FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

After their breakfast, breakfast tacos, tortillas made of flour, of eggs and bacon, they decided to walk to the docks of S.S. Delta. They didn't hurry; they took their time into talking about other things...

"So..." Myla started. Jake looked at Myla, "How was things at the forest? Lives alone?"

Jake thought about it for a minute. "...Things were alright. We lived in a community; I didn't live alone. It wasn't exactly a neighborhood...so we had some rules we had to go by."

"Oh...and everyone's getting along with the rule set?" she asked.

"Yeah, hardly anything going wrong..." He responded. Hardly anything... "...So everything's going great."

"That's good to hear." They stopped at a corner light, the light across the road reading an orange-red "STOP". "So everything around you is basically new to you around here?" The crossing light switched from a red-orange "STOP" to a bright blue "GO". They both walked on.

"Yeah. I lived there my whole life, not knowing about anything here. I did hear the traffic from the outside, but I was told not to follow the sound or they would come get me."

"Who's they?" she asked.

"I never found out." They reached across and kept walking on. "I really don't mind being out here--I actually kinda like it..." He shrugged. "Actually kinda...better than over there..."

Myla turned her head to Jake. "What's so bad over there?" she asked. Jake shook his head quickly.

"N-no, there's nothing bad over there," he quickly responded, "I-it's just...it feels better over here. I'm seeing so much I've never seen before, like that." He pointed at an exotic-type car, a Mar (the company name, one of Powerage's best car companies) Bosque (the type of car; pronounce 'boskeh'). "Looks fun to be in..."

"Fun to drive?" she asked. "I dunno...but on a Bosque..." she shrugged also and flicked an ear, "...maybe." Jake smiled, looking down at his paws. He looked back up, seeing how far he was from the docks; not too far away then.

"Back there at the community, there's nothing that this place has. It's only...us and whatever's around us. I don't know why he won't let us have anything from here..."

"Who's he?"

"He? Oh, he's the Lead Chief of the community. He does whatever a leader does...not sure what he does... I've only seen him like...twice or thrice."

"So you don't know how he is to you? Or anybody?"

"No, he's always in the dark, I guess lurking around us to see if we're doing well or not, I dunno."

"Oh..." Both keep walking in silence for most of the walk to the docks till then.

They reached the docks several minutes later, looking at the large cruise ship up front from a distance. There were several people getting on the ship, some exiting. It recently came back from somewhere, and it would take about an hour or two to let it ship around somewhere else.

Jake picked up a scent from a distance, a familiar, yet faint, scent. It picked up from the ship. He ran up to the ship, sensing the scent to be stronger. Myla picked up behind him.

"Jake!" She yelled out, "Where are you going?" He didn't answer back, only concentrated by the scent he picked up. He ran over to the luggage opening. Two men were standing in from of it: a human and a raccoon.

"...He's in here..." Jake said lowly. Myla caught up to him.

"No, he's probably not," she told him, "The ship came back from where it was heading off to. He probably already left as his scent still lingers on." The raccoon walked up to them both.

"Yes," he said. "No one is in the luggage storage. We have checked just recently--" he paused, looking at them both. He walked forward closer to them. "Okay, so there was someone there inside."

It caught Jake by surprised. "Is he still there?!" He exclaimed at him.

"I said 'was', Jake," he answered.

"H-how did you know my...?" The adult raccoon didn't answer; he only spread his arms apart. Right then, it hit him. "...y-you're...Leslie's...dad."

He nodded and lowly said, "I am." Jake was speechless; he hugged him tightly, the raccoon hugging back, last remembering where he was. Since he could last remember until he was around 9, he was not only the father of one of his friends, but he was also his father figure at the time.

Jake's dad was never around for Jake, or at least can he remember, or even the community. He didn't know why he left, how he left, or when he left, just that he knew he left. The last time he asked his mother why his dad left, she said, "He just...left. He was a good fox...a good father...a good friend." He didn't know what it meant until later.

"...I missed you..." Jake said, almost choking up.

"Missed you too, Jake," Jake's guardian responded. There was a slight silence in the atmosphere, the other man just giving a weird look at them, not sure what was going on. Jake's guardian broke the silence. "...He left when we docked Oasis. He should still be there, somewhere in the island."

"...Can you take me there?" Jake asked.

"Well...I can hook you up with a room in the cruise..."

"...Why is his scent close up in the luggage room?" The guardian paused before responding.

"...He...he slept in there. Didn't have a ticket to legally be...in the cruise. I let him slide."

"...Then let me go in luggage room then." The other man in front of the luggage entrance was confused.

"What the hell!" he yelled out.

"Okay, that's the craziest thing I have ever heard," His guardian told him. They forgot about Myla.

"Yeah, Jake," she said, "you would have everything paid for, the room, the food, the service, everything!"

"Oh," Jake's guardian said, "Didn't see you there." He handed out a paw to her, still hugging Jake. "I'm Solis, nice to meet you."

"I'm Myla." She shook his paw in greeting. Jake continued on with his reason.

"I just wanted to feel what he had to go through, going through his difficulties. Also...to just..."

"I know," Solis responded. He let go of the long hug. "The ship won't be going out until a few hours, so you'll have to wait for a while." Jake only nodded to him, instead saying something else.

"I want to know everything..." Jake said, "...not just him, but you. Why did you leave?"

"Well...I can't tell you much right now, I got a job to do. Really, just guard the storage, but I can tell you as much as I can then." He turns to Myla, "You can join in if you want."

"Sure."

--

"...You alright now?"

"Yeah, sorry for earlier..."

"It's alright, kid. Kinda got annoying... Sorry, but it just did."

"Whatever." Quilo took me deeper into the Rivalry Forest, more specifically, his home. He says that he controls the forest, keeping console around the depths if anything goes around. He's unofficial; but no one's around to take care of the forest, then, so he took it up to himself to do the dirty work, then.

He bangs on a tree, and a fruit comes falling to the ground. He picks up the fruit and says, "Eat this." I took the purely round fruit, the fruit having a blue edible peeling. It was crystal blue; it was also transparent enough to see what was inside. It was also squishy.

"The hell's this?" I asked.

"Just eat it," he responded back, "It's just a cloak."

"A...cloak?"

"Yeah, that's what it's called, a cloak. That's why you can see what's inside." I looked up, seeing more cloaks ripe on the tree. Some of them were green.

"Screw it," I said to myself. I took a bite of the cloak, the juices, also blue, squirting out from the bite. The cloak tasted sweet and a little sour, half of the flavor tasting like water. Some of the juice of the cloak was floating on the hole I created on the fruit. I squeezed it, sucking in the juice. Wow... I thought ...this taste great. After a while, I stopped sucking out the juice, and saw the cloak drained out, no longer transparent, but a pure blue. I ate the rest of the fruit, nothing but sweet then.

"Yeah, figured you were hungry..." Quilo said. "There's no meat around if you wanted any..."

"It's okay," I responded, "I can find some later."

"If you can," he responded back, "I'm having a hard time to even find a squirrel. Feral, that is. I have to steal some meat back here on Desert City."

"What about...?"

"Oasis? No, they're like pure vegetarian there. Over here," he pointed back to his side, "They're like pure carnivore. But don't worry; you won't last until your seeking party arrives."

"My...seeking party?"

"You'll find out eventually." He banged on the tree again, and another cloak fell down. He took it and, this time, ate the cloak. "For now, just hang out with me."

"Okay..." Another cloak fell down from the tree. I decided to pick it up and eat it.

I had nothing better to do then; he had to help me feel not bored.