FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Master shall I prepare your best robe for the costume ball?" He said softly from the doorway as he regarded his master with his normal submissive gaze. "The duchess will be cross if you do not attend this year."

"Bogswallow to them all, I have too much work to do to be carousing with those fops." The long-bearded Quarion replied in a flurry of robes and gestures. With a sigh he ran his long slender fingers across his muzzle in exasperation.

Knowing his master better than anyone he smiled. Quarion had been tall in his youth, because even hunched over he was the taller of the two of them. His nondescript robe could be taken for peasant clothes if Jeksil didn't know better. Though he had once had vibrant brown fur it was now almost all grey from age and he had grown a long moustache that hung low from his long rat-like snout. Because of his bushy white hair, eyebrows, and mustache he didn't know what race his master was but it didn't matter, all he cared about was that he was being taught the near-forbidden art of magic. Ever since he had been a young boy he had been under the tutelage of Quarion Furstaff, one of the greatest archmages in the history of the world.

Jek counted himself as lucky. He wasn't exactly the brightest pupil the old wizard had and he knew it but he tried to make it up to the kind old mage by being as dedicated as he could manage. He was daydreaming again, another flaw his master had chastised him about. "I'll lay it out right away Master Quarion. While I was out doing the market run I picked up a rather stylish mask that is the current fashion craze. Or so I hear."

"Aye well then you should go in my stead my young apprentice." The old wizard quipped as he flipped the quill he had been holding out of his hand and watched it drift down into the ink pot on his desk.

"The duchess said you may say as such. She bade me to remind you, my lord, that her donations to your research notwithstanding she finds your mien somewhat more appealing than my own." He replied just as the duchess had instructed him while exiting the room simultaneously to gather up his master's costume. "The preparations will be made before the hour is out master."

As Jek left the room Quarion smiled and shook his head. His long mustache and beard waggled back and forth. "Good boy, not exactly a scholar but a good boy none-the-less."

Jeksil walked the corridors of his master's home whistling, as he was prone to do, and happy. His orange, black, and white fur was the typical coloring for a fox of his family. Only his older brother, who was albino, had any color difference. He was also over six feet tall and could bench press a man in full plate mail without breaking a sweat. Jeksil stopped mid-stride and used the sleeve of his robe to wipe a large spot of moisture off of the ground. A large blob of water hit him in the back of the head as he was bent over and he cursed and looked up only to get another in his eye. Expelling a curse yet again he sighed and added that to his endless list of chores.

His family was poor, so instead of paying the archwizard for the lessons he worked them off, and quite hard in his opinion. It was a small matter to prepare his master's best robe, the mask, and a few miscellaneous items the master always used for travel. Once everything was laid out he turned to find the stealthy old wizard looking over his shoulder. With a yelp he dropped down to his ass and began laughing. "I'll hear you one of these days master."

"I seriously doubt that my young friend, I've been skulking about longer than most of your family has been around. Put together I might add." Quarion laughed and helped the young fox up. "Very well done my apprentice and feel free to take the night off, your chores will hold until the morrow."

"Thank you master!" He replied excitedly. "Do you require aught more my lord?"

"One task presses, the gardener has been complaining that a few of our hens and vegetables have gone missing. Now usually I would let the landscapers and stable hands handle it but there has been a small degree of arcane energy shifting around on the grounds that I have not had the time to narrow down. I suspect it may be some sort of fae creature or something of the like, mainly because there have been no remains of the animals found. If you can, identify it and report back to me in the morning before our lessons." Quarion knew the young man would spend all night attempting to get it done if he did not pose limitations on the time. "Spend no more than an hour bothering with it though. You need not prove how dedicated you are Jeksil, I know."

"I will make you proud sir!" Jeksil said excitedly as he left the room. As an afterthought he ran back into the room and bowed to the chuckling old wizard then left again in a flurry. Quarion gave them every opportunity to work magic and Jeksil liked to embrace every chance he could get. He ran the twisted hallways of the house-and-tower combination and reached the apprentice quarters easily. Right now the only two apprentices were himself and a young and serious otter named Tashanna. They had separate quarters because she had refused to bunk with a male.

In all honesty that suited Jeksil fair enough because he did not want Tash seeing him nude or doing his 'business' and most likely vice versa. He brushed past her door quietly, she liked to study a lot and she hated being interrupted. Once he was in his quarters he set to work. The room was set up for two or more students of the art. It was stone with meager furnishings that included a bed, desk, book shelf, and personal effects cabinet. Jek took a few books from the shelf and some components from the desk. He knew what spell he would use first.

Jek worked furiously on spells for well over an hour. The basics were easy and he knew quite a few detection and translocation spells. Most of which only worked in his master's tower but the few he could cast on his own in the tower grounds. Jek had found no trace of energy linked to the faewild or any other dimension. The creature had to be rooted in the prime material plane. He had questioned the staff, the landscapers, and just about everyone else on the grounds that would have been in the area at the time of the disappearances. "No remains, no traces, no one saw any creatures lurking about. Odd."

Jek began to walk back to his quarters sullen, he felt like he had failed in the task. Taking one last look around the garden he turned to leave then paused. Something caught his eye. Beneath the hedges he knelt down and inspected a shimmering patch of underbrush. Using a nearby stick he touched the area and found it to be sticky and slick. "Ectoplasm? No, there is no smell to accompany it."

Jek pulled a spell from his memory and waved his fingers around the quivering line of goo stretching from the stick down to the odd blueish residue. Once he finished the motions of the spell he arched his eyebrows and gasped. "It worked!"

Seeing no one in particular to brag to Jek contained his excitement at a successful spell and mission and grinned. "A liquimorph? What the hell is that?"

Closing his eyes Jek tried to memorize every detail the spell had given him. There was a lot more than he had expected so he pulled out a notepad he kept with him and began writing things down. After he was sure he had every detail on paper he rushed back into the tower to do some research. Jek paused, research wasn't his favorite past time and he honestly wasn't very good in the master's library. He wondered silently if Tash would be willing to help him. He would have to share the credit but he didn't mind. Plus his master encouraged them to work in concert whenever possible. Taking the quickest route to the dorm he walked up to her door and knocked lightly. "Tash?"

"Just a minute!" She called to him. He waited patiently until she opened the door and peered out at him. Her chocolate-brown fur was meticulously groomed and her close-cropped mane of red hair was up in a small tail. She regarded him with her stern brown eyes. "Yes?"

"I am working on a task for the master and I need your help Tash." He said almost bashfully. Though she was a fellow apprentice she was a girl, and she wasn't hard on the eyes either. He grinned a little sheepishly. "I was hoping you could tell me what a liquimorph is?"

Tash opened her door and beckoned him inside. She didn't do that often so he took the opportunity. Her room was clean, painfully so. Her sheets were crisp and folded and her belongings were neatly stacked in all the right places. She was wearing a very modest tunic and short breeches that barely covered her to the knee. In most situations a lady would not be caught out wearing as such but he knew the lessons with his master required more practical clothing.

"Liquimorph eh?" She echoed while grabbing a tome from her shelf. She used one finger to motion him over.

She smelled sweet as he approached, she had apparently recently bathed because he could still see and smell the scented water on her body. It was some sort of flower, Sarive possibly, a rare flower indeed. Being so close to her regardless of the situation was exciting. He didn't know much about women to say the least, he was only fourteen years of age but his size fooled many into thinking he was older. He couldn't help but take in a lungful of her scent when he peered over her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" She said inquisitively, looking suddenly self-conscious.

Feeling suddenly as awkward as she was he grinned bashfully and took a step back. "I'm sorry; I was just trying to identify the flower. I like it, Sarive?"

"Good nose." She said with a light smile and turned back to her book. His proximity made her feel uncomfortable to say the least but she tried not to let it show. Tash just hoped that the blush on her cheeks would be covered by the fact that she was looking down at a book. Her close proximity to Jek because of their apprenticeship was closer than she'd ever been to anyone save her father and brothers. "Okay, it looks like liquimorphs are a slime-based creature. Depending on what type you're looking at it can range from harmless to deadly, they engulf their food and digest it slowly. They prefer things high in protein but will eat anything in a fix. Blues and purples are harmless to creatures bigger than a small dog apparently. All of the other colors are aggressive and will attack anyone or anything they think could be a food source. Reds, oranges, pinks, and blacks all travel in clutches while blues and purples are found solitary or in small families."

"It says here that purples were hunted to near extinction for certain alchemical properties they possess." Tash kept reading and almost stumbled over her next words. "They reproduce both sexually and asexually depending on the slime population of their habitat."

"Interesting." Jek replied, taking any excuse to get closer to her and smell the sweet perfume. "The spell didn't tell me what color it was, just that it was a liquimorph and it's very young. It might even be a baby. There was a smattering of other things I didn't understand. I wrote it all down."

"May I?" Tash said as she took the notepad out of his hands and studied it. "Okay you have the genus and family, wow there's a lot of information here. Did you cast this spell?"

"I did!" Jek said proudly, smiling out of sheer personal satisfaction. "I've been practicing."

"I can tell." Tash smiled up at him from her chair and studied the results for a moment then looked back at the book. "That's odd."

"What?" Jek said, looking at the notepad then back at the book.

Tash flipped through the hastily scribbled pages and then scratched her chin thoughtfully. "Your results don't match anything we've got here."

"Does that mean it's a species that hasn't been discovered yet?" Jek pondered, looking thoughtful. "We should go catch it!"

"It could be dangerous." Tash replied to him with a shake of her head.

"Well if I'm not looking too stupid here I think this particular species is a derivative of blue or purple. Look at the similiarities." Jek said putting his finger down on the pages.

Tash looked over the notes and the book and finally nodded, scratching her head a bit. "You're right. It should be harmless. But how would we catch it?"

Jek Grinned broadly, finally having known something that Tash didn't. It wasn't pride he was just glad his studies and knowledge from his family's farm was finally paying off. "That's simple; we used to do stuff like this on the farm all the time!"

"Catch slimes?" She inquired with a laugh.

"No!" Jek laughed a little also and shook his head. "I didn't mean for it to sound like that, it's like baiting a predator; you leave it something it wants then spring the trap."

"Right but what are we going to trap it in? They are rather fluid little creatures." Tash stood; she was at least three hands shorter than Jek and quite aware of it as she looked up at him.

Jek nodded and continued to grin. "My guess is that the little critter can't jump very high."

**

Jek and Tash watched from a distance. Tash had to admit that his plan was good if a bit simple, they had used an errant board as a ramp in to an empty water trough deep enough to enclose the slime. If it was as small as they both had figured the creature would not be able to get out. As bait they had retrieved a roasted chicken from the kitchen, much to the cook's dismay, and a stout flagon of a fruity drink that Jek made himself. The two of them shared the remnants of it as they waited. "So how'd you learn to make this protein drink?"

"On the farm, my ma is big into fruit drinks and keeping us well fed and all that since we do most of the labor." Jek replied as he took a sip and passed it back to Tash. "Part of that is a hefty helping of her infamous morning pick-me-up."

"Bad name, good drink." She giggled a little as she took a sip and watched. "How long should we wait?"

"Shh!" He said softly and pointed to the hedges near to the garden where they had placed the bait and trap. Several pieces of the chicken were on the ramp and led down into the trough where they had left the remainder of the bird and drink. In the distance they could see movement, cautious and careful. "There she is!"

"She?" Tash echoed. "How do you know?"

"Just a guess." He said with a shrug as they watched the small creature slide into their view.

The slime was white with blue and purple strands flowing through it, it had an almost crystalline sheen to its body which looked as if it could fill casserole dish and overflow. It was big enough for it to be close to maturity but it was obviously malnourished from the lack of excess slime on its fringes. It waited for a moment before emerging from its hiding place to pursue the tasty seasoned piece of fowl waiting at the end of the ramp.

Jek looked at Tash and arched an eyebrow at the behavior. It slid out into the open then back into hiding several times. After a while it finally darted toward the chicken and engulfed it before continuing on and dropping down into the trough with a dull thud. Jek smiled to Tash and the both of them approached the tub cautiously. As they peered over the edge of the tub they found that the slime had already absorbed the liquid from the stein and was working on engulfing the chicken. Once it was done it apparently noticed them and backed against the far side of the small but deep metal watering bucket and froze. The bones and meat of the chicken could be seen through its transparent body.

"That's why there were no remains, it absorbs the entire meal." Jek said curiously. "It's alright little one; we aren't going to hurt you."

Jek had always had a way with animals. On the farm he was always the one to milk the cows, gather the eggs, and take care of the livestock that was sick. The first thing was always to get the creature used to your scent but he was certain that the slime had no olfactory system so instead he plucked a few hairs from his head and dropped them down onto the slime, which jumped lightly but didn't move more than that.

"What are you doing?" Tash said curiously.

"Well when an animal was sick, hurt, or scared the first thing you do is let it smell you. Since I don't think it can smell I figured I'd let it taste some of my fur instead. It's close enough." Jek eyed the tub for a moment then sighed. "The part I didn't figure on is how we're going to get it inside. We can't just leave it out here in the open. Something may come along and hurt it or worse."

"Damn." Tash said, scratching her head. "We could find a way to lure it into a glass container of some sort."

"That won't work; it's smarter than it looks." Jek tested the weight of the trough and nodded his head. "Alright, I'll just carry it inside and keep a watch over it until the master gets back from the ball."

Tash eyed him for a moment then fought back a blush. He was a lot stronger than she had guessed. Jek lifted the metal trough as if it were a feather's weight. She held the doors for him as he walked into the main foyer and toward the observance room. It was a relatively small room with shelves of books and reagents everywhere. At one point it had been a place to store and hold creatures of various types but when Quarion had bought the tower he repurposed it into a study of sorts.

"I have some studying to do and I don't think I should leave it alone. It looks scared." Jek set the metal watering trough down by a table with care and looked up at Tash. "Thanks for your help Tash, I appreciate it."

"No, thank you. This was exciting." She said with a glance at the motionless slime. "You know, with that knack for animals maybe you should study beastmastery instead of general arts?"

"I never thought of that, do you really think I'd be good at it?" Jek smiled at her then looked down at the slime. "It's calming down a bit; I think she realizes we're not a threat."

"I don't think slimes have a gender." Tash said as she knelt by the tin container and dropped a few of her own hairs onto the creature, similar to how Jek had.

"If they reproduce sexually and asexually wouldn't you think they do?"

"Hmm, never thought of that Jek, you might be right." She smiled. "See, you're good at it already."

"Thanks Tash." He smiled shyly at her, suddenly feeling a little bashful for some reason. "It was good spending time with you outside of our studies."

"Yeah it was." Tash said, standing on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. "Thanks for involving me, it was exciting."

As she began walking away Jek shuffled his feet a bit and cleared his throat more because of the excitement he felt at being so close to her, let alone being kissed by her. "At the risk of sounding weird, want to do it again sometime?"

"You say the sweetest things to a girl Jek. Yeah, sure." She laughed as she exited the room.

Jek fell backward into a chair and had a lop-sided grin, looking down at the little slime. "She's the first girl that's kissed me. Well there was my cousin that one time but she doesn't count, she kissed me on the nose."

Jek arched an eyebrow as the slime wiggled a little, as if in response. He laughed and shook his head. "Like you understand a word I'm saying. I'm sure you can hear me though; otherwise your kind wouldn't last long. It's not like trying to soothe a hurt cow or anything I'd guess."

Jek sighed a little and looked toward the door, almost aching for Tash to walk back in. He'd had a bit of a crush on her forever but the excitement of the moment had gotten him all wrapped up in capturing the slime. Now that he had her he wasn't sure what to do next. "You sure don't look like any slime I've heard of before; I wonder what breed you are?"

Just from glancing at the slime he could see a solid mass of matter at the center of it. He wasn't sure exactly what it was. Arching an eyebrow, his trademark move, he leaned in a little closer to study it. "Now what have we here?" Jek was sure he hadn't seen it before, most likely because the chicken had been in the way. "You seem to have some sort of core at your center."

"You don't look aggressive or dangerous." Jek said softly, putting his hands on the side of the makeshift prison. "You don't feel dangerous either."

Taking a risk, Jek held out his hand toward the slime. It took the better part of ten minutes for the skittish creature to approach him. As it did he ran his fingers across its surface and marveled at the feeling. It felt like touching warm glass, the surface tension of the slime presumably kept its insides intact. He had expected to feel a slick, wet surface. "You're not slimy at all, at least not on the outside."

It wiggled as if in response to him and he took his hand away slowly so not to startle the creature. It wandered around the edge of its cage for a moment and Jek looked on curiously. Once it had explored the entire area, which wasn't much, it stopped and returned to the center and stood still as if awaiting something. "Well you're smart enough to know that you can't get out at least."

Jek stood up and walked toward the door. "I'll be right back little one."

Taking a trip to the kitchen and back by his estimation the slime had an easier time digesting the drink he had made than the entire chicken. Some of the solid bird was still visible in its system. He grabbed a small bottle of fresh milk and cooking wine from the pantry and returned to the room, wondering if the slime's digestive system, whatever that was, could handle liquids easier than solids. When he walked back into the room he was shocked to find the creature gone. He took the time to slowly, and carefully, walk around the room checking behind the various shelves and cabinets. The room was sealed quite well and the slime couldn't fit its core under the door so it had to be in the room somewhere. Jek sighed and set the opened milk and cooking wine down on the floor, lying in wait for it to emerge.

**

Tashanna returned to her room and closed the door with a smile and a sigh. Jek was a little hard headed but she thought that she might finally be getting through to the big brute. She had feelings for him and for the longest time she had wondered if he felt the same. The look on his face when she had kissed him confirmed it. She went out of her way to touch him when she could, a brush on the arm, a slap of the shoulder, or other signs. He apparently had problems picking up on the subtleties. For the longest time she sat attempting to read and study but she couldn't. Looking up from her book she chided herself for being a lovesick child and rested her chin down on her palm, staring out of the room's sole window.

Tasha had never been a brave sort but she made a decision at that point. "If I don't tell him he'll never guess."

She stood and left the room, headed for the study where she had left Jek and the slime. It was a short walk for her and she couldn't help but smile as she opened the door. Inside the room was quiet save for the sound of Jek snoring and talking a little in his sleep. The door was half opened and she pondered leaving him to sleep, he worked hard for his tuition. Something made her continue into the room.

Her jaw dropped when she entered fully. Jek was leaning backwards across the study table with his mouth hanging wide open and his tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth. The chair was positioned as such that the back was turned to the side near Jek's hip. The slime was there on his lap and she gasped when she realized what it was doing. The amorphous creature had Jek's man parts engulfed and it looked to be undulating up and down. Tasha stood there for a moment in complete shock and she could feel that the slime was too distracted to have noticed her. With Jek sleeping it had somehow crawled out of the vessel. After a moment of shock she snapped herself out of it. "Jek!"

He woke with a start and grunted loudly, Tasha watched a splash of his juices erupt from the opaque view of his dick and onto the slime's core. Jek groaned at the feeling and then realized what was happening. The slime was startled and rolled off of the tall boy with a slurping sound and slid behind the container, obviously afraid.

Jek checked himself quickly and wiped the slick fluids off of his skin, not bothering to put it away out of modesty until he was sure that the stuff was not acidic. "Oh my god what just happened?"

"Protein." She said, astounded. "Are you alright?"

Jek took a second to gather his wits. "Other than a bruised ego and my heart is beating out of my chest, yeah."

"It didn't..." Tasha pointed to his crotch for a second, still dumbfounded.

"No, it wasn't acidic." He said softly, blushing hard.

Tasha and Jek both looked over at the metal container and cleared their throats near-simultaneously trying to wash themselves clean of the odd situation. A small crystalline head popped out from the side of the trough. In all appearances it looked very much like Tashanna, just smaller, younger, and composed not of flesh and blood, but of slime. It blinked at them dumbly for a moment, looking from one to the other.

It looked like a child of sorts, naked and standing there glimmering in the light of the everbright lanterns hanging in the room. Its limbs were thin and lithe to match its body and it was definitely female from the look of its anatomy.

"By the gods." Jek said softly, kneeling down and holding his hand out. "Come here little one."

When the slime stood up, its head barely cresting the top of its former short-lived home, Jek took another look. "It looks like both of us."

"Kind of like what our child will look like." Tasha quickly corrected herself, blushing. "Would look like!"

The slimegirl smiled innocently and ran into Jek's arms without hesitation. He looked surprised but put his arms around the warm and delicate-feeling creature. It looked positively thrilled to see the both of them. "Elvir kala m'rakn-ehn?"