FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ok, this is the first thing that I've written for anyone to read so comments please to let me know where I suck, and hopefully what I'm doing right, well enjoy.

"Dan! No, Dan! Daniel!" Their frantic screams grew softer as he plummeted towards the ground, their faces grew smaller and smaller the further he fell, icy shards and clumps of snow just seemed to be floating around him as the world flew past him, the cliffs edge getting further and further away, solid walls of ice encircled him, as if growing up from the ground. Her voice couldn't reach him anymore, not her voice or his rope.

Jordon and Charlotte couldn't help him now, they couldn't reach him or stop him, his body would forever be lost in this forsaken tundra, never to be seen again. Dan didn't believe in miracles, he knew he was going to die if he kept falling. Trying to fight the pure terror he was feeling Dan grabbed the ice axe at his belt, and put everything he had into his swing, the closest wall only a foot away, the axe bounced off the wall and out of Dan's hands dislocating his shoulder in the process, a scream of pain and despair escaped him as the reality of the situation set in, he was going to die, he was going to fall until he hit rock bottom. He. Was. Going. To. DIE!

"ARGH!" Dan screamed, looking around, the light from the sun was fading as he kept falling deeper in the fissure, glancing down, Dan realised that it could go down into the ice for miles, he had been swallowed whole and there was no getting out, as Dan started falling into the darkness below him, where the light couldn't reach he wished for a miracle.

"Please, don't let me die, please god don't let me die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" As he kept falling, nothing happened, no miracle came, nobody answered him, and he started crying, giving up, he couldn't stop himself and no divine being was going to save him, he was going to d...

"You just going to give up?" The sudden voice snapped Dan out of his trance, where had it come from? Who was it? Could they save him? Were they falling to? All these questions raced around Dan's mind but the question of what it was never occurred to him, not until he saw it.

It was right beside him falling with him, just looking at him with big blue eyes; it could have passed for human at a distance. Aside from the powerful tail it had and three digit fingers, it had dark blue scales and was covered almost head to toe in shining golden armour

"I heard that humans were stubborn and never gave up, even when faced with an impossible situation. Did I hear wrong?" It was asking him questions! Wait, Dan recognised it, he thought he must have been hallucinating, the creature in front of him was a digimon, a Magnamon, he remembered watching it as a kid.

"This can't be happening; I've got to be dreaming please say I'm dreaming." Dan begged, the digimon tilted his head to the side, and in any other situation would have looked funny.

"I could say it but it wouldn't make it true, you're not dreaming, this is really happening." The magnamon said calmly as if explaining something to a child, he twisted in midair to cross his legs and stare at Dan, those eyes seemed to be searching for something, or waiting for something Dan couldn't tell which.

Before he could ask anything an aftershock from the earthquake shook the fissure, cracking and shattering the huge ice columns surrounding the pair, causing thousands of shards, shaper than any knife, to rain down on them. Dan didn't have the chance to say anything as the magnamon just seemed to appear in front of him, he was between Dan and the shards.

"Shield!" In an instant the pair we're surrounded by a golden barrier, the ice melting as it touched the shield. Dan was speechless, the digimon in front of him wasn't his imagination he was a real digimon, and he had... powers! It took him a moment to notice that he wasn't falling anymore; Dan was being held, suspended inside the barrier. The magnamon just floated there hands held out looking back up the tunnel they had fallen down, following his gaze Dan almost screamed as a boulder of solid ice fell straight towards them.

The digimon's eyes were calm as he brought his hands together, a small golden sphere forming between them, growing as he separated his hands, he waited until the boulder was close, before pulling his arm back with the sphere, now the size of a beach ball shimmering with power, in his hand. Grunting he threw the sphere with everything he had but just like Dan's axe earlier, it just seemed to bounce off the boulder.

His calm shattered in a second, "What, Nothing?!" He roared fiercely, glancing back at Dan his eyes must have mirrored Dan's own when he looked at charlotte, dangling over that black abyss, the same one that he jumped into for her, jumping to his death to save his friend, _'Should I just do nothing, and save myself? Wouldn't it just be easier to watch, is there anything that I can really do? Can I really save them' _that's what that look said. A look that screamed fear, it was as basic as fight or flight. The magnamon didn't have a choice when the boulder collided with the barrier, he couldn't run away, he brought both hands up as if trying to hold the boulder in place, but it kept on coming pushing them down and bending the barrier around it.

"Crap, this shouldn't be this hard it's just a chunk of ice." He growled, the barrier surrounding them was starting to crack; tiny pieces were flaking away around the boulder.

The magnamon was starting to pant, a sudden wave of fatigue coming over him. He was glancing from the ice to Dan, the look from before replaced with one of fear and shame, before the barrier smashed hurling the pair back into their free fall, The digimon looked like he was in shock, he just watched as the chunk of ice fell towards him, it was only a few feet away falling faster than them both. Dan moved on instinct grabbing the magnamon's arm and pulling him down reversing the situation from a moment ago.

_ "I must be a complete fool_"Dan thought, looking at his reflection in the other's eyes, there was genuine guilt and shame in those eyes, despite everything Dan was smiling, in a way this was still a miracle, he had somehow met something that shouldn't exist, a digimon, a imaginary creature from an old cartoon, no one was going to believe him.

It didn't take long for the boulder to crash into his back, Dan almost blacked out from the pain but somehow he managed to hold on a little longer, he didn't know why, he just wanted to give in, to pass out and leave his fate in someone else's hands, but something made him fight the pain and the haze that was now covering his eyes long enough to see the magnamon in front of him, long enough to see his armour shine brighter than the sun. Why did his back feel so warm?

"DANIEL!!"

Dan awoke from his sleep only reluctantly. His head ached as he stirred, but his back raged like fire when he tried to move. With a grunt he tried pulling himself up into a seated position but the pain forced him down, a soft cry escaped him as his head hit the hard floor, with nothing supporting it Dan could feel the sheer cold of whatever it was he was lying on, it seemed to seep through him as he lay there.

"So you're awake."

Dan didn't respond immediately, he was so busy trying to realise that he was alive and control the pain it barely even registered that someone had spoken, the freezing air soon brought him around making his teeth chatter loudly. There was a fire nearby, he could feel the slight warmth on his cheek, but it seemed too quiet, the slight popping of the fire echoed around him but there was nothing else, a deep silence only broken by the sound of another's voice along with a gentle tap on his forehead.

"Hey, you ok?"

He recognised the voice, someone he saw in a dream had the same one, Jordon and charlotte were in it, there was an earthquake, he'd fallen down into a fissure, a crack in the earth, he tried to stop himself, he dislocated his shoulder trying, Dan rolled his shoulder slowly, aside from an ache his shoulder was fine, and then there was that... no it was just a dream.

"Or just another nightmare." Dan whispered, slowly opening his eyes at the sound of someone moving away, it was dark, the light from the fire didn't reach very far, so he couldn't tell where he was.

"Nightmare?" Remembering that there was someone else with him Dan laughed, his back hurt like hell and he didn't know why but at least he was safe.

"It's nothing, how long have I been....Asleep....No you're not real, this is just a bad dream a nightmare, you can't be." Dan stammered staring at the magnamon sat on the other side of the fire.

The fire was glimmering off his golden armour magnificently, which Dan noticed he wasn't wearing, the magnamon was only wearing a pair of leather breaches and fingerless gloves, which seemed weird as he had a pair of gauntlets with his armour, but the digimon wasn't wearing anything else, not even something on his feet, which Dan was slowly realising were resting on ice, he didn't have to look to know that they were in some sort of cave, probably deep underground and surrounded by miles of solid ice and rock and snow. The digimon didn't seem to mind the cold, or the fact that Dan was staring intently at him, with the little light Dan couldn't really make out any details on the magnamon's body but he could tell that he had a white patch of scales, that started on the bottom of his chin, going down his chest and ending at the top of his breaches, he also had slightly darker scales on his back and the top of his tail.

"Why can't I be real?" The digimon said slowly, his blue eyes studying Dan as he tried to work an answer from his brain to his mouth, all he managed was a quick, "cas you can't" the magnamon sighed, scratching his chin. "I'm real Dan, believe me."

"But you're a cartoon for kids, a character, fiction, a dragon hybrid with special powers, you can't be real!" Dan screamed at the digimon, who didn't even blink as Dan had his tantrum, staying quiet as Dan kept muttering the same excuses over and over again. He just sat there staring at Dan, waiting until he had calmed down a little; the last thing he muttered was "I don't even know your name."

"You never asked me Dan." The digimon said, snapping Dan from his trance, "My name is Nathan, and I am real, here I'll prove it." Nathan said suddenly, jumping to his feet, he moved over to Dan who had barely moved since he had woken up, he was still lying almost flat on his back, and Nathan looked kind of imposing up close, the digimon had a lean build but had clear muscles on him, he looked like he could pick Dan up without much trouble.

Dan almost whimpered, shutting his eyes, when Nathan reached for him and started leaning down, but all the digimon did was stroke his head, calming Dan and proving that his was real in a instant, it took a moment for it to sink it, Nathan was real, the digimon was real and he was nice and a dragon to boot, Dan loved dragons he found everything about them fascinating, tying to remove any last doubts Dan, touched Nathans foot, lightly feeling the claws, they were smooth, Dan started rubbing the scales on his foot, amazed at how smooth and warm they were despite the icy floor of the cave, Nathan moved his foot away quickly when Dan moved a bit lower, did the digimon just yelp?

"Sorry I'm ticklish, do you believe that I'm real now." Nathan said sitting down with his legs crossed beside Dan, Dan just stared at him, dumbfounded, he was ticklish, ticklish?! Thinking about it Dan guessed that it wasn't really that big a deal, but it still struck him as weird a dragon being ticklish, out of all the things that he had imagined a dragon being, ticklish would never have come up on his list. Slowly Dan touched Nathan's foot again,

"You're really real." Dan whispered, Nathan just nodded, as if he'd had this conversation a hundred times before, "But how, no dragon or digimon or anything like that has ever been found before. How can you be here, how can you be real?" Nathan sighed, obviously Dan wasn't going to be satisfied until he had some answers.

"Okay, first, yes I'm real, I'm flesh and blood just like you Dan. Second the reason no one has ever found one of us is because we don't come from here, well obviously someone has seen us because you have those cartoons that have some of my kind in them, they resemble each other too closely to be a coincidence, but no one is supposed to see us.

We live on another world, another plain or dimension whatever you want to call it, it all means the same thing, we get here through portals that link our world to yours, they're like doors, but you need magic to unlock and open them, which is probably why none of your kind have ever found our world but we found yours, it seems like all the magic in your world has been sucked away, but you don't need magic to survive so it doesn't matter to you either way." Nathan paused a moment to let what he said sink in, according to a few others he'd talked to about this, it took humans even longer to accept that you were from another world than to accept you were real.

"Well that makes sense I guess, if you're from another world then you wouldn't leave behind any bones or evidence of past lives on this world, and because you need magic to go through the portal no human can go through so your world remains hidden."

"Wow that was fast" Nathan thought, gazing at Dan, "I just told him I'm from another planet and he says it makes sense just like that?"

Nathan was brought back to reality as Dan asked another question "but why are you here, if you're not supposed to be seen by humans?"

"Oh, well I came here because a criminal came through a portal on the mountain side, I took the bounty to come and retrieve him, and bring him back to our world, and that's when I saw you fall down this... hole, and my conscience got the better of me, I thought that I would easily be able to save you, but as it happens I used up too much magic coming here and bringing the criminal down, I'm sorry." Nathan hung his head in shame, muttering something under his breath, Dan was sure he heard him say that it was all his fault.

"You have nothing to apologise for, there was an earthquake I'd be dead right now if you hadn't been there." Nathan grimaced at the comment.

"You still might." Dan bolted upright as the words left the dragons lips, ignoring the agony that exploded from his back, even though it brought tears to his eyes, Dan had to swallow a lump in his throat before he could talk again.

"Why? What's wrong with me?" he demanded.

"Careful the wound on your back will open up again." Nathan said trying to push Dan back down, but somehow failing miserably even with his strength.

"Nathan what is wrong with me?" Dan almost screamed, grabbing the dragons wrists, the digimon was making him panic, he didn't feel ill but didn't they say the worst kind of illness was one that you couldn't feel, pulling his hands out of Dan's grip Nathan stood up, he started twiddling his thumbs and glancing around the cave staring at some icicle, bouncing lightly from foot to foot.

"There's nothing wrong with you, aside from the wound on your back, but that's clean and I healed it a little bit so you have nothing to worry about there, what you did was foolish by the way, there was no way you could have stopped that boulder, you very nearly died just from that it almost hit your spine, it could have...."

"Damn it Nathan spit it out why might I still die!" Dan yelled, he was really scared now, if Nathan didn't want to tell him this badly what was it, 'does he have to kill me because I've seen him' endless possible ways that the digimon could kill him slowly and horrifically flashed through Dan's mind and he backed away slowly from Nathan.

"We have this rule, well it's a law, no human contact." Nathan began, 'Oh god he's going to kill me!' Dan screamed silently, tears welling in his eyes. Nathan seemed to read his mind as he gasped, moving towards Dan, who was shaking in fear as the digimon hugged him tightly, " I'm not going to hurt you Dan, I promise, I'm not that kind of person. You trust me that much right?" Dan could only nod, he didn't trust his own voice at the moment, he was terrified.

That seemed to help as Dan stopped shaking, "No human contact, so we can't walk around your cities and villages, and we can only come through if it's on official business, like hunting a criminal for example, but if we do meet a human and they see us we have a few options considering the circumstances, like now I helped to save your life in a situation where you would have died without my help, so officially I have two choices.

Now that I have done the bare minimum to save your life and you are no immediate danger I can go back and leave you on your own trying to find your own way back. This choice was made so that they have a chance at being rescued by others, but in your case it would mean certain death; there's no way that you can get out of here by yourself, we're just too deep down." It took a moment for that to sink in, that they could save your life but basically leave you a situation where you would die anyway, it seemed cruel.

"What about the other choice?" Dan asked, they didn't really seem like choices to him at all, but he would already be dead if it wasn't for Nathan so he should be grateful that he was around when he was.

"The second choice is that I take you with me, so you would come back to my world, but the condition is this, you come now, you leave everything about your old life behind, all your friends, all your loved ones, everything behind." That was the last choice; it seemed like a god send, this guy really was a miracle. "Dan, I know what you're thinking but think about it carefully, you're cold, hurt and tired. Anything to get out of this is going to sound good, but think about your friends back up on the surface, think about what they and your family mean to you." The full weight behind those word hit Dan like a hammer, he loved Jordon and charlotte, they were his best friends.

"Cant I even say goodbye?" Dan whimpered softly into Nathans shoulder.

"No, if you take this choice then they have to think that your dead, they have to think that you died down here, you have to throw them and your whole life here; in this world, away, forever." Anger suddenly swelled inside Dan as he thought more about it.

"But why!? You already said that we can't get through to your world what harm is there it letting my world know that you exist, what harm is there it letting my family know I'm okay, why can't you just take me back to them!" Dan screamed, trying desperately to break free from Nathan's hold of him, "my whole life is here, 16 years, my family, my friends, my school why? Why does this bastard have to be so cruel, why can't he just take me back up!?"

"We're scared," Nathan whispered in Dan's ear, making him stop thrashing, "My world has magic but its smaller and doesn't have as many people as your world, your world is much more advanced than ours in terms of technology, and only a fraction of our population can use magic, if your world ever found a way into ours, we're terrified of what you might be able to do. Your kind, is extreme Dan, much more than ours, you have the capacity for love and yet the need for war seems to drive your world, and my world is scared of what might happen if that ever seeped into ours.

I'm not saying that my kind don't love or that we don't have wars, we can and we do, but your kind... we don't want to affect or be affected by the other in anyway. I mean yes sometimes we save humans and bring them back with us because we didn't want to watch them die, but even that is frowned upon, the portals are guarded day and night because my kind is so scared of what might happen. I'm sorry."

Dan was at a loss for words he knew, somehow he just knew that everything he said was true and that just made his situation worse, he started crying in Nathans shoulder, if he did this then everyone he ever knew and loved or cared about would think he was dead, and in many ways they would become dead to him, remembering what he had lost would be too painful. "So what's more painful, dying down here, or having a second chance over there, and killing the memory of my whole life?"

"No one would believe me, they'd all think that is was crazy, I wouldn't tell anyone, I swear." Dan begged, Nathan just shook his head, slowly.

"I'm so sorry Dan I can't, what if you did say something by accident, what if someone did believe you or another human who was saved, and they found some kind of proof, I can't risk it, I'm sorry but you have to make a choice." Nathan pulled away from Dan, looking him straight in the eyes,"What is it going to be Dan? Live or die?"