FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

'You can come in yes!' Koravi's tenuous grasp on English brought a smile to Charlotte's face. She had been frowning at the rain when he'd opened the door and growled his disapproval of her unhappy appearance. When he saw her brighten he became exuberant, as he often did. The exiled king doted on his daughters, sparing no expense to please them. This was to his wife, Edeline's, dismay. Koravi thought of the diminutive fox as another of his girls and, true to his character, he fussed over her damp hair and coat as he took it from her. 'We should have make key for you. Not have standing wet all day.' The large bronze furred hyena was in his light linen robe. They must've started keeping it by the door, seeing as that's the fourth time in a row he's answered the door dressed. One of the hyena's customs had left her stunned for a week and at Edeline's insistence he'd begun to dress when they (or their son especially) had guests. While the hyena diplomat fussed and fumed in his good natured fashion, his sleek golden jackal queen rounded the corner into the vestibule to their home. Where Koravi appeared suited for a position on a football field or perhaps behind the counter of a convenience store, Edeline looked the perfect representation of 'exotic desert rose'. Long firm legs and slight curves always in modest but flattering cuts of fine Persian fabrics. She moved with liquid grace and her light eyes (perpetually lined in that beautiful khol, Char always thought) captivated. Not just subjects and politicians and personalities but right now her husband and their guest who was fending off that selfsame husband's attempts to put his own house key (the one still attached to the automatic key for his Mercedes Benz) into her hand.

"Husband, leave the poor girl alone. And stop trying to give away your car. Hello, Charlotte." The queen had a radiant smile that made Char feel like she was receiving her Dame's coif. "Loki is upstairs playing with his computer. Will you be staying for dinner?" Edeline was a queen? Char thought of a soccer mom instead. When night came, the jackal felt it better to send their servants to their own homes to be with their own families. She could care for her family through the night. It did her good to think of her family. In the last generations the kingdom shrank dramatically. Political upheaval in the eastern lands eventually lead to the 2 a.m. flight of the royal family to a neutral province. Queen Edeline could have given up the titles, the jewels, land and money. She would have without hesitation. The lives though. So many lives. She wished she could have died for them, but the brutal militants who deposed them would not have been satisfied with one royal death. In the end five people out of six were killed in the ensuing massacres and skirmishes. Those who didn't swear allegiance to the new regime were blasted in the temple at close range before another thought could follow their defiance. Now the queen had her family. Just her family and a loose coalition of supporters and retainers. Charlotte saw the deep sadness that haunted the jackal's honey coloured eyes. It was always there, even when she was laughing or smiling like she was now. Edeline gestured her husband away before floating after him. "In his suites, you'll find Loki. We hope you'll stay," she laughed, pushing her refrigerator of a husband down the hall with her shoulder.

Char liked the home of the refugee family. One of the mansions in the same neighborhood as the governor, it didn't feel like it on the inside. Though the rooms were large they were hung with ancient tapestries and furnished like a museum mock up of an Arabian pavilion. Painted pottery on columns of desert pitted marble. Even with the antiquities the mansion felt like a home full of love. She felt the family in every room and even began to believe she was a part of it. Statues of jackals in the splendor of an age gone by stood as silent sentinels. When Char passed them on the stairs she always paused, just in case one should take a breath and deem her worthy to hear whatever centuried secrets it may wish to utter.

The prince's room was lit only by a pair of computer screens and the streetlights that filtered through the windows up here. He was hunched over one of the screens, plodding along with some sequencing program. Loki was putting a song together. Char cleared her throat. He jumped before a smile spread over his face. "'Ello Charlotte." It was his father's smile, affectionate and true. The prince spun in his chair to face her. The buds in his ears he tugged free, those perked pointed ears toward her.

"What've you got, Loki?"

'Making you a song!' He laughed and let it play. It began as an electronic warble that lead into eastern tribal drumming. It felt like an ancient celebration given a computer's attention. Loki's voice came across the speakers. Char had heard him sing before. Even liked it's rustic charm. This though. This felt professional. Upbeat lyrical pop and lock in a language that was beautiful spoken and down right magical in melody. Char listened to the prince's voice wax high, roll and dive again as it enunciated the poetry of his family's home. As the heavy elements faded away, Char hugged her foreign friend and laughed. "I like it! Though I only caught parts.." The prodigy vixen had educated herself in her friend's language but still needed it spoken slowly for comprehension. The gist was her's but the nuances were lost on her. This perplexity must've shown in her face, she thought, because his proud grin softened.

"Its about a man who loved a fire. And searching to find her."

"Play it again."

Loki tapped the key and as the song played, Charlotte found herself mouthing the words. She thrilled to those words. Gooseflesh made the fire engine crimson fur of her arms and neck prickle. Char knew the song must be about her and felt a pang of shame pierce her. She'd never been conceited like that! Maybe it was the attention of the fashion designer that made her think that. Domino had completely overhauled her appearance. She'd gone from outsider genius to tres chic in a week. From teaching her that there were more hairstyles than pen in a bun to throwing most of her cheap shoes into a raging petrol fire, the long eared hare with the violet eyes refused to let her settle for mediocre. The designer may have only topped out just a couple of hairs over five feet tall but he was merciless. Being so sweet at the same time he was railing against her 'couture' made her wonder about his mind. Everything had been for her benefit though. When he'd finished she confessed it to herself while staring in the mirror at the transformation from frumpy to bombshell. Before all of that the song would have had to have been about another firey vixen. Someone beautiful and far away and unobtainable. Not like she was.

She jumped when Loki's hand brushed her's. The prince was smiling up at her from his chair, having paused the song. Char grinned, "I still don't understand the melody." She brushed her hair back, feeling dumb. The pat of Loki's hand sent that feeling far away. He was infinitely patient with her, she thought. It was probably because he had three sisters. Loki hit play again. The chorus was coming up and he spoke it in English for her. "Take me to the fire where my love makes her home. Show me the one I will live for. Carry me with her away in the light. Show me and we'll never be alone." Loki looked up at Charlotte, whose eyes had become watery. A girlish 'omg' smile. The hyena quickly paused the song. Boys never could understand a girl's melting for music. They always thought it was sickness; that they had done something to irritate or even anger. This was no exception in Loki. Before he could force the inevitable 'are you okay?' from his face, she had reached over and clicked the play button again. She shut her eyes, letting the nearly understood words wash over her. The feeling in the hyena prince's voice moved her. It longed for something far away and still so very near. She felt she understood the words without completely being sure she did. The chorus was coming up again and this time she saw the crinkled middle eastern text, right to left, in her mind's eye. She saw the subtitles in phonetic representation and American translation. She smiled to herself and held Loki's hand. They were speaking the words together.

Those words, the ones that had earned him a pop up the back of his head from his father, were magic. Koravi was bred of the fiercest warriors but was never abusive. The mild slap was for 'impiety' according to the king. Using a secret prayer in secular music disappointed him but only slightly. At least his son had the respect to keep it within its context. Loki believed in the words. Every bit as much as his mother's father's father's father had believed in them. Syllables that rippled the aethers and beckoned to unseen spirits to guide the way. Safety and expedience were the primary concerns of the prayer. The forces of nature invoked were never specific. Only that they come to deliver of their own volition. Legend told of beings of shadow, flame, light and pure imagination arriving to rescue the faithful in times of need. They hinted at elemental servants who were duty-bound mounts to heroes.

Charlotte shivered. Her fur tingled. The emotion had gotten to her. Or so she believed at first. The air had actually become cooler. It felt dense. It moved like a snake around her. The room felt alive. Loki gave her hand a squeeze. It was an attempt to reassure her. He wished somewhere that she could steady him back. The change in his suite was unnerving, even to the stalwart prince. The temperature continued to drop. Soon, Charlotte was hidden in the standing hyena's arms. He wanted to call out. To summon Mu or Da to deal with... Deal with what, exactly? A faulty air conditioner? That's all it could be, yes? The central air was on the strange and giving the impression of Antarctic chill in his room! "Wait here," he said to Char before striding for his door. He hadn't made it three steps before he yelped and held his nose. The hyena'd been deflected by some invisible barrier. Loki reached up in alarm, to feel this impedation of his progress. Golden paws found something soft and cool. It was large and thickly furred. He pedaled backwards to Charlotte whose hands were over her mouth, stifling a gasp as it came into view. So large it's lepine ears brushed the ceiling it turned its head toward the bewildered kids. Its face suggested the dragon and the stag. Proud liquid metal antlers came to eight sharp points. Its fur was platinum and its six long legs ended in lupine paws. Those paws were wreathed in the thick fog of truly cold air. The frame was kin to the stallion and the hound, high shoulders and sleek flanks. The monstrous thing was all eyes, in Charlotte's view. With the eight amethyst orbs in its composite face it watched both the prince and the savant imperiously. Manifold slits opened in a line along its flank to reveal even more gemlike eyes all moving independently to take it its surroundings.

Charlotte had ducked behind Loki to shield herself from the enormous monstrosity that had suddenly crowded the prince's room. "Wha..What is it?" She pleaded of Loki's knowledge. Her own intellect shrank in the face of this dream. Nothing in her experience had prepared her. Nothing could have. Loki's luminous blue eyes were wide. If stories were experience then he was at least somewhat prepared. An elemental steed! His mouth pained to shout it, but he found himself only shivering. If it weren't for the cold he would have been anyway. Dreams and hashish dallying were distant and incomplete things. This creature was real. Too real. Too close. Too big. It watched them with its rows of eyes without expression. Surveying them. Sizing them up. For what? Loki's imagination roamed away to the frightening.

The creature could be felt to laugh. It had no mouth in the sense that naturalists hold so dear. The impression was just that. An empathic suggestion. Furthermore, it was not hungry for little princes and ember vixens today. Loki and Charlotte held hands, relaxing together as the beast inferred its mission. Show them the escape. Take them away to dreams of purest love.

When Koravi went to check on his son (keep the door open, he had said, but you know sons) he knocked politely before pushing open the heavy ebony door. There was no one inside. He noted the low hanging haze upon the carpet and the opened windows. It smelled like ice. He wondered in his dad-brain where the young ones had gone, but his ancestral memory told him things were alright. His son was safe with the girl he loved. They weren't here but they were safe. Koravi grinned as he shut the door to his son's room. As he padded down to inform his wife that Miss Charlotte and Loki wouldn't be joining them for dinner after all he chuckled. He felt good in his heart. With them gone it meant more for him.