FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"You get back here now, Shiloh!"

Shiloh, a young Cheetah cub, could hear her mother shouting from behind as her legs swiftly carried her up the grassy hill just beyond her little wooden home. Her mother was gaining on her, but after birthing five cubs, Shiloh being the youngest, the Cheetah had rubbed out of her mother, the speed anyway, and now she could run as fast as the fastest tiger or lion.

"If you don't come back here, Shiloh, you'll be chewing on the leftover bones for supper."

Her mother's voice was hoarse and Shiloh knew that she could get clear of her if she wanted to. Her shouting that they would be having Shiloh's favorite meat that night, however, was incentive enough for her to call back that she only wanted five more minutes of play time. As her mother began to slow to a stop, panting furiously, Shiloh took it as a cue that her request had been granted.

So she continued up the hill, grinning as the blades of tall grass hit the fur under her shirt, which flapped like a flag. The setting red sun and orange sky turned the grass into a light bronze. She breathed a shot of brisk air deep into her chest. Autumn was moving into the prairie. Shiloh opened her arms and flew through the grass, making sounds like an eagle. It felt good to be out again. After a day of doing chores around the house, it was like her legs were reminding her that she was a Cheetah and where her priorities were: to run fast and to run well.

Shiloh's heart raced as she neared the top of the hill. Her mother's shouts had come back, but she figured that it would be alright to complete the journey before tracking back down; it wouldn't make any sense to run this far and not get a full downhill ride on her way back home.

But when she got to the top and looked over the wide orange and red dome of sky, something was infesting it. Shiloh hadn't seen anything like them before. They weren't clouds. Whatever they were, there were hundreds of them and far out on the horizon. They flew formations, in rows, one floating above the other, like birds. Their shape reminded Shiloh of her father's cigars, though these things were wider and their surface was gray. They filled the sky like a swarm of insects and more just kept on appearing, even in period of a few seconds. It wasn't long before Shiloh noticed some floating in the sky above her head. What troubled her most was they were silent as moved. She was also able to see a something painted on their sides: a purple image of a grinning crocodile with a crown, the world in his left claw and a sword, pointing down at her, in his other. She had heard stories of a reptilian people who lived to the north. "Savage smooth hides" as her father would put it. But looking up at these mysterious floating objects, Shiloh couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealously that they discovered how to fly first, leaving her looking up.

Then she saw something falling from one of the floating things: a small black ball. When it hit the grass field, only about fifty leaps away, it erupted in fire and smoke.

Shiloh leapt as a fuzzy hand grabbed her shoulder. She looked up to see her mother staring up at the mysterious shapes.

"Good God!" Her mother yelped, eyes watering in terror. "What are they mama?" Shiloh couldn't imagine that her mother could ever felt any fear in her life. It sent a chill in her bones and she could feel her bright fur turn pale.

"I don't know, dear. But they're heading east, toward Isialla."

Shiloh knew that Isialla was a city many, many leaps from them. She wondered when the flying machines would reach it, and whether the people who lived there would be as startled as her.