FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Alright, here is the third installment. I finally finished it. Damned writers block. Anyway, for you hopeful folks out there, there is no sex in this chapter. It is all plot. Sorry.

As always, comments are appreciated. By the way, if you fav' this story I expect you to leave a comment telling me why. I want to know what people like. Anyway, enough of this talk, on with the story.

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Continued from 'fun with magic and pleasure with flesh'...

The man walked through the corridors of the underground complex, his pace easy. He was dressed in a business suit and he didn't seem out of place in the government research site. But he was unique. He held a secret hidden from the world. At the end of the hall, the man stepped into an elevator alone and pulled back his sleeve. Then, he held his forearm up to the reader set into the elevator panel. The reader scanned the mark that the man bore and the scanner chimed. "Security Clearance confirmed. Welcome Juno." With that, the elevator descended into the earth. The man immediately stripped off his business suit jacket and rolled up his sleeves. The man bore a mark on both arms, a strange, twisting, mark that glowed an eerie blue. The moment the doors opened, the MPs that stood against the walls saluted him. He nodded in return and walked on through the facility.

A few minutes later, he reached a lab door and pushed it open. Inside, a man stood before a screen showing a flat view of the earth. Small twinkling lights stood here and there on the screen and the man did not react as Juno walked up to him. Finally, when the light he had been watching vanished, the man sighed and turned around. His face split in a smile and Juno returned his smile. An identical pair of marks adorned the man's forearms and flared briefly as he embraced his brother. "Juno, its good to see you!!"

"And you, Jason." Juno stated and then pulled back form his brother. "Now, why did you call me back from my work?"

"Surely you must have sensed it?" Jason said, and when his brother looked at him confused, he continued. "Can't you feel it? The magic has grown stronger. Do you realize what this must mean?"

"Why don't you tell all of us?" Another voice said and the men turned around to find a trio of men, all of them wearing military uniforms and General's stars.

"General, I didn't know you would be here today." Jason said, his voice subdued.

"Be that as it may, why don't you tell us what you meant?" The general in the lead said, crossing his arms.

"It means that what we hoped for is happening." Jason stated. "Another dragon has appeared." The generals sighed and shook their heads.

"Doctor, we have tolerated your foibles long enough." The general stated. "We are tired of putting money into your 'Dragon hunting' projects. We need proof of your claims now or we are pulling your funding."

"Proof?" Jason sneered, fire blazing in his eyes. "You want proof? All right, here is your proof." With that, he raised a hand and pointed at the general who had spoken these last words. Flames rushed from his fingertip, instantly setting the man alight. The general screamed and fell to the ground, rolling about in an attempt to extinguish the flames that covered him. He tried in vain. As the man died, Jason turned to the other two officers. "Anyone else need proof?"

"That is proof enough." The leader said. "If we find these dragons you speak of, can you give our men these powers?"

"Absolutely." The doctor said then whirled around as the computer beeped. Another dot had vanished. "Soon, we will know exactly where they have been hiding. Soon, only one dot will remain and then you will have your prize."

***

I awoke slowly once again, my dragon senses taking a moment to awaken once more. I opened my eyes and raised my head off the cave floor. My mate slept on while I awoke and I rose to my feet, stretching once more. I yawned, and then strode to the back of the cave, dipping my snout into the spring water and drinking deeply once more. The cold water cooled my throat and cleared my head enough to think. Oddly enough, despite the fact I hadn't eaten for days, I didn't feel remotely hungry. I walked over to where my mate rested and nudged her under the chin. She breathed a sigh and did not wake. I did it again and she murmured slightly, saying something that soundly a bit like 'few more minutes'. I sighed and did it once more, planting a kiss on her lips as I did so. At last, she cracked one bleary eye and looked at me.

"Good morning sweetheart." I said, a grin spreading on face. She smiled and opened both eyes a bit wider.

"Good morning." She answered and got to her feet. A few scales stuck out at odd angles on her head, and I chuckled. It looked like the dragon equivalent of bed head. She smoothed them out with a claw and then spoke. "You have a question." She said. It was not a question.

"What do dragons eat?" I asked, and she smiled.

"Well, we don't have to eat to live." She said. "As creatures of magic, we are sustained by the power that flows through us. We can eat if we wish, and many of our kind did just to experience it, but we don't need it."

"Huh." I stated, then continued. "Well. As much as I would like to remain here with you for an eternity, I will have to return to my world eventually."

"I know." She stated. "Originally, the plan was for the new dragon to seek out others of our kind and revive our species, but our joining wasn't taken into account."

"Can you take human form?" I asked.

"Yes, of course I can." She stated and her features shifted again, shrinking swiftly to human size and shape. All at once, I was looking at a nude human woman with bright red hair and brilliant blue eyes. She was well proportioned and extremely beautiful. I grinned and instinctually concentrated on the idea of being human. I could feel myself shifting once more and moments later, I was back in my human form. But something was different. I felt odd and the only way I could put it was that I felt like ten pounds of power in a five pound box. I smiled when the changes were finished and walked over to where my clothing had been laid.

"You will need clothes." I stated, reaching for my shirt. "You can't go walking about in nothing but your skin." However, when I picked up my shirt, I noticed the huge tears I had made with my claws by accident. "Well that is a shame, I liked that shirt."

"Well, fix it." My mate said, waving her hand through the air. Clothing instantly appeared out of thin air and dropped before her. She swiftly clothed herself in undergarments, a light green shirt, tan shorts and hiking boots. While she did this, I reached for my own magic, brushing the tears with a hand. In an instant, the cloth flowed together and I slipped the rest of my clothes on. When I had dressed once more, I led the way through the cavern and back out into the glorious sunshine. The vista was as beautiful as it had been the day before. I grinned at Pyre and we walked away from the mountain, the door to the cavern closing as we left it. I couldn't wait to write this one down...

***

Juno walked through the halls of the research facility once more in an irritated rage. This was the second time in as many weeks that he had been called into the lab by his brother. He didn't share his brother's passion for the ancient profession of their family. Hunting dragons didn't hold much appeal for him. But, he was bound by the ancient oath of his family to hunt the beings that hadn't been seen for millennia. All the other families of dragon hunters had long since reneged the oath, but his had not. Because they knew that only way that magic could exist would be if the dragons still existed. So his family had remained vigilant for all these generations. But that didn't stop him from hating it. He stepped up to the laboratory's door and waited for it to open before walking inside. To his surprise, his brother wasn't staring fixedly at the map of the world with its twinkling lights. Instead, he was sitting at a computer terminal, reading something. Juno walked over behind him and spoke.

He paused, looking at the page. The website proclaimed itself to be a literary site for Anthromorphic works. "Jason, would you mind explaining why you are reading that furry stuff?"

"Juno, this is the reason I called you in here." He said. "Read this story."

"What are you talking about?" He asked, scanning the page. He suddenly stopped and started over, reading the story carefully. "What the hell?"

"I know." Jason said. "It can't be a coincidence that this author knows exactly how someone can access magic."

"Who wrote this?" he asked, and his brother's manic look faded somewhat.

"That is the problem." Jason answered. "I can't tell who this is without an IP trace and you know I won't get one of those without proof."

"Well, can you at least tell what region it came from?" He said and his brother nodded. "Well?"

"It came from our region." Jason answered, his eyes gleaming...

***

I went to my martial arts school with my mate a few weeks after my sojourn into the mountains. When I walked in, the master instructor was waiting for me.

"You're just in time." he said, "We have a half hour before the first class gets here. Suit up in sparing gear."

"Yes Master Juno." I stated and moved off to comply. Once I was dressed in my sparing gear, I went out onto the mats with my master, receiving a kiss for luck from my mate. He was already suited up in his gear and I stood opposite him, bowing to him. He returned the gesture and we set into sparing position.

"Standard rules sir?" I asked and he shook his head. I grinned. Standard rules meant standard tournament rules of combat. They were designed to civilize combat and keep the combatants safe. Master Juno and I detested them. He had remarked to me once that standard rules were stupid because they tried to impose civilization on something that was by definition uncivilized. "No rules then?"

"Only one, no killing." He said and laughed. He had good reason to laugh. He always won against everyone. It was as if he could see everything before it happened. But, he liked to spar me because I had come closest to beating him. But, this would be different. This time, I wasn't human.

Juno struck first, a lightning swift side kick lancing towards my head. To my surprise, he was moving slowly, so slow that I easily moved my head out of the way of the strike. He struck again, a roundhouse kick striking against my other side, followed up with a swift one-two combination of punches. He never remained still for any amount of time and kept striking. But the fight was very easy for me. He seemed to be moving slowly like he was stuck in a thick liquid. I blocked or dodged every strike before it came close to striking me. Then, I saw an opening in his defenses and went for it.

I began to strike, kicks and punches raining down on my opponent. But he wasn't a master instructor for nothing. Every strike was blocked, though not as swiftly as I blocked his. All at once, he shifted stances and started throwing kick boxing techniques at me. I accepted this change and matched it. Moments later, I shifted stance again, using another style called Mui Tai boxing, throwing elbows and knees in conjunction with regular techniques. He grinned and shifted as well. Our fight continued on for many minutes. We had never fought this long in a single fight before. Attack and counterattack carried on for a long time, and our grins widened. We rarely connected with our targets, but we carried on anyway. Then, ten minutes into the fight, it became altogether different.

At the same time, both of us abandoned styled combat and the fight turned even harder. Techniques from every fighting style blended together, creating an ever changing tapestry of combat. Even ground fighting techniques swirled into the mix. Then, I decided that I would be the first person who had beaten Master Juno. I accessed my magic and blended it with my body. My techniques sped up and Juno's face contorted with effort as he was forced back again and again. Then, his eyes flared with what looked like anger and his techniques sped up to match mine. The battle began to grow even more heated. Then, I saw my chance. He left himself open for a second and that was enough. I spun around in a circle, putting even more force behind my sidekick. It caught him in the gut and he stumbled backward. I seized the chance, swiftly sliding to the side and down, scissoring my legs through his and dropping him to the ground. Then, with speed greater than I had before, I immobilized him with a figure four arm lock.

For a brief moment, he struggled, but he was no match for a dragon's strength. Moments later, he slapped the mat with his free hand and I released him. Then, when he got up to a crouch, he paused a moment. Then, an evil grin twisted his face and he leapt at me, catching me by surprise and bulling me over. Too late, I remembered that we were fighting without rules. He tried for a pin, but I grabbed him and pushed, using the ground as leverage. He rolled over off me and I leapt to my feet, stepping back from him. He got up and, for the first time, I saw the darkness that filled his gaze. He was breathing hard now, but there was something wrong inside him. Then he spoke.

"So, you can beat me in hand to hand and on the ground," he began. "But lets see how you deal with this!!" With that, he seized a nearby bo staff and twirled it through the air. This was no practice weapon, its hard oak construction fully capable of breaking bone. I knew that it would not harm me, for a dragon's body is tougher than steel. But this presented a problem. If I allowed him to strike me with it, I would be forced to explain why it didn't hurt me. I looked about and found a solution. He swung at me, the wood point of the staff twirling through the air towards my head. I dove to the side, avoiding the strike and ending up next to the wall that held racked weapons. I seized a pair of tonfa, weapons that looked like police batons, and whirled to face him. I held the weapons so that they were along my forearms, protecting them from injury.

He attacked with the staff again and I blocked with the tonfa. Wood on wood cracked again and again as we fought. Strike after strike rang out and sweat was soon poring down our bodies. Then, I rolled under a sweeping strike and rose up close to him, striking him in the gut and chest three times. He stumbled back and dropped the staff. I started to follow when he spoke.

"Enough!" he said. I stepped back from him, but remained in fighting position, ready for tricks. "Enough. I yield."

Suddenly, there were thunderous applause. We looked around in surprise and found that the students for the first classes had been watching us. We smiled and stood at attention together. I crossed the tonfa across my chest in an X and we bowed to each other. We stepped back and still smiling, turned away to go to the dressing rooms. When we had changed out of our sparring gear, we stepped out on to the mats again and began our task of teaching the students. I kept a careful eye on Master Juno. The darkness in his gaze had faded, but something about our fight was bothering me. I didn't know what it was but I couldn't help but feel uneasy. Finally when the day of teaching was over and I stepped off the floor again, my mate was waiting for me. She shot me a meaningful look and I nodded. I bid my master goodbye and we walked out of the school. Once we were in the car and I was driving back to the house, Pyre spoke.

"Juno can use magic." She stated without preamble.

"What?" I asked, certain I didn't hear her properly. She repeated the statement. "No way."

"Didn't you see his eyes flare during the fight?" She asked, then continued before I could reply. "And don't you think it is odd that he was able to match your enhanced speed?"

"Alright, so he can use magic." I replied. "He probably doesn't know what he is doing."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Pyre stated, looking back out of the window. "It is exceedingly rare for the non dragon-touched to develop magic skills and he is no dragon's descendant."

"Well, what does that mean?" I asked her, taking my eyes off the road for a moment to look at her.

"It means we will have to be very careful around him in the future." She stated, and I nodded, looking back at the road...

***

Wonderful months passed. I began the task that had been appointed to me in earnest, seeking those that had dragon's blood, the so called Dragon touched. My own brother, the one person I had always trusted, was the first I found. He shared many of the same interests as I did and I could see the dormant dragon's fire within him, just waiting to be kindled. He was an easy first target for me because he and I had made a pact when we were little. It was a silly pact, and something that no one would have taken seriously, but we had, because we had always believed in such things as werewolves and vampires and other such mythological creatures. We swore that if either of use became one of the supernatural creatures, we would bring the other along. So, he was easy. The day that the third dragon arose was little more than a month after I ascended. My brother accompanied my mate and I on a back packing trip into the mountains.

The trip was on its third night and we were sitting around the campfire, gazing upward at the multitude of tiny pinpricks of light that covered the night sky. It was probably around one or two in the morning, and it seemed the perfect time to bring the subject up.

"Hey bro," I said and he looked up at me. "Do you remember when we were little, that pact we swore."

"Uhh," he said, thinking back. He nodded after a few minutes. "Yah, I remember now. It is kinda silly isn't it? What about it?"

"I was just wondering if you still held with the pact." I continued, already accessing the magic within me. The image of my dragon form was hovering just behind my mind's eye, not quite in view yet.

"Yah I do." He answered, then looked at me sideways. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh no reason." I stated and concentrated on the dragon within my human shell. The familiar feeling of limitless power swelled within and I felt my clothes split and fall off my suddenly gigantic body. The visual effect was spectacular and I stretched, free once again from the confining body I inhabited. My brother had leapt to his feet when I had suddenly swelled and he now stood far back from me, terror on his face.

"WHAT THE HELL?!!" he shouted, backing up yet farther from me. I grinned to myself and lowered my head so my eyes were level with my brother's. "Who the hell are you and what did you do with my brother?!!"

"Relax before you hurt yourself." I said, nudging him with my snout so that he fell off his feet. With him sitting on the ground, I stared at his eyes. "I am your brother. Just as I was meant to be."

"What are you...talking...about?" he asked, his voice trailing off as he stared at my eyes. He recognized me in my eyes within the alien face and his brain was trying its best to reconcile the image into something he could work with.

"Brother, I can see that your mind can't get this on its own, so I am going to make the process go faster if you will just listen to me." I stated and he nodded slowly, his mind barely able to process the request, like a computer with its RAM used up. "I am a descendent of dragons and it was my mate that changed me into the dragon I was supposed to be."

"Your mate?" He asked and looked over at Pyre. He jumped when he realized that she was in dragon form. A variety of emotions crossed his face in the next few moments. Confusion, amazement, anger, and fear crossed it and I could tell that he still didn't get it.

"Don't you see?" I asked, causing his attention to come back to me. "You too are a dragon's descendent. You too can become as I am. All you need do is say the word." It took my brother a good minute and a half for comprehension to appear once more. It was followed swiftly with a roller coaster of emotion; elation, disbelief, doubt and finally, acceptance.

"What do I have to do?" He asked and I smiled.

"Just stand still and don't fight it." I said and lifted one clawed hand off the ground. I reached out and with a single talon, touched my brother's forehead. Magic flowed into him and I guided it on its tasks. I found the dragon's blood in his veins and it began to spread quickly through his body, until his whole body surged with it. After that, I needed to do nothing more than stand back and watch as my brother's body swelled slightly and became the imitated human form that was half dragon, half human. My brother's scale's were like mine, only shaped a bit differently. They were not unlike the shape of a shark's tooth, only angled back so they interlocked better.

My mate and I spent the rest of the trip teaching him to use magic and access his true form. He was only the first of many. But I noticed a strange thing after a while. Of all the new dragons, I was the largest. Only my older brother, the eldest of the new dragons so far, came close to my size but he was still not my equal. I was just big. It was such an odd feeling being able to out muscle my brother. He had always been bigger and stronger than I was, but now I was the large one. Not only that, I was also much more powerful in magic than any other. No one, not even my mate, seemed to be able to match me in magic. After realizing that this fact was true, I spoke to my mate about it and she had an explanation, though it was just as strange as the concept of my being a dragon.

"In dragon kind," She had said, "There are a few dragons born with greater size and ability than the rest of us. These are known as Dragon Lords and often they grow up to be the leaders of our race. Historically, before the magic that binds mate pairs together was discovered, the Dragon Lords would be able to choose what ever mate they wanted when it came to breeding season. The mate bond ability was actually created to counter that. It appears that you are a dragon lord, the first in milennia."

I couldn't help but think that it was odd how things happened. Every member of my DnD group was a dragon descendent, as were many of my other friends. Over the millennia the many descendents of the dragons had congregated within a few miles of each other, close to where my mate had lived. The magic of the dragons had imbued an instinct in their blood that made them come to this place. It was the only thing that would have allowed dragon kind to survive. But something was coming soon that would add one more change to the mix of things that had changed since the coming of the new dragons...

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Probably not my best work, but it is finished. Thanks for reading and please comment. Thanks again.