FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I slept for what must have been two or three hours. When I woke up, it was to Tyranny knocking on the door.

"Emelia!", He shouted, "if your asleep in there then wake up! It's dinner time and if you don't come then you'll be without!"

"I'm coming!", I said cracking open my eyes and yawning. I stretched out and then walked to the door, sliding it open. Tyranny was standing in the hallway with a smile plastered all over his muzzle. He was dressed in what looked like a blue T-Shirt and cargo pants made for dragons and he had a necklace with a bronze pendant on. He seemed to have taken a shower, as he had the smell of soap hanging on him and his scales were a lot shiner than they had been. His sister was sitting on his back and dressed in what I had to guess was a skirt and a Minnie Mouse T-Shirt and she had a red bow in one of her ears. Even with all the things spinning in my head right now, I had to wonder where they got this stuff.

"Your not going like that are you?", Tyranny's sister asked.

"Like what?", I asked tilted my head.

She paused...looking like she was hanging up on her words.

"Not...dressed", she said quietly.

"Where did you guys even get that stuff?", I asked.

"We have some Northern Dragons here who know how to weave", Tyranny explained, "they make clothes for anyone who wants them. I normally just dress because I like the way it feels. And just ignore my baby sister", he continued laughing, "no one's gonna care if your dressed or not."

I smiled, "well then let's go eat."

I stepped out of my room and shut the door behind me, following Tyranny back down to the lobby and in between the stair case through a set of paper screens that were serving as doors to a huge, 100 foot tall and 200 foot wide room that was playing host to at least 40 or 50 dragons, most of them, Chinese and Japanese, but there were a few dragons there that had shorter, broader bodies and even a few that were standing up right and had bodies that looked human.

"I see two kinds of dragons I haven't seen before", I said as I followed Tyranny to bar that had all kinds of fresh smelling meats, veggies, pastas and cheeses on it.

"Point 'em out", Tyranny said.

I pointed to the four short and broad dragons at a far table, and then to the two human like ones at a table closer to us.

"The ones at the far end are Western and Northern", Tyranny said, "Western dragons are more commonly refereed to as Ferals, at least by the humans and the difference between Western and Northern is that Western Dragons always have wings in sets of 2-4 and Northern Dragons never have wings...ever. Even if a Western is their mate the offspring will be born or hatch without wings. The two dragons at the close table are Syril and Clay, there Southern Dragons, or Anthro's, which is short for Anthropomorphic, meaning they walk Bi-Pedal."

"And that makes us Eastern right?", I asked, "before I came here, I kept hearing the term Eastern Body Style getting thrown around when people would talk about me."

"Yep", Tyranny said, "long slender body, short legs, at least compared to Southern's, thick heavy tail and 2 wings, always."

Tyranny stopped talking just long enough to gather food and head to a table near the window. I looked at what they had before deciding. The Bar contained 5 different pots of meat slabs of varying thickness. The meats were Steak, Ham, Pork, some of the biggest chicken breasts I'd ever seen and even huge slices of Turkey, which I personally loved. After failing to decide which I wanted more, I grabbed two slices of turkey, and then the smallest slice I could find of each of the other meats. There were also fresh Tomatoes, what they had managed to save by my guess, steamed Corn, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts (nasty), Cucumbers, Carrots, Peas and a long missed favorite of mine, Eggplant. I laughed at myself as I grabbed an entire Eggplant and then moved to the pasta isle. The choices here were numerous, Mac & Cheese, Beefaroni, Spaghetti, Fettuccine Alfredo and Egg Noodles. I spooned a little bit of Mac and Cheese onto my plate with some of the Alfredo and then grabbed a hunk of Cheddar cheese before going to sit with Tyranny, who was turned away from his food and focusing on his little sister, who was doubled over. Her yellow cheeks had a rosy tint to them and she seemed to be sweating a little.

"Is she okay?", I asked setting my tray down.

"She's fine", Tyranny said, "most of it came out."

"Most of what?", I asked.

"My sister can't handle anything from the Dairy cows", Tyranny said, "even the slightest bit of milk or cheese will send her into spasms that can, and have, dehydrated her."

"Are you okay....", I started, but wasn't sure how to finish since I didn't know her name.

"Her name's Lenna", Tyranny said.

"Are you okay Lenna?", I asked.

She shook her head, "My stomach hurts..."

Tyranny pulled her close to him and she leaned her head on his chest as a Northern Dragon walked past and Tyranny flagged him down.

"Hey Chen", Tyranny said in Japanese.

"Yeah bro?", Chen answered.

"Will you go find my parents and tell them that Lenna had one of her spasms?", Tyranny asked, "I have my paws full at the moment and I think she's getting a bit of a fever."

"Will do", Chen answered before leaving.

We sat there for a few minutes before two dragons, Male and Female, walked in. The scent signaled they were mates, and the fact that Tyranny and Lenna were their kids certainly showed. Tyranny was a carbon copy of the male dragon, minus burn and puncture scars and a missing horn and wing. Lenna looked exactly like her mother and the scents were not at all different from each other, I almost couldn't tell the difference.

"Son", The male dragon said, this time in English.

"Hey Dad", Tyranny said, "you doing okay?"

The male smiled, "stop worrying about me son, it hasn't gotten me yet. What happened to your sister?"

"Her food must have had milk or cheese residue in it or on it", Tyranny answered, "she took a few bites and then threw up everything she'd eaten today. Now she feels like she's running a fever."

The dragoness walked forward and nuzzled Lenna.

"Mommy", Lenna said quietly, "I don't feel well."

"Come here baby girl", her mother answered taking her from Tyranny.

"Mom, Dad, before you guys go", Tyranny said turning to me, "This is Emelia, she just got here a few hours ago."

"Hey?", I said, not quite knowing how to introduce myself.

"Your from America aren't you?", Tyranny's mother asked, "I can hear the New York Accent in your voice."

"Yes mam", I answered, "I grew up in NYC and until recently I worked as the animal tamer for a traveling circus."

Tyranny and his family exchanged glances.

"It's a very long, complicated story", I sighed, "one I'm sure you all wouldn't believe."

"Try us", Tyranny's father smiled.

"It's a story for another time anyhow", I sighed.

They exchanged glances once again, "If you don't wanna tell complete strangers that's understandable", Tyranny's mother smiled, "we have to see to Lenna anyway."

"We'll come by later with a welcoming present", Tyranny's Dad smiled, "see you then."

I nodded as they left and Tyranny grabbed his tray, 'we might wanna move so they can clean this up."

"Noted", I said sliding my tray to the end of the table. Tyranny sat down across from me and put a small sandwich together before taking a big bite.

"So Master Otani says you'd like to visit the great library?", Tyranny asked.

"I would like to see it yes", I answered taking a huge chomp out of one of my pieces of Turkey, "those statues out front got me interested in learning about the Great War."

Tyranny put his food down, his smiled was replaced by a frown.

"I hope you have a cast iron stomach sister", he sighed, "that bit of The Testament is very, very graphic."

"Graphic how?", I asked.

"The Testament", Tyranny began, "you don't read it, you see it. The book is enchanted or some shit like that. You can actually see the events you read about unfold before your eyes. I read that part out of a bet with Chen and some other friends of mine...I cried like a little bitch for weeks it scared me so bad and I was in my teen's. It left them with similar symptoms."

"How old are you now?", I asked.

"29", Tyranny answered, "you?"

"28", I told him.

I heard him mutter something under his breath, but it was so low I couldn't make it out.

"What was that?", I asked.

"Nothing", He answered.

"I'm sure it was something", I told him.

"It was nothing", he answered casually taking a bite of his sandwich, "anyhow, I'll take you the great library after dinner, assuming the head librarian doesn't close it off and the Guardian's let us past."

"Guardians?", I asked.

"That's what they call the kids who watch the book", Tyranny answered, "it makes no sense to me. Master Otani said that the book wants only "untainted souls" to watch it as it writes itself, so I guess that means 5 year olds? Lenna said she hopes she gets to be a Guardian when she's old enough."

"Two things", I said, 'one, the book... "writes itself"? And two, how does a Dragon know that their a Guardian?"

"The book is magic or some weird shit like that", Tyranny said finishing his sandwich, "sometimes, it will open at random, turn to a blank page and then start writing the most descriptive words and phrases as well as draw the most detailed pictures you've ever seen. I've seen it happen once or twice and it's almost mesmerizing. I wanted to touch it while it was writing, but after seeing what happened to Chen's older sister, who was doing work on some of the lamps and fell from the ladder she was on, onto the book, I haven't even thought about it. You don't know if your a Guardian until your Marked.

"Marked?", I asked.

"Yeah", Tyranny answered, "Your body is covered from head to toe in these black markings that kind of look like a circuit broad, every inch, even some very....private places are marked. There are only five at a time, and each one comes from a different family. I don't know for sure, but it seems to me that only family members of the current Guardians can take their places, so each one mates when their ready, but it's usually around 10-14. Lenna's all excited because her 5th birthday is in a few days and that's when the next five are marked, every five years without fail, this is the end of the Five Years and the current ones will be retiring soon."

"They are Marked on her Birthday every five years without fail?", I asked.

"Uh huh", Tyranny answered.

I laughed nervously, "that's really, really weird."

Tyranny smiled, "when my Dad explained it to me when a friend of mine got Marked, I thought he was just making it all up."

"I take he wasn't", I smiled, "and by the way, what happened to Chen's older sister?"

"When she hit the book", Tyranny explained, "there was a flash of light and when it subsided, she had the newest 20 pages of the book burned into her scales. Chen told me that she couldn't move for weeks because the burns were packed with "Cosmic Energy", as master Otani put it. She runs the Nursery for the little kids and for dragons who get screwed up really badly and need help recovering. Being around all the little kids really helped me when I had that branch pulled out of my head."

"Branch?", I asked.

"I was working and a branch broke off a dead tree I was under", Tyranny said, "punched right through my head and left me cold for days. When I woke up, I was slurring my words, could barely stand up right and had no control over my wings, they were limp for weeks. But once I went to the Nursery, my condition improved pretty quickly and I was better in a few weeks."

"How old were you?", I asked.

"27", Tyranny answered smiling, "Lenna was really little at the time, but she wouldn't let me out of her sight."

I returned his smile, "that's sweet."

"Yep", Tyranny answered, "I'm lucky she's my little sister and not someone elses. But that's enough about me, let's go to the Library, if were lucky, we might get to see the Testament write itself.

I quickly scarfed down the rest of my food and followed Tyranny from the Cafeteria down a long hall to another set of paper doors. Tyranny pushed them open, revealing the single biggest room I had ever seen. It was some 400 feet up and about the same length from end to end. There were book shelves that reached to the ceiling and the space between each shelf ensured that you could use your wings to boost yourself without messing up the order the books were in. The floor was covered in what seemed to be a handwoven wool carpet and the lights in the ceiling were the same ones that were in the hallways and the rooms. There were desks on either side of the door, only one of which was hosting a dragon. She was a Southern dragon with one horn, one eye, no wings and missing digits on her right hand. Her tail had a spot that was caved in and her chest looked sunken. She managed a weak smile, but didn't say anything. I assumed because of the way her mouth moved that she was muted, or couldn't speak. I gave the Southerner a smile as Tyranny and I walked past.

"Who was that?", I asked.

"The Great Librarian", Tyranny answered, "Her name is Song, but ever since she lost her voice in the explosion, she's been mute. You should see her mate, I would doubt that there were two dragons more made for each other than those two."

"What explosion?", I asked.

Tyranny shrugged, "her mate won't say."

I shrugged as well, "so where is the Testament."

"In the way back of the library", Tyranny answered.

We walked in between a couple of bookshelves and at the end I could see a bright blue light.

"Oh yes", Tyranny said, "come on, it's writing."

Tyranny and I quickened our pace from between the shelves and came out on a sight that was something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

Sitting on a raised platform of what looked like pure quartz, was a red cloth covered table with gold edge caps and silver trim that looked to be constructed mainly of polished obsidian. Underneath the red cloth was what looked like a slab of pure gold. Suspended by what seemed to be the blue glow itself, was the thickest, leather backed book I had ever seen. It was easily 400 thousand pages long, but was probably a lot longer. It was open to two blank sheets and was writing itself, just like Tyranny had said. I was awestruck as I watched the English letters form words, then sentences and then paragraphs as the pictures to compliment them seemed to materialize from thin air. Standing in front of the book, with bodies glowing the same blue as the book, were four young looking dragons, all of them Eastern. I couldn't make out most of their scale color or features due to the glow, but just the glow itself was worth noting.

I stood there watching the book write for what must have been a half hour or so. After drawing a final picture, the book closed, set itself down on the table and got much brighter before the glow dissipated, leaving the Guardians looking like they were about to collapse. Now that they weren't shrouded in the blue glow, their features were easier to make out.

The first two were females, twin sisters by my guess as they both had cloudy black scales with red underbellies and crimson wing membranes. Their horns were the same length, same placement and angled in the same way. The both had bright neon green eyes and their black markings were exactly the same.

The other two, males, didn't seem to be related. One of them had green scales and a grey underbelly and wing membrane. Two foot, 45 degree angle grey horns and markings that seemed to be an inversion of the two sisters. Another was blaze orange, had markings that seem to be following a path slightly different from the others. He had blue eyes and no wings, scars where they once were. He didn't have any horns and was looking at Tyranny with a smile, my guess was this was the friend he was telling me about.

"Since when are you interested in reading?", The orange dragon laughed as he and Tyranny hugged.

"Not me brother", Tyranny smiled, "a friend of mine. Emelia, this is my buddy Ditch, Ditch, this is Emelia, she's a new arrival and for whatever the reason has taken an interest in the Great War."

Ditch looked at me, "why for?"

I shook my head, "just a little curious is all."

Ditch shook his head, "hope you have a strong stomach, that bit's pretty damn graphic."

"So I've heard", I answered, "what can you tell me about the Testament?"

"It's several trillion years old", Ditch said, "I know for a fact that each planet that has an intelligent species has one of these, because it says so in the book itself, but I have no idea how it writes itself, or how it chooses who will be it's next protectors. I know it's enchanted, but it's one of the most complicated, difficult spells I've ever seen in my life. I've tried more times than I can even count to get it onto paper, but I always fail."

"You know", I told him, "if you had told me a month ago that I would be having a conversation with a dragon who guards a trillion year old, magic book, I'dda called you crazy."

Ditch tilted his head.

"It's a very, very long story", I sighed.

"Then save it", Ditch said yawning, "I'll see you latter Tyranny, my girl owes me a favor."

Tyranny laughed, "yeah, yeah. I'll find someone one of these days."

"Ain't no girl here gonna date you", Ditch said as he walked away.

Tyranny shook his head, "I'll show him up one of these days. I'mma head back to my room, once your done with your history I suggest you get some sleep, you look tired."

I yawned, "yeah, I'll do that."

Tyranny smiled and left. Once he was out of my sight, I turned to the book. When I reached out to touch it, it flew open and my vision turned white. Suddenly I could hear gunfire all around me. I could feel wet dirt underneath my paws and bullets whizzing over my head. There were shouts of people telling others to shoot till their clips were empty, and even more pained screams. When I looked around, all I could see was carnage. The sand underneath me was red with blood and littered with bleached skeletons that were covered by rotting vests and rusted machine guns. Miles and miles of barbed wire and trenches armed with bunkers and grenade launchers dotted the landscape. To my left was a bunker system that contained Northern and Southern dragons. Many of them were frantically searching their body armor for another magazine for their M4's, while others were down to the very last rounds for their Belt fed machine guns or the last cell for their energy weapon. They were bloody, bruised, welted and some of them appeared to have gang green in their legs and arms. The rocket launchers in the bunkers were trying desperately to reload and get more rounds down range. When I turned to my right, miles, and miles, and miles, and miles of tanks, heavy soldiers, vehicles, standard infantry, helicopters and artillery. I could hear screaming on both sides, but what was really sticking out, was the yelling on my left.

"Guys we are so out numbered!", A young sounding female shouted.

"Keep fighting!", A male answered, "we still have a little bit of ammo!"

"I'm down to my last ten rounds for my M4!", a second male answered, "after this I got two mags for my Sig!"

"Two rounds left in my M40A1!", A female cried frantically, "I don't have a side arm!"

"Take mine!", A third female shouted.

"What's the status of the town!?", The first male asked.

"94 percent evacuated!", the third female answered, "the Sarge said he only needs about five more minutes!"

"Can we hold them off that long!?", The female with the sniper rifle asked.

"Yeah maybe with a walker!", Another, much older sounding male said.

There was a shake beside me, I turned around just in time to see a giant metal spider lower it's leg right on my head. I closed my eyes, expecting to be crushed, but...instead I felt a cold burst of air as the metal appendage passed right through me. That was when I noticed that I was transparent, I could see myself, but very faintly and I guessed that if that leg had passed clean through me, then I was safe, so I decided to look around.

"Oh shit", the female with the sniper rifle said.

"What!?", the third male asked as I entered the trench, finding a rather small force of only ten dragons with very lean equipment and battered looking bodies and weapons.

"They got a walker!", the female answered sliding down into the trench with the older, Northern Feral and a young looking Southern male with an M4 in his lap, he was holding tightly to a small stuffed bear.

"I'm empty", he said quietly, "all I've got left is my knife."

The Northern Dragon gulped and looked at the female. She shook her head and produced a Beretta handgun.

"Half a clip", she answered.

I turned my head, only to come on a worse scene. There were two Southern's in a small hole in the wall. From the smell, they were brothers. The smaller of the two had about 20 bullet holes riddling his neck and torso. He was shaking and convulsing as his older brother held him tightly, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"I'm gonna die", the little brother cried, "I'm gonna die!"

The older brother couldn't answer. I looked behind me, after hearing a foot step and came face to face with an Eastern Dragon about my size carrying a huge cannon and dressed from head to toe in the heaviest looking armor I had ever seen. The old Northern saw her too because he shouted.

"They broke through!", he shouted, "Fuck it! We gotta!"

There were several gunshots as more Westerns jumped into the trench and killed the two brothers, the Northern and pinned the Female with the sniper rifle and the unarmed male.

"I'mma make this one my bitch!", the Western laughed.

The female screamed. I heard a loud grunt, a heavy thud and the sound of metal and bone shattering. I turned around to see what I assumed was a Southern dragon in what looked like an armored diving suit. The porthole on the helmet was blood red.

"You want some too big guy!?", one of the westerns said firing a bolt of energy at him.

The Anthro grunted and pulled a massive stone crusher drill that was attached to his arm out. The sound the drill made as they torqued up was what I could only describe as a diesel powered chainsaw.

"Get away from my sister!", the Anthro said in an inhuman, in-dragon, cannibalistic voice, almost as if he'd altered his voice box.

"The bigger they are", one Western said, "the harder they fall!"

The Western leaped at the Iron Clad Southern, who raised the spinning drill and stabbed it directly through the Western's chest. The sheer amount of blood, bone fragments and entrails that spilled from the Dragon would stay with me for the rest of my life. Another Western leapt at him, and he knocked him out of the way as if he wasn't there. The female juggernaut didn't seem that terrified of him though.

"Get out of here you altered freak!", she shouted firing an energy bolt at him. He somehow managed to block it with the drill and swat her down. He raised his arm again, the drill beginning to torque up as he slammed it down on her neck. The drill took mere seconds to get through her heavy armor and draw blood. She tried to scream for help, but was hindered as the massive bit tore through her vocal chords. The Southern removed his drill and turned to face at least ten more dragons, all of them armored, who had entered the trench. Even though his drill was smoking black smoke, he seemed in no mood to back down.

"I still got 75% of a tank", the Southern grunted as the drill torqued up again, "look's like were doing this the hard way."

That was when the voice started in my head.

"The battle you witness was just one of many bloody, long battles between the Northern Alliance, and the Western Federation, the sides of the Great War. The Great War lasted for 4 thousand nine hundred twenty one years, ten days, twenty hours and ten seconds. It claimed the lives of 768,923,213 Northern Dragons, 3,000,235 Eastern Dragons, 2 million Southern Dragons and ten million, exactly, western dragons. The cause of this great, worldwide conflict was a dwindling amount of Taclo 254, an essential component in the Fusion Reactors of the time. All four sides wanted control of the remaining supply, but all sides realized that he who controlled the Taclo, also controlled the world's power supply. None wanted the burden of supplying the world's energy needs, but all wanted the war to end. The Ancient Seven, the Western Mountain Elders, summoned the power of the Black Wind, a feral instinct that resides in all Mountain Dragons, to decimate the armies of the Eastern and Western Allies, and the Northern and Southern Allies. Along with the Eastern Warriors, two very powerful Eastern Dragons, they killed almost 400 million dragons, ranging in age from 12 years old, to 45 years old. With their armies decimated and billions dead, the Generals of both sides met for a peace agreement and it was decided that the world's reactors would be shut down and operations would begin to restart Coal and Diesel fired power plants."

When the voice stopped, I was back in the trench. The diving suit clad Anthro had removed his helmet, revealing a grotesque looking face and a scared throat, reinforcing the idea that he'd modified his voice box. His suit was full of holes and a few of them were dripping blood. He was leaning against the side of the bunker, his drill smoking black and covered in dried blood, looking out over the mass of tanks and troops coming.

"I'm gonna need more diesel", he grunted, "that's a lot of enemies."

There was another flash and I was back in the library, the book had closed.

"Well", I sighed, "they weren't lying when they said it was graphic."

"I told you", Tyranny said appearing behind me, "what did it show you?"

"Too much", I sighed, "it showed me ten dragons without any ammo trying to hold back an entire army."

Tyranny said, "by the way, that Anthro died at the end of the fight, but his sister made it out."

'No he didn't", I said tilting my head, "he was still alive in the end."

"No he wasn't", Tyranny said, "the book cut you off. At the end of the fight he get's run over by a tank as he tries to climb out of the trench."

I sighed, "you could have let me think he lived."

Tyranny shrugged, "sorry."

I sighed again, "I'm going to bed, we'll talk some more tomorrow."

I left the library and walked to my room. The temple was dark, cold air was blowing from an unseen source and the loud snoring of many hundreds of dragons echoed through the walls. I followed the hall to my room, slid through the door and fell into bed. Somehow, I didn't think I'd sleep much tonight.