FSE

Furry search engine

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Enek's body hurt all over. While normally this would be terrible, it meant he was at least still alive.

His eyes slowly cracked open, grimacing at the light that streamed through the window. The room around him was large and finely furnished, from the plush carpet that ran the length, to the elaborate paintings adorning the walls, and finally to the four post bed with drawn curtain canopy on which he laid. There was a common trend amongst all of the items in question, they all had a crimson red with gold trim pattern to them.

As Enek was wracking his brain to think where he knew the color combination from, he tried sitting up and groaned as every muscle in his body complained at the action. An action which seemed to draw the attention of an unseen occupant in the room. Looking towards the sudden movement in the corner of his eye, the creature he saw left more questions than were answered.

It appeared to be a female feline-morph and that was strange enough in itself until he started to take in the rest of her details. Her lithe form and twitching tail simply waited and watched back as he took her in. She wore small spectacles on her face, Enek worked for a man once who wore a pair and knew these had to be custom made and very expensive. The real strangeness of it all came in her coloring. Bright blue shoulder length hair of all things topped her head, made into a somewhat messy style that kept it out of her face. Her fur was actually a bright orange in color, which covered her body and stood in stark contrast to the white that covered her mouth, chest, and quite possibly even lower. As she closed a book in her hands, Enek also noticed each of her fingers were white furred as well.

Her dress suggested to Enek that she might have been a scholar or a librarian perhaps. A form fitting white shirt which she had a few of the top buttons undone to expose a bit of cleavage. Over the rest of the shirt however a dark blue vest and woolen jacket concealed the rest of her chest while a tight skirt wrapped around her thighs and barily managed to cover half way to her knees, though she fidgeted and pulled on the skirt somewhat uncomfortably as she stood to her feet. "Good, you're finally awake! I'm sure you have a number of questions, we can speak on them over breakfast...or was it lunch already?" She tipped her head to the side and tapped her chin with a finger as she thought about it.

"You're...blue?" Enek weakly pointed at her hair, and wanted to kick himself for as inelegant as it sounded. His mouth and brain were not cooperating at the moment and settled for lightly smacking his hand against his cheek and rubbing it.

The feline-morph smiled sheepishly at this and held the book to her chest and hugged it. Coyly looking away at the ground and struggling to stand still she glanced up at him. "It was an experiment gone wrong. I was working with a new dyeing compound and I didn't have anything else on hand to test it, so..." She motioned to it, running her fingers through the hair. "I rather like it now though."

Enek noticed she still wasn't looking at him and even detected the hint of embarrassment as stole quick glances at him. "Is there something wrong?" He asked her curiously, raising an eyebrow. Looking himself over Enek realized what the answer was, he was naked. Clearing his throat and grabbing a handful of the blankets to cover himself.

She giggled softly, loosening up visably. "Mm, that was my fault actually. I had to take them off to properly give you a check up and healing... and once I had them off I was a bit.. shy trying to get them back on so I just sorta left them off." She shyly gave a shrug and her ears perked forward. "Oh! I'm sorry, I haven't told you my name yet have I?" She straightened up, holding her book in one hand and giving a casual bow of sorts. "My name in Cynthia, but you can call my Cyn." She smiled warmly at him, handing him a folded pair of pants and shirt.

Getting dressed and following her out of the room, Enek started with the obvious questions. "So where are we, why am I not a broken pile of bones laying in Malas, and do you know what became of the canine-morph that was with me?" He felt vulnerable walking through the unfamiliar halls without his armor or weapon. Shit, his weapon... The realization hit Enek that the shortsword was still buried in Taeln's chest the last time he had seen it.

Cyn cradled her book in the crook of her arm, tapping her chin again as she thought. "Hm, well we're currently in the capital Avalia. I brought you here after I was dispatched on orders of the King's own farseer. They sensed an odd mass of energy moving in on the southlands." There were a pair of heavily armored guards flanking the entrance to the hallway as they exited.

Glancing at them from the corner of his eye as they passed, Enek was a bit surprised by that. Avalia should be at the very least a week out from Malas and he couldn't remember a thing about making that trip. The red and gold patterns of the room he had awoken in finally made him remember why they looked familiar.

"As for why you're not a pile of bones, that's because when I brought you back here they entrusted you to my care. So I used some of my magic to heal you." Cyn's tone was nonchalant, as if the answer should have been obvious from the start. "You were pretty bad off. Multiple broken bones, internal bleeding, dehydration." Cyn was counting off the problems with her fingers as they went. "It took a lot of of me even to properly stabalize you to health, you've been asleep for three days and I was out for a full one after that myself."

He stopped walking for a moment as he processed it all. "Wait, magic? You can use it too?" He looked at her eagerly. "Did you encounter a Lich as well or something?"

Cyn stopped as well, but shook her head. "No, I am incapable of casting magic. What I do is channel it and act as a conduit for a magic source." He pats her book gently and looks down at it affectionately almost like a mother would to her child. "But I'll tell you about that later." They resumed a steady pace through the halls.

The smell of food started to fill the air the closer towards their destination they got. Cyn brought him to a large double wooden door and pushed one of them open, admiting him into the mess hall. Lines of large tables sat various amounts of people all deep in their own conversations and not even bothering to look up at the newcomers.

"Oh, and the rather rude and violent canine was shackled and kept inside the stockades. She was growling at everyone and wouldn't allowing anyone to approach you so we had to restrain her." Cyn shrugged, but a gleam in her eye suggested she wasn't exactly heartbroken over getting to lock up Asyr.

Putting a hand on her shoulder and pulling her to look at him. "What?! No! I can eat later, release her or at least take me to see her. Shit... she was probably convinced I was dead, can you blame her for being protective?" The conversation around them quieted at this as eyes turned to look at him. Enek however stood resolute in this matter, staring directly at Cyn.

Her gaze broke and she looked away from him. "Alright, fine. We can go see the... canine, if we must." The distaste for the word was evident in her voice. "It's not my fault alright? You were going to die if we didn't." Cyn looked downcast as she hugged the book to her chest. Motioning to follow, she lead him out of the mess hall, looking back longingly at the food and whining quietly as her stomach rumbled.

===

Asyr sat in a darkened cell after the troublesome armored humans threw her in here. They chained her wrists and neck to the wall with shackles, and there was no telling now how much time had passed. A human comes in every so often and leaves a bowl of food, some kind of liquid substance with no real definable taste beyond bland. During her time in here she had curled her head against her knees in a fetal position and quietly cried into her fur a few times now. What did they plan on doing to her? Was her Alpha still alive? She felt him when the undeads left, his heartbeats were weak and erratic.

Alone in his dark prison her mind drifted back to happier places. Asyr thought of home and the tribe. The hunters would be hauling in some large boars probably, setting them up roast over the bonfire. The little ones are running about, jumping and tumbling with one another as the matriarchs looked on with amusement. Above all however, in this recreation of home within her mind Enek was there. Maybe as a fellow hunter, or with his magic maybe even as a healer. She was sure the tribe would welcome him in with skills like that.

A metal door opened somewhere as the sound echoed through the area and footsteps followed. A female voice speaking to someone, then the sounds of the lock on the door to her cell. She hardly payed attention to any of this, it was likely someone bringing the next bowl of tasteless slop or maybe a guard coming to relieve some anger by beating her. Her eyes focused just long enough to see that female feline and she growled. A low string of curses escaped Asyr's mouth in the canine language.

"See? What did I say, she's just plain rude." Cyn huffed, placing her hand on her hips as she spoke to someone out of view. The listener moved into the doorway and Asyr's heart skipped a beat.

===

Enek stepped into the cell and kneeled down beside the sitting canine-morph. Her eyes were wide with hopeful disbelief as her drooping ears perked and her tail wagged happily. "Alpha?!" Tears slowly leaked from her eyes and she sniffed the air for his scent. "Enek..!"

Wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug, they nuzzled foreheads to one another. "Yeah, I'm here Asyr." Silence passed as they shared in the moment with one another. Turning to look back at Cyn while he still held onto to Asyr. "Can you get these shackles off her now?"

Slowly nodding her head, Cyn watched them interact with one another. "She really is smitten with you, isn't she?" Her attention turned to the warden on duty and motioned with a flick of her chin. Returning to her book, she started flipping through the pages and searching for something within. "At any rate, she needs to follow to a few rules while here. She's to adhere to the laws of the city, which means wearing clothes for starters.." Cyn cleared her throat, uncomfortable with such open affection that was being displayed as Asyr gently lapped at Enek's neck and cheek.

The warden entered and released her from the shackles, backing away quickly and giving Cyn a look. "She also needs to stay by your side, absolutely no wandering off. That means within eye sight all of the time. And finally, this one is for you as well but you're to remain within the castle grounds for the time being. Are we clear?" She looked up from the book.

Asyr had pushed Enek to the stone floor and crawled atop him, straddling his hips as she rubbed her chest to his. Soft moans of happiness escaped her mouth as her eyes closed as she cuddled against him. Enek laughed as he held her in return. "Stop that, it tickles."

Sighing softly, Cyn closed the book and readjusted her glasses. "So I'll just consider those missed points..."