FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A week after the Hunted trip to the planet with humans and canines, and my use of a nuclear warhead on a village, Silverine announced we would be heading to another new planet. There was only the six of us this time, Devlin was coming along too, and I also had a request from Abigail.

"The techs designed a helicopter based on Simba's Apache, do you mind giving it a once over on the planet?" she asked.

"Two seater?"

"Of course."

"Then I'll need a co-pilot." I thought, and then turned to Javid.No one was listening to us.

"Hey Javid, fancy being a gunner in an attack chopper?"

"What attack chopper?" the wolf looked up, and Abigail explained. The wolf smiled.

"Sounds good, except how long has Alduin been flying?"

"Roughly?" I pretended to think this over,"I once flew a light helicopter for five minutes during a lesson, and at Physics of Flight in Year Twelve I flew a light aircraft."

"So quarter of an hour?" the wolf raised his eyebrows at me.

"And countless hours in Battlefield 2."

"Different principles, different controls." Javid replied.

"True, but I learnt a lot about how helicopters work doing so."I retaliated.

"All theory." Abigail laughed.

"Theory helps. I'm not going to be in a combat situation soon. Besides, how is it piloted?"

"Knowing your preferences, we installed both manual controls, but an overriding headset, so your vocal commands work also."

"Ah, much easier." I nodded. We teleported about five minutes after that, and arrived on a field.

It was a large field, trees surrounded it completely but it was a good kilometre in width. The sky was clear, and the two suns shone brightly. It was not that hot, and we looked around.

The field was covered in many plants, but there was one plant the abounded more wildly here. It was a strange plant.The leaves were a dark purple, about fifteen centimetres in length, and jagged.

"That is curious." Devlin said, the Hellfire bending to look at the plant, and Simba agreed, running scanners. Draco looked at the plants, and his face rearranged into uncertainty.

"I don't like those plants,Devlin. Can you not feel it?"

Devlin stopped reaching towards a specimen." I feel, worried." the hell fire sounded uncertain. Simba ran his scanner over it.

"Oh." the lion said briefly."There are substances in this plant which are very volatile, but only against dragons. I don't know about lizards, but it's exceptionally dangerous."

"So if we can just back away." Draco suggested, looking for a patch devoid of this nasty plant. Devlin took a couple steps away, and then there was a bang as the helicopter arrived next to us. Everyone turned, and everyone but me and Javid looked surprised at the long and sleek chopper. I explained Abigail's request, and then walked over to it, looking at it's sleek lines with a critical eye.It was made out of a black alloy, and it's odd angles and curves showed where it had deviated from the Apache of Earth.

I got to the tail section before we met our first local. Over the other side of the clearing, hiding down beside a patch of the toxic plants, a man wearing long robes and holding a plain black staff stood up, staff aimed directly at Draco and Devlin. It didn't take a great leap in mental thinking to know he was a wizard, and he smiled smugly as everyone turned to face him.

"You were foolish to come here, dragons." he laughed.

"I think you're mistaking us for some one else." Draco put his hands up. No one had their weapons up, not even me.

"I don't care who you are, I know what you are, that suffices. Did you not know about dragons bane?" he gestured with his head at the spiky plant. The colour drained out of Draco and Devlin, and I surreptitiously loaded my rifle.

"Who are you?" Simba looked at the wizard. The wizard smiled wider.

"I am Enoright, the spell caster."

"Then, Enoright, why are you so detesting of my friends?" the lion scowled.

The wizard raised an eyebrow."Surely you must be aware of the war taking place around this continent. The dragons are trying to remove the wizard's rights, we have been forced to defend ourselves."

"Bull." I muttered, aiming the rifle at the wizard.

"But these two aren't aware of the war, and they have no wish to get involved." Simba said, no one had heard my comment.

"They are dragons nevertheless, only my curiosity to their size is keeping them alive."

"Are you sure you could kill them?" Javid said, hand inching towards his blaster.

"If they inhale the gas from one leaf, it will kill them.Point that thing at me, and I will set the field alight." the wizard replied shortly, and then stopped. His face lost it's pallor, and he was staring over the two dragons. We all turned, and bearing down on our position was a noble dragon. Easily the size of the Apache I was next to, it glided in on it's attack run.

"Not good!" Draco shouted, as the dragon dived faster, opening it's jaws for a flamethrower. It might have hesitated if it knew it's reptilian friends were there. Simba and Salbar broke off running different directions, and the two dragons started to move aside. The wizard began chanting a spell, and he began to glow.

The dragon heaved a quarrel of fire, and then flashed over head. The streak of fire left a long streak of charred turf, setting light to the foliage. A sickly green mist erupted up, and I felt the acrid smell of burning invade my nostrils. There was a loud bang just as the green mist erupted, and I prayed the dragons had teleported.

I opened the cockpit for the Apache, and with the flicking of a couple of switches, the mighty rotors beat into life.As they gained momentum, they began to blow the cloud away, and it dissipated. I left it humming on low revs, and then looked around. The large dragon was already a distant speck, and the wizard had vanished, although whether he had teleported or been consumed I didn't know. What I did know is that the dragons hadn't teleported.

Draco was lying on the ground, on his front, one clawed hand outstretched. He wasn't breathing and I sprinted towards the fallen dragon. Devlin had run the other way, but I couldn't see him. I got on my knees, landing hard next to Draco, and rolled him over. His eyes were closed, and I quickly checked for a pulse on his wrist. It was there, but dangerously weak, and Simba ran up, drawing things with rapidity from his bag. I was crying, but I knew better than to speak with Simba working.

Salbar ran up. He was looking intensely worried, and he gave me the bad news.

"Devlin's not here."

I activated my com link with Central, praying Devlin could be accounted for there.

"Silverine, has Devlin arrived there?"

"What the hell happened?" the Lupogriff shouted in my ear.

"Dragon's bane is what happened, Silverine! Is Devlin alive?"

"At the moment!" the Lupogriff replied," Arachno's feverishly trying to work on him."

I breathed out, Arachno was a damn good doctor, if anyone could cure Devlin, it was the spider. Draco was unresponsive, but Simba injected a liquid through a gap in his scales in his shoulder. Another vial was whipped out from the lion's bag of tricks, and he drew his blaster.

"Everyone stand back."

He fired a two setting burst at the dragon. Draco lifted off the ground, arching, and then sunk back down, breathing shallowly.

"Never would of thought of that." I looked at Simba as he holstered the blaster and began to force feed this second vial to the dragon. Draco's body reacted to the lion's efforts, and tried to push the lion away. Both me and Javid dived on the dragon's arms, and pinned him down. Draco gagged, but after a few seconds he slumped, and Simba collapsed backwards in relief, landing on the grass and looking up, breathing.

"That dragon brought me to Central, made me close friends, and I don't know how many times he saved my life." he managed to mutter.

"He's O.K., isn't he, Simba?"

"Now he is." the lion sat up. He gently shook the dragon.

"Draco?" he asked softly.

The dragon stirred."Arvia?" he asked the world.

"She's not here, Draco. This is Simba, you know, your lion friend?" Simba said clearly and slowly. The dragon didn't open his eyes, he was still too groggy.

"Simba." he said,"where is she?"

"She's on your home planet, remember?You got a whiff of a nasty toxic chemical, and almost died, but we saved you."

The dragon lay back. I gently took one of the dragon's hands in my own, and he smiled.

"Alduin." he knew my touch. I was crying freely, relieved.

Unfortunately the dragon did not want to move, or indeed do anything but sleep, and he went onto his side and curled up into a circle.Apparently they find it comfortable, and his breathing slowed as he drifted into blessed sleep.Simba spoke to us.

"He'll be fine. Javid, Alduin, take the helicopter and go after that dragon. Salbar, could you guard Draco?"

"The heli will wake him up." I objected.

"I once set off a flash bang when Draco was drunk, he didn't stir." the lion replied."Now go."

Simba spoke in a tone that forbade argument. I ran over to the copter, Javid behind me.

"The dragon's flying N-N-E, I suggest we follow it." Javid said, as he vaulted into the gunner's seat. I strapped in, and powered up the rotors to full bore. The grass was blown backwards by the powerful air displacement, and the helicopter began to rise. I teased it gently into the air, and we hovered higher and higher. The dragon was a distant speck, and as we surged forwards, I resolved to tell the dragon exactly what I was thinking.

The Apache is a very fast helicopter, on Battlefield I've got one over 600 kilometres an hour. This real life version was only capable of four hundred, but it still meant we were catching up with the flying reptile at nearly three times it's speed.Apparently it hadn't bothered to look behind it, so we actually got quite close before it realised we were following it.

It craned it's head, and looked very surprised as it spotted the helicopter.

"Hey, Alduin, you checked out the armament on this thing?"

"I know you intend to tell me." I replied, as the dragon sped up it's flight, and we followed effortlessly.

"I've got ten TV guided missiles, and 1,500 rounds of cannon ammunition."

I quickly checked my own weapon status.

"It says here I have 12 heat seeking rockets, and 50 normal rockets."

"Handy, I want to get involved in a battle with this thing."

"So do I, except this costs a fortune, as do it's weapons, so before we go overboard, only I can create weapons out of nothing, and only in my own Raptor form."

"Not to mention it knocks the stuffing out of you." Javid replied, as the dragon looked back again. Apparently it was annoyed that we were still there. With a lightning move, it banked hard, but I was expecting it, and the chopper banked after it. Javid got a nice view of the ground out of the side window, although the G-force was still pressing us into our seats. The dragon turned the other way, and my hands danced over the controls as the helicopter lurched horizontal the other way, tracking the dragon like one of my own heatseekers.

Javid spoke cordially," I'm not entirely keen on an aerobatic display, I'd prefer my stomach not to lurch about."

The dragon dipped it's wings, and went into a reverse loop. I flipped the helicopter upside down, and then pulled hard. The chopper banked 'up', and it righted itself a hundred metres above the ground, and about twenty metres lower than the dragon. Javid was making prayers aloud, and talking to me in army 'language'. We were flying fairly low level anyway, but both chopper and dragon were highly manoeuvrable.

I nudged the chopper upwards after the dragon, and mentally commanded my targeter into my head set. The dragon was two rings away, an easy shot with a missile, and I fired one. The helicopter briefly shuddered, and a burst of white erupted from the left and zipped towards the dragon. It passed directly over the top of it's head, leaving a white vapour trail. The dragon turned, alarmed, and Javid spoke to me.

"Do we have an amplifier?"

I flicked a switch, and the wolf spoke authoritatively in a draconic language.

"Dragon, that burst was a warning shot to you. If you do not land immediately the next one will be a little lower. If you agree to our request, drop height."

The dragon considered it, and then glided slowly down. We matched speed, and both Apache and reptile descended. The dragon landed first, and then I landed directly behind him or her, and cut the engines. Javid volunteered to stay in the cockpit, the cannon might be needed. I nodded, and as the rotors came to a complete halt, I vaulted out of the cockpit and landed on the soil. The dragon looked at me, and I shifted into bionic form.

"Would you care to explain your actions back there?" I stood, rocket launcher dangling over one shoulder. It was loaded of course, and I was holding it in a way that suggested it could be levelled at my slightest whim. The dragon scowled.

"What are you, and what is that?"

"I am a traveller, that is my craft, now why did you flame at me and my friends?"

"You were conversing with a wizard." the dragon darkened, and I laughed.

"If you call being threatened with dragon's bane conversation." I began.

"But you are human, dragon's bane would not work on you."

"Yes, but I have two draconic companions, both of which were affected by the plant, thanks to your burst."

"I saw no dragons, only several human looking creatures."

"Two of them were dragons,"I repeated," just not all dragons are seventeen metres long and with huge wingspan.I have every right to kill you now, except I want to know why you're fighting the wizard who was there."

"Not just him." the dragon growled,"Do you know what they do to us?"

"Pray tell."

"They are tinkerers of magic, they like to cast magic spells and brew potions with various powers, am I correct?"

"I certainly don't doubt that." I nodded.

"Care to name what ingredients they use in said potions?"

"I see." I replied,"The wizard claimed you were trying to remove the wizard's rights in other things."

"Hmm, they would try an excuse like that." the dragon sneered, and blew a jet of fire towards a bush. The brittle leaves became mere skeletons, and blew away in ash."But I have seen what happened to a dragon they capture. If it's dead, they systematically drain away everything of what they consider of importance.If it's alive, then they take enough to keep the dragon living, and wait until it's regained what it lost. Like blood." It growled at me, as if suggesting I was on the wizard's side on this.

"Can I find proof of this?" I asked. The dragon made a guttural sound.

"Any where South of here, there are wizards, and they cluster in cities. I have seen the spectacle before. " It made a sound quite clearly expressing what it would have done if it hadn't been outnumbered then.

"What is your name, dragon?"

"Sullust." the dragon replied, and it rose slightly. I got a clear look at the dragon's underbelly, and recognized it as a female. For a start it didn't have the wedding tackle, although there were other ways of telling. She scowled at me, and I spoke.

"Well, Sullust, I am Alduin. Fortunately my draconic companions survived, or one of them has so far, so I have no desire to kill you. Just be a bit more careful next time."

The dragon clearly didn't enjoy being lectured by me, and I saw her dig her talons into the ground. I turned, and shouted to Javid.

"We're going to see if Sullust speaks the truth, and if so, god help them."

Javid nodded, and began fiddling with his communicator. Sullust took advantage of both my turned back and Javid's business with the com to take off.

"Where's the nearest city?" I shouted to her. She hovered.

"About thirty miles to the South, as the dragon flies." she roared.

"Can you take us there?"

The dragon seemed thoughtful. She knew I was not lying when I said I was going to punish anyone hurting dragons in that way, noble dragons could detect lies in anyone almost as good as I could with people I knew, and I was a master at it with certain people. Gareth could never understand how I instinctively knew he had been cooking, although sometimes that wasn't too hard. Then she landed again, right next to me, and looked me right in the face. To my credit, I didn't flinch, despite her smile of about three dozen pointy teeth.

"Very well, Alduin, although I am interested to see how one man and his furry companion will help."

"Sullust, I recently destroyed an entire village to free some canines that were being enslaved, do not think I am normal."

"Well, anyone offering to help a dragon is not normal."

"Here, maybe not." I muttered, but Sullust failed to catch this.The dragon didn't know where our technology came from, and she presumed I was a native.

I spoke again,"Sullust, can you name a single potion that require's dragon blood, or scale?"

"Potions of healing require dragon blood, and crushed scales are used for invisibility. I have talked with a dragon that got free once, but he died from exhaustion not three hours from that conversation."

I began to think of a plan to get rid of these infernal wizards.

"So the human populace buy these potions?"

"Yes, the wizards charge a mint though.Wizards will accept anything though, alcohol, food material or just gold.

Ah, a chance to kill two birds with one stone.I was repulsed by anything alcoholic, and everyone was about to find that out, and it would sort out the wizards.

"Javid, we are flying back to that field, I am going back to Central for about an hour to get some stuff."

"Like what?"

"Like a keg of finest alcohol."

"How is that supposed to help?" the wolf asked, as I climbed back into the helicopter.

"Like I said, it's one thing I'm getting.There are more."

"Like?"

"Like five empty kegs."

"Alduin, what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that you are going to engage in some fairly amazing draconic rescues." I replied.

"I'm going to take on several wizards by myself?" Javid looked disbelievingly.

"Javid, the wizards in question will have more to worry about than a wolf taking away their dragon." I smiled. Javid turned in his seat as I started up the rotors.

"You're grinning again, and it worries me.."

"So it should." I replied, as we began to take off.

The remaining of the party had not found another place, Draco was still asleep amongst the greenery, and we landed fifty yards distant from the three. Simba rushed up.

"Well?" he asked, watching Sullust land. The dragoness looked at the lion in turn.

"I'm going back to Central for a wee bit, Javid will explain what happened. How's Devlin?"

"Recovering in the medical room, although out cold." Simba replied, and I breathed out in relief.

I teleported, and arrived on Central. A glower hovered up.

"You are here for what purpose, Alduin?"

"I need some empty kegs, one keg of beer, and a trip to Ryan Viper, where ever he is."

"Sounds like some strange request."

"Don't worry, glower, I'm just being myself."

"I'll start panicking then." the glower replied straightly, and I laughed. I arrived at the food store. Silverine was having a stiff drink.

"He's alright," he looked at me,taking my enquiring glance and interpreting it for my concern for Devlin's health,"Just sleeping now."

"Good, I'm going to stop who caused it once and for all."

I repeated my request, and the dragon who served at the bar quickly rounded up five empty kegs, and I gave him two gold for a full one of finest ale.

"Alduin intends to get drunk?" Silverine asked, looking surprised.

"No, Alduin swore he abstains." Valmeero shook his head," This is probably just an evil plan he's forming."

"You bet it is." I replied, attaching object transporters to each barrel. As soon as I had done so, I teleported all six barrels back to the planet, and went off in search of Ryan.

He was lying in his bunk, reading innocently.

"Hey, Alduin, what can I do for you?" he waved innocently.

"I need something important to help enslaved dragons."

"Like what?"

I told him. He raised an eyebrow.

"How will that help?" he asked me, and I smiled again.He shrunk away.

"For me to know, and you to watch from a distance."

Of course, getting enough of said items meant a trip or two, but nothing Ryan really minded. Once he had collected enough, I teleported back to the planet, and Simba looked at my motley collection of things in confusion.

"What's your game plan then?"

"Best you don't know, you won't get nightmares that way." Sullust shivered, her tail dragging across the ground.

"Look, you're even scaring Sullust." Salbar pointed at the dragon.

"Well then she's not going to like what's coming up next." I replied, and set to work.

There were four things I had picked up. The kegs, six large plastic bags, and the things I got from Ryan. The process was simple. Remove lid on keg, fill plastic bag with one of Ryan's things, and place a small amount of the other in there before tying and sealing said bag. Place bag in keg, then pour alcohol from full keg until the first keg was full. Because of the large plastic bag, there was just enough alcohol to go around all six.

I sealed up the last bag, and the last keg, before Ryan gave me a few pointers. Because there were six kegs, and I was using each individually, all six needed to be different, so they could do what I wanted to one at a time. He triple checked to make sure I hadn't done anything wrong, and then I changed into my Raptor form.

"Right, as soon as I'm near the city, I'll drop a scanner. You can teleport everyone to where it lands, and we can start phase two. Sullust, do you intend to be watching?"

"I can watch from a distance, of from in the forest. It runs very close to the town, and you know how good we are at hiding."

"I do." A dark black dragon was surprisingly easy to lose in a forest.

So I followed her for about ten minutes, before I saw a town next to the forest and a river. Sullust immediately wheeled away, she had no wish to be seen by the residents, and I dropped my scanner into the middle of the forest before flying away at low level.

I have no doubt my passage was noticed by the villagers, but I flew so fast I was hard to see as anything but a blur of silver. As I did so, I cursed myself.

"I can change colour in this form, why didn't I pick sky blue?" It was a thought I would think on when I had the time. After half a minute of me being out of sight, Simba spoke.

"We're in the forest, not five hundred metres from the city, nice work."

"Is anyone interested in doing some scouting in disguise?"

"Looking for what?" Javid asked, but Sullust spoke.

"Wizard's have their own house/ shop, and this place has a fair few. I would say about ten, at least."

"And does every wizard have a building?" I asked.

"No, sometimes there will be two or three, working together." the dragon replied, darkening.

"Excellent."I replied, teleporting next to them in my human form. None of them flinched, and I picked up a barrel, noting a number on the side.

"Right, now let's get things clear. I am looking for dragons, alive or dead, if I find one, I will drop a scanner there so when all is clear, someone can pick said dragon up. Then I will take care of the rest. Who's volunteering?"

"I will." Draco replied, getting to his feet. He was immediately embraced in a hug from all of us. Sullust hung back, looking at the smaller dragon in interest, before we broke off.

"I thought you were going to be out all day." Simba clapped the dragon on the back. Draco smiled.

"I would have been more than out if it weren't for you guys. So what is Alduin doing with kegs of ale?"

"It's alcohol, but it's got a bit of, potency to it." I replied, smiling.

"It develops a bit of a kick." Ryan replied, grinning.

"Oh, dear, you haven't poisoned that ale, have you?"

"Nothing quite so subtle." Ryan replied, laughing, and Draco looked at the tiger.

"Now I'm worried.What have you done?"

"Simba will be recording from the street, you will be grabbing the dragons, and Sullust will be watching from the trees. You will all see."

Simba looked thoughtful." I'll need a disguise necklace, give me a minute to go get one."

"Take two." I replied, good naturedly, and Simba vanished. I was going to enjoy this. Javid whispered in my ear.

"Do you mind if I walk with you, two people together will look less suspicious than one?"

"Go ahead, Javid, but when I leave, make sure you do too." I replied,"Besides, you have X-ray on your glasses?"

"Yes."

"Then you look down one side of the street, I'll look down the other."

Simba reappeared, and all three of us walked out of the forest, and instantly to the open gates of the city. There was a bored guardsman, and he nodded to us as we entered.

"Afternoon, gentlemen."

The disguised wolf next to me nodded in return.

"Good afternoon, law guardian." the guard smiled at this politeness, and we walked down the street. Simba kept ten paces behind, as I looked one way down the street, and Javid the other.