FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A gate flashed open in the strange blank area outside of space and time known as the astral plane, and the starry cat's ears pricked up, alert. A dragon was passing through, carrying a big, glowing stick of sorts. Just as suddenly as it appeared, it vanished again through another gate leading to another mortal realm. The cat flicked his tail. Nobody ever stayed in this curious place nestled between the collected realities, the Nightmare beast that had healed up his wounds here had been the first visitor for a long while. The astral plane was merely an interdimensional doorway.

Magical creatures such as that noble Nightmare, and himself, were rare, and highly sought after by collectors, especially dragons. He wondered if the dragon had come from the same gate that the Nightmare had used. Eternity in this world of gateways was incredibly dull, and some company would be rather nice. He stretched his long, lithe body, the tiny pinpoints of light within his pelt shimmering. He yawned widely, and proceeded to wash a paw for something to do while he waited to see if the dragon was coming back again. Waiting was easy when there was no such thing as time. Mortal realms were very different, on those the cat could feel scary things such as hunger and tiredness, but also enjoy pleasures such as eating and sleeping. Cats were good at sleeping. It hit different on the living worlds. Here there was only peaceful boredom.

He'd been left stranded here at some point in his adventures. Travelling by gate was risky, having to be in the right place at the right time for the brief moment that the connection was made. As he wasn't able to create his own gate, he had no choice but to follow a different creature if he wished to visit another reality. He'd been too slow to follow the Nightmare when he'd galloped off. Moving quickly was going to be key to his success. Chasing those flashes of light required incredible swiftness and accuracy, so he made a deliberate effort not to get distracted by scratching himself too much or napping. His glowing amber eyes were kept focussed on the bleak nothingness surrounding him.

Without time, it is useless to estimate for how long the cat kept alert for, but it paid off when the white light flashed, and the dragon appeared once again. In a moment the cat was at its side, meowing loudly, ready to bound through following the scaly creature wherever it was going.

The dragon did not look well. It slumped, with tight faded scales pulled over a shrunken frame, its curious clothing hanging about it baggily, its tail limp and its hands shaking as it struggled futilely to open the next gate.

The cat miaowed again, louder this time, and wound himself between the dragon's slim legs, rubbing his black whiskery chin as he weaved and purred.

"Well... h-hello friend ..." the dragon gasped, "would... would you be so kind...?"

The cat sat on his thick haunches and tilted his head, tail flicking with curiosity.

The dragon reached out knobbly talons to pet him and as the scaled hand met starry fur he felt a pull of magical energy. His mystical pelt shimmered and shone as a crackle and spark leapt between them.

"Thank you so much."

Blindingly bright at this close proximity, a gate blazed into existence and the dragon nodded to it, looking healthier from draining some of the cat's essence. "Would you like to come with me?"

The cat miaowed loudly.

"I should warn you this universe is collapsing."

Another loud miaow.

"Fair enough."

Luci brushed Anar's cropped hair back with her fingertips, and straightened out his cloak, tidying him up for his Royal audience with the goblin King and Queen. "I've explained the whole thing about the Sceptre as best I can, I've told them you can fix the citadel up, and they're only a bit cross. I haven't broached the whole death of the universe thing..."

A tingle ran through her fingers.

"Why does it do that?" she asked, frowning.

"You're leeching power off me, like The Dragon does."

Her amber eyes widened. "I'm not trying to!"

"I know. It's ok. I don't feel a thing."

Luci looked at him, "you don't feel anything?"

"When you take some of my magic. That's what I meant. I didn't mean I didn't feel anything at all. Of course I do." He took her hand gently and planted a small kiss on the back of it. "You were amazing back there, Luci. Healing Hemmy like that, embracing your spark, truly amazing."

Her grey cheeks flushed and she stammered, "I-I couldn't let you down. You believed in me so much, and he was your friend, and I've learned so much about natural magic now, things I thought were simply impossible I've seen with my own eyes. So, when you said I had a spark, I believed it. I had to."

He stroked her burning cheeks leaving a faint blue crackle. "I will find a way to reverse all of this. I'll take you home. Somehow. I promise, Luci."

She closed her eyes. "I keep doubting you, even though I shouldn't, don't I?"

"Yes. Yes, you do. I do enough of that for the both of us!" He reluctantly drew his hand back, not wanting to be away from her for a moment. She'd come running when he'd magically travelled himself to the battlefield to assess the state of things. She'd looked genuinely happy to see him. Her smile in that moment had meant everything to him.

The King and Queen of the goblins did not have a smile for him. This was understandable given the broken walls and towers and residences left upon the mountainside. It was a Royal mess. He offered his apologies, telling them he would get everything back in order momentarily; while eyeing the sky that was growing darker, complete with a gaping hole in it that was getting longer. It seemed silly to worry about putting a citadel back together when doom was approaching, but what could you do? Everyone had their priorities, and some things were simply too big to comprehend, let alone stress about.

Moving blocks about was going to take so long, he feared by the time he was done it may be all over. Night night universe. He chewed his lip. With a big task like this, he needed to think bigger, too. He needed to cast his mind out, to the other mirror worlds, reach out and find a complete identical citadel to link up with maybe? Reaching out his mind was actually quite scary, and thinking back on it now Luci had been right to try and dissuade him from doing it. The battle with Nisgarant had been absolute madness, with every possibility playing out at once he had felt lost and frightened, not least because it was so easy to just float off into another image and leave yourself behind! He tried not to remember some of the things he had seen on his travels through time and space. They were incomprehensible. Noisy metal machines trundling over battlefields with explosions everywhere. A black, ringed planet sitting alone at the back of a long-forgotten galaxy. Demons! Quite where they had come from, he didn't want to find out.

A shudder through the ground brought him back. Thunder rumbled through the sky. Around him, goblins jittered, angry and confused, expecting him to make everything right again. But you couldn't just put a bandage on the universe.

There was movement at his side and he could feel the heat from Destroyer's flanks.

"What am I going to do, Destroyer? We've got rid of the Sceptre, Hemlock has been saved, Luci has discovered her magic, and for what? It's all ending. I'm going to fix this goblin city up nice and neat just so it can collapse again. Even if I find another mirror world to link up to, it's the same universe."

The Nightmare's chest rumbled, deeply, "so the problem is with the universe, my Lord?"

"Well yes, it's collapsing! The Dark Magic is being purged. The Dragon explained that. I see The Dragon hasn't come back, by the way. So much for us being good pals. Should never trust a dragon."

"Hmmmm. Maybe you should make a start on fixing the city and take it from there? Maybe you'll get an idea while you work?"

Anar sighed, deeply, doubtfully. All the power in the world, but no clue what to do with it. It was the blanket issue all over again! "sure. Here goes..."

His mind's eye saw the rubble, the mess, every blasted stone, every fractured archway. Could see the blood splatters from battle, the damaged fountain where Hemlock had cracked his head open upon it. The corpse of Threllif, splayed out with his stomach ripped open from where Hemmy's large, curved inner-toe claws had stuck well into him. Nisgarant's body, looking small and harmless now as he lay face-down in dust. The blackened forms of the two mages that had been left behind to be killed by the Sceptre. Grisly stuff.

He began lifting blocks, like he did when he'd been taking them from the courtyard and launching them at Nisgarant, but this time in reverse, so they landed where they originally belonged.

He'd been right about this being an arduous task, even being as skilled as he was now with his magic and being able to work quickly, it was a big job. He had no choice, carefully he slowly pushed himself further out into his mind's field of vision to seek out a mirror world with an intact version of the citadel to link up to.

It took concentration, and he hated to admit it but he was all over the place, mentally. He wanted to be with Luci, to help her get home and stay with her. But he'd also meant to help The Dragon get its power back, and he was secretly worried that it was stranded somewhere in its quest to return the Sceptre to a Dark Magic universe. He should also try to get this world back in order too while he was at it.

One thing at a time. I can only do one thing at a time. I have the magic of a dragon, but the mind of a mortal.

Stretching onwards, the mirror worlds lined up in his mind, all he had to do was choose one, find the citadel (if it was even there in that world), and connect them up. Just pluck them with a cosmic hand and blend them together. No more rubble. Both worlds would have a perfect version.

Wait a minute.

His heart began to race. He'd had a crazy, fleeting thought. He'd started by linking up blocks. Now he was linking up citadels. What had Destroyer said?

It's the universe that's the problem.

There was a yawning in the pit of his stomach. Raw fear. It was one thing to seek out mirror worlds, to wander time and space as a dragon would, but what he had briefly entertained was nothing short of madness.

The universe is collapsing. Death is certain. It always has been. If I can't do this, then who can?

His eyes shut tight in concentration, his fingers fizzing and sparking as his blood bubbled like a boiling stew. He reached out further and further, and further still, beyond worlds, beyond entire galaxies of planets and stars, until...

Mirror universes.

If he faltered even for a second he would be lost to the void. He was on the very edge of comprehensible existence. To go further would be to enter a whole other dimension, and unlike an actual dragon he was not made of pure magic, and so travelling there was a one-way journey he was not prepared to take. He was a tiny pinpoint of light in a sea of stars, swirling and rolling and floating in the ether. In the middle of it all was the astral plane, a hub connecting everywhere all at once. The interdimensional doorway. He could see the beginning and the end of everything. There were dragons travelling, faint magical mists following them around, portals and gates were opening and closing as they went.

The universe he had come from was cracking. Dark lines like the ones on his chest from the Tri-Horn stab wound were upon it. It was dying.

One by one he glimpsed into the others, finding the best match. It was not going to be perfect, not on this scale, but it was something.

Damaged universe here. Whole universe there. Link them up and away we go.

Having part of an entire universe in his grasp was a sensation that there were no words for. It was heavy. It pulled him with a firm tug, inviting his corporeal form to reside within it. He had to be strong, to resist. He needed to pull it towards his home universe and the fiery red vortex bleeding there, to the festering wound in the sky, to merge them together, to erase the area of Dark Magic from existence entirely. It was like a healing spell on a monumental scale. They blended together perfectly.

He moved himself closer, carefully, slowly, letting the other universes fade from view until he was drifting into the one he had just healed, closer and closer still, until he could see the mirror worlds stretching out, carefully returning to the one his physical form was still standing on. All the while trying not to be distracted by his other forms floating just out of his vision, or by the strange things he was remembering that hadn't even happened yet. He'd never tried some of the more wacky forms of fungi, but if he did, this was just how he imagined it would feel!

The cool air blew anew between his ears. The ground was soft beneath his feet. He could hear Luci's lovely voice.

"What did you do?!" this time, she sounded pleased as she spoke those words.

Anar gradually lifted his eyelids to see the citadel before him. It was perfect. Intact. The goblins hadn't even paused to say their thanks, they were piling back in. They sounded grateful, at any rate.

The sky was grey and cloudy, full of snow. No rips. No tears. No fire, no dark brooding shadows.

"I did it. I saved the whole universe. I actually did it."

"Of course you did! You can do anything! I swear you do it just to spite me," Luci laughed. "But how? Tell me!"

He turned to her and grinned, "I linked up with a mirror universe."

"What? That's crazy! There's mirror universes? So, our universe, but just a bit different? How many are there?"

"Actually I didn't count them. I was right on the edge, Luci, if I'd gone any further I'd have been in a whole other dimension."

Her curls bounced as she shook her head in awe. "Unbelievable! This is stuff that no-one has ever been able to prove. No mage has ever had a dragon's abilities before. They'd love you back at the polytechnic."

Anar took in a sharp breath.

"Are you ok? Did you remember to sever all your mental connections? Are you fatigued? How about a cup of tea?"

"That head wizard fella..."

"Senior mage? He turned up again, didn't he?" she asked darkly.

Anar nodded, "he did. Both his assistants got skewered. He was trying to blame me for everything."

"No! How? He is such a prick. What did any of this have to do with you? Honestly."

"I really don't know what his problem was. He didn't even believe that the Sceptre was Dark magic. Even when all his tamed magic rebounded off it.

"Fuck him," she snorted, "tosser. Oh, The Dragon's back. Brought a funny looking cat with it."

Hemlock, Brook, Worrel and The Dragon were sat sipping tea, looking for all the world like nothing had happened and they were having a jolly picnic at the foot of the mountain.

Destroyer was blowing his nostrils at a black cat who was weaving through his muscular equine legs, happily.

The cat was the biggest specimen Anar had ever seen, its fine healthy coat studded with stars, reminisce of the extraordinary intergalactic experience he'd had minutes ago on the edge of oblivion itself. He rather liked cats. He bent down and rubbed his fingers making 'pspsps' noises.

The cat bounded at him from under Destroyer's belly and knocked him down, purring happily. It drooled on his bare chest.

"Oh, he likes you!" Brook laughed.

"Magical creatures like their own kind," The Dragon explained. "His name, as far as I understand, is Guen."

"Great," Anar wheezed as the cat pawed at his body, kneading his ribs with his big sturdy paws and likely leaving bruises. "Gerroff!" he gave him a shove.

The cat bared its fangs and hissed.

"No. Bad kitty!"

The others made no attempt to help him despite being pinned to the mud by a massive moggy that was almost as big as he was.

"I'll just stay here then, shall I?"

"You can't hang about too long, unless you're going to try and get us a bed in the goblin city," Lucinder warned.

"I'm staying with Elden, I'm sorted, I am," Brook blushed with a shy smile.

Captain Worrel slipped his arm around her waist, being careful of the daggers there, and pulled her close.

"Look, Guen, either you move, or I move you," Anar warned.

The cat tilted its head. "Mrraow?"

"I don't think we can have pets in my apartment..." Luci mused.

"He's not mine!" Anar objected. "The Dragon brought him here. He's your problem now, dragon."

The Dragon cleared away the teacups and teapot, sweeping them into the Bag with a shrug. "He's his own. You don't own cats, as far as I know. Now," he said with an adjustment to his glasses, "we're travelling to Luci's world, yes?"

Anar spluttered, flicking his wrist to move the big cat. It shrank down into a soft plush toy. He forgot that wild magic sometimes did unexpected things. He stood up, dusting himself off, tucking the toy under a grey arm. "Well, yes, I suppose, but what about Hemlock? What about all the destruction here? We can't just leave. I only fixed the hole in the universe and the goblin's Citadel. I don't even remember doing that, actually..."

"That was my doing," Luci blushed. "Mirror worlds and all that. We're quite the pair, you and me."

"Yes, you really are. There's no telling the things we can do together," The Dragon boasted, "but, my collection of weapons is on Luci's home planet. I must get them back. I still need you to feed me Power, Anar, remember. You must stay with me."

"I want to stay with you, too," Hemlock insisted. "I have no-one here. My home is in ruins. You can make a new home for all of us, you've got magic enough for anything."

Luci nodded. "that would be nice, actually, a home for all of us. Something big and fancy, like a mansion or a castle." She batted her pretty eyes. "What do you say, Anar?"

What could he say?

"You could always come back, anytime you like," The Dragon reasoned. "You're not really leaving, more setting up a summer home in the Seychelles."

"What? I suppose I can, can't I?"

The Dragon nodded, "we can do anything. Just stay with me. I only want my collection back. That's all I ask..."