FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I slipped out the hidden door I had found after a thoroughly frustrating search with Kazath's laughter still ringing in my mind. I gave a little smile as I strode down the back alley in my new clothes, armed and dangerous. Staying in the shadows I looked out into the street preparing my next move. Guards patrolled up and down the dusty street, I guessed that this was some sort of desert area by the way most people dressed and this was obviously one of the poorer districts. Grubby children watched from the sides of the streets as the guards moved from home to home and search, for me probably. No one even protested as the guards rummaged through their meager belongings. I turned around sadly and began walking into the maze of back alleys, my eager mood shattered by the sight of those poor broken souls.

"They have suffered so much." Kazath voice sounded anguished.

I understood why, these people had been His and he felt as if he had failed them, after he had been banished it was obvious that his former people had suffered for their faith and there hadn't been a damn thing he could do to help them. I didn't bother to say it wasn't his fault or anything of the sort, we both knew that he wasn't really at fault but that didn't stop the pain he was feeling.

"We'll find some way to help them," I spoke to him determinedly, "we'll give them hope again, then we'll get Lightbringer too."

"I don't doubt that you'll find a way." Kazath smiled sadly.

"We," I said forcefully, "will find a way."

"Yes. We will."

Satisfied that I had at least shaken him out of his melancholy mood for the moment I focused on my surroundings. I was now it appeared in an even worse off place than the one I had just left, the sun didn't penetrate into this area, keeping it perpetually shrouded in shadow. Buildings sagged in disrepair and it almost looked like this place was abandoned. Almost. I glimpsed shadowy faces watching me from the ruins before pulling back out of sight, and occasionally I noticed movement out the corner of my eye. That's when I saw my first non-humans of this world.

My mind froze for an instant upon seeing the four figures standing in the middle of my path, I had seen that there were furs when I experienced Kazath's memories but seeing them for myself was even better. The one on my far left was a male wolf, his fur was dirt streaked and he looked underfed, next to him was a female equine who was nearly as dirty as the wolf although she looked like she had eaten better. The two on the right were a hulking Minotaur and a spider. Each them held a crude weapon in their hand.

I casually walked up in front of the group and gave a little bow.

"You must be the welcoming committee!" My cheerful greeting threw the group off and they glanced at each other uncertainly before refocusing on me.

"You're not supposed to be here." The huge Minotaur rumbled threateningly.

"Why?" My abrupt statement seemed to catch the giant off guard; it didn't appear he was the great thinker of the group.

"Because you aren't like us." The equine stepped forward to assist the Minotaur.

"And by that do you mean because I'm a human, or is it because I'm not dirt-streaked and starving."

All except the equine shifted angrily, I had obviously pricked what pride they had. The equine calmly met my gaze and held it.

"I would leave if I were you, find better lodging somewhere else, I'm sure you can afford it by the look of you. If you stay you're only going to get hurt."

"And maybe I would rather be here."

The equine gave a snort very like the horse she resembled and tossed her head. "We don't even want to be here so why would you?"

"Because here is where people can be helped." We both upped the intensity of our locked gazes, both refusing to break off.

"A self righteous do-gooder?"

I shrugged. "Not so self righteous, but I do want to help you."

The wolf I had noticed before suddenly burst out angrily. "Enough of this stupid banter, lets just take his money and throw him out already."

The equine shot a warning glance at the wolf as I turned my attention to him.

"I'm going to ignore what you said just now because I'm in a generous mood, and I m still trying to make a deal."

"And what puts you in a position to make any deals? There's four of us and only one of you."

I reached inside my shirt and drew out a silver coin, which I flipped to the wolf.

"And now if you'll leave well enough alone we can all just have a pleasant conversation."

The wolf quickly snatched the coin out of the air and clutched it tightly to him. He shot a hateful glance at me but it did shut him up, and I turned my attention back to the equine.

"What it all boils down to is, I need somewhere to stay, and I have money which I am willing to pay. You could try and take it from me by force but that would be...messy. What do you...?" I never got to finish as the mouthy wolf hurled a knife at me.

Time suddenly slowed as I felt Kazath take control of my body, I watched my hand move up and catch the knife out of the air, then spin it back to thud into the ground at the foot of its owner.

"All yours." Kazath released control back to me.

"Thanks for the assist."

The wolf gave a yelp and leapt back as the knife embedded itself a few inches from his foot, stabbing into the ground up to its hilt.

"Like I said, messy."

"All right," the equine's voice gave a little tremor, "I think we can find you a room mister...?"

"Ah how rude of me, my name is Alath Night," I blended my name and Kazath's, "and you would be?"

"My name's Alice, the one who threw the knife at you is Kellen, the big Taurus is Dran, and we call the Arach Ceech, but he doesn't talk."

"Well then, let's go to my room and we can talk more about why I'm here." I motioned for Alice to lead the way.

Alice turned and began walking towards a stand of buildings; her long stride forced me to walk quickly to catch up to her and I noticed that the other three followed from a distance. I took a moment as I walked behind her to admire her body, her hair was chestnut brown but coated in dirt, she was lean but not emaciated and her ass filled her pants nicely. I admired this particular part for a while before looking up and taking stock of my surroundings. The buildings here were fractionally better than the area we had just passed through, but I still didn't see anyone walking the streets, it was an eerie feeling to walk through an empty street like this one, like walking into a ghost town.

"Where is everyone?"

"Asleep probably, we do most of our business during the night so the wealthy citizens don't have to look at us." Alice spat into the dust. "That's why you aren't so welcome here."

"So there are no humans here?"

"There are a few but they mostly keep to themselves, they're a pretty odd bunch too."

"How so?"

"They're always creeping about, having secret meetings with their secret handshakes, that sort of thing." Alice seemed a lot friendlier now that the other three were out of hearing distance but still trailing us. "Well, here we are." She stopped suddenly and I nearly ran into her.

I looked at the building we had stopped and nearly laughed out loud, the building she had taken me to, was a pre-banishment church dedicated to Kazath. The building itself seemed to be in pretty good shape, though the doors had obviously been destroyed a long time ago.

"See you around." Alice turned and began walking back towards her three friends. That's when I began smelling something fishy and I looked at the facts. Fact one, I had come into these peoples territory and intimidated them yet Alice seemed friendly enough on our walk here. Fact two, why would a building in good repair like this be unoccupied, in fact the entire area around the church looked deserted. Fact three, Alice was walking rather quickly away, and not as if she was just eager to meet back up with her little group. I sighed and regarded the church for a moment before walking towards it, I didn't have many options and it seemed I had a long ways to go just to be accepted by this community, let alone topple a god. That's when the sun started to set behind me, plunging the street into further darkness. My day was getting better and better.

I picked my way carefully over the rotten splintered wood of the former door, furthering my suspicions that this was not a good place; I doubted that the residents had left the wood out of any reverence to this building. Inside the church was a mess, cobwebs filled every available corner and crevice like dusty drapes. Skeletons, both human and not, were strewn about all over the place, some obviously fresher than others, one was even slumped over the podium where the priest would have talked to the worshippers, still dressed in robes. I did more picking my way across the rubble strewn floor and stepped up to the skeleton of a reptile at the podium.

"If you're going to do any freaky stuff I'd like to be told in advance please." I waited for a moment for any sort of response. As I waited I noticed the symbol hanging off the dead priest's neck, the symbol of Kazath I presumed. Irresistibly my hand was drawn towards the pendant, rather than fighting the compulsion I just reached out and took the pendant from the skeletons neck. As soon as I had the pendant in my hand the skeleton's head snapped to regard me balefully with red glowing eyes and a skeletal hand clamped around my own. Even though I had mostly expected it, it was still unnerving to feel the cold hand grip my own with the strength of the grave. I felt cold rush up my arm and I gasped as I felt my strength rushing from my body. I quickly drove my free fist into the thing's sternum, bones shattered from my hands enhanced strength and the monster was driven back. I glanced down at the continued cold feeling on my other fist and saw that the bastard's bony hand was still clutching mine. I shook my hand free of the bony grasp and set my feet as the thing rushed me. I lifted my foot in a snap kick that sent its head smashing into the back wall of the church and the rest of the skeleton crumbled.

"Well that wasn't so hard." I gasped, trying to shake feeling back into my hand the creature had clasped. Then I heard the rattling behind me and turned to face a crowd of skeletal monstrosities, some still armored or clutching weapons, grinning up at where I stood. As I watched, more bones rattled across the floor and linked up forming more skeletons.

"Gonna be a looong night." I loosened the chain attached to my Kama and began it in a slow spin.