FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Lavender eyes peeked curiously over the Black and Red ships inner panels, eyeing the large spacious white tile walk way, which looked suspiciously more like a run way, and the pyramid shaped structure which over looked the wide walk way and the other three that extended from it's other three faces as it came in low for an, if nothing else, daring landing. The ship barely skimmed over the ground just high enough to avoid any unwanted casualties. The low altitude certainly didn't stop the hot shot, Wolf, from entertaining his adopted just a little while longer with a little hot-dogging. The Wolfen made a miniscule altitude jump as it began to barrel roll in the air, kicking up some intense wind and a few skirts here and there before the back draft knocked them all of the new cadet's and their chaperones off their feet. O'Donnell and his stepson gave out a loud and hearty howl as the easily recognizable ship accelerated into a rapid climb. Almost every head looked was locked on the Wolfen now, anticipating some wicked stunt or a spectacular display of witty air play. They received a low back flip which caused anyone in the path to duck in cover.

Raptor glanced over the shoulder of the cockpit seat to peer at the lupine he had called his Lord and father for the past eight years just as Wolf glanced back, easing the Wolfen in for a smooth landing. The sixteen year old raven offered him a weak smirk, the pain of separation resting heavy on his visage. Wolf, likewise, wasn't all too pleased with leaving the closest thing he had to a son to the Cornerian Military Academy, but both knew that this was for the best. Raptor was abandoned by his parents and shoved into a garbage capsule slowly drifting towards Solar. If Wolf had not just happened to come across him then, the bird would not be there right now. There relationship had not just end there either; Raptor persistently followed Wolf everywhere he went begging him to teach him how to be a fighter. Feed up with his constant pleading as well as impressed by his stubborn persistence, he agreed to father him in his ways, so the two had quite some history with each other.

When the ship finally touched down, the cockpit raised and Wolf slowly rose from his seat of power and hoped out of the ship, hitting the ground and standing to be hailed by the masses. Ever since the Great War had ended, his reputation had made a full 180 degree turn from low-life tyrannical mercenary to a wartime saint. Immediately, people began to flock to him looking for some way to get a memorable moment with the war hero. Despite beefing himself up for it, O'Donnell was not in the mood for having others kiss up to his fame. He just wanted to drop of his ward and be done with the place. Raptor followed suite after Wolf, jumping down into the crowd of people to take his place at Wolf's side, his large mossy duffle bag hanging at his side. "Let's just go," Raptor said coldly as he eyed the ground. "The sooner we get this over with the sooner you can get back to hunting." Wolf glared down at his the ebony raven, reading the emotion behind the lavender eyes and sighed. With a gentle nod of the head, the two began to casually saunter for the pyramid building and a walkway appeared before them.

They had made it as far as the door without taking heed to the voices that cheered or jeered Wolf's name, until two rang out. "I don't believe it! Wolf O'Donnell? Here?"

"Oh my! You're right! It's him!"

The O'Donnell pair looked to their left to see three foxes huddled together only a few feet away from them. Two of them, a female fox with a golden circlet and a young pup no more than three years younger than Raptor latched protectively in her arms, were blue. The little blue fox's fur patterns were much like his father's, solid with a white running down the forehead. Marcus' eyes met with Raptor's and a sense of intense hostility filled the air. Apparently the apple doesn't fall far from the tree seeing as a bitter rivalry was destined to occur at that moment. In a very similar fashion, Wolf and Fox had locked their sights on each other. The former rivals' auras made the tension suffocating and all the more enticing. Wolf turned his torso suddenly to claw for Fox who, in retaliation, brought his foot up to meet the arm. Krystal left her child, the already famous Marcus, to intervene in the scuffle which was already over. She threw herself forward in an almost feeble attempt to grasp at the arm and leg. "Well looks like you haven't lost your edge yet, Wolf."

Wolf scuffed at the implication that he could lose anything and retorted with a light chuckle, "Just remember who you turn too when ever your team can't manage something on their own." Fox and Wolf lowered their guards and, to almost everyone's surprise, locked arms and shook. What most didn't know was that the rivalry was squashed when Krystal was pregnant with Marcus. Wolf had enough respect to leave the McCloud's alone. "By the way, this is my ward, Raptor," he announced motioning to the teen. Fox and Krystal smiled at the boy and nodded greeting to him. Raptor was not all that fond of the group and decided instead to turn a solemn cheek. Wolf gave him a quick kick to the leg as punishment. "You'll have to excuse him. He is my ward." Fox and Krystal chuckled cheerily at the statement. They understood what it meant.

"Well, it would be great to catch up with you, but we should really get inside. There's only half an hour before registration is over and the dean addresses the new cadets," Krystal announced taking Marcus's hand and pulling him out of his stare down with the older cadet. Wolf patted Raptor on his back and motioned for him to follow the three in. It seemed things were going to be getting quite interesting from there on in.

The group of children and their guardians ventured down the scarcely lighted corridor leading deeper into the heart of the Academy. In the enclosed walkways, murmurs and whispers became amplified. Raptor toned into as many conversations as he could. It was a force of habit. Wolf had taught him to always keep an ear out for slips of information that could be helpful in the future. To no surprise, most of the chatter he caught was just commoner talk. However, the conversation between Fox and Marcus stirred his interest the most.

"Marcus," the orange fox's eyes closed as memories of his younger days came flooding back. "When I was a little older than you, I entered into this very academy with you're Uncle, Falco. It was one heck of a ride; the training exercises, the pranks, the dances. Believe me, you'll enjoy it here." He looked down to his son and smiled.

"I bet you were the best, huh dad?" Marcus asked in and overly enthusiastic manner. Raptor scuffed at it and rolled his eyes. It wasn't like the kid didn't have a right to be excited, but to rub in everyone's face that he was the son of the great Fox McCloud was a little much to him.

Fox, himself, aware of the fact tried to play it off as best he could. He could already feel the eyes of many jealous pilots and parents on him. "Well, I graduated top of my class because of my hard work. Believe me, it won't be an easy ride."

Marcus looked away at his dad seemingly hard in thought. Then suddenly, "Watch! I'll be the top of my class! I'll fly rings around everyone else!" A childish resolve he had come to. Still, Marcus did not fall from his tree, and the expression in his eye showed nothing but a concrete determination to reach that goal.

The raven saw this and almost cracked a smirk but forced it down while tossing into the air, "You're going to have to out fly me." The comment came out on its own, another force of habit. Now the young step-son of O'Donnell could not very well reach out and take back that statement, nor did he want to. It was the very essence of his attitude towards the whole lot, but Marcus just seemed, for just that one moment, unstoppable. The statement came as an itch to the blue pup's twitching ear. Aggravated and anxious, he turned to face Raptor, who could not help but smirk back. "Look kid, I plan on making it out of here in one clean run. I'll give it you for coming young, but I'm not going to let someone shine outshine me." Wolf chuckled to himself at his ward's words but did nothing to fuel the fire. Things would run their course on there own and he and Fox knew this.

Marcus, though, couldn't grasp what Raptor was trying to pull. All at once, the realization that he had just made his first official rival. Smiling, he nodded to Raptor and turned inward thinking about how this might make the whole experience of being in the Academy all the more thrilling. Raptor, too, began to dwell on what kind of position he had just put himself in, but both Cadet thoughts were cut short as their group poured out of the corridor and into the main lobby of the building.

Was it huge! True to its pyramid like structure, the open floors with their gold and brass adorned awnings and safety rails over shadowed the floor below. These visible levels came to a total count of thirty six. By comparison of the interior and exterior Raptor guessed the building to be a good forty stories higher from where the stacking floors ended. On the ground floor was a mostly open area where, on all the walls was registration venue which, during the school season, were venues for other types information like schedules, books, and event. In the center of it all stood the circular wooden receptionist desk which surrounded the two statues that immediately took everyone's notice: two large brown marble statues of an old rabbit and an ancient mutt, standing back to back of each other as they pop their respective General's coat collars as each looks to the sky and space. A holo-message slowly circled above their heads reading the following: "SACRIFICE IN THE FACE OF DANGER. LOYALTY TO THE END." Krystal and Fox seemed to be set off by the saying, as they shifted unevenly as the stared at it. Wolf, however, did not seem affected by it much. He did peer over to observe the McCloud parents' expressions and offered a slow, almost sad, sigh.

All the groups were met and greeted by Senior Cadets or Instructors and were walked through the registration process. As for the Dean's announcement, Raptor was too busy searching for his room to care. Wolf had left him when he was sighed in which meant anything interesting that would happen that day left with him. Or so he believed.

It didn't take long to find the room. The dorm was small and had only the basic provisions: two baths, sinks, showers, one kitchen area, a foyer area and a main room with two couches already set in front of a vid-screen. Smiling, he stepped in and decided on a room, depositing his bag on the floor. Lastly he meandered to the bed and fell onto the soft blue covers. "Damn it. I miss Wolf already." Raptor turned his so he could view take in his room. A desk with shelves ate up most of the space the bed had left. Books on the classes were already neatly organized for him. What a pleasant luxury. Now he could start studying early. Sighing, he held his head up a little. There was something else on the desk. It was a card. It must have been his student card which would be what would allow him to eat lunch, enter the library, and gym, and various other places. It would be best to keep that close. Rolling off the bed, he made for the card when the door shut. Reacting without thinking, he took the card and tossed it underhandedly for his door. The card flew with incredible speed toward the door like it was a throwing knife and not a thin sheet of plastic. Whoever had been standing at the door had caught the movements and reacted by brining up a hand catching the card.

Caught? Raptor was stunned momentarily. How could someone have caught that? Well, if it was him, that wouldn't have been that hard. He had been trained to catch incoming fire before it turned to a direct hit. Who else could have the kind of reflexive impulse? When his body would respond to him he turned, he was in for a second shock. Standing before him was a figure of slightly slender build, standing a good three inches below his height. Purple hair, brown fur, red eyes, a small snout, wings that spanned the length of the arm and attached to the body at the side fangs and.... breasts? He was staring at the figure of a young female bat. "The hell? A girl?"

"What about it?" the bat girl returned sharply, her eyes cutting away at Raptor's form as she remained perfectly still in the slightly awkward stance in which she had taken to catch the card. "And why the fuck are you tossing shit at me?"

Raptor looked away, going to scratch his head. "Sorry, I-" he was cut short as the card came flying back towards him. His already raised hand circled around his head and snatched the card inches from his face. "Heard the door slam and I just reacted." He shrugged as the bat mirrored the same expression he had just given her seconds ago. "So what's your name?"

"What?"

"You're. Name. We're obviously rooming together, so we might as well get to know each other."

"I'm not you're type of girl."

"So?"

"So?"

"Yea. So? It's not like I'm trying to hook up with you or something. We share a room which means I'll be dealing with you and you me for the rest of our time here unless one of us kills the other. But, I digress. I'm Raptor O'Donnell."

"Shay'D."

Raptor curiously raised a brow. "No last name?"

"No, I have one. My parents don't want me so I don't use it?"

Raptor disappeared around the corner of his room's door frame to sit on his bed and looked up at the door where the bat girl was now leaning. Someone who's parents didn't want them. He could relate to that. "I know the feeling. My real last name is Birlidio... but I don't use it because my parents tossed my in a garbage capsule and shot me into Solar."

"Yea, sure," Shay'D said with a roll of her eyes. He couldn't blame her for not believing him. He was there after all.

"I'm. Not. Joking," he said with a sudden tone of seriousness. That made her a believer. "I wasn't profitable, so they trashed me. What's you reason?" Raptor tilted his head like a cat. It wasn't often someone caught his interest like this that he wanted to know about them. Shay'D's earlier exhibition of quick reflexes had already made her more than a fascinating person.

The expression on her face went blank at the question, and she looked away, her cheek fur starting to turn a mahogany. She was blushing deeply. Was it that embarrassing that simply the act of asking would cause her to back down like that? The answer was on the tip of her tongue, Raptor was sure of it, but he wasn't going to pry, but not getting an answer was killing him. Acting as if he were being cool with going answerless, he leaned back in his bed and began to say he didn't need to know. "If you don't want to tell me, you don't ha-"

"I'm a herm."

Raptor sat up quickly and nearly shouted, "What?" That was obviously the wrong way to react.

"I'm a hermaphrodite." Shay'D placed a hand over her eyes trying to hide the waves of horrible humiliation she felt telling a random stranger, a teenage boy of all people, that she was not just a girl but a boy as well. "I'm a freak, abnormal, unnatural!" Had a pair of strong arms not formed a tight grip around her back and a warm chest not been there to muffle her tear chocked words, she might have screamed herself in a tantrum. Raptor was hugging her closely, shushing the girl (herm) he barely knew into silence.

"You're not a freak," Raptor coed softly into bat's ears.

That really set her off. She brought her hands to beat against his chest and she beat hard. Each hit thudded loudly and set his insides on fire. "What do you know? You're not me! You're not a freak! You're not unwanted!"

"Maybe not," he continued in a soft tone, "But I know what it's like to not be wanted. At least you're parents loved you enough to raise you." The beating stopped. "Look, you may not be like everyone else, but you're a person, right?"

The pair's eyes meet. Shay'D slowly feel into a sort of limp and drowsy state. The emotional release must have exhausted her. "Why are you being so nice to a stranger?"

In a very suave manner, he stated, "We stopped being strangers when you told me you're name."

Shay'D laughed, though it might have been more because she was so tired. She placed her head gingerly against the raven's chest and let out a heavy sigh. "I'm hungry."

"What do you want to eat?"

"You."

Once again, Raptor was taken back. He backed away from the bat girl for a moment and glared at her awkwardly. "What?"

"You!" Shay'D lunged forward grabbing at Raptors arms and then forcing him against the bed. Naturally, Raptor tried to struggle free, and nearly succeeded in doing so, using the bed to support himself as he pushed her arms away. That's when it happened. Her head shot forward, fangs bearing and tongue lapping out of the side of her wide mouth. Something sharp sank into the bird's neck and he jumped in pain. He tried to scream, but the sudden waves of intense pain would let him do nothing but gasp. It didn't end there. Were the sharp pain had been there was now a feeling of suction.

"Vampire...b-bat..." Raptor managed before slipping into unconsciousness.

Shay'D continued to suck slowly on her victim's blood until she was sure she had her fill, which thankfully, was not something that would leave a person dead. She then began the process of lapping up the blood on her prey's neck and shoulder with her long pierced tongue. As she worked, she began to hum a sweet melody, meant to hopefully make her injured friend sleep better. When finished, she fixed his body so that he was in on his side in comfortable sleeping position and then snuggled up behind to him, giving his neck a final lick before kissing it tenderly. "Sorry, Love. Sometimes I just can't wait to get a meal." And with that, she rested her head against his pillow and went right to sleep, Raptor's body held snuggly and lovingly in her arms.