FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Two weeks after the almost disastrous visitation on Earth by Alecto and Gareth, Draco arrived on Friday night. The weeks had been quiet, save for Gareth's frequent fawning upon me, although he very rarely ventured outside after the thugs had gone for us. Indeed it was in the paper, under a bold headline, that three innocent men had walked past a group of creatures dressed in white, and all three had been heavily injured, one sustaining a broken arm. I laughed so hard after reading that I had to sit down and have a long glass of water.

Work was tedious, with the one exception where someone recognised me as the guy who had leapt off the second floor of the Meridian.He was walking past, and asked me for the gravy. I took him to the aisle. He said thank you, and I said not to mention it. He stopped and looked at me in a queer way.

"What are you doing here?"

"What are you talking about?" I replied, totally nonplussed.

"You're that alien who was outside the Meridian a fortnight ago." he looked deeply suspicious at me. I looked away briefly, annoyance flickering across my countenance. Then, as all Grocery and Checkout must do, I turned my perma smile on him. This is a smile where even if you've had an axe in the forehead, struck by lightning, twice, and been run over by a forklift, you can still manage. It hides the true boiling emotions of anger and wanting to break down and cry.

"Were you listening to me then?No. Can you listen to me now? I was their guide. Since then they met me at my house, and promptly left, teleporting away. They could be anywhere or anyone by now."

"But you are still here." he insisted.

"Look," I said, moving right up to him," get it into your thick skull that I am human. Is it my fault if two foreigners ask for directions? Is it my fault they want me to show them around? Is it my fault that they buggered off, leaving me to explain it to you, and then fall two stories onto a row of benches. That bloody hurt, in case you haven't noticed."

"One more nail into the coffin. You survived.You can still walk."

"Luck!" I hissed back, the word passing through my teeth.Then my boss came around the corner.

"Alduin, what are you doing?"

I turned and smiled. "I'm sorry Marie, this customer was looking for the gravy and I was showing him the spot. We had just finished."

What was I supposed to say? The boss shrugged, and started scanning a bar code. I nodded at the customer, and walked away.

Of course the customer tried his best to my boss, and the boss met me in the next aisle ten minutes later.The boss was looking at me in a weird way.

"Alright, what did he say?"

"You were one of the three aliens that turned up at the Meridian." the boss sounded disbelieving, and this got backed up when I collapsed to the ground laughing. I was holding my stomach so hard, for fear my ribs would burst. When I had stopped chortling, I told my boss that anyone who said that was on drugs. I had been there, in case she was wondering, and I was practically right beside the duo when they were exposed, but I was not an alien. Marie laughed at this.

"Mistaken identity."

"Well, from what I hear, they got away, so they're all trying to say it happened by blaming those nearby."

The subject was dropped.And that was it. So when Draco arrived, I was dying to see what planet we would be going to. With a touch of a button, and Gareth in tow, we arrived at Central. Draco showed me a piece of paper. It was the drawing of a planet.

"New planet, not explored, scanned or anything.We are to beam down there tomorrow."

"What about atmosphere?"

"We know it has one, but not what it is."

"What if we land in water?"

"Can't. The teleporter is designed to land people on land, and will find the nearest land mass to the original teleportation spot.Unless the entire map is water, in which case we arrive on top of a sea, and promptly get drenched."

Gareth jogged beside us as we strode towards our quarters. I had a long stride for my height, so I was keeping track with the dragon. Draco sounded slightly agitated, and I asked after this.

"Well, no one likes going to an uncharted planet. For all we know, it could be fairly awful."

"Good point." I muttered to myself, suddenly feeling nervous.

"So Simba will ping the planet." Draco continued. I shot a look at him.

"He'll what?"

"Five second teleport, arrive, look around, vanish, so he can give us an idea of what it is like." Draco replied.

This, I soon learnt, was a draw for it sort of thing. One of us three would lose the draw, and consequently would do the five second teleport. We stayed in the quarters, although Gareth went back to his own little dorm, and talked about the planet. There had been no one who had explored there, and we felt privileged, and a little scared, about what we were about to meet. Apparently it was in one the more remote corners of the Universe, much like our own Earth's position.

We went to sleep with the problem on our shoulders, and woke up refreshed. A glower came into our quarters after breakfast, and stood by. Simba attached his teleport device, and tapped the button. He vanished. We waited, in discomfort, as Draco counted on his watch.

"For that distance, it takes about half a minute.He should be there...now. One two three four five. On his way back."He counted up to a minute, and seven seconds after that, Simba reappeared.

He was completely covered in snow, and he was shivering. He breathed deeply, and managed to stutter.

"It's all snow. Maybe we're on a mountain, during a blizzard. I've set up a scanner, so in about five minutes we should have a fairly good picture of this corner of the planet."

As he finished, He went over to the wardrobe, and came out with new clothing. Heavy furs seemed to be chief among them, and we wrapped up well. I had some more items at home, and I asked Simba to take me back to my house. He did so, and I reappeared in my own little flat. I rushed into my wardrobe, grabbing my ski gloves, my snow glasses, a balaclava, and a pair of long johns.

Five minute change, and then we were heading back. Draco had fully kitted out, and Simba finished not long after. I slotted my snow glasses over my eyes, and checked the straps on my gloves. I had also found my ice pick, an old reminder of my aspirations to go mountaineering, and had my rifle slung across my back. We all held hands with difficulty, and Simba teleported us away. We were all more uncomfortable, the sensation of teleportation added by the bulkiness of our clothing.But then we arrived.

The chill was instantaneous. I looked up, and straight into a wall of snow. This was a serious blizzard, and I could feel all my body go slowly numb under the wind factor. We could see about two metres in all directions, except there wasn't much to see. Simba shouted over the core wind.

"The tracker says we're on a plateau. Apparently there are lower sections where it doesn't snow at all, and the nearest is a good five miles. Shall we head in that direction?"

"Yes."shouted Draco, his voice barely as loud as Simba.

"O.K."I yelled, trying to make myself heard. If I stay in the centre, and you two stay about a metre either side. That way we can all see one another."

Simba waved a heavily wrapped up arm in one direction, and we all set off. The wind was blowing from the side, and several times Simba had to point out we were drifting, under the influence of the biting wind. Never had I encountered such an extreme climate.To my left was Draco, the only way I knew was that he was taller, and he forced his way through the metre deep snow with relative ease. Simba, on my right, was suffering a bit more, and I was also having to fight my way through the packed white. I used my ice pick to force my way through, swinging it ahead, and then pulling myself along.

After a good hour, Simba announced that we had travelling about half a mile. Oh joy. We didn't dare stop for long, and after a few more comments on the futility of this, we set off again. As if waiting for this moment, as soon as I put my foot down,I felt the ground underneath subside. I pin-wheeled desperately, but soon I was falling over. I had put my foot into a hole, or crevasse. I fell into the snow, and then the snow gave way, and I was falling.

I didn't actually fall that far. Only four metres, and the heavy gear I was wearing muffled the force, so nothing broke, nothing bruised, only twinges of pain. I landed face down, and coughing and cursing snow, I looked up. It was dark, although outside was no sunny holiday either, and I was looking at a cave.

It was almost black, but could see either side curving around, and about two metres of passage, but little else.I heard my companions. Draco's throaty roar of anxiousness penetrated my mind.

"Alduin! Are you alright?" he was still hard to hear, but I shouted back, and my voice was hideously loud in comparison.

"I'm fine, for the moment." my voice echoed down the corridor. Then I heard another voice, a cold voice, as cold as how my body felt.

"Do not move, or I will attack."

I didn't move, but looked around for the source of the noise.

"Stand." the voice added.

I stood, lifting my goggles up, trying to see clearer.

"Draco, are you hearing this?"

"Yes." his muffled reply came back. I grabbed my torch, and activated, the brilliance of the light even more vicious in the darkness. I pointed it down, but started to move it slowly forward, trying to locate the source of the voice.

"Stop!" the voice ordered. I did, my beam hovering on a patch of ice. As I did, the reflecting beams of the light bounced off the floor, off the walls, off the ceiling, and then I could see a dim shadow. It was small, only about four feet in height, but was holding a spear in one hand. I only saw the silhouette.

"Creature, I mean no harm." I lifted one hand in gentleness, the other with the torch not moving. The voice paused, and then spoke.

"We shall see about that."

It was at this point Draco jumped into the hole. He landed well, and rolled in the opposite direction to the creature. He stood, looking around, and spoke, his voice curious.

"Interesting. It's as though they have a complete underground system."

"We do, being. Now is there anymore to come?"

"One more. Simba, get down here, before you freeze!"

Simba came down, but he landed like me, hitting the ground heavily, but he was unharmed. Then he stood.

"Wow." he activated his throat microphone to the recorder."During the winter months, where ice can form up to a metre deep, the local residents go underground in a large tunnel system. The main life form is about a metre twenty in height, and humanoid. It holds things in it's hand, so it has developed tools.If they are responsible for the tunnels, then they had/have very advanced technology."

This was all to the total astonishment of the invisible creature.First, a creature had fallen in, with unnatural skin changes and a stick across his back, although I had also retrieved my pick. Then a taller, muscular creature with a serpentine voice had jumped down, and finally a third, who immediately started talking to himself.

"Follow me." the voice ordered, and then turned. He had worked out we meant no harm, and we obediently did so. I walked, my torch flickering back and forth, and a few times my beam played across the legs of the creature. They were a pale blue coloured, but seemed to be surrounded by a heavy plastic bond.In fact both legs and feet, although the feet only had four toes, seemed to be encased, almost, with this plastic shell.

It was noticeably warmer in this tunnel then outside, but we didn't remove our furred coats. We must have resembled three skinny bears to any human.For ten minutes, we walked, following the diminutive fellow. Then another stroke of chaos. The wall in front of the four of us completely collapsed, showering all of us with ice chunks. We fell backwards, and looked upon a great wall of ice.

"And how are we supposed to get past that?" I folded my hands in considerable annoyance. Simba hushed me, because our newcomer was doing something strange. He was sitting down, cross-legged. He didn't seem to mind the torchlight on his back, and I saw that his back, although dark and slim, had the same plastic shell. Was this some kind of protective layer between them and the outside world? As he sat, he clasped his hands together, and began to chant.

What happened next defies belief. The top of the ice wall began to rise, as though being reversed in time. The lower sections followed, until the entire wall was rising back into the hole in the roof it had vacated. This entire incident took about a minute, but finally the path was once more clear, and the small creature stood, while we all looked in amazement.

"Please follow me." he said, and continued walking. Simba activated his mike.

"The small creatures that populate the tunnels have magical power, where upon they can lift several tons of snow and force it where they will. This leads me to the conclusion that they created these passageways using these powers."

We followed for another five minutes, and then came to a door. It was about the height of our companion, and he knocked upon it in a special pattern. True to old style, a slide of wood vanished, leaving a pair of shifty eyes.

"Who is it?"

"Emmanuel.I've found some strange life forms in one of the tunnels."

The eyes, which were glowing a faint green, shifted sideways to look at us. I pointed my torch down, and then it replied.

"Hmmmm." It whistled a pattern, and then spoke.

"You can come in now." And he opened the door. Emmanuel stepped through it, and we followed. I had to duck quite a long way to get under the door, as did my companions, and then the door shut behind us.

Then, as the door shut, light flashed, and we looked around in the sudden brilliance. The room was an almighty cavern, many tens of metres high, and about as long and wide as a football pitch.All of it was solid rock. Above, a giant series of chandeliers swung from the roof.The floor was rock, and doors opened in several directions from this hall.Whoever these creatures were, they certainly dug like dwarves.

And as the creatures themselves, they were wonderful to behold. As I mentioned they were only four feet in height, and slim and lithe. They were almost like elves, with pointed ears and their gentle frame.Nearly all of them had green pupils, which seemed to glow like the doorkeeper's had. And I had also been correct, all of them wore a plastic/ Perspex like body suit, which seemed to reinforce the idea of protection from cold. They all had four fingers on each hand, and four toes on each foot, but under the body suit they only wore a pair of things resembling shorts.

Oh, and as to how many there were, about three hundred, counting of course the two dozen around us with spears lined up to skewer anyone who dared move unwisely. Draco took advantage of the door shutting to remove his great coat, and in one fluid moment he shrugged it off, and it fell to the floor, exposing the dragon in all his splendour. There were panicked cries around the hall, and one elf charged forward. Draco dodged the spear, but countered by picking the creature up in one hand. I turned.

"Draco, don't antagonise our hosts."

"He tried to attack me."

"I am aware of that. He won't do it again. Put him down."

He did so.The elf sunk to the ground and very quickly backed away. Simba shrugged off his great coat, followed by me, until we were all standing there. I was wearing my shirt and black trousers, my rifle being transferred off and back on with my furry coat.I kept my gloves, balaclava and goggles on for the moment, and we waited for the small beings to make the first move.

Emmanuel turned, and lifted one hand picked me up by magical force. I felt like I was standing on solid rock, but my legs were unable to move my legs.I took off my gloves in an instant, and drew my rifle off my shoulder, levelling it directly at a point half a metre to the left of the little elf.

"I refuse to be manhandled. Put me down, before I lose my temper."

Emmanuel lifted his other hand, and Simba was slammed against the wall. Draco roared in fury, and three elves all used their powers to pick him up, and he likewise was nailed to the wall. So, they were hostile.

Crack! The sound of the rifle silenced everything in the room. The bullet zinged against the floor, and two walls before hammering into the throne at the end. An old elf sat in the chair, and I can beat my week's wage he was not expecting that. Emmanuel began to throw me against the wall, but I reloaded in time, and as I was flying backwards, my gun spoke again with a tongue of flame. By chance, the bullet passed through an elf's suit, passing through the plastic shoulder, and only just grazing the skin.He fell backwards in more shock than anything else, and I hit the wall with a crash. Ice rained down to the ground.

"Now creatures, explain why you are here." Emmanuel demanded. He lifted a hand, and I could feel his power tugging on my rifle.

"There is not one hope in hell you're getting this." I said, my grip redoubling on it. My knuckles whitened under the pressure.

We could move our arms and legs, and I could hear Simba speaking again to his mike.

"Elvish creatures are hostile against strangers, using their power of levitation to great effect against non-magical creatures."

Draco was losing his temper. Hell, I was too, but I couldn't do much.He shouted.

"We were exploring your planet, and fell into your tunnel! We didn't know you were here." his voice hissed.

"What were you doing in the middle of a blizzard?"

"Walking through it!" I replied, feeling a new surge of strength trying to grab my rifle. Then Draco did something I'd never seen before. He flamed.

The flamethrower seared the ground in front of us, heading directly towards Emmanuel. He dived aside, and I felt the power gripping me fade. I charged forward, following the end of the fire burst from the dragon, and dived full stretch at Emmanuel. I caught him bodily around the waist, it was surprising how small they were, and held him tight. Now I was holding him, he seemed unable to use his Levitation to remove me. There was a quiet silence. Then a very old voice came from the back of the hall.

"Let them go." the wizened voice of the leader was firm, and I could hear my companions gasping in breath as they were released.Then he spoke to me.

"Let him down. I promise you will come to no harm."

I relinquished my grip.The elf scuttled away from me.I looked directly at the leader, and shouldered my rifle. Draco spoke in my language quietly.

"Now we walk forward and receive his blessing."

We did so. Surrounded by the guards, we came forward until we were standing in front of the throne. Draco led us, and bowed deeply, although he was still taller than the elf when he was in the middle of the bow. The leader nodded.

"It is very weird to see such travellers in this weather."

"We knew not where to arrive on this planet, and we arrived here, heading for a lower part of these mountains, about four miles from here."

"I see. And your companion with the stick that spouts death fell into the tunnel."

"The snow outside would cover your head, it is so deep. We couldn't see anything, and he slipped."

"I see. Emmanuel, lead these strangers to the Resting places."

"My lord?"

"Do it."

Emmanuel almost skipped in his hurry, and we followed him through a door. I whispered to my draconic companion.

"Did you think they do things slightly differently around here?"

Draco laughed, an oddly terrifying sound. Simba walked beside Emmanuel, asking questions of the elf. The elf was still scared of us, although that was hardly a surprise when we loomed a good two feet over him. I noticed looking back at Draco, that three guards were following us, silently.

As we walked I passed a metal door, the only metal I had seen here, embedded in the rock, and it was covering in Ye Olde runes.

"Draco, can you translate writing?" I said, stopping briefly. Draco turned, and pointed an object at the door. There was an angry shout, and then Draco lowered the implement. Emmanuel stood, hand raised in warning.

"That is a long locked door. Leave it be.The dead do not suffer the living to enter that room."

I looked sideways at Draco, but he nodded. We walked until we came to a door, where with in were many beds, all made for elves, but with some lateral thinking, we moved seven of them side to side, making plenty of room.

As soon as I heard Emmanuel leave and shut the door, the bolt sliding into place, I turned to Draco.

"What did you get?"

"My hand held computer is translating the runes. All I had to do was obtain a picture.It's having a slight problem with them, though, because it's fairly old."

After ten minutes of chatting, the bolts slid back, and three small female elves wandered in. They were even more slim then the males, but they didn't speak to us. Instead, they stood in a triangle, and started chanting. A light grew in the middle, growing and heaving. After watching in respectful silence and awe, we waited to see what this new trick was.

The bubble expanded, touching each elf, and suddenly the old leader was standing there. The women stood back, and bowed. The elf looked at us, smiling slightly.

"Old age, I can't get around as well as I used to. These corridors are much longer than they used to be."

"Happens to the best of us, sir." Simba replied. The old man chuckled.

"Oh it does.Now you three, do you have any way of proving your story? Many elves remain doubtful of you.I think you are not lying, but there are many strange things on this planet."

Simba drew an orb, about the size of a large battery, and placed it in the centre of the room. He spun it around, and it began to emanate light.

"Ah, a light source. Very clever, but not yet foreign." he smiled. Then as the room went dark, the entire room filled with little lights hovering in air. Several were surrounding each of us. The old man was looking gaily at this display, and Simba spoke.

"This is the universe, as we are aware of it. Each star represents a galaxy. It is a massive distance between stars, and we have a special way of transportation."

He gestured at a corner, and a star glowed yellow at his pointing.

"This is your own solar system.We came to explore it, because no one had ever done so before. We are from here."he pointed at the centre of the room, where one star glowed brighter. The leader leaned on a stick, digesting all this information.

"You do have strange things.So you came all this way, just to look around?"

"Yes, sir. It's part of our job, explore and find."

"What a varied lifestyle. Rush rush, busy,busy, never a moment's rest. From one planet to another." he pointed at one star, which glowed."Oh can I do that too? Oh well, one day you'd be here, then next day," he pointed at another,"here.You seek knowledge, and you find many things. Did you intend to find us?"

"We intended to find something here, but not in the manner we did." Simba replied. I rubbed a twinge on my shoulder reflectively. The old man gave a wheeze that could have been a laugh. Then Draco looked at one of his computers.

"Ah, there we go."

He sat down beside the leader, showing him the small screen.

"Do you recognise this?"

"Yes, it is the unopenable door to the Underworld.Elven spirits go there when they die."

"What's the translation, Draco?" I asked, from my seat on a bed.

"The guardians of summer lie here until the end of time.During the elven wars, they came here disguised and kept in suspended animation until the war is over. Until then it will be forever winter."

"The elven wars?" the leader wrinkled his eyebrows." Those happened a good hundred generations ago.

"Does the door mentions the numbers?"

"No, but this has carbon dating tech on it, and, wait a moment. Calculating, come on, here we are," he stopped, and then continued with a reptilian whistle," seven thousand, eight hundred years ago."

"I hope they didn't have bad dreams." I looked at Simba."Imagine a nightmare that long. That long ago, we were still banging stones together for fire."

"Does it say how to open the door?"

"It say, remember the rebirth of the trees."

"Ah, a riddle.I used to enjoyed riddles when I was young." the old elf said sagely. None of us had a clue to what it meant, and the old man spoke.

"Well, if summer lies behind the door, then I shall explain to the others. I have never seen the sun, none of us have. We have never seen a tree, but heard about them."

"How do you survive?"

"With difficulty!" the old man exclaimed gleefully, and then the girls came forward, and the old man disappeared. Then the girls too left, until us three were alone.Simba was the first to speak.

"It appears, " he began," that they used to have very advanced technology, and still do, but it was forgotten during the war, and the truth became a story, and then the stories became legend. The elves in question did actually have the power to change the seasons, and thus when war came, they were hidden away, so they would not get hurt in the mindless struggle."

"And it has been winter ever since." I said, thinking hard, "for seven thousand, eight hundred years.Talk about ice ages."

"The de-evolution of creatures has been seen before." Draco acknowledged," On three or four separate occasions, the race has resorted to a primitive version of how they used to be, and they too only saw myths on the runes of their history."

"Well, let's try and reawaken history." Simba suggested," and work out the answer to that riddle."

We bounced ideas off one another for an hour, Draco said good night in his own special way, and we went to sleep.

(Calling all Yiffstar members.This is a repeating message.

April the twenty first is, in fact, my birthday,I am turning nineteen, and as you may have noticed, that means it coincides with the Central New Year. Consequently, I would like to say thank you to all those who have taken an interest in my writing, and would like to dedicate the entirety of the Central New year to all my readers.

However, I wish to make this story a little bit more interesting. For all those who would like to be in a story, read on.

Central New Year is a time where all the stars in the solar system are arranged in a almost magical pattern, intensely increasing the sexual powers of all those in the system for three nights. Possibly as result of this, the Scouter's ball was placed on this first night, where all the scouts of Central get together and party. As the bell tolls nine fifty, all the new scouts come forward and are instructed about the hunt. They are then given a two minute head start on the stroke of ten, upon which they normally run about the city. After two minutes, those who wish to pursue the newcomers, which is most of them, are allowed to start.

Then the Hunt is on. The newcomers have to do all they can to evade capture for two hours. This is to prove that they have become a worthy scout, to survive as long as they can. If they get captured, however, then the captors have full permission to do what they want to the newcomer, within loose rules, until the original two hours is up, when the bells toll midnight. Then they must return to Central Hall, and be admitted into the fold officially. Then, to get into the swing of things, everything becomes chaotic.

Nothing is forbidden, the objective is sex, further enforcing the bonds of love and trust between each of the scouts. In fact it is encouraged that a newcomer has sex with as many as they can, so they develop a relationship with many people.This can be said for the old timers as well, ( although Draco probably can't get to know any one any more, because he's already fucked everyone else, or so the legend goes), and this goes on until the early hours of the morning.

This is the Scouter's Ball, and I need as many people as possible, for the population of Central is large. I request for volunteers to put forward their avatar's names, their species and gender, and who they wish to be, er, sexually active with. There are no more than ten creatures who can be newcomers, ie members of the Hunt, so please inform me quickly. I am looking for a wide variety of creatures to be newcomers.Also, no restrictions on species, except no sea animals,sorry,but there are no lakes in Central, and no humans, because I am the only one who has ever made contact.

To everyone else, either place your name, avatar name (if different), species, and who you want to get involved with in my comments at the bottom, or in my shout box on my user page. I want to make you all happy, the same way you made me happy with all the times people have seen my work. There is nothing more I like than feed back.Also, if you have friends who haven't read my work and might like to get involved, tell them. The more, the merrier!

I wish you all the best, and I hope to see you on Central!

Alduin Raptormaster (The Novelist) )