FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Stillness pervaded the forest where the lioness plodded through the sparse, though leafy undergrowth which thrived in the constant gloom. Vines dangled motionless from far above or else grew and twisted around the green trunks of the trees who managed to survive year long in the moist shelter of the oasis. The air was heavy with moisture and yet the smell of it seemed to offer yet more rains to come; they were less than halfway through the wet season after all. The only noise came from the birds and monkeys who were the denizens of that upside down world.

Their chatter fell on deaf ears, however. Mipa was too busy tugging on a length of cord with her teeth to bother listening to the constant ramblings of lesser creatures. "Damn this cord is all frayed..." thought Mipa as she struggled to reset yet another empty trap. The snare consisted simply of two hook shaped sticks pressed into the ground, a cord hanging down from a nearby sapling, a third stick hammered to make a triangle with the first two, and then two more slender sticks to form the trigger; at least it seemed simple to Mipa. The cord came down around a straight stick held in place by the two hook shaped sticks and knotted at the end of this was a small twig. Mipa had to hold this down with her teeth while placing the last stick so that it braced against the third stake and the trigger. Tension would hold the assembly together, that is, until an unlucky creature happened to brush against the last stick. The lioness was having a little trouble holding down the sapling while reaching across to get the last stick into position. Also, one of the stakes was jabbing into her low slung chest...

Just then, the rotting cord gave way; maybe she bit down a little too hard, it didn't really matter. The line whipped against Mipa's cheek on its way up and the big cat yowled. As her eyes began to fill with tears for the pain, she stumbled backward a few steps and then plopped down heavily onto her wide rear. With the weight off her paws, Mipa gingerly raised a forepaw to brush lightly against her cheek. The back of it came away red.

"Great," she said to herself, her voice warbling in her throat as she choked back tears not just at the pain but at... everything. Her traps were failing one by one, her back was hurting, her paws were hurting, and Kovu was nowhere to be found. The black maned lion could have been here helping her fix them, but he wanted to "hunt," a method he'd proven to be far too time consuming and which left her alone and hungry. Why he didn't want to just stay with her and check traps together, she could only guess. However, the first thing that came to mind was likely that he simply didn't enjoy her company anymore.

She started forward, getting up just a little too quickly, and a lance of pain flew up her spine. "Dammit," she hissed as she plonked herself back down onto her well padded rump. On her second try, she gathered her legs beneath her, then carefully eased her backside into a standing position. It felt like her spine was being pulled to earth by a heavy weight tied around her middle - which was pretty much exactly the case - causing the muscles to spasm as she waddled forward, one leg at a time... front left, rear right, front right, rear left, then back again. If she tried to take too large a step her stomach would get in the way of her knees. If she didn't swing her spine way out to either side, her stomach would get in the way of her knees. If she swung her sides out too much, the pain along her spine was tremendous. She sorely wanted to simply lie down for a few hours, yet her hunger drove her forward.

"Damn you, Kovu. Where are you?" He had been gone for hours. Why does he leave me alone so often? What is he doing out there? Why is he ignoring me? The thoughts and suspicions circled around and around in her head. One moment it seemed Kovu was the most devious sort of creature, the next it seemed like he was a saint. The breath came heavy in her throat, not because she'd exhausted herself - she hadn't gotten above a plodding waddle this entire time she'd bee out in the jungle - but because of all the little aches and pains building in her joints and muscles. There was simply too much weight to carry around. She was hurting before she even had the chance to get tired.

After what seemed like an eternity forcing her way through the rampant undergrowth and hatefully uneven terrain of the jungle, Mipa reached the spot she'd been aiming for. The snare here too was sprung, but at least there was something in it!

It was the first trap that Mipa had checked so far today that had caught anything; granted, it was only the twelfth one she'd gotten to so far, how slow her pace had become. Some poor monkey had gotten its leg caught in the snare, some days ago by the smell of it for it was already dead. Mipa stepped forward gingerly, her flanks swaying to make room for bowlegged hindfeet to move move forward across her ballooning abdomen. She let out a little sigh of relief when she sat her fattened rear down on the ground. She nosed at her catch and licked her chops. Normally, she and Kovu would collect all the catches and take them up to her hollow to feed... But Kovu wasn't here was he?

She didn't give the matter too much thought before letting her stomach decide for her. The sight of fresh meat dangling in front of her was already making her mouth water. Ferociously, she reached up - her back flaring again slightly as she reared up - and grabbed the simian in her jaws. It was thicker and more hefty than it initially looked. Good. She bit through the leg and let the snare spring up with a clatter of shaking leaves as she settled down onto her wide gut to eat her meal alone.

She lingered there, under the snare, for a while absentmindedly licking the bones. It was less because she didn't want to waste any of the meat on her catch than she wasn't looking forward to continuing her rounds; let along resetting the trap beside her by herself. It was in this funk, after the surges of appetite had left her in peace, that she heard the sound. It was faint and it took her several long moments to recall what that peculiar sound was.

Mipa lifted her head away from her skeletal meal to hear it better. Thick and heavy bunches of skin hung from her throat and the underside of her jaw as she did and behind her head she could feel one or two of her permanent collars of flab shift against one another. It was a faint clack-clacky-clack sound; hollow bones. Then she remembered; Kovu's windmill, his love for her.

He'd been up there to repair it twice now. It had only been a week or so since he made it, but already it needed repairs. "Failing," a voice nearby whispered. "Just like your partnership with him."

The well fed lioness turned swiftly away from sound of the windmill floating down into the oasis. She started for the voice was close at hand and even more, was quite familiar. Between her paws - past her generous brisket filling much of the space between that is - was the skeletal remains of her meal, held together by nothing but ligaments and gristle. But the hollow eyes of the empty cracked skull caught her attention. They gleamed.

"Forgotten me already, have you?" Said Jobie. "I used to be your companion. Until you replaced me." His voice was harsh in her mind and Mipa could not help but recall all the long lonely nights she'd spent by herself. When she'd felt utterly alone, Jobie had been there, no one but Jobie. "I was good company, wasn't I? I didn't demand anything of you like this Kovu. I never left you alone. Why did you leave me?"

"Jobie..." Mipa said, peering down into the lightless depths of the skull. "I have Kovu now. You're... you're not real. Kovu's real."

"How are you sure he's not just a figment of your imagination, eh? Where is he now? What evidence is there that he even exists?"

Mipa looked around. Of course, there was none at hand. She sighed. "Jobie, I'm not that foolish-"

"You don't need him, Mipa!" Jobie interrupted, "You need me. I kept you from being alone, and besides, look what he's done to you!"

Mipa shied away slightly, but turning her head only allowed her to see her engorged flank spreading into view as well as feel the copious quantities of flesh draping from and surrounding her thickened neck. She could still hear Jobie speaking from the ground. "He's turned you into a hippo, Mipa! He's made you soft and slow and made it hurt to even walk and fix your traps."

"Kovu didn't do that, Jobie... I... I..." but she couldn't bring herself to say it, even to Jobie. The shame was too great.

"He did do it!" Jobie insisted. "You've all but doubled your weight since you met him. How can it not be his fault? Think about all the food he's offered you." He said silkily. "He all but shoveled it down your throat... and the way he looks at you when you overeat... for him! He even said he likes the way you look as well. How ridiculous is that?"

The breath caught in Mipa throat from the tirade. Things she'd been blind to before suddenly seemed obvious. She could see Kovu for what he was, a charlatan, a user. Tears came freely to her eyes the more she thought about it. "He... He couldn't..." she stammered meekly.

"He just wants to see how ridiculous you'll look after feeding into his lies and then he'll abandon you and you'll be helpless." His story seemed to bring the world into harsh illumination and made Mipa want to break down and sob, but suddenly Jobie's presence was stronger than ever. It was as if he was just on the other side of her, a hair's breadth away from touching her far flank. "It's alright, Mipa." He cooed. "It's not too late."

"T-too late for what?" asked Mipa.

"To leave this place. To just get up and go. Now."

"W-what?" The very idea filled Mipa with terror. In her mind's eye, the endless desert she'd almost died in spread out before her.

"Get up and leave, while the cad is still out hunting." Jobie spat the last word.

"Where w-would I go?"

"Does it matter?" Jobie asked. Mipa felt an electric tingle up her spine at the ghost's presence behind her. Jobie hadn't seemed so real in almost a year. It was almost possible to imagine his former self standing behind her. "Wherever you go, I'll be there, and that's all that matters."

Mipa was silent for a moment, considering the words of Jobie. Slowly she shook her head. She lowered her face to peer down at the little skull again. "Jobie... that's crazy."

The skull said nothing.

And the more she thought about it, the more she allowed herself to remember the past several months, the less convinced she grew that the matter was really as urgent as Jobie would have her believe. "I don't need to escape Kovu." She said finally. "He hasn't done anything to hurt me and he's had plenty of opportunities."

"He's not sincere."

"And how do you know that?!" growled Mipa suddenly. Oh how she wished she could believe all of that dark maned lion's sweet, sweet words. "Why on earth would he stick around this long, otherwise?"

"He only wants what all other males want." Said Jobie in a low tone.

That was like cold water being dumped on her back. Of course it was true. She'd smelled as much, she'd felt as much... and yet... "Wait, you said that he was only pretending to desire me."

"He is."

"Then how could he want me for that as well?"

Again the skull had nothing to say.

Mipa took a deep breath and wiped her face with the back of a paw, it stung a little when she rubbed her cut cheek; she lowered her head as it was slightly more difficult to reach up against the thick fat of her shoulder nowadays. She spoke quietly once she'd cleaned away the tears. "Kovu said he loved me."

"Lies." Said the skull

"Kovu makes me feel good." Mipa blurted before she was half aware of what she was saying.

"Kovu makes you feel afraid." Countered Jobie.

And he was right about that. Every time he neared her... the thought of him coming closer... she was afraid. But then once he was there she felt so good. She needed him... he was good for her. He was right.

Jobie was not.

"I have Kovu. I'm sorry, Jobie." Said Mipa, and inside, she felt something of a clarification beginning, a sense of tranquility regarding the future. Kovu still scared her, that much she could admit, but somehow she also thought that perhaps that was what she needed.

"You'll regret not leaving him." Said the skull, but already the voice was fading. She couldn't feel Jobie behind her any longer.

"If I do then I'll deal with it when it comes."

The skull let out a final sigh. "I'll always be here for you Mipa..."

Mipa smiled down at Jobie. "I know you will... You're never more than a meal away."

The skull grinned up at her and spoke no more.

Mipa sighed and slumped exhausted both mentally and emotionally. The thought crossed her mind to make her way back up to her alcove for a late afternoon nap, but the thought was also exhausting. She lowered her head down onto her paws, feeling her neck and brisket squish under her, and settled into an easy doze.

Sleep peeled off the turgid lioness only reluctantly. In fact Mipa may have continued to lie in her spot beside the still-wet skeleton of her meal for a long while more if it hadn't begun to drizzle. It was only misting really, but the configuration of the canopy above conspired to drip a stream down on the fattened feline; right on her muzzle. Mipa got laboriously to her feet which at least weren't hurting as much now for the nap. For a few moments, she was torn between returning to the shelter of home in the alcove overlooking the rest of the oasis and finishing her round of trap checking.

But really, there wasn't a choice. Mipa simply didn't have the energy or the will to finish her hike through the jungle. She just wanted to lie down somewhere cozy and lick the starches she'd accumulated on her soft tummy a rub the still-stinging wound on her cheek. She turned to waddle back the way she'd come, not at all looking forward to the uphill fight against gravity that was to come. It turned out that gravity would be the least of her concerns, however.

Mipa had only taken a few steps when she realized that something was amiss. The disquieting stillness that had stolen over the jungle was noticeable even through the steady patter of light rain and the chimes of drips and drops that managed to find their way down to the ground. The birds and monkeys were not just being quiet, they were gone. Mipa hunched her fatty round shoulders and took small steps. Unease and fear filled her irrationally, even though she ought to be the biggest thing out in the jungle now that the ancient serpent was dead.

Mipa's fear only grew until she could continue no more. The silence surrounding her was deafening to the ears. Painfully slowly, she turned her huge self about in a circle, sniffing the sodden air, and looking every which way. She had the feeling of being stalked. She remembered it from the bad old times out alone on the savanna and in heat. And given her present state, how could she not expect some sex crazed male to be hot on her trail, even here, years after she thought she'd made her escape.

But it was not a male who stalked her.

There. Her eyes nearly passed over them, but there they were all the same, definitely not a trick of the eyes. In the shadows of the foliage beside a fallen palm tree she'd passed were a pair of sinister eyes. Cat eyes, and they glittered with their blue and yellow intensity right at Mipa.

It seemed for the longest time another nightmare come to play with her senses, an unreal thing like she sometime saw in her darkest moments. She stared at the eyes and they stared back at her and didn't move. And then they did. She stepped out of the leaves slowly, gracefully in an easy way that Mipa could no longer manage with her rolling, wobbling gait.

It was Mipa's turn to freeze, just like the forest.

What stepped out of the shadows could not be a better representation of everything Mipa was not. She was a lion, but thin and angular as a reed. Her ribs protruded from her flanks and her shoulders pumped like blades under her thin fur. For that, though, there was still ample muscle on her haunches and filling out her forequarters as well. She might have lacked a trace of body fat on her, and she looked fast and exceedingly dangerous. Everything Mipa was not.

She stopped before Mipa and looked at her down her nose, not saying a word. If anything, the mild expression on her thin face spoke of disinterested bewilderment. As if this stranger had come across some exceedingly odd variation of beetle and was deciding if stepping on it would yield an ounce of amusement or not.

Mipa couldn't take being sized up like that. And also, her knees were starting to hurt a little. She tried to speak but found her mouth unbearably dry. "He-He" she swallowed and tried again. "Hello?" she squeaked finally.

She was answered with silence. Inequitable distain shone in the strange lion's eyes as she continued to glance at Mipa as if continually surprised by her appearance at every new moment. Despte the lack of answer, and the pain in her knees, Mipa did not think for a moment about turning to go about her business. She wished desperately that Kovu were near instead. Finally the stranger deigned to speak. "You're a curious thing," the stranger said and began to circle the bloated lioness. Mipa turned her head to keep her in sight, but couldn't seem to bring herself to move her heavy paws. Soon the thick fatty rolls she'd accumulated on her neck blocked her head from turning anymore. Mipa's extremely generous hindquarters felt hideously oversized and vulnerable. "Was your mother a hippo, and your father a lion? Or around here does food just walk into your gaping mouth?" The stranger asked as she came back around. Mipa noticed that she'd paused a little to sniff her crotch and surely realize her current condition.

Mipa gulped. "Please... I don't want any trouble." Her feet shuffled clumsily to shift the bulk of her a little away from the cold-eyed lioness. Her body moved in the way it should have if she were much thinner. As a result, she nearly tripped as her knee caught in her low slung belly.

The stranger didn't make a move to get nearer. Likely they both knew that there was no way Mipa was going to get away, even with a generous head start. "And you won't have any, not so long as you tell me what I want to hear anyway." She sat and looked at her paw as she slowly extended and retracted her claws, like knives. "I am looking for a lion, one with a black mane. I don't suppose you've happened to stumble across one have you?"

Kovu! Mipa thought agonizingly. What on earth is this female looking for him for? Mipa didn't have a whisper of an answer. "N-n-no... I haven't seen anyone like th-"

"You lie!" The stranger roared and surged forward. Mipa backed up, but the speed at which the lioness flowed over the ground was such that she'd barely taken two steps before they were face to face. Mipa's heavy rump fell to the ground with a dull Thud she and the other lion could feel in their toes. Mipa felt clumsy, heavy and useless and was in addition afraid for her life. "His smell covers you from your head to your toes!" Then, just as quickly as she/d dashed forward, she began to laugh. "He must have been desperate, this far out from home. Where is he?"

Mipa paused, terrible thoughts speeding through her mind. How did this lioness know Kovu? Was she... a former lover? Did Mipa have a rival? Panic welled up inside of her and her breath became ragged. Too many terrible thoughts were springing up in a whirlwind of confusion. It rendered her speechless. But it was clear that this lioness would not take silence for an answer. Claws withdrawn, the lioness boxed Mipa across the face. It was harder than Mipa could have ever anticipated. Her foreleg folded under the weight of her forequarters as she teetered off balance. Instinctively, Mipa reached out with one of her paws, but it didn't come close to hitting the stranger. Mipa collapsed painfully onto her flank and the lioness was on her in an instant, paws planted on her chest, and fangs close to her oh-so-squishy and tender neck.

"I'm going to give you one more chance to answer." she growled and Mipa could feel her claws sinking into her fatty hide on her chest. "Where is he?"