FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Jonas awoke uncomfortably hot the next morning. He was sore, groggy, and felt like he'd been smashed in the face with a watermelon. He knew that he hadn't been drinking, which he had tried once before, but at the moment he couldn't understand why he felt so terrible.

He sat up, his eyes still closed, and leaned heavily against the object he had been lying against. It had the strangest texture, smooth patches with rough lines between them, like a strange checkerboard. It felt very warm against his bare back, and he again wondered why he was naked. It was hot, sure, but he usually slept with at least a pair of boxers on. The air, too, was odd to him. It was so fresh, like water from a purifier, but it was so hot. It was an odd heat, not quite dry, but not quite humid. An almost unnatural mixture that made you sweat just lying in it, but the sweat would evaporate, not just hang on your skin.

Jonas groaned, arching his back around the tubular object behind him as he stretched. It felt so good, and Jonas wished that it was softer. But as he squirmed against it again, it squirmed back. First an almost unnoticeable tremor, closely followed by it sliding up over his back and disappearing from his touch, causing him to fall back. His head hit something hard, quite probably the ground, and a shadow blocked the light from seeping through his eyelids. This is when Jonas finally opened his eyes.

The first and only thing he saw was a giant head, about four feet high and two and a half feet wide. It was covered in shining black scales, which he saw run along its long neck and probably across its entire body. A long, rounded muzzle protruded from the lower half of its face, and hung about a half-foot above him. Two large, cat-like red eyes stared down at him, and its nostrils flared slightly as it breathed. It's hot breath ruffled his hair slightly, and caused a fair amount of fear to suddenly rush through his brain. In a flash, he was on his feet, and at least six feet from the huge creature that had once been standing over him.

"Wh-What are you?" He stammered, still in shock from his sudden awakening. He never took his fearful eyes off the creature's head as it rose on its neck to its full height. In the background, he noticed one and a half suns, one blue, and half of a red one, hanging motionless in the sky above. It was then, that the events of the previous day exploded into his mind. He didn't know how he'd managed to forget all of that day, but somehow, he had.

"Are you humans always this slow?" The creature asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. It shook its massive head slowly. "First they want to sleep with you, and then they forget who you are."

"Y-you never told me your name." Jonas said, a hint of fear still remained in his voice, but it was mostly hidden by confusion and outright hopelessness. All of the emotions he seemed to have missed yesterday, were just now jumping on top of him.

"Didn't I?" It asked. "No, I guess not. Anyway, you can call me Viridan."

"I'm Jonas." Jonas replied.

Viridan simply nodded. "Well Jonas, allow me to be the first to formally welcome you to 'The Cage'." The creature said.

"The Cage?" Jonas asked. He was slightly amazed that this place had a name at all.

"It is advertised as 'a magical place, where wild animals sexually assault each other for sport and entertainment'." Viridan replied. "More of that happens upstairs, though. This place, as its name suggests, is basically a giant holding pen, where the gathered creatures from all across the galaxy are stored until the producers want to bring them up to the crowds."

"Wait, you're telling me...that I was kidnapped from my home, brought to another planet, and that these...things...expect me to go around having sex with things?" Jonas asked. "And all of this is supposedly entertainment? Like some television program?"

"A little more advanced than that, but essentially yes.That is exactly what this is." Viridan said. "Welcome to primetime. You're currently being shown in the number one slot on every network."

"This is insane!" Jonas suddenly burst out, throwing his hands up into the air and spinning so his back was to the creature behind him. "This can't be real. It has to be a dream. Nothing this painfully disgusting can truly be real."

"Oh, I assure you, it is completely real. Just as real as I am." Viridan cut into his ranting.

"Which reminds me." Jonas spat, spinning back around and jabbing a finger at the creature. "What are you? Where did you come from?"

"I am Viridan, a civilian of the dragon species." He replied matter-of-factly. "My home is on the third residential colony in the Alpha Centauri cluster."

"Alpha Centauri? That's the closest star system to Earth's." Jonas commented, wondering briefly how a cover article on a tabloid newspaper on a grocery store check-out rack had managed to slip back into his mind.

He nodded his massive head slowly. "Yes, we have been observing you humans for a long time." He said thoughtfully. "Only recognized in the galactic community as a bunch of moderately developed savages."

Jonas simply stared at him, bewildered, before shaking his head as if to clear it. "Anyway, let's just clear one last thing up. We are on a TV show, right now. And thousands of millions of people are watching us."

"Not us, specifically, but yes." Viridan replied. "Most of the time, the cameras are on the arena matches, but they sometimes send a cloaked one down to show the crowds what we can do."

"What do you mean by that?" Jonas asked.

"Well, the producers look down here, and find creatures that are either actively dominating others, or actively submitting to others. They are brought up to the arena, where live competitions are held before an enormous crowd. They say, whoever wins thirty competitions in a row, gets set free."

"How do you know that?" Jonas asked.

"Actually, my people used to receive the show as part of our television package, but then the producers of the show, and no one knows who they are, by the way...They began to kidnap us for the show. When the government found out, they stepped in and got the show off of our networks, but the kidnapping didn't stop. In fact, it got worse. Many people disappeared without a trace, and very, very few returned."

"So some of your people won." Jonas said. "Have any humans ever made it out."

"Only seven humans, including yourself, have even been brought to the cage." Viridan said somberly. "Five of them died here. The other, made it up to the arena, as a submisser, mind you, and died in the first fight."

A shiver ran up Jonas' spine. "And that's the only way out?" He asked.

"Yes, unless you had a proton cannon and several billion dollars worth of vertical mining equipment." He replied. "The cage itself is located as the core of an artificial world, which acts as an entertainment hub for this quarter of the galaxy."

"So if it falls apart, so does the economy." Jonas commented. "Humans know about that."

Viridan nodded once, and looked up to the sky. "Indeed, but enough ideal chatter, the day is wasting away." He said. "Come on, I want to show you around a bit."

He trudged off in the direction away from Jonas, his heavy, padded feet barely making a sound as he walked. Jonas jogged in order to catch up, but the dragon made it easy for him to keep up, without having to match his enormous strides. As they walked through the dense jungle, Viridan pointed out and described a variety of plants, and often giving examples of their practical uses. For instance, the square-leaved bush, known as a quadrileafeal, could be used as an excellent bandage because of its toughness.

As they walked on, Jonas kept one ear on Viridan's chatter while he thought about him with the rest of his mind. He knew he was hiding something from him, that much was obvious. He had never mentioned his brother at all during his talk about himself. And he knew that they were having a conflict over something, one that could get him hurt if he became involved. But he came across like a companion, someone who you would trust to guide you through a particularly treacherous area or something. He knew that he would have to get this creature's problems out in the open eventually, but decided to leave it until later. For now, he would simply follow and listen, and hopefully learn some things to help him survive in this new television show world he had been thrust into.