FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The journey towards their destination did not take long. The Slavers Guild was splintered all over the world, and its members were allowed to operate independantly of each other. Tilnak had chosen to erect a safehouse near the border of Halshimron where the kingdom of the Wyld Lands resided.

The Wyld Lands had the largest concentration of beastmen races in Talinak, and according to Halshimron's law, all beastmen were required to become slaves when inside their borders. Tilnak and his group had raided the Wyld Lands on multiple occasions, plundering villages living too close to the border and smuggling the captives over into Halshimron before anybody could retaliate without causing their actions to be seen as a declaration of war.

Probably the only thing that kept any guards from patroling the border was the Wyld Lands didn't actually have an official form of governmnet. It had a king, sure, but the vast territory was populated by barbarian tribes, and the king was a firm believer in survival of the fittest. It was up to the villages to protect themselves against small threats, the king intervened when there was a national crisis at hand. And a few villages living too close to the border hardly classified as such.

"What do you see, Elicia?" asked Tilnak as they stood on a cliff over looking a village down below. Elicia was acting as the scout to determine what kind of threat they would be facing during the attack.

"Easy pickings, most of them look like typical Anthromorphs." she answered. Anthromorphs were the weakest of the beastmen, they didn't have any special talents like super human strength or speed.

They were only slightly more skilled in combat than humans because of their natural weaponry, but in terms of physical attributes, they were fairly well rounded. As long as they played it safe, they shouldn't have too much difficulty with their raid.

"Alright, the sun will be setting soon. We'll send Stewped in first, cause a state of panic, then jump out of the shadows and start bagging them up." Edgar said, wrapping his fingers around the grips of his sheathed daggers in anticipation.

"Maybe I should go with Stewped. He might need magical support and-" Bilen started to comment, but his father abrubtly cut him off in mid sentence to voice his rejection of the idea.

"The Ogre is stronger than all of us put together, he's probably too dumb to even know what pain is." He commented, "Besides, most of these beastmen are too stupid to use magic, they attack like wild beasts." He added.

"That's not-" Bilen started to argue, but his father shot him a death glare, causing him to scowl and fold his arms in silence. His father's racism had blinded him with arrogant pride. It was true that many beastmen didn't use magic, but that was because thye considered themselves physically superior warriors. Anthromorphs were different, and were much more prone to using magic than other species.

Bilen had never noticed before just how foolish his father was back when he was human, although granted he wasn't even into puberty back then. He went on and on about how humans were the supreme race, and showered Bilen with love in an effort to coax him into following the family business. But when his son was transformed, the truth was exposed and at times, Tilnak's hatred for none humans approached levels of ravenous zealotry. He was absolutely convinced that no other race had a chance at beating a true human warrior in battle!

The Imp retreated back to the camp to find the still pacified Stewped awaiting for the time when he would be unleashed upon the village. Vincent was busy applying the spell every time it seemed like the Ogre was regaining his senses, keeping him in a vegetative state. It was true, they really did consider him nothing more than an expendable tool to be used.

Bilen frowned once again when he thought about these humans. Often at times he had considered the possibility of joining with other members of the guild in far off kingdoms, ones that didn't possess the same racial intolerance as Halshimron. But this was his father's party, and Bilen had no idea where he would go if he abandoned it, or even if his father would allow him to leave once he decided.

Bilen absently looked at his palm as he mulled the idea over. The palm had a small brand that was the symbol of the Slavers Guild. Only half a square inch in size, the brand showed a fist clutching a chain and pulling upward as the chain circled around in a crescent to rest underneath the fist with an empty collar. Every member of the guild had this brand somewhere on their body, preferably some place easy to hide so they could avoid detection in locations where slavery was outlawed.

"Alright, Stewped!" Vincent shouted about an hour after the sun vanished over the horizon, "Time to start wrecking the village!" He ordered, dropping the spell and pointing down the side of the cliff. The Ogre blinked himself back to consciousness as he let the words start to sink in. He suddenly let out a loud roar of glee as he stormed off down the road towards the village, flailing his arms about wildly.

The humans stood back and watched, but Bilen decided to go with his plan after all, just in case something went wrong. While they watched Stewped's charge, the little Imp took the short cut down the cliff, using his wings to fly through the air. He managed to reach the village while Stewped was only half way down the path, and he smiled to himself, thankful for his transformation having a few perks.

Most of the villagers were going to sleep for the night, aside from the scheduled night watch, so he was able to easily slip into the village and begin searching around. He went from tent to tent, knowing that any moment, Stewped was bound to crash through and start tearing things to pieces. He moved fast, peeking under flaps and through open windows.

But the last tent he visited was different, and as he came to the entrance, he heard the muffled sounds of a struggle and peered inside. The lights were out, but his eyes were very accustomed to the dark, allowing him to see clearly that the resident of the tent was being attacked by another.

Inside the dark of the tent, an Anthromorph woman was in the process of being gagged and bound on the floor. Her arms and legs tied behind her back, and a thick cloth lodged in her muzzle. She looked to be a fox, but even his night vision couldn't make our the coloration of her fur pattern clearly, so she could be some other bushy tailed canine at the moment.

The one tying her up could have been mistaken for a child to anyone who wasn't knowledgeable in beastmen species. It was, in fact, a Cubling, a species that had childish frames with adult sized levels of strength and endurance. Their bodies were also thicker in build than actual children, having stubby fingers and toes, their thick bodies were the result of compact muscle density, which was the secret behind their advanced physical prowess. Although they were not immortal, they did have long life spans and only showed signs of advanced aging when nearing the end of such lives.

The Cubling was also female, and looked to be a rabbit in species. However he would need to get her out into the light to get any kind of significant description of her appearance. However, he was surprised when he heard her begin to speak, and what she said to her victim.

"You'll make a fine slave once I sell you off to the next village!" The Cubling said to the helpless vixen, making Bilen's eyes widen in surprise. He entered inside the tent and began to illuminate the area by conjuring a small orb of flames to hover above his palm.

"Well this is a surprise, we thought we had first dibs on the place." Bilen said as the light from the flames now made the tent clearly visible. The Cubling looked up at him in shock and drew forth a weapon that had been resting on the floor, a short sword with a blade almost as long as she was tall.

"Explain yourself!" She demanded, before Bilen held up his palm to reveal the brand. The rabbit looked at it for a moment before relaxing her posture and presented her left ear to him, revealing that she had the same brand on the inside of it near the tip so as to not damage her hearing.

They both knew what that meant. Anyone who carried the brand was a fellow guild member and was off limits for being targeted by the Slavers Guild. Anyone else, however, was fair game. Bilen watched as the vixen tried to squirm free, but the bunny girl forced her back into the dirt by pressing her foot on top of her upper back.

Now that Bilen was illuminating the area, he could get a better description of the two inside. The Cubling had light, creamy tan colored fur and bright green eyes. Her clothing was like that of a primitive tribal, consisting of nothing more than a vest and loin cloth which had been dyed green to match her eyes. The prisoner was, indeed, a fox, as was evident by her mostly orange fur with white tipped tail and black paws. Unlike her captor, however, she was completely nude, a sign that she had been caught off guard during the struggle, for Bilen didn't see any signs of shredded clothing laying about.

"So where did you come from? I've been infiltrating this village for weeks and didn't know of any safe houses nearby." the Cubling said, "Or are you independent like me?" she asked.

"No, I'm with a group from Halshimron." Bilen answered, "We were hoping to clear this village out when..." he suddenly remembered how the residence of Halshimron felt about beastmen and what his father's party might do if they discovered her.

"Wait, you should probably-!" Bilen started to explain, before a thundering crash was heard throughout the whole village, followed by a bellowing roar. Stewped had arrived in the village at last and was tearing the place apart, and that meant his father and the others would be making their move soon!

"What was that!?" the bunny asked in surprise, but Bilen grabbed her by the wrist, canceling his fire and letting the tent once again fall into darkness as he tried to hurry her out the entrance flap.

"Remember when I said my party's from Halshimron?" he asked rhetorically, "Well they really hate non humans, and I highly doubt they're going to appreciate a beastman with the guild mark roaming around!" Bilen exclaimed. "We have to get you out of here." He commented.

"Screw that, I'm not giving up this mark!" the bunny replied angrily, "It took weeks of infiltrating the village pretending I was a lost child before she decided to adopt me, I want this pay off!" she pried her arm out of Bilen's grasp before returning to the vixen and hoisting her up with surprising ease, although her legs still dragged on the floor because she was too short to completely lift the vixen in the air.

"You don't understand!" Bilen tried to explain, "Halshimron is the kingdom just north of here, we are practically right on the border. It's the law of the kingdom that all beastmen must either become slaves, or be executed if they will not submit." He went on, "My father may not have you in chains, but he will have you run through if he finds you!" he finished.

The bunny paused to think about it, before cursing under her breath and dropping the vixen to the floor before readying her sword again. She gave a nod to Bilen, indicating she understood and began to quickly follow after him.

However, it seemed that their little conversation had given the others the time they needed to move in, and almost immediately after they exited the tent, a thick sack was shoved down on top of the Cubling and scooped her up into the air, kicking and flailing. She had dropped her sword in the surprise. Bilen looked behind him to see Edgar drawing the strings tight and sealing her in, as she couldn't cut herself free.

"Wait, Edgar, she's one of us!" Bilen protested, "She's working independent!" he tried to explain. Edgar held the sack up with one arm, inspecting the squirming mass inside it and hearing the muffled curses from within.

"Another one of you inhumans, by the looks of it." he mused, "Well let's just see what Tilnak has to say about this, shall we?" he asked mockingly, "You know how much he loves your kind!" He laughed before Bilen illuminated the area with another fire orb and pulled the tent flap open to reveal the helpless vixen inside.

"Well then you carry this one!" he demanded, causing Edgar to look at the prisoner in surprise. Finding she was already bound and gagged. Edgar scoffed as he dropped the sack carelessly, letting the fellow slaver thud on the ground before entering the tent and beginning to collect the vixen.

Bilen, however, was already on the move as he unsheathed the dagger he had brought with him and was cutting the strings off the sack. He pried it open and quickly helped the Cubling out as he fetched her sword. They began running off just as Edgar was dragging the vixen out of the entrance. When he saw the two fleeing, he shouted at them, but they clearly ignored his threats.

"So quick question!" Bilen exclaimed, "In the event I get you out of here, how about we start our own safe house?" He asked, "I'm sick of working for a party that considers its own members to be expendable trash just because we're not humans." He explained.

"What do you mean we?" the bunny asked before another loud roar was bellowed and a nearby tent exploded into debris. Stewped came into view, illuminated by torches that had been set out to help the night watch.

"Oh shit!" the Cubling exclaimed, "Nevermind!" She added while quickly shifting to run in the opposite direction. Bilen looked back to see that Stewped had blown the tent right off its foundations, leaving the desperate and confused Anthromorph family huddling in their bed as Elicia appeared and quickly forced them down into their pillows while Vincent set to work tying them up.

That looked to be everyone from the party accounted for. All except for... Bilen felt his heart skip a beat when both he ran into someone, knocking both him and the bunny to the ground from the impact. He looked up to see the furiously glaring form of his father looming over them.

He had just finished chocking two anthromorphs unconscious and dropped their bodies into the dirt as Edgar once again appeared and began to restrain them.

"What in Alidnay's name do you think you're doing with that beast... DEVIL!?" His father demanded, screaming the last word with absolute hatred.

---

End of Chapter 2

Note: When creating the Cubling race for Talinak, I was inspired by the artwork of Momiji Yu-ga, who's characters are apparently much older than they are depicted in the art style. Which gave me the idea for a race of beastmen who looked like children, but had adult capabilities. The stubby fingers, and thicker body structure are credited directly after this artwork.

For a more clear depiction of the art style I used for modeling the Cublings, you can find a collection of images located here

https://e621.net/post?tags=Momiji_yu-ga&searchDefault=Search