FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Ryukan wake up," Ryukan's father said as he passed by his cavern door. He groaned and rolled away from the noise, trying to get a few minutes more sleep. "Ryukan get up and out of that bed!" He stormed in the room and tore down the light-sphere curtain. Ryu thrust the covers over his eyes to shield them from the blinding light. "Did you set your mind-disrupter last night?"

"No, why would I need to get up?" The youngster asked taking down the covers just to yank them up again. He knew exactly why but the bed was just so comfortable.

"So you could be ready for your testing. I have told about a thousand times that it was today, so do not tell me you forgot." He sighed and walked towards the cavern way, "your siblings are up and readying themselves, you should do the same."

"Alright I'm getting up." He flipped the covers off and stumbled over to his mirror. He reached the mirror and dipped his hands into the basin, splashing his face with the ice cold water. Shivering as the water ran down his neck, he looked in the mirror to examine himself. Ryukan's scales are a crimson red with a silver streak running up his face touching the rim of his eyes and thinning as it reaches his horns.

The streak continues down the back of his neck splitting at the shoulders and traveling down the drake's arms to the hands making them have a sort of glove-like look. It ends at the last foot of his tail where it covers the tip in a silvery embrace. Ryu has an above average amount of muscle for a fifty-seven year old, twelve foot tall dragon. The membranes of his wings have a silver color to them that is transparent when light passes through. His eyes are black with golden yellow irises.

The red dragon reached down and opened a drawer so he could decide on what he was to wear today. After a minute of debating with himself, he decided on a pair of dark wolf leather leggings. Putting the clothing on he headed towards his potions room to find that it was cracked open. Ryu placed his hand on the wood and found that his locking enchantment had been destroyed. Takil, he thought to himself, you are the only one that would want in here that badly. Pushing the door open, he examined the room.

It was as normal, seven six foot long, foot and a half wide shelves on the west wall covered in jars and canisters filled with various ingredients. The east wall, eight, nine foot long, two foot wide, shelves cluttered with various potions each with its own name engraved on the vial by magic. The south wall has three tables. The table on the right is the one on which Ryukan would preform the alchemy required to make the potions. The table on the left is the one on which the drake could enchantment armor and weapons, yet he still has not figured out how exactly he is supposed to do that. The table in the middle is the work table, which is scattered with stacks of written successful and failed recipes.

Something smelled different though. It smelled like a large pile of corpses a few days old. Ryu's eye caught sight of a small brown bag on his work table and as he walked over to have a closer look the strength of the aroma increased until his eyes were watering from the stench. It was a small bag of Draconisean, a very powerful, very expensive, very dangerous, rare ingredient. He knew that he did not buy any yet even with the permission from his father and this one had already been torn open, its contents spilling from the bag. Ryukan cleaned up the mess and said to himself, "well if my brother is gonna leave stuff like this behind then I might as well keep it. Of course I must tell father first."

The dragon grabbed a few more potions before he left the room. Shutting the door, he replaced the locking enchantment and set a new password. Walking to the other side of the room, he picked up his weapon, a ten foot sword with a blade made of bronze in the draconic way, a way only known to our smiths.

The blade alone is eight feet long, nine and three quarter inches wide, narrowing towards the point , also breaking about a foot and a half from the hilt only to merge again seven inches from the point, and engraved with draconic symbols, that state; those whom threaten my wielder, die by the blade he wields. Its hilt is two feet long and made of iron, covered in strips of goblin cloth. Ryukankistinial also grabbed his apothecary satchel filled with about fifteen different ingredients and some reagents. He looked around the room for anything that he might have missed. Finding his bow and quiver off to one side, he picked it up as well and left, running into his brother, Takil.

"Hey, have you seen my Draconisean? I cannot seem to remember where I last put the stuff," Takil asked. Takil's scales are a dark grey with red running down his face, splitting into three streaks; two of them flow down either side of his face, thinning to points at the bottom of his jaw. The other continues down his face also thinning to a point at the end of his snout. The red line continues down his back splitting between his shoulder blades. It runs down his arms in a thin ribbon-like streak and wraps around the wrists then stretches still to wrap around the second and third fingers. The line continues down to the tip of his tail. He stands at ten feet, has a nine foot wing span, is fifty years old, and always carries an elven short sword at his waist.

"Oh, your Draconisean? Yeah its right here, though I think that I'm gonna have to talk to dad about this because you're not allowed to have this without permission from both of our parents." Ryu stated clearly.

"You know what I think?" Takil asked

"What, what do you think of at all?" the red dragon stated sarcastically

"I think you took that out of my room so that you could tell father just to get me in trouble." Takil exclaimed, outraged.

"Excuse me; tell me why I would have to steal when I have a brother who knows the craft through and through?" Ryu retorted.

"I do not!" he exclaimed struggling to look innocent. "I wouldn't know how to steal if someone sat me down and ran me through the basics. How can you accuse me of that when..."

"I can accuse you because I have seen you do it," Ryukan interrupted. "Do you remember that time I asked you where you got your copper dagger, and you told me that you found it lying about?"

He thought about it for a good minute, "yeah and you know that's true to this day."

"No, the way you said it made me disbelieve you, but I said o.k. anyway. After that, I watched you closely, which was not very hard. Thirteen days later I knew you were planning something because of the way that you were acting. Every time you had done something wrong you blamed me or Corballa.

I saw straight through your ploy, you were trying to look as innocent as possible so that when something came up, no one looked your way." The red drake sighed contently as those yellow eyes lit up with surprise. "Sixteen days after you started that, you took action. I stayed up that night as I had for the past twenty-nine. You snuck into my room and took some of my potions making sure I had a good supply of each."

Takil began to show a bit of anger as his elder brother explained. "When you left my room I grabbed my bag already filled with supplies and followed. I dogged you all the way to the Gratasschu's, followed you inside and mocked you in every action you took. You, Takil, took Gratasschu's wife's favorite flame reducing cloak, as soon as I had that proof I cast a spell to teleport me back to my room, put my bag away, and climbed in bed making it look as though I had been asleep the entire time."

"Barzalsht! How is it that you managed to out-sneak me when I have more stealth than this entire family combined? I had not once suspected that you or anyone else had been following me. I could have killed you for I had that takankil dagger with me." Takil stood there with his hands covering his eyes and tail wrapped around his legs, rocking back and forth.

"First off, language, please. Second I've had a bit of training in stealth, a bit more than you it seems. Third, you shouldn't have been stealing things in the first place. I shall speak with dad on this as well." Ryukan strapped his sword and quiver in place, placed the bow in the quiver, spun around and walked down the corridor to the main cavern. On the way he thought about how many times he had ratted on Takil and felt a little guilty himself. The drake stopped and turned back to face him. He looked back at him pouting with his tail tucked against his backside as tightly as he could manage, and Ryu just couldn't stand it. "Alright, fine, I won't tell dad about that but this Draconisean thing has to be addressed o.k. Just answer me this one question, why?"

"Because I needed the money for school since it was starting soon and I didn't want to arrive broke. Why does dad need to know about my Draconisean?" Takil whimpered.

"For your safety; Draconisean is not a substance to be taken lightly." Ryu walked over and put his arm around his brother's shoulders. "And you know, you could have asked me for some money, what did you even spend it on?"

"Most of it was spent on that bag of Draconisean and some other ingredients. The rest went to a sharpening stone and a couple sweets." He said looking guilty. Takil hadn't looked that guilty since was twenty five. He trapped Ryu and his sisters, Jestiliin and Corbala, in a room with a slab of stone blocking the way. He looked guiltier than a thief walking out of a treasury with a bag full of gold bars when mom and dad got back. The dark grey dragon got grounded for the next three weeks and had to clean out the 'Family Leavings Room' by himself three times.

Ryukan was close enough that he could tell the grey drake's breath smelled extremely rotten. "Oh, whoa," he said covering his nostrils and backing away. "Dude, Takil when was the last time you washed your mouth out? Your breath reeks," the older drake waved his hand in front of his snout trying in vain to shoo away the stench.

"I should probably go do that now, while we still got time." He said heading back to his room.

"Yeah, no kidding," the red dragon chuckled, then turned around and continued down the corridor. Upon reaching the main cavern he discovered that his sisters, Jestiliin and Corbala, were already enjoying breakfast. "Good morning Corbala," Ryukan said bowing in traditional greeting, "Jestiliin." Corbala has violet scales with a short haired, golden mane from the top of her head to the tip of her tail.

She stands at seven feet with a five foot wingspan. Her dark red eyes seeming to pierce your very being, but she really is a gentle soul, and the youngest of us four. Jestiliin's is a sapphire blue with a bit of silver just below and stretching behind her sea green eyes and a dark silver, long haired mane stopping just before her tail . She always wears golden bands around the base of her horns and stands at ten feet with an eight foot wingspan. She's a bit thick around the around the mid-section but can still hold her own against a lot of the guys at school.

"Good morning," Jestiliin replied, "I do hope that you know that you don't have to bow in your own home." She was unusually prepped for school. Hair brushed, mouth washed, claws trimmed, the whole nine yards.

"Of course I know that, I'm just being polite. Besides, how am I supposed to react towards such a stunning dragoness?" I said winking at her.

"Oh, like you'd be interested." She retorted, sticking her tongue out. Bursting out laughing, she held her mane as best she could.

After they calmed down enough to speak he looked at them both and asked, "Is there any lamb left?" Corbala put a leg on the table and I hunkered down and tore into the meat. "By the way, do either of you know where father went off to?"

"Yeah, he went up to his room to prepare for a small hunt before going to work." Corbala said through a mouthful of meat.

"Thank you, and manners Corbala."

"What, we aren't fancy, are we?" she retorted.

He chuckled and shook his head, "no but you wouldn't want all that juice and spit running down your front would you?" Her eyes widened and she began freaking out and looking all over her front. "There ain't anything there Cor." Ryu said as he and Jestiliin began laughing again. She reached over and shoved him playfully.

"That's not funny." She bickered.

Ryukan slid off the chair when she shoved and chuckled a little more, walking towards father's room. "Father, we need to talk." he stated as he walked in the room.

"What is it Ryukan? I am just a little busy at the moment." He said sounding just a little annoyed. Fathers' scales are mainly red with gray that surrounds his head giving him the appearance that he is always wearing a helmet. He stands at about forty feet tall, has a wingspan of almost thirty-eight feet and a width of exactly fifteen feet. The young drake remembers how he used to look so proud and determined whenever he wears his military uniform. He even uses some of his military training in their punishments. Ten mile hikes, a hundred push-ups, those kinds of things. He never really likes speaking about that part of his past, as though he doesn't want to remember.

"Sorry Father, but the subject is about Takil."

"What could you two be bickering about now?" Father asked a little irritated.

"We are not bickering, but I did find out that he has been acquiring Draconisean, and wondered if you and Mother had given him the permission to do so?" Ryu asked a little irritated.

"No I never did and I do not think that your mother would have either. Do you happen to know exactly how he is acquiring the ingredient? Knowing that kind of information could help subdue it."

"No I do not. I can take a guess though that he may be getting it from somewhere within the school."

"What?!" he shouted loud enough Ryu thought he felt the cave shake a bit. "How can that be possible? I make sure personally that all the students are checked before even entering the school," pausing for a moment of thought. "Professor Gjin even puts an enchantment around the school so that no one may enter without permission from me." He stated furiously. "So, might you, Ryu, tell me how exactly that may be possible?"

Ryukan looked at him and thought for a good minute, "Well, I have noticed one spot that no one seems to search on each student. The..."

"And what would that be, Ryu. Tell me and it shall be fixed as soon as it is possible." Father said in sudden eagerness.

"Well, please do not interrupt me and I would be happy to tell," The young drake growled, pausing for a moment to see if he would. "Alright, now that you won't," he hated being interrupted, "the place they do not check is the students' pockets of space." Now when Ryu had said that, Tranir got that look of 'oh yeah'.

"Ok I shall speak with Takil. But don't think that this excuses your behavior over the summer." He said looking at Ryu sternly, and then he chuckled. "I still can't believe that you threw that pile of dung over Brandon. Isn't he one of your best friends?"

"Yes and that was an accident." The small dragon corrected.

He raised an eye ridge, "Oh, and what about the time that you caused a tree to fall on him?"

"Brandon was asking for it, he being a royal ass that time." Ryukan whined.

"And that is another thing, your language. You know that I don't tolerate it. Now drop and give me fifty." He said pointing to the ground at Ryu's feet. The adolescent groaned and dropped to give him the push-ups.

When Ryu stood again he said, "You may want to take this with you." he reached into his bag and drug out the pound of Draconisean. The surprise on his face was quite obvious as he saw how much it was. Handing it to him, the young drake left to the main chamber and continued eating his first meal for the day.

Father came in at the same time as Takil and they both sat down at the stone meal slab in the middle of the main cavern. "Takil, I am going to need to speak with you about this Draconisean later on," Father said before either of them took a bite. Takil looked at him, then at Ryu with disgust, hiding that he already knew he was going to tell and then tore into his meal trying to finish it as fast as he could.