FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Flash after flash reflected from within the terminal of Fellorian's major port. Tapping the trigger repeatedly, Tiriaq growled while gunning down a heavily infected ferret. The creature finally stopped moving after it had several dozen bullet wounds in it.

From behind him, the rest of the troops moved and shot down the other infected creatures who were defending the tarmac. Soldiers moved forward aggressively like a tsunami wave. They shot and cut down any combat creeper that approached them, and other soldiers fired explosive projectiles at the infected vehicles outside.

Tiriaq stood over the fallen ferret and watched the military sweep through the port. On a nearby pillar there was the faint trace of claw marks that were familiar to the ermine.

Lieutenant Sherman walked up next to him and looked at the soldiers who had the motivation that they've lacked since the invasion.

"We'll have the port cleared in under an hour," boasted the lemur, leaning his rifle against his shoulder. Tiriaq didn't express any emotion of satisfaction or relief from the statement. "Everything all right, Captain?"

"It's been years since I've been here," mentioned Tiriaq, staring at the claw marks that he left behind decades ago. "Let's keep moving." Tiriaq stepped forward toward the frontline, his tail following behind him.

Tiriaq never intended to go into the military. When he was a young adult, he was content with what was going on in his life, especially when he had once held the embodiment of love in his arms before.

In a dark room on Fellorian, he sat on the edge of the bed staring down at the infant ermine he held. He smiled down at the infant, who yawned and struggled to keep her emerald eyes open.

"She's a fighter," said a female otter who lied next to the ermine. "It's time to sleep, Minel. We have a big day tomorrow."

The infant ermine eyes fluttered before they finally closed and she fell into a slumber. Tiriaq smiled before gently licking across the infant's ear.

"She's beautiful," he muttered, admiring his daughter. "She inherited your beauty, Lovella. My family is going to absolutely love her."

"Your nephew is already there, right?" asked Lovella as she put on a quick gown and sat next to Tiriaq.

"Yes he is," he answered, keeping his voice down. "My brother wants to take his son and Minel out camping when they're a bit older. I think they'll be great friends."

Minel stirred in his arms, attracting the attention of her parents and stopping the conversation. The little ermine yawned again but remained asleep. Tiriaq carefully set her down in the middle of the bed, where she curled up and rested.

"She has such a beautiful voice already," Lovella said, sitting next to her daughter. "I can't wait to start teaching her to sing."

"I already am blessed with the voice of one angel," muttered Tiriaq. "To hear two sing is something I'm not worthy of."

Lovella smiled and started to sing a quiet lullaby to their daughter. Hearing her voice reminded the ermine of when he first met Lovella.

Frawstky was in a couple days and his school was hosting a festival for the holiday. The campus was closed for the preparations, and Tiriaq was one of the volunteers wandering through the halls when he passed the auditorium. From within reverberated her voice that drew the ermine to peek inside. Blue and red decorations covered the auditorium, but among them and alone on the stage stood Lovella, singing Our Young Sky to the empty hall. For the length of the song, he listened to her voice echo off the walls.

Tiriaq was nervous to approach her after she finished the song, but he used the excuse that he was cleaning up the decorations around the auditorium. Afterwards they started to see each other more often until eventually Minel was born.

Now Lovella was finished with her lullaby and Minel no longer stirred in her slumber. Lovella stood up and went to freshen herself up. Tiriaq lied down next to his daughter and watched her sleep.

Later in that day, Tiriaq was standing with his young family at the local port.

"I'll see you two tomorrow," he said quietly to Lovella and the still sleeping Minel in her arms. He gently licked his daughter across the ear again, before stepping closer to the otter. Holding her close without putting pressure on their daughter, Tiriaq felt reluctant to leave them behind. "I'll have Minel's room all ready before you arrive."

"Call me when you land, Tiri," Lovella whispered. "You are the stars in my night sky."

"You are my stars," Tiriaq replied, holding the two of them close. After a moment, Lovella's father informed him that his flight was going to leave soon.

Turning toward his flight, Tiriaq took one last look at the female otter he loved, holding their precious daughter. Her father stood behind her and they watched him leave.

With a final wave of goodbye, Tiriaq went on his flight back to Fellorian. When he arrived back on his family's estate, he met with his nephew and prepared a wing of the estate for his daughter and Lovella.

The next day, which came quickly because of the shorter days on Fellorian, Tiriaq was up early, excited to be with Lovella and Minel again. With his parents and his brother, they arrived about an hour before Lovella's flight was destined to arrive.

Waiting in the terminal, Tiriaq stared out at the sky. Soft clouds floated across it lazily while some ships landed and others took off. Time slowed to an uncomfortable rate while he waited but the ermine managed to keep his patience.

"Have a seat, Tiriaq," his brother suggested, seeing him pacing from the windows to the flight status board.

"I can't wait for you to see Minel," Tiriaq said, complying by sitting next to his brother. His nephew was learning to walk so he was wandering around and climbing over the nearby seats. "She is precious and has Lovella's beauty."

"How has Lovella been doing?" his ermine brother asked. Tiriaq knew that the conversation was intended to distract him from pacing around, but he was happy to talk about the two who he loved most.

His parents talked idly nearby, away from the windows. They waited patiently for the flight to arrive as well, and accept Lovella and her daughter to their home.

A few minutes before the expected arrival of Lovella and Minel, Tiriaq again started to pace back and forth parallel to the window view the tarmac outside.

When the estimated time arrived and rolled pass without any flight arriving, Tiriaq's patience quickly started to run thin. Glancing at the flight board frequently, he watched the later flights change their status to "Delayed" but he quickly realized that Lovella's flight number disappeared from the screen.

"Where are they?" Tiriaq asked, staring at the board hoping that the flight would reappear. "Where's their flight?"

"I'll find out," his father said, leaving toward the service desk.

Tiriaq's mother and brother stood behind him, trying to keep Tiriaq from panicking. Even his nephew knew something to stop messing around and he waited patiently on a nearby seat.

Hearing the voice of his father rose before falling back down quickly drew the ermine's attention. His father was talking quietly to the flight attendant, both seemingly distressed, until his father turned back toward Tiriaq solemnly.

Tiriaq knew by his father's expression something was terrible wrong. His chest tightened up with fear that flooded over him. He felt like he was neck-deep in the middle of the ocean, unable to stay afloat.

"Tiraiq," his father said, his reluctance easy to detect. He didn't even notice his father approach him with his thoughts consumed by panic of what might have happened. "There was a Velmarian attack... on another ship but... Lovella's ship was nearby and..."

"What?" Tiriaq asked, staring his father in the eyes, feeling his throat tighten as he tried to speak. Every fiber in his being denied the possibility of what he feared most. Neck-deep in the ocean, and it was starting to rain on him.

"The investigation just started," his father said, hesitant to say what he had just learned. "Lovella's ship... was destroyed, son. I am so sorry."

Tiriaq stared at his father, his eyes wide. "Lov... Lovella..." Like a black wave, the ocean consumed him and plunged him into its depths. His vision blurred, turning his surroundings into a haze. Tiriaq couldn't believe the words that he knew were true, but those words slowly seeped into him. "Minel?"

The image of the otter and his daughter was all he could see, making his eyes gloss over. The knowledge that he'd never see them again squeezed his chest so hard it hurt. He was only able to breathe through sobs.

His father hugged him but Tiriaq was ignorant, knowing only being plunged into a sea of agony. Tiriaq sobbed but was still in shock from the news. Staring over his father's shoulder, he felt the stab of pain pierce through his very core.

"No, no, no, no!" he muttered, his tears wetting the fur on his cheeks. He went limp but his father held on tight, even when Tiriaq started to fight against him. "LOVELLA!"

His scream echoed through the terminal, muffled only slightly by his father's body hugging him tightly. Tiriaq wept, gripping tight to his father and unknowingly digging his claws into his skin. His father never let go though.

When Tiriaq no longer fought or dug his claws into his father, he was placed on a nearby seat where he openly cried for an unknown amount of time. It exhausted him. Several times he asked his family where Lovella and his daughter were but he never listened to their answer.

Others in the terminal who had lost those that they loved also reacted badly to the news but Tiriaq was ignorant to their sorrow.

After the sun had started to set on the short day of Fellorian, his family supported Tiriaq as they tried to take him out. Reluctant, Tiriaq refused to leave without his daughter for another hour before he was too exhausted to resist anymore.

Supported up by his brother, he took one last look up at the flight board. The flight board he was excited to look at earlier, happy to hear the news of the flight being on its way. Now that very board seemed to mock him.

He growled unexpectedly at the board, surprising his brother. Without warning Tiriaq supported himself and marched over to the board, and in a fit or rage swiped at it with all his strength. The board was knocked from the wall, and the ermine's claws scratched the soft concrete beneath. The concrete tore the flesh on his paws, breaking several of his claws and ripping one out, leaving a bloody slash mark on the pillar.

Tiriaq screamed out in pain, but was again reminded of his loss and couldn't hold back the tears he thought he had already depleted.

The last thing Tiriaq remembered was his family tending to his paw while they tried to hurry him out of the terminal. He could only gaze at the shattered flight board on the ground while they dragged him out, more or less.

It took him weeks to recover enough to decide to join the military and personally hunt down the pirates that killed his young family.

Now nearly forty years later, he stared at those claw marks left in the pillar. Thinking back to the life he could have had sharing it with Lovella and raising his daughter made him wonder what would have happened to them all during this invasion. The ermine took his PawPad out of his pocket and opened up a picture file he hadn't looked at in years; it was of him, Lovella and Minel just before he left them. It was the day he had last seen them.

"Of the many regrets in my life, I am glad you two weren't here to suffer this horror," he muttered, staring at the photo of his younger self.

"Did you say something, Captain?" Lieutenant Sherman asked, bringing the ermine back to the present time.

"Let's finish this battle," he said, ignoring the lemur's question.

Without another word the two officers rushed back to the front line that had already started clearing out the next terminal across the tarmac.

Taking the port was the last part of the battle and soon it was over. Thin columns of smoke rose from around the city but the battle was won with few causalities. Most that were injured had the infected areas frozen by the field medics, which cost some limbs and lives but stopped the infection from taking over the body.

Before long, the port was being cleaned up by the troops. Fortifications were built around it so that some of the military scientists could study and monitor the Creeper infection on Fellorian. The rest of the troops were shipped off the planet and back to their ships so they could start the real battle for the other two planets.