FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The trees rushed by Verik in quick green and brown blurs as he raced with all his strength through the forest. He quickly dodged to the sides to avoid colliding with them. His legs burned as he pushed his physical capabilities to the limit, but he barely even registered the pain. All other sounds around him never reached his ears. His mind was only focused on one thing and that was getting to their camp. He didn't know what the demons were capable of, but he knew that whatever happened, or will happen, to his sister, was terrible.

He knew he was near before he even could see the clearing through the trees. Not by the scent of their camp, but by the horrifying scent of blood. Wolfen blood. He ran with increased mental intensity, but he couldn't speed his legs up any faster than he already was going.

Another minute later, he saw the break in the trees where the clearing was just beyond. By now the smell of blood was so strong, it was almost unbearable. There was so much of it. He didn't slow down as he got near, not bothering to be careful about any threats. If there was something there, he would deal with it accordingly.

When he entered the clearing, he involuntarily cried out in shock, his ears dropping flat against his skull. All around, the camp was destroyed. All their shelters were shattered, most likely trampled under the massive feet of the demons. There were several bodies of fallen demons scattered around, but he paid them no mind as soon as his eyes moved to the center of the camp.

There was a massive amount of blood, staining the grass and soaking into the dirt. It was starting to dry, but it was spilled not more than an hour ago. There was an object sitting in the middle of all this. It was small, covered in red and brown fur. When he got closer to see what it was, his knees' strength gave out and he fell to his knees. The object sitting in the bloodstained grass was a severed hand belonging to Syla.

The rest of his pack burst into the clearing, most of them out of breath for running for so long. They all had their claws bared, ready to defend themselves from anything that might have been here waiting for them. Once they realized they were alone, they immediately scanned the area.

Keil approached Verik and was about to say something, but he saw the hand surrounded by blood and gasped. "Oh no, not Lu!" He growled and immediately ran to the edges of the clearing, sniffing the air, most likely trying to find a scent trail for the demons, but without any luck.

"You won't find anything." Verik scolded Keil. "They're flying creatures. They wouldn't be stupid enough to leave a scent trail."

"I know, I just..." He trailed off and looked back up into the sky, trying to see anything, but obviously, they were already gone.

Emmaline's whole body was quivering as she knelt down beside Verik. "This was it. This is what we were feeling. I should have known! I should have told everyone and turned back! If I did that, I might have been able to save them!"

"I know." Verik said, with a weak voice. He felt like he should put his hands around her and tell her that it wasn't her fault and that there was no way she could have known, but he had the same feelings as she did. He was thinking the exact same thing. He could have stopped this.

Lyan walked up beside them and examined the hand with a grave expression. "They're monsters. I'll kill every last one of them! The next one I see I'll..." He immediately stopped and stared at the hand more closely. "I think there is something underneath the hand."

"What are you talking about?" Verik asked.

Lyan gently placed one of his claws underneath it and carefully flipped it over. As the fingers fell back, it revealed a small black stone, a dim red light radiating from its surface. He moved his hand to pick it up.

"Wait! Don't touch it!" Keil barked, but Lyan already closed his hand around it. Immediately, the red light exploded from it, casting a red tint on the whole area. A strange fog appeared along the ground and grouped together, forming several shapes along the camp. A couple seconds later, although they were still blurry, Verik knew right away what they were. Large wings appeared on the backs of these shapes, confirming what they were. Several small demons lined the edges of the clearing and in the center was a massive one, similar in size to Erebos.

Verik jumped away from creature and threw his arm forward, unleashing a flurry of lightning at the large demon, but they just passed right through him. He then realized that they weren't physically there. This was all some kind of magic projection. A message of some kind. Everyone gathered around to see what was going to happen. Once the figures cleared up more so the details were actually visible, the projections came to life.

All the demons on the edge stood up straight and looked toward the large one in the center, presumably their leader. Many of them had scratches and small wounds around their bodies; some of them struggling to stay on their feet. From the looks of it, Syla and Thorren put up quite a fight before being subdued.

The leader lifted his head and roared into the air, the sound causing the ground to rumble. Hundreds of birds around the surrounding area took to the air in fright. He stepped forward with a menacing grin. "Verik." He said. His voice was low and powerful. "We know who you are and what you have done. How you were able to form an alliance to kill Erebos, was impressive. You did well." He narrowed his eyes and bared his long sharp teeth. "However, Erebos was weak; both in strength and numbers. We are different. To put it simply, you cannot defeat us. Our armies are too great to be stopped now. All you can do is inflict minor pain or become an inconvenience to our victory. I would like to avoid as much of this as possible, so I will make a deal with you.

"We have in our possession two of your packmates." He waved to someone beyond the projection range. Several demons appeared, dragging Thorren and Syla to their leader. They both looked exhausted and were covered in bleeding talon wounds, but Syla still had both of her hands. "I will be willing to return them to you if you give us something in return. You have seven days to deliver the one of us you have as a prisoner along with the dead body of Verik. I will have spies watching the area at all times. Once I receive word that you have completed your task, I will release your friends back to you. However, just know that the longer you wait, the more they will get hurt. Just so you know that I am serious..."

The large demon grabbed Syla's arm and violently jerked it forward. Without warning, he leaned down and closed his massive jaws over her hand and yanked back, tearing the hand off. Syla stared in shock for one second as the demon spat the hand onto the ground. After that, the pain registered and she screamed out in pain and fell to her knees, blood pouring out from her arm. Thorren jumped to his feet and rushed toward the demon, snarling viciously. The large creature grabbed a spear from behind him and swiftly swung it around. The thick wooden rod struck Thorren's head and he instantly fell to the ground unconscious.

As Verik watched this, his anger and hatred grew and fire inadvertently sprouted around his arms, threatening to explode. His teeth bared as he growled at the events unfolding in front of him. It was killing him to just stand here through this, knowing that he can do nothing to stop her pain.

The demon shifted his attention back to Syla, who was clutching her handless arm, tears flowing freely from her eyes. "Don't worry, my dear wolfen. I won't let you bleed out." He grabbed her arm again and brought it up level to his face. Opening his mouth again, he let out a stream of fire over the injury. Again, Syla shrieked in agony as the flesh was seared. Apparently it was too much for her body to handle. Before the demon was done, Syla lost consciousness and became limp. When he let her fall, her arm was no longer bleeding, but the flesh and skin all around the front portion of her arm was completely charred.

The demon kicked Syla's body to the side and looked straight forward. "You know what needs to be done, Verik. Time is passing quickly." The projections froze in place and then slowly faded away, leaving the clearing in silence.

Verik clenched his fist. His whole body was shaking with rage. The fire that surrounded his body burned strong, forcing others to back away from him. He closed his eyes and tried to clear the anger from his mind. If he didn't get control of himself, he knew that he might end up hurting his packmates. He felt the fire die down and his anger was cooled slightly, but in its place was a sick feeling in his stomach. He lurched over and threw up into the grass.

Emmaline knelt down beside him and silently put her arms around him, trying to comfort him, but at this time, that was an impossible task. Until his sister was freed from those creatures, he would not be okay. The pain that she will be going through made Verik shudder, and he knew that anything else that she is put through is all on him.

"What are we going to do?" Lyan asked. He still stared at the center of the camp where the demon was standing previously with a shocked expression of disbelief. "Are we going to try and rescue her? We can't do what he asks, can we?"

"Why not?" Verik questioned. "My life is not more important than theirs. If we can save two lives at the expense of my own, then I am willing to make that sacrifice."

Keil stepped forward, his arms folded. "That actually is incorrect. I hate myself for saying this, but it is true. At this point, you are more important than any one of us. With the powers that Vannah gave you, you are probably the strongest individual in this land. If we ever hope to kill those demon bastards, then we need you alive. If we give you to them, then we are throwing that all away."

"Do we honestly have any chance of winning against them? Do you really think it will make any difference whether I am alive or dead? Their armies are huge. We know that. How do you plan on winning that fight?" He knew he was trying to be as optimistic as possible prior, but with all this stress, he couldn't hold back his unpleasant thoughts any longer.

"We will do everything we can to defeat them. We can't do it alone, but with the humans' help, we are much stronger." Keil told him. "If we will fail, I'd like to die, knowing I did everything I can to stop this evil from spreading!"

Verik stood up, anger seeping from his voice, "I need to save my sister! She will be tortured to death if we don't get here free! Do you really want to just continue on with your life, knowing the pain they will be going through!"

"Of course not!" Keil growled. "We will do what we are able to free them, but we cannot hand you over. We still have our prisoner. We can use him to find where they are being held."

Verik folded his arms and scowled. "Perhaps, but they most likely have them held at their home. We would somehow have to get past thousands of demons to reach them. Then we would have to get them out. I have a hard time seeing how that could possibly be pulled off."

"Honestly, I don't know how we would do it, either, off hand." Keil ran his hands over his head, his tail twitching as he thought hard. "But maybe if we get the humans to help us, we can find a way. Since the demons know where we live, we can't stay here, either way. I think it's time we go join the humans in their city and begin working together. Just please let us try to rescue her before doing anything rash."

Verik scowled further. He wanted to refute Keil, but he knew that Keil was right. Silently, he nodded and turned away.

"Thank you." Keil said and then turned to everyone else. "It's time to move out. Create something so we can carry our prisoner and then meet me by the cave!" Keil exited the clearing and everyone else got to work.

Verik looked over at Emmaline. "Can you see anything? Anything at all about this situation?"

She shook her head sadly. "No, nothing. If you don't mind me saying so, I think Keil is right. It is horrible to let them die at the hands of the demons, but even if you do give in to their demands and he lets them go, what do you think will happen to them? She will be back with us, but then the demons will continue their war and she will most likely die at their hands anyway, or worse, become one of them. Without you, they will surely win the fight. If you do what they say, nothing really changes. And, despite what he said, he is afraid of you. He wouldn't have gone through this much trouble to eliminate you if you were just an inconvenience."

"You're most likely right." He sighed. "I just can't do nothing while my own sister is being tortured by those creatures."

"You won't be doing nothing. We will go to the humans and then you will work with them to find a way to save our packmates." She paused for a second, then added, "We need you. We all do."

Verik nodded, "I understand." He knew that what they were saying made sense, but it didn't make it any harder to accept. Syla was so beautiful and innocent. These kinds of things shouldn't happen to people like that.

Shaking his head, he went to join his pack get ready to leave. In his mind, he was going over how he would kill the demons responsible, picturing every single violent detail as vividly as his mind could create. He was on the verge of just breaking down and crying, and this was the only thing he could do to keep his minds off the tragic events.

To Be Continued...