FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Shouyousei sighed as she shouldered through the front door of the nearest bar she could find. She'd just finished the weekend's performance and there wasn't a deeper thought on her mind than enjoying a drink and maybe flirting with a cute guy or two before going home to collapse. Performing always took it out of her, the rushed mixture of anxiety at pressure to perform and elation with the crowds applause burned her out just as much as the physical demands, but she had enough energy to stride into a bar with movement in her steps.

She wasn't a supermodel, but she cut a good enough figure that more than a few men- and perhaps a few women- tracked her path as she slid into a bar stool. She couldn't help but smile faintly towards the varnished oak of the bar top in satisfaction as she felt their eyes upon her... she deserved it, at least a little bit. She was of Wolven descent with modest gray fur that paled on her underbelly, accented by a vibrant shock of tangled purple hair. Fresh from the stage, her makeup drew focus towards her most striking feature: her eyes. She had irises the color of the pale dawn sky, but where a normal person's cornea was white, hers were an inky black, a trait much remarked upon that she'd inherited from her mother... it ran in the family, only occuring in the firstborn, if old pictures and paintings of her ancestors were any clue.

The vibrant stage makeup contrasted the casual clothing she wore this night; simple blue jeans and a bright blue tank top that let her enjoy the first sharp breezes of autumn's promised chill. Her feet, amusingly enough, were bare; not an uncommon choice, especially as the pavement no longer baked under summer's intense rays. She could easily be called curvy, with a small waist and wide hips that attracted gleaming eyes from the dark.

She had her ID and credit card ready by the time the bartender walked up. He was a rather plain looking tabby, but his sharply pressed uniform helped correct that; the smart, businessman look suited him, despite the fact that he was a bartender. He spoke with an admirably faked Irish accent that was more racist than accurate... which wasn't surprising considering the joint's name.

"Welcome to tha Green Clover, lassie! What can ah do fer ya?"

"I'll have a Long Island Ice, and some gossip if you can give it."

He glanced down the bar; it was late on a Sunday night, only the brave and the stupid were still drinking to ignore the workday looming on the horizon.

"Ah can giv' ya both, 'tis a slow night." He grabbed a few bottles and started mixing her drink... but his skilled hands needed little concentration, so he flashed her a smile and asked the question she'd begged. "Wha' kinda gossip are ya lookin' fer?"

She'd been doing her best to keep a straight face, but she couldn't help giggling into her palm a little. "First, drop the cheesy fake accent, you can't have come from any further east than Chicago, if even that far."

He laughed at that, but tried to hide it in a cough. He spoke again in a pleasantly local baritone... but only after a glance towards a back door fortified him with the knowledge that his boss was absent for now.

"Fine, I was born and raised right here, in the Sangre de Christos, just don't tell my boss... he insists that we use those horrible fake accents. Even made me practice mine till it was flawless."

They shared a knowing smile about the horrors of bad management before Shouyousei answered the question he'd asked.

"I have a few days off, and I'm looking for something out of the ordinary to do. I'm local to the mountains too, but only spent a year in Blackrock. Any local legends worth telling?"

Drink finished, he placed it before her and leaned over the counter to whisper conspiratorially. "You like a good ghost story? Even though it's only September, there's still a few spook crews giving tours of the old downtown district. Even for a town with a lot of history, we get a lot of... unusual incidents... Heck, all the cities in the Enchanted Circle do, even Taos. It's where they coined the name; There've been hauntings, unexplained disappearances, unexplained RE-appearances, odd nightmares that seem to echo through the town... plenty of legends if you've an ear and an interest."

She sipped her drink happily as he spoke, but waved him off easily. "I'm a local to the Circle, my family owns land in the foothills near Red River. While I'm sure that the local myths have their own flavor, they're still Circle Myths."

He grinned toothily despite her rejection. "Well how about a Myth you haven't heard before. You know Wheeler Peak? The dormant volcano? There's a big push in state legislature to declare it off limits to the public on account of it apparently leaking hallucinogenic volcanic gas. More than one hiker's come down off of that mountain rambling about crazy things, insanity that couldn't be possible... except for the fact that their stories all line up, with a single figure in common. Only happens on the West face, too."

Her ears perked up and swiveled towards him to betray her feigned lack of interest. She looked up from beneath fluffy eyelashes and gave a coy smile. "Go on..."

"Well, I wouldn't know much about what they did or didn't actually see... they've claimed some pretty extravagant tales, but most of them talk about a demon, a black snake with eyes like blood and fangs that drip fire. After the first few accounts, there was concern that there was an actual Naga living on the mountain... but that's crazier than the stories they tell! Naga never leave the western deserts... and nobody's turned up any proof. Plenty have gone hiking with camera's, but they never come back with em; seems like every fool wanting to take a photograph trips over things they swore weren't there."

Multiple hikers all hallucinating about the same Naga? That sounded too... perfect... to be a coincidence, too ordered to chalk up to volcanic gas. "Is that all?"

"Nope. Some people even claim to have seen him in town! It was... several years ago, the better part of a decade, but people said they saw a Naga slithering around the outskirts of the city, a black scaled beast that looked like he could eat a man in a single bite. That's why they took the stories seriously at first... but after that night, he vanished. Legend has it that a few crazy locals went looking and actually found a beast. Killed him and buried him on the mountain, but he uses their black witchcraft to haunt us from beyond the grave."

That was oddly detailed to be a legend... and far too recent. A decade was far too short a span of time for a legend to bounce and grow... but, a Naga, outside the deserts? Not a single snake had slid past the border in two thousand years, when they up and suddenly decided to shun the rest of the world and seal themselves off in their sandy haven. Even if it was only a legend... Wheeler Peak was a beautiful mountain, and she'd never hiked up the south face before.

"I'll have to go investigate that a little, see what I can dig up. You free tomorrow?"

"Unfortunately, nope. Have an all day shift scheduled... but you be sure and come back, tell me what you find, alright?"

"Sure thing, sweetheart. So tell me, how's a sharp guy like you end up in a dive like this..."

Their conversation flowed pleasantly, but Shou could hardly pay attention to him as her mind buzzed with the possibilities. Every legend held a grain of truth... what if there was a Naga on the mountain? Even if he'd died years ago, maybe she'd be the lucky hiker to stumble over an odd skeleton... The pragmatist in her scoffed at such nonsense. Naga and witchcraft? A fine thing for legends, but the Naga stayed to themselves and magic wasn't real... but still, it was a beautiful mountain, and she would enjoy a good, carefree hike after a weekend on and off the stage. The night wound on, and when she hit the bottom of her glass, she didn't replace it. The Tabby pulled her tab from her card as she slid out of the stool and stalked towards the nearest bus stop.

Once home, she set up an easel and canvas and grabbed a generous selection of paints. She knew without a doubt that, no matter what she saw, she'd want to paint something once she got home... even if it was nothing more than high noon on the slopes, the pine forests and mountains had a regal beauty that never failed to stimulate her creativity. Her art room was awash in different nature scenes attempting to catch the vivid colors of nature, interspersed with surprisingly colorful depictions of the night life of the city. A fresh canvas... now all she needed was to go and find something worth painting.

Even with her mind made up though, her paw pads itched. She needed to climb, needed to scale the slopes until the world sprawled out beneath her. If she could get above the treeline... supposedly some of the volcanic vents still opened to the air. All she needed to do was step inside and-

Her mind snapped away from the unusually vivid daydream. Spelunking would take a lot more preparation and a backpack of supplies, and she intended to travel light. Something called to her... it was a siren song she knew well, the call of something that needed to be painted. A cliff that needed climbing, a stream that needed fording... she itched with the need to put her pads in the dirt and inhale fresh air untainted by the city, but pacing the night away wouldn't make that happen faster. To quell her eager feet, she packed a decently heavy lunch, with snacks and stashed some bottled water in her backpack before collapsing into bed.

*******

Bright and early the next morning, she zipped out into the crisp autumn air to grab a tour bus towards the slopes. Numerous nature trails sprawled across the foothills of the towering volcano, but she had a specific trail in mind to follow... the trail that she blazed! Stronger than average muscles bunched in her legs as she leapt up the steep gradient; she knew she needed to pace herself, but she was so ecstatic to get away from the suffocating city that the crisp mountain air was borderline euphoric. She kept her manic dash only as far as she needed to lose sight of the parking lot though... this was a monster of a mountain, and she'd packed a lunch in expectation for an equally monstrous day.

She didn't find any snakes larger than the local wildlife, and she failed to have any volcanic gas induced hallucinations by lunchtime. Worse still, the beautiful day had turned overcast, and while a reprieve from the sun's warmth was welcomed, the burgeoning clouds threatened rain with the far-off echo of thunder. She didn't want to climb any higher, but neither did she want to descend before lunch time. She stumbled upon an outcropping of rock just as the first few drops started to fall, so she took it as a blessing of luck and took shelter from the rain. As the trickle increased to a deluge, she sighed and shouldered off her backpack; may as well have lunch while she waited.

As luck would have it, her spontaneous shelter provided an excellent view of the city below, a view that only got more beautiful as the rain intensified. Sharp lines and bulding blocks became muted, blurred by the water between them, until all she could see were the lights of the city that flickered as droplets passed between them.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

A squeal of surprise jumped from her throat as she snapper her head right towards the voice. Her lips parted to chastise the hiker who'd snuck up on her, but the rebuke died in her throat when she saw nothing there. Come to think of it... she couldn't remember hearing a voice at all. It sounded like a voice, made words like one, but she didn't remember physically hearing it... only hearing the words, if that made any sense. A gust of wind pulled her empty sandwich wrapper from her hand, which earned another sharp frown from her. She wasn't a litter bug... and she wasn't done with her sandwich either... or was she? She didn't recall finishing it, but it wasn't on the ground, and it clearly wasn't in the now-flattened and rain-sodden wrapper. Her sweeping field of vision passed over crevasse in the rocks behind her until she did a sharp double take. The inky black of what she'd assumed to be a shallow depression apparently extended far deeper... it had to, because she saw a light far back, buried in the mountains depths. This mountain had been famous for its caves... famous for their death toll. It was a labyrinth of interconnected natural tunnels and abandoned mine shafts that had claimed the lives of multiple spelunkers who got lost in the mix. But... at the same time, weird things were happening, exactly the kind of thing she'd come up here searching for. Disembodied voices? Lights deep in the cave? Granted, it looked manmade, like a flash light, but still, what were the odds of running into another hiker up here?

Standing before the entrance to the cave, Shou was wracked by indecision. Here was something that people told stories about, here was something special. It would be wrong for her to walk away without at least looking around. Curiosity had always been her strong suit though, so she stepped a little closer. Her nose scrunched just slightly as she peered inside. She bit her bottom lip and fidgeted a little, then took another step. As the muted, rain-clogged sunlight was swallowed by the mouth of the cave, she walked forwards with a mumbled "To Hell with it."

What little light leaked in from the sun quickly vanished, but she boldly continued forwards. She made out a faint glow ahead of her, but it seemed to be at the end of a long and dark tunnel, for the space in between was black as pitch. She could feel the weight of the rock pressing above her, but more than that, she felt an odd draft and a brush of wind that indicated other tunnels intersected the one she was in. The thought of being lost down here was horrifying, but as long as she walked in a straight line, she could hardly get lost... she still saw the light ahead of her, and the exit behind.

She continued forwards, and about halfway down the tunnel, she saw that the glow was indeed manmade light bouncing off of a far wall. Somewhere in the distance, she thought she could hear the faint sound of scales scraping over stone, and a soft laugh echoed off of the walls. The sound seemed to come from multiple directions at once, and the barely registered vibration sent a cold spike of adrenaline down her spine. She fought down the urge to panic... As she continued forwards, the air got thicker, and a strange smell permeated the area. It was dry, and smelled something like old bones left in the desert. Dry and sandy, with just the slightest undertone of stagnant death. Even though the cave was dry and remarkably warm for the storm that raged outside, she shivered. Her fur stood on end from nothing more than every beast's primal fear of the dark, and though she tried to reassure herself, she couldn't help but think that absolutely anything could be hiding, watching her.

Her eyes drifted first left, then right. She paused as her ears pricked forward further, trying to catch the sounds that were teasing the edge of her senses. The laugh, the scales, it was enough to drive her to move forward more quickly. She was halfway down the "tunnel" by this point, so she pressed onwards despite the uneasy feeling that had settled in her gut.

"Hello!"

"Hello! Hello! Hello... Hello... hello... "

The sound of her voice was foreign, trembling just the slightest bit to her ears. It echoed off the stone walls, bouncing around twists and curves until it was thrown back at her. Another soft laugh whispered through her hearing, and she heard the sound of scraping again, louder and closer this time. It caused her to draw in a deep breath, and move faster, nearly a jog now as she tried to eat up the distance. An almost feline sense of curiosity pressing her to see what made the noises even as a touch of fear told her to run away.

A breath of air tickled the hair on the back of her neck, and she spun around. She could still see the daylight, nothing more than a tiny dot by now, but she was still far enough from the lantern that the area was pitch black. She started to reach forwards, feeling the air before she stopped herself; if she touched something, something that wasn't the stone wall... she swallowed, and turned, all but sprinting towards the flickering light cast around the corner. Behind her, the darkness shifted, briefly obscuring the entrance as it took a slightly pensive posture. A sharp hiss slid through the cave in a warbling flow that cascaded like a waterfall of sand... Had she not been bolting for the safety of light, she might have noticed that it seemed detailed enough that it might constitute a language made entirely of hissed vowels and slurs.

*Different? What do you mean she's different?*

Pale silver eyes peered at the fleeing figure. His night vision was mediocre at best, but the silhouette of her heat was detailed enough for him to watch her legs work as she ran. A soft scrape of scales over stone, muted to silence this time, and he followed her.

Finally, Shou stepped from the absolute darkness into harsh white light. The tunnel ahead twisted a bit more, but it could not be far, for the light was good enough to make out something of the walls. The cave was made from dull granite, shot through with patches and veins of gleaming obsidian. She idly noted that they looked oddly smooth, as is something had sanded them down.

She walked around the slight bend and finally made it to the blessed, light giving lantern, yet, even as she beheld it, he heart sank. There was a battery powered lantern resting on the floor, casting cheery white light in a full circle that wonderfully illuminated the back wall; the tunnel was a dead end. That meant that the lantern was planted there specifically as bait. That meant that...

"Hello, my sssssweet."

A soft voice like the rasp of sandpaper over wood came from behind her, startling another shriek out of her as she spun around and backed up to the wall. His low voice slurred the softer sounds together, dragging his S's on for far longer than he should have. The turns in the tunnel separated her from whatever had spoken, but she knew it was there. Someone... or something... had deliberately baited her into this dead end, and now it was between her and the exit. He chuckled, a low throaty sound filled with power and intimidation, and though his voice echoed behind him, it rang clear across the scant yards that separated them.

"Do come sssay hello. I don't bite... much..."

She started a strangled noise that could have been a whimper of anxiety, but swallowed it before it got past her throat. Blue eyes widened and darted about, searching for the source of that voice, for surely he was near. The shadows and the turns kept him from view, and she felt her heart thudding in her throat.

"I... I already said hello. It's rude to hide from visitors..." Her voice trembled, but gained strength as she took a step towards the bend, lips curled in a pouting frown.

"Indeed, you did... but jusst as it'sssss rude for me to hide, it'sss rude for you to walk in... unannounced... but I ate well yessterday, and you were kind enough to bring me a sssnack. sso I am in a merciful mood. I will forgive your... transsgresssion. Take that light from the floor behind you; my halls are dark, and dangerousss to those who do not know them... I've found many ssskeletonss while... cleaning out the cobwebssss..."

Her lips curled into a deeper pout, and her cheeks colored despite herself; the blush added more color beneath the gray fur on her cheeks, even as her ears flattened themselves against her skull.

"I didn't know it was someone's home... I apologize."

"An... apology? No shrieks of fear, nor promissesss of... violenssssse? But you know me not... unlessss he is proven right, your tone will change... usually I am met with shoutss of 'Demon' and 'Monsster.' Step forwards. I'm just around the bend... I'd like to see whose foot-sstepsss echo in my domain."

Inclining her head just so, she bit her lip. She glanced away from the bend to the lantern behind her. Careful steps brought her to it, and the simple act of claiming the light, lifting it high, bolstered her shaky spirits. Hope and fear warred with each other as she smiled to herself. Emboldened by the light, she started forwards.

"Everyone is a demon or a monster to someone else..."

She'd spoken in little more than a murmur, but she heard something... hiss? In surprise? In dissatisfaction? With hesitant, almost shy steps, she walked forwards, holding the light out ahead of her to light her path. He saw her before she saw him, and though he was no judge of bipedal beauty, he did admit that there was a pleasing aesthetic about her. The shock of purple hair atop her head added much needed color to her frame, and her comfortable hiking clothes hugged her curves close; she wore ratty, blue jean cut-off shorts that left little of her legs to the imagination, and what might have once been a white shirt was stained in patchwork glory with paint stains. Her feet, amusingly enough, were bare, easily traversing rock that had been sanded smooth.

He watched her walk forwards and cocked his head to the side, examining her curvaceous form. He'd never thought of any mammal as attractive before, but he had to admit it; even for a creature with fur instead of scales, she had a striking figure that was pleasing to the eye... though he received a mental kick in the skull for paying too much attention to her breasts.

"That'ssssss far enough... for now..."

She stopped at the sound of his voice. As she stood, she shifted her weight to one leg, adopting a cocky smile, as if she knew he was watching. Her clothes did indeed cling to her, her shirt tight against her breasts. Full and curved, her tummy was thin, but not flat; There was a tiny feminine softness to it. Her legs were lithe and strong, from running? Spending time out of doors, for certain. He observed what was clearly an arrogant pose and he laughed. It lacked the malice and contempt of the earlier laugh, and it was much less threatening... he hissed slowly, with inent and purpose, but like his laugh, it lacked anything she'd label as a negative emotion... it almost sounded amused, as if he was talking to someone.

*You're right, old friend. She -is- different. Scaring her off would be a waste of good company.*

He slithered forwards slowly, keeping low to the ground as he moved forwards into the edges of the white light. At first, it looked like a lump of darkness had detached from the shadows of the cave and come creeping towards her, but as he moved forwards, the slithering silhouette resolved into the form of a black Naga. His scales gleamed like the veins of obsidian in the walls, darkly subtle with the occasional gleam as light splashed over him. He stopped several feet from her, letting the back of his body remain out of sight. He was close enough that the lantern cast ample light over his features, but far enough away as to keep from threatening her.

Shou's eyes widened as a monster straight from her bedtime stories slithered right out of the past and into the ring of light cast by her lantern. She lifted the light higher, trying to cast a little more illumination over his gleaming scales. Her breath caught in her throat as she stared, not entirely sure she believed it. Never before had she seen an actual live Naga, much less been so close to one. They were a race shrouded in mystery... some stories cast them as barbaric savages that devoured their own young, whilst others painted them as an oasis of lost knowledge and culture, a race capable of using magic that defied science... as a girl, she'd always wanted to believe in magic, always wanted the world to have some mystery to it, and though the beast before her had yet to do anything out of the ordinary, just seeing him rekindled the spark of belief in her. Her stare was like a physical thing, raking over his features, and along his form as she hesitated, muttering under her breath as she did.

"Brilliant... absolutely brilliant..."

She stared at him, drinking in the details to memorize as much as she could for when she painted him later... until his voice interrupted her studious reverie.

"Hello... my name is Kha-yeh-show-dha-ez-den-sss-CORE-pent. Wel-come to my lair..."

From the shoulders up, he looked like many of the other reptilians in the world. Claws, scales, and sharp teeth, though his face was more slanted, more feral than most lizards, and a flash of fangs behind his smile threatened more than hint of danger. That was where the similarities stopped. Everything below his shoulders was all snake; His body remained the exact width of his ribcage for all of the sinuous length that she could see. As he watched her eyes travel down his body again, he shifted to drag his bulk forwards and coil comfortably before her. His body ended with a few yards of thin, almost whip-like tail. When he spoke now, his voice seemed... different, in some ephemeral way. He still spoke slowly, still rasped like gravel on sand, still slurred the softer syllables together... but now she knew that the slow speech was to carefully form his words, rasped on a voice that saw little use, slurred through a mouth that simply wasn't shaped for the common, "civilized" language. He spoke every word slowly, carefully, as if fully considering its weight before releasing it to the air. Yet, even with his careful cadence, his voice had a marked accent that spoke of a lifetime speaking a different language. She blushed again and grinned faintly, dimples made obvious in her smile.

"Hello, I'm Shouyousei Murasaki, but you can call me Shou - it's easier for most."

Khaesho had been resting with his head propped up on his elbows, leaning on his own coils as a cushion.. The few people he'd encountered told him that he looked ominous and threatening when he loomed to his full height, which was far from his intention right now... not only that, but he liked to view the world from the ground up. It gave him a unique perspective on that most people, looking across or down, simply lacked. Here specifically, it gave him a... unique... view of the wolf. She was busty viewed straight on, from below, it made her curves even more pronounced. Seeing as this was the first polite visitor he'd had in ages though, he made some effort to make himself look presentable. Now that they'd had an informal introduction, he rose up out of his tight coil until he was upright with his head at exactly eye level with his guest. A small grin tweaked Shou's lips as she watched his muscles flex beneath taut skin. She inclined her head some to him and he nodded back as he made an attempt at her name. He pronounced it slowly, savoring it as it rolled off of his tongue. Each individual syllable dripped from his bifurcated tongue like a single drop of fresh rain, and he held on to the sound as if tasting milk sweetened further by honey.

"Show-yo-say... Mu-ra-sa-ki..."

He fell silent a moment before nodding, as if deciding something. When he resumed speaking, his voice remained soft and slow, with just a hint of a hiss on each S to add a flavor of danger to his words.

"Shou... if my name is too much of a mouthful you may call me 'Khaesho'... or Kesh, if you ab-so-lute-ly musst."

"Oh! Well, Kay, it is a pleasure to meet you!"

Dimples came into view again as she grinned, inclining her head slightly to him. Her cheerful, fearless attitude intrigued him, and he flicked his tongue in rapid bursts, tasting the air and examining her scent. She was nervous, yes, but she lacked the mind-consuming fear that had driven everyone else to either run for their lives or try to kill him. He decided then that he liked her.

"Would you like to come deeper into my home? The entryway is no place to... entertain visitorss."

"Oh, yes please! I'm... well... I'm curious." She sounded sheepish and shy, and she blushed a bit, adding a soft flush to her cheeks beneath the fur. Curiosity was what had driven her into his home in the first place, and there was no point in backing out now, not when the local myth had invited her in. He leaned forwards, extending one viciously clawed hand.

"Then come closser. These caves are more akin to a labyrinth than anything elsse, and I wouldn't want for you to get... lossst."

As the light shone more brightly against him, she saw finer details. His scales are edged in a hair thin line of dusky blue, which helps lend the black an odd, almost iridescent look to it when viewed from afar. He grins as he offers her his hand, and though his face looks happy, his eyes send a slight shiver running down her spine. Something lurked within his mercurial silver eyes, something that danced just on the edges of his emotions. Try as she might, she couldn't quite put a name to it... It wasn't anger... nor was it any sort of malice or disdain... but there was a predatory gleam to it, and a certain madness... just a hint of insanity... She stared deeper, trying to put a name to it, trying to decide why his eyes moved so, until she realized that his arm was around her; she was staring directly into his scaled face, and she could see his fangs flash when he opened his mouth.

"You shouldn't look a Snake in the eyes... My kind can be quite... mesmerizing... to yoursss. Remember that."

He smiled again, and though he retained the predatory gleam, his eyes were no longer moving; they'd lost that sliver of motion that made the patterns dance. She hadn't realized that she'd gotten so close, and his arm around her made her blush crimson.

"S-sorry... it's just... so pretty..."

"You need not apologize... I jusst felt it fair to warn you. Look deep enough, and there'sss no telling what you might sssee."

Looking away from him, down to the side, her breath quickened for a moment. Then she glanced back up at him from under her lashes. She hadn't made any attempt to move out of his arms.

"Such fine details... unique... I want to make sure I remember for when I get to my paints..."

She looked into his eyes, but they'd lost the mesmerizing gleam to him. They were still quite wondrous; silver streaks darkening and lightening in chaotic swirls, but they somehow lacked that all-consuming quality they'd had mere moments before. From the smile on his face, she suspected he could hypnotize her at will but simply chose not to. There was a flush on her cheeks, somehow the idea of being easily mesmerized stroking something within her that enjoyed such things. She pushed it aside, and considered if she had dyes of the proper color at home to capture what she wished to capture. If not, well, she'd enjoy trying to make them.

"Come with me then. You may... sstare to your heart'sss con-tent, with far more... com-fort than a ssstone floor."

He twisted the word stare, and though he said one thing, she got the feeling that he might have had something else in mind. Still, if he'd really wanted to eat her, he could have attacked while she was hypnotized; if he had not yet shown any aggression, then surely it was safe to continue deeper.

"O..oh! A-alright..."

Her voice trembled once more as he twisted his word and made her blush a bit deeper. She walked forwards, with his arm around her and his scaled chest pressed against her back, even though she would be all but entirely reliant on him to find her way back out. He kept his arm around her, and guided her back down the tunnel towards daylight. They did not go far before he stopped before what appeared to be a wall just like all the others.

"I... apologize for the tight sssqueeze. I did not pick my home with the com-fort of... visitors in mind..."

She wondered what he meant for a moment before he dropped to the ground and slithered directly into the wall. Peering closer, she saw that what she had assumed was just a darker patch was actually a small tunnel, no more than two feet high and three wide. She would never have noticed it had he not pointed it out, and even looking directly at it, she was hard pressed to see the difference between it and the surrounding stone. His long form vanished with surprising speed into the tunnel, but even so, she marveled at how large he was. he was easily fifteen feet long, perhaps closer to twenty. The last tip of his tail vanished into the tunnel, and a few moments later, his voice issued forth.

"I hope you're not... claussstrophobic. It widens out quite quickly. You need not go far, just a few yards. Then the tunnel widens out like the first one, and you can easily walk the rest of the way."

She dropped to her belly and started to crawl, the lantern in front of her, casting strange shadows as she shifted forwards. Calling out in slightly panting words, "H-hardly, I live for adventures like this!"

When it widened out enough for her to get on all fours, she was moving ahead, then she pushed herself to her feet when she could. Standing - dusty from the crawl, but grinning; her cheeks flushed with excitement. Khaesho watched Shou wriggle through the narrow opening, staring in abject fascination. He had half believed she would make up some excuse and leave, but she had followed him. Not only that, she was grinning ear to ear, and she looked like she was enjoying herself. Khaesho remained on the floor, because it was easier for him to move low to the ground, but he turned over his shoulder and beckoned to her.

"You're ssssertainly a brave one. Come, it isn't much farther."

There was a sheepish look on her face as she chuckled shyly to him, rubbing a hand across the back of her neck as she absently mindedly smeared dust over her nose. A soft chuckle and she nodded a little bit.

"I've been told I'm more foolhardy than brave, but I'll certainly take the compliment."

She followed him deeper into the caves, marveling at the obsidian veining the walls. It was more prevalent here, and she saw more of it as they walked farther into the mountain. Khaesho followed her eyes to the stone, and spoke up.

"Thisss used to be a volcano... once. It hass long sssince been dormant. There issstill magma, far below the earth, accesssible if you know the right pathssss, but we won't be going nearly sso deep."

Now that he mentioned it, Shou became aware of the faintest hints of sulfur and ash in the air. They passed many branching routes as the continued forwards, but Khaesho slid across the smooth stone floor with absolute certainty. Perhaps ten minutes after the crawl space, the tunnel they were in abruptly ended in a large, single room cavern. It was no massive cathedral with an arched roof, but there was more than enough space for Shou to stand without having to worry about hitting her head.

The room was simple, and many things were as she would have expected from such a creature. The walls and ceiling were both bare, there was no furniture of any kind, and there was a certain musk about the room that came with prolonged inhabitation. That all was expected from living in a cave, but there was one thing about his home that she wasn't expecting. The entire floor was covered with animal pelts of all kinds, making a soft, warm rug significantly better than cold stone. He took the lantern from her hand and placed it in a sconce hewn directly from the rock, and from its place there before lowering the harsh glare to a cheery glow.

"Wel-come to 'ThissssSerpent'ssss Den.' Please, do make yoursself... com-for-ta-ble."

He traversed the room, coiling himself into a tight circle. He left plenty of room, so that she could sit as close or as far away as she wanted. Looking at the luxurious, if haphazard, fur rug, Shou couldn't repress a slight wince. She was covered with dust from her crawl through the tunnel, and she gingerly sat down on the very edge of the furs, back to the wall, doing her very best to touch them as little as possible.

"Ah, sorry. I'm going to get your furs all dirty."

Khaesho had misinterpreted both the wince and her positioning, but relaxed a little as she gave an explanation.

"You are worried that you are dirty, after so brief a crawl a-long the ground? Per-hapsss you are, but if you are dirty, then I am filthy. Come closer, and lay down with a sSerpent. The world lookssss... dif-er-ent from down here."

She twitched when he said 'Lay down with me,' blushing a little, but from the casual way he said it, it sounded like he didn't mean anything more by it. She remembered that the Naga spoke a different language out in the deserts, an unusual tongue entirely lacking in hard consonants. That in mind, she felt a little guilt that her first thought was that he spoke in an innuendo. His eyes gleamed with mischief though, and she wondered if he hadn't meant it on purpose after all. He uncoiled himself, sprawling his length over half of the room, and patted an especially fluffy looking fox fur near his head. She huffed, which quickly became a laugh.

"I can't help it. It's impolite to dirty your host's things."

But she got up all the same, and moved closer to him. When he said to lay down, she settled into a sit near the fur he patted. Before she hesitated and then sprawled onto her stomach right nest to him. Arms on the fox fur, and her chin on her arms. Tail swished left, then right over her rump and she blinked bright blue eyes at him. Staring, curious. He looked larger, now that she was on the ground next to him, and the ceiling seemed to vault much higher than it had when she'd stood.

"Different? I guess it does..."

"Try it some time. Next time you go into the forest, pick a sspot, then get on your belly and look upwards. You mentioned being an artisst; ssuch a viewpoint is not normally considered, and it would lend your work a unique... flavor...

"That certainly does sound interesting. I'll try that."

"Now... you sssaw a glimpse of some-thing in my eyes, yess? Would you care... to look... again... "

His voice slowed, ending on a soft, husky note as he pointedly looked anywhere but at her, in an attempt to keep her mind clear, for now at any rate. She leaned in a little closer to him to hear better, keeping her eyes curiously on his face as her ears pricked forward, and she considered what he said.

"I did, I'm certain of it... may I... may I look again?"

She crawled a little closer to him, and licked her bottom lip, only to end up biting it. He closed his eyes before turning towards her again. He cupped her face in his hands and marveled at her fur, and the way it tickled his scales, and she nuzzled into the touch of his hands. She was an affectionate thing - delighting in the touch of another; she was a pack creature, and her own loneliness often worked against her. He exhaled slowly, and spoke once more. His voice, normally slow and carefully considered, became slower still, and his words slurred together slightly as all tension left his face.

"Jusst a warning though... exsactly what you sssee depends on... cir-cum-stan-ces. My emotionss, my... desires. What you ssee now won't be what you saw, then."

"I... I will keep that in mind." She murmured softly, and stared into his eyes when he opened them

With that, he opened his eyes. With mere inches separating them, she felt almost as if she literally fell forwards into his quicksilver stare. she lost herself in pools of liquid moonlight, and as before, she thought she saw traces of emotion. His eyes were chaotically blue and gray at best, but as she watched, the shadows and brightness in his eyes actually moved. Her eyes, wide, and impossibly blue stared back at him. Trying to read the depth, the emotion, trying to see past the shadows and the brightness. They swirled so prettily, and her lips parted in a faint sigh as she leaned in a little bit closer trying to see more.

The shading of his eyes changed in an alluring and captivating dance. Yes... there were strong emotions hidden behind those bottomless wells... nothing like what there had been before. Nothing so dark as anger. Hunger... there was hunger in his eyes, of a power that she would have believed him starved had she not previously noticed the lump in his belly that spoke of just how well he'd fed. Her ears slowly perked up, and her breathing began to come in slightly quicker pants, her face warming for reasons she couldn't quite place. Arms were folded on the furs and she leaned more heavily on them as she pressed towards him, a hairs breath of separation all that kept his face from hers. The colors danced and spun, and she tried to make a meaning from their chaotic patterns. Definitely not hunger for food... but it had the same feel to it. Lost so deep within his mesmerization, she felt her own body starting to react to the hunger he felt. It was a feeling she felt before, she thought... almost like...

The moment was shattered as he abruptly turned away. He was breathing heavily, panting as if he'd run a race, and went so far as to drag several of the nearby furs over his head as he buried himself beneath his their soft comfort. Her abrupt jump from the soft trance she'd been in to harsh reality shocked her like a bucket of ice cold water. Her face flamed, and she leaned back, sheepishly, watching him as he pulled the fur over his head and hid. Pushing herself up to sit, she touched her cheek. Her heart beat out a manic tattoo against her ribs, and it took her a moment to remember how to speak, while he stuttered a halting apology

"O..oh..."

"I'm sorry! So so ssorry! I just... sometimesss... I've been alone in this cave for a long time I... I didn't want to lose control. I don't think I'd have been able to look much longer without... without accidentally... I didn't want to force you into... ssomething you might regret."

His voice was muffled from beneath the pile of furs, and she realized that he hid himself from shame. He'd been close to something... and she'd been close to seeing it... but he'd dragged himself away. She tilted her head, leaned down, and reached out to lift the furs that he was using to cover himself with. Cheeks flushed pink, she murmured softly.

"There is nothing to apologize for. I told you I wanted to look, didn't I? I... I agreed, remembering how... it felt in the entrance."

It was enough to make her blush again, as she tried to peer at him beneath the furs. She lay down in front of him then, and poked her head under the furs to blow a warm breath against his neck.

"As long... as long as you don't... you know... eat me, I.. I'm not opposed to looking..."

He glanced at her sideways with an eye colored so bright that it almost seemed to glow.

"You don't know what you're ssaying. If you look much deeper... I'll fully hypnotize you. I could command you to do anything, abssolutely anything, and you would do it... gladly. More than that, I'd be all but holding your mind in my handsssss... if I make a mistake, I might easily damage your mind, make you forget everything that happened today, this week, this month. Would you really place that much trust in a stranger? In a Monster?"

He wanted her... he wanted to feel her caress, wanted to run his fingers through her fur. More than that, he wanted her to shout his name amidst the throes of passion. He wanted desperately to be loved, to be accepted, and he shivered beneath the furs as he awaited her answer. There was a dark pink to her lips, as she glanced to the side, and murmured shyly.

"I wouldn't... I mean... I wouldn't mind that... s-so much... It's kind of... The thought of that... it's... well... exciting."

There was a tinge of shame to her voice now, as she pulled back and curled up into herself some. Trying to make herself small - which wasn't hard, the wolf girl was only five feet plus change and curvy she may be, but she was a third his size. Eyes focused on the furs down and away, and she bit her bottom lip. She worried it between her teeth until she drew blood, making her wince just slightly. Peering back at him, she noticed the timid way he looked and quirked a smile. A shy murmuring of her own escaped her a moment later.

"I promise, I won't be mad, as long as you don't eat me... Or cause any permanent harm... I'll even come back to visit... t-though forgetting would be... well, quite a shame." She held up one pinky, extended towards him. "A pinky promise is one that you can never break. Ever."

He considered her offered hand before slowly pulling his head out from underneath the furs. He extended the smallest finger on his hand, and wrapped it around hers.

"I ssssswear, I would never intentionally bring you harm. If you meant it when you promise to come back... you can look deeper."

He pulled himself from the pile of fur he'd scraped up, spreading them back more or less evenly on the floor. She lay down beside him again and he brought his face up to hers. His eyes were still closed though, and his lips were moving as if speaking, but not a breath of air escaped. Laying on her stomach, with her upper body supported by her arms, she let out a soft sigh, and tilted her head some. Ears pricked forward and she stared at his face, waiting until he opened his eyes. After visibly steeling himself, he slowly opened his eyes. He kept them downcast for a moment, but even at an angle, she could feel the power inherent in his story eyes. He lifted his up to hers, and if she had fallen forwards before, she was sucked in this time. Down, down... down. Down into those flowing blue and silver pools, deep enough that she almost forgot to breath. Nothing existed but for the shades of color between bright quicksilver and dark oceans. Waves of every color between rose against sweeping tides and fought with each other, colliding and clashing, splitting and merging, mixing the colors in a way that was always different, even if it felt wonderfully familiar. She lay wrapped in soft colors, as he stared deep into her soul.

Within her eyes was blue, blue so bright it could have been polar ice. There were no whites to her eyes, it was dark, pitched black around the edges, lightening into pink at the ducts. It was a unique feature to an already strange wolf girl. Her breathing trembled, and she was certain she had forgotten how to breath, but within her mind - within her soul he could see it. The colors she saw in the world, the beauty in everything. The half finished paintings, and the way that she poured her entire heart into every thing she worked on. The tumidity of her emotions driving her to create, the need to put pen to paper, ink to canvas. The need to experience, to feel, to see... the desire to lose it all, to have that control taken from her, stolen at times, only to be unleashed again. She was a force of nature, to be momentarily contained, but wild in the end. She lived for her rushing blood, and the danger she could get on the edge. That very passion went into her paintings, leaving smears of dye and ink in her fur. Into the glimpses he got of her dancing, pouring her soul into the movements that brought others to tears. Looking through her eyes, he believed her when she thought that he was beautiful. He'd held his own soul slightly more guarded, but at the reveal from this passionate and caring creature, he let his last defenses fall.

His soul lay open to here, and here, the wondrous colors were accompanied by something more... This deep, she could see everything; his mind splayed out against hers, brushing and mixing against her much like the colors did within his eyes. She felt his dreams, his hopes, his fears. He was an exile... cast out by his own for a crime he could not control. He'd wandered east, away from the deserts for years, trying again and again to find a place he might belong, but every single time, he was chased away to the by-now familiar words of "monster" and "Demon." In addition to that, there was a dark corner in his mind, a black void barked only by the blue light leaking past the edges, and from this she felt nothing. She lost interest in the hole, wrapped in compassion and pity for this creature so reviled by all he had met. Every single person... until he met her. His desires were laid bare before her, and what she saw there shocked her a little. She instinctively pulled back, only to find herself held captive within the mercuric oceans. She could not move, could barely even force breath through her lips, and from deep within Khaesho's mind, she looked out through his eyes. He whispered something, something soft and tender, a single outpouring of soul from a lost creature without a friend in the world. Then, he moved his face yet closer still to hers, and kissed her gently on the lips. His forked tongue flickered out of his mouth between her open lips to gently caress her tongue. It was simple, fast, no more than a brief moment, but even so that moment seemed to last forever. She tasted of sweetness, and tea. The flavor faintly mint. She tasted of chilled mint, and something deeper, something softer - a flavor even he didn't have a name for, perhaps the soft taste of the clouds or the bright burble of a stream. As his tongue left hers, he knew he would remember that taste until the day he died.

His soft whisper was met with a strangled whimper from her, and she wanted, needed to kiss him back, but she could not move but for the faintest of breaths. He tasted foreign, alien to anything she knew how to describe. He tasted of sand... not gritty, nor bitter, but he of dry earth and of fierce winds. There was a salty tang that spoke of long days under the desert sun, and a subtle spice, like dried jerky baked long in the unforgiving heat. He held her lips captive but for a second, yet after what seemed like hours lazing in the heat of the desert sun, he pulled away. Then, slowly, he closed his eyes. He took his time closing them, but even so, she was rising too far, too fast. Finally, they slipped all the way shut, and the vast oceans were lost. Cut off from the wonderful world of blue and silver, she saw only blackness, and slipped into a deep sleep...

He could have done anything he wanted to in that moment. He could have twisted her mind to make her his slave. He could have abused her body, and she'd have enjoyed it, and the next morning, her broken soul would have woken up begging for more. Yet... she'd trusted him. She'd trusted him more than he trusted himself, and more than just physical lust, he wanted to be worthy of that trust. She was asleep, and he was exhausted from a long day, yet... she might catch a chill, just splayed out like that. Also, she was warm, and nothing was more important to a Snake than staying warm, but more than anything else, he just longed to touch her, to be near her. Moving carefully so he wouldn't wake her, he lifted her from the ground and slid his coils around her. One, two, five, until she was completely wrapped in his muscular body. He set her head an against his smooth scaled chest and wrapped his arms around her. He was warm, she was safe, and he joined her in deep, dark sleep.