FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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Keira shifted around in her bed and then felt an aching pain suddenly jolt up her spine. With a weak yelp, her eyes shot open as her body crumpled forward. Just as quickly as the pain came, it disappeared. She panted and winced, a dull ache now trembling through her limbs. She hissed and threw off her covers with irritation and flipped onto her belly.

Her head shot back and forth as she took several big breaths. Where am I? she wondered. Was I captured? Her heart beat faster in her chest and her wings trembled. It felt like her head was swimming and she was extremely dizzy. She shut her eyes tightly and tried to take steady breaths to recollect herself. She felt like she'd almost pass out again.

The last thing she remembered were two Southern dragons, a black dragon and a green dragon, snatching her away from her dead father's arms... And now she was suddenly in a room enclosed by stone walls with several empty beds that looked just the same as hers. Dimly glowing yellow lights were stored in the walls, much like the ones her family had at home...

Until it burned down.

Keira grimaced and felt tears coming to her eyes as she relived the horrific scenes she witnessed. Dragons dying, fire blazing, shrieks and roars of agony and hatred... all of the bloodshed and all of the dead bodies littered together. Everyone and everything she knew was gone. There was nothing left.

And now, she had no idea where she was or why.

She shivered and sniffled quietly while curling into a tight ball. What happens now? Am I going to die?

She looked around again and wiped her tears away, a new feeling of determination welling inside her. Why should she have to stay here when she wasn't forced to? If she had been captured, then her captors certainly did an awful job at keeping her prisoner. There was nothing stopping her from leaving on her own accord.

Keira crawled off of the bed, feeling her muscles using all of their strength just to grip and pull her forward. She managed to drop onto the floor, but she landed with a thud as her legs collapsed beneath her. She growled and bared her fangs in a snarl while she struggled to stand up. Now her aching bones had a reason to hurt.

Then a green-scaled dragoness padded hastily into the room with a worried expression. "Oh, no no no no. You need to lie down and rest, sweetie."

Keira hissed as the dragoness approached her. She managed to climb to her talons, but her legs were all trembling violently. I can hardly hold myself up, so how am I supposed to get out of here? What if I have to fight my way to escape? ... What am I escaping from or to?

The white dragonet let out a depressing sigh and gave up, letting her body just flop onto the ground in defeat. She had no reason to leave.

"It'll be okay," the dragoness cooed softly. "After you eat some solid food, you'll be feeling a lot better."

Keira stared blankly ahead with dull, crimson eyes. She didn't object to being picked up and placed back on the bed, and she didn't adjust herself before the dragoness pulled the blanket back over her body, leaving her head and tail poking out of the covers.

"Try to just relax for a while. I'll be back soon with some food for you." With that, the dragoness left Keira alone again.

"What's the point," she mumbled to herself. She felt tears starting to well in her eyes again, but she shoved her muzzle into the bed to stop them.

Her thoughts roamed to her father, wondering what he would think about her just giving up like this and going down without a fight. He taught her to always fight and never give up, especially if it meant her survival. But look where that got him...

The memory of her father's limp and scorched body flashed in her eyes. She had found his body mixed in with the rest of the village. It looked like he had tried to fight, but judging by the fact that there wasn't a single dead body of the attackers, his attempt was useless. No one in her village stood a chance against them.

Keira ran away instead of fighting, and she survived. Admittedly, she was too young to be fighting, but she still ran away while her village--her home--was destroyed. Even if there was nothing she could do, maybe it would have been better for her to die trying instead of living with nothing left.

Keira sighed hopelessly and curled up under the blanket, trying to hide from the world. She let herself begin to cry, her emotions coursing through her in wave after wave of sadness until she sobbed and whimpered as tears streamed down her cheeks. She gave in to her feelings and just let them wash over her, drowning in her sorrow.

The healer eventually came back, but she didn't say a word and set something down on a tray beside her bed, and then she left seconds after. Keira took deep, steady breaths and tried to recollect herself again, but the thoughts and horrible images kept coming back. By the time she had finally cried all she could, her face felt hot and swollen, her eyes were irritated, and snot dripped from her nostrils.

She poked her head out and immediately felt her stomach lurch and grumble loudly at the scent of food wafting into her stuffy nose. Keira pulled the plate off of the tray and set it down in front of her. On it was a juicy slab of meat, tender and lightly cooked, though it was a little cold now. Without wasting a moment, she eagerly shoved her muzzle into the plate and devoured gulp after gulp until it was all gone, tearing into it with teeth and claws.

Keira set the plate back and licked her talons and lips clean, feeling a bit better now that her stomach was filled. She was surprised to find herself calming down quite a bit, and she felt a little fuzzy. Her thoughts began to slow until she felt like sleeping again.

So, she closed her eyes and fell back asleep, letting her mind wander into a relaxing dream.

Keira woke again sometime in the evening to hear her healer and an older, green dragoness talking. Her emerald shade of green looked like it had been bright back when she was younger, but now it had a sort of dull luster that took away from her beauty. Around her neck was a necklace with a deep-red gem embedded into a golden chain. When she looked back at Keira, she could see the wear of the elder's age etched into her face.

"She's awake," the older dragoness said. "Is she well enough to leave?"

Leave where? Keira wondered. She winced and blinked. Everything seemed so slow. Why was her head so heavy? And her eyes... they didn't want to stay open. She snorted and forced herself to keep them open until the drowsiness was gone.

"She is healing exceptionally fast, and the worst has already passed. I've never seen anyone recover so quickly before... But all she needs now is plenty of rest," the healer replied. "Though be patient with her strength. She probably can't walk very well yet, and she definitely cannot fly."

Keira turned around with her back to the two dragonesses and mumbled beneath her breath. I'm plenty strong enough to walk and fly.

"Come, dear," the older dragon said to Keira. "It's time for you to go."

Keira rolled over and faced her, a cautious expression across her face. She looked into her golden eyes, searching for answers and found a stern glare staring her back.

"Don't waste my time staring at me, whelp. I've better things to do than dawdle."

Despite wanting to lash out at the cranky hag, Keira didn't quite have the energy for her blood to be boiling. She frowned and carefully climbed off of the bed. Her legs were still shaky, but she could hold herself up just fine. Weakness was the worst quality to have, and she didn't want to show it. So, she stepped past the elder with confident steps.

"She seems fine," the old dragon grumbled. "Maybe I can get rid of her sooner than I hoped." She stepped ahead of Keira in just a few strides and started to lead her away. "This way, little one."

I am not little! She wasn't that much smaller than both the adults. The elder was the largest dragon there, and Keira's head was above her shoulders, about three-quarters her size.

Keira was struggling to keep up with the old dragoness' longer strides, but she managed the best she could. The door slid open, and she was greeted by a bright, afternoon sun. She grimaced and squinted.

Outside was a giant city, the likes of which Keira had never seen. She stopped for a brief moment, her jaw slightly dropped as she looked around. There were so many strange, stone buildings lining up and down many different stone-covered streets--not a bunch of small wooden houses. Some of them were even more than one story high! And there were so many dragons flying around too!

The dragonet trotted forward to catch up with her apparent new guardian and then trudged beside her. It was true that this new place was a little fascinating, but it wasn't her home, and it was obvious that she wouldn't be welcome here. Already, she received menacing glares from passersby that happened to notice a Northern dragonet in their Southern city.

She never understood why Southern dragons had such a bad reputation. From what her father had said, all Southern dragons were snotty and arrogant, which Keira now saw for herself. They already had twice the territory than Northern dragons, yet they still started another war to try and claim more land. Now, it made sense to her why there was such animosity between Northern and Southern dragons: Southerners thought they were above Keira's kind.

Keira frowned and kept her head down, her tail trailing behind her. Her legs felt weaker and weaker until she was almost struggling to drag herself along. Thankfully, it wasn't too much longer until the old dragoness led her up a small flight of stairs embedded into a hillside to a small wooden house with architecture she was somewhat familiar with.

Behind it was a giant cliff that towered over the home. Around the house were beautiful flowers and plants, and the next closest neighbor was a good glide away. It looked like the lawn was well taken care of with flowers blooming in the tall grass, but the house didn't look anything of the sort.

It looked old and mildly deteriorated, just like the owner.

And it smelled old too. Keira stepped inside, immediately getting hit with a wall of musty tomes, dusty furniture, and moldy wood. Her nose twitched before she sneezed a couple times and sniffled.

"You'll get used to it," the dragoness said. "But don't get too comfortable. You'll be leaving in a month."

Keira followed her into what looked to be a living room, and each step elicited a creak in the floorboards. There was soft bedding for lying down and resting on, a bookshelf with scrolls and old tomes, a cobblestone fireplace, and a table.

"Where... Where will I be going?" Keira asked. Her voice sounded so... small and weak. She didn't like that at all, but it felt like something was stuck in her throat.

The old dragoness lay down on her bedding, her body curling up while her neck snaked into an S as she looked at the white dragonet. Keira noticed a lot of old scars marring her dull, forest-green hide as well as several missing scales along her right shoulder.

"I don't know or really care. Back to the North I imagine, but I guess that will be your decision to make."

Keira nodded and sat on her haunches with her tail curling around her talons. With her head down, she avoided looking at her new guardian and faced another direction. Was she supposed to talk to the old hag or was she just supposed to sit there?

"If you're just going to sit there, don't slouch so much. I know your kind isn't very proper, but a little goes a long way."

Keira grit her teeth and stared firmly at the ground, trying not to expose any of her emotions. What does she mean my kind_? I'm a dragon, just like her._

"And at least try to start a conversation instead of staring at the ground."

"Why would I want to talk to you?" Keira growled. Her claws were gouging into the soft wooden floor while her tail flicked back and forth.

"Perhaps to gain more knowledge or pass the time?" she retorted. "Neither of us knows each other's name. Why don't we start there? My name is Evelyn."

Keira glared at her and grumbled before returning her attention to the floor, picking at it with her claws. "Keira," was her terse answer.

Another long moment of silence passed.

"What are you doing here, you ask?" Evelyn incited with the wave of her paw. "Well, I'll tell you. My foolhardy sons decided to give you another chance at life, so they brought you back to our wondrous city to be healed. As I'm sure you can already tell, and to put it bluntly, no one wants you here. Even though you're young, you're a Northern dragonet. In spite of that, I have agreed to take you in for one month while you recover. After you've recovered, you will leave."

"They should have just left me there..." Keira mumbled and winced, turning her head away so Evelyn couldn't see her face. All of those terrible thoughts were creeping back into her mind again. She was taken to a brand new world because of her heroes--a world that didn't want her.

"Many of us agree, but fate has determined otherwise. I'd say you're very lucky to have lived. You should be glad no one has killed you yet."

How very reassuring, Keira thought irately. "I want to lie down."

Evelyn sighed and motioned with her head to a room behind her. "There's your room. If I'm not here, then I'm in my bedroom which is through that hallway over there. Try not to need me for anything. There will be food in the morning."

Keira nodded and walked past her and through to the next room, finding a small space with just a bed with a square table next to it. The bed wasn't off of the ground, so she stepped on it and kneaded into it to test it out. She sighed, finding it to be almost as hard as a rock.

The dust was even worse in here, and it almost felt like she could hardly breathe. She doubted this room had seen any use for a couple decades, seeing how Evelyn seemed to be alone. She briefly wondered if she had a husband or what happened to him if she did, but then she found herself not caring.

She curled up on the hard bed anyway and closed her eyes. She didn't really feel like sleeping anymore, but she'd much rather get away from Evelyn when she had the chance. Now she had the chance to be alone, to think without interruption...

Now Keira had the chance to be trapped with herself. She hated where her thoughts went, but she couldn't stop them. It was like they had a mind of their own, mixing reality with dark, agonizing fantasy. She didn't want to see them, but memories would keep coming back to her.

She missed her old room. She missed her home, her father, her friends, and her village... her life. She'd never be able to go back to how things were before. Everything she had ever known was left behind; all she had now was herself and only herself, and that would never change.

Keira sighed and held back her tears as she buried her muzzle into her forearms. I shouldn't even be alive...

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