FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 15

Dante scanned the dusty sand of the vale under him from where he was circling in the setting sun. His keen eyes tracked the movements of Lloyd as he ambushed the loan and scrawny figure of a weasel from where he thought he had been hidden in a rock-pile. Rena and the band rode steadily into the steep sided cutting, pretending to be oblivious to the forthcoming ambush.

From his position above, some signs of the dug in mercenaries were visible, but he would have likely ignored them if he hadn't known he was looking for a target. The odd scuffed patch of sand, broken bush branches etc. He began his dive as the first movements in the dirt and a cascade of small pebbles became visible on the right hand side of the vale, his whistle building as steel began to show from the sheaths of his party below...

Rena's eyes never stopped darting from side to side, though her face remained resolutely forward facing. They fixed upon one point up to the left as a small bunch of pebbles cascaded down to the road they were on... "Ready?" she hissed to Aspenall.

The otter nodded grimly, beginning to draw his sword as the whisper of steel began to sound all around him, the seasoned band all knowing the sign as their ears, those that had them, folded to their skulls as Dante's loud whistle began to reverberate from the walls of rock that hemmed them in.

"Shields up, and cover your horse's eyes!" Rena shouted as she threw a cloth over Charles' skull in her own effort of protection.

The hillsides erupted, the sand stained canvasses that covered the hidden trenches being thrown aside as the mercenary archers notched their bows and prepared to fire into their targets below. The whistle became all encompassing, and the capybara screeched out to redirect the arrows at the sun from his position on the right of the vale.

Dante smiled hotly, as internally the fire bolt that was even now licking at his lips fought the confines of his teeth. He really hoped that his lover's spell would hold as he observed the obvious Captain of the enemy troops directing the emerging archers to focus upon him, but as he was on the opposite side of the vale that he was targeting, he couldn't have the satisfaction of removing the leader's influence in his first and only attack.

The swarm of shafts released almost made him duck and roll by instinct, but as the first one struck and bounced with no pain, his confidence was regained and he opened his mouth as he angled his wings for his final drop speed.

"Oh SHIT!" the capybara shouted as the whistle stopped for a second and the black bolt of lightning that was his prime target swept out of the setting sun. His eyes widened in shock as two thirds of the men whom he had stationed on the opposite wall of the valley disintegrated in a gory shower of burning parts and calcified bone that fountained into the air to rain upon their targets below. The screams of those that were just caught by the superhot blast wave echoing in his and his remaining men's ears as they scrambled to clear the entrenchment that had effectively become their colleague's hell like grave.

The realisation struck him then that he had lost most of his advantage, and was near on fighting two on one...Though one of his paycheques, was a little more than one, which caused him to consider ordering for a retreat, but the swelling anger in his troops throats quelled that as they erupted from the trench he was in to pour down upon those they perceived as responsible for the deaths of their cohorts. Not a coward himself, he raised his sword and sounded a late advance, throwing himself down into the developing melee within the now blood soaked and dusty vale.

Rena shook her head to clear the ringing from her ears, and the smoking bone fragments from her helmet as the heatwave swept over her and Aspenall's recruits. "I really must try and train some restraint into him..." she muttered to herself as the survivors from the other side of the valley began to pour down upon them. She didn't miss that the one who was obviously their Captain was not at the forefront of the charge, but lagging behind. That could only mean one thing... "Aspenall...the mercs are desperate and fighting personal, unless their Captain is a coward. No prisoners understand?" she ordered, notching an arrow and letting fly straight into the throat of a charging Cheetah.

Aspenall nodded, turning and shouting the "No Mercy" command as Dante circled above them.

Dante considered a second attack on the remaining occupants of his initial target trench, but before he could begin to build up his internal reserves, those that could turned and plunged into the ringing confusion of flashing steel and screams that the valley floor had become. He grinned to himself... 'time for some buffet without consequences' he thought as he banked and dived again, heading for the spot where Rena, Aspenall and Flaughten were fighting horse tail to horse tail in a defensive three point star.

He landed heavily with a soft thump, all claws extended as his feet and hands sank into four of the armoured mercenaries before being clenched in his hunting grip, their screaming bodies snapping as they tried to bring their swords around upon him. He had never fought on the ground before...or at least he didn't think he had...and slowly a red mist that was not blood began to haze over his eyes as his tail began to sweep from side to side quickly in order to keep others from trying to mount his back.

Rena was startled for a second as Dante suddenly dropped to land less than twenty feet away from her, killing four of their opponents almost without thinking. The power within her lover was evident now as his scales began to run with blood from the spraying arteries of those who tried to overwhelm him, the muscle cords that she had never really noticed, knotting and channelling the gore over his scales with each quick and calculated movement of his body. She couldn't help but wince internally as with a snap of his jaws that could be so gentle and careful in bed, he severed the arm off a boar who was trying to drive a broadsword into his chest. She felt the magic reserves dip slightly as the steel was deflected, before seeming to bounce back again, all while her own quick thrust ended a weasel whom had almost slipped under Charles' flashing hooves in an attempt to make her mount-less.

Her ears flicked as Flaughten grunted once, instinct telling her to turn her head as the tiger fell from the saddle and under his mount's hooves, a feathered arrow shaft protruding from his neck. Her eyes glanced at Aspenall who was engaged in his own fencing match with three leopards who seemed almost to be brothers...Fellericksy more than earning her oats as her front hooves and leg armour deflected as many of the blows as the otter's own steel. Charles shifted backwards to fill the gap left by Flaughten's now fallen horse, the beast without direction had charged forward and fallen to a mercenary's sword as it trampled them.

She hated melees...the quick and virtually painless transaction between her and her usual clients being much more to her taste...She was never going to get the mess out of her armour...She shook her head to clear it...Where had that thought come from? It was almost like she was becoming more...domesticated... "Arrrghhhh!" she screamed, turning Dante's head a little as without thought she despatched the two otters whom she had been parrying blows from.

Dante wondered what had caused Rena to scream, not seeing any sign of wounds on her as he continued to sample the taste of every enemy fur that came within reach of his jaws...he was beginning to feel a little bloated to be honest. The steel that was constantly being turned aside from his scales was evidence enough that the spell she had set was still intact. He noted that the three pointed defence had become two, and something twinged inside him at the loss of the tiger he had healed once before. He scanned the melee for a likely replacement as his tail would hamper rather than help him if he took the missing spot. "Grillion!" he shouted, "Flaughten is down, take his place!" he ordered, spotting the wolf who was free of attackers at that moment.

Grillion saluted, spurring his mount hard to bull through those whom were trying to overwhelm Aspenall and Rena where they were rapidly running out of energy, his steel flashing from left to right as he punctured the backs of those that got in his way. "Evening Princess," he commented as he smoothly slipped into position, "I would have preferred to be tail to tail with you in a different way at this hour though..."

Rena almost laughed at the absurdity of the comment in the setting they were in, but then almost succumbed to three point attack on her by some hyenas. Two of her throwing knives finding new homes before a quick slash from her katana finished the third...but not before several hard blows had struck home, weakening her spell reserves more.

"They are getting desperate Rena!" Aspenall commented, "They are almost at the point of running."

"They won't run...we won't let them. It ends here!" Rena shouted back, wincing a little as she felt one of her ribs move unnaturally from where one of the hyena's swords had struck.

Aspenall nodded, running another rat through that had missed a parry.

The capybara Captain had been skirmishing more at the edge of the melee, removing several of Rena's hired troops as he worked his way towards the possibility of his salvation. He could tell that the spell shield that was in place on his targets was weakening to a certain extent, because though no blood was being drawn, the signs of pain and bruising each time a weapon hit home on Dante and Rena was becoming more and more apparent. He was fairly sure that he had heard her something break before his hyena squad had gone down under the bitch's onslaught. Waiting his chance, he sheathed his sword and rolled his choke-chain around one of his paws before he leapt upon Dante's back as his tail swept an otter away with a crunch of the mustelid's bones.

Dante grunted as the not inconsiderable weight of the rodent landed on his back and began inching his way up towards his head. There was no way he could become airborne with the Captain weighing him down, nor was there the option to roll in order to dislodge him as the piles of bodies, both friends and foe that surrounded him now were preventing that. He frantically twisted and bucked, sweeping his wings from side to side while lashing his tail as he felt the experienced soldier settle with his legs gripping his neck around his wing shoulders...and the cold steel of an improvised bridle swinging around his throat.

"We need to finish this soon Aspenall," Rena rasped in a lull, wincing as she sheathed her katana, "Those bastards have broken a couple of my ribs I think."

"We have the upper hand I believe," Aspenall replied, driving his sword tip through a koala's eye slit in his helmet.

"Hard to tell at the moment in all this dust," Rena replied, flicking open one of her saddle packs to reveal over 50 arrayed throwing knives ready for use.

"Do you want to break formation so that you can start spell casting?"

"Pointless at the moment...I would harm as many of our own side as I would theirs," she replied, starting to carefully pick her targets out, flicking her wrist precisely while guiding Charles to keep her front clear.

"RENA!"

The bitch's head turned, her eyes widening as she watch Dante's pain filled eyes lock on hers as the rodent Captain of their opposition twisted his sword another inch around from where it was through two links of the chain wrapped around his neck. She could see the scales compressing, though not tearing as his mouth gaped once more, before he collapsed into the pile of bodies that surrounded him. "DANTE!"

The distraction of his rider's scream was enough to drop Charles' guard as his ears flicked closed. With a loud screaming whinny he collapsed with blood boiling from his mouth as a one eared ocelot slipped between his striking hooves and drove a short sword though his chest plate and into his heart, his spasming body falling to crush the cat in a last moment of equine revenge.

Rena went down hard, tucking and rolling on instinct as Charles' hooves kicked in every direction in his death throws. Quickly she drew both her fighting knives from her belt and went into a crouch to assess just who she would have to combat in order to reach her lover's side, but multiple mercenaries threw themselves on top of her before she had chance to respond.

"Shit!" Aspenall shouted as he heard the stallion's death scream and felt Fellericksy move back a pace into the space. A shout went up from the remaining foe as they saw both their main targets appear to fall and they surged forward with renewed vigour preventing him from trying to recover Rena from where she must have been thrown. A patch of the fur-pile began to glow amber, and then a silent explosion nearly took him off Fellericksy as Rena erupted from the middle of it, fighting knives spitting amber fire as her chest jewel blinded any who's eyes were drawn to it.

Those who had thrown themselves on her didn't stand a chance...The ones who were not already dead found their weapons sliced and diced by her now enchanted knives as if their steel was freshly baked bread. Rena began to advance, eyes never leaving the mound of black scales that was all that was visible of her lover as he was being attacked by all who could in aid of their leader, slashing and hacking her way through all that opposed her access to her goal. This was not clean fighting now...it was dirty...it was personal...No more clean kills...She could vaguely here Aspenall's shouts, but ignored them as foot by foot she got closer and closer to Dante's side.

The Capybara grinned to himself as Dante fell from under him, breaths rattling in his throat as his choke hold tightened. "Not so invincible now, are you dragon?" He shouted into the slits that acted as Dante's ears, "All your whore's fancy spells can't protect you from something that doesn't pierce your scales, can they?" He twisted further, the rattles and wheezes growing in volume as his victim began to black out, "This is for all my men that you burned alive you bastard..."

Aspenall was almost desperate, watching Rena as she seemed to be running a suicide charge on her own. He could feel the pull on his own enchanted dagger as it urged him to try and help, but the situation was hopeless as he and Grillion were hemmed in by a wall of flashing steel as the remainder of the mercenaries formed a couple of back to back corrals around both him, Dante and Rena that were effectively cutting off the chances of rescue from the remaining members of their own squad.

"Enough is enough I think, and bugger the consequences," Lloyd muttered to himself and whistled his commands in code on the wind to the hidden fennecs that were still surrounding the vale under camouflage.

Aspenall's eyes flicked to the hillside as with a new set of battle cries, arrows began to sprout from the enemies that surrounded them, breaking their tight formations and allowing a rout to begin.

With a last chest crossing slash of her knives she reached Dante's foreleg...he was in a bad way from the noises his body was making. It was also obvious that all the attacks upon his person had weakened the skin spell enough that he was now bleeding from countless shallow cuts. She wasn't exactly in much better a condition herself, blood flecking from her lips as her grinding ribs had obviously ripped one of her lungs, and limping heavily from what she assumed was a badly broken foot that had been caught by a mace blow.

Adrenaline was carrying her through though, and with a last heave she risked doing the job of Kalaw and reached forward with her magic sputtering knife and cut through the chain around her lover's neck, drawing a spell wrought line of bleeding scales almost from his ear to shoulder with her blood hazed and misjudged strike. She felt Dante's body heave once as it drew in one giant breath, and then her carefully placed shield spell ran out of energy with an audible pop.

The Capybara on Dante's shoulders laughed as he felt the stirrups he was wearing dig in finally to the scales he was sliding upon, and he raised his freed sword above his head in order to drop the final blow upon his mount's neck that would earn him his full paycheque. Raising his sword was his mistake, as it left his neck exposed for just a vital second. With a final flick of her wrist, one of Folwort and Bwiller's finest flew straight and true from below, straight through the rodent's jugular, driven up into his brain with every last ounce of strength in Rena's reflexes. His eyes bugged for a second, mouth opening silently as the steel tip cut across his spinal cord from the inside, and his sword dropped from his hands to bury itself point first in Dante's back under its own weight.

The Captain's dead weight fell off sideways with a gurgle of blood that was echoed by a much larger one under Rena's shoulders, her eyes being dragged to Dante's as they opened once and met hers for a last moment as blood spilled from his lips from the steel now lodged in his lungs, "Love yo..." he whispered, his eyes closing and muscles going limp.

"NO!" Rena screamed, trying to stand and reach his head, but a wave of her own mortality caught her as a remaining stoat with a spear drove it through the torn armour on her back and into her liver as she stumbled into unconsciousness across his bloodied snout.

"Drop your weapons now!" Aspenall's voice commanded in the groan and whimper filled calm that followed Rena and Dante's deaths, "And we may let you go home!"

The stoat that had killed Rena ripped his spear free, spitting in the dirt, "Why should we? We won! Your commanders are as dead as ours! Why don't you lot come along and join us, replace some of our numbers...we are all paid mercs..."

"Oh our commanders are not dead stoat..." Aspenall replied, an evil smile on his gor soaked face, "Or did not your contractor give you certain instructions about them?" The otter's eyes were watching for the tell-tale green glow that was slowly building, "Thank you for helping out by removing your spear...NOW DROP IT!"

"Oh shit...we need to..." The stoat froze before he could turn, as did all of the remainder of the Capybara's men, eyes widening as their fur suddenly started to grey and their flesh and muscle structure began to shrink and pull tight to their bodies... "Arrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhaaaaarrrrrggggggllllllleeeee!"

They all dropped on the spot, breaths coming in wheezes before ceasing all together as their bodies became skeletons before Aspenall's and the other's eyes. A wave of dizziness passed over him, and Fellericksy stumbled and dropped to her knees along with all the other horses and pack ponies. The green glow flickered a little, and with a skittering noise the sword buried in Dante's body was ejected and skittered down his scales as they stitched themselves closed, except for the ones on his neck. The air suddenly went cold, everyone shivering in the carnage as all the flies that had gathered around the bloody corpses dropped dead, every plant as far as the eye could see, desiccated and crumbled...and then the light died.

"We can do no more without killing you and your alliessssss, nor can we heal the knife ssssstrike that Rena inflicted upon Dante." Two tired voices whispered into those brains that were still capable of hearing, "There isssss not enough life force here in the desssssert to heal our chargesssss fully, and the protection ssssspellsssss that one of our chargesssss laid upon both of them have drained all the internal ressssservesssss we normally draw upon. You will have to camp for at leassssst a sssssevenday before they are ssssstrong enough to move out themssssselvesssss, and field dresssss Dante'sssss neck wound. Now we mussssst ressssst ourssssselvesssss...we will not be able to do thisssss again for at leassssst a month unlesssss we are in a populousssss area, ssssso otter you mussssst try and dissssscourage the conclusssssion of their misssssionsssss until then..."

The vale fell silent completely until Grillion spoke up, "Who or what was that Sir?" he asked, "I know of the magic from before of course...but..."

"It is best soldier that you do not ask..." Aspenall replied, slipping from Fellericksy's saddle shakily. He walked over to Dante and Rena where they lay, observing that the Demi-sibs were nowhere near as bright and noticeable usual, but that both their wards were indeed breathing shallowly.

"Ahem...what would you have us do Sir?" one of the hired mercenaries asked, "Both of our squads have lost our Captains."

"What the voices said...we must make camp here and dig in for the time being..." Aspenall replied.

"Not here," Lloyd's voice stated as he walked out of the dust, "There is a spring, bathing pool and firewood supply about half a league further on."

"We can't move from here," Aspenall stated.

"The voices didn't say that Captain, it said that Dante and Rena couldn't move under their own power. Use one of the tents or trench covers from this bunch of corpses and drag Dante upon it with horses that can still stand to where you can heal and repair your own wounds," the fennec stated.

Aspenall sighed, "I suppose that will be best...I didn't exactly relish the idea of staying put in this hell vale for long, and we have now lost the light totally."

Lloyd grinned, "You don't need the light with us to lead at your head otter."

"Your women folk were expecting you all back tonight," Aspenall pointed out, kicking aide some of the bones of what he thought was a fox on his way over to where Fellericksy still knelt, breathing heavily in the dust. He bent at the sight of a striped tail and heaved a warthog off to one side to expose Flaughten's body, "You fought well old friend," he said, closing the tiger's vacant eyes.

"Our women can look after themselves, whereas what is left of you and your mercs quite obviously can't," Lloyd stated flatly.

"From the way you look, you are not in much better condition," Aspenall replied, chucking on Fellericksy's bridle in order to get her to stand.

Lloyd sighed, "Being totally honest, that is true as well. There is no way that I or any of my band can head back to the desert tonight. As for this mess, we will all have to sort through it all and salvage what we can before burying the rest when we are able...and my belly is still turning from watching a weasel that I had my knife to up on the hill, shrivel within my paws...speaking of which, your enemy knows of the outcome, as he was watching through a spell scry."

"Nothing we can do about that now, not that it will make a difference as we know that Kalaw is aware of us. At least this lot dug their own graves," Aspenall replied with a slight grin, gesturing to the exposed trenches. Lloyd shared a chuckle, leaning on his bow as a staff.

Aspenall turned to the rest of the surviving men, "Come on then...let's do as our ally suggests and get out of this bloodbath. Make sure all we leave behind are dead, and we can run a salvage operation when we have a night's rest under our belts, but bring the pack ponies and their cargos if they are not dead...if they get stolen by a passing night traveller, none of us get paid!"

"Yes' Sir" the exhausted replies came back as Aspenall walked Fellericksy forward to where Rena still lay prone over Dante's snout.

"You Princess can ride with me I think as Fellericksy will have to get used to you on her back," he whispered quietly, reaching down and hoisting her loose limbed weight up across the saddle in front of him as fennecs appeared out of the dark to help shift Dante onto a makeshift drag sling.

....

Kalaw drove his forepaw though the scrying pool in anger, shattering the mirrored reflection as the spell between him and the weasel was broken by the mustelid's death. "Fucking Fennec's and BITCH!" he yelled, storming out of the cave in anger.

He had been so close...so fucking close to being home and dry. There was always the danger of the ambush having been discovered, but without the help of those fucking overgrown desert rats, he would now be bathing in the power of his sibling, while waiting for the demi-sibs to slither over to him...their rightful home. That corpulent, insolent, arse of a rodent had almost done it...his crew being as professional as he claimed, and his bravado enough that he had almost saved himself...but no...no...the stupid creature had let his guard down at the last moment.

Kalaw aimed his head at a local copse and released his own bolt of explosive anger, reducing the stand of pines to a spitting and hissing pile of charcoal as he tried to get himself back under control.

_'What to do now?'_he questioned himself. He could fly out now, try to make it to the scene of the disaster before those that could still walk were capable of forming up and fighting him. He chuckled to himself, none of the lightness that his brother could bring to the world evident, just the deep malaise bringing evilness that could never be misconstrued for anything else emerging from his lips, seeming to make the deserted hills he called home a little darker than usual. "Drop one of my own fire attacks upon them maybe..." he muttered.

But no...all they had to do was form up around his brother, and he would have to hold his breath, as he would die a surely in the fireball as them all. His best bet now that his options were all but exhausted was to run...fly swift and far and hope that they did not follow him when his trail went cold at his cave...But no...they would follow him...and though the bitch may have only a lifespan of maybe fifty years, he just knew that it had to end before her death from natural causes. So what then?

Dig in...He would dig in. His cave had a good clean source of water...all he would need to do is ensure that he had enough food. There was no way any of them could get past the entrance without him being able to kill them, except maybe his brother...but he couldn't be the aggressor, by the very rules that were stopping him from taking advantage of their disabled state at the moment. Yes that was what he was going to do. With luck he would have at least a couple of sevendays before they arrived, more depending on when they would be in a state to move out. For the Demi-sibs to have killed every living being that were obviously the enemies of his brother, they must have been struggling for energy. That spoke to him that Dante must have been drained magically as well as physically.

He turned, running back to his haven in a slight state of panic...hell he even had a wreck he could shag whenever the urge took him through his brother's blood link...there would be no way that anyone could possibly be attracted to that mess who mourned her fate on a daily basis...he had ruined her egg tract with his mindless rutting...There would be no successor for him from her. That was not a matter of concern though, as when he had his brother's power, every dragoness in the world would compete for the seed from his loins when the word that the Draconis bloodline was still alive spread!

~~~~

Vilarhina watched silently as the last of the orange glow vanished below the Western horizon. She sighed as twilight settled in and the silver lights of the heavens began to twinkle and sparkle in the clear desert sky while the sun's lesser sibling began to pull the covers of the Eastern horizon back in order to start his climb onto duty. "Any signs of them?" she queried Gounda...one of the age sterile wives whom she had left alive for her desert wisdom and minor use of foretelling magics.

The old fennec shook her tattered ears as she looked up from the bowl she was looking into, "No Vila...Lloyd still lives, but I sense that he and the others are actually moving further away from us at the moment. Fennec blood has been spilled, but I can't tell if any have died. That is all I can read."

Vila nodded, "I feared this..." She turned and stood, issuing a barking call to turn any ears towards her, "Pack up the camp for travel...we women and young ones are going hunting, and wolf bitch is on the menu at dawn if anything has harmed our menfolk!"

A chorus of yipping and yelps replied as they set to work extinguishing fires and collapsing tents...