FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A 2nd draft is otw. So from here on out, all previous chapters are considered outdated.. Chapter 19 is already done, but hey, I'm posting this just in case there's a single person out there who wants to read the dumpster fire that is this first draft.(But then again, what first draft isn't dumpster fire?)

CHAPTER AUDIO:

https://open.spotify.com/track/1p2KclGv8c1qKPoRq4exKd?si=c91ad234e3ad4c5d

Goddess of the Mountain

I FAILED AS a mother. In the end, I could not say no to those eyes so desperate for a love even I could not give. A man so born of inferior birth caught the love of my only child in spite of my attempts to go against. Where did I go wrong? Have I not supplied him well with love? I gave him everything in all that he asked for, let him do whatever he wished within the realms of the mountains.

I watched him high atop a place where the two could not see me. Below, Waling-Waling rested on the dragon who so succeeded to enchant him.

Pathetic. Ironic. Humiliating. That was what their love was. In the tales of even the most ancient of Civilized, they talk of fairies luring unsuspecting men to their doom, and men would fear them in turn. This was different. They were different. Truly have the times changed.

I can only dream that he made the right choice in loving a dragon so naive.

I can only dream that he will be safe.

A butterfly, white in wings, black by its edges, one of the fairies, landed by my finger. I knew by its aura, the magic that surrounded it, that it was a fairy.

"Why have you not dispelled the dragon even as he crossed the natural boundary plenty of times?" I asked.

The fairy whispered.

I sighed, closed my eyes as I rested my head on the tree trunk. "I suppose all birds leave their nests one day. You are excused. Not long from now, I shall leave once again. If Orchid's love ever ends in failure with the dragon, you are ordered to ban the dragon forever from the forests, even as they protest. Understand?"

I rose to my feet, eyeing the descension of the sun. Further down, in the flower fields, Lazaro parted lips with Orchid, bid him goodbye.

"I am sorry, my son. For not giving you the love you needed. If I knew you were drowning in loneliness, perhaps I could have arranged something."

Orchid

"I cannot wait to see him again." I could not help but grin endlessly, the feel of his lips still tingling on mine even as he left the forest safely. I touched with my finger the lips, the fur where he kissed me. The flute rested on my lap, held by my hand. A wild hog came up to me. He was one of the rainforest's fairies, and as he moved and snorted, I knew from the way he pointed at the flute on my hand to play.

"All right, good sir." I put one end of the flute to my mouth and began to play, just as Lazaro taught me.

And as I played the first note, the flowers swayed to face me in joy. The birds all listened intently from their branches. The boar nodded its head, gently, gently, pleased to hear me play.

When I finished the entire music, and with it, the final note, they all looked at me again, pupils wide and heads pointed to me. All predators relaxed, and all prey eased as, for a few moments in its history, the entire rainforest, fairies and none alike, was in harmony to listen to none but my flute.

"Do you want me to play again? Bring your children this time! Perhaps I can enchant them to sleep from my music. And if you want, I can sing after."

Lazaro

Orchid, Orchid. He was all in my head for that morning. His singing voice echoed in my mind just as it echoed in the mountains. His gentle touches still tingled on my skin, that black, phantom fur grazing my scales.

"-girl, Lazaro."

I raised my head at the mention of my name. "Huh?"

Miguel smirked as he continued washing the dishes. Despite being the second eldest, he was just a tad shorter than me, his scales darker and his horns a bit longer.

"You're in love. It's as clear as water."

"W-what? No, I'm not! What were you trying to say?"

"I said," he said as he put the plate on the dish rack, "who's the lucky girl, Lazaro?"

"Why do you guys keep asking that?" I chuckled as I continued eating my breakfast. "There's no girl."

"If that's so," Miguel said. Once he was done with all the dishes, he sat down opposite to me at the table. "Then why do you keep leaving early in the morning? Why do you always go home in the afternoon with that dreamy look on your face? And some of us also see you take flowers from Aunt Cristina's garden or from the town's floral shop?"

"Just, uh- oh, crap! I just remembered. Mama wanted me to do something-" I stood up to my feet, ignoring the half finished breakfast on the table. But Miguel stood up faster than me, and before I could reach for the door, he grabbed my wrist.

"Let me go, Miguel." I scowled as I tried pulling away from him. His grip only tightened, and he had that sly grin on his face. "I don't want things to get ugly."

"C'mon, just tell me! Who's the special girl? I won't tell anyone, not even Juanito."

"I told you already, it's-"

The sound of knuckles knocking on wood interrupted our conversation. It came from the same door that I was about to escape to.

When Miguel heard the door just like I did, our bickering came to a pause.

"Is anyone there? Are there any people in?" A feminine voice, familiar, unfamiliar, both at the same time.

I tugged on Miguel's arm with a look that said, 'Drop me off, now." And he did.

When I opened the door, it was... the dog who I asked the flute from.

My heart ceased all beating. She was the last person I ever expected to see.

"Lazaro?" she asked. Her eyes, so full of hope, dreams, and... something. A yearning that gazed so deep into me. "I came looking for you."

"Damn!" Miguel said as he pushed over my shoulder to look at her. "I knew it! She's your girlfriend all this time!"

"Girlfriend? Wha-" But she caught my gaze. Raised brows, widened eyes, and a gesture across my lips. She got my message, and no other words came out of her mouth. But my brother read the subtext differently.

"Oh yeah? Not official yet? C'mon, go inside! If you're Lazaro's special one, you're special to us too!"

"Ah, thank you for having me." She left her shoes by the doorstep and entered our house.

"Charming house you have, um-"

"Please, just call me Miguel!" he said as he guided her inside. "Let me prepare something for you."

Once we both thought that Miguel was no longer listening, the canine girl frowned and leaned over to me. I just realized that I hadn't known her name.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"What are you doing here?!"

She tilted her head to the left. "You don't remember me? The flute you asked of me a few weeks ago..."

"Flute? Flute... Flute..." My jaw went wide agape. The flute that I gave to Orchid...

A few weeks ago

"Oh, this flute?" The wooden flute in her hand was held gently between her elegant fingers, claws well trimmed. Her head lowered, white dress with its laces and color made in a fabric that only the rich may have. It sparkled in its bright colors beneath the gold rays of sunlight.

"My grandmother gave it to me." She chuckled as I sat down along with her.

"Are you new here?"

"No. I've been here since I was born." She glanced at me, blinked twice, three times with each gaze made in the seconds. Her back straightened, and with a clear of her throat, she continued, "Do you know that big house just close by the village?" She pointed with her maw, her eyes.

"Yeah?"

"I live there."

"Really?" I frowned and decided to sit with her. She inched further away from her seat to give me space. "Why haven't I seen you before?"

"My parents always want me inside the house." She smiled. "They say that our neighbors are stupid and uncouth, and that they could hurt me."

"Huh, do you think I'm stupid and uncouth?"

"No, no! Definitely not." Her widened, panicked face, made more anxious with her shaking hands. As I scooted over closer to her, there was something odd about her. She constantly tried to maintain her composure, tried to look at me only to look at something else. She caressed the fur on her temple, tugged at the sleeves of her dress. "It's just what my parents think. Anyways, can- can I know your name?"

I told her my name, and then she told her hers. Beatriz Agustin. We talked and talked, and I saw us merely as friends, nothing more. When I went to the wet markets on behalf of my brothers, I saw her there again. And then again in our village neighborhood. And then again by the wading river, always with a maid escort beside her. When she became comfortable with me, she talked with me more, revealed more things to me. She always waved her hand at me when I saw her, and ran to "Boo!'" me when I didn't. She watched me bargain with the fishermen, talk with my friends, and sell away what we grew from our farms. Her maid teased and some of my brothers whispered among themselves when they saw the girl I was with.

"She's the girl he always escapes to every morning, I swear."

"If that were the case, then I should've seen him running up to the manor where she lived at least once !"

"They're meeting someplace else, I swear by that!"

They asked me, asked Beatriz, even tried to follow me.

She gave them blank looks. I evaded their questions. They just followed me to my friends. All in the days when Orchid was absent.

When the final day came before Orchid was going back, Carmin brought me to the manor and hid me away from the servants of her manor. It was there we talked a long time, she talked about her music, and played the music atop the balcony that so enraptured me.

Then I asked her if I could play, if she could teach me.

And she did. She was patient with my mistakes, and knew that everything couldn't be perfect in just a single day. When I gave the flute back to her, she smiled, "Keep it. I want you to have it so that you can think of me whenever we're away."

I thought of Orchid.

Present Time

I blinked. When she gave me the flute back then, all I could think of was how much Orchid would love it. The music he could play. A flute for the prince of fairies. An instrument for the man who could sing so well.

I was barely a music player myself. The guitar one of my uncles gave me for my birthday laid dusty and dirty beneath my bed. I only touched it when I had nothing else to do.

Beatriz simply didn't touch my heart like Orchid did.

"Yeah, I remember you now," I said. "What are you doing here? And where's your maid?"

"I snuck out by myself." She grinned. "I just wanted to see you, to be honest."

"Ooh, little boy Lazzy's been-"

"Shut up!" I pointed a rude finger at him, cheeks blazing red. "Shut up! Stop making everything weird for once, Miguel!"

"The hell's wrong with you? What, can't stand a little tease?" He pushed my pointing hand away.

"No, I can't stand your perverted ass. I can't believe you, I'm leaving."

"So you're just gonna abandon your-" I didn't hear the rest of what he had to say when I shut down the door.

~~~~

"Where is he... going?" Carmin watched Lazaro go out of the door, her face faltered as the door shut tight behind the two of them.

"Don't know," Miguel said. "We thought he must be going after you, but now that you're here..." He paused, his head brought low to think before he went to the door too.

"Where are you going?"

"About to find out where this idiot goes every morning."