FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The rain fell upon us all the night they brought me to the gates of the afterlife, but I could hardly feel it. Even as the stench of blood filled my nostrils and the pain washed over me from the spears that had already pierced deep into my flesh, all I could feel was the white hot flame of anger. Their fear hung thick in the air even now as I pulled in my dying breath. I savored it, the flavor of their anxiety as they stared in horror. I knew the question racing through their minds.

'How could he possibly draw breath?'

They were terrified of me, not just for what my mere existence symbolized for their precious Empire, but because of what they all knew I was capable of. I was the monster they had all feared, the man who brought death and destruction to their so-called civilized society. They were waiting breathless while I reveled in the moment.

If I could, I would have stretched that last breath out for all of eternity, but the gods were waiting for their own audience and I could only relish the idea of what I would taste in their presence. Would they fear me? Would they fall to the depths that I had in my presence? So with my final breath I spoke out to the masses who surrounded me now, using what little energy I had left to remind them of what they had made,

"Your suffering will never end," the words felt like honey on my tongue, knowing that my last words would ring in their minds until their dying days. I had made them feel our pain, made them suffer as they had made my people suffer and as I felt the cold edge of the final spear plunge into my back, the world faded away into the endless darkness that had beckoned me now for so very long.

They believed what they did in that moment to be a triumph over evil. How little they truly knew.

---

By the time my eyes opened once more, I could see it. A massive arching gateway carved of white marble and decorated with golden inscriptions; prayers to remind the fallen of where they were meant to be. But the gates were closed to me as I knew they would be. I had known for most of my life that She would not allow me into her kingdom. Somewhere inside I had always known this would be my fate and somehow I'm sure she knew, I would happily accept her scorn.

"Kar'eth SoulStealer," It dripped from her every syllable as she snarled my name, "The gates will not open for one such as you." I could feel it in every breath of her tone, the nameless plague I had birthed into existence had reached even the Goddess of the Epherium herself! Even if she denied my return to the flow of Creation, even if she tore my soul to ribbons and left me to wander the depths of the void for all eternity, my legacy would last for all eternity.

But you're probably wondering what brought me to this moment, dear reader. So let me tell you the tale of how a simple child, who had been born into the bonds of slavery, left a scar upon the world of Ethorian that not even the Goddess of Life herself could ignore.

---

It all began the day they took her from me. We were not but pups still and they tore her from my mothers arms. I wanted to fight them, tear their throats out with my very teeth and I would have tried, if it had not been for the broken, bleeding heap of mangled flesh between me and them. My father lay dying because of their cruelty, my family torn forever more because of their belief that my kind were naught but animals destined to be worked to death in their mines.

I remember how she called out to him, how she had called out to me as they carried her off. In that moment I felt it take hold. It writhed deep inside me, gripping my heart and mind like so many serpents, ready to devour all that I was in a single, explosive moment of blind violence and anger. I remember how my mother sobbed, how she begged not for her life, but for mine, even as our master pulled the whisper thin edge of his ornate blade across her throat. Even in the last moments, as she choked on her own blood I could hear the pleading whimpers that escaped her. She wasn't afraid to die, she simply wanted us to live.

Then he turned to face me as her body fell lifeless to the dirty floor of the cell we had called our home for as long as any of us could remember. To him we were no more than animals, breeding stock that he was forced to cull, for he could no longer afford to keep so many of us. He thought me a helpless babe in that moment, even taunted me with the blade he had used to slaughter my mother, but he should have known that even animals will fight when they've nothing left.

With all I was, I kicked the door to the cell closed and leapt for him. I knew what my fate was to be and I would be damned if I would allow him to live on without a reminder of what a beast of burden could do. I felt my fangs sink into the soft flesh of his throat, felt the rush of warmth and the taste of metal as I clamped down. I had no idea that I'd taken hold of his throat, nor did I know the damage I had truly done. I felt his blade bury itself deep within my abdomen and the sheer pain of it only made me clamp down harder, my teeth rending flesh until they once again met each other, leaving the quivering mass of something vile in my maw.

I could feel the life oozing from me even as my master lie twitching in his final moments beneath me. I longed for it, longed for all of it to end. I wanted nothing more than for the guards to return and see what I had done, surely they would end my suffering swiftly for what I had done. But it wasn't they who opened the door to my cell, but something far worse and yet far greater.

"Kar'eth," her voice was like silk to my ears, even through the throbbing beat of my ever slowing heart. I lifted my head to glimpse her and what I saw would have brought tears to my eyes were I still capable of such a gesture. She was a Drakonis with scales as pale as newly fallen snow, graced with a crest so vivid that it could have been the brush which painted the clearest blue sky. She laid her hand upon me and I could feel the pain within me subside, even as she pulled the blade from me and somehow it had left not a trace of its presence upon my flesh.

"Kar'eth, I've come to offer you hope." she said, her eyes catching mine so gently that even had I wanted to, I would not have been able to look away. "Will you follow me and learn, so one day you might show this world the meaning of our mercy?" How strange it felt, to be asked for the first time of what I might do, rather than be told. She spoke of mercy as if any Kerosai born to this wretched place might actually understand its meaning. I didn't understand then what she offered me, but had I known then what I did now, I would not have hesitated to nod for as long as I had.

"Then take my hand," she said, offering her hand to me even now as I stood there, drenched in the blood of my first victim. "accept your freedom from the dark fate this world has thrust upon you." How cruel her words should have felt to me in that moment, how absolutely vile to offer mercy to someone as twisted by sorrow, but as I reached for her I felt something I never thought possible. The light that struck me the moment my flesh touched hers was blinding. I had never before seen the light of the suns and even in their fading hours, I could hardly stand to behold it. But the warmth that washed over me was too exhilarating to ignore.

I was free. For the first time since my birth I could smell the crispness of fresh air, feel the warmth of the suns upon my fur and for the first time since I could remember, the agonizing blows of a guards sabaton didn't come when I fell to my knees and wept. I was allowed to mourn. I was offered comfort in my anguish. If only this woman had known the darkness that grew within me even now. She spoke of mercy, but the most merciful thing she could have done for me would have been to let me die.

How cruel her kindness should have felt to me, but in my moment of helplessness, how could she have ever known?