FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

CHAPTER 1

Arrival

The First Few dug their toes into the dirt, marking their arrival. They stood for moment, breathing the fresh air, enjoying the warmth of the sun, and scanning the world around them for the first time. They were home.

The wolf-type Volfgang was first-borne, making him the eldest yet still a young adult, and leader of the First Few; as such he's already thinking how best to begin their mission to develop this new world. The wolf-type Sirah, his mate, was second-borne and first to give natural birth, though artificially inseminated; she is paying more attention to the youngest of the first few, the rabbit-types Aria and Benjamin. Benjamin is the youngest of the First Few, borne from Sirah on their voyage; he only recently began speaking broken sentences and is bouncing with limitless energy. Aria is second-youngest but impressively mature, standing upright and speaking fluently; she smiles at Benjamin who is now running in circles around them.

The dog-types Mozart and Marie, third and fourth borne respectively, cling to one another amorously as would any two maturing mates; Mozart is to assume Volfgang's leadership role if necessary and currently holds the group's only current resource, a satchel of seeds; Marie constantly tended to Sirah during her pregnancy with Benjamin and was the only one to watch her give birth; though it was horrifying, she's been wanting a fuzzy one of her own ever since. The cat-types, Charlie and Calypso, fifth and sixth borne, are nearing adulthood but aren't yet so close to each other as Wolf's and dogs; Charlie wants to hold Calypso's paw but she is focused on the horizon so he refrains and follows her gaze. The lemur-types Clara and Moe, seventh and eighth borne, are still quite young but have already accepted they will be mates; Moe is eagerly anticipating puberty as he was just old enough to watch Charlie going through it on their voyage; Clara has already taken interest in the groups varying anatomies and Moe is simply interested in pure knowledge and experience.

The flat land they now occupy stretches beyond the southern horizon. To the west, quite some distance away is a very large mound of land; it's covered in a forest that also covers some of the surroundig flat land. To the east is another mound smaller than the western mound; it's covered and surrounded by trees which are thinner and further apart but create a thick canopy. To the north is a vast body of water reaching behind both mounds and to the horizon; beyond this lake, barely visible along the horizon, is a seemingly vast range of mountains.

"What now?" Marie asks, ready to begin their mission.

"We make more of us, of course," Mozart replies. He drops the satchel of seeds and attempts to give his mate kisses which she resists playfully.

"Get off me you dog!" she jests, "Can't we get settled first?"

The others snicker at the dogs' display.

"Indeed," Volfgang suppresses his amusement with a serious tone, "reproducing should be the last thing on our minds right now."

Mozart pouts a puppy face and restraps the satchel to his back.

To save Mozart's morale Volfgang petted his head. "Don't worry pal, you'll get your chance, but first we have to find food and shelter. We cannot even begin to develop without those two basic necessities."

"I'm hungry," Aria declares.

Benjamin hears this and halts his running and jumping and tumbling through the grass to shout in agreement, "I'm hungry!"

Volfgang says, "That hill to the east is closest. I'm sure we will find some edible vegetation there. The sooner we make it to those trees, the sooner we eat."

"Let's go!" shouts Benjamin; one second he's looking toward the mound and the next he's full-speed ahead of kicked-up dirt and splotches of grass.

Sirah hollers after him, "You better wait for the group or a bird is gonna swoop down and get you."

The scared little rabbit changes direction in an instant back toward the group which begins a steady pace toward the mound.

"A berd??" Benjamin asks, sticking close to the group and eyeing the sky.

"Maltalon," Mozart explains, "big birds, could be dangerous, we don't really know yet."

Volfgang elaborates for all to understand, "we don't know much about our new home. We know it has clean air and water and plenty of fertile ground; and we know there are a variety of plants, some we can use, others we should probably stay away from; and there are a variety of animals, most are small and will be harmless, others like the Maltalon might be dangerous so we should be wary. Our seeds will grow food and some other useful crops but until we can plant and harvest them, we should watch small animals. What they eat should be safe for us to eat, and what eats them... well, let's just keep an eye out."

As they trek toward the eastern mound, they see no small animals on the flat land and no Maltalon in the sky. It is nearly midday when they reach the tree line and, having not eaten all morning in the rising heat, they are exhausted and famished. They take a moment to rest in the shade of these thin trees that have smooth pale tan bark and small bright green leaves. Even Benjamin lay against the trunk of one unmoving.

Moe leans against another tree, looking closely at it's bark and rubbing it with a single digit. His curiousity and hunger unite, pushing him to to take a bite. Instead of removing a chunk of bark as he expected, a long strip audibly rips from the tree. The others hear this and look to see a tree missing some skin and Moe with it in his mouth looking bemused.

"Are you that hungry, sweet?" Clara asks, trying not to laugh.

"How's it taste?" Charlie asks, hoping it tastes good.

Moe spits the bark into his paws and smacks his lips displeased. "Bitter," he says looking closer at the strip before ripping it into two thinner strips. "But look!" he says ripping those strips into even thinner strips. The others watch as he works the bark into many strings then weaving them together into a simple sort of rope the length of his arm.

The others 'oooo' in awe of his intuitive craft.

"Impressive," Volfgang is encouraged by Moe's apparent resourcefulness at such a young age, "we should remember these trees can be used to make rope and get good at it. I'm sure good rope will be quite useful."

Calypso stands, "... not sure how rope is going to help us find food, though. I'm starving."

"Let's keep going," Marie adds, standing and stretching her legs.

The others follow and Moe offers the rope to his intended mate, Clara. She nods sheepishly blushing under her fur and he laces it loosely around her neck.

Then Aria exclaimed in a hushed tone, "Look! A small animal!" She pointed through the trees toward the base of the mound.

The others looked for a moment, struggling to find the animal clung to the base of a tree. It was a creature no bigger than Volfgang's foot, with stubby hindlegs and lanky forearms, covered in short pale fur nearly the same color as the tree.

"I see it," Mozart says. "How did you notice that so far away?"

"I don't know... I'm hungry," Aria explains, "Maybe we can follow it to food."

Sure enough, the creature leeps from the tree onto the ground and scurries away. The group hurries along after it, minding their distance so they don't scare it into hiding. The creature stops twice to observe it's surroundings and each time the group hides behind trees to remain unseen. Benjamin covers his mouth with a paw to stifle an excited laugh. This is fun but he really wants to find food. Then the creature disappears into a dense patch of foliage midway up the mound.

"It's gone," Benjamin pouts.

"Where's the food?" Calypso says impatiently.

Volfgang knows they should examine the bush more closely but wonders which of the others might be brave enough to do it alone. "Who wants to go search that bush?"

The others stay quiet looking at one another. No fur wants to stick their nose into the unknown.

"Oh, I'll do it." Marie says, realizing if it's safe enough for a tiny animal, it should be safe enough for any of them. She moves slowly and stops outside the bush. It's taller than her and big enough around to fit the entire group inside. She carefully spreads some leaves apart with her paws to look inside. After a still moment, with the others watching nervously, she reaches in and yanks then pulls out a twig heavy with plumb violet globules.

The others rush to her side to get a closer look.

"Purple berries, it looks like." Mozart says. "Who wants to try one first?"

"Me!" Aria and Benjamin say simultaneously.

Volfgang is pleased to have found something resembling food and is confident it's edible. "Let's all try one together."

They all take one berry from the twig. Volfgang counts to three and they all pop their berries into their mouths an bite down. The berries explode with more sweet juice than any of them expected. They all swallow together and still juice drips from the corners of their mouths. They giggle with delight and surround the bush reaching in for more. Benjamin's short arms don't reach far and he can't feel any berries so he jumps into the bush.

"Benji?" Sirah calls after him.

After a quiet moment, due to Benjamins mouth being full of purple berries, he swallows and calls back, "I live in here!"

After Aria eats all the berries she can reach from the outside, she crawls inside too. The creature that led them here is gone and already forgotten. They eat until they can eat no more and Aria and Benjamin crawl out of the bush, their snooters turned vibrant purple. They all lay around the bush, stuffed but satisfied.

"I think I ate too much," groans Moe, rubbing his bulging belly. The others agree with their own full-bellied groans.

After some rest and digestion, with enough energy to last the rest of the day, they stand and stretch then continue up the mound. At the apex of the mound, any view of the surrounding landscape is blocked by the forest canopy.

Again, Volfgang encourages a show of bravery. "Now, who wants to scale a tree to get a better view of the surrounding area?"

Marie felt she'd been brave enough already, "Not me this time."

"What's the matter?" Calypso jives, "A bush you can handle but a tree is too much?"

"You do it," Mozart defends his mate.

"Not a problem," Calypso declares, eager to show she can be just as brave as a dog-type.

Calypso picks the tallest tree nearby and climbs as though it's what she were made to do, digging her claws into the soft bark and pulling herself higher and higher until she reaches the lowest branches which she then uses climb from one branch to the other. The others stand at the base of the tree and watch amazed. Calypso nears the top and perches on the highest thinnest branch that will hold her. Grasping tightly smaller branches by her side, she cautiously stands upright to raise her head through the canopy. The beauty of her surroundings from this view thrills her more than she'd ever been.

"What do you see?" Mozart calls to her.

It takes a moment for Calypso to process how to put this indescribable view into words, so she states it as simply as possible. Her account includeds all they had seen from their landing ground and more. She can now see a few spire-like land masses surrounding the large lake that seem to shine in the sun. She reports this to the others and they are audibly pleased. She sees what must be Maltalon flying near the spires but decides not to report this to the others. Instead, she reports what she figures they might most be interested in: several smaller lakes nearby within the vast forest extending from this mound to the eastern horizon.

"Good," Volfgang calls up, "We'll go that way. You can come down now... carefully."

Calypso climbs down from the tree and the others cheer. Even Marie recognizes Calypso's bravery and acrobatic skill.

Charlie clears his throat to get everyfurs attention, "Considering it's unlikely any fur will ever be so high on this hill as Calypso, I propose we name it after her. Mount Calypso!"

The others happily agree and Calypso swells with pride. United in pride they head toward eastern base of Mount Calypso. Benjamin starts naming everything he sees after himself; Benji tree, Benji grass, Benji bush. Moe cautions that naming everything so quickly before they have paper to keep records could get confusing, so they should only give official names to locations and plants and animals they find most useful. That said, Clara suggests he name his rope trees; to keep it simple he calls them sparse trees and the others agree. Benjamin still wants to name something so they let him name the berry bush. Following Moe's lead, he names it simply a purple berry bush.

They soon arrive at a sizable lake near the base of Mount Calypso.

"What now?" Clara asks.

Volfgang looks toward the sun through the trees. "There's a good bit of sunlight left, but we will need shelter for tonight."

Aria asks, "Are we going to live here forever?"

Mozart answers, "we will most likely plant our crops on the flat land on the other side of Mount Calypso, and we'll have to tend to them every day. Unless we want to climb over or walk around Mount Calypso every day, we should probably build our permanent shelter nearer the crops."

Charlie considers this then asks, "So why don't we make our shelter on the other side of Mount Calypso." He quite enjoys using the name of the hill named after his intended mate.

Volfgang explains, "until the crops begin to produce we'll have to forage for food which will be more abundant in the forest."

Calypso has a great idea in her opinion, "So lets live on top of Mount Calypso. It would be downhill to the crops and to the forest."

Mozart is getting impatient but Volfgang doesn't mind explaining. Afterall, he knows it's going to be up to him to make final decisions and the others will always want explanations; this will be his responsibility until they develop a constitution and an official governing body.

So he explains, "we need to be near water for drinking and bathing and dowsing the fires we use to cook, especially if a fire gets out-of-paw. And before you mention the large lake near the flat land, we can't use the same water for crops that we use for bathing. In fact we even need a watering hole specificly for drinking water. Since Calypso said she saw several small lakes in this area, we'll use this water for drinking and cooking and dowsing fires if necessary, we'll find another small lake nearby for bathing, and the large lake to the north we'll just use for crops. This location will do for now, and we'll decide on a more permanent location later."

"Shelter and food are the priority right now," Mozart says, ever-ready, "It should only take half of us to find what we need for a shelter and build it. The other half should try and find another of those purple berry bushes and whatever else we might could eat in the morning so we don't have to worry about food before beginning our day. And it'd probably be a good idea if we all had some sort of protection prior to splitting up."

Moe immediately thinks and say aloud, "We can use sparse tree string to tie a sharp stone to a stick and we can use that to sharpen longer sticks to make spears."

"Good idea," Clara adds, " spears would extra useful. You can use them as walking sticks and to defend yourself and even to hunt and fish."

"Fish!", Calypso startles the group with her sudden realization. She stares intently at the lake, wondering what it might contain. "I'll go with the food gatherers."

"Me too," says Benjamin, wanting more purple berries.

The thought of the cat and young rabbit alone with only spears to protect them makes Sirah uneasy, "I think each group should have a dedicated protector to look out while the others are occupied with their task. I'll go with the gatherers.

"Good idea, love," doted Volfgang, "I'll be staying to help with the shelter. I'd like Mozart, Charlie, and Moe to stay as well. Mozart can be the lookout, Charlie will help me build the shelter and we need Moe to fashion us rope and string." Each nodded in agreement. "Marie, Clara, Aria, you can decide which group you'd like to help. Let's get started while there is plenty of daylight left and everyfur keep an eye out for sharp rocks. We'll need more than one to make more tools later."

Moe and Clara head straight for a sparse tree picking up a couple sharp rocks on the way then use the rocks to strip the tree of it's lower bark. The rest go looking for their own sticks to be sharpened into spears.

Once Benjamin finds a stick he is particularly fond of, he starts practicing his bird defense moves, until he whacks Volfgang in the back on accident.

Volfgang bellows in pain and Benjamin apologizes so much Volfgang feels obliged to have pity. Still, he says to the group who'd stopped to see what'd happend, "I don't think Benjamin needs a point on his stick," then seeing the defeated look on Benjamins face, he lifts the young one's chin with a soft touch and adds, "... but when he's old enough, he'll have the mightiest spear of all."

Benjamin perks up again to his usual joyfully energetic self and continues his defensive maneuvers, now minding his distance from the others.

When all have their sticks and Moe has a small rudimentary stick-and-stone paw-axe, they each let Moe sharpen their stick except for Benjamin. He takes a blunt rock and mimics Moe, pretending to sharpen his own stick.

As the food gatherers ready to go on their search joined by Marie, the group becomes painfully aware they will be splitting up for the first time.

"Be safe," Charlie tells them all but gives Calypso a hug especially. She doesn't expect this but hugs him back for the first time appreciates how important he is or at least will be to her in particular.

"Remember," Mozart says after a farewell smooch to his mate which she returns, "watch the wildlife and use all your senses to get an idea of what is safe to eat. It's unlikely anything you eat will kill you but if it makes you sick to smell it, it'll probably make you sick if you eat it." He removes the seed canister from the seed satchel and stacks them neatly by a tree, giving the satchel to Marie to carry what food they gather.

Sirah hugs her mate tightly and say, "Make us all a lovely home."

"Yes, ma'am." Volfgang says smiling back at her.

Moe and Clara are already at another tree turning bark into string into rope, but they take a moment to wave and bid farewell. "Hurry back," Clara yells.

Aria tries hugging Benjamin who prefers to imagine it's game of tag so he dodges her. Her feelings are hurt but she tries not to show it, so she decides to stake with the shelter group and goes to help Clara and Moe rip string.

The gatherers all wave goodbye again and head east further into the forest. They pass a few small ponds which poke holes in the forest canopy. They find no purple berries or any other edible plants, and what small creatures they spot run off before they can be caught or followed. Calypso searches for fish in each small pond but finds none until they reach a lake even larger than the home lake.

"Let's stay here for a bit, maybe look for berries close by while I fish," she says to Sirah.

"Ok," Sirah agrees and adds, "Marie can stay and watch your back and I'll take Benji to look for berries. But we'll stay in earshot so if you need anything just holler.

Calypso feels she doesn't need Marie to protect her but she just wants to fish so she doesn't argue. Marie gives Sirah the satchel and begins to pace around the lake keeping lookout. Calypso takes her spear and climbs a tree beside the lake. She perches on a branch hanging low over the lake looking down into the clean clear water. She is waiting for a big fish to come close enough so she doesn't miss and scare away the other fish.

Benjamin wants to stay and watch Calypso fish. Sirah tells him they need to go search for berries and let Calypso focus, but the young one begs to watch her catch just one. She agrees to quiet them.

Calypso is unmoving, eyes dialated and trained on the water below. After a few moments of this, Benjamin gets bored, lays down his stick and inches closer to the lake to look for fish too. Reaching the waters edge, he sees a small fish swimming along the bank and jumps in after it without a second thought. He immediately regrets it. His first experience being submerged in water shocks him and he panicks. He thrashes about and tries to holler for help but gets muddy water in his mouth and nose.

Sirah quickly retrieves him and he's ultimately unharmed but he begins to cry anyway, mostly scared. Sirah comforts the pitiful bunny looking toward Calypso, hoping he didn't scare away her fish. Then, Calypso throws her spear and jumps into the lake after it. Benjamin slows his crying and turns to see Calypso come up out of the water with a fish on her spear the size of her forearm. Sirah and Benjamin cheer. Even Marie, who'd halted her patrol hearing Benjamin's commotion, cheers along.

Calpso climbs out of the lake and lays her catch by the waters edge before climbing back into the tree for another round. Marie begins patrolling again and Surah tends to Benjamin.

He's still soaked but back in good spirits. "Iwan play now," he says, "...not in water, no more!"

Sirah smiles sympathetically. "Let's go find some berries and then we can play."

Sirah takes the satchel and leads the young rabbit circling around the lake finding nothing edible. They circle again further out, this time finding a purple berry bush full of berries. Sirah opens the satchel next to the bush and instructs Benjamin to fill the satchel but not himself, promising they'll eat with the others back at camp.

She leans against a tree nearby and keeps lookout. She notices him occasionally sneak a berry into his mouth as he's filling the satchel but she says nothing and let's him enjoy it. She also notices they're not so far away from Marie and Calypso. She can see through the tree's Calypso jumping from her perch and coming up with another big fish to cheers from Marie.

The surrounding forest is quiet and Sirah wonders if there really is any significant danger out there. Why else would they have only been warned about the 'possibly' dangerous Maltalon.

"Play now?" Benjamin holds up the satchel full of berries to Sirah, smiling proudly with a purple snoot.

Sirah is happy to reward him with playtime and doesn't discourage him when he wants to pretend she is a monster and he doesn't know where she is. She hides behind a tree and he pretends to be picking berries again. She quietly moves to another tree, getting closer. He pretends to hear something and turns to see what it is but she stays hidden until he goes back to foraging.

She repeats the process until there are no trees between them and she's sure he really doesn't know where she is. Even though he expects her, it's still quiet a jolt for being pounced by a fierce wolf.

He screams and laughs rolling belly-up beneath her submissively, pleading 'nooooo, don' eat me!'

She stands over him on all-four paws snarling, showing here long sharp teeth. He tries pushing her away but she is too big and strong.

"But you look so yummy!" she says, before nomming his belly. He struggles and laughs relentlessly.

Now, daylight is dwindling so she picks him up, dusts him off and retrieves the satchel. They return to the lake where Marie and Calypso are waiting with five large fish. So the berries don't get squished, Sirah empties the satchel then refills it with the fish first then the berries. The satchel is overflowing and there's berries left on the ground. They all take a few extra berries to munch while on their way back to camp.

They arrive just before sundown and they're are amazed to find the others resting around a bonfire with a shelter behind them made of sticks and rope, covered in thatch, and big enough to fit the entire group inside comfortably. The wall of the shelter that faces the lake and fire is tied to the roof but it's bottom is lifted onto stilts, letting in light and warmth from the fire into the shelter.

"Yay!" Benjamin runs around the fire in celebration, happy to be home.

Those by the fire are at first surprised by the sudden screeching rabbit but they finally notice the gatherers return and stand to welcome them back. Then they show off the shelter. Impressive as it was on the outside, the inside was even moreso; ten sleeping mats of thresh along the back wall, a knee-high circular table made of sticks and string smoothed over with clay dug from the lake shallows and the seed cache stacked neatly in a corner. Moe brings in a bucket and ten cups made of the same clay baked solid in the fire. He has filled the bucket with clear cool lake water and he uses it to fill every cup, giving one to every fur.

They gather around the table; those tall enough sit on their rumps; Calypso, Clara and Moe sit on their knees; Aria kneels and Benjamin must remain standing to see.

"We'll raise the table and make stools eventually," Moe says, "This is best we could do for now."

"It's lovely," Aria says sweetly.

"Yeah!" Benjamin agrees reaching toward the middle of the table as far as he can: not very far.

The others all agree the shelter was better than they had expected.

"So what's for dinner?" Mozart asks.

Sirah dumps the satchel on the table but only lets the purple berries fall out, giving the other gatherers as sly wink.

"Purple berries... yum." Volfgang says half-heartedly.

"You don't like purple berries?" Sirah asks.

"They're delicious." Volfgang sighs. "I was just hoping for some meat."

Mozart and Charlie echo the sentiment.

"Meat?" Benjamin doesn't understand this.

Volfgang explains, "Muscle. From little creatures."

"Ewww." Benjamin scoffs.

Aria turns her nose up a the idea too. "Wait... I'm a little creature..."

"Eat her!" Benjamin giggles.

"We don't eat each other." Sirah explains, "we only eat animals. But you don't have to if you don't want to."

"We aren't animals?" Aria asks.

Calypso answers, "No, we're Anthros. We're like animals but we're better. We stand up straight and we can talk and build things and we can make fire. Animals can't do that stuff."

"Well," Mozart interjects, "If I don't get meat soon, I might just eat one of you anyway." He laughs.

"Nuh uh!" Benjamin sticks his tongue out and the others laugh too.

Sirah then reveals the surprise, dumping out the fish on the table. The meat eaters are so excited they rise to their knees to get a closer look.

Charlie is the most excited. "Whoo-hoo! Did you catch these, Calypso?"

She grins and nods.

"I knew it," he says and hugs her to his side. "Thanks a bunch!"

"Yes, thank you," Volfgang says, "and thanks to everyone. We've made a good start today. Great job everyone!"

High-fives all around and they all go fireside.

Calypso and Charlie prepare the fish and cook them over the fire. Sirah convinces everyfur to try some but the rabbits and lemurs aren't fond of the meat and are satisfied with the berries. The meat eaters are just as glad to have more fish for themselves. They eat by the fire and drink water from their clay cups, discussing their day and days to come.

"What should we name our country?" Marie asks the group.

"Country? The whole planet is ours...", replies Calypso, barely able to grasp the scale of it, "and I think we should name it... Catland."

"Great name, Calypso, but I think dogville sounds better."

"Very creative, you guys," Mozart says sarcastically, "what do you think, Benny?"

"Rabbitville!", the young one hollers.

"Of course," Mozart laughs. "We should keep in mind though, not only are there several Anthrotypes in this group, our offspring will create many more types and we should be considerate of that. We need a name that's inclusive."

"What about Anthro... something," Clara thinks aloud.

"I like that," Moe says. "Individually we're Anthros. Together we can be... Anthro... Majorum."

"If nofur objects..." Mozart waits and none object. "Then, so it is!" He raises his clay cup of water to the fire and sky. "To Anthro Major!"

The others follow his lead and salute together, "Anthro Major!"