FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Frozen blood, endless walking, and icicles hanging from Amand's nose. That is all I remember of our month of trying to crawl across Kordonian mountains and get further north-west, into the uncharted lands of dread and mystery. And we found plenty of both. I tried to avoid any of the brutal wolf tribes residing there, as well as any bandit groups I remembered meeting during my first travels of the kingdom, but deeper into the unknown territory, finding conflict turned out to be our second nature. All kinds of bloodthirsty men and women, vying for nothing but a brutal end to our life. I couldn't even call them bandits, since they looked nothing like ones, and they were too out of hand of any civilisation to leech from. Most strange of all, big chunk of them were humans. In lands so unwelcome to their kind, I could not figure out why they would reside there.

Some we scared away - simply by flashing our crude weaponry and exposing our fangs - but most were too stubborn, finding brutal end by our clawed hands. Every encounter was just as vicious as the last one, with broken bones, arrow torn flesh, and cut-off limbs littering our way through the pine trees overgrown mountain sides. My stomach could only take so much, each time twisting in abhorrence as we always spent a good hour cleaning ourselves from the blood of our last fight.

"Reading, or thinking about it...," Amand uttered lifeless. "...you'd really want to wipe all this scum from the face of earth. But...doing it, I feel losing myself...and they give us no choice, really." He growled sad, tugging a blood soaked scrap of cloth from his no less bloodied spear.

His words only strengthened my path in life: to abandon my mercenary ways. But abandoning my weapons would be foolish at best. I started rubbing the back of his jacket with a damp piece of shirt, the whole of him splattered with droplets of rusty red fluid. "Don't you enjoy it somewhere deep inside?" The words slipped my lips, cruel, but sincere.

He snorted. "Perhaps...besting someone. Killing? No, Marcella. I don't know how hollow I'd have to turn to revel in bloodbath. Not to mention, forest spirits don't tend to stick with those who kill for amusement."

"I feel the same, wolf. Well..." I tickled the side of his muzzle. "...I can't attest for the spirits, mind you."

Everyday I thought about turning on heel and quitting the journey. For the most of my travels, I had little trouble risking my life - everything I have ever gotten myself into was quick and merry. But I had a lot of trouble pulling him into such life, mostly as the merry part of my carefree way of living was very missing. The last week of our journey was nothing but sharp rocks and frozen to death trees, its limbs curved in the most diabolical ways possible. I was afraid to walk close by, let alone touch them, and even those troubling occurrences vanished eventually, only the crunchy snow and barren mountain sides keeping us company. Back in the last of Kordonian settlements we had bought ourselves thick winter coats to warm us. Mine was running all the way down to my knees, grey-white and with subtle sewn-in details, while the wolf opted for a dark-grey one, rough and rugged, covering him neck to toes. With every piece of attire added to him, the whiny, sensitive short tail grew more menacing. I also bought thick pants for me - without which my privates would have frozen solid - and for him, leather high-boots for his naked feet. He growled at them for whole days, but that only lasted until the first ice showed up.

In time, with us both starting to lose the track of it, we came upon a deep valley surrounded by massive mountains. We stood on a ledge overlooking the forest overgrown bottom, unbelieving of our own eyes. The sun was gone by then, its soft glow shining from behind one of the pointy mountains, and we closed to the edge of the crest. However frozen the trees bellow were, after nothing but ice, rock, and grey sky, the pines were the most cuddly things we met. In the green mass we caught a glimpse of a village, all stone and pointy brown-reddish roofs, smudged with streaks of white snow. Despite the rush of excitement from finding something new, the sight unnerved me. Not only did Aden's map - derived from the morph folklore and legends - turn frighteningly accurate, we also eyed an old stronghold built into sharp rocks of a mountainside, something eerily glistening about it. Once the night came, the hold shrouded into deepest darkness, and the whole of the valley turned black along with it. We spent our last night next to the cliff. Amand found a crack in the rocks, big enough for us to comfortably squeeze into, and resting our powerless bodies there, we tried to relax, our muzzles firmly shut.

I could not sleep at all. I repeated in my mind everything that had led to that point; all the hardships and pains, the broken dreams I could not stop hoping for. Amand whined softly, somehow feeling my distress. He hadn't even asked before he started chanting. I rested my head against his chest, and letting the familiar shuffle of his words take over me, I drifted into sleep.

Thursday, 8th July 830 / Village Silhania, Broken Promises

It was the land I was never supposed to set a foot in. We were lucky to find a foot trail leading down into the bottom of the valley, but it hardly helped in our slow descent. Every bit of the way was a stumble across pointy stones and steep ridges, with some parts so dangerous we had to ditch our progress and crawl back up, looking for a different way. But some ledges, we had no choice but to traverse. Amand took care of that. He etched his spear into whatever crack he could find, then, holding onto the pole to keep balance, we safely traversed along the most slippery of rock. Amid the trees our mood turned adventurous. The village was a good deal of walking away and we aimed straight for it, our tails swishing and slapping each other. We were wondrous of what we would be finding in the place - perhaps elderly morphs remembering the oldest of days, or some crazy she-wolf and her loyal minions, as skimpy tail joked.

The air was cold, yet somehow pleasant, with the high trees rustling and shielding us from the gushes of wind racing down from the distant icy tips. I fired my bow from the long while. It was a welcomed distraction, me pulling the string only halfway back, making sure the arrows wouldn't get completely stuck in the sturdy wood, and Amand dashed tree to tree, removing them swiftly from the bark. He sprinted from behind one tree trunk, snatching the last arrow, and to my full surprise, darted for me, toppling me over into a pile of snow and pine needles.

He nuzzled my face. "Such a strange place. It makes me all feral."

"Oh come on." I laughed, using all of my strength to roll on top of him. "Every forest turns you into a frisky beast."

"Beast or no...I'm scared to go there." He exclaimed all of a sudden, his wolf eyes misting over. "Into the village. And something strange is in the air...like burned, or charred...I can't hope to say what."

I raised to my feet, glancing the way of the far away stonework and thin chimneys spouting black smoke. "We'll be careful. You have my word, skimpy tail. We're too far now to turn back," I comforted him, easing my own foreboding feelings at the same time.

"I know...I know." He growled strongly, jumping to feet to follow me.

Our paranoia only rose when we found ourselves at the edge of the settlement. The homes loomed over us, built of rounded stone bricks tacked tightly together. Most were two storey tall and with highly decorated window frames, the roofs reaching over the outside walls. My boots bluntly tapped against the road stonework and Amand followed soundless - as was his natural, when we finally met the first inhabitants. A pack of humans, travelling in haste along the length of the completely empty street, when an older man, toting a candle that had since doused in the persistent winds, took notice of us, and no scream nor cursing, only a sharp gasp, he threw his arms around and tripped onto the road, splaying across half of it. The others, shrouded in long coats and furred capes, forced him to his feet and disappeared behind a near corner, leaving us baffled in the lone street.

My companion furrowed his eyebrows. "That did not seem very friendly to me."

"You're right." The recurve bow was only a reach of my paw away. I prepared it with an arrow ready. "Let's go."

"Marcella?" Amand hissed. "Is rushing in really a good idea?"

"No point just standing around, wolf."

I heard his javelin scraping against the road, when he voiced himself. "It's clear we are not welcome here. You think we can fend off the whole of the town guard?"

I half drew my bow, wagging my tail to ask him to follow. "It's either back to Kordonia, or we find someone to talk to. They cannot be all terrified of us."

We pushed deeper into the twisting streets of the surprisingly large village. I kept on the main road to avoid any of the narrow side streets, playing on the strong point of having a ranged weapon, when we met several other human villagers. Their reactions were only stranger, as they scattered from the street faster than I blink. It was so frighteningly different compared to what I got used to in my travels, as no matter how much hate or love any human ever swore me, none panicked as much as them. Amand was incredibly scared himself, his breaths almost wheezes. I squeezed his paw to caress him, but it hardly helped. Another junction in the road was past us and we met no further inhabitants, only the icy snow sweeping down from the rooftops, grazing our muzzles.

Finally, just as I was tiring of holding my bow half ready, one brave villager approached us, walking down the middle of the street. The cloaked figure stopped some distance from us and started a dry speech. "It's some years when I saw your kind here the last time. Will you be staying long with us?" He slid his hands free from his dark cloak, cupping his palms in front of him.

I eased my grip, but otherwise kept my paw on the bow. "As far as welcomes go...hello. Why are you folk so scared of us?"

My companion growled, swatting my side with his short tail.

The shrouded man edged closer, a strange smirk creeping up his almost fully hidden face. Suddenly, he made a gesture with his hand, two fingers outstretched, and his arm coming to an end of the circular motion, the man recoiled. "Hmph. We better get inside. I have no fur to warm me, like you do."

His gesture puzzled me, just as his empty posture resembling the deserted street. The man hid his hands once again, and steaming air in the morning chill, he awaited our reaction. I pondered if to take him up on his offer, if it was worth putting ourselves at jeopardy for the slight chance of learning of my father's travels. But after the month on the road, our reserves dwindling, and him being the only who approached us to talk, I lowered my bow to gesture my agreement.

I tried to remain friendly, but my voice shook. "That sounds good. We're frozen solid ourselves."

Amand whined and I pulled him after me, when our host turned on spot and led us onward. "You must have travelled quite the distance. I...I have to say, I'm rather shaken myself-" A gush blew from a secluded alley, muting his voice. "But being the mayor, it remains for me to cater to you."

I had to shout for my words to pierce the winds. "When was the last time when you saw a morph? Or when anyone else here saw one. The other villagers dashed away like I was the devil."

The mayor responded in a high tone, "Morph?" Pausing, he pointed at a large building, walls built of smooth stone tiles like the rest of the village structures, with two torches illuminating the arch of the entryway, sitting at the top of a short, ice covered stairwell. "Let's haste inside, but be careful traversing the stones. The servants hadn't had time to clear the paths free of ice yet. And what did you mean with the word 'morph'?"

"That is what the rest of the world calls us. Are we really such a rare occurrence here?" The thought shivered my backside, but what the man said further almost knocked the breath out of me.

"I don't know what I'd call you myself...but other villagers would most likely settle with 'gods.'"

Amand barked in surprise. "What?"

Our host traversed to the main entrance, almost slipping on every step of the stairwell, and at the top, he swung one side of the double door open. "Surprising for you, perhaps. I have some questions too, if you'd be inclined." Outstretching his hand, he urged us to follow inside.

The interior shielded us from the unnaturally cold morning, resembling a true town hall, with countless benches littering the entry room, and a large posting board tucked next to a wall. The mayor closed doors behind us, shaking his thick cloak to brush it free of snow, and the thick flakes melted into drops of water as soon as touching the ground. The place was so warm compared to our long days of frosty outsides, I started to feel uncomfortably hot under my thick layer of clothing.

Skimpy tail overtook the conversation. "Who in their right mind would call us gods? That is just-"

The mayor interrupted him, his voice rumbling in the heavy silence. "Seeing as we still have one, watching over us, it is a simple conclusion. Please, you must be hungry. The servants should be done with the breakfast by now." He set his winter cloak on one of the benches, revealing a layer of luxuriously decorated robes, glistening with all the colours of polished bronze. I lost my gaze in all the reflections, before I took a better look at the man and his wrinkled skin, covering a long, oval face, his expressions cryptic and unreadable, and his white, receding strands of hair sprouting from the sides of his skull.

His words were too much of a bother to make sense of, so I only played along. "I'd love a good meal. We are completely starved. My name is Marcella, and this growly tail is my companion, Amand." The wolf growled, as if to acknowledge my words, and I continued. "Something tells me our coin is a worthless currency here, but we'll pay somehow."

"Oh, no need to pay, grey-fox. Hmm, sorry, you most likely don't fancy being called your animal selves. I am Razrus of Silhania, which is this very humble village. Come." He smiled fondly, but I sensed something subtly sly in his expression.

We moved deeper into the hollow building, walls painted a yellowish tint of white and the floor made of flat stone tiles which squeaked under our moist boots. I heated my furred hands at a large fireplace illuminating the hall, then, passing by it into an open door, I found myself in a darker room, green carpet muffling my footsteps. The residue smells meddling in the air pointed it to be a dining hall.

The mayor cursed in a squeaky voice. "Useless. Why have servants when they can't even light a set of lanterns. I'll get someone, should be only a moment."

I growled coyly. "No need." Then, snapping my fingers, the lanterns lighted up one after another, its flames dancing across the yellowish walls and large paintings of the room before settling fully. "This grey-fox knows a trick or two."

Razrus gave me a startled look, his eyes almost leaving sockets. I could only guess why my battle spell worried him so, when a young woman clothed in dark brown dress entered the room, and as if failing to notice either me or the nervous wolf clutching my paw, she calmly walked in front of the mayor.

She said uninterested, "The breakfast is almost ready. Should I bring plates for the guests too?" Only then she looked at us, her eyebrows rising remarkable distance up her forehead. She gurgled strongly, turned whiter than the outside snow, and making further strange noises, she backed into a wall unknowingly. One of the paintings trembled as she banged her head against its thick frame, and the blonde haired woman reeled onto her knees.

"Breathe, Sophia. Breathe." Our old host tried to calm her. He helped her to her feet and walked her slowly in front of us. "Look, there is nothing to be feared. They are just like us." Even in the short while, she had covered herself in a thick layer of shiny sweat.

Her eyes met mine and she shivered, delivering a meek whimper, "Oh god I can't."

"It's okay, it's okay." The old human tried to comforted her again - a futile attempt, how overtaken with fear she was. He walked her next to the door not to torment her longer, when he whispered something directly into her ear. I tried to eavesdrop, perking up both of my vixen ears, but no matter how much I tried, I failed to discern a single word.

With her wobbling out of the dining room, Razrus turned his attention to us. "Please, don't be distressed. The breakfast should be done any minute now. Take a seat," he said in a fond voice

The table, like all of the room's furniture and decorations, would feel more at home in a monastery. It was long and thin, spacious enough for about twelve people to sit comfortably at, and it's evenly polished surface conjured an illusion of being created from a single tree trunk. Sitting down, I glanced over the peculiar paintings hanging over the walls, resembling religious scenes portraying chaotic and hard to recognize events shrouded in painted darkness. I found them too complex the moment, instead lowering my muzzle to remove my moist winter coat, that I then placed on the table next to my bow and arrow. Amand filled a seat in front of me. Ditching his own thick cloak, he smiled nervously. Comfort was probably the last thing he was feeling.

"You haven't mentioned yet, why have you measured all this distance into our humble village?" The mayor said, placing himself at the end of the table. "Visitors coming here are an event on it's own."

It was a better chance than any to ask. "Well, apart from the adventures extraordinary...I'm searching for someone."

"Aren't we all?" he quipped.

I glanced at Amand, who had since abandoned the conversation and took to sniffing at the air, his eyes open in thin cracks.

Taking a deep breath, I mustered enough courage to talk. "Has any grey-fox passed through here in the recent past? A male, armed to his fangs and with a fur pattern like me?" I shivered softly.

"I cannot say." Razrus was quick with the reply. "Some - how did you call yourself? Some morph visited decades back, but that was when I was only beginning in this function...and those were very hectic times, indeed." He made another strange gesture with his hand, before resting his round chin on it's knuckles.

I had a feeling that the mayor wasn't sharing everything he knew with me. "Decades? No...it's a few years at most. P-please, do you remember anything that could help me?"

The mayor smirked. "I cannot recall everything, dear. I'm only an old man with dwindling memory who is waiting to be replaced by some younger counterpart. As soon as these young can stop bickering who gets behind the saddles, that is."

I couldn't fathom why he would stall the conversation all of a sudden. "Anything would help. He is someone very dear to me"

The human remained silent, only leaning into his cupped hands.

I grew sad of the hollow conversation, and in my distaste, I took a closer look at the paintings decorating the walls. Having finally realised what was depicted in them, I gasped in surprise. It was a dragon of large black wings and softly green scales, portrayed in his clearly god like qualities. I basked how well built the morph creature was, emanating an aura of arousing power and sheer dominance, with only his stark form downright filling all of the paintings. Only shame was that the drawings were clearly the crafts of an artist deeply tasted in dark and disturbed, as otherwise, if not so cheerless, I would have been salivating all over them.

The darkly explicit creations fuelled my mischievous nature. I pointed at one, and smirking cheek to cheek, I teased the mayor. "Is that your god? Well well...with the size of him between his legs, it's no wonder you're all so scared."

Amand shook his head at me, sinking his pointy muzzle into his hands.

Mayors' cheeks caught colour, but before I could misuse the new knowledge further, servants opened the doors and brought in the morning meal. It was no luxury cuisine, not in the slightest. Quite on the humble side, actually - cut bread, fresh and crispy, calling for a bite, next to it several chunks of roasted, deliciously smelling meat, and pickled vegetables to balance it out, no less edible looking. Our host called one of the servants over, leaning closer to whisper something into his ear. I hoped to listen again, extending my ears in the direction, but as soon as the pleasantly smelling platter of food landed in front of me, I forgot the whole world. Disregarding anything resembling decent eating, I burrowed my muzzle into the full plate and started munching.

"Don't hold yourself back," the mayor said, scraping a knife against his ceramic platter. "Animalistic powers - on the level with gods or no - hardly ever find satisfaction in volume."

Whether it was an unclear metaphor or an attempt to ridicule me, I did not care. All I cared about was to digest everything that had been lying in front of me, as fast as I could.

Razrus continued. "And it begets more, above everything else. Thankfully, by giving it well timed chunks, you can persuade it to remain somehow reasonable."

Despite the man's words grazing against my ears like sharp twigs, they had not reached my conscious mind. Only faint growling and a boot hitting my sheen were enough to snap me out of my culinary pillage. I raised my muzzle from the plate, strings of musky spit hanging from my lips, when I saw Amand and his serious expression. The wolf then lowered his nose to his untouched meal, and as if sniffing, flaring the black tip of his muzzle twice, he looked back at me. His eyes were marked with dismay, the wolf running his outstretched claw from one side of his neck to the other, ruffling his dark-grey fur in the process. Even in my strikingly dazed state of mind, I understood very well what he wanted to say - the food, and our host most likely, were tainted by ill intentions. I covertly tried to snatch my bow, but it was farther down the table than I remembered putting it down - completely out of reach.

The mayor's voice had fallen into a bleak shuffle. "As any god, it requires frequent sacrifices. Like you, Marcella, it searches for something." He cupped his face in his hands, giving us a few precious moments to react.

Amand pierced me with his gaze, twitching his muzzle in the mayor's direction. And then, nodding slowly, he waited for my reply. I knew it was time to act, as our host's intentions were hardly honest.

I nodded back, giving the go.

My companion sprung from his seat, with such speed that he completely blurred before me, and with such strength that his chair crashed against the wall behind him. I concentrated on gaining my bow back. I so-so snatched the string with my paw, when my precious weapon jumped forward along the table, yanking me atop the polished surface with it. I cursed the mayor's treacherous wizardry. Holding onto the bow, all I heard were wild growls and furniture falling over, when a desperate shriek pierced the ruckus.

"G-guards!" the mayor's stammer was loud enough to ring my ears.

Irregular stomping echoed from behind the closed doors. I mustered all inner strength to spring to my knees and load an arrow, only in time with the door flying open and three humans entering the room. I flung me eyes weapon to weapon, two drawn back bows and one loaded crossbow, the tools of death aimed square at me. The scared vixen heart thumping in my chest sped up berserk. My arrow snapped from my recurve bow with a deafening force, piercing right through an eyesocket of a red haired lass toting the crossbow. Her limp body crumbled to the carpet as I half drew a fresh shaft, and it already whistled towards the second target. The bald villager took the tip through his lung and the force of the impact sent him stumbling to the ground, the man toppling half of the chairs around. Third of them proved to be the biggest hassle. He pushed the tip of his arrow right into my face, threatening to carve my muzzle front to back with it.

I barked in anger, yanking his bow from his hand with my own, and jumping at the villager, I clawed myself into his flanks. I felt the appalling taste of his fear induced sweat, followed by a layer of skin, veins and flesh, when a gush of warm blood filled my muzzle and his neck bones snapped. Another soul that found its end under the squeeze of my otherwise delicate muzzle.

"Lay still, worm!" Amand snarled. Having had pinned our host under his body, he aimed his pointy muzzle at me. "You-you all right?!"

I rolled onto my back down from the mangled corpse, and I realised I couldn't get up. However I tried, my muscles only twitched meekly, and I felt my mind drowsing into forced sleep.

My voice gave out too, a faint hiss leaving my lips. "...lone-wolf...."

He rushed to help. I almost blacked out fully when he pressed some mashed herbs into my nose, forcing their putrid smell down my nostrils. Like all of his tribal habits and curing, it helped within minutes.

His muzzle blocked out my vision, when my lover exclaimed in his grainy voice. "What a damn mess we got ourselves into." He murmured softly, "Gosh...I'm so glad that's not your blood."

"I'd prefer if no blood was involved...you managed to leave that bastard intact?" I uttered, leaning onto him for support. The wolf wrapped his paw around me and brought me over to the mayor. Razrus was lying on his side and heaving. I gave him a hateful stare and I lowered myself on one of the chairs, trying to pull my confused mind together - the whole room was spinning in circles around me, nauseating me further.

My companion responded, "Yeah...nearly tore his arm off, though. We better move...where was one guard-"

"I understand. But I don't want to leave without a good questioning." I cleared my throat of all the blood, spitting it on the table. "Can you carry him? I can barely walk as is."

Amand was nowhere near gentle as he lifted up the bastard of a mayor, throwing him over his back. I gathered our coats and my bow, loading it with a fresh arrow, and I walked first into the rest of the town hall. The corridors were eerily silent, hollow structures, wind blowing against their closed windows, and of hardly any other reason to be than to connect the rooms together. Every corner was a risk, each door a blind gambit, and I moved wall to wall, not letting my grip on the bow weaken.

Whispering softly, I asked, "To the basement?"

"No." Amand tapped behind me. "We'll escape over to the roof once we're done here. Basement is a death trap."

"Good thinking. The attic then? Though we should really try to find his chambers...might be something there." I quickly searched the deceiving man, finding a small key in one of his pockets. Of course, any questioning of the actual whereabouts of his chambers were out of any reason, and we ended up having to search for it blindly.

Luckily, or better put, thanks to the wolf stopping me whenever I almost walked right into a crowded chamber, we managed to stay undetected. The mayor was quick to try to scream every time we heard someone close by, but Amand muffled him promptly. I was scared to look how. Pressing on, we found ourselves wandering into one of the wings of the building, and while plenty welcoming compared to the hollow main halls, with rich carpets and window curtains giving it a touch of softness, it proved to be far darker and unnerving. We tried the key on every unoccupied room we came upon, spending long minutes walking from one ornate door to another. I was growing tired hearing every door denying me, when we found a cooperating one in the farthest hallway of the second floor. The lock clicked open, I twisted the handle, and as I tried to walk in, I only smacked my forehead against the sturdy wood.

"What are you doing?" the lone-wolf hissed. "Open it. I'm tired of carrying this bag of worms around."

I growled back, "I unlocked it, you damn mutt. Oh...could it be?" I realised what kind of foul play was in place. "Wizards and their dirty tricks. Hmm, Razrus? Hold him firm, wolf."

Skimpy tail put or host on his feet, roughly yanking the mayor's arms behind his back. The man was about to scream, when Amand placed his hand on his mouth, muffling him safely. He was right where I needed him. I unsheathed my claws and placed them on his forehead, only prickling him at first. Then, moving close enough to bite, I whispered in his ear. "After all the lies and deceiving...you could at least apologize somewhat, and open that door. Hmm?"

"I was right to try and restrict you." Razrus groaned from behind the wolf paw. "Your current actions only p-prove that."

Blood trickled down his forehead in big, dark drops. I had lost all patience already, piercing his flesh all the way to the bone.

Amand cringed. "You-you're going to torture him? I cannot...please. Be swift." The wolf turned his muzzle away.

I ignored my companion's voice, clawing deeper into the mayor's fresh wounds. "Yes?! Maybe I should have acted in prejudice too?" I hissed in anger, "Dispel that trickery. Dispel it...or I'll fuck you with an arrow. You won't be the first one."

I placed my hand on his throat next, not only choking him, but also giving him the renewed taste of my vixen claws. His stifled wails wrinkled Amand's face further, who was growing more disgusted of me by the second. Mind numbing hate tainted my heart. I swept my hands lower, under the human's bronze coloured robes, and with my lone-wolf's desperate whines left ignored by my sadistic desires, I scratched at the old male's soft skin.

I mocked him next, the dark feelings in me rising still, "Are you getting off of this? I won't ask again." It was time to up the risks. I grinned and took hold of one of my arrows, the man bulging his eyes at the sight, when I swept the metal tip under his robes, pressing it sideways into his skin. I let his imagination do the rest. Only then his will crumbled, when I reached the edge of his pubes, nudging the tip between his legs.

"Enough!" He screamed from behind the trembling wolf paw, closing his bloodshot eyes. "H-have what you want...monster...!"

I smirked, wiping the drying blood into his bronze-brown robes. "So that's what you guys call us. Monsters." I clutched the handle of the door again, twisting it down exactly like the first time. It clicked softly and flung wide, revealing a spacious yet overstuffed room full of furniture and old smelling books - submerged in dimness.

Amand whined, trailing inside after me. "That was...I can't take this. Don't ask me to help you with torture again."

I was as if possessed, ignoring his words and directing him to set Razrus on a low chair I found tucked under a table. I peeked from behind the door to check if anyone caught the trail of us, and finding the hallway empty, I locked the door and focused on the unruly man. He was shaking in his seat, refusing to return eye contact.

"You filthy bastard. What had you intended to do with us?" I sat on his lap, pushing my fangs revealed into his wet cheek. His blood mixed with the thick sweat and the smell burned my nostrils. "I should bite off your lips for this trickery-"

"Marcella!" My companion growled, stomping about impatiently. "Can you stop that? You...I'm not recognizing you at all...can we do with this without tearing limbs?"

"Don't be so squeamish," I shot back.

The lone-wolf whined in a high pitch, "Squeamish?!"

"Yes...if you can't stomach this...." I exhaled soundly, annoyed. "...search his things, or go over the village records. Make yourself useful, okay?"

The forest wolf twitched his ears, almost snapping at my words. His muzzle wrinkled deeply in anger. "Hardly, if I see nothing." A rough growl followed.

I instinctively snapped my fingers and every candle and lantern littering the room blinked to life. That had finally gotten the beast off my back. What was strange, it didn't occur to me that the rage I vented on him was not only unjustified, but very likely not of my own heart.

"So, Razrus. Will you talk, or do I have to unsheathe the sword?" I forced him to look at me with my claws, feeling nothing but contempt for the man. It boiled my blood he had played the façade of friendliness, only to misuse our trust, tricking us, and what was the worst of all, his motivation was a complete mystery.

The mayor coughed, shuffling on the chair to try and turn away. "You came a real surprise. It's decades since abominations like you two dared to stick their ugly noses in here. And like the monsters you are, you only set pain and...and decay into motion." He closed his eyes. "...living with one 'god' terrorizing this place was enough." He delivered the sentence in such revolting tone that my neck bulged up. When, catching me fully off guard, the bastard puckered his lips and spat right in my eye.

My reaction was nothing but brutal. I put the whole of my back into the slap I gave the man, letting my claws fully exposed to shatter his face into lines of ravaged skin and gushing blood.

Amand barked in anger. "How many damn times. He's telling us nothing, stop fulfilling your twisted blood-lust and let him be!"

"Shut your trap and keep to your search. Short tail. Or you'd rather surrender to this bastard?" In the corner of my eye, I could see the mayor smirking softly, but my enraged mind had ignored that happily. "Huh...closed in chains, that's what you'd like? Get that softy butt raped...a wolf in the likes of you would be more than at home, getting used."

"In the likes of me?!" He blinked. "What-what are you spewing, you vile, ungrateful cunt!" Saying he was in amok would be a weak word. The lone-wolf ripped the book he was sifting through apart, and his eyes bulged out, nose wildly flaring, tail hitting furniture in angry swishes, he nudged me with his muzzle and screamed directly into my face. "Any other would have given up on your promiscuous tail! Go to hell, Marcella. Go to hell and go suck some strangers cock who doesn't give two shits about you. Like you always happily do!"

Despite the horrible things being screamed at me - or perhaps thanks to them - my mind had finally cleared. Razrus started chuckling. A very strange reaction, given that he was the likely target for our anger and claws, unless our fight was exactly what he planned. I tried to talk sense into Amand, the remorse of my insults crushing me greatly, but it was too late. He shook his fist high in the air, growling menacingly, exposing his large fangs, and I could only meekly shield myself, when I heard the meaty thump of his fist hitting something very close to my ear. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes. Before me was the wolf's confused face, and the mayor splayed over the floor, with the chair toppled under his legs.

"What the hell was that...," The wolf groaned, all of the hate that was controlling him vanishing from his wolfish face. And just like his expression, I suddenly calmed myself too. He massaged the back of his right hand, involuntarily smearing droplets of blood into its fur. "I'm so sorry...Marcella, sweet vixen. Please...forgive me for this," he said, ears folded fully.

I cringed at myself. "Only if you can forgive me for the...terrible stuff I said. Please, I love you the way you are." His nose was a lean away, and I kissed the warm, salty wolf button fondly. "I haven't meant any of that. It all felt like sorcery, you think he did that?"

"It's all right...you felt that too?" He perked his ears again. "I smelled something foul about him from the get go...but why go through the trouble of poisoning our food, then?"

"I don't know. Perhaps he's not that much of a wizard...but still, why all this trouble to restrain us? I mean, we wouldn't make a good personal set of fluffy playthings, would we?" I shuddered at the thought.

The mayor was only lying there, his nose at a nauseatingly twisted angle and his face layered with rusty red blood. With every other shallow breath, crimson red bubbles formed at his nostrils.

Amand groaned, stroking my face softly. "What now...I hope you're not going to question him again?"

"I don't know, love. You're right that we are not ourselves around him." Caressing the wolf, I added, "But he is the only one who knows what's going on."

"Forget him. I did find something...a second before we called each other a happy to bend over sluts." The wolf attempted a joke, but within the circumstances, it had no chance of working.

I joined him at his side, letting his tail to brush against my waist. What the wolf held was the torn to shreds book, its pages holding together as if by will, with the binding strings completely snapped and sticking out from under the mess of aged paper.. Luckily, the text was still very clearly legible. He showed me some parts, mainly of the god that the mayor had kept mentioning, and of some of the rather eyebrow raising offerings the villagers were obliged to carry out.

I eyed the title, blurting it aloud. "'Old legends of Silhania.' I don't think that this is fully relevant."

Amand raised his muzzle into the air. "Well, he pitted us against each other just as I found it. A rather...favourable coincidence. For him, I mean."

I tapped his shoulder and opened a drawer of a nearby writing desk, coming upon badly tended scrolls. "Good point. Read out the interesting parts, I'll search on further."

Fragile paper after fragile paper, I read through the missives and records of some of the more interesting village events, but sadly, nothing that would shed light on either my missing father or the mayor's maddening words. Amand propped the fallen over chair straight, checking on Razrus if he still drew breath and held to life. I had the urge to halt him, but letting that man die was not something my companion could stomach. He smeared some herbs into the mayor's wounds, and then, coughing sharply, he cushioned himself on the chair.

He licked his lips over and started reading, "'...the village was built by our great forefathers centuries in the past, during times when knowledge and mind ruled over sword and shield....' Eh, that looked better, before I started reading it...." He skimmed a few pages. "Oh, now this is interesting...'most notable was the guild of conjurers, who, with their immense wealth and spells which held like a curtain over common folk, tricked the peasants into building the mountainside stronghold for them. These intelligent, yet not void of humanly errors men were led by the master wizard Rufus Malevor Abretius, who-"

A great chill rushed down my spine. "Him? This is the last of the places I'd want to hear that name in."

"You know of him? First time I see that name,"Amand asked clueless.

I run out of drawers, choosing a large, glass door cabinet for my next inspection. "I know you were rather isolated from these things in your tribal years...." I smiled at him, to gesture I hadn't meant it as a tease. "He is our supposed creator. That is if you'd believe any of the crap some of the obnoxious humans spew."

"Yeah." He uttered in a colourless voice. "I heard that one too. This book pretty much confirms that. Well, I mean...." The wolf cleared his throat. "'Led by their bottomless hunger for knowledge, they studied the outside world, but Malevor's hunger having perhaps a more concrete shape, he ordered his apprentices to study the wildlife...'" More pages being shuffled over. "'...the sources are unclear, and any academic knowledge on the matter is a mere opinion at best, but what little facts were gathered, point to a single conclusion. All of the bipedal animals that had spread across the kingdoms like wildfire some three to four hundred years back, were indeed the life work of a single man and his army of wizards.'"

I exhaled into the cabinet by mistake, swirling thick dust into my face. "...I really hope that book is just a bunch of inn blabber packed into a neat cover."

The wolf upturned his muzzle and twitched his large ears. Relaxing them again, he searched in the book further. "Hmm...of this strange dragon that is depicted in all the paintings here." He grinned nervously, as if unsure whether to say his thoughts aloud. "...you'll love this. Someone had the great honour of measuring his sizes. Here they be: 'when his greatness is at conquering voyage...'" He chuckled fondly. "Hah...did you write this? Anyway...'from his impenetrable scales up to his mace like tip, he measures at a full length of a forearm, and the index finger and thumb of an average female hand don't reach fully around when wrapped about his circumference.'"

"You silly tail." I laughed, murmuring dreamily, "But then...I always wanted to take one for a ride - incredible beasts. Shame they don't exist."

He groaned worried. "Or this one does. The few pages onward are rather detailed on his weekly habits and the demands he gives the villagers. Such as these: an untainted virgin of the finest flesh and skin brought to him every five years, clothed only in allures and innocence. And of the men, golden ore in exact quantities and weekly supply of meat and food, wrapped carefully for their winged deity."

I slammed the door of the cabinet in frustration, having found nothing, when the wooden frame recoiled and almost hit me across the face. "It scares me to think that any of that is true. And then, if my father passed through here, what in the name of this winged deity did he want here?"

"I'd rather not guess. You found anything?" He asked, twitching his ears again.

I turned on heel, shuffling feet across the dirty carpet to get back to my skimpy tail. "Only accounting books and dusty memorials. Nothing interesting in any of them." Razrus groaned in pain, more blood leaking from his nose. "You think he wanted me as an offering for the dragon?" I joked, tired to even think.

Amand burst into laughter, promptly stifling himself. "A virgin, Marcella. He demands a virgin. Calling you one is like...well...I can't even think of a comparison, how ludicrous that sounds."

I wanted to flinch him across the nose playfully, but a small journal sitting on the floor almost sent me face down into the carpet. My boot slid atop it and I flopped to Amand's feet, hissing in anger.

I felt his firm fingers clasping my shoulders. "You all right?"

"Yeah...I hadn't planned kneeling before you today, though."

I reached for the journal I slipped on, but before I could open it, Amand sprung from his seat, whining desperately, "We have to go. Now!"

I could tell by the frown twisting his face that it was not the time to oppose. The wolf packed everything useful we managed to find, and giving me a peck on my lips, he opened one of the small windows overlooking the street. The rush of heavy footsteps stomping through the hallway reached my ears, when I recoiled, someone forcefully barging through a door of the next room. Amand already climbed from the window, one foot on the window sill and one hand outstretched toward me. I grabbed his paw and climbed next to him, snapping my fingers to submerge the mayor's chambers back into darkness.

The wolf huffed, hanging most of his weight from a stone, decorative beam. "Climb from my back onto the roof. Go!"

The days of my young self crawling atop trees were long past, but with my heart beating all the way up my throat, I managed to swung myself over to the slippery roof. I grabbed my lovers paw and pulled, when the wolf almost slipped and I gasped in shock, clawing into his hand to hold him. It goes without saying I was gravely scared that he would fall. Amand wrapped both his legs around the decorative beam, and with me pulling firmly, he managed to ascend next to my side. We both heaved, trying to catch our breaths. And on our stomachs still, we crawled over to the peak of the roof. Bellow us, in the room where we ditched our deceiving host, some rough men entered forcefully, their weapons rattling and their voices scattering in the outside chilly winds.

Despite only noon, the sky was a deeply overcast mass of dark-grey clouds, ominously rolling over us, and what little light penetrated through, was not bright enough to bring the day from night.

At the peak of the roof, Amand hugged my trembling body. "That was close. They almost got us. Let's get out of this damned village."

Having killed three of their own earlier in the day, escaping was our only option. I nodded, and we set out. Some of the villagers were already searching the streets, their torches turning the grey stonework into flickering colours of vivid orange. We traversed atop the rooftops for as long as we could. With the cramped up and tiny back alleys separating the houses, we could jump the small gaps easily. But inevitably, we came upon a large street, and we were forced to climb down. Amand timed every single of our moves. I kept close behind, holding softly onto his short tail that he twitched whenever he decided to slip cover to cover. It was not easy, but using the intricate nooks the streets were littered with, along with hiding under low walls separating some roads, we managed to escape into the surrounding woods.

We dashed mad for long minutes, trees swishing past and our bodies close to crumbling. Coming upon a small rock formation deep in the woods, we run out of breath, and we fell onto a snowless patch of grass near it.

My companion growled, half joking, half serious, "I can always count on you marking our asses for execution. I just hope they don't send hounds after us."

"It's going to be fine." I gulped and huffed, my throat sore from all the fast breathing. "This place feels like a fever dream."

We spent rest of the time calming down. Leaning onto a pointy rock, side by side, the world seemed so simple, straightforward, and unlike one would think, the fresh experiences only added to that, when, the sky still so hopelessly overcast, it occurred to me to check the journal I found in the mayor's room. It was old by a first glance, the leather of it ripped and its spine all twisted and bent. I opened it, expecting just another set of cold numbers, but what I found there, brought darkness to my heart and mind - a set of names, and next to them, scribbled dates. None felt familiar, and most entries dated as much as forty years back, when I found a section of it dryly named 'suitable'. Only a handful of names, most with no date next to them, but turning my eyes lower, I barked in shock. My fingers started to tremble as I read the lettering, the name more familiar than my own. Matias Gale.

"What is it? Marcella?" Amand noticed my distress. I showed him the page, and the wolf gasped. "By the...damn. I can't believe that. So he went through here."

"Yeah," I whimpered. "He went right under the hands of that bastard." The hopelessness in me needed an outlet, which I cried out at the top of my lungs. "Bastard!" The sheer desperation of my voice echoed in the distance softly.

The wolf pulled me close to him. "Shhhh. We're still alive. We can still look."

"If..." I let myself melt in his embrace. "Yeah...let's press on."

We searched through the documents we brought with us. The wolf read some new passages from the book of Silhania's legends, all the while I rested on his back, biting absently at one of his tribal braids. I learned nothing shockingly new, but it occurred to me we should be searching the stronghold overlooking all of the valley.

"'...and they, as species, are known to amass large amounts of gold, gems and wealth during their inhumanly long life.'" The wolf snorted. "The more I read of this crap...ugh. But we could be using that gold."

I murred deeply. "Save the day, the night, and the girl too? Is that your newest fantasy?"

Amand growled in annoyance.

I chuckled lifelessly, when I continued speaking, "I guess we should check it out. Unless we choose to bring the whole of the village to your spear."

In response, he only sighed deeply, "Given our options...."

The night was incredibly cold. We wanted to sleep in complete darkness, but our tails freezing solid, we built a bonfire to warm us. The risks were clear, but we had no other choice. The charred wood crackled softly as I stared into it mindless, the flame hardly able to stay alive, barraged by gushes of chilly winds; and the sensitive wolf heart, beating strongly under my ear, cradled my hurting mind. I thought of my father, of his scarred nose and his facial fur pattern - the exact same that beautifies my face, when I held the thoughts for the other male that could ever withstand me. I was as close to him as I could be, but at the same time, I felt more distant than I ever was.

Friday, 9th July 830 / Village Silhania, Broken Promises

"Don't be stupid!" Amand groaned as we made our way towards the offering site. "I'm not doing that."

I walked on, white pillars visible from behind the farthest trees. "We already went through this. What are the chances that a dragon really exists? This is the best way to find out."

The wolf jogged in front of me, walking backwards. "Stop for a second. You can't expect me to fight something that spits flames across the whole town square!"

I gave him my sword and pouches. "And I'm not. Besides, if we tried to crawl up that mountain, and that thing actually lived? There is no place to hide, on that barren rock."

He whined desperately, furrowing his wolfish muzzle.

"Look." I stopped to kiss him on his lips lovingly, pressing my bow into his paw. "The worst outcome: he is not a bored historian's fantasy, actually flies in, all perked up and arrogant, and takes me into his chambers - I'll be more than happy to occupy him. Should give my hush-hush wolf plenty time to crawl up that rock and have full reign over the castle."

Stifling a whimper, he turned away. "...that is what I'm afraid of."

"Oh come on. Everyone knows I'm your property. At the end of it all, I'll crawl back to you - on knees and pleading."

He laughed through a tearless cry. "I don't think you'll have the willpower to crawl. If those measurements were correct."

"Elbow long?" I obscenely licked my fangs over, ditching my white winter coat.

Amand groaned amused, "You damned slut."

The place had a strange aura of worship to it, built on an elevated patch of ground, only frozen stiff grass in a thirty metre circle around it. I raised my boot to traverse onto a white, square shaped slab of white rock, evenly polished and ornamented end to end, where I approached two circular poles of the same pale stone, reaching good three meters into the sky. Roughly in two thirds of the height were chains drilled into them, rattling ominously before my eyes.

I tried to courage up, my throat clamping down at the sight. "No turning back now." I stood between the stones, noticing that the ground was slightly smeared with black grit at the spot.

The wolf approached me, unbuttoning my jacket for me. "If something happens to you...I'm killing you myself." His claws tickled my chest, when he slid his hands lower, bringing my white blouse over my face.

"Don't be so dramatic." I turned around to slid out of my boots and knee padded thigh-highs, my tail twirling in the air joyfully - on it's own. Perhaps teasing him with my soft behind, the wolf joyfully whined at the sight, giving my tail a gentle stroke.

He tapped closer, straightening my with his paws and removing the last pieces of my attire - the tail ring and my wrist band. "I wouldn't normally mind chaining you somewhere...but this is terrible."

I started to tremble as he turned me around, clasping one of my hands into the iron shackles. Apart from his deep worry and hesitation, his beautiful, brown eyes - looking as if through me - were deathly still. With the other shackle clasping into place, true terror overcame me. Despite knowing he could release me at any given moment, I pressed my thighs closely together, my tail coiling about my leg.

The wolf exhaled, cringing. "This is just...mental. Dangerous. And stupid." He stomped back and forth, the tip of his muzzle almost touching his chest. "To hell with this. I'm taking you out."

His paw already ruffled the fur of my wrist, when I bumped his nose. "I can do it. Don't worry. Signal the fire."

The lone-wolf hugged me dearly, blowing his erratic breaths past my ear, and smearing his smell deeply into my nose in his hungry kiss, he refused to let go. I kissed him back, comforting us both. That pointy muzzle tasted so good - I didn't want to let go either.

"I love you Amand. I promise I do...and I ever will."

"You crazy vixen, how can I not love you myself."

With his embrace gone, my body trembled in the unforgiving cold. He walked over to a pedestal with a bronze bowl on top, and placing in it twigs and charred sticks we gathered in the morning, I snapped my fingers, and the flames lazily rose up the matte alloy. Then, my companion adding in it the strange herbs we found mentioned in the book of legends, the flames turned into a violet glare - impossible to look away from, and almost matching the lone-wolf's purple attire. And then, in the longest, silent moments, we waited. My companion hid somewhere out of my sight, but ready to intervene as we had agreed on. And we waited still, a strong gale washing over the trees, almost dousing the unnaturally coloured flames.

Unable to say how much time passed, perhaps long hours, torturing my body with sharp wind, or measly minutes, which I spent longing to get rid of the shackles, I heard something in the distance, almost like wings beating at the air. I wanted to check over my shoulder, yet my stiff muscles were rocks I couldn't push through. I perked my ears to listen, turning them for the back of me, when another sharp streak of wind blew right through my coat of fur, freezing my skin further. Yet, it was no wind at all. A content sounding snort reached my ears, and along with it, taps of naked feet, with large claws scraping against the white rock. My heart stopped beating.

"Oh, did the good old man prepare me his offering early?" A voice reached my ears, easy to understand, but so unnatural and sleek, it ringed both my ears and mind. "Now, now, food is always needed but a new...am I seeing right...."

I stiffened fully, not only unable to glance behind me, but too scared to actually try and do it.

The being tapped closer, slowly, almost hesitantly, when in the same baffling accent of voice, he laughed aloud. "Ahhh...perfect. Perfect! Another of our kin. Another! I cannot wait."

I could feel his presence on my back. I wanted to scream. I wanted to slip from the shackles and dash for the forest, but as his hot breath washed over the whole of my back, I whimpered, and only clamped down further.

"What a great day. I only expected more tasteless eggs, when...a f-fox?" He choked. "No, no no no. Could it? Really?!"

I almost jumped out of my fur when I felt two massive hands enveloping my chest. I closed my eyes, an incredibly thick, feral musk blocking out every other smell around, and I nearly blacked out, my knees giving way.

Whoever it was behind me, incredibly tall, large, and having me defenceless before him, trilled in delight, squeezing me strongly. It was not a domineering crush, but a fond, loving hug. And his voice seeped down my folded ears again.

"Tanith?!"