FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A dense and humid jungle, stretching on for miles in every direction. The tree obscuring the muddy, vine-ridden floor below. Safe above the canopy, away from carnivorous tigers, a bird flew. The fast avian measuring at 5' 11". With the way he raced over the green treetops, it was clear the avian was on a mission....

Felix Flew over the clearing of trees. The only part of the jungle floor exposed to the sky. A hole in the endless ocean of foliage. The bird took it as a safe place to land. Less likely to get munched on by a tiger if he could see it coming. With little in the way of cover aside from scattering of large stone temples, he alighted atop one. A rule of combat, keep the high ground. Although he was breaking one by doing so: never horizon yourself. The sky was bright behind him, giving his feathers a warm glow and orangish tint as the sun descended through the sky. The clouds turning a light orange. Sunset. One of the worst times to be around this jungle. He'd better move fast. With rediscovered energy, the bird hastily swooped down to the ground near the temple he was on. The vines already seeming to grab at his talon-tipped claws. "This is no place for a bird like myself. The fox has finally fallen off his rocker on this one.." The avian kept mumbling to himself as he searched for a way in. ".... One fucking stone. That's all he wants. He made it sounds so easy, so safe. Yet I'm the one out here risking my feathers for this damnable thing." Each muttered sentence of spite made him feel a bit better, like he could spit out the venom he felt through his voice.

The light brown stone mound in front of him exuded it's own terrifying presence. Fuck the tigers. This was the real killer. The temple itself was quiet, deathly so. The avian found a doorway in the opposite side. Usually such structures were paired with a rank and damp smell, along with a gentle breeze coming from the inside. But not this one. The air, even standing outside, seemed overly calm. "That's a bit off-putting. Not a sound, or smell. This place gives me the creeps." The feathers on his wings already twitching with anxiety. Carefully, slowly, he stepped through the threshold into the dark. From his satchel he withdrew a lighter, making the flame come alive and holding it out to get a vague sense of where the walls could be. It flickered, but stayed alive.

The lighter fought to keep producing light. But despite the lack of breeze, it was struggling to do even that. He thought it might be the lack of oxygen in the air, but if that were the case, he'd be in a similar state. Writing it off as a magical entity fucking with him, the falcon pressed forward. "Just go in and grab the shiny rock. Simple, easy." He was trying to convince himself. Psyche himself up. But it had a negligible effect. The slime covered walls and nearly complete darkness hampered his efforts severely.

Talons scratching on the hard floor, Felix felt like he was making very little headway. The hallway had no noticeable features, just endless darkness ahead and behind. Questioning his grip on reality, he placed a wing against the wall. Cold and slimy, just as expected. But the stone was unblemished otherwise. As if it hadn't been touched since it was laid here. Not even weathering showed it's mark. "What the hell...?" Suspicious now, he scratched a line into the floor. Before running down the hall the way he came. The run turned into a glide, the hallway just large enough for his wingspan. Eyes scanning the spotless floor for the same scratch. After a couple hundred meters he spotted it again, right next to the wall. With a flaring of his wings, the avian came to a stop and landed. "How original." He commented, exasperated at this turn in events. He went from exploring the ruin, to trapped in it, without even noticing. "Doomed to walk the same line until something changes."

Onset with sudden depression and regret, the bird collapsed onto the ground. The lighter falling away towards the wall nearby. Was there a point in fighting it? Not touched by magic, or armed to bust his way out (assuming he could). The falcon was trapped. Undeniably dead. What did he do to deserve this? He thought back on his life, given plenty of time to do so given his current state. Working for the fox had been his only sin. Due to his cowardice he was bound to that psychopath. Perhaps if he had the strength to say no to Cormac, he wouldn't be stuck here now. Marked to die by whatever magic entity held him in this hallway.

He spent a while like that, laying (excuse the term) spread eagle on the floor. Sobbing quietly. Eventually he had to sit up, the cold stone threatening to do him in faster than starving to death. Not like it mattered. Regardless he was going to..... No, there had to be a way out. The designers of this blasted temple may have created the trap. But what if they had gotten stuck in it while building, how did they test it? There had to be an escape! With tears still sticking to his facial feathers, the bird opened up his satchel, withdrawing the flare gun he kept for emergencies. It wasn't going to break stone, and he wasn't a chemist. But the decision was practical nonetheless. He cowered, and aimed it off down the hall. He fired, and as predicted, it came down the other side of the hallway at him again. So the trap didn't differentiate between living and nonliving objects. Good to know. He walked more energetically over to where the flare sat on the ground, giving off it's bright red chemical glow. He had light to work with now.

Logic told him it had to be the walls. Something to do with these spotless stone walls. Felix felt them up with his wings while walking along them, keeping the flare down the hallway in his peripheral. Although it was pretty difficult to ignore. The only light in this soon-to-be tomb. His plan didn't seem to work, his intuition was wrong. Or maybe the way out was too well concealed. The walls yielded nothing, just more unscathed and identical stone. He returned to the flare. Having checked both walls all the way around. Already on edge from the quest itself, the bugs, the weather, the tiger threat.... It took little to make the bird lash out. His wing shot forward, slamming into the wall. Or at least he expected it to. Instead the wall shattered, like glass around him. The whole wall gave way in a cascade of twinkling pieces, dancing red shards reflecting the flare light back to him. It was beautiful. When it all fell away, he saw what he really didn't want to: endless nothingness. "Go from cramped endless hallway, to endless nothing in all directions. Glad to see we went from two-dimensional trap to three-dimensional trap. Really ups the spirits." Sarcasm, so much sarcasm. Could he be blamed? This trap should be a bit easier. If he applied the same mentality. "Do the least expected thing possible." That had to be the answer. Punch through a supposed stone wall, that was the last solution. So the next one had to be equally as idiotic. He came to a conclusion: "Drop to my potential death. Yea, that sounds equally as stupid." So it must be the answer. He crept closer to the edge, peering over into the abyss. With a little nudge, he sent the flare over. As predicted, it started the endless loop of falling into nothingness, then materializing as a flicker above, and falling past him again. "Shit..."

With a warrior's screech (slightly feminine scream) he let himself fall, wings by his side. The scream turned more panicked as he kept falling. More, and more. There wasn't a ground in sight. The flare fell along with him, albeit at a different speed. Eventually, the odd shape and wind resistance on its form carried it away from him. His own flailing probably not helping with that either. He looked up and saw the light of the flare off a wall, and not the one he had jumped from. His stomach starting to get tight, he flared his wings to slow his descent, coming up next to the flare as it kept flying past him at terminal velocity. Every couple hundred meters there seemed to almost be a doorway. The falcon fell past it a few times more before actually recognizing it for what it was. The falling was starting to drag on his mental capacity. With a few wing flaps, the avian glided around in a circle and aimed right for the doorway, closing his wings a few moments before. With such agility, he landed gracefully just inside this new hallway. The flare stuck in the endless loop behind him. With a single look back, he started forward.

The hallway kept stretching on. Worried he was stuck in the same trap as before, the bird hurried. A trap within a trap? Trap-ception! Felix hoped with everything he had that it wasn't the case. His prayer was acknowledged. As a blue light at the end of the hallway gave off a dim glow. Despite his hopeful pleas to a divine power being answered, he'd never admit there was one, whether it existed or not. " Stupid fox and his interest in killing off magic. Having me hunt down this mythical rock." the venting calmed his frayed nerves. The bird came closer to the light, wondering if he had finally reached the treasure inside the temple. If he did, all these trials may have actually been worth it. Perhaps then he could rest a moment, take a breather before trying to find his way back out again. Here's to hoping it was what he was looking for. The blue light got brighter as he approached.

{End}