FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I run down the dirt path as the camp around me is filled with the sound of animals talking amongst themselves. There are a few guard dogs frantically running throughout the camp trying to get everything ready for the battle ahead. The sun by now is starting to appear behind the forest that completely surrounds our camp and the small village beside us. I finally reached the edge of the camp and head into the village. I run up the hill straight to the single house with smoke coming out its' chimney.

I need to move quickly. General Jeval said that the enemy will be here in the afternoon. The god in my dreams told me that Eros has the answer to my problem. I don't know how what this god knows or why I should choose to listen to him. Maybe because he was able to make a sword disappear from existence as if it was a myth that I created. Or maybe because I'm just too scared to think straight and just want someone to tell me what to do. All that matters now is to find a way to survive this battle.

I finally reach the small house and quickly burst through the door frantically looking around for Eros. The entire house is one large room with wooden furniture scattered all over. There are chairs thrown to the side and shelves toppled over. Clothes are thrown about as if someone had ransacked the entire house. In the left corner I see a wood burning fireplace and beside the chimney is Eros looking at me with a confused expression.

"Hello Marco. What brings you here?" Eros is sitting on a wooden chair while holding a small knife covered in blood. The fur on his right hand is completely soaked in blood as he holds onto a bloodied creature. As I notice the knife, the smell of blood hits my nose and brings back the memory of Georgos streets covered in corpses. The cries and screams that echoed throughout the city while its buildings burned to the ground.

I stare at the bloody knife in his hand and ask "what's with the knife?"

Eros pulls up his right hand showing me the carcass of a creature that looks completely skinned of its fur. "Just taking care of some of the food I found in the woods. I hope this will keep these damned mutts fed or we will have no food to bring to Kouneli." He takes the skinned creature and places it into a large wooden box. I notice there is also a stack of fur pelts lying right beside the box.

I look around in confusion and ask "What happened here?" as I look around the ransacked house. "Where are the people who lived in this house?"

"They probably ran away." Eros says as he walks over to a small wooden bucket and starts to clean the blood off the blade.

"Why would they run away?"

"Because not everyone wants to face war."

"Well if I'm facing war why can't they?" I say in frustration. "They get to run away while I try to save their lives."

Eros chuckles as he finishes cleaning the blood off his fur. He walks back to his chair and sits down looking physically exhausted. He looks over at me with a kind smile and simply says "because that is war. The heroes stay to die and the cowards live on to tell heroic stories. That is how war has always been and how war will always be."

"Did you learn that when you became a child of Menelaus?" I irritatingly ask.

Eros looks at me with complete surprise. "How did you know about the children of Menelaus? Our names couldn't have spread all the way down to the wetlands."

"Um, well... you see." I frantically try to come up with the story to tell him instead of telling him that a dog told me. "You guys are very famous in the wetlands".

"Really?" Eros looks at me suspiciously as I frantically try to come up with a story.

"It's true. Everyone in the wetlands loves the children of Menelaus. Everybody knows about the rabbit that stood against an army of wolves and his children who patrol the northern borders fighting off any Wolf, lynx, dear, or bear that dare to cross. "

Eros expression brightens and smiles. "So they know that we are the only rabbits who color our fur red."

"Yup." I say with a huge smile on my face, relieved at the thought that he fell for my story.

"Then why do so many animals keep asking me how did my fur get red?"

My shoulders quickly sink from the realization that he was playing me the whole time.

"So I'm taking a wild guess that the reason you know about the children of Menelaus is because you've been spending so much time with those mutts."

I do not respond to what he said, but simply stand there in embarrassment.

"So they must've joked about Menelaus achievements and instead praised Grimsson."

"They never told me about Grimsson." I say trying to move the conversation from my embarrassing lie.

"Why not?"

"Back at the woodcutter village before we got back to the city the captain wanted..."

"Okay I'm going to need to cut you off right there. I don't really care about what those mutts told you and I need to get this crate over to the mutts before they eat another cart worth of food."

Eros grabs a rope and wraps it around the fur pelts then throws the pelts to me. I catch them but almost stumbled back from their weight. Eros grabs the large wooden box filled with the smell of blood and turns to me while saying "I'll tell you all you need to know about Menelaus .And the great Grimsson," Eros mockingly says as he passes me and walks out the door. I quickly followed behind curious to hear the story of someone so infamous.

I follow closely behind him as we slowly make our way through the village. I look over to the tree line and see that the sun has yet to rise above the forest. The air is filled with a cold breeze that only eases the thought of the Sun's gaze beating down on me. I look around and see the village is abandoned of any form of life. The only sound I can hear is our footsteps and small creatures scurrying around in the shadows.

"So if they told you about Menelaus then you know about those coward mutts that were supposed to protecting the animals they had sworn to defend to their dying breath; who instead chose to run off in fear leaving behind just a handful of rabbits to stem the tide of bloodthirsty wolves from devouring the sick workers."

I take a step back for a second remembering that Jedrick told me there were a lot more than just a handful of rabbits in that camp, but knowing that this is a fragile issue I choose to simply not my head and say "Yes."

"After those mutts returned with a larger army from Polemos undoubtedly hoping that the wolves had already snacked and left the unfinished wall, but thankfully their hopes were not true. Menelaus had bravely stood beside his brothers and sisters in that cave fighting for their survival and the survival of the sick workers that lay behind them. By the end of the battle Menelaus stood alone with his comrades bodies lying dead all around him. With all the fury in his heart he wanted to slaughter every last one of those cowards, but he knew the sick needed to be taken back to Polemos. So he allowed them to carry the sick workers back the city as he closely followed behind making sure that in case of another attack the wounded will still have someone to protect them. As Menelaus trudged on the long road back to the city of mutts he realized that the true protectors of Zao's lands was not the dogs but the rabbits for they were the only ones who truly cared for her children. When the sick workers were finally behind the walls of Polemos Menelaus turned around and marched along the northern border of Zao, fighting off any creature that dare to bare harm upon Zao's children. Over time Menelaus gained a name that echoed through the northern cities which spoke of his heroism and bravery. Soon rabbits from the northern cities joined his cause to fight off the invaders because they too saw the negligence and ignorance of the mutts."

We reach a large wooden cabin with two wooden carts beside it. One of the wooden carts is completely empty with only scraps of food in the bottom. The other one is half-full of bags of vegetables and barrels that smelled like pickled fruit. Eros lets out a long sigh as he puts his wooden crate onto the empty cart. "I hope this can satisfy their hunger for a day or two." I walk over and place the tide pelts on the wooden cart.

"Okay, so I know who Menelaus is but what about Grimsson?"

Eros rests his weight against the wooden cart while he rubs his tired eyes. "Well the story goes that those mutts who ran away in fear from the attacking wolves were filled with great disgrace. Not because they ran away and left behind animals that they had sworn to protect. No, it's because they ran away from a battle that a bunch of rabbits could win. All the other mutts from the city mocked and ridiculed them for what they had done. So given no choice one by one the cowardly mutts went before the shrine of Dunamai in Polemos and committed suicide because of the disgrace of what they did. As the body of mutts began to pile up around the shrine surprisingly one of those mutts didn't commit suicide and instead just stared at the shrine. He continued to stare at the shrine as mutts all around him continued slaughtering themselves. He then pulled out his sword and pointed towards the shrine."

Eros stops the story as he turns around to reach into a cotton sack and pulls out a green apple. He takes a bite out of the apple and returns back to his story while still chewing on his breakfast.

"They say his words echoed throughout the city as he swore to Dunamai that he will pay for his cowardice by defending the wall till the last stone is placed upon it. He then turned around and left heading north towards the wall. The few remaining cowardly mutts that hadn't committed suicide instead chose to join his journey up north to defend the wall."

"So I'm guessing that the dog who swore to defend the wall was Grimsson?" I ask as I pull myself onto the wooden cart.

"That is correct. It was Grimsson and his mutts that somehow were able to hold back the endless tide of northern invaders to the point that by the time the last stone was placed on the first great northern wall not a single worker was ever attacked."

Eros finished eating his apple and without missing a beat he grabbed another out of the cotton sack. He goes to take a bite but notices me standing there looking at him. "Do you want one?"

"No thanks, I already had breakfast."

Eros takes a bite out of the green apple and looks off into the distance to the camp filled with animals.

"So I'm guessing that after Grimsson protected the construction of the first great northern wall then he must've also helped protect the construction of the second great northern wall."

"Yup." Eros takes another bite out of his apple and says "so from then on the Grimsson guard became the guardians of the two great northern walls."

"But I remember somebody saying something about Grimsson's law?"

Eros gives out a long sigh and looks over to me with an annoyed expression. "You want to hear all the things those mutts are praising about Grimsson? Fine. As he defended the two great northern walls he also is the only animal to have ever killed a bear, which was over 12 feet tall. He found a hidden pass in the mountains and took the lands of Crusos from the deer and the Moose while sending the remainder fleeing into the endless lake. He created the great house of war which has built marvelous weapons; armor and machines of destruction that even your wildest dreams can't come up with and of course he created that God damn book of laws that every last mutt follows as if it was written by Dunamai himself."

Eros finally finishes his rant while looking at me with an expression I could only describe as pure hatred. Suddenly he relaxes and looks at me with sorrow. "Sorry Marco, but I just can't stand Grimsson and all who praise his name." Eros turns to look back out in the distance and says "Grimsson swore to protect walls, he swore to conquer land in the name of Zao, and he swore that he would kill anyone that dare to cross his path. Then as he became too old to carry a sword or lead an army into battle, he decided to write a book to guide all other mutts on how to lead their armies. But in his entire book of laws, he never wrote down how to protect the animals of Zao but merely her land. He never truly did learn his lesson."

"Wait, what do you..."

"Marco!"

I look in up and see a guard dog frantically running towards me.

"Marco, we've been searching for you. The general told you to come to his tent once you were done breakfast."

The memory of the early morning talks with general Jeval come rushing back into my mind. Dammit I completely forgot about my dream! My thoughts quickly start to scramble as I try to come up with an excuse.

"Tell the general Marco will be there. Just give him a couple minutes to grab some fresh air." Eros says with an angry expression on his face.

A guard dog looks over at Eros with an annoyed expression.

"I was talking..."

"Tell the general I'm coming, but just let me finish my breakfast." I say as I grab the apple out of Eros hand and take a bite out of it.

A guard dog looks at me suspiciously as I try to give him a genuine smile. The guard dog suspicious expression changes to a smile as he says to me "all right Marco, I'll tell the general that you have not finished your breakfast." The guard dog turns around and starts heading down the dirt road while he shouts over his shoulder, "It's not my tail on the line!"

Eros walks over to me and grabs the apple out of my hand asking, "what does the general want with you?"

"Listen Eros I need you to help me with something very important."

Eros looks at me surprised as he takes a bite out of his apple and asks "if it was important then why didn't you tell me right away."

"That doesn't matter. I need your guidance to help me with the battle."

Curious, Eros says "well I'm no military general, but if I can help I'll try."

"What do you know about shadows?"

Eros looks at me surprised. "What do you mean shadows?"

My thoughts freeze as I quickly realize that the answer the god in my dreams gave me is more cryptic than I thought. Am I supposed to explain this question to him? Should I tell him that someone in my dreams told me that an ambush would completely fail and instead I should use shadows to win this battle? The more I thought of how to ask my question the more I realized that there was no real way to do it.

"Why do you need help with the battle when we can just simply ambush them like we did in the city?"

"Because we can't."

"Why not?" Eros asks, getting frustrated at my evasive answer.

"Because it's not going to work. How about you help me figure out a new solution to our problem!" I angrily shout back at him.

Eros gives out a long sigh as he rubs his forehead. "I understand there's a lot of on your shoulders right now, but maybe the best thing is not to second-guess your capabilities."

"What are you even..." I frustratingly sigh as I realize what he thinks is going on. Once more I take a deep breath to calm myself down and try to restructure my thoughts. A thought crosses my mind and I quickly ask, "Eros, what would Menelaus do in a battle when he would want to ambush his enemy?"

My question to Eros takes him by surprise. He takes a second to gather his thoughts. "Well, when he would attack Northerners camps he would always try to find some way to use the environment against them. He would use ditches to hide his children or sometimes use the thickness of the forest to get close to the enemy. Luckily we rabbits are herbalists; we spend our lives foraging the land for herbs and remedies to heal wounds. This gave Menelaus an army that knew the land as well as they knew their own homes. This meant his children could march through darkened forests and still know where they were going."

"That's it!" I shout out and jump with joy to finally fingering out the problems that's been plaguing my mind. I immediately start running down the dirt path towards the field with determination to tell everyone my new plan.

"Where were you going?" Eros shouts as he watches me disappear behind a wooden house.

I run down the path passing animals who are gathering their weapons and what little armor they can find. Their faces are filled with sorrow and despair. The only smiles that appear within the camp are the children running around playing their little games. I look up and see that the sun has risen past the tree line and now it is almost reaching midday. I run into the guard dog camp that is consumed in some form of organized chaos. Guard dogs are running around with their shields tied to their backs and there sword's sheathed to their belt. They are screaming orders to one another as they prepare for battle. The air is filled with the smell of sweat and sharpened steel. I finally reach the large black tent and I can already hear yells of anger coming from inside. I stop just for a second to take a deep breath of my surroundings and prepare my thoughts the situation that awaits me. I walk into the large black tent and I can see that Cola, Jedrick and General Jeval are standing around a wooden table and shouting at each other.

"Why are we waiting for Marco? We already know what you're supposed to do," shouts Jedrick. "This might come as a surprise but I agree with Jedrick. We need to move fast before it's too late," says Cola as he traces his finger along the poorly drawn map that is lying on the wooden table.

The general looks up from the map and goes to respond to Jedrick when he sees me standing at the opening of the tent. "Took you long enough."

Both Jedrick and Cola look over to me with frustrated expressions. "Marco if you don't mind, we have a battle to plan for." Jedrick mockingly said.

"It doesn't matter; he's here now so let's get our plans ready." Cola says as he glares at Jedrick.

"Alright now that everybody's here we can figure out where exactly we will do to fight enemy," the General says as he looks over the poorly drawn map. I make my way over the wooden table which almost reaches to the height of my shoulders. I look over the map and see a long winding road surrounded by a thick forest. At the end of the map there is a sketch of a village on a hill with a camp completely surrounding it. This map shows the path we took to come into the village. I also notice about halfway along the path there is a massive opening with no trees covering it.

"Now that Marco is here..." The General says with a bit of frustration "we can begin our discussion. Now there is no doubt in my mind that they will use the large clearing as the base for their camp." the General says as he places his finger on top of the massive field. "So we should ambush them before reaching the clearing which shouldn't be a problem thanks to this dense forest."

General Jeva looks up to me with an irritated look. "So now that you're finally here you can give your opinion on where the best for us to ambush."

Jedrick gives out a long sigh as he looks at the general irritated. "Sir, the entire road is surrounded by a thick forest. Any part of the road is good for an ambush. So how about we stop wasting our time on Marco's opinion and get ourselves ready for the ambush."

The room falls into an awkward silence as the general's waiting for my opinion. I look over the poorly drawn map focusing on the drawing of the open field. I take a deep breath as I point to the open field and say "what if we ambush them in the field?"

Everyone looks at me with surprised expressions. Then they all look down at the poorly drawn map as if they're trying to find some hidden answer.

Cola slowly puts a big smile on his face as he turns to look at me. "You're full of surprises Marco."

"Attacking the enemy while there making their camp, this may actually be a good idea". Jedrick says as he strokes his chin.

"Sadly it's not that simple." General Jeval says as he points at the poorly drawn map. "My scouts tell me that the field is surrounded with thick thorn bushes. It's too late for me to order my dogs to cut them down and there is no doubt that most of us will get stuck trying to run through those thorn bushes. But we have a bigger problem. Jedrick has only been able to properly arm about 500 more animals. This means that we have 1000 animals against their 2000."

Cola, feeling frustrated says "This means that we don't even have the proper amount of animals to do an ambush."

"That is correct," the General says as he continues to stare at the map. "This is why I have been waiting for Marco. I'm hoping in the name of Dunamai you have something up your sleeve."

"Well what if we attack them during the night?"

"Attack them during the night." Jedrick says. "You want us to attack them while they're sleeping? I don't know about you, but I sure as hell can't go through a thorn bush without making a sound".

"He has a point Marco." Cola says. "Attacking a camp at night is very difficult. The lack of visibility can easily disorientate any animal."

"But it's the only choice we have."

Both Cola and Jedrick stare at the general. "Sir you can't think this is a good idea." Jedrick says. "Half of our army is filled with animals that don't even know how to properly swing a sword and sure as hell don't know how to sneak up to an enemy."

The general looks over to Jedrick and mockingly says, "if you have a better plan than please speak up. I'm more than happy to hear any good ideas."

The room fell silent as both Cola and Jedrick look down at the map trying to find an answer to this problem. Jedrick gives out a long sigh as he turns to look at me. "So how are we going to pull this one off?"

I look down at the map staring at the clearing. "So the entire clearing is surrounded by thorn bushes."

"I told my scouts to do some basic drawing of the surrounding area, which is the map we are staring at right now. If we're going to ambush at night, I am going to need specific details on the environment." The general looks up to Jedrick while he points at the map. "Jedrick, I want you together ten guard dogs and get them to sketch out the details on the open field. I want to know how many thorn bushes there are. "Jedrick places his right hand over his chest. "Understood general". Jedrick turns around and goes to leave the camp when a thought pops into my mind. "Jedrick wait."

Jedrick turns to me and asks. "What's wrong?"

"Are there rabbits in this village?"

"Why would you ask that question?" Jedrick asks suspicious of my question.

"Well rabbits usually go out in the woods in search for herbs right? So maybe they know a bit more about the layout of the field."

The general looks to me deep in thought as he thinks about my statement. "Jedrick, do what I ordered you to do, but also get some guard dogs to roundup the local rabbits. I want both you and the rabbits back here as quickly as possible. Is that understood?"

"General do you not trust your own guard dogs to do a job properly."

"I trust my own guard dogs, but I also trust the locals. Any other questions?"

Jedrick gives the general a sour look as he says, "of course not general, I'm just giving my opinion".

"And it's duly noted. Now get a move on or the enemy will reach the field before you do."

Once more Jedrick salutes the general and leaves the tent.

The general looks over to Cola and asks "are we done making the barricade?"

"We have put 20 wooden carts along here." Cola points at the edge of our camp where the road leads in. "We also gathered wooden doors, beds, shelves, and anything else we can grab from the village to use on our barricade."

As I look over the map a question pops into my mind. "How do we know that they're not going to attack us right away?"

Both Cola and the general look down at the map intently. "Marco has a point," the general says. "They would probably attack us once they finally reach our camp?"

Cola eyes lit up as he quickly asks "What if we piled food on top of the barricade?"

"What!" General Jeval says as he's completely taken aback by the question. "Why in the name of Dunamai would we do that?"

"They had been chasing us since Georgos which means they must be exhausted. So if we show them that we have literally used our own food as a barricade, then they would believe that this would be our last stand. So why won't they just rest for the night and be ready to fight us in the morning."

The general chuckles as he says "Cola if we survive this I am making you into a captain."

"Then I'll try even harder not to die."

"All right. Cola go tell the guard dogs to grab as much food as they can and layer it on top of a barricade."

Cola places his right hand on his chest and with a smirk says "understood." He then runs out of the black tent.

The general looks back down at the map. "Marco, go and grab as many animals as you can find and have them stand behind the barricade. It doesn't matter if they have weapons or armor, as long as they can stand their own two feet."

I look at the general surprised. The general looks up to me and waves his hand as if he trying to push me away. "Go on Marco, we don't have all day." He then returns back to staring at the poorly drawn map.

I make my way out of the tent and head out of the guard dogs camp. I see a large group of animals sitting in a circle talking amongst themselves. "Hey!" I shout towards them. One of the animals looks over at me and asks "what's wrong Marco?"

"Gather as many animals as you can find and send them towards the barricade."

"I thought the plan was we were going to ambush them?"

I continue to run past them as I shout over my shoulder. "Well the plan has changed; so go grab anyone you can find and get them to the barricade." I run from group to group of animals telling each one to get to the barricade. The camp is starting to become sparse of any life as more and more animals start heading towards the barricades. My legs have started to become sore from running around and I can already feel the fur on my back starting to get soaked from my sweat.

"Marco!" I look over and see Jedrick with a couple guard dogs running towards me.

"This mean..."

"Go get your armor and weapons. I will see you on the barricade," Jedrick says as he passes me heading towards the general's tent.

A sudden overwhelming tension fills my body as I realize that the time has come. I take a deep breath and start heading towards my tent to get ready for the battle ahead. My heart feels like it has sunken into my stomach. I finally reach my tent and quickly pull out my leather garb and belt. Once I am securely tied by leather garb, I grab the small sheathed sword that General Jeval gave me. I place it in between the belt and my leather garb while I grab the small metal shield with my left hand. I unsheathe my sword and take a deep breath. I start running towards the edge of our camp heading to the barricade. A memory of my dying father in a battle like this eats away at my mind as I get closer to the barricade. The memory of seeing Dad lying on the street covered in blood, his cold dead eyes and the stench of corpses trying to suffocate me. I promised Dad that I would protect Mom and Sam. No matter what, I have to get to them and if that means I have to kill every last one of these creatures to see them again; then so be it.