FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Winter had ended, finally, and spring thaws were well on their way to completion. It had gotten warmer with the coming spring as well, and after such a deep, cold winter, the rains were threatening to become especially fierce. In fact, Stelle could not remember the last time she'd seen the sun or stars, much less a break in the cloud cover. It could have been written off as just an over-eager raincloud, but somehow, there was something more to it. For one thing, it never stopped moving. Winds above and below churned it like a massive sea overhead, and though the Animen was too far below to feel it, she knew instinctively that it was treacherous flying for any winged creature. For another, said sea of clouds was so thick, and so sickly looking, it was immediately apparent that something was unnaturally wrong with this storm. Well...perhaps storm was premature. The clouds had roiled and threatened for weeks now, nearly months, and not a drop had fallen. Many had dismissed the phenomenon after a week or more, assuming summer sun would burn them away. The more superstitious among them entreated the gods, both evil and benign, to protect them from the dark omen. And of course, there were the suddenly-religious type doing much the same.

Stelle was not the prickly religious sort, or superstitious really, though she acknowledged the unknown forces. Mostly she just kept to herself, and stayed well away from anything divinely bright or unhallow. They hadn't treated her well in the past anyway, so she felt little need to honor anybody. Yet this storm reeked of dark magic, or so her mother would have said.

Indura had been alive before and during the falling of the Star, after all, and such a sight had changed her for life. Unlike her daughter, she was very much a believer in such things, and if she thought something was an omen, took every care. Stelle didn't really understand it herself, but she loved her mother. Despite her errant ways, the daughter did have faith in her single parent. When the letter had arrived from Ival but a few weeks hence, warning her to keep an eye on the sky, Stelle had done so. Not out of fealty to some deity, nor with the eye of a suspicious mummer, but out of trust in her mother. For many times, the older lioness' instincts had proven right. With so overt a display, whatever it might mean to others, Stelle was grimly sure that Indura was going to be right again. "Beware the skies, the blanket covering the heavens. For if the eyes of the stars are no longer upon us, whose eye is watching in their place?" Cryptic in meaning, maybe, but 'watching the skies' was the most basic piece Stelle had gotten from it. And so she did.

She wasn't entirely sure where she was now, somewhere in the more rocky area of the tundra. Instead of the gentle, vague roll of the empty plain, hills and rocks began to jut from the soil. Boreal forests were growing taller around her the farther she went, and despite the oncoming spring, the air was noticeably cooler. It was some mountain range, she was certain, but which, she could not name. Stelle had heard rumors in a town she had passed, that some fabulous treasure lay hidden and guarded in a deep cavern. This was, of course, followed up by tales of all who'd striven for this gold, or whatever wealth it was, and all dying in their failure. She had gotten a few rotten looks when she asked where the tales had come from, if all had perished, but that was to be expected. The audience had all been simple folk, people who had probably never been more than half a league from their birthplace. By contrast, Stelle had cut across most of Khalla, in that meandering path she'd chosen during her mad years--though to be fair, she only recalled fragments of this journey, and those infrequently. Her body still remembered, survival instincts and habits of making camp coming to her as second nature. She had that everclear portion of her mind to thank for that, taking over for those tedious tasks while the rest of her mind brooded over other things. There were caves and rocks aplenty, in a dozen different places on Khalla, but Stelle had a feeling that this 'treasure' was something more. Or some_one_...she hoped. Perhaps it had never been found because he had not wanted to be found. But Stelle was young, her drive fueled by persistence, her goal a burning brand in her mind. She had no doubt what that 'treasure' must be, and like so many before her, would seek it out. The only difference would be that she would be successful.

Stelle's thoughts mirrored the rolling clouds overhead, dark and tumbling and hued a myriad of deep colors. She'd learned that if she stared into those clouds long enough, that her thoughts started to take over and she would stare for ages. Nothing would get done, then. At times like these, her everclear piece of mind would quietly, insistently prod at her consciousness. Time to keep moving. Or time to make camp. Time to rest now, leave the troubles for the morrow. One of these quiet urgings had sent her here, to a small overhang beneath craggy rocks.

It was not deep enough to be called a true cave, but the scoop out of the rock was good enough for her. No fire was lit as she sat with her back to the wall, staring out over the forest and other stony peaks. Her mount, though stubborn as she, lay nearby, his shaggy side enough to keep her warm. The horned beast had a grudging respect for the small humanoid, and though he was not outright affectionate, always stay by her side when they stopped. His thickly-lashed eyes were half-closed, breath coming in slow gusts from his soft nostrils. Absently, Stelle had lain her arm about his maned neck, fingers ruffling the hair on the other side. They had sat in peaceful quiet for some time in this manner, observing the permanent, all-pervading twilight as it fell, and listening to the small noises of the forest beyond their shelter.

All had been peace for hours, yet suddenly Rook stirred. His jewel-toned eyes uncovered, the Altian lifted his tufted ears to listen to...something. Stelle's scratching fingers stopped, the white Animen sitting stock-still as her companion. Animen were normally blessed with extraordinary senses, those far greater than most of the other races, but her blood was not pure. Against others of her kind, Stelle's senses were dull. Yet still she listened, and sure enough, the sound rose enough for her to hear. It was a steady hissing noise, like a distant waterfall, and it was coming closer. Rook stirred, rising to his hooves fully awake now. The Altian snorted, horned head shaking, and shuffled restlessly. Stelle got up herself, moving carefully to the edge of their shelter. Her pointed ears, free of the leather hood she'd grown used to wearing, turned slightly. The noise was louder now, not deafening, but definitely approaching. It sounded like rain, but after weeks of no precipitation, she wondered that it had come at all. Stelle leaned from under the outcropping, catlike nose flaring. It certainly didn't smell like rain, and the characteristic dampness in the air oddly lacking. Something was on the air for sure, but it was an odd, pungent scent. Rotting leaves and decay, and a sharp smell. Part of her began to panic, thinking it may be a forest fire; the everclear part of her mind quashed such thinking. There was no heat to it, no ash, no smoke. It was not a fire smell. Stelle looked up and craned her neck back, hearing the rain upon them. The downpour had begun in the hills above them and was now coming up behind, or really over, their shelter. Pounding rain was interspersed with the cries of wild animals, and Stelle couldn't blame them. The storm above was a vivid, sickly green, and the wind blowing that scent in their direction only increased the smell of bur--

Suddenly Stelle was on the ground writhing, a thin rivulet from the downpour above trickling right on her upturned face. The abrupt noise startled Rook, who bounded about the shelter in a panic. Stelle's pained form was between him and the outside, so at least he did not venture out into the burning rain, but the Animen was on her own. Pain-- Pain-- Pain-- burning pain, all over her face, she couldn't bear it! She couldn't see, there was only white, or blurs of dark colors as the earth rolled past her face. Even in her panic the everclear part of her mind snapped into sharp focus, keeping ahead of the rest of her fear-wracked brain so she didn't roll out directly under the tainted flow.

It felt like hours she spent there, nothing in her world of pain but the pain itself, the noise and the turmoil outside so far distant she couldn't hear it. Part of her was still focused though, moving her slowly away from the source of the danger, away from further injury. She became dimly aware of lying against the far back wall, curled up and sobbing. Her hands hurt, and her face, but even that pain started to recede after awhile. She was vaguely aware of someone nearby, felt a tickling on her neck where they were sitting next to her. Rook lay nearby, shivering occasionally as death washed over the land outside. Stelle only curled up tighter, one hand wrapped up in the Altian's thick coat while the other pulled her acid-eaten hood up over her head and face. Her huddled form shuddered as she drew wracking breaths, fighting the urge to sob, and scream, while the everclear part of her mind continued at its own pace, as it always did. You said you would do anything, pay anything in your quest. This is only the first step. Patience, patience, the rewards will be beyond reckoning. Silently, weakly, she agreed with it.