FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Knight Eight, permission granted. You are cleared to land, over." The familiar monotone voice croaked through the radio, punctuating his last sentence with a static hiss to mark the end of the transmission. Knight Eight took a while to make his reply.

"Roger that, tower." Rik muttered, gently easing the stick left in order to pull the plane onto the landing approach. There were no clouds in the afternoon sky, the Sun was burning brightly and there were no crosswinds; perfect landing conditions.

Having finished its routine exercise, the Tornado GR4 contently rumbled its way through the air, calmly circling the island below as it made its gradual descent. Its pilot on the other hand wasn't so calm.

He wasn't that bothered by the landing procedures; he'd done them many times before. His mind was busy thinking about other subjects. Ever since his day off, he'd been caught up in thinking about the lifeguard he met. He'd known other women much longer than he'd known her, and had no problem forgetting about them as soon as they were gone from him. What concerned him was that the lifeguard was still in his head.

He just couldn't work out why. She was way out of his league as it was, and that is evident just from looking at her. For all Rik knew she could have a boyfriend, she could be married; nearly anything could stop him getting to her. What was convincing him that there was nothing to suggest that she didn't like him back? That, and there was the resounding fact that they met each other by chance, and he had no real leads to her other than knowing that she might be on an island. Even if she was still on that island and he went back for her, there wasn't much of a chance that he would see her again. Any intelligent person would argue that he had no chance, and he accepted he had no chance too. Besides, he didn't even know her name.

"Tumbleweed, are you feeling alright?" A voice piped up over the radio. The pilot recognised it immediately. The owner of the voice sat behind him in the WSO seat.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He strained a reply.

"Right, 'cause you deviated from the approach a little bit." He said flatly. He was right.

"I knew that." Rik barked, correcting himself with an angry jerk of the stick. The plane lurched alarmingly until it was put back onto its approach, whereupon it lazily levelled out again.

"Are you sure?" The voice spoke again. "You seem a bit out of it today."

"I said I'm fine, Aleksi!" He retorted angrily.

Aleksi didn't respond after that. Rik sighed and mentally cursed himself. This girl, whoever she was, was having a profound effect on him. He remained silent for the rest of the approach. While doing his best to distract himself from thinking of the lifeguard, he routinely checked off the list of things to fix on his approach. The flaps were lowered, the throttle was pulled back, he was following the path correctly; everything was going fine.

It was the final approach. Rik had done everything that needed doing. All he could do now was wait for the GR4 to bring him to the tarmac and let him touch down. It was that moment where pilots could only wait. Either wait long enough for the runway to come close enough to land on, or wait for someone to wave them off. It was at that moment that a thought spontaneously forced itself into Rik's head. It went against all his previous sentiments, but it made him think.

What if she likes me back?

"Knight Eight, abort landing! No gear down. No gear."

"Pull up, Rik!"

Rik panicked. Acting on instinct and fear, he jammed the throttle forward and heaved the stick back. The GR4 groaned and lurched backwards pathetically before hauling itself into the sky again.

Shaken and hyperventilating, Rik let the aircraft continue its shallow climb. It took time to calm himself, and when he did he didn't quite fancy having another go. Still, he was low on fuel, and he'd had enough flying for the day. He steered the Tornado back on track, and requested another landing clearance.

* * *

"What the fuck was that?

The equipment room was otherwise deserted aside from the Tornado crew. They had placed their helmets back where they belong, and Aleksi had changed out of his flight suit. Rik had only put back his helmet and oxygen gear, and sat pitifully in his flight suit burying his head in his hands. The tiger reiterated his statement.

"What the fuck happened?"

"I don't know!" The fox bellowed back, not lifting his head up to look at his friend.

"Well, you should." The tiger groaned, leaning back against a nearby wall. "You've changed."

"No I haven't."

"Yeah, you have. You used to be happy all the time, then you were sad, and now you're always angry." Aleksi explained. Rik didn't answer back. "What happened? You were never like this before. The Rik I knew hardly ever got angry... he also never would have tried landing on his belly."

"I got distracted." Rik protested.

"How?" Aleksi shot back. When Rik didn't reply, he sat down beside him and took on a calmer approach. "Why?"

Rik finally conjured up the courage to lift his head up, though when he did he only stared blankly at the wall.

"Do you remember a couple of weeks ago, when I was upset that I couldn't get a date?" He asked. Aleksi nodded, prompting him to continue. "Do you also remember that you made us go on the holiday to try and get me to think straight?"

"Yeah."

"Well, on that day I met a girl."

"...say what now?"

"I met a girl."

"I heard you, but what? I need more details than that." Aleksi said flatly. Rik sighed and continued.

"You got caught up in that volleyball game, yes?"

"Yes."

"At which point I left, correct?"

"Correct."

"When I was wondering around aimlessly after that, I ran into her." Rik explained, a light smile appearing on his face as he remembered her. "She's an arctic fox, and works as a lifeguard. We only spoke for five minutes, but ever since then I couldn't get her out of my head."

"Did you get her number?" Aleksi butted in. Rik sighed.

"No, nothing. Not her number, not her address... not even her name."

Aleksi seemed perplexed.

"Then why are you obsessing over her?"

"It's not that I'm obsessed with her, she just keeps popping into my head. Even if I was obsessing over her, I wouldn't know why."

Aleksi still appeared to not understand him. Exasperated and somewhat bored, Rik re-buried his head in his hands. The two sat in the awkward air of silence a little longer before Aleksi gained the bravery to speak again.

"Do you want to go see someone about this?" The tiger suggested. "I mean, the doctor here could probably help."

"Don't you mean the therapist?"

"We don't have one... at least, I don't think so." Aleksi admitted as he stood up, reaching for his jacket from a nearby hangar. "The doctor writes up who is or isn't in a good enough condition to fly. He's seen people with emotional stuff going on; he should have some experience with this."

"There's nothing wrong with me."

"Maybe not, but just go see him anyway; or at the very least, speak to someone else in the squadron about it. I'm worried about you. I mean, I want you to fly and all, but I don't want you to fly if you try landing with no wheels."

With that, the tiger donned his jacket and promptly departing, leaving the fox alone to ponder everything that had just passed.

As much as it pained him to admit, Aleksi was right. He'd seen this girl over a week ago and was still thinking about her. That thinking in question was harming his ability to fly properly. The fox sighed and stood up, making to leave the building himself. Briefly thinking about the rest of the squadron, he selected a couple of them who he knew to have had issues like his to find and confront.

On the other hand, it was nearly evening, and he was hungry.

He would get something to eat first.

* * *

Thanks to the events of the past few hours, Rik wasn't exactly in the mood to cook something for himself. Even if he did however, he didn't have enough food in to conjure up a decent meal. So, he decided to visit one of the island's restaurants.

There was quite a range of food available, despite the small number of eateries on the island. For example, there was a nice cafe near the base that doubled as a South American cuisine. It was admittedly a nice place, given that Rik knew next to nothing about South American dishes and nearly always ordered from the more familiar cafe segment of the menu.

He didn't want any of that though. He wanted something familiar and nice that wasn't too expensive. This ultimately narrowed it down to Mexican or Italian food. To be perfectly honest however, Rik was so fed up that he didn't even want to put in the effort to choose between them, and resolved to eat at whichever one appeared first.

Rik travelled along a sun-baked road which drew the narrow line between the land and the beach. To his right was rocky terrain, to his left the sea. It wasn't exactly surreal, but it did give the fox a sense of attachment to it. Hardly anyone ever used the road. It was long and had no notable attractions. Consequently, everyone ignored it and cut through the shorter in-land routes to get to their destination. Rik liked to travel that road. He welcomed the loneliness, and felt like he and the road had some form of mutual understanding. The isolation gave him time to think to himself. In this instance, he reflected on the day's events and what he should do in the future. He loved flying, and would definitely miss it if it was taken away from him. He was also afraid of losing his place in the squadron, and his friends. He had to agree that to speak to someone about this would be for the best, but he didn't really want to. He was sure that whoever he bugged about it would have more pressing issues to attend to than listen about him whine about meeting a pretty girl.

He would have continued fretting about the multiple concerns that swarmed through his head, were it not for three specks that appeared at the edge of his vision.

He looked left out to see. Three specks were bobbing in the water, slowly making their way towards the beach. Rik briefly pondered if it was debris of some sort, but they had to be something living since the current moved in a different direction to their heading. As they drew closer, he concentrated harder. SCUBA divers it seemed they were, judging by the tell-tale masks and wetsuits. The pilot contemplated the possibilities. Lost tourists? People who belonged to the island? Spies? It could be any one of them.

Being the only person there, Rik took it upon himself to be the welcome wagon, or the first line of defence should they prove to be hostiles.

The pilot gingerly stepped off the road and made his way onto the beach. The sea was calm, which allowed for the divers to approach the sand in good time. The water gently lapped up at the beach, creating thin lines of foam which gently crawled up the shallow incline until they lost momentum and receded back into the sea to be churned up by the next breaker. The only obstructions the water had were Rik's boots when he made it down to the shoreline and the divers' fins when they deposited themselves on the beach.

Rik took the opportunity to survey them in the time he had. All three of them wore full wetsuits and dive masks, which obstructed their faces. The only gear they carried otherwise were the heavy duty oxygen tanks, buoyancy vests and weight belts. Observing the quality of their gear and lack of any visible weapons, Rik took them to be deep sea divers rather than hostilities of some sort. Still, he kept himself cautious.

"May I help you?" He demanded. The diver closest to him removed his mask and spat out his regulator. He was a spotted feline of some sort; either a leopard or a cheetah. Rik never learnt the difference between the two.

"Hello there!" He said cheerfully in a thick Australian accent. "Sorry about droppin' in on ya like this. This one had an issue with 'er tank."

At that point the second diver had finished removing their gear, revealing themself to be a dark-furred rabbit.

"It wasn't my fault!" She protested, addressing the feline more than Rik. "It's just that someone decided to not fill the tanks up properly."

"It's your job to check, love." The wildcat playfully retorted. Before anything else could happen, Rik stepped in.

"Are you stuck here then?"

"Nah, mate. We've got a boat comin' to pick us up."

"How big is it? If it's anything bigger than a speedboat you might be told off for entering a military zone." Rik informed him. The cat looked perplexed.

"This is a military island?" He asked. Before Rik could reply, the rabbit butted in.

"Of course it is, you ass!" She said assertively. "Can't you see the pilot suit?"

This then derived into an argument between the two before Rik had a chance to interject. Instead he took a few steps aside to stand beside the third diver and observe the argument at a safer distance. He turned to the third diver and motioned to the others.

"Are they always like this?" He said.

"Yeah, pretty much." The diver replied. It was a female voice, Rik just couldn't confirm it earlier as they still had their mask, suit and snorkel on, preventing him from seeing if they were male or female. She had her hands hooked in the head of the wetsuit, struggling to get it off. She spoke as she continued to pull at the clingy suit. "Little help?"

"Sure." He replied, slipping his hand into the gap between her head and the wetsuit which clung to her fur. That gave her enough room to grab the wetsuit properly and pull it back, exposing her head to the air. At this point she briefly shook her head to remove most of the water in her hair.

It was then that Rik's jaw dropped. Her white hair was relatively short, and had a single blue streak running from the centre of her head down to her fringe. Her eyes were bright blue, and the black ears and black patterns to either side of her muzzle allowed him to identify her as a fox. With the rest of her fur being white, she was then placed into the arctic breed of foxes. It was her.

"You?" He spluttered, failing to come up with any other words.

"Me." She replied bluntly.

"Remember on the beach a few weeks ago? There was that guy pretended to drown to kiss you?" He said desperately. She simply had to remember. She looked down in thought for a moment before her face lit up.

"Yeah, and you threatened to call the cops!" She recalled. "Your name was... something with an r. Richie?"

"Rik."

"Rik." She repeated, a smile pursing her lips. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here." He replied, noticing her eyeing his flight suit.

"You're a pilot I'm taking?"

"Yes. Though I might not be for long considering I nearly landed with no wheels today." Rik said as he observed the arctic fox trying to stifle a laugh.

"Why'd you do that?"

"I got distracted; I forgot to put the gear down." He replied with a grin, deciding to reroute the subject. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to be lifeguarding right now?"

"Not really. I've got two part-time jobs, life-guard and a dive tour-guide."

"And you're dive touring now?"

"No. I'm a marine biology intern, which is why we're here. We were looking into some issues around here, but that one's air went into the danger zone." She said, pointing out the rabbit who was still arguing with the cat. "So, since we couldn't get back to the boat, we surfaced and made for the closest island, which was this one."

"Let me get this straight. Lifeguard, diver, marine biologist student?"

"Yeah."

"Seems a little obsessive about the sea." Rik jeered. The arctic fox shrugged.

"Aren't you a little obsessive about the air?" She jeered back, punching the arm of his flight suit.

"Touche." He replied, smiling along with her. "Though, that's understandable. The sky is better than the sea."

"Since when?"

"Since forever; the sky is freeing and relaxing. In the sea there's the danger of drowning, being attacked by things, being crushed by pressure... lots of things."

"Really now? If you're flying at several thousand feet and the engine cuts out, what do you do?"

"You glide."

"Then what?"

"Then you crash and burn horribly."

"Exactly."

"Au contraire, if you're SCUBA diving and you run out of air, then what happens?"

"Please don't say things like that when diving is actually my job."

Rik laughed; "Then don't say things about engines cutting out." The arctic fox laughed in return.

The two continued their conversation quite happily, but pretty soon a tiny boat appeared on the horizon, gracefully skipping over the crests of the waves as it made its way towards the island. The arctic fox noticed it, and identified it as the boat that was meant to pick her up. Rik was disheartened at this, but accepted it and despairingly watched the boat draw close, not wanting to leave her a second time.

The boat slowed as it came closer to the choppy water, and the two other divers slowly waded into the water to reach it. The arctic fox then turned to Rik and sighed.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye." She said. Rik shrugged.

"Maybe it doesn't have to be."

"Explain." She said as she crossed her arms. Rik gingerly put his hands in his pockets and looked around innocently as he bridled a little.

"I don't know. Do you want to do something together some day?" He said with a nervous smile. The arctic fox raised an eyebrow.

"Are you asking me out?"

"Maybe." He said confidently. The arctic fox held his gaze for a moment, before chuckling a little.

"Tomorrow evening, are you free?" She asked.

"Yeah."

"I'll be on this beach at eight o' clock." She declared as she winked at him and turned to leave. Rik couldn't believe it. Before his doubt had a chance to seize him, he took a step forward and caught her shoulder before she stepped into the sea.

"Wait." He said desperately. She turned and looked at him quizzically. "What's your name?"

The arctic fox paused for a moment, and then laughed at the pilot. Rik's ears fell against his head and he took a step back. She in turn advanced one step and ruffled the top of his head.

"Kierra." She stated. "Kierra Rose."

On that note, she turned around and waded into the sea, making her way out to the boat bobbing patiently beyond the breakers. Rik stood and watched her, a broad smile etched permanently onto his face.

He couldn't believe it.