FSE

Furry search engine

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"O.K., there's something I have to ask before this thing goes any further."

"What?..." Mishra asked as we stepped past the reception desk and out into the plaza that sat outside the building.

"Please don't take this the wrong way, but... I've been transported across worlds, galaxies, maybe dimensions and time..." I motioned around to the various signs, all plainly readable to me, "So how the hell is it that everyone and everything is in English?!"

"Eng...lish? Oh; THAT'S what your language is called?" Mishra looked almost relieved as she pointed to the back of her head. "Neural Implant. Ours are top of the line, but they're pretty common anywhere. I'm not sure of the exact science behind it, but basically they throw everything at your subconscious brain and see what it recognizes, and soon it'll work out your language and adjust your vision and hearing accordingly. Honestly, I forget I even have one half of the time."

Well, that's one mystery solved. Not sure how I feel about something being implanted in my brain that affected the way I saw and heard things. I at least felt a little better when Mishra also informed me they're a closed system and can't be affected by anybody other than the doctor's trained to implant them and the users themselves.

"Frankly, I'm a little impressed that they can even translate a language that doesn't exist in this world. You have to show it to me sometime; I'd love to study it in detail!..." Mishra's enthusiasm was cut short when she saw the glare I was giving her. "...You know; AFTER I find a way to send you back home."

"Yeah, after..." I looked around the block, noting that despite the futuristic and sleek look the area didn't look too dissimilar from a regular city block. Things were cleaner; the buildings, the streets, even the air smelled nicer. There was an occasional tree planted here and there as well, though I couldn't recall an Earth tree that had leaves that would change into a full rainbow of colors in the manner of a minute.

"Come on; normally Lyra takes the mag-rail home, but I'll drive you there today. The parking lift's are this way."

Good; that would give me a chance to ask her some more questions... and also, you know, find out where I was going to be living for the foreseeable future. That'd be important too.

<>

"Alright, next question. What are we?"

"In what sense, exactly?" Mishra asked as we stood outside Carrie's Car Lift. At least, that's what the sign said; all I saw was something like a booth where you'd get movie tickets or the like and a large metal hatch in the ground behind the booth. After Mishra presented her ID to the... deer man, I guess from the antlers?... inside, he'd said her car would be right out.

"Well, in a couple of ways I guess. Our species name would probably be good to know, but also the name of our group where we work?" I asked.

"Species wise, we're called Lupus. And your girlfriend's a Felid, since that might come up." Yeah, that'd probably be a good thing to know. "As for our organization, we're Protectors."

Mishra went on to explain that the Protectors were a specialized branch of the peacekeepers meant specifically to combat the Corrupted. They serve their Dark God(who apparently is only known AS the Dark God), offering up sacrifices to him in exchange for dark powers which they use for their own selfish purposes. Honestly, they sounded almost comically evil the way Mishra described them.

"The biggest problem is Corruption is also a kind of disease, potentially infecting people and converting them unwillingly into the service of the Dark God. Our job as Protectors is to protect the innocent from becoming Corrupted, while also stopping those who are too far gone to save or who willing embrace it."

I nodded along, though in the back of my mind I had to wonder exactly how much of that was true. I mean, this was the woman who stole my soul out of my body, so a grain of salt was probably wise.

...Then again, she was trying to save her fellow Protector(if I believed her explanation). And through my admittedly limited time in this world, it didn't seem like a dystopian nightmare police state or anything. And they were holding up a bank. Oh, and that Corrupted guy did try to blast me with a flamethrower when I was sitting on my butt and not even aware of what was happening really, much less posing a threat; not exactly a good guy move.

"Your car's up!" The deer man called to us. The metal doors slid open soundlessly as a red convertible rose up from the ground. At least, it would be a convertible if a convertible didn't have wheels and hovered over the ground slightly even as the doors closed beneath it.

I'd better keep my eyes open, but for now I'd take Mishra at her word about the state of the world. Hopefully my faith in her isn't misplaced... and hopefully I'll never have to drive in this world; I've seen control panels to nuclear reactors that looked less complicated.

<>

"You want some?"

I shook my head very slowly while clutching very tightly to the straps that held me into the chair. We'd driven a short distance at speeds I was accustomed to before Mishra pulled onto an on ramp for a thruway. As soon as we hit the thruway proper, the car started to accelerate very rapidly. It was only by shock and my old driver's ed instructor drilling into our heads to NEVER distract a driver that kept me from yelling or doing something crazy when Mishra took her hands off the controls and popped open a side panel for a bag of candy.

"U-Um..." There has to be some kind of auto drive technology, right? Trying not to think about it as the speedometer rapidly approached 200 MPH, I asked my next question. "S-So, Lyra. What's her role on the team?"

"Lyra? She's our Paladin." Paladin? Like, holy knight kind of Paladin? "Exactly; she's with the Order of Lunestra, Goddess of The Light. She's basically the direct opposite of the Dark God and everything they represent. When the demons start coming, Lyra's the one who smites them."

"D-Demons?!" Magic, hover cars, and now demons?! My head started to pound; the idea of a car wreck suddenly didn't seem like such a bad way to go.

"The Corrupted do use them sometimes, mostly the higher level ones. They can do a lot of damage if they're left unchecked; I've heard whole city blocks being leveled by them if they're left unchecked and..." Mishra paused, starting to look about as nervous as I felt. "...And I just told you that as you're in her body. Someone completely untrained in holy rites, combat, or even having basic knowledge... I mean, maybe I got really lucky and accidentally grabbed another holy warrior's soul to put in Lyra's place?..."

"No. No you didn't."

"Oh... Um... Well, there hasn't been much demon activity lately, so it'll be fine?... Probably?..."

Probably. I PROBABLY won't be expected to combat demons and prevent potentially untold loss of life. Probably.

I snatched the bag of candy from Mishra and dumped the contents into my mouth with no objection from her.

<>

So here I am, Dan the human. Stuck in the body of a woman who's part wolf, on an alien world, and I just found out that I might have to be responsible for protecting these aliens from demons. On the plus side, I also just found out chocolate exists in this world, so, silver lining.

"So...What about you?" I asked Mishra after I swallowed the last of the Choco Rocks(TM).

"Huh? You want to know about me?" Well, yeah; she was the one who bought me here. Wouldn't hurt to get to know a bit more about her.

"There's not too much to tell, honestly." Something flashed on the control panel as Mishra grabbed the steering wheel, the car and my heart rate both finally dropping back into double digit speeds. "I'm a Protector like you. I'm our Arts specialist; pretty much every Protector knows some Arts, but it's my job to know as many of them backwards and forward as possible to counter the ones the Corrupted might use."

Well, that wasn't terribly helpful. I really wanted to push her for more info, specifically why she was willing to break an apparently pretty serious rule(for both the Protectors and for most people in general if I'm honest) about trying to bring people back from the dead, but besides being a tough subject to approach, I didn't want to risk damaging my relationship with the only person who knew my situation. Maybe once I had a better grasp on the whole situation I could be a little more forceful, but for now my hands were tied.

"Listen... Dan, was it?" Mishra asked as we pulled up in front of a tall building that the nearby sign declared was the Sapphire Suites, presumably Lyra's and now my home. "I'm... look, sorry doesn't even begin to cover what I did. I did something incredibly stupid and selfish, and you're paying most of the price for it. I know you don't have much reason to trust me, but I will make this right to you. I promise if it's the last thing I do, I will make this right."

A very venomous and justifiably pissed off part of me wanted to respond with, "You damn well better" or something similar, but when I turned to tell her that... I don't know. She'd been playing it cool so far, but I could hear the hurt starting to creep into her voice now. And her eyes... honestly, it reminded me of the times I'd screwed something up and had to own up to it as a kid. Granted, I never did anything anywhere near as bad as what she did, but I did know that the last thing I needed at that time was more reminding that I'd messed up.

"You..." I took a deep breath and tried to my best to force a natural looking smile. "You will. I trust you."

"T-Thanks..." She smiled weakly as I unbuckled and started to climb out of the car. "We're both off duty tomorrow. Explore around as much as you can, use Lyra's personal terminal, and... and..."

"...Uh, Mishra?" Her gaze had drifted past me toward a family playing in the courtyard, the two adults watching as the little kid clambered over playground equipment while a little drone buzzed around a short distance away from him. One of the adults was holding some kind of device; maybe it was a camera of some sort? "What's wrong?"

"I need to check something. Now." I barely got onto the sidewalk before she whipped the car around in a tight 180 turn, stopping briefly in front of me to add, "I'll call you soon!" before zooming off down the road.

<>

"Welcome home, Lyra!"

The cheerful sounding automated voice greeted me as I opened the door to the apartment, having spent more than a few minutes figuring out how to open the door when there was no handle. Luckily a neighbor happened to come by and open their own apartment simply by touching the door. Monkey in wolf girl clothing see, monkey in wolf girl clothing do.

"We've confirmed the arrival of your latest rent payment and the cleaning crew has been by today. Please contact housing services if you need anything else, and have a nice day!"

"Yeah, thanks..." I waved kind of absently around the room, not really sure where the voice came from. At this rate, that was way on the bottom of my list of things to take care of. Lyra's... well, my apartment now, looked pretty nice. A nice spacious living area with a couch in front of something that looked equal parts table and TV, a decent sized refrigerator in the kitchen area, and something that looked like a giant glass hamster ball with things that could best be described as, "computery" next to it in one corner of the living room.

This was the first time I'd been alone since coming to this world, and right now my only thought was that I wanted to stop thinking for a little while. Magic, futuristic tech, demons, humanoids that are at least part animal, my species AND gender being changed; it'd been a hell of a day.

Still, I had a lot I needed to do. I needed to confirm if what Mishra had told me was true about the state of the world. I needed to know what would be expected of me as a Protector. I needed to investigate now while I had the freedom to do so on my own.

That resolve lasted about 30 seconds when I found the bedroom and decided the only thing I was investigating was how soft the pillows were. I gently placed the book that was sitting on them on a nearby table and kicked off my shoes before flopping onto the bed.

Maybe this is all just some whacky dream, I thought as I closed my eyes, sleep rapidly overtaking me. Maybe I'll wake up back in my own world and not even remember this...

...and my last conscious thought was, "Yeah; like I'm ever that lucky" before my tired mind fully surrendered to sleep.