FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ Chapter 8 _

Somewhere off in the distance Tigersight could hear powerful, angry footsteps. The sound of the pharaoh's voice echoed through his mind. The light quickly came back to the room. It hadn't been dark; he had barely regain consciousness and the blackness was still melting away from his vision.

With a quick glance around he recognized that he was just outside the throne room. Yet the yelling and footsteps had sounded as if they had been right next to him with the sound muffled by his headache.

As if the memory was being replayed, two guards grabbed him by his wrists and threw the doors to the throne room open, dragging Tigersight across the floor. He had been wrong about the sound of angry storming footsteps. Pharaoh was perched neatly on his throne.

The pharaoh stood up quickly and made his way down to Tigersight in less than a second, far faster than any normal person. At least that was what Tigersight thought he saw, but after blinking twice he saw that pharaoh, was quietly walking down the three steps

The pharaoh made a motion for the two guards to pull Tigersight to his feet. They had pulled him to his feet faster than pharaoh could finish motioning.

"So this is the slave that attacked fifteen of my guards, and managed to kill seven of them in the process?" Pharaoh only had an amused smile on his lips.

No one answered his question, instead the question hung in the dry air; repeating itself in Tigersight's head. Only now had he come to the full realization of what he had done outside. When he had been outside it had only been adrenaline fueling every movement, and every action. Tricia was the only thing he could see.

Pharaoh walked up to Tigersight, and then got in his face quickly and menacingly. "You must be punished for your actions." A small growl escaped his lips and to Tigersight pharaoh didn't even look like a ruler, right now he looked like a monster, one that planned on eating him alive.

"And I know just how to make you pay for you crimes." Pharaoh took a casual step backwards, a light chuckle on his breath.

"Bring her in."

Tricia was drug into the throne room in a similar fashion to the way Tigersight had, except her hands were bound together and she was being drug by a rope. The guard dragging her had a blackened eye, with blood dripping down from his eyebrow.

Tigersight remembered beating his face, into the large metal jar that the slop was made in every day. He glared at the guard who was dragging Tricia, and the guard quickly released the rope. Tricia got to her feet fast and was already running to help Tigersight get free.

"Stop her!"

The guard that had been dragging her continued to stare off into space. He was angry at Tigersight and had expected him to already be dead. After all he had killed the guard's brother and he wanted nothing more than to... Pharaoh was now in the guards face.

Rage consumed Pharaoh, as he grabbed the guard by the throat and picked him up holding him two feet off the ground.

"I said stop her. Now do it." Pharaoh tossed the guard in a sweeping motion, which sent him sliding across the floor.

The guard quickly jumped up, catching Tricia mid-step as she was about to Punch the guard holding Tigersight's left side, in the face.

"Don't think for even a moment, that I don't know about you Tigersight. How you're always helping people and making yourself look like the good guy. Believe me I know all about you."

Pharaoh paused to take a breath.

"You protect everyone around you, all too happily for nothing in return. Just doing them a favor, never asking for anything, anything at all. However I can see right through you."

Tigersight shifted his position a little so he could see if Tricia was ok, and not injured. Pharaoh walked over to Tricia, and he grabbed her by her chin, moving her face left and right as if examining her. She spat at his face.

"You know I honestly don't know what you see in this girl." Pharaoh wiped the spit off his face. "But it's only when she's in danger that you cause the big fights. Only when she's causing trouble; do you act out. Only when she stands by your side, do you kill." Pharaoh laid the blame all at Tigersight's feet.

"Tigersight it's not your fault, they started that whole fight. Don't listen to him." It was the only way she could fight against pharaoh.

"I'm feeling in a giving mood though, you know you're really lucky, you decided today was the day to piss me off. I think a public execution, would be perfect. That way everyone can see what will happen, when you mess with me." A passive aggressive smirk, illuminated, his angry features.

"Do whatever you want; I will take whatever punishment you feel fit. Just please don't hurt her. Please." Tigersight begged.

"Really anything? So you would let me string you by your ankles in the middle of town square and have my guard's peel the flesh off you bones, just so long as I don't hurt her?"

Tigersight and Tricia flinched; as images of a scene like that flashed in there minds. Tigersight took in a small breath. "Yes, I would."

"And if I did just that, how would you know, once you're dead, that I wouldn't do the same thing to her, if not worse?" A wicked smile carved its way across Pharaoh's face.

"I.. I... I don't.."

"Oh save you mumbling. Like I said you picked a good day to piss me off."

He lowered his head, thinking about what pharaoh had just said.

"Tell you what; do you see those broken pillars that they are trying to fix right now?"

"Yes, I see them every day."

"Well, when something breaks, it's no longer as strong as it was originally, so those towers actually, need to be completely destroyed and they need to start over with rebuilding them."

"Ok..."

"This is the part where you come in. I give you my word that, I will not harm this girl, but for a price. You will go on a slave expedition, and bring me back at least thirty slaves. And for each slave that you don't bring back, I will harm her in various ways, if you only bring me twenty out of thirty; you can consider your little friend dead. Deal?"

"Tiger, don't do it. Please he's going to trick you." Tricia pleaded with him.

"I'll do it." Tigersight looked down, angry at himself for agreeing to ruin someone's life the way his had been ruined, but he had no other choice. He had gotten Tricia into this mess, and he would get her out.

"Glad, you leave in the morning. Now get him out of my throne room."

Pharaoh gave a quick flick of his hand towards the door, and two guards grabbed his by the wrists and drug him backwards; Tigersight stumbled on his feet then fell down, and let them drag him.

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Pharaoh snapped his fingers and three men dropped from the roof, landing smoothly on their feet. Each one wearing sand colored robes, with hoods that hid all of their features. The only thing that would have set them apart in the middle of the desert, were the belts they were wearing.

The leather made belts; all had three curved blades, the size of throwing knives Attached to them. A few other objects clung to the belts, but it was the knives that stood out most.

Tricia looked down; the guard, who had been holding her, had let go of her and merely let her stand there. These men didn't look like any guards Tricia had ever seen, yet something told her that she should fear them all the more.

Without order from Pharaoh, one of the men dressed in robes walked over to Tricia, and kneed her in the stomach causing her to keel over. As Tricia dropped towards the floor the man kicked her back upward and grabbed her by the back collar of her worn cloth dress. He hit her in the back of the neck and she slumped, un-consciously to the ground. Everything around her became disoriented.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the other to hooded men, kneel on one knee. The other hooded figure continued to stand beside her.

"I want them all killed, even the guards. Wait until they have traveled at least thirty miles from the city. The kill them, but make it look like they were ambushed by sand bandits."

Tricia couldn't tell which one of them spoke but it wasn't the one standing next to her.

"Pharaoh, not that I'm complaining about the task you have set for us, but why not just publicly execute him, like you said."

"I have waited too long; Tigersight has become a martyr to my slaves, if I was to kill him, they would rise up against me. Not that I'm concerned about them, I could easily squash all of their rebellion, but the idea of restarting our whole civilization doesn't seem like something I wish to do right now."

It makes perfect sense, when you really think about it. But why kill off the guards in the process"

Because I have no use for them, they are my weakest guards, and they never do their jobs right." Pharaoh answers, calmly without remorse.

"I want all of them dead, like some kind of accident, or ambush; just make sure that I cannot be traced back to me. Other than that have fun with it, I know you three have been itching for combat ever since I cut you out of my last slave expedition, four years ago." Pharaoh continues. "Now that I think about it, I really did make a bad decision by not sending you three; if I had sent you maybe I wouldn't have been stuck with so many failures."

The man standing next to Tricia coughed taking pharaoh, away from his thoughts.

"What should we do about her?"

"Oh, I have big plans for her." Pharaoh laughed.

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Tigersight awoke to the sound of someone trying to break down the wall to his house.

"Get up, we have a job to do, or did you forget?" A man yells from outside.

He jumps up, from his cloth mat, quickly pulls on his tunic, and runs the ten feet, it takes to get outside.

"I'm up, I'm up." Tigersight almost walked right into the guard.

"Finally, let's get going, I'd like to be in the caravan before it gets so dang hot." The guard complained as he escorted Tigersight to the gate of the city.

He had seen the city a million times and walked this same path a million times. Yet it looked very different today, as if today was the first day he really saw it, how broken and vile it looked, the shacks almost falling down, the people that Pharaoh had ruined.

Pharaoh was capable of so many things; Tigersight could only worry over what he had said yesterday.

"How would you know, once you're dead, that I wouldn't do the same thing to her, if not worse?"

Tigersight looked out at the desert thinking of that night long ago when he was going to escape; it had been the thing he wanted most back then, to get away from the place that had ruined his life. But now, he was fighting to stay, forever, so long as she was with him, last night that was the only thing that played in his head, that all he really wanted all along was to be were ever Tricia was... No matter what the sacrifice.

"Alright..." The guard had interrupted Tigersight thoughts "We're going to need water, a caravan, a couple of camels, and three weeks' worth of food. We'll meet back here in an hour, now get moving, the more time you waste the hotter it's going to get."

Tigersight starts to head off to get the food for their trip when the guard, than had woken him up grabbed him by his tunic, stopping him.

"Oh, no you're staying right by my side. You really think I'm going to let you walk off? Forget that idea I want to keep an eye on you"

"Yes Sir" Tigersight replied only to receive yet another confused glance. The guard was taken aback by how respectful Tigersight was, even being in this position, bargaining for the life of another slave.

"This slave is different." The guard mumbled to himself.

"Never in my life have I seen anything like him."

Tigersight's thoughts returned to Tricia and pharaoh.

"How am I going to do this? How can I go out there and destroy someone life the way mine was? " He kept asking himself. But the answer was the same. "Tricia needs me too. It will hurt me a lot worse knowing I made the choice to have her killed, than it will to see the slave's broken eyes every day." Tigersight couldn't tell if he was lying to himself for not.

He shoved those thoughts out of his head just as the sunlight began to show over the horizon, and the guards started returning to the gate.

"Alright do we have everything?" the captain asked in a commanding voice.

"Yes, we have everything."

"Ok then let's get moving, you guys walk slower than my dead cousin." All of the guards hopped in to the caravan and took seats off to the side, Tigersight remained by the guards side, so he could "Keep an eye on him." as he had said, they departed from the city, without another second of delay. The guards off to the side of the caravan, kept pace until the sun was at its highest point.

The guards stopped in their tracks when the guard standing closest to Tigersight yelled out.

"We brake here for an hour, everybody go check the area." All the guards got out of the caravan, and climbed off the camels. They all scattered around, checking the perimeter of there soon to be make shift camp site. Tigersight walked over to the captain.

"I could find something for you guys to eat if you want; I'm fairly good at hunting."

The guard laughed at him.

"Right liked I'd give you a weapon you're a big enough handful without one. Just sit down and shut up. You can eat the food we brought with us."

"Yes sir" He answered humbly and then sat down in the dirt, without another word.

The guards finish checking the perimeter and they all sit down around the caravan. The captain passed out the rations of food.

"Wait a minute, where is?"

Just then one of the scouts walked over. "Hey captain, I found a weird cave over there it's made of some kind of strange stone I have never seen before about one hundred meters to our left. Do you want me and the other scout to check it out?"

The caption looks over and says "Na! We will all go after lunch there might be slaves in there, and if there are I don't want to tip them off." The captain tossed his ration at him, and the scout caught it.

The scout nodded "OK then."

The captain threw the last of today's rations at Tigersight. "Here eat this." The captain glared at him.

"Thank you sir." His compliment softened the captain's attitude.

Just as he started eating the wind began to pick up speed, Tigersight looks up from his food

"Umm... guys."

"What do you want now?" One of the guards began to yell at him.

"There a big cloud of dirt coming towards us" Tigersight replies.

Most of the guards jump up

"What? Where at?"

Tigersight points at the fast approaching sand storm as he stands up, dropping his food into the sand. The guards franticly begin to run around grabbing things.

"Quick grab ahold of the flaps we can hide..." The guard's words are lost as the sand storm consumes them. The guards start running trying to save their equipment. The sand swirls around then like a cloak covering them completely. More than a thick fog, it was hard to breathe or see. Tigersight blindly walked around barely able to see, at all his eye extremely sensitive to the sand flying around them. He began to head towards the only shelter he can think of strong enough to withstand a sand storm of this magnitude. The cave the guard mentioned.

A guard starts to head him off and coral him back towards the caravan. When the captain yells "Leave him save yourselves, worry about him later let him get carried away by the sand for all I care."

Tigersight continues to walk in the direction of the cave, the sand choking him like a vice as he tries to breathe. He pulled the front of his tunic up to his mouth to prevent himself from inhaling sand. He could see what not much father in front of him looked like the entrance to the cave. He trips and starts crawling forward through the thick sand that kept swelling and swirling around him. He reached the cave and starts to crawl into the rapidly shrinking entrance, when suddenly the sand layer gave way below him, dragging him into the cave; just as the entrance is completely consumed by the avalanche of sand and dust, sealing him in the darkness.