FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The next morning, I was up early to depart for Japan. Remmy seemed to have a sixth sense for when it came to dealing with dragons because he was awake to see me off. He fed me breakfast which consisted of egg sandwiches and a small salad as well as a kind of herbal tea that honestly tasted really, really, really, really, really badly. Remmy said it would help keep me awake, so I drank it anyway, almost throwing it up and not being able to do a very good job of hiding it. Remmy didn't seem at all insulted, instead he seemed to show sympathy for me. Once breakfast was over, I thanked Remmy for his help and then took off. It was a several hour flight to Japan, so I tried to take as many distractions as I could so I wouldn't end up mind numbingly bored, but the flight was anything but that. The waters of the Pacific ocean were crystal clear once I was a good distance away from the land mass of Europe and even from 1000 feet I could still see schools of fish and dolphins, the occasional fishing boat and even a fleet of US Navy ships, that seemed to see me, but also didn't seem to care who, or what, I was. After what felt like days, but was probably only three or four hours, I finally made it to the island nation of Japan.

The air here smelled of salt, cherry blossom trees and cascading waterfalls. The beach that I flew over was full of Japanese citizens as well as American and British tourists. I could see a few camera phones and recorders come out as I flew over. I imagined that the internet was going to crazy with conspiracy theories over the next few days. The further inland I flew, the less urbanized the terrain became, giving away to rocky hills and forests. A mountain had started to poke above the land features, but I wasn't sure if I was in the right place, and if I wasn't I wondered just how far away from the right mountain I was. I brought up my GPS in my HUD and entered Mt. Fujimi Kiado in the search box. The system placed me at the very foot of the 20 thousand foot mountain. It wasn't a long way to fly, but I had no clue where the temple was and it wasn't showing up on the GPS, my guess was they didn't even know it was there. I landed and was looking at a map of the mountain's hiking trails trying to see if there was anywhere that I personally would try and put a temple, when I saw the grass to my right move. When I flung my head around, I saw what looked a lot like another Eastern Dragon dart out of the bushes and up the trail.

"Hey wait up", I called after it as I started running up the trail.

I could see the prints the figure was leaving behind as it tried to evade me. It was definitely a paw print, though it was small, and whatever it was went on all four legs. Judging by how far each set of prints, which contained 2 markings, were spaced, it was also at least six feet long. The scent it was leaving behind reeked of fear and distress, I could also tell it was young, maybe about 5 years old, and a male.

"I just want to talk!", I said as I ran after him, catching a glance of a small, blaze orange dragon dressed in black as he turned a corner. I know he heard me, but he made no attempt to answer. I followed him around the corner, using my wings to avoid smashing into the rock wall. The path around the corner was at least 500 feet up one of the rockiest inclines I'd ever seen, and this little dragon, who I could now see was wingless, was already almost at the top and out of my sight, damn this little dude was quick.

"I just wanna talk!", I said as I rocketed up the path, using my wings to clear the rocks, "It's important!"

He once again did not answer me as he banked another corner. I chased him around, only to be broadsided by what I was sure was an 18 wheeler, but soon learned was another dragon with a similar scent, the father or brother by my guess. He didn't seem every big either, but he was a powerhouse. Once he had me on my stomach, which didn't take long, I wasn't going anywhere unless he let me up, which I knew wasn't happening.

"You try and fight me I will kill you where you lay!", he barked in Japanese.

"I just need to talk!", I answered him in the same language, thank you Foreign Language class, "I have to talk to Master Otani!"

"Bullshit!", the dragon shouted, "no one sees The Master! Who are you and what are you doing here!? Speak!"

"My name is Emelia Renxiang!", I answered, "I have news on Ulysses!"

I felt the dragon's grip on me loosen, "what is your news? I will see it is relayed to Otani."

"Seddrin", Another voice came.

I looked up to see an old man come out of the front of a massive temple. I had been so busy trying to convince my attacker to let me go I hadn't seen it. The man was hunched over to a height of about 5 feet, used an old looking wooden stick to walk and had a long white beard. He was bald and had light green eyes.

"You show no respect for our guest", he said, "allow the female to rise and speak to me."

"Of course master", the dragon said letting me up. I stood up and shook the dust and dirt from my scales and vest. Before I could answer, the old man spoke.

"You are an American yes?", he asked.

I nodded, but didn't say anything else.

"Dragons from that part of the world have become exceedingly rare", the man said, "you have fortune to have found us here my young friend. I am Master Otani."

"My name is Emelia Renxiang Master", I answered him, bowing slightly, "I have news regarding a demon named Siazach and a hunter known as Ulysses."

Otani approached me, stopping a few feet from me where the younger dragon was and petting his head.

"You boys return to your mother", Otani said, "she grows worried of your absence."

The two dragons bowed and then went inside.

"Speak my friend", he told me.

"Siazach attacked my circus", I told him, "Ulysses showed up to try and stop him, but Siazach killed him and trapped me in this body with a curse."

"Please detail the demons curse to me young one", Otani said.

"He gave me ten cards, each of which represent a different person", I told him, "I have a little under a year to place all the cards or the people they represent will die. I've placed most of them, but the other two lead me to this temple."

"I see", Otani sighed, "he has cursed two in my temple...this will never do. Come inside. You may rest before continuing in your quest."

Otani motioned for me to follow. I walked with him to the temple's large, dark wooden and paper doors. Otani rang a bell and more dragons dressed in black pulled them open.

Inside the temple was like nothing I had ever seen. The main room was about 40 feet up and some 100 or so feet long. There were two stair cases set ten feet apart that looked like they were made by hand that rose to the two different floors that I could see. The walls were about waist high, or at least for a dragon. The rest of the wall consisted of paper screens that allowed the light from the rooms they separated to easily pass through. The floors looked like hand carved and laid Balsa, a quite rare wood for this part of the world if I was correct. To each of my sides were two huge bronze statues of dragons who appeared to be armored. They both had their maws wide open and looked incredibly angry. I found myself drawn to them, as if they were a magnet and I was a piece of iron.

"The Great Eastern Warriors", Otani said, "they assisted the Ancient Seven in ending the Great War."

"That doesn't make any sense", I said shaking my head, "They would have been shot to pieces or gassed."

"I see you mistake my words as referring to World War One", Otani said, "the Great War was Eastern and Western Dragons versus Northern and Southern Dragons. Both parties wished control over the resources of the Earth. Humanity had no record of this war due to the many trillions of years ago it took place."

I tilted my head at the statue, "trillions? How? The Earth is only 4.5 billion years old."

Otani walked up next to me, "history eludes you young one. Once you have settled in, you are welcome to visit the great library. In the back, we keep a book called "The Testament" it is believed to be as old as Time itself and contains the history of the Great War."

"I might have too", I answered him.

"Master Otani", a males voice came from behind us.

I turned to see a Chromium Blue Chinese dragon walking down the stairs with a much smaller, foot tall and four foot long neon yellow one in tow. The older one was six feet tall and some 24 or so feet long. He had yellow stripes on his muzzle and neck that looked almost like warpaint and his eyes were blue with silver threaded into them. His horns were about a foot long and they curved back from his head at about a 45 degree angle. His crest hid the bases of his horns and his ears as well as hung down in front of his face. He was an American too. He was speaking fluent English and his accent made me place him from somewhere down South like John, maybe Texas or Arizona. From his scent, I could tell he wasn't mated...which might be a good thing because honestly? He's hot.

The smaller dragoness looked like his little sister. My thoughts were reinforced by the fact that her color scheme was basically inverted from the males and she seemed to be just a scaled down version of him.

"Tyranny", Otani said, "what worries you?"

"I was just out at the garden", Tyranny answered him bowing, "a bunch of slugs got into the tomatoes and ruined them. The rest of the plants seem okay though. I have Syril finishing feeding and milking the animals."

Otani sighed, "replant the tomatoes if you can, otherwise we will have to do without. In the meantime, Tyranny, this is Emelia, she is a new arrival at the temple and it would be excellent if you could show her around."

Tyranny started looking me over. His facial expressions didn't change,but the movement of his eyes and the sudden change in scent from annoyed with work to nervousness told me only one thing, he thought I was hot too, and honestly that embarrassed me a little.

"Sure", He said smiling at me, "come on, I have a room for you."

All three of us bowed before master Otani and then went up the stairs to the second floor. It seemed to be handmade like the rest of the place and boasted the same Cyprus and paper construction as the rest of the place, but a difference here was that there was a red carpet on the floor and there were lamps made of iron and orange glass in the ceiling drawing energy from an unseen source. There were a bout 20 doors throughout the length of the 200 foot hallway that were spaced an even ten feet apart. I figured there was a lot of space here because the temple had been constructed from the ground up for dragons. Tyranny walked me to a room at the end of the hall and pushed a door open. The room behind the door was about 20 feet wide and 20 feet long with a ceiling nearly ten feet high. It had the same hardwood flooring and a small, 5x5 red carpet in the middle. There was a small, dog like bed in the back of the room. There was an adobe oven with a metal pipe disappearing into the ceiling in the corner opposite the bed. There were two wooden boxes stacked on top of each other that looked like they would more than hold my equipment once I stripped it down. There was also a fat metal box near the stove that had a bit of frost creeping un naturally up the base, so I guessed it was an overpowered refrigerator. There was one of those orange glass lamps in the ceiling and the room had an unused, musty odor to it.

"You can stay here for as long as you want", the little dragoness with Tyranny said, "our room is right across the hall so if you need anything, just holler."

"Thanks", I told her, "I've had things a little rough lately, so this is a welcome change of pace."

"You sound out of it too", Tyranny said brushing his crest out of his eyes, "something happen?"

"I lost....", I stopped myself. I had lost a lot more than a few people recently. I was worried if I said too much, it would spiral out of control and end up with Tyranny knowing he was one of the remaining cards. If that happened his eyes would never leave me long enough for me to place that card.

"He can't knoooww", Siazach taunted. I was getting sick of this fucker.

"I lost someone close to me recently", I said looking him in the eyes, "and it's been particularly rough this time."

"Oh don't beat yourself up, we've all been through some pretty bad losses", Tyranny said, "I remember when my Dad got the diagnosis's of MSL and he gave my sister and I a ten minute talk. He and Mom had known he was sick for a long time and they hadn't told us. I remember it because I cried for hours afterwords."

"That hurts", I sighed.

"In all honesty I'm just waiting for Master Otani to tell me that Dad had an MSL attack while I was out", Tyranny sighed, "cause he and I both know it's not that far off."

"I take you and your Dad are pretty close?", I asked.

"I wouldn't trade my old man for anything", Tyranny smiled.

I smiled back, "judging by the way your talking I take your from Texas or Arizona?"

Tyranny looked at the ground, smiled, and looked back at me, laughing slightly, "Nevada actually, grew up in a Casino in Vegas...well, the first time anyway."

I tilted my head, "first time?"

"I'll tell you later", Tyranny said, "for now, I have to finish my work in the garden and then I have to take my little sister to school."

"How old are you?", I asked looking at his sister.

"4", she answered.

"What grade are you in?", I asked.

"3rd", she answered.

I whistled, "Impressive."

Tyranny gave me a dirty look, like he was surprised to hear me say that.

"What?", I asked.

"Third grade at four years old is outstandingly average", he said his smile returning.

Okay....

"Your weird", Tyranny said, "but your a good kind of weird. Get settled in and then I'll come get you once I'm done with the garden and we'll go eat."

I smiled, "okay. See you then."

Tyranny stepped out and closed the door. I heard him pick up his sister and walk down the hall. I smiled at myself for some unknown reason and unstrapped my vest. I took all the pouches and parts off it, stripping it down so it would fit in the wooden box in the corner. Once it was put away. I placed the food Remmy had given me in the refrigerator that was next to the adobe oven before walking to the bed and sprawling out on it. After sleeping on dirt, in nets and on seaweed, this was very welcoming. It felt like a mixture of an air, water and spring mattress and was actually pretty soft. In all honesty it was really soft, almost mesmerizingly soft. It was very tempting to fall asleep right then, but I had an opening to place Tyranny's card and I couldn't pass it up.

I slipped out of my room and across the hall to Tyranny's. When I put my ears against the door, I didn't hear or smell anyone else when I sniffed the air, so I snuck inside. Tyranny's room was identical to mine, except he had an American flag on one side of the wall and a Texan flag on the other. His bed was very messily made, while his sister's was very neat and well kept. His stove still held sauce pans from this morning's eggs and bacon and there were dishes stacked neatly on the counter near his stainless steel sink. I also guessed that Tyranny worked security around the temple because there were those black clothes folded up on his trunk. I pulled his card from the deck and slunk over to the trunk, opening it just a little, intending to slide the card inside, but then the sun gleamed off a gold colored object, causing my curiosity to get the better of me and open the trunk fully.

Inside the chest, wrapped in clear plastic, was an Mk 19 Draco Vest! It had been taken completely apart like mine to fit in the trunk in the first place. There were two ammo cans in the corner of the box, one marked "45 cartridges 40mm HE" and one marked "1155 cartridges, 5.56x45 NATO Hardtip" The vest itself was desert tan and held a white and black symbol reading "Human Dragon Resurrection Dagger Squad-SSGT Tyranny Lyrroth,-Demolitions Expert." It didn't take me long to figure out that Human Dragon Resurrection was the full name for HDR, the very same project that we had put John into

"He was HDR?", I asked myself as I slipped the card into his vest, finding it disappeared just like all the others, "but...how?"

I shook my head. If I ever got a decent chance, I would have to ask him about it and find out just what it was that I had gotten John into. I slipped back across the hall to my room and shut the door behind me, trying to oust everything I had just seen and try and get some sleep, eventually succeeding