FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

1

The Spirit of Fire

Mother wind whistled across the landscapes, causing snow to drift forming thick wide ice hills. The clouds had blocked out the thousands of eyes that would normally look down upon the world. However you could see the dim silver light of the All Seeing Eye as some have called it illuminating the clouds that lay before it.

Standing upon on two legs a young adult male stood silent and still, although he was no average adult male, he was in fact a humanoid wolf. A crossbreed between races of man and wolf. He was known as a Lupine, a rare race of creatures that resided amongst the land of Pangaea.

The wind tasseled the thick gray fur that occupied the Lupine's entire body, his emerald eyes shimmered softly in the torch light that was snapping and cracking as it danced upon the oil soaked staff that the wolf held in his paws.

He was staring, those deep eyes filled with the emerald sea as they gazed upon the black void, snow coating over his fur, he never shivered, he never whimpered of the pain of cold's bite. His fur was thick, which also kept him nice and warm.

"Come on son of Eldure, my tribe is starving and your time on this earth I know is ending," He whispered as he stuck the torch into the snow and then reached back for his bow grabbing a poison tipped arrow as he inhaled and then gently exhaled a white ghost escaping from his muzzle.

Suddenly something emerged from the darkness. It was an elk, not a being like himself, but a simple feral beast that wandered the ancient wood that lay due North from where his tribe lived.

He pulled the ivory arrow onto the bows string and took another deep breath and gently exhaled allowing not a single sound to escape his muzzle. He waited as the elk chewed what little ground there was left.

The elk had been abandoned by his herd for they knew that death lingered upon his cold gray hooves, death shrouded his white eyes. Moments pass, his heart thudding against his chest, his paws getting a bit sweaty as he gazed at the elk waiting for the right moment.

The arrow is let lose, and it whizzed into the air flying towards the elk, the arrowhead pierced the flesh of the elk and dug deep into its hide, the poison seeping into its bloodstream.

Once the elk lay dead, the Wolf approached him and knelt down to his knees.

"May your three spirits fly free into the Spirit World," He said his paw gently gliding down the elks hide as he hummed softly as he continued the Ceremony of Passing before he began to cut away at the hide and began the process of cleaning the Elk out.

His clan had one rule when it came to hunting, if you are to kill a Child of Earth be sure to take everything and leave nothing behind. The wolf paused during the process of wrapping the elk's meat into herb leaves when he noticed that the darkness was being illuminated by a large figure that stood twenty feet away from where he was.

The creature kept moving forward and the Lupine noticed that the ground beneath him began to melt, the snow was evaporating, turning into liquid and the dead ground of the previous summer could be visible in the darkness for the light grew brighter as the beast drew closer.

The wolf had held his breath for a long period of time, expecting it to be some kind of Demon from the Dark Mountains. The creature was a tall massive wolf, and perched atop his head was a set of elk antlers that shimmered brightly.

"Do share your kill Nanuua," Whispered a voice within the air that seemed to be coming from the creature whom had knelt down before him one of his antlers touching Nanuua's shoulder.

Nanuua was a bit stunned that the creature had known his name, which only meant that this fire wolf had to be one of the four Spirits that roamed this world, the guardians of the Light and Sun.

"Don't be afraid, the voice spoke to him in a gentle tone.

It was at that moment that Nanuua had realized the wolf was made of fire which crackled and danced in the gale of the wind.

"Have your share Great Spirit," Nanuua replied looking upon the creature, his entire body tingling. The elk horns shimmered brilliantly as the Spirit knelt down before his kill and began to sink its ivory teeth into the flesh of the pray.

"My name is Halios, Spirit of the South, and Ruler of the Southern Kingdom of flame and ash,"

Nanuua regarded the spirit with watchful eyes and sat there in a moment of silence.

"What are you doing in the Kingdom of Ice?" He inquired his ears flicking in curiosity.

"The four Spirits of the North, South, East, and West Kingdoms are gathering at the Great Circle which centers our world for a council meeting,' Halios said sitting on his haunches as his large tongue licked at his blood stained lips.

"Why are the Spirits gathering?" Nanuua inquired his ears perking up as he looked towards the spirit.

"There is change coming to our world, a darkness that is descending upon our lands from the Shadow World," The Spirit said shuddering.

"Trolls have been spotted in the Earth Kingdom," He said.

"Trolls?" Nanuua's mouth went agape in pure shock.

"Yeah, apparently there has been a disturbance and Trolls are raiding flocks and eating lambs and other farm animals and are causing trouble," He explained.

"But the Nightmare King hasn't been sighted since the Great Flood," Nanuua said looking up at him curiously.

"Well, since the Great Flood no one knows where the King had vanished too since our battle," The wolf said sighing softly.

'I regret that day a lot, I should have sunk my fangs into his neck and ended it all there and then, but he was still too strong for us," He said.

"Don't down yourself so, you and the other Spirits did what you were supposed to do, keep the darkness at bay,' Nanuua said.

"But if only there was that one moment that I didn't strike with my magic, I could have spared us this time of sorrow," The wolf said sighing softly rising to all fours.

"Where are you going?" Nanuua asked.

"To the Center of the World as I've said before, the Four Spirits of the North, South East, and West are gathering, thank you Son of the North for offering me your meal," The wolf said and began to walk away into the darkness.

"Wait,' Nanuua said taking a deep breath his whole body shaking with nerves.

"I....I ugh want to come, I want to see the Spirits," The young warrior said.

The large head of the wolf turns, his flames grew brighter as he began to approach him once again, his large antlers shooting out sparks of embers upon the already charred earth, although the heat of the flames was hot it never burnt or scared the young warrior, they didn't even singe his own fur.

"You wish to follow a Spirit to the Center of the World the center of all Pangaea, a place in which no human nor creature has ever seen," The Spirit said with more of an explanation rather than a question in his voice.

"If my dream did not foresee this, I would have had to decline your offer, but seeing it's legit, I suppose I have but no choice to allow destiny to unfold itself," The young wolf said.

With joy rushing through Nanuua his tail began to slightly wag as he ran off to grab his materials that he had left hidden during the hunt, after grabbing his belt which contained his knife and medicine pouch, he also grabbed his Willow Staff in which his Grandmother had shaped for him, after collecting all of his materials his head turned and saw that the wolf had followed him.

"Are you not to say goodbye to your families?" The wolf inquired.

"Goodbye is forever, saying nothing gives me a chance to return," Nanuua responds.

"Wise words for a warrior," The Spirit said nodding his head.

"Halios, how far is the Central Kingdom?" Nanuua asked as his eyes looked at the flames that danced and swayed upon the wolf's body as his white eyes met his emerald eyes.

"A few days journey, the meeting isn't until the full moon, that is in fact when the Grand Cave only opens," The wolf responded.

"So you're saying that there is this secret cave that resides underneath the ancient ruins of the Elven City?" Nanuua asked.

"Before the Elves had left this place, and the city was in ruin, there was a cave that had indeed been constructed from within the garnet, this was of course upon the day the First Sun had risen upon this world basking its light upon the darkness that once was,"

"When the Shadow King retreated to the Black Mountains," Halios then looked over towards the East where if it were be daylight one could easily see the towering spires of the black mountain peaks that would send shivers down anyone's body.

"The Cave was constructed by the Elves themselves with their ancient architectural skills and famous wood carvings," The Wolf said.

"And the stones in which the ancient Stone Lords had gathered are also spectacular, it is such a beautiful place to be Nanuua,' the wolf said.

The walk towards their destination was long and the winter wind was cold, but that didn't seem to bother neither of them, their tracks were left behind in the snow, and little did they know that they were being followed, unaware of their assailants that silently tracked their every step and heard every word that was spoken between them.

"So, the Spirits are gathering because of the recent Troll Activity are they now?" A gurgling voice inquired softly as two ruby red eyes gazed around the vast white landscape. The Goblin wasn't like any of his cousins, he wasn't grotesque or ugly or full of warts, he was in fact one of the better looking Goblins of his kind.

He was tall handsomely built and obtained an olive green skin upon his muscle toned frame. His hair was black and shoulder length, instead of thick scales he contained thick fur which was hidden mostly by thick metallic armor crafted by his ancestors.

In his right paw he carried a sword which was unsheathed from an ivory scabbard, the hilt also was made of ivory and carved with two dragons on both sides.

"What do you wish us to do Glux?" The second Goblin which was quite opposite on looks asked his eyes looking up at his master curiously.

"We wait like Shade commanded us to," Glux responded as he stood there gazing down at the path in which the Spirit and the native of the North was going.

"We wait until they reach the cave in which they speak of, and when we get the chance we can take what we need," He chuckles slightly.

"Why does master need the four stones anyway?" The Goblin asked.

Glux sighed slightly in a bit of aggravation.

"I've told you over, and over again. The Stones are needed for the Ritual to summon the Darkness, the Comet in which will come and destroy all of this world," The Goblin said scoffing.

"Oh right, wait, but wouldn't that mean killing us too?" The Goblin asked.

"The master said that we all will be kept in preserve until the mere future of this world, and when the time comes will we then rise into the new world to claim it as our own," Glux said.

"Ah, so technically we won't be dead,' more like sleep?" The Goblin asked.

"For Goddess sake yes," Glux said in utter annoyance as he sighed softly and took out a whistle and pressed it to his lips and blew on it but there was only silence. Suddenly there was a loud howl that pierced the wind as then suddenly large black beasts began to appear.

The sun began to rise above the mountain peaks, the darkness slowly began to vanish, the first few beams of sunlight fell upon the creatures in which the Goblins had summoned, they were tall like horses and had the shape of a wolf and the head of a Chinese dragon with a long flowing mane and long tail that lashed back and forth.

These creatures were in fact called Dragnords a hybrid that was once made by an experiment from an Alchemist by the name of Helgar the Healer.

The Goblins climbed aboard the Dragnords and then took off into what was left of the shadows, continuing down the path of which the Spirit and the wolf had been going down upon, their intentions clear and their goal firm.