FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

We were different from our parents, my siblings and I. They never noticed. I think they lacked the intelligence to notice. But we didn't. From the moment we first opened our eyes at two and a half weeks old, we could see and understand the difference. Our parents moved on four legs, we were far more comfortable on two. If they had to hold something they had to use both paws, we only needed one, as ours had a loose digit that allowed us to hold things.

We found it difficult to communicate with our parents, and others older than us. We could understand them, but we were unable to speak the same language. Our thoughts were arranged in a strange language, that when aired had to be purely vocal, you could emphasize with the body, but that was about it.

Once we could fend for ourselves, our parents left and never came back. I think they were killed. No other family split up like that. Our parents always called me First. I think because I was the firstborn of our litter. I was certainly the strongest of us.

We lived underground. Our home was dark, apart from an oblong of light near the top that our parents would use as the entrance and exit. Our nest lay on a ledge of stone near a sheer drop that fell towards foul water. I never liked the smell after I had discovered the fresher air outside.

Outside. There was a place of wonder and danger. Filled with multi-coloured giants and great beasts that would carry these giants in their bellies. I was nothing to these giants. Not even half the size of one of their feet. Thankfully the walls outside were the same colour as my fur and so it was easy to hide. My tail and ears stood out, but never enough for them to notice. Young giants might see me sometimes, but the older ones only ever saw me if I moved. I presumed their vision must be based on movement as many times I saw them stumble in to objects in their way.

One thing I still don't understand is that I could understand these giants. It was their language that my siblings and I spoke. How I knew is something I don't think I will ever find out.

My life changed for me one day. I was out scavenging for food. One of the large food places of the giants was nearby, and it was easy to get inside. I had snuck in as one of them had entered and made my way around the walls to get to where they stored the food. Climbing up the shelves I started taking bits from their ordered pots. Shoving some in my cheek pouches and then more under my arms. There was a piece of soft material nearby that they used to wrap their food, so I thought I would use it too. I put in as much as I could carry and started folding it over like they did, tying the top together. As I took hold of the package and readied myself to leave I noticed I was being watched.

One of the giants had a knife in their hand, and one of their thin slabs they loved looking at, but they were looking at me, not at it. I wasn't sure what to do, so I just stood there a moment. Then I thought, if I could understand them, maybe they could understand me. I cleared my throat in a squeaky little cough, "Can I have this, please?"

The giant let out a scream that made my ears hurt, then the knife approached. I ran. Taking my package with me. I threw it off the edge and dove down after it. I took a second to recover and fled with my food as they came around the corner. Luck held as another giant came through the entrance, leaving it open for me to escape.

The next day I saw myself making my escape on one of their moving picture boxes that hung in the corner of a room. The giants were mostly fascinated, some were disgusted. I overheard some claiming it was fake. I thought it best to not go out. I had brought enough food for a while anyway.

I had to leave on the second day. Giants in white showed up. Their faces covered by strange masks. One was not covered. Obviously old, he had very little grey fur on his head. I only caught bits of their conversation, but they planned to search for our home, somehow they knew it must be nearby. According to this man, I was the fifth occurrence he had investigated. I ran back to the nest and convinced my siblings to leave with me. I didn't know what they would do if they found us, and I was scared for my family.

I figured these giants must be able to travel a long way, so we found one putting things into one of their monsters and climbed in. Wherever we ended up, we would find a new home. The case we climbed in was full of fur, not as soft as our own, it was so comfy we quickly fell asleep.

We woke to a loud noise, lots of noise. Many voices, and what the giants called music playing nearby. Our case was being moved, none of us dared to look out as we travelled. The giant put us down and we heard the footsteps walk away. Pushing the closer open enough, we crawled out and found a space between some of their seats to hide. We couldn't believe our eyes. These giants had tails. Furred, scaled and neither. I saw the one that we had come with, he had a tail now, like ours, but he had not had one earlier. We tried to figure out how this was possible, but then it was answered for us.

One of them came nearby and took fur from a case and started to remove what, until that point, I had assumed was their flesh. Then they started covering themselves with the other fur, and even had a new head they placed over their own. Suddenly it started bouncing about, this seemingly new creature had come into existence. I knew the giant was just wearing it, but the energy they now exuded made you really think it was real.

Climbing to a higher vantage point, I watched and saw that these giants seemed to worship creatures that looked like us. Multiple species in many colours were visible, each one had one or more images hanging around their necks, each had a different creature displayed on their images. I began to think it was a means of identification. But they obviously liked these two-legged animals.

I had an idea and turned to my siblings. "I'm going to try something. Stay here until I say so. If I end, then find somewhere safe." They promised, which was enough for me, so I left our hiding place and jumped on the back of one of the fake heads a giant was just about to put on. Once they had it on, I climbed up to hold tight to one of its ears.

It didn't take long before one of them saw me. One of those not in fur, turned the back of his slab towards the one I was riding and they took a pose. I realised that must be how they capture images, that one two days ago must have used her slab to be able to capture those moving pictures of me. The one capturing this image, commented to the one I was holding on to. "I like the mouse on your ear. A nice touch for a cat. You a mouse lover?"

"What?" the muffled response came from below me. At least one liked me, I thought as I the cat I was riding removed his head to stare dumbfounded at me.

"Um. Hi?" I said to try and get some response.

A look of recognition spread across this giant's face. "Holy shit, you're the one from the news." His exclamation was loud and made others turn to see what was happening.

"Hey it's that mouse."

"Aww, he's cuter than I thought he'd be."

"Where'd it come from?"

They started crowding around and my nervousness must have shown, because the one carrying the head held out his fake paw. "Guys, not so close, you're scaring him. Don't you realise how big you are." They listened to his advice and I did feel better as they stepped back.

"How much English do you know, mouse?" one asked in the awkward silence that had followed.

"I'm not sure what English is," I had to respond honestly.

"It's what we call our language, our speech," another explained before jabbing his elbow into the first. "You can't expect him to know every word."

"I understand most of it. And can speak it too. So can my siblings."

"You've got brothers and sisters?"

"Yes, I am First, because I was born first. Our parents didn't have much intelligence."

One of them pointed the side of their slab they usually looked at towards me. I saw the images of me running from the food place. "Is that you?"

"Yes,"

"Yeah, that happened right next to my place." The one with the mouse-like tail spoke.

"Thank you for bringing us to a safe place. We ran away because of those white men."

"I brought you?"

"Me and my siblings. We hid in your case."

"You know, I thought I recognised one of those scientists," the mouse tailed one pulled his slab from his legs and tapped it a few times. "Yeah, the man in the middle, that was him." He turned the image to me.

"I think so, I didn't look at them long."

"Yeah, but look beside him."

I looked at the image again, and then registered the other creatures. I turned to the one whose head I was still attached to. "They look like you, but, real."

"Stories say they were."

"Were?"

"Their home was attacked by a group of fanatics. Even set off a dirty bomb. It was all over the news about three months ago. Not that far from here actually."

"They're gone?"

"People think so," another spoke up. "I've heard stories from people out that way that they've seen a fox and dragon nearby. Apparently, the fox keeps going back inside, comes out all burnt and horrible, then goes back in a few days later perfectly fine. Like a spooky ghost."

"That's got to be bullshit. They can't even go in there to recover the dead it's so irradiated."

The one that had told the tale threw his hands in the air. "It's just what I've heard."

"Here, I heard you say, you brought your siblings. Where are they?"

"I'll get them." I jumped down from the head and bounded over to our hiding place. "Come on, their friendly, they like us." All six of my siblings followed me out. I heard the voice that had called me cute squee as they saw them.

I climbed back up the giant pretending to be a cat and took my position on his fake head again. "You, mouse-tail," I didn't know what else to call him, and they had called me a mouse, so I felt it fit.

"Call me Scrit, that's my fursona."

"That picture, what were the other ones called?"

"Oh, there were ten names," he said as he tapped at his slab again. "It says, from left to Right, Nightstorm, Lightstrike, Blackear, Nocturna, Faralina, Theologen, Rossoco, Carinett, Mortimer and Coriana."

"Hey I know some of those names," someone else joined in. "Haven't heard from them in a while, shit. I hope they got out."

"The scientist that survived said everything was destroyed, and if they weren't killed in the attack, the radiation would have got them."

"I still can't believe they admitted they were real."

As these giants spoke amongst themselves, I realised my siblings were each having little conversations of their own. Scattered around the room.

I jumped over to where Scrit was now sitting and got his attention.

"I couldn't keep track of who was speaking over there," I stopped him before he started naming them. "Look. I want you to take me to the fox."

"That story is probably not real."

"If it isn't real, I'll find out and come back. If it is, I won't come back. Could you take me as far as you can? One of you said it was near here, but that could be too far for one as small as me."

"What about your brothers and sisters?"

I looked back across the room. "They'll be fine. Promise me, you, or some of you, will look after them and keep them safe."

"Sure, I'll put the word out."

"Thank you, and thank you for bringing us here, even if you didn't know you were doing it."

"That's part of what we're about, helping others."

Scrit walked around the room, finding people that would be able to look after my siblings. He even had to explain to them where I was going. Fourth and Fifth insisted on coming with us. We made our goodbyes and left on Scrit's shoulders. Whilst travelling, we had time to have some questions answered. It turned out that these monsters were not alive, they were called cars, they were controlled by a force he called electricity, a force that made all of their things work, even their slabs, which he called a phone. Apparently it could let you talk to people as far away as the other side of the world. That was a comment I didn't understand, I could barely comprehend how far we were travelling. Everything moved past so fast. This journey might have taken me years to make if I had walked.

Finally, we turned down one road that was not much more than a dirt track. Our path was blocked by a fence and two men with guns.

Scrit brought the car to a stop and opened the window.

"You are going to have to turn around now, sir. This is a restricted area," one said as he approached.

"I know," Scrit replied. "I don't need to go further; my passengers want to."

"I don't see any passengers, are you trying to be funny."

"No sir," I heard him say, as we ran as fast as we could along the road. "They're already through the gate."

I looked back and saw the guard looking at us as we ran. He looked at the other guard. "Our orders are to keep _people_out, so turn around and go back."

I heard the car start and start moving, mentally thanking the giant once again.

We ran until we couldn't any more. The sun was setting as we came in sight of a small building, partly collapsed and rebuilt, there was a light on inside.

We walked up to the door and I called as loud as I could, aware my voice was small. "Hello."

There was a noise inside, and the door opened. A giant sized red creature, with great wings on his back stood there. Something about him made me afraid. "Are you the fox? We were told one has been seen here."

"Arco, your food is coming to you for a change."

His comment made me almost run, until another voice came through the room. "Don't worry. If you can talk I won't eat you. Come in." We went in and the red one closed the door behind us. Climbing onto the table nearby, we saw the fox lying in bed. He looked ill, and part of him looked badly burnt.

"Mr, Arco was it?" The fox nodded. "We have come to help you save the Ten. I believe that is why you keep going inside."

"Quite astute of you, little one. But you can't help. You would die within minutes."

"My name is First, and these are my siblings, Fourth and Fifth, and if you can survive, surely we will."

The fox laughed only shortly before exclaiming in pain. "Ow! No, we two are special, like the Ten. I made sure they were safe. I must make sure they get out. I think I may have a job for you to help that will not kill you." I'll tell you about it in the morning. Now I must sleep. At least the three of you won't eat all our food."

And so our new life began. We worked, obeying the fox and dragon as we were later told the other was. We lived for five years. With our help, the fox created a device to remove what he called the core. And whilst we lived there more like us came. Rabbits, stoats, otter, badgers, moles, all manner of creature heard tale of the Ten and came to help the Arco. The Ten came first, and from what we learned from others, we were their legacy, so it was our duty to help them wake up. And I was glad to leave my children, who grew up to be taller than me, with the task.