FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"I'm not a feeble old man Bayle. I've seen more fighting than you have I'd imagine." The Grandmaster said calmly.

"He's right sir," Grev spoke "You may well be a powerful individual in your own right, but we don't know what we're up against and were the enemy to capture you they would know all our plans."

The Grandmaster stared at Grev awhile before sighing in defeat. "Very well, I'll have someone else accompany you and Chris. I suggest that you also join them Bayle."

Bayle nodded in agreement and stood up. "I suggest we all get some rest then."

"Wait" The Grandmaster spoke as they were all about to file through the door. "Not a word of this to anyone. We can't afford fear and panic now." The Grandmaster looked pointedly at Snow "Not even Tess can know of this"

Snow opened his mouth as if he were about to protest.

"We swear sir, not a word" Chris answered for him. Chris watched as Snow seemed to tense and then relax and nod before mumbling his own agreement.

"What are we going to tell everyone though? Everyone knows something is up. You had a search party out for us." Skye said quietly.

"A good point" The grandmaster smiled at his student. "Any suggestions?"

"Well, we can't say we got lost in the woods. No one would believe us since Chris is the best tracker and woodsman." Snow answered.

Chris stood quietly thinking "Do we need to say anything?" an idea forming in his head. "If you give us three a public punishment it and we were to say that we've been forbidden to speak of it, the others may well think that it was just a stupid prank that we're too embarrassed to talk about."

"The others might believe it, but Tess wouldn't" Snow interjected.

"Then you'll just have to make her believe it" The Grandmaster said firmly. "Now out with you."

All the way through the keep Snow's mind was on Tess. He ran scenario after scenario in a never ending circle through his head. He knew she'd never settle for him saying he was unable to speak about it. She would needle him constantly, but he could think of no way to satisfy her curiosity and still keep the whole thing a secret. At best he'd have to lie to her and he was loathing that idea the most and yet couldn't see any way around it.

Tess was waiting for them as they came up the path. She practically bounded into Snow's arms.

"So?" She asked, her curiosity plain in her eyes.

Snow took a breath and placed a paw on her shoulder. "We're probably going to be on clean up duty for the next four weeks."

"What? Why? What did you lot get up too?" She pinned Snow with a fierce glare.

"I don't want to talk about it. I'm exhausted and I'd just like to go to sleep." Snow looked down, away from her penetrating gaze.

"Well, Miera is out tonight, so you can sleep by me and tell me in the morning." Tess's voice was a mixture of frustration and sympathy.

"Not tonight. I..." Snow racked his brains for a glib answer. "... I need to talk with Chris."

Snow looked at her and saw her shoulders slump a bit in disappointment. "Oh, ok then. I'll see you at breakfast." Tess smiled up at him, spun around and then walked off.

Snow watched dumbfounded as she left. Even though they'd become close in the past months he could never predict her reactions to things. He'd half expected her to be a lot more upset or at the very least persistent.

Snow turned and walked up to Chris who was waiting for him.

"Not going to hers tonight?" Chris asked shrugging his arm in the direction Tess had gone.

"No." Snow answered gruffly.

When he and Chris entered the little room they shared together he looked around. He realised that it had been a while since he'd last actually been in it.

Snow sat down heavily on his bed and slumped, his mind still in turmoil. He only looked up when Chris pushed a mug of ale at him. He took it and drained it in four large gulps, the bittersweet liquid running down his throat. He lapped at the foam on his muzzle.

"Where'd you get ale?" Snow asked as he handed the mug back to Chris in the hope that there would be more and he could drown his worries.

"Grev and I have a few drinks every now and again when you're out. There's still half a cask left from the last time." Chris answered as he picked up the cask Snow only now noticed stood next to the washbasin.

"Grev comes and drinks with you?" Snow was shocked, he'd never really thought about what Chris did on the nights he was at Tess's.

"He's good company." Chris said quietly "He and I understand each other."

"Just Grev? Don't any of the others hang out with you?" Snow asked sensing that there was a lot more that was going unsaid, but couldn't be sure.

"No," Chris was quiet for a moment as if struggling to find words. "I'm not as... popular as you are. You spend most of your time at the training fields with the others and I'm out with Grev or Klain training."

Snow realised Chris was right. He knew most of the younglings and the teachers. He could name quite a few that he'd consider friends and there was Tess as well. Chris was always on the outskirts, never at the training sessions. Even at meal times he would usually sit with Grev away from the pack.

"I don't really mind too much." Snow could hear the lie in his friends' voice.

Was Chris really a friend, he thought to himself.

They'd gone through the change together and he had a bond with Chris that none of the other Wolven shared, but he realised that he didn't know much about him. He'd spent time with Chris here and there, especially on the rare days where they were left to occupy themselves and his brother had managed to escape from his own studies. Mostly though he'd spend all his time with Tess and the rest of the pack and yet Chris had risked his life to save him.

"Thank you" Snow spoke quietly looking up into Chris's eyes.

"It's just ale" Chris answered him jokingly as he handed Snow another foaming mug.

"No, I mean thank you for coming after me, for rescuing me." Snow watched as Chris turned away and filled himself a mug.

"You would have done the same." Chris answered as he sat down on his own bed.

Snow tried for a laugh, but it came out as a small strangled bark. "Maybe, but we're lucky it wasn't me tracking you. I would probably only have ended up running in a circle." Snow reached across and patted Chris on the knee. "I'm sorry I haven't been around a lot."

"It's ok. I can't blame you for spending time with Tess and the others." Chris said with a half-hearted smile.

Snow looked up into Chris's eyes and saw the flicker of pain before Chris looked away and took a long swallow of ale. He wanted to say a lot of things to Chris in that moment, but he had no idea exactly what. The emotions were hard for him to put into words. He'd never been good at such things. Chris again met his eyes and spoke even as Snow was opening his own mouth to try and form words from his swirling emotions. "We're going to need to think of something to tell Tess aren't we? I imagine that she's not going to let this just drop."

Snows emotions changed direction and now swirled with angst and fear and uncertainty.

"You really like her don't you?" Chris asked with a strange hesitant quality in his voice, "are you two serious about each other?"

Snow sat and thought for a moment. "I don't know what we are about each other. I like her, but I'm never sure how she feels. One moment she's all cuddles and fun, the next she can be distant and icy. I thought she was going to tear into me out there when I said I wasn't going to go to hers and didn't want to talk about what happened. Instead she just shrugged it off."

"She is a bit ... erratic isn't she?" Chris said with a grin.

At that Snow laughed "Not just a bit."

"So have you thought what you could tell her about this whole thing?" Chris asked with his head tilted to the side and one ear laid flat.

"Yes, but none of its any good. I think she'll know I'm lying to her if I do tell her some story, but I don't think that I could just stay quiet about it either." Snow answered, the ale was warming his stomach and he no longer felt as if his emotions were constricting him.

Chris stood up and grabbed his mug to refill it. Snow hadn't even realised that he'd already emptied it of ale. "I guess I could just tell her that I'd been sworn to secrecy?"

"Do you think that would be enough for her?" Chris asked as he moved the cask over to his bedside and filled the mug.

"No, probably not" Snow answered with a sigh. "Then again maybe it would. I wish I knew."

"Well then, try it tomorrow if she asks and find out?" Chris said handing over the filled mug.

"And if it's not enough for her? What do I tell her then?" Snow asked exasperated turning on his bed as Chris moved over to the window, pulling the curtains shut. It was only then that he realised how dark it was already, moonlight filtering in through the glass before the cloth blocked it from view. He blinked at the sudden light when Chris palmed the Glow-Orbs' activation pad.

"I don't know. You'll think of something." Chris said as he sat down on his bed again.

"We should have a story straight now, so at least we both have a similar one if people ask." Snow said hoping that this would get him Chris's help in thinking one up.

"No one would ask me anyway. Except for you, Skye, Klain and Grev no one really speaks to me." Chris said, his voice tinged slightly by bitterness.

Snow persevered "It would still be a good idea if we had similar stories, just in case."

"I guess you're right." Chris sighed loudly. "How about if we just say that you and Skye got lost and we're attacked by... I don't know. A boar or something?"

Snow hardly got a word out as Chris interrupted him. "No, that wouldn't work. Skye's got magic and you're a good fighter. No one would believe that."

Snow was again about to speak to throw in a suggestion just as Chris spoke again. "I got it. Skye tried out a new spell... a teleport spell or something and it got you guys deep into the woods, he was hurt by... I don't know a branch or something 'because you landed up in a tree? Yes that could work, but..." Chris fell silent again thinking.

Snow spoke quickly into the silence. "I think that would work, but how do we get you into the picture?"

Snow peered intently as Chris waved a paw at him, seemingly deep in thought. Snow sat quietly fearing to break Chris's train of thinking and almost jumped when Chris hissed. "Yes! Skye and you got lost trying out a teleport spell to find me. However when it got you lost he used another spell to call to me for help."

Snow laughed and toasted his mug against Chris's, glad that he no longer had to wrack his brain trying to think up a story. It probably wasn't the best of lies, but it was a lot better than anything he'd considered. "I like it!" Snow declared emphatically through the warm glow of ale induced happiness.

"Well, only use it if you have too. I'd rather we didn't have to rely on telling it." Chris said lying down on his bed, propping himself up on an elbow.

Snow started telling Chris all the funny stories he could recall from training and between them and the ale, they were laughing well into the night.