The Roots Run Deep (Furry BxB)

FEAR WILL LEAD YOU HOME

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Eleven years after his sister's inexplicable death in the dripping moss-crowns of the Hoh Rain Forest, 27-year-old Felix Chance Jelani has walled himself behind science. As a forest pathologist and professor in a Californian university, his life revolves around dissecting bark lesions, calibrating soil pH levels, or logging chlorosis patterns...

Anything to stay tethered to empirical reality and far from the mud-stained ghosts of Forks.

But when a virulent fungal strain begins warping the tree canopy in the same stretch of Olympic wilderness where his sister was found dead, Felix is ordered to investigate the cause by his supervisor, citing both his doctoral credentials and his "personal connection" with the region. Despite his better judgment, he complies. Alongside him is Waltz, a sharp-nosed pine marten field biology research intern, and Soren, his jaguar co-lab partner.

Once back in Washington, Felix crosses paths with the people he thought he'd outgrown: Rafe the spotted hyena, a wildlife ranger with unknown personal reasons to protect the forest; Zane the wolverin, a former bruiser-turned-logger who ditched his street life after a close friend bled to death in his arms; and Slade the Husky, a local radio broadcaster who returned to Forks due to his deaf mother's Alzheimer's.

Together, the sextet begins mapping the spread. But the deeper they probe the trunk borings, mycelium networks, and altered animal behavior, the more the woods seem to resist. And when strange phenomena take root amongst the townsfolk, Felix and the others are forced to confront their deepest fears...

...before fear leads them home.

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This story is intended for a mature audience only. Reader discretion is strongly advised.