FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

There were many abandoned places in the Southern region, places that made adventurers from all over the world sigh and dream and hurry to get plane tickets before they got expensive. It was the perfect region for exploring and it certainly had a huge number of remarkable places that would help whoever felt thrilled by expeditions scratch that adventurer itch. But from all those ruins, caves, monuments and temples that could be found in that land, there was one that could easily be considered the most attractive ancient mystery that any adventurer would love to visit.

The castle of Zarpadulce had been abandoned for centuries. Its gigantic doors, which were said to weigh more than a ton each, were completely made of marble and even though time had taken its toll on them, they still looked like an extraordinary display of wealth and power. They had remained closed ever since the last living soul in the castle had left, centuries ago. Rumors said that many explorers had tried accessing the building since then, but had failed. Apparently, there was a thick layer of rock right under the castle's basement, which prevented anyone from digging in. The windows and balconies might have seemed like a perfect second option, but most scholars were worried that breaking in might damage the building's structure and even cause one of the sections of the castle to fall down.

It was believed that there was a way to enter the building without causing so much damage by activating a hidden mechanism the previous owners had left there but, of course, no one knew what it could be.

Until now.

You had been preparing that expedition for a long time, ever since you'd heard about how much of a challenge it was. Spending so many nights in the library had never been your favorite thing, but it seemed it had been worth the effort. Now that you were standing in front of the wondrous castle, with only your backpack and your worn hat on top of your head, you could easily tell this was going to be the peak of your career.

As you approached the castle, you remembered again what you thought was the key to the mystery. It was an ancient legend you'd found in a very old book, which was titled "The explorer with dazzling paws".

The legend said that there had been an adventurer who had been able to break in every secret chamber, investigate every old temple, make every single discovery. He was so talented that his colleagues were obviously jealous of him, but even though some tried to sabotage him, it never worked. One day, he'd been given the chance to make his biggest discovery ever, the peak of his career, so to speak. He'd entered the place, happy to know he was making history. The legend said there that, as he went deeper and deeper, he'd begun to become obsessed with his own footpaws, until he'd simply stopped exploring and devoted himself to admiring them. He'd never come out of the place.

When you had come across the tale, you'd thought it was incredibly stupid. Who'd ever stop exploring because of their own footpaws? That was ridiculous. But old rhymes and ancient tales tended to be ridiculous most of the time - they were the product of a different time and they mostly wanted to teach a lesson. Sometimes, they also contained a little bit of truth in them.

After some thorough investigation, you had concluded that the place in which the explorer of the tale had got lost had to be the castle of Zarpadulce. The description of the lands nearby fit the tale and, of course, different stories pointed in that direction too. That was an information that all other explorers who'd tried to raid the castle had never taken into account. Until you had arrived.

You finally reached the enormous gates and let out a satisfied sigh.

"It's about time someone finds out what's hiding behind these doors," you told himself, out loud, in your best adventurer voice. Then, you chuckled.

You weren't really sure what the connection between the legend and the castle was but you could imagine it would have something to do with the adventurer's pride. You adjusted your hat between your horns and began looking for an indication that other explorers might have ignored. It was raining softly, but the rain didn't bother you that much when you were about to make such an amazing discovery.

It took you about five minutes to find what you were looking for.

Apparently, it had nothing to do with pride whatsoever. On the opposite, the thing that had caught your attention was the image of an inverted paw, carved on one of the marble gates. It might have seem like a casual detail - and knowing that the castle's name basically meant "Sweetpaw" in Spanish might have made other explorers think so - but the tale mentioned paws and, of course, there had to be a relation. You felt the cold marble door with one of your hands, feeling the inverted image. When you pressed gently, you could feel the carving being pushed in and making a soft, clicking noise, but nothing happened.

Still, it was obvious that it was part of some kind of hidden mechanism. You looked around, trying to find anything else that might make the gates come open. It was then when you noticed there was another carving of an inverted paw on the other door, and you let out a loud "Aha!" that echoed in the silent rain. Making your best to press both at the same time - they were a few feet apart, after all - you decided it was time to prove your hunch right.

As soon as you pressed both paws, there was a loud click and the gates seemed to unlock. When you looked again, one of the doors had moved a few centimeters and there was now a thin open slit between them.

"Bingo!" you exclaimed. You knew perfectly well that there was no one listening to you, but it still felt good to say those things.

It was time to become a legend.

You pushed the heavy door until it was completely open and then entered the castle, feeling your heart beating faster and faster with each passing second.

The sight that received you was certainly... disappointing. Nature had taken over the castle over years and there was mud and vines everywhere. It still seemed like it had been a marvelous building in the past. You could tell by the carving and the marble and the pillars that adorned the spacious hall, but it was obvious that the castle had been left to oblivion for too much time. No need to worry about that, you thought. I'm sure the restoration team will be able to make it look amazing for the magazine covers.

You could almost imagine the headlines now: "Explorer Alexander Klauw becomes celebrity of the year after finding ancient castle", "Meet Alexander Klauw: talented explorer and handsome ankylosaurus". Well, maybe not that last one, but audiences would certainly be dazzled by your natural dinosaur-ish handsomeness.

Still, it felt a bit of a waste not to explore the place thoroughly before letting the magazines know. Your fame would attract too many vultures and you knew how things worked in your field.

No, your job there wasn't done. You still had a lot to explore.

You looked around, trying to understand the inner distribution of the castle. It seemed the way to the right and left wings of the castle was blocked by rubble. Scholars who'd said the building was prone to fall down were definitely right, since it seemed a few walls here and there were now just piles of debris, vines and mud. There was no way you would be able to explore that on your own, so the only way left was the staircase that dominated the middle of the room and that led to a second floor. You didn't really want to think about whether walking on the second floor would be safe or not, but after all, you were an explorer and you were familiar with that kind of risk.

After considering your options for a short while, you began walking towards the staircase. It was completely made of marble - as everything around, it seemed - and even though it didn't look particularly clean, it seemed it had stood the test of time way better than the rest of the building.

You were so focused on that thought that you didn't notice you were walking straight towards a large pool of mud that spread from the very entrance to the foot of the staircase. It was only when your boots sank a bit in the mud that you began to realize what you were doing.

"Oh, no," you groaned. "Not my boots."

It seemed the floor at that part of the room had suffered more damage than the rest and the marble tiles were nowhere to be seen. It was only a huge puddle of mud now - and your boots had sunk right in. You struggled to keep walking towards the staircase, hoping that it wouldn't swallow your boots. Fortunately for you, you always made sure to double lace your footwear, so that pool of mud had nothing to do.

You kept walking, feeling the weird suction and trying to reach the staircase. But the time it was only a few feet apart, the mud was already up to your knee and it was getting increasingly difficult to walk. You groaned as you made a huge effort, trying to reach one of the marble handrails.

"What is this, mud or frigging quicksand?" you complained out loud, but of course, nobody answered.

The staircase was just a step away now. Everyone would have thought by that time the pool would have gotten shallower, but it didn't. Instead, it just seemed as if it was getting deeper, as if there was some kind of force pulling you down. You let out an exhausted groan, making your best to reach the handrail and using all your strength to pull yourself out of the mud pool.

It worked! You let out a triumphant exclamation as you began to come out of the puddle.

But then, a gurgling sound was heard somewhere and you felt something pulling at your boots. You let out a frustrated yell as you felt your boots slipping away, down into the mud pool. However, once the puddle swallowed them, it seemed to let you roam free and you were soon panting and trying to recover, sitting on one of the stair steps.

It seemed the mud pool hadn't taken you, but not even your double lace had resisted its pull. You gave a pitiful look at the mud, where you knew your boots would be right now.

"Well," you whispered, still trying to catch your breath. "At least my paws didn't get all dirty."

That was a strange thought to have, you reckoned, but it was correct. You glanced at your now exposed ankylosaurus footpaws, which hadn't been stained by the treacherous mud. They looked great on the white marble, your chocolate brown scales making quite the contrast. And those whitish claws. You chuckled and thought the explorer from that silly legend would have loved to have such attractive footpaws.

But of course, you weren't going to follow his path, so you quickly glanced away from your feet and stood up, adjusting your clothes and hat. The staircase led up to the second floor, and you climbed it cautiously, feeling the cold marble under your bare soles. It was unfortunate that your boots had been sucked by the mud, but walking around barefoot did definitely feel good.

The second floor wasn't as exciting as you might have thought, but it seemed as if the dirt from the lower level hadn't reached that place. The marble was whiter and there wasn't that much mud around, although there were quite a lot of vines. It made sense, you thought. Plants climbed. Mud usually doesn't.

It was then when you noticed that most of the carvings in the walls were actually paw prints of some kind. Feline paw prints, canine paw prints. Even bird prints, here and there, even though you weren't sure if those could be considered "paws". When you were in the first floor you had thought about that possibility too, but the mud and the bad state of the marble hadn't really let you know for sure if you were right. It seemed, however, that your hunch was correct on that too.

The castle of Zarpadulce seemed to have been built by someone with an excessive obsession on paws. Which kinda explained the legend, of course.

"Kinky architects with a paw fetish," you told himself, chuckling, as you walked around. "Definitely the last thing I was expecting to find in this expedition."

There was an open door at the other side of the room that seemed to lead to the right wing. Considering that seemed to be your only option right now, you began walking towards it. You were already getting used to walking barefoot, but the feeling was still nice.

It was then when you tripped with a vine and you were about to fall, but managed to regain your balance right in time. Once you did, you remained frozen for a few seconds, in case the floor would start collapsing. The building had proven to be quite unstable, after all. However, it seemed it resisted well the trip and you sighed in relief. You weren't going to destroy an architectural jewel of unimaginable value - at least, not today.

But there was something odd about the floor. You could have sworn the vines were in different places the last time you've checked, almost as if they had been re-distributed in the last few second. That's silly, you thought, grinning widely. It wasn't until you felt the soft caress of one of those vines across your ankle that you looked down and saw that the vines were actually moving as if they had life of their own.

You screamed in alarm.

It was easy to get rid of that vine, but you soon noticed you were surrounded. More and more vines were coming back to life, as if your arrival to the second floor had woken them up from their vegetal slumber. Still trying to understand how something like that could be happening, you rushed towards the door at the other side of the room. But the vines were quick, like snakes looking for prey, and one of them entangled around your ankle again. Groaning, you pulled in order for it to let go, and it broke with a snap.

Soon, more vines were wriggling all around, trying to catch your paws. Walking barefoot might have been, after all, not such a good idea. You yelled as you kept running towards the door, trying to avoid all the vines. They wiggled as they tried to capture you and, for some reason, you remembered the gurgling sound the mud pool had made when you were downstairs. They had taken your boots, and now they wanted...

"Not my paws!" you shouted out loud, as you ran towards the door.

You got there right in time, just when the vines were coming together for a combined effort to capture your feet. With one last effort, you closed the heavy stone door at your back. The vines seemed to hiss at the other side of the door, but they were defeated, and you allowed yourself to sit down, still breathing heavily.

Suddenly, you saw a new wriggling movement and you noticed part of the vine who had snapped before was now wrapping around your paw. You screamed and picked it up with a mixture of fear and disgust, before throwing it away. The vine still twitched a bit more, but it soon stopped moving. It seemed whatever was making it moved had vanished.

You took a time then to check your paws were free from vines this time. And once you had checked they were free from vines, you checked again. And again. You really had wonderful paws, didn't you? It would have been such a shame to have them taken but those vines. But they wouldn't take your paws again. They might have taken your boots, but your marvelous, beautiful footpaws belonged completely to you and you wouldn't let them steal...

"Oh, no," you muttered, once you realized what was going on.

It was that place.

For some reason, it was directing your whole attention to your paws. First, the carvings in the walls. Then, the mud trying to expose your footpaws. Now, the vines trying to once again make you focus on your paws. It was as if every single room, every aspect of that building, had been thought to make you forget about everything else and just admire your paws. And it wasn't so difficult to understand why. After all, your amazing ankylosaurus paws, with those pointy claws, were some of the most beautiful you'd ever...

"Enough!" you said, trying to break the spell. It was insane! How could it make your thoughts turn to your paws so easily? Even now, you had to make an effort not to think about them. "I have to keep exploring this place," you told himself, as if hearing your own voice would help you stay away from the paw-related thoughts. "Yes. That's why I came here. I'm an explorer. An explorer with dazzling paws, but an explorer after all."

Shoot. It had made you say the title of the legend. That explained a thing or two.

You looked around, trying to see what the room you were in now looked like. It was mostly empty, but cleaner than any other place in the castle so far. In fact, the marble there was so white and polished that you could almost see your reflection on its surface. It almost seemed as if that room was unaffected by the passing of time, as if the years hadn't pass in there.

"That's silly," you said, chuckling.

You began walking. You couldn't see a door anywhere - and the room was so white that it was difficult to spot anything, in any case - but you knew you'd reach somewhere if you just kept walking.

And so you did. You kept walking forward for a long time, hoping that the room would eventually end. It was weird, you thought. The right wing hadn't looked so long from outside. Maybe you were just walking around in circles? That might have explained what it almost seemed as if you hadn't moved - but no, the piece of vine was still there, resting on the perfectly polished, reflecting marble floor.

Your reflection. You could see it now, the inverted picture of yourself walking. It was fun to watch, for a while. After all, since you were still barefoot, you could catch a glimpse of your footpaws every now and then. It wasn't that you couldn't stop thinking about them - of course not - it was just that they were so easy to look at whenever you took a step. And another. And another.

It was silly, you thought. How something so simple could catch your attention so easily. Whoever had designed that place was either a genius or a madman, but your paws were really beautiful. Yes, they were. Such beautiful paws.

You sat down in order to be closer to them. Yes, your paws. That mud pool had revealed them to you, those vines had tried to take them away from you. That was because they knew, you thought. They knew how amazing they were, and how good they looked, and how much you wanted to caress them and rub them against the floor and just imagine all kinds of things involving them. You lift one of them, looking at the reflection on the floor. Yes, they were perfect.

They were perfect, dazzling paws. The most beautiful ankylosaurus paws you'd ever seen. With those pointy white claws and slightly rough soles, covered in your stylish brown scales. You loved them so much that you weren't even sure what you'd come to look in there. You were a explorer? Right. Why were you in there? It probably was just to have your paws revealed at you.

You could see it clearly now. The building, the castle. It had simply revealed something you had always known. It had given you something you had always carried along. Your paws. You had needed that building to prove to you how truly amazing they were. That was why you'd entered that castle, wasn't it? It must have been. For your paws were so, so great and irresistible. You would have kissed them, if only you were flexible enough.

"So... pretty..." you heard yourself whisper.

You were truly happy.

And as you kept staring at your wonderful paws, in the middle of a white marble room, there was something you knew for sure. That your love for your footpaws wouldn't fade anytime soon. Your fascination about them had barely started. Now you only wanted to keep looking at them, no matter what. And if it came to that, if you needed all that time to admire them, you were absolutely, one hundred percent sure that you would have to stay there, admiring your dazzling paws...

... forever.

It's been some time since you left the castle.

Sometimes you wonder what made you leave. Sometimes you wonder if it was even real. You can sometimes remember the intense feeling of admiration and happiness you felt back there when you stared at your paws, but that doesn't help with the questions in your mind.

Still, there's one thing that was clear.

You were the one. You were the explorer that unveiled the secret of the castle of Zarpadulce.

And you will always remember that.