FSE

Furry search engine

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Starry lights above us were the only light source, and even though my eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness in the past hour, I still could see very little. Midnight was practically invisible but I still could see the outline of his silhouette if I concentrated.

We did not move at first. We did not want to risk injuring ourselves by falling down another steep ridge or walk onto any sharp rocks that were concealed in the dark. With our vision severely limited, we were able to notice some other subtle clues about this cave.

One of the first things we noticed that seemed out of the place was the smell of something organic. The canyons above and the ridge we rolled down did not have any vegetation and gave no sign of life being a resident in the area. The fact that there was the smell of something organic was unexpected. Not only that but each breeze gave a different organic scent, one slightly muskier but less difficult to detect.

To my displeasure, I could also still feel the deep aching and soreness throughout my body. Every part of my body that had crashed into a rock or landed while we fell still ached, like persistent embers after a fire. At least the majority of the pain had faded.

Staring up at the lights, for the lack of anything else to stare at, I focused on my sense of smell. However, I noticed several of the lights were fluctuating, sometimes getting dimmer, other times growing brighter.

"They're moving," I whispered. I felt that if I were to speak any louder, then my voice were carry too far.

"Really?" Midnight questioned, and I could see the slight movement next to me as he concentrated on the lights. "You're right. They look like worms almost, but they're glowing."

Concentrating on the lights, I realized that their movements were similar to that of worms or maggots. In our position back in Sirmiq, there were often times we'd have our food contain those types of creatures.

"We still need to find a way out of here," Midnight said. He also kept his voice low. "Can you see a way back up from where we fell?"

Glancing around my surroundings once again I still could not tell from where we had fallen. Honestly I did not want to see the way that we had fallen down because I did not want to even attempt to climb up it. The dull pain from falling down it last time made me wary of risking falling down it again.

"No," I answered, having made my final attempt to visually scan for a way out. "I don't think we can get back up that way anyway."

Midnight did not respond, but I could hear him shuffling about. Grunts and small yelps escaped from the wolf. The movement was obviously causing him pain. With only sound to go on, I could still understand that Midnight had stood up.

"Well, we can't stay here," Midnight said, breathing heavily. "We can't see very well, but we should follow this wind. It must be coming from somewhere that leads out."

"Can't we wait until morning?" I questioned, reluctant to move in complete darkness. The slightest possibility of falling down another ridge was enough to dissuade me from exploring.

"I am curious to see where that breeze is coming from," Midnight said bluntly. I could not help but be a little annoyed that his main reasoning was to satisfy his curiosity. "Besides, if those reptilians find a way down to follow us, I do not want to be here when they arrive."

"Good point," I admitted. Reluctantly, I pushed myself up. The aching in my body flared up as if embers of pain were being fanned. Pain invaded my mind and caused for me to stumble and I briefly felt the sense of vertigo as I tried to catch myself in the dark.

Our eyes had adjusted enough that we could see the glow of the worms light up this cavern but their light was weak and did not travel very far. Midnight led me toward the sound of the breathing breeze, which led us into a rock corridor of this cave.

It did not take long before Midnight became nothing but a shadow to my eyes, and I had to rely on my sense of smell and hearing to know where he was. To make it easier for me, I reached out and place a paw on his back to guide me. Midnight did not react to my touch, knowing full well the reason.

The corridor became tighter with the floor rockier and less stable. Often times Midnight would duck, and I would follow his example to avoid spires that dipped down from the ceiling. Each step I had to test my footing by patting the ground with a hindpaw a couple times to ensure that I would step on any sharp spires or rocks. The dark forced us to go slow unless we'd risk injury.

Further from the dull light of the worms, the tighter the corridor became. Dodging low rocks, I felt Midnight duck down low that my paw could no longer rest on his back to guide me. I heard Midnight scraping his body against the ground of the floor, and it echoed slightly meaning that the passage had suddenly become so tight, he had to crawl on his belly.

I felt with my paws in front of me to see that there was a large spire coming down the middle of the passage. Either side did not offer enough room for us to squeeze by, and the breeze was being tunneled through the gap on the floor. That was where Midnight was now crawling toward, beneath the rocks where the breeze was made a bit stronger because of the narrow passage. Following the wolf, I lied on my front and crawled after Midnight.

Suddenly I felt the rough paw pads of Midnight's hindpaw kick the side of my snout. It wasn't a painful or forceful kick but it startled me enough that a yelp escaped and still echoed off the rock walls. I had not expected that at all that I was dazed for a moment, but I realized that I had obviously followed Midnight too close.

"Sorry," Midnight apologized but he didn't stop trying to struggle through this tight area.

Waiting momentarily in order to give Midnight time to pull ahead, I listened carefully to him crawl through the tight passage. He seemed to struggle a couple times but with the breeze still coming from that direction, it wouldn't be long before he found the open area again.

I could feel the breeze pull slightly on my fur, pushing against us for a few seconds before it pulled against us and it continued to repeat that pattern. It really was as if this cave was breathing.

After Midnight had pulled far enough ahead, I continued crawling forward, using my claws to try to gain enough traction to slide my body over and around the rocks. With my chest firmly on the ground, I slid forward and bumped into a spire hanging down low. I kept my body as flat as I could as I moved under it, but I could still feel it combing through the fur on my neck and down my back pressing into my shirt.

A memory flashed through my mind, that of the view on the side of the mountain once Nervelli, Midngiht and I had climbed above the clouds. The mountains are the tallest I have ever seen in my life. All that rock was now above me, putting all of its weight on the spire that was now pushed against my back and forcing me flat against the rocks.

If there was the slightest movement in the rocks, this spire would have no problem crushing me. Worst of all is what if I got stuck under all this? I would not be able to move the spire, and it would be impossible to wiggle out of.

What if the ground shook as it had in Sirmiq?

I did not want to be here anymore, not in this cave. Especially not in this tight passage, under the literal weight of the entire mountain.

My heart started to beat rapidly and it became difficult to catch my breath. I wanted out of under this rock now. Digging my claws into the rock, I dragged myself after Midnight. The pain in my body flared and spread but I ignored it; I wanted out of here.

"Snowy? Are you okay?" Midnight asked from ahead. He likely noticed my change in attitude.

"Just go," I urged the wolf to not stop. Even to me it felt like my voice was high pitched, but I did not care. I wanted him to hurry and find an open space again.

Midnight obliged and continued forward, but I could feel that he hesitated at first, no doubt he was curious why I wanted to rush out of there suddenly.

Thankfully it only took another couple meters before the space started to open up. I hurried to push myself up but spires were still low for at least another meter. Finally I was able to stand to my full height once again.

"What happened?" Midnight asked, standing close to me. It was no longer possible to even see his silhouette in this darkness.

"I did not like that," I answered the best I could. I was trying to catch my breath and calm my heart rate down, but the thought of still being under the mountain was not a pleasant one. The deep pain in my body started to fade again too. I wanted to quickly find the way out and have the sky above me again, not rock. "It was too tight in there."

Midnight did not respond and in his silence, I could sense that he did not understand why I disliked the tight passage. I honestly was trying to push the thought of still being under the mountain out of my mind, so the fact that Midnight did not pester me about it helped a great deal.

"I really cannot see anything now," Midnight remarked after several seconds. "No matter how hard I concentrate. It's completely black! I cannot even see you."

"Let's find the way out," I said, my voice now calmer now that I wasn't breathing so heavily. It was true that we were plunged in absolute darkness, and I was more than a little hesitant to move anywhere. "I don't like it here."

I could no longer smell the organic scent that the water and warms gave off in the previous cavern, but the musk scent that was hardly detectable before was now stronger in this area. The scent still had a subtlety to it where I could ignore it if I wanted to but it was more difficult to do so now.

I heard Midnight taking a few cautious steps further away from the narrow passage we had escaped from. Reaching out for the black wolf, it took a couple blind steps before my paws reached Midnight's back. With him as my guide as he slowly progressed toward the sound of the wind, we continued blind through the darkness.

Midnight was patting the ground carefully with a hindpaw on each step before placing his weight down. I could hear the soft pats of the hindpaw, and I understood that he was checking for any obstacles; any change in elevation of the rock, any sharp rocks, or anything in general that could cause us to trip and injure ourselves further.

The wolf had a good sense of hearing because he was still leading us toward the breeze. It was subtle to tell where it was coming from since the whole cavern echoed. After a dozen steps or so though, I could tell that it would become slightly more audible.

The musky scent started to grow a bit stronger, and the heat in this cavern also rose ever so slightly. If Midnight noticed he gave no indication and simply continued forward through the dark.

Our path was relatively flat with only having to go around a few small boulders and avoiding sharp rocks. Surprisingly the ground was almost completely flat. After a few minutes our path led us into a wall, and Midnight brace a paw against it to guide us along it.

In the dark another incredibly soft paw step was heard. Due to the silence of this place, and the fact that Midnight and I only were listening to our own paw steps, the intrusion caused us to freeze immediately. I felt Midnight's fur bristle, and mine bristled just as well.

We both held our breath as we listened carefully to the paw steps. They were very soft so it was difficult to hear them, but they were also alarmingly close to us. Not only that but there were more than just one set of paw steps. They were also heading in the same direction that we were.

The slightest glimmer caught my eye and I finally saw the source of the other paw steps; well, at least their eyes. It was the eyes of those shadowy wolves and one of them was staring right back at us.

How do they keep finding me?

"Wh-Who are you?" Midnight asked, uncertain what to do. I realized that this was the first time that Midnight was seeing them.

Of course, the shadow wolf did not answer and only turned to continue the direction that we were heading.

"They have been following me for a while," I explained to Midnight, keeping my voice low. "They are scary! They killed two reptilians that tried to kill me." Vividly I could still remember how they helped me before, spilling so much blood of those reptilians that attacked me. Similar how I had killed before too.

"Sounds like they protected you then," Midnight observed. "Maybe they know the way out. Let's follow them." I could not really object to him so I silently agreed.

Unless the wolves looked at us, we could not see them at all. Only their eyes shined as stars as usual, but otherwise we only knew where they were by the sounds of their paw steps.

After following the wolves for a bit I thought my vision was changing because I started to see a very dull blue in the dark come through. Once I saw the silhouette of Midnight move though, I realized we had finally found light again. It was not the light of any moons or the sun but it was still light up ahead.

The light was not alone though. With it came the soft sound of water bubbling and moving not far ahead. That water must have been hot because the scent of humidity was also with it.

Rounding a corner, we entered a large cavern that we could actually see. The humidity in the room was strong with the musk scent that was still subtle but strong. All around the walls of the caverns were covered in moss, and it all had a light glow to it. Luminescent moss covered nearly the entire ceiling, walls and boulders.

Except for one exceptionally large boulder that was in the middle, that was bigger than most buildings I have seen. And the boulder was moving, with each breath of the wind. It rose and fell as if it was really the thing breathing, and the rock looked nothing like any other rock that I have seen before.

The shadow wolves approached the rock, and it reacted to their presence by moving further. Instead of moving with the breaths, it was now growing bigger. The rock had fur, four legs and a tail just like the shadow wolves. It certainly was not any rock, but nothing alive could be that big, right?

"Whoa," muttered Midnight watching the creature stand. "What is that?"

The creature stood taller than buildings and its fur was incredibly shaggy and yet it was obviously a very slim creature. The sheer size of the creature made it incredibly obvious on why its breath filled up the cavern.

Its eyes were slanted but just as bright as a star, however significantly larger than the stars I have seen in the sky and in the eyes of the shadow wolves.

I realized that I was only able to see its eyes because it was glaring down at both Midnight and me. We could not move, there was nothing we could against such a creature. If it blew its breath on us, it'd probably be strong enough to knock us over. There was no way we could run from such a creature.

"You are mere pups," the creature spoke slowly but it was so sudden that I jumped at the sound of its voice. It was as if he was whispering but his voice was so powerful it echoed off the walls and filled the cavern. "So young, you two cannot fully comprehend what has been transpiring in the world."

I could hardly hear his words. This dark furred creature illuminated by the glowing moss was so massive that he was still lying down but was big enough to be as high as the walls around the cities. Midnight and I both were left speechless.

It stretched its neck out and moved its head closer to us, its eyes shining us over. I had no doubt that this creature was not much different than the shadow wolves. They were very different in form but it seemed that they had a strong determination to them; a fierce desire burned in their starry eyes.

"Do not be afraid," the creature spoke strongly. It rested its head on the ground, staring directly at us from just a few meters away. "Tell me, who you are."

The creature was definitely frightening, far more so than the shadow wolves, but I did not sense that it was threatening.

"I'm..." I started to say, thinking about it briefly. I could not explain it but that fiery passion that I sensed in their eyes was certainly dangerous but it was not directed at me or Midnight. "My name is Snowflake. This is Midnight."

The creature stared at both Midnight and me with his eyes not moving with so much of a flicker, and yet they still held so much powerful emotion behind them. Those eyes were staring right through, and gazed upon our very essence, almost reading our personalities with just a look. I never felt a gaze so powerful or more frightening than that of this creature.

"Why are you here?" the creature asked, speaking with such power that I felt it throughout my body.

"We-We fell down," Midnight answered. The wolf recovered from his initial shock but was still hesitant to speak; he could probably sense the same power I could from the massive creature. "Reptilians were trying to kill us, and we ran over a ledge."

"You are mere pups," it responded. "Are they so starved to feast on pups?"

The thought of the reptilians thinking of us as a food source seemed ridiculous, and frightening to me all that once. It never crossed my mind before. The assassins that have targeted me had no other intention that to end my life.

"No," Midnight answered. The black wolf was gaining a bit more confidence now that the creature was open to dialogue, rather than threats. "They only try to kill us. All of us, but me and Snowy mostly."

"They don't want to eat us," I spoke up, still finding the notion rather ridiculous. "The reptilians have killed a lot of adults. I don't know why. They attack everyone just to kill us and nothing else."

The creature remained silent for a moment and stared at us with that powerful gaze. It must have been thinking on our answer, but not only that but a lot of thoughts were going through its mind. I could almost see its eyes flaming with such passion that it lit up the room brighter than the moss. I was confident there was no other creature like this in the world, so who was this one?

"Who are you?" I asked directly. Me, an arctic fox that was not much taller than most short swords were long, asked who a creature that was easily the size of the keep in Sirmiq who it was.

"I?" the creature responded, it's gaze focusing solely on me. "I am the manifestation of all the pain suffered on the innocent. I am their fury." It's voice rumbled with a growl that echoed through the walls of the cave. I could feel that growl down to my very bones. "Who are you?"

"Sn-Snowy?" I answered back. I thought I had already answered that question.

"Why did you run from those who sought to slay you? Why do you strive to survive? Why don't you let yourself die?" The creature's furious gaze was still held on me.

What was he talking about? Why would I not run from the reptilians? I stared back up at the creature, dumbfounded by the questions it was asking. I did not know anyone who did not try to do everything they could to survive.

That powerful gaze was now unraveling me like worn cloth. I could not comprehend his questions. They sounded threatening but they were not meant as a threat, and it was still waiting for my answer. Why do I survive?

A paw fell on my shoulder. I turned to see Midnight staring up at the creature, less fazed by the questions. "I survive to protect Snowy!" Staring at Midnight I saw his defiant look in his eyes, reflecting the little moss light and the light of the creature's eyes.

What is he talking about? He would survive without protecting me.

"To what ends?" the creature asked, turning his gaze now on Midnight more than myself.

"To end his suffering and my own!" Midnight practically yelled. "The reptilians want to make our life hard and try to kill us every time we see them! We both already suffered enough being orphans and I'm tired of it! This is not what life should be like."

"Life has always been cruel, what do you expect of it?"

"A fair chance!" Midnight replied. "We will fight to survive until we have a fair chance to choose how we live, and not how others want us to live!"

"Your hunters chose to live too," the creature said with confidence. "Why do you fight how they chose how to live?"

"They want to control how others live, I do not!" Midnight was no longer fearful of the creature standing in front of us. It's fangs alone were easily twice the size we were. "They want to destroy everything that they cannot control, that is why they attacked us so many times and killed all of Nirvelli's family on that ship, even after they surrendered!"

Midnight seemed furious and no longer thought to control the tone of his voice. "We never wanted to hurt anyone! Just to survive."

"You both require meat to survive," the creature replied, unfazed by the tiny wolf's furious attitude. "You have both killed to eat."

"We don't want to!" Midnight said but he could not answer for the animals that we had consumed. His paw, still on my shoulder, gripped together and I could feel that he was trembling slightly, probably out of anger.

The creature waited, staring at us both with those eyes while he waited for an explanation.

Midnight spoke the truth that we did not want to kill those animals in order to eat, but if we did not we would have died. Does that really make us similar to the reptilians, who kill for no reason? Were the reptilians killing us for some way to survive?

No,_I thought. _They do not need to kill us to survive. The assassin did not need to hunt Midnight and me down in order to survive. It was a more sinister and complex reason than that. Neither did his brother and that band that ambushed me in the woods. The dead soldiers at the tower above were killed just because they were in the way! They want to kill us all to get us out of their way.

"They want us out of their way," I spoke up, looking back up at the massive creature. I remembered one of the dreams I had, the night I followed the reptilian band into the woods; the one of the corpses of so many unjustly slain creatures, too many to ever count, too many to ever see. It was always the reptilian's motivation to eradicate anything that they did not want to live with. "Their goal is not to kill us to survive. It is to kill us because they do not like us!"

Once again the gaze fell on me, and a slight bit of the ferocity was released out of that gaze. I stared back up at it.

We are different than the reptilians, than the Enes faction. We want to live with our world, and they want to exploit it and rob it from the rest of us. That is the difference!

"You both are too young," announced the creature, finally relenting his aggressive stance. "Yet to experience the true horrors that can befall on this world, and yet to experience the joy that life can bring that would make it worth living, and worth fighting for."

Those eyes were so expressive, that even though the giant creature said we were not experienced, I could sense that he was satisfied with how we had responded, that we had come to the conclusions that we had, that we had found some truth to the chaos of our world.

"These shadow creatures have witnessed far more than you both have," the creature said and taking its gaze off of us for the first time since it had sat up. "Their bodies perished long ago, but their passion still burns enough to fight back against the corruption that is spread from selfishness. The anguish of many innocence as joined theirs, making them stronger but it is not them who can end the plague that has begun to spread once again on this world."

The creature turned back to us and stared for a moment, now with softer eyes but still fierce. It positioned itself to sit a little bit higher in the massive cavern.

While the shadow wolves shared some strong similarities with the massive creature, it was obvious that they really did not possess a body such as this creature. The thought of creatures without physical form being able to kill as they have was difficult to comprehend, and yet it explained why the kept showing up out of nothing and disappearing back into nothing.

The manifestation of fury? I thought. Could emotions really be so powerful? And why was it not more common if that were the case? Did not everyone feel emotion?

"When you have experienced more then you will understand the world better," the creature spoke, distracting me from my thoughts. "Life is not kind but you must _live_or else our enemies will have truly won."

If the reptilians were to kill me then of course they would have won. That was not what the creature meant though, and the emphasis he put in the last phrase made me wonder what his true meaning was. How did he mean we must "live"?

"Follow the moss that has grown from the warm spring," the creature said. This time he moved again but only to lie down. "It will lead you out of this mountain and away from your enemies. We will come to your aid once you have gained the knowledge of how to obtain peace."

Without another word the creature curled back up to its sleeping position that we had found it in, and it was evident that it was no longer paying us any attention.

What did it mean by "we"?

Glancing over at Midnight, I saw him gazing at me also with a somewhat confused expression. I saw in his eyes that he was confused by the entire exchange we had with this creature of such power.

We still did not have any idea on who or what this creature that hides in the mountains. It seems very knowledgeable but did not offer any information to us and mostly asked us a bunch of questions.

Why do I survive?

It was a question that never crossed my mind before, and now that I have been asked it I could not help but to think about it. Why do I fight so hard to survive? It seemed like an unfathomable question but I could not find a simple answer to it and explain it logically.

"I survive to protect Snowy!" Midnight's words echoed in my mind. Still staring at the wolf, I felt a sensation I have only felt with the wolf before; a feeling of being loved.

I could not help but to admit that if I had not met Midnight, I could have very well died already. When Midnight was taken away from me, I had nearly died outside the walls of Arktiline. Sheer luck made it possible for Alec to find me in time to save my life. Maybe I survived for Midnight.

Midnight glanced back at the creature quickly before turning back to me. "Let's go. We should get out of this cave." I agreed with a nod.

The black wolf took the lead again and headed toward the sound of the bubbling water in search of the stream. I glanced back at the creature too who was lying mostly motionless, except for that his torso expanded and shrunk with each breath. The shadow wolves that were around the creature were now gone as if they completely vanished.

Ignoring the creature that ignored us, I followed Midnight. The black wolf, illuminated by the glowing moss, went around the creature giving it a wide berth. Rounding the creature that lied curled on the cavern floor, I truly could get a good sense of the sheer size of it. To walk around the inn that the Velox fox stayed in would not take as long as walking around this thing.

On the far end of the cavern, opposite of the way we had come in, there was a stream bubbling and spilling deep into a dark cave that will slightly lit with moss but not nearly as much as the cavern that we were in.

Without stepping in the water, we followed the stream to the cave and glanced inside. It was not very large and even I would have to crouch a bit in order to move through it. Midnight had to crouch even more but the moment he stepped in the water, he yelped.

"It's hot!" he yelled, taking his hindpaw out of the water immediately. He glanced back at me and I could only shrug at his confused expression. He then glanced at the creature, who had not been disturbed by the black wolf's sudden outburst. Following Midnight's gaze, it was clear that the creature would not help us any further.

"Stay on the rocks," Midnight suggested, submitting to the painful path that lay ahead of us. Midnight carefully took a step in the water again, being careful to step mostly on the rocks and not in the water. I could hear a soft gasps escape the wolf and a couple whimpers, but that soon died down. He ducked and pushed himself into the cave that would supposedly led us out.

Carefully testing the rocks and water with my hindpaw, I felt its scorching touch on my paw pads. It burned slightly but I ignored it and followed Midnight into the cave.

The water was hot, that it had steam filling the entire cavern. I could hear Midnight panting from the heat ahead, and I soon followed, trying to stay cool.

My hindpaws burned, and although it was tolerable for now it would not be for much longer. Midnight was feeling the same way because he tried his best to pick up his pace, without accidentally stepping directly in the water.

The moss that grew kept our path lit well enough for us to see where we going, but there was still no end in sight. The steam was so thick I could see Midnight's body moving it in small wisps around him. If Midnight was not blocking my vision, I'm sure I would not be able to see very far at all since it was as thick as dense fog.

What started out as a light pant soon had my tongue hanging out and my breaths coming heavy when the heat started to overwhelm me. Panting heavily, we hurried through the cave hoping that the exit was not very far off, but each minute that went by felt way longer because of the uncomfortable condition.

The first sign of the exit was not seen, but it was felt. The temperature slightly cooled off a bit that it brought some welcome relief to my overheated body. My limp tongue hanging out of my muzzle was the first to detect the cooler temperature.

Midnight had already detected it too and quickened his pace. We both hurried, and even though we accidentally stepped in the hot water a couple times, we practically rushed out of the entrance that suddenly appeared in front of us.

Out in open air, the steam finally rose instead of being trapped around us. We did not stop until we were several meters away from that huge plume of steam. The light of the moss vanished, but the light of the stars and partial moons were again seen.

Resting my paws on my knees while I took in deep breaths of cold air, I tried to recover from the exhausting exiting of the mountain. Midnight passed me and quickly shed off his clothes before he fell on his back to the ground, trying to expose as much of his body to the cool dirt as possible.

Even though it was still the dead of night, I could see a great distance over an entire valley. The sheer distance blurred my vision a bit, but I could see the partial moonlights reflect off of a lake that had a huge island surrounded. Even further in the distance, further than I have ever been able to see before, I could see the peaks of more mountains.

I had no idea where we were but I was still having trouble cooling down. I followed Midnight's example and quickly disrobed of my clothes. I fell flat on my stomach to the ground, feeling the cool earth beneath me and it was the first real relief that finally started to allow my body to cool down.

The day started early and miserable in that horrible storm, nearly killed by reptilians twice. The dull ache of falling in the cave that severely injured my body was still there that aided my exhaustion. It did not take more than a few seconds after I fell to the ground before I fell unconscious.