FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"And in other news, there's been reports of a mass hallucination in the downtown core. A single office building containing approximately two thousand workers all reported seeing fields of yellow grass outside their windows today, instead of the city skyline."

Matt groaned lightly, waking to the sound of the radio newscaster and the dull ache in his back. The husky blinked a couple times before he realized that he wasn't hugging a pillow, but his boyfriend, Jay. The cougar was sound asleep still, and Matt enjoyed seeing the smile on the cat's muzzle over his shoulder. Matt pressed his nose against the back of Jay's head lightly, inhaling the slightly musky scent.

"The police are performing tests on the water supply to rule out hallucinogens. In the meantime, the building has been evacuated while the fire department investigates concerns over a potential gas leak, or a buildup of carbon monoxide."

Sometime during the evening the pair must have moved from the couch to Jay's bedroom, but Matt couldn't quite remember when. The cougar's bedroom was small, with only a single small window near the ceiling. Boy band posters adorned the walls, along with a very large bookshelf filled to capacity with novels by the closet. The bed, however, took up most of the room. 'Lucky Jay, getting a queen size bed. This is way nicer than those twin sized bricks we have in the dorms.'

The husky carefully extracted himself from Jay and padded softly to the bathroom. During his shower he was careful about the wounds the Tigelman had inflicted upon him. Thankfully, while still sore, they didn't seem to be in any danger of opening up. 'That poultice T'saro used was amazing. I wonder what life would be like here on Earth if we had access to plants like that, or magic.'

Once he had finished cleaning up, he headed back to Jay's room. The cougar was awake, sitting up with his back against the wall, but still hiding under the covers. "Hey there, sleepy head," Matt said affectionately, his tail wagging slowly as he climbed back into the bed.

The two shared a quick kiss before Jay leaned his head against the older fur's shoulder. "How's your back? Are you going to be okay?"

Matt nodded and put his arm around the cougar's torso, feeling Jay's short fur under his paw pads. "Yeah, I'll be okay. Thanks Jay. How're you doing?"

"Honestly?" Jay started. He squeezed Matt lightly and snuggled into the husky's shoulders, smelling the newly clean fur. "I'm doing awesome! Last night was so good! I'm glad you came over, Matt. It means a lot to me."

Matt licked the cougar's ear in response, causing it to flick a couple times. "You make me happy, Jay. I'm glad that we're in this together."

After a few more moments of lazy cuddling, Jay got up and hugged his husky gingerly before heading off to shower himself. While Jay was in the washroom, Matt pulled on his cargo shorts. His t-shirt, however, was literally a bloody mess from the night before. The husky felt a bit guilty as he pawed through Jay's closet, but that feeling quickly dissipated as he had difficulty finding a shirt that wasn't some sort of tank top or body-hugging muscle shirt. Eventually Matt settled on a ratty looking black t-shirt with splotches of yellow paint on it, about the only thing that would fit his bigger frame.

Once he was dressed, Matt sat back down on the bed and stared at the digital clock on Jay's bedside table. The angry red digits told him it was nearly eleven in the morning.

As Jay walked back into the room with nothing but a towel around his waist, Matt's lewd gaze was interrupted by his shorts singing Carmina Burana. "Damn it, my cell!" Matt moaned as he fumbled around until he found his phone. "Hullo?" he answered mopily.

"Dude, you need to turn on the local news, right now! Channel 10, man!" Kael's voice sounded panicked over the line. Jay was pulling on his jeans when Matt rushed out the bedroom door into the family room. The husky grabbed the TV remote from the armrest of the ugly green couch and flipped the television on.

"What's the deal, Kael?" Matt asked his roommate, who hushed him and told him to watch.

Jay walked in, dressed in a black muscle shirt that accentuated his lithe torso and his customary jeans. He hugged Matt carefully from behind and watched the TV, trying to figure out what was going on. The image on the local news turned from the squirrel reporter - famous for her chunky pearl necklaces - to a large building downtown. The camera was a bit shaky, but zoomed in on the roof.

"What's going...oh my god, what is that thing?" Jay gasped and drew back.

A large red creature with huge wings was at the edge of the roof of the building, holding a fur dressed in blue in one of its large, clawed hands. The pair couldn't see any more detail in the picture.

"I think...I think that's a demon," Matt stammered, reeling at the possibilities. 'What's a demon doing on Earth? Shouldn't it be in Ameranth? Or in Under Eden?'

Kael piped up on the phone, his deep voice calming Matt's nerves. "Dude, I'm checking through those notes of demons and creatures you nabbed from Kazar and Rhisanth, and I think I've got it narrowed down."

The husky shuddered as the demon drew the fur it was holding back above its head, then tossed him off the building. Jay yowled as the unfortunate soul plummeted thirty-two stories to the ground, and they could see the crowd on the television screaming and running for cover in response. The camera thankfully did not follow to the falling fur's stop at the bottom.

"It's a Baatezu," Kael spoke quickly, his deep voice quavering just slightly after the sight on the news. "A demon, one of the most powerful."

"A Baatezu," Matt repeated, his paws shaking. "There's no doubt that this has something to do with Ameranth, is there?"

The cougar watched his boyfriend, the husky's ears flat against his head and his tail limp. Even his posture radiated fear. "What's going on, Matt?" Jay whispered softly.

The creature bellowed on the screen, the sound easily picked up by the camera and drowning out the reporter. The squirrel's voice was squeaky as she was describing the scene rapidly, repeating herself after the roar.

"Yeah man. Tall, red, scaled, giant wings, affinity for fire, generally angry." Kael was reading his notes as quickly as he could. "Huh, scaled. I always wondered why evolution chose birds and mammals to become sentient, and we never did see any reptiles or amphibians on Earth."

"Can the theoretical analysis, Kael," The husky hyperventilated. "What can we do? I don't think I can use magic here on Earth!"

"Maybe the demon can't, either?"

Matt sighed. "I don't think that helps. So we don't have magic, that thing can crush me like a bug! Kael, meet me downtown, we gotta see what we can do." Kael agreed and the pair hung up.

On the television, the camera feed suddenly filled with static for a brief moment. When the image came back, the Baatezu was no longer at the edge of the building. The sound never cut out, and Matt could hear the squirrel talking about reports of some lion engaging the creature at the top. Occasionally the video would cut out again into static, but it usually returned in short order.

"A lion? I wonder... and video interference, eh?" Matt mused for a second. "That's odd." The husky turned and kissed his boyfriend on the muzzle hard for a brief moment before heading up the stairs.

Jay watched the husky, his eyes wide. "Wait, I'm coming with you!" he stated, too loudly.

"What if you get hurt, Jay? I can't protect you here," Matt turned and growled, ears flat against his head and his hackles raised. The husky's fists were clenched, he stared right into Jay's soft brown eyes.

Jay took a small step back at his boyfriend's display, unused to Matt being so aggressive, then growled back, his tail lashing, "And you can't protect Kael any better, can you? I'm going with you, Matt. You said it before, we're in this together!"

Matt stopped for a moment and cocked his head at Jay before giving his cougar a small smile, "Then come on, we need to move!"

* * * * *

Jay looked around at the scene around the building they had seen on the news. He and Matt had managed to get near the police blockade, which was a hastily put together set of wooden beams and a small number of cops in their blue uniforms staring at the crowd. The crowd itself didn't seem to want to get any nearer to the building themselves, though. Some furs were screaming, others stood in awed silence, but all of them had their necks craned as they looked to the top of the skyscraper. Behind the blockade, in the concrete plaza at the door of the office building, a pair of bloody lumps wearing police uniforms were surrounded by paramedics. The cougar felt himself retch at the sight.

"Matt! Jay!" Laura's voice carried over the din. Her long white hair waved about her face as she ran towards them across the clear street. Kael trundled behind, a binder in one paw and the insides of his tall ears were red with the exertion.

"Hey, man! I brought my notes!" Kael gasped when he arrived. Matt snatched the notes from his friend and leafed through, looking for the 'Monsters' section. "What'd we miss?"

"Nothing, yet," Jay stated quietly. "Apparently the demon's been throwing cops off the building." The cougar tilted his head towards the paramedics, but not actually looking at the scene.

"Any sight of the lion the news reported on? Could it be Rhisanth?" Laura chimed in, biting her black lip with her upper canines. Jay just shrugged.

"Argh, this doesn't tell me anything we don't already know!" Matt exclaimed. "Thanks anyways, Kael, it was worth a shot I suppose. I guess Kazar didn't figure I'd ever run into a Baatezu."

Kael shook his head, "So then where could it have come from, dude? I thought these things were supposed to come from a plane linked to Ameranth. Under Eden, wasn't it?"

Matt's voice could barely be heard over the din of the crowd. "I don't know! Maybe the worlds are linked somehow? I can go to Ameranth, so why can't someone come here?"

"That's it!" Kael shouted. A smile graced the kangaroo's muzzle as his mind raced, formulating a theory. "The worlds are getting closer! The encroachment! This must be what the prophecy is talking about! I bet that's how the demon could cross over into Earth!"

"But that doesn't help us now!" Laura shook her head, pointing at the skyscraper. "We need to take down that demon, and soon!"

Jay watched the trio talking, and felt a little bit like an outsider. 'They've all been immersed in Matt's other world for months. I'm barely following along in all this.'

A woman nearby screamed, shaking the thoughts out of Jay's head. The cougar looked up in response and gasped himself. The winged demon was flying across the street to another skyscraper nearby, with a much smaller fur in a flowing blue robe speeding through the air behind it. He looked as if he were floating, having no wings or the like in sight.

"I thought Rhisanth always wore white?" Jay asked no one in particular. Kael shrugged, but Matt wasn't paying attention.

The cougar watched as Matt's eyes closed. The husky's body seemed to relax. "Whoa, whoa, don't fall asleep now, Matt!" Jay yelped as he grabbed his boyfriend by the shoulders and shook him gently. Kael and Laura looked at their friend with concern, but the three of them were confused when Matt began to smile!

"What's up, dude?" Kael asked, his green eyes scrunched at his roommate.

"I got it!" Matt exclaimed, dropping the binder as he broke into a run to the building that the demon had landed upon, which wasn't barricaded. Bewildered police officers looked on, following shortly after as the crowd surged to get a good look at the building across the street. Laura, Kael and Jay tried to follow, but before they could reach the doors of the tall glass building, a small squad of officers managed to intercept them.

"Hey now, we can't let you kids through!" one officer, a massive Kodiak bear, stated as he stepped in front of the trio. His large paw was on Jay's shoulder, preventing the cougar from getting past.

"But..." Jay began, but was interrupted by the officer's radio.

"Reports of a blue-grey husky, male, age approximately seventeen to twenty, entering the building. He has reached the elevator. Top priority is to evacuate the building and prevent further intrusions."

The trio backed off and stared back at the building. Kael wandered back to pick up his binder while Jay's brown eyes never left the glass doors of the skyscraper, trying to find Matt's form in the lobby. "I hope he knows what he's doing," Laura lamented, as she shook her head and hugged herself tightly.

* * * * *

Matt bounded through the doors and ran across the white marble floor for the elevator. Furs in business formal were staring at the husky as he rushed right past them. 'I can feel it! There is magic here that wasn't there before!' He pressed the 'up' button for the lift, and a set of doors opened immediately. He moved quickly into the box and jabbed another button for the top floor before jamming the 'close door' button.

"I hope that demon doesn't have any access to magic, 'cause then I'll be screwed. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

Matt's cell phone went off, the opening chords of 'Oh Fortuna' filling the small space. The husky pulled the phone from his pocket and answered it right away. "What?" he said curtly.

Kael's deep voice came from the other end. "What's going on, man?"

"The magic, I think it's here. You're right, Kael, the worlds must be getting closer!"

"Wait, you think so?" Kael answered incredulously. "You aren't sure?"

"Look, I'm almost there, hopefully I'll see you soon!" Matt hung up and shoved the phone in his pocket.

The husky's feet shuffled back and forth as he watched at the floor display. 'Twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-one, thirty-two!' He dodged out of the opening doors and headed up a set of stairs to the roof. The injuries on his back groaned in response, but he soldiered on, determined to reach the lion and the demon. Sirens went off, signaling to the furs inside to evacuate the building.

Matt burst through the roof door to see the creature and a lion staring at each other. The creature was covered in red scales, broad shouldered, and nearly twelve feet tall, towering above both Matt and the lion. It had giant clawed hands, and large leathery bat wings that wrapped around it like a cloak. With a long toothy muzzle and a thick red tail, the creature looked much like European dragons of myth, but on two legs rather than four.

The lion's back was to the husky, but Matt could see that he was wielding, in a single paw, a silvery sword with cobalt runes running down the blade. An ankle-length azure robe covered the lion's broad shoulders. 'Definitely not Rhisanth...wait, Lord Lucent?'

Matt could hear the discussion between the lion and demon over the noise of the helicopters above. "Puny fur, I know not how you followed me to this world, but you will vex me no longer!" The Baatezu bellowed, its voice like stones grinding together, causing a shiver to run up Matt's spine.

The tall lion brandished the silver sword. "For the past fifteen hundred years, I have pledged to stop the encroaching darkness! I finally realize what that darkness is!"

The Baatezu howled. "You have realized too late, mage!" The creature charged, a glowing sword of fire appearing in its claws from thin air. Matt watched in horror and awe as the tall lion and the scaled beast traded blows. The creature was obviously much stronger, but the lion was more agile.

The creature lunged at the lion, only to be foiled by the fur's fast feet. As the mage dodged the attack by side-stepping it, he countered with a thrust of his own and scored the creature along its thigh. The Baatezu growled and knocked the mage over with the back of his free claw. The lion's eyes were wide in shock from the blow, the scar above his nose in Matt's sight, confirming the lion's identity.

"No! Lucent!" Matt yelled as he ran at the Baatezu. The husky pulled back his arm and launched himself at the demon, who turned and laughed at the new attacker. Matt's clenched fist began to glow an icy blue, though, as Matt willed himself to hurt the creature.

The creature screamed in pain as the husky fired a sharp piece of ice into its stomach, piercing the scales with a magical icicle. Matt's forward momentum brought him too close to the Baatezu, however, and the creature swiped with its free claw again, sending the husky flying over the edge of the building.

* * * * *

On the ground, the trio of friends were watching intensely, trying to see what might be going on. Kael kept an eye the video displayed in the back of a nearby news truck, noting the blue-covered lion, and Matt rushing into the scene. The kangaroo winced when he watched Matt launch himself at the Baatezu, but cursed the unreliable video feed when it became enveloped with static. When the image cleared, Matt was moving through the air away from the creature.

"Matt!" Jay suddenly screamed, rushing forward to the edge of the newly erected barricades. Laura gasped as she saw the grey-blue husky fly off the edge of the building. Kael looked up and grimaced then back to the video feed, where he saw the lion turn towards Matt and...

"Damn it! What the hell is interfering with the video?" Kael shouted, frustrated that he couldn't see what was happening to his friend.

"What's going on?" Jay yowled, partly in fear and partly in, was that relief he heard? Kael turned his view back to the sky and saw the husky floating slowly back to the edge of the building. Jay collapsed to his knees and his chest heaved with sobs as Laura reached down to comfort the cougar.

"Oh. Oh!" Kael exclaimed. "I get it!"

* * * * *

Lucent concentrated much harder than he had ever had to. 'Magic is very difficult to access in this world. I've never expended so much energy on simple spells before.' The archmage was truly worried about the outcome of this battle as he let the husky down gently on the ground before turning back to the demon.

The Baatezu's legs bunched, and Lucent prepared for the attack. The lion parried the scaled creature's sword swipe with his own weapon, but the force behind it caused him to stagger. The demon kept at him, never letting the mage recover completely. Swing after swing of its sword, the creature pushed Lucent back pedaling to the edge of the building. When the archmage couldn't move back any further, the Baatezu smiled at him, baring its huge incisors which dripped with poisonous saliva. "You are finished, puny mage."

'I wonder if I can survive in this world with as little magic as it has.' Lucent speculated as he watched the demon pull back for another swing. Before it could bring its wrath down upon the lion, it stopped and roared with pain.

That grey-blue husky from Earth, Matthew, stood behind the creature, and a much bigger piece of ice than before was now protruding from its back. Lucent took that moment to thrust his sword into the gut of the demon, grunting with the effort and splitting the creature's red scales, causing blood to spill over his paws. The Baatezu screamed again, then toppled forward off the edge of the skyscraper, taking the archmage with it.

Lucent dug the sword deeper into the creature and twisted it, causing the demon to roar again. The wind screamed in the lion's ears as he held on tightly, preventing the Baatezu from removing the sword. The lion could feel the ground rushing towards the pair, but if he let go, the demon would just fly away. 'No, this is the best way to ensure this creature's demise.'

The five seconds it took to reach the end were the longest five seconds of Lucent's life.

* * * * *

"No!" Matt yelled as he lunged after the falling lion and demon, the fur on his tail exploding with shock. He reached the edge of the building and watch the giant red creature tumble through the air, trying to alight on its wings. Lucent held on though, and Matt could see the creature spasm in pain as the mage continued to gut it.

The falling pair exploded in flame and light one second, then became encased in ice the next. Matt's eyes grew wide and he whimpered when he saw Lucent and the Baatezu hit the ground, the ice shattering into millions of pieces, showering the crowd below in a magical hail. He turned around and stumbled back from the edge of the thirty-two story building and ran towards the staircase, panting heavily with tears in his eyes. The concrete walls and stairs blurred as the husky pushed his way inside the building, the sirens still in his ears. Leaning against the wall, Matt retched twice and finally vomited on the staircase before collapsing and passing out.