FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was twenty four years ago, at the southern continent of Guindola, at the bottom of the icy mountain range, Alonzo Temple was digging through the mountain rocks, excavating for any sort of artifacts, rare objects or ancient fossils. The brown-furred persian cat was an aspiring archeologist dreaming to make it big. All his adult life, excavation was his sole duty, besides taking care of his wife. He longed for the day when luck would finally smile at him and find his big break, to become famous and make enough money to treat his beloved wife. Being in his late thirties, time was certainly not being kind to him, so he hoped he would luck out this time after hearing rumors about this place and how it used to be the nesting place of an extinct species. What Alonzo didn't expect, though, was that he'd soon find was much more than he had bargained for.

The weather was harshly cold and relentless, white snow covering the whole mountain and its surroundings. That didn't keep Alonzo down, however, as he kept digging through the rocks. "Something's got to be in there." His detector reading was telling him there was something in this certain spot, something significant; as he kept thumping his pickaxe into the rocks until it finally collapsed and revealed a small cavern inside the mountain. Excited, Alonzo squeezed himself inside, sensing something, calling for him. He took a few steps in, and suddenly, the ground bellow him quaked and crumpled, making him fall a good few feet down with a loud yell. He dropped on his face on the snowy grounds, luckily breaking his fall and rendering him uninjured.

"Thanks the lord... but, where is this place?" Alonzo breathed in relief for being alive and turned on the flash light on top of his helmet. He found himself in a dark, cold and snowy place right deep under the mountain, with no sign of life around. He got up on his feet, checking himself for injuries, which he thankfully didn't have, then proceeded on his exploration. The cavern got smaller and narrower the deeper he ventured, fearing that there were no way out and that he would be trapped here. The battery on his flashlight wasn't going to hold out for too long and he wondered if there was enough oxygen down here. Just as despair began to sink in him, a bright light caught the corner of his eye. At first inspection, it appeared to be the reflection of his flashlight shining off some kind of giant icy crystal. He walked over to it and upon closer look; he was stunned to see that something was inside the frozen ice.

"Can it be?" It was an egg, as big as a football, trapped and perfectly preserved inside this crystallized prison. Thrilled, he quickly brought out his pickaxe and began to shatter away on the ice, being careful not to harm the egg inside. After a grueling effort, Alonzo managed to break the ice away and free the egg. He wiped his sweaty brow and gently and excitedly grabbed the egg in his gloved paws, emitting a cool steam. This was it. This was what he was waiting for. His ultimate break. An egg of the ancient Kirins. Now, the only problem remaining before he could celebrate was to find a way out of here, and like an answer from the heavens, he glimpsed a light from the moon shining through a crack on the rocky walls. Seemed like luck was finally smiling on Alonzo this fateful day.

"Shiko! Shiko!" Alonzo rushed into his house, which was a cottage he rented not too far from the mountain, and hurried over to his wife, calling out her name. She was preparing a meal for him in the kitchen and was startled by his abrupt entrance.

"Good lord, dear! What's the matter?" his wife exclaimed wonderingly. The grey-furred bobtailed cat walked over to her animated husband while wiping her paws with her apron, who was panting his lungs out from both exhaustion and excitement.

"Shiko! I did it! I finally did it! I found it!" Alonzo breathlessly spoke, holding his wife's paws happily.

"Wha-What? What did you find?"

"I found an egg that belongs to the extinct kirins! In Perfect condition!" he excitedly proclaimed.

"Are you sure? You said the same thing the last time, and it turned out to be a rock. I don't want you to get your hopes up and get disappointed again, dear," Shiko skeptically said.

"I'm positive! This time, it's the real thing! Here, I'll show you!" Alonzo put down his backpack and opened it up, pulling out the big egg in his paws.

Shiko's eyes widened in astonishment. "Oh my! Alonzo, you're right! This looks like a real egg! It's so big and smooth..." she said and rubbed the hard shell with a single paw of hers.

"See? I told you! This is it, Shiko! This is my big break! This egg will shoot me up in the world of science discovery and I'll finally get the recognition I deserve! We'll finally have enough money to treat you, Shiko!" Alonzo eagerly said.

"Al-Alonzo...? It moved," his wife then muttered.

"Huh?" he blinked and looked back at her oddly.

"The egg. I think it moved," she repeated while keeping her paw on the egg.

"Don't be silly, dear. No way can this egg... Holy crap!" Alonzo suddenly gasped when he also felt the egg move and shake a bit between his palms, almost dropping it from the surprise, but Shiko was quick to grab it into her own paws and hold it close to her chest. The egg started to shake and wobble more and more, and to the feline couple utter shock, the shell began to crack and it actually hatched.

"Alonzo, look..." Shiko breathed softly as the crack got bigger and a small, pointy horn poked out from it, gently and gradually cracking the shell and rearing the rest of its head out.

"My God... it's a live kirin!" Alonzo gaped in astonishment, not believing his eyes. A real, healthy, full of life baby kirin hatched from the egg, its small equine-like head popping out of the crack and blinking it tiny eyes to get a clear, first time vision of the outside world.

"Oh, Alonzo... it's so precious..." Shiko wistfully said at the sight of the adorable baby kirin springing to life between her arms. The kirin infant ears perked and it tilted its head upward, opening its eyes wide and staring up at Shiko's face. It then opened its mouth and let out a tiny mewling voice, as if calling for its mother, and that made Shiko's heart to melt.

"I can't believe it. The fact that it stayed alive trapped in that icy cage for hundreds of years is nothing short of a miracle. This is a first in the history of archeology!" Alonzo stated in amazement.

"But, dear, we can't."

"We can't what?"

"We can't give this baby away. Can't you see? It's the thing we always wished for. Our own child. The baby we couldn't have. The heavens answered our prayers and have granted us this baby. We can't give it away. I can't let it go through that kind of life," Shiko said and brought the baby kirin closer to her cheek, rubbing it against its face tenderly, as the baby kirin mewled with a cute smile and touched the female cat's whiskers.

"Shiko... I'm not sure..." Alonzo mumbled awkwardly. It was true that they always wanted to have kids, but they were never able to because of his wife's health condition. Plus, he had not see Shiko this happy and smiling so brightly in a very long time. But what about his long-sought 'ultimate break' and 'desired fame'?

"Look at her. She's a beautiful girl. Isn't she the most adorable thing your eyes have ever seen?" Shiko brought the baby out of its egg shell, figuring out its sex, and wiping the birth gunk off of her smooth scales with her apron, nearing her to her husband's face. The kirin baby mewled with an innocent giggle and then licked his nose pad. "Awwww, she likes you too! Come on, dear, do it for me. Please?" Shiko pled him and Alonzo finally gave in.

"Alright, alright. I can never say no to you, anyway. There will always be other excavations," he chuckled and embraced his wife warmly as the baby was between them. He had to admit, the little angel entered his heart too.

"Thank you, dear!" she chirped happily and nuzzled his chin.

"But as far as everybody else is concerned, we just found her and adopted her, alright?"

"Yes, I understand," Shiko nodded and hugged her new born baby girl, nuzzling her caringly. "Our very own girl."

"Got any name for her?" Alonzo asked her softly, gently scratching the kirin baby's horn and making her giggling out and try to grab his finger with her tiny hands.

"Hmm... Sasuga. Her name is Sasuga, because she's just what we were expecting in our life. Our baby Sasuga," Shiko said happily.

"Sasuga, huh? I like it," he smiled and looked down at his new found child, as he brought his wife close and gave her forehead a kiss. He might have found what was he dreaming for, but he certainly found something better. Much better than he expected, as her namesake - Sasuga.

---

"That's amazing indeed," Hazard said after Sasuga finished telling them the story.

"And very touching, too!" Panja remarked.

"Yeah, if it was real. I'm sure my foster mother told me that just to make me feel special or something. I mean, can you imagine that? Me, coming out of an egg that survived hundreds of years inside an ice crystal? It's right out of a fairy tale book," Sasuga said indifferently, obviously not believing the story.

"What happened after that?" Hazard asked.

"Well, they raised and loved me as their own child until I was eight years old. That's when they passed away in a traffic accident and I lost the only people that truly cared about me... Since then, I lived in an orphanage until I was fourteen and found out that my foster parents actually left me this a decent savings fund and I could only have it when I'm old enough. That's how I managed to go through school and initially rent this apartment. So, there you have it... That's my life story," Sasuga smiled weakly.

"Oh, Sas... I'm sorry to hear that. That must've been rough," Panja muttered, holding himself back from tearing up.

"Yeah, but hat's okay. I managed on my own so far, but I couldn't have made it without the Temples. They were so good to me, I'm truly grateful to them. They were my real parents, to me. I miss them so much..." Sasuga thoughtfully said, unable to hold back a tear as she remembered her beloved foster parents, wiping her eyes. "Sorry, I'm getting emotional here..."

"Hey, don't worry about it. They sure sound like good parents," Hazard smiled.

"Very much. Oh! I just remembered something! Wait a moment." Sasuga suddenly got up and went off to her bedroom. She came back in a few moments with a boxed chest and put it on top of the table for the other two to see. "This is my treasure chest, where I keep all of my precious old stuff. I have some photos of them that I could show you."

"Sweet! Let's see!" Panja rumbled curiously and stood up next to the kirin. Sasuga was delighted to and opened the chest, bringing out some photos of her childhood with her parents. "This is my dad Alonzo, and this is my mom Shiko. And here's me, celebrating my third birthday." Sasuga showed them one of the photos, as Panja squealed.

"Awwww! This is too cute for words! You gotta see, Haz!" Panja said as Hazard joined them.

"Heh, and what's this?" Hazard picked up photo that showed a one-year old Sasuga being a fussy and crying while wearing a diaper.

"Ah, you don't have to see that!" Sasuga stammered and tried to take the photo away, but Panja was faster than her and grabbed it.

"Oh man! Cuteness overload! Someone was being a crybaby!" Panja laughed heartily as he looked at the picture.

"H-Hey! Give it back!" Sasuga yapped in embarrassment and tried to get the photo back from the large lion's hand, unable to reach, while Hazard chuckled. He then caught something peculiar with his eyes inside the chest.

"Hey, is that...?"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, this is the egg shell that I came out from. At least what left of it," Sasuga replied as he brought out the egg shell, which had most of the top of it cracked out. "My mom kept it all this time, and I kept it here for sentimental reasons. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away," Sasuga explained casually, but then noticed the shocked look on both of Hazard's and Panja's faces. "Wh-What's wrong?"

"I knew it! It's really you, Sas!" Hazard exclaimed, holding Sasuga's arms in thrill.

"I-I'm what?" Sasuga stuttered in confusion.

"Your mother didn't make that story up, Sasuga. You're the sole survivor of the kirins. You're the same kirin egg that we've lost 400 years ago. After hearing that story and seeing your egg shell, there's no doubt about it. You are the Princess of the Kirins!" Hazard revealed to an astounded Sasuga, who couldn't believe her ears.

"Pri... Princess?"

"Holy crap! This is amazing! I can't believe that after all these years; we would finally find you again!" Panja said elatedly.

"W-Wait a minute! I don't understand a thing you're saying. What kirin princess? That can't be me. No way," Sasuga said in disbelief.

"I understand this might be hard to believe, Sas. But it's true. Like I said before, you're one of us. You might not know it yet, but you're special," Hazard told her.

"What do you mean 'special'?"

"Well, have you felt that there's something different about you? Any strange or abnormal happenings?"

"Haz, you're losing me here..."

"Here, I'll show you," Panja interfered and grabbed a glass of beer that was placed on the table. He lifted it up for Sasuga to see, and then his hand emitted a faint blue glow, much to the kirin's amazement, and the glass content totally froze up. The lion then turned the glass upside-down and the beer didn't spill, completely iced and clinging to the glass.

"H-How did you do that!?" Sasuga gawked.

"That's my own special power. I can control and summon the element of ice, freeze up things, that kind of stuff. Pretty 'cool', huh?" Panja smugly smirked, as Hazard rolled his eyes at his shameless pun.

"That's remarkable... but I don't have any special powers like that, so you must be mistaken," Sasuga questionably said.

"Yours might not have awakened yet. They can turn up when you least expect it," Hazard replied.

"Really? Well, what's your special power, Haz?" Sasuga asked the wolf.

"Erm, I can't really say," Hazard murmured.

"He refuses to tell anyone about it, even me! And I'm his life-long companion!" Panja griped.

"Look, it's not that I don't want to tell you. I just can't. It's no big deal, anyway, 'cause I don't need it," Hazard stated.

"But, why? Why do you have these powers? How'd you- I mean we, become immortal? I still can't believe any of this." Sasuga's head was spinning from all these shocking revelations; she didn't know what to believe and what not to.

"I think that's enough surprises for one night. It's too much to take, I know. But don't fret; we're here with you, Sas. Whatever happens," Hazard comfortingly said to her, patting her shoulders gently.

Sasuga smiled back at him and nodded, "Thanks, Haz."

"Yeah! Don't worry, Sassy! With me, Haz and Seif in your side, you got nothing to worry about!" Panja proclaimed.

"S-Seif? You mean, you know him?" Sasuga's ears perked at the sudden mention of blond lion she previously met.

"Oh, that's right, I forget to tell you. Seif is Panja's cousin, and yup, he's one of us, too. You and him had a little meeting, eh? And I'm not about talking the car incident," Hazard said with a tiny smirk, as Sasuga returned with a puzzled look. "Your mysterious cloaked hero that saved you last night? That was Seif," the wolf revealed and the kirin's face brightened up with a red blush. It was one shock after another, and it kept getting more astounding. But the fact that Seif was a close acquaintance to Hazard and Panja made her heart skip a beat. The chance of her meeting her dreamy lion again soon didn't seem as farfetched as it apparently posed.

"Sassy? Hey, Sassy, you're here?" Panja snapped his fingers at the awestruck kirina and brought her back to reality.

"Huh? Oh! Y-Yeah, I'm fine! I'm just surprised at all of this. It's too much of a coincidence to be real," Sasuga stammered.

"Heh, yeah, I can't blame you. Fate sure can be a bitch sometimes," Hazard chuckled. "It's getting late, and you have school tomorrow, right? Let's stop at this point. I know it's stupid for me to tell you this now, but try not to think about all of this; you'll understand everything in time. Just try to relax and get some good sleep. I'm always going to be next door if you need anything, deal?" the wolf soothed her a bit.

"Yeah... okay."

"Well, now that we're done with that, what'll we do about my domestic issue?" Panja asked with a hopeful beam on his face.

"What do you mean by 'we'? Don't you have your own place to go back to?" Hazard replied.

"What!? You mean you want me to live alone!? All by myself!? You know I can't bear being alone, Haz! Besides, I can't afford it to boot!" the white lion whined.

"You sure seemed to have managed so far..." Hazard murmured.

"No fucking way! I barely survived! It's a very harsh world out there! I'm too hot and sweet to live alone! You have to take me in with you, wolfy!" Panja begged the golden wolf, as Hazard distressed sigh.

"Give me a break..."

"Umm... I... I don't mind if you want to stay here, Panja. I mean, temporarily, until you find your own place," the kirin then coyly offered from out of the blue, making Hazard's lower jaw drop.

"Really!? You really mean that!? Because I'd love that!" Panja agreeably answered. "Boy, this gonna be great! I haven't had a girl for a roomie before! It should be very interesting..." the white lion expressed, a sly grin spreading on his big muzzle.

"That's not happening! Out of the question!" Hazard suddenly retorted, adamantly refusing that idea. "I'm not gonna leave you alone with her. Shit, fine, you can stay with me..." the wolf grumbled defeatedly.

"Yaay! Awesome! Thanks, wolfy!" Panja cheered in joy, pulling the golden wolf in between his arms for one of his tight squeezes. "It'll be like the old days! Just you and me, buddy!"

"Agh! Geez, I'm so thrilled... just put me down, dammit!" Hazard griped as he was hugged tightly by the big white lion. It sure was a long, eventful day for Sasuga, and felt a bit disappointed that Panja wasn't going to be her roommate, but she didn't mind, as she giggled at those two odd pair.

To be continued...