it's head in puzzlement. A small nugget of info was niggling at the back of his mind for attention, but he just could quite understand. Something about the blue glow...

"But I... need it." He patted his chest again. The glow dimmed slightly, and suddenly he became a little more graceful, less ponderous in movement and speech.

"You know... I took such a long time hollowing out his soul for my own ends, without it, I wouldn't be here." He gave a humorless chuckle and pressed on, pacing in front of them, his eye locked on Darrius, who was fuming.

"You should have seen him struggle. Such a strong body wasted on such a tiny, pathetic mind such as him. I made sure he suffered as I tore out bits and pieces of his spirit, scattering them, taking joy in removing his childhood memories. His family, His first love."

Arcane energy crackled between Darrius' fingers, his anger rising with each word that poured from that dead mans mouth. A tear tracing it way down his cheek.

"Such a beautiful ermine she was. Her fur glistened in the moonlight. She shivered at his touch, as he deflowered her that night under the stars. He fucked her raw, and he rode that whore to the heavens and back. All. Night. Long." The grin was the worst, his slit throat had finally given up holding itself together for now, giving him a doubley grim smile, thrusting his hips towards them. Tears streaking Darrius' muzzle as he tried to hold his temper in check.

The body of Sirus pressed his throat back together with two fingers, that grin still as haunting as ever.

"Oh, and I forgot to mention, the little whore got to her knees and polished his sword, if you know what I mean. And she polished it well. Right to the back of the throat!" He opened his maw wide, and slipped his fingers into his maw, and out through the hole of his neck, pumping them in a grim display of sexual stimulation.

"You know, maybe I could go and find her again, and give her a proper good time now I've wormed my way into his body and mind. Well, the shaft doesn't work anymore, but the tongue does."

"Enough! Darrius, don't rise to him!" Cha'kaar screamed as the walking corpse slathered his fingers in a mixture of spit, bile and blood. He had remembered what the glow meant, but it couldn't be... They were rare enough, but to push one into a body was unthinkable!

"Enough?" Sirus put on his best hurt feelings face. The blue eye was little more than a bead in a sea of white, and it flickered back to Darrius, who's hands were arcing with arcane energies. His face split into a grin once more. Just another good push, he thought.

"Maybe I won't screw the whore after all, I don't have the energy for it... But! What I can do, is slit her pretty neck, from ear to-"

"He said enough!" Darrius screamed as arcane fire blossomed from his fingertips, his rage adding body to the flame. Sirus simply opened his arms and welcomed the embrace of the fires, which surrounded him and consumed him for just a moment, before the flames went from being a wall of inferno, into a pillar of flame that fed right into the hole of his chest. The glow returned to his eyes, the network of veins grew rapidly across his entire body and sunk deep into his flesh, healing him, fixing him.

Darrius was having problems trying to break his hold on the spell. It was like a dam had given way and the only way it was going to end, was when every last drop had left it's hold. He screamed to Cha'kaar, the noise was almost unbearable, like the mightiest gusts of wind through the narrowest valleys magnified many times over.

"I can't... break free!" He could feel his reserves of magic draining, drawing him to his knees as Cha'kaar prepared a spell of his own, forming a web between his fingers as he hurried over to the stricken fox. A whip of flame whirled through the air and smacked Cha'kaar back into a tombstone. A second crack of the whip met his cheek. And a third met his leg. The final wrapped around his throat, the flames boring into his skin as it tightened with every breath he let out.

"He, is mine!" Sirus screamed above the roar of the flame. The noise had drawn out the few townsfolk that had been working, they clustered around the entrance of the graveyard, horror and confusion gripping their very souls.

Niles had made it outside, the lights and noise finally drawing him from his hiding spot in the church, just as Darrius' stores of magic ran dry, and he collapsed, gasping for breath and barely able to move as he lay on his side, watching Cha'kaar struggle as he was borne aloft and casually thrown aside and out of his line of sight. The footpaw of Sirus appeared in his view, and kicked him onto his back, his world turning blue as he stared at the sky. The ferrets face floated into view like an ugly black cloud on the clear summers day.

"Aww, the poor child ran out of igneous juices, I see. Such a shame, I could always use more juice." He chuckled as Darrius' eyes fixed on his.

The magic he'd drained had repaired him, the cuts and scrapes had disappeared, the gaping hole in his neck had healed, hell, even his fur was brushed clean by the overhaul of energy. The worst thing was his eyes. Darrius was sure their was nothing worse than the dead, milky white things he'd seen not more than a few minutes ago, but the eyes he gazed into now were perfect, but wrong. Whatever colour they had been before were replaced with a deep blue, and behind those eyes laid only malace and pain, and the desire to inflict it was all too present.

Sirus knelt down, bringing his face into sharper focus and gripped his muzzle, turning it this way and that. Darrius was still too weak to speak, let alone fight back as the ferret examined him like some jeweled trinket or a piece of meat, to find some worth left within his exausted hide. He let out the faintest of shivers as the hands traveled downwards, even pressing against his groin. Another chuckle.

"Not a bad specimen, and a mage as well. Ooh you'd make a good one for the master, and who knows? Maybe the Sundered who wears you might like to play." The vulpine's eyes followed the dead merchant's hand, which raised above his chest, two fingers pointing down. The sight filled him with dread, but no strength to do anything about it.

"Just one little thrust, and you'll be back on your feet in no time. Just like me." Once again, that mad, evil grin of his seemed to bore into his soul. Darrius' breathing grew rapid and his eyes wide as he tried to will his arms, his legs, anything to do something!

Wether Maraan or some other diety was listening, he couldn't tell, but Sirus' head flicked up at the faintest sound of feather against stone. Niles was propping himself up on the church wall with his arm, panting softly. From what he could see sprawled out on the grass, he wasn't doing to well, his watery eyes streamed tears down his cheeks, and he had trouble keeping his eyes open for more than a second. The tremble was obvious, even from Darrius' limited view. The lights and noise had not helped his headache one bit.

"Stop... this madness... you dead fool..." He pressed his hand to his chest, wether because he was weezing, or to make his next statement clear was up for interpretation.

"It was I who summoned you... Niles of Gilden, summoned the tattered remains of your soul... so you could rest in peace..." The ferret slowly got to his feet, eyes locked on the bird that had drawn him all this way to some mudhole of a town.

"Oooh, so YOU'RE Niles. Now that must mean I'm squatting in the body of Sirus. it's amazing what a bit of juice can unlock in a dead man's head. And now I know who I need to kill for taking me from my masters side!" From nonchalant to bloodthirsty assassin in less than a few seconds, he planted his foot and lept into the air.

The next part seemed to happen in slow motion for all. Sirus screaming through the air, like some monster from the depths of hell. He lifted his left arm up above his head as the claws lengthened and became sharper and quicker than any forged blade, and Niles just stood there, bearily staring into the sun that the ferret had lept in front of. But just as claws were to meet feathers and bone, Niles lept aside with extraordinary agility, the blade-like claws missing their mark by inches as they dug deep into the soft dirt.

As Niles landed on his clawed feet, Sirus just... flickered. From crouching with his claws buried in the dirt to standing in front of the crow, a single digit pressed through his right shoulder. A strangled cry of pain echoed around the churchyard as he fell, the razor sharp talon biting deep into a tombstone, which propped him and Sirus at a fourty five degree angle. Cha'kaar could only watch after the townspeople had snapped him back into conciousness and helped him to his feet.

A sharp twist drew out another whimper of pain from the crow, his middle and ring finger claws were pressed to the birds throat. A little, manic chuckle drew itself from his throat as he watched the panic flare in the old man's eyes, something else seemed to lurk behind them as well, but Sirus was having the time of his unlife to notice such trivial things, especially as his torturous acts were only just beginning on this dim-witted populace.

"Any last words before I slit your little neck, old one?" A small twitch from his finger pressed the blade-like claw against the bird's throat caused a thin trickle of blood to pool on the slick surface of his claw.

"Just a few..." Niles spat before rattling off a series of runes that caused a small, but powerful wave of energy to errupt from his being. Sirus was thrown back a good ten feet, his left hand burnt down to the muscle layers, claws gone, and blue veins errupted to the surface, trying to mend the damage as quickly as possible.

Mages and monks had never got on. Mages used magic often, so most monks were taught the basic dispersing magic field spells to render any attacks made by their foes moot, and even in Niles weakened state, the combination of slow drain and the blast force had sheered Sirus' claws, leaving his digits behind, and a hand that would take more than a few minutes before it would fully heal. The ferret gripped his ruined hand, screaming obscenities at the monk, who still had most of a claw wedged in his shoulder.

Cha'kaar, however, saw his moment, and knew what he was up against this time. He strode forward from the crowd, dripping mud and burning with rage, he flexed his right hand which crackled with energies of a different nature. He flicked his finger into the air, burning a quick set of golden runes that hung momentarily before he forced his palm into them, a whirl of power echoed into existance that formed a bolt of white fire that screamed towards it's target.

Cha'kaar drew Sirus' eye as he marched into the yard like the wrath of the gods given form, he couldn't help but be just the tiniest bit impressed. Not only had he survived being thrown twenty feet into a graveyards archway, but he stood ready to fight.

The ferret countered the bolt with a ball of flame from his weakened hand, and the bolt whizzed right through it, like an arrow through a balloon, leaving only cinders in it's wake. It struck home near the bottom of Sirus' palm and halfway up his forearm. Pain like he'd never felt before coursed through his body as the veins rejected his arm and retreated to to his elbow. The end of the bolt flared, expelling the magical energy that he'd robbed not more than a few minutes ago into the air.

Sirus tore the bolt from his arm before it could drain any more, leaving his right palm raw and blue with veins from the energy that was drawn from it only two seconds of contact. It clattered against a nearby headstone and faded from existance, unable to maintain it's existance without a constant steam of magic to feast upon.

Realising that he'd bitten off much more than he could chew, the ferret lept over the next bolt, planted his foot against the side of the church wall in mid air, and lept and over the fence, screaming obscenities at them all and vowing revenge against the town itself, dragging his useless arm with him as he headed into the treeline and out of sight.

Cha'kaar hurried over to the monk, giving his shoulder a quick look over, before another ringing slap across his right cheek, this time.

"You bloody fool! I'm fine!" He panted with exertion and wrapped a hand around the half blade that was still lodged in his shoulder. The magic he'd used had burnt the tip of it off, leaving it rounded and smouldering, the other end still had a piece of Sirus' finger on the end, gently smoking. Niles jerked his head towards Darrius.

"He's the one you should be worried about, go!" Flustered, Cha'kaar simply nodded and hurried over to his lover, kneeling beside him as he stroked his cheek. A weak smile met his own. He'd be fine, aside from the mental scars.

Niles had approached the gathered townspeople like some kind of walking wounded, stating that everything was okay and that they should return home to their loved ones. The majority went to the inn to celebrate the victory, or to burn the image of Sirus from their minds with the vinegar-like beer. Cha'kaar knew that what the blackbeak had done was a feat very few people could manage, and it would only serve to add to his popularity amongst his flock, as well as the clergy when the news floated down the road. He'd fought a Sundered and survived.

Cha'kaar slid his arms under his vulpine and lifting him up to his chest as he stood, bringing him inside the church as Niles followed, albeit at a slower pace and with more of a limp than anything. The wolf made to lay Darrius on a pew, but Niles was against it, and motioned to another door half hidden by a taperstry on the other side of the church. The narrow, winding stairwell led to a small balcony that overlooked the entire church, the other side had a small wood-panneled area that acted as Niles' bedroom.

Like the rest of the church, it was rather well decorated. The bed was a simple, but plush affair of feather-stuffed pillows and matress, rosewood bed frame and even cotton sheets. A small bedside table, dresser and chair made up the rest of the furniture, all rosewood. Darrius was laid on the bed, and his tunic was just being removed as Niles hobbled his way in, still gripping the claw lodged in his shoulder.

"I'd wait until you get me sorted out before you try to take him to the afterlife and back..." He'd eased himself into the only chair in the room, the vulpines tunic cast aside.

"I'm checking for wounds, you know that." Cha'kaar sliced through the bandages that he'd applied for the splinters Darrius recieved what felt like an eternity ago. With his chest laid bare, he cast his eye over any puncture wounds, even turning him onto his side to make sure the foul beast hadn't masked the hole somehow.

"Oh, did he wound him down there?" The old crow had craned his neck to see as Cha'kaar jerked the boys trousers off and they accompanied the tunic on the floor. Once again, the old bandages were snipped, and each area carefully examined for entry wounds, as well as infection. Darrius still couldn't move, or barely speak, and he felt like he was being examined for purposes other than his health. He couldn't help but blush at this idea, being so helpless in the hands of his lover in the safety of these thick, stone walls.

"Fine figure on him at the right angles, looks just like a girl. I see why you fell for him." His short snicker was cut off with a small yelp as the wolf prodded at the claw lodged in his shoulder, silencing him.

"If you keep speaking, I will twist it, and we'll see how funny you can be when you writhe on the floor." Niles fumed, but waited patiently as Cha'kaar finished his check on Darrius, tucking the sheets over him. A small flash of yellow light, and he was asleep.

"He needs to rest properly before he'll be able to do anything complex. Like, speaking or walking." Any snappy comeback by the old bird was cut off as he ripped the claw out of his shoulder.

"Slight pinch." was all the wolf said in a sing-song voice, placing his hand over the open wound. The magic poured from his palm and into the wound, magical strands relinking muscle fibres, nerves, even repairing scraped bone. All that was left of such a wound was a harsh looking scabbed area. Cha'kaar then unwound a length of bandage from his left arm, scratching a basic rune spell into the thick cloth.

Niles knew what was coming, he sighed and opened his robe, revealing his emaciated frame. Their were small bald spots dotted across his chest, and a thin scar, stretching from the bottom of his ribcage, all the way down to a point just above his groin, right in the center of his stomach. The lupine ran a claw slowly down the scar, mouth agape.

"When did this happen?" Niles flicked his ear irritably with a finger.

"You have a job to do, so do it..." he mumbled darkly as the bandage was wound around his ribcage and shoulder, the runes helping along his healing remarkably well. Cha'kaar sat at the edge of the bed, watching Darrius sleep.

The boys slow breathing was almost hypnotic, and also seemed to bring out a well of sadness that he'd kept bottled and buried for years, and now he could feel it bubbling to the surface the more he realised he was so close to losing him, to having yet another lover buried in the churchyard. The more he watched, the more that well seemed to grow, and within it's dark, still and freezing waters were skeletal hands, reaching up to meet him and to pull him into the darkness, to face all that he had buried deep for these long years. He knew that it would only deepen, that the darkness would grow... in strength, in form and become tangable, unless he faced it sooner rather than later, and it would consume him utterly one of these days.

Pushing these dark thoughts aside from a moment and, blinking away a tear, turned to Niles.

"You... said something about helping with a plague? Who else is infected, besides you?" Niles simply shrugged.

"I'm the only one." Cha'kaar blinked a few more times for good measure.

"Pretty sure a plague affects more than one person."

"Well what the hell do you call a plague that affects only one person then?" The lupine opened his mouth to reply, then shut it as he thought about it. What DO you call a one person plague? He shrugged his shoulder.

"... A sick person?" He finished lamely.

"Not as poetic as a plague, is it?" Said Niles triumphantly. Cha'kaar simply shook his head, grumbling.

"Just... tell me when it happened, will you?"

From what he could put together from the umm'ings and ahh'ings and the occasional rattling cough weaved into the story, it went something like this...

~***~

The problems had started just shy of a month ago. He'd been summoned to the town square by the townsfolk as one of their own had returned from the wilds of the marshes, half dead and clutching some relic that he refused to let anyone touch. When Niles approached the throng, they parted to reveal the poor man kneeling as I leaned on the well, one arm wrapped around a grim looking statue set with some red gem.

He'd looked like death warmed up. Half of his fur had fallen out and he was laughing hysterics, claiming that the moon would free him from the tourment of the everlasting eye. He'd half crawled and half dragged himself into town, and the most Niles could get from him was that he'd found his treasured piece of gaunt stonework from "the moving tower." He fell down dead shortly afterwards, not breathing, no heartbeat, nothing. Although it didn't seem to stop him from taking a bite out of his arm, which his politely showed Cha'kaar. The area he'd been bitten was bald, devoid of feathers, and his skin had taken on a thicker, leathery feel to it.

Whenever he tried to remove the statue from the mans grip, he'd make another death-defying leap to gnaw on a nearby member of their little gathering, although he didn't seem to react when they kicked him or poked him with sticks, only when they seemed to make a move for the relic in his hands did he react like a fish on the riverbank with a set of teeth.

They'd gathered him up and buried him in the graveyard on the same day, and since he'd gotten the bite, things had slipped from bad to worse. Losing even a single member of their small community was a blow, but ever since he died, their wards on their homes had begun to fail, slowly but surely, and their preacher was growing sicker by the day.

"...And the townsfolk may not look it, but they're scared. If I die, the wards fail and their own homes won't be safe from what lurks in the marshes, and we're too far away to request another preacher to take over in time. So I need you to help me, and cure me before this town ends up dead."

Cha'kaar let this all sink in, nodding slowly, before he stood up.

"First, some rules. One, you don't interrupt, two, you do as I say, and three, I'll most likely need access to some of your churches printed works. Oh, and I can call you Blackbeak from now on." Nile's had agreed to each one of the wolf's requests, even if that meant he had to suffer that stupid nickname from so long ago.

"okay then! First, take off your lower robes." Niles spluttered a little, crossing his legs.

"A-and why should I follow this line of reasoning without some clarification first?" He said with a huff, the slightest of blushes was visible through his feathers, revealing that some part of him still remained young at heart.

"Here's a reason. You've been bitten by a man that was sane mere hours before he turned up at your doorstep clutching something that looked rather evil in his grubby little hands. So you're going to let me examine you closely for any other signs of changes that you may have missed, because gods know you can't see your back. Oh, and I'm going to need a shovel." Niles rose to his feet and prodded Cha'kaar square in the chest, stifling a cough.

"I-if you're going to do what I think you're going to do-" He stopped and looked away from the wolf's eyes, remembering his promise.

"Just... just leave him decent, and cover him back up when you're done... And I'm not getting undressed here!" He exclaimed, setting off at a high speed limp with the lupine in tow.

"Bloody kid of yours wakes up... sees me undressing, you prodding me, likely to get the wrong idea..." He mumbled darkly as he led the way down the steps, past the door they'd entered the stairwell at and further down into a slightly cramped wine cellar. It was a narrow corridor with wine racks on one side and large beer kegs on the other side. At the end was a more open area, complete with a bedroll, table and a chair. Niles gripped onto the back of the chair, panting softly after all the movement.

"Just... give me a minute..." He waved his hand in the air as he caught his breath, straightened up and with a heavy sigh, undid his belt, letting the heavy robes fall, his hands covering his vent.

Niles wasn't solidly built to begin with, but he was closer to skin and bones than was healthy for him. Their was a network of small bald patches where feathers had fallen out, and his scar stood out like a ray of light in the darkness. He shivered, wether out of cold, or from Cha'kaar's touch, he never asked. He noticed that the crow stared at the floor constantly as he examined his upper body. The wolf's hands brushed over the tiny bumps beside Niles' shoulder blades.

From what he could remember of Niles species, they could no longer use their wings for flight, and were merely for ceremonial and courting purposes. However, the crows that chose to dedicate their life to the workings of the gods had them removed painlessly, as even a flutter of the wings when addressing the masses, wether intentional or by accident was considered as bad as mooning your flock.

However, this always worked in their favour, as those without wings are considered equally attractive as those without, in some cases it was moreso. A pious man is considered more faithful to his family, the customs of the church and the crows overall belief in their traditional upbringing.

An examination of the upper body brought him full circle and revealed nothing new. Face to beak with Niles, he looked into eyes that wouldn't return the gaze.

"Niles?" The faintest of nods.

"Did you come all the way out here because of me?" This was met with silence as his eyes slid shut, waiting for the enevitable question.

"...Because of us?" And there it was... He felt a hand on his shoulder, but this time, did nothing to remove it, the warmth helped to remove the chill from his bones, if only for a moment.

"...I ... am bound by my rites... the rites of my people..." A single tear slid down his beak and splashed on the flagstones.

"Had I known..." Niles shook his head, scattering more tears onto the floor. Cha'kaar hushed him and pulled the crow towrds him. It was like hugging an ice sculpture, he was freezing! He weeped gently on the wolf's shoulder, shivering from a mixture of emotion and the cold.

"T-they didn't know... they didn't know w-what I'd done..." His tears soaked into the lupines shoulder, his chest heaving with pent up emotion.

It pained Cha'kaar to no end as he pried the weeping crow from his form. With a great sense of foresight, he had brought down Niles' upper robe, and had even applied a small warming rune, which he quickly copied onto the lower half. Blackbeak simply thanked him, the sobbing had stopped as he pulled on the robes, the warmth restoring some feeling to his aging bones. Cha'kaar gave him a smile and stroked the side of his beak carefully.

"We'll talk about this a little later, okay? I've got to get that relic before the sun sets." A gravedigger's shovel rested in the corner of the room, which he plucked as he turned to leave, Niles voice carried over to him, and filled him with an urge to drop everything and hold onto that bird until everything was all right. A feeling he had to ignore for now.

"Please... be careful..." His words laden with true emotion as Cha'kaar set out up the steps and out of sight.