FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The second time the Hunted got together was three weeks later, and nothing had happened in between time, so when Draco picked me up in six in the morning, I was practically crying in boredom.He spoke quickly.

"We're off to a new uncharted planet, no knowledge of it has ever been recorded. As soon as we get there, we're drawing for the ping."

"No problem there, Draco." I said confidently." I'll do it."

Draco turned and looked me in a surprised manner.

"You're keen. No one ever volunteers to ping a planet."

"Well I will. I am interested to find out what it is like." I replied, with a faint smile."As long as I'm given a teleporter."

"Don't worry. Silverine will explain."

We arrived directly into the main hall, and Silverine turned as I stepped forward.

"Ah, you two are the first. Simba just went off to get his teleporter."

"Don't worry about the draw. Alduin here had already requested he pings the planet."

"Has he?" Silverine looked at me in interest."Well, Alduin, we shall equip you up."

Silverine vanished, and arrived back after ten minutes. Valmeero had also arrived, rubbing his eyes in slight tiredness.

"Oh, am I the first? I should have slept in a bit more." he smiled. I laughed.

"I would have done the same. I shouldn't have to wake up early on my day off." I replied, and then Silverine turned to me. He had several things in his hand.

The first was the arm bracelet, the teleporter.

"These are generally one person only, once a person wears it, it will work for them only. It's a sort of genetic thing." It was brushed golden steel, and fitted naturally around the wrist. A small blue gem like stone lay in the centre, which was the button. Then Silverine gave me a pair of glasses.

"This is a camera, which will relay infomation back to us. If you have to stay longer, for any reason, we will know why, and not panic."

He also gave me a silver stick about thirty centimetres in length.

"This is our little toy. It's a scanner of the surrounding area, and also doubles as a focus point for other teleporters. Stick it firnly in the ground, and it will do the rest."

I nodded, taking it in one hand. "Shall I go now?"

"By all means." Silverine nodded, and stepped backwards. Devlin had just entered with Simba, and they watched me in interest as I held the stick in my teleporter hand, and then hit the gem gently with two fingers.

Instantly, I felt a jerk. Being teleported by someone else is at the best uncomfortable, but doing it yourself is just painful. Not in the agonising sort of pain category, but just the pins and needles, entire body shivering sort of way. I fell endlessly through the void, my eyes closed, and after half a minute, I felt myself slam into the ground. I opened my eyes, and staggered on the stony terrain. I was the side of a hill, overlooking a pass. I was behind a large amount of dry scrub, and I crouched by it, drawing the scanner, and wedging it firnly into the ground, I spoke into the teleporter, which doubled as a mike.

"New planet, air is breathable, temperature is bareable.Single sun system." I repeated, and those in the main chamber looking at the orb in the centre of the room listened keenly. Keeping low, I scanned the surrounding area, and promptly got an arrow fired at me for my efforts. It zipped over my head, and I stood, looking at where it was coming from. Down on the pass, there was a bunch of about thirty creatures. They were short and green, and looked generally unpleasant. They had a variety of hand to hand weapons, and three of them had bows. I ducked again as two more arrows came winging over my head.

"A species of orc appears to be one of the dominant life forms."

It was then that a second group came around the corner of the pass to my left, and what I saw there was amazing. There were seven humanoids, riding a variety of creatures. Most of them were horses, but the final one, ridden by a dark man wearing a black cloak, was riding on a massive creature. This was one of the dragons of myths. Seventeen feet at least in length, and massively tall,it's silvery coloured scales glinted in the morning sun. Then one riding on a horse of black with a mane and tail of fire, spotted the orcs, and there were a series of shouts. The orcs turned, and the three with bows turned and fired at the dragon.

I started shouting into my teleport.

"Do not teleport! We do not know how this will turn out!"

One orc charged directly towards me, up the hill, and I stood tall, drawing my rifle, and fired. There was a sudden crack, and the orc fell backwards, a gaping hole in it's shoulder. It rolled down the hill, it's mattock bouncing metallically off boulders.

The smell of gunpowder, and the harsh crack stopped the entire battle. The orcs lowered their bows, the dragon looked up at me, the party on horse looked up at me, and I reloaded. Then one of the creatures shouted in a very feminine voice.

"Pyro locomotor!" A fireball appeared in her circled hands, and she threw it at the cluster of orcs.

The man on the back of the dragon intoned.

"Lysis infernus furi!"A lightning bolt erupted from his fingertips, and burst through three orcs. I shrugged off my doubts, and fired accurately into the heart of the orcs.They wavered and fell, but the rest charged at the party. This was possibly the stupidest thing they could manage, because as they got within range, the dragon let go with a blast of ice, and four horses burst forward. One drew a rapier, one a mace, one a huge sword, and the other a hand axe. After I shot another orc, the four rode into the midst of the decimated orcs, and it was game over.

Realising the battle was over, I gently slid down the scree, shouldering my rifle.As I skidded to the bottom, I could see the man with the rapier dismounting and walking over to me. The man on the dragon, and the two that had stayed back came forward. Now I could look at them, I noticed quite a few things. The party was made up of several races of humanoid. There was a dark haired elf, she had cast the fireball, a short but stout hobbit, who hadn't taken part in proceedings. There was a dwarf, with the large handaxe. The four others were human in shape, and they all had various weaponry. The girl with the huge sword placed it back on her back, and shaking out her long blonde hair, came over to the man.

The man came forward, extending a hand.

"Thanks for the help.My name is James." I shook his hand warmly, and spoke.

"Not at all. I am Alduin."

"Where did you come from?" the third lady in the party, a dark haired woman with the mace and a religious symbol on her necklace, asked. I bowed my head to her.

"I am an adventurer, and I had just arrived when those orcs took a liking to me."

"Your weapon?" James asked. I shrugged it off, and let him observe it.

"This is incredible."he whispered, looking at it."Projectile weapon, uses a refined variation of that brew the alchemists came up with.

The dragon rider got off the dragon, and came over, his cloak sweeping in the gentle breeze. He came up to me.

"You are quite clearly not of this world."

"So forthright, O'eola?" the mace wielding woman suggested.

"No, O'eola is right, and if you stay here for a while, I will bring back proof. I am an explorer, and I wish to find out about this planet." I said dutifully.

"We would like to find out about you too." O'eola replied. James gave me back my rifle, and I shouldered, speaking into my teleporter mike.

"Right, I'm on my way back."

To the party, I simply disappeared. O'eola turned to his dragon.

"Draca, do you recognise this magic?"

"It wasn't magical." the feminine voice of the dragon rumbled gently. "It is made, not cast."

"Right." James said."We set camp for a while.Actin, can you gather wood for a fire?"

"Will do, James." the female with the sword went up towards where I had come from, and started searching for dead wood.

I arrived back at the Great Hall.Silverine was smiling.

"That was very well done, Alduin."

"Thank you, Silverine. I will be back in about five minutes,got to get something from Earth. Is everyone else here?"

I looked around. All but Doran was here, and watching me in a look of appreciation.

"Almost, but we're all going to get our gear together, so you have plenty of time." Draco replied.

I teleported to my home, and went straight to my wardrone, drawing out one of my pride and joy items. It was a metre long sword, inherited from my father, with a Chinese dragon along the length of the blade. It came in a black scabbard, and I strapped it onto my belt, and after getting another water bottle and placing it in my back pack, I teleported back.

Within five minutes, everyone was there. They were all kitted out for temperate weather, and wearing shorts and T-shirts,well save those who didn't wear T-shirts as a matter of principle, ie, most of the party, and Winslo who looked immaculate in his cloak. They all had their light C.E.O pistols, and backpacks, which I knew could be filled with a variety of things. Then as we all grouped up to teleporters, Winslo took my hand, and Silverine bid us best of luck, we teleported.

Bam. As we reappeared, I noticed we were no longer on the hillside. We had landed in the middle of the party's area. The dragon had lifted her head for a blast of ice flame, but as O'eola spotted me, he shouted.

"Weapons down!"

Typical adventurers, within a tenth of a second, they had weapons in their hands, and were springing to their feet.As we stepped backwards, I noticed that O'eola and Mabel had been studying the scanner, obviously one of the party had gone up to where I had planted it and found it.

James sheathed his rapier, and nodded to our party. I bowed back, and he made introductions.

"O'eola is our resident wizard." the dark skinned man nodded at us,"he rides on Draca, our silver dragon. Salis is the elf behind me, Actin is the female with the big sword. Cheri is our Dwarf, Erling is the hobbit, Mabel carries the mace, she's a cleric, and I am James."

"Yeah, our resident assassin." O'eola shot back a snide comment at the leader. The leader made a face at the wizard, who smiled. Obviously these people were best of friends.

I made introductions, pointing to each person in turn.

"Draco, Simba, Devlin, Valmeero, Time Dancer, Brendan, Winslo is our resident magician, Doran, Grant, Thomas Nagoya and I am Alduin."

James nodded.

"So you are from another world?"

"Yes."Devlin stepped forwards. Draco nodded to us as Devlin started taking control of the situation.

"Right, we'll go with this party, we seem to be on good terms with them. Hey, Tin-man, care to do a little aerial recon?"

"Will do."I replied with a little smile,"except it looks like a fairly rough terrain to take off on."

"That should be no problem." Draca replied, shuffling around. I can get you to a decent height, so you can fall and gain speed."

That dragon had really good hearing. O'eola was also listening.

"How exactly does Alduin fly? He has no wings, and he's not magical. Do you have a device for flying?"

"He is a device for flying." Brendan replied, a wide smile on his character. Itook a few steps forward, making sure I was clear of people, and changed. No one gasped, these people were too trained for it, but O'eola knelt down beside my silver panelling with an intense look of curiosity.

"Alter form." he said out loud.

"If you call it that, but it's in my DNA, not by magic." I replied. Draco knelt beside me, and placed the camera on the underside of the cockpit. Draca lay down as O'eola and Draco carried me aboard, and then Draco jumped off as Draca took off.She rose quickly, her massive wings beating the air. Everyone turned and looked at O'eola, holding the F-22 across his lap, as we rose.For about a minute we thrust upwards, and then O'eola spoke.

"Right, Alduin, we're about a thousand feet from the ground."

"Push me off, nose down." I said, and O'eola shrugged, and did so. As I felt gravity catch up with me, and fired up my jet engines for the first time on this planet, and everyone looked at me. I spiralled down, my speed increasing, and then pulled up out of the dive about fifty feet above the stunned heads of the adventurers. I started mapping in the same way I had done on the bear's world, and Draco was recording my progress.Occasionally, he would speak into the communciator.

"Tin-man, could you do a special check on the surrounding mountains?"

I did so, and as I soared over the mountain top above where I had originally appeared, I spotted several large shambling creatures.

They were trolls, ten feet in height, a murky green, they carried huge clubs in their hands. They looked at me gormlessly as I made a low pass over their heads, and I heard their gutteral language.

"Draco, Tin-man here, did you get that?"

"Roger, Tin-man, I'll ask Mabel what they are. Are they heading towards us?"

"Indeed, Draco.Approximate arrival, five minutes."

Mabel confirmed that the creatures were indeed trolls.

"We're better move, and fast." she said, and started speaking to the others. Draco called to me.

"O.K., we're moving. You'd better land, Tin-man." he said. My response was heard across the plain, as I both swooped over and shouted into the com.

"Do you know what happens to a plane when it tries to land on jagged rocks at one hundred and fifty kilometres an hour?" I bellowed.

O'eola came forward.

"Alduin, fly slowly and directly at me. I've got something that will slow you completely."

I banked, and made a level run towards the wizard, my engines in reverse. I slowed dramatically down, and O'eola started chanting. As I seemed certian to plough into him or the ground, O'eola's spell went off. I stopped instantly, held in the wizard's Levitate spell. He was forced backwards in the conversion of momentum, but I changed into my bionic form, and O'eola dropped the spell. I smiled cheerily at him.

"Thanks Ollie."

"Why does everyone call me that?" the wizard chuckled. James got in the reply.

"Because it's simple than O'eola."

As we started moving, the trolls came around the corner.They were moving a lot quicker than I had guessed, or they had worked out there were edible things over the hill. They were right, but not for long. I drew my rifle, and fired as Winslo threw an ice bolt. All the Central party drerw their revolvers, and started blasting away on level two pulses. The trolls grunted in pain, and picked up rocks. We scattered for cover. Simba changed into his helicopter form, and took off as the rocks landed among us. Dev, Brendan, Draca and Draco all took off to repel the boulders being thrown.

Simba then did something amazing. I had never guessed F-22 had bombs or missiles on board, but I had never checked. Simba started unleashing a series of small rockets, and slightly larger ones at the trolls. The little darts zipped across the terrain, and impacted against the trolls. They were thrown backwards by the little explosions, and I looked at the flying gunship.

"Wait, if he can do it, F-22 can."

Under Winslo's levitation, I changed, and took off vertically. I did a half loop, and dived at the trolls. I concentrated on bombs, and felt the doors of the bay open, and then thought.

"Release bombs!"

This deserved a slow motion replay. As I pulled up, two hand sized oval shaped hunks of metal fell down, and hit the trolls. From behind me there was a flash of light, and a huge explosion. The sound buffeted me as I flew upwards, and then heard a very sarcastic voice over the com.

"Well, that made it easier." Draco said, and as I banked around, I spoke.

"What happened?"

"You blew those trolls to pieces." he said acidly. Then my com was full of speaking people.

"I say, good shot, Alduin."Devlin's hearty voice rang.

"Why didn't you try that on the scorpions?" Valmeero asked me.

"I felt the ground heave, Alduin, you could have set off an avalanche trying that." Time said in a firm telling off voice. I spoke loudly over everyone's words.

"I didn't think I could do that. I saw Simba, and thought I could do that too. Could I try something else? Clear the way."

I banked along the length of the pass, and dived on it, thinking, guns. My machine guns opened with a roar, throwing up spurts of dirt and obliterating small stones. I pulled up in time, and spoke again.

"Interesting. I didn't expect that."

I landed. As I was about to touch the ground, I changed into my car form, and braked. It was a very bumpy ride, several times I felt myself drive straight into the air, and my nose pitched upwards in a very unsettling way,Then I stopped, and changed back into my human shape and saw what damage I had down for the first time.There were two large craters on the ground of the pass, and around them were several bits of rocks, both green and grey.

Devlin came up.

"That was a superb piece of work."

"It surprised me as much as everyone else."

Simba landed, he had been hovering while observing my efforts, and changed.

"I think I should go for that form."

As he said it, I felt a huge gaping hole in my stomach. It was as though the bombs had been made by taking all the energy out of me, and so as I stood there, I felt myself drained and tired. As I looked at Simba, I saw he felt the same, and he sat down. I did likewise, drawing a bottle of Lift Plus. I noticed Brendan look hungrily at it.

"Hands off. I need this." I said. Devlin put two and two together.

"You two expend energy when you use your weapons."

"In one." I said, draining the bottle. Simba had drawn a bottle of liquid also, and was taking great draughts from it.

"So," said Devlin to Actin," what were you doing going through these mountains, if I may be so bold?"

"We are to liberate the city of Firilin, it has been over run by barbarians." the female fighter said in complete calm.

"You seven, against a horde of barbarians?" Doran looked slightly incredified.

O'eola laughed.

"We've done it before.It was at Mankyla. But we should be able to slip under their notice.I have a few spells that could help."

He would.Devlin looked at us, and then asked O'eola.

"Can we help?"

Mabel looked at each of us.

"We could use the extra firepower, James."

James smiled."We would be honoured.And what could we do for you in return?"

Devlin bowed slightly, although he was still taller than the thief.

"You can tell us all you know about this planet, for that is what we require. All the creatures, technology, religion, cities. We seek knowledge only."

"Hey, I can do that as we walk." O'eola smiled.

We turned and walked along the pass. Two covered each flank, Actin and Time on our left, Valmeero and Erling on the right. The hobbit didn't speak much, but I realised that was only because he was listening. When he spoke, it was with sense, or when he was chatting about his adventures, when you couldn't get him to shut up. Salis and Winslo had taken the front, and in the rear were The dwarf on the war horse and Doran. Some of the horses didn't take too kindly to the panther or the tiger or the dragons at first, but Salis whispered a few things the elvish tongue, and they settled.

As it turned out, the pass was actually quite small, running over some low level mountains. As we created the ridge, we saw a land of green hills and grassland.In the distance, Draco could see a town.

"Is that Firilin?"

"Indeed Draco." James said."Five thousand citizens. It is one of the trade centres between the New World City of Karameikos, and the Old Worlde town of Octavian, this is why the barbarian horde has taken over, and why we need to take it back."

"Do reports state how many in the horde?" Devlin asked.

"Our spies reckon about five hundred men." Mabel replied.

It was at this point the sky burst. The clouds boiled over, and it started raining. O'eola looked up.

"Draca, are you casting Weather Control?If so, please stop."

"It's not me."Draca rumbled. Erling spotted a cave along his side, and soon we all went towards it. It was not a very big cave, and I wondered idly how we were supposed to get Draca into there.

She had her own answer. She cast a spell, there was a flash of light, and suddenly, standing there, was something very like Draco. But instead, her scales were a silvery white, and her body was more lithe and less muscular than the male dragons. That didn't mean she couldn't bench press me if she wanted to though, because there was a feeling about her that she was immensely strong.

All three dragons stared at her, struck by amazement, and she smiled widely, and went past them all into the cave. As soon as she was in the cave, Draco blew a small jet of flame to explain his feelings, and I laughed.

"Yeah, I feel the same way."

The cave was about fifteen metres deep, which meant, with all the horses, it was getting a little crowded in there. Time Dancer was going to sleep against Brendan, who was also feeling rather drowsy. Thomas, the silent, still watchman, stayed out in the rain, and said he'd find a watching place. He did, a small dry overhang, almost imperceptible, and that once he was in, no one could see him, a tribute to his camo abilities.

Doran was already asleep, and Winslo, Alduin and Salis were discussing spells. By their terms, Winslo was a sorceror, because a wizard could only cast so many a day. Winslo didn't have to worry, but he knew less spells.I lay, with my back against the rock wall of the entrance, holding my rifle in my hands. The rain fell heavily, and I could hear the streams gurgle merrily with the influx. Draco, Devlin and Draca were all discussing something over at the end of the cave. With the exception of Grant and Erling, the spell casters and the dragons, the party stayed apart. Actin were polishing her sword, James was speaking while holding his sword, Cheri was looking at the cave critically, and almost unnoticed, a black cat crept across the ground, occasionally sitting by the fire.

I shuffled slightly, so I could speak to Actin.

"Actin, why is James speaking to his sword?"

"His sword is it's own thing,has it's own mind.It's name is Valtar. And before you ask, the cat is O'eola's familiar."

"The sword has a mind of it's own."

"Yes."

"Unique?"

"Possibly. None of our weapons speak to us."

Thus reassured, I shuffled back to the door, looking into the rain.

My thoughts were broken as Doran stood up.

"There's something outside!" he whispered. As he did, there was a burst of gunfire, and I could see flashes of light coming from Thomas' hiding place. I ran into the pouring rain, and looked around.

There was a creature there. What it was, was, well, a demon. Eight feet in height, it's scaled body clinked in echo to the pouring rain. It's clawed feet dug into the ground, and it's flaming head looked at me in interest. It's bat like wings unfolded, and it drew from behind it a long staff, which was crowned at the top by a skull. Behind me, there was the sound of people running, and before anyone reacted, I fired my rifle.

The bullet hit the creature's shoulder, and it was knocked back. But at the same time, there was a whine and screech of a ricochet.It fell over, and then swung it's staff. A ball of fire erupted from the tip, and came flying at me. I flung myself aside as it came towards me, and I hit the ground hard. Then I heard O'eola shout.

"Zacharias!"

Spells whistled over my head as I reloaded, and I saw Draca blow an ice flame at it. The thing retaliated by flinging a ball of fire at her. Draco pushed her out of the way, and was hit by the ball. He went up like a torch, and the rain didn't put out the fire.

"It's cursed fire!" Mabel shouted. I fired directly at the head of the beast, and saw the bullet hit him in the forehead. He went down like a stone, but quickly leapt to his feet. The weather changed, and hail fell from the skies, striking everybody. O'eola and Winslo both cast ice bolts, and O'eola then shouted.

"Meteor Strike!"

As he pointed and then lowered his hand, fifteen balls of pure white light fell from the sky. One landed withing three feet of my head, the others landing on or around the demon. It cursed, and flung another ball of fire. This time Devlin ran forward, and protected the wizards and Draca by taking the fireball on. He was struck by it, and likewise went up. His eyes closed in pain, and he staggered backwards.

Thomas rushed past them, and dived sideways behind a rock, firing round after round with unfailing accuracy from his dual pistols.They had no more effect than my rifle, but kept him preoccupied.

Time and the remainder of our party were firing our pistols at about four setting, and having no effect. Time consequently upped the power to about eight, and fired. The larger bolt blew the top off the staff, and I heard the demon curse.He vanished, leaving us dazed, confused and soaking wet. Mabel started casting spells on our two dragon leaders. The fires went out after she cast a spell on them, and they sat there, their bodies covered in soot and carbon. Draca rushed up to Draco, checking up on him, and the rest of us got out of the rain.

"What was that?" Grant asked.

"That was a demon, by the name of Zacharias." Salis said, her soft elvish air tinged with annoyance.

"Why did he attack us?" Time asked.

"He doesn't like us." Erling interjected.

"He doesn't like you?" Brendan looked in astonishment." What did you do to him?"

"He was the lord who had taken over Mankyla, which we've mentioned. We forced him out, and he changed into that when we had cornered him."Mabel told the story.

After she had finished, we checked the time.It was getting on to four o'clock by my watch, and the party of adventurers were also getting ready for bed. They were sorting out watches, which we joined in, and spreading out rolls, while we got out our air mattresses. After this was finished, O'eola asked.

"Has anyone seen Draca?"

We looked around.

"Has anyone seen Draco?" Simba asked.

Doran closed his eyes briefly, and then opened them again.Before he spoke, I did.

"I'll go check what they're up to."

As I walked into the rain, I spotted a burst of flame from a hundred metres up the hill, and the faintest of moans. This did not need investigating further.I went back into the cave.

"Well, they're having a good time."

O'eola looked confused briefly, and then spoke.

"I am so not going to look through her eyes right now."

There was a group laugh.Salis smiled.

"Well, seeing as O'eola's done the same thing, I suppose." but O'eola interrupted.

"Now, now Salis, that hasn't been proved."

"You have to admit she's a beauty, just like most of the females in the two parties." Valmeero said, from a lying down position.

"If that was an attempted pass, I'll bloody well thump you." Mabel said from her side.

"That's not a very nice thing to say to a wolf/dragon hybrid." I interrupted.

"It's still accurate."Erling added."Marks out of ten for each of them?"

"Eights, low nines." I beat everyone to the line.

"Alduin's got a point too."James smiled."Why do adventurers look stunning?"

"It's the fresh air." Doran laughed.

"And the exercise." Brendan added.

"And it looks like it works all over the universe, because yours doesn't look too bad either." James smiled, completing the lines. Time replied sleepily.

"Quote,"if that was an attempted pass, I'll bloody well thump you."Unquote." This got a raucous laugh, and we settled back, getting ready for the long night.