FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 3

People were giving him strange looks as he was making his way through the city, many were laughing, some didn't even try to hide it. There were also those that openly mocked him, that particular taunting made him wince.

Not because he was offended or hurt, he was already used to hearing many bad words directed his way that this particular so called offensive sentences could only aspire to the term scold. In fact he would probably be able to write his own vocabulary on nasty words if he only knew how.

No, he didn't wince because of being on the receiving end of the chuckles. He winced because he didn't understand why people are laughing in the first place.

Did they never picked flowers before?

In all honesty neither did he, but what can be so difficult about it? Picking is picking and flower is flower.

All this awkwardness made him also a little bit nervous, before he went on his flora mission he asked more than one person if bringing someone flowers is a good gesture. Many said yes, but there were also those who said differently.

The positive answer was in majority, so that's what he believed to be true. Now, surrounded by all this amused murmurs, he started to wonder if those other people weren't right.

All he knows however is that when he came back from his flora hunt people were more reserved when dealing with him. He wasn't particularly good at reading people, but he spent enough time in a fighting pit to be able to tell when someone sees him as danger.

And those people believed, for some unknown reason, that he is dangerous.

For a moment, when he entered through the main gate he stopped, looking around carefully, making sure that he returned to the same city.

He was nearly certain that he did.

The stairs were the things that eventually convinced him that he returned to the first city, on his personal city list, consisting of only one city.

Name of which he couldn't currently remember.

For now he called this place the Stair City. It was a fitting name, there was simply so many stairs here, It felt like he has to beat every single one of those steps to reach his destination. He wished he could make use of his wings.

The weight he was dragging was simply too much for him to carry.

He looked down at his chest as he stood, panting, with tongue rolled out of his mouth, before another set of stairs. The metallic band tightly wrapping his chest was getting uncomfortable. He feared that the crystal embedded in his scales would shatter under the pressure, but as it turned out it was faring better than the rest of his chest.

Now when he stands like this, observing the growing red marks around the strap as it slowly buries itself in his flesh, he was quite certain he could do a lot better when he made the band. Who would think about stuff like that when you had more important things on your mind.

Like showing how much you care about your friends.

He looked behind his shoulder, the cart he built using whatever metallic parts thrown away by the smiths and other craftsman did their job. It wasn't pretty, but it was working, he couldn't however shake off the feeling that something is missing, as if his personal carriage lacked one very important detail.

Instinct could have screamed as long as it wanted. There was no chance its wail would reach him.

Flare didn't know what a wheel is.

He sniffed the air impulsively, all thoughts regarding the search for something obvious and yet so eluding vaporized like snow under heat. His whole concentration drawn to the smell, the somewhat unexpected and somehow unpleasant scent.

He would believe that irises would smell differently, at least like the first flowers he smelled when Spyro, Sparx and Cynder dragged him out of the forest when they first met.

Their scent however was so very similar to the smell of earth. The mounds of dirt were nearly spilling out from his modest, metallic cart. Colorful petals of violet and white didn't seem capable of overpowering the smell. He didn't really understand this, he thought that if he would pick the iris together with the piece of earth its tiny roots embraced, the flower would thrive and smell beautifully.

Yet it didn't.

He wasn't discouraged by that however, blaming it all on the wind. In closed space he was certain the flower would show its full potential.

To be able to reach that point he first needs to, unfortunately, beat many stairs. Too many for his liking.

Grunting through his tightly clenched teeth he started to push. Wings flapped wildly like that of a bird that is just learning to fly. Tiny, burning tongues of flame started shooting from his fiery body as his rather modest muscles flexed themselves. The metallic band reached deeper into his body, sewing into bone and flesh like dented knife.

The metallic cart screeched behind him as its crude body scratched itself up the stairs. Many, many stairs.

"We don't have anything to fear with pets like this!" someone shrieked in uncontrollable amusement

Another portion of nearly hysterical laughter reverberated around him.

"Maybe he's trying to prove something?"

He paid the voices no attention, completely focused on the task at paw. No matter how hard he tried to block the sounds, some words reached him, those were words of support and intention to help.

He climbed farther up, people were still mocking him, but the bile in their voices seemed to become weaker. That was however only his intuition sensing the slight change in the people's behavior. Rest of him simply didn't care, he was too busy climbing the stairs and drowning in pain and victory when he finally reached another level of the city.

A droplet of his blood splattered on the stony floor.

"What is going on here?" a rumbling voice boomed across the sky, a yellow dragon descended down from the air, his blue cloak fluttered in the wind

A member of the Guard.

Nearly all the happy murmurs and laughter were silenced, gentle chuckles remained. People of Warfang respected authority, no matter what their beliefs were.

The dragon's bright azure eyes widened. Even Flare didn't have troubles understanding who caused this small shock.

"What is all of this?"

"Can't you see?" someone from the crowd screamed happily "He's sowing the stairs!"

People exploded with mocking laughter.

His determination evaporated suddenly, he had a feeling that he had done something extremely stupid.

"Don't you people have anything else better to do?" the guard growled "Leave this instant!"

Most of the nosy onlookers scattered away, there were those however that weren't scared by the roar of law and only stepped away from the guard's sight.

The dragon turned towards him, with the guard towering above him like that he started to feel very small.

"Now boy would you like explain to me what you're in Ancestor's name doing? Is this some hidden symbolism here? A protest maybe? Perhaps some walk of a martyr?

"I-I-I don't k-k-k-know what y-y-you mean" Flare stammered nervously

"You're bleeding and to top it all you decide to take a trek, dragging dirt behind you, through the living area. Don't you have any common sense kid? You're putting yours and everyone else's health at risk"

"I-I-I didn't-"

"Exactly!" the dragon growled "You didn't THINK. Or you didn't want to, I myself am willing to bet that this was the second option. With obvious signs and ramps constructed it would take someone really dense not to figure out which routes are for cart traffic"

Yep. Here was his confirmation. Once again he was proven to be stupid.

"I-I-I-I-I am s-s-s-"

"Save your breath kid" the guard snarled, extending his paw forward, nearly clamping the fire dragon's maw shut

"You are stuttering so bad I don't want you to choke yourself, you still have some explaining to do. Where are you taking that dirt?"

"D-d-d-dirt?"

The guard pointed at the nearly filled to the brim with soil cart.

"Also please calm yourself, I really would want to go home today"

Flare frowned, his eyes were still aimed at his cart. He took a wavering breath, tranquility started to stir within him, understanding didn't follow it however. What his stuttering had to do with the dragon's return to home he had no idea.

"Those a-are flowers. I'm t-t-taking them to t-t-t-the hospital"

The dragon narrowed his eyes on the young drake, extended paw dropped on the ground with an irritated thud.

"Is this some sort of a joke I don't understand? I assure you that this is a serious matter that I would advise you to take sincerely"

"I-I am not j-joking, these are real flowers" he touched gently one of the purple petals, it dangled gently under the soft pressure of his natural blade

"See? They a-are called irises"

The guard fell silent, staring at him intently, as if waiting or deciding on something. Flare obliviously stared back at him. Murmurs combined with soft chuckles of amusement and taunt were carried by the wind during this awkward moment of silence.

"I don't care about the damn flowers" the guard replied annoyed "I don't know if you're trying to piss me off or are you really this deaf. I'm asking about the mounds of earth you're dragging"

Flare stared at the dragon for a moment before his eyes shifted once again at the cart. He tried very hard, he really did, to find what the dragon was talking about. Yet he saw nothing else but flowers.

He turned around, he didn't have to say a word, the guard jerked his head back at the mere sight of his eyes.

Completely defeated and scared eyes.

The guard shook his head in complete, almost furious disbelief.

"You have no idea what I'm talking about" he pushed forward, aggressively, paws thudding across the ground like little thunders

He thrust his paw fiercely into the soil, claws curled as if they were about to rip a heart away.

"This!" he growled, jerking his paw in the air, dirt flowing down from his leg in small pieces like torn flesh from a ripped limb

"I'm talking about the fucking dirt!"

The surrounding laughs became slightly louder.

"Hey! Careful!" Flare protested, his paw automatically shot forward, but was stopped in midair by the invisible clench of intuition

"You're going to kill the flowers!"

"This clears my suspicions" the dragon said sternly "I won't even bother asking if you are some young and stupid construction worker since you're obviously not right in the head. All you talk is about those damn flowers"

"I should lock you up, maybe some solitude would put some sense in your head"

Spiteful flames shot from Flare's body, in between the sounds of cracking fire he heard the ringing sound of bars sliding down.

"You want to put me in a cage?" he muttered each word with menacing calm

"Lucky for you I don't think it would help both of us" the dragon replied annoyed "It would only extend my shift for like two, three hours and I really wouldn't want that to happen"

"I would let you go considering your state if it was up to me, but law is law, breaking it has to have its consequences. Get rid of that cart with its contents and you can go"

His yellow eyes widened, the metallic band felt much heavier all of a sudden.

"I can't hurt the flowers! They are a gift"

The yellow dragon rubbed his forehead, he was starting to get a serious headache.

"Listen to me very carefully boy, if you gonna keep repeating flower I swear I'm going to reconsider my decision"

"I don't understand why you are getting angry"

Laughter increased in power, something that he ignored previously started to sting suddenly. Having a far more uncomfortable effect than the burrowing into his flesh metallic band.

The guard licked his lips, if he wouldn't notice the sincere hurt in the young drake's eyes he couldn't say what he would do. Even now he was surprised by his patience, a thing that he thought wasn't his companion, in every aspect of life.

"I'll explain this as simple as possible" he took a deep breath, exhale came as disgruntled as it was possible "In that ruined cart of yours you have soil, torn from the earth with whatever was feeding on it. You don't bring flowers with their roots still attached to the ground, stem is enough to put them into a vase. What you have here is ripped soil with grass and weeds"

"Why won't you also explain to him why he needs to breathe!"

The remaining people cried out in mocking joy at hearing the intelligent, funny remark.

"Really?" Flare blurt out, tail wagging happily, due to joy washing over him he completely forgot about the unpleasant laughs

The yellow dragon frowned, the ringing chuckles stung like needles, needles pushed directly into his pride and that bled more profusely than any heart.

And when pride is struck, in an enforcer of law, the foundations of authority are shaken. When it comes to that, no matter how much one is dedicated to his duty, power starts to be drained away.

When tasted, it becomes a part of you, whether you like it or not.

And you can't forget about yourself.

"I'm done talking, get yourself and that cart out of here" the guard snarled, eyes inconspicuously rolled around the eyeballs, judging if his stern and confident posture had any effect "I don't care how. Twenty seconds and I want you gone out of my sight"

Flare excitedly jumped out from his metal strap, his wounded scales popped from the painful embrace with the sound of a roughly removed adhesive tape, pieces of which remained on its mark.

The guard winced instinctively, the smell of young blood filled the air.

Flare wasn't bothered by the sting and burn of his wound, he barely felt it at all, his thoughts and concentration spun around his flowers. He turned around, eyeing the irises intently, quickly trying to decide what a stem is.

The answer was as usual, rendering the search to be as long as a blink of an eye.

He swiped his claws, closely followed by his opened maw. Irises bounced into the air, separated from the rest of their gentle roots nearly by half. They never got to feel the pull of gravity since momentarily they found themselves touching the warm surface of a draconic mouth.

Purple and white flowers started to protrude from Flare's mouth like colorful arrows from a quiver. He gathered as much flowers as he could, the rest he simply left where they are.

He jumped away, near the guard and spread his burning wings which spat hungry, bright flames. Before anyone could truly register what is happening Flare flapped his wings once. A wave of bright, shimmering fire in the shape of a cone shot right at the cart.

The heat was unbearable.

The sound of laughter clearly died down.

The heat wave hit the crude cart, crashing into it like wave of water into rocks. Spark and tongues of flame splattered in every direction just to fall down moments later like small droplets of a burning rain.

The fire didn't behave like any ordinary flame coming in contact with an obstacle. Instead of dispersing completely the fire seemed to glue itself to the cart. Covering more and more of it like a slime.

Flare flapped his wings again and then again two more times. By now the cart disappeared behind the shimmering and burning cocoon of fire, the flames were cracking and swirling fiercely as if a fiery cyclone surrounded the cart.

Only those very perspective, or delusional would say that this is no normal elemental fire. Only those special people could notice a silhouette making circles around the cart.

A silhouette so much similar to that of a young dragon.

That was completely made of flames.

The temperature increased even further, heat carried by the wind, drowning even more laughter.

Only a couple of weak ones remained.

Nearly everyone present were completely mesmerized by the fire show, to the point even that they forgot about the heat entirely. The cocoon of fire eventually vanished, nobody could say for certain how long it lasted, for some it felt like eternity.

The cart disappeared together with the fire, turned into nothing but a pile of earth and liquid metal.

Nobody laughed.

Flare's swift flower picking and fire show combined together lasted for around fifteen seconds.

"You..." the yellow dragon muttered, voice hoarse from shock "...you melted the cart"

No one answered him.

Flare was gone.

The scent of burned flesh was all that remained.

*

He ran, barely registering what is in front of him, if not for the colorful, bouncing colors of irises in front of him, the world would look dull and sooooooo slimy. They dared to mock him, making fun of him, locked him in a cage.

Not true! There is no cage!

"Hey!"

This is a cage, not a metallic one filled with bars, but a far more disgusting one, impenetrable and thick. Like a dungeon, dark, stinking dungeon where nothing can be heard but the sobs of a terrified boy and the slithering moves and whispery smacking of slippery mouths when paws crunch rotten bone and flesh.

I don't remember!

"Watch where you're going!"

It was filled with worms, every wall and every corner, trying to drill inside every wound when their meaty, ugly bodies were touched.

I escaped!

"Moron!"

Waking up, this is what it is, waking up around closing, slippery walls and hordes of worms surrounding every step. There is no difference...except one...ways of eradicating are known.

I'm free!

"What in Ancestor's name are you doing kid?!"

Then stop running.

See if the words will come through your throat again.

"FUCK!"

Some kind of force pushed him on his butt, when his rump bumped from the floor, his senses, fading as they were, made him aware of a feminine scream, and crying.

He shook his head fiercely, flowers danced in his maw, the blurry, slithery world molded back into one, shaking picture of normality.

The headache was unbearable, he felt like his brain will boil soon and ooze through his nose.

"My baby!"

He blinked, a scene appeared before him, a cheetah mother was kneeling right next to a thrashing and crying very young cub that was undoubtedly her child.

Worms caring about worms. This is how the disgusting bugs spread.

He punched his forehead, head pulsed with nauseating pain.

The skirt and blouse of the female feline was punctured and torn in places, like something sharp would graze over it. Sharp as if having a spiked tip.

Like a horn.

"It's alright honey" she picked the child up, the little cheetah...

Worm.

Little worm.

Flare shook his head, the tops of the dancing flowers were the only colors he recognized, everything else was...different.

...dug his small claws into his mother's back, pressing his crying and screaming head, with ears basically glued to the skull, to the feminine shoulder.

"Shhhhh" she rocked the baby...

The bug.

...in her arms, silencing him...

It.

...with constant, loving, whispering.

He was in the same city, sitting on the cold ground, surrounded by the typical structures of Stair City. He wasn't on one of the main streets, yet as nearly every other part of town this was also very populated. Besides the two...creatures, many more were seen walking around, looking with interest at them, some already making their way to assist.

Worms stick together in hordes, eradication of one is impossible without destroying more or even whole of the colony. This is the only thing this vermin has as an asset.

Flare groaned, punching his head again and again, trying not to forget about the colors.

White. Purple. White. Purple. Blue. Blue. Blue.

The pair of cheetahs wasn't the only thing he most likely toppled over, behind him was a pavilion, wooden legs that held the delicate roof were shattered making it fall over one of the dragon's statues that was clearly missing a claw on its left hind leg.

A claw that could be seen floating on water in one of the nearby canals accompanied by green shreds, torn out from the adjacent patches of grass.

It was like he ran through the whole width of the...

Hive.

...street.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

Flare's attention was slowly dragged in the direction of the furious roar.

"Running through the streets with horns pointing forward! You could have killed us both!"

He couldn't make out the features of the person screaming. The blurry shape ahead could be absolutely anything.

Vermin. Vermin spitting its bile.

Flare clenched his paw on his mouth, pressing it even tighter than it already was, strengthening the grip of his lips on the fragile roots of the flowers.

"Is everyone alright?

More people...

Worms, beginning to pour in. Surrounding, overpowering, suffocating. Or so they think.

...started to circle them, some undoubtedly scarred by his wild chase if the angry shouts were any clue.

"You stupid boy! Have you an idea how much that pavilion cost time to construct?!"

"He almost trampled me!"

"He nearly impaled me on his horns!"

"He is truly a freak!"

"You will just sit there and play dumb?!" the mother roared, driven furious by her child's unending crying

Flare slammed his paw into his forehead, rubbing it against the scales. They all need...

To die. Kill the worms. Kill all of them.

...shut up for a second.

"This is simply outrageous!" the mother kept yelling, the child continued to cry, by now probably more terrified of the shouts of his protector than anything else

"Were you raised in a barn boy?! You think you pick some stupid flowers, dash towards whatever poor girl you chose as your love and everyone will step out of your way?!"

"That boy should be put into a cell! That would teach him a lesson!"

Flare's eyes sparkled with literal flames, everyone was too busy shouting at him to notice the glow the eyes of his lowered head flashed at the floor.

They are here now, slithering up the scales. It's time to eradicate them all.

Yes. I'm going...

Someone jerked his shoulder, trying but failing to get his attention.

"You will face the authorities for your misbehavior youngling!" old hand shook his shoulder once more, again failing to draw his attention "That will teach you some manners!"

Now. Let them burn.

No. Flowers. Concentrate on the flowers. Important, that is important.

White. Purple. White. Purple. Blue. Blue. Blue.

White. Purple. White. Purple. Blue. Blue. Blue.

They will burn.

White. Purple. White. Purple. Blue. Blue. Blue.

Not now. They can't burn now.

"I'm sorry" Flare whispered, lips barely moving on the stems of the flowers, voice pitifully audible. Throat dry like leaves after days without rain.

"Sorry?!" the mother roared again, rocking the crying baby so strongly that it looked like she prepared to hurl it "This is everything you've got to say after nearly killing us?!"

It can be corrected with a touch of fire.

Flare groaned, shutting his eyes tight, the pain that came with the intensifying fiery illumination of his burning body parts was overwhelming.

Stop. Think about the flowers. You can't hurt the flowers.

White. Purple. White. Purple. Blue. Blue. Blue.

"Such deed can't go unpunished!" the elderly hand shook his shoulder once more, motivated by other, for Flare meaningless, angry shouting

"You'd be wise to take this to the authorities lady!"

Disgusting worms. Close, too close. Spreading their filth. Burn. They will burn.

"I think I'll do just that!"

White. Purple. White. Purple. Blue. Worms. Worms.

White. Purple. White. Worms. Worms. Worms. Worms

White. Purple. Worms. Worms. Worms. Worms. Worms.

"I'll go with you!" Flare exclaimed, springing after the mother with the child looking at him from behind her shoulder. He nearly spat all the flowers on the ground when he yelled

The old hand gripping his shoulder gave away under his fast leap. Withered claws slid down his scales and vanished from his existence with a painful, raspy grunt and an even more dry agonizing scream.

The mother turned around at the sound of the shout only to notice a group of shouting people surrounding a fallen silhouette and a fiery dragon with irises sticking out of his mouth dashing past her.

She turned around, eyes wide, mouth opening to say something.

"I'm going to confess" Flare interrupted her, he stopped some distance away from her, he was limping on three legs, one was constantly moving between the flowers and his mouth, covering his eyes

It became quite hot all of a sudden.

"And accept every sort of punishment" he stopped, deliberately avoiding eye contact "Quickly please, I can't bare the...guilt"

For the first time she gave the dragon a good look over, he was odd, on every level considered. He was definitely not right in the head, his burning body parts, magnificent at first sight, gave of a strange vibe and were pulsing like a heart. There was something abhorrent about that, just like it was about his odd tic. The flowers he was holding were the only things that were normal about him and yet they scared her for some reason.

Reminding her of cemetery and grave.

She didn't want to move.

"Miss?" the dragon asked bashfully

She shook her head.

"It's too late for the_polite boy_ act" she stormed forward, throwing her chin up as an offended lady would do

When she moved past the drake, for a brief second she felt an irresistible urge to start sprinting as fast as her legs could carry her.

Flare dropped his jumping paw fiercely on the ground, straining the muscles in his legs and digging his claws into the stony ground. Claws that melted and dived into the stone like knife into butter. His heated wings pressed themselves tightly to his back, tail curled in between his legs.

He could barely bare it.

The STENCH of these worms, spreading their disease. Unbearable. Cleanse it. Cleanse it now.

No.

Flowers, focus...

Cleanse.

...on the flowers.

He shook uncontrollably, taking two deep breaths, air coming out of his nose in hissing wafts of vapor like steam from an overheated pot. He looked up, he would never have guessed if that happened if not for his eyes shifting the perspective. He no longer felt his head, pain numbed it completely. For him it was like moving the stump that was his neck.

He locked eyes with the child that was looking past the shoulder of his mother. The boy was no longer crying, his big, shining with tears blue eyes stared right back at him.

There was intelligence in them, understanding of the situation. Sadness for wasted life, love for the family. Acceptance and blame. On top of it all was hope and plea, it would even stop the demons themselves and make them reconsider their actions.

Flare had none of it however.

He was too concentrated on the flowers.

Iris. Worms. Worms. Worms. Worms. Worms. Worms.

The eyes attached to his empty mind looked around, fiery body burned with brighter flames. They were cutting through one of the side alleys, narrow and surrounded by big walls of the nearby buildings. It wasn't long, behind and ahead hordes of worms were clearly slithering up and down the main streets. The buildings weren't straight and built in one fashion, their structures differed, creating corners, little canals in the side walls, just big enough to fit an oversized worm.

He looked ahead, the worms over there weren't paying him any attention. Eyes shifted behind the strained shoulder. Worms were still packed into a slimy group there, some gaping, stinking mouth were aimed in his direction.

A little burn will be enough.

It won't hurt much.

Tail dropped on the ground with a smack, the stone pulsed with a hot, fiery light and then became normal again when a line of red shot across the ground, directly at the group of worms.

The vermin grumbled something loudly in their messy and sleazy tongue. The trick did its job, their maws turned around from him.

Burning eyes looked ahead again, paw rose up, flowers dropped gently into its grasp and then were laid caringly on the ground.

The worms ahead heard the grumbles of the other members of their disgusting hive, they were already turning around.

With a growl and shooting sparks of flames Flare dashed forward, blinking impulsively on his way. The image ahead of him shifted, there were no worms in front of him no longer, but a startled cheetah mother with her child looking behind her shoulder.

The boy's eyes were aimed constantly at him.

Cursing and pleading.

Young and innocent.

Begging not to hurt his mother.

Begging not to hurt him.

Flare didn't stop.

He was too concentrated on the flowers.

He cut the distance to the pair in three quick leaps, the mother didn't even manage to completely turn around and he was already next to her, shoving the duo into the nearby corner by using his flank.

The feline groaned when she was forcefully pushed at the wall, head first, hands that she used to minimize the impact nearly broke under the pressure. She opened her mouth to scream, but whatever sound her throat formed turned into a barely audible whizz since momentarily searing claws pierced her back and went right through her spine. Melting the bones, separating the feline skeleton in half.

Flare was standing on his hind legs, both front paws pinning his victim to the wall, claws sunk deeply into the body of the already dead female. He could feel her insides flowing inside, bouncing up and down as her literally spineless body bent. It didn't last long since momentarily all the guts started to boil and melt.

All this time he was staring into the big, speechless eyes of the child.

He spread his wings, blocking the light that flared up when the cheetah's body was engulfed in flames, spreading to the top and bottom from exactly the spot where his claws were buried.

Flare observed the child being consumed by the same hungry flames that digested his mother. The initial strike didn't reach the boy, he was still very much alive when the flames started eating at the hands of the lifeless corpse that some minutes ago was his mother.

He was also very much alive when the fire eventually reached his small body. The boy didn't even make the tiniest of sounds when the flames started to consume his flesh. Blaming eyes were constantly aimed at him, a sight Flare simply couldn't ignore.

Yet he wanted to.

The urge to turn his gaze away was becoming stronger with each bone and limb turned to ash. He didn't want to look into those blaming eyes, but he simply couldn't turn his head away, even when suddenly he could feel it attached to his neck again. There was something in those eyes that just forced him to look at them.

And so he obeyed, watched them melting and losing their color, watched them flowing down from the eyelids and evaporating due to heat. Watched the empty sockets of an eyeless head, watched the devoid of life eyelids of a skull, watched as it eventually turned to ash.

Throughout this hastened decomposing process he could hear them saying only one thing.

You are a monster.

The headache vanished completely when his body tilted forward and paws touched a cold wall ahead. His forehead followed soon enough, red nose directed at the ground, illuminated by his returning to normal intensity fiery aura.

Aura that perfectly illuminated a pile of ash between his hind paws.

He quickly dropped on all fours, swiping indifferently at the still warm pile with his paws, a pile that some minutes ago was a pair of young cheetahs. The ashes slipped into every crack they could find, other streams were dragged away by the wind. He finished his cleaning job quickly, some ash remained, but nobody would even guess that this is ash, more likely taking it for mere dust.

With his head free of any pain Flare turned around and craned his neck beyond the walls of the corner he was in. First he looked in the direction from where he came, with a gentle nod he approved of the empty street and lack of any followers trailing his steps.

He looked to the other side...

...and in this very moment his heart stopped beating and air was sucked out from his lungs.

He came eye to eye with a blue dragon.

They stared at each other in complete and what seemed like an unending silence

"I..."

The dragon suddenly burst out laughing.

"Oh man! The look on your snout! It's like you just looked into a Death Hound's gaping maw!"

Flare stared at the drake in utter confusion mixed with paralyzing terror. His lungs and heart were still dormant.

"Relax dude!" the male laughed "Do you think you are the only one that had to do what you had to do in a corner of an alley? You know how many times I peed on the streets?"

He forced a smile, he had absolutely no idea what the dragon meant by that or what doing what you have to do and peeing have in common, but right now he didn't care. From the dragon's tone of voice it was easy to say that he has no vile intentions.

The blue drake waved his paw dismissively and continued on his way.

"You can't fight with natural urges right?"

Flare nodded with a fake, happy smile stretching his lips and stepped out from the corner, observing the sinking silhouette of the drake. Only when the figure became small enough he picked up the flowers and turned towards the hospital.

A genuine, thrilled smile stretched his lips. With wagging tail reverberating his joyful emotions he continued walking towards his own destination.

It seems the blue dragon was right.

You can't fight with natural urges.