FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ Out of Sand and Time _

He walks through the streets of Asamar towards the docks looking for Frankie. It shouldn't be hard to spot a tall blue-toned deer among the folks here. Not seeing her in the streets, and knowing she likes her drink, he heads into a tavern. There he finds her passed out in a corner booth.

He looks at her and shakes his head. "Frankie, why do you do this to yourself."

"Because I can," she groggily says into the table. "You're early."

"Yep." He sits, leans back and sighs. "You sober enough to fill me in on the details?"

She sighs and slowly sits up. "Maybe." It's painfully obvious she's slept like that, her fur is matted to her face and resembles the texture of the table

He looks at her and shakes his head. "No, you're not. Where's your room?"

Frankie rubs her face and moans. "Don't have one."

"Great. Where's your gear?"

"I've got it back here," the barkeeper states. "Someone already tried to steal it."

"Thanks." Kaa grabs her bag and helps Frankie to her feet. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up."

Sitting in the hall of the local bathhouse, Kaa waits for Frankie to finish her bath. From inside the room, he hears the water slosh and her hooves clop on the floor as she gets out of the tub.

"Are you feeling better?" he asks through the closed door.

She sighs and starts to dry off. "Why this time?"

"You needed me to. Your turn."

Silence seems to reign for a moment, then she sadly says, "He left."

Kaa half frowns. Grent leaving is nothing new, and she does this every time. He should have stayed gone years ago, but he kept coming back, and she kept giving him another chance. This time however, something about her statement seems different, almost...final.

"Wanna talk about it?" he softly asks.

The door slowly opens and he looks to see her standing there half-dressed and crying. "I shocked him," she sobs. "He hit me, and I shocked him."

Seeing her weak in the knees, he quickly catches her and closes the door. She breaks down and sobs as he holds her. Being a mage has both its ups and downs, especially when your magic mixes with your reflexes.

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Frankie hangs her head over the railing of the ferry's lower deck, and groans. "You'd think I'd love the water..."

Kaa turns around to look at the other people. "Well, you are still hung over. Why didn't we wait till tomorrow?"

She gasps a few times, then wipes her mouth with a tissue. "No time. They're already starting to pack up. We've got two days to get there."

"And then what?"

The ferry's whistle blows, making her cover her ears. "Owww..." she groans, then slowly shakes her head. After she long moment, she says, "Then we see if we can persuade them to tell us about this," she hands Kaa a sketch of another tablet.

"Looks like the one I just took to her."

"Rumor has it that the northern nomads have one too."

He turns and leans on the railing. "I wonder what they'd have us do to get it?"

The ferry's whistle blows again, signaling their arrival at port. Frankie holds her ears again and groans again.

After the ramps are lowered, Frankie sighs heavily. "Time to go collect our gear."

They head to the outskirts to a Tailor's shop. "Chico!" Frankie hollers, then flinches at her own loudness.

A torrin comes out and, and seeing Frankie, laughs. "Francheska! You're lookin' a bit green today." Frankie frowns at him as he notices the cheetah behind her. "Kaa?"

"Hiya Chico." Kaa extends his hand. "Been quite a while, hasn't it."

The torrin shakes the cheetah's hand. "Too long."

Frankie looks between the two, then asks, "Are they ready?"

"Oh, sure." He heads inside only to return with two sets of robes. "These are what the envoys all wear. It will get you into their village, but after that, it's all on you two."

"Thanks, Chico," Frankie says as they take the robes. After a quick stop for some additional supplies, they head out to the north.

The wind is hot, dry, and carries the desert sand with it as it blows through their clothes and fur. They both now wear the robes, as well as wraps covering their faces from the sand.

"How much further is it?" Kaa shouts above the wind.

"Not much farther," she calls back. "This storm's working in our favor right now."

"Our favor? I can't see ten paces."

She stops walking and smiles beneath her wrap. "Don't worry. We're here."

Kaa looks up to see a circular arrangement of stone pillars. In the center, there's a large cover stone. "This?"

"They're underground. This is just one of several entrances. Follow me." He watches as she walks out to the middle of the cover and drops through a hole.

"Nomads that live underground. Huh!" After a few moments, he follows Frankie's steps and drops through the hole.

It takes a few moments for his eyes to adjust, but he sees Frankie talking with three guards. Their armor prevents him from seeing much else about them. The one thing that strikes him is how cold it is, he can see his breath.

"Kaa."

"Yeah?"

"Weapon's check. Give them your bow."

"Oh." He slowly pulls his bow out from under his robe and hands it to one of the guards.

As he reaches for his quiver, the guard hands it back. "Nice recurve, keep it visible."

Kaa nods and slings the bow over his shoulder. "Thanks. Should I keep my swords visible too?"

The guard gives him an odd look. "What else you got?"

"Well, I have my bow, two short swords, various daggers..."

The guard holds up his hand. "Bow and a blade visible will suffice."

Kaa nods and adjusts his robe to allow a sword to be visible.

"Come on," Frankie says, leading him downward through several tunnels until they reach a rather large cavern, filled with markets. Most are in some state of being packed up.

Kaa looks around. "They leave this place?"

Frankie nods. "They have to. The creatures that made these caverns are coming back." She then points to a small group sitting around a table. "There they are." He follows her over to the group and waits with her as she waits her turn to address the council.

When they eventually turn their attention to her, Frankie presents the drawing to them. "Council, could you please tell us about this?"

The eldest counselor looks at the drawing for a moment. "We found it in one of the outlier tunnels. It's still there, embedded in the wall. If you can get it out before they get here, you can have it."

"Can someone show us where?" she asks.

"We cannot spare a person. They are early this season," the elder states.

"I will take you, but I will not stay," a guard states.

The elder hesitantly nods, so Frankie says, "Show us."

The guard grabs a torch and sprints off, Frankie and Kaa are quick to follow. He leads them through several junctions and turns, eventually ending up at the opening to a smaller tunnel.

"It's a few dozen meters in, left wall," the guard states. "Can't miss it."

Before he can leave, Kaa asks, "What are made these caves?"

The guard shakes his head. "No one who's tried to see them have lived." He then takes off, back the way they just came.

"Thanks," Frankie calls after him as Kaa pulls out a short metal rod and attaches a small round metal cage to it. With a wave of his hand, it lights.

She eyes the "torch" for a moment, then says, "I've never seen metal burn."

"It's not burning, I just use it to hold a flame. This takes a lot of my focus so let's hurry up."

They sprint down the tunnel and quickly find the tablet. It's at the tunnel's widest point, about chest high, and nearly twice the size as the last one he obtained. From the marks around it, they can tell someone has chipped the surface clean, but wasn't able to free it.

"How we gonna get this out?" she asks as she pokes at the surrounding rock-like material.

He runs his hands over the tablet. "It's at the surface. I can feel the carvings."

"This was sandstone," Frankie states as she examines the cave's walls. "What's happened to it?"

Kaa pulls a dagger and starts scraping at the surrounding material. After rubbing it with a finger, he says, "It's...glass or something."

"Can you melt it out?"

"That'd destroy the tablet." He turns abruptly and stares down the tunnel. The torch goes out, leaving them in darkness.

"Kaa?"

"Shhh."

Silence reigns for a moment, then she begins to hear a faint ..., and the air is starting to get hot.

"What's that?" she slowly asks.

"I don't think we want to find out," he nervously states. The torch relights, and he turns back to the tablet. His mind races, wishing they had a Cronin mage with them. "Uhm..." He runs his fingers over it again, then says, "Freeze it."

"What?"

"Cover it with ice. If we can't take it, we'll take a copy."

Her eyes go wide. "It's summer up there! Do you know how hard it'll be for me to keep it frozen while we go back?"

"You want to tell Mis we lost it?"

Frankie stiffens, then puts her hand over the tablet. "Fine."

Kaa watches for a moment as she begins working, then turns to check the tunnel. He can see a faint glow now. "Come on..."

Frankie tries to focus on her task. Making ice isn't easy, and the air getting hot isn't helping. She takes a calming breath and begins again. This time, she feels the ice begin to form. Knowing that the details are important, she tries her best to force the ice into the carved surface of the tablet.

Beside her, Kaa watches the ice grow outward from the tablet. When it nears two centimeters thick, he grabs hold of the ice. "Pop it free."

She makes a subtle motion and the ice falls free from the tablet into his hands.

After handing her the ice, they quickly make their way back to the main chamber, only to find everyone gone.

"We need a way to keep this cold. I can't maintain this level of focus for the whole trip back."

Seeing that she's already starting to tire, he looks around. Among the scattered debris, he finds a dumped crate of corn kernels. The box is a little larger than it needs to be, but it'll work.

Now all he needs is something to use for insulation. His eyes fall to the corn, and he smiles.

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Sitting at the table, Mis curiously looks between the frost covered wooden box, Kaa, and a very tired Frankie. "Why is this frozen?"

"It's the only way we could get a copy of the tablet," Kaa states.

"A copy?" Curious, she opens the box, then back up at them. "Popcorn?"

"Insulation. I had to improvise."

She moves the popcorn aside and sees the ice tablet. "Clever."

"It's a negative of the original, so..."

Mis covers the tablet and puts the lid back. "Yes, thank you. Kaa, get her to the pool, then get some rest. I have work to do."

Both bow and depart as she picks up the crate and disappears into her private hall.