FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Promised Sea

Chapter 1

How frightening eternity can be. Countless bodies tumbled inside a cold and empty landscape, an unending ocean. Heavy eyelids were at long last opened, after how many days of unconsciousness was not certain. The hybrid, a strange concoction even for the endless sea of possibility that was the Everblue, had finally woken up. No bottom, no surface, only water as far as the eye could see, such was the nature of the strange dimension he lived in. He found himself surrounded by endless darkness. His memory had been left foggy. The last phantom-image he remembered was a large explosion of light, a massive shock wave. The silhouettes of people standing close to that light had been mangled to tiny pieces, whilst the rest had been knocked out and thrown into unexplored waters. The hybrid's presence of mind came racing back, his name was Crinis Ilah, a powerfully built man descended from a chthonian bloodline, muddled with the legacy of yet another species unknown to the inhabitants of the endless sea. His body was covered in bright pink fur and his eyes glow a piercing yellow. These were eye-catching traits in and of themselves, though it was the long fluffy ears and his maw of tentacles that made him stand out the most.

"How can you be so calm!?" Close by, a voice was spewing words poisoned with a dreadful panic. "We are right out in the open! No food! No compass to lead us back!" Through the blur, Crinis could see an orca, strapping and handsome as most of his kind, distinguished by several scars and brown tribal markings. He remembered having caught glimpses of him before. His expression, so unlike his usual appearance, had been contorted in a way that was more representative of a cowardly eel. "We're going to die here, and it's all my fault..."

A festively red lionfish was floating in front of the orca, doing his best to keep a calm tone. "We can't solve anything by getting angry and assigning blame, you couldn't have known that the gas-pocket would react that way."

The orca buried his head in his strong hands. He breathed hard and his teeth gritted in clear frustration. He gave his red-striped companion no response.

Slowly the chthonian's eyes opened, revealing the yellow ovals beneath, the purple irises in the middle darted around in a panic. Crinis shook his head and blinked a few times as he tried to shake the groggy feeling he had from just waking up. He furrowed his brow as he switched his focus back and forth between the two creatures interacting with one another. His attention shifted to the orca that had taken the blame for the current situation. Was it really his fault? "What did you do?!" Only afterwards did he realize that the question probably wouldn't be answered and was in no way helpful, but he didn't apologize for asking.

The lionfish saw Crinis coming to. "You're awake!" He swam closer, stopping several feet away where his poisonous spines would not be of any harm. "Havel!" He turned to the orca. "I can't go any closer to him, you have to check if he's unharmed!" The strong man simply shook his head, trapped in his own despair. "Havel! Snap out of it!" The lionfish's gaze looked around in the darkness, as if praying for an answer to reveal itself to him. He turned to Crinis once more. "Do you feel alright?"

When Crinis saw the lionfish swimming towards him he started to worry, eyes glued to the poisonous spines. Only once the creature stopped at a safe distance did he feel himself relax again. When asked if he was alright he didn't answer. He hadn't taken the time yet to see what sort of condition he was in. Slowly he ran his paws through his fur and pushed on vital points through his clothing. He moved his ears slowly through the water and twitched each tentacle to make sure they were still responsive. "I think so... at least physically. What happened? Who are you? Where am I?" A throb went through his head as he started to overthink. "Gaaah my head..." He brought a hand up to his head in a failed attempt to ease his headache, slowly pulling it away once the throbbing died down.

The young spiky man thought for a second as he took in all questions at once. "There was a complication with the gas-pocket we were trying to exploit. Seems we won't be using it for energy anymore. On the positive side, no one is going to be endangered by it anymore either." The lionfish placed a hand on his heart and gave a respectful bow with his head. "My name is Caleb, the big guy is Havel, and as for where you are..." he half-heartedly raised his arms to the black tapestry that surrounded them, "you're with us, so at least you're not alone out here."

Crinis repeated the names quietly to himself before bringing his attention back to Caleb, watching the lionfish raise his arms. "Well I suppose that is a silver lining to the current situation. I'm sure it could get much worse..."

"Hello! Is anyone out there!?" The orca shouted with his hands shaped around his mouth. The amphibic trio was met with silence, nothing but the heavy sighs of the liquid abyss. The man stared into the darkness with a stern look, his mind dancing at a knife's edge. "Something is going to get us, I just know it."

Crinis' ears lifted as he did his best to listen for a reply as Havel called out, but when there was no response a shiver ran up his spine. Listening to Havel worry made Crinis shake his head. "Calm down Havel. Freaking out won't help. Let's just relax and think. I'm sure between the three of us we can think of something."

"We've been stuck out here for at least thirty hours. The only traces of other people we've seen so far have been... well... literal traces and pieces of them. But I'm glad to at least have one more person alive and well with us." The lionfish observed Crinis from top to bottom with curious eyes. "I'm sorry if we've already met on the expedition, but I don't seem to recall your name."

Turning his attention back to Caleb, Crinis was surprised to learn he had been out for so long and was even more surprised to learn about the deaths of others, though that did explain where everyone else was. "I don't believe we met. My name is Crinis and despite the situation it's nice to meet you." He let out a little chuckle as he looked around. "So you seem to be the level headed one between you two. Any idea on our next move?"

"I'm not usually the level-headed one. Right now I just have to be." He shrugged with bashful expression. "Havel is just blaming himself for something that he couldn't have known about. I've never seen him this torn up before." Caleb looked at his companion's back with a worried gaze. "But we have more urgent things to focus on, with luck I think we can survive for a long while here." Caleb swam upward, taking out an orb from his skin-pack, just as big as his head. He untied several layers of thick skins from the orb, revealing the bioluminescent lure from a giant anglerfish. The lure shined light and warmth over the trio, but apart from a swarm of smaller fish nothing else was attracted to them. Caleb groaned in disappointment. "Still no people around from what I can see."

Crinis gave the lionfish a nod of approval. "Well to step up and become the level-headed one speaks strongly for your character. Waking up with someone like you around was lucky. Fortune seems to be on my side for now." Crinis turned his gaze to Havel as Caleb did, a worried expression on his face as well, not for the orca, but for the lionfish and himself. In his opinion a panicked companion could be more harmful than helpful. "I hate to say it Caleb, but we may be the only three left..."

Havel pounced on the small group of fish the angler had attracted, catching them in his hands and maw, swiftly snapping their spines so they could serve as food. "We should not use the lure anymore," he said with a manic and shivering tone. "What if we attract something big? Something we can't handle?"

Lifting an ear in Havel's direction Crinis was happily surprised, thinking the orca had gathered up his nerves, but the tone in Havel's voice disproved his thoughts. "Despite the fear in your voice I agree, it's too risky to use it any more than we have to. Don't need to bring unwanted attention to ourselves."

Caleb descended and quickly hid the orb in his makeshift sack once more, letting the darkness embrace them. "We have enough food for a while, but we are going to have to use the lure again sooner or later if we don't get back to explored waters."

Havel sneered at Caleb in disapproval. He felt all of his senses running wild, fueled by adrenaline and paranoia. "How can you two be so calm? I look into the darkness and I keep expecting a wall of gigantic teeth, rushing towards us..." His toes curled up as he looked down, fearing something would surprise the group from below, from any direction, and snap its jaws into them at any moment.

Crinis was a creature of little patience and Havel's inability to hold himself together was starting to get on his nerves. He replied with a harsh and commanding tone. "Pull yourself together and grow a spine, you sniveling fish!" With a frustrated sigh, his voice became soft again but kept its stern tone. "Panicking about the unknown isn't going to save us. Yes we should be cautious, but the only way we are going to survive a situation like this is if we all keep a level-head and work together. Can you do that?"

A twitch pulled at the corner of Havel's mouth. "I've been standing on watch for the majority of the last 30 hours," he whispered in a tangible tone of anger, a cold and controlled wrath. "I'm exhausted from staring into this abyss, but I'll be damned before I let any more people die on my watch!" The orca tossed the captured food to Caleb, and with that Havel took a tight grip on the bone-made spear strapped on his back, returning to his spot where he began to act as a vigilant look-out. "I'll keep us guarded, give me a shout if you manage to think of a plan."

As Havel replied, Crinis let a smile creep up behind his tentacles. It seemed he had hit just the right buttons to snap the orca back into being someone useful. Though it was hard for him to just stay quiet, he didn't see the need to escalate it anymore.

"He's got more than enough spine for several people," Caleb whispered, "he probably doesn't like you right now, but you have my thanks for putting his head back in its place."

Crinis' large ears drifted towards Caleb for a moment, before lying back in place. "I'm sure he does and hopefully now he will show it." The commanding tone had vanished. "I can tell you respect him a lot and he seems like a good man. Just needed a little push to get it together is all."

Ever the resourceful man, Caleb fished out a handful of ration-powder from his supplies, strewing it out in the water. "I've been keeping an eye on the streams and where the water is taking us." The light powder soon disintegrated and was seemingly drawn to Caleb's left side. "Seems like the stream is getting stronger. There's no guarantee, but if we let the water carry us we might be able to map ourselves out of here, maybe even find warmer waters that can lead us in the right direction." He licked some of the leftover powder from his palm. "At least that's the best I've been able to come up with for now, simply going in a random direction is too risky, do you have any suggestions Crinis?"

With a look of curiosity he watched as the powder disappeared. "That sounds like a good plan..." The chthonian had begun to stroke his tentacles as if they were a beard. He shook his head after spending a moment to think things over. "I can't think of anything that would be better or safer. Let's ask Havel and see what he thinks." He turned his attention to the orca. "Hey Havel! Think we got ourselves a plan or at least the beginnings of one. Come here and tell us what you think."

"Don't disturb me." The tribal man spat out with a frown, ignoring the call to instead focus his abilities the best he could on sensing anything out of the ordinary.

Caleb shrugged with a sigh. "We already discussed several ideas before you woke up, including one where we thought about using our blood to lure predators to us, and then somehow let them lead us back to the site of the explosion. There would no doubt be much more blood for them to smell there." He shook his head, locking eyes with Crinis. "We shot down that plan. Neither of us had any ideas that weren't either impossible or suicidal."

"That would have been a very interesting plan to see in action, but I'm glad you both decided against it. I hate to say it, but suicidal and impossible are our only choices." Crinis shook his head. "Even this new plan could be suicidal."

Havel twisted around with haste, putting a finger up to his strained lips. "Hush!" He slowly pointed his finger out to the impenetrable blackness. A peculiar rumbling in the distance reached the trio's ears, a sound akin to an underwater storm. "Do you hear that too?"

Caleb nodded. "That's the direction the stream is taking us..."

As the rumble hit Crinis' ears, they lowered. For the first time since regaining consciousness, he felt afraid. Nodding along with Caleb, he let out a huff as he stared off into the abyss. "Guess luck isn't on our side after all." With that he swam off, headed in the direction the stream was carrying them. "No reason to stay here. Be sure to stay close and be careful."

"Wait! Where are you going!?" Havel watched Crinis swim with the stream to the very heart of the churning sound. With a few strong kicks in the water he had already caught up with the pink hybrid, placing a stern hand on his shoulder. "You have to be more careful, you idiot!" The rumbling increased in strength, sending echoes so enormous that the orca could have only likened it to a colossal glacier breaking apart. "I'm not about to let anyone rush into the belly of some beast."

Crinis kept looking forward. "I'm not an idiot; I just have a bit of a patience issue. I don't like staying in one place for too long, especially since we don't know wha-" his ears lift up as the echoes of the rumble strengthen "-at's out there."

The lionfish followed and stayed as close as was possible for him. His many sensitive spines were the first to notice a change in the water, the stream was rushing towards the epicenter of the rumbling, pulling them along with a gravity-like force. A pull, several times stronger than the magnetic nature of the Everblue's ice-carved cities, Caleb had never experienced such a sensation and began to fear for the worst. A shot of adrenaline lit his mind on fire. "Something is pulling us in! We should head back."

Crinis' tentacles and ears picked up on the strong change in the water. He let out a curse under his breath. "I don't think we have much of a choice. There is no telling what that could be, but I doubt its anything good." His eyes fell upon the lionfish's spines. "If you can Caleb, try to keep us up to date on the strength of the stream. Hopefully we can outswim whatever it is, but we need to get moving before it gets too close." There was a small ping of worry in his voice as he spoke this time.

Crinis felt a small poke in his back, a small nautilus was being pulled past him with the stream, up ahead a swarm of other small sea-creatures, from smaller fish to shrimps and all other kinds. All were being pulled backwards as they tried to resist the pull of the stream, but far too weak and small to escape.

Caleb swam to the side, attempting to take the shortest route out of the stream, yet as he got further away the water just seemed to turn harsher, like a sea god clenching its' fist around him, not letting him escape. Space seemed to twist around itself. He could feel his worries start to burn inside him. In his cautiousness, had he really made such a huge miscalculation? It was not a stream, there had never been one, just a vortex pulling everything in from all sides. "By the-" a sight up ahead turned his worries into fear. With desperate strokes he swam back toward his two companions. "Swim! Swim! Don't look back!"