FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

WARNING: The following is a work of fiction. Characters, names, situations, events, and locations described hereafter are purely the invention of the author, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to people, living or dead; names and locations, is purely coincidental.

Somewhere along the Geurzi Shore, Rroan It sure looks different when it rains._Meerk continued to watch the sea from under the protection of the the rocky escarpment. He had once again braved the confusing halls of the Group's hideaway to get a breath of the rather salty air outside. He regarded the gray waves lapping against the cliff wall below him. The sheets of rain against the surf made a discordant hiss which the meerkat had quickly grown used to. _All that noise almost makes it look like sand rushing along...

The past two days were spent with Laart and Keeton, getting the meerkat acquainted with the schedule and layout of the Group and it's activity in the hall. Along with Keeton's advice, Meerk had indeed decided to stick around, but had not had a chance to really meet anyone. He tried to remember what von Pluma had said about upcoming events.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, by a grating noise behind him. The familiar figure that emerged shut the iron door quickly, grasping his dusty fedora as a gust of wind passed by the alcove.

Meerk turned to face him. "Looking for me?"

"What?" The gravedigger seemed to have just noticed the meerkat standing by the ledge. "Oh, no." The human paused for a second, then grinned. "Just found a lead on my quarry. I'm off to put some smack down on that rot!"

"You're leaving?"

Laart shrugged, pulling the collar of his jacket up. "I usually only stop by here in between my journeys. Rest up, play some slapjack, maybe get some info on a target. You know how it goes."

A question came to him that Meerk found strange he hadn't asked before. "Laart, this is a guild of mages-"

"A group of mages," the human corrected.

The meerkat scoffed, then tried to continue. "Okay, a group. So why are you-"

"An ancient, evil group of mages!" the gravedigger interjected, raising his hands into the air with mock zeal. Before the meerkat could continue, he casually slid past him into the still pouring rain.

"Yes, whatever," Meerk slurred. "But do you even have a magical ability?"

Laart stopped, splashing a puddle as he did so. He turned back to face him. Nodding, he answered, "Yes, in a sense. Although not all members of the Group have to necessarily cast spells, per se. For me, well, if anything, call it summoning. Although I need three things for it to happen." He spun back around and started walking again, up the cliff face.

Not fond of getting wet, the meerkat cupped his paws and yelled into the the rain, "And what's that exactly?"

The figure raised his hand again, in an exaggerated shrug. Continuing to face the road, he answered, "A zombie, a touch screen, and some J-Pop, of course!"

Meerk just shook his head, stumped at his words.

~;~;~;~;~;`~

Back in the main hall, there were noticeably less furs than usual. Being a friday night, Meerk could guess there were other places to be than here. With luck, he spotted Keeton leaning against one of the pillars that lined the room, having a conversation with three mice and another coyote. He circled around a table with more furs to greet him.

Spotting the approaching meerkat, Keeton paused and waved him over. "Catch Laart on your way back?"

Nodding, he responded, "Yeah." He made a show of glancing around the room. "Not so busy tonight, is it?"

"No, the past few fridays have been pretty bare." He gestured to the group behind him. "We usually walk over to Inkultaa and kill time." Wagging his tail slightly, he asked, "Want to come with?"

Meerk cocked his head to the side, looking askance. "Didn't von Pluma say there was something on friday nights?"

The coyote rolled his eyes, his tail settling back to the ground. "Well, yeah, but nobody really goes to it."

Before the suricate could ask what it was, a voice rose from behind him. One of the members at the table turned over in his chair. "Hey, that isn't true!"

Meerk noticed it was a gray fox, like the one he had seen up at the podium on wednesday.

The fox continued, "Hair Metal Night rules. It doesn't matter how many furs show up." He swept his paw over the table, to the others seated there. "Right?"

From an assortment of furs came assenting gestures. A couple even hit their fists to the table for emphasis.

With a glance at Keeton, Meerk broke from their conversation and turned to the fox. "Hair Metal Night?"

"Hell yeah," broke in an otter. "Every friday we clear out the Lolaran Room and get someone to play for us. You should check it out."

Smiling a little at the invitation, Meerk agreed. He found a paw on his shoulder and turned to see Keeton, a doubtful look across his muzzle. He walked Meerk to the side.

"You sure about this?" he asked.

"What, is there something I should be worried about?"

Again, the coyote shrugged. "No, it's just not my thing, that's all. To tell you the truth, Hair Metal Night is barely an event, only up because of the right amount of members voted for it."

Meerk gave his own shrug. "Well, you were the one who mentioned I should make friends around here. I should at least check it out. Maybe I'll like it."

Keeton conceded, scratching the back of his neck. "All right. Me and the rest will be out at Inkultaa if you get bored." He motioned over to the group he had been chatting with. With a passing grin, he added, "Have fun!" Then they made to leave.

Meerk walked up to the table, which he now noticed was full of furs conversing over songs, bands, and probably other subjects relating to the genre of music. He addressed the otter from before, "So, where's the Lolaran Room? I still don't have a map of this place in my head, yet."

This produced a wry chuckle from the lutrine, accompanied by most of the others. Was there something he wasn't getting?

The otter answered his questioning look. "You really must be new, because you can't really make a map here in the first place! Oh, but you'll find that out by tomorrow; it's quite obvious. Just know that the room is always on the left side of the main hall." He pointed a paw to the far end of the room, "It's over there."

The meerkat looked around the table. "When's it start? Are we waiting on anyone?"

The gray fox, sitting to his right, cut in. "We're waiting on Heri, he's later than usual. He's the chairman. A big bear of a guy, loves metal, can't miss him."

A cougar broke off from her previous conversation and turned to the rest around the table. Shaking her head, she asked, "Why are we still waiting? Heri will show up soon enough." There was a brief pause. "C'mon," she pried, "didn't he get Lüppen Kurve to play tonight? I'm not waiting around for that." She rose from her chair.

With little protest, everyone slowly rose as well and made their way across the room, Meerk following suit. True enough, the group came upon a stone double-door, similar to the one at the entrance to the main room. One door was left ajar, so the group made their way in.

Upon entering the room, the group found to their immediate right, a raised platform. Three furs were setting up instruments. Denoting the genre of music, the three canines wore their fur long, almost like manes, ratted up for volume.

There were a few enthusiastic greetings from the group, apparently the three on stage were members of the band, Lüppen Kurve. One was holding a guitar, another with bass, and the last sat at a drum set. Still, there was a synthesizer off to the side. Over all, Meerk found the whole situation quite out of place.

"Of course it's out of place," started the cougar from before.

"Hey!" burst Meerk. "You're not supposed to hear that."

"This is a filler," she objected. "If the author wants heavy metal, so be it."

Meerk admonished her, "Stop breaking the fourth wall!"

"Walls were meant to be broken!"

"That's rules." he corrected.

"Whatever-"

"Shh!" someone hissed. The two saw it was the gray fox. After silencing them, he turned and casually walked up to the trio of wolves. "Have you guys seen Heri?"

One stopped tuning his bass and gave an annoyed scoff. "Your chairman? Hell, no. The knob-head never showed up. Thankfully some guy by the name of Farrus directed us here, and we've been setting up. Just about ready to go," he leaned the microphone towards the room to address the crowd, "if you're set."

The group's response was a collective roar. The trio then let loose with a singular chord that reverberated around the room, and began into an intense ballad. Meerk quickly caught on to the main aspects of the songs: loud, electric and suggestive. The otter and cougar found him again in the crowd, giving brief introductions as Lorne and Cori, and were happy to show him the better points of head banging, moshing, and other moves to perform during songs.

Meerk couldn't have asked for a better night to get acquainted with other members. As always, he was told, by eleven, the night officially closed, as the band had to pack up and leave. Even on friday nights, the great Iron Door locked at twelve.

Still, the group hung around after that, having a chance to talk and joke. They made sure to poke fun at an unlucky badger who had tried and failed at crowd surfing, as apparently it never worked in the first place. Meerk got the chance to meet more furs, and agreed to show up again for next week.

Again, the meerkat inquired as to their elusive chairman, to which the gray fox, who's name he had learned was Aaron, was still unsure about.

"Nonetheless," he stated, "He'll be at the next metal night. And if not, you'll run into him before then, who knows."

Meerk shrugged, and the group dissipated shortly after.

~;~;~;~;~;`~

Sound asleep, Meerk jolted upright as he heard heavy footsteps bounding past the door. Rubbing his eyes, he hastily sat up and tried to see what was going on. His blue gaze swept around his quarters, which he had shared with his canine friend since arriving at the place. The first thing he saw was that the other bed was empty; Keeton must not have returned from another one of his trips to Inkultaa this night.

Still slightly shaken, he lit the lamp across from his bed and stood up. He then donned a shirt and made to open his door. What he saw surprised him even more. Expecting to face the long hall that ended at his door, he was looking at the wall of a separate corridor, from one room among others on this side of the hall. Disoriented, the meerkat glanced down both sides of the hallway, unsure as to where the footsteps from before had came from.

His suricate curiosity won in the end, and closing the door, proceeded to walk down one end of the hall. He made sure to count the doors on his way down so he could find his way back later. As he rounded the corner, he flinched in surprise.

He was face to face with a black bear, who showed just as much surprise as he. Clad in cloth armor and wielding some kind of blade, he looked ready to fight something. Perhaps he had been.

The bear's surprise instantly turned to relief. "Please tell me you're a spawn guard." he said, seemingly out of breath.

The meerkat pointed a claw to himself, "Who, me?"

The bear just groaned at his answer, visibly disappointed.

"Was it you who ran by my door just now? What's happening?"

The bear looked incredulous. "What are you, new or something?" He saw the meerkat nod at this. "The dungeon's been reset. NPC's are spawning, and it's my job to take 'em down."

"What!?" he blurted. "This place changed? How come I didn't notice it?"

The bear started to shake his head. "We don't have time for that. Right now we have to find another spawn guard before-"

He cut his sentence short with a gasp as a humanoid figure rounded the corner, small blades held in each hand. The bear grabbed the oblivious suricate by the wrist and bounded in the opposite direction. He paused at an intersection and jolted down another corridor. The bear had a longer stride than his viverrid companion, so Meerk found it a challenge to keep up.

Desperately, Meerk tried to keep track of which passages they took, but eventually deemed it a hopeless endeavor. The meerkat decided to direct his frustration at the ursine dragging him along. He managed to unclasp his paw from the bear's.

"Okay," he began, stumbling to a halt. "I'm not going any further until you tell me why we're running around like this."

The bear made a quick check from both directions before regarding him. Still out of breath, he said, "It's wednesday, you know. New spawn guards. And zing, NPC's decide to spawn on my first day."

"Why are we running from them?" He gestured to the bear's armor and weapon. "You certainly look dressed for the occasion! It's your job, now, isn't it?"

The bear crossed his arms, a gruff look on his face. "I didn't choose this. The choice is a random pool from all the member names. To keep this place in order, we all gotta share responsibility. But I'm no fighter!"

Meerk glared at him, incredulous for the second time. "But you're a magician! And they even give you a blade just in case you don't need to rely on magic! What's so hard about-"

"I don't have any offensive magic. I can't fight with it. That's why I'm wearing this," waving his paws over the armor and weapon. He unceremoniously tossed the blade to the ground. "But I just can't fight. I freeze up, can't get aggressive. It's one thing to train with a weapon but to use it for real is a different animal altogether."

Meerk glanced at the sword at their feet, scratching his short beard. "When did it happen? The dungeon changing? And can't you predict where the, er, whatever you called them, where they spawn?"

This, at least, produced a laugh from the bear. "That's the way the dynamics of this place work. Technically, no one can see it change. Nobody has ever caught it in the act, it seems! And the same applies to the NPC's. Or call 'em Spawns, most people do."

The notion still didn't make sense to Meerk. "But, the place changes, right? Wouldn't you see a hallway disappear in front of you, or maybe pop into a random room, or behind a wall or something?"

The bear shuddered at the last part of his sentence. "You'd think, if it were random. But it's almost like the dungeon knows where you're looking. Furs always report glancing back in one direction and then turn to face another, only to be looking at a different room entirely. It's like the dungeon 'waits' for you to be looking a certain direction and then makes the switch. There are theories that argue it's even sentient."

Meerk folded his paw beneath his muzzle, trying to get the picture. "Is it really random? And what about these Spawns?"

"Generally, it's every three days or so. Or seventy hours on average. And it isn't all random, no, most of the main rooms are relative to each other. Like the main hall and the Lolaran Room, I know for a fact."

"The Lolaran-" Meerk started. Something clicked into place, then. Pointing and the bear, he asked, "Are you Heri? Chairman of the Hair Metal group?"

The bear crimped slightly at the question. "Yes ... do I know you?"

"I got invited to last week's Hair Metal Night. Everyone was wondering where you were."

Heri gave another groan. He gave the sword at his feet a kick, clanging it against the wall. "That's when I found out I was a spawn guard for this month. I was just too stressed to show up!"

"Still," Meerk pressed, "stress or not, you have..." His sentence trailed off as Heri's face changed to one of dread.

Meerk spun on his heel to find their attacker making it's way around the corner. He shot a nervous glance back to the bear, who responded by stepping back, ready to flee again. With his heart beating a mile a minute, Meerk backpedaled as well. As he did, his foot caught the hilt of the sword Heri had discarded. At this point he was ready to put anything between himself and the spawn.

Shakily he bent down and picked up the short blade, disregarding the fact that he had no idea how to use it. He held it awkwardly in both hands, the spawn closing in with it's blades flashing. Heri stood motionless behind Meerk, unsure what to do, seeing as the meerkat in front of him decided to actually hold his ground.

With a reckless lunge, the meerkat slashed forward. Wielding daggers, the faceless spawn could not reach him, and before he knew it, Meerk ran his blade through the creature. With unsteady hands, he let go of the blade as the creature collapsed to the ground. He stared at the body at his feet for a few seconds before turning to the bear.

"Wha- what now?" he asked in a wavering voice.

Something seemed to finally register on Heri's face, for he swiftly moved over to the corpse and, kneeling next to it, shouted, "Vidtnap!"

Strangely, the body at their feet turned translucent at this word, then promptly faded out of existence. The sword remained, though, slick with blood. Neither one felt in the mood to pick it up.

Meerk raised his hands, unbelievingly. "Why didn't you just do that from the start!?"

The bear rose carefully to his feet, a relieved look on his muzzle. "That spell only works when the target is dead." He paused for a second. "Thanks, by the way. See, I just froze up!"

"Er... no problem, I guess. I didn't even know what I was doing. Can't you just give your position to someone else, though?"

Heri gave that same helpless face as before. "Afraid not, I'm stuck."

Meerk pondered what to do. He finally got to meet the chairman of the Hair Metal group, and already trouble was brewing. If he was going to make any more progress in the Group, it was important to make friends. He decided he should help Heri, if anything, to solidify his commitment to the Group.

Finally, he said, "It's all right, I'll do what I can to help."

The bear lighted up at this. "Really? How?"

Meerk glanced down again to the bloodied blade at their feet. "I may know nothing about fighting, but don't worry, I'll think of something. I was invited to Hair Metal Night again this week, will you be on the clock?"

"Oh, I won't miss it again. I got Sick and Bergi to play this time."

~;~;~;~;~;`~

Sick and Bergi, as Meerk had learned, was a metal band of four leopards. Similar to last week, he arrived to meet the group in the main hall, spotting the already familiar faces of Lorne, Aaron, and Cori from before. To everyone's relief, Heri showed up after a few minutes and announced that the band was set up. Meerk was slightly relieved to find the Lolaran room was indeed located on the left side of the main hall, just a few rooms down from the previous week. It tickled him to think in another day it would change yet again.

As before, the music was quite loud and resonated with an electric blare throughout the room. In the crowd of thirty-some-odd furs, the meerkat once again chanced upon a familiar face near the stage front, apparently designated for moshing. Strangely, the one raising the most hell of all was none other than Heri himself!

Weaving closer to the circle of debauchery, Meerk soon found himself among the revelry. Between dodging wayward shoulders and rebounding from the constant shoves and kicks, he found the large bear.

Contrary to what Meerk had seen with the spawn, Heri's attitude was anything but gutless. The bear was all shoulders and elbows, shoving and booting those around him. Without care, he seemed enthralled by the noise resonating through the room, his eyes bright as the music was dark. The feeling must have been contagious, for the meerkat was eager to deal out some pain himself. He joined in on the discourse of amusing aggression and stayed until exhaustion overtook him, well into the final song.

As the hour passed eleven, the night drew to a close, at least for the band. As Meerk had assumed was the case for every Hair Metal Night, the group remained behind as Heri left with the band to escort them through the haphazard maze that was the Group's headquarters. Meerk decided to accompany him, if anything to find time to ask about his surprising change in demeanor.

Once at the great Iron Door, Farrus permitted them an exit, and Meerk and Heri gave their thanks to the band. With a nod to the ringtail doorkeeper, the door grated shut and the suricate turned to his ursine friend.

"What was that all about, back in the mosh pit?"

Heri's ears twitched at the notion. "What?" he asked. He gave a short laugh, "Did I get carried away again? Sometimes I let myself loose when I'm moshing."

The answer only served to confuse the meerkat further. "I don't know, you just didn't look that aggressive back when we were staring down that spawn."

The memory had an immediate effect on the bear, who visibly shuddered. "That was ... different," he muttered.

Meerk placed a paw on his hip. "How so, exactly? You were practically throwing people around in the pit, yet you froze up when a single spawn came at us."

"It's different," he said again, contritely. "It's like..." he took moment to form his words, "Do you remember when I said I didn't have any offensive magic?" The meerkat nodded. "Well, what I can do is pretty useless. I appreciate music because of what I can do with it."

Meerk cocked his head to the side. "What's that?"

"I can amplify the source of a sound, but it only works for me, so I just hear it." The bear shrugged. "Like tonight, I was using magic to amplify the metal, and with that kind of volume, you just want to let go and start thrashing!"

The meerkat nodded and scratched his chin in thought. Finally, "Well, when you fight, couldn't you just think of a song and get into that?"

Heri shook his head vehemently. "I can't hold that thought when I'm up against an actual threat! I've tried, but like I say, I always freeze up!"

About ready to give up, Meerk offered, "Then I guess the only thing we can do is practice. If you're stuck with being a spawn guard for the month, I won't feel very safe if we have a repeat of what happened last time."

Heri sighed. "I'd need to fight against a genuine threat, and the very nature of these spawns makes it impossible to practice that way. I don't know anywhere else we could find things like that."

"I do," chimed a voice. The bear and meerkat both jumped at the sound, realizing they had begun their conversation with Farrus still in earshot.

The ringtail cat sat where he had been, his long, striped tail swaying against a stone bench next to the iron door.

Meerk stepped forward. "Er, what do you mean? A place with spawns?"

Farrus remained where he sat, his tone curt and taciturn. "Down the cliff road, maybe three miles. You have to head down a bit past some tidal pools, and make sure to get there before high tide."

"How do you know about it? Is it safe?" asked the suricate.

Farrus looked as if he had asked him if the sky was blue. "Safe?" he breathed. "Fighting spawns is never safe, I know." He gestured to the dagger strapped to his hip. "Safe for the right kind of mage, maybe."

Meerk and Heri gave each other a look. He meant a mage who could fight spawns, which neither fur was fond of doing. But they had to, for Heri's sake, and perhaps for anyone else's, since it was his duty, now.

Heri spoke up. "So, that's what we'll expect, then? A good amount of spawns to toss around?"

The ringtail seemed to disregard his question. He bent forward on the bench and placed a paw on his muzzle in a detached manner. His gaze found the two again, and he answered, "That, and maybe someone else. I see a couple of hawks pass through here on their way down, every so often."

"Who are they?" asked the bear, curious that someone else traveled there with any frequency.

Farrus produced a dry chuckle. He turned his head to the two, his tail flicked in amusement. "The right kind of mages, I gather."

~;~;~;~;~;`~

Meerk trudged through the wooden doorway, irritation in every step. The trip down here in itself had been treacherous in the first place. The cliff road banked down in a nearly incognizant path from the main one. The two wayfarers actually missed it the first time. And then there had been the steep path they had followed, littered with sand-worn crags and jagged rocks. Heri had been insistent the meerkat go ahead of him. Even now, the bear wanted him to lead the way, his apprehension as clear as the tide pools they had unsuccessfully tried to avoid.

It didn't matter in the end, seeing as the cave floor was clearly the victim of high tides. Meerk had to step inside to light a torch, the rain outside never ceasing. The cave walls were rounded and dipped away from the floor as the reached the ceiling. As the two ventured further into the cave, there was a pungent smell of seaweed and mud. Soon, they came to a crossing and, after a quick game of ro-sham-bo, decided to keep heading straight.

Heri was the first to notice a second source of light trailing behind them. From the passageway they had skipped came a spawn, a torch in one hand, an axe in the other. It appeared for all his efforts to put Meerk between him and a spawn, Heri found himself staring it down.

With a shout of encouragement from Meerk, the bear held his ground, trying to ignore his trembling sword hand.

"I'll teach you a lesson!" the spawn shouted. It then raised it's axe and charged.

But Heri lost his reserve and with a whinge, turned and sprinted further down the corridor, forcing his suricate companion to run ahead as well. They quickly emerged into a den, with another spawn standing guard. Without pause, the two shoved by him and continued down through another corridor.

It banked right and emerged again on a raised catwalk of a rather large chamber, torches alight and apparently more spawns down below.

"They're all over the place!"muttered Meerk.

"Must go faster!" breathed Heri.

The meerkat flailed his arms, "You know, I'd make a joke about our aggro radius, but-"

"Shut up and keep running!" yelled the bear.

The catwalk exited once again into another hallway, this one opening up with vestibules on both sides. Something ahead caught Meerk's attention, though, and he quickly decided to slow down.

Near the back of the hall stood two avian figures, clearly surprised to see the two furs sprinting down the corridor. Their surprise became urgency once they saw what was following them.

The avians hastily waved their wings back. "C'mon, hurry!" one yelled.

Without answering, Heri and Meerk stumbled and dove past the two avians, turned around to see how they might handle the spawns on their tails. The answer came when the avian with dark brown feathers knelt down and slammed an arm into one of the side walls of the room.

With intense brightness, the wall lit up, the duo of spawns getting ever closer. The light on the wall shattered as Meerk stood unbelieving, a gargantuan fireball engulfed the hall in front of them! The spectacle produced wild laughter from their two avian saviors.

The avian with rust feathers and crescent marks exclaimed, "Nice one!" She rose her wing up for a high-five.

The other who had slammed the wall returned the gesture. "Yeah, that was intense! I'm just glad we set it up in time." He grinned at the aftermath of the flames before turning to face the two. "Are you two all right?"

Heri and Meerk nodded dumbly, still in awe at the sight. They both steadied themselves to their feet and, Meerk raising his torch, got a better view of the two.

The one who had slammed the wall was a red-tailed hawk, the other a ferruginous hawk. Despite the obvious show of fire, Heri had to ask, "That glow from the wall, did you cast a spell?"

The red-tail glanced over to his cohort, then both nodded. "We come down here to experiment with our spells," he explained.

"Yeah, they can be rather explosive," continued the one with crescent marks.

Meerk pointed. "So you must be the two magicians Farrus mentioned!"

The hawks gave each other a look before addressing the two. "Guess he sent you down here for a reason, then," drawled the red-tail. "I'm Bordan."

"And I'm Esther," added the other.

Meerk and Heri both gave their names as well. The suricate explained the reason behind their mad dash down the halls.

"Ah," started Esther, "So you're here to practice fighting." She chuckled. "I'd say your method needs a little work!"

The bear nodded as Meerk continued their problem. "Unfortunately, even with the two of us in the halls, taking down a single spawn was nearly a fluke." He glanced back the his ursine friend. "Heri being the guard, I just took his sword and ran the thing through, and I've never used a weapon to kill before."

It was true enough; Meerk was no fighter, either. The meerkat's manner was anything if not timid. But in the struggle with the spawn, he had at least acted with a weapon in his hand. Heri had simply frozen.

"Yep, we handle it quite well, ourselves," stated Bordan, grinning.

"What exactly was that?" probed Meerk.

"That would be the result of teamwork!" proclaimed the red-tail. He placed a wing on Esther's shoulder. "Singularly, our spells are lame. But we've a way to combine them."

Smugly, Esther removed his wing and walked to a nearby wall, to his evident disappointment. "My spell was the wall of fire you just saw." She gestured to the wall to her right. "This one's got a fun surprise, too. Sorry to say, the power of my spells depend on how long I focus them. As you can guess, they are useless in the middle of a fight."

Bordan chimed in. "I use magic in a less direct way, though." With that, he too walked over to the wall containing what Meerk and Heri assumed was another spell. "My magic requires the magic of other magicians, if that makes any sense." His explanation seemed to offer no effect on the two. He gestured to Meerk, "Like, I could take a spell you cast and store it in a space or object."

Esther gestured to herself. "So with me, I can focus on casting a spell for a length of time, while Bordan redirects it into this wall here. It's a long and boring process," she elbowed Bordan for emphasis, "but the results are obvious."

The meerkat and bear stood, absorbing the information. An idea began to form in Meerk's head. "Bordan, can you," he gestured to the walls around them, "store spells in just about anything?"

The hawk bobbed his head in a shrug. "More or less. It doesn't even have to be an object, but it has to be something inanimate; it would be suicidal, for example, to channel one of Esther's spells into my arm or something."

Heri turned to the vivverid. "What are you getting at?"

Meerk grinned at the two hawks, his idea might very well solve the bear's spawn problem. "Have you heard of Hair Metal Night?"

~;~;~;~;~;`~

The meerkat laughed at a very flustered Bordan. "What's there not to get?"

The hawk stole a glance to his left, his companion Esther just as confused. First, Meerk asked him to show up for this friday without much explanation and now even the event was in question.

"Music is all well and fine," he amended, "but their names are downright stupid. Honestly, why StraPT?"

"It's a run-together of the phrase, Strategically Placed Tuft. Names like White Tiger, Vixen, Ratt and Pantera were already taken." He gave a wry chuckle. "If you read the kind of webcomics I do, you'd get it."

"Enough shenanigans," exclaimed Esther. "Why invite Bordan here?" She glared at the hawk next to her and gave him a light shove. "And why give him a reason to ask me out?"

Meerk scratched his head in apology, turned to face the band across the room, who were still setting up. Heri was there was well, conversing with the quad of performers. To Bordan, "You brought the stone, right?"

Reaching into a pocket, the red-tail produced a smooth stone no larger than a claw. "Of course, you're lucky I know how to grind these things down. I assume you want me to put one of your spells in it?"

Meerk shook his head playfully. "Nope, not me." He noticed his ursine companion returning to their side of the Lolaran room. He pointed. "Heri's!"

"Hey," the bear exclaimed, "glad you two could make it! The band's just ready start, I'll hop into the main hall and grab the others."

As he left the room, Bordan repeated his question. "So, you want me to put one of his spells in the stone, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Meerk clasped his paws together. "I hope it will work. Just wait for the second song, I'll get him into the mosh pit and then he'll let loose with some spells."

"All right, I'll give it a try." The two hawks got clear of the center of the room and awaited the return of Heri, Meerk, and the rest of the group.

As planned, by the second song, they had spotted the bear near the stage front and the hawk began to cast his spell. He reached out to the bear and, with the distinct feel of magic present, began transferring the spell into the stone held in one wing. He had to concentrate for the better part of five minutes, until the song finally came to an end.

From the amalgam of furs came Heri and his meerkat friend. Tossing the stone lightly in the air and catching again, he handed it over to Heri.

"What's this?" he asked, turning the stone over in his large paw.

Before the hawk could answer though, Meerk interjected. "Put it to your ear."

"What?" the bear uttered.

"Just do it." The bear did so, then produced a questioning look to the meerkat. "Now, try casting a spell on it."

With a doubtful look, the bear sighed and attempted it. The three jumped at his reaction.

"Sweet mother of Poison!" he shouted. "I can hear 'Fist Furst' playing! How did ... "

Meerk and Esther answered by pointing to an overconfident Bordan.

"I assume it worked?" probed the hawk.

Heri looked befuddled. "What worked?" He glanced over to Meerk.

"I had the idea when Bordan explained how he used magic." He placed a paw on his friend's shoulder. "Now, you can use your magic to listen to metal while you're on guard duty."

Heri let out an alleviated laugh. "Since I can only use it once, looks like we have a couple new regulars for Hair Metal Night!"

At this, both hawks shrugged. Bordan glanced at the band and to the crowd. "It's cool, I guess. If anything, we'll all feel safer knowing you won't let any spawns run around."

Heri thanked Meerk profusely for his aid, lifting him into a signature bear hug. Understandably, the two hawks declined the show of affection. "Thanks, again, though," Heri stated. He tapped the stone which fit snuggly in his ear. "Ingenious work of magic you got here."

Bordan grinned, "No problem. It's so great, I say we call it something!"

Meerk thrust his paws up in objection, "Oh, no more play on words. There's been enough. Don't even think about-"

Esther offered, "Since it plays music, and Bordan, you made it ... "

"We'll call it a Stony Hawkman!" he exclaimed.