FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ Part II _

_ Power overwhelming _

_ Chapter 9 _

Tigersight stood up and used his tunic to rub some of the dirt away from his eyes. Just breathing in the cave hurt him; as the dust slowly filled his lungs. He could still hear the wind outside viciously ripping and tearing around the cave. It reminded him of the animals he used to hunt back in the forest.

Hostile, yet surprisingly tame; either way he looked at it, Tigersight much preferred this darkened cave, than the storm outside of it.

The dust from the recent collapse of the cave entrance still swirled around in the air. Tigersight worked to keep his breaths to a minimum in the cave. Even still he felt as if someone a shoved a piece of leather down his throat. He sat down, thinking of what he was going to do next.

All though he was safe in the cave, he was also trapped, without food or water, he wouldn't last long. Surprisingly the cave was cold; he shivered as goose-bumps appeared on his skin. He slowly realized that his eyesight was slowly developing so he could see in the dark. It was not the best eyesight in the world, but it was enough to help him.

He jumped, he heard a sound, or at least he thought he had. It soon occurred to him that the smart thing to do would be to look for animals or other people. He could feel fear creep down his spine, as he slowly explored, but his efforts were in vain there was nothing in this cave, nothing useful at least.

Tigersight began to explore deeper into the cave, hoping to find a secondary exit.

Anything was better than sitting there waiting to die; he soon found that this cave was far larger than he would have thought possible. Every now and then his fingers grasped ahold of stalagmites that were scattered all over the cave. This cave had to be really old for how many he found. He began to think of how old he would be when he found the exit. It did him no good to keep such negative thoughts in his head. He needed to get out of this cave. He needed to save Tricia.

That thought alone pushed him forward, as he made his decent into the tunnel. He had though it would become easier to breath the farther he had gotten from the entrance but it was not so the air grew thicker and more putrid with every step. It became so bad he had to pause his searching to catch his breath.

Tigersight pressed onward, around another corner, when he began to see a light just ahead of him. He began to run forward, but it felt more like he was swimming upstream, each step harder to make than the last as he made his way towards the small light. He kept his thought on Tricia and helping her, it became easier to move when he didn't think of how difficult it was to breathe and that he would never make it to the light just ahead of him. But he had to help her, he had to escape.

As if that word had been a key to unlock a door. The second he thought escape, it seemed as if the entire cave had shifted. The thick presence that had been holding him back, and preventing his movements, had disappeared. He fell down to the floor breathing deeply at the now clear air, that his lungs welcomed gratefully.

"I have got to get out of this cave; there is something really wrong about this place." replayed in Tigersight's mind.

Soon his thoughts now returned to the light that had been ahead of him. He was sure it was still there, but he began to worry that maybe it wasn't a light but maybe just his eyes playing tricks on him. He stood up, and told himself he was being silly and he should keep going towards the light, or else he may never leave this place.

Upon reaching the end of the tunnel, he found himself in a perfectly circular room; its walls were smoother than the river stones, from his village. The light that he had seen had not been a trick, there really was a light. But it was from several holes in the ceiling.

The room seemed very unnatural almost chamber-like. There was not a stalactite to be seen anywhere in the room. In fact the only thing in the room, were three pillars that held the weight of the roof from crashing down and filling with sand. Just off to the right of him, was a forth pillar that had been broken into sections of four. It looked as if it had been broken long ago.

He went over to the pillar and touched its surface, it felt like sand stone, which didn't surprise him. He looked just in front of him, and saw a small pedestal.

Atop the pedestal was a rather large stone bigger than his hand, but still small compared to the size of the room. The stone was blacker that the darkest parts of the tunnel, it seemed to give off an eerie light. Tigersight jumped over the pillar that was just in front of him, to get a better look at it.

All at once he was consumed by an overwhelming sense of fear. He began to look around wildly for the cause of his irrational fear; his gaze soon fell on the stone that lay just in front of him. Tigersight felt a blind hatred for the stone, a deep inspired rage to destroy it.

He started forward again, after the rock and reached to pick it up and throw it across the room, but something in him made him pause.

"What the heck, is wrong with me? That is just a rock."

Tigersight was completely bewildered by his actions, he had been so sure of his anger for that rock, but he felt as if that hatred was misplaced. He shook his head trying to erase the anger.

"No" he thought, "that anger doesn't belong to me." He stopped shaking his head and looked again at the rock in front of him.

"What is that thing?" Tigersight sucked in a deep breath.

Now only fear consumed his mind; but it did not last for long as he felt that ever passionate rage, build up inside him again. It was deep and divine hatred so vile that Tigersight couldn't even understand where it all came from. He had never been that angry, not even at the guard that had killed Edgeclaw.

This was a different kind of hatred entirely; this was the anger of a monster. A person worse than even the pharaoh himself, this was the anger of absolute destruction. This was the anger of dreams, the dreams of watching everything around him burn to the ground. But it wasn't just a want to destroy these things, more like a need; whatever had been causing the emotions had been wronged and they wanted revenge, not on anybody in particular; just pure violent and destructive revenge.

Tigersight only had one objective. He felt himself walking forward in a daze towards the pedestal. He had to destroy that rock, it was causing him to act and feel weird. He had convinced himself destroying it was the answer to make these emotions stop. To protect... something but he couldn't remember what.

He stopped himself, the stone was now within grasping distance; it had a cool black surface that glistened from the small holes in the ceiling above. It had not been made of obsidian as he'd thought but rather a glassy texture. He yearned to touch the stone.

Tigersight quickly pulled his hand back.

"No, I have to get out of here; I've seen enough of this bizarre place."

Tigersight spun around and started to leave the room, climbing over the pillar that was now blocking his path to the door. He knew he had to leave this room, but he couldn't remember who or what he had been looking for.

He heard another noise, similar to the one he had heard at the beginning of the cave, when he couldn't breathe. He now recognized the sound to be that of feet shuffling around. His first thought was that the guards had come to find him, and punish him for leaving them to fair the sand storm outside.

No, it couldn't have been them he hadn't been here that long... or had he? Tigersight felt very disoriented, and confused. He heard the scuffling noise again. Maybe there were people inhabiting this evil place. But if they really were here wouldn't he have noticed them while walking down here.

It was very dark, maybe he didn't see them, and now they were going to attack him while he wasn't paying attention. He quickly looked around the room for another person, his eye's rested on a barely illuminated area of the room, it looked like the shadows themselves were dancing or rather mocking him. There was someone over there.

Tigersight walked forward towards the person trying to get a better view of him, to access weather he should run, or ask if they knew a way out. As he got closer he soon realized that what was standing in the shadows was not a man, but rather a beast.

The beast was covered from head to toe with white fur, adorned with black stripes, like the cat that he had gotten his name from. Only this beast stood on its two hind legs, like a human. No this creature couldn't be compared to a human, it was far from. The whiteness of its fur had an unnerving nature it was empty of light, but yet the color of it just absorbed the light around the beast. An ever present essence of power radiated from him, unnatural and almost disgusting, evil echoed off of his very being.

The monster had a head was exactly like a tiger with powerful sharp canines, which hung past his lower jaw. He had powerful hands that compared quite well to a human; minus the nails. Tigersight had to keep reminding himself that this was a monster not a person. But as soon as he got a glimpse of the monsters eyes, there was no need to remind himself this creature was a beast. His eyes were a fierce green color, which almost mimicked the shadows surrounding him. Four long black scars stretched across his muzzle, creating a painting of pure evil, devoid of any emotion, except that unyielding hatred Tigersight had felt just a moment ago.

Tigersight took a step back, his foot resting against the pedestal that held the blackened rock. It was obvious that the monster could see him, but for some reason it only stood there, he decided that, now would be the opportune moment to run before...

The monster was inches from his face, far faster than anything in this world could move. Tigersight jumped back in fear tripping over one of the piece of the broken pillar that was just behind his foot. Tigersight's head smacked hard against the pedestal that held the stone. The entire thing started to tip over but it weight proved too much for it to tip. But the jolt it received from Tigersight's head instead caused the stone to loosen from its perch and the stone slipped from atop the pedestal and the momentum sent it tumbling through the air and it hit Tigersight square, on his forehead.

The monster and stone vanished in a thin wisp of black smoke.

Everything around him was dark it was an all-consuming blackness. The kind that told you there was no hope left. He began to wonder where he was, but he couldn't see anything, not because it was dark. There was nothing to see, no defining feature of anything aside from the iridescent purple fog that lay on the ground.

Agonizing pain instantly took over every fiber of his being. He screamed, as if pleading for anything to hear him. He hit his knees, as the entity that had been contained in the stone, ravaged his way through his mind, picking apart every ounce of his soul.

Through his memory, and into his dreams they fought their way through his mind; all the thoughts blurred together, until the images no longer made sense. Just waves of color; each being played so fast not even his brain could understand them. Dreams, memorys, he could not tell the diffrance anymore

Even his motor functions were affected, as he began to twitch a writhe on the floor. He would go completely limp for seconds at a time and then spasm like he was being electrocuted. His mind became a battlefield, as he battled for his life. The entity was on the attack, leaving him completely defenseless, and weak. They battled faster than consciousness, eliminating all human limitations.

All his memories good and bad played in the background of all this, some of these gave him enough power to stand a chance at fighting back, But for every powerful blow He managed, the entity had one even stronger to knock him down.

Tigersight's body outside of his mind began to react to their fighting as well, as foam began to pour out of his mouth and all his impurities began to vanish. Scars melted away into steam, his tattoo ink ran off of his skin, leaving a blank staunch image, clear and perfect; even the layer of dirt that had covered his skin from the storm outside disappeared, until nothing was left.

He continued to thrash around on the floor in an agony that felt like it would never cease. They continued to fight inside his mind for what seemed like entire lifetimes. That expanded in both directions, lifetimes that never happened, lifetimes that had yet to happen.

His dreams echoed quietly in the background, as they fought over who would take control of his human form when he awoke. Everything blurred together, and nothing appeared real anymore in this imaginary world. Yet it was all very real.

Everything stopped, all became quiet, soon he realized he had been transported back to the night he had received his name.

He could hear the fates whispering to him, and then the voices became louder and louder until they were shouting at him. Their voices blended together in a loud screech that he couldn't bear to listen to anymore. As soon as he covered his ears, Tigersight heard one true voice speak. The one he remembered from that night.

"You are our best hope for the future; you are the only person who can stop the mistakes of the past. So that they are never repeated"

His body went completely limp, and numb. No pain, no happiness nor sadness. Complete nothingness. He had been victorious, in defeating the entity. He had complete control, but he was too weak to even lift his head.

Everything began to go black for real, as his eyes slowly began to close. He was battered beaten and worn out. There was nothing left to prove this other than his expression of exhaustion. His body shut down for repairs it no longer needed.

The only thing that remained was a memory that played across his vision as everything went black. The first time he really met Tricia, first time he heard her laughter.

It was the first moment he ever truly felt home, since coming to the desert.