FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Roderick alternated the next few hours between piggybacking Skyseeker and letting her walk beside him, the desert heat faltering as the sun began to set. Nothing had accosted them during their travels save for a few hardy reptiles toughing it out in the baking sun, such as snakes with patterned scales and large scorpions who blended in with the sun-bleached rocks.

“Sun’s about to go-leave,” Skyseeker said from atop his shoulders. “Move east, my new man-legs, see some rocks we can use to make camp.”

He’d passed her the compass Wilfred had packed for him, Skyseeker quickly learning the cardinal directions so Roderick could get an idea of where they were going. The relic was a straight shot south according to her warpsight, and while he knew little of magical abilities, he had faith that Skyseeker wouldn’t get them lost.

The shelter she mentioned soon manifested in the form of a rock cluster, one that should provide ample cover from the elements. He set Skyseeker down once they reached it, Roderick taking a moment to sit down and rest his legs.

“Pass the steel sticks,” she chimed, digging a small pit in the sand nearby.

“Firestarter,” he corrected, passing it to her. They had passed a thorny brush some time back, and had collected its branches for kindling, the Skaven setting about making a small campfire.

As she struck the two pieces together, Roderick looked out over the dunes, the task made more difficult by the angle of the sun. It looked so large sitting flush against the horizon, turning the sands into a sea of glittering gold and harsh, black shadows made by the dunes.

“Ah-ha!” Skyseeker announced, finally driving a spark onto the kindling. “Behold, Skaven fire. Not as good as warp fire, but still.”

“Good work,” he said, tossing her a piece of fish from his ration pack. “Didn’t have to help you at all there. You’re a fast learner.”

“Rick-rod doesn’t have to flatter me,” she giggled as she chewed. “I know that I’m brilliant – plus we are breeding mates. Speaking of which, believe that I have a Skaven promise to fulfill…”

She leapt on him, nuzzling against his face, her whiskers brushing his cheeks. He laughed as she pawed at his chest, planting her knees in the sand on either side of him as he brought a hand to her jaw.

Her joined her soft lips to his, but before it could go any further, he heard an odd sound, Roderick tilting his head to the side, straining to listen over Skyseeker’s sloppy kisses as he glanced out at the sands. There was something out there, something below the dune they were currently sitting on.

He pushed Skyseeker away, the Skaven blinking at him in confusion. “R-Rick-rod? What’s wrong?”

“Stamp out the fire,” he urged. “Quickly!”

She turned, bringing her heel to the campfire without hesitating, killing the flames with a few hard stomps. The pocket of light ebbed away, leaving them in near total darkness.

He pulled Skyseeker closer, bringing a finger to his lips in an unspoken request for silence, the Skaven nodding her understanding. He moved his finger to point down the slope, and she slowly followed it with her eyes, her breath catching as she saw it too.

Lurking out in the dunes was a construct, a cart to be precise, held aloft by a pair of iron wheels, and sitting inside it were two figures. They were thin, but unusually tall, the glint of silver telling him they wore metal helmets. They wore some sort of orange sash about their chest, everything from the stomach down obscured behind the cart’s rim.

The cart was being pulled by two horses, but something about their shape was off-putting, but Roderick couldn’t tell what. They watched, transfixed, as one of the figures raised a long whip, the crack echoing across the desert as they spurred the horses on, the cart moving a little closer towards their dune.

As it drew closer, Roderick’s eyes widened in alarm. The sound of clacketing bones overthrew the noise of the trundling wheels, his gaze drawn to the horses. The animals had no flesh. No muscle, no sinew, even their eye sockets were empty, yet they carried themselves briskly at the driver’s behest. They snorted and tossed their heads every which way, stamping hooves of ivory into the sand.

The figures in the cart was likewise fleshless, skeletons made manifest, cracking their undead wards with their whip again. Roderick could make out slack jaws, filled with grinning teeth, empty gazes scanning the sands with a palpable malice.

The chariot altered course, skirting that base of his and Skyseeker’s dune. He reached over his shoulder, taking his greatsword by the hilt, Skyseeker copying the gesture as she gripped her knives. They held a collective breath as they watched the undead creatures patrol the area. They could obviously see, but how clearly? More importantly, how had these monsters come back to life?

He feared they would have to do battle with the skeletons, but the chariot soon altered course, making for an adjacent dune. Only when he could no longer hear its wheels did Roderick release the breath he’d been holding, Skyseeker’s tense little body releaxing as she followed suit.

“What was that!?” Skyseeker demanded, then answered her own question. “looked like a bone-thing being pulled by more bone-things!”

“Vampires can make undead thralls,” Roderick muttered. “perhaps these lands are home to blood-suckers?”

“It guard-protects the relic,” Skyseeker mused. “think there are more-more?”

“I don’t know. We best be on our guard,” Roderick replied.

“I already am, stupid!”

“You know what I mean,” he added. “We’ll have to forego campfires from now on, make sure we aren’t spotted. I don’t know how we can kill a skeleton, assuming they can be killed at all…”

“Is getting cold,” Skyseeker muttered, bundling herself in her arms. “stupid desert-place. Hot one second, freezing the next!”

Roderick reached for the blanket in his pack, rolling it out and encouraging Skyseeker to lay down. Rest wouldn’t come easy after what they just saw, but they had to try. Once she was down, Roderick cuddled up to her from behind, shielding her smaller body with his own, the Skaven reaching up to cradle his face with a paw.

“Thank you, Rick-rod,” she whispered. “Promise to breed with you when Skaven not so exposed.”

He chuckled, planting a kiss on her forehead, the she-rat squirming and laughing as he held her there for a few seconds longer, the two soon settling in for the night.

-xXx-

After a quick breakfast, they continued their journey through the early hours of dawn, hoping to get in as much travel while the heat was tolerable. Their path brought them before the area they had seen the chariot during the night, Roderick detouring over to examine the tracks it left behind.

“If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I’d say these look like normal horse prints,” Roderick began, kneeling in the sand as he eyed the chariot’s path. It swerved in seemingly all directions, leading Skyseeker to believe the chariot had been on patrol duty, and not searching for trespassers. At least not yet.

“Rick-rod seems surprised,” Skyseeker mused. “Fredwil not warn you of bone-things?”

Roderick shook his head. “He only said that Chaos may take new forms this far from the Empire’s light. Although…”

“What?” she asked.

“I’ve never heard of the Chaos Gods reanimating men and creatures like this before,” he added. “The corrupted men of Nurgle are a close comparison, but those skeletons didn’t seem like a result of plague or infestation to me. Perhaps some new Ruinous Power stirs in these lands…”

“Damn you Chaos-things!” Skyseeker shouted, gesturing at the sky. “Leave us be and go die in warpfire! E-Except you, Horned Rat, do whatever you want-need.”

Not wanting to linger, they picked up the pace, leaving this dune behind for the next. Sand was everywhere. In her eyes, down her lungs, even inside her hood, it seemed to just go wherever it pleased no matter what she tried, her cloak providing little respite against the sweltering heat accompanying it. It was like the Trantine Hills all over again, only a thousand times worse.

She couldn’t believe she had been so hard on Tilea – at least back then the water she drunk didn’t immediately make her tail glands swell with cramps. There had also been trees for shade and crevices for shelter, but out here there was only nothingness, each rising dune promising some new obscured feature, only for disappointment to rear its head at every crossing.

At least the company was worthwhile. That was one change from Tilea that she could appreciate. No longer was each exchanged word between them full of malice or distrust, instead there was an unspoken air of relaxation surrounding them, their indulgence back on the wolfship having sated their desires for one another – for the moment of course. She could see in his eyes that he longed to breed her again. That was good. She wanted him to watch her tail, she wanted him to admire her and her alone.

It felt so liberating to be craved in such a manner, to have allowed Roderick to see a side of her even she didn’t know existed. Nothing about her was hidden from him, and likewise, she knew all his secrets, and the realisation made her weak at the knees in more ways than one. But she had to control her newfound breeding urges – now wasn’t the time or the place, not with all those creepy bonemen riding around.

-xXx-

“Do my eyes deceive me?” Roderick asked, holding out a hand to shield his face, his gauntlet glinting in the light.

They had been going on for the better part of the day, their supplies slowly but surely diminishing as they plunged deeper into the desert. It made the load lighter on her back, which was relieving, but that feeling was quickly chased by worries of starvation. Perhaps she’d been too eager to ignore Wilfred’s warnings…

But her worries seemed to have just become in vain, Skyseeker using her goggles to zoom in on what he was looking at.

“They don’t,” she answered. “See man-thing? Told you crossing desert would be easy peasy.”

“Don’t remember you saying that,” he muttered, following her down the sandy slope, making a beeline for the strange feature. It was a little out of the way from the relic’s direction, but not enough to put them completely off-track. What they saw wasn’t another chariot, thank the Horned Rat, but a discolouration on the horizon, easy to pick out against the brown, dusty backdrop.

It was a handful of dunes off to the east, and crossing each one brought the image more clarity. Sand gave way to spiky underbrush, first a muted, bleached colour like dirt, but gently taking on more vibrancy the further in it went, until devilweeds became bushes of lush leaves. There were plants, too, not the prickly kind they had seen thus far, but the tall, wooden kind, like those back in Tilea, lining the humps of grassy fields.

“Life, this deep into the desert?” Roderick mused as they came one dune closer. “After leagues of dust… how is this possible?”

“Horned Rat’s filthy blessings, of course!” she chimed. “And if I know anything about surface-world – and I’m an expert at this point – it’s that plants equals water!”

“We should proceed carefully,” he warned. That wasn’t suspicion in his eyes, was it? “Whatever wildlife lives in this place, it’ll be drawn here. Remember the gryphon?”

“Wish I didn’t,” she mumbled, slowing her strides. “Alright, Rick-rod, made your point-point. Slow and steady!”

Curtailing her excitement, they passed over the last dune with caution, and soon enough, she was standing with grass stalks sprouting between her clawed toes. Behind her was sand, but before her was paradise, like a slice of Tilea had been scooped up and dropped down by the paw of a God. A flock of birds flitted from left to right, helping to sell the image, and Skyseeker was confident she could pick up the calls of bullfrogs from somewhere nearby.

Bushes obscured the landscape ahead, blooming wildflowers adding dashes of colour. Beyond them rose a distinct noise, the trickle of water unmistakable. It really was as though the Horned Rat had blessed them with fortune. Skyseeker led the way, pushing through the sparse undergrowth, soon coming upon a clearing. The grass reached almost unnatural levels of green the further it went, Skyseeker soon spotting a winding river flowing through the oasis.. It was being fed by a babbling brook, the water nestled between rows of bountiful trees with leaves thick enough to provide dappled pools of shade.

“Sweet refreshment!” Skyseeker exclaimed, rushing down the incline. She was suddenly thrust back onto her rump as Roderick seized her by the scruff of her neck, holding her back.

“Wait! That’s not water, that’s…”

She was about to reprimand him, when she took a closer look at the river, her demeanour shifting. Most water she’d seen on the surface was blue, but that wasn’t the case for this one. It was pink, its substance so cloudy she couldn’t see the riverbed, the colour clashing with the green, bountiful surroundings.

Tilting her head in confusion, she inched closer, Roderick following closely behind as they approached the river’s edge. She brushed its surface with her whiskers, her nose filling with the acrid stench of copper.

“Supposing this isn’t a normal thing on the surface-world?” she asked, waving a paw in front of her muzzle.

“Of course not,” he chided, scanning his surroundings with a horrified look. “I knew this was too good to be true. Gods, everything here is being… fermented by blood.”

“Look! See more over there!”

A short distance upstream was a breach in the treeline, the pair looking through to see the oasis opening up, exposing more branching riverbeds stretching further to the east. There were dozens of them, each flowing crevice filled to the brim with the crimson liquid.

“It trails in from the south,” Roderick noted. The lands between the blood took on the appearance of spoiled carcasses, brown and bloodied, Skyseeker able to pick out bones of long-dead giant creatures with the help of her goggles. “How many bodies would be needed to make this many rivers run red? What could be capable of such slaughter?”

“We have saying in Skavenblight,” Skyseeker replied. “you find shard of warpstone, you don’t think about where it came from. Now is a time to NOT ask where blood comes from.”

“Let’s get out of here,” Roderick muttered. “I’d rather die of heatstroke than spend another second in this place.”

Skyseeker nodded her agreement, the two turning back the way they’d come. Roderick was taking great care to avoid touching any of the thickets and trees, his disgust palpable. She wondered if it was just the plants feeding off the liquid, and if the animals hadn’t acquired a taste for blood either…

-xXx-

They spent three long days trekking across the desert, keeping out of the way of the occasional chariot that crossed their path. Whether it was the same bonemen or multiple patrolling chariots, Skyseeker couldn’t say, but they seemed to become more numerous with each passing day.

While the blood rivers had been a troubling detour, it provided a visible landmark, forming a band of green and brown to their east. While she didn’t need it to find the relic’s location, thanks to her warpsight, it would prove useful on the return trip. If it did indeed flow out to the ocean, returning to the wolfship should be simple matter of following it.

“Let us rest for the moment,” Roderick called once they reached the peak of the next dune. “Gods, we’re burning through this water,” he added as he lifted one of their waterskins, taking a long draw.

“Not to worry, we are close,” she assured, sitting down beside him.

“Indeed? Can you sense its presence or something?”

“No,” she chuckled. “I can see it, and so can you! Look-Look.”

She pointed to the south, and from their vantage point they could see boundless desert in all directions, save for a solitary feature at the very limits of their vision. Through the sepia haze was a dark stretch, little pinpoints rising up through the empty horizon.

“Look where?” he asked. “I see nothing.”

“I forget you have stupid man-thing vision,” she muttered, reaching up to lift off the goggles. “Here,” she added, passing them over. “use wonderful Skaven technocracy to visualise.”

He handled her apparatus with considerable care, bringing them to his face and holding the lenses over his eyes. “Where is… ah ha,” he said after a few moments. “I see towers, buildings…”

“Is a city,” she confirmed. “And if I were to hide-stash a relic, it would be in a locked burrow, but a city would be close second.”

She chuckled as Roderick glanced down at her, the human asking her what was so funny.

“You look humorous with goggles on,” she giggled. “like a hairless warlock.”

He pulled a face, chuckling along with her before passing the goggles back. “We’re so close now,” he said, leaning back on the sand. “City must be no more than a days’ walk. A couple more nights from now, and we’ll have completed our mission.”

“Almost can’t believe closeness!” she breathed. “Feels like it was only three days ago I was scurrying through a different country.”

“That’s because we were,” Roderick chuckled. “Had you stayed your previous course, you might be halfway through the Border Princes by now, along with the rest of your Skaven clanmates. We’ve gained days, if not weeks, of a lead on them.”

“Never got to thank man-thing,” she said, taking his paw into her own and squeezing. “ever since knowledgeable Lord thrust me into surface-world, have been bumbling over own paw-feet trying to get here. Then you came along, and now Skaven has made more progress than could ever imagine! Not that I really needed you!” she hurriedly added. “Could have done it with my eyes closed! But efforts are still worth commending, so… thank you. For all things. I know I owe you more than words, but it’s all I have… unless you want a weeping blade?

It came out a little more emotionally than she wanted, but something about Roderick’s eyes just turned her insides to mush. Much like that stoneflesh spell Wilfred had cast on her, but the exact opposite.

“You owe me nothing,” he insisted. “I’d have hardly ever made it here myself if not for you, lass. We’ve both saved each other numerous times, thanks isn’t necessary.”

“But you must want something in return for all hard work!”

“Your company alone is enough reward for me,” he replied without missing a beat, grinning down at her.

“If you’re trying to distract me by seducing Skaven… it’s working.”

“With all seriousness though,” he added. “I know it might seem unnatural to you, but we humans don’t place value on someone based off what they can give us. You’re my friend and my lover, Skyseeker, and that’s enough for me.”

“What about breeding?” she prompted.

“I… suppose that would be an acceptable trade,” he added coyly. “But, let’s save it for later. Ploughing each other out here with the flies and the chariots isn’t really setting the mood for me.”

“You can plough me once we reach city,” she replied, rising to her feet. “Should provide much more incentive to reach it, yes-yes?”

-xXx-

They left behind the blood rivers, the perverse greenery fading into the haze while the city grew in definition, Skyseeker picking out the bastions and turrets lining the length of the perimeter wall. It was far grander in size compared to Portomaggoire, made of chunks of sandstone bigger than Roderick’s whole body, towering so high into the air she could barely see any rooftops.

One last dune separated them from the city, and as they crested the slope, Skyseeker turned around, unable to see the rivers or the ocean, even with the aid of her goggles. She had come such a long way, it felt like an age had passed since she’d descended the steps of Lord Gnawdwell’s tower. She didn’t really know how her journey would conclude back then (aside from complete victory), but she certainly hadn’t expected it to be in the company of her man-thing mate. To think she would never have come to know him if either of them had decided to kill the other rather than make that initial deal…

“You alright, lass?” Roderick asked, snapping her back to the present. “See something out there?”

“N-No, nothing,” she replied, resuming her climb. After a few minutes, they were stood in the shade of the city wall. Craning her neck up, she noted that the bricks of sandstone were stacked into the dozens high, which was an odd design choice to Skyseeker. Higher walls betrayed the notion that something on the inside was valuable and worth stealing.

“Wish Fredwil had given us a ladder,” Skyseeker grumbled, turning her eyes to the sand. “Hmm. Perchance we can dig burrow? Crawl under?”

“How about we search for an entrance first?” Roderick suggested. “Any city must have a gate of some kind.”

Turning to the left, the wall stretched on until the desert haze made things blurry and hard to see. To the right, the wall continued on before jutting at a right angle, Roderick taking up the lead as they proceeded in that direction.

They stayed close to the wall, so as to not expose them to the turrets, which would make good spots for snipers. She was becoming increasingly doubtful that her enemies were up there searching for targets – they had walked straight up to the walls without incident – but perhaps they were biding their time, like Skaven readying an ambush.

They rounded the right angle of the wall, walking for a few minutes before coming across a gate, just as Roderick thought there’d be. The archway was framed by smaller sandstone bricks, and just beyond the entrance was a pair of swinging doors, currently open, their surfaces carved with strange symbols and shapes.

Before she could take a closer look at them, her foot caught on something, and she would have ploughed face-first into the sand if Roderick hadn’t been there to catch her.

She flashed him an appreciative look, then looked down at what had tripped her. Sprawled out on the sand was a corpse, the creature almost as large as a rat ogre, with forearms as thick around as her torso. Its armour looked like it had been scrapped together from various sources – a metal pauldron here, a leather gauntlet there – its looted armour decorated in red pigment in the shape of giant handprints.

Between the gaps in its armour she could see its skin was green, and from its large face, ivory tusks protruded from its bloodied mouth. She looked to Roderick with an unspoken question in her eyes, the man-thing narrowing his eyes as he looked the body over.

“Greenskins,” Roderick muttered. “Plenty of their ilk back in the Empire. Looks like we’re not the first to come looking for the relic.”

The corpse was not alone. Dozens more of the ‘greenskins’ surrounded the outer gate, some with slash wounds, others with arrows protruding from their necks and chests. They were rotting in the sun, a foul stench permeating the air, leading her to believe the battle had happened some time ago.

“Seems they laid siege,” Roderick noted, peering into the gate. The floor was made of sand, a few more bodies piled up against the inner walls, the skeleton of a battering ram plugging the passage. “Stay close.”

“These green-things,” Skyseeker began, her feet kicking up dust as she followed him inside. The tunnel was mostly shaded by a stone roof, curved at the edges, slots on either side making fine positions for archers to shoot anything that approached. “tell me something about them. Fought things before?”

“Many times,” he replied, stepping over the battering ram’s framework, the construct a meshwork of ropes and wooden beams. “Greenskins, or Orcs as they call themselves, are a bunch of savages and tribals, with no grasp of honour or even a culture – unless you count raiding as a culture. Once they see something they want gone, they’ll toss a thousand bodies at it if it means accomplishing that goal.”

“Ingenious,” she muttered. It sounded like a Skaven tactic to her. “Weaknesses?”

“If you’re good at taunting, they’re easy to goad into making a mistake. Don’t underestimate them, though. They might be savages, but they’re far from stupid.”

The inner gate was destroyed, the two halves laying on the ground just beyond the wall. Standing upon said gate, Skyseeker wiped away the caking dust with her foot, exposing tens of scrolling hieroglyphs etched onto the reinforced slab. They looked like a bunch of squiggling lines to her, but perhaps they told of the city’s name, or maybe warned trespassers about going any further.

A warning the Orcs did not listen too. There were even more of the greenskins laying about here, entire squads of the creatures trailing into the streets beyond. The ground was still as sandy as it was outside the walls, but tall, square buildings made from limestone rose up to either side of the pathways to form streets, the constructs pockmarked with spider-web cracks, but still standing strong in the heat.

Each building brought to mind images of the bunkers nestled in Skavenblight’s heart, each one a cube surrounded by reinforced pillars, their rooftops as flat as the surface of a table. She could see more hieroglyphs carved into some of the buildings, some sporting more intricate reliefs than others, the coloured artworks standing out against the desert tones. Perhaps those were more important buildings, like shops, or council chambers for the city’s warlords.

“Seems Orc siege didn’t go so good-good,” Skyseeker mused, pausing to examine the bodies. “enough dead-things here to fill a warband, and they’re only just inside the wall!”

“One thing you should know about Orcs,” Roderick warned. “Just when you think you’ve wiped them all out, that’s when more of them come.”

They walked forwards, Skyseeker grabbing the hilt of her daggers as they left the gate behind. It was so quiet, every crunch of sand created by each pace made loud in contrast. Even the wind seemed muted, the sounds it made as it filtered through the narrow alleyways akin to muted screams.

Stepping over another Orc body, she turned her attention to the structures again. The designers were clearly showing off their skill and wealth, no surface left untouched by motifs or carvings, but not everything was pristine. Some walls had crumbled, leaving carpets of rubble that blocked some of the streets – results from the Orc siege if she had to guess. While the fact the Orcs may have found the relic during their attack troubled her, something far greater was bothering her.

“Where is everyone?” she asked, the two passing beneath an ornate archway, and into an open space that reminded her of the market square back in Tilea. In its centre was a giant monolith, the stone structure towering high into the air, so tall and thin she didn’t see how it was possible to create such a thing. Decorated upon its four faces was a giant symbol of an eye situated above a winged skull, the image stretched so it covered as much of the faces as possible.

“Good question,” Roderick replied, pausing by the monolith’s bronze base to admire it. “Perhaps the Orcs wiped out the city to a man? They’ve done it before…”

“But, we should have seen other bodies by now-now!” she pressed. “I see only Orcs.”

Roderick shrugged his shoulders, his armour creaking. As he led her through the square and back into another street, she got her answer, a spot of ivory rock half-buried in the sand catching her astute gaze.

She pawed at the sand around it, soon realising it was no rock at all, but a skull. Digging a little further around, she found a discarded bow submerged in the sand, getting Roderick’s attention with a snap of her fingers.

“Ah-ha! Bonemen lived in city place! That’s why we see only dead Orcs, piles of bone-things probably right below our paw feet.”

“That’s… a morbid image,” Roderick admitted, eyeing the ground with a grimace. “At least we know the skeletons can be killed. If only Wilfred were here, he’d have loved to study all these carvings, deduce their mysteries.”

“Beg to differ, I like it when it’s just us two,” she replied, sidling up and curling her tail over his leg.

He grinned down at her, reaching over to scruff the fur between her ears, Skyseeker chuckling as she batted him away, her laughter echoing through the empty street. Her words were closer to the truth than she let on – she would have been terrified to explore this place by her lonesome.

They passed through more gridlocked streets, each set of buildings arranged in perfectly square blocks, Skyseeker taking a moment to peer into one of the doorways at random. The air inside was musty, every surface made from cut sandstone that was too course for her paws. Pots and vases decorated the sparse furniture, the layout oddly reminiscent of the man-thing dwellings she’d seen in the past. Perhaps the bonemen had been man-things, before their skin had peeled off?

“Find anything?” Roderick called from the street.

She retreated from the homestead, shaking her head up at him.

“So what’s our plan?” he added. “Should we be searching every building for this relic? If we have to turn this whole city on its head, we’ll be here for weeks.”

“Don’t be an idiot,” she chided, tapping her skull with a claw. “Think about things – if you had to hide super secret weapon, where would you put it? In the biggest, securest building of course! Searching every burrow not necessary, just the important-looking ones!”

“I hope you’re right,” he muttered, following her down another turn.

“Am I ever not?” she shot back. He made to reply but she talked over him. “Don’t answer that! Less talk, more searching, Rick-rod.”

As they moved on, she began to see larger structures looming over the rooftops, her warpsight rewarding her with a delicious psychic pulse that set her nerves into overdrive. The relic was that way, she could literally feel it.

They soon came upon a structure similar to the outlying wall, a pair of pylons rising from the sand at the end of the next street. They were flared at the bottom but very thin at the top, their surfaces as decorated as the rest of the buildings they’d seen thus far. The two pylons were conjoined by an archway of pillars, forming a shadowy doorway that went through the wall and deeper into the city. It looked almost like a gateway at a glance. The carvings etched into the pylons depicted figures wielding staves, standing head and shoulders above smaller counterparts who looked up to them for guidance. Could those be paintings of the relic she sought?

They ducked beneath the monuments, stepping around more Orcs, soon emerging into an entirely different part of the city. Gone was the tight, orderly structures of the outlying homesteads, replaced by vast sightlines occasionally broken up by large, decorative structures. Skyseeker could see buildings big enough to be considered complexes in their own right, surrounded by columns carved with yet more intricate symbols. There were more of those monoliths as well, stretching up like fingers of stone throughout the city, that same hieroglyph – the eye and the winged skull – chiseeled into them. There were temples ringed by massive statues as well, with giant staircases leading up to their doorways, their domed rooftops carved with golden patterns that shone in the sun.

What really drew her gaze were the structures looming over the vista. While the temples and monuments were as tall as Gnawdwell’s tower, buildings even larger cast entire sections of the city into shadow. One was a monument, as tall as the Bell of the Horned Rat, covered with golden motifs, while beside it was a pyramidal structure, its weathered surface pockmarked with eroded blocks of sandstone. While the sun had reduced the structure to a withered appearance, its scope was no less impressive. Each block appeared to be the size of a small house, its sloped surfaces carved into perfect, acute angles.

“There!” Skyseeker exclaimed. “The relic is in that thing!”

“The pyramid?” Roderick asked. “You are certain?”

“Ohhh yes-yes, I can feel it… in my bones! Ha! Get it? BONES. B-Because the bonemen and… Eh, forget it, Skaven humour too smart-clever for man-things.”

Shaking his head, Roderick continued on into the city, Skyseeker following behind.

-xXx-

“Please don’t tell me its being fed by blood,” Roderick mumbled.

They were stood by one of the temples, drawn in by a mysterious glittering just off to the structure’s side. A short stone wall ringed around an outdoor section jutting from the temple’s flank, and inside it was an explosion of colour. Palm trees arranged in a small ring danced in the breeze, their bases obscured by leafy ferns and green bushels. It almost resembled a garden, the low walls holding back the tides of sand from choking the oasis.

“Let’s find out,” Skyseeker replied, vaulting over the wall. Her paws landed on soft grass, Skyseeker holding out an arm to push the low-hanging leaves away as she delved deeper, the lapping of water reaching her ears. After a short plunge, she emerged into a clearing, a pool of water standing before her. It was knee deep at its centre, Skyseeker able to see the gravelly bottom from this angle.

“Not look like blood,” she called over her shoulder, Roderick emerging from the ferns a moment later. He made to stop her as she bent over, but wasn’t fast enough, Skyseeker cupping her paw with water and taking a sip. “Mm! Taste’s good!” she added.

“A welcome reprieve,” Roderick sighed, sitting by the water’s edge. He pulled out a waterskin, dipping its thin neck into the pool. “I feared what we’d do for our return trip. We’ve gone through most of our water just getting here.”

Skyseeker didn’t waste any time, casting her cloak and belts aside before plunging into the pool, the cool water soaking her fur through. She dipped her head below its surface, surfacing to shake out the water from her face, splashing Roderick in the process.

The trees and shrubbery was so thick she could almost convince herself she was in a forest, as long as she didn’t look up at the pyramid towering over the backdrop. She was so close now, her prize merely resting at the far end of the city. A part of her urged her to just run full kilter towards the pyramid, but evidence suggested that the city was as lifeless as the Orcs, they could afford to take a small rest before the final push.

As she rubbed the water into her hot fur, she felt Roderick’s gaze on her, turning to give the human a coy look.

“You like watching Skaven bathe?” she asked, chuckling as his cheeks blushed. “Care to join me instead of staring?”

“Tempting, but one of us has to stay alert,” he replied, refilling the next waterskin.

“Alert?” she echoed. “for what? Green-things made place into ruin, city is abandoned.”

“Don’t you think this is too easy?” he asked. “We just up and walked through the gate completely uncontested. This place is supposed to be the sanctuary of an all-powerful weapon, we should have come across some obstacle by now.”

“Maybe Orcs got rid of obstacles?” she suggested, but Roderick wasn’t convinced, his shoulders tensing as he looked over his shoulder, as though he’d sensed something creeping up on them. She should do something to relax him.

“Well, Skaven is glad for break,” she said, lifting a long leg out of the water to scrub her thigh. She angled herself so that Roderick could see the inside of her leg, and as though she were a magnet, his eyes wandered over to stare at her again.

“I’m not sure how it is that I’m the one who’s suspicious, and you’re completely relaxed,” he muttered.

“Want to know my secret?” she asked. “I’m finally taking bath after weeks of smelly man-thing ships and walking through hot deserts, helps loosesn up the muscles. You know what isn’t loose right now?”

She crawled towards the edge of the pool, clutching her sling and folding part of it up, not enough to expose her bosom, but just enough to entice him.

“My pussayyyy,” she added, snickering beneath a paw. Roderick had taught her the word back on the ship, and she liked how it sounded.

“Subtle,” he said. “But perhaps we should keep our guard up, at least until we possess the relic.”

“You’re no fun! At least do my back-back,” she added, turning around on him. “You can keep watch while you do that, yes-yes?”

She lifted her rump, holding herself there for a few moments before settling into his lap, plucking the waterskin from his hand and casting it away. Her tail slithered over his leg, holding him tight as she writhed against his waist, making sure he felt her springy cheeks through her loincloth.

“I… very well,” he admitted, running his smooth fingers through the fur on the back of her neck, Skyseeker quietly chuckling to herself. He was already relenting, very good…

She settled in on his leg, straddling it between her thighs. It didn’t make a very good seat given his armour, but she made do, sighing to herself as she relished the feeling of his hands on her coat.

“Your paws are warm,” she muttered, leaning against his chest and putting as much of her in contact with him as possible. “Use thumbs, yes-yes, like that…”

He pressed his hands deeper into her fur, her flesh twitching in response to his prodding, Roderick drawing slow circles on her shoulders. She loosed a sigh that was a little more comely than appropriate, resting an arm on his leg and fiddling with the belt there and hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“How’s the water?” he asked. “Not too cold?”

His efforts to distract himself were so adorable. She craned her neck, her frame so small compared to his that she had to look up to meet his eyes.

“Why doesn’t man-thing find out for himself?”

He reached for the discarded waterskin, but she slapped his wrist, stopping him. “Wait! Not like that! Like this-this…”

She reached into the pool, cupping her paws, then rose them above her head. She tipped her palms, letting the water cascade down her fuzzy head, droplets travelling down the indents of her muscles, drawing his eyes to her curves. Hoping he wasn’t dense enough that she had to explain, she remained firmly rooted to his lap, continuing to soak herself through.

Thankfully he got the picture before she started drowning, leaning his giant frame over hers as he bent double, planting his lips against her neck. The mix of her fur and the water was enough to entice him, Skyseeker giggling as he mouthed eagerly at her coat, licking her dry.

“Well?” she cooed.

“I think I may need a little more to form an opinion,” he replied, her glands squirting her musk at his salacious words. He moved lower, licking her between her shoulder blades, Skyseeker trembling as he glanced her spine. His earlier resistance was just melting away, her scheme coming along better than she thought it would.

“Give me your face,” she ordered, bending her head backwards over her shoulders. His upside-down features filled her vision, Skyseeker reaching up to grab him by the chin. She guided his lips to hers, a moan slipping out of her throat as they joined, his warm tongue filling her muzzle.

Like the coiled snakes of the desert, his organ wound around her own, her body shivering each time he glanced her palate. Man-thing kissing was weird but wonderful, and she vastly preferred it over the nuzzles and sniffles that was the Skaven equivalent.

Their lips smacked dryly against each other as their saliva dried in the hot air, Skyseeker quickly formulating a plan. Still holding him like that, she reached between her legs to cup her paw beneath the pool, then splashed the liquid over their conjoined muzzles, hoping he’d appreciate the added lubrication. Instead, his eyes blazed open, Roderick separating from her as he made sputtering and choking sounds.

“By Sigmar, what did you do that for?” he asked, wiping his mouth with his wrist.

“Y-You said you wanted more water!” she stammered. “Sorry!”

“It’s alright,” he chuckled, coughing into his hand. “it went up my nose a little, but it’s fine.

She was a little embarrassed by her clumsy miscalculation, but that soon melted away as he slid a hand down her flank, taking fistfuls of her fur, Skyseeker shivering as he ran a finger over her abs. His other arm reached out for the pool, and Skyseeker made sure she didn’t move with him, letting him press more of his weight into her furry back. She shivered as he brought a wet hand to her chest, cupping her breast through her sling, Roderick watching over her shoulder as her fat sprang back into shape when he let go.

“You look like you’ve been chiselled from marble,” Roderick suddenly said. “the way your fur clings to you like that… beautiful.”

“You’re beautiful,” she snapped, the surprise compliment dulling her usually sharp tongue. “-for a man-thing,” she added. “So, uh, you like wet Skaven?”

He answered her by taking her by the waist, Skyseeker squeaking as he suddenly lifted her off his lap, holding her against his belly. The way he could toss her around with those big arms never ceased to excite her, more of her musk filling the air as he positioned her so that they were eye-level, Roderick resting his chin on her soft shoulder.

She watched as he undid his gauntlets, placing them aside before letting his smooth hands rest on her hips. Before she could utter a word, he crawled them over her waist, cupping them over her mound for a few moments, as though he was remembering where her breeding chamber was.

He felt up her thighs next, running his warm palms across their inner lining, the man-thing admiring how soft and plush she felt, Skyseeker opening her legs in a silent request to divert his attentions.

She could feel his heartbeat pounding against her back as he moved towards her loins, a drip of her excitement escaping down her leg. He spread her furry labia apart, tracing her delicate lips with his fingertips as he slipped an arm around her waist, holding her close.

“Hah! So much for keeping your guard up,” she teased, her voice tapering out as he slipped a finger inside her. “I – ah! – I knew you couldn’t resist Skaven charms forever.”

“You stuffed your rump into my face and sprayed your scent everywhere, how’s that fair?”

“You think Skaven knows meaning of fair?” she laughed, reaching up to hold the back of his head. “Breathe it in,” she cooed, pulling him close. “I want you reeking of my musk, hehe…”

His warm breath washed over her as he let her smell mark him, the absurdity of the situation making her chuckle. Skaven Warlords would sometimes bestow their musk upon a rat as a sign of favour or ownership – that meant she now technically owned Roderick, did she not?

She laughed again. Even without meaning to, her schemes were always bringing her out on top, and now she possessed a man-thing Warlord. What a brilliant mind she possessed.

Her hysterics tapered into soft moans as he brought a finger to her loins, easing it into her tunnel. Her clenching walls welcomed his digit like a hungry maw, her muscles drawing on him to come deeper, but Roderick resisted her, teasing her as he traced her entrance.

She squirmed and grumbled, ready to sit on his hand and hurry him along, but he slipped a hand around her belly, clutching her against him. Her toes just about scraped the grass as Roderick flipped the circumstances back on her – now holding her in his lap while she attempted to wrestle free. She couldn’t hope to match his strength in this position, but there was something delicious about being overpowered, forced to sit back while he had his way with her. It should be embarrassing, but the powerlessness only heightened the pleasure she was feeling.

She tensed up as he finally relented, pushing his finger inside her until his knuckles were swallowed up by her lips, her slick juices erasing all sense of friction and letting him glide along. Her creased passage compressed down on him, Skyseeker relaxing against his chest as she revelled in the sensations of being filled.

“Do-Do that again,” she mewled, rubbing her thighs together. “where you curl finger. Ah! Yes-Yes, that’s it…”

She was tight enough that just moving his finger seemed to take an effort, but she was rewarded with waves of pleasure rolling up through her core. Her response seemed to please him, Roderick sliding his hand up her torso to cup one of her breasts, the soft fat wobbling as he cradled it in his palm. Skyseeker had never taken much notice of her bosom, aside from a few experimental prods and touches back when she was barely bigger than a pup and wasn’t quite sure what she was. They didn’t seem all that appealing to her, but they may as well be new toys to Roderick, his hands and eyes always on them whenever the chance arose. Perhaps male man-things were allured by their shape, how odd…

She was pulled out of her thoughts by a sudden shock, Roderick’s finger pressing up against her sensitive bud. She mewled and squeaked as he slid a second finger inside her, pinching her nub between his two smooth digits, moving and squashing it in ways that drove her crazy.

“Man-thing,” she gasped in a comely voice. “Breed me, breed me now-now…”

She shuddered as he slowly wrested his fingers free, her passage sealing around him as though it couldn’t stand to be empty. He peeled out of her twitching opening, his digits still joined to her entrance by a thick strand of her juices. He stroked her hips and thighs, his movements tickling her, Roderick’s mouth splitting in a grin as he watched her squirm. He was so intimate, his gaze at once covetous and adoring, nothing at all like the Skaven who’d earned breeding rights back in the pits.

She gasped as his pace turned up a notch, catching her by the hips and hoisting her into the air, her feet hovering off the ground. She ground her rump against his crotch as he shuffled onto his knees, bending her forward so she had to hold out her arms to keep from falling over. She braced her paws into the shallow pool, finding herself on all fours as Roderick kneeled behind her, Skyseeker peering behind to see him fumbling with his greaves.

“Need help with that?” she asked, reaching out with her tail. She had enough control over the appendage to help loosen some of his buckles. Once the armour on his thighs was free, she hooked the end of her tail into his briefs, sliding them down his legs. His shaft was already swelling, probably because of her alluring musk, her eyes lingering on it as she remembered how much it had hurt during their first mating session. Would she feel just as sore this time? She hoped so.

She arched her back as Roderick traced the indent of her spine with his paw, her butt pushing out reflexively. It had been dark and moody back in the ship cabin, but now her ample rear was on full display in the desert sun, Roderick laying a hand on her shapely cheek as he admired her.

“You like what you see-see?” she purred, tilting her hips from side to side. He nodded in silence, Skyseeker frowning as he batted him in the face with her tail. “Say it,” she demanded.

“I like what I see,” he replied, Skyseeker chewing her lower lip as she stared off into the ferns. She didn’t need audible proof to know her body was pristine, but it was nice to hear it anyway.

“Then stop staring and claim me,” she said. Reaching back with a paw, she gripped one of her cheeks, spreading it and exposing her loins to him, the fat of her cheek spilling through her fingers. She could see the effect she had on him, his eyes drawn to her dripping folds.

She was aching for him, but she let him come to her, her tail flicking faster and faster as he shuffled closer, taking his shaft into his hand. He angled it toward her rump, Skyseeker feeling its shape lay between her cheeks, the base of her tail curling over his tip. His cock was so hot, almost to the point it burned her, but never quite crossing that boundary.

He slid his hands over her flanks, seizing her by the hips, the way her flesh contoured making for perfect handles. It was a silent announcement that he was about to mount her, Skyseeker sinking her arms up to the biceps in the water as she braced herself, lifting her tail out of the way to present herself to him.

In a single motion, he slid his member inside her, Skyseeker pushing back as Roderick eased forward. She heard him snort as her passage hugged him on his way in, Skyseeker sighing as a wonderful ripple of pleasure danced up her body from her waist to her muzzle.

She knew she was far too small to take him so quickly but Roderick knew how much she could take, pushing against her clenching walls until he bottomed out, the way the rib on his glans raked against her walls making her whine. He just kept coming and coming, until finally her ass clapped against his thighs, her twitching entrance sealing over his base.

“Has Rick-rod grown a few inches since last time?” she growled, her spine straightening as her walls expanded to accommodate him. “Can man-things do that?”

“Talk about a boost in confidence,” he replied, grunting as she flexed around him. “But no. I think we’re just too physically different from one another that we’ll never quite fit together.

“So breeding will always be like this?” she asked. “How serendipitous!”

She ground her hips, stirring him around inside her until she found a better position, her efforts making Roderick falter. She flicked him with her tail, and he got the message, Roderick pulling out of her, holding onto her hips for dear life. He fought for every inch, her folds so narrow it was a wonder he’d even manage to get inside her in the first place. When only the tip was still inside her, her muscular entrance suckling on his tender glans, he thrust back in, the sensation she felt akin to being gutted by a hooked knife. Any deeper and he’d start moving her internal organs around, but that was just the way she liked it.

Together, they found a rhythm that was slow but satisfying, Skyseeker mirroring his movements so their coupling was as raw as possible. He let his hands wander across her thighs and butt, his infatuation with her curves and fur making her giddy and even a little flustered. She still couldn’t believe he found her attractive, or beautiful in his own words. She would have suspected deceit if he wasn’t currently breeding her.

“You can get so deep-deep like this,” she marvelled, her ears twitching as he delivered a powerful thrust, as though to help accentuate her point.

“Think you can take it even further?” he asked, Skyseeker peering over her shoulder to meet his gaze.

“I can take anything,” she shot back.

Her expression shifted as he reached down, slipping his fingers beneath her tail, looping the appendage around his wrist for a better grip. Just like when he’d gripped the reins of that horse, he gave her tail a yank, her passage spasming around his length at the sudden flare of sensations. It didn’t hurt, but it didn’t not hurt either, drops of her liquid excitement flooding her tunnel as he used her tail to pull him into her.

She raised her neck to the blue skies, uttering a comely moan as her wrinkled folds slid against the ribs and contours of his shaft. Roderick was likewise affected, her already narrow passage constricting even further now that the nerves in her tail were being put under strain. He could have relented, but he didn’t, the pleasure getting the better of him as they enjoyed their newfound tempo.

“That doesn’t hurt, does it?” he asked, his voice just audible over the slaps of their lovemaking.

“Little late for concern, fool-fool,” she muttered. “Of course it hurts!”

“Want me to stop?”

“Never!”

He applied even more force, pulling her tail hard enough her feet left the ground on each hard thrust, her eyes rolling back as he split her apart. Perhaps she’d been too hasty to assume she owned him, Roderick was using her like she was a broodmother, ready to take his seed and deliver a new batch of pups for the Clan.

She was all too aware of the way her sensitive bud scraped against the underside of his shaft, her most sensitive weak point always in contact with him thanks to her smaller size. On his way out, if she angled herself just right, his tip would squash it against the floor of her tunnel, putting an insane amount of pressure on it and teasing out more of her liquid love.

Either he was perceptive, or driving his glans against her sensitive spot was driving him mad as well, for Roderick quickly caught on to her needs, making sure to drive his tip into her fleshy bud as he plundered her depths.

The stimulation was too much, her paws giving out beneath her, her cry of alarm cutting off as she plunged face-first into the pool. Dappled light filtered through from above, Skyseeker blowing bubbles as she glanced around her new, underwater surroundings.

Roderick was still pounding into her from behind, his grunts made muffled and distorted. Perhaps he hadn’t noticed her little tumble yet, too caught up in taking handfuls of her to see her plight. Not that she was in any danger of drowning, the pool was only deep enough here to reach her neck. In fact, it was quite a surreal change of scenery, her world now one of sloshing water and peace, the cool liquid on her face calming her. Coupled with the newfound tranquillity with Roderick’s rutting, she may as well have ascended beyond this plane of existence.

Roderick did take notice after a time, reaching down to pluck her from the pool, her spine arching as she surfaced with a wet sputter. He asked her what happened, Skyseeker choking on her words as she replied.

“I, uh, I… was thirsty! Needed small pickmeup. Definitely meant to fall in.”

“Of course you did,” he replied, his sly tone suggesting he didn’t believe a word.

“Keep breeding,” she urged, changing the subject and wiggling her butt. “Have bred four times already, let’s make it five.”

“Still can’t believe you can come so much and keep going,” Roderick muttered, resuming their rutting.

“As I posited – I can take anything. And! Skaven has more energy than you,” she added with a laugh. “Although… man-thing does give ridiculous amount of pups when you breed. If you were Skaven, I’d be nursing a billion litters by this point…”

“You’ll have a few more soon,” he murmured, the two rocking together as his thrusts began to take on a desperate pace. “I’m getting close.”

“Then fill me,” she urged. “I want your slime deep. Make it so!”

His shaft slid up inside her, bringing with it harsh pleasures that coursed into her from every angle, her tight passage flexing around him in contracting waves that matched the tempo of her pounding heartbeat. He could feel his member swelling, pushing her flexibility to its absolute limits.

Roderick was soon throwing all his weight against her, his grunts and her moans combining with the slaps of their lovemaking to make the oasis feel like their own little breeding pit. He was rutting like a Skaven in heat, his eyes filled with palpable need whenever she chanced a look over her shoulder, one she satiated by meeting each of his thrusts with a teasing ground of her hips.

She shrieked in surprise as he once more closed an arm over her belly, lifting her from the pool and into his embrace, her writhing backside pressing against his torso again. Her fur swirled against his skin as his other hand wound over her breasts, holding her aloft as he impaled her at this new, wonderful angle.

Her tail wound over his waist for leverage, Skyseeker reaching up to cradle his face in her paw, her muzzle level with his neck. She nuzzled his throat, her mouth parting slightly as he returned her affections.

This new closeness and the change in impalement made her flex hard, the membranes of her breeding chamber stretching over his glans as he ploughed deep into her stomach. With a few more clenches of her passage, she sent Roderick crashing over the edge. Filled with all sorts of new noises, Skyseeker groaned as she felt a rope of his seed fill that narrow chamber at the end of her tunnel, his hot emission filling her. She’d said she wanted it deep, and he didn’t disappoint, this new fullness sensation all she could think about as he bred her.

She joined him in his climax, her slick fluids coating his flexing shaft, her spasming muscles drinking out another rope from him. She could feel his fluids fill her breeding chamber to capacity, his slime dripping down her vent as the pair writhed against one another.

His thrusts became relaxed, but still persistent, as though Roderick needed to screw his pups deeper into her in the hopes she may one day bear his seed, Skyseeker welcoming it with a carnal need. She shivered in his lap as the ache of euphoria washed over her, her tail going haywaire as it swiped over his lap, but his hold on her was tight, and she wasn’t subjected to another fall.

They slowly came down from their shared highs, Roderick setting her back down on the sand, Skyseeker sticking close to him for a few moments longer. Lifting herself off his cock was like trying to climb over a wall that was too high, Skyseeker bracing her feet against his knees for leverage. Thick, pearly fluids slid down his thighs as she climbed off him, one last shiver running up her spine as they separated.

She sank unceremoniously into the pool, as giddy as she’d ever felt, flashing him a covetous smile as she eyed the mess they’d created on his crotch.

“Looks like you’ll need a wash-clean now, man-thing,” she chuckled. “Come-Come, get in.”

“If I do that, we’ll be going another round. Or ten,” he added. “We both know how you get when there’s bathing involved.”

“In that case, give me few minutes to prepare.”

“Didn’t you just say you could handle anything?”

She narrowed her eyes at him, splashing him with water and making him laugh.

“Hey, watch the armour!” he chuckled. “You’ll get it rusty.”

She pinched her chin between two claws, pondering for a moment.

“While ploughing man-thing ten more times would be nice, having the relic would be… nicer_er,” she mused as she walked out of the pool, her fur dripping with moisture. “We breed _after mission is accomplished.”

“Skyseeker denies another lay? I must be dreaming,” Roderick joked. “But you have a point, we are only a few hours’ walk from the pyramid, and there may yet be orc survivors lingering nearby. Assuming they didn’t hear us just now,” he added sheepishly. “Let me just wash this mess off.”

“Good luck trying to remove breeder musk,” she chuckled, Roderick quirking an eyebrow as he moved towards the water’s edge.