FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Scurrying back to his hidden home, Arvin gave a sigh of relief as he secured the door. It, and everything in it, was still there and hadn't been raided. The sun had set, the moons starting to crawl their way into the sky casting a soft glow upon the world. He entered and shut the door quickly, securing it tightly.

Putting away his fishing rod and tackle box, the young leopard then lit the lantern by the door. He kept it down low as excess light was not a good thing. He inspected his spotty fur carefully, brushing here or there to get off the dirt before stepping deeper into the den.

"I'm Home!" he called out, only loud enough to reach deeper into the home "You won't believe the day i have had out there, i got so many good fish..." looking to his parents room, he saw that the light was off. Giving a slight smile he simply shrugged, figuring he would cook his own meal.

Choosing a decently sized fish from his bucket, the rest were put into a small stream that ran through the kitchen. It had been dug out and carefully made to be a good home for fish for several days. He descaled and gutted the fish before cooking it slowly over a small fire, taking his time to get it exactly how he wanted it. He cleaned up quickly once he had finished, like so many other things, strong smells could bring unwanted guests. All something he had learned the hard way in the past.

A loud, rumbling boom shook him from his thoughts, making him whimper and look up. A storm was brewing, a big one if he could guess. They still scared him despite having reached 18 years of age, mainly from having once seen what a strike could do to a tree and the animals living within it.

The Leopard changed for bed quickly, before making his way to his parents room to seek comfort. simple thin pajamas to sleep in, nothing exciting but they were comfortable. He often still sought comfort from his parents, never really seeing anything wrong with the childish behavior.

"Can...Can I sleep with you guys tonight?" he asked as he stood by their bed. There was no movement or sound, but climbed in anyway, laying between the two forms on the large bed and pulled the covers up.

"G...goodnight" he said softly, another boom echoing overhead. Tears started to form in his eyes as he looked at the two large forms under the warm sheets either side of him. Both were constructed out of pillows and excess blankets he had found in various abandoned homes. He shook softly as tears formed faster, followed by a sob that he couldn't hold back before hugging one of them tight and buried his face in it "I miss you..."

The storm was still raging when he awoke the next morning, although the thunder and lightning was long past. He was reluctant to extract himself from the cozy bed. He heaved a sigh when his stomach grumbled, demanding sustenance and the feline crawled out to seek it. He acted like the night before hadn't happened, going about his morning. While he cooked his breakfast, he held a conversation about his previous days activities like there were others there with him.

In reality, he was alone. The only person in the small home, and had been for quite some time. Yet he had managed to -mostly- hold onto sanity by acting and pretending his parents were still around and taking care of him. It had formed into a unique mix of split personality and imaginary friends in his head.

When certain chores needed to be done, his 'parents' would take over, leaving Arvin with a large blank gap in his memories once they were completed. In turn this would boost strength in the illusion that his parents were still there. Most repairs were haphazardly done, yet held together and worked long enough for Arvin to find a replacement part.

Knowing he would need to go scrounge for more supplies, he donned a camo patterned poncho and made sure he had his backpack, something packed for lunch, and his flare gun. It was his most valuable possession. He may have lived in an almost imaginary world, but he knew that it could be his only chance of salvation.

He secured his home, giving a soft "I'll see you guys tonight, love you." against the decal on the door, shaped like a merging of each suit symbol from a deck of cards, before he headed off into the storm. Not far away was the wrecked city that had once been home to thousands but, after the war, on a good day It housed mostly animals, plants, and Arvin. On a bad day, it also housed raiders, thieves, and worse... ferals as he had come to call them.

With the strong storm raging overhead, Arvin knew that it was extremely unlikely that he would encounter more than some wildlife. Still he was careful, staying to the shadows of the crumbling buildings as much as possible. The falling rain wasn't hard, but was running like rivers from the broken structures, where it collected in deep puddles before flowing down into the broken sewer system below the ground.

The feline knew where he was going for the most part. Some of the shops, mainly the ones higher up in buildings, were untouched. There were also break rooms in the office buildings that remained unexplored. He was always careful when scrounging from them, taking only what he needed and little more, knowing it would draw unwanted attention if they appeared recently scavenged. If the location looked like it was almost stripped bare, he would strip it bare and try to give the illusion it had been raided long ago.

While ducking down a narrow gap between several buildings he heard a sound that wasn't the pouring rain or booms of thunder. Footfalls... lots of them... running in his direction. He ducked back behind some rubble, before looking around in a panic before spotting them on the street ahead of him.

Running down the road was a large group of what he called 'ferals'. They looked much like normal people would, however they ran on all fours, saliva foaming from their mouths, fur matted and filthy, a wild predatory look on their faces, with longer teeth and claws than any normal person would have. They were naked, and more dangerous than any raider, they at least would try to keep you alive. He had once watched a group of four raiders be run down, killed, and devoured by a large group of ferals.

What confused him was why they were running, to his knowledge, they only even ran if they were chasing down prey. He doubted they had any sense of fear to be fleeing anything. It was after they passed that another sound met his ears. A soft humming, reminding him somewhat of a bee.

He looked around then up, spotting a craft flying overhead. it was strange looking, perfectly smooth, almost organic in appearance, but it was a ship nonetheless. It certainly wasn't a raiders ship, those were large, clunky and definitely made of metal. His eyes went wide as a woman's voice in his head spoke up.

"Go, Kitten." Arvin didn't know where it came from, but he also didn't need to be told twice as it flew overhead. He started running after it, sprinting harder than he ever had in his life. The Leopard fumbled for his flare gun, somehow managing to muddle together two charges into it.

His eyes never left the craft as he raised the gun and fired both charges into the air. The ship continued on its path however, seemingly unaware of the bright balls of red light that lingered in the damp sky. Arvin started to load more charges, only stopping when his foot paw encountered empty air.

Giving a terrified yowl, he fell down a small cliff into a large crater. Dropping down nine feet and tumbling before rolling off another, smaller, five foot drop. It had been enough though to not only knock the wind out of him, but also break his arm, dislocate his left hip and tail, bruise his ribs badly, while one side of his face was cut up. Covered in mud and bleeding, his one operable eye looked skywards for the ship, which was nowhere to be seen.

He gave a whimper as he laid there, rain pouring down upon him, pain skyrocketing throughout his body. There was a growl from close by, his only clear eye moved to see a group of the ferals slowly stalking towards him. A flash of lightning overhead illuminating them better, to a terrifying degree of detail.

"So... this is it... this is how i die..." he thought, watching as the savage creatures approached, a tiger at the lead "it's not fair."

Just as they got within range to strike, one raising its sharp, filthy claws, the hum of the ship returned. Louder than ever, it suddenly descended into view overhead. The motion of the ship was almost like it was trying to intimidate the creatures around him.

Bright spotlights came on underneath the craft, flooding the area with blinding lights. A terrified hiss and screech came up from the things around Arvin, all but one of them fleeing towards the other side of the crater. The last one, the Tiger, seemed to be stubbornly deciding between fleeing with the rest and the prey laying prone before it.

Seeming to come to a decision to risk it, the tiger turned back to Arvin and raised its claws to strike him. The ship above emitted a 'phtoo', like someone spitting something, and a large object impacted perfectly with the tigers chest sending it flying backwards several meters. Shaking itself off, the feral finally decided that Arvin wasn't worth the risk and rapidly withdrew like the rest.

Arvin gave a soft groan, feeling that he could finally relax a bit. He watched, with blurry vision, as the ship slowly settled in the space between him and where the ferals had run off to. As the humming came to a stop, a hatch and ramp appeared from the crafts side, a bright light shining from within blinding the prone feline. He gave a whimper as a shadow appeared, but his vision was starting to grow dark on its own. Pain soared, and his adrenaline finally ran out, he was succumbing to his body's demand to shut down. The last thing he witnessed was the shadow rapidly rushing down the ramp towards him.

As Arvin started to surface from the deep blackness of sleep, his senses first told him that he was warm, and comfortable. Despite his brain's slow start up, it reported to him that he wasn't in any pain either. His ears picked up a soft, melodic humming, as if someone were humming a lullaby. He was unable to pinpoint its source, appearing to eminate from everywhere around him.

"Mom?" he managed to whine out softly, almost hopefully. There was no reply however, only the ever present, soothing melody. He gave another groan and shook his head a little as he slowly opened his eyes, seeing that wherever he was, was dark. The only light came from the ceiling above him which had a night sky on it. The stars even seemed to move slowly.

The humming started to decrease as the stars faded, the room begining to slowly grow brighter, like the sun was rising over the horizon. It grew to a soft glow, as though it were a thickly overcast day, and he managed to get a look at his new location.

The room wasn't very huge, barely bigger than his parents room back at his den. However the bed was so different to what he was used to. Instead of sheets and pillows, it was some strange material he couldn't identify. It seemed to keep itself at the ideal temperature for the feline, and position for him to be comfortable.

It was merged with the floor, which merged seamlessly with walls and then curved domed ceiling. There were no windows, yet the walls appeared to change their appearance, showing a field of lush grassland. It was mesmerizing to watch, and oddly soothing. He jumped as a section opened, a large person walking in, completely distracted by the holographic display that was hovering in front of their face.

"Yeah he really wasn't in a good way when I found him bro, still can't believe there was even anyone out here, how did Dad keep an entire colony secret? And it's..." They stopped with a blink, finally noticing that Arvin was looking at them "Gotta go Leni, I'll call back later."

The display blinked out and the stranger heaved a sigh before coming back with a warm smile. He was strange to look at, six foot tall, reasonably toned and covered head to toe in soft white fur. It was broken up by chocolate brown markings and parted for sapphire blue veins around his hips and feet. The veins were the same colour as their eyes, and, despite being a darkish colour, seemed to glow a little. Around his head was what looked like a trimmed mane, two feline ears poking from the top. Just below them were two long tentacles.

They stood on digitigrade legs with two large, plump toes on each foot. Sticking out from their backside was a thick tail with a plump tuft of fluff on the end. Their face was mostly feline in appearance, reminding Arvin of a lion. However what distracted the Leopard most was the fact they were naked, showing off everything, mainly that they appeared female from what the feline could see.

"Hi there sweetie," they greeted him in a masculine voice, a warm smile on their face "I'm Melchior, I was cruising through investigating this planet when I spotted your signal flares. Sorry I was slow in stopping to pick you up." Arvin just nodded, still a little dumbfounded by the others' appearance. This in turn drew a soft chuckle from the tall creature.

"I'm sure you have plenty of questions, I will try to answer them as best I can later ok? I'm a Kiquvari hybrid if that answers one of them, and male. Can you tell me what your name is kitten?" He asked simply and the Leopard felt his ears heat up in a blush.

"A...Arvin." He answered timidly, earning a smile from them and a gentle pat behind one of his ears, hidden claws extending a little to scritch through his fur. Starved for affectionate contact, Arvin felt warmth welling up from within and was barely able to stop himself from purring, or from pressing into that touch.

"Good boy, Nice to meet you Arvin," he praised, a rumbling purr vibrating the larger felines chest "feel up to having a bath? I was able to heal your injuries, but didn't want to bathe you till you awoke."

Arvin squirmed a little and nodded, while on his own, he had never really bothered with bathing. He had never been able to work out how to heat that much water covertly enough not to draw attention. He moved to get up, but meeped when he realized he too was naked. His ears lit up in a deep blush and he tried to cover himself up.

"Now, now, no need for that," Melchior remarked with a light chuckle, waving a hand dismissively "You've nothing to hide from me hun, I've seen it all before. Besides, I'm naked too, and you can't bathe if you're dressed can you?"

Unable to fight that logic, he nodded and dropped his hands to his side. He followed Melchior out into a narrow passage, going directly to a room opposite. The size of the bath surprised him, easily big enough for three to four people. The humid air was sweet smelling from the soaps already within the bath water, which flowed and moved within the tub.

"Ok kitten, let's get you cleaned."