FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Will walked through the door from the garage, brushing pine needles and rain out of his dense fur before he could track it all over the floors. The house was quiet, aside from the red and white feral dog that came running up to greet him as he kicked off his shoes at the door.

"What do you want? You think you're getting something?" he asked the dog as he walked through the unfurnished room. Buster answered with a low wuff, dancing around Will's feet.

At the top of the stairs, Will plugged his phone into the stereo dock so it could charge, and tossed his keys onto the pile of bills and jackets on the dining table.

The house was entirely too big for one person. Downstairs was almost a complete apartment on its own, with an open living area, bedroom, and full bath. There was a door leading out from the downstairs living room to the front yard, which Will had never opened, and had never felt a particular need to, mostly owing to the giant prickly pear that had taken over from whatever the house's previous owners were trying to do with the landscaping. Will had briefly considered having the stupid cactus removed, but it kept people from using the downstairs door. So it stayed.

Upstairs, there were two more bedrooms. His, which had remained largely untouched, had enormous windows with looked over the hills and the city below when the curtains weren't drawn. Which was rarely. The second bedroom, which Will had turned into his home office, had also borne the brunt of the previous owner's desires. It had lost its more typical door, and gained a sliding barn door instead. Instead of windows, it had a glass sliding door and giant windows that looked out over the narrow strip of property to the side of the house. His was one of the few West Hills properties to have a pool, leading Will to suspect that the lunatic previous owner might have been some kind of crocodile or fish or something.

Will didn't own much, outside of an enormous collection of notes and files from work that he refused to throw out. He had a stereo and a sizeable vinyl collection, and little else. A dining table he never used. A black leather sofa and matching recliner. He had nothing hung up on the slate-grey walls, save the speakers from his surround system. No rugs on the floors. His dog owned more things than he did. Sky lights in the high, vaulted ceiling were kept permanently closed with the shades drawn. All the damn things ever seemed to do was let all the heat escape during the long winters, and focus the full force of the sun's energy straight onto his head in the summer, and constantly leaked from all the decaying leaves and pine needles eating away at the seal.

He hated the house, but he'd spent too much money on it and put too much work into it to want to sell it so soon. The simpler solution was to throw himself into work instead.

Buster followed Will into the kitchen, sitting down patiently next to the counter while Will started nosing through the fridge to see what they had. There was a cut of beef in one of the drawers, and a decent amount of produce in the other, so he pulled everything out. He grabbed a pan from the rack on the wall and put it on the burner to heat while he cut thin strips of beef, setting some aside on a plate. The rest, he threw into a bowl with a quick pawful of sliced Cremini mushrooms from a paper box and a quick marinade of soy sauce and brown sugar. He put the bowl back into the fridge, and then turned back to the stove. Will tossed the beef he'd set aside into the pan, giving it a quick sear to cook it through. While the beef cracked and sizzled in the pan, Will turned to find a wooden spoon from the drawer. He threw a quick glance at the dog, patiently waiting just beyond the line where the carpet turned to tile, and gave the beef a quick toss in the pan. It didn't take long before it was all sufficiently cooked. Then, Will dumped it all back onto the plate, and cracked an egg over it before putting it on the floor for the dog. Buster did not wait a second longer, and had immediately set upon inhaling his dinner before Will even had his paw away from the plate. While Buster ate, Will got to work properly on his own dinner. He wiped the pan with a dry towel and put it back onto the heat while he separated out another egg, salting the yolk and beating it with a fork. Once the pan was hot enough, he took it off the heat and set it on a thick mat, and poured the yolk in, spreading it thinly so he got a piece of bright yellow egg paper. It only took a minute or two for the residual heat of the pan to cook the egg through. Will lifted the egg from the pan and dropped it onto the cutting board. With a knife that was probably a little too big for the job, Will cut the egg into thin strips. After that, he went onto the produce. Matchsticks from carrots and bell peppers, chopped quickly with the same knife. Sliced onions, enoki mushrooms, and chives. He quickly blanched some spinach, using the strained water from the spinach to cook a handful of glass noodles. The spinach, he mixed with soy sauce and sesame oil while the noodles boiled. By that point, the noodles needed a quick stir, and then he covered them on his way to wash out the pan he'd used before. A small squirt of vegetable oil went into the pan once it was back on the heat, followed by the onions and chives, and a bit more salt. The oil exploded when the onions were dropped into the pan, immediately searing everything dropped into it. Will gave the pan a quick toss to spread everything out, reaching out with his other paw to pluck up one of the mushrooms on the cutting board. By the time the onions were done, it was time for the noodles to come off the heat. The noodles got drained, rinsed, and cut up with some scissors so they weren't a mile long, and then everything went into the bowl with the spinach to be mixed together and seasoned. He washed out the pan again, and repeated the process with the mushrooms, sauteing them and mixing them in with the rest. And then again with the bell peppers, and then once again with the beef and mushrooms from the fridge. Then, he minced a few cloves of garlic and tossed it into the bowl, along with some seasonings and the egg yolk strips