FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Two weeks before Central New Year, Silverine brought all of the Hunted from the previous New Year, and announced that there would be a fourth group trip. Dev was coming, Silverine wouldn't be, Draco, Simba, and all the Hunted would teleport to the planet, and Salbar and Javid would be coming too. It started on the Saturday morning, at about seven o'clock, and we teleported, with Salbar and Winslo holding my arms as I pressed the button.

Again, we had no idea where we would arrive, but we arrived on a cobbled road. From one direction, there was a long road across a flat plain. On the other was a hillside, and a city on the hill side. It was actually, technically, on the top of the hill side, but there was a huge cliff above it, completely impassable to anyone who couldn't fly. The city was multi layered, and took up most of the hill, but there was a second section, which was a large building. There were only two ways to the second section, one along from the main sector of the city, the top layer attached by a stone bridge, the second a long causeway that ran down directly towards us, but the causeway only allowed maybe three wide, and the five windows suggested good cover fire.

This was a very defensive city. We unanimously decided to head for the town, and Valmeero took to the air with a scanner. I changed into my Lambo form, and scouted ahead. I rumbled over the cobbles. Grant, Thomas and Time took the lead, with the three dragons behind them. Winslo and Simba were directly behind them, both not hand to hand sort of people, liked to hang behind, and Salbar was with them. Javid and Doran took the rear, and they walked behind me as I zipped towards the main gates of the first sector. As soon as I got within bow range of the main gates, bowmen stood up. They were all human, and they all wore bright plate-mail and helmets.

A single red flag with a hawk on it flew proudly over the battlements, and I came to a halt with about fifteen arrows trained at me. I changed into my bionic form, and spoke with a crisp tone.

"Greetings to thee, guards. Let the Lords of Central enter, for we desire to speak to you!"

All I needed was a trumpet, but I made a pretty good herald. A voice called back.

"In the name of Dul'Ihanri,this fair city, declare who you are!"

I turned towards where the voice was coming from, my steel glinting in the sun.

"My name is Alduin, I am the herald for the Lord Devlin, who has come from Central, and the Lord Draco. They wish to speak to the lord in charge of the city."

"What is this Central?"

"They journey from another world, and wish to greet the lords from this planet. They come in peace, and wish to acquire knowledge of this world."

There was a long pause, while over my ear piece, I heard people talking.

"Lord Devlin? Alduin, what the devil are you talking about?" the draconic voice spoke. I held my ear as I spoke.

"I'm trying to make it look like you are two noblemen, Devlin."

"I'm not noble."

"Really? Oh well, there goes that idea.You are a representative of Central, however."

"That is true."

"Yes, him and the Lord Draco need to look their best." Valmeero chuckled."I've almost finished my aerial scan.Simba, how are we looking?"

"Not bad, thank you."the lion replied,"it looks like the second sector is in fact a retreat, should an army take the first section. The entire place looks unassailable."

"So why the two dragons?" Grant said."What about the Lady Time, she gets on well with everyone."

There was a brief pause, followed by the sound of a hand impacting on bare flesh.Then Salbar spoke.

"Devlin and Draco are the most imposing, Grant.We need to put on a show, and they are good at that."

"Forward Winslo and a pyrotechnics spell." Javid chuckled. The bunny sighed.

"I am not going to scare all the guards with Pyrotechnics.We want to get in the citadel."

This chat was briefly interrupted by the guard calling to me.

"We have an escort waiting for your lord's arrival, they will direct the lords to the main hall.Tell your lord that."

I changed into my Lightning form, and rose off the ground.

"He already knows." I said, zooming into the sky.

I decided to do a wider search of the area. There was a huge flat plain behind the city, but when I flew past Valmeero in the direction we had come from, I saw a huge mountain range and a forest crowning the lower slopes. A lake at the foot of the mountains wound it's way into a river that gently wove past the outcrop of rocks Dul'Ihanri was built on. As I flew around the mountains, I noticed a huge myriad of caves and resolved to ask what was in them.

Finally, by my glasses, I knew Draco was about one hundred yards from the main gate, and I flew directly back, flying about forty metres over the cobbled road. My timing was perfect, as the Lords went under the gate, I howled overhead, banking sharply over the ridge. I then turned, and landed on the main road up through the layers to the main hall.I waited for five minutes while Draco's party wound their way along the roads, and saw Valmeero join them from out of the sky. Through their glasses, I could see the guards were quite nervous being near the visitors, and weapons were held restlessly in hand.

Finally, they got to my position, and one guard looked at me.

"Herald, how did you get up here?"

Devlin interrupted.

"Alduin, will you give it a rest, flying over us like that? Your engine is deafening."

"Will do, Lord Devlin. Did Simba get my aerial over the mountains?"

"Yes, Alduin, did you see the smoke rising from those caves?"

"I was wondering about that." I nodded.

"You saw smoke arising from the caves to the North?" one guard spoke sharply at me.The change in him was staggering. I nodded.

"I did, sir, in large quantities."

"In which case we need to see the lords as fast as possible." the guard strode ahead, leaving the remaining guards to walk with Dev and the rest of the Hunted. Brendan exchanged glances with me.

"Volcano?" Salbar voiced everyone's first thought. Javid looked to the mountains.

"I shouldn't think even a huge eruption would do that much. Maybe these men have enemies that live in those caves?"

"We shall see."Grant said, shrugging his shoulders. As they came to the main doors of the hall, I noticed that someone who was obviously the lord, the finery of his costume gave rise to the theory, several other nobles, their garb was equally exquisite. Taking either side was a platoon of guards, and they looked very shiftily at us as we halted before them. Devlin and Draco, as the announced lords, they were going to fuck me for that one, came forward, and gave short bows to the lord.

"Greetings lord. The stars shine on our meeting." Devlin said, royally.

"Greetings, Lord Devlin, shall we go inside, with your escort. I have no doubt you wish to ask things of me, and I have some things to ask of you."

"Certainly.Draco, Herald,follow me."

And people wonder why I was smirking at this point.Draco was so not used to acting elegant, but he did his best. It was like watching a soldier dress up in a tux and dance for the first time on stage.

We walked into the cavernous main hall. It was all timbers, with the outer walls being made of black and white stone. The entire hall was on the same level, and there were many tables. One was placed at the head of the hall, beneath a magnificent arch and a array of stained glass windows. Thomas whistled his appreciation of the interior, and the others looked around approvingly.

The 'lords' sat around the head table, and after some small talk, the hosting lord spoke.

"Now, Devlin, my name is Mykerinos, I am the lord of this fair city. What proof do you have of who your herald says you are?"

Mykerinos, sounds Greek. I thought to myself. Simba tossed a small sphere from his belt to me, and spoke.

"Herald, stand in the centre of the hall, and press the button."

The sphere was completely smooth, save for a small button on the side. I did as Simba instructed, and the trick we had pulled for the old elf on the Winterworld erupted into the main hall. The stars, infinite galaxies unrolled across the space, fitting neatly with the interior of the hall.

There was a gasp of surprise from those that hadn't seen this trick. Mykerinos looked astounded at the stars, and Simba spoke.

"This is the universe which we all live in, or the charted sections. Where we are located is right here."he pointed almost directly at me, but above my head, and a single star glowed bright yellow, before fading back to white.

"And where are we?" Mykerinos asked. Simba pointed towards towards one of the sides, and a rather solitary dot glowed.

"This is your planet, in relation to us.We have used exceptionally advanced technology to travel here, and our quest is indeed to find out the species, the culture, and the history of all planets we visit."

"But each of you are from different planets?Only a handful of you are alike. The herald looks like us, but he is alone in that respect."

"That's because our, city, is based upon creatures from a multitude of places around the universe." Time replied. Mykerinos bowed at the lady's wisdom, and spoke.

"I see, my lady. What may your names be?"

"I am called Time Dancer." Time replied. One by one, they made their introductions, pronouncing their two names in full. I was last, as the herald, and then conversation came back to the earlier topic.

Simba asked if Mykerinos had a library.

"Yes, we do, Simba. The Great Library is not far from the main hall, one of our guards will gladly escort you there.As to your friends, they can wander as they will, providing they all carry a pass.I'm sure that you will find us, backward, compared to yourselves, and you will be of astonishing news to the peasantry,"Mykerinos laughed,"but we do our humble best. But I have heard grave news. Your herald mentioned he had seen smoke from the caves in the mountains."

"Alduin recorded a stream of information with one of our devices, and we spotted copious amounts rising from the caves.Is this bad news?"

"Indeed it is, Simba. It means the Half-Orcs will be coming to attack our city. It has happened many times before."

"Half-Orcs?" Devlin asked politely.

"They are a creature that abhor the sun, and live in those caves. They vaguely resemble us, but they are bleached white from lack of sun. They are evil, and hate us immensely."

"Alduin..." Draco began.

"Aerial Recon!"I said, punching the air."I knew it was coming!"

"Heralds nowadays, honestly." Valmeero leaned back, a smile on his face. This got a collective laugh from the Hunted, and Winslo spoke from down the table.

"Alduin, behave yourself, or we'll get Brendan to do it."

Draco left the table, and as I changed into my Lightning form, placed three cameras on my sides and underbelly.

"Make a few low passes over the caves, fly in one if you have to." he instructed.I spoke affirmation, and then spoke to the hall.

"Firing engines."

Everyone blocked their ears, and the roar from my jet bounced off all the walls, producing a tremendous cacophony.A single white flame burst out as I took off directly down the length of the hall, and I left the ground as I headed through the main doors.

"Alduin is our Herald and fastest aerial scout, as you can see." I heard Javid explaining, obviously to the local lords.

"While we wait for him, we shall have a small meal." Mykerinos said firmly."You have travelled far, and are helping us a great deal."

"You are too kind, sir."Salbar replied graciously.Simba spoke.

"Now, this device will show you where Alduin is, and what he is seeing."

There was a collective gasp again, and as I flew low and fast towards the mountains, I heard Mykerinos speak.

"How fast does he travel?"

"Just over supersonic speed." I replied, roaring over a clump of trees. About one point zero one times the speed of sound."

The Lightning was quicker than the Raptor, the Raptor did 1,100 kph at full afterburners, the Lightning broke the sound barrier, but to do so gave me a roaring headache for the next two hours.I had only twice broken the barrier as the Lightning, and very quickly decided, never again.

I followed the river, banking through every corner, and then came to the lake. At this level, I was travelling at a rate which made me hard to spot, but I could certainly see things. As I headed towards the caves, directly over the lake, I saw a mass of black smoke rising from one cave, and, even better, there was one of the half orcs outside. He appeared to be doing something with some stones, and he looked up as I approached.

I couldn't read his features, but they would have been pretty surprised. I saw him stand up, and drew a great horn that was on his belt, and then I had thundered past him.Simba spoke.

"Not bad, but we need to see more about these creatures. Go a little slower."

As I banked around, I saw that many more of these half orcs were coming out of the caves. They did indeed look something like the humans in the city, if you were prepared to accept that they looked nothing like them at the same time. They wore exceptionally ragged clothes, they had bows and swords, and they had little hair. Most wore helmets. Their eyes were large, and their skin was indeed as white as Thomas' fur.

I flew past them doing a mere two hundred, and they all stared as I trundled past. I turned, and flew past again. As I did, the creatures drew their bows, and started firing haphazardly at me.

"They're shooting at you, Alduin."

"O.K., you try and hit me with their tools. They couldn't hit the side of a barn at two fifty, let alone me." I increased my velocity, cruising up to seven hundred. After a few more passes, and some very wild marksmanship, I decided enough was enough.

"Alright, Simba, I'm going into those caves."

"Righto, Tin-man."

I came to a halt directly in front of the first cave, a good fifteen orcs standing between me and it, arrows pointed at me. They were on a mountain pass, and I hovered a good five metres from the edge, easily out of melee weapon range.

Then I switched on the high powered lights on my wings. That got a reaction. All the orcs blundered away, covering their eyes from the blinding glare. Thus occupied, I gently burst forward, half hovering down the corridor at about ten kph. The corridors were lit with torches, but my own lights lay everything bare.

The caves were fairly basic, naught but blankets and fires, but I did not go in very deep. Many passages branched out from each direction, and I saw many half orcs looking at me from these side passages.

"All the outside caves must link up somewhere down here."I said to Simba. He spoke.

"I suppose so. Get out of there before one of them gains their nerve."

"I am so out of here." I replied, turning while hovering. The orcs that had been following me got to the floor, covering themselves from my unnatural light, and I ignited afterburners, and accelerated out of the cave.

"Now that,"Mykerinos said," will worry them. A thing, apparently made, incapable of being destroyed, immensely powerful, is on the other side."

"Yes, the One Ring."I said, sarcastically, as I blasted back towards the towers of the city. No one had a clue what I was on about.So with a few idle loops and barrel rolls, I arrived outside the main hall. As I walked in, Draco spoke.

"Herald, I did not give you leave to enter."

"Draco,"I began, sweeping my hair back,"now is not the time. Does anyone have any Lift Plus? Where's my backpack?" I had removed it before I went for my flight. I stepped over to the pillar as one of the soldiers approached me, drawing his sword.

"Do you not obey your master, herald?Begone from this place." he spoke. I could see the chuckles on the faces of my friends, especially on Draco's, and knew this needed delicate handling.

So I calmly ignored him, finishing the bottle of Lift Plus. He pointed the sword at me, the blade not half a millimetre from my skin. I handed him the bottle.

"Take this please."In open astonishment I balanced the bottle on his sword, picked up my backpack, put my rifle and rocket launcher on top of my shoulders, and walked towards the exit. This time I had challenged the guard personally, and he stopped my exit.

"Do you want me to go or stay?" I asked politely.The guard spoke.

"You have a sword, I challenge you."

I sighed, looking at Draco.

"I think I've had quite enough of this game."

"You started it."

"Only to sound more important. If it sounded like a foreign lord had arrived, would Mykerinos have welcomed us?Yes. If I had said we're a bunch of boring travellers, would he? No."

"But the point is you did it, to satisfy your own evil sense of humour." Grant replied, grinning.

"No, my sense of humour is less subtle than that." I replied, with a straight face.

"So your sense of humour is?"

"Well, it would be a lot more simple to explain if I could cast spells." I replied, laughing out loud.

"Dear God, Alduin with Winslo's spell list. No one would be safe." Time looked to the heavens. The guard drew my own sword, and forcefully handed the weapon to me. I took it, still in my bionic form, and held it in readiness.

The guard swung his sword, an unstoppable blow to my left shoulder. I didn't even move my sword to deflect it, and it bounced off with an almighty clang. The guard looked at his blade, then at me. I sighed, and sheathed my sword.

"Now why don't you go and sit in the corner?"I suggested,and walked out.

"He is far too theatrical." Devlin whispered to Draco.

"I know that, Devlin." I said, over my mouthpiece, as I shut the door.

The day passed slowly. The Hunted were issued with passes, and wandered where they wanted, and I followed them, out of habit. I followed Time to the blacksmith, and we had a good talk about metallurgy. Time had this wonderful talent, she could step into any unfamiliar topic, and learn all she needed without the other person being aware. Then I visited Simba, but he was immersed in the reading of books, the clicks of his optical translator translating every word for him. I very quietly shuffled out of there.

I went down to the barracks, and caught sight of a few of the Hunted there. Thomas Nagoya, Javid and Brendan were all there. Winslo was sitting on a bench, watching the other three. They were at the archery range, and firing their cultural weapons at the arrow targets. The commander had invited them to do so, and he and his men were looking in wonderment and fear as Thomas continually nailed the centre of his target with his dual pistols. I sat down beside Winslo, and watched as Javid fired his sniper rifle, the huge crack reverberating across the courtyard. Brendan was firing a C.E.O. pistol, with the same sort of accuracy, and they were at about a hundred metres.

Winslo leaned back.

"So, Herald, are you going to join in?"

"Me, with my .303?Nah, I'm not as good as them."

"What about the rocket launcher over your shoulder?" the bunny smiled.

"I think they'd want to keep their target in one piece, Winslo. This would nuke all of them." I tapped the Eryx over my shoulder.

Brendan came over, sitting down on the bench.

"I swear, Thomas must have magic guns. He hasn't landed one outside the second inner ring."

"He's just a brilliant shot."I said, watching the snow leopard reload."He told me he spent many years in various special army groups on his home planet, and he's honed it to a fine art." Thomas then fired another twenty four shots, and again his spread was uncanny. Beside him, Javid was getting bulls-eyes with his sniper rifle, not really a surprise.

I got off the bench as Javid finished his magazine.

"Could it be safe to say there will be one bullet hole in the target when we go down there and check?" I smiled hopefully. Javid laughed.

"A slightly larger bullet hole than that,Alduin.Not completely identical. You firing your .303?"

"No, I'll leave the gunnery to you." I said, walking back out into the streets.At least they were enjoying themselves.

Doran was at the main gate. I sat down by the wolf, and spoke.

"So contemplative,my friend? Is there something wrong?" Doran looked at me.

"No, nothing, Alduin.There's just naught to do."

"I know,it's boring, isn't it? Simba's enjoying himself in the library, Dev and Draco and discussing things with Mykerinos, Javid and a few others are at the barracks..."

"I heard the gunfire." Doran smile faintly.

"Time's with the blacksmith, Grant is at the stables. Have you seen Salbar?"

"He went for a walk towards the forest." the wolf motioned towards the distant greenery.

"Let's join him, I feel like a relaxing time."

It took us half an hour, but before long we had walked into the trees. It was like many others forests, dense trees, but little else on the ground, so as the leaves came down, we walked in silence, letting the wind do the talking.

Salbar was sleeping in a tree, his reptilian legs on the branch, but his tail hanging down like an innocent vine. His arms were folded, and he slumbered.

"I actually wish I could go to sleep that easily." I whispered to Doran. He smiled, and we walked on, and found a small pool.The beauty of the scene took us both, and we sat down. The birds chirped in the branches, and the wind whistled against the leaves. The sun shone down, sending a million shafts of light off the gently moving water. This place was just idyllic, and I lay down, my head on the soft, green grass.

I had neglected to change from my bionic form, but I must have slept, because when I had opened my eyes, the sun was setting.I looked beside me, Doran was no longer there.

"Hey, Doran, where are you?"

"Wakey wakey, Alduin.We're all back at the city, save for Salbar."

The sun had gone behind the mountains, and I got to my feet. Taking my course from that, I walked through the forest. At this time, all the birds were going to sleep, the silence was only a slight contrast to the walk going the other way.

I walked for ten minutes through the undergrowth, the trees looming above my head, when I heard a very quiet call.

"Alduin!" Salbar whispered. I looked around, and lo! I couldn't see him. I was refraining from using my torch, but I saw him as he approached.

"Salbar, I wondered where you were." I said, smiling. Salbar spoke quietly.

"Alduin, follow me."

He turned and ran lithely through the forest. Somewhat confused, I followed after him. He seemed to be heading directly at a point, and as I tried to run silently, the lizard made very little sound at all.Finally he stopped,and crept behind a bush. As he did, I followed directly behind him. There was something wrong, and I heard his heart hammering while we waited.

Then there was a sound. A voice, like that of someone who's been gargling gravel for his life, and had a guttural tone even more strong that Louis Armstrong in full flight.

"Alright, you lazy orcs. Indecent half breeds! We will rest here, for ten minutes only."

There was a few dozen sounds of relief, and a few mutterings.

"Bout bloody time." one muttered.

As I peered through the bush, I saw glimpses of the race I had made several passes over. There were lots of them, and they were carrying lots of weapons in their hands. I saw a huge mattock wielding orc wandered over the bush we were behind.

"You there, stand guard.We don't want those accursed Sun lovers knowing we're coming." The orc halted, and rasped a throaty affirmation. Salbar looked at me, and then back through the bush at the huge orc.

"What time should we arrive there?"

"In two or three hours, so stop whining, you skulking beast!" the orc who was obviously in charge growled.

I knew I was sweating, and Salbar whispered very quietly over his microphone.

"Devlin, the orcs are coming."

Devlin knew better than try to speak to us, he could hear the snarls of the exhausted orcs through our microphones. But he couldn't get the general picture. Their smell was rank, it made me almost gag, their dirty, unwashed sweaty smell.It was practically tangible. Their skin was a myriad of scars and lines, doubtless they quarrelled among each other. They frequently cursed, spat, howled, breaking the simple peace with their presence.

Now there was nothing these orcs could do to me, but Salbar was running a tremendous risk staying here, and I said so, very quietly.

"I'm going to get back to the city, Alduin."

"I'll cover you." Salbar slunk away, keeping low. Such was his movement that not even the orc standing two metres away spotted him until he was almost out of sight in the distant trees. But he was spotted by the orc beside my bush, and the orc challenged.

"Hey, come back here!" he roared. He lumbered forward, just as I stuck out my foot.

He went over like a stone. I quickly moved into the bush, trying to camouflage myself. The orc hit the ground with an expulsion of air. There were a few chuckles, and few cruel laughs, and the orc leader spoke.

"What happened, you idiot?"

"I thought I saw someone over there, and I tripped over a root, or something."

"Clumsy oaf!" the orc leader, with a huge notched axe, came over, and picked the orc off the ground, shaking him."You'll wake the city with all the noise you're making!We're moving."

There was a few grumbles, and the orcs started moving. In this darkness their eyes were very keen, but I didn't move from my position, and no one gave the bush a second glance.It was quite a large company, and by the looks of the dim torches, there was a whole line marching through the forest.Also, I could hear among the marches, the sounds of turning wheels, the squeak of wood. It looked like a huge army. Finally the last of the orcs moaned and plodded their way past, and I started running the other way.

"Simba, is Salbar back yet?"

"No, not yet." the lion replied.

"Please, activate a scanner, I need to get back there fast, the entire army just marched past me."

There was about half a minute of silence.

"Salbar, what's your position?"

"I can hear them coming, but they haven't seen me. I must be some way ahead of them." the lizard whispered.

"Teleport, right now. We are closing the gates."

I teleported, and arrived on the hard cobbles of the road outside the main hall. Mykerinos was next to Simba, with the entire adventuring group there. Salbar teleported three seconds after me, and Mykerinos spoke.

"Alduin, what did they say?"

"Not much.They would be here in two or three hours."

"Right." Mykerinos turned to a group of guards behind him, and started issuing instructions. The explorers went over to a house we had been lended, and we went inside.

We offered our services to the lord, and he gratefully accepted. So at the one hour fifty mark, we went down to the main gates, and peered into the dark land. There wasn't a sign of anyone. The night was clear, and the orcs were nowhere to be seen.

"Where are they?" Mykerinos asked himself.

"Maybe they've got lost?" I said,hopefully. Mykerinos shook his head.

"No, they're good at travelling.Are you sure that they were coming for us?"

"The head orc said 'accursed Sun lovers'.I wish I shared your optimism." I replied frankly.

Five minutes later, I started thinking of a nursery rhyme, and made my own words.

"The old grand duke of orcs, he had ten thousand strong.

He marched them up through the thick of a forest, and back 'cause he got it wrong.

And when they were there, they were there,

And when they weren't, they were not,

And when they were only halfway there, who knows where they had got!"

There was an outburst of laughter from the Hunted.

"Five out of ten, Alduin."Draco said,"Three for the rhyme, two for the spur of the moment."

I looked indignant."I would have thought it was at least seven."

"Fine, I'll make it six, one for the whining." Draco grinned. I sighed deeply.

"Cheer up, Alduin." Brendan smiled,"Keep it up, and he might give you an eight."

"Brendan, this is not the time."

"Tell me when it is, then I can have another go." the red and gold dragon chuckled.

"Tell you what Brendan, here's a bottle of Lift Plus."I rummaged through my bag, and drew out a bottle, which I held tantalisingly close to the dragon.

"Yay, Lift Plus!" Brendan grabbed for it, and I lifted it up just in time.

"This is for emergencies only." I grinned.

"This is an emergency!" Brendan replied,"I'm sugar deprived. I need it!"

"No, when the orcs attack us, that's an emergency." I replied, giving the dragon the bottle. He sighed, and put it in a carry point on his belt.We waited.