FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The sky was pitch-black, a thick, roiling cloud cover overhead blocking out the light of the crescent moon. The air was still, humid, almost suffocatingly so. The chirping of the crickets and the rustling of the grass did little to quell the churning feeling in Forge's gut as he crept out of his apartment just an hour past midnight. The lights were flickering, and the complex was silent as he made his way out onto the streets, groaning all the while. He'd gotten used to these routines somewhat but working the graveyard shift was a terrible prospect for anyone.

To anyone with the Veil over their eyes, Forge was an attractive young man in his early 20s, fair-skinned with plenty of musculature beneath the healthy layer of fat that gave him a stocky and rotund build. He was tall, but not overbearingly so, and with the tank top and shorts he had on, he wasn't an unusual sight to be seen, even in the wee hours of a city that never slept.

It was when he turned the corner at the far end of the street, disappearing into the alleyway, that he finally allowed the Light to pierce through. Shedding the illusion of his human form, Forge was a proud dragon, with deep verdant scales that hearkened back to his forest guardian ancestors. With a resounding, relieving snarl, he took to the skies with a single, powerful flap, watching the city shift and change as he allowed his yellow eyes to peer past the Veil.

Now that he allowed the world to perceive him in his true glory, so too did the world reciprocate, and he watched the more mystical elements of the city come to life. Wisps and streaks of light that danced along the roads and rooftops, the hustle and the bustle of the districts more heavily cloaked by illusion, and above all of it, the swirling black mass up high in the sky.

His pocket began to vibrate, and he pulled out his phone, hearing a familiar voice on the other end.

"Yo, Forge! Didn't forget tonight's appointment, eh?"

"Appointment? Is that what we're calling it now?" He shouted over the roaring winds as he zipped across the city skyline.

"I thought it sounded better than date! Or meet-up. Or-"

"Right, right. Where even is the Rift opening up?"

"Oh, you'll love this. Wide open space, this time. No fighting in a cramped office building. Head over to the park on the corner of Welder's Street! Some of the newbies are already there waiting."

"Ugh, so I'm late?"

"Rift's not open yet! Besides, the star of the show always arrives fashionably late."

Forge scoffed. "Star of the show. Can it with the crap and give out the order to the sealsmiths."

"Already done, dragon boy. Preparations will probably be done once you arrive."

He hung up, annoyed at the pointlessness of the entire call. For the one who was entrusted with running logistics, Fang could be downright frivolous at the worst of times. He'd give him more of a hard time about it, but the hyena was good at his job. Often, too good.

Lightning crackled in the distance as the winds picked up, and Forge glided on the growing, violent gust that circled towards the park. Smaller rifts never made this much of a fuss, and already Forge was regretting turning down that supper that his neighbours had offered. Just the thought of having to spend the rest of the night fighting off an assortment of eldritch horrors and extraplanar entities left his stomach growling in defiance.

He crested the nearest skyscraper and was nearly flung back by a sonic boom. Loud and deafening, the air was filled with a resounding roar that shook the ground. The air trembled, buffeting him as he peered through his wings, watching a multitude of rippling tears rip open all around the park. Instantly, the acolytes on the ground set to work, some launching pre-emptive strikes against the creatures that poured through, others setting up boundaries that cordoned off the park and its surrounding areas.

With a furious flap, he pushed back the gust. Wisps of light gathered into his arms, his tattoos blazing forth with a brilliant cerulean glow. Winding back one arm, he clenched his fists, his blade and buckler ringing into existence. He spread his wings wide, summoning forth a tailwind as he tucked into a light-fuelled dive, and like a falling star he crashed straight into the centre of the park.

Forge leapt into the fray off the back of a violent burst of light. Slashing here and hacking there, block, duck and swipe. Instantly he fell back into his rhythm, the grogginess and growling hunger replaced by the adrenaline. Where there was an opening, he took it, with not a single movement wasted as he danced through the battlefield, cutting down scores of shadowy, amorphous creatures. They'd been greeted by visitors from the Second Plane, so it appeared.

He raised his wing instinctively to block the gust from another sudden boom. A massive rift, larger than the others, had opened on the side of a nearby skyscraper. Monstrous, bony claws on either side forced it wider and wider, and a creature that could only be described as a cross between a locust, a spider, and a mass of tentacles, emerged from it, bringing with it another swarm of its brethren.

Finishing off a nearby monster with a swift stab of his blade, he glanced around and clocked a trio of newbies who had just recently been teamed up together. The novices weren't allowed to tackle rifts alone, after all.

"Luke, Aster, Faith, to me!" He called out, raising his blade in the direction of the big bad. "Hope you paid attention in sealforging classes!"

He took to the skies as the novices chased after him on the ground. A glance back, they were frantically preparing runes in their paws as they bobbed and weaved through the battlefield, barely losing their concentration as they rushed in the direction of the skyscraper. Not bad, Forge mused, for novices, at least.

Transforming his weapons into pure, pressurised light, Forge charged the oncoming swarm. Discharging it with a roar, he fried a huge chunk of the swarm with a radiant explosion, searing the air with its heat.

Staring down the giant beast, he bared his fangs. "Fuck off back to the Second Plane. I ain't got time for your shite."

One charged fist to the face, the beast recoiled in pain and shock. Another charged fist to the gut, the creature was flung upwards in mid-air. Forge spun around for the third, pummelling the beast downwards, sending it crashing to the ground, scattering wisps of light all through the air from the force of the impact.

Waving at the novices who had just arrived at the scene, Forge set to working his own sealforging, tossing out runes like paper charms at the giant rift just mere meters ahead. The lingering light infused into his wings kept the swarm at bay as he waved his hands to and fro, joining the runes in a geometric pattern. Gradually, the rift shrunk, and within a minute he had stitched it back together, leaving only the shattered windows of the skyscraper, and the remainder of the little invasion to deal with.

Far beneath his feet, he shot the novices who had already begun to chain up the giant beast a thumbs-up, before returning to the park proper to help with the clean-up.

The incident was coming to a close within the next ten minutes or so, with a few of the novices chasing after some of the monsters that had slipped through the cracks. Already, the Nexus' dedicated sealsmiths were patching up the smaller rifts, and those more specialised in dealing with softer light were going around handling the collateral damage. Forge hung back, perched high atop the park's central fountain, the rippling of running water lulling his eyes close as the adrenaline left him.

This district may have been under his jurisdiction, but he was a fighter, not a cleaner, nor a clerk. He would not be caught dead dealing with the paperwork, and he'd never wrapped his head around the softer disciplines of light.

Just as he was about to fall asleep there and then, his pocket started to buzz.

"Hey, dragon boy! So, how'd it go?"

Forge groaned again. "Shouldn't you already have gotten reports? Why're you asking me?"

"Sure, the reports tell me how the appointment ended, but nothing about the participants themselves. What, so I can't be concerned for my fellow acolyte, hmm? And after all the time we spent training together, too."

"Tch, as if. Whatever, I don't have the energy to deal with you tonight. Caught an upper-classer from the Second Plane, though. Make sure they get that thing processed. I don't want to have to deal with it."

"Already given out the orders, of course. Who do you think I am? Is there anything else you'd like with that, sir? Maybe a side of fries and a milkshake?"

Forge gritted his teeth, ready to toss his phone into the fountain. And then, he smirked.

"Get me some boba. And then, I'm stealing your room. Your ass is mine tonight."