FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"W-what happened to you?" Aris stuttered. For a moment Reya wondered why he thought to ask. But then she realized that she was flat on the ground with everyone else standing around her looking very worried.

"Noth-" she started to say, but she was interrupted by Mephit.

"She had a panic attack!" The skunk immediately looked horrified when he realized that Reya hadn't been about to tell the beagle. Mydya glared daggers at her brother.

"Oh... um..." Aris stammered for a response, "you... you're ok now?"

"Yeah," Reya said her face flush with embarrassment. In truth, she still couldn't think perfectly straight. The dizziness was almost gone, but not entirely. She didn't want to everyone dwelling on her, however, so she tried to shift the topic. "Aris, I need you to feel around this deer's leg. It got hit by something while he was trying to get out. I think it's bruised, not broken, but I want to be sure."

"Some townsfolk threw stones at me from their windows," Jack added somberly, "Missed me for the most part, but one got lucky."

"Since I don't think salt water's gonna be too easy to get out here, I'll see what I can do about keeping those in check. Mydya, can you and your brother get a fire going?"

"Bad idea," Jack interjected, "the smoke will tell everyone around exactly where we are."

"Oh..." Reya muttered. She had hoped to make a tea from sallow bark to help clot Jack's wounds after she cleaned them. She didn't have much cloth in her supplies to use as bandages and she had been hoping to change her own. The bandages on her paws were the same ones that had been put on a week ago, before she left for Lenwick.

"Is there anything else I can do?" Mephit asked.

"Yeah." She stood up hesitantly. At first the small otter was worried that she hadn't recovered her balance, but she quickly realized that the dizziness had completely abated. "You can chew some herbs for Jack's cuts. Mydya... could you keep watch for us? Gods above, I don't want anything jumping us while we're in here, and I need Aris to help with Jack's leg."

"Don't worry!" Aris yipped, "Siv's already out there!"

Reya groaned.

"W-what's wrong with that?" The beagle sounded upset.

"Nothing, really. He's just... you know... not the most talkative cat around."

"I- I guess not," Aris muttered awkwardly. "I just thought - um - I hoped that, you know, you guys would get along okay..."

Reya had a lump in her throat. She didn't realize that he would be so unhappy with Siv and her not getting along. "Please don't get upset! I - I don't have a problem with him or anything! We didn't have a great night last night, but it was really stressful, you know? I'm sure I can get along with him if I give it another chance! Just - "

"Ok!" Aris interrupted, "T-That's fine!"

Reya sighed in relief, but then smile crept across her face. "You know, this hunk isn't much of a talker either," she giggled.

'Hey!' Torren was grinning too. Reya wasn't sure if it was because of her joke or because Aris had cracked a smile.

Aris had to help Reya diagnose and treat Jack's leg, but the entire process went off without a hitch. It was only bruised, not broken, so she had Aris rub a poultice of pine bark on it to ease the pain.

"Where's Melly?" Mydya demanded as soon as Aris finished treating Jack's leg. The skunk looked like she had been about to burst with her question ever since the ranger made to the cave.

"Don't worry, she's okay!" Aris said, not sounding too convinced himself, "She's tracking down a bunch of horses and deer trying to get away to the south of the city. She'll be taking them around to the capital, I think."

"Not the meadowlands?"

"She would, but, um, it'd probably be too dangerous to cross the river anywhere before Binescreek. If they're going that far around, Maplefort is a better place to collect themselves anyway. They'll be able to stay in touch with the news there too."

"So... where are we going to go...?" Mephit asked the question that had been hanging around everyone's head.

"I still want to go to Fenbury, I think." Aris said contemplatively, "besides, it'd be dangerous to go back the way we came."

"What about coming back to my home?" Reya asked. She paused after she made her suggestion and looked down at her forepaws, one scarred and burned, the other wrapped in a garish bandage. Did she want to go back home? Her childhood den was ruined, burned to the ground. She was sure that they'd be allowed to stay in one of the townhouses, but...

Which vacancy would they fill? Would she sleep at night on Sylvia's bedding? Would she even be able to sleep as she thought of the rabbit, holding back tears of pain as she clutched her stump of a leg inside of a bloody cloth? Or would she sleep where Talip had? She couldn't even consider it without a shudder running down her spine.

Reya didn't want to go home.

She quickly tried to think of a reason for them not to go back to her town. Was it too far? Not as far as Fenbury. Too dangerous? Who'd come to her middle-of-nowhere town in the first place? They had less than five visitors each year and two of those were tax collectors!

'Isn't there a stable in your town?' Torren must have seen the despair on her face. It wasn't a great excuse; her home town's stable was rarely ever used. She could only recall one time, other than the twice yearly resource runs, when anyone had actually used it. However, it gave her a reason to shoot down her own suggestion.

She repeated Torren's criticism and then added her own comment. "On second thought, I agree with Torren. If these rioters are serious about this revolt, they may start by going to the nearest towns. I normally wouldn't include my town in this, but since there's a stable they may go just to make sure no one is being hidden there."

Aris nodded. "I know a path through the mountains that should keep us out of the way and as safe as we can be."

"The mountains!?" Mydya demanded. "Are you insane? We'll be fucking cat lunch!"

"Its ok!" Aris stammered, clearly taken back by her hostility, "Th... The cats aren't really active near the border there, you know. Its, um, r-rangers have used it before. We'll be... We'll be fine!"

"And what're we going to eat? We have no food and it's almost 15 days to get to Fenbury on the actual road, let alone some gods forsaken path through the mountains."

"Th... There are, um, supposed to be caches of food along the trail."

"Supposed to be," Mydya repeated, her voice growing louder, "are you serious? Two of us are wounded to the point where they can't keep up with everyone else and you want us to climb mountains filled with angry cats ready to kill us on sight while hoping that whatever food was left centuries ago hasn't completely rotted away!"

"I- I... um, I didn't... But we..." Aris stammered.

"Mydii... Whatever your name is! Skunk girl! Shut up!" Reya growled. "Aris is a ranger. He knows what he's doing! We need to get to Fenbury to get away from the countless animals probably roaming the woods right now ready to tear the throat out of your deer friend. We can either try to go through them or around the mountains. I agree with Aris, we're less likely to run into cats than we are hordes of angry rioters. Besides, Torren's dealt with a lynx that tried to jump me once before, I'm sure he can do it again!" She nuzzled the big otter next to her for added effect.

Everyone went silent. Aris's eyes were wider than she'd ever seen them before.

"When did this happen?" A wave of icy cold calmness had fallen over the beagle.

"Um..." Reya nervously glanced between the beagle and the two skunks. "Maybe... I don't know, three? four months ago? And then... um..." She paused for a second, unsure of how to bring up the cats that had attacked Torren and caused him to burn down her home. "A few more tried to attack, but were run off by the fire two weeks ago..."

Reya suddenly felt like an idiot. With everything that was going on around her, she hadn't ever thought about the obviously strange circumstances surrounding these attacks. In eighteen years of her life, she'd never even heard of an incident with the mountain cats, but now there had been two attacks in less than half a year.

Didn't Gither realize that something was wrong? Did he think that the lynx that had attacked the two of them was just a feral? No, Reya knew that it couldn't have been a feral. Even after all these months, she could clearly remember the intelligence in its eyes.

And Gither just left her? He left her with a strange bloody mute of an otter who showed up moments before they were viciously attacked by a mountain cat. She had to keep herself from shaking with anger. Had her brother been that eager to get rid of her?

"This was inside of the kingdom's borders, correct?"

"Um... I think so. The river is the border right? The northern one that feeds into the crystal river?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, it was inside the border."

"Fuck."

"Why's this such a big deal?"

"When this kingdom was established, most colonies of different species were slowly assimilated into its borders. We negotiated treaties with everyone else. This is why the Avian Guild's home island is actually a completely autonomous region. Avians are, by birthright, members of the guild and subject to the benefits of their treaty with the kingdom.

"It took over ten years of negotiation to get the then leader of the largest clan of mountain cats in the north to agree to a treaty between the nations. This one was a lot different from the Avian treaty. Any member of either nation to be caught on the other side of the border is, by law, to be executed. This excludes only a few small regions such as the Lenwick quarry and a select few paths designated by for rangers or diplomats.

"So the best case scenario is that this is a small clan disobeying the head chieftain, which isn't likely at all. It's more likely that a new chieftain has risen to power and is disregarding the treaty."

"So your ranger paths aren't actually safe?" Mydya asked.

"N... no, but I still think that they're the best option we have."

"I say we do what the beagle says," Jack butted in. Mydya sighed and gave her approval as well.

'How far is the walk up to where we cross the border?' Torren asked. Reya translated for him.

"I'd say around six to seven hours given your and Jack's injuries. Why?"

Reya knew what Torren wanted to say. "We should cross the border at sunrise if possible," she said, not waiting for him to continue signing, "We can rest the day and leave around midnight. None of us have gotten much sleep. I don't know about any of you, but I'm incredibly tired... Oh! Oh my gosh! Why is Siv out keeping watch!? I need to treat his shoulder and make sure he didn't make it any worse!"

Aris drew in a sharp breath. "I thought he was fine! You treated it yesterday!"

"Huge bites in the shoulder don't go away after I clean them once! Gosh! I can't believe he's been out keeping watch this whole time! Why didn't I even think of that?! Go get him right now!"

The beagle quickly scuttled outside. Reya stood straight, breathing heavily.

'Are you okay?' Torren signed. Reya realized that she was shaking. She wasn't really angry at Aris for something that inconsequential. It wasn't fear or sadness either.

"Yeah," Reya muttered, "I just need to sleep." When she noticed that Mephit's ears were perked and trying to hear what she was saying, she sat down, careful of her broken arm, and switched to sign language with her still-unwrapped paw. 'I haven't been getting enough rest with my burns still healing. I mean, this isn't going to make it worse or make it take longer to heal, but I'm kind of exhausted.'

Torren nodded knowingly. 'It would be best for everyone to get some sleep before we leave. None of us slept well.' He paused for a moment. 'Is... Is it okay to keep your paw unwrapped like that?'

'It's fine. I need to change my bandages anyway. I... um... I don't think we have enough though. Washing them would be good too, but didn't Jack say that there was no fresh water near here?"

Torren nodded towards the deer. Reya understood what he meant.

"Jack, there's no spring or river or anything near here, is there?"

"Not that I know of," he answered, "none but the river at the border. That and a few small ponds in the wrong directions."

'I guess we can stop on the way to wash them.' She looked down at her paw as she signed. It really did look terrible. 'I should really get this wrapped up again before we go, even if I have to use the dirty bandages.'

Aris and Siv had come back while she was talking. Siv seemed to be walking without much of a limp, so his shoulder injury didn't seem to be bothering him.

"Hey Siv! How's your shoulder?" She asked.

"It's fine." He sounded guarded, but Reya was happy that he was answering her at all. He lowered his shoulder before her before she asked. Reya didn't give it too hard of a look. If it wasn't all that painful for him at this point, it likely wouldn't turn into something worse.

"So what happened with you guys during the riot?" Reya questioned as she poked through the fur around the bite wound.

After several seconds, when it became apparent that Siv wasn't keen on answering the question, Aris answered for him. "Honestly there's not much to tell. Even with our weapons and armor, we couldn't have held off the rioters in the town square." Aris looked down at his forepaws, "Chagi's life had already been taken by the time we left, so instead of going back into that bloodbath we tracked down -"

"Aris is an amazing tracker," Siv interrupted.

Aris blushed and kept talking. "Um... We - uh - tracked down a group that had gotten away from the stables and spend the rest of the night leading them away to hide their scents and confuse anyone else on their trail. Melly stayed with them so that she could guide them through the wetlands down to Maplefort."

"Well thank the gods you didn't get into any fights. If you let Siv screw up his shoulder after I _explicitly_told him to rest, you'd have had worse to worry about than a couple of rioters!" Reya playfully bared her teeth. "These make me look tough, right?" Reya loudly whispered to Torren, gesturing to her bandages.

'I think they look kind of cute on you,' Torren teased while silently laughing.

"Shut up, you're not helping!" Reya said after translating for him. Even Siv cracked a smile. "Anyway, your shoulder seems fine, Siv. It should be all better in a week!"

He nodded in appreciation. They continued to talk for a bit, but Reya slowly dropped out of the conversation. Eventually she suggested that they try to sleep until midnight when they planned to leave. Everyone agreed and went about gathering whatever scraps they could find for bedding.

Reya slept soundly. Despite the bright sun bleeding light in through the cave's mouth and the rough stone floor she laid on, she went out like a rock.

Torren wasn't at her side when she woke up. She looked around to see Mephit and Mydya still curled up fast asleep. Jack was still lying down, but his eyes were open. Neither Aris nor Siv were there either.

She nodded at Jack, who stretched and stood up. He nodded towards the cave entrance and awkwardly tried to walk out as quietly as possible - a difficult feat for a hooved animal on a stone floor. Reya followed him out.

"The rangers and your otter friend went hunting," the deer said quietly.

"Isn't that illegal?" She asked.

"Yes, but we don't have much of a choice. I'm sure they'll be careful enough to make sure all of their catch is feral. I myself've already eaten."

They sat in silence for a while. Reya was brimming with questions to ask Jack, but the twilight that had set over the forest left her with an uneasy feeling in her gut. Sunlight was still barely visible through the trees, but Reya could see it slowly disappear until nothing but darkness showed through the boughs.

She didn't know how long she sat there waiting for them to return. It couldn't have been more than an hour, but the darkness made every minute feel like an eternity.

Siv was the first to come back. He dropped a limp groundhog from his bloody maw onto the stone at the cave entrance and wandered back off into the forest. This time he returned in under a minute with two voles hanging from his teeth. He set them next to the groundhog.

The cat, without a word to Reya or Jack, started to dig a hole in the dirt away from the cave.

"What's that for?" Reya broke the silence with a whisper. She didn't feel comfortable hearing her own voice in the eerie darkness. She normally liked the nighttime. She used to lie on the bank of her river, watching the stars in the sky. There was a serene peacefulness to the night sky.

However, she couldn't escape the feeling that something bad could happen at any moment. That an angry boar would crash suddenly through the foliage and demand Jack's life. That a lynx would pounce at her from behind.

"I'm making a fire," Siv said. He didn't seem to share her unease. Reya could understand; cats had much better vision at night than she did. He didn't have to share the paranoia of being barely able to see.

"Won't that attract attention?"

"Not if you make it right."

She watched him curiously. He had already dug out a pit sometime while she was asleep. She hadn't noticed it, since it had been hidden with dead leaves from the forest floor. It was as wide as the cat's leg was long and slightly deeper than that. Another, slightly smaller hole had been dug to its side.

The cat started collecting small sticks from the ground into a pile next to the pit.

"Your claws sharp?" The cat asked.

"I... I don't really have claws." Siv gave her a funny look. "I mean... my species. We don't have claws... Well, we sort of do! But they don't go past our toes."

"Whatever. Can you use a knife?"

"I could, but... you know... it'd be hard with my burns."

"Oh, right."

"No worries! What'd you need me for?"

"Stripping the bark off this wood."

"That makes it smoke less?"

"Yeah."

"Huh. So we're gonna cook the meat then?"

"Yeah."

"That's good! I love fresh fish, but meat just makes me feel weird when I eat it raw... What're we gonna cook it in, though? We don't have a pot or anything."

"Skewer."

"But the hole doesn't really seem big enough for a skewer."

"It is."

Reya was saved from the painful conversation as Torren strode into the clearing with a groundhog of his own. He dropped it by the pit and flashed a grin at Reya. Aris showed up almost immediately after with more meat.

Before long, they had a small, but hot, fire burning in the pit. The second hole turned out to be an extra hole for air. Reya didn't quite understand how it worked, but it somehow kept the fire from letting out much smoke. It didn't shine brightly either, most of the light stayed confined within the pit.

Mydya and Mephit joined the rest of the group just in time for their meal. Reya tried to keep up a conversation through the meal, but everyone was uneasy. They weren't far enough away from Lenwick to feel comfortable and the upcoming journey seemed just as unpleasant.

After eating, Reya finally took the time to rewrap her paw. After having taken it off and smelled its terrible smell, putting it on again seemed worse than having just left it on. Torren helped her so that she wouldn't have to bite into the fabric. She did not want to taste the dirty fabric again.

As the moon neared its zenith, Aris led everyone north, away from the cave and towards the mountains. Reya found herself walking much better than she had the previous day. There was still a lot of pain from her burns and blisters, but her muscles were responding much better than the day before when she had barely used them for over a week.

They walked in silence. Torren would glance at her worriedly every once in a while when she would stumble after stepping on her paw at the wrong angle and irritating a particularly sore area of her skin.

The river came into view before sunrise. Reya guessed that Aris had based his seven hour estimate on her walking much slower. Despite their speed, Reya felt like she was ready to drop dead when they finally stopped moving. Her paws were numb and her joints were sore. She didn't want to hold anyone back, so she didn't say anything, but Jack noticed.

"You want a ride for the next bit?" He asked, "I could carry you no problem."

"Don't worry about me! I'll be fine after I get a drink and change these wrappings!" Jack didn't seem convinced. Neither did Torren.

Torren helped to unwrap Reya's bandages. She'd seen her front right paw already, but the back two looked just as bad, if not worse. She had Aris help with her splint. He knew enough first aid to help her safely clean her fractured arm, clean the wrappings, and reapply everything she had taken off.

She could see Siv watching her curiously. Reya didn't blame him, but it set her on edge to see his piercing yellow eyes staring at her whenever she looked his way.

Finally, they waded across the river; Aris found a shallow crossing, so Jack was able to make it across with no difficulty.

"You know," Reya said sheepishly. "It wouldn't be a good idea to walk around with these still wet. I guess I should take you up on your offer, Jack."

Jack smiled a toothy smile and lowered his back for her to climb.

"Now I'm not too used to this, so if it gets too rocky let me know and I'll try to steady myself up."

Reya was just happy for an excuse to rest her legs. She wasn't used to walking this much, even without her injuries. The farthest she'd ever had a reason to go was from her house to the village, and that only took a few hours.

Riding on the deer's back was an interesting experience. Despite his limp, Jack was careful enough that she didn't need to worry about falling off. Even so, she was constantly conscious of her grip. It was difficult to hold on with her paws wrapped in wet cloth. She ended up wrapping her front paws as far around Jack's neck as she could reach.

They rounded the foothills until they had no way to go except for up. The climb started off slow, but as it grew steeper, they began to walk less and less vertically and more and more westward. Although it didn't seem like it at first, Aris was clearly following along an established path.

As the day grew brighter, Reya felt that a weight was slowly lifted from everyone's shoulders. They all began to talk more, and the minutes started to blend together.

Reya was almost shocked when she saw that they were rounding over the mountain's ridge. She hadn't ever climbed a mountain before, but she had thought that it would have taken them much longer to make it up to the top. Of course, with the trees surrounding them, she could only rarely get an idea of how much progress they were making.

The views were incredible. They were like nothing she had ever seen before. The hilly forest stretched out below her as far as she could see. She could make out Lenwick off in the distance, but her home was much too far away.

They walked out onto a rocky outcropping that overlooked the other side of the mountain range. Aris stopped cold as he looked down at the valley in front of him.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck." He repeated his curse over and over. He stared straight ahead with unbelieving eyes.

"What is it?" Mydya asked as she ran over beside him. The skunk, however, saw for herself. As Jack walked out onto the stone overhang, everything came into view for Reya. She saw the campfires burning below. She saw the circling birds of prey. She saw the rectangular formations of the animals, moving in unison with hordes of others.

"An army," Aris needlessly replied.