FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

William twisted a lock of the wolf's shaggy chest fur as they lay nude together in James's large bed. It had been a few days since the whole ordeal with Conway and the Demon Alistair; Conway said that he had business to attend to in the eastern countries, but he would keep in touch. Alistair, on the other hand, hasn't made an appearance since he locked himself in the storage room. William had tried several times to see if he could get the fox to let him in, but whenever he got close enough, he was sure that he started hearing whispers. He gave William the creeps. Not only that, but the other crew members were starting to become uneasy knowing that there was a demon on board and no one was doing anything about it.

Things really started getting strange when random crew members would become possessed like Conway had a few days ago, and disappear into the storage room for a few hours before they would come back out with no memory of what happened while they were in the storage room. No physical marks presented themselves on the crew members, so the demon wasn't doing anything visibly physical to them, but the uncertainty of the situation was bothering William to no end.

James on the other hand, didn't seem to care; the wolf would stay in his quarters most of the day and talk to himself. William found it kind of strange that the wolf would do that, when they were friends back in England, James never acted this suspiciously, and whenever William would go into the wolf's quarters, the wolf would stop talking, mumbling or sometimes even shouting, and just pretend like nothing even happened in the first place. The prince wasn't sure he liked what was going on in the ship anymore; too many things were going on that no one seemed to have the answers to. He feared that James might be losing his mind and the demon on board was the culprit. Lance, Kahn and William seemed to be the only three on the ship that didn't seem to be going crazy.

"What do you think about having a demon on board?" William asked as he watched the steady rise and fall of the wolf's chest.

He felt him shrug. "He doesn't seem to be hurting anyone, and he could come in handy later on."

"Yeah but... he's messing his people's free will, then erasing their memory... doesn't that bother you a little?" The prince looked up to James's eyes, but they looked distant as he stared at the wooden ceiling. "James?" he said when the wolf didn't answer.

"Huh? Oh, well, maybe he just gets lonely..." he mumbled, but his answer was halfhearted and obviously not very well thought through.

"What's wrong? Why have you been so distracted lately?"

The wolf was quiet, not taking his eyes away from a little speck on his ceiling. "I just have a lot on my mind..."

William stopped twisting the wolf's fur and smoothed it down with his nail. He then got up, got dressed and left the wolf be.

"And then there were two," Hector said from his usual perch in the abnormally shadowy corner.

"Hector please," James said, still not looking away from the speck. "I don't feel like talking today. Everything that you've told me these past few days... they've been a lot to take in. And not only do I have one demon to deal with, I have you too."

The young fox crawled into bed with the wolf, completely nude as well and rubbing James's stomach tenderly. What James didn't understand, was that if Hector was now only in his head, how could he feel the light rubbing of his gentile, delicate touch on his stomach? "We need to talk," he whispered into James's ear before he licked the edge of it, but the wolf didn't even flinch.

"We talk every day."

"In person."

James, for the first time, turned his head and looked at the water like green eyes of the fox lying next to him.

Hector smirked. "I'll tell you what you want to know, and I've thought about it, and I'm starting to like your odds in this crazy little suicide mission."

"Where?"

"My ship."

"When?"

"Now."

~*~

James started getting dressed, throwing his pants, shirt, boots and sword on, but leaving his coat and hat to hang on the rack by the door. When he looked back to the fox in his bed, he was dressed as well and sitting there patiently watching him. "How're we supposed to get to your ship?" James asked as he fastened his belt.

Hector didn't say anything, rather just gesturing to the ominous shadow in the corner of James's room. The fox pushed himself off from the bed and strode over to the dark corner until he disappeared within its darkness.

James wasn't too sure he liked it, he was never a superstitious person, but ever since Hector's been messing with his mind and the demon's been present on the ship, the wolf has heard and seen enough to drive most people mad. He didn't trust the fox, either one of them, but Hector has yet to steer him wrong, so he followed him into the dark shadow.

It was cold at first, like he was stepping into a region where the sun has never seen, then it started to burn, like he was walking on the sun. All the while, he couldn't see anything, not even the light of his room when he turned to look back. If freezing and burning weren't bad enough, he started to hear whispers that quickly turned into ear piercingly loud screams. Eventually, James couldn't think straight; he clutched his head, feeling as though it might explode. He wanted to collapse from the freezing then burning, he wanted to weep with the crying voices. He closed his eyes, wishing that it would go away. He wanted to yell, but not a sound would come from his lips.

Then it all stopped. When James opened his eyes, he found himself standing casually in the middle of a large, odd shaped green ship. Hector was standing in front of him, smiling his usual coy smirk, tail completely still behind him. Something was different about him this time; his eyes didn't move like the water's surface, and his colors seemed to be more illuminated, like James was no longer looking at him through shadows.

The wolf looked around. The ship he was on was like none he's ever seen before. He couldn't quiet explain it, but it just didn't seem to have the same design as the ships that he was used to. And not just that, looking beyond the boundaries of the ship, James found that it was sitting on a bundle of little lights that seemed to portray themselves as stars. The ship looked to be sailing on light and nothingness.

"What was that?"

"Your first portal jump," Hector said, letting the wolf's eyes wonder.

"Where are we?"

Hector giggled as James's question, but he didn't answer has he turned and mad his way for the helm of the ship. "I have to show you something before we get to that."

James barely heard what the boy said as he made his way over to the edge of the ship. He noticed that there was no railing to catch him if he were to slip, but he hardly registered even that when he tilted his head back to look up. There, above him and the ship, was the sea. Even though he was supposed to be too far away from it to see detail, the harder he looked, the more he saw. He saw land, Williams kingdom, the countries surrounding it, and even cities. He also say waters, ships, his included.

Then it closed, like it was nothing but a window that he could glimpse through but not touch. But then another one opened, showing him things that he would have never dreamed of seeing. Then another one opened when that one closed and James saw even more. "What are those?" James asked as the ships passed more and more of the windows.

"Those are openings to other worlds. Ours isn't the only one out there." Hector said as James watched.

The out of seemingly nowhere, a giant, long, serpent like creature slithered through the air. It was hideous and beastly, but it passed the ship by like it wasn't any concern as it flew through the air. James watched in amazement as the serpent opened a window to another world and flew inside before it closed behind it. "You can travel to other worlds."

"Some of them can, others are bound to one world and one alone." The fox explained as he spun the wheel and the strange ship started flying into a new window, but for some reason, James couldn't see anything within.

James expected the same pain and agony that he went through when he first passed through the shadow back in the corner of his room, but this one felt like nothing more than walking through a literal door. Once inside, James still couldn't see very much other than a water like surface that the ship now floated on and a strange white light in the center of the area.

"What's that?" James asked, pointing to the light, but Hector didn't answer. Instead, he just steered the ship in the direction of the light.

"James, do you believe in fate?" The fox asked as they drew nearer to the center.

"I believe that everyone has a destiny and fate to follow, but whether or not you choose to follow it is up to you."

Hector chuckled. "You're right." They finally pulled up to a nearly invisible platform that lead up directly to the small light. "That, my friend," he continued, gesturing to the light. "Is fate."

James looked to the light. "That dinky little thing is fate?" he asked, taking a step off from the ship and onto the platform. It felt cold and hard under his pads, but also smooth and somewhat slippery. "I thought fate would be little more... I don't know... intimidating."

Hector laughed. "If fate was so big and powerful like you perceive it to be, then why don't mortals always follow their destiny?"

James shrugged in understanding, the fox had a point. "So why show me this?"

The fox took a few steps up the stairs that James didn't realize were there until he was standing next to the light, and James followed him up. "Take a look," he said, and James looked into the light.

For a moment, it felt as though he was staring into the sun, until something started to move in the light. It took a moment for the images to become clear, but eventually, James could see two young children, a boy and a girl, playing in a garden. The girl was counting and the boy was crawling into a hole in the base of a tree trunk to hide. They looked peaceful for a moment, until the ground gave out under the little boy and he fell through.

James looked to the fox, as if making sure that he was seeing the same thing, but Hector just smiled softly and pointed to the light.

James looked back and saw the young boy in a dark cave. The boy opened his mouth, but the light only provided visual enlightenment, not audio. The wolf watched as the boy weekly stood up and began to wonder around until he came to a small crack in the wall that he barely fit through.

Once through the crack, he and the boy saw a strange blue light in the center of the cavern. The blue light seemed to dance in a strange spiral, looking like the magic that the Demon Alistair used, only a different color.

The boy said something else as he went up to the pedestal where the blue light was and was about to touch it. As soon as his finger made contact, there was an explosion of light and the vision ended. James waited for a moment to see if something else would show up, but nothing came. "What was that? That didn't have anything to do with my destiny, so why show it to me?"

The fox laughed. "Oh but that is a part of your destiny! You see, that vision you had took place this very moment, and weather you know it now or not, you're going to have an impact on the boy's life in more ways than one."

"What are you talking about?"

"James, do you know what your destiny is?"

That made the wolf think. He didn't, he thought he had, he thought he was doing it, but now, he wasn't so sure.

"Your destiny is so much bigger than you can imagine, that if you were to die, a lot of bad things would happen to our world." He explained. "You play a big part in saving lives for the years to come, but you are no longer the main character in the story of your life, now, if you choose to follow fate, you are the supporting role in others' lives."

"So what am I supposed to do?"

Hector shook his head. "I can't tell you that. You have to find out yourself. But I can tell you that taking on Blackbeard is defiantly a good place to start."

"So if I'm already doing what fate wants me to do, why show me this?" James asked, crossing his arms.

"Because, if you follow what fate has in store for you, you will be blessed with more riches than mortal money could buy," he said, but the fox didn't seem to be too happy about that. "But you will also go through great losses and heartaches. Many people you love and care for will die in order to fulfill your destiny."

James's mind wondered to all of the faces on his ship, and those he cared for back in England. "But, why do they have to die for my sake?"

"I told you, it's not just about you anymore. Those that die aren't just dying for you, they're dying for the lives that you and your followers will save."

The wolf's legs started to feel week under the pressure of the conversation. "I didn't ask for such a big responsibility."

"Yes you did, did you seriously not expect some kind of responsibility when you decided to rally up rebels and plan to overthrow a pirate lord?" the fox's tail swished from one side to the other. "Did you not think about what would happen in the future? By doing what you're doing, you're not only taking down Blackbeard, but you're also affecting different areas of the world." Hector sighed. "With a destiny as big as this, there's always a price to pay. Nothing is free, you should know that better than anybody."

James was now rubbing his head, trying to let everything sink in, but more questions just kept rising. But the one question he wanted to know the most was "Who are you?"

The fox straightened up. "I go by a lot of names, some call me Devil of the Sea, other call me Ruler of the Seven Seas, but you might know me as Davy Jones. And James Hess, you are standing right smack dab in the middle of the Locker."