FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sorry it took so long, but I tried to upload this chapter 3 times and SoFurry had a seizure each time. So let's try again! (^_^)

~ Enjoy

~ HDE

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Chapter 2 - The Face Behind the Ash

She could barely open her eyes. She'd been walking for days, yet somehow, now found herself in a somewhat small tent, an elderly orange vulpine woman puttering about on a table not more than five feet from the girl. She looked down. Her robes, normally white as the snow, now light brown, covered in blood, both red and black, 'So, no dream...' she thought, and a twang of pain flew across her heart. Her friends, family, teachers... gone.

She tried to sit up. The vulpine woman's ears twitched at the sound, and she turned, her wizen face contorting into a sort of smile, as though she'd forgotten how exactly to make that facial expression. Her eyes were kind, however, and her voice soft as she spoke. "Relax, little one. You have been through much, and I am tending to you. My name is Mia."

The girl nodded slowly, her head throbbing even at that slight motion. "Where... where am I?"

Mia responded with no urgency, as she walked over to her patient, giving the human a tall cup of a strange, bubbling, blue liquid. "Drink, it will recover your strength."

The girl tried again, after taking a deep sip of the surprisingly sweet contents of the mug she now held. "Where am I, Mia?" she asked bluntly, but politely.

"This is the Lunas Vulpine, Tribal Camp. We've been living here abouts for a few years now, and you're lucky for it too. Our watchmen found you while patrolling the parametre, and brought you strait to me."

"Are... are you in charge here?" she took another drink, the fluid filling her with a warmth she could not recall, feeling her strength return to her weary limbs.

Mia didn't get the chance to respond, as the flap to her tent swung open, and a deep, but light voice drifted in, "Elder Mia, are you here?"

The elderly fox chuckled slightly. "Where else would you expect to find me, Halo?"

In walked the tall Silvercross, smiling warmly at the guest who's eyes had grown wide at the sight of him. Though she was use to the sight of Beastfolk, growing up in the Temple of Dawn, she had never seen such a rare breed as Halo. His father, being a silver fox, was rare in itself, but then for his father to have mated with one of the common fox, orange and white markings, and then for one of the children to be born with split markings, from both parents. Immensely rare.

Halo held his concern in check as he approached. He really didn't care for the girl or what had happened to her when he first heard of this from the messenger. He cared only that his village might be in danger. But now, seeing her helpless before him, his heart warmed.

He crouched beside her, and said simply. "An honour to meet you, my dear. I'm Halo Darquine Infinity, Heir of the Lunas Tribe. I've come in my father's stead to make sure you're alright."

The girl nodded shyly, looking away. She was confused by this, to say the least. She felt an attraction to Halo, which made no sense to her. Not only had she just met him, but they weren't even the same race. How could she find anything about him attractive? She did, however, manage to release her name to the silvercross. "I'm Kaia. Student at the Temple of Dawn."

The fox's smile didn't waver as he turned away, facing Mia. "How is she, Elder?"

"She'll recover just fine with a little bed rest. If you can concerns, I would advise waiting for her to be up and about before you ask your questions."

Halo nodded. By all rights, he could do what he pleased in regard to the safety of his people, but he knew better than to argue with Mia, as her mind was set on her patient recovering.

Halo reached over to Mia's work table, pulling off a damp cloth and looking it over quickly. Finding it clean, he handed it to Kaia, nodding to it. "You've still got ash all over you, you should at least give your face a wash." he chuckled.

Kaia blushed slightly, thanking the fox for the cloth and wiping her face clean. Pulling the cloth away, Halo was suddenly struck with how attractive the young girl was. Not something he tended to notice about humans, as they usually looked like naked, pink weasels. He hated weasels.

Kaia seemed to have something else completely about her though, something the silvercross couldn't quite place. It interested him, but now wasn't the time. Mentally shaking himself, he regained focus on the matter at hand and said simply, "Kaia, would you be willing to join my father and I in the LongHouse once you're feeling well rested?"

"O- Of course!" Kaia responded. Nervous though she may be, with people she'd grown up knowing as primitive nomads, she found an odd form of class in the way they lived, and spoke. Not only that but they HAD just saved her life. Primitive or not, she didn't wish to offend her hosts.

"Wonderful!" Halo replied, nodding to her, and giving Mia a slight bow, before departing from the tent.

The silvercross looked up into the sky, giving a sigh. It wasn't over with this. He needed to know who had attacked the Temple of Dawn, 'Hmph, who am I kidding..." Halo thought. She might not even know the identity of the attackers. She was quite young after all.

Halo growled quietly to himself. She still had to know something.

"You look worried, kit." came a voice.

Halo smiled, as his ears perked to the familiar sound. "Tidus..." he said simply.

"Who else in this gods-damned plain you call home would talk to your sorry ass?" the voice wasn't harsh, but kind, and light.

Halo's smile broadened, turning to his friend. "Tidus Ashamaru. It's been far too long since I heard you insult me."

The other laughed. He was human, a trader, originally hailing from the town of Tayo, he travelled the Rouge Plain for trade with all different tribes, from the smallest Girri camp to the largest of them all, The Lunas Tribal Camp. Halo's heart and home.

As Tidus through an arm around his old friend's shoulder, and turned them to walk into the camp, the torchlight caught the human's armour, deep red hide vest with leather bracers over his wrists. He sported a claymore on his back, odd weapon for a trader, but it's what he'd learned to wield the best in his odd and unknown past. Apart, that is, from his kunai. Small throwing daggers with a finger sized loop in the end of the handle. He could hurl these from they're many pockets inside his long, dark green, cloak. He moved with the ease and grace of the finest bird, yet the coat, with the kunai in they're hidden inner pockets, seemed to weight just as much as the trader himself.

Not even Halo knew, that this was what made the trader the man the silvercross had befriended. His past was littered with broken promises, and shame he would never live down. He lived instead, for each new day. And trained in his family's fighting skills to honour his lost kin.

He sat the pair of them down around a small fire, just outside one of the villagers tents. They nodded politely to the tribesman who was already sitting there, who nodded back, then paid them no further mind.

Tidus turned to his friend. "Alright, now I'm not thick, Foxboy. I know that look."

Halo turned to Tidus and blinked.

Tidus stared back, resolutely refusing to blink.

Halo blinked.

The human sighed. "Something's worrying you, Halo. Tell me what it is."

Halo smiled, turning toward the fire. "You've no doubt heard about the attack in the Ekos Valley, knowing your resources."

"Yes, the Temple of Dawn. Attackers aren't known. Some lizard beastfolk race nobody's ever seen before."

The older silver fox, finding this conversation to be going places his ears didn't want to, politely nodded to them both, and departed. They sat alone around the small fire for a moment longer in silence, before Halo said, "We found a survivor."

Tidus blinked.

* * *

'Caves,,, by the Varg I hate caves.' he was quite angry, which wasn't all that uncommon for a dwarf. 'What kind of self respecting dwarf would scurry about in damn caves!'

He wasn't all that well suited to be hunting, let alone hunting in a cave. Like most every one of his kind, the dwarf was use to a life at sea, sailing from one Dwarven Colony to another. The only time he ever went into a cave was so run from lawmen, or pirates. Not that he ran often. He was more use to fighting, and was here to do exactly that.

'Damocles, what the hells have you gotten yourself into now!' he thought, one hand holding the torch out before him, the other holding his battleaxe across his shoulder. Most other Dwarves laughed at him when they saw that as his weapon, but then most other dwarves didn't get a chance to see him use it. In battle, even, and especially, at sea, he was devastating with this weapon. It had been passed on from his great grand-father, who's name his family had lost long ago. But the name of axe did pass on, and small wonder, engraved upon the hilt as deeply as it was, it read, 'Shatterfist"

Damocles stopped. He raised his nose to the air and took a sniff. He could normally smell anything off the slightest breeze, but in here, he found the air too stuffy. No wind to push the scent around, to push it to him. He scowled into the darkness of the tunnel.

He knew that his prey was here. He'd tracked the bastard all the way from Litne Colony, over thirty miles away, first by boat, then by land. Now he was hiding in a cave, of all places!

Damocles took another step, and stopped. All of his senses had, over the years, been heighten just slightly above average. He listen carefully, the whisper of the cavern's silence speaking worlds to him. He frowned. 'Bastard!'

He jumped backward, and arrow flying just past where his head had been less than a second before. He threw the torch aside, the flame doing out the moment it hit the damp cavern floor.

Probably the best sense the dwarf had honed, was his night vision. All dwarves could seem wonderfully in the dark, but Damocles was special. After spending seven years in a prison isolation for a crime he was framed perfectly for, he had learned to hunt the rats that wandered into his cell. There was no light in his cell, from anywhere, so his night vision improved greatly.

When he was finally able to escape, after the town was unexpectedly attacked, and half the prison destroyed, he found that he could still stand the daylight. It took him some time to adapt, and even now wore pair of large goggles around his neck, the glass in them tinted dark.

'Just in case' he would always tell himself, though he never used them these days.

His assailant disappeared into the darkness, and Kuroma smiled, spinning Shatterfist in his right hand, until the axe look like a giant fan blade. Even as it scratched the edges of the cavern, it simply chipped apart the rocks, not seeming to slow or waver in the slightest. The dwarf suddenly grabbed a hold of the handle, stopping the spin, and letting the momentum throw his arm against the nearest wall. The side of the wall was shattered outward, and a cry was emitted from the hole. On the other side, another small tunnel, now with a fresh and dusty hole in it, and under that hole's rubble, was a kitsune; half vulpine, half human; carrying on his back a rather large scroll.

Damocles bent down, tearing the scroll of the thief's back. The thief, still semi-conscious, looked up in the dwarf's flaming eyes.

Damocles, staring back with a look that would have quivered the hearts of demons, said simply. "You are not forgiven." before turning around, and walking away.

The thief pulled himself up, trying to make of the exit. As he got there he saw Damocles standing with his back to the gap in the rocks which led into this cave. Damocles looked over his shoulder, one eye, still burning with anger, locking onto the thief's gaze.

Without turning, the dwarf raised Shatterfist, bringing it crashing down upon the cavern entrance, and in mere moments, all light inside the cave, was extinguished.

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