FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Shar wiped his brow with a wet cloth, pulling the linen canopy further over himself. Covered wagon was definitely the way to travel in the desert, at least when you were covered in scales. He flicked the reins, snapping them down on the slowing feral camel. The camel bared its teeth at him. He bared his fangs at the beast and hissed back, a small smile turning on his upper lip as the camel huffed angrily and continued walking up the dune. He took a moment to push himself out of the front of the wagon with his tail, bending over each side to examine the wheels. Intact, but not moving. He uncoiled the end of his tail from his scaled loops in the bed of the wagon, giving an extra push from the back of the wagon, which was enough to get the wheels started.The wheels, an invention of his, were wider, with round metal rivets pounded in to provide a better grip on the sand- which it did. The problem was that the pressure of his goods, and himself, was often too much for the wood, and one of the back wheels would break. Still, he thought it was a better design than a typical wagon, and it definitely worked better than the sled-style bottoms of some carts. He crested the dune, eyeing the water in the distance. He had been travelling for almost two weeks towards the coast now, making his way up the western coast towards some of the larger cities. He needed to unload his goods before they spoiled or he was robbed. A mercenary was simply too risky, often you were paying someone to tip off bandits to your location anyway.

Still, there were several good reasons to travel the beachside instead of straight through the desert. For one, it was easier to move the wagon on the harder packed sand. He dragged half his tail through the sand on the way down, the fifty kilogram weight slowing down the cart's rush down the dune- and polishing his scales quite nicely. He lifted it back in as the cart slowed on the beach. It seemed he had come across the second very, very good reason to travel the beaches. A large merchant ship of some kind had washed ashore. It looked like the crew had managed to abandon ship; there were not any bodies to be seen. He couldn't believe his luck. A ship this size was a fortune- not because it was a ship, but because of the wood. The material was a luxury good in the desert, if you wanted anything other than palm wood, which had a very distinctive feel and look. This, however, was no palm wood, and even if the outside had suffered damage, there was bound to be some clean planks inside- not to mention whatever was in the hold of the ship.

Shar uncoiled and exited the wagon, allowing himself a minute of stretching. Getting in and out was difficult, he had to be careful not to mess up his careful organization of goods, and stacking coils was nice when you wanted to be your own pillow, but very hard to get done when working in the limited bed of the wagon. He examined the ship, which seemed to be beached on its side. The bow looked as if it had been struck by lightning, a large chunk of it torn off- why it made it to shore instead of sinking, Shar had no idea, but he sent a quick prayer to the gods in thanks, just in case. He slipped in to the surf, his scales irritated already by the wet sand floating in the water, getting under his scales. He shook it off. Treasure like this- visible from quite a distance- would draw scavengers quicker than flies, and others were far more dangerous than he. The snake slipped in to the hull from the breach in the narrow destroyed front of the ship. Well, there were boxes. He slid to the nearest one, the claws tipping each of his fingers providing easy grip. He tore the lid off, looking in to find... rotten food. Corn, from the looks of it. Detestable. Why they would have an entire crate filled with food he wouldn't even feed his camel with, he didn't know. He opened another crate. Whatever had been in it was ruined, the bottom of the crate littered with broken glass. He sighed. This might take a while.

Food! Why in the manifold hells did they need so much food! He gave up on the twelfth crate, filled with more plants he had no interest in. What their obsession with corn was, he would never know. It would be better to search the rest of the ship quickly, and get out as fast as possible. It looked like the ship had landed recently, but he didn't know for sure how long it had been here. It was time to get going. He pulled himself up the stairs- biped stairs angered him to know end, they were incredibly uncomfortable. The ship was at an angle, but it was close enough to flat to travel the deck. Something caught his eye on the deck, near the blasted remains of the wheel of the ship.

A glimmer of metal, odd considering the entire lack of metal on the ship thus far; It was enough to make him curious. He approached the little ring of scorched wood, careful to not put his weight too far out on the damaged section of deck. A little pile of black egg shells partially covered the object, which he casually brushed aside. It was an ornate dagger, complete with what looked to be a golden scabbard or sheath covering it. Shar could immediately discern its worth. A noble's weapon. It would probably be useless in a fight, as fine and undamaged as it looked. Still, it was small, and would fetch a good price. He hid it away in a pocket on the inside of his robe.

The search of the rest of the ship yielded little, save for several good armloads of wood untouched by water. It wasn't wood intended for artwork, but the price would be decent enough that it was worth loading up the rest of his wagon with it. He stacked it neatly on the bottom of the wagon, and was about to climb in himself, when some other noise filtered through the crashing of the waves. He turned, and cursed himself for the extra hours he had spent gathering the wood. A pair of travelers were approaching on camels from the distance.

He silently cursed as he watched the pair approach. They were a canine species of some kind, light brown spotted fur, about three meters in height between the two of them. They dismounted, their stiff leather armor no doubt causing them discomfort in the heat- which meant they anticipated trouble. Well, if they were only too eager to kill him, then this called for another strategy. He couldn't outrun them. He couldn't outfight them two-on-one. He needed to come up with something quick. He turned to them and smiled.

"How fare you both?" He called to them as they approached him on foot now. The pair was silent, sizing him up, their hands on the hilts of their weapons at their waists. He did the same. They looked similar enough that there was probably a family resemblance. Canine meant that one probably had dominance over the other. Since they were related, it was probably the older one- and the older one was probably the taller of the two. Shar turned to him, standing his ground, pulling himself up to seven feet, the beginnings of his tail under his abdomen rising off the ground. He absently wished he had a Cobra's hood to flash at them. He made do with what he had, though. When the pair moved to flank him, he held up his hands, shrinking back to the ground- just under the height of the six-foot tall canine. He held out his open hands. "No need to kill me. I have no weapon, and no fighting skills to speak of, as you can plainly see from my robe, I have no affiliation with anyone in particular. But you don't want to kill me just yet. I was trying to make good time before, well, before you, or someone like you, found me." While he continued to speak, he moved closer to the ship, to keep both of them in eyesight. The larger of the two interrupted him.

"It seems we have a smart one here, hmm? You understand everything you have is ours now, yes?" Shar bowed low, still keeping his eyes on them, however.

"Of course. But I have a proposition. There is a town several dozen miles to the north. My friends are waiting for me there. If you would give me one camel- you don't really need three now, do you? Anyway, one camel to carry some supplies for me so I can get there without dying. In return, I help you load up your new wagon with loot from the ship. That sounds fair, doesn't it? That way you don't even have to risk fighting me. I mean, it is possible I could get my fangs in to one of you. A very painful death. It would take minutes for you to die, since I'm afraid I haven't milked my fangs in a number of days. But let me help you, and we all get to live. Doesn't that sound fair?" The smaller glanced to the bigger. They got together and talked for a moment. The younger spoke up.

"Fine. I come in to ship too, so you no try find weapon. You try anything-" He drew his finger across his neck. Shar almost winced at how bad the younger brother spoke Emperor's Common, the tongue he had spoken in.

"I understand." He said. The younger pushed forward ahead of him.

"Don't take long, brother." The older dog spoke up. "We should stay for less than this poor fool." The younger whined, but voiced his agreement. He kicked Shar in the back, which he definitely felt. "Make up for mind. Do you want to be ahead of or behind me?" He asked the bandit. The dog growled. "Faster." Shar almost gave a tired sigh. They so clearly planned to kill or enslave him after he was done helping, it was comical. Or, it would be were it anyone else in this situation. But it wasn't. And he had things he needed to get done before he died. He pointed up the stairs. The dog looked back at him, and he shrugged. As the dog clambered up, he reached in the inseam of his robe for the dagger. Damn! The sheath was clasped shut by what felt like two little annoying hinges. It was peace-bonded! The damn thing wasn't even meant to be drawn! That meant that there was still a blade on it though, and with enough effort... it was only gold holding it on, which was not exactly the strongest metal. He pulled on the tiny clasps so hard his fingers started to bleed- and then he drew the blade, out of the sheath, out of his robe. He stared at the blade. It was black. Not black, it was... He moved it through the air, and watched it leave a trail of momentary shadow in the air. He gasped out in pain as he felt something deep inside of him tearing apart. It felt like something shredding up the inside of his entire body. He went weak, falling to his hands right outside the ship, staring at the shadow he cast. He watched it twist, pulling up in to the air, snapping away from him. A figure emerged, clad in a black mist that made their edges suggested instead of firm. Vaguely bipedal, it had two definite arms, two legs, a head. It stepped in to the shadow of the ship, and he could see it- her- more clearly. The canine up on the stairs gaped, as did he, though less from pain now, and more at the shock of his shadow turning in to something else in front of his eyes. It was him. A female him, complete with black scales and legs, a small meter length tail stretching out of the base of the thing's spine. He knew the gaze on that face all too well though. Yes, somewhere he was in there. He had to be the template it worked off; it was his shadow after all. The eyes opened, startlingly golden pupils illuminating against all the darkness.

"The pact is complete, and your Shade is mine. Give me an order." The canine screamed. Shar wanted to scream himself, but found himself in an odd state of shock. He felt himself intellectualizing the whole thing. He knew he was just trying to cope, but couldn't help but simply be fascinated.

"This is magic, isn't it?" He asked the shadow figure. It rolled its eyes.

"Sure. Magic. What's so surprising about that? You sacrifice a hundred lives, get struck by lightning, all on the exact right times of the year, and your question is what did you do? Really? I mean, someone wrote down something for you to get all the rituals right. Or was it passed on in oral tradition. I hate oral tradition. It fucked up one of my rituals once and I nearly..." The shadow's voice was clearly female, though it cut off as it spoke. "You have no idea what I'm talking about. Great. Let me explain the position you are in. See that world out there? You are now a player on it. The game is this: Win or die. It looks like you are the first player in the game so far, since I can do this." The figure stepped out in to the noonday sun, the mist surrounding its form once more. It winked out of existence and appeared sitting on one of the beams of the ship a dozen feet above him. "This too. Really quite a few things you should enjoy while they last. Tell me. Do you like killing? Because unless you order me to do something, I'm going to let that guy trying to sneak up behind you kill you. Can I kill him?" Shar spun, keeping an eye on both brothers now. The larger of the two was not but two meters away. The reptile weighed his options. They would do nothing but chase him, or run screaming his description to anyone who would listen. He weighed the consequences, the benefits and costs, as any true merchant would. Shar spoke at last.

"Kill them."