FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I actually uploaded something?! Absurd, I know. Forgive any weird formatting issues. Apparently SoFurry decided to yank support for Word when pasting formatted text from a Word file. I tried fixing it by hand after the paste but's always possible I missed something.

Story notes: Jun is a human, as is everyone else who is a mortal. If they aren't human it's pretty much stated what they are in the story, no confusion. I thought I'd point this out so no one wanders about thinking so and so is a fox or wolf or manbearpig.

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The sun sat at its noon position flooding the whole of the valley with its warmth. The summer was bathing the land with all its glory and much of the valley was in bloom with several local harvests in full swing to gather their bounty. There was little to do for a young man during this time as much of the work was done by the older field hands with more experience in the art of picking the valley grapes for wine making and the cotton for fine fabrics. The women who did the sewing were particular about who they let touch their needles and only those who knew their trade well were permitted to harvest the crop. A young man like Jun was only of use when the planting season came as he was strong enough to help hoe and plow and sew the seeds. His days during the harvest season were left mostly open for him to wander about the valley in search of anything to capture his attention.

This day had him exploring a crevasse that wound down into the earth like a crack in sun baked earth. Grasses and brush grew steadily within the fissure and traversing it was surprisingly safe with many roots and rocky handholds to allow for ease of movement. The ledges were often the width of a man's chest or more so and Jun never feared of falling. Not that it mattered since the next ledge was not more than a ten foot drop beneath him. He enjoyed finding new ways to travel down as he hopped across the cliffs where they came within a few feet of each or walked nimbly across fallen spears of earth and crisscrossed from one side to the other like haphazard bridges.

He had found this place only yesterday as he searched for places untouched by his fellow villagers. As a boy he neared here many times, but never strayed too far away from home out of fear of a scolding from his mother. Now that he was older he was much more adventurous and took more risks in his travels. He was already responsible for finding a hot spring deep in a thick wood that none of the village elders knew about. Now he hoped only to discover something exciting for himself. The bottom of the crevasse was in sight as he got deep enough in the earth to dim the light from above. The shade afforded him was pleasant and a gentle breeze swept idly through the earthy passage.

From what he could tell the bottom of the fissure was as grassy as the land at the top. Water trickled all the way down with every rain and gave life plenty to work with in growing. When he finally dropped down to the floor he felt a satisfaction wash over him after completing the first leg of his small journey. He had long since decided that after the downward trip he'd explore at a leisurely pace until he was rested enough to make the climb back up. From what he was seeing the idea of returning up was not a fond one. It was not the difficulty in climbing back up that made him wish to stay, but the sight of the stone walls bathed in greenery, the grassy floor, and the sun trickling its way down from high above. It was a wonderful sight to behold and he was soaking it all in. This was why he explored as far as he could every day.

The air was cooler where he now was and it was easy for him to regain his strength as he began to stroll down the winding path at the base of the crevasse. Every so often he would find nooks and alcoves formed in the earth that harbored unique plants and little pools of water. Only seldom did he find anything large enough for a man or large beast to enter, but he doubted he would find anything as big as a man down this far. It was arduous for him to make his way down the fissure and a trip that far down would be nigh impossible for a four legged animal to do so without jumping to its certain death. Jun was unsure of the distance but he had seen elder trees that paled in comparison to this fissure's depth. It's not a height from which anything would want to fall.

Several minutes past by as Jun continued to find more and more little things of interest. The fissure was stretching out into a place he knew he couldn't explore form above. The valley had it share of unusual hills and rocky spots and this was one of them. The fissure had cut its way into one of these formations. The light was being cut into ribbons by the rocks and trees overhead but with the sun so high up the ambient light creeping into the cavernous space was more than enough to see by.

If this was the fissure's end he wondered where its beginning was and found himself swearing to find such a place another day. For now he was content with seeing how far he could explore this new found cavern. To his surprise it opened up wider as he delved deeper. The floor of the cavern was polished smooth as if by water and the walls were oddly flat as if the earth had simple cracked open clean like a knife splitting a firm apple.

Deeper he went and the cavern grew narrow again to nothing more than a tall entry way so perfectly rectangular that he knew it simply could not have been made by nature. It was taller than four men standing atop one another and wide enough for a horse to gallop through. As he past through the doorway he was surprised to still have light to see by. Somewhere high above a hole was broken in the ceiling that let light shine through like a pillar. Below it in the center of the room was a wading pool of glimmering water where rain most certainly had been collecting for quite some time. Cut into the walls were more of the tall horse width passageways.

The walls were bare and polished as smooth as the floor. It wasn't until he saw beyond the light falling through the ceiling that he bowed his head and touched his face with his hand. First his thumb on the right cheek bone, then pinky on the left and forefinger on his forehead. The motion was religious in nature when confront with certain sacred objects or writings and what was on the wall beyond the great beam of light was a passage of the spirits. Somehow he had stumbled across something very old and very special. He suddenly was overcome with a rare kind of glee now that he knew he had a tremendous story to tell! The elders and wise ones would certainly reward him for such a glorious find! They would love to explore this cavern in depth for any religious texts and knowledge it may contain.

He had plenty of time to waste before he returned to the village so he opted to get an unfair look at what he had found before he had to give it up to the elders and their whims. It was likely that after he told them about it he would be forbidden from returning here without their permission. They are harsh and strict in the adherence to the old ways.

The wading pool turned out to be deeper than he though as he peered into the sparkling clear water. He was certain it was too deep for him to be able to touch the bottom if he attempted to swim to the bottom. His breathe wouldn't hold out for that long and he would surely drown. The bottom of the pool was nothing more than a blurry haze at that depth. The edge of the pool was like the shore of a lake as it slid under the water's surface to curve down smoothly to become the pool's outer wall.

Shallow etchings were engraved around the pool and he could make no sense of them. They were all written in the ancient tongue that only the oldest of the villagers could read or write. Marek was learning it and he was only a year older than Jun, but he had also been hand picked to be groomed by the village leader. It had angered Jun when he was younger that Marek had been picked for something important, but now he was glad that the burden didn't rest on his shoulders.

Something stirred at the bottom of the pool and it seemed almost like a fish. He was first amazed that such a fish could survive in an odd little pool of water! His amazement turned into a fearful start as the fish turned out to be quite large as it gracefully swam upwards to the surface of the pool. It slid through the water like a snake with a long white body and small head. It was like no fish he had ever seen and he backed away too fast for his balance to carry him and he toppled over his own feet. By the time he raised himself up to sitting height his ears were assaulted with the sound of an ocean spray as water fell on him like rain. His eyes clutched themselves shut and when they reopened he was staring into the face of a wet furry head set with fiery red eyes.

It was certainly fear that gripped him as he did not flinch or cry out. His gaze met the creature's solidly. The beast was much larger than he, perhaps the size of a horse or cow. Had it been dry the fur on the creature's body would have been fluffy like that of a cat or dog's. It certainly was no fish as it sat on its haunches like a dog with muscular arms and legs and a torso built much the same. The beast was strong in appearance with the harshness of its raw appearance of power softened by the cuddliness of its fur and head. The eyes were small and bright with a mouth that curved up at the cheeks feigning a subtle smile that was mostly likely coincidence. It was curious that marks of light blue were painting on the beast's body like swirls of vines and flame. Blue marks painted the creature's face as well to give color beneath its eyes and atop its forehead.

"It's been a long time since a person has entered my domain." And with the voice that came from the beast's lips he yelped more shrilly than he would have liked and he took to a run. His footfalls took him only a few feet before a thick wet limb knocked him to his side as the beast had used its long tail to swipe his legs out from under him. It was no longer sitting as it began to pace around him like a wolf inching closer to its prey.

Jun clasped his hands and began reciting prayers of forgiveness and mercy as best as he could remember the words. He knew not what this beast was or how it had the mind to speak as a man. He was utterly terrified of what he had foolishly stumbled upon and swore to the many gods that he would never set foot outside the village again if he was spared some cruel fate at the claws of this beast.

"You beg for compassion of the spirits? Have young men forgotten to whom they speak their prayers?" the inquisitive voice asked. The creature's sound was that of a young woman's, curious and youthful with energy to give spark to man and woman alike. "You shame me for having come into my temple so ignorant of your own teachings."

Jun was reeling with thoughts of how many different prayers he should say. He knew of no such creature as this, not in the Book or the scrolls.

"I beg of you beast, please bring me no harm! I meant not to disturb you! I only wanted to explore and found this place by mistake! I will forever leave and never return if you but spare me! Please!" he scrambled to his hands and knees and recalled how the oaf that was the butcher's son had almost ruined a past year's harvest. Jun mimicked how he groveled at the elder's feet for forgiveness. It had worked for the oaf and he hoped it would work for himself.

"You speak to me as if I am a beast? Man has truly strayed. Do not grovel at my feet as if I were the Maiden of the Silver East." The creature invoked the name of the punisher who awoke in the east and slept in the west. The ever changing disc that watched us all and was only sated when the Dancer in the sky took his position amongst the choir of the stars.

"Forgive me! " he rose to his knees and planted his hands on them firmly as he tried to appear somewhat dignified despite his obvious terror. "I am but a farmer's son. I have not been taught all that there is to know of our scriptures."

"Can you not read the words emblazed about my temple?" Jun stared at the floor and said nothing for he had already declared himself utterly ignorant by his reaction to her. He was struggling to remember every spirit ever mentioned and their names. He was running out of possibilities since this strange beast matched nothing he had ever heard. "Your scribes and priests must teach few their secrets now."

"I will tell you my name and give proof of my existence." She proclaimed indignantly. She shook her body like a dog and water sprayed from her until she was remarkably dry. Her fur still gleamed as if wet but was light and fluffy without a hint of moisture hampering it. He dared not look her at her in fear of catching sight of her eyes. He stared holes into the ground under him as she prowled around him with her gaze feeling like a force of energy on him as she moved.

"I am not so powerful a spirit that I create life or bring death. I am simply a force of growth. My presence in the world means prosperity. I am a force of verdant energy that springs forth power like a geyser to those creatures living in the world." she began to spin her tale. "Long ago I had grand temples but much depended on my survival. My death would put a damper on the growth of the world and so I hide with a scarce few followers. In time my followers numbered none and I was left alone. Perhaps this is why your priests speak nothing of me. Without my grandeur gracing human halls my histories were but forgotten or cast aside. I am Su'un the Giver."

His eyes saw her claws plant before him as her body followed suit until she was seated before him like a cat with a long tail coiled around her. He kept his head bowed in submission as he awaited what thing would come at him next. He was utterly baffled and near to madness as he silently shook with fear tremors.

Her claws lifted from the floor and he was almost certain he would be slain by those horrible talons ending each digit. The tips of each claw found their way to his back as her thumbs pricked the skin at his collar bone. Her paws rested his shoulders so lightly he would not have known what she had done had it not been for the pricks of her sharp nails. He pulled back away from her to escape as he cried out in surprise before being pulled back in place by a firming grip from the spirit. He shook all over as the claws dug deep enough into his skin to draw tiny pinpricks of blood.

"Remain still little human less you be harmed." Try as he could there was no stopping him from trembling before the beast. Jun's eyes clamped themselves shut and no sooner than a few moments had past before the soft touch of fur graced his face. His eyes flitted open then fell shut again. The sea of furry white blotting out all other sights was enough to have his skin crawling. The creature's head was bowed to meet with his own and with the claws on his shoulder he could not budge one inch.

He felt his muscles tightened and constrict painfully. Bones seemed to creak until he was stifling a cry of agony as his body felt afire with sensation akin to that of a burning torch raking across his body. His skin was hot as his eyes burned as if the sun was glaring him. The only thing keeping him silent and still was the monstrosity holding him to his knees on the floor.

His mind felt like it was splitting like a log beneath the axe head as the rest of his body screamed that it was beyond help and healing. When the pain vanished from his extremities he knew the end had come. Lack of feeling spread through him until every inch was numb. Only his head ached with the pain dulling into a throb and soon that too vanished.

The cold stone beneath his knees grew uncomfortable and the gentle breeze from the cave mouth chilled his back as the cooling wind blew in as the sun began its quest to hide behind the horizon. The fur against his face was no longer there and soon the pinpricks left his shoulders and weight of strong arms.

He no longer shivered like he was wet in winter. Jun opened his eyes to see the beast crouched onto her hind legs with forelegs passively placed before her. The mouth was curved up in a light smile that spoke of gentleness. He felt refreshed as the numbness came to him suddenly as merely the absence of pain. That absence had revealed his memories scoured of the normal feelings of stone underfoot, of weight on his legs, on his shoulders, the strain of muscles working. Everything now felt right as it was before, but better than right! He was no longer tired in the least, no weariness wishing his eyelids to close or feet that felt heavier than when the journey began.

"I am the Giver, young one. I give that which is needed, and that which is wanted, to those who deserve it. You're heart is young and pure and for such a thing I have given it strength. I am a force of growth, or vitality, of fertility, or strength. I give those things that live and die renewed vigor. My presences helps growth. My touch gives strength. My love gives life." Jun listened in stunned silence as he looked down at his hands. He expected to see something, but nothing was different. He was the same, looked the same. Only he felt different on the inside.

"I am not vain. You're still the young man that entered here moments ago. I changed nothing of you that you can see with eyes or hear with your ears. What you feel is my gift coursing through your very core, your veins, your soul." Jun stared at the beast and saw eyes that twinkled with a hint of joy. "It has been a long time since I have given a true gift of my blessings. The act brings me great pleasure, especially now that I see my touch has not faded with age."

Stunned silence followed. He traced his collar bone and then to his back with all ten fingers and found not a trace of the shallow wounds he was certain had been carved into his flesh. The beast chuckled.

"Did you think I was going to kill you? My eyes see far deeper than yours, young one. You're thoughts are like a book with no cover. Very easy to see what's on the surface, and your mind was like a sea crashing waves across a broken cliff. The spray of thoughts was as plain to me as if you had spoken them aloud."

A sense of fear swept over him again. How little he knew of this creature, and now it was speaking nonsense of knowing what he was thinking!

"Yes, I know what you are thinking." Jun found it intensely troubling that this time he did not see the beast's jaws work as he heard the beast's words. "And please do stop thinking of me as a beast."

Jun leapt up to his feet and ran once again in a tired repeat of his last escape, which quickly ended just as his first attempt had. The tail once again took his legs out from under him. The white furred limb snaked around his leg and dragged him close to the beast with him struggling and shrieking as he tried to get away, at least until the creature placed one of its paws on his head and held it still against the stone floor. Each claw was extended enough for his eyes to stare at the evil looking points with intense interest.

"As entertaining as this all is; child, I beg you to stop this nonsense." The tail removed itself from his leg and then the paw from his head. "If it makes it easier for you to overcome your primal fears, then so be it."

He dared to look behind him and saw no great expanse of furred body. He was startled at how the beast had simply vanished. He lifted himself and looked around to find a woman sitting with legs crossed behind him, her hands clasps in her lap, and a smile on her face.

The woman was beautiful, as if this creature was no mortal girl but a gift from the heavens. Her skin was fair and etched lightly with cerulean blue tattoos that swirled and curved across her lithe frame. She was as nude as a babe and everything from her breasts to her legs and feet were exposed in their entirety. Modesty overwhelmed him and he turned away. His eyes had averted, but with every blink his mind saw a flash of her. Hair the hue of fine ivory and soft as silk draped behind her with startlingly blue eyes. Cerulean beneath her eyes and upon her lips. She was a vision of perfection if Jun had ever known it could exist!

"Though most of your thoughts are in turmoil I can still tell when I'm being complimented. I thank you, young one." Her voice was the same as before, but now it was so much more the norm having it come from something that wasn't a monster.

"Now don't think of me as such. I realize that I am but one of a very few spirits that take a natural form akin to an animal, but I am certainly no monster. You're ignorance of me is almost heartbreaking, if it weren't for my forgiving and understanding nature I would be very upset. Su'un the Giver is not known for being easily offended, unlike some others."

"What are you!" Jun insisted when he found his voice. The girl shrugged as if exasperated, then laughed at him kindly.

"Oh you're so adorable! I cannot believe I ever left the cities of man to find solitude. I am simply Su'un the Giver. I've described myself already. Calm yourself and think, less you make me explain it all again.

Jun's brain was working furiously to get a grasp of the situation. Beasts, spirits, shapeshifting women, beautiful women! He was hard pressed to settle himself into his traditionally good memory. She had said many things. He knew the elders had spoken often of other spirits of the world, but this Su'un was something he could not remember. In some ways it felt familiar, and perhaps if she was telling the truth it was simply that the elders scarcely spoke of her. Or she was lying. But this feeling he had, right down to his bones, echoed to his heart that she was being entirely truthful. A demon would try and trick him into service for their wicked deeds.

She continued to smile gently at him, a smile that crept up to her eyes. A demon, as the scriptures say, would force him to serve. Requila the Shadow would torment him with false memories of pain and hate. Sonfa the Exiled would break his body to ashes and rebuild him as a monster. All the dark spirits would have never given him the chance to make up his own mind.

"If you are what you claim, then what of me then?" Jun asked. He stood as he found it easy to be brave in front of a woman who was hardly as tall as he.

"You entertain me. Perhaps, if you are willing, I could travel the world once again and spread my blessings. I've done it before many times, and now perhaps Othello the Fate wishes me to do it again. That man simply doesn't know when to let one rest."

"What does this have to do with me?"

"You would come with me of course. As my disciple." Jun took a step back and Su'un's smile faded as her expression took a tone of displeasure, or perhaps sadness. "Don't react that way. I'm not asking you to be a slave."

She stood and Jun took another step back. She was fully exposed to him now. Su'un was a vision of beauty and a beacon of what surely had to be fertile brilliance. Her breasts were ample and welcoming, body lithe and curvaceous with hips wide for an easy birth. Her hair was gorgeous as it cascaded down her back. She was healthy and strong with arms and legs ready with muscles hidden beneath smooth skin. Her stomach was the same and was neatly carved as if the hand of a master sculptor had created her from the finest stone. Jun had trouble not staring at her, especially at the places were unmarried men were forbidden to look.

"I ask you to join me, as a disciple, so that together we can spread my blessings. Your village is prosperous, and that is because of me. I can do the same for many other villages, and in time, you could do the same as you learn from me what can be learned. All you have to do is listen, and follow." Su'un raised her hands to him in a beckoning gesture. He stared at her and felt a desire to take her hands in his.

"My home and my family."

"This is not forever. You will be able to visit them, so long as you never fail to spread what I have taught and given you."

Jun knew that people sometimes were given the call to serve a spirit. Elder Pasco had heeded a call of his own. For twenty years he wandered the land cultivating the forests and tending the growth of nature. Toww of the Earth had given him the strength and knowledge to plant any seedling and make it grow as strong as he was. Perhaps this was now Jun's time? Pasco never did say how he came to know it was his time. If it were anything like this then Jun fully understood why he may never have wanted to tell the story.

--To Be Continued