FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

My name is Delvara Javaed, and this the story that started on a windy, Autumn day in the year four hundred and seven. It is this story that led me to believe that sometimes the question "How do I get myself into these things?" just isn't good enough.

Our carriage swayed its way through the howling gale that was blowing across Mid Espara that day. It wasn't loud enough to drowned out the whinnying protests of the horses hauling our burden or the insistent, shouted orders of their driver. But for most of the trip east, it made conversation with the other occupants of the carriage nearly impossible. What few words that we'd exchanged before the trek had begun would have to to suffice for most of the morning. At the time, I was disappointed about that. It was the first time since I'd joined the Swords of Espara that I'd been in the company of women from its sister orders for any considerable length of time. Even as I wondered about them, though, I didn't feel that I would be giving the Swords a good name if I had to speak with the volume of a drunkard shouting across a beer hall for more Vadabian Mead. Fortunately, I had at least gotten their names and titles before the wind compelled me to be silent.

Athra Nadalo Shadeet sat in the corner opposite mine and was a woman nearly as tall as I. An Athra of the Shields of Espara, she was the highest ranking among those of us who had been chosen for the journey into Jo'rhun. I remember thinking that her black hair, speckled with tiny, glimmering jewels, resembled the dark sky on a clear night. With her hands folded on the lap of her stark cotton skirt beneath her pale blue robe, she seemed to be the stillest thing in the windswept carriage despite not holding the leather strap attached to the inner wall for just such an occasion.

Sekrit Sidik Shinude, on the other hand, was a much shorter woman. She had bright, orange hair and a young, expressive face, and she seemed to take the Athra's stillness in the swaying carriage as some sort of challenge. Her arms were folded across her chest and rested on a thin metal plate attached to the front of her leather armor. She seemed to be posturing that she, too, did not need to hold the leather strap to remain steady. That, though, was proving to be untrue since she was being jostled about every few moments. It was also ineffective in concerns to Nadalo since the Athra seemed intent on staring through the window toward the road instead.

Suplicyte Meeka Textra, however, seemed as though a raging Fekkin was lashing at her heels, and the leather strap to which she clung with both hands was her only hope of being dragged out of its reach. She'd long ago secured her thin reading glasses in an ornate case which hung around her neck. Unfortunately, the case smacked into her surprisingly impressive chest whenever a harsh wind or a jagged bump in the road made it too difficult for her to hold at the same time as the leather strap. I felt a little sorry that Meeka had only her white gown and purple cloak to protect such vulnerable targets.

I had no reservations toward holding the leather strap, though I could hear it creak with the weight of my armored arm. I guessed that if I held as tightly as Meeka, the strap probably would have snapped off. Though Sidik's hair barely reached the edge of her jaw in length, it whipped across her face several times and made me thankful that my own blonde hair was cut short enough to fit easily into my helm (though I wasn't wearing the helm at the time).

"We approach Jo'rhun," Nadalo said quietly through a brief reprieve from the howling gale.

The dimming light told me that we had passed into the shadow of the looming, rocky spire atop which sat Jo'rhun. I wagered at the time that the spire was responsible for the calmer breeze and appreciated the quieting of the wind.

"Thank the goddess," Meeka uttered as she grasped the metal case hanging around her neck. She lifted it over her head and swept the long strands of her brunette hair away from her face, then rested the case in her lap and her hands on top of it. "When did Autumn become so violent?" she asked.

"Everything that can happen does at least once," Nadalo answered plainly.

"Doesn't it, though?" Sidik questioned, shooting Nadalo a knowing smirk.

Nadalo paid her no attention, instead offering a simple explanation. "I think it likely that The Sorceress knows she has drawn the attention of the Orders of Espara."

Meeka paled. "The Sorceress can command the very wind?" she questioned dryly.

"Among many other things," Nadalo replied.

"Even creatures of the deep world," Sidik added quickly, crossing one leg over the other. "I've heard rumors that it's The Sorceress who's responsible for the Vildekin attacks on the border towns in the south." She rested her hand with fingers spread across her face and gazed at Meeka intently. "Some even suggest that she can whisper of madness in a person's ear and make them serve her, both willingly and unwittingly."

Meeka clutched with one hand the deep blue, leather-bound book attached to a metal chain wrapped around her waist. "I'm not trained to counter such magics," she muttered fearfully.

"That is not your purpose here, Meeka," the Athra stated clearly. "It is mine to shield us from The Sorceress's influence. It is yours to unravel Jo'rhun's warding spells and to strike down those minions of The Sorceress that Delvara cannot."

"They will be few," I added in an attempt to reassure Meeka. I remember questioning at the time why the Hands of Espara had chosen so young a Suplicyte for such an important task. I hoped most of her job would be finished once we had entered Jo'rhun proper.

"And I'll be swift," Sidik added, leaning back and running her hands down her armor. Unlike Meeka, Sidik looked quite confident in her abilities, even pleased at the thought of being able to exercise them.

Before we finished rounding the tower, the carriage came to a halt. Though the carriage did not sway, I could hear the wind picking up again. I could feel the carriage shifting as the driver dismounted and heard his feet when they hit the ground.

The last thing I heard of him was the sound of a startled wail. I shot to my feet and threw open the door of the carriage, but I was already too late. A mass of oily tentacles had lashed over the ledge ahead of us and snared his limbs. Before he had time to finish his startled cry, one wrapped around his throat and jammed itself into his mouth. In the second it took me to leap out of the carriage, he was yanked over the ledge and disappeared. Only the panicked whinnying of the horses and the whipping of the wind were left behind. His cries, had he any left to give, had been silenced.

"We are attacked!" I shouted immediately and snatched the helm from my belt. I quickly donned it and pulled the chinstrap tight. I had just grabbed the hilt of my bastard sword when I felt something yank at my right ankle. It was strong enough to take me to a knee immediately, and I instantly unsnapped the scabbard of my blade. I barely managed to rip the sword free before I was carried like a doll, armor and all, into the air.

"This one's mine!" Sidik declared as she yanked herself to the top of the carriage with one smooth leap. She already had both of her short swords drawn and crossed as she dove at the tentacle. She uncrossed uncrossed the blades the moment they touched the tentacle, and deep gashes sprayed black blood across her armor.

The tentacle wavered for a moment, and it was long enough for me to get my bearings. I slashed my blade through the wound that Sidik had inflicted. The tentacle split open and reeled back, but remained in one piece. Had I been smarter, I might have considered that it was still holding me at the time. I felt the air rush around me as the tentacle arched, then released its grasp on my leg. I crossed my arms in front of my face, expecting to strike the side of the towering spire.

"Red'ih'ret," the Athra commanded in a loud, calm voice, her finger pointing straight at me. A spiral of dust swept over me from behind, and I stopped in the air for an instant as that spiral rushed through me, stole my momentum, then slammed into the rocks. The rocks fractured, and pebbles shattered from them, struck the spire, then rattled their way down to the ground. I released my blade and clutched the fragile stones left behind. They crumbled but allowed me to slide down to the ground and quickly snatch up my weapon just as a second attack came.

The tentacles that had ripped the driver away from the side of the carriage thrust into the air and wrapped themselves around Nadalo. They tried to yank her from her feet, but the ground beneath her cracked and rocks flew up from the path. With her hands folded in front of her and her calm voice drifting into the wind, she had become immovable. But that did not stop the tentacles' momentum. Her robe and stark skirt shredded as they were ripped from her body, leaving her standing naked beside the carriage.

Meeka rose with her glasses on and her book open in front of her, her voice becoming that of many as it echoed throughout the area. Sparks of light popped into existence around her and steadily gathered into a growing sphere. But before she could complete her spell, the carriage jerked backward as the horses tried to flee from the ledge where the tentacles had risen.

The carriage collided with Meeka's side and threw her to the ground. The sphere of light winked out as she dropped the book and her glasses bounced off the cover. She gasped as she saw one of the wagon wheels rolling toward her, but Sidik grabbed her by the shoulders and jerked her out of the way before it could crush her. Meeka fell on top of Sidik, and the two of them sprawled flat on the ground.

The tentacles lashed for Nadalo again, but I was ready to meet them this time. With a sweep of my blade, I severed the ends of two of them and knocked aside a third with a single blow. Two more crashed into my side but were deflected by the thick armor and plowed straight into the rocks.

"Get up already!" Sidik ordered Meeka, pulling the woman to her feet. She picked up her short swords and rushed for the tentacles, but they had become intent on their target. Feinting a blow directed at me, the tentacles swiftly retracted, then bashed Sidik back. She skidded to the edge of the road, barely able to keep her feet.

The tentacles charged straight toward me then, and I could tell that they were intent on stabbing straight through me to get to Nadalo. I raised my blade, but before I could strike, Meeka completed a swift spell.

Meeka held one hand with her palm flat toward the ground while the other faced toward the sky. A sphere of dust exploded out from her body just as the ground in front of me was crushed, forming a spiderweb of cracks in the stone surface. When Meeka lifted her upturned hand and clutched it into a fist, a hand of stone plunged up from the ground and snatched the tentacles in a crushing group. They writhed angrily, restrained by Meeka's magic while she quickly began chanting the same spell which had been interrupted earlier.

Her voice once again echoed through the air, and motes of light reappeared. When they gathered into a renewed, glowing sphere, it turned into a spinning fog made up of hundreds of tiny lights around a central, much brighter point of light. The hundreds of tiny lights crackled and sparked with unstable magic, and when Meeka finished the spell, she spoke a single word.

"Dysjunct!"

The gathered magic blasted outward in a wave that struck the tentacles and popped and sparked all around them. The tentacles spasmed and shuddered violently, the unstable magic tearing at the energy that sustained them. They were paralyzed by her power. Then, as the magic faded, the tentacles collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

Nadalo lowered her hands from in front of her and let them rest against the sides of her naked thighs. She briefly watched the fallen tentacles. Dragged by their own weight, they slid back toward the ledge and toppled over the side. They disappeared and loudly thudded against the ground below.

Nadalo's expression was calm as she stood bare in the cold Autumn air. She fixed her eyes on Meeka, then slowly bowed her head. "Well done," she complimented plainly.

"Tentacles!" Sidik blurted indignantly. "We were just attacked by tentacles!" She slammed her short swords into the scabbards on her hips. "What the hell is The Sorceress playing at?!" She rubbed her chest under the thin metal plate. Her gaze drifted to the naked Nadalo after a moment, and she added a quieter, calmer comment, "Well, not that I'm complaining too much right this second."

I looked back to see that the Athra's thin, but womanly figure was fully exposed. Though not spared an ounce of extra meat, she had the subtle, suggestive curves of a graceful woman in the prime of her beauty. The flesh of her nipples was stiffened into pointed peaks, and it was clear to me that, in spite of her calm demeanor, she felt the full effect of the cold. I quickly stripped the cloak from my back and threw it around her shoulders.

Nadalo crossed her arms to hold the cloak and nodded to me. "Thank you, Delvara."

"Still as avid a swimmer as ever, Nadalo," Sidik commented, gaze finally leaving the Athra when her nudity was concealed.

Nadalo's own calm finally cracked in the slightest as she shot Sidik a stern glare. It seemed to be enough to silence the mouthy maid.

"Sh-Should we turn back?" Meeka questioned with her book clutched in both hands.

I could hear the tone of worry in Meeka's voice. "I know that wasn't the best of encounters, Meeka, but you're the one who mainly defeated them." I held my hand out toward the ledge where the tentacles had fallen. "That's exactly the kind of thing you're here to overcome, and you did it. Why should victory be the cause for flight?"

"Yeah," Sidik added. "That's like winning one game of dice, then immediately taking your winnings and running off." She turned, canting her hips, and folded her arms. "There's a bigger pot to be had if you just stick around. Besides, it's only sportsmanlike to give them a chance to get even." She quickly donned a wry grin.

"I-I really don't want to give those things a chance to get even!" Meeka quickly retorted.

Nadalo fixed a calm gaze on Meeka, then looked back up the road ahead. She spoke simply. "The Hands of Espara sent us here to achieve The Sorceress, Meeka. I do not stop being a Shield of Espara just because I lost my clothes, and you do not stop being a Suplicyte just because tentacles were involved." She turned and started up the road rounding the tall spire. "We carry on."

I had to admire the Athra's determination.But if she had known what waited for us in Jo'rhun, if any of us had known what awaited us there, we might have considered Meeka's question more carefully.