FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A gentle stream snakes through the mass of towering trees, the midday sun reflecting across its flickering blue surface. Next to the stream, sitting on her butt and with a simple homemade fishing pole in her paws, is a young horned bear. She rests her back against a tree and sighs as the wind blows through her budding horns. She was proud of her horns, perhaps a little too proud, but unfortunately not everyone seemed to share her reverence for the tangled bone atop her head. Her mother thought them cute beyond all reason, without a doubt her most defining and loveable feature. Her sister, the air headed doe, thought them silly, often sticking flowers, sticks, and other things in between her points in an attempt to ‘pretty them up’. As if they weren’t beautiful already! And everyone else? Well, to everyone else her antlers were a sign of her ungodly nature. Her horns forever marked her as a chimera, an abomination.

The young bear’s ears flick upwards as a high-pitched voice comes screaming through the trees.

“Urmine! Urmine!” Shouts her sister, running up behind her.

“What is it Gothetta?” Mumbles Urmine, not even bothering to take her eyes off the stream.

“I found a bush of beautiful flowers by the red melon grove! Just look at these!”

The doe retrieves a handful of colorful flowers from the basket she’s carrying and sticks them up to Urmine’s face. The bear only gives them a cursory glance.

“Whatever.” She flatly replies, turning her attention back to the stream and her fishing line.

Gothetta gives an indignant huff and crosses her arms.

“What’s got you in such a bad mood, huh? Is it about that boy?”

“Shut up!” Urmine fires back, her face contorted into a scowl. “Don’t remind me about him.”

Gothetta laughs and starts singing.

“Urmine and a cat boy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G, first comes love, then comes-Ow!”

The doe recoils back as her sister punches her in the shoulder.

“I told you not to remind me!”

“You can’t do that!” The doe screeches, rubbing her shoulder. “I’m telling mom that you hit me! She’ll force you to clean our room and you won’t get any sweets for a month! Punch a sibling and find the consequences crippling!”

Urmine feels a wave of regret wash over her. Not only was she on thin ice with mother, but the thought of going a month straight without some of her mother’s sweet crimson melonade made her sick.

“Wait-wait-wait!” Urmine yells, putting her paws up. “Don’t tell mother I did that, pleeeease.”

The doe sniffles, already putting on her best impression of having just sustained a mortal wound.

“And in return for not telling mother?” She asks, a subtle slyness in her tone.

“I’ll…I’ll let you dress up my antlers.” The bear reluctantly answers.

Gothetta suddenly perks up, any trace of her ‘mortal wound’ quickly disappearing as she takes on a chipper tone.

“Ha-ha! I’ll beautify your antlers with a doeish flair! You’ll be the fairest bear to ever taste the summer air! I’ll decorate your dull bone with utmost care, everyone around will want to stare!”

Gothetta giddily moves to Urmine’s side and sits cross legged, her basket of flowers placed beside her. The doe begins carefully picking flowers and placing them in Urmine’s antlers, twisting their delicate stems around her points. As she works she asks Urmine a question, not being as privy as she would like to be regarding a certain event that happened the previous day.

“So, horned sister, what exactly happened between you and that cat boy the other day?”

“Nothing happened.” Urmine admits with a deflated sigh. “I stumbled upon him while picking mushrooms for mother. We started talking then he called me a name when he noticed my antlers. I got angry, then I ran him off. That was it.”

“Ooooo, you ran him off? Did you two get in a fight?” Her voice suddenly quiets into a whisper. “Did you use a spell on him? Mother told us not to use spells to hurt people.”

Urmine quietly chuckles to herself.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but either way that rude little feline won’t be bothering us anymore or risk his tail spontaneously catching on fire again.”

Gothetta gasps.

“So you did! Mother won’t be happy if she finds out about what you did, not one bit.”

“Like I said, his tail just randomly caught fire, I swear no spell or incantation slipped out of my lips just before it did.” Urmine says with a smug smile.

“You’re not a very good liar.”

“Well good luck proving anything to mother, Gothetta. There were no witnesses and that foul cat won’t be seen around here ever again. Besides, I'm sure you would have done the same thing if you were in my position.”

“I don’t think so. My fangs are much easier to hide than your budding antlers. He would have thought me a simple fawn.”

Urmine looks to Gothetta and the doe subtly lowers her upper lip concealing her growing fangs.

“He would have found out eventually and called you an even worse name than what he called me. The boy hated chimeras, believe me. And he smelled bad too!”

Urmine feels a sudden tug on her fishing pole and their attention turns to the stream. The cork Urmine was using as a bobber begins to move haphazardly across its surface, the hook below it pulled on by some unseen fish. In a single motion Urmine yanks the pole backwards and a sizable catch flies out of the water and onto the shore, flopping about as it desperately tries to find the water again. The sisters rush forward and Urmine grabs the line, holding the fish up in front of them.

“Ha-ha-ha!” Cackles Urmine with a wide grin. “I did it! I finally caught something today!”

Gothetta surveys the slimy scaly creature with a curious look, not having shared Urmine’s past time of fishing. She leans in to sniff it and recoils back, her nose wrinkling.

“Yuck! Stinky creature, you ought to throw it back.”

Urmine grabs the fish and cuts the line with a claw.

“What? No! I intend to eat it. I’ll give it to mother and she can cook us a nice fish stew for dinner.”

“Kill it?!” Gothetta shrieks. “But why would you kill it? What did that fish ever do to you? Just throw it back so it can swim around with its fishy friends and avoid any untimely ends.”

Urmine eyes the flopping fish hungrily, licking her lips.

“The only ‘friends’ this fish needs are a few potatoes and carrots, and a nice cold glass of melonade. Yes, it’ll be a fine dinner.”

Gothetta stamps her hoof on the ground.

“Don’t be so cruel sister, you needn’t kill it. Mother’s pantry is fully stocked and I'm sure she has dinner already cooking and it’ll taste far better than that floppy scaly thing will. Just think of all those scales getting stuck in your teeth, yuck!”

Urmine laughs.

“You cut the scales off before eating, foolish doe. I guess I shouldn’t have expected a prey animal like you to know that.”

“I am not a prey animal!” Refutes Gothetta, baring her fangs.

This only makes Urmine laugh more.

“Yes, you are, doe.”

Gothetta simply crosses her arms and stares an angry hole in Urmine in response, not finding the words to continue this argument.

Their attention turns to the forest as a sing songy voice carries between the branches.

“Gothetta! Urmine! Where are my beautiful daughters? Urmine? Gothetta?”

“Over here mom!” They shout in unison.

A crow woman flies between the branches and lands in front of them, a pointed witch’s hat adorned with all manner of shiny trinkets atop her feathered head.

Gothetta immediately points to her sister.

“Mooooom! Urmine wants to kill the fiiiiish!” She whines.

Urmine huffs and points a finger back at her.

“And my doe brained sister wants us to starve for dinner! I caught this fish for a nice fish stew and now she wants to throw it back into the water! It’s the only fish I’ve caught all day!”

Their words turn into an incoherent jumble.

“yawellsheusedmagicwhenshesawacatboyandburnedhistailoffnoIdidn’tIsaid histailrandomylcaughtfirethat’stotallydifferentyou’rejustlyingnoI’mnot-“

Their mother smiles and puts her wings up.

“Girls, girls, look…” She points a wingtip to the fish and the sisters quiet down. “The fish is no longer moving, it’s dead.”

Gothetta gasps and puts her hands to her cheeks.

“Fish murderer…” She whispers, staring at Urmine accusatorily.

“So, uhh, you’re saying we can eat it?” Urmine cautiously asks.

Their mother shrugs.

“Might as well. No point throwing a dead fish back into the water.”

“A-are you sure? Maybe it’s playing dead.” Humors Gothetta, ever optimistic.

The crow walks up to the fish, very quickly determining it was, in fact, no longer among the living.

“It’s dead, girls. Its little fishy soul has left this mortal plane, never to return. The least we can do is honor its memory by making use of its body.”

“Its soul is gone? Where did it go?” Asks Gothetta.

Their mother pauses, struggling to formulate her answer.

“Well, you see girls, every living being is imbued with a soul, it comes from a place called the great beyond and it returns there when the living meet their final end. It’s like a great big circle, we live, we die, and we are reborn again.”

“And where’s this great beyond, huh? Maybe if we’re fast enough we can catch its soul before it escapes!” Gothetta jolts, frantically looking around.

The crow chuckles.

“No Gothetta, a soul is immaterial and immutable. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. You couldn’t catch one no matter how fast you sprinted on those quick little hooves of yours. And as for where it is? Well, it’s up there.” She answers, pointing a wing up towards the sky.

The sisters look upwards.

“How far up? Could you fly there? What if you jumped off a cloud?”

“No, the great beyond is above the clouds, above the sky, above all that we mortals can travel to. Only souls can visit there, not bodies.”

“Do we all have to go there when we die?” Urmine whines. “I’d prefer to not have to spend who knows how long cooped up with Gothetta’s soul if I can help it. Is there like an alternative great beyond we can go to?”

The crow puts her hands on her hips.

“There are several places your soul can end up after death and all of them are inferior to the great beyond. So don’t even think of going anywhere else, my little cub! Especially because I’ll be waiting up there for you!” She sternly lectures.

Gothetta gasps and puts her hands to her cheeks in shock.

“Mom’s going to die?!” The doe shrieks, tittering on the verge of fainting as her eyes go wide and her back stiffens.

The crow rubs Gothetta between the ears to calm her down.

“Unfortunately, yes. We all have a time to go, and as your mother it’s only natural I go to the great beyond before you all do. But you won’t have to worry about me leaving you girls for a long, long time. This crow’s still got a ways to go!” She ends her answer with a confident smile.

Gothetta wipes her brow.

“Phew, that makes me feel better.”

“Glad I could dull your fears. It’s only natural to feel fear when thinking about the death of a loved one, it happens to us all. Don’t think for a second that I’ve never worried about you all at some point, if anything I probably worry about you two too much.” The crow steps back and puts her hands on her hips. “Now that that little life lesson is complete let’s get to why I flew down here. Girls, I recently lost a piece of jewelry that’s very important to me. It’s a golden chain, about the length of an arm and very shiny. I keep it on my hat but the darned thing must have fallen off since this morning. Have either of you seen it?”

“Oh-oh-oh! You mean this?” Beams Gothetta, pulling a long golden chain out of her basket of flowers. “I found it in the melon grove earlier today.”

The crow takes the chain and brings it up to her eye, studying it before ending with a nod.

“Yes, thank you my little fanged fawn. You have no idea how much it means to me to have this back.”

She takes off her hat and begins reattaching the chain to it.

“Who gave it to you? Or did you find it?” Asks Urmine

“Someone very special gave this chain to me, just before I laid your eggs.”

“Ya, but who?” Urmine badgers.

The crow just gives her a shy smile and fixes the hat to her feathered head.

“Like I said, someone very special. If my research goes well you may even be able to meet him someday.” She glances towards the sky, the once blue expanse now a bright orange punctuated with gray rain clouds. “Well girls, it’s about to storm and I believe it’s time for dinner, what do you all say?”

Her daughters shout affirmatives in unison. She continues.

“Excellent, Urmine hand me the fish. I believe we can add this to tonight’s soup.”

Urmine hands her the fish and the three of them begin walking through the darkening forest, clouds gradually obscuring the sky as a rainstorm rolls in. The wind begins to pick up and Gothetta turns to her mother, a question on her mind.

“Mother, about what you said earlier, does it hurt?”

“Does what hurt?”

“When the soul leaves your body, does it hurt?”

The crow pauses.

“Well Gothetta, I’ve never died so I can’t answer your question definitively. But I have known some fellow witches who dabbled in necromancy and other areas of magic pertaining to life after death. They all said that the experience was like…” The crow twists her beak this way and that, struggling to put her answer into words. “…I guess the closest feeling would be like going home. Returning to a place of rest after a long and arduous journey. A feeling of final respite.”

Gothetta nods and looks back to the path in front of them.

“Okay, thanks mom. Good to know our fishy friend didn’t suffer too much at the paw of a certain sibling of mine.”

The crow pats her back.

“Glad I could help.”

Urmine, too preoccupied with thinking about a question of her own to pay attention to Gothetta’s jab, nervously turns to the crow.

“Mom?”

“Yes?”

“When you go up to the great beyond and me and Gothetta are still down here, will you…like…know what we do?”

The crow cocks her head with a sly smile, already sussing out her daughter’s real question.

“You mean to ask if I know what mischief you two will be getting up to after I'm gone, and if I’ll be able to punish you for any misdeeds you commit.”

Urmine looks away and shrugs.

“Well…maybe.”

“Girls, you better believe I’ll be watching you from the heavens after I pass. I’ve been keeping a watchful eye on you since the day your eggs were laid, I’ve had the pleasure of watching you grow from hatchlings to juvenile witches, and I intend to look down upon my two beautiful daughters enjoying the fruits of life long after my own body is nothing but dust. And as for punishment? Well, I won’t be able to withhold sweets or spank you after I'm gone, but let’s just say you may find yourself having a little ‘bad luck’ after you do something you know you shouldn’t do. Karma, some people call it.”

“So-“

Her mother immediately cuts Urmine off.

“So no punching your sister, even after I'm gone.”

Gothetta looks at Urmine and sticks her tongue out. Urmine does her best to ignore it.

“Oh, alright. Thanks mom.”

“No worries, little cub. Just remember that I’ll always be with you, even after I’m gone, I’ll always be with you.”

The sky darkens and a cold wind blows through the trees. Rain begins to sprinkle and the crow raises her wings, shielding her daughters from the coming rain as they walk back to the safety of home.

********************************************************

Back in the present…

Henry trudges along the street towards his apartment, his steps heavy and muscles aching. Fallen orange leaves dance around his feet as jack-o-lanterns grin at him from behind storefront windows. A chilly breeze flows right through his jacket and he finally enters his apartment building, silently thankful for the toasty inside air. He enters his apartment and walks to the couch, body long since sapped of energy. He falls onto its mercifully soft cushions and breathes out a tired sigh. God. Today sucked. The kitchen was understaffed, the waiters were writing down the wrong orders, customers seemed to arrive in endless hordes, they ran out of half their ingredients, and to top it all off they had an unannounced health and safety inspection just before closing!

Henry closes his eyes for a brief moment of respite before making dinner, his bodily reserves slowly replenishing. The last thing he wants to do right now is make even more food, even if it is for himself. Yet at the same time going to bed hungry somehow sounds even worse considering the aching hole in his stomach. So, what’s nice and easy? A can of soup? A simple ham sandwich? Bacon and eggs? PB&J? All simple and filling, but it would be a lie to say that any of those foods were among his favorites. Hell, if he’s going to put forth the effort to make something to eat tonight it might as well be simple and something that pleases his palate. His mind drifts to the fridge, focusing on the two salmon fillets currently resting within it. Ya, that’s it, add a little seasoning, a little oil, fry them on the stovetop while making a side or two and dinner is served. Dinner decided, he gets up from the couch with a labored grunt and walks to the kitchen, opening the fridge and gathering the needed ingredients.

As the salmon sizzles and a potato slowly turns in the microwave he leans against the fridge with his arms crossed, trying to keep his eyes open as he waits for everything to cook. The savory smell of cooking salmon graces his nostrils and errant memories are brought forward to his consciousness. When was the last time he smelled this? Right, a few months ago, just before he was whisked away to some foreign land, imprisoned by a couple of beastly witches, and nearly killed by that foul moose-animal-lady-thing. Then he was shot back to Earth and gave his boss a ridiculous excuse about having to visit a friend who recently had a death in the family then got sick while abroad, therefore saving his job at the steakhouse. It all seems like a dream now that time has passed, he hasn’t even told a soul of what happened for fear of them thinking him crazy. But if there’s one thing he’s sure of, it’s that he isn’t crazy.

Henry begins to absentmindedly rub the jeweled ring on his finger, its very presence a constant reminder of the days he spent with Urmine and Gothetta. After arriving back home he tried for days to pry it off his finger to no avail. Whatever magic they used to lock it onto his digit seemed to persist even after being desummoned and transported back to Earth. He silently curses himself for forgetting to ask them to remove it before leaving the sisters, then again, he couldn’t blame himself too much for losing track of the little things given all that transpired those strange, action filled days.

Henry wonders how the sisters are doing, where they are, if they’re getting along, if they’ve tried to summon any more innocent souls to their cabin. He hopes that if they have, then they at least refrained from trapping them in a cage like they did to him. He distinctly remembers how difficult it was to sleep in before Gothetta brought him blankets.

*DING*

He opens the microwave and stabs his baked potato with a fork, setting it on his plate then moving to the still cooking salmon. Looking over the fillets he determines that they’re almost done, and based on how the combination of fish and seasoning smelled they would taste absolutely delici-

“Ah, shit.” He mumbles, detecting a bit of dark smoke slither around the edge of the pan.

He leans down and raises one of the fillets with a spatula, inspecting its surprisingly unburnt bottom. Confused, he sets it back down on the pan. More dark smoke emerges from the edge of his vision but it’s not coming from the pan, no, his entire lower body is now enveloped in a rapidly rising cloud of purple mist.

Another summoning? By Gothetta and Urmine, or by some other witch? Henry knows he has mere moments before he would be whisked away to some other plane of existence so he grabs the handle of the pan and takes a deep breath, silently hoping that if it isn’t the sisters that are calling him back then whoever it is at least likes fish. And if they don’t, well, he still has the pan.