FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The original plot of this story after the prologue is by Dragonshina but re-written with permission to include my character. Sorry there is no involvement with Spyro or Cynder in this chapter but it is the Prologue.

Prologue

6:30pm, Human realm (aka Earth).

The light was starting to dim as I was out on by afternoon stroll. I had just turned 18 a week ago and I was remembering back to that day. My family and friends had thrown me a surprise party to celebrate me 'becoming an adult' as my friends put it. It had been a great night with everyone taking turns to kick each other's asses on the games console as well as side-splitting laughter when we watched 'Live at the Apollo' on TV. After a while we all decided to go down to the pub for a few beers to end the night, we were also in luck as the wrestling was on and being big supporters of WWE we couldn't help but stick around to see the results of each match. Fortunately we had been sensible as none of us had gotten drunk so we all managed to get home safely. It really had been a fun night.

I was currently doing my art and technology courses at college and doing rather well. In my spare time between assignments and homework, I loved nothing more than to study about the military and firearms as well as draw different creatures. The current theme I had been drawing was dragons. I had gone dragon mad taking inspiration from the 'Legend of Spyro Dawn of the Dragon' video game which I had played about a year ago, first drawing Spyro and Cynder then the Guardians and finally Malefor. After I had drawn them all I started to imagine what I'd look like as a dragon so I got out my pencil and paper sketching my ideas out. I finally settled on a look similar to Spyro with his horns but most other features were different such as a single Mohawk like fin on the top of my head, two metal wristbands on my forelegs, metal spikes as my wing thumbs, a metal flame like spike fin on the end of my tail, two sock garments on my hind legs and my scales were deep ocean blue.

So let's just say that my life was going great so far until one Thursday morning. The day had started pretty much like most other days, I took the bus to go to college, came out of college at 3:45 and started walking home but along the way I thought I'd pay my close friend a visit so I walked to the block of flats he was living in only to find that the whole building was on fire with people gathering around panicking. I saw one person get out a phone and call the fire service but I knew I had to act to save my friend's life as he lived on the 36th floor and from the way the smoke was pouring out of the windows higher up the building, I guessed that he couldn't wait for the fire service to get here. Without any second thoughts I grabbed a cloth out my pocket, wrapped it round my nose and mouth then ran in the building. I ran up the staircase three steps at a time at top speed, knowing my friend's life was at risk gave me the energy to run the whole 36 floors without stopping. Reaching the 36th floor I started looking for my friend's room but the fire was obscuring my view. I knew I was in the right corridor but I didn't know which room he lived in as he had only just moved here a week ago.

"Mark, are in here?" I called out hoping to get a reply, but there wasn't any.

"Mark, if your here please shout back!" I shouted while walking down the passage.

"Ryan, in here, the door is jammed!" I heard him shout back. Knowing he was still alive brought a slight relief to my mind but I still had to get him out.

"Stand Back!" I told him.

Putting all my weight on my right foot I kicked the door down with incredible force.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah I'm fine, but my head is spinning a little."

"Ok, hold onto me and I'll guide you." I said putting his arm around the back of my neck and holding on to his torso.

We slowly made it down the stairs, every moment the smoke was getting thicker and it was getting harder to see. I had to hold onto the banister to guide myself down the stairs.

"The fire's getting more intense, we need to hurry up if we're to make it out in time." I said trying to quicken the pace. We were both coughing but Mark was worse than me so I untied the cloth from around my mouth and tied it around his. We were now on the 12th floor but we were now having problems, the stairs down to the 8th floor had collapsed and there didn't seem to be another way down.

"Dammit! We can't get down from here!" I shouted stating the obvious.

The flames were getting larger and more intense around us every second. I knew that if we didn't get out of the building soon, we might not be getting out at all. I was franticly trying to find another way down when it hit me, the stairs may have collapsed but the metal banisters screwed to the wall had not.

"We're gonna have to climb down the banister." I stated.

"But the flames will have made it too hot to even touch let alone climb down."

"Yes but I always keep a pair of gloves on me in case I need them." I replied grabbing some padded gloves from my pocket.

"Right, climb on my back and hold on tight around my neck while I clime down." I ordered.

Mark did as he was told and climbed onto my back; he was actually lighter than he looked. The Banister must have been red hot as I could feel the heat through the gloves. My rock climbing skills came in handy as I scaled the wall down to the 8th floor.

"Not far now." I said trying to brighten the mood as we were pushing on down the stairs, both of us heaving and coughing because of the flames and smoke. We made it down to the ground floor about 7 minutes later, we could see the exit but suddenly the ceiling collapsed and few large and heavy pieces of stone fell on my legs making me fall to the floor and drop Mark.

"Ahh shit, my legs!" I shouted in pain.

Mark started to get up from where he had fallen and looked back at me.

"Oh shit, Ryan!" he said running over to me to help lift the stone slabs off me.

"Just leave me Mark, get yourself out."

"But..."

"I said get the hell out of here! I can handle this." I snapped with the hope that my own words were true.

Reluctantly Mark turned around and ran to and out of the exit, seeing him get to safety made me feel slightly better but now I had to get myself out. I tugged my legs as hard as I could while using the rest of strength to lift the slabs. It took me several attempts but I managed to release my legs which were now in quite a bit of pain. Somehow I found the will to get up and stagger to the doorway which was flooded with light from outside. As I got closer I started to hear a small hissing sound which could only mean one very bad thing, leaking gas! I staggered as fast as I could towards the exit still looking for the leaking gas tank but I couldn't find it (not that I wanted to). I was almost to the exit but the hissing sound was louder now so I looked to my right hand side where the sound was coming from. I had found the tank but to my horror it had just caught fire! "OH SHIT!" was all I managed to get out as the tank blew up setting my right arm on fire and throwing me to the other side of the room. I hit the opposing wall head first knocking me unconscious.

I woke up about 5 days later in a hospital bed with a raging headache, there was a nurse standing not far from my bed.

"Uhh, what happened?" I asked trying to remember.

"You lost consciousness after receiving a nasty bump to the head in a burning apartment's complex, if it hadn't been for one of your friends you wouldn't be here right now." The nurse replied with a nice soothing voice.

"How long have I been out?"

"Five days."

"Five days, wow." I couldn't believe I had been out for that long. "How long am I here for?"

"Hard to tell, you also received 3rd degree burns all the way up your right arm."

"But I don't feel anything" I said looking down at my bandaged arm.

"Sometimes you can't, but I need to check it now and replace your bandages."

The nurse slowly started to remove the bandages. There wasn't a sound when she had finished removing them, after 5 minutes though she started to mumble and stutter. I thought this strange so I turned my head to face hers but she was just staring at my arm with a look of shock and confusion upon her face.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked.

"This can't be possible." She mumbled

"What can't?" I asked as I took a glance at my arm which is when I found out what she was on about. My arm had completely healed leaving a highly visible burn scar in the perfect unnatural shape of a dragon!

Due to the odd circumstances I was let out of hospital that day and I made my way home.

On my way home however, a man walking in the opposite way to me decided to grab my arm as he walked by and hold it to my back while holding a knife to my neck.

"Give me all your cash now!" The man ordered. Now I've never been one for doing what I'm told and was also feeling quite brave right now.

"Or what!?" I replied to show I wasn't afraid.

"Or I'll slice your neck right open! So give me the cash and we can all go home!" He replied putting emphasis on the 'all' part.

"Pfft, that'll happen." And with those words I grabbed his arm holding the knife with my free hand and kicked him in the shin. He let me go straight away and grasped his leg hopping on the spot in pain.

"Ahh my fucking leg! You're going to pay for that you bastard!" He shouted.

"Really, well ok then but I don't know how much I've got in my wallet." I shot back with a slight chuckle as I got out my wallet and pretended to check inside. (Now I know what you're thinking, it probably wasn't a smart move to make jokes in front of a hostile mugger but like I said, I was feeling brave.)

The crook was starting to get angry and I could tell. He tried to lunge for my wallet when he thought that my attention was no longer on him but I anticipated this and moved out of the way leaving him to smack into a metal trash can as he landed. After he didn't move for a while I decided that he wasn't a threat anymore and walked off but that proved to be a mistake, a big mistake. The next thing I knew, I heard running footsteps so I spun around like a crack of lightning but that didn't stop me from being whacked around the head with a plank of wood. Now I'm usually a calm person but that blow got me really mad.

"That's it! No more Mr. nice guy!" I muttered under my breath as I shook the stars from around my head. As I got up I stared daggers at the man who was now slightly tilting his head to the side and I realised why. My hands had begun to emit steam and the palms where slightly glowing red. Once again the man took the moment that I was distracted to launch an attack. At that moment I shielded my face with my left hand and swung my right hand as if it was instinct. With that action a huge wall of fire burst from the ground stopping the guy in his tracks and shocking us both.

"What the fuck is this?!" the man shouted.

"Your guess is as good as mine!" I shouted back.

Seeing that the wall of fire wasn't dying down the man took off in a bad mood which made me calm down again. At the same time the wall of fire collapsed without even a burn mark on the floor left.

"So, did I do that?" I asked myself. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw a faint glow emanating from my right arm, it was the scar.

"Did the scar give me the power to do that?" I asked myself once more.

Well with a headache and a fist full of questions a headed home to get some rest.

The next morning was my usual morning, woke up, went down stairs and got breakfast (re-heated pizza and a glass of Pepsi Max). But I had left the Pepsi out on the side last night so it wasn't as cold as I'd like. This would normally be a minor problem but I had a fridge with ice dispenser on the front. I placed my glass in the slot and pressed the button, nothing. I pressed it again and again nothing happened. I looked at the glass dial and it read "ice level: empty". "This is just great!" I said aloud sarcastically. Anyway I retook my glass of room temperature Pepsi and brought it to my face and took in a mouth full only to almost spit it back out again! It was freezing cold! I looked at my glass to see the whole thing covered with a layer of frost and the palm of my hand that was holding it was also covered. And again my scar was emitting that faint (now barely visible due to the sunlight) glow. "So.........first fire, now ice?" I asked myself.

Well it took another week or two but I found out not only was I the source of the two elements but how to summon and use them as well. One day I walked into the bank to put some money into my new account and a man ran in with a shotgun and ordered us all onto the ground. After we were all on the ground he walked up the woman behind the counter and told her to put as much money she could fit into the bag he had just given her. She handed back the bag after stuffing it to the point of bursting. He turned around and ran towards the exit. Now for some reason at that moment the line 'with great power comes great responsibility' came into my head so I acted. I placed my hand on the floor in front of the door and lay down a layer of ice on top. The thief didn't notice this and ran right over it losing his footing and slipping over dropping both the bag of money and the shotgun which I picked up to make sure he couldn't use it again. I held him there until the cops arrived and arrested him. After which I gave the money back to the woman and walked off home.

On the way home however I was confronted by a group of about 7 men. I didn't recognise any of them except the one in the middle; it was the guy who had tried to mug me about two weeks ago. "That's the guy boys." I heard him say.

"So you're back for more aay?" I Announced.

"Yes, but this time things will go quite differently." He replied.

"Not if my ice powers have anything to say about it."

"Yeah I heard about you ice powers, it's all over the news."

"What, already?! That was only 10 minutes ago!" I shouted in slight shock.

"Yeah, the security camera in the bank caught it on tape."

"Well then you know a fragment of what I can do."

"Take your best shot!" He coaxed.

"You asked for it." I said confidently.

I took aim to shoot a few blunt ice shards and tried to fire. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing. My elemental powers weren't working!

"Was something meant to happen?" The man said with a snigger.

"Oh shit." Was all I said before I turned tail and ran.

"Let's get him boys!" The man shouted.

I wouldn't have run if there was only one or two as I can handle two people in hand to hand combat but not seven. I ducked down almost every shortcut and ally I knew to try and lose them but as hard as I tried I just couldn't. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep the pace up forever as I am anything but athletic and I was already starting to wear down. Every now and then I would take a look behind me to see how far they were behind me. "Shit, there still hot on my tail!" I stuttered in between breaths. I took one last look behind me which proved to be my undoing as I tripped over something in the street. "Well that's me done for." I thought to myself. I started backing away as the seven men closed in on me, each with a murdering intent in their eyes. They had now cornered me.

Suddenly the ground beneath me started to glow a blue-ish violet colour and a circle started to enlarge with me at the centre.

"Is this another one of your tricks!?" the man shouted.

"I don't think sooo.....!" was all I said in reply as the circle became hollow and I fell through.

I was now falling through some sort of time and/or space vortex but it felt more like I was floating. I started to see an opening getting closer and closer. The portal then threw me out the other end and I landed on my arse with a huge thud. "Agh! So I get a smooth ride then a bruised arse at the end!" I grumbled. "Where am I anyway?" I asked myself. Wherever I was there were trees, grass, flowers and butterflies everywhere as well as a stream running down the middle. I got up to have a look around only to feel really dizzy as well as having a really strange feeling in my stomach. I fell to the ground clutching my stomach as I slowly lost consciousness. I woke up some time later to find a very familiar yet surprising 'purple' face staring down at me.

To be continued....