FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Feria woke up the next morning, gasping from a nightmare. In one of her oldest memories, she had been forced to watch her father murdered, her mother raped, then murdered, and finally, she and her sister were dragged away from one another, both wearing slave collars.

She smelled something, now, that calmed her nerves. The long black hair of the panther she had slept with was resting across her nose. It smelled like... fruit. Feria could hardly control herself as she hugged the panther tighter, but something felt off. She noticed the panther was completely quiet, causing her to sit up. A closer look told Feria the panther was at least breathing.

Kaya yawned a few feet away, stretching and looking around. Feria looked around too, after Kaya's face changed. "Where did Ty disappear to?" Feria asked, quietly.

Meanwhile, Ty was waking up, tied to a tree. He grunted, pulling against the ropes. Then he heard someone coughing. He smelled the blood almost as soon as he saw it. Jade was lying in the grass, the front of her body caked in dried blood. She had managed to tie him down on the last of her strength. If she had only managed to do it without causing fatal internal injuries, Ty might have even been impressed.

"So," Jade managed to wheeze before coughing. "You finally woke up."

Ty strained against the ropes, pulling every ounce of strength forward. In a few seconds, the ropes snapped. "Yes," Ty said in response to Jade's statement. "Now, for you."

As he knelt over her, he saw the lack of hope in her eyes. "Just leave me," Jade wheezed. "You already did it once."

"As much frustration as you caused me, I could never just let you die," Ty replied gingerly pulling her leather vest up, to look at her injury. "It would be unjustified."

Jade lay there, helpless. She could hardly breathe, much less move. Ty sighed, seeing exactly what had happened. In her exertions, she had accidently caused one of her broken ribs to slide inwards, puncturing a lung. "Idiot," Ty groaned. "You knew... you knew and yet you forced yourself to keep going."

Jade laughed weakly, causing her to cough viciously for a moment. "You were a prize worth the risk." She replied.

Pulling Jade's dagger from her side, Ty gently cut into her side, blood flowing freely for a moment as Jade's lung cleared, allowing her a steady, deep breath. Then he reached in with two fingers, pulling the displaced rib back before moving on to stitching up what he could, ripping threads from Jade's clothes.

"I know you can survive here until that heals properly," Ty growled. "Just lay there for three days or so, so it can get started. After that, do what you want."

Feria was worried for Ty, but with Katrina comatose and Kaya practicing her spear, she was stuck where she was. "We need to get moving," she heard Ty's voice say, causing her to look to her left to where it had come from.

Ty had blood on both of his hands. "What happened?" Feria demanded.

"Jade showed up," he replied coolly. "I patched her wound the best I knew how, and left her to her own devices."

"How long do we have?" Feria asked, holding her right hand on the cut across her left shoulder.

"If she listens," Ty said, taking a deep breath. "Three days. If she refuses to listen, we have maybe a week."

"Then let the time pass," Feria sighed. "We need to bring her with otherwise. From what I saw, she may never want to go back to her village, but from what you said, I might be wrong. Wait for her to wake up."

Ty understood the logic and narrowed it down in his mind. When she wakes up, she may want to stay, but on the other hand she might not, and if they left now, they would have to carry her. If Jade was down for a while, they might as well use the time. "At the very least, we should get into town and investigate," Ty said, thinking out loud. "If we can find the real murderer, it would be a huge step towards helping Katrina."

Feria nodded in agreement. "You and Kaya go," she said looking forward again. "Someone needs to stay and watch over her."

While Ty and Kaya left, Katrina was seeing a reflection of herself. She stared at the figure, whose face was down. Then it started laughing, seemingly uncontrollably. It started off quietly, but slowly began picking up in intensity. The air got cold, quickly.

Suddenly the laughter stopped. "Tell me, Katrina," the reflection said harshly. "Do you know who you are?"

"I am..." she froze, feeling she should know the answer, but somehow it hovered just out of reach. "I..."

"Fine, that question can wait," the reflection said. "Tell me this then. Do you know what you are?"

For a moment, the mind games were confusing, until Katrina remembered her mother asking these same questions. "I am alive," Katrina finally answered. "And for your other question, my name is Katrina, and I am who I make of myself."

"And who have you made yourself?" the reflection asked.

Again, Katrina froze, thinking. "That has yet to be decided."

The reflection looked up, revealing only a pitch black shadow where her face should be. That was it, Katrina understood. It was her shadow. "Very well," it said calmly. "We shall see where you take yourself. What you do with yourself. Just remember that I will always be watching."

Then she woke up in the middle of the woods, strangely comfortable. She rolled over, hearing the leaves crunching beneath her.

Feria saw Katrina roll onto her back and ran over. "Welcome back to the land of the living," Feria said blissfully. "I suppose you want something to put in your stomach." Katrina sat up slowly, flexing her arms, rolling a few stiff muscles to loosen them up, and looked to Feria with a silent smile. Feria smiled back. "Let me go catch something then. There should be some rabbits in the woods."

It was a difficult task, easily said, but she did eventually catch a rabbit, breaking its neck as she bore down upon it. A black furred figure pushed through the brush in front of her with a grunt, stopping where he stood, allowing Feria a moment to realize he was a wolf, nodding and continuing past her. She made it back to camp at about mid-day to find Ty stoking a fire while Katrina and Kaya practiced more, both obviously improving. "I found food for..." Feria's voice faded off, seeing the dead deer lying beside the fire.

Ty was sniffing the breeze that came from behind Feria. She watched him for a moment before he stopped and spoke. "You smell like a wolf," he said in his annoyingly calm manner.

"Yes," Feria said, scratching her head. "He walked right past me."

"The fire is ready," he said, calmly motioning for her to sit. "We can cook the meat now."

In the morning, Ty thought it would be best to go into town and investigate more. The previous day, several small clues had turned up. A mysterious woman with a couple of slaves, and a strange black wolf who only came into town to buy food on occasion seemed the most logical suspects. Everyone else could be cleared on the days of the most recent murders.

Upon entering the town, Ty immediately saw the wolf pointing to large slabs of meat on the wall of a market stall. The clerk, a silver furred wolf name Gina was eyeing him dreamily. Ty walked over to the wolf, looking the unusually large wolf in the eyes. The black wolf and Ty were exactly the same height. "Can I ask you something?" Ty began.

The wolf smiled and replied, "You already did, but please, continue."

Ty smile back. "There have been a number of murders in this town. Do you know anything that might be useful?"

"Would the person's scent at every crime scene help?" the wolf asked with a smile. "If you know any reptiles around here, bring them forward. I can point out the one I recognize."

"Reptiles?" the woman asked from behind the counter before clearing her throat as everyone looked her way. "Well, I know of one, actually," she continued shyly. "Shiramina. She lives in the marsh to the south west."

Feria looked beyond Ty and the wolf, seeing something that looked like an argument in the making. A leopard was making a pass a rather shy looking rabbit, not the feral one she killed but a sentient, walks on two legs, rabbit. Meanwhile a smaller, tabby colored feline was storming across the road, Feria catching a glimpse of a wedding ring in the woman's finger. At her current distance, there was no way she could hear the tabby's words, but the faint sounds of yells reached the tigresses ears. For a moment she noticed the wedding ring the leopard wore, just before the tabby grabbed him by the groin, making him screaming in agony, pulling him away.

"Feria?" Ty asked, looking where she was. He understood immediately.

Feria watched the rabbit lock up in fear of the tabby before running. The rabbit ran directly into Feria's waist, stopping in her tracks. "I'm sorry sir!" he said, surprising Feria at the depth of his voice. He had a loose-fitting red dress and several sets of gold earrings.

"No apologies necessary," Feria said, startling the shaking rabbit. "But please, a word?"

The rabbit nodded, shaking on his feet. Feria looked up at Ty, seeing his searing brown gaze, which quickly softened before he sighed, "Just make it quick."

Ty watched a good distance from Feria, the wolf idly walking beside him. It was sort of eerie knowing that there just might be another few wolves out there the size of tigers. For some reason, it just seemed odd, though. He was so helpful and forthright about what he knew. Usually, people ask for compensation for any knowledge. "I wanted to ask you," the wolf said as they reached a fountain in the middle of town. "Who is that small girl who follows you like a lost pup?"

"Kaya," Ty replied. "Named after my sister."

The wolf stopped, yelling forward, "Tigress, wait a moment, please?"

Ty watched as everyone froze around the wolf's question. "Can I speak to you, alone?" the wolf asked, looking to the alleyway to his right.

Ty took the initiative and entered the alley first, the wolf walking in behind him. Ty turned to the wolf, only to get grabbed by the collar of his armor and lifted a few inches off the ground. "I know little about tigers," the wolf admitted. "But wolves have a sense of honor. Hopefully you can live up to it, but if you falter, I promise you, nothing will keep her from slaughtering you like a wild hog."

Ty looked down into the eyes of the wolf, seeing fury boiling within them. The red irises of the wolf only served to emphasize his point, while the sternness in his eyes made his point perfectly clear. "Understood," Ty said, as the wolf set him down. "She reminds me too much of the one person I cherished most. I protected that person with my life, more than once, and when she needed me most, I failed her. It will not, happen a second time."