FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I started my day by climbing up to the meditation carpet to clear my mind of the lust this place thrusts upon me. Then I started searching through Rathazul's supplies. I found ink, quills, and several empty notebooks. I double checked each for signs of invisible ink to be sure I wasn't recording over valuable secrets. For the first half day I recorded the first four days of my survival here as you have probably read already.

Around noon I decided to try my mind at returning to the city in the desert, the shimmering Tel'Adre. It took a few tries. I suspect the Conclave's spell about the city anchors only the city gates as a viable arrival point.

What is remarkable, though, is not so much my failures in the city, but the strange results of failing to get there. For a moment, as I walked in the sandy dunes, I thought I was looking at the ruins of Tel'Adre, and I feared the worst. As I came closer I realized that, while massive in its own right, this structure was only one fourth the size of Tel'Adre.

It was a strange architecture, made all the harder to decipher by the years of built up sand and debris swept up its sides as the desert tried to swallow the historical icon, to wipe it from the world's memory much like this world tried to do with my own past. I could make out impossibly high stone walls supported by massive vaulted arches, broken every so often by the shattered remnants of stain glass windows taller than any building in Tel'Adre save for the central tower.

A pair of utterly destroyed oaken doors lay nearly hidden behind a row of giant marble pillars, many of which had long since crumbled. High above the ground, I saw a pair of tall, slender towers reaching up to the heavens, one of which had been nearly obliterated by some unimaginably powerful impact, leaving it a stump compared to its twin. From the rooftops strange shapes looked down upon me as I neared the front opening – stone statues made in the image of demons, dragons, and other monsters.

The grounds around the ruins had once been cordoned off by a waist-high wrought-iron fence that surrounded the building and what once might have been a beautiful, pastoral garden, now rotting and wilted, its trees chopped down or burned. Clearly someone had been here since the destruction as a few dozen tombstones outlined the path to a gaping maw that was once the great wooden doors. Seeing no obvious signs of danger, I made my way inside, stepping cautiously over the rubble and rotting debris that littered the courtyard.

It was quite dark inside, illuminated only by thin shafts of light streaming in from the shattered windows and sundered doors. A few dozen wooden pews, all either thrown aside and rotting or long-since crushed, lead up to a stone altar and an effigy of a great green tree, now covered in graffiti and filth. Stairs beside the altar lead up to the towers, and down to what must have been catacombs or dungeons deep underground.

What most caught my eye upon entering the sanctuary was the statues that lined the walls. Beautifully carved gray stone idols of creatures, chimeras, and nearer to the altar, god-like beings, each set into their own little alcove. It reminded me of the temple back home, but much more elaborate. Unfortunately most had been destroyed along with the cathedral, each lay in a pile of its own shattered debris; some with whole limbs or other extremities broken off and carried away by looters, leaving them mere shadows of their former glory.

All of them but one. In the farthest, darkest alcove I found a single statue fully intact. It was of a woman – well, more like a succubus than a human woman. Though posed in a low, predatory crouch, she would normally stand nearly six feet tall, hair sculpted to fall playfully about her shoulders. A pair of bat-like wings protruding from her back curled back to expose the lush, smooth orbs of her breasts, easily DD's on a human. A spiked, mace-like tail curled about her legs that were attached to the pedestal upon which she was placed. As I stood there, marveling at the statue's beauty, I couldn't help but notice the slit of her pussy nearly hidden beneath her. Oddly, it seemed to have been carved hollow so that I could easily stick a few fingers inside if I so chose.

I withdrew my hand from under the statue once I realized how close I was coming to molesting a piece of carved stone. Shaking my head I looked down to the solid gold chains extending from the pedestal to her wrists, binding the statue. A plaque bolted to the pedestal read simply, “Break my bonds to make me tame." I looked at the other statues and could see no such chains or plaques upon any of them.

The sun's light was moving out of alignment with the windows for the beams to be of use to me, so I picked up a piece of wood that had been burnt to charcoal. Casting a simple spell I'd learned in Ingnam I created an orb of light to illuminate my work once more. One detect magic spell later and it was clear that the statue and the chains were two different types of magic.

Gathering supplies from all around the cathedral I performed several tests upon the two magical constructs attempting to divine the details of their workings. Between a shortage of necessary components and my own limited spell knowledge I could only identify that they were linked, an animation spell shut down by a symbolic binding spell.

Taking hold of the gold chain I decided to take the risk and willed the chain apart in my hands. Nothing happened. I took my katana and slashed at the soft metal, an ear-splitting SCHING! echoing through the cathedral as shards of gold went flying. I recoiled, shielding my face from the surprisingly explosive force of each and every link shattering. Once the dust settled I looked at what lay, or rather, kneeled before me.

The gargoyle had stepped down from her pedestal and was kneeling prostrate before me as though before a king; her forehead near the ground and weight rested upon her stone knuckles even as her massive wingspan unfolded behind her and her mace-like tail swished rapidly behind her. Slowly, the gargoyle raised her head to gaze upon me, her now ruby-red eyes stared into mine. Her smooth, nippleless breasts heaved, her once-stone hair fell forward in strands, fringing her smooth, angular face. Her thin, gray lips slowly curled into a small, sultry smile as she spoke, just on the edge of hearing, “Mistress. My… Mistress. What would you have of this one, Mistress?" Her face turned up to me expectantly.

“Hmm, as I suspected, an animated slave statue." I commented mostly to myself. “I was hoping there'd be a little bit more to it, but it's better than I should have hoped for."

“I am your humble servant, Mistress. Your tool. Your plaything. Your toy. Ask, and I shall obey." She paused for a moment, and added in an emotionless whisper, “this one would be honored to pleasure Mistress, if she desires."

The change in her tone piqued my curiosity. “What is your name, gargoyle?"

“I, I am… I simply am. What would Mistress call me?" She seemed to waver in her response, not nearly the preprogrammed reactions I had expected.

I didn't feel like continuing to refer to her only as 'the gargoyle' so I decided to give her the name of my favorite hunting hound back home. Her name had been Meep, a name I came up with when I was only eight.

“Meep? Meep. Mistress has interesting tastes. Very well, Mistress, I am your humble servant, Meep. Give Meep your orders and it shall be done if I am able." There it was again. I'd never heard of any automaton capable of aesthetic evaluation.

I ordered her to roll on the floor like a dog curious to see her reaction. She tilted her head in confusion, but seeing that I was not correcting my statement she rolled her eyes, sighed, tucked in her wings and rolled side to side on her back before righting herself back into the supplication pose.

I lifted one of the toppled pews and sat down before asking her to join me for a chat. I asked why she'd been chained. She told me of how her previous Master, a powerful and arrogant magic user had lost interest in her in favor of other toys, but didn't want her stolen. If a normal automaton had told me this I would have taken it at face value, but her inflections hinted at deep pain and loss, more to the story she wasn't telling me.

Not wanting to press a sensitive issue too soon I asked what had happened to the cathedral. She looked away, as if in shame. “The demons' doom that even now blights Mareth took its toll here, too. The people of a town no longer here believed they were safe under Marae's roof." Meep gestured weakly to the green tree sculpture without looking. "Protected. Their faith was. . . Misplaced." Her expression showed an even deeper pain than the one I'd been trying to avoid.

Rather than change the topic I placed my hand on her shoulder and told her she didn't have to tell me yet if she didn't feel like it. I had trouble believing those words were coming from my mouth directed to an automaton, but she didn't act like one, so I didn't feel it was right to treat her like one.

“Alright, Meep. You will join me in my camp and…"

She interrupted me, “No, no, Mistress. I will not. Ask Anything else of me, but not that. I am bound to this place, unable to leave. The cathedral gates define the extent of my boundaries."

I apologized and asked her to prepare a work space for me in the cathedral, that I would be back from time to time to do some writing and research. I took my leave of her, still unsure what to think of my new servant.

After a couple more tries I found Tel'Adre, said 'hi' to Urta, saw a strangely beautiful bunny girl give a show at the Wet Bitch, and came home. I want to return to Meep tomorrow to learn more. I suspect she may know a fair bit of the history of the demons that I have been unable to get from anyone else.