FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 1

The morning was nice...

Birds chirping away as the warm heat of the sun basked them with much warmness. The plants rustling by the winds with dead leaves falling to the ground like papers blown from the desk. Forests became more pleasant than at night, and the small wildlife started to go out from the protection of the dense trees in search for some food...and blood.

The wolf...the big damn wolf had got its share of meat from a dead fox. Yes, it's really nasty, seeing the sharp fangs biting through the poor distant cousin of the big predator that got it from a morning hunt. After a while, the wolf would be feasting with its pack, eating away the small body into nothing but a pile of bones....

The wolf then walked out of the forest while it was still dirty of blood, and it was certain. The wolf wasn't walking on four, but on two. It was carrying the small poor fox with its mouth, yes, but its feature was humanoid, and hunched, like a monster that had found its prey and satisfied on the result.

When it opened its mouth and dropped the body, it howled to a house, and a woman with fair long black hair came out. She had those blue eyes that could mesmerize even the hardest man, wearing a blouse, and yawning.

"Hans...my god, you're early," said the woman to the monster. "What's for breakfast?"

Then the half wolf half human changed back into a human in a painful manner, starting from retracting the claws, and the head returned into a human's, seemingly different from the first impression that it was a monster. Then it stood straight, like a human's posture, and replied. "A fox. It's big, Lilac."

"Oh, Hans, you know I eat a little, right?"

"If you don't want to I can eat it all. I'm the one catching it."

The woman, Lilac, made a gesture of a giggle. "You're joking, aren't you?"

"Oh, you got me, my little sister."

Hans, the werewolf, had finished his hunt for the small sibling breakfast in the small wooden house with the back yard serving as the entrance to where they usually hunt. Yes, as you all can see, Lilac, the woman greeting him, was also a werewolf. They liked hunted fresh meat more than any people living in the village down the hill where they lived now. Yes, the quiet small village of Almunda village preferred farming than hunting, where the huntsman did. Because they were similar wolves that always stalk cattle whenever possible the hunters like to be stationed near the cattle, but sometimes they couldn't cope with the fact that they had to guard a big herd while the wolf could be hiding anywhere and taking one without being noticed. That's why, Hans was assigned as one of the hunter dogs. He usually only scare wolves away with his big size and monstrous appearance, since he refused to kill any (werewolves still think the wolves are their kin).

"So, Lilac, how can you make on this big fox?" said Hans.

"Let's see...how about steak? I can't think on any foods I can make for this fox."

"What?! Again?! Lilac, we have eaten steak for the past 2 weeks!"

"How about if you consider hunting on other things like rabbits so I can make a stew or something? For now we'll just hang on steak, okay, because I'm thinking on another recipe."

"You know, girl? You're one heck of a cook."

"That's an insult or praise?"

"What you think is not my concern. I am only commenting."

Lilac then sighed and went to the kitchen. The kitchen was very spacy and full of wooden appliances. With Hans' help she put the rather big fox body on a big table and started to skin it, while hoping the pelt could be sold in a fair price where they could sustain life. Money is hard for them, but they had resources in the forest.

After Hans waited for an hour, Lilac came out from the kitchen with steak on a wooden tray. The smell made Hans almost drooled, but knowing he wasn't inside a werewolf form he shouldn't do that.

"Here, it's half-raw, for you," said Lilac while smiling and giving the bigger portion of the two to Hans. His steak had redder center than Lilac's. Hans immediately ate them in a savage way, making Lilac somehow disgusted, but she still could say that as a normal and smirked.

"You really are hungry, huh, Hans?" said Lilac while taking a bite on her creation. "You should stop eating that fast and start to just taste it. If you eat like a dog then there's no point I make it in a fashion of a restaurant, right?"

"At least it's tasty."

"Yeah, yeah, suit yourself."

After they both had satisfied their hunger (with a weird kind of appetite), Hans then said, "I've been thinking, Lilac. What's the world beyond this village? Or maybe, the world beyond Ternor?"

"Come on, Hans. You know that outside world is no place for us. We've got what we need here, in our home. We got a forest and kind villagers...not that kind to me, though..."

"Yes, I know, but I want to see more! The world is big, and there are full of mysteries. I've heard stories in the tavern about the world beyond the land around us. The beauty of the animals, the plants, the people, and what he said about magic and what I don't know about. It's really beautiful inside the imagination, but it won't be as beautiful as the real one. I...I really think...for a Lycan like me...it's hard not to explore and stretch out a bit."

"But...," said Lilac while holding his hand. "You're the only family I've got. Since that time we're into these...these fate, we've lost many people around us. I don't want you to die. If you die, then who am I supposed to live? I'm lonely..."

"You talk like you have no chance on having any husband."

"Yes, I am!"

"Huh...then, how about if I say that I swear, I'll go back alive no matter what happened? I'll be back...I promise."

"You sure? We're not dreaming, Hans. Not like when we're small."

"I know, this is the real deal. But I swear I'll beat the world and come back alive to tell everyone about the world beyond this village and Tragoria region."

Lilac became silent, then she said, "When do you plan to leave?"

"In about two weeks," said Hans in a serious tone. "There's an expedition team that recruits any race of any kind on the exploration to the west, since they said they need more manpower than average human. Apparently the leader was also a Lycan, so I can have a partner and a friend with the same fate. I need to take what's necessary and also to say proper goodbyes...but he did say something about not being able to see your family again..."

"You did say you promised to be alive no matter what!" interrupted Lilac while she stood up.

"It's just a warning, Lilac! I will be back, I really promise you! I'll go by sea."

"What?! Can you swim?"

"Is that the first thing you would say on a will-be expedition team member?"

"It's just...I never see you able to swim in your human form."

"I can, okay?"

Lilac then sighed. After a small silence that morning, Hans continued. "Because of the long journey, and apparently the expedition leader knew I'm a Lycan, he tasked me in gathering normal foods for the crew. Of course, that fox wasn't included in the list, but he asked about deer, rabbits, and stuffs I can hunt. I haven't seen the ship but I bet it's big enough for the supplies."

"So, those animals were not for winter reserve?"

"Of course not! You can't afford to eat THAT much of a meat, right? Also, you're still limited under the moon, so you won't get more appetite than I do."

"I mean your winter reserve, not mine!"

"This is getting nowhere, Lilac..."

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I just want to say...be careful on that journey and grab hold on that promise you did, okay? I can't actually help you in any ways...I'm not really a religious person."

Hans smiled, then silently he walked outside carrying a poach of gold and a knife, in case he was trying to be mugged in the tavern while not unleashing his feral personality. He then opened the front oak door, and left to the small village at the base of the hill where they lived. As Lilac watched Hans walked down to the tavern, she imagined being left alone without anyone to support her, but she tried to stay strong, and returned back to her room reading a book.

Two weeks later, at the same time when they parted before, Hans, in his werewolf form, walked down the hill with his supplies. He used his usual red clothes with pants which somehow fitted to his werewolf form.

"Promise me, Hans," said Lilac while waving her hand. "Stay alive, brother."

"I will," replied Hans while smirking. Because of his transformation he had a gruff voice, but it didn't change what Hans really was. As he walked down, out of view, the wind caught Lilac's straw hat, and from there, she murmured, "He'll be safe."

Three days after Hans' depart to the unknown land, Lilac was lounging in her living room reading a book. The book she read was fairly good, but it was the third time she read them, and of course she didn't have any money to buy new books except the ones she got inside her bookshelf. The fire flickering at the fireplace mesmerized her for a moment before she realized it started to get dark. Then, before she realized it, she was howling like a wolf almost unconsciously when she turned to a nearby mirror that she realized her black hair started to grow all over her body and sudden pain came to her. She saw her own self turning into a black wolf, growing sharp claws and sharp fangs, ready to kill anything. She turned her vision to her leg. They started to grow into canine back legs, and she could see long black furry tail growing out.

In less than 15 minutes of agonizing pain, Lilac had become a werewolf.

"Why Hans didn't even buy me a goddamn lunar table so at least I know it's full moon...," murmured Lilac. "Oh well...time for hunting...training."

Running out to the back, her blue eyes managed to see clearly in the dark as a result of the transformation. Her werewolf form, unlike the more muscular and gruff Hans, was slender and still human-like, so not a little hunched like Hans did. Lilac always joked that because Hans had transformed first he was a classic type, while Lilac was the newer type. The forest wasn't that dense so she could see clearly using the help of the moonlight, and nocturnal animals made her very hungry for a dinner, as she realized the winter reserve was empty as she slowly got a wolf's appetite.

She spotted a red fox by the scent, and started to run after it on all four. The vulpine knew she was coming, and in ran away scared. Lilac was faster, and she managed to snatch the small canine. She knew she and Hans were cannibal to fellow canines, but they were humans, not wolves. Snapping its neck with her strong hand, she suddenly became exhausted and almost vomited. Luckily she closed her eyes before snapping it.

"I...I'm sorry little fox," said the black werewolf. "I wish your soul be saved..."

Right after that, she realized she was lost.

"Goddamn it, this is really an embarrassment," murmured Lilac while walking. "I'm a wolf and yet I'm lost. I need to walk in this forest more instead of reading and cooking for Hans and..."

Right after she said that she tripped on a soft fluffy body, and she fell on the muddy terrain. She felt her body hit a log, and it drew out her breath. Though she was a werewolf now, her slender body made her endurance only slightly better than a human, and so her resistance to the incident was still the same with a human.

"Oh...I should have seen the way better..."

She blinked once, and second, when she saw an unconscious furry body, dirty by the wet mud all around her. The body was as big as a bear's, but still it looked human. From the look of the closed eyes and the head, Lilac knew it wasn't a bear at all, and it was like her kind, a Lycan.

"Oh, he's hurt," said Lilac when she saw that the Lycan had blood on its mouth. "Maybe he tripped at the same branch at me when he was hunting. But...hunting? This Lycan must be new...running from some mobs from neighboring villages. I...I really don't want it if he wakes up."

Despite on being very concerned about the fact that this Lycan was still new on his transformation and could be berserk if he woke up, Lilac shook her head and said, "Damn it, Lilac! You want to leave your own kind in a dreadful forest?! If he's still a new werewolf he will be back into a human the next morning! I think I'll let him know about his fate tomorrow."

Dragging the big body with her slender body made this female werewolf to get exhausted once she reached her house porch, and there she met a mountain wolf that darted back into the darkness of the night.

"That wolf always comes here, huh?" thought Lilac. "Maybe it's because of Hans' leftover. I think he's a cutie, though."

Since she didn't know how to care on a dirty Lycan, and she knew the Lycan could give her more jobs in cleaning the bed sheet, so she just put the Lycan in front of the back porch. She watched the werewolf's appearance. It was black, black as night. The ragged fur of the wolf made him fluffy, but despite of size, he was very much slender, like a human more with wolf's features. The thing that really took Lilac's attention was the horns, but she dismissed them as decorations. This wolf had many piercings; especially its ear had a rod-like piercing with each end on the back of the wolves' ears. She never knew werewolves in wolf form had piercings. Some of the furs had different stripe color, with distinctive stripes starting from its back. It also still had blue pants left as its clothes. Though the werewolf she found was weird in appearance, she only dismissed them as she didn't know another race of werewolf other than Lycans.

"I think he'll be alright by the morning comes," said Lilac when she went back to her house, and howled at the full moon.