FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

woo! i'm not dead!

after a long hiatus to finish college (i now have a real-life BA in English from Reed College), i am back! i haven't written any stories for a year almost, nothing. it took a long time to get back into it. my summer started a month ago, and i only have one short chapter to show for it! well, i was visiting Neon for two weeks there...

this is part one of the second "past" chapter. i'll be writing more, and eventually, all the parts will be combined into a whole! imagine! ^^ so the title of this chapter is just something i slapped on there. it'll have a real title once the entire chapter is completed. i'll be uploading what i write in small chunks like this.. to show you guys i haven't actually met with an untimely death. = ) enjoy!

there's yiff in this one, Artemis and Demetrius. as usual, the beginning of that section is marked with ---- and the end with ~~~~. a little after that, there's a short and somewhat detailed description of Twi peeing. but i didn't bother to mark it. if you're reading this on yiffstar, i'm taking it you're okay with that kind of widespread bodily function ^_^ it's not sexual at all. at least, i wouldn't say so.

i hope there is at least someone out there who's been waiting patiently and devotedly for me to start writing again = ) ^_~ love you guys!

~~~~

Demetrius's eyes glowed softly, across the room in the shadows. Only half open, watching her. The two Owls sat perched on the rafters above the main room of the house, neatly strewn with low tables and rectangular wooden support pillars. The pale moonlight that crept in through the windows below, falling through floating dustclouds into square boxes on the floor all in a row. The room was overcome with the shade of weary black-blue. Artemis sat looking down at the moonlight squares on the floor through half open eyes, trying to get her eyes to close completely. It was getting too cold to sleep outside in the trees.

It was happening again. She didn't know where to go from here, and life was starting to seem deep and inexplorable. She didn't know how long it was that she sat, but at one point, she decided she wasn't having very much luck perched there by herself when she could feel her heart beating so hard and her mind racing so fast. She flew across half the room to the beam Demetrius was on and perched next to him, facing the same way. Was he asleep...? His closed eyes, gentle, easy breathing... No; he opened one eye to look over at her, then closed it again.

"Are you having trouble sleeping?" he asked her matter-of-factly.

"Yea," Artemis said, facing forward, head rested in breast, her eyes closed now. "Too much moonlight."

"Now why would I have trouble believing that?" Demetrius returned, perched in the same position as his mate, smiling a little.

Artemis smiled a little too.

"You lied to her," said Demetrius.

"Not really."

"It is, at least, what is bothering you, however," he corrected her.

"...Yea, Dem. It is." She looked at him.

"There was no way around it," he told her, his whisper as cold and as beautiful as the feeling of night surrounding them, the early winter wind in the rafters.

Artemis shivered. "She would have died, Dem, she would have."

"It is alright. You were there for her."

Artemis looked away. "That's not what I mean at all... If I hadn't found her out there... There was always a chance I wasn't going to... Then I lied to her, Dem! The poor, suffering girl!"

"You did what you did because you had to."

"I did what I did because I was told to."

Demetrius opened his eyes. "There is no way for you to tell me now that you did not understand the reason for this all along."

Artemis sobbed once softly and choked on her tears. "...That doesn't mean it didn't hurt when I really had to do it."

Demetrius had curved his wing around his mate's shoulders, his eyes open again, his icy gaze directed across the room into the shadows, into nothing. His eyes never comforted. It was as if he were keeping vigil, looking out there for something to protect her against. Artemis let herself go into the silence of his embrace.

Five, maybe ten minutes passed that way until Artemis started to sob a little less. Suddenly and defiantly, she took the tears from her eyes with her left wing and turned to her right, looking up to Demetrius, into his brilliant blue eyes, she leaned hard into the softness of his silver. He was... a moonlight cape; he turned to her and brought his right wing around her too. Lost in him again, she closed her eyes and quivered.

"...Are you alright now?" he asked her after a long time.

"Y... yea... I..." She licked his breast, and his breath caught. He let out a long, easy coo.

"Then..." He looked up at the ceiling and blushed. "...The natural reaction, I suppose."

She buried herself in him again, further. "How can you teach me so much yet still be here for me? There can't be much more. There's already been so much that I-"

"I will not let you go until you're ready. You know that." He looked straight ahead again into the centerless darkness.

Artemis stood up and looked into his eyes now, interrupting his gaze, almost fiercely. She turned her head down and nuzzled his neck, slowly. "I want to mate."

"Yes, I know. Go."

They flew down and swept out, against the wind, into the black night.

The moons are truly the most beautiful things that can be beheld. When the night sky is dark, truly dark, and there are few clouds passing overhead; on cold nights in early winter, nights when the air is heavy with moisture, when the smell of all the surrounding gloom is clean and fresh and empty; when the moons nearly straight above your head are clear and bright, then that is rarity.

There is a simplicity to the moons, yet if you listen to them for long enough, there is the quietest song, and when all the feelings inside come to the surface, then one realizes the night's complexity. Artemis and Demetrius met on that kind of night in late autumn, lonely and unforgiven, both flying away from their own families.

They found each other because they had chosen the same night to fly away, only that. They met by chance in a dark forest, having chosen the same tree to rest in. There had been something special in that night, something real and solid and potent. They could feel love's dark flower blooming.

Tonight, the two Owls flew together, side by side, through beams of moonlight over the land. They'd cleared the town long ago, now they were passing over the low hills leading up to the mountains west of Obb, alongside the mountain range where the river had its fount, going north now. The air smelled of that new water: fresh, empty.

Artemis shivered but kept flying--kept flying in formation with him, in mirror to him, continually trying to match his grace. One moon was directly overhead now, the other close at its tail to its right. The more distant stars shimmered to bathe in their glow. An oil painting with the two Owls flying into the sky just off center: the night held that kind of stillness, that kind of mysterious but insistant importance. They danced in the air. They spiraled around each other, knowing each other's movements, feeling their needs swell. Showing each other, proudly, how they needed not be pressed together to achieve closeness of mind.

---

At last, they would meet in a heavy Pine above the hard-flowing river. When she couldn't stand it anymore, breathing heavily, Artemis landed first, hooting twice to signal exactly where she sat. Her breast swelled heavily, and she looked for him. She couldn't find him, couldn't see him, but she knew he was coming. She turned away, towards the trunk of the tree, and bent over, preparing herself for the jolt.

Then hard, insistantly, yet tenderly, he landed on her, his talons digging sweetly into her lower back. She looked up at him and hooted loudly and jarringly in need, then she lifted up her tail and revealed her down. He smiled down at her, positioning himself, walking on her back and turning a little. Godesses, he was hot... in every way. Artemis could feel her cloaca winking fast. She breathed hard, wet.

Demetrius lifted his tail high in pride of her. Then he risked falling off by leaning forward to bite her neck in affection. He almost did, but he walked back into place. The night's warm air soothed them both, played with their down. No other birds around for kilometers; no other animals awake at this time of night. He took two small steps backwards, gingerly, and she leaned forward more to make her back flatter, to accomodate him. He'd trained her so well... or was this instinct?

Artemis gasped as he slid his tail down over hers. She fluttered a bit, let out a small moan. He was warm, soft, gentle, cushy. This was such a sensitive, vulnerable part of him, the part his modesty, his sense of dignity would always make him guard from prying eyes. He panted and wriggled a bit back there, bending down, trying to get low enough. His vent ached, was hot, was so swollen. He would kiss her, tail to tail, and let his watery seed flow into her. He wriggled again, flushing, frustrated. Down a little more... wriggle... She lifted her tail up higher.

Then he felt it! But it slipped away from him. Oh, Goddesses, he had felt it. Every time, every single time, so slick, so mushy, her down-feathers so tickly. His face turned red. He lifted his wings and wriggled his behind, searching again. Oh! Yes! There! She jumped in ecstacy. Cooed... Their cloacae pulsing against each other, pushing against each other. Hers winking so fast, so slick with her juice, his rubbing, sliding all around. A special kiss for lovers with beaks.

He rubbed, he held back. Cooing quickly, a little bit of seed escaping, then the huge, warm torrent everywhere inside her. As he began his ejaculation, she came violently, shivering, hooting uncontrollably, her wings fluttering. He almost fell off before he'd finished delivering. In bliss, he just reacted, flapping his wings too to stay balanced, gripping her back.

When he was done, he flew away into the night. She didn't know where he was going, but that was normal. He blended with the latter silver moon. She collapsed on the branch, the luxuriously wide branch, a ruffled heap of feathers, crying softly because she knew she couldn't concieve for him.

~~~~

The sound of the birds woke Twilight up, the chirping just before dawn. She didn't open her eyes at first, hardly believing she would be in the same place she remembered from last night, but the futon felt warm all around her. Her forehead didn't hurt at all anymore--or at least, it had lessed to a dull, itchy ache. And there was no more fever. She was thirsty, her throat was painfully dry, she she needed to piss.

She messily threw the cover of the futon aside and climbed to her feet. She staggered. Maybe she really hadn't used her legs in a long time. She was suddenly really dizzy as all the blood rushed down to her legs, but she stood still and was alright after a second. She screwed her face up. She really needed to go. ...Finally not dizzy anymore. And it seemed like her legs would cooperate. She blinked, and her eyes finally finished adjusting to the dull grey in the room. It felt warm somehow. She made her way to the paper-screen door and slid it aside.

Now that was disorienting. A wooden wall stood right in front of her, and she could make out one to her right too: the edges of the structure. She'd gotten the feeling she was in some kind of central room. To her left was the end of the short hallway she was standing in, which opened, she found out, into a long, tall room that must have been the main room of the house. The prize was right ahead of her: the front door. She made her way, rubbing the sand from her eyes and not bothering to look around too much, through a maze of various low tables, across the room, stumbling a few times, her eyes fixed on the front door. She was clearly not as awake as the thought she was.

Finally successful, she slid open the wooden door, disregarded the scenery, and ran around the long way to the back of the long house following the covered (not enclosed) wooden porch. Out from the back of the house spread a gigantic field into the distance as far as the eye could see. The porch had no front covering below it here, just support beams every so often. She picked a spot not too far from the corner; crouched, holding onto the floor of the porch; spread her legs; raised her tail; and had a nice, long pee, listening to it splatter on the dirt and leaves under the porch.

She sighed loudly with relief and ended up making a big puddle. Ooh, that was really good to let out. Hot too. She stood back up when she was done, smiled, scratched all over between her legs cuz she itched there now, raking her claws up and down her thighs then rubbing hard right in between her legs and up towards her tummy a little.

"Ooh," she smiled, and, a little more awake now, she climbed up on the porch. "Now for some water." She looked around for a stream or a lake or a well or something, but there was nothing for a little ways around. She could smell a big body of water, but that wasn't the point. She decided she would walk around the house and take a look; if she couldn't find anything, she'd have to ask Artemis or... what was the other one's name? ...Demetrius. She stood up slowly, sighed, and finally took a look around, putting her thirst aside for the moment.

She was in a truly beautiful area: partly wooded, partly grassland. That dark kind of beauty that was only truly special after sunset and before sunrise. The first sun was going to rise to her left, so she must have been at the south end of the house now. This house faced north: clearly the best direction for a house to face. Sunlight and warmth all day long, at least three seasons out of the year, yet there would always be a place you could escape to if you needed dark. And at night, you'd be able to see the moonlight from whichever window you looked. Her tent back in the village had faced north too. Though the sun didn't have quite the same effect there as it did on a house... well, she supposed that's what she was used to and therefore what made her most comfortable. Was that an odd thing to remember the village by?

Without realizing it, she was walking slowly along the porch towards the rising daylight. The sun wasn't above the hills yet, so it was that cool time in early morning when one part of the sky is clearly day and the other is still night. Dew hung in the air all around, and the air felt very wet here. She was in the center of the continent, supposedly, but this was nothing like where she was supposed to have been born. She realized just then that she still felt like she was walking along that path, still out of place.

This house... maybe was the biggest structure she'd ever seen before, certainly the largest one she'd ever been in. It didn't really surprise her, though. She turned to her left and up at it, and she backed up a little on the porch to try and discern how tall it was. About four times her height. The roof was highly slanted and covered in longish, blue, ceramic shingles. She figured it rained a lot here. Hadn't Demetrius called it the "rainy season" last night? Was that supposed to mean winter? Didn't it snow here?

A slow, short gust came up, chill under her tail. Out over the fields into the distance was grey fog like nothing she'd seen before. Behind the house, the wilderness went on forever. She wondered if she'd really come across all that. That same feeling from last night... here it was again. Was this a dream too? She shivered, hung her head, and stopped thinking about it. Wherever this was, it felt better than that cold, open, endless path and the same forests and hills over and over. The cold, grey days where no life chirruped in the trees or scattered across the ground. She had to admit that she felt warmer here than there. The birds kept chirping loudly, gladly.

She even smiled a little, but she gulped and felt the pain in her throat again. She had to get some water. She turned the corner and grinned self-chastisingly. There was a well there, a stone well, covered by a little wooden roof, with its bucket and crank on the side. She put aside the chastisement and just grinned. She ran up to it, let the bucket down and heard the satisfying splash of fresh water after a second. Back up the bucket came, and she had her fill, greedily tilting the whole wooden bucket into her face and getting about a quarter of the water that was in there while the rest splashed to the ground and ran down her body. It was delicious water. Cold as midnight and deep in flavor. She let go of the bucket, it swung back into place, and she looked up at the world again with new vigor.

Dawn was turning into morning. She decided to have one final look around the house before she'd go back in and pretend to have been sleeping for the Owls' sake. There was nothing much on the east side, though, so she walked around to the north, back where she'd come out. What had been all wooden wall before on the side of the house was now windows and sliding doorways. The whole length of the front of the building was covered with them. She counted seven different doors--the one she'd come out of was the second from the farthest away--and two windows between each.

Columns supported the porch awning here every so often, and it created a very silent, peaceful effect. It was like a long hallway, the front porch there, all the way to the corner of the structure. She blinked and smiled. Things here were arranged nicely, built nicely. It felt good. ...The peace of the early morning was all, when there's no one awake yet, when the birds are your only companions. She vaguely remembered killing one when she was back on the road.

Out from the building was a dirt pathway towards a town in the distance. She guessed it was a kilometer or a kilometer and a half away: far enough to feel separated from this place, close enough to be a significant part of the landscape. Trees lined the path on both sides for a ways, sparcely here, close to the path, but more densely farther out. They were so tall and had such lush green bulk even in this time of year.

Increasing numbers of chirrups kept coming out from them, and Twilight smirked to herself. "This is starting to get a little annoying." She blinked again, her eyelids feeling now much heavier than they had a few minutes ago. She smiled, her body satisfied now, and told herself gently, "oh well, maybe I'll get a few more hours of sleep." Second door from the last, a big wooden one. The maze of low tables that she found much more visible now. She found her way back to her room without much problem, went straight for the futon, covered herself, curled up, and snored quietly.

About a half an hour later, the shouji to Twi's room slid aside. Artemis glanced at Twi sleeping there on the ground, curled up in the futon, facing away from the Owl, with the impression of her body very clear in the blanket. The way her stubby little tail raised itself to the rest of the room behind her. Artemis caught herself staring after a second and had to admit to having a couple thoughts about her, but that was over after a second too.

The Owl looked away towards the wall, blushing slightly. This Yoshi was attractive, yea, but Demetrius had satisfied her earlier, she chastised herself. Hadn't he satisfied her? Oh, yes, there was no question about that. She went to sit down in her corner of the room, the one to her left along the paper screen wall, and found a small shadow to sit in, only that of the crossbars over the high window opposite her. Geez, you could really hear the birds chirping in here.

She guessed she just needed to be away from him for a while. Or... maybe that wasn't true. She didn't know where he was right now, anyway. Maybe just alone. Being close to someone felt good, but there was a way being empty felt good too, when you were able to have your own space. His plumage was so warm, maybe it was a bit stifling. She looked down. No... it wasn't that. How could she think that about him? She didn't know. Just looking for someone to blame this on, this empty feeling she couldn't understand yet.

When she and he had come together, there had been so much passion between them, instantly. Desperate nuzzles and exploring. So dark, so good. And that wasn't gone now, just waning, or... not even that. They'd gotten used to each other. Those things had become a matter of course. Artemis looked to the side at the wall again, blushing in shame. Did that mean she didn't ever love him or that she'd stopped now? Or how did that fit in if she still did love him?

On one level, it was so clear to her that she hated him. Pompous about everything yet so obviously immature. The product of good breeding, a prince's breeding. Seeing fit to direct everyone around him, to teach them what he knew. And he was smart, oh, Godesses, yes, insanely intelligent and intuitive, and so gentle sometimes. But he could also get so annoying, that fucker. Yea, it was so obvious she loved him. She wanted to be with him so much, yet she was so much her own person too. How did that fit together when he didn't fit with her? When he wasn't the same as her.

She was a child too. One of the things she remembered most clearly from Twi's "dream" was telling Twi "maybe she was just immature," how the Yoshi had reacted. That angry blush, that sudden hatred, that soothing passion that came out of it. That had made Twi want to mate with her. Well, maybe mate wasn't the proper term. What was it that two people who weren't mates did together, when two really good friends had sex? Then again... no, that was more stupid than her being upset about Demetrius.

The light coming in from the window was wonderful, soothing. Getting on towards morning now. The first sun was just about up, she guessed. The still grey sky outside was starting to have that warmth to it. She stared at it for about five minutes without moving or realizing it. Then Twi snorted in her sleep and rolled over violently.

"Hmph," Artemis said to herself, smiling to look into the Yoshi's gentle face, "...bad dream, maybe." She looked from the comfortable-looking Twilight to the uncertainty of the grey, now grey-pink sky outside the window. The sun wasn't sure if it wanted to rise. A calm world, just the sounds of the morning birds chirping in dissociated chorus. "I've forgotten what I want from him," she whispered to herself. "Is this what happens when you fall out of love? I don't want it to be."