FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A loud, sustained hiss had awoken Facil from his unconscious state. Everything was numb, all he could feel was cold's bitter shell around him. His limbs refused to obey his wishes, he was still panicking the same amount as when he was first submerged inside the cryochamber. His vision was extremely blurred, still suffering the side effects of re-emerging. He could pick up faint conversation beyond his door. The hissing subsided, making way for light as the frozen door had peeled away slowly, bathing the hedgehog in a refreshing warm light.

He was still blind and the beaming light had did his vision no favors. He could make out shadowy figures reaching out for him. Their hands were warm to the touch and felt comforting, if it weren't for the fact that he was dealing with total strangers. They spoke to one another in a language foreign to the hedgehog, making him question how far into the future he was at... It hurt to think about it, especially when the only thing that fought with his thoughts was the gibberish chatting that was thrown about to and from.

"W-W-Where a-am I?" Facil shivered, still cold despite the warm embrace of his visitors. No one had responded back, at least not in his native tongue. The hands had pulled him from his cryochamber, nearly causing him to trip and fall. Luckily, he ran into more arms that were ready to catch him, his bare feet had stomped through the blistering heat of the stinging sand, which felt amazing to the icicle of a hedgehog.

"...D-D-Does a-anyone speak E-E-Empyrean?" He uttered out in a mess, hoping for a real answer as his new acquaintances were beginning to scare him by presence alone. His strength was lost upon him, there would be no way to fight off his captors if the time came for it. His vision wasn't getting any better, and neither was his growing anxiety. The whole thing had him fall feint, face first into the sand.

The woozy hedgehog didn't wake up until hours later, in front of a warm, lit fireplace, tightly wrapped up in a thick cozy blanket. "Nnnn... Was it all a dream?" Facil groaned, blinking his eyes open slowly. His sight was considerably more focused than it was before. The flicker of the flame caught his eye, wondering if he was sleeping over at Myra's house. All seemed normal until he got a face full of a new stranger.

"Ahh!" Facil shouted as he was greeted in a strange language. A scaly crocodile who was all smiles got up into his face, glad to see the hedgehog awake and doing just fine. He was about the same age as Facil... As far as the hedgehog could tell with scaly people that is. "W-Who are you!?" Facil made a quick survey of his surroundings, realizing this wasn't Myra's house at all. "And where am I?!" He shuffled away from the eager crocodile, who tailed closer.

"Am Baso!" The crocodile introduced himself in broken Empyrean dialect. As bad as it sounded it was somewhat a relief to the hedgehog's ears. Baso held out a open hand, "you safe here now," Facil found it quite funny that despite the flashy miner's getup the crocodile was wearing, his caveman-like lingo had given off mixed signals.

"Safe? Are you sure?" Facil glanced about again, a bit slower this time around. He took in the interior designs, everything was made out of ratty sandstone it seemed. Besides the fireplace, torches were the only thing keeping this room lit. The future looked pretty primitive to the hedgehog. "...What year is it?" He asked Baso, hoping the crocodile could string together a competent answer.

"Am two-two years old!" Baso held up four fingers, two on each hand, trying his best to communicate his age to the foreign hedgehog. His answer had prompted a facepalm out of the hedgehog as he sat himself up to clarify his question further.

"No! The time! What's the time!" Facil shot his question at the crocodile vehemently. The crocodile thought hard about the words to say, his eyes aimed at the ceiling for an answer. "...Well?" The hedgehog grew impatient with the delay.

"...Noon," Baso replied casually, even though it was way past the afternoon. His Empyrean lexicon was lacking in some colorful, descriptive language. His answer had only further infuriated Facil, causing him to pull at his hair.

"I didn't mean THAT!" He stood himself up and tossed away the sheets, forgetting the fact that he was still butt naked. It took the draft in the room to remind him that his clothes were still in storage. "Eeep!!" Facil gasped as he looked down at himself in both shame and shock. The crocodile chuckled, finding it funny that Facil was embarrassed to be exposed in the nude.

"No worry, clothes here!" Baso stood up and removed the backpack from off his shoulders and tossed it over to Facil. The unexpected pass almost had toppled the hedgehog as he panicked whether to catch the bag or keep himself covered. The hesitation left him open as the impact nearly had him double over in pain.

"Ooow...! At least warn me before you do something like that," Facil groaned, kneeling down carefully at the backpack, he covered himself behind it as he freed his hands to unzip it. His clothes were found inside, still bunched up and wrinkled as he left them... At least they still smelled nice. Pulling them out, the hedgehog peeked back up at the crocodile, the reptile's eyes still glued on Facil. There was no way he was gonna dress himself in front of a stranger.

"Need help?" Baso asked, still wearing that large grin on his face. Facil was getting tired of seeing it, there was something strange about this reptile, he seemed a little too happy to have the hedgehog as company.

"Some privacy would be nice..." Facil grumbled, glaring at the crocodile. Surprisingly Baso was able to understand, facing away from the hedgehog, whistling an innocent tune along with it. Facil decided to trust the crocodile's goodwill and began to clothe himself. The song Baso was whistling away with sounded awfully familiar to the hedgehog. "...Hey, don't they play that song on the radio? ...Or used to?" Facil corrected himself.

"Empyrean radio! Yes!" Baso's eyes lit up as he faced the half dressed hedgehog, who scowled instantly at the peeping tom. The crocodile caught himself in the mistake, cursing in his native tongue before returning privacy to Facil. "Sorry," he apologized quietly, feeling the hedgehog's glare on the back of his head.

"...Seeing as that song's still popular, I can't be THAT far into the future, right?" Facil spoke out his thoughts, "maybe Myra might still be around..." His eyes bounced around the room again, wondering why he was in such a musty, grainy place to begin with. "But this place seems so old and primitive, how can this be the future, did a huge war take place?" All of his talking had the crocodile struggling to keep up.

"War! Empyrean war!" Baso glanced back again, this time seeing a fully dressed hedgehog standing before him. "Greedy Empyreans!" The crocodile was a little agitated himself. Facil found it a little jarring that Baso liked their music, but called them greedy.

"So there was a war? What happened?" Facil asked, genuinely curious about what Baso had to say. The crocodile sighed with a roll of his eyes. Not wanting to explain the whole story, especially in his broken Empyrean tongue. He began to explain it in his own language, leaving Facil dumbfounded for about a minute or so before finishing his monologue.

"...Understand?" Baso ended, only getting a visual response off of Facil's face that read more than what the hedgehog could say. Facil shook himself out of it and held onto his head, wondering what strange utopia he fell into that there was another language besides Empyrean.

"Can you run that by me again, but in Empyrean please?" He asked politely. Baso refused with a shake of his head, He wasn't going to break his back to retell a past and present that he hated with a passion. Though, the crocodile knew what he could do. His face lit up with an idea.

"Boss with here say you!" Baso grabbed Facil by the arm and began dragging him out the door, only to get dampered by a resisting Facil. The crocodile stopped in his tracks and raised an eyebrow at the hedgehog in question.

"Aren't you the boss?" Facil was confused, wondering what the crocodile was trying to do. Baso laughed heartily, nearly crying from the innocent accusation. He thought his Empyrean was bad, here Facil was, mishearing him. He took a few moments to quell himself to speak.

"No... Am Baaa-so," the crocodile clarified, "are work to boss!" His broken Empyrean had conveyed it clear enough to the struggling hedgehog who scratched at the back of his head.

"Ooooh, okay," Facil nodded, soon resuming his forced journey out the door. The warm desert breeze blew through them as the evening sun nearly blinded the hedgehog's eyes. He was still dragged on despite his visual impairment, almost tripping over the small grainy dunes below him a few times. When his eyesight kicked back in, he took notice to the huge mining operation happening in the distance. "Jeez... What are they digging for in a desolate place like this?" Facil kept up with the questions, trying hard to keep up with the crocodile's pace.

"Crystals!" Baso replied with a short glance back, "are do you rich!" his words ate at Facil, who was used to using a digital credits system. The war must have really set Empyrean back if they were after a physical currency. The thought had made him wonder if his savings account was still in check.

"You find any yet?" Facil asked, scrounging around for ideas to get some money going. If his credits were gone, he was going to have to start from scratch again, and that didn't sit well with him. His question had garnered a chuckle from the crocodile before he could respond.

"Yeah, find you!" The wide grin never left Baso's face. Same with the shock on Facil's. The hedgehog was lost in thought on how he got here. It only just hit him now... Was he lost in transition or subject to a terrorist attack on the building he was stored in. There was multiple scenarios the hedgehog thought up, but what really mattered was that he was safe and sound... For the most part.

The duo headed into hard hat territory, Facil keeping an eye out for anything that could take his head off at any moment. Facil had many questions, but he knew he would have an easier time extracting his own teeth than trying to puzzle together Baso's broken language. Perhaps one of the miners around would be more keen on the Empyrean language.

Their journey stopped at the base of a tall crane, Baso shouting up for the operator's attention. It was unintelligible to the hedgehog's ears but it certainly gotten the attention of the operator, stopping the crane in mid swing. "Oh, what is it now Baso!?" The voice was visibly agitated, but relieving to Facil, easily picking out the Empyrean words among his accent.

"Friend awake!" Baso replied, still shouting above the noise. A door opened from the top, a figure shadowed by the sun popped out. It climbed onto the ladder, using the railing to slide down to the base. It was an impressive feat, considering his age. An old, wrinkly tortoise brushed his hands together before turning around, taking a good long look at the hedgehog.

"Well, so he is," his investigative stare had Facil unnerved, hoping they weren't planning on gutting him and eating him. "...With a little training, he'll fit in just fine, we could use the extra hand anyways." The tortoise glanced over to the crocodile, "A great find Baso, you do our team proud!" He patted the crocodile on the shoulder.

"...This is the boss?" Facil asked Baso, a little concerned for the age of the tortoise. An old man working labor of this level was uncanny, especially during Facil's time. Those crystals must have had anyone set for life and beyond if people past their prime were chasing after them, at least that's what the hedgehog thought. Baso nodded with a smile, feeling accomplished with receiving the boss' praise.

"I'm your boss now, boy!" The tortoise replied firmly, letting Facil know his place among the workers. "And don't think your Empyrean fragility is an excuse to skimp out of work," He poked the hedgehog in the stomach, hoping to break him from his flabby, out of shape body.

"Aren't you Empyrean too?" Facil grew confused, no idea why the boss would label him as an Empyrean when they were all Empyreans to the hedgehog. The tortoise had burst out in hearty laughter, as if Facil's words were the best joke he had heard in a long time. It was a few moments of laughing and knee slapping before the tortoise calmed himself down.

"That's the most stupidest thing I've ever heard!" The boss wiped a happy tear from his eye, "but I'll let that slide seeing as you're fresh out of the box!" He took one last deep breath to rid the remnants of his cackling. "Look boy, you're on Terra now, Empyreon sent you here across space in that little ice box of yours. Originally, they were gonna have you work for them here on Terra, but fortunately for the both of us, we found you here, so now you work for us Terrans!" The boss' enlightenment was too much for Facil, the information overloading his brain as he passed out cold, falling back into the ground.

Baso immediately fell to the hedgehog's side, hoping he was alright. He began fanning off Facil with a hand, soon gently smacking his face around to get him to come back to reality. Nothing had worked sadly as the hedgehog still remained motionless. The boss had sighed and rolled his eyes in disappointment.

"Bring him to bed Baso, he starts work tomorrow morning," the tortoise muttered angrily, upset that he couldn't put the hedgehog to work today. The joy of torturing him with hard labor would come later. Messing with a wimpy Empyrean was a breath of fresh air, none of his workers were ever this weak in the knees. He watched as Baso hauled Facil over his shoulder and walked him back into their resting quarters.