If you asked me if I am into furry, comic or manga stuff, I couldn't say with full certainty that I am not. I would have to say I have no opinion on the matter. People have their quirks and fetishes and so do I. Normally I wouldn't be running with my jaw hanging down, while at the same time staring like some fool just because I saw a pretty girl. As bad as it may sound however, I am now doing exactly that. My mouth is wide open. It has been since a good minute ago. There is no sound coming from it as I am afraid that if I utter a single word I would make a complete and utter fool of myself. That's because of two reasons. First, I have no bloody idea where I am. This place looks dilapidated and removed from any kind of civilization. Its just a simple cave with one broken pedestal and few statues here and there. On that note I think I just walked from one of those and I have to say they are really hideous. Whoever hammered them into form must have been hit hard in the head. They look nothing like a proper depiction of, well.. anything! Their eyes where hallow and every one of them had some crocked smile that looked like some freak on a show. I would make a comment and say something about it but I wouldn't want to make the girl sitting here put off just because I complained about interior design she probably spent some time with. Besides, If complaint was the first thing that left my mouth here I would be nothing more than some little girl making faces and throwing tantrums. Its better not to say a thing. Be dignified and stoic. That's who I am.
The second reason is more of a prosaic nature. You see I do not know if this girl could understand me. I am trying to say something but I can't utter a single phrase. Words are just stuck in my mouth. Well, it's true that this girl is beautiful, but it is not a reason to keep silent or loose my head, also she looks more like a kid than anything else. Moreover she isn't human. She has animal looking ears and tails. Not one. I say it again just to be clear, there are yellowish tails sticking out of her behind and on top of her head blond furry ears stand up in full attention. The very ears are so big I am astonished she hasn't toppled over with them yet. That makes little to no sense and is probably the reason I can't say a thing.
I don't know what kind of evolution could produce such an effect. I won't be boorish to keep my mind occupied with thoughts of how her skull is built. Apart from that ridiculous trait of hers, she has thin but shapely mouth and face that looked like chiseled by some world class artist. It looked pretty, but incredibly unnatural. I would think twice before letting my self fall with that face. Her skin was very pale, probably due to lack of sun. Small upturned nose, accented big cartoonish eyes the color of pure turquoise sea and her hair although dry and somewhat destroyed were very long and bushy. Poor creature was shuddering all over when I glanced at her and it is quite obvious she is frightened. She sure is an adorable little girl. However, nothing could overshadow the terrible state she was in. Her arms and legs were practically twigs. Her bosom caved and her face however beautiful, was marked by years of horrendous conditions and lack of proper care. Judging from all the messy state she is in, I could only guess she has been through true hell. The girl was chained by rusty cuffs that were holding both her wrists and ankles.
In summary I was looking at an adorable puppy that I wanted to pick up and shoveled with food. Patting her head would be nice too. Of course, I hesitated to make any move here. Think about it, an unknown stranger comes up to you and start giving you head pats and telling you it will be fine. Yeah... nope. Not happening.
After few short glances I shot her, we locked our eyes in a little stare battle. I wanted to reach out to her somehow, so I followed her initiative and guess what? She closed her eyes after few seconds, opened her cute little mouth and calmly, with a queenly tone voiced her thoughts.
"I am ready."
"What are you ready FOR! Throw me a bone here! Please!" I almost yelled it out loud. The good thing is I could understand what she is saying. I furrowed my brow and made a face like I was thinking things over.
Ok, think, deep breaths. The moment I came to I was in one of those damn ugly things in the wall. I woke up with one hell of a headache and do not really remember what I was doing yesterday. In fact, I can't remember yesterday or the day before yesterday. I have vague memories, but nothing consistent, it is all just one big blur. This is clearly not earth. So the question is, whether I am a degenerate, hallucinating about emaciated girls in caves and statues with a face of an ork, or I am in deep, deep trouble. What if it is the latter? I can't be sure yet, so I can't allow my self to panic. Panic is the enemy of reason. Lets indulge in this delusion for a bit and see what happens. This girl should have at least some answers.
I shifted my position and lowered my self to her level, kneeling on my right knee. I stretched my right hand like I would like to make a greeting, but it must have looked incredibly dodgy or the girl thought I was going to harm her since she shuddered again and closed her eyes even tighter. I was going nowhere with this. I opened my lips to introduce my self but at that moment no sound came out of my mouth. I could not remember my own name. I was kneeling like an idiot with outstretched hand mumbling under my nose comprehending how stupid this all looked. This started to grow into a major problem. I know that I am not a person that drinks much. I somehow knew that I was picking up my renewed ID not so long ago, but how come I can't even remember my name. This is seriously bad. I don't know how to start a conversation here not to mention that I have no idea about my own identity.
I was starting to be aware of cold sweat forming on my hands and forehead. If I do nothing here and simply keep kneeling with a look of bamboozled fool for even a second longer I feel like I would die of embarrassment. While desperately searching for a way out of this predicament, I took better look at the chains that bound the girl. They were rusty and heavy, with weird patterns inscribed on cuffs. They were fixed to the ground and at most 2m long. This poor girl had very limited space to move around. If only I could break them somehow.
In search of escape from this humiliating situation I focused all of my concentration on those chains, wishing for them to disappear and save me from having to explain myself.
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CRACK...
Miraculously chains that bound 'Furry Ears' snapped in half saving me any further embarrassment. Well, I called her furry ears but I don't even know her name, so for now it will stay like that. I stood up and turned my back to her, breathing out a heavy sigh of relief. I know that coincidences like chains breaking out of nowhere or upon a simple wish, do not happen. But this is a world of my delusion for now. Lets just stick with it and say that the chains broke due to persistence of my stare. Of course it's more probable that they were just old and broke at the right time and the right moment. All four cuffs, that is.
I took a look around the cave again, searching for a door or an exit of some kind. I Also wanted to escape piercing eyes that were now drilling into my back. Solving the communication problem would have to wait until there is some proper light and space to sit down. You could say I was running away and of course, you would be right, but sometimes its easier to just go with the flow. And the flow told me that I should search for an exit.
There were around fifty of those silly statues placed in even distance of each other and upon closer inspection there was a place with two columns and an ark above them. It wasn't big and it kind of blend with the wall, but it was obvious it was a closed passage. Now, you do not need to call me a genius, but I think it is obvious how to open this door. There must be a switch or a lever somewhere. I watched enough movies to be certain there is some contraption managing this door, so I walked to the closest statue and peered deep into its ugly mug with utmost confidence. There... there was nothing there. I shoot a quick glance at furry ears but she had the same surprised face she had moments ago, still gawking at her hands and legs. I was prepared to show my full dignity of a grown adult, that's because I believed people of certain age should not allow their weaknesses to be in full view. Thankfully I didn't have to.
I decided to ignore this little failure and went to the next statue in line. There was a button deep in its hallow eye. I pressed it and moved back to the front of the rocky passage. I certainly was confident outside but inside I was praying for the door to move and spare me any more embarrassment. In my eyes it took literal eternity for the door to start making scraping sounds. Little by little it moved, revealing a corridor behind it. Hanging on the walls, there were the same creepy torches as the one in the cave. They shone with their pale blue light giving impression of some weird dungeon full of undead. Hoping there are no skeletons walking around I smiled to my self, laughing in my mind at the silly thought. Moments later my smile waned. I realized I literally walked out of some crazy old looking statue and the first thing I saw was a girl with numerable tails.
"Are you not going to take my life? If you wish to make me your subordinate you should know I shan't yield to you, no matter what method you use." That melodious voice was non other than that of long tails standing behind me. She sneaked up on me almost making me jump. I pondered for a second, but I could understand why she asked that. Furry ears stood in precarious situation, not knowing why or what was happening or who I am and why I helped her. Not that I actually helped here in any way yet.
She was rather short so I was betting she had to be a kid, but her way of speaking pointed to a more adolescent or even an adult person. Though In my eyes even a seventeen is still a kid. I don't remember my name, but I do remember that I was full one hundred and seventy cm in height, so I am not that tall. The girl in front of me is a good one and a half head lower. She is barely reaching my neck with her ears. Thinking about it now, everything around looked rather... short. Like my height jumped all of a sudden. To top it off my balance is also somewhat skewed.
Getting back to her question. The one who locked a kid in such horrid conditions must be a complete jerk. I would utter more invective but I do not know the whole situation, also I do not know for how long she was held in that creepy cave. There is one more question of more of a physical nature that I can't get out of my head. That girl was caged for who knows how long, so... How on earth is she able to stand tall with those sticks that are supposed to be her legs. Her physical condition is clearly bad to the very extreme of the word. Is it because of those furry traits of hers?
What answer should I give? I have decided to gather my wits and give a response when it is most suited. On that note I already wasted like a minute on self dialogue making the girl wait with her stare becoming even more wary. Lets just make a tactical retreat for now and see what happens later.
I made a head gesture towards the end of the corridor and moved ached. My boots echoed making loud clanks with every step. I wondered why I was making so much noise, so I looked down. There were some kind of black greaves on my feet instead of my plain derby shoes. I must have been too preoccupied to notice earlier but I should mention that I had some kind of metal armor on almost every part of my body. I returned my sight back to the round stairs in front and focused on ignoring everything else. I should also mention, that keeping my dignity is first and the most important thing in the world. There is a reason for that, but I will keep it to my self for now. Suffice to say, if I don't act like people in my age would, it would mentally kill me.
I made a steady progress and reached the stairs in just under a minute, taking a long, but slow strides for the little one toddling behind to not injure herself. I would be more than happy to help and carry her, but one look told me that it would be a grave offense.
The stairs looked very old with dust all over. Normally you could grasp some kind understanding of the architecture when looking at stuff like that, but in this case the steps were simple and plain. I worked my self one step at a time when a distinct whosh could be heard and not a moment later something dropped beside my left leg. When I looked down my face went pale. It was clearly a dart with a blackened end. A poisoned dart just bounced off of me. I believe I just miraculously avoided death and I dared not to look behind or the girl would instantly see me panicking.
There are traps here on these stairs. I am quite scared but if I won't move or if I start checking every step by pressing it with a torch, the girl will think I am a coward and her opinion would plummet. More importantly I would look incredibly stupid doing so. I gulped silently and started moving again praying in my mind to high heavens for the armor I am wearing to preserve my life. At the same time I tried to make my steps as light as humanly possible. Thankfully, whoever there was in high heavens, took pity on me since there were no more traps below my feet. Furry ears kept herself as close as possible almost stomping on my heels. The climb took only few minutes, but it felt like hours trying to endure the fear of all the traps that could sprung at any moment.
The top ended with a rather closed space with the same type of door that was in the cave below us. Thankfully there was no need for search for a hidden switch. It was in plain sight next to the arc door. I exchanged a short glance with my short companion and decided to pull the lever.
The same scraping sound made its way to my ears and sliding door revealed what lay behind it. As I watched with bated breath, anger rose within me with every second that I looked. What I saw made me angry, very angry.