FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sorry about taking longer than I said, but I am an expert procrastinator. That, plus I had ton of work dumped on me. Anyway, here it is. This is by far the longest chapter yet. Feel free to comment or critic as usual.

Rohan and Kitara awoke the next morning in each other's arms. Rohan's bright silver fire still blazed on the cave floor. After stretching and kissing Kitara good morning, he put it out. He stood, and let a paw down to Kitara to help her up. Kitara took his paw and he pulled her to her footpaws.

"So Kit, what do you want to do today?" Rohan asked, turning his head to look at his mate.

She turned her head, looking back at him, "Let's explore. We need to know what's around our home."

Rohan smiled and took her paw, "Sounds good." They padded out of the cave holding paws. Heading east, towards Krynn's cave, they padded through the thick forest. Reaching a stream a little more than five minutes later, they turned north, away from the village, and continued on their way. They wandered the woods, making note of major landmarks, the stream, rock falls, fallen trees and the like. For lunch, they ambushed a deer along a game trail. After eating, they took the rest of the deer back to their cave. They stayed there the rest of the day, talking about what they had seen that day. They fell asleep at the cave mouth, leaning against each other.

Today was Toren's first hunt with his father. Toren had short-cropped brown hair and his face was tan from many days in the sun. He was a just a little shorter than five feet tall. The village knew him for his joviality, even though he and his father had come here only about a year ago. His father was a man of just under six feet, with black hair. He had lines from laughter creasing his weathered face, although they seldom got use in this new village. Saddened as he was by loss, he wouldn't speak of it. Toren was alike in this, if pressed; he would grow quiet and attempt to change the subject. Toren's father awoke him before dawn, gently shaking him to make him rise.

"Toren, get up. Today's your first hunt." his father said to him. Toren was immediately wide-awake and jumped out of his bed. He donned his leather jerkin and leggings without words, his father standing by the door in his own. Toren got his new bow, a gift from his father on his 13th birthday yesterday, running a hand over the supple yew wood of his unstrung bow when he picks it up. His father picked up Toren's pack from beside the door and held it out to his son. Toren took it and attached his bow to the outside, after wrapping it in soft leather to protect it.

His father opened the thick wooden door, making the un-oiled hinges creak and groan, "Let's go, son."

"Alright." Toren replied brightly. They stepped outside into the still, morning air. Their breath made steam in the chill air. Toren's father led the way, heading north into the forest. They walked to the side of a game trail, following its winding path, occasionally stopping for a quick word of teaching.

"See Toren? The toes are close together, and the steps are evenly spaced. This deer was walking and look-" he put his finger in the deepest part of the print. "It was a big one." They kept walking, and dawn broke. With the rising sun, the birds awoke and filled the forest with their calls.

Kitara and Rohan awoke at the same time, just as the sun broke the horizon. Its warm glow shone right into the cave, which faced east. They both looked at each other, still leaning against one another; then kissed softly.

"Hungry?" Rohan asked, turning back to look at the sunrise.

"Mhmm." Kitara replied. Rohan kissed her again, then stands up and pads off, heading for the game trail they found yesterday. He was in luck, he arrived at the trail, downwind of a big deer; he could smell it. He crouched on an overhanging branch and waited for the deer to walk below him.

Toren's father put a finger to his lips, telling Toren to remain silent. He motioned for Toren to get his bow. With nervous hands, Toren strung his bow and pulled on his bracers. He drew it back a little to make sure it was on correctly, then nodded at his father. They silently walked on, waiting for the large deer they'd been tracking to stop long enough for a good shot.

'There it is.' thought Rohan, spotting the deer walking along the trail. He readied himself to drop down on it. It stopped to munch on some greens just off the trail, and only a few feet from Rohan. Rohan grinned and praised his luck. Had he been paying more attention to the scents on the wind, he would have smelled humans.

Toren saw the deer stop; he raised his bow, with an arrow already knocked, and took aim. He took a deep breath; then let it out; releasing the arrow after his breath left his lungs. His arrow sped through the air, flying straight and true towards the heart of the deer. Toren saw a flash of silver and let out a gasp.

Rohan dropped onto the deer below. Just as he fell below the tree's branches, he heard the twang of a bowstring. He landed perfectly on the deer, although it was dead by an arrow to its heart before he landed on it. His ears had turned and pointed at it just before his head did. He saw a father and son, probably on their first hunt. They both gaped in open-mouthed, abject horror. Rohan gaped in a similar fashion, but in surprise. He recognized them. He knew them. The last time he had seen them was almost a year ago. Not realizing they didn't know him, he started padding towards them.

Toren stayed still, frozen in fear. 'Run!' screamed his mind, but his legs would not obey. This was the demon everyone talked about there was no doubt. He began to shiver in fear as it started stepping towards them, its mouth open. 'It's going to eat us!' he thought. Still, he could do nothing. "Grrrr-uf" the demon said. Toren knew, somehow, that it was talking to him.

"Toren?" Rohan said, still padding closer. Then he realized he was speaking in Wolf, he'd been speaking it for so long, he'd almost forgotten how to speak in a human tongue. Almost. "Toren?" Rohan tried again, this time in human speech. The boy began to shake visibly as Rohan stepped within easy reach of him. He crouched down, now eye-to-eye.

'This is it.' thought Toren. 'It's going to kill me.' He shut his eyes tightly as the demon crouched down, awaiting the inevitable. Toren's father used this chance to jump on the demon's back and wrap his arms around its throat. Toren heard the rustling of clothes, followed by an angry growl. He cracked his eyes open and saw his father flying over the demon, who had just dropped to the ground. The demon turned back to him, and he shut his eyes tightly again.

Rohan growled angrily at the man as he jumped at him, he decided that the man probably wouldn't get hurt if he just moved. Rohan flattened himself on the ground and the man flew past. Rohan turned back to the boy, and reached out a paw. "Toren." Rohan said once again. Then he pulled the boy into an embrace.

Toren heard his name. 'It's just a trick.' He told himself, 'It couldn't really know me." Toren felt an arm encircle him, then pull him close. He kept waiting for the end, the blow, something that would tell him when he was going to leave this world for the next. It didn't come. Toren opened his eyes. The demon was just hugging him. Toren tried to get away, thinking it was just something to lower his guard, but he couldn't escape the embrace.

Rohan felt him struggle, but didn't let go. He knew it was him and he could barely believe it. He had found his little brother.

"Toren, it's me. Rohan." Rohan said. Toren stopped struggling and looked up; Rohan looked down. Their eyes met Rohan's strange golden ones, and Toren's bright blue ones. Toren's eyes widened in recognition; no one else had eyes like that.

Toren hugged his older brother tightly, "Rohan, it is you! But, but, how are you...?"

"I'll explain that later," Rohan replied, "Right now, I have to take that deer back to Kit."

"Kit? Who's Kit?" asked Toren.

"Oh, that's right, you haven't met her yet. I should introduce you and father to her." Rohan said brightly.

"Where is father?" Toren asked, looking around. Rohan stood up, and put Toren on his shoulders as he had when they were young. Toren saw his ears immediately, and touched them each in turn with a hand, making them twitch when he did.

Rohan smiled and said, "Go ahead; just don't pull on them too hard." Toren set to playing with them immediately. Rohan looked around for their father, but couldn't see him. He padded in the direction he had flown over him in and there he found him, but not the way he wanted.

Toren looked up from his brother's ears and froze. Their father was lying facedown before them; he showed no signs of getting up. Rohan quickly set Toren on the ground, and crawled to their father. Toren raced to their father's side, opposite Rohan. Rohan rolled him over, and was both relieved and scared by what he saw. Firstly, he saw that his father still lived, but what scared him was that he knew that wouldn't last long. His hair and face ran with rivulets of blood, dribbling down his face from just at the edge of his hairline. Rohan tilted his father's head forward with a paw behind his head. He looked up at Rohan, right into his eyes.

"R-Rohan? How?" he asked shakily.

"It doesn't matter, it's me and I'm here." Rohan said, his eyes shining with tears.

"I-I'll see you, b-both of you...again. Y-Your mother and I...w-will be waiting." He said, with that, he breathed his last. Rohan and Toren collapsed into tears atop their father's now lifeless body.

Some time later, with tears still in their eyes, they buried his body. Rohan was too distraught to use magic and welcomed the physical exertion anyway. They dug him a deep grave, far too deep for animals to come for him. Rohan lay him down, after cleaning the blood from his head as best he could. Toren just kneeled at the side of the hole, head in hands, sobbing. Rohan began the much easier task of covering their father. Just as he finished, a very worried looking Kitara burst from the trees. She stopped cold, mid-stride, when she saw Rohan racked with tears. The hot sun beat down on them all, a stark contrast to the cold grip of the tangible sadness they felt. The chirping of birds pierced the silence, their joyous sound seeming the most wrong of all.

After many more minutes passed in silence, Rohan wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his woolen shirt. His golden and green eyes rimmed in red. He took a couple of steps and picked up Toren as if he were a small child. Kitara, who had just sat in silence, hadn't even noticed the human boy, her focus on her mate. She stood now, casting him a questioning look. Rohan just shook his head. They walked in silence, arriving back at their cave within ten minutes. Toren cried into Rohan's shoulder the entire time, soaking his shirt until he had no tears left. Even after expending his tears, he was wracked with silent sobs. Kitara carried the fallen deer back; although once they got to the cave, it lay forgotten. Toren finally fell into an exhausted sleep, and Rohan lay him down, then removed his own clothes and covered his younger sibling with them. Toren slept fitfully, tossing and turning almost constantly. Only when Rohan put his paw on Toren's shoulder did he calm and slip into a deeper sleep. Rohan looked at Kitara with bleary eyes.

Kitara raised an eyebrow and looked at Rohan, "Who is he Rohan?"

"His name's Toren, he's my little brother." Rohan replied.

"He's the one you grew up with you mean." she said.

Rohan nodded, "He is my brother, but not by blood."

"What happened?" asked Kit, genuinely concerned.

"It was father." Rohan said. Then he told her what had happened, the story spilling out like a flood. It ended with him in tears again, crying into her shoulder.

That night, as the sun sank below the horizon, the cave was already cast into darkness. They had a real fire going now; Rohan didn't want Toren to be afraid. Toren awoke in confusion, but after a couple seconds, he remembered what had happened. He sat up, and Rohan turned around. Rohan offered a weak smile, with drooping ears and patted the ground next to him. Toren crawled on hands and knees closer to the fire that Rohan sat watched. He sat next to Rohan and leaned against his side, rubbing his cheek against Rohan's warm fur. Rohan put his arm around his brother and hugged him to his side. Kitara padded in behind them, and sat on the other side of Toren. She squeezed Rohan's shoulder to let him know she was there. Rohan turned and offered her the same weak smile he'd given Toren.

She tried to break the tension, "So Rohan, aren't you going to introduce me?"

"Of course!" He shook Toren gently, "Toren, this is Kit, she's my mate, err, wife. Kit, this is Toren, my little brother." Toren lifted his head from Rohan's side and looked at Kitara

"She's beautiful, brother." Kitara's hazel eyes met Toren's blue ones. Kitara giggled and kissed his forehead. Toren couldn't help but smile at that, it was so unexpected and such a strange feeling to him that he wanted to laugh.

The mood brightened a little after that, and they remembered the deer. Kitara took care of it this time, knowing it wouldn't bring anything but tears from the other two. She tossed Rohan and Toren pieces of the deer; Rohan took a bite immediately but Toren just held the raw meat awkwardly. Kitara had also taken a bite, and Toren looked back and forth between them. He spoke up after they each took a second bite, "Hey, umm...this is raw." Rohan and Kitara looked at one another and burst out laughing, Toren joined in right away. They all laughed until they cried; this time however, the tears were welcome. After a quick sojourn outside, they set the pieces of deer to roasting. Toren gave them looks of disgust and said, "Ewwww!" as Kit and Rohan shared the deer's raw liver and heart. They both goaded more ew's and disgusted looks out of him, eating as messily as possible. Now covered in deer blood, they padded off together to go wash out their clothes. Toren stayed behind to watch the cooking slabs of deer. When they returned, they looked much happier. Toren took the deer off the fire, burning his fingertips in the process. He stuck them in his mouth immediately afterwards. Rohan poked him with a clawed finger, "You should be more careful." Toren nodded; his fingers in his mouth. Rohan handed out the pieces of deer meat to their respective owners. After eating and adding more wood to brighten the fire, Rohan and Kit gave each other a kiss, causing Toren to turn away. Grinning and giving his mate a wink, she got the idea of what he wanted. They kissed deeply and "accidentally" rolled into Toren, who yelped and then turned around to yell.

When he saw them, his eyes widened "OH COME ON!" Rohan and Kitara broke apart with laughter and Toren couldn't help but join in the infectious mood. They all lay down next to each other, Toren in front of Kitara, Kitara in front of Rohan, with Rohan's arm over them both. They all fell asleep quickly in the warmth of the fire.

They awoke the following morning just after dawn, Kit and Rohan greeted each other with a kiss.

"Good morning." They said brightly to one another. Toren woke up just as they sat up, and did the same himself after stretching. They all sat there for a while, the smoldering fire at their back and the rising sun in front, watching the sunrise. Rohan pulled Kitara to his side, and they leaned against each other. Toren turned his head and watched them for a little, then shivered in the chill morning air. The smoldering coals of the fire did little to heat the cave. Kitara noticed him shiver, and pulled him in between her and Rohan. Kitara and Rohan squeezed Toren between them; it was warm since both of them had a layer of fur along with their woolen clothes. They all turned back to the sunrise, wondering just what they'd do next.

Well, that's probably not what you were expecting, was it? I know I said his birthday would be in there, but I didn't realize how long it would be. It'll be soon, that's for sure. Only 4 more days now. I'll get the next one up in a similar time period as this.