FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

-

Graduation class December 2044, just before winter break but after the ceremony.

-

Compared to the last time I graduated High-School, I prefer the ceremony we had this time around. Not just because Christine and I received Valedictorian for our grades, despite the nearly complete schedule of college level courses during my senior year.

It's because we had an actual ceremony! Last time they just had me pick up my diploma on the way out the door on the last day of classes, along with someone wishing me good luck.

So here Christine and I sit, in Mother's car, on the way home from the celebration, and the only day in the past two years I've been able to wear pants and a shirt. Only because we had been wearing graduation gowns and caps.

No more dresses for me for the foreseeable future!

'So what's the surprise mom?' Christine playfully asks for the second time today, a hint of mischief in her tone. Mom promised a surprise after we graduated.

'I bet it's another car, Jackie has one but I don't.' Followed by a playful humph from her.

"Well, nice guess, but it's not a car, I can tell you that much Christine. We both know your latest P.I.D. test makes you ineligible for a manual, and we don't have funds to buy you even a used electric self driver." Christine only playfully awwws. I just smirk and shake my head, she's come a long way from the person that was barely even there when I escaped with her from Marui's.

'I know mom, but I can still tease. Right Jackie?' Mom laughs as I just put my arms up in surrender.

'Leave me out of this wanting a car talk Christine! I'll just drive you where ever you need to go if I have time.' I pause as the car turns onto the road into our neighborhood, passing the memorial being constructed in an empty lot.

'I'm actually curious what the surprise is mom. I mean, it's not a car, and it's not a paid for date for me and Patrick since my second eighteenth birthday isn't till the spring, because that's the time most Bio-Morphs are born. Considering you, Patrick, Mr & Ms. Tanner. Not to mention our 'dad's' also refuse to tell us. I'm at a loss for what it can be.' Maria just grins at us as we pull into the driveway of the house.

"Trust me, you'll see in a bit now that you've graduated. Just go up to your rooms and put up your gowns and diploma's before meeting me in the living room okay?" Opening up the passenger side door I let out a yip as a yes, followed by Christine.

"Speak! Don't just make animal noises you two." We just laugh at this bit of ribbing mom, it's just some harmless banter between the three of us. I know Mother enjoys it as much as we do.

Christine follows me into the garage and as we head up to enter the house I stop for a second to sniff the air. Just having caught a wiff of a scent that's familiar. Glancing to Christine I see she's stopped too, her tail is between her legs, like mine, but her ears are up and forward, same as me.

I know this scent, but it's been years since I've smelled it, and they can't be here.

Hearing Mother entering the garage, I shrug, leading Christine into the house and up to my room. Christine heads into hers. Taking off the gown I carefully fold it up and lay it on my bed, then I place the cap on top. I don't know why we're going to store it, it's not like I'll wear it again. As for my diploma, that I carefully place on my desk until we can get it framed.

It will be framed, I 'earned' it this time.

With that done I join Christine in the hallway.

'Well what ever this surprise is, it can't be large, or we would've of either heard it or seen it, no matter where they hid it. That's the other thing I can't wait to be eighteen for Christine, it's to find out what's down there that they don't want us to see." Christine nods, taking a glance down the hallway to the stairs.

'I can't shake that scent though Jackie. It was just barely there as we entered the house and there was something familiar about it. For some reason it reminds me of Marui's...' Tilting my head a little I head for the stairs but stop a few feet away.

'Now that you mention it, yes it does Christine. It's still kinda hard to place though due to how new having this big nose of mine was back then. Just about every scent back then had been tuned to eleven till I learned to use this thing.' Christine giggles.

'Not surprising with how in denial you were about having tits and bits back then.' Huffing in mock annoyance at Christine I head down the stairs with her following me while Christine just giggles louder at my expense.

'You have to remember, when I arrived at Marui's I had only been both a Bio-Morph and female for about two weeks. You are right in that I held onto my denial about being female for far longer than I should've.' Glancing back at Christine as we head for the living room to wait for our surprise gift.

'It probably wouldn't have stopped Sixteen from trying to rape you Jackie. I'm just glad I got there in time to stop him.' Christine and I come to a dead stop upon hearing this. Her mouth is slightly agape as I turn my head to confirm I heard who I thought I heard.

Sitting on the couch are two people I thought I'd never see again in my life.

It was Alpha who spoke, sitting next to her is Marui, Both are a little worse for wear, Marui has a hole in his ear and Alpha has a scar across her muzzle. But, there they are, in the flesh!

The two who started teaching me how to speak, who helped me when I was at my lowest back at that place. My tail wags fiercely on its own upon seeing them alright. I ignore the fact it's colliding with Christine's going just as fast.

Mother gets up from the chair opposite of the couch and throws her hands into the air.

"Surprise! They crossed the border about three weeks ago. We've been hiding them in the basement because they think a drone might've caught sight of them. Just in case they'll be staying down there for another couple of months till the time limit expires." Both Alpha and Marui stand, looking over to us with smiles on their faces while wearing hand me down clothes.

'Time limit?' looking over to Mother for the answer while moving to the side, allowing Christine to go and hug both Mauri and Alpha.

"If a Bio-Morph is spotted by a drone, the Canadian authorities will do a 'best effort' search for them lasting two to three months. It's so the Mounties aren't bogged down with endless escapee requests while they also give an out for the Bio-Morphs. Afterwards they won't actively look for them, but neither will the Canadian government help them like they did with you and Christine. So Patrick's friends will be doing that instead. Helping Bio-Morphs like this is why we renovated the basement, and kept you two in the dark in case things went south. I was planning on telling you two on your new birthdays, but." Mom shrugs.

"Then Patrick picked them up along with the normal group surprising all of us and changing my plans in that regard. It was the least I could do considering these two took care of my child in my stead." She walks over to me and gives me a firm hug.

"I'll let all of you talk and catch up with each other." Letting go, mom heads upstairs to her bedroom.

Fully entering the living room I see Christine has taken a seat on the couch as I walk up to Alpha first. She's not as tall as I remember her being, mainly because I've grown a few inches since last I saw her.

'You've grown Jackie.' Nodding I move to give her a gentle hug. Then do the same to Mauri. I let them run their hands over my prosthetic arm before Sitting down next to Christine.

Alpha and Mauri take a seat on the floor a moment later rather than sitting next to us on the couch.

'You know, you two can sit on the couch.' Smiling at them, they just shrug.

'Using furniture is, kinda odd for us Jackie. We're more comfortable like this.' Marui smiles as I hold my metal prosthetic hand in my flesh one.

'So, um, Alpha, what happened after I left with Christine?' Alpha and Mauri look at each other, Christine just leans against me. Reaching up I gently pet her head with my prosthetic hand.

Eventually Alpha lets out a sigh and looks at both of us.

'Exactly what I thought would happen, It went to hell after both of you escaped. Nether Christopher nor his dad could figure out how you two escaped, they eventually figured you were stolen but I don't know much more. If you're wondering, I taught the rest of the pack your trick.' I hope that led to others escaping down the line.

'I do know Christopher's dad placed the blame on Christopher for your escape, he was kicked out of the place.' Mauri joins in. 'Christopher's father was unable to afford replacements for both of you, so we struggled on for a few months being shorthanded. He eventually had to close shop last spring, so he took Alpha and I home with him since he owned us, but not the rest of the pack.' Lowering my ears I let out a sigh. That means the rest of the pack ended up on the re-sale market.

The chances of them being sold to a similar place and not general labor is slim.

'I feel sorry for causing such trouble for both of you.' My ears lower a bit.

'I hope the rest of the pack doesn't get sold to any bad owners.' Christine also lowers her ears. Alpha and Mauri smile and shake their heads once at us.

'It was either that, or you would've ended up like Christine was when you escaped Jackie. Because of that, I gladly took the extra punishment.' Alpha looks over to Christine. 'It makes me happier than you can imagine seeing you like this Christine, so full of life like you were before, well you know...' I can feel Christine's tail start to wag against the couch as she smiles at Alpha.

'Any of the trouble we went through before the place had to be shut down was minor to knowing the both of you were free.' Mauri adds.

'It, wasn't easy Alpha. I owe it all to Jackie, my new sister. She helped me come out of the place I crawled into, granted, not all of it deliberately on her part. I had to come out, or we both wouldn't have made it here.' Gently, I give Christine a side hug with my prosthetic arm.

'Alright, so what happened after that?' I look at the both of them, then Mauri sighs.

'Christopher's dad, due to the stress of the estrangement with his Christopher, and the loss of the business he built up since he was younger than Christopher took a toll on his health. He died last June, because of that we then ended up in the hands of Christopher. Except, said estrangement resulted in him losing most of his inheritance he would've gotten otherwise. He was unable to um, pay the bills, is that the term Jackie?' I nod.

'Well, when his debtors were going to come and claim us, he let us go, releasing us into the woods behind his house with a compass and a map. Telling us to head north. Thankfully he showed us how both before doing so.' Mauri sighs dejectedly.

'I don't think it makes up for what he did to Christine and in general.' Alpha huffs loudly, Mauri only shakes his head.

'I know you didn't trust him my Alpha female, but I grew up with Christoper. For those few short weeks while we were there, I had the friend that I grew up with back. Something I missed. Not the man he was after he came back from that school thing.' Mauri looks at Alpha with a sad smile.

That's right, he did grow up with Christopher, making him part of the earliest generation of natural-born Bio-Morphs that I know. Still, with his forlorn smile on his muzzle, I know he's sad about getting his friend back, only to lose him again.

Hmm, Why not. Letting go of Christine I move to join Alpha and Mauri on the floor. As I lean against Alpha I give her a friendly lick on the side of her muzzle, then I do the same with Mauri.

They're not my Alpha's anymore, I don't feel that instinctual pull anymore. I do it as friendly equals, even though I do consider Alpha my second Mother.

'That still leaves the question, how did you two make it up here? Patrick and his friends had Christine and I stay in a safe house, then drove us up to the border. Sadly the safe house there was raided, so he had to hike it to the border in an impromptu fashion. Still, it was only a few miles from the Canadian border at that point.' Christine joins me on the floor, though she more or less sits a bit closer to Mauri.

Giving him a similar friendly lick, then reaching up to touch their matching ear hole come to think of it.

'Miles? Oh, you mean the distance on the map between places it points out.' Eh, close enough Mauri. I just nod once for my answer. Not exactly up to explaining the concept of miles as a measure of distance.

'We just followed the compass north while keeping track of where we were on the map Jackie, avoiding human cities and trying to cross as few roads as possible. To get food, we took turns hunting while the other held the map, and for water we drank from streams that smelled clean. We both got pretty good at hunting, so we progressed from rodents to larger things.' Alpha shyly looks away for a moment and Christine and I look at her.

'I got the scar on my face by trying to chase some kind of small animal into a burrow.' Mauri chuckles.

'After she got stuck, I pulled her out and a root did that.' Okay, I can't help giggling at this. Christine flat out laughs and in response Alpha playfully pushes both of us.

We don't ask about the hole in Mauri's ear, kinda obvious what did that.

Marui only continues once we calm down.

'I think Christopher let us go late summer, and by the time we made it past the border we ran into that other group of Bio-Morphs. Heat season had already passed for Alpha and it had started to get cold. They were carrying packs of vile smelling stuff, and we went with them for three days before your mate Patrick picked us up.' Tilting my head, I'm utterly surprised they managed to do something that would be considered near impossible.

Something I would've tried if Patrick hadn't come to rescue me and I somehow managed to get out.

'So the two of you walked, from South Dakota to the Canadian border, living off the land, and when you first met Patrick you just knew he was my mate as soon as you saw him?' Keeping my head tilted at this, Christine just giggles as does Alpha.

'Alpha and I couldn't help smelling your scent on him before he even left the vehicle. If it wasn't for that we might not have decided to go with him.' Mauri gently pats me on the head. My ears splay a little in response.

Gotten to used to knowing humans can't smell my scent... I have been a bit clingy to Patrick as my graduation date approached. It was after all one of the big hurdles for me to become an adult again.

Now I just need to wait till I reach my new birthday in the spring and I can officially start dating him. Sigh, as if we haven't been unofficially dating up to this point.

'What did you mean by vile smelling stuff Alpha?' Christine looks at Alpha with a curious tilt to her head, while also interrupting my thought process. I can pretty much guess what Alpha meant by vile smelling.

'The group we followed had these brick like objects tightly wrapped in black plastic wrap. They, too, thought it smelled foul, but also claimed it was the price they needed to pay for the humans helping them.' Christine, ohs and sighs, realizing what it is.

Narcotics.

'I forgot that Patrick and his friends use Bio-morphs to smuggle drugs as a way to pay for owning and maintaining safe houses. I'm just glad he didn't make Jackie and I do that.' As am I Christine, I know I wouldn't take drugs.

Don't know how I feel about letting others do it, I've been too focused on getting through school and back to being an adult.

Both Mauri and Alpha look at Christine, I decide to head them off.

'It's... A human thing you two, I'll explain later about it. What I want to know is what you have been doing downstairs in the basement for three weeks as mom and the others hid you?' Both of them nod once.

A conversation I do not look forward to having.

'Your mother's been teaching us stuff while keeping us informed how you were doing. Um, how to dress in these clothes. How to use the appliances, anything she claimed would help us live here on our own. It's been, difficult. Harder, much harder than just hunting once we got the hang of it.' Alpha's ears lower a bit and I smile sympathetically.

I guess it would be hard considering their whole life they only had worry about when the fridge would be restocked in their containers. Or, in Mauri's case, when dinner was when he was fed by Christopher's parents.

'You almost burned the place down my Alpha-female while trying to cook hash browns.' I stare at Alpha after Mauri says that.

'So that was the cause of the burning smell two weeks ago. Not accidentally leaving a piece of toast in the toaster like mom said.' Alpha looks away from me with embarrassment on her muzzle while Christine just hugs her.

'I didn't know that to cook something it had to be removed from the packaging first.' Alpha blushes from embarrassment. I just shake my head before hugging her along with Christine to try to make her feel better.

I place the blame for that on Mother for not supervising her like she did when she taught us how to cook.

'So you two graduated from this, High-school thing, what does that mean?' Christine and I look over at Mauri.

'It's a place that teaches us what we need to know to manage in the modern world Mauri. As well as stuff that while not directly related to that task, helps us understand and navigate it. It's not perfect, there are things they try to teach that are not true at all, or not the whole truth because they may think we won't understand. I have to say It's better than nothing I suppose. Better than laying the huge task on the feet of the parents as they also try to make a living too.' I seem to have lost him as Mauri eyes figuratively glaze over.

Then again, his only experience with school had been when Christopher left for college as a close friend to him, and came back someone much more distant and callous than before.

'Mauri, it wasn't like the school Christopher went too. What he went to is what's called college, an optional step for people unless they want a job that requires more specialized education. Or they just want to waste their money.' Placing my hand on Mauri's shoulder gets him to relax.

'Okay, but what does it mean then? Why is it so important?' Letting go I lean against Alpha followed by Christine sitting closer to me.

'It's considered as a sign of adulthood in human society.' Mauri tilts his head a bit at Christine.

'But, you two are already adults right? You've both had your first season despite it being suppressed.' Blinking once, is that what uneducated Bio-Morphs still in slavery consider the only sign of adulthood? At least for females?

Christine just giggles.

'Humans stopped doing that centuries ago Mauri.' Christine points out while I nod.

'So what do humans in determining who's an adult and who's still a child?' Marui looks at both of us.

'Well first is graduating High-School, but that's a minor step.' I hold up one finger. 'Then if you haven't turned eighteen yet, like me. Then the main one is turning eighteen years old.' I hold up another finger before shrugging. Mauri and Alpha just looks at us.

'That's it? That's all it takes Jackie? That makes it so easy anyone can be an adult, even sixteen since he was older than eighteen.' Mauri does have a good point, I wouldn't call him an adult.

'But you've had your first few heats Jackie. Yet you're not considered an adult, but they allow you to have kids by not blocking it?' Now it's Alpha's turn to tilt her head.

'It's not perfect Alpha, human females start puberty six years before they're considered adults in the modern sense. I think it's just tied to an idea that we start thinking like an adult at eighteen.' One of my ears tilt to the side as I try to explain something I've never thought about before.

'It is just how it works I guess.' Christine joins in. 'Jackie and I won't turn eighteen again till the spring because that's when our birthdays are listed on our new birth certificates. So we're in this weird limbo till then. It's better than turning eighteen on the streets like what happened to me.' Yea, I agree with you there Christine.

'Are Alpha and me adults since we didn't graduate from this 'High-School' even though we're older than eighteen years old?' Looking between the two, I nod.

'Well, once Patrick and his friends get you fake papers you will be considered legal adults. Though to get anywhere, you're going to have to take whatever is the Canadian version of the G.E.D. test is and pass it. From there, whatever you want to do more or less is up to you to decide.' Mauri and Alpha look at each other as their ears lower slowly.

Their expressions though clue me in on the fact that while free, they don't know what to do now and are scared about it. Seeing this causes an idea to pop into my head. They helped me back at Mauri's name-sake, I think it's about time for me to return the favor and help them.

Standing up, I smile down at Mauri and Alpha.

'I know you're scared, I understand why. Your whole lives were in slavery either as a pet.' I look at Mauri. 'Or as general labor.' I look at Alpha. 'You didn't have to worry about where your food came from, or where you could safely sleep. As long as you kept your masters happy and do the work they bought you for you'd be taken care of. Now you have to handle all this yourself it scares you right?' Alpha stands after letting go of Christine, Mauri follows her.

Their hands find each others before they nod in unison as their tails tuck between their legs.

'Well, Christine and I have little to do in the months between now and when we actually turn eighteen.' I look at Christine and her face lights up, instantly understanding. She stands with a wagging tail and her ears up and forward.

'You two did so much for me back at that place, and you kept Christine going as best you could. I think it's about time we help the both of you and start paying that back, Right Christine?' Christine nods once, then grins in that grin I've seen before. The one she had on when she first put makeup on me, before gently taking Alpha's hand in her own.

'OH! I already know what I need to teach you first Alpha! You're 'so' going to enjoy what it will do when Mauri sees you after I'm done.' Looking quite confused Alpha's led, or should I say dragged by Christine out of the living room and up the stairs to Christine's bedroom.

Thus leaving a completely confused Mauri looking in the direction Christine took his mate and Alpha female, he then turns to me with his head tilted and one ear lower than the other.

Mauri looks kinda cute like this.

'Christine isn't wrong, I think you will. I just feel sorry for Alpha now becoming a new doll for Christine to play with.' Seems I lost him again from the look on his face...

I gently lead him over to the couch, sit him down. Then give him an explanation about how Christine's a girly girl, what that is. Along with what makeup is too. He seems to grasp it.

'I guess that leaves me to talk to you right?' Mauri nods, sitting back down on the floor and letting his tail curl around his haunches. I sit back down on the couch, then sigh.

'Well lets start simple. First, if you're going to fit in you're going to have to learn to at least tolerate using furniture. Like you were doing earlier, why was that when you said you prefer the floor?' Mauri stands and sits down on the couch next to me, it takes him a moment to understand how to place his tail like this.

'Your mother, Jackie. She said you'd see us if we were on the floor well before you entered the room and would spoil the surprise.' Oh. That makes sense.

From there I start to explain to him, at least the basics of what he'll need to do. Christine leads Alpha down about a half hour later, and I was right. Judging by his tail and his scent, Mauri loves how Christine dolled Alpha up.