FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Hey, wait up!"

Salen turned at the sound of the familiar voice. "Hey Kaylee, what's up?" He called back, stopping in the middle of the hall. He wore a hooded sweatshirt all the time, and even with the hood over his head, as he always wore it, it was easy to see that he was different from all the other students. His face stretched out into a muzzle that was covered with gray fur, with a black band across his eyes.

His classmate caught up to him, breathing hard though she probably only ran a few feet. She dropped her backpack with a thud and sat on the bench by the window. She held up a finger, letting him know not to go anywhere before she rested for a bit. It gave him a chance to take in the view for a moment.

He had a crush on her, but never acted on it or said anything. He had been home schooled up until this year, and this was the first school in the state that openly accepted kids like him. His first day at school was the first time he got a chance to meet others. One was another guy named Jake, about half his size, but had a huge tail like a squirrel. The other was Stephanie, a girl that had the traits of a black house cat. Jake stopped coming into school one week after classes started. He found out it was because a Junior year student set his tail on fire. Twice. There were only rumors on why Karen left after two months. The gist was that one of the girls in her class replaced her lunch with a jar full of dead mice along with a note that basically said the only reason she existed was because her mom got it on with a panther at the zoo. Now, he was the last one left. If it wasn't for Kaylee, he would have left months ago.

Finally, she caught her breath and jumped up again quickly. "Sorry," she started... she said sorry way too much. "I wanted to ask if you wanted to hang out after school today," she said, smiling brightly. The setting sun seemed to make her copper-red hair glow, working it's magic on Salen's adolescent male blood.

"Sure, what did you have in mind?" Salen said, shrugging and trying to act cool about it. But the gleam in his eye betrayed him and she noticed it.

"Anything really. We can go see a movie, or go bowling, roller skating..." she started counting off ideas, keeping her eyes locked on his, waiting for one of these to get a posetive reaction.

"How about the park?"

"The park?" Kaylee asked, making sure she heard it right. "Isn't it a bit cold to walk in the park?"

"I don't notice it really... fur and all..." Salen reminded her.

"Oh, right. I guess we can do that. I just need to get my sweater from my locker. Be right back!" Without another word, she bounced down the hall, to Salen's satisfaction.

He sat down on the bench next to where Kaylee left her books, waiting for her to return, enjoying the sun's last warm rays coming through the window. As he waited, he was silently celebrating and daydreaming about how well this may go for him. He'd never dated a girl before, and though this wasn't technically a 'date', it was the first time a girl had any interest in him outside of being a curiosity, giant teddy bear, or a pet. One girl from his neighborhood actually tried to put a collar on him once when he was little.

Salen sighed to clear his head from that unpleasant day, trying to return to the present. He looked down the hall, realizing that Kaylee should have been back a few minutes ago. He saw her at her locker, talking to two other girls in her class. He recognized them easily from the matching clothes, hair, backpack... the two Amy's. What could they possibly want to talk to Kaylee about? He wondered. One of them looked up to see Salen looking over at them and nudged the second Amy. All three girls looked up at him for one moment. The first Amy gave one last parting statement to Kaylee, and then they walked away. Kaylee walked slowly back to Salen, hugging her sweater to her chest. Her previous smile was gone, and her eyes were threatening to overflow with tears.

"What did they say to you?" Salen asked, standing up and walking the last few steps to her.

"Nothing," she said softly, rubbing her eyes on her sleeve.

"C'mon," Salen insisted gently, reaching a furry hand up to her arm. "You were talking to them for a few minutes, and I've never seen anyone have a conversation with them that ends well."

Kaylee still wouldn't say anything, but turned her head away from him, trying hard not to cry.

"It's because of me, isn't it?" Salen asked, knowing the answer already.

"No, it's not you. They just wanted me to work on a school project with them, that's all."

"You don't lie very well. They don't seem to be the type to work on any projects that they can't get done by asking their daddies or lifting a skirt." Salen said, trying to lighten the mood but sad that Kaylee wasn't being honest with him.

"No, really," she insisted. "It's not you. They just wanted to ask me something and didn't get a chance during school when the teachers are here."

"What can't they ask when there are teachers?" Salen normally wouldn't push the issue, but his curiosity had the upper hand and wouldn't let it drop until he knew what they said about him.

Finally, Kaylee looked at him again and couldn't help it any more. As the tears flowed freely down her cheeks, she sobbed. She dropped her sweater and leaned into Salen's chest, bawling unashamed and unchecked. One teacher poked his head out of his class, but on seeing Salen and Kaylee, adjusted his glasses and retreated back into his room, shutting the door.

Salen led Kaylee to the bench where they sat together, her face never leaving his chest, clutching at him as though she were a toddler that just skinned her knee for the first time. He hugged her tight, in a turmoil of emotion. He was elated that he was holding her so intimately. He hated himself for not letting the issue go and making her cry. He ached for her, wishing he could take the sadness away for her. And on top of that, he could feel his shirt getting soaked with tears and snot.

Though it only lasted a minute, it felt like eternity to Salen. Eventually, she pulled away, wiping the last tears from her face. "Thanks," she said, sniffing. "I really needed that."

"No problem." Salen nonchalantly replied.

"Oh god, your sweatshirt!" She reached for her sweater, the closest thing to try to clean it off.

"It's ok. Don't mess up your sweater too." He held up a hand to stop her.

"Here then," she held the sweater out to him anyway. "You wear this. Give me your sweatshirt and I'll take it home to get washed."

Salen looked at it for a moment. It was a patterned sweater with pastels and earth tone colors... nothing too girly. He was about to refuse it but saw the look in her eyes and decided to go along with it or risk getting soaked again. "Deal," he said, standing up, immediately pulling off his sweatshirt.

"What is that?" Salen stopped, realizing that even though he had worn a t-shirt underneath, the damp cloth clung to each other and both came off at once. He now stood in the middle of an empty hallway, alone with Kaylee, shirtless. For a moment, he imagined her reaching out to run a hand through his fur and compliment him on working out... but instead, it touched the buckles that stretched across his chest and abdomen. "What do you wear this for?"

Salen's cheeks and ears felt hot as the blood rushed to his face, realizing that she just discovered one of his secrets. He quickly tried to put the sweatshirt back on, but she yanked away his clothes, with a look of curiosity and amusement on her face. "Turn around. I want to see what you're wearing!"

"I'd rather not," he protested weakly, hoping she'd just let him go.

"Oh, no. You don't get anything to wear until you give me a show." Her mischievous smile was getting wider, hinting that she already knew what she would see, but wanted it anyway.

"Fine, but don't tell anyone." With a defeated sigh, he slowly turned his back to Kaylee, revealing his tail, pressed against his back by a harness he made himself out of a few old belts. He felt something tug at the leather straps. "What are you doing?"

"I want to see it better!" He still had his back to her, but from her voice, he could just imagine the Cheshire grin she had on her face.

"I keep it like that for a reason," he said, trying to pull away. But she wouldn't have any of it.

"C'mon, just let me see!"

Salen was about to protest again, but remembered the tears he caused her just a moment before and gave another sigh of defeat, helping her with undoing the front buckles. Within moments, his tail swung free, twitching on its own as the circulation returned to it from being restrained all day. It was just what would be expected of a racoon tail - fluffy and alternating bands of black and gray, each one about four inches thick, the last eight inches of the tip of his tail being completely black.

"I love it!" Kaylee squealed, jumping up and down, clapping her hands. Salen gave it a swish, intentionally brushing it up against her chest. It didn't do anything for him since his tail's nerves weren't that sensitive, but she jumped back and gave him a playful punch on the shoulder, laughing. As Salen put on Kaylee's sweater, they sat back down on the bench where he answered a barrage of questions about his tail.

As they continued talking, his tail somehow ended up draped across her lap where she was gently stroking the fur. As she continued the petting, Salen's answers came increasingly slower and muddled. Before long and without warning, he let out a very loud purring moan. His eyes shot open and his pointed ears folded flat back on his head.

Kaylee just stared at him for a moment, never having heard anything make that sound before. Then she burst out laughing. "What was that? I didn't know you could even make that sound!"

"It's just a sound I make sometimes..." he tried his best to brush it off as nothing.

"Sometimes?" There was that smile again. "I've never heard you do that before..." She reached behind Salen and fished out his tail again. "I wonder if I can make you do that again."

It didn't take long for her hands to start working on him again. "Hmm... probably..." he admitted, letting himself give in to it much more easily this time.

"What does it feel like?" she asked, genuinely curious. "Is it nice?"

"Oh yeah," he said groggily. "I'm not sure if I can describe it in a way you'd relate to-Oooh!" he tried to say as she gave his tail a long stroke from the base to tip, finding that gave a particularly amusing reaction. "It's like getting a deep massage with a feather-Mrrrrr!" He didn't stop himself from murring this time. "It's like getting a back scratch, massage, and warm shower all at once done by the sun. Mmmmm... that feels - Ouch!" He jumped up suddenly, taking his tail with him.

"Sorry! What did I do?" Kaylee asked, still with the mischievous smile.

"I don't know... it felt like you grabbed it and gave it a twist."

"Oh... I may have. When you said it felt like a massage, I tried pushing through the fur and I guess it was too much." She said, acting concerned, but barely concealing a bit of a chuckle in her voice.

Salen tried to turn to get a look at his tail. It felt different. Lighter. Colder. "What did you do to it?" He asked, starting to get a little worried.

Instead of answering, Kaylee just burst out laughing, falling onto her side on the bench as Salen kept twisting himself to try and get a look at his tail. He heard what sounded like a click from a camera. Salen froze, then slowly turned to look at Kaylee - horrified to see her holding up her cell phone at him, still laughing hysterically. Too shocked to move, he just stood there, convinced that this was not real - that he had at some point fallen asleep and was now just having a terrible nightmare.

Within moments, more laughter came from down the hall. The Amys came out of the girl's bathroom. One held a cellphone and was laughing just as hard as Kaylee, and the other held a video camera which was pointed directly at him. Still not able to make sense of what was happening, Kaylee got up and brushed a cloud of gray and black fur off of her lap onto the floor, walking over to the Amys. As though they had rehearsed this moment, all three of them turned their screens to Salen at once, showing him his naked hairless tail, hanging from his back like a rat's.

This time it was Salen's turn. Without another word, he took off Kaylee's sweater and put on his own clothes, picked up his backpack, and left the school building for the last time.