FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sitting upon a twilight roof, the stars failed to glint above him with the overwhelming light of the city far below him. The night slowly encroached upon the retreating daylight, hiding far away across the river in the distance. The sounds of moving vehicles simply faded into the background, the voices sounding out loud and clear in a myriad of accents all the way towards the far otherside of the city. He looked towards where the roads would all go, off towards the big skyscraper horizon. A wistful sigh escaped him, but he was not sure why. "Roy?" A voice came from behind him, deep yet soft like an oak beside the stream. He turned briefly to see a large black raptor, indomitably tall and built with a surprisingly slender body. He wasn't packed with broad shoulders, but his body filled out neatly to become a strapping strong male, his blue polyester shirt and brown slacks covering his physique, marking him as a postal worker with the badge of the US Postal Service. He sat down beside Roy upon the edge of the roof, feet dangling over the edge of a ventilation unit whilst staring beyond towards the streets. "Are you alright?" "Ahm fine," he said, "just...wanted to think about stuff a li'l." "It's good to have time to think yes...but you can always tell me anything if you want to hear someone else's thoughts." "Ah know..." He looked down at his own feet, seeing them to be much smaller than he remembered them being and his voice was like that of a young lad from the streets now fluid and at a higher pitch. He clasped his hands softly, echoes of the past sending nervous twinges in his stomach as he stared down at his pudgy bare chest and dark blue slacks, before turning towards the older raptor. Kindly brown eyes with a Christian cross hanging from his neck, as the elder said: "Is there anything you'd like to talk about, son? You seemed quiet at dinner." "W-well...um...maybe. You ever...lahk...maybe-" "Just take a deep breath...and try to compose your thoughts, one by one. The answer will soon come to you to explain to me." "Hokay, ummm...hhhhhh...um...you ever, heard or saw sumthin' that people told you wuz lahk, thuh law, lahk you HAD to do it...but...you didn't think it sounded right?" "...hmmmm..."

His father stroked his snout, smoothing his fingers along and towards the edge of his chin, pondering as he closed his eyes softly before replying. "There are times I have had my sense of morals tested yes. That what is right is not necessarily what is always lawful. But those are very rare circumstances Roy, and usually in times of great distress, what happened?" "Um...well...ah saw sumthin' at school today." "Yes?" "...you promise not to tell anybody?" "Cross my heart." "R-righ'...um...so this kid, his dad's thuh gym coach righ', Mr. Holstein? He's not a nice kid though, he's a real bully." "I see...did he hurt you?" "N-nah, not...not today, s'not that. See, he got caught beating up sum other kid, an' he got sent to thuh principal." "I see." "Bu' thuh principal said that his dad oughta be thuh one to teach 'im sum discipline, since he's lahk on school grounds an' stuff. So ah saw him, he goes to his dad's office a-an' his dad just...BEATS the hell outta him!" "Really?" "H-he wuz beatin' him up! Lahk real bad, really beatin' the hell outta him a-a-an' kicking him an' everything, lahk bleedin' all over! Me an' a buncha other kids saw it an' they all kinda laughed an' rooted an' said he deserved it cuz he wuz such a jerk to us! But...but ah didn't laugh, ah didn't laugh an' they all called me weird fer it!" "Why didn't you laugh?" "Because...because it wuzn't right dad! He's a bully yeah but his dad's an even bigger bully too! He don' do anything to us but he beats the hell outta his son lahk nuthin'! But...ah dunno whut to do. I-if ah go to thuh principal, mebbe he gonna punish me fer spyin' or sumthin', cuz thuh kid got whut he deserved, he's a jerk! But ah think his dad should be punished too, cuz he only bein' an even bigger bully back! An' ah feel bad fer him, he's getting bullied too, an' he can't fight his own dad, that ain't right, that ain't FAIR! He a grown up too, he don't gotta do that, he got no right to do that!" "So you are torn between obeying your school and speaking out against this injustice?" "Y-yeah! ...ah dunno whut to do dad..." Roy slowly cupped his head into his hands, sighing with deep frustration as his father put an arm around his shoulders. "Ah dunno who to tell or whut to do..." "This seems like quite a puzzle doesn't it?" "Huh?"

A voice had come from his right very briefly that was not of his father's, somewhat familiar but he couldn't quite place it. His father however brought his thoughts back to him, and hugged him tightly with one arm around him, saying: "Roy...you are a very bright young lad, and I have always admired the fact that you are such a strongly moral child at that. The fact that you actually agonise over someone, who you could not truly sympathise with before until something like this happened, that shows a greater sense of understanding and empathy than even most adults would." "But...b-but whut do ah do dad? Do ah jus' siddown an' listen to whut thuh grownups tell me, tellin' me that he got punished fer whut he did an' that's that...or do ah tell 'em no, tell 'em ah don't think he deserve that a-an' that he should be given sumthin' else! Ah mean, he IS a bully, sure he's a jerk ah don' like 'im! But...ah dunno...ah just...a-ah think whut he got wuz too bad fer him..." "What is the first thing your heart says?" "Huh?" Roy's father gently bent down and pressed a clawfinger to his chest. "What does your heart say, the very first thing that it said to you when you saw this happen?" "...ah thought it wuz wrong." "Then that is all you need to know. You have a very strong heart, your mother and I understand that. Whatever you choose to do, you do so as long as you have conviction that you are fighting the unjust." "H-heh...lahk sum knight outta them ol' movies?" "Yes, hmhmha, something like that." "Lahk christians maybe? Cuz you told me 'bout things that good people should do." "Well...that's not entirely true Roy." "Whuh? But ah thought all christians were good, lahk you dad." "No son. Religion does not give you a moral compass by default, you are born with that. It merely enforces it. There are people in this world who are naturally good, who know that it is not right to hurt others. And there are those who are naturally evil, who know not of these things." "But whut about all them commandments you taught me? Lahk, don't steal, don't kill, don't-" "And how did we come by those commandments son? They came from God, yes, but where did God take His commandments?" "...I'unno," shrugged Roy. "He had to make one himself, by His own understanding of the world. And not everyone stands by those commandments truly, for they have their own morals and convictions because they are their own people. Some of them will try to justify their actions, just or unjust, through various means such as religion or politics. But that doesn't make them any better. Look at the bully and his father. Why was he beaten?" "Cuz he wuz gettin' punished cuz he beat up another kid." "Right, now you think that punishment was too severe, correct?" "Yeah!" "Yet he is being punished for something that was against the school's law, is he not?" "Well, yeah!" "And that's just it. People sometimes do unjust things because they believe that they have the right to do so through a law or such. But that does not make them better does it?" "N-naw, cuz they beat 'im TOO badly, he wuz bleedin' an' everything!" "And that is what you must challenge. What is lawful is not always what is right. Whenever you face a conflict such as this...you must listen to your heart." "...so...you think ahm right?" "I believe so yes. In fact, I wish to come down to the school tomorrow and support your case." "Really!? You wanna help me dad?!" "Of course I do. I believe you are right, such a punishment can go too far and becomes nothing more than brutality upon brutality." "...thanks...dad."

He hugged his father around the waist, a great weight coming off his shoulders with a deep sigh of relief. His father in turn hugged him tightly, smiling at having helped his son until another question came. A strange unrelated thought that came drifting from another existence, beyond this current memory. But one that he became all too aware of. "...dad...can ah ask you sumthin'?" "Always." "...whut if...whut if sumthin' you do is right...and it might be lawful...but you don't got no real proof of it?" "What do you mean?" "Lahk, whut if someone did sumthin' bad, an' you believe they did sumthin' bad cuz it can't be no one else, an' people tell you even that it wuz him that did it...but...when you find 'im, when you try to make 'im tell you whut he did from himself, he don't admit it?! Lahk no matter whut you say, he don't admit it, he admits a buncha other stuff he did, lahk real bad stuff even, even worse than whut he did! But he never tell you whut you want him to say, whut you WANT to hear from him an' finally hear thuh truth?!" "And what bad thing would this be?" "THAT HE-...h-he...done sumthin' bad...s-s-sumthin' you can't...c-can't ever forgive him for." Again his father stroked his chin, deep in thought as an answer slowly came to him. "I know what this is." "You do?!" "Of course...you remember who you're talking to don't you? But let's think this logically. You accuse someone of a crime that you are certain they committed." "Uh-huh." "And you even have others claiming that this person did it as well." "Y-yeah!" "But he himself denies it absolutely. Despite confessing to many other crimes, he will not confess to this one crime at all, even if other crimes he has confessed to are far worse." "Yeah!" "Then there are two reasons for this. Either he never did the crime, in which case the proof against him must be falsified...or...he will not confess because he is ashamed of it." "B-but that doesn't make sense!" "It doesn't?" "Thuh guy's a killer!" roared Roy with an adult voice. "He's a murderer, he killed plenny o' people, he even told me he did! So why he confess that to me, an' not the fact he killed YOU?! ...he killed you daddy...h-he killed you an' mom..."

He had not even noticed he was now his adult self, hunched over with tears in his eyes sobbing with frustration. Desperate he was to end this charade, desperate he was to find the truth and revelation behind it all. But that one constant obstacle still stood in his way. Him. That undying refusal to admit the truth to the point of absurdity, to the point of beyond a simple lie and into something far deeper than he could ever imagine. His father spoke to him from the past, from an unconscious mind as his consciousness drifted, the city fading away softly like a painting in the rain. "Roy...do you believe that he is the culprit?" "Ain't no one else it can be! Ah mean who else could it be?!" "Yet why did you ask me before that question? That even if you know who did it, and everyone tells you so, a possibility lies that it is not him?" "Because...b-because...because ah also heard things from people he met, people ah know too." "Oh?" "That he done great things fer other people, heroic things even, he don't got this feel about 'im of sum punkass killer from all ah heard since ah started this damn journey! A-a-and ah don't know who to believe anymore, but all ah know is that AH wuz there, ME, ah wuz there when it went down!" "Only for the briefest of minutes," said his father. "Whut?!" "When you arrived home, the deed had already been done...yet you saw a shadow rush towards you." "Yeah, then he hurled me down an' stomped mah head with his damn BOOT lahk a punkass bitch!" "Then why are you so uncertain?" "CUZ...cuz...cuz ah don't got nuthin' to prove it!" "In that case you must stop relying on memory and emotion and use some more decisive logic. Remember how I sometimes had to deliver a package to an address, but the address was written badly and I had to deduce where it could go?" "Y-yeah?" "Sometimes, if I relied TOO much on what I knew of the person, for I knew everyone I delivered to, I would find myself at the wrong address because I assumed too MUCH of the person. I instead had to go by cold deductive reasoning to find the right place...no matter how absurd it might seem who the recipient of such was." "Whut you mean?" "Not every old lady I knew was buying orders for knitting needles and sewing machines. Sometimes it was a young boy, or a middle-aged man, meaning that I would only waste both my own time and that of others, if I just simply made assumptions of other people whilst in my job as a postal worker. Do you understand?" "Every puzzle has an answer Roy," said an English voice to his right. "But some puzzles require a much more different approach towards them." "H-huh?! Whut thuh-"

He looked to his right to see no one was there, his eyes twitching left and right with suspicion at the rooftop around him. But when he turned back to his father, he saw an even more bizarre sight. The black raptor was now drinking a cup of tea politely from a saucer, his brown eyes closed with relief. "Wh-whuh...dad, whut thuh hell?!" "Hmm?" "You...y-y-you never drink any damn tea, thuh hell's this?!" "Really?" asked Mr. MacGregor. "Are you sure I always have and you just never noticed?" "N-no! No you never, hell you don't even drink coffee, you hate that stuff!" "Really? Then what do I normally drink?" "You-buh-you drink a damn cup of milk out from a damn mug, ah know you did!" "But if you saw me drink one cup of tea in the past, just for one fleeting instant in your memory...would that be odd for you?" "H-huh?!" "One single thing that was out of place...compared to every other moment you saw me repeating a very similar action...over and over again...I drink with a different cup, does that mean I have always done it?" "Wh-...thuh hell you talkin' about?!" "Here." He pulled out a small oval-shaped coin out of the teacup, dripping with earl grey upon its golden features as a familiar little marking appeared on the face. A fine top hat made of curved lines with an embellished letter L upon its front. Roy found it to be strangely familiar and took the coin for himself, clasping it softly between his claws as the voice came from his right once more. "Perhaps you need a small step in the right direction, my lad." "...this...this is...d-did you just...you heard him too right? ...dad?" But the moment Roy turned to look to his right once more, he turned back only to find his father had gone from the roof, leaving him well and truly alone within the fading city lights. The world beyond the streets had faded into watercolours, dripping beyond the twilight harbour to soon melt into the sea. He stood up in a panic, desperately calling out: "Dad?! Where'd you go, dad where are you!? Dad?! DAAAAD! Professor?! Wh-where'd you go?! S-someone answer me!" As he walked forwards, he could see the skylight of the roof he was now on reveal something new. What would normally be the upper hallway of his apartment home, he now saw something much more unnatural. A dark bottomless pit, carved out of wretched stone and mortar. As he tried to bend over more closely to look through the glass, something pushed him hard from the back and forced him to fall through, the glass shattering weakly underneath his large weight. His screams were soon swallowed up by the darkness, falling towards infinity, far enough that he soon blacked out briefly.

When his eyes opened, he found himself within a small dead grove underground. Plants that had once been fresh like moss now withered and rotted beneath his feet. Bones had become his blanket underneath now strewn about around him, as a light shining from above gave very little to his vision beyond the circular pool it gave him. Beyond that circle of light, was nothing but darkness itself. He couldn't even see the walls as he stepped forwards before smacking his hand blindly upon jagged rock, wincing at the scratch on his palm. Soon he found a passageway through the rock and slowly walked through, keeping his hands out on both sides towards a larger area. An abyss of sorts, deep and cavernous with various stone bridge paths leading in all directions. The one central wide path above the infinite chasm had spots of light shining down at every branching bridge, two on the left and three on the right arching higher up towards individual caves, as Roy asked himself: "Wh-where...where am I?" He walked slowly towards the light, trying to make sense of this strange underground world that he tried desperately to remember. But nothing even close came to him as he looked for a way out, searching for a way through as he tried one path to his left. Walking over the stone bridge, he found a large crack in the wall like the one he had just come from, leading towards another dead grove of light. A human child sat amongst it, wearing a strange mask of violent vivid eyes that bled through eternal, dripping red onto the bones beneath him. The child looked up towards him, its eyes white with crimson underneath as Roy swiftly ducked out of sight. He heard the child shriek, snuffling to itself before returning back to sleep as he slowly snuck away back towards another area, on the right of the main path. Another cave had the same dead grove, but this one was now occupied by a single carousel horse. The pole had been buried into the soil, a pale horse of grey now losing its colours as decay began to set in. Despite being made of plastic, Roy was certain that he saw maggots crawling inside its eyes and face transfixed in a state of fear, wide with terror and unblinking in its stillness. He slowly backed off and went towards another cave, seeing there were at least five in all. The path however ended at a wall at the very end of it, straight at the back of the room which made him wonder if there was not a secret entry of sorts. No such luck, the wall being as solid as anywhere else as he tried the other three caves. The second one on the left had an umbrella hanging downwards off a coatrack, crimson red with an arm hanging out limply from it like that of his own. The arm however was brown with black claws, making him realise who it belonged to. At first he wondered at such an absurd sight, but soon began to back off when he saw another arm slowly come up from within the umbrella itself, grasping the very fabric and trying to crawl out with the rest of its unseen body. He hurriedly ran across the stone path towards another cave on his right, hoping a better sight would calm him down.

The next cave had a less disturbing sight, but one that did not make him feel at ease. A disused bus station, wrapped in grime with timetables broken beneath its cracked glass exterior, the two small seats within looking perfectly fine and useable. But he didn't decide to sit down as he walked away, until he heard a voice echo out from behind him. "You better take the bus today, daddy hurt his foot an' ah ain't driving that thing!" "M-mom!?" The faintest memory came to him as he turned to see the bus station turn dead with a lightning strike, a flash of white sending rain unto the single grove and taking the sunlight within. The bus stop was now broken truly, its sign twisted in half, the chairs crumbled through like rotting leather and the windows smashed in, spiderweb patterns all through the hard glass. One of the windows was bleeding slightly from its broken central point, the blood trickling down towards a single child's shoe turned over on its side. As he stared at the odd scene, another different voice whispered from the rain. "I'll fucking kill you." He walked away feeling more disturbed before checking out the fifth and final cave. Yet again it had a dead grove of wilted flowers and bones underneath, but this one had a raptor inside of it, being crucified upside down against a traditional cross of dark arbutus wood. A raptor that Roy didn't even recognise as the vines slowly grew around its pale skin, coiling and tightening around the scales until blood squeezed through from between the gaps. Just as Roy was about to turn and leave from this sight, he heard a voice old and frail come from within. "Youuuu've met...a terrible fate, haven't you?" "...h-huh?" "A vagrant of justice lost in turmoil, with so many dreams and ambitions...lost...and abandoned." "Wh-who...who are you?" "What I am matters not...for if I forget thee, oh Jerusalem...may my right hand forget its skill." He saw that the raptor's right hand had now wilted to a rotting claw, putrid and dripping like a leprous wound down to the grassy floor. The vines kept tightening around him, twisting and turning, blood seeping from random points of his body as he seemed to not pay it mind. "You know that psalm, don't you?" "Y-yeah," said Roy, "psalm one-three-seven...hey, a-are you alright? You uh...you trapped here?" "I am...but my crime has not yet been fulfilled." "Huh?" "I am...waiting to be given punishment." "Fer whut?" "That...I don't know." "Wait, whut?! You waitin' to be punished but you don't know WHY yer bein' punished?! Thuh fuck is this, that's stupid!" "It is the law." "NO IT FUCKIN' AIN'T! If you don't know whut you did then how can you be punished for it!?!" "You speak these words now, yet they seemed so alien to you before...I hope...that you can understand my crime." "Then tell me whut it is!" "And forego my suffering for what may be my perdition? I think not." "Well whut DO you want then?" "Peace...from my crime...whatever it may be." "...I...a-ah don't know whut you talkin' about." "Then you can do nothing more, boy. What is your crime here?" "Whut? Ah ain't done nuthin', ah got trapped in here!" "Hmhmhmhm...the sun has but left you, hasn't it child?" "Ah...ah don't know whut you're talkin' about...where am I?" "You are not Hollow yet...but your mind shall become it soon even when your soul is not." "Wh-whut?" "Praise...the sun...uu-u-uu-uuuuuuuukkk...HUKK!" The raptor vomited black from its mouth, spewing onto its face and dripping from its snout the floor as he coughed and panted, the tightening of the vines crushing his ribs with audible cracks coming from inside him. "I shall...hope...that you escape this darkness." "W-well tell me thuh way outta this place then! If there's anythin' ah can do to help ya please lemme help! Mebbe ah can cut these vines out-" "There is no help for me...but I thank thee for your kindness...let me ask you a riddle. If you can answer it, then I will show you how to escape from here." "Um...okay." "A man is in prison, arrested for theft. The judge told the man 'you may make one statement. If it is true, I will sentence you to five years. If it's false...I will sentence you to ten years.' The man who was on trial made his statement and the judge soon let him go. What could he have said?"

Roy looked at him oddly, or at least tried to considering the raptor's head was far down at his feet, as he stared down upon him feeling rather awkward about the position. He had however heard this riddle before, and tried to remember the answer. It took him a few minutes whilst the vines coiled and slithered around the frail raptor's body, the blood seeping through his neck as his paleness turned bleak, white as snow upon a deadened branch with his eyes turning hazy, choking for life softly. Soon Roy remembered, his eyes lighting up before answering: "You'll have to sentence me ten years." "H-hhhkkk...hmm?" "That's whut he said, you'll have to sentence me ten years in prison!" "Really? ...why?" "Cuz if that statement wuz true, he'll have to put him away fer ten years when he SAID that if thuh statement was true he'd put 'im away fer five! BUT, if that statement wuz FALSE, he'd have to put him away fer ten years either way which also makes it true! So he HAS to let 'im go, cuz otherwise the judge contradicts himself! Easy!" "Very good...hhhhh...I can see that your mind is not Hollow with such ways of decisive action." "Well, ah did hear it before so...hehe." "Nevertheless, you have answered truly, I shall open the door for you. Go to the wall at the end of this path, and I shall see you soon." "Oh wait, you comin' with me?!" "Yes. Come...let us go." The moment the raptor said this, his body began to disintegrate, melting beneath the vines and dripping out from underneath. Blood ran hot like oil across the grove as it slithered back towards the main path, Roy looking all the more disturbed at seeing the creature just simply become dark ichor. The vines clenched one last time as a squirting of fluid came from every coil, squishing the body like a grape in one's fist as the blood kept running, out from the grove and leading up towards the end of the path. The black raptor walked towards it, following the trail of blood without stepping in it, feeling unnerved incredibly by this strange place without needing such a guide as this. The moment the blood pooled itself around the wall, a trembling grew from within to form a crack up through the middle. The stone wall split with an ancient groan, cavernous echoes sending deep tremors all throughout the area almost making Roy stumble. He saw the way through, towards another area of light as well as a central podium. A stand of some sort. He walked slowly into the crevice once he was sure it stopped, seeing it was large enough to pass through as if made for him. The last grove was the largest one, with no exit on the other side to be seen. The most radiant pool of light could be seen here, in a grove as wide as an auditorium with leaves dead all around him. He wondered where they had come from, seeing there were no trees at all within this underground cavern. The stand in the middle however intrigued him more, reaching closer to find it was a simple wooden cross. One large enough to be crucified upon. He almost dared himself to touch it, the smooth yet unvarnished wood so polished by natural carpentry to make him wonder who had placed it here. And how it even managed to become buried in the hard undergrowth.

Just then, he heard a thick trickling come from behind and turned just in time to leap across the river of blood that suddenly snaked its way towards him. Between his legs it went, circling around the cross itself before creating a wide black puddle, glistening life fluid which soon began to crawl up along the cross, covering it in darkest blood. At first Roy was disturbed, resisting the urge to mentally pray in order to protect himself from what blasphemous horror could come next. But then he saw the blood began to take shape, a more solid form divulging from its essence. A thickening lump of two legs entwined at the base of the cross, leading up towards a thin waist and arms outstretched across the horizontal bar. The head was reptilian, gasping out against its bloodied restraint from underneath the liquid like a living victim trapped inside a body bag. Soon the blood tore from its head, ripping like fabric as the pale raptor re-emerged once more. His body slowly began to reveal itself more, the blood seeping away back into his skin despite his emaciated state, as the vines slowly encumbered him once more to wrap neatly around the cross. "WHUT THUH-...you...you really were comin' with me!" "As I said...hhhhh...I must require a...perch of sorts, for my penance." "Well...ah appreciate you tryin' to help but there ain't no way outta this place." "There is. You just can't see it." "Whuh?! Well where is it?!" "...through me." "Wh-whut are you talkin' about?" "I understand my crime now dear Roy...I have come seeking absolution, for I am but an apostate, one who has turned his back upon an uncaring god, and He has so seen it fit to make me nothing but an example." "An apostate? ...wait...wait ah heard that word before, I-" "In my restless dreams...I see you in that town...the fog never could claim you, no matter how hard it tried to." "You-...no...n-no you can't be......Martin?" "I could not escape Roy...I couldn't...now I know what my crime shall be." "Wh-whut's that?" "My crime, shall be...your death." With a sudden KRAKK of splintering wood, the raptor broke free from his torturous moorings and collapsed onto the ground, the wood impaled within his arms now torn from the cross itself. The wood attached to his arms acted like makeshift splints, stabbing them into the ground as he crawled slowly, his feet trapped against the cross still until he pulled himself forwards. With an unseen strength, the pale raptor ripped his feet from the cross, bloodied and shredded right down the middle to drag a trail of black behind him. Roy stepped back with startlement, crying: "Whut thuh FUCK man?!" "If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend entice thee secretly-" "Wh-whut are ya doing, stop it!" "But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people." "Stop talkin' shit to me, whut's that got to do with anythin'?!" "And all Israel shall hear, and fear, and shall do no more any such wickedness AS THIS IS AMONG YOU!"

The raptor bared his fangs towards Roy, suddenly crawling forwards with a furious speed like a psychotic spider, black dripping from his fangs to leave a trail beneath him. Roy swiftly backed off, the creature hissing and vomiting a thick ooze both onto itself and towards Roy, the black raptor doing his best to dodge it without a weapon at hand. The room remained dark around them, and while he could see his opponent's pale skin, it would not be so easy for long. The crucified Martin shrieked and lunged towards him with absurd strength, his feet forever entwined by nail as his hands fisted the ground, grinding knuckles against the dark arbutus wood that helped vault him forwards across the hard wreathed soil. Vines and branches like deadened sinew snapped underneath, dying ever further beneath his bloody wake as he groaned with agony. "Iiiiiii am nothing more to your precious GOD! I so chose freedom from His benevolent fear, and my reward for independence?! To suffer as an example!" "A-a-ah dunno whut you did, you said it yourself, ah don't care whut you do long as you don't kill nobody!" "YOU are the spawn of the baptismal FONT, yet YOU do not suffer when you chose not to follow your God, your father, the shadow of the cross that overbears upon thee! How can you possibly claim to love your father when you do not follow his precious God?!" "Look, ahm sorry fer whut happened to you, whutever happened, but you can't blame me fer it!" "YOU TOOK MY LIFE AWAY FROM ME YOU WORTHLESS SPAWN OF CHRIST!" The pale raptor lunged violently with a leap towards the air, slamming his fists forwards for leverage before biting into Roy's leg when he tried to dodge away. Taken down hard, he screamed as the vile fangs pierced into his right thigh and chewed with venomous hatred, ripping the flesh and tearing deep towards the muscle as the black-bloodied spit oozed into his new wounds. Roy wasn't able to kick him away soon enough to prevent further damage to his leg, struggling to get up and crying out as his leg suddenly turned weak. Hobbling away as desperately as he could, he tried to keep away from the apostate as his rage echoed across the caverned grove, slathering with black drool thicker than his own blood. Roy winced with every move he could make, dragging his right leg as it began to turn swollen and pus-ridden from the very wound itself. Seeing that his life truly was now in danger, he turned and waited for Martin to make his move. The moment he came within range ready to strike like a viper, Roy summoned a furious icy wind. "FUUUUS RO-DAAAH!" The gust of wind was more biting than he imagined, like a hollow breeze through an underground crypt as Martin was struck back and rolled violently across the room, cracking one leg out of position doing so. A roar of pain and anger emanated from the darkness beyond, as Roy waited for his next move. But in the stumbling roll of the attack, the once-pale raptor had now slathered his own vile blackness across his own body, darkening him to fit perfectly within the undergrowth.

Roy, for a brief foolish moment, thought to cover his eyes and hide himself in the dark, but he shook himself steady and waited with thawing hands of ice, crystallising nanos waiting for their moment to strike. The sudden lunge attack from the apostate sent him back against the wall, coming towards his waist with a vicious grapple before fangs struggled to bite into his chest. Roy managed to dissuade him otherwise with a vicious punch of solid ice, covering his entire hand as shattering force rippled through Martin's skull. His shriek of agony was followed by more blood pouring out of his eye, the ice managing to stab halfway in and render him blind within one of them, crawling with violent speed away from Roy before waiting to strike again. It was at this point that Roy realised he neededa weapon to keep the raptor away from him, seeing the only thing in the entire room even close to it was right in front of him. The broken cross with its single central pole still standing. He rushed towards it with hobbling gait and swiftly tore it from its foundations, using it like a makeshift crutch in preparation. With pointed tip upwards and covered in dead soil, the raptor in black waited for the once-pale raptor to come charging back for him, seeing a slithering rustle in the darkness before a strike came from his left. He swung the cross like a claymore, roaring as the tip caught his wounded eye to strike Martin down, cracking his head against the wall. But the raptor was now relentless, crippled with rage as he slashed violently at his face, swinging upwards with the wooden-splintered arms that cracked and knocked against Roy's weapon. He guarded as best he could, the wood resisting as the once-pale raptor shrieked and screamed with fury in his eyes, dripping black blood as Roy managed to smack him to one side. Martin hastily went for his legs, as his jaws tore down on Roy's leg and sunk his fangs inside. He screamed and slammed himself against the wall with pain, swinging the cross like a golf club to slam the creature away from him. He was desperately hobbling now, struggling to stand against the wall with all his strength being put towards his legs. Trapped as he was he tried to use his nanos to push Martin back, striking with icy shots that went flying as water, crystalling into pure sharp daggers of glittering white. Swinging his arm whilst shooting up and down, he tried to create widened arcs of slicing ice, shattering against the crippled raptor's skin with shards running down his back, blood freezing from the intensity of the shots. With one desperate move, he flung himself towards Roy, receiving his final end. The raptor in black saw him coming as he thrust the wooden pole straight through Martin's throat, ripping it wide open and impaling out through the back. Sixteen inches of the wooden pole tore straight through, leaving nothing but two feeble strands of muscle on either side of it, pulsating with Martin's gasping voice. _ "HHGHGHHAAAAAAAAARRRRGH! HHHGGHK...UUuuhhhhkkk...you...hhhhh...are you proud of yourself?"_ "Wh-whut?" "To slay an unworthy...hhhhh...such as I am?" "Ah didn't wanna do it. Whutever you chose to be ah don't care, just so long as you don't hurt anybody." "But you...remember what I was, don't you?" "Yes...ahm sorry. But you...you tried dammit, why didn't you try harder?" "I did...months before we met...I only wish...that you had come sooner." "I...I wish I could have too...I'm sorry Martin...ah wanted you to escape that town with me...ah wanted to..." "You...survived it...that mist...you survived that restless dream...and in doing so...you have redeemed yourself of one sin." "Ah know...But that doesn't mean you had to...die." "I...offer you...hhhhHHHHhhhh...one last gift, of aid to you." "Whut's that?" "Another riddle...for you to solve. He sings with two voices, one of darkness and one of light. Which one do you wish to silence?" "Whut? Ah don't...ah don't understand." "Who will you choose to destroy, when the time comes for thee? The face of your enemy...or the shadow that lies beneath? You shall soon see...my dearest Roy." "...wait...wait you told me that one before, that wuz when you-...WAIT, MARTIN!"

But it was too late. Before he could get another answer, Martin's body began to seep from beneath the cross itself, desiccating into nothing but dried shrivelled bones. Not even his flesh remained nor did any of his blood, leaving the cross itself perfectly clean and varnished. Roy lost feeling in his arms, simply dropping the wood itself and falling onto the floor. But instead of landing, he fell through into a deep pit, deeper than the one before. After a few minutes of endless floating in the abyss, he saw a grey light. A light that slowly gave birth to an odd indigo darkness, swirling like a cloak from a bad dream as its voice shivered softly. A card spun itself out towards him, tarot specifically, but he was too slow to catch it. He could see it was marked "The Tower", as the sound of a clock ticking began to fill his ears, the large pendulum swinging beside him whilst threatening to collide. As he fell further beyond, a large wooden cube came hurtling up towards him, twisting and turning its sides with each face painted a different shade of wood. He tried to reach out for it, but the moment it touched his fingers it exploded before him, twisting its tiny blocks all around him before they started to reassemble. They began to slowly encompass him, threatening to crush him within the puzzling cube just before a grey light started to overwhelm him In that moment, a voice from the dark purple mist called out to him once more. A female voice he knew from long ago, resonating with dreams. "Follow him...you must...keep following him." "Who...who are you?" "He is the key...to unlocking your mystery." "I....ah can't...ah can't solve it...help me, professor...help me..." "You're missing something...find him. He has the last piece...of your final puzzle." His head suddenly felt the sensation of falling off a cliff, the cube pouring open underneath as his mind was startled into awakening by a false sense of gravity. He found himself in a warm bed, grey sheets and perfectly rectangular. A window to his right showed simply the stars and suns of another world, another space and galaxy. His room was grey and square, with little he could focus on as he tried to remember where he was, until a rough growling friendly voice called out to him from his side. "Roy?" "...yeah?" he replied slowly. "You up?" "Yeah um...yeah ahm up." "Good! You sleep very long, was worried, smelled...scared." "Yeah ahm sorry fer makin' you worried, ahm alright now." "Good! Breakfast soon, hungry after good nap." "Thanks Puttz, ah uh...appreciate it." "You okay? You sick?" "Huh? Naw man, why?" "Sound odd, bad sleep?" "Yeaah just had a weird-ass dream, not sumthin' to worry about." "Good! See you at table." The sound of something walking fast began to fade away, as his door simply opened and closed of its own reckoning before he laid back and sighed deeply. He would need a few minutes before waking up for real, his mind still turning over the odd memories his dream brought up.