FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Out in search for ingredients and anything she could find of value, Ori, a demonic feline, continued to push through the thickness of the forest. She's already spent much of the morning time looking for something she could use to make a brew or two, soon midday would be upon her and she would have to start looking for something to eat.

Finding said ingredients would be far easier if she would stop finding everything around her of interest. Despite having seen many of these things plenty times before. Ori saw the wonder of the world around her. The power Mother Nature truly had over the lands amazed her. Even a dull cloudy day held some wonder for the white furred demon.

This of course didn't mean that Ori was an airhead that got distracted with every, and anything, around her. She was, in fact, quite well-read in any topic. It was from her consent wondering that prompted her to learn about everything as much as she could. A live once kind of way.

"Hm, I wonder if I'll be able to find the blue-weed by a river bank?" Ori mused out loud which also was a part of her thinking process. Especially since she rarely had anyone to discuss her thoughts with. "Next time I'll definitely have to bring the book with me, it might make these trips of mine a lot shorter. Or longer," she giggled before she continued down the plant covered path deeper into the forest, heading towards the direction of the river.

As she continued to make her way through, Ori watched her step for she was without clothing as she hasn't got to teaching herself to make such things on her own quite yet. With each step she took, her modest set of breasts bounced ever so slightly while she weaved her way through the thick brush.

Ori soon came across a fog hopping along in front of her, causing her to place her hand on her thick thighs as she bent over to watch the fog mindlessly go about its day. As she was bent over, Ori failed to notice the pair of eyes watching her small, yet round, rear-end. When the fog suddenly jumped away to go find some insects to eat, Ori giggled a little bit before continuing down the path to the river.

"Ah, today is such a lovely day," Ori again mused as she looked up to the beautiful sunny day of the summer. She was going to continue to openly voice her thoughts when her ears caught small rustling above her in the thick tree canopy, which was followed by small, muffled, hiss in response.

High above the curious creature was an equally curious being, watching her target whom she had been following for the past few hours. The female had aroused her from her sleep when Ori stepped on an old branch while looking at a small flower underneath the tree. Her curiosity piqued by the jovial intruder, she began to follow her through the thick canopy up above, watching her, inspecting her and learning everything she could about the nice looking cat person.

When her mark bent down to watch the small amphibian to go about its life, she inadvertently got a good look of her shapely rear, a sight which she has to admit, wasn't too bad. She briefly entertained the thought of playing around with the smaller woman, she accidentally slipped, making her tail slam against a nearby branch which made just enough noise to be heard. Letting out an annoyed hiss at her slip-up, she turned her attention back to the feline who was now watching the trees, obviously looking for the source.

"Hm, must've been my imagination playing with me again," Ori shrugged after using her sharp purple eyes to inspect the immediate area around her. So, she simply continued back down the path to reach the river. Hopefully without getting distracted by anything else along the way.

Yet, as she continued on her merry little way, Ori couldn't help but feel a pair of eyes watching her. Again, she waved it off as her imagination playing tricks on her, and managed to focus her mind strictly on reaching the river to rest a bit before getting back to her searching. Along the way, Ori failed to keep her mind clear of other thoughts as she observed the environment around her.

Colorful flowers, healthy looking plants and trees, and peaceful animals that called the forest their home. It was hard for one such as her to keep her mind focus away from the beauty of it all. However, she soon made her way to the large stream that forced its way through the forest and most lightly had branched off from a much larger river.

"Good, this will lead me to the river upstream," Ori said as she began following the stream upstream while observing the delicious freshwater fish moving down the stream. She thought to leave them alone for now, at least until she made it all the way up to the river. Still blissfully unaware of the being following her move with her own curiosity.

Letting out a relieved sigh as she started walking away without making any signals that would show that she had been found out, Amantha cursed her clumsiness under her breath and continued following her. Sticking to the shades and the tree trunks as much as she could while still having a clear view of her target, she continued following the woman through the woods.

"What is she looking for?" She asked herself, low enough to not be heard after the petite feline started walking upstream. From how she interacted with the various fauna, Amantha could deduce that she must be looking for some kind of plant, but for what reason? The pure white furred woman had to admit, of course only to herself, that she knew next to nothing about this place.

"I guess it's for the best if I just keep following her." And follow her she did.

Ori's travel upstream soon ended as she reached the large river, giving her the chance to sit down and rest her feet in the cool water. A soft sigh left her lips as her aching feet were given the relief they were starting to burn for. Wandering around the forest all morning long had done a number on her, but she still was on the hunt for the weed she wanted.

Closing her eyes, Ori leaned back on her spot at the river's side, again trying to remember everything she could about the weed she was looking for. Granted the book wasn't too specific about the weed's exact location, it did have a good amount of information on the characteristics of it.

"Hm... a bluish moss. Grown only in high moist areas, typically on smooth rocks or wet soil," Ori said, reciting the passage out of the book word for word before letting out small giggle. "Guess I should've came here to start with instead of wandering around."

Ori slowly opened her eyes to glance at the position of the sun once again to give her a guess at the time of day. "Midday, time to start finding something to eat." Reluctantly, Ori got up from her seat just after she was starting to get comfortable. However, she needed to find something to eat so she could continue searching for the elusive weed.

'Well at least I know the what, but not the why.' She thought to herself as she watched the feline woman try and get some of the fishes from the river with some success. The sight of the fresh, wriggling fish on the shore made her stomach rumble, letting her know that she hadn't eaten in hours and the consequences that could hold. Fighting the temptation to just throw herself at the food and devour it as quickly as possible, Amantha kept watching the woman who was concentrating too much on the fish in the water than the ones out of it.

After a few more catches, she couldn't contain herself anymore and she sneaked down from her watching spot, her tough nails acting as the perfect tools for going down as quickly as possible. Waiting for the perfect moment, she snatched around half the fish and scurried back to the treetops before she could be seen, immediately starting to inhale the fish as soon as she was safely up there.

"Ah, these should do just nice until...hm," Ori stopped to look at the large green leaf she had used to lay her fish down on. Counting her catch, she found that a good number of it seemed to be missing. Most of those were the slightly larger ones as well.

Her face took on a slightly perplexed look as she stood for another moment to think about it before simply shrugging her shoulders yet again. Even with half of them gone, the catch of bass should last her for quite some time. She'll just have to remember to stop to catch some before she heads home.

"Ah oh well," she said before sitting the fish in her hand down on the leaf platter as she hurried to gather a few sticks and rocks to make a fire to cook the juicy basses. In mere moments she returned, arms full of sticks and a small assortment of rocks on the top.

Ori quickly sat them down as she began to fix a few of the sticks upwards while she had the rocks circling around them. Once that was completed, Ori rolled her wrist as she manifested a small blue flamed ball above her hand to ignite the small bonfire before fixing the fish she caught on a stick to roast.

After eating the fish and leaving nothing behind, Amantha turned back to watch Ori once again, just in time to see her use some sort of blue fire to make a small campfire. The sheer idea of just simply manifesting fire from thin air seemed impossible to her, not to mention that she made it look so effortless. 'This...could be dangerous...I need more information.' Her mind raced as she tried to think of anything that could answer just how she did what she did but the best possible answer she could come up with was some sort of biological implant that could ignite some sort of hidden fuel.

'That must be it...right?' She thought to herself, not sounding sure by any length of imagination, but all she could do was keep watching in case the smaller woman does something unexpected again.

Ori simply sat down in front of the blue flames that was cooking her lunch as she toyed with the part of her hair that was braided. The sweet aroma of fish soon reached her nose, making her mouth water a small bit as her stomach let out another loud rumble. As much as she wanted to simply eat the still cooking bass fish right now, Ori knew that it would taste far much better if she wanted just a little while longer.

So to keep her mind preoccupied, Ori went on and thought about several other things other than the fish right in front of her. Plants, animals, ivory, her own magic. Anything to keep her from devouring the fish until it was ready.

"Perhaps I shouldn't have collected so many?" Ori mused as she put a finger on her lip, becoming more anxious about eating the longer she stared at the three large bass that were begging to be eating. "One couldn't hurt, I suppose." Ori reached out for the middle fish, quickly bringing it to her lips to take a small bite out of the cooked flesh.

Amantha was watching curiously as the feline seemingly battled her instincts judging by the way she watched the cooking fishes and she smiles slightly when she finally reached for one of the large bass. Watching her quickly devour the mostly cooked fish was tantalizing, as she could fit more than just a few of it into herself but the risks of getting found were too high. All she could do was watch pitifully as she ate the fish, then another and then another.

After Ori had consumed her third bass, she let out a small content sigh with her hunger now being satisfied for the time being. Yet the demon cat still had a few leftover, despite her being full now. She could simply eat the rest, but her belly was full and her hunger was nonexistent any longer. It feels wasteful just leaving the fish were it was, but it seemed gluttonous to eat more than she needed to.

"Hm... What to do?" she pondered before the sound of rustling of a bush in front of her caught her attention. What came out was something that seemed like a mother gray-wolf and her three cubs. Most likely they were looking for something to eat as well, and followed the scent of the cooking fish. "Oh hello, come to feed your cubs I see," Ori greeted with a soft smile to the family of gray-wolves, not showing any kind of fear. "Well, you're more than welcomed to have your fill of what I have left. I will not be needing it any longer."

A moment went by as Ori and the mother wolf stared at each other, as if the mother was testing Ori's intentions. Soon, the mother slowly approached Ori's remaining haul of fish that was still sitting behind her. The mother took another moment to look at Ori, only getting the demon cat to smile softly at her. It was then the mother finally made the choice to take a fish in her mouth, taking a large bite out of it before her cubs soon followed suit.

Ori simply watched the family of wolves have their fill of the fish, properly since it was the best find they had in a long while. "Let me go get you some more." Standing up from her spot on the ground, Ori went back to the riverside to start taking swipes at any fish she could see in the clear water.

'She seems to be good with the local wildlife.' Amantha commented to herself as she watched the interaction between the wolves and the feline. She considered going for a hunt herself, but she didn't want to miss the opportunity to observe such an intriguing being. She watched her fish and she wondered why doesn't she just use her implants for it. 'Maybe it has limited fuel? Or it could be not strong enough to work in water. This is interesting.' Deciding to get a better vantage point, she climbed to another, lower hanging tree to watch from a closer point of view.

Unfortunately, she wasn't quiet enough for the wolves and the mother started growling, and getting the attention of the fishing woman. She looked at the mother wolf and saw that she was cautiously observing the treetops, looking for the source of the potential threat.

Ori walked over towards the mother wolf after setting down the new caught fish. Something, or someone, must've caught the mother wolf's attention from the sound of her growling. Looking over towards the trees, Ori initially didn't see anything other than the green leaves. Yet the mother wolf's growling suggested otherwise.

"Do you believe someone is there?" Ori asked, thinking that it could be the very same thing that had lead the mother and cubs astray from their den and pack. The mother wolf let out a small howl towards her cubs, telling them to come over by her side where it was safest. As the cubs hurried over to their mother, Ori stepped in front of the family of wolves, closing her eyes as she began gathering her magic once again.

When she opened her eyes again, the bright-purple irises were far brighter than before as they flickered like a small kindling flame. "Show yourself, I know you're there," Ori said as she was now sensing something hiding in the thick leaves of the nearby tree. Whatever it was seemed to be playful and curious in nature from the green and yellow aura. "Please I don't mean any harm, so as long as you don't mean any as well."

"How do I know you are not lying?" Amantha asked as she moved away from her previous spot, trying to get around, still not fully trusting the woman with weird implants. She was already extra wary when her eyes suddenly changed color and seemingly caught ablaze and she started to wonder just what kind of crazy operations she had to go through for that.

"Because I have no reason to fear you, as you do I," Ori said, closing her eyes again to deactivate her magic, and prompting her eyes to change back to their normal appearance. She then knelt down to the ground to gently place her hand on top of the mother wolf's head. "The wolves are of no threat to you as well, the mother is just protecting her young. Now, how about you show yourself so we can talk."

Weighing her options, Amantha realized that she didn't have any other chances than to show herself, if she wanted to know more about the strange woman. Sighing, she climbed onto a lower hanging branch and wrapped her lower body and tail around it. Making sure that she was secured to the branch, she swung down and ended up just a few feet away from the other woman, upside down.

"There, does this suffice for you?" She asked as she looked her over from a much closer perspective and she had to admit, the woman before her looked kinda cute.

Ori blinked several times at the creature that was down hanging upside down before her. "More or less," Ori said as she brought her index knuckle to her bottom lip out of habit. She quickly scanned her eyes over the snow-white creature before her and wondered what exactly she was. "Um, yes anyway," she started, gently petting the mother wolf's head to show that there was no immediate danger to her or her cubs before addressing serpent-like woman. "Who are you? I've never seen a creature such as yourself living in this forest before. And I have seen many of a strange thing before."

"You can call me Amantha as for what I am is not important at the moment." She leaned closer to the woman in front of her and sniffed her slightly. "But I think I can say the same about you. I don't think I have ever seen anything like you before." She still didn't let go of the branch in fears of a trap but she gave the feline the benefit of doubt. "I told you my name, but I still don't know yours. Mind helping with that one?"

"Oh yes, well my name is Ori," the feline said as she still continued to understand what the creature in front of her was, but still was polite about it. Seeing as neither of them knew each other that is. "I am what you would call a demon. I also live within this forest," she continued to say in hopes of getting Amantha to open up a bit more.

"A demon you say?" She tried to sound like she knew what she was talking about but in honesty, Amantha had no clue what a 'demon' was, maybe a name of a feline species, who knew? "And what is someone like you doing here in the deep forest?" She tried to gauge her reaction to that, to see how easily she is scared.

"Ah well," Ori paused for a moment to think about how much information to simply hand over to the strange creature. "I've been learning and testing my abilities." As she said this, the wolf cubs began playing around with each other while the mother rested on the ground at Ori's feet, still eyeing Amantha. "You see, I've been born with a special set of skills, of which I would like to master."

Nodding, she started slowly swinging from side to side, not minding the wolf mother as Ori posed much more threat than what a single wolf. "Mastering one's skills is always important. It could very well keep you alive. But that still doesn't explain why you are alone." She kept swinging as she was watching the demoness.

Ori's ears lowered slightly as she started rubbing her left arm. "Yes, I don't really have a reason for that." She averted her eyes from the still swing Amantha, her mind going back to the day she originally left her underworld home in search of knowledge. "I've been alone most of my life; I suppose now I've gotten used to it."

Ori knelt down to the mother wolf and began to scratch behind the she-wolf's ears as she rested on the ground. "Though, it doesn't seem to make it any easier."

"A loner hmmm? I have to say that feeling isn't alien to me either." She briefly stopped as old memories resurfaced but she shook her head and banished them as soon as they came. "Being alone is not something that many can handle but for some, it is a necessity." She was curious as to what the woman would react to that.

The demon titled her head after she looked up from the mother wolf, Amantha's words sparking a curiosity in her. "A necessity? How?" she asked, trying to think of any reason why it would possibly dangerous for Amantha to be around others.

"Sometimes others don't like what you are. And when that happens, they will usually try to take matters into their own hands." She idly inspected her nails, sharp as ever and as black as if they were made from onyx. "But I can't really fault them you know?"

"Yes I do understand," Ori answered with a small nod of her head as she sat on her knees. Shortly after, the mother wolf moved to rest her head and forepaws in Ori's lap, surprising her slightly. "Odd, seems like she's accepted me." Ori looked into the mother's darkly colored eyes for a moment to try to understand her reasoning. "But anyway, I do know what you are talking about. I have 'experienced' that myself several times, let's just say none of them ended pretty well."

"Of course it didn't end well, for them at least." She grinned, showing her mouth full with disturbingly sharp teeth that could probably tear a grown person apart in the matter of seconds. "But that's another story altogether." She briefly watched the puppies play with each other and continued. "But enough of that. I heard that you are looking for some kind of plant. Why for?"

Ori again tilted her head with a moment of confusion before she suddenly remembered why she ventured out as far as she had. "Oh right, the Blue Weed. I had almost forgotten about it." She placed her finger against her chin as she thought further back to this morning when she found the recipe for a healing ornament. "The reason for that is I've found a recipe for that requires a bundle of them. I was going to make it when I gotten sidetracked a little bit."

"Mmhmm...so I saw." She smiled coyly as she remembered watching her be sidetracked by almost everything imaginable. "You are not very good at focusing on things, are you?" She swung a bit more until she suddenly went in such an arc that she ended up back on the branch she was hanging from, uncoiling her lower half and stretching out on it.

A small blush came on Ori's face, remembering back to how much she would get distracted by anything that crossed her path. "Heh, yes well I... I'm what you would call a thinker. I see something and I just have to know what and why it is. Take these wolves for example."

Ori gingerly moved her right hand down to the underside of the mother wolf's chin to lift and turn it towards her. "Linguistically speaking, these wolves don't fully understand what I am saying. Yet the mother seems to fully trust me only after a few short moments of us meeting. It's fascinating to me, she knows exactly what is best for her and her cubs with in mere moments of thought. Truly interesting, wouldn't you agree?"

"She trusts in her instincts and instincts are a pretty important thing to not trust." Amantha chided as she practically slithered down the tree towards the wolves. The mother of the cubs almost immediately began growling as a warning towards her. "See? She knows that I'm something that she should be very afraid of. It's in her nature to do so." She walked away from them so that the mother could calm down and she sat down at the base of a tree.

Ori mused what Amantha was saying, petting the mother's head to help further calm her down. "Instincts I see." Beginning to move her hands down the length of the mother's back, Ori remained silent as she thought about it. "That would play a very heavy role in her decisions. But that wouldn't fully explain why she's grown attached to me so easily."

As she continued to find an answer to the new question inside of her head, the cubs started to move over to their mother, each one finding a spot either near her or on top of her. "If anything, my magic would make me a threat as well. And I've found that many creatures in this forest are fully aware of it the moment they get near me."

"Is that so?" She mulled about this new piece of information. 'Could this magic be what she calls her implants? She uses a lot of weird terms that's for sure, so who knows?' "Maybe she has a better judge of character than the rest of the wildlife here." Getting up, Amantha walked to the river and jumped in, going underwater for a while and when she emerged, her mouth had a few large bass in it, still wriggling and wanting to escape, something which she quickly fixed with a snap of her maw.

Ori whined slightly from the spine chilling crunch. Amantha's jaw must be viciously powerful for her to snap the bones of the many fat bass fish that's in her mouth. "Quite the hungry one, aren't you?" She giggled as the pack mother laid her head in her lap and her pups soon gathered around their mother and Ori, yawning and finding comfortable places to nap. The close contact from the pack made Ori feel a little nervous since it has been some time since she had this much company.

In a minute or two nothing remained from the bass as Amantha devoured every last bit of her catch, quite messily at that. "I have high metabolism so I get hungry easily." Face bloodied and covered in bits of scales, the white furred woman walked to the stream and dunked her head in to clean her face off.

"Which might be another reason why your new friend there is more than wary of me." Sitting back down again she let out a contented sigh as she felt full, for now. "So, what is that potion thing you are trying to make good for?" She asked in hopes of pulling out more information from the feline, whom got to see just how much bigger the other woman is compared to her.

"Oh! I had forgotten about that." Ori sighed as she bit her thumb. Her wondering, shattered mind had yet again struck and made her forget about the whole reason she had stepped foot outside today. With befriending the wolf pack and meeting Amantha was a good excuse for it... right? "Mm... I best be getting back to that before I lose track of it again." Standing and walking the mother and her pups, Ori turned towards the river and walked over to the shore. She scanned over the area briefly as her purple eyes began changing to a green color. "To answer your question Amantha, the potion is to alleviate headaches and sickness. I figured it would be a good thing to have around so I came out to find the ingredients for it."

"Interesting, I hope you don't mind if I tag along, do you?" She asked her but it sounded like she would follow her even if the answer was no as Amantha stood up and began stretching, giving a glimpse of her flexibility to Ori as she bent in ways that would make most cringe from just the sight of it.

Blinking, Ori's eyes went back to normal as she looked back towards Amantha. "I don't see a reason not to. And it isn't like I can stop you honestly," she answered, turning to walk along the river bank. The pups tried to follow Ori but were stopped by their mother calling out. Sad, the pups whimpered and turned back to follow their mother into the forest and towards their den. Ori happily waved the pack off, feeling a little warm on the inside before she continued down the riverside.

Dirt soon gave way to a stone shoreside as the river widened. Ori kept her head on the swivel, looking for any rocks next to the bank covered in the blue algae she's looking for. "So Amantha, would you like one as well? It could be helpful as an ointment if you ever get hurt."

"Getting hurt is the least of my problems I think." She replied somewhat flippantly as she pointed to a large scar at near the base of her tail. "Had to regrow it once before so not that big of a deal. However, I would still like to take one, could be useful for something else." She took a look around, mentally trying to map the surroundings to know where she is in relation to her usual place.

Ori nodded her head and smiled. "Good, I'll be sure to make extra." She turned back to her search for the algae along the bank, having a feeling that the faster the waves got the greater of a chance of finding the stone holding the algae. After a few minutes of aimlessly picking up stone after stone with her magic, Ori decided a bit more conversation was in order. "So, uhm, you said something about being able to regrow your tail? Does that mean you have regenerative abilities or is it exclusively your tail?"

Thinking on how much she should say, Amantha mentally shrugged and turned her attention to the cat woman. "The former, however I would rather not try to test out the capabilities of my ability if you will. It was painful to lose it as you can probably imagine." Her tail swayed with a bit more force as she thought about the event that led to her losing it.

"Oh yes, I'm sorry. That was rather inconsiderate of me." Ori warily laughed as she looked down at her feet before looking back up to Amantha. Standing this close, Ori was just now realizing how tall Amantha was in comparison to her. "Though, I must say that it is impressive. I can use my magic to heal myself but that's only for small flesh wounds."

"You should really think about getting an upgrade then. Might be worth it in the long run and while you are at it try increasing the fuel tanks too." She commented without much forethought about the situation.

Ori tilted her head to the side as she looked back up to Amantha's green eyes. "Upgrade, fuel tanks? What are you talking about?" she asked, lifting another rock with her magic before tossing it into the river. "I'm sorry, but I don't know what this 'upgrade' or 'fuel tanks' are. I just use my magic for a lot of things."

Stopping abruptly, Amantha stepped in front of Ori and crouched down, leaning in really close in to look her straight in the eye. "I see no signs of alteration but then how could you make your eyes glow like that?" Taking Ori's hand in her own she inspected it and hummed in thought. "No signs of surgery here either." Lightly using her thumb to press along the veins she furrowed her brows when she couldn't feel any storage units or wirings in her arm.

"But then how did you set fire and use telekinesis?"

"...Like I said, I use my magic," Ori slowly answered, confused by Amantha's close examination. The best thing she could think of doing was give the woman a better explanation. "I need no alterations or surgery to use something I was born with and studied all my life. You know what magic is yes? The enthrall threads that connect our physical world with nature itself?"

Taken aback, Amantha blinked a couple times before shaking her head. "No, I have never heard of such things before. Unless it's a new and little known branch of science."

"Science? No, no, no." Ori shook her head and freed her hand from Amantha's grasp to pick up a rock, giving a demonstration might help she figured. She held the rock up to eye level and began focusing on it until it began to hover above her palm. "You could say they are the same thing, but magic involves less facts and more feeling. In order to even tap into the limitless power of the natural energy of the world, one has to spend many hours meditating, studying, and practicing. Magic isn't something that is created because magic itself is just energy in a focused form. Understand?"

Taking the rock into her hand she inspected it to see if there were anything that could point to tech being used on it but finding nothing she conceded that there must be at least some merit to what Ori was telling. "I guess, it's just something like this is completely unheard of, as far as I know." Throwing the stone up and down a bit in her palm she thought about the possibilities that this could hold. "And you say that you can learn this 'magic'?"

"Yes. I studied it since I was a little kitten." Ori resumed walking down the riverside, walking past Amantha as she continued to explain. "There wasn't much else I was good at so I spent most of my youth studying in the arts of magic. Elemental, constructional, and a few physical magics. They were the closest things that could keep my interest for very long."

"Where did you learn all of this?" She could only guess the extent of what those magics she mentioned could do but the thought entertained her. "And how many know about magic?" The thought of this power getting into the wrong hands left a bad taste in her mouth, one that she wasn't particularly fond of.

"Well, I learned most of what I know from books but my mother is the one that introduced me to magic in the first place." Ori fondly smiled as she thought back to studying underneath her mother when she was a kitten. Learning magic was though, and her mother wasn't strictly carefree with her studies but it was all enjoyable nevertheless. "As for how many know about magic... I suppose that anyone can learn about magic and learn how it is used. But it is something one has to be born with to a degree."

"That's at least some reassurance..." Amantha muttered under her breath as she let the information sink in. "How many live on this planet that know magic?" She had to know just how quickly things could go wrong if those people were to ever find this world, if they hadn't already.

Ori shrugged her shoulders. She didn't even know how many people there were on the planet to start with, so there was no way of her knowing how many knew magic. "I suppose as many that know about the seasons. Like I said, magic is another force of nature just more focused and controlled. You really haven't heard of it before have you?"

Shaking her head, Amantha stood up. "Nor have anyone else from where I am, as far as I am aware. Hopefully it will stay that way." Stretching again she looked down at Ori. "Come on, I think I kept you off of searching for long enough."

"I hope you don't mind answering another question of mine while we looked?" Ori asked, moving down the riverbank with Amantha in tow. "This surgery, upgrading, and alterations, what are you talking about?"

"Pretty self-explanatory. Modification of one's body in order to better it, one way or another." She shrugged as she walked alongside her as if the whole thing was explained. "Anything else?"

Ori arched an eyebrow towards Amantha, looking back towards the woman for a moment before asking, "Could you go into that a bit further?" She turned her attention back to the many rocks along the river, spotting a few pieces of algae but not the kind she was looking for. Even still, they were getting close. "Something is telling me that it has something to do with more science than magic."

"Not really? Or what do you mean?"

"These modifications and upgrades you mentioned. What exactly are they and how do they come about?" Ori asked in clarification, hoping that Amantha would understand her question. "You'd suggested that I had some done on myself, so does that mean they can do the same magic can?"

"Oh, that." She mentally hit herself for not thinking about that. "Well, sort of. I know there are people who used surgery to hide small packs of fuel in their arms and had their hands modified so they can eject and ignite it through their hands." Amantha tried to demonstrate by showing it where they would usually be and how they would connect, using her own hand.

"As for the levitating rocks thing, I guess they could try and have some sort of tractor beam installed although that could be risky. Does that suffice?"

Ori blinked and almost tripped over herself as she took in what Amantha was saying. She understood what she was saying, but the information was... startling. "So... what you're saying is there are those that would want... machines implanted within their bodies? That seems quite dangerous, is it not?"

"Well, of course. If an amateur does a hack-job, then yes there are consequences." She stated matter-of-factly before blinking and thinking about it more. "Wait, does this mean that you never knew about implants before? They are kind of widespread knowledge if you ask me."

"Just as I see magic as widespread knowledge?" Ori quipped, giggling to herself. She stopped when a shimmer caught the corner of her eye and bent down to find the shimmer to be a sliver necklace hanging by its thin chain against the shore. Quickly fishing it out of the water, Ori rubbed her thumb over the star shape necklace. "Interesting, wonder how this got here?" Musing over the it for a moment, she turned her attention back to the matter of conversation. "Anyway, no, I hadn't heard of implants before. To me they sound quite dangerous and well... cheap."

"Oh trust me, they aren't cheap. Most people would pay an arm and a leg to get one done for them." Amantha informed her idly as she looked at the necklace over Ori's shoulder. "As for neither of us knowing about magic or implants is...weird to say the least."

"Huh, oh no, no. I didn't mean cheap in the sense of monetary value. I meant it in the sense that it feels like it's... cheating or cutting corners around the hard work of learning magic," Ori clarified, taking the pendant in her hand. "But I must say, you and I had to come from very different walks of life."

"Getting an advantage in life over something isn't cheap in my opinion. If it means you get to live another day, then why wouldn't you do it?" Shrugging she walked along deeper into the forest, observing the surroundings. "I have to agree, it's weird meeting someone who doesn't know the technology that I do."

Ori nodded in agreement, following Amantha down the river, still in search for the allege. "So do you have any implants Amantha?"

"Not that I know of, no. Although sometimes I wish I had one or two, definitely could have helped out a great deal." Not knowing what else to say, she looked around until something caught her eye. "Could that be it?" Pointing at the glowing patch of algae in a shady part of the crevice.

Ori looked over to where Amantha was point to, spotting the patch of blue algae. She stepped over towards it, picked the rock up, and sniffed. "Could be, the book did mention an odorless algae and I can't smell anything from this." She reached into a pouch at her side and pulled out a glass vial, scraping off some into it. "Yes, this is what I'm looking for but might not be enough for what I need. Though, this does mean there should be a group of it somewhere nearby."

"So how much of this stuff do you actually need?" She asked as she looked around in the darker areas and noticed another batch in a small natural formed pouch in the river bank. "There is some more."

Ori rushed over the patch Amantha found and quickly setting to work with gathering more, filling the first vial and a second one before she finished. "I believe this would be enough. I probably should have brought the book with me, but I can always come back for more." As she stood up, a deep growl from Ori's stomach startled her, causing her to blush and clutch her hands over stomach. "H-heh, I guess I didn't eat enough earlier."

"So, you want more fish?" Amantha asked her as she looked towards the treetops. "Give me a second, I need to check on something." Without waiting for reply, she began scaling the tree until she reached the top and peeked through the foliage, just high enough to see most of the area around. "So it's a bit far towards there, nothing too bad."

"Amantha? Is everything alright up there?" Ori called out as she approached the tree.

Knowing everything she needed to know, Amantha began her descent to rejoin with Ori. "Yeah, everything is okay I just wanted to know where we are." Within a few seconds she was already standing next to the demon cat. "Well I guess we can go get you some more food then."

A hearty growl from Ori's stomach agreed with Amantha for her. Ori blushed harder and turned from the taller woman. "U-uh yes fish would seem a more immediate food source."

"I guess we should head back to where we came from, more fish to catch that way." She began walking on the riverbank, not wanting to scare away any catch they could get.

"Yes, the catch seemed to be easier the smaller the river is." Ori followed Amantha back down the river, the trip a little shorter thanks to not having to keep an eye out for anything and leaving the two the engage in idle conversation. They eventually came across the clearing where they first met and decided that was the place to hunt for fish. "Hm, what do you think would be the most effect way? You know, not to waste energy."

"Let me do it." Without a word, she slipped into the water and began hunting for fishes. For minutes she stayed down there in the water without coming up at all, only throwing out bass after bass onto the shore until there was a sizeable pile of dead aquatic animals bleeding onto the ground. "Does that suffice?"

Ori wordlessly nodded her head, feeling a little intimidated at the speed and efficiency that Amantha gathered the large pile. Just more of a reason to say on the woman's good side. "I believe that yes, this will be enough. Please, let me start a fire." She turned and rushed over to the forest's edge to gather a few sticks, dry wood, leaves, and rocks to set up a fire pit. With a simple roll of her wrist, a purple and blue flame ignited above her palm and was tossed into the pit, lighting the wood and leaves. Ori handed Amantha a stick and smiled. "Here, they're better cooked."

Taking the stick, she worked on putting one of the fishes on it while observing the other woman. "How long have you been living here, alone?" She put the fish over the fire and started waiting patiently for it to cook.

The question took Ori by surprise as she was working on propping her fish against the fire. "Mm, it hadn't been too long... a year at the most." She sat down on the ground near the fire, looking up to the evening sky with a small sigh. "See I had originally come to this forest to connect with the natural threads of magic more. So I planned for no more than three days of training and mediation. But I found this castle, a really old castle about to fall apart old. And there was a library inside holding a few books on alchemy and magic. After such a find, I couldn't leave until I've mastered its teachings. You?"

"A few weeks since I... landed, for lack of better words." She wrapped her tail up in her lap and propped herself up on it, looking into the fire. "Just biding my time here, trying to fix some things before I can hopefully leave someplace more secluded."

"Uh... landed? As in you were flying? How? You have no wings," Ori pointed out, finding it hard for Amantha to be flying anywhere without something to fly with.

Laughing a bit at what the demonic feline said, Amantha shook her head. "A silly idea but no, I didn't mean fly by myself but rather my esca-...my small spaceship." She almost bit her tongue on the slip up and hoped that Ori would let it by.

Ori cocked her head to the side a little and blinked. "Space...ship?

Scratching her head, Amantha sighed as with her other hand she took off her fish from the fire and took out a large bite from it. "Figured something like this would happen. It's a... type of vehicle that lets me go from planet to planet."

"Wait, you mean to tell me you have a way of traveling amongst the stars?" Ori laughed and shook her head as she reached out to pick up a bass from the fire. "Sorry if this comes off as rude, but that is something very hard to believe." She took a bite out of the fish, entertaining the idea some more. "Though, I can tell it would make one grand of an adventure."

"And care to explain why it sounds so farfetched? You are talking with someone who has never heard of magic but possesses knowledge about technology beyond your wildest dreams. Also, I'm pretty sure that you have never seen anyone like me before either." She looked at her pointedly before taking another huge bite out of the fried fish, essentially devouring the rest of the mangled food.

Tapping her chin in thought, Ori couldn't find a way to argue with Amantha's argument. It was odd she knew nothing about magic and knew all sorts of things about technology. She just assumed that she was still naive to many things. "Mm, okay you have a point. Everything you've told me so far has been, and excuse the poor pun, 'out of this world.'" Ori giggled even after acknowledging the poor joke she just made. "Well if I may, why are you here and not... well out there?"

Shaking her head with a small smile, Amantha decided to eat a bass raw while another one was cooking on the fire for her. "As I said, I 'landed' a few weeks ago. There were some problems with the craft and I had to find someplace so I could fix it...but now I have more to fix than before."

Ori arched an eyebrow as she caught the emphasis on the way Amantha put on the word landed. "You say that as if landing was more like... crashing. And how are you're going to find the material to fix your ship?"

Shrugging, she poked the cooking fish with a finger. "Eh, it's not the hull that needs a lot of fixing but rather the inner workings. The whole ordeal is just more time consuming than anything if you ask me."

"Ah, well I hope you're able to fix your craft," Ori genuinely said, taking a bite out of the side of her fish, savoring the taste for a moment. It was good that Amantha wasn't in as much trouble as she first thought, it would be ashame if she was separated from her home world. "So do you miss your home? It must have been jarring to be stranded on an unfamiliar world."

Stopping only for a split second when Ori mentioned home world, Amantha quickly continued eating. "Yeah...I miss home a lot."

Ori bit her lip when she heard the sadness coming from Amantha. "I-I'm sorry." She looked towards the ground, rubbing her knees together and sighing. "That was inconsiderate of me to mention your home after you've been stranded here. I didn't me-"

Using her tail to silence Ori, Amantha shook her head. "It's okay, there is nothing you have to apologize about Ori." Giving her a small smile she pulled her tail back and curled it up again in her lap. "You don't have to walk on egg shells around me, okay?"

"I understand." Ori nodded, smiling a little more. "It's just I can sympathize with you. I know I'm staying here of my own choice, but I do miss home. How long do you think it'll take to repair your ship?"

Propping up her head with her hands, Amantha hummed in thought. "Well, if I can do things in a constant pace I would say about...two or three weeks more." She mentally did the math and nodded as it sounded just about right. "That is if nothing happens to throw a wrench into things."

"Ah, I see. Well, until then could we, I dunno, be friends?" Ori asked, looking up to Amantha with a small hopeful smile.

Blinking at the sudden question, Amantha felt a smile form on her lips as she looked back at the demon cat and scooted next to her, pulling the smaller woman into a hug. "I would be glad to."