FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The African savannah roared with the sound of engines. Over a dozen assorted vehicles drove across the mutated grasslands. Leading the nomadic caravan was Ruby of the Red Pelt clan. As the dry season was approaching, she was leading them to a known watering hole. The wind ruffled the brilliant red-colored fur of the human-like hyena. Though age had dulled the color a little. Her toned and muscled body handled the vintage cruiser-style motorcycle with ease. A short mane of once red hair, now gray with age, fluttered in the wind. The smell of blood and smoke came to her nose as the wind shifted.

Ruby held up a fist, signaling for a halt of the caravan. She pulled her bike further ahead of the rest before coming to a stop. She pulled her goggles up and squinted bright green eyes at a tendril of black smoke in the distance. One ear twitched as she heard the padding of two pairs of feet. One of her daughter's daughters and son came up to her.

"What is it, Gran?" the male asked. Gran was the term most used for the eldest matriarch of any clan, and she smiled at the boy. The hyena was young, and, like all her kind, had a knack for the mechanical. Things like vehicles, melee weapons, and guns. As far as firearms were concerned, his gun crafting bordered on the supernatural. His question earned him a light cuff on the ear of the older female.

"You don't smell it?" Ruby asked. Her aged voice was smoky and sensual, no matter whom she spoke with. The pair of hyenas put their nose to the wind and took a few tentative sniffs.

"Blood," the female said. Ruby nodded at that as her muzzle tightened into a grimace. The savannah had always been a violent place, even before The Event. Her species, and a few others, had been uplifted by the Man in White. But ever since the Nile-Walkers and Engle-Landers had come, it had become much more violent.

"You two, come with me. Get a car and a shaman. Tell the rest of the clan to keep moving. We'll meet them at the resting spot soon," Ruby ordered. After the male gave a chipper affirmative, earning him another smack, the pair ran off. The young male had yet to learn that some females did not think a male should speak in their presence. Let alone to the matriarch, unless spoken to. Ruby smiled as she put her goggles back down. The Man in White had been clear. Her species were now sapient, and more like humans. But He had assured her ancestors that their animal traits and instincts would never go away. They would be altered with new understanding. The older hyena felt, sometimes, that she understood a bit too much. Ruby put those thoughts aside as she revved the bike's engine. Dust kicked up behind her as she sped towards the scent of blood.

The rising smoke grew thicker as Ruby's heavy motorcycle raced across the grasslands. The bike was fitted with all-terrain wheels and near-perfect suspension and tuning. It allowed her to ride across the rough land with little concern for what might slow her down. The engine roared as she hopped a small embankment, corrected after the landing, and sped on. As she closed in on the source of the smoke, the matriarch could see several shapes. They were moving among wreckage she recognized as being human. At first, Ruby thought the vultures had already gotten to the dead. But when two of the figures stood up on hind darted off away from the wreck, she knew what she was dealing with.

They were fast. Faster than even her powerful motorcycle could keep up with. They moved in a blur as they ran away from her approach. A low, angry growl rumbled in her throat as she slowed to a stop. Around here were the smoldering ruins of a small caravan. A truck lay on its side and on the side was the symbol of the People of the Isles, something they called "Union Jack." As Ruby turned her bike off and set the kickstand down, the smell of charred flesh and earth reached her. A blackened crater sat under the truck. Her tail lashed the air as she surveyed the surrounding carnage.

"Why do these kinds of things bother me so?" The question came into her mind as she lifted her goggles and began searching the attack site. She had no answer. One lived or died in the savannah. It was just the way of things. Yet this almost senseless carnage bothered her. A sound made her ears twitch, and she looked to see the shape of a car in a cloud of dust. The roar of a motor and the howling, yipping noises of her clan mates brought a smile to her muzzle. Ruby turned back to the destruction and picked her way through it. Apart from the truck, there was a compact car. _"If we had the entire clan here, we could salvage these vehicles. What were those cheetah bastards up to?"_she wondered. As she moved among the dead, a sound reached her ears and took her to the back of the overturned truck. There, two of the humanoid cheetahs lay dead.

A score of gunfire had ripped apart their bodies from behind. Her head turned seeing a pair of humans crumpled around the still upright, but smoldering, car. She put a hand to a body and found it was still warm. The battle had taken place recently. Standing up, she gave one cheetah a kick and snarled at the corpse. The cheetahs were opportunistic creatures. They were either laid-back couriers or nearly psychotic mercenaries specialized in hit-and-run attacks. Why they had struck this small convoy made no sense. They had stripped none of the bodies, and she had not come upon them so suddenly to stop their grave robbing. Something else was at work here.

A soft and dry groan came to her ears from inside the truck. Curious, she stepped forward and found a large muscular human laying on top of a young male of their species. His bright blond hair was spattered with blood and a wicked-looking gash ran down his left eye, but he was alive.

"Shaman!" Ruby called for him as she reached for the dead human. One dinner-plate-sized hand grabbed the coat of the mane and she tossed the corpse aside with ease. The white shirt of the youth was stained with blood. His or the male she had tossed aside, she didn't know. His breath was shallow, and his skin looked pale. A thin, lanky hyena male, who smelled of herbs, came up to the matriarch with a loping gait. She stepped back to let him work. The shaman pulled a knife from his belt and sliced the shirt open. The male sniffed at the wounds while making soft clicking noises with his tongue. From a pouch, he pulled a jar out, and as he opened it, a pungent aroma filled the air and made Ruby's nose wrinkle in disgust. As he smeared the salve over the wounds, the human male sucked in air and groaned in pain.

With a soft huff, Ruby took off her sleeveless vest. A tight tube top struggled to keep her well-endowed breasts contained. She folded it up and then kneeled at the human's head, placing the vest under it. The matriarch then reached for her canteen and pulled it free. Slowly, she poured it out onto the human's parched-looking lips. He sputtered and choked for a moment before remembering how to swallow. His eyes closed, squinted for a moment before his uninjured one cracked open. A brilliant blue eye, dulled by pain, looked at her. Weakly, the human reached up and put his hand on her arm. For reasons Ruby could not fathom why her tail started wagging.

The matriarch ignored the reaction to his touch. The sensation of his naked skin on her fur was new. Ruby stood and let the healer deal with the Engle-lander. Stepping around the truck, she noticed her grandson was busy picking through the corpses for anything valuable. The other female was standing guard with a rifle to rival anything from the pre-cataclysm world. A dark shadow passed over them, and then another. Ruby looked up and growled as the vultures had arrived. They were low enough she could make out their mutated membrane wings and the bloated black-feathered bodies those wings carried. Raspy cries that made her fur stand on end came from the vultures. She hated to leave anything for those scavengers, but there was too much meat and not enough room for them to carry back. Shaking her head, Ruby walked up to her granddaughter.

"Well child, what do you think?" Ruby asked. Neither of the younger hyenas had earned their names, yet unlike the shaman. She rested her paws on her hips that were clad in a pair of cut-off denim shorts that were cut so low it left very little to the imagination. The young female looked around at the carnage for a moment, sniffed the air, and made some chittering noises before speaking.

"I think the cheetahs were looking for something, or someone." Ruby smiled a little at that, her lips pulling back from her maw showing off a glint of her sharp teeth.

"Explain child." The younger female nodded as she swept her gaze out to the horizon for a moment and never let the long gun go into a relaxed position.

"A couple of reasons Gran. For one, this isn't the normal type of target those spotted bastards hit. These humans are all a ed and smell of gunpowder. They are," her brow knit together in thought, "soldiers?" Ruby nodded at that with some pride in the adolescent's deduction. It was the same conclusion she had reached. "They usually go after the unarmed and the untrained. They also don't set ambushes li this." The female motioned to the crater which had turned the military truck over on its side. "That means they knew when and where these humans would be. And, they didn't loot the dead. So I think that means they were looking for something on one of them, or maybe for someone, because none of the bodies have any meat missing from them."

Ruby's smile widened, and she nodded as pride filled her chest. The look of approval in her eyes made the other female's ears lower as she looked sheepishly away from the matriarch even as her tail wagged fiercely.

"Well done, child," Ruby said as she stepped up and patted the female's head. She turned around as the shaman stepped up to her. "Well, how is the human?" She asked curtly. The shaman was skilled with herbs and healing and spirit talking. Like the other young male, he simply had a gift for it and this afforded him a measure of respect most other males did not quite get in the clan. Not that the males were abused or overly bullied, they simply didn't sit high in the pecking order, was all. But Ruby worked to make sure all among her clan were, if not all well respected, taken care of.

"He is weak matriarch," the shaman said. "If you wish the human to live, then he must go either to the Keepers, or to his own kind. He will not live any other way. The spirits are clear on that." Ruby closed her eyes and mulled over her options.

"Why do I even care if he lives? What spurned me to bring the shaman in the first place?" she asked herself. As before, she had no genuine answer. There was a sense of justice in the heart of the nearly sixty-season-year old female she could not ignore. A low, almost imperceptible growl rumbled in her throat as she weighed out her choices.

The Keepers were uplifted elephants. They maintained several vital industries and technologies. They alone knew the secrets and the workings of the machines and how to build and maintain them. Without them, or their sage wisdom, no hyena, lion, or cheetah could exist in their current state of technology. But the services for treating a gravely wounded human would be costly. Ruby had nothing to trade other than the servitude of her clan, or her body to the pachyderm's carnal desires. Neither payment was desirable to her. The other option was to take the human to Morocco and possibly declare the intention of her clan to side with the Engle-Landers. Her tail thrashed the air.

"By the White, how do I keep ending up in these situations?" The shaman interrupted her thoughts.

"Matriarch, I have lived long enough to know that the Man in White gave you a sense of duty. To what, or to who I do not fully understand." The young female gave a savage bark and barred her teeth at the male, who spoke so candidly with her grandmother and leader. A stern look from Ruby settled the female down as she looked back to the shaman, who now looked ashamed, but he continued. "But I understand you always seem to do what is needed, to make things right." He bowed his head, ready to receive any punishment for speaking so boldly to her.

Ruby looked at the male coldly for a moment, and then she reached out her massive paw and placed it on the back of his bowed head.

"Next time ask before you speak so boldly, Root." She patted him before walking to the back of the truck again. When she came back around, the human was being carried gently in her arms with her vest covering him like a blanket. Gingerly, she placed him in the back seat of the car and then went to her bike. There was only choice moving forward now and the consequences be damned. There was one path that would get them to the human settlement of Morocco in time, hopefully, to save the young man's life. "We make for Devil's Pass."

The grassy plains of the savannah soon gave way to the rocky entrance of the Atlas Mountains. There was a subtle shift in elevation as Ruby's heavy motorcycle roared towards the mountain pass. There were other ways to reach Morocco, but the Devil's Pass, a long narrow passage, was the fastest. The path was used just enough to be maintained on some level by the humans, but it was not a major trade route or entrance into the settlement. Legend said that Morocco was once a kingdom with shining cities and wonders. Ruby wondered if that had been true, but now there was simply the major trade hub and two seaports. The rest of the land had turned into dangerous, mutated wildlife and vegetation.

A tight knot in her gut had stayed with the matriarch as she led the charge towards getting the youthful human to safety. A feeling of being watched and followed stuck with her as they sped towards the goal. Whoever, or whatever, was following them was doing well to keep their scent from the wind. But, she suspected the pass would turn into a proving ground for her suspicion. Slowing her bike to round a nearly blind corner, the knot in her stomach turned into a fire as her fears were confirmed. Ruby slowed to a stop and looked at what blocked the path in front of her.

Five of the spotted bastards stood in a line with guns aimed at her and the car, which rolled to a stop behind her. The cheetahs were armored with flak jackets and the odd hippo-hide stirrups on their feet. From what she understood, they swore it helped them run faster. Behind them was a sight that made her eyes narrow and her teeth bare in hatred. The lions had come out to play. Two females and one powerfully built male stood. They were dressed in fine fashion, with something like silk tunics and loincloths under their jackets. At the center of them was a bronze-skinned human with dark hair and painted eyes. He stepped forward, past the line of cheetah strikers, and offered her a smile. The narrow face and smile made her fur stand on end. Ruby killed her engine, set the bike's kickstand down, and stood up.

"Ah, a matriarch of the Red Pelt if I am not mistaken." The man said with a voice that sounded like honey. Such a tone only made her fur bristle even more. "I believe you and your pack there have something that belongs to me."

"And if I do human?" Ruby fixed her eyes on him, baring her fangs. The low growl in her throat made her smoky, sultry voice rumble with menace. The armed members of the Nile-Walker's group readied their guns to fire, but a motion of his hand stayed their shot.

"Then I would ask you to hand him over. That boy is a prize you cannot imagine. He has such knowledge of things, things that my people would rather not let the British get their hands on. And what does it matter to you?" He paced along the firing line slowly, speaking with a flourish of his hands. "He's a human and none of your concern. You hyena appear content to stay out of the affairs of man, very wise." The sudden soft tone in his voice stilled her outward looks of aggression.

"And if I refuse?" she asked, while putting a hand on the throttle of her bike. Unlike the man dressed in fine garments, the lions, and even the cheetah, Ruby and her kin looked as if they belonged in the wasteland. With tube tops, cut-off shorts, jackets, vests all made from the finest hippo hide, they were made to be nomads. The human looked at his well-cared-for fingernails and then gave her a look of pure disdain.

"Then, you and your filthy pack will die here. I think it is preferable to declaring the Red Pelt's involvement in human affairs, don't you? Leave the English dog with us and go back to scrounging in the savannah."

Ruby looked over her shoulder at the car. Root was seated with the human, but a hand on his throwing ax. The other male had a rifle in his hands, ready but waiting. The female was crouched with her feet on the driver's seat, shotgun in hand. The matriarch then looked down at her bike and let out a huff. Her daughter had worked very hard on this bike and she would not be happy about what her mother was going to do with it. Knowing the reputation of her kind, Ruby let out a soft, low giggling noise which was echoed by the three with her. The laughter filled and echo off the stone walls of the pass and the Nile-Walker's looked unnerved.

Suddenly, with surprising swiftness, Ruby stretched an arm back and grabbed the back of her bike's seat. Muscled rippled under her fur as, with a roar of effort, she lifted the bike and hurled towards the firing line. Sputtering noises of surprise came from the lions and cheetah as they scattered. The nearly one-ton bike landed and clipped one of the female lions in the skull, taking her down. The matriarch closed the gap, thanks to the distraction.

The cheetahs were off guard and as the elderly hyena swept into the fight, she had begun. One massive paw closed around the throat of a spotted cat. She squeezed and felt his windpipe collapse under her grip. Ruby dropped him as he choked to death. Another was caught unaware by the blade of an ax suddenly sticking from his skull. Crimson leaked around the wound as he dropped. Gunshots rang out against the mountain walls, but the matriarch had no time to focus on anyone but those in front of her.

The other female lion met the matriarch and their hands clasped together in a contest of strength. Muscles rippled under their fur as the two mighty females strained against each other. The fire of battle was in her veins and age blessed the females of her species with physical might. But the lions were not so different from her kind either. They were more tactical and analytical-minded, whereas Ruby and her kind were known simply to be brutes and barbarians.

"Hyena bitch!" the lioness spat in her face. "We will feast on you..." Ruby cut her off as she snapped her jaws around the feline's throat. Blood filled her muzzle as the cat went limp. Ruby dropped her and spat the crimson liquid from her maw. She detested the lions so much that not even their blood or meat was worthy. The hyena became aware a moment too late of a presence until a fist the size of her head crashed into her and sent her spinning away.

It did not knock her off her feet, but her vision blurred for a moment, and the powerful, unmistakable roar of a male lion filled her ears. He was hungry for blood and death. She shook her head and her vision cleared in time to see his knee come in fast and hard. It was too quick for her to block and the blow to her torso took the wind from her. Ruby doubled over and was caught by two huge hands around her throat. She struggled in that grip as she was lifted off the ground. Ruby was big, even for her kind, but the male lion was bigger.

"You worthless nomad. We will hunt your clan for this. And we will wipe the stain of the Red Pelts from the savannah. Then, maybe the rest of your White forsaken kind will finally fall in line." Blood pounded in Ruby's ears as he tried to choke the life from her. Her vision faded and his words fell on almost deaf ears. Suddenly, the grip went slack as his head exploded in a shower of viscera. His body fell like a puppet with its strings cut. Ruby dropped to one knee and gasped for breath. Once she had gotten her wind back, she stood up. She followed the line of fire back to the unnamed gunsmith who lowered a smoking barrel. The matriarch just smiled as she took in the remains of the battle.

Everyone but the human was dead. She noticed Root was fishing a pair of axes from the spotted cats, and her granddaughter was finishing slicing the remaining lioness' throat open with her claws. Rubbing at her throat, she walked over to the car as the other two joined her.

"Well done, Sureshot," she spoke to the young male, who looked overjoyed at being given a name. His tongue lolled from his mouth in a happy gesture as his tail wagged excitedly. "And you as well, my little Slicer." Ruby turned and spoke to the female. The younger female looked more demure than Sureshot, but her tail wagged just as excited.

"Well," Root spoke as he approached, "what do we do with him?" Ruby looked at the Nile-Walker, who was sitting in a puddle of his own piss, looking properly horrified. The matriarch simply went to the trunk of the car and pulled out some rope.

"Slicer, bind him and put him in the car. I think the Engle-Landers, or the 'British', I think he, said will want some words with him." With an eager smile on her muzzle, Sliver took the rope and went off to bundle up the human. Ruby rubbed her throat as she looked at the British human still laid out in the back seat of the car. His skin was still pale, his forehead dotted with sweat, but he was smiling and looking at her with one good eye. Her tail wagged again. Growling at herself, she padded away to her bike. Picking the scuffed cruiser up and giving it a quick once over, she got on it and turned the key. A dark shadow passed overhead as the pair of vehicles made their way past the carnage.

It was an uneventful ride to the city of Casa and the guard post that was stationed at the entrance there from the mountains. The human, in a bright red coat with white trim, listened to Ruby's story with a doubtful look. But he could not deny the look of battle on her, or at the Egyptian who was tied up and standing in front of him. Finally, he walked past Ruby to look at the youth in the car. He gasped and rushed to the guardhouse.

Ruby could see him pick up a small cylinder and put it to his mouth as he fiddled with something.

"This is gatehouse A2. You must get a medical wagon here on the double. No, you daft git, I don't care what's going on in the city. Lord Irons' son is wounded!" Her ear flicked as she could pick up something on the other end of whatever he was talking into. Such communications were a mystery to her. She knew what a radio was and understood what it did, but the how simply escaped her. The mention of a 'Lord Irons' meant nothing to her either.

What she noted was a loud mechanical wailing sound coming to her ears. It pierced her brain and made her wince as people quickly got out of the way of the gate and a large truck with a red cross on a white background came speeding to the checkpoint. Men in white coats came out of the back and rushed to the car. The barks and growls from Slicer, Root, and Sureshot made them stop dead. Ruby huffed and walked over to the open-top vehicle.She reached inside and gingerly picked the human up and cradled him against her for a moment. He stirred and spoke with a voice she could barely hear.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Ruby of the Red Pelt," she answered. Her body froze as she felt one hand reach out and brush along the fur of her cheek. The sensation was like nothing the elderly hyena had felt before. Her tail wagged of its own accord and a rush of pleasure went into her brain.

"Thank you," he rasped, "I will find you again." She looked down at him and that blue eye, still dulled with pain, burned with a determination. Ruby was not sure what to make of it. She handed him off to the white coats and then got back on her bike.

"Wait!" the guard called out. "You can't leave. We need your testimony as to what happened!" Ruby simply gave him a glare and shook her head. Turning the motorcycle's engine over, she peeled out as the car did the same and they made for the pass. Whatever happened now was, hopefully, none of her concern. But the words and determined look in the young human stayed with her mind as she lead the trio back to the open grasslands and towards the rest of her clan. The touch of the human and the sensation of his hand on her cheek lingered even longer. She smiled and was sure that someday the human would find her again and she looked forward to it.

The End