FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

With a pounding heart she entered the shadows of the forest, an assemblage of towering tree giants, ancients ferns and other, smaller plants to complete the thicket. Deceptive calmness reigned in the cool shades, creating the a counterbalance to the bustling plain, that had become an arena for show offs of flamboyant color displays and contending suitors. Their bellows and hollering were still present as an ever present echo in the woods, where the distressed female Chasmosaurus hoped to find some alleviation from the business of the season, that had been recurring for as long as she could think of.

In the seasons before this, Chura had just been a silent observer, someone who didn't yet belong to the circle of the adults and kept wondering why all those males grew so bold as they went about to challenge each other. Not only that, they tried to form personal harems of females and every female, that strayed between these clusters could easily become a subject of interest.

Although the dull colored frilled female had watched these things happening several years ago, it had surprised her as her own body began to betray her to the males. First, they just called out to her, while swaying their large neck frills, dotted with striking reds, dark browns and white, irregular blotches. But the haze of the mating season let them become frantic, each one wanting her for his own harem, because the more females, the more offspring a male would have.

Two equally matched males found themselves in circling each other as the young female was passing by along the well defined boundaries of two adjacent harems. Booming bellows filled the air as both sized each other up, none of them willing to back down with their feet firmly planted on the Cretaceous ground. A fight would ensue, she knew. Some of her female comrades watched as their favorite, a brute known as Toshin stormed towards his challenger. Chura didn't have anything of that and used the opportunity to bring distance between herself and jostling males. With a last glance back she watched Toshin defeating his challenger and presenting his dominance to the other, before his sultry gaze fell on her.

All the thoughts of him made her just wanting to venture deeper into the woods, where shadows cooled her pebbly hide and she even allowed herself to get lost in the emerald shades of a plant with broad, leaf-like structures. The herd and its commotion laid behind her, probably most hadn't noticed her disappearing as they were busy with the trials of the mating season to keep the circle of life a going process.

Lost in her own mind, the snapping of dry branches kicked her back into a reality neither the female Chasmosaurus nor one of her herd wanted to face in their life. Her brown eyes focused on the bipedal form of a larger dinosaur, whose stocky frame was covered in dark brown feathers with a slight rusty reflex here and there. Only the very top of the neck, the underbelly and ornamental protrusions around the eyes showed a contrasting dull white.

Chura's heart froze for a moment as instinctual fear seeped into her system, after her brain had identified the predator. To her own surprise the Daspletosaurus stopped before her, apparently astonished to find so quickly her next meal and that without the protection of the herd. Chura shuddered in anticipation of an imminent attack.

The female Daspletosaurus revealed her teeth in slight amusement, before she rose her voice. "Seems like you got into a serious kind of trouble, I assume. I rarely find one of your kind being far from the herd, so I wonder what caused you to leave the safety."

Fear urged her to run, but Chura was petrified while she witnessed how the tyrannosaur circled her slowly, but her mind was quick enough to keep her frill close to her vulnerable neck. Her eyes kept glued to the inspecting Daspletosaurus, who probably scanned Chura's body for patches to sink her teeth into, but the obviously soon to be prey still owed an answer.

"You can talk to me, I'm actually not on a prowl, but I might change that."

In fact, the sudden encounter with the Chasmosaurus had come unexpected as Theris was exploring this place. This wasn't her hunting ground, not the territory she had formerly claimed. Volcanic eruptions had devastated once her home and forced her to wander to new places.

The beak of the Chasmosaurus moved shakily as she tried to form an answer, that sounded so stupid now. But if it kept the tyrannosaur distracted from tearing off her beloved, tender meat, then it was worth.

"I-I fled from a male, T-Toshin... He lusts after me to be a part of his harem..."

If she had been able to shed droplets of sweat, Chura's head would now be covered with a wet shine. Most likely, she was now reeking of fear, mixed with the scent of her first season.

Theris didn't much understand of the Chasmosaurs' way of courting each other, nor did her olfactory react to the heat scent, that came from the young herbivore in front of her. All she smelled was the predominant fear, the earthy smell of a female ceratopsian and the prey Theris could bring down.

Theris tilted her head slightly, resting her hazel colored eyes on the frightened Chasmosaurus. "Oh, you are undergoing the breeding season? I guess it is your first, although I am not very familiar with that kind of matter."

Chura nodded sheepishly to agree to the pending assumption. As she risked a brief look at the apparently adult Daspletosaurus, a slight hint of sorrow appeared for a glimpse of time on the face with the heavily muscled jaws.

And she dared to ask: "I-I don't know if it is too inquisitive if I ask. D-Don't you have a mate?"

Oh, did her heart beat in her chest as she was left unsure, if she had now signed her own death wish or not. You are so dumb Chura, she scolded herself.

Theris stood there motionless, but she couldn't deny the facts of her own reality she lived in and she barely managed to cope with that. The stress of finding a new territory in these foreign lands had covered her old vulnerability as she had to get acquainted with the new terrain and another predator, a distant relative called Gorgosaurus.

"To be honest, I've actually never had a mate, although I'm long past my first season."

The female Daspletosaurus sighed, sensing pangs of loneliness, sadness and a huge portion of frustration in herself. Getting that kind of emotions triggered was certainly not to her liking, because these things kept her from finding sleep in the night or ignited a strange kind of rage, leading usually to hours of pacing around. It was just the peak of something hidden behind a surface, but it was enough to claw at the ground.

"There was once a male of my species I liked very much, but we never came to the point of completing our courtship, let alone to be considered as a mated pair. He lost his life."

A sad memory popped up for a fraction of a second, her fingers on the small forelimbs curled in hope to keep her composure. Theris sensed it was going to become harder to keep so calm as she was now in this moment, since the craving to be with a loyal and loving mate had progressively increased after setting up a new territory here in the northern woods. Despite of the several explorations in this area, she had never come across any evidence of another Daspletosaurus' presence.

Chura knew, it was better to keep her beak shut for the moment as far as she could read the signs of the tyrannosaur, that apparently was dealing with something in her mind.

A long bellow broke the silence between carnivore and herbivore.

Oh no... Toshin. He has followed me. Disgust flared in Chura's face for a moment. In her alert state of mind, she had almost forgotten the male.

Not only she had noticed the noisy male, who still tried to impress her with loud bellows, while being blind for any hidden danger. A menacing glint blazed in the female Daspletosaurus' eyes, whose mind was considering a hunt.

"Ah, your suitor is coming to your help, how noble. But, you wish it was someone else." A slight nod was everything she got out of the startled Chasmosaurus.

Theris' gaze burnt down on her. "Sooner or later I will kill one of you as I have to follow that instinct of mine. But I can alleviate that pain of yours and mine as well. Just tell me to kill him and you will be free to choose another male."

Chura's beak gaped as the words had been transmitted to her brain. Sure, she didn't want Toshin to sire her eggs, but letting him run blindly in this deadly trap was flat-out wrong. The air was also thick with fear of becoming the prey herself, while the calls coming from Toshin grew more and more impatient. There was a demand in his voice. She pondered about if she could just try to run away... but no, the Daspletosaurus was too close to her.

A cold shudder ran down her spine as she thought about the offer and the implications for herself. You will survive, Chura. You are not ready to die, are you? It was just a meek voice in her head, that whispered these words to her, while Chura could already feel the moist breath of the carnivore pouring down on her muscled neck with dagger like teeth scraping away skin and flesh.

Her head sunk down. A nod.

"I assume the deal is sealed. Well, then step out of these bushes, I want to keep my promise I made."

The Chasmosaurus stared at the feathered predator, before her plump feet removed her from the area of imminent danger as she stumbled back onto the trail, that had led her there.

If a softly spoken "oh, hi Chura" hadn't thrown her out of her reverie, she would have bumped into the amorous male Chasmosaurus, who had come to bring his prize home. The hard-wired routine to present himself in front of a female misinterpreted her startled posture as shyness.

Seeing the noisy male had switched into courtship mode, Theris approached from behind with eyes trained on the hefty body, that shook in the frenzy of his efforts. Her mind was awake, the senses sharpened and the muscles ready to launch the attack.

Her hazel colored eyes registered how the large frill tilted forward, exposing the neck to her unknowingly and the Daspletosaurus wasn't going to let this opening slip through her claws. Within a second her powerful legs pushed her stocky frame forward with jaws and neck readied for the pending impact as they soon loomed over the ceratopsian neck.

Liquid crimson splattered against dark brown jaws, while serrated teeth pierced through fat and muscles alike, yet not touching the cervicals. Instinctively, Theris pulled pack with the violent force her muscles and body mass had to offer, causing the showy male Chasmosaurus to shake his body as he squealed in utter pain.

His frill swung around in the intent to protect the wound the unknown predator had inflicted on him, while adrenaline gushed into Toshin's blood course. Blood smeared fangs of a large tyrannosaurid, that shifted quickly her position greeted him and he sensed a kind of rage was burning in his Nemesis. Cold fear crept under his pebbled skin and his legs propelled beneath as he attempted to scamper away from the horrifying scene.

The various greens of the Cretaceous plant life fled alongside with him, only recognized as blurry shades, while the earth shuddered under the heavy foot falls of the two species.

Having already savored a good portion of his warm blood and some of the torn soft tissue, Theris stuck to her prey like mud after a heavy rainfall. With long strides she prepared the next strike as she wasn't built for keeping up that fast speed. Her gracile and more common relative Gorgosaurus was instead built for speed, while her species followed another trend within the tyrannosaur family.

Both dinosaurs drew air into their lungs. Both wanted an end of this hunt.

Panting, Theris doubled her effort in the dead run and her jaws bore down on the jiggling thigh muscle, gripping hard on the flailing limb. Toshin felt how his right leg lost the contact with the ground, a startling sensation. He yelped as the pain shot up his spine, but mobilized once more his remaining energy. Running away was clearly no option in this situation, but he was equipped with horns and a frill, that were the insignia of the proud family of horned dinosaurs. Wheezing under the blood loss Toshin reeled around, hoping to make his mark on the Daspletosaurus' flank, maybe even breaking a rib or two.

All her inner frustration canalized into aggressive bites. If she managed to render her prey unable to move, the better it was. Her teeth grazed over the taut flesh of the Chasmosaurus' flank as the frilled head flew towards her with the intent to hit her. The sides of the nasal horn and the frill made an aching contact with her flank, causing the 3 ton tyrannosaur to hop to the side, angrily snarling at her opponent while the pain of the impact rolled through her body. But instead of backing down, the female was now dead set on ending the herbivore's life and maneuvered herself around his body to attack from the left. The red lines of the seeping blood marked the spot, where she would hit him.

Within a flash her jaws closed around the base of his neck, driving into the surrounding flesh while her clawed feet dug into the soil as Theris shoved herself forward and dragging the bold Chasmosaurus with her. The long and thick teeth met the bone, a feel she particularly enjoyed all the while she bend Toshin's neck into an uncomfortable angle.

Toshin's energy dwindled as he gasped, caught into a lock of teeth as the time had come to accept his fate. His legs didn't obey him anymore, so he crashed violently onto his right side. But, the male had taken care, that at least some of the females of his former harem would bring his bloodline back into this world. His belly heaved once and his last breath was expelled from his lungs.

Atop of the now lifeless Chasmosaurus, Theris panted several times as she felt the strained muscles, the warmth coming from the struggle with her prey. Despite of the gruesome scene she felt at peace with herself for a moment. Blood and meat tickled her tongue with their combined flavours, while she slowly came down from the heat of the hunt. Delightful to any carnivore.

However, Theris may remain alone in the end, when the kill had no more meat to offer. Then, the craving to nuzzle into the feathers of a loving mate and to feel this gesture of affection being returned will become apparent again.

She knew too well about that, but she was left to tearing into the fat neck of a Chasmosaurus and proceeded with planting a foot on the kill to secure it. The jaws parted as they closed the distance to the still warm flesh, allowing the the frontmost teeth to clamp down on a patch. Saliva moistened the gums and fleshy insides of her maw. Muscle contractions let Theris rip off a decent chunk of neck meat as she jerked her head.

The flesh detached with a wet smack from its former place and slapped against the Daspletosaurus' jaws, while it got readjusted in the broad snout before it rested on the tongue. Theris tilted her head upward to let it slide down alongside with blood and saliva as she gulped it down. Her throat expanded as the portion of Chasmosaurus flesh formed a moving bulge, that finally disappeared into her stomach, where aggressive acids waited for digesting the organic material.

The amount of meat dwindled with every bite she took in the further process, until she had gotten her fill and wanted to rest in the shade of a giant tree. Walking slowly, Theris approached the patch she had picked for herself and sunk down on her belly. A sigh was heard, her credit as a ferocious huntress had been approved as the gored result of it laid in front of her.

She felt a discomforting throb at the spot, where the Chasmosaurus had hit her. Neither a rib nor gastralia appeared to be broken, but the ache certainly was going to stay with her for several days like the bitter taste of being the only Daspletosaurus around this place.