FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

He had finally found it. A lost temple devoted to some unknown religion that was hidden in the remote parts of the world. His accomplishment made even more spectacular due to the fact that the temple would not show up on satellite images for some reason or another. There was not a single form of technology that could seem to find it, and yet he knew it was there, there were simply far too many credible stories of it existing. Those who returned spoke of it promising secrets to untold power. That there is a ritual to gain the power of the mightiest creature in all the lands.

Daniel wasn't all that concerned about the foolish notion of it granting power in such a manner. That simply didn't seem at all scientific to him. But finding it, proving that it exists to all the world would be enough for him. And that is why when Clara, his assistant, found some evidence on where it might be actually located based on descriptions he didn't hesitate to book a flight for the two of them to check it out. At least once he figured out exactly where to go. Knowing that technology couldn't seem to find it and knowing a rough location he and Clara went through and managed to find a portion of the jungle that never seemed to resolve. No matter what they were looking from, that particular location was always somewhat fuzzy without any detail being available.

It was a long enough trek but they didn't really feel the need to have a guide take them there. The first clue that they were getting close was the electronics on their jeep started to go haywire. Clara wisely advised him that they should probably go on foot from this point. She was a very clever girl, but very shy and unsure of herself. He had hoped that with this she would have shared as much of his excitement and exhilaration but he couldn't really fault her for not coming out of her shell. She did agree, after all, to help him in this endeavor so that he wouldn't be going it all alone. Eventually even the compass they were using started to fail. They would have potentially walked right past their temple and never even knew about it. But Daniel was clever and with checking the spot where it would start to go haywire at three different points a good minute's walk away and having marked each one he was able to triangulate an approximate center. They then aimed themselves towards that center, using the sun as a compass now as that wouldn't be subject to change from anything but time.

He had almost wondered if they had gone too far when he finally sees it. It's very well blended in with the environment. The two of them walk in, taking great care to not upset anything in case of issues with structural integrity. When Daniel first steps through the threshold he's actually taken aback for a few seconds. He couldn't believe what he saw. Despite the fact the outside had all the lookings of a forgotten temple that had fallen to the rigors of time, the inside looked incredibly pristine. There were no lights available on anything so after looking over his shoulder Clara handed him the lantern they had brought for such a case. He moves into the center of the opening room with the lit lantern and looks around. There is still a decent enough amount of dust on everything. He turns around to share his thoughts but has found that Clara has already left again. Not knowing where she might have gone he calls out briefly but at hearing no thought shrugs and goes about looking around. In all aspects it looks more like an ancient library than it temple to some forgotten god. Most of the documents even look like ordinary books. Daniel gingerly grabs one and with the utmost care opens up the book, finding oddly that it seems to have held up so well that it feels more like a book that is only at most a few years old than quite likely a few hundred, if not more.

"Can I get some help here?" Clara shouts from outside, breaking Daniel out of his thoughts. He turns around and exits the temple and finds that Clara had the very intelligent idea to go ahead and start bringing in some of their equipment from the car.

With a quick spring to his step he quickly rushes out and helps pick up some of the heavier equipment she was bringing over. She wasn't grabbing any of the more sensitive stuff, mostly just the stuff that would be perfectly fine if dropped on accident but still somewhat heavy. Primarily the books they'll be using for translations, some food and a water purifier, as well as the sleeping bags in case they decide to spend the night, which Daniel is quite keen on doing what with all of the information now at their disposal. He'll definitely be wanting to at least attempt to translate some of the documents if possible to see how realistic the claims may be. It is entirely possible it might not be so easy to find again later on and any information that he can get would be most useful now than at the hands of a committee should he even convince people to do a more thorough study.

But she did have the right idea and Daniel silently curses himself for getting so wrapped up in the sight that he had beheld that he completely forgot the logical course of action to start transferring over all of their equipment so that he can actually get started on all of his work of examining and preserving all the information being presented within the temple. He rushes out to help her bring in what she had already grabbed.

"How were you able to make your way back here so easily and not get turned around at all?" he asks when he reaches her.

She doesn't respond with words but rather gestures at one of the nearby trees with her head, a modicum of pride in her expression. Daniel turns and looks and sees that she's apparently used some chalk and marked the tree with a simple line. He looks down at the path and notices that every tree seems to have this mark on it. Whether she did it on their way in or on her way back to the car he cannot tell as he was too absorbed in the exploration. But she always was an extremely clever and resourceful girl and he's more than ever glad that he convinced her to step out of her shell enough to come join him on this particular expedition. Of course getting everything transferred considering how far they had to walk from the car they're both rather exhausted and feel the need to take a break, though Clara insists they get the solar generator up and charging before anything else. While sitting around and resting their aching bodies from carrying everything they were bringing into this temple Daniel looks at the entirety of the temple. He'd have to do a more thorough assessment but this place definitely seems far smaller than it really has any right to be. This is only one room, though very much in phenomenal condition, it is still smaller than the structure seemed from the outside. And yet, with a casual glance around this one room he can find almost no sign of any other passages further into the temple. No altar, though with much better light available now with the generator online and not relying only on their lamp, he can see in the distance what looks to be a fountain of some sort. After pointing it out to Clara she went about taking a sample and started doing an analysis on it through one of their machines, particularly to find out if it is safe to touch or if there's anything anomalous in it.

While that's working Daniel is going about looking at the tomes on all of the shelves, paying special attention to each and every one, making sure that no damage befalls any of them, even with the fact that every single one of the books seem to be as durable as a brand-new book. He picks up a few and opens them up to look at some of the pages. There doesn't seem to be any sense of the language printed on them. It doesn't look like anything he had ever seen before and doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to the structure. Some of the books even look to be in a completely different language from the rest. Just going through it all he can pick up what is likely five or six different languages all printed here. Some of the books even have a different language written in the margins, as if someone was making notes. This would certainly corroborate the stories that multiple people had found this temple in the past. And yet, at the same time it didn't really make much sense. That people would come, look at all of the information in these books, some of them even starting to translate the works inside and yet the language itself is still foreign to him. Nor would it explain why this place looks so pristine. These books look brand new, as if just printed from the press a few days ago. But for all of these different languages printed into the margins, all done with clearly different hands would imply that these books are hundreds of years old. The sheer disparity of these two states is confusing him. Clara suggested that perhaps either the fountain or something else in this place plays a role in preserving the books. That that would be the reason why they are still present in their current state. And though that may most certainly be true, that technique alone on preserving and maintaining these books for so long could net him a fortune in itself. Let alone any knowledge gained from the tomes themselves.

But beyond that more would have to wait for another day. Though they have a solar cell and some lights, he isn't entirely sure how the temple will react to too much light and a sit took a while to get her and get in the equipment it's getting late and the sun is setting by the time he's looked at only a few of the tomes on the shelves. Every one pristine and every one seeming to have secrets just waiting to be discovered. He can only hope for more answers tomorrow. On the plus side, the fountain turned out to have nothing extraordinary about it. None of their tests could conclude anything about it other than that it is just perfect normal water. Feeling adventurous he even put some of the water from the fountain through their purifier and tasted it. And it tasted perfectly fine. Tasted no different than purified river water. He'd have to check to see the source but he wouldn't be surprised if that ended up being where the water came from.

It took about three days before he started to get a feel for what was truly in the books. He spent much of his time translating the other scripts, most of which matched each other so he just started translating the easiest ones. Clara was very helpful in this regard. But a lot of the tomes were only saying things that he was already aware of or were talking about things that made no sense. It seemed like this was an entire library of not only magical tomes and tomes of knowledge, but also stories for children. There were stories of events that could not have happened, based on characters that had no basis in reality. But the more he read and the more he translated the more he seemed to understand the base language of all these tomes. And that discovery seemed to make Clara uncomfortable, who then refused to read any of the books on her own, which was understandable, if a bit too conservative. The more complicated and technical looking tomes seemed to be describing a process by which anyone could gain access and control a power beyond what could be explained by science. And these, Clara refused to even so much as touch.

After a few more days of this, Daniel was certain he was on the verge of something great. Unfortunately, as he started to get the hang of the teachings that he was reading from the books, Clara was showing more and more apprehension regarding what they were doing. And when he finally managed to do it and cause a candle to light through his own will, the foolish girl insisted that they stop there and head back out. And though she clearly no longer wanted to still be there she at least never fully abandoned him, though he's not sure if it's out of a sense of fear for what he'd do to her if she did leave him behind once he had mastered the techniques stored within or if it was out of a sense of devotion to him. But she never read from any of the books and she never drank from the fountain, instead relying only on the supplies they had brought with them and occasionally going out to fill some bottles from a stream she found nearby. She was such a foolish girl in that regard and one that clearly wasn't ambitious enough. But he'd teach her just how great things can get later. For now he needed to practice at this and with a lot of concentration he's able to make the wick on the candle light up without any other motion from him and without any sort of match or anything.

And the girl had some mixed reactions when he showed her that. She approached it from a purely scientific aspect and trying to figure out how he could have caused it to work scientifically, rather than by some sort of internal power. But at the same time, she was very concerned that they were getting into something humans weren't meant to learn and was trying to urge him to take what he had found thus far and leave. And he might have been tempted if not for having found a few documents near the front that all went into how the documents were able to maintain themselves. There is an energy being gathered in this area or was gathered or will be gathered. The language of that document was very unclear in regards to various tenses as it talks about all of time simultaneously. And this energy from the temple is what is purifying the water and maintaining all of the documents. If any of the books were removed, they'd quickly decay.

Eventually, she grew so tiresome that Daniel pretty much had to go send her away or have her do some sort of menial task to get any real work done. But from his research he found clues that there was a separate purpose to this particular location. It was a node of power. A place that could channel all of its energies into a single person and unlock all the magic inherent in the most powerful creature to have ever existed. But it wasn't in this particular room, which meant to Daniel that there had to be some sort of secret passage somewhere in here. One that couldn't be found through just mundane means but by those who had already proven themselves worthy.

It took a while but he was able to find the door, hidden in the wall by the fountain. With the correct application of magic the water turned a bright green for a moment and then he felt something click and the entire wall started to shift aside. He marvels at it. The ease at which it moves with all the weight attached to it and with very little in regards to the sound of scraping against the ground would be impressive even with modern technology. The fact that it can do so without having been used in such a long time and having been here for centuries is nothing short of magic. He explores it a bit, using a magical flame out of his hand as a source of light, not even bothering to grab their lamp or use a flashlight. What would be the point of those when he can produce light all on his own. In the interior he finds a large atrium of some sort with a bunch of mirrors circling the center of the room intermittently. He finds a tome that was placed on a nearby altar and picking it up, finds it is referring to the ritual he was reading about. He picks it up and returns to the main room, closing the door so he doesn't have to listen to Clara complain about how they should have just left this place well enough alone. He might have to go about seeking a new apprentice after all of this is done. He could definitely do with a much more open-minded student, as useful and thoughtful as she has been. He sits down with his new prize and begins to try and figure out what all is required to unlock the ultimate power within himself.

When she returns he chooses not to tell her where he found the book, not that she really showed that much interest in reading, more content with trying to drive him away. He half wonders if she might be trying to get him away so that she can have all this power just to herself, except for that she doesn't read any of it. She isn't trying to unlock the power at all. She's just trying to get him to give up any attempt at having true power. Eventually he figures out enough for how the ritual works. That one needs only align the mirrors correctly. All seven mirrors need to be arranged perfectly in line with the sun and some other factors that he'd be able to see represented while in the center but would disappear on the edge, meaning he would need her help to pull it off. Eventually he's forced to bring her in on this and brings her to the atrium. She seems reluctant to be here, as if the very aspect of the mirrors terrify the little girl.

"I don't think this is a good idea," she says as she studies the inscriptions on the wall. "There's no telling what something like this would do."

"And I'm telling you one last time that I have everything perfectly under control. I've read through the manuscript countless times and already verified as much as I am able to, but the fact remains that this is not something that I can do by myself. I need someone to help set these mirrors up so that I can truly unlock the power of the mightiest of the world's creation. And if things look like they're going south you can always move a mirror out of position, the manuscript says that the process can be aborted safely by either removing any of the mirrors or me simply moving out of the center of the atrium. Everything will be perfectly safe. Trust me on this. And if it doesn't, I can write a note absolving you of any guilt if it makes you feel any better."

She voices her objection to it fully and continues her plea that they simply abandon everything and head back to civilization. But he had come so close to turn back and refused to hear any of it. When this is all over he's going to look for a new assistant, one no nearly as prone to complaining. But she is compliant enough, following his instructions dutifully, if reluctantly and complaining the entire time to change his mind. Once everything has been set up correctly and the time is right for the ceremony to begin he begins the incantation, having brought a note of just the incantation in a phonetic sense to make sure that he got everything right. He wasn't going to leave anything to chance. He finishes the last word of the incantation and he can already feel the power begin to flow through him. It is like a warmth radiating from within. The foolish girl, Clara, absolutely refuses to step into the perimeter of even the outer ring, instead starts walking around the exterior of the chamber. Daniel looks down as his hands start to feel a bit numb, not entirely sure what all is going on from them or it's just a biproduct of the ritual.

"You know, human," Clara says, her tone having completely shifted away from the quiet and frightened little girl to one more condescending, "you really are an absolute idiot."

"What was that?" Daniel demands, more parts of his body starting to feel numb, the muscles on his arms and legs twitching and flexing uncontrollably.

"Just what I said," she says while passing by a mirror, Daniel almost swearing that he can see something about the way her shadow looks changing slightly when she's behind the mirror, though it still looks like her when she steps through again. "You're an idiot. For this ritual to truly work I could not be encouraging you in any regard. It had to be something you chose to do unbidden by anything else but your own greed. I gave you every opportunity to leave. Every possible way of saving face and escaping with what you had, but you just wanted more," Daniel can almost glimpse the sight of a tail coming out of her blouse though that couldn't possibly be true. His hands seize up and he stares down at them, seeing them start to tighten and stretch, growing larger and thicker with every second.

"What's happening?" he asks, a bit of fear in his voice.

"You really couldn't guess? You're in a ritual to give you the power of the mightiest creature to ever walk the lands. That's literally what it's doing. Now if you were to leave the chamber right now it would halt the process."

Daniel tries to follow suit with her instruction, noting how she's still refusing to step even the slightest bit towards him. But as soon as he steps outside of the inner circle the echoes reverberate to such a degree that it's extremely painful, like every fiber of his being is being torn asunder. Eventually he gives up and moves back into the center to get away from the pain.

"That's the problem with resonance, I suppose. Move a bit away and you get dissonance instead," Clara shrugs, her hair seemingly looking more orange and vibrant despite Daniel not seeing any change in it. "But in all the time I've been here, of the five people I've brought to the temple, you're the first and only to actually undergo the ritual. Most would just get enough to make it feel worthwhile, and then leave to get more people to help and then forget how to get here, taking with them whatever they had learned. Had one guy that even found this chamber, had all the things you did at the time too, but decided that it wasn't worth the risk, documented everything and trained to master what he could without the ritual and then left the place with respect. Could even still use magic afterwards. I think he went by the name of Mierden? I don't remember, it's been a while."

Daniel's back lurches forward as he seems to grow significantly larger, his bulk making his legs no longer able to hold himself up. He braces himself against the pain again but finds that the inner circle seems to have grown slightly larger. Or he's gotten smaller. But looking around everything else looks slightly smaller. His mind seems to be going through a phase though when he looks at Clara again he can once again see a tail slipping out from around her back and it takes longer before it vanishes from his own perception.

"What are?" he starts to ask, his mind losing track of his train of thought as his back seizes and his chest seems to expand. He can also start to feel protrusions coming out around his upper back and around his ass. And to top it all off there's an intense heat forming in the center of his forehead. He reaches up with his increasingly bulky and rough hands and finds something very hard to the touch, but touching it brings pain and so he quickly recoils away from it, roaring out his frustration.

"Oh? Finally starting to see? Well, what you are starting to see is what I've always been. And the fact you can see me means that it's likely too late for you, even if you did leave the circle. So let me tell you what's going to happen. You're turning into a dragon. And that little gem forming in your head is going to link you to the temple. We'll be slowly sapping away your magical power over the next three hundred years or so until you've been weakened enough to not pose a threat when we release you into the sanctuary."

"I won't let you get away with this!" Daniel roars at her, his mouth stretching much longer in the process. He kicks out and tries to launch himself at her, but his body is mostly unresponsive and any motion puts him in the area of extreme pain from the sound. His tail lashes out in indignation. "I am the mightiest!" He can feel the things growing out of his back starting to flap in indignation. Already he's practically doubled in size and the muscles on his arms and legs are as wide as a full person and seemingly only getting bigger. His teeth has also undergone a massive change, with far sharper canines and molars than before, perfectly fit to tearing up meat and showing fear to the petulant thing mocking him.

"Oh, yes, you are," Clara reaffirms, still moving around the exterior of the room. "No question about that. Dragons are undeniably the biggest and baddest thing to ever exist by far. There's just two little issues that I'm sure you're starting to feel," she half laughs, a pair of large, triangular ears popping up on top of her head. "First, being the biggest and baddest there is, there was never really threat from anything. Nothing could really oppose a dragon, more or less. They could get by just fine flexing their power at us inferior creatures to get whatever they wanted. Meaning that there was never a reason for them to invest all that much up here," she taps the top of her forehead.

"Are you saying that I'm?" Daniel starts to demand, already starting to feel his thoughts become a bit muddled, though he can't quite ascertain whether or not it's because of the transformation, if what she's saying is true or if his rage is clouding his thoughts.

"Well you will be. Second, dragons fly and well, the term bird-brained exists for a reason. Most get that dragons are extremely powerful. But most cultures tend to overlook the fact that dragons aren't really all that bright. They equate the fact that only an intelligent human can use magic and dragons can use magic on a scale beyond what a human can manage to mean dragons must be incredibly smart and then overlook the fact that realistically, devoting resources to the brain would be detrimental to them. If the brain was large enough and sophisticated enough to be as smart as what people imagine then they wouldn't be able to fly. And any energy sent to the brain is not energy supporting them being the mightiest creature in all the lands. I imagine at this point you're even struggling to even remember your own name."

The former human roars back at the little furry creature circling him. If it wasn't for this cage of sound he's been put into he would certainly put her in her place. Of course he would still remember her name. And after he's gone and devoured her he'll make sure she remembers his name forever. But the furry little creature doesn't even flinch at his act and so he rears up, inhales and breathes forth as much flame as he can manage, hoping to scorch her into a pile of ash. But she takes no notion of alarm at the act and his breath gets fizzled out before it even reaches her. As she passes by another mirror the way she walks seems to have changed considerable. It's a strange gait, one like a dog rather than a human. A fitting way to walk for such an inferior creature. Already, though, Daniel can feel the sheer intensity of magic flowing into him. He can understand magic in a way he couldn't ever dream of, understanding that cannot be contained within his frail former human self. He was so foolish to think that this power could be held within anything so unworthy as a human shell. This is as he should be. He can briefly feel that his memories are starting to slip from his mind, replaced by the knowledge of how to use and control magic and his mighty form. And he lets them go, the memories of a pathetic human mean nothing to a dragon such as he.

Once his transformation has completed the little mirror things descend back into the ground. The dragon stares around for a moment, disoriented. He's not entirely certain what all has just happened. He can feel the place and all of the magic within clearly. The only other thing in this large chamber clearly built with him in mind is a little fuzzy creature with a few tails behind her back and a long robe of some sort. The little fuzzy creature moves to a wall to his side and with a wave of her hands the entire wall opens up, giving him far more than enough room to just walk through without even having to worry about his wings touch the edges.

"My lord," she says, bowing to him and giving him the respect he deserves. "It is such a nice day outside. Perhaps you'd like to go outside and enjoy the sun?"

The dragon considers this a moment and nods before following her outside. There really isn't any reason for him to be inside the temple at all if it is a nice day outside. It might even be nice to go for a nice little flight. This place is his and his alone, using the agic condensed on this place to never have to leave or eat. This place will sustain him indefinitely and he can throw his magic around to rebuff any who challenge his territory. But the little fuzzy thing is clearly being subservient, catering to his whim and letting him know things he already knows. It's so nice having others give him the proper respect.