FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hey. Hey, are you still awake?" The doe asked, poking at the fallen dwarf with her hoof. The dwarf snorted and gave a weak swat before rolling over to his side. "Damn bunch of light weights." She complained before looking back to her empty cup.

For several hours, the impromptu party had carried on. The drink had flowed freely and Nadirah had never found herself with an empty container for very long. Songs had been sung, music had been played, dwarves had been dancing everywhere, someone had even handed Nadirah a hunk of cheese although she never saw who the hand had belonged to. All too soon, however, the party goers began to disperse, or collapsed into drunken sleep, spread across the floor or flopped over tables, leaving the warrior alone with an empty mug.

Shaking her head, the doe turned her attention back to the chain holding her leg to the table. It would be hard to break either of them without waking at least half of the slumbering dwarves in the hall. Giving a light jerk of her leg, Nadirah caused the chain to clink softly, echoing loudly through the still room. She grumbled and stood up, scanning the blanket of bodies for a more familiar face among the crowd. Finally she spotted her guard, spread out across the stone floor and still gripping the handle of his own mug. "Now why did you have to go and fall all the way over there?" she grumbled to herself in irritation.

The short chain rattled loudly as she took a step away from the table, the metal cuff cutting sharply into her ankle as the chain snapped tight, still leaving her target several feet away. Nadirah lifted her leg, giving a few experimental tugs to test the strength of the metal, but there was no slack to give. Snapping her ears back in irritation, the doe carefully lowered herself to her knees and crawled forward several more inches, stretching out her chained leg as far as she could to give herself just a little extra reach. The slumbering dwarf was almost within her grasp, but there was still a small gap between them.

Baring her teeth in frustration, the doe reached again, groaning softly as her body was stretched uncomfortably, her hand shaking slightly as it inched closer and closer to her target. Finally with a painful lurch forward, she hooked the tip of her finger into the dwarf's belt. "Get over here!" She growled, and dragged the drunken sleeper across the stone floor. The dwarf grumbled and began to stir, causing the doe to freeze in place, but she relaxed once more when he did not wake from his inebriated slumber. With little patience left, Nadirah roughly searched the small body for the key to her shackle, rising happily back to her feet when she found it.

The lock offered her no resistance and she set the shackle down carefully on the floor, not wishing for it to clang out too loudly. Free of the hated thing, she rubbed her sore ankle a moment before looking around the room at the litter of bodies. "Now..." She muttered under her breath. "If I were a dwarf, where would I hide my ale?"

The muffled echo of hoof-steps followed the doe as she made her way through the labyrinth of tunnels dug into the mountain. Most of them had led to seemingly endless rows of sleeping chambers, further frustrating the already irritated tarin. The darkness did not improve her mood any, the single stolen torch she clutched providing only a minimal amount of light. Adapted to the darkness of the underground, the dwarves did not much care for brightness of any kind.

When she finally came to a pair of giant stone doors, each carved with pictures of celebration and merriment centered around a single seated figure, she was sure she had finally found the store room she sought. Placing a hand on one of the doors, Nadirah pushed gently, surprised at how easily the enormous slab of stone swung away at her touch. Another push opened it enough for her to enter and she slipped in as quietly as she could before carefully closing the door behind her.

A short distance beyond the stone doors she reached a much smaller wooden door. "Ah, here we are." She whispered to herself, opening the door and stepping eagerly inside. Instead of the large barrels and glass bottles she had been expecting, Nadirah raised her torch to find a large ornate bed decorated with fur and colorful fabrics. "What the hell?" She grumbled angrily. "Where am I now?"

A previously unnoticed figure stirred on the bed and sat up suddenly. "Who's there?!" The figure wheezed, cowering under the blanket of heavy furs. "Name yourself, now! Who are you!" The voice was weak and aged, as if the throat it had been emitted from struggled to produce the sound. "What are doing here?!"

"Just passing through." Nadirah replied, turning back to the door to leave. "Go on back to sleep, I was just looking for something else."

"You!" The scratchy voice shot out the accusation. "Assassin! Come to finish the job, have you?"

The doe gave an irritated snort and turned back toward the elder dwarf. "Are you still going on about that? If I had wanted to kill you, old man, I would have done it long before now. You wouldn't even have had the chance to wake up first. Now go back to sleep and forget I was even here."

"Guards! Guards!" The elder called out weakly, his voice barely loud enough to echo in the bedchamber. "Where are my guards?!"

Giving an exasperated sigh, Nadirah walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, blocking out the old dwarf's screams as she continued her search.

Rough hands shook the sleeping tarin, jerking her harshly into consciousness. "'Ey! Wake yahself yah slovenly beast! Wake now!"

Nadirah blinked tiredly and turned bloodshot eyes in the general direction of the angry voice, waiting for the blurry image to become clear. As the face of a furious black-bearded dwarf came into view, the doe yawned and closed her eyes. "Give me five more minutes." She muttered, ignoring the rough shake to her shoulder that made her entire body move like a rag doll. The smack across her face was much harder to ignore.

"I said get up, yah lazeh cow!" The black-bearded dwarf shouted. "Been nothin' but troubal since yah 'rived! Now get tah yah damn feet an' face tha king!"

Groggily, the doe opened her eyes again and sat up, rubbing her head. A few more blinks brought the scene before her into clear view. The old dwarf that had called her an assassin stood before her, a fanning of guards behind him. The guards all bore weapons, mostly heavy axes and hammers, but Nadirah spotted at least two with spears. Through the alcoholic haze surrounding her brain, the doe began to calculate her chances of surviving should she need to fight her way free of them.

"C'mon now!" The black bearded dwarf was shouting at her again. "On yah feet! Up now!" Nadirah grumbled but rose slowly, ignoring the demands and insults that he continued to shout at her as she finally stood unsteadily.

The elder raised a hand and the dwarf fell silent. "So, assassin, I see you have managed to free yourself." The elder spoke softly, taking a step forward and shadowed by the line of guards. "And I see you have managed to do quite a bit of damage in your roaming."

"Twenny-seven bottles of spearberry wine, five barrels ah mead, and nearly a full cask ah our best ale!" Black-beard reported sternly. Nadirah swung her tail, causing the tufted tip to smack into his bulbous nose. The dwarf sputtered angrily and swatted at his face, but her tail had already fallen away. "INSOLENT CUR!!" He screamed angrily, turning to face Nadirah, who ignored him, and began shouting angrily at her in the dwarven tongue. As it was a language the doe did not speak, she assumed it was threats and more curses.

"Thank you, Dhar." The elder interrupted. "That will be all." Dhar gave an angry huff in Nadirah's direction before stomping out of the room. As the sound of his footsteps faded away, the elder took another step closer to the tarin who towered over him. "Tell me something, assassin." He spoke softly, making Nadirah strain her ears forward to hear him. "Are all of your people like you?"

"No one is like me." She replied just as softly, still swaying on her feet. "Not my people nor any other. Are all of _your_people like you?"

The elder nodded thoughtfully and waved a hand, signaling her to sit, which she did gratefully. "Well spoken, tarin. You make a good point." Head bowed thoughtfully, the elder stood still before her, the silence stretching out between them. Finally he raised his head again, a faint smile curling his ancient lips. "Tell me something else, tarin. Do we owe you an apology for-"

"Yes." Nadirah responded before the elder had finished speaking.

The elder dwarf nodded thoughtfully again, his mouth twitching slightly to keep his smile from growing. "Perhaps we do. Perhaps we do indeed. You are a fighter, tarin. I can see it in you. The spirit in your eyes, the way you move, even your way of holding yourself perfectly still. It is obvious to all of us that you are not new to violence, and yet you've kept yourself under control the entire time you've been among us. You have all the motive you need for revenge, but last night, you came to my chambers. I was alone and my guards were gone. Everyone was asleep. You could easily have killed me and escaped with your life. Why did you stay your hand?"

Nadirah sighed softly and shook her head. "I won't repeat myself again. If you don't know the answer then it's because you're still not listening."

"Strong words for one so young." The elder nodded. "But also wise. You are quite right. Perhaps we have been a bit inhospitable to you. I was not prepared to listen before. I am ready now. Will you honor me with your words, tarin?"

"Nadirah." The doe replied, lifting her head proudly.

"Nadirah?" the dwarf repeated, tilting his head slightly as if to hear her better. "Who or what is Nadirah?"

"I am Nadirah." She said calmly, although the tip of her tail thumped once against the cold stone floor to show her agitation. "Nadirah Wolfcaller."

The old dwarf studied her with renewed interest, allowing a long silence to stretch on as he looked her over again. "Nadirah Wolfcaller. That is a very... strange name for a tarin." He finally spoke, eying her cautiously.

"So I've been told." Nadirah said simply, offering no more.

"Tell me then, Nadirah Wolfcaller," The elder spoke after another short silence lapsed. "You came to my chamber last night. After everything we've done, you would be justified in wanting to take your revenge. But you simply turned and left, choosing instead to take your vengeance out on our larder. Why?"

"Like I told you before, there's no one here I have any issue with. I'm looking for someone in particular but he isn't here." She replied. "Unfortunately your tunnels are confusing and I got lost. I keep trying to tell you that I'm not an assassin. No one sent me here to kill anyone. I'm just passing through, exactly as I said."

The dwarf nodded thoughtfully again, his rheumy eyes never leaving her. "Well then, Nadirah Wolfcaller, we will allow you safe passage through our lands, and we will give you what help we can to get you where you need to go. Jorbli will see to getting you supplies and an eilam." From behind the elder dwarf, one of the guards lowered his ax and stepped forward, turning briefly to bow to the eldest before turning back to the doe. His thick blond beard was split into heavy-looking braids that almost reached his feet. Without a word, he waved for Nadirah to follow him and began walking away. "It is good that you are not an assassin, Nadirah Wolfcaller, you would never make it out of here alive."

"Is that what you think?" She replied softly as she passed him by. "Is that what you were thinking when you saw me as well?" The surprised widening of the elder's eyes before she looked away told the warrior all she needed to know.

The bulging pack slung over Nadirah's shoulders felt heavy, but she was glad to have it. Filled with cheese, meat, and several skins of good ale, even her lost flask had been replaced and the new one rested securely against her hip.

"Eilam's a'comin." Jorbli spoke for the first time since he had been assigned to the tarin. Nadirah looked down at him with surprise, but before she could respond, the sound of footsteps caught her attention. Turning to look down the dark tunnel, she could just make out an odd pair of figures heading her way. As they made their way closer to the light, she could make out another dwarf leading a large, shaggy animal. The animal was making strange lurching motions as if limping.

Confused, she took a step back from the tunnel's entrance and waited for the strange pair to enter. Her confusion only deepened as she was able to get a better look at the beast being led. It's brown coat was thick and wooly, much like a kordox, but the two animals shared few other similarities. Four horns sprouted from a long and narrow head, two of them short and pointed downward while two longer horns spiraled upward from the creature's crown. Like the dwarves that domesticated it, the animal had long strands of hair growing from its chin in a beard, which was being held by the dwarf that led it. A short puff of tail wiggled back and forth as the animal lifted its head, letting out a loud bleat that echoed in the large chamber and made the doe take another distrustful step back.

"Dancha worreh!" The dwarf leading the animal said cheerfully. "'e'll nah 'urt yah nown."

"The hell is that thing?" Nadirah asked suspiciously, keeping a safe distance as she began walking around the creature, inspecting it thoroughly. "And why does it only have three legs?" The animal turned it's head to look at the doe with dark and tiny eyes, lifting one of its two forelegs to scratch at an itch on it's belly while balancing on it's remaining foreleg and single hind leg. It's finger-like paws constantly shifted to find purchase on the smooth stone flooring.

"Onleh needs thray." The handler said cheerfully, patting the creature's thin neck affectionately. "S'an eilam!"

Her attention caught between studying the creature's strange feet, which closely resembled hands except that they had two thumbs opposite three fingers, and keeping what she felt was a safe distance, Nadirah could barely understand the dwarf's heavy accent. "Sand eye-lamb? Is that what you call this thing?"

"Nay, misseh! Use yah beeg eeahs!" The handler said with a chuckle. "S'joost an eilam."

"Juiced an eye-lamb? That sounds even worse!" Nadirah turned her attention from the beast to look pleadingly at Jorbli. "Does he not speak common? What the hell is he saying over there?"

"Sais et's joost an eilam." Jorbli said solemnly, unamused by the doe's lack of understanding. The beast handler was barely holding back laughter as he watched her confusion.

Nadirah gave a resigned sigh and waved her hand dismissively, her tail snapping back and forth like an angry cat. "Ok, got it." She snapped irritably. "So is this thing like a pack mule? It's going to carry my pack down the path for me?"

"Ain'ju." The handler said with a widening of his grin, finding pleasure in the doe's increasing displeasure. "Right doon tha moontin." As if to emphasize his words, the eilam let out another loud bleat.

Nadirah's ears folded back and one eyebrow raised in question. "You think I'm going to ride that thing?" Still mindful of keeping a safe distance, she took a cautious step forward, sizing up the animal. While it looked large next to a dwarf, most of whom had only come to the height of her thigh, the eilam's back barely reached the level of the tarin's waist, and it's shaky legs hardly looked capable of supporting it's own body, never mind her as well. "How, exactly?"

Still stroking the eilam's neck, the handler grinned broadly, showing a wide row of large teeth. "Tied on." He said slowly, carefully pronouncing each word to ensure the doe understood.

"Aw hell." Nadirah muttered.

It took several attempts and more than a few hours to get the distrustful tarin onto the back of the eilam and secured in a harness not meant for anyone so large. The eilam stumbled awkwardly across the floor with its heavy burden, slowly making its way to a large stone door that led out of the mountain. Nadirah's legs stuck out to either side of the animal's flank as she laid draped across it's narrow back. Her hands clutched tightly to a pair of handles positioned at the base of the eilam's neck, causing her to nearly hug the creature. Thick leather cords held the rest of her body tightly to the eilam to keep her from shifting or falling off completely.

Her pack was tied to another eilam, rode by the handler. The second eilam was smaller than the one Nadirah rode, and yet the dwarf fit easily on it's back, the handles of his harness placed on the animal's shoulders rather that its throat. Holding the hair of their beards, Jorbli wordlessly led the pair of eilams the rest of the way to the large stone doors, pausing as they were opened slowly.

Nadirah grit her teeth, clutching the leather handles even tighter as her mount hobbled along awkwardly, occasionally wobbling as if about to fall over and take her with it. She badly wished to be off the strange creature, but repeated protests had gotten her only half-understandable replies about the dangers of the slopes and how the eilams were better climbers.

After so much time spent under ground with only the faintest of firelight to see by, the light of the twin moons felt blinding. Nadirah had to narrow her eyelids to mere slits against its brightness. It took several blinks for her eyes to adjust to the night. She clung tighter to her seemingly clumsy mount, feeling it shift unsteadily beneath her. Just as she was beginning to relax, the eilam let out another loud bleat and leaned to the side, lifting one of it's forelegs to scratch the persistent itch on its belly. Nadirah let out a small cry and closed her eyes tightly, pressing her face tightly against the beast's neck until she felt it balance itself on its tripod of limbs again. "ARE YOU SURE THERE'S NO BETTER WAY TO GET DOWN THERE?!" She yelled, the handle straps biting deeply into her curled fingers.

"Y'all beh fahn!" The handler said reassuringly before reaching out and giving her eilam a hard slap to its rump. The eilam threw back its head and let out another loud bleat while giving a half-rear, then jumped forward, nearly sending the terrified tarin into another screaming fit.

"Why did you do thaaAAAAAHHHH!!!!!" She screeched as the animal tilted forward over the short ledge. The side of the mountain seemed to approach the bound tarin far too fast and she almost instintively threw out her arms to slow her decent, but the eilam's forelegs stretched out first, its hand-like paws gripping securely to the jutting rock and finding easy grips among the rough stone. The animal moved swiftly, traveling a zigzagging path with the confidence of practice, its prior unsteadiness completely gone.

As the wall of the mountain slid past far too close to Nadirah's face for her personal comfort, she closed her eyes and tried to pretend that she was not plummeting down an almost vertical wall of stone, but the movements began to make her feel dizzy, forcing her to open them again. The heavy braid of her mane fell forward, slapping against her short muzzle a few times before impaling itself on the tip of one of her horns.

When she felt the eilam tense then stretch and the ground suddenly seemed to fall away, she realized the animal had jumped. It almost felt like flying, with her view of shadowy rocks suddenly changed to that of a star-filled sky, but it lasted only a few short seconds before the mountain returned, approaching fast. Nadirah clenched her jaw in preparation of a jarring landing, but the eilam landed smoothly without halting its forward momentum. Its fingers grasped and flexed rapidly as it made its way down.

She gasped sharply as they approached yet another jutting cliff, the eilam showing no signs of pausing or even slowing as it got closer and closer to the lip. Helpless to do anything but watch, Nadirah's fingers tightened even further around the leather grip, feeling it bite deeply into the flesh of her palm. Within the space of a breath, the eilam had reached the cliff face and leapt over the edge. The frightened doe closed her eyes tightly and gritted her teeth to hold back a cry. The initial sensation of falling was quickly replaced by a slight pendulation, causing her to open her eyes again and immediately wishing she had not.

The eilam was shifting it's head back and forth, studying the ground far beneath them while dangling freely, it's forelegs stretched almost lazily out in front of it. A careful and nervous glance over her shoulder showed the single hind paw gripping tightly to the lip of the cliff. The straps of the ill-fitting harness dug painfully into the tarin's legs and shoulders as they supported her weight against gravity. Nadirah gave a faint whimper, unable to hold it back, and tucked her face against the eilam's shaggy neck, not wanting to see any more until they had reached the safety of flat ground.

The rest of the ride was a blurred series of rocking and free falls until finally the creature slowed down and Nadirah felt it's limping gait return as it crawled carefully down from the foot of the mountain onto the much flatter ground. Finally brave enough to open her eyes, the doe blinked and looked around. "Is it finally safe?" She asked no one in particular, lifting her head to look about her. The eilam hobbled over to a small pile of rubble, once again seeming to find its balance as its paws grasped the small rocks.

"Yeh, s'safe now." The handler laughed as his own mount made its way over to hers and the animals exchanged bleats of greeting. "Dah want so bad nah was et?"

"Whatever you say." Nadirah replied, anxiously removing the harness straps and falling off of the eilam's narrow back. Rising to her feet, the doe shook her head to clear it, then looked at the waiting dwarf, who was grabbing her mount's beard to lead it back toward the mountain. "Let me grab my pack before you take off."

Once her pack of supplies had been retrieved, the pair of eilams took off with ease back up the mountain and disappearing into the night, only the occasional chatter of falling pebbles giving evidence of their presence. "Well...." Nadirah said softly to herself, looking around her again. A mostly flat plain, painted silver by the moonlight, stretched out before her, its flat surface softened by short grass. "I think that deserved a drink."