FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The weather poured down heavily, and we decided we should press on regardless through the weather. Draca cast a spell of Change weather when she got back with Draco, but this seemed to have no effect.We quietly mentioned nothing about their escapade.

"It's an extremely powerful warlock casting this, who is well versed with atmospheric magic." O'eola supplied. As soon as he said it, it started snowing outside.

"He really doesn't want us to get far." James sighed.

The blizzard howled, and snow was swept into the cave.

"This is awful, either walk and perish, or stay here and perish." I sighed," I suggest we walk, and walk fast."

"Sounds like a plan."O'eola chanted a spell, snapping it off with a small boom, and a wall of blue covered his skin.

"Endure elements." James supplied."Means he's fine, his cat's fine, we're not."

Draca enjoyed this weather, and although some of us weren't keen, we set off along the path.The blizzard swirled around us, and as it did, I realised I was not cold. I was wearing a light shirt, and a heavy shirt, but not cold.To test a theory forming, I took off my heavy shirt, and walked. Nothing. My body functioned perfectly, and I was not cold.

Time forged her way beside me, and shouted into the wind.

"Aren't you freezing cold by now?"

The blizzard wasn't as thick as the one on the elf planet, and I could see about eight of my friends in various directions, Draco and Draca leading the way, Devlin at two o'clock, Val to my right, O'eola walking behind me, and looking quite interested at my condition.I shouted back, because even though I wasn't cold, I was still having to shout and physically force my way through the snow.

"I was wondering the same thing." I shouted back, and shrugged.

As I walked, I thought of something.A voice.

"I have also given you a few, bonuses, although you might not be aware of them. One of them will be obviously apparent next time you get off with someone. A few others, well you'll just have to find out.Now rise."

"Holy Hell!" I shouted aloud. I forced my way to Draco, and shouted to him.

"Draco, are you cold?"

"No, as you mention it!" he roared back.

"Did Adelveiss mention giving you gifts?"

"No, but I can guess. I think as we had sex with them, they made us immune to cold.They are the goddesses of Spring."

I nodded, and shouted a reply.

"Kohana mentioned she had given me a few gifts." I called, and Draco nodded. I fell back to Time, and she looked enquiringly at me. I repeated a shortened version of my story, and she shouted back.

"Why do you get all the handy gifts?"

She had a point, but she was smiling.

We forged our way for a good two hours, and came to an actual path, a cobbled road leading to our left. O'eola shouted over the polar wind.

"We're back on the main road. If we follow that, we should get to Firilin in about four hours."

As he spoke, the weather stopped, as suddenly as it had started.The clouds vanished, and the afternoon sun showed it to be equivalent to four thirty. In the distance, the keener eyes could spot the smoke rising from the town.

We walked through the waist deep snow, wondering who had caused the bizarre weather, and I sighed.

"I'm going for a drive." I spoke to Devlin. He nodded, and I turned to James.

"I'll go scout ahead."

"I'll join you."Valmeero replied. I need to stretch my wings, I feel like they've frozen up."

Draco nodded, and I changed in to my Reventon form. Valmeero took off, and soared into the air effortlessly, and I started my engine. Devlin placed me on the level snow, I had sunk to the cobbles as I changed, and I revved the engine, and went off. I could travel along the top of the snow, and I described a bullet along the white fields. The snow was unnaturally thick, it was like driving on rubber, or a hard mattress.

Above me, Valmeero was hovering at about a thousand feet, well out of range for all ranged weapons, and his keen wolven eyes could see all the way to Firilin.I burned up the snow as I drove as the wolf flies towards the city. I decided to provide a distraction for Valmeero, so he could see what was going around the city.

"Hey, Val, I'm going to draw their attention for a while, you got a camera?"

"I do, Alduin. You want me to scan the city?"

"Yeah. Draco, have you got your equipment up and running?"

"Give me five minutes, Alduin." the reptilian replied.

We gave him four, and then I headed directly at the city at full tilt. Silent and swift, Valmeero flew high, his camera focussing at the city.

The guards had spotted me, for I was throwing a trail of snow up in the air behind my tyres, and they were all wondering what I was.My top speed in this form was one hundred and seventy kilometres an hour, because that's what I was doing, and I could see the gate tower looming in front of me. As I got to two hundred metres away, I slammed on the anchors. I didn't spin, but just slid in a straight line, slowing dramatically.My wheels locked up, and came to a halt in a cloud of snow not fifty yards from the gate tower. The gates were open, and I could see from my low position about fifteen guards leaning over the walls of the tower, looking at me. Several of them had bows, and several of the bows were pointing at me.

Overhead, Valmeero passed unhindered, unseen, over the walls, and started scanning the city. The rest of the party were watching the data file into the laptop on the snow. James' party were past astonishment at this technology.

I heard a voice speak. It sounded like an ordering sort of voice.

"What is going on here?"

"Object outside the gates.No one near it, it moves by itself."

"What?" a head with several scars and a sneering look looked down at my paintwork. The sun glinted off my steel surface, and he grunted.

"I see. Is it one of our Lord's devices?"

"No, he announces his."

"Shoot it then."

As he said these words, I scrabbled for purchase, and drove forward, over revving my engine. He looked in astonishment.

"For the Master's sake, shoot it!"

Bows were loosed, and I spun around. All of them missed, and I started driving in large circles. The sergeant shouted.

"One hundred gold to the bowman who destroys that thing!"

Arrows flew thick and wild, and were spectacularly unsuccessful in trying to hit me as I dodged and weaved. The closest missed by a good metre. I spoke calmly to Valmeero.

"I think I've got their attention. How's it going?"

"Keep it up, Alduin." the soft voice of the wolf replied."Give me another three minutes."

I made several fake jinks to the gates, and got a shout each time."It's coming through the gates! Prepare to destroy it with swords!" and invariably a bunch of men would come out and bar my way. After four minutes of wild arrows, finally one bounced off my rear spoiler, and the sergeant shouted.

"It's got armour! Magician, destroy it!"

A man wearing long robes appeared.O.K., now things were getting serious.I made for the gate, and came to a halt, underneath the gate post. The wizard couldn't cast a spell, and I turned around, aiming directly away. I changed into my F-22 form, and saw behind me a bunch of soldiers with swords rushing towards me.

"Val, I'm fairly unpopular. You finished?"

"Yes, I'm now going over the gatepost. Could you hold them off for a little longer?"

"I'll try a few circling moves. That'll get them worried."

As the sergeant looked at my new form, he had come down the ladder. I killed my engine, and sat there, lifeless. He came forward, no weapon in his hand, and looked curiously at me.

"What is this?"

Another soldier came forward.

"Devil work, maybe."

The magician appeared, and knelt beside me."It's no work I've ever seen, and yet so beautiful. What do you think it's purpose is?"

"Messenger, it travels quick?" the soldier suggested.

Right, that was about enough time. I fired up my engines, and watched them all spring back. By twin jets sent out long tongues of fire as I ignited the afterburners, and skimmed over the snow. The magician said something I didn't catch, and then I was doing about one hundred and fifty over the smooth snow. I took off, banked around, made three passes over the city, and then finished by screaming over the gate post at about eight hundred kilometres and hour. Snow was dislodged from the houses in the wake of my thrust.

Then I was gone, and I could see Valmeero gliding lazily towards the group, now well out of eye range from the city.

"Hey Val, Tin-man here. You got everything?"

"Affirmative, Tin-man. Cheers for the diversion."

"Not at all, Valmeero. They wouldn't be able to dent the old panels on me."

Draco congratulated us both."Nice work, you two."

I screamed past the wolf/ dragon hybrid, and ran into another problem. Landing on snow just might not work.I was no physics student, but I was not keen to torpedo into the snow.

So I attempted a belly landing. I went down to as low as I dared, about thirty centimetres off the ground, doing about one hundred kilometres an hour, and let myself fall gently onto the ground.

The word ouch is insufficient. I headed straight towards the party, the underbelly of the F-22 taking a terrible scraping.My engines were on full reverse, and as I left a furrow, I felt myself skid to a halt, not ten metres away from Doran and Grant. I tilted sideways onto one wing, and lay there. They were considering evasive action just as I stopped, and they rushed forward.

"Hey, Tin-man, you O.K., what did you do to yourself?"

I changed into my human form, and lifted my T-shirt. My entire chest was covered in a black and blue symphony of bruising. O'eola looked exceptionally surprised, but worked it out, telling the rest of the party. If I get hurt in one form, I am hurt there in all the other forms. Simba drew one of his bottles, but Mabel told him to stop, and leaned over me. She whispered a spell, and I felt the pain subside.As I looked at my chest again, I saw that all the bruising was gone.

"Thank you, Mabel." I nodded, and heaved myself to my feet, sinking into the snow. Mabel nodded.

"I've had to heal worse." she acknowledged. Meanwhile Valmeero landed perfectly on his feet, beside Draco, who was computing through his laptop of the crisp snow.

"See that, Alduin. That's a proper landing."

"So was mine."I retorted,"It's just that I didn't want to dig my wheels into the snow at one fifty. How fast were you travelling?"

"Not very fast."

"Exactly."

This silly bickering finished, our joint force sat in a circle around Draco as he made the laptop cast a three D representation of the city into the air.The entire illusion was about two metres diameter, and we watched as he spoke.

"Right, the city of Firilin. The city is surrounded by a stone wall, with guard towers dotted regularly around it. There are about eight smaller towers, and at the gate, two large ones either side of the gate, and joined by a walkway. Inside the city is a main hall, a marketplace in the north east sector, a barracks next to the hall, and a temple in the South East. There are no other gates into the city, the main road actually goes past it to the left from our direction. There are five major roads, each of which has a small guard room strategically placed on it."

"What about man power?" Time asked impatiently. Draco pointed at each point as he spoke.

"Each small tower is guarded by six men, the two larger ones appear to have a combined strength of thirty four. There are four men by the gate lower down, and the barracks has about two hundred men inside it.The small guard rooms, by the X-ray scan, have about ten guards each.

"It'll have to be a night attack." Doran said."There's no way that we can take on three hundred guards by ourselves."

"Not to mention the magicians, and what other things the lord has. Did we get an X-ray scan of the main hall?" Brendan asked.

"No."Devlin replied. I noticed he was now sitting in a pile of melted slush." The exterior of the main hall is marble stone. Same with the temple. The X-rays could not pierce the rock."

"Oh well." Actin said."I'm going to enjoy myself."

"As am I." Time said, spinning her small mace in her hand. Grant smiled.

"You could go to one of the smaller towers, and keep the guards occupied. Then you'd enjoy yourself even more."

Time picked up a handful of snow, and tossed it through the illusion, and it struck Grant on the shoulder.He picked up a handful, and threw it likewise, but Time Dancer dodged the snow missile.

"We should have a snowball fight here. What a mint place." I laughed. Devlin laughed.

"That's jumping the gun.Let's deal with the tyrannical lord first."

We walked until we were but a kilometre away, and made ourselves a snow house, lighting no fire, and discussing tactics for the night, which was not far away.Night duly came, and the moon rose. The snow was thick on the ground, and we tried to silently shuffle through. We got to within a hundred metres of the main gate, and started our plan. Draco, Draca in her humanoid form, Devlin, Valmeero, Winslo, James, Simba and Salis split up, circling around the city, keeping low. Each of them, we were hoping, would take out a tower each, and as the rest of us huddled down low, I whispered to O'eola.

"Can you get the guards on the gate from here with a sleep spell?"

The wizard chuckled."Easy."

"Good." I whispered.

We waited. Then Devlin spoke.

"Right, all tower scalers, attack."

There was utter silence. No one spoke. Then after a small flash of light from the tower Winslo was taking, he spoke.

"Winslo here. Tower has been taken."

"Devlin, same here."

"Draco, tower confirmed."

The others reported that they too had succeded.O'eola lobbed his sleep spell on the four under the gate, and then started casting Fireball.The rest of us rushed forwards as he let it go. The pathway linking the two towers exploded in a ball of devilish fire. There was a cry of panic from above, and I saw several heads look down, and spot us. Time, Grant and Erling scaled the steel gate, easily climbing. Our role was cover fire. I aimed at the centre of the wooden tower, and blasted a hole through the wood. Thomas Nagoya aimed at the other one, and emptied twenty four rounds into it, an almost perfect circular spread.

The rest were firing C.E.O pistols at anyone who dared show their heads, either through the grille of the gate, or up in the towers. Time leapt from her position into the tower, and I heard a series of thumps as Time set to laying out the remainder of the guards there. Grant and Erling took the other tower, and while Grant set to the guards, Erling dived, almost unnoticed in the melee, to the handle which opened the gate. The grill rose, and we ran through it, covering each other as we came to alleys and side streets. Then the guards from the barracks arrived, and it became a pitched battle. There were about five dozen bowmen, and they hid behind walls, stalls, corners, and popped out, firing shots at us. We took cover behind other things, and I spoke.

"Towers, main tower captured, barracks emptied to go for us. Way is clear."

As I did, all eight in the smaller towers ran silently out of the towers, heading for the main hall. O'eola stood behind me, and spoke.

"Like some help?"

"O'eola, this is not the time." I replied, as an arrow whistled over my head.

O'eola fired a lightning bolt down the length of the street, incinerating eight stalls and about twelve guards who were hiding behind them. Actin charged at an alley, great sword swinging. Mabel hung back,but casting a spell.As she did, several guards clutched themselves in pain and fell over.

Then I heard a noise. A steady drumming noise, like rotors. Simba came down the length of the main street, we could see the spire of the main hall behind him, and he hovered in the air directly behind the rear of the bowmen.

They turned, and the rest of us charged forward, waving our hand to hand weapons. Actin, the dwarf, Doran, myself, Grant, Time, Erling, Thomas, we all charged forward. Thomas was running full tilt, firing sideways at bowmen and swordsmen in side alleys, while they fired back, and I saw an arrow catch him on the shoulder.He went to ground, but cleared all those around him. I ran over to him, and stood beside him as he got to his feet, firing my rifle at any bowman looking our way.

The battle was brief, under two minutes in length. But we looked around, and saw that there was no one coming for us. Many were looking through the windows of room, men, women and children, looking at us. The obviously non human were getting the majority, and Time used this to her advantage.

"Citizens of Firilin. No more will we sit and watch as the oppressive dictator forces his will upon this fair city! We are here to force him out. Now, tell me, as I know, you hate him as much as we do!"

There was a multitude of cries, and people shouted from there windows. More rushed out waving ancient swords and clubs, surrounding Time. Many had torches, and everything flickered in the light. As Time mustered the citizen's militia, and the remaining of the party of adventurers stayed by her, Doran, Thomas, Grant and myself ran down the street. We met up with the eight tower takers, and grinned.

"Time's getting the mob stirred up."Doran reported.

"Good. All the guards are out of action." Devlin said, rubbing his hands together.We waited for Time to catch up, although a mob can move fairly quickly, it takes a while to get going. As she arrived, we charged up the main steps, and through the doors.

The first impression I got was like that at Central Hall. At some point in construction, the architect had said."This hall is meant to be imposing, it is meant to say that the owners are in charge." It was long, a good hundred metres from end to end, and the roof was triangular, with a huge series of beams running across, the width, and several running from cross beam to the next one.The floor was devoid of anything, save for a table at the end. There sat a human.

It was female, for a start.This generally surprised me. She was tall, about six foot one, and her jet black hair ran down across her lithe frame. Her physical form had the same look as Draca, quiet power, and in her hand was a scimitar, a long curved, cruel blade, with black runes running the length. On her knee was a black bunny,and as I looked upon her, I was reminded of another woman I had seen. In a video, of all things.

"Miss Murder." I spoke thoughtfully.

"Clearly you have heard of me then." the voice was sharp and noble."For you gaze upon the lady of death herself."

"What is your name, fell creature, so we can write it on your tombstone?" James shouted, as we walked forward.The woman gave a cruel laugh.

"My name? My name is Esmeralda, and I will order you to speak to me as your queen! Not even your furry friends have the power to take me. Your weapons, your tricks, are all useless." She stood, her long black dress billowing to the ground. Her bunny dropped to the ground, and twitched it's nose under the table.

We all drew our guns at that point, and Esmeralda smiled into ten barrels.

"Your technology is better than ours, but magic beats all." she smiled, and lifted her hands.At once, every single weapon in the room was flung away from it's owner. My rifle and my sword simply detached, and were thrown to the lady's feet. She came forward, not even glancing at the weaponry on the ground, and raised her bastard sword. Devlin blew a jet of flame at Esmeralda, and the woman of black disappeared in the fire. As he stopped, she stepped out, laughing.

"Nothing. Your powers are no good, Devlin, for that is your name.I have spent years perfecting my abilities, and you could barely scratch my skin."

It was this point Grant charged at her, and I followed suit. Grant's acceleration off the line was stunning, in a matter of bounds he was near her, and she raised her free hand. Grant was picked up, and thrown away. I almost reached her, but she lifted me into the air, and over her head. I described an arc, landing upside down into the throne she had been sitting on, and I felt a twin pain in my leg. I realised my craft knife and my Swiss knife were still in my pocket, and then I spotted the black rabbit.

I fell to the floor, and drew my Swiss knife, flicking the blade open. She turned as I threw it overarm, and I dived for the floor. The knife zipped across the air, and missed.Devlin caught it one handed as I stood up. My craft knife was in my hand, and Esmeralda's black rabbit in my other hand.She glared daggers at me.

"So, you challenge me."

"I do. What's the hook, the twist within this verbose mystery. I would gladly bet my life upon it that your ray of light will fizzle out without hope." I incanted the words.

"So, you would hurt an innocent creature, just to make me angry?" she sneered.

"I was born a bastard."I replied." Besides, I don't think that this bunny is just, normal."I left a curl of a question on my lips. She laughed.

"Very clever,Alduin. But not clever enough."

I saw it coming. At the last second I ducked as she lifted the entire table by magic, and hurled it at me. The rabbit ran away,and I stood there, smiling. She seemed irritated.

"What are you smiling for, creature?"

Wham. Time had snuck up behind her, and punched her, really hard. Esmeralda reeled, and Time spoke as she glided in to attack.

"Using your feminine charms, so old fashioned." Wham, another blow. Esmeralda staggered back, raising her scimitar, when several things happened.

Winslo cast a spell. O'eola cast a spell. Salis, Draca, and James, reading from a scroll, cast a spell. I grabbed a pistol from the ground and fired a nine setting blast. Valmeero and Brendan blew jets of fire, Dev and Draco couldn't because Time was in the way.

After the white had faded from everyone's eyes, I looked around. The hall we had been standing in was gone. Instead, there were bits of rock scattered all over the city. Esmeralda had vanished, although her black rabbit hadn't. James was the first to speak.

"All right, who cast what?"

"Well, I cast Supernova."O'eola admitted.

"Me too." Draca added.

"Me three." Salis interjected.

"I cast an explosion spell." Winslo replied.

"That's funny, I cast Holy Smite." James admitted."Sorry Mabel, I've used up the scroll."

"That's O.K., I'll make another for you." the cleric replied.

"Interesting effect.The fire, the gun thing," he hazarded a name, describing the C.E.O pistol," three Supernova spells, Holy Smite, and Explosives spell.Do you think she felt it?" James finished.

"Almost certainly." Devlin replied.

"Has anyone noticed?" I spoke slowly."That her rabbit is turning white?"

The rabbit was, and as it became pure white, a black shape, no more than a shadow, rose.

"You think you have defeated me, but my spirit lives on. You have not heard the last of me." she growled, and then vanished.

"Why can't she just die?" I asked.

"Because she's an evil harlot?" Time suggested.

"True." Brendan laughed, and then spoke."That was a good right hook, by the way."

"Stunner."Doran added."Wonderful shot."

"I might have to give Alduin a warning about his behaviour to animals."Winslo said, spinning a golden magic missile in the air."Cruelty to bunnies is not something I accept in a team."

"Oh, come on."I replied, aghast."Do you really think for a moment I would hurt something like that?"

"Yes." Draco replied, beating about four people to the line. I sighed briefly.

"Hey, Time, good work. Did I distract her well enough?"

"Long enough, not well enough." she admitted.

"Right. Here's your gun back." I tossed the pistol to her, shouldered my own rifle, and then spoke."If anyone wants me, I'm outside.Hang on, we're already outside.O.K., I'm over by the gate towers." I transformed into my Reventon form, and drove away from the carnage, driving around rocks the size of tables that had been thrown away from the blast.

I got as far as the main gate when I realised about the snow. It was strange, but while the town was fine, the terrain outside was covered in snow to about a metre deep.How curious.As I changed back into my bionic form, I stood at the gate, looking across the white fields in the blackness.From up in the guard tower, there was a voice.

"What the hell did they hit me with?"

Hmmm, we might have forgotten about the guards.I leaned against the gate tower in thought, my silver skin glimmering in the fires flaring up around the city, knowing the tyrant was gone. The sergeant from the afternoon came down, and spotted me.

"You!"

"Me."I said calmly." We overthrew the Angel of death, the queen who reigned with an iron fist over this fair city.She has fled, taking nothing behind her."

"What be you, creature?"

"Human, but with some special gifts. I was the devil's work that you fired arrows at. I was the devil's work that circled your city like some ominous comet.I have a skin made of metal, so not even the sharpest long bow can pierce.Your sword is equally useless."

The sergeant glared.

"And so the queen is gone."

"Gone. What we did to her would have killed a devil's spawn. The hall stands in ruins as a result of the power which overcame her.Fire, holiness, energy, and explosive power wiped the hall from the map, and took her with it."

Several guards were coming down from the towers, and all of them surrounded me with swords raised.

Once again, Devlin, your timing was impeccable. Along with Brendan, Simba and O'eola, they came out from a side alley, and Devlin challenged.

"Leave the boy alone!"

All the guard turned, seeing the four clearly.I nodded to Devlin in a way of thanks.Apparently, none of the guard dare stand up to the dragon, because they dispersed, walking past him, towards the barracks.