FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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Chapter 7

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I awoke spooning Cody, the same position we had fallen asleep in, only my knot had deflated and slipped out of him. The fire was on the verge of dying, only a few dying flames flickered, dispelling the darkness of the room; judging by the fire we had been asleep for quite a while. I realised that Jovani hadn't come and woken us up for dinner. Feeling myself blush at the thought of him coming in and seeing us like that, but once again I didn't care. I felt great, a little hungry but great! My body still had a pleasant stiffness that you get after a physical workout, or in this case a very physical sex session.

I smiled to myself and buried my muzzle into Cody's neck and inhaled his scent, it was mixed heavily with my own and I'm sure I was the same, anyone who smelt us would not need much of an imagination to imagine what had gone on between us; and I didn't give a damn. For the first time in a long, long time I felt content and looked forward to the future.

I didn't want to get up, I just wanted to lay here with my fox in my arms enjoying the moment before I fell back into sleep, but I really needed to pee! I reluctantly pulled myself away from Cody, the need to answer the call of nature too strong to ignore. I didn't even both to look for my loin cloth, naked, I walked silently towards the door and pulled it open. The quiet creaks and groans of the door, that I hadn't noticed before suddenly sounded deafening. I looked back at Cody, he hadn't stirred in the slightest.

The torches in the hall were still lit, but a few of them had gone out, but there was plenty of light for me to see where I was going. I looked up and down the long corridor and tried to remember where the toilet was. I heard another door open and ducked back into my room, remembering that I was very naked, I peered round the corner towards the source of the sound and watched as Harold stepped into the hallway and began to make his way down the corridor; probably towards the kitchen.

I silently followed him, remembering that the toilet was down this way, as I passed the door he had left I looked at the symbol on the door; it had the symbol of a lighting bolt on it. I froze in my tracks and stared at the symbol, my mind racing as it remembered that symbol, it was Kaldor's room. Harold had just come from my fathers bedroom! I looked down the corridor in the direction that Harold had gone, the little yellow dragon now barely in sight in the dim light, I ran the thought through my mind over and over again.

Harold had just come out of my fathers room!

My mind jumped to the first obvious conclusion, Harold and my father were sleeping with each other, the thought that my father was fucking Harold didn't bother me. I was just a little surprising, the size difference between them made my mind boggle. Harold was nearly two foot shorter than me, Kaldor was the taller and had a large muscular build, the size difference made for an interesting image. Harold was easily half my fathers size. I shook my head and tried to push the image out of my mind, it was none of my business who Kaldor or Harold slept with.

As I made my way back to my room, having satisfied my need to relieve myself, I still couldn't shake the image of Harold and my father. I didn't know how to feel about it, should I be happy, disturbed, angry or just not be bothered by it at all? Truth is it did bother me, imagining my father naked made me feel a little awkward as well, but why did bother me so much?

As I climbed back into bed and wrapped my arms round Cody who was still sleeping soundly I felt myself relax, the sounds of Cody's steady breathing and being surrounded by his scent, I was finally able to push the thoughts of Harold and my father from my mind and fall back into a peaceful slumber.

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Cody pulling himself free of from my grasp was what woke me, I blearily watched as he rolled across the bed and began looking for his clothes. I didn't move or say anything, I just lay there admiring Cody's naked body, his usual soft and silky fur was a little flat this morning; and he had a serious case of bed head. He looked at me and smiled.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing." I smiled back before reluctantly rolling over myself and looking for my own clothes.

We got dressed and using what was left of the supplies Jovani had given us the night before, we made ourselves presentable and made it less obvious to anyone we met that we had had a steamy sex session, I was going to have to see if he had any more of this stuff; the floral scent helped to mask the scent of sex. We marched down to the kitchen to get Harold to make us some breakfast, not that you could tell what time of day it was, it could have just as easily been the middle of the day. The lack of daylight in these caves was really starting to get to me.

When we arrived in the kitchen Harold was just serving Kaldor some food, seeing them together brought back the memories of the previous night, were they sleeping together? Upon seeing us Harold quickly set about serving us our breakfast, we sat across from Kaldor at one of the wooden counter tops, looking at his breakfast I saw he was eating porridge and he was mixing some honey into it. I thanked Harold for the food and decided to try the same thing my father had done, mixing honey with it, as I let the honey drip from my spoon I looked back and forth from Kaldor and Harold. There was no obvious signs that they had slept with each other, neither one of them was acting strangely or trying to pay no attention to the other, they were acting perfectly normal.

'And why wouldn't they?' I thought to myself.

They had known each other for years, what ever relationship they may have was more than likely firmly rooted long before I ever appeared here, it was just an ordinary day to them. Unlike me who was still a little giddy over having slept with Cody, would Cody and I become that way? Even after sharing a night of passion together would it become less than an event like eating breakfast? I hoped not.

"... training?" I heard Kaldor speak and blinked a couple of time in confusion before I realise he was talking to me.

"Sorry, what?" Kaldor shook his head and chuckled.

"I said, are you looking forward to your warrior training?"

"Oh, yeah I guess. I'm a little nervous, all of them watched me get my ass beaten by Kassandra."

"Well if memory serves you technically won that fight!" Kaldor reminded me. "An achievement that none of your peers have managed yet, don't worry, you've already earned their respect."

"I hope you're right."

"Kassius also does fire bending classes afterwards as well, it would be good for you to learn the basics, Kassius is an excellent teacher."

"I thought you were going to teach me?" I wasn't upset at the prospect of learning from someone else, I had just expected Kaldor to do it.

"I still will, but Kassius is a far better teacher than me when it comes to the basics."

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Jovani escorted me through the labyrinth of caves to the arena, where just the day before I received one of the worst beatings of my life. Sure I may have won on a technicality, but that didn't change the fact I came away from the fight a lot worse than my opponent did. And if Kassandra was here today there was little doubt that she would want to even the score.

"Would you like me to come collect you afterwards Young Master?" Jovani asked.

"No it's all right, I'm thinking about staying for the 'bending' class afterwards." I said the word, almost unsure if I had used the right term.

"Very good. Kassius is an excellent teacher from what I've heard. Are you all right finding your way back?"

"I think so."

"Very well." He gave a curt bow of his head. "Have a good day Young Master." He smiled before turning and heading back the way we came.

I watched him leave, I still found it surprising that someone in Jovani's line of work had a body like that. He had the body of seasoned warrior, thick, muscled and slightly intimidating, only he wasn't intimidating in the slightest. The way he carried himself reminded me of Eric, the way he spoke showed not aggression or self importance; like I would expect from a warrior. When I realised that Jovani was long gone and I was just standing there looking down an empty corridor, I was just procrastinating.

I turned to face the large steel doors and let out a sigh of resignation. It was now or never. I slipped between the opening in the doors and made my way towards the stairs at the far end of the room. As I passed the large opening I looked to see if I could see the pale blue dragoness any where. No sign of her. As I made my way down the stairs I could feel my heart in my throat, pausing at the last couple of steps before I rounded the corner and face my peers. Would they accept me or reject me? I couldn't remember being this nervous before, I was even more nervous than the time I was going to meet Kaldor for dinner. That time I had had my friends to back me up, this time I was solo.

"Oh well, might as well get it over with." I muttered to myself and took the last couple of steps and rounded the corner.

The few dragons nearby stopped what they were doing to look at me. I gulped nervously and walked towards Kassius who was busy watching several sparring matches. He hadn't seen me yet. I tried to hide my nervousness, avoiding eye contact with all the other dragons, focusing on Kassius's wide back. He turned as I approached and gave me a big grin.

"Hey there Malakye, nice of you to join us."

"Sorry I'm late." I muttered.

"It's fine, just don't let it happen too often okay?"

"Yeah..." I scratched at my left shoulder, my scales prickling in nervousness. I cast a look round and breathed a sigh of relief to find that Kassandra was no where to be seen.

"Hey!" Someone shout behind me, I spun round to find three dragons, one of them standing uncomfortably close to me. I backed up several steps and nearly bumped into Kassius. "That fight yesterday was awesome!" The closest dragon grinned, he was the smallest of the trio, but from the similarity of their features and the three small horns growing from their forehead in the same triangular fashion I would have to say they were related

"Thanks... I guess. Got my ass beaten pretty badly..." I smiled nervously and laughed.

"Maybe but you showed up Kassandra! She's kicked our asses so many times I've lost count!" The one on the right replied. "Oh the names Loire, there are my brothers Laguna and Zabac."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Malakye."

"Your Lord Anaris's son." It wasn't a question, "Rumours have been rife and when we saw him with you yesterday it kinda made it seem it was true." Laguna, the smallest of the brothers asked.

"Yeah, Kaldor is my father." I laughed nervously.

"So are you really half wolf?" Zabac asked, giving me a sceptical look.

I was a little taken aback by the bluntness of the question. Surely it was obvious? I mean my body was more like a dragon than a wolf but my facial features were definitely different from theirs.

"Come on, this isn't a meet and greet!" Kassius bellowed, Zabac and Laguna jumped and then suddenly looked very guilty, like they had been caught doing something they know they shouldn't have. "Zabac, Laguna you two go match up against Tristan and Draks."

"Sir!" Zabac and Laguna shouted in unison, running off to team up with their partners.

"Loire here is a fully fledged warrior already. I asked him to be here to run you through the basics, but after yesterdays performance I have little doubts you can handle anything he can throw your way." Kassius gave me a pat on the shoulder and then returned to watch the rest of the room. I followed Loire as we walked towards the edge of the arena away from everyone else.

"Sorry about Zabac, he has no subtlety. He's all muscle and no brains."

"It's fine, I'm used to it."

"He didn't mean anything by it, he doesn't care if your part wolf, no one here will."

"Thanks." His words were comforting.

"So you beat Kassandra then?"

"It was a fluke. I came away worse than she did."

"Well fluke or no fluke, Laguna was impressed with how you held yourself. You've already made a fan there."

"A fan?"

"Oh yeah, you're all he's talked about since he saw you yesterday. Now lets see those moves he was so impressed by."

"O-okay." I smiled nervously. I readied myself to defend with the first stance of Tigers Palm, if Loire was a fully fledged warrior then he wouldn't be easy to beat, but if I'm lucky he'd be a little easier than Kassandra. Loire readied himself as well, I watched his eyes, taking in everything. Flicking across my body before meeting my own.

"Ready?" He asked and I nodded.

He was quick to go on the offensive, throwing a couple of punches which I easily blocked before he backed away. He was feeling me out. He shifted his weight from one foot-paw to another, moving to my right. I followed him round, we walked round in a full circle before he attacked again. His punches were swift and held a lot more brute strength than I'd have given him credit for.

He threw the same one-two combo at me three times, the third time I deflected his second punch and threw my own at him. He shifted his head to the right, avoiding my fist, before I could pull it back he ducked down and spun with his right leg extended in attempt to sweep me. I leapt over his leg and back stepped away. He calmly stood up again with a composed smile. He had played me, his brother had obviously told him in detail about my fight with Kassandra, he had used the same move and waited for me to counter strike to try and catch me out.

"Not bad, you've got good reflexes. If you'd thrown that punch the same moment you deflected my punch you'd probably have hit me."

I had thrown my punch late? I was a little surprised by his analysis but thinking on it I was slow in throwing the punch.

"Ready to continue?" He asked and I simply nodded again, I took a step forward and changed to the fourth stance of Tigers Palm; this earned me a slightly puzzled look from Loire. "I guess my brother wasn't lying."

I didn't reply even though I wanted to know what it was he was talking about. I held myself ready, both my arms raised in front of me with my paws open ready to grapple Loire if he stepped in too close. It was one of the more offensive stances, allowing the user to switch between Offence and defence in a moment, but since it focused on grappling over striking it was one of my less comfortable stances. I was just hoping to catch him off guard.

Loire stepped forward with no fear or hesitation, he threw a right and I swivelled and the balls of my foot-paws and grabbed his forearm. I shifted my weight and pulled him into me, throwing him over me with a perfect hip toss. I heard him let out a yelp of surprise as I lifted him of his foot-paws before slamming him into the dirt. I backed away and he let out a groan, he quickly stood back up.

"Well that was a surprise. Much better, no hesitation at all." He smiled. "Lets see what else you've got!"

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Loire put me through my paces, he had managed to catch me out a number of times with a few tricks, often using his wings to block my line of sight; something I'd have to keep in mind when fighting other dragons, or to use that trick myself. He seemed to be impressed, but said I was too rigid, that I needed to be more flexible. I would have to ask Aceh about that later, I was still learning Tigers Palm, he had only taught me six out of the seven stances, maybe the last stance held the key or maybe it would just take time. It was difficult to switch between stances while exchanging blows, yet I'd seen Aceh do effortlessly, even while blocking my attacks.

By the end of the lesson I was breathless and sweating, the lack of a breeze inside the arena really made it difficult to cool off. Kassius had called a time out. Everyone had gathered in the centre of the arena to talk while Kassius and Loire spoke a short distance away. I looked at the crowd of dragons, the talked and joked amongst themselves, I felt like an outsider looking in; a feeling I was more than used to growing up. That's when Laguna, Loire's younger brother spotted me and waved me over. Might as well make and effort, I took a deep breath and walked over to him and his friends.

"Hey Malakye!"

"Hi." I replied, forcing a smile.

"Oh let me introduce you. This is Tristan, Roxis and Kerxis." He pointed at his three friends one by one. Each of them gave me a warm smile which was a relief.

I wasn't sure if I would be able to tell them apart, Zangarians looked pretty similar, but then so do a pack of wolves. I guess I was going to have to pick up on the subtle differences in their appearances. Like Tristan, he had a noticeable scar across his right forearm.

"I hope you didn't beat my brother too hard!" Laguna joked giving me a gentle punch to my side.

"He'll be fine" I joked.

"Saw your fight the other day, you got some skills." Kerxis commented.

"Thanks."

"Still got beat up pretty bad though." Roxis chuckled. "But you seem to be doing okay."

"Yeah, Kassandra's grandfather used those needles of his on me. Worked a treat, don't feel any effects of yesterdays fight."

"Uhg... those needles give me the shivers. Saw him using them on Tristan once, totally made my scales crawl." Roxis visibly shivered as he thought about it.

"Skitter*." Tristan scoffed.

"What'd you call me!" Roxis snarled.

"Sorry, I must have mumbled. I called you a SKITTER*!"

"That's it!" Roxis spat and grabbed Tristan into a headlock.

"What's a skitter?" I asked Laguna.

"Oh, it's a small lizard that runs away a lot.

"That all you got skitter*?" Tristan laughed even while trapped in a headlock.

"HEY! SETTLE DOWN OVER THERE!" Kassius's voice bellowed across the arena. I felt myself jump and both Tristan and Roxis immediately settled down.

"Don't worry about them, their always like that." Laguna whispered.

"Gather round!" Kassius ordered and everyone turned to face him. "We are going to do some practise with throwing spears." I heard Laguna groan next to me.

"I hate throwing spears, I suck at it."

I watched as Loire appeared from a door on the far side of the arena dragging several straw dummies out. He spaced them out while Kassius order a couple of dragons to go get the spears. I figured that it must be an armoury with weapons and practise equipment. Once everyone had a spear we all lined up for target practise. Three threw at a time and results were varied. Some would hit the dummy, their spears running them through cleanly, while others would fall short or stray wide. I fancied my chances at this exercise, I had caught my fair share of animals while out hunting using only a spear, and these targets weren't moving.

My turn came and lifted my spear so it was level with my head. I focused on the dummy directly ahead of me and took a deep breath and held it, I took two steps forward and threw my spear. It cut through the air cleanly and struck my dummy square in the head, taking it clean off. There was a chorus of impressed mumbling behind me.

"Seems we have a super star on our hands." Kassius chuckled.

"It was a fluke!" Baroc bellowed stepping forward from the crowd. "Bet he can't do it again."

I didn't respond, I just smiled and went to pick up one of the spare spears from the pile next to Kassius. I felt the weight of the spear in my paws and gave it a twirl. I locked eyes with Baroc as I moved into position, looking away from him only when I began to focus on my target.

I stared long and hard at the dummies head, raised the spear and readied to throw. The arena was silent, everyone waiting with bated breath to see if I would do it again. I hurled my spear and watched at it flew through the air and watched it strike the dummies head, once again taking it clean off. There was a round of cheers and applause, I smiled to myself and turned to look at Baroc. He was less than amused. Kassius gave me a nod and a wink that made me beam with pride.

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After practise some dragons began to leave. I looked round a little confused, some dragons obviously had no intention of leaving while others were saying their goodbyes. I spotted Loire as he was about to disappear up the stairs, he waved to me and I waved back. There was maybe a dozen dragons left by the time everyone who was leaving had left. Laguna ran up to me with his usual beaming smile, a little excitable but he was nice guy.

"Where's everyone going?"

"Oh you don't know? Warrior training is over, but most of these guys go and join so other group to do some more training, others are going to their bending lessons."

"Bending classes?" Then I remembered Kaldor telling me that Kassius held a bending class after warrior training. "Why aren't they staying for bending lessons?"

"Well not everyone is a bender, only maybe a third of all dragons are born with the gift. And besides Kassius only teaches fire bending, a couple of the guys are actually water benders so they'd not really get anything out of the lessons." Laguna explained.

"Only a third huh?"

"Yeah... oh by any chance are you...?"

"Yeah I'm staying." His face lit up. I was beginning to have a hard time imagining him actually being sad, it was like he was constantly happy.

"I figured that you'd be a fire bender, considering your family of course." I nodded, the Anaris house hold apparently produced a high number of fire benders.

"Gather round!" Kassius called. After we had all gathered he began to speak again. "Malakye would you mind coming up here please?" I nodded and did as he asked, weaving out of the mass of bodies and standing next to him.

"Your father tells me you're a fire bender."

"Yeah... but I didn't know what I was doing at the time..." I explained, deciding it was probably better to leave it at a half truth. I'm not sure it was even normal among Zangarians to lose control of yourself while manipulating fire.

"Fair enough, so before we go over the basics I want to see you bend fire."

"How do I do that?"

"Do you not know how?"

"It was... it just sort of happened before."

"Ah... I see." Kassius mused and scratched at his chin in thought. "Well lets not worry about that. Normally all Zangarians warriors are taught how to control the energy in their body from a young age, and once they are able to project it out of their body they are allowed to take bending lessons. The test for this allows us to quickly determine who has the gift and what affinity they have."

"Affinity?"

"Fire, water or earth are the most common." He explained and I nodded. "But since it seems you are already able to project your energy we will skip a few steps."

He rested his paw on my shoulder and turned me to face a large brazier that sat a few yards away. The flames burned brightly, rising I could feel it's intense heat from where I stood. There were a number of them around the edge of the arena.

"I want you to try and exert your will over the flames. Don't worry about what you do, once you know how to do it we can teach you to control it." I nodded silently and he backed away, I took several steps towards the urn and focused on the flames. "I want you to try and draw on the power inside you, let it flow through your body and out towards the flames." Kassius instructed.

"Easier said than done." I mutter.

"Easier done than said." Kassius countered. "It's as easy as breathing, but first you need to let it into you. It's hard at first, but you've already drawn on your power so it's there, waiting for you find it."

"How do I do that?" I ask and Kassius points at a large urn with a fire burning strongly.

"Just focus Malakye, you can do this." Kassius spoke pacing behind me as I stared at the large urn of fire in front of me. "You have summoned the flames before, but now you will command them!" His voice was deep, booming, confident, I almost felt myself believing that I could do this. "You must remember! Remember the first time, everything, the touch, the taste, the smell, everything that you felt!"

I closed my eyes and focused on my time in Rengilar*, the feeling killing, the rage... no... that wasn't me. That wasn't the first time, the first time was back in Zangar... Rose... And just like that the memory that I had tried so hard to bury exploded in my mind. The struggle as I tried to hold off Vireon's goons, the despair as I failed, the ache in my chest as I watched him stab her and rip out my heart, leaving a gaping void in it's place... my rage. Yes I had felt rage that night, I'd tried to bury it with the memories, but it was there. I remember how Vireon's face changed as he turned to look at me, his smugness, the superiority in his expression melted away when his eyes settled on me...

"Malakye."

Someone was calling me, pulling me back, where had I gone? I felt like I was dreaming but I was awake, am I meditating? It felt just like how Aceh had described it, the weightlessness, the limitless expanse that you could feel but never see. Where all possibilities were possible, all existing in a single moment but if you tried to grasp them they would vanish, like smoke. I could feel something, it was all around me, surrounding me, it felt familiar but foreign at the same time. What is this? I reached for it, it felt like I trying to swim against the flow of a river, no, not a river... it felt like I was trying to walk against the wind in a storm, the strongest of storms.

"Malakye."

I recognise the voice now, it's Kassius, and at the same time I realise what it was I was feeling... it's my power. I don't open my eyes but I can see everything around me, Kassius standing behind me, the other Zangarians* standing behind him, the urn of fire in front of me. I can sense everything, see everything; the power flowing out from me. It encircled me protectively, slowly spreading as it continued to flow out of me, this is my power. I can do this!

My eyes snap open and I reach out with my mind into the depths of the fire, the energy surrounding me shot forward, memories of Rose flash across my mind and a second later the fire in the urn doubles in size, shooting upwards. The flickering orange flames turning blue and let out a roar of pain as I grasp at them. I hear everyone behind me let out a collective gasp and hear them talking but I can't make out what they are saying over the roar of fire. I grasp at the flames with my mind, I can feel them, they struggle against me like a living thing but I'm not going to give up, I will take control!

I reach in and draw on more of my power, the memory of Vireon stabbing Rose flashes, I see his face as he does it, smiling, taking satisfaction in her death! My anger flares and I feel my power explode within me, like a dam bursting I am unable to stop the flow as it pours out of me and into the flames. The flames shriek, like a wounded animal, still struggling but I am slowly overpowering them now. Suddenly the flames fight back, with a blood curdling cry, the cry full of anger and hate, they shoot out and surround me the blue flames snake around me, licking at my scales shrieking at me, the unrelenting rage in their cry strikes fear in my heart, what demon have I awoken?

"MALAKYE!!!" I turn to see Kassius trying to reach to me, his arms raised to protect himself from the flames. "MALAKYE!!!"

I can barely hear him over the cry of the flames, I try to call back but I can't even hear myself over them, I try and yell louder and I realise that I can't... I can't call out to him because... because it's not the flames. I'm the one who's screaming!

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A/N

The following entry will be updated in the encyclopedia in the next update (2.2), but for now I'll post it's entry here.

SKITTER *

A four legged lizard that is named for the sound it makes when it runs. They are incredibly fast and run away the moment something gets too close to them. They have a fin that runs down their backs and tail. Skitters can vary in colour, often taking the colour of their environments. It is unknown if they can change colour at will or if it a result of eating the natural foliage and insects that make up their diet.

They are often caught and roasted over fires as a tasty meal. Some settlements in the tribal lands have skitter farms, where they breed them as livestock since they require little food and reproduce quickly. Due to their cowardly nature it is a common insult to call someone a skitter.