FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Nadirah trod wearily across the dead ground. The dry turf snapped crisply beneath her hooves, sometimes sending fragments of debris dusting into the air to stick temporarily to her ankles. The stale moist air tasted of decay, filling her nose with the stench of old rot and coating her lungs as if the very air itself was in its death throes. The sky was coated with thick, smog-like clouds that ranged from the deep purple of an old bruise to the brownish red of drying blood.

Lifting her head, she swatted at a cloud of tiny buzzing insects that swarmed around her head, and tried to look into the distance through the gloom of thick fog. Although still blurry, the outline of a structure was beginning to take shape in the distance. It was difficult to tell how far away it was, but she hoped it was close.

An unexpected sound froze the MidKnight in her tracks, her body reflexively readying itself for conflict. Her ears began to swivel, searching for more similar sounds. Her eyes shifted to the direction the first noise had come from and scanned the landscape. A pair of glowing red orbs caught her attention. The red orbs danced and winked in the concealing fog but did not come any closer.

Nadirah waited, watching the orbs closely, but when they seemed to offer no threat, she began to walk again. Continuing to watch the orbs as she walked, she noticed that they followed her, bobbing along in the gloom. When a second pair of the orbs appeared, the fur along the ridge of her spine began to rise. They were soon joined by a third and fourth pair, confirming her suspicions. She was being hunted.

Rather than fear, it was rage that began to burn away her weariness. Planting her hooves into the tainted soil, she raised her head and stared her challenge at her hidden enemy. A clatter of clacking began to reach her ears as the glowing orbs continued to multiply. Then without obvious signal or warning, they all vanished.

Silence rushed in to fill the void, nearly crushing the MidKnight under the weight of expectation. Once more, a dead calm settled over the land, and Nadirah could have been forgiven for thinking she was alone once more. Only the soft rasp of her own breathing reached the doe's ears. Her raised fur did not settle, however, and she continued to swivel her head back and forth, scanning the darkness for any sign of her enemy.

Just as suddenly as they had disappeared, the orbs reappeared, much closer than before as they surrounded their quarry. The clacking began again as they began to circle the MidKnight, inching closer.

Nadirah lifted her lip in a snarl of disgust and watched them approach. With each move closer, they began to take shape in the fog; first only vague blobs of shadow and swirling vapor, slowly taking on increased definition until she could finally see the creatures.

The odd creatures were mostly constructed of bones with scraps of skin and rotting muscle clinging stubbornly in patches. They each had red glowing eyes and long, flat muzzles filled with predator's teeth. Each bore six legs that ended not in feet, but sharp spikes of bone, with twin scorpidal tails that curled over their backs. Nadirah had never seen such creatures alive. They snapped their jaws threateningly at her as they circled, creating the clacking noise she'd heard.

The MidKnight's eyes blazed with her anger as she stood, her eyes watching the creatures as they slowly ringed closer, jaws snapping and tails thrusting in the air in an effort to intimidate their prey. Their pointed legs moved silently across the dry ground. As she looked closer, she realized that the creatures were strangely mismatched, as if their bodies had actually been pieced together with spare parts.

The amalgamations crept closer in their ring until only a few feet of space separated them form the MidKnight. Staring down one of the creatures, Nadirah slowly raised one arm, palm upraised and fingers spread out. Black fire began to glimmer at her fingertips. The skeletal monstrosities paused as they took note, but made no move to flee. When the MidKnight's hand reached the level of her shoulder, she swiftly brought her fingertips together.

Jaws of shadow rose from the ground beneath each of the creatures, snapping shut as they clicked and clacked in sudden panic. Just as suddenly as they appeared, the shadows splashed back to the ground like waves of displaced water to leave only emptiness and silence in their wake. Within the blink of an eye, the creatures were gone and the land returned to stillness, as if they had never been.

Nadirah closed her eyes and leaned back her head, inhaling deeply of the stale air. She expected to feel her exhaustion return with such a large expenditure of her magic. Instead she felt rejuvenated. The stolen life force of the creatures coursed through her body, re-energizing her tired muscles. Her strength returned, she turned her attention back the half-obscured building in the distance and doubled her pace.

When the building finally reveal itself from the gloom, it appeared to be abandoned. At one time it had been a large stable. The roof had long ago collapsed, leaving a large hole in the moldering boards. The doors had rotted away, leaving only scraps of rotten framing where they used to hang. One of the windows had been shattered, the other two intact but so covered in grime they were impossible to see through.

Nadirah approached it warily, her eyes and ears in constant motion as she sought out hidden enemies, but none made themselves known to her. As she reached the doorway of the old barn and peeked in, she was surprised to see the skeletal corpses of several animals, still standing patiently in their stalls. Whatever blight had killed the poor beasts must have hit them fast, she surmised, to leave them looking so peaceful in death. When one of the cursed creatures suddenly turned its head to look at her, she jumped back in surprise.

"Hey! You there!" A voice suddenly called out from behind her. Nadirah whirled around to face the owner of the voice, putting the wall of the old barn to her back in case the undead horses turned out to be aggressors as well. "What do you think you're doing?" A tall man came striding out of a ruined shack several feet away that she hadn't noticed before. One of his arms was in the air, shaking his fist as he strode in her direction. "I said what are you doing there, you- Oh!"

The man stopped short as he got a better sight of the doe, freezing in place and leaning back on his heels as if his feet had become frozen to the ground. Nadirah relaxed her posture and slowly approached him. Lowering her head to peer more closely at the man, she reached out and grabbed his upraised arm to inspect it.

The limb was barely more than exposed bones, pitted and yellowed. His hand was covered in a layer of leathery grey skin that ended at his wrist. He wore a tunic that had been nice once but had long ago become rotted and threadbare, doing little to cover his decayed body. Looking closer, Nadirah noticed that the skin of the man's face was gaunt and grey, clinging tightly to his skull. A large patch of flesh had fallen away from his neck, leaving a jagged hole that exposed blackened muscles and tendons.

"You're one of them, aren't you." She said inquisitively, continuing her unhurried examination of the terrified man. "A ghoul."

"Yuh-yuh-you're-" The ghoul stuttered, his milky white eyes widened in terror.

"Yes, yes. I already know what I am." Nadirah replied, releasing his arm and raising back to her full height. "I was asking about what _you_are."

Released from the MidKnight's grasp, the ghoul tried to scramble away, but tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. "He can't have me back! I won't have it!" He screamed, crawling awkwardly away from the MidKnight.

"Well, that answers that." Nadirah sighed. She watched the ghoul passively as he climbed to his feet and ran back into the fog, disappearing from sight. "I wish he hadn't done that, though." She muttered. "I still had questions."

In the silence, Nadirah tried to decide what to do next. She began to look around her at the decrepit remains of a village as a few other small dwellings melted in and out of the mist around her, all of the buildings just as neglected as the stable. A weed-ridden trail of foot trodden dirt replaced what had once been a cobblestone road down the center of the village, occasional surviving stones peeking up from the hard packed soil.

A soft glow in the fog caught her attention as it appeared. She watched it sway and bob in the distance, preparing herself for the approach of more creatures like those she had encountered before reaching the decrepit village. The glow continued to grow closer and closer until finally a torch bearer stepped free of concealment. He was followed by several other ghouls, each carrying a sharp implement.

The doe turned to face the tiny mob, her expression passive yet her arm stretched out in preparation. "If you had hoped to intimidate me, you should have brought more men." She mocked the group as they angrily marched closer.

The ghouls faltered at her words, pausing to look at themselves. Their gaunt faces crinkled into expressions of chagrin as they suddenly realized the flaw in their hasty plan. The torch bearer's features hardened back into a mask of determination, and he continued his march toward the MidKnight alone. Following his lead, the others also finished their approach, waving their weapons threateningly. "Begone!" Yelled the torch holder. "Tell your master that we will never serve him again! We'll destroy you and ourselves before we let him take us again!"

Nadirah let her arm relax at her side. "I serve no master." She replied, her voice cool with seeming indifference. "But you're welcome to destroy whatever of yours that you want."

The miniature mob was once again thrown into confusion. "No master? That's a lie! You- you're-" One of the ghouls stammered.

"I am very much aware of what I am." Nadirah snipped. "I don't know why everyone feels the need to point it out as if I wouldn't have noticed by now." She sighed and turned her gaze to the speaker. "But do you know what you are? What master do you serve?"

"We don't serve anyone but ourselves!" another of the ghouls spoke up, shaking his rake to emphasize his point.

The MidKnight spread her arms, palms up, her head tilting as she waited for her point to sink in. The makeshift weapons began to slowly droop as understanding dawned on the small crowd. "How is that even possible?" The torch bearer demanded. "And if you're not here on the undead usurper's behalf, then who are you and why have you come here, MidKnight?"

Nadirah looked around her again, taking in her decrepit surroundings. The ground itself was parched and barren. The thin shafts of sunlight that managed to pierce the cloud cover were weak and infected with the same disease that plagued the land itself. All around her she could feel the dark magic of her creation. The shadows, the gloom, the dead stillness, all of it nourished her and fed her power.

She was home.

Finally she turned her gaze back to the ghouls who stood bravely before her. "I came to see a man about a horse."

Nadirah tipped her head back as she gulped down the bitter contents of her mug. Amber droplets escaped from her lips and ran trails down throat before disappearing into her fur. Once empty, she slammed the mug back onto the bar and exhaled a rough cough. "Now that's the good stuff!" She wheezed.

The ghoul sitting beside her cackled, refilling her mug from a large glass jug. "Best rotgut in the Deadlands." He boasted, corking the bottle. "If that doesn't put hair on your tongue, it's because you don't have one."

"Another sip of this and my tongue will be shaggier than a kordox hide, I'd say." The doe replied, her voice still scratchy but regaining its strength. After lifting her full mug in salute, she once more tipped it to her mouth and drained it quickly before slamming it back down onto the bar.

"You drink like a mortal facing death in the morning." The ghoul remarked, filling her mug again.

"I've faced death so many times," She said as she lifted the mug to her mouth and took a swallow, "that we're practically on a first name basis. But it flees from me now." Another swallow. "Only those still alive get to know that peace."

The ghoul turned pensive and lifted his own mug, taking several gulps before setting it down in front of him. "Well, I don't know about you," He said, nodding his head in Nadirah's direction, "But we can still die a second time. There's a rather nasty bunch a few miles off that have proved it."

The doe pulled the jug closer and uncorked it, filling her mug before she spoke again. "Really. And who are they?"

"Some religious nuts. Call themselves the Lambs or some such." The ghoul replied. His shriveled eyes made a soft crackle sound as they shifted in their sockets, the ghoul losing himself to memory. "Paladins, all of them. They used to make regular raids against us, you know. Can't say as I blame them, really. All we wanted was to return to normal life, but we brought our taint with us. This used to be a beautiful land... Before that bastard began to- But never mind that now I guess."

"So where did these paladins come from?" Nadirah asked, taking a smaller swallow of her brew.

"Huh? Oh, right. The lambs." The ghoul muttered, pulling himself back to the present. "Well, from what I've heard, and I can't tell you if this is truth or tale, mind, they left the Order because they felt they'd become too soft. They tried to take on Malthamus themselves and got their asses handed right back to them before they knew which way was up. So they gathered what they could and took off. When they found us free men here in the ruins of our own kingdom... well, I guess they figured we'd be easier to take on than a grand necromancer with his own personal army of ghouls." He sighed and bowed his head. "They're actually doing that usurper a favor by destroying us. We're a reminder of his failure. The fact that we exist means that his power is beginning to fade and his control is slipping. He's got weaknesses just as much as any other man."

The MidKnight took another swallow, her eyes narrowing in thought. "Has anyone tried to speak to these paladins? Or do they just kill on sight?"

The ghoul laughed harshly into his chest. "At first we tried to make peace."He said, his voice cold with old anger. "They pretended to want that too. Listened to our pleas and bargains. Agreed to truce. But it was all a trick. They just waited until our guard was down to attack us. So many were slaughtered before we knew they were there. After that, they refused to respect the white flag. Anyone we sent was cut down immediately. Any notes we left were burnt without being read. Their ears were deaf to our pleas." He turned his head to look at her, his grey skin wrinkled with rage. "So we abandoned peace. We sent them plague and we sent them death. We began to rot the very soil we stood on just to drive them out. And it worked. But it came at quite a cost."

Nadirah nodded as she listened, nursing her drink. "I see." Was her only comment.

The ghoul took another swallow of his own drink and lowered his head again. "They'll be back when they find out you're here, though. They hate MidKnights even more than they hate us. And they still think we're the usurper's loyal pets."

"Which is good enough reason for you to leave!" Came another voice from behind the drinkers. "Get out of here before they come back to kill off the rest of us!"

Nadirah turned slowly on her stool to face the speaker. The ghoul looked fresher than most of the others in the small, run-down tavern. His clothes were dirty and so patch-worked that almost none of the original cloth was left. His skin held the pallor of death but none of the holes or exposed bones of the others instead sporting thin lines where it had been stitched back together. His eyes were milky white but not yet shrunken. His hair was limp and greasy with large bald patches across his scalp, but it was cleaner than most.

"Go away, Mayor." The ghoul beside her muttered without looking at the other one.

"Mayor?" Nadirah asked with a raised brow, her gaze not shifting from her accuser.

The mayor stood straighter and threw back his shoulders proudly under her gaze. "Yes." He replied, his mouth puckering sternly. "I am Mayor Gurnsey Reed, and I-"

"You need to shut your big trap before this cow here does it for you." The doe's drinking companion interrupted.

"I'm not a cow." The doe warned, one ear flicking back against her neck. "Don't call me that again. And I'll move on when it's time to do so."

The mayor's mouth open and closed several times as his words jammed in his throat, his eyes switching from Nadirah to the other ghoul and back again, unable to settle on a target. Finally he turned and stormed out of the tavern.

"Don't go getting your tail in a knot over it." The ghoul grumbled. "What you are, what you ain't,... it don't really make much difference here. Some of us just haven't learned that yet."

Nadirah turned back to face the bar and her drinking companion, emptying her mug before setting it back down again. "So what's his story?"

The ghoul looked up, his features slack in surprise and confusion, one corner of his mouth drooping drunkenly. When he spoke, his words held the beginning of a slurring. "Who? Mister mayor?" The doe nodded. "Oh. He's one of those who ain't learned yet. He used to be a mayor of... of... well of someplace or other. But it was a city. Nice human city, before the necromancer came. He's just as dead as the rest of us, but he still thinks he's special. Thinks just because he had some fancy title he can declare himself in charge and we should take heed and listen. Bah!" The ghoul waved his hand dismissively before taking another swallow from his mug. Half of the contents splashed down his chin and onto the dingy floor, but he seemed to take no notice. "Just another stiff who's too big for his breeches." He laughed heartily at his own joke, slapping a hand against the bar.

The MidKnight shrugged and refilled her mug again. "You seem to have some interesting people here. Tell me, do you know a ghoul named Alfred Rex?"

The ghoul rubbed his soiled chin thoughtfully a moment. "Rex.... Rex... Oh yeah! Al Rex, yeah. I remember him. You should go talk to old Dobson by the stable. They used to be business partners. He could tell you where Al's at now."