FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Cold. It was cold.

The office Rik sat in was heavily air-conditioned. In contrast with the warmth outside, this was arctic to him. The pilot sat hand-cuffed uncomfortably to an uneven chair. Also in the office were two guardsmen. He couldn't see them, but he knew they were there; two soldiers bearing rifles, placed behind him to the left and to the right of the doorframe.

In front of him was a wide desk, with pens, papers and other bits of stationary scattered over the surface in organised chaos. Behind that desk were two figures. One was a ferret, who stood in a professional manner with a wad of papers tucked underneath his left arm and pair of circular-framed glasses balanced precariously on his muzzle.

Behind the desk, the only other person in a chair, sat an imposing male samoyed. He was clad totally in thick white fur, and donned a full flight suit. There was a scar over his left eye, which made him much more imposing than his height of over six feet already rendered him. He was Rik's lieutenant colonel, and was essentially the second-in-charge of all military activity on the island, or at least that concerning the squadron. Rik was secretly afraid of him, even though he was by far one of the most approachable members of the squadron. His cold, disapproving gaze was fixated on him; and his countenance looked none-too-pleasant. Rik found it hard to even look in his general direction without feeling anxious.

"I shouldn't have to explain vhy you're here." The samoyed began as he idly drummed his fingers against the desk surface. His icy stare was made that little bit worse by the fact that Rik couldn't escape it. "But, it'll probably do good to zummarise."

He pulled out a pad of papers, on the front of which was a set of seemingly hastily written bullet points.

"Rik, over ze last few weeks you've been becoming increasingly ineffective in exercises. Alongzide that, you've failed to comprehend several orders, you've tried to land vizout landing gear, you've deviated from flight paths, you've been acting overly-aggressive and you've now started a fight with somevohn who I thought vas your best friend. Do you have anything to zay about this?"

"No, sir." He mumbled. The samoyed sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Doctor?" He said sharply. The ferret went rigid for a moment, promptly clearing his throat as he pressed his glasses against the bridge of his muzzle.

"From what I can tell, it's some degree of psychological conflict. Most probably something along the lines of acute stress disorder if it's developed that far." He explained. The samoyed looked back at the fox.

"Comments?"

"No, sir."

The doctor cleared his throat again, "I recommend that we have a psychiatrist take a look at him. I can scratch the surface of his issue, but psychological cases are not my forte."

"Underztood." He replied, the drumming against the desk now resumed. "As for his service?"

"Well, until we can have a psychiatrist sort him out, he probably shouldn't fly."

The fox's eyes went wide. Kierra was already gone from him; to take away his flying away would most probably crush him entirely. Rik probably would have stood up in protest, had he not remembered he was handcuffed to the chair's frame.

"Sir, please don't do that." He said pleadingly. The samoyed retained his cold expression. "There's nothing wrong with me. Please, give me another chance, I'll do it right. I can fix this."

"Zat's not ze point." He replied sternly. "If you can't fly properly, you're a danger to everyvohn around you. Ze same goes for your behaviour. Ve need to sort you out before ve can let you fly again."

"Please, sir... let me try an' sort myself out first. This whole thing started because of me. I know how to fix it. I just need one chance to right it, and I know it'll work. Please."

The icy glare of the samoyed descended on him once more, to which Rik felt like an ill prepared actor caught in the limelight. The samoyed stared at him unflinchingly, mulling over in his head the possibilities that were to arise. Eventually, he sighed and abruptly closed his file, motioning for the guards to un-cuff Rik.

"Five days." He said flatly as Rik felt the unyielding strain of the hand cuffs give and allow him to move his arms freely. "If you haven't sorted it by zen, I'll have to write you off. You're dismissed."

With a dismissive flick of his hand, Rik was freed. The elated fox, too scared of the the samoyed to say any form of thanks, popped a quick salute and made to leave. He bounded out of the office before he could give the samoyed any chance to change his mind.

* * *

"So, that's the story of how I ended up here." Rik finished up. It was the next day, just gone past lunchtime. He was sat on a ferry, having idle conversation with the helmsman to pass the time. The heat outside was excruciating, and as such he was happy to sit inside the cabin and watch the deep blue water flow past in the relative coolness. The helmsman, an otter who was a native to the set of islands, chuckled a little and shook his head. Rik kind of admired him really. In contrast to the pilot, the otter seemed pretty cool. He was shirtless, and wore only some sandals, some loose fitting shorts and a necklace ladled with a set of shark teeth. A pair of Oakley's were perched on his brow, and his hair was fashioned into a head of dreadlocks which fell to just past his shoulders.

"You've had a rough time, mohn. But da's how life goes, eh? Nice and rewardin' one moment, cruel and unpredictable de next." He said, reaching for and pulling back the speed lever as the port came into view. "De trick to life is just to be happy, eh? Not happy like to have fast cars and lots of money, but to have good times wid good people. You have good times flying, wid good people who fly wid you. When dis woman came in an' distracted you, you stopped having fun flying, eh? Then you went on a date with huh, and you weh happy as can be, eh?. And now she's gone, you ah not happy at all. Sounds to me dat you need huh wid you so dat you can be happy again, eh?"

"Exactly. It's just that I don't know if I can get her back. I don't even know where she is."

"If fate has made you two soulmates, you will find huh!" The otter declared. "But it is you who must win huh back; fate won't do dat for you, mohn. She left last time because she did not know you well, eh? You just need to be yourself and show your true coluhs. De rest will come easy, yeah?"

Rik smiled, "If you say so. By the way, d'you know where there are any dive shops here?"

"Sure, mohn!" The otter said euphorically. "When we hit port, take a right onto da beach. On the walk after one mile is a dive shop; Undasea Walkahs. One more mile, and deh's anotha; Coral Divahs."

"Cheers mate." Rik said as the boat came into final docking procedures. When the bow came close enough to the jetty to dismount, the fox turned back to the otter and fished around in his own pockets. He retrieved four dollars and a couple of coins, which he promptly handed to the otter. "You're a good bloke."

At this point, the pilot rounded on his heels and sprinted down the boat. The beaming otter called after him.

"Raymundo thanks you! Good luck, friend!"

The fox smiled and waved at his new friend over his shoulder. He'd probably end up missing him at some point; he was great to talk to. The sentiments about the helmsman were soon shot out of his head, and were promptly replaced by thoughts about Kierra. He had to have her back.

Rik ran up to the prow of the ferry and made a mighty leap over to the jetty where the vessel and the jetty were the closest, not bothering to wait until it was fully safe to leave. He received some abuse from the wolf tying up the mooring lines, but he couldn't care any less.

As Raymundo instructed, he made a sharp right when he ran out of jetty and barrelled down the concrete walkway that ran parallel with the beach. The heat was brilliant today, so brilliant in fact that there were very few people on the beach. The rest were inside the much sought after air-conditioned buildings. Rik had barely gone a few hundred metres before the sheer temperature began to bog him down. Thankfully he wasn't wearing his flight suit, and instead was clad in a more appropriate t-shirt and jeans. How he wished he's swapped the jeans for shorts, however.

The concrete walkway was virtually deserted, which gave him more-or-less straight line down the beach. Every so often he had to swerve to avoid the odd market stall trying to sell some food he'd never heard of before, and at one point had to avoid some kids who were frying an egg right on the street. He counted the palm trees as he ran. Each one was planted roughly twenty metres from the next. The only problem was that he couldn't convert metres into yards, and then subsequently into miles which was what he was given. It was far too confusing for him that metres were longer than yards, yet miles were longer than kilometres.

The fox, objective determined despite his Metric and Imperial confusion, ran on. By the time he reached the first dive shop he was gasping harshly for breath, and his body temperature was probably well into dangerous territory. Upon seeing the sign proclaiming 'Undersea Walkers', he slowed his run and staggered the remaining fifty metres to the dive shop.

The shop was a terraced building, trapped between a Pawn Shop and a grill restaurant. The windows had manequins donning deep sea diving gear in them, along with posters demonstrating the 'Awesome Wonders of the Sea'. He was pretty sure that if Kierra worked here, it probably would have been her that put together that poster, judging by its particular phrasing.

Outside the shop, strategically positioned in a deck chair under an umbrella, was a female hyena clutching a thick wad of booklets. Rik often perceived hyenas as perpetually angry and aggressive, especially the female ones. This one though seemed happy, and smiled as he walked up to her.

"Afternoon!" She said excitedly as she bounced to her feet and gestured to the shop. "Come to go diving with us today, sir?"

"Not necessarily... sorry." Rik admitted, still trying to catch his breath in between words. "I'm looking for someone, and I need some help."

"I'll try to help out as best as I can." The hyena replied. Rik smiled. He admired her attitude, despite him just admitted to not coming into the store.

"She works in a dive shop, but I don't know which one. She's an arctic fox, about my age. She's got a blue streak in her hair, and blue eyes. Her name's Kierra if you know her.

The hyena winced, "Sorry, no-one like that works here. You should try Coral Divers, they're just down that way. In fact, here, they're on this map."

She handed him one of the leaflets she carried. On the reverse was a relatively detailed map of the beach. It pinpointed different stores along the beach, including the two dive shops. They were each tagged with great accuracy for what seemed to be rival businesses.

What really drew Rik's attention was some mapped structure that appeared to be the layout of an airfield, parked a few miles inland behind the row of beach-front stores. It was tagged 'Airfield-Aerial Tours and Aircraft Rental'. He raised an eyebrow and made a mental note of it. Maybe they had something good to fly about in.

"Cheers. I promise I'll come diving sometime." He told her, quickly pocketing the leaflet as he resumed his mad run down the beach.

"Good luck!" The hyena cheerfully yelled after him. He smiled and waved over his shoulder, like with Raymundo. That's why he liked this place; everyone was exceptionally nice to everyone else.

So it was that the pilot was forced to run on. The heat struck hard, and in light of the fatigue he had accumulated during his earlier dash, he slowed himself to a jog. Once or twice he questioned why exactly it was that he was running at all. He was suffering, and he was sure he'd be able to do this without running, but he continued all the same.

It was roughly halfway through the mile that a piercing stitch flared up in his right lung. Rik inferred it was something along the lines of something romantic and heroic, and that he was suffering in the name of retrieving Kierra. In reality he knew it was just a stitch.

The pilot ran on bravely. The burning heat and agonising pain in his lung was enough to deter any sane being, and would have been enough to deter Rik if he wasn't under the impression that Kierra would like him again if he spontaneously turned up in pain, out of breath and about to collapse and suffer a heat-stroke. If anything perhaps it would gain him some degree of respect, if not an overwhelming demonstration of his own obsession and/or stupidity.

Coral Divers approached fast, its sign about as large and as obnoxious as Undersea Walkers' was. There was nobody outside handing out leaflets this time, so he eagerly walked into the air-conditioned store just after he paused outside for a brief session of catching his breath.

It was cool inside, much to Rik's liking. The walls were decorated with odd pieces of diving apparatus, ranging from masks and snorkels to wetsuits and buoyancy gear. An old spun copper dive suit stood in the far corner like an ancient suit of armour. There was an iron grid walkway along the top of the store that was used to store storage boxes along a gantry, and was accessible via a partially rusted ladder in the far corner. A till sat at the far end of the store, in between a glass cabinet displaying various diving souvenirs and a rotating rack of sunglasses. Behind it sat a female cat clad in black fur underneath some beige shorts and a white tank top. Her feet were perched on the surface of the till, and she leant back in her chair looking half asleep.

The fox approached her hesitantly, not entirely sure whether he'd like to disrupt the cat's nap. He recalled that Aleksi always went into a fit of rage whenever he woke him up.

Deciding to go for it, Rik timidly approached the till and lightly tapped on the surface, making a loud enough noise to stir the cat.

"S'cuse me?" He said. The cat's eyes bolted wide open when she heard, and her legs tore themselves off the till and fell to the more accepted position below the chair.

"Sorry there." She stammered in reply as she smiled sheepishly at him. "Didn't get much sleep last night."

"No problem." Rik replied, deciding better than to attempt a joke at the lazy cat stereotype. "I was wondering if you could help me out."

"Sure! Whadduya need?"

"I'm looking for someone. She works in a dive shop, 'cept I don't know which one. She's an arctic fox, she's got blue eyes and a-"

"Blue line in her hair?" The cat finished his sentence for him.

"Yeah. So you know her? She's here?" Rik asked excitedly. The cat winced and shrugged.

"Yeah, she's here, but she's not exactly in the best of moods. Lemme guess, you're Rik?"

"She's been saying things?"

"Mhmm." The cat looked unimpressed with him.

"I can assure you, whatever she said is wrong. I tried to explain that to her but I got arrested before I could get to her."

"God, what were you doing? You stole a car or something?"

"I punched my co-pilot because he was a dick... it's a long story! What's important now is that I really need to talk to her."

"Well..."

"Please?" He pleaded, giving her the best puppy-dog eyes he could muster up. The cold glare of the cat met him, and his pleading gaze hence failed. The fox sighed and shook his head before he looked back at the cat again, this time with a look of worry. "Please. She's one of the greatest people I've ever known, and it'd kill me to know that we parted ways knowing that she despised my very existence. She's fantastic, and she most probably could date a lot better than me. She's not just out of my league, she's in a completely different game. It wouldn't surprise me if her leaving is how it turned out, but all I ask is that I talk to her one last time. Give me that at least, 'cause I wouldn't be able to live with myself knowing that I at least haven't righted what was wronged."

The cat's cold glare continued. It was unnerving, so to say the least. It continued a few moments longer, until she looked up over his head and nodded for him to follow.

Rik looked at her quizzically prior to turning. She was looking at the walkway, where a majority of the stored boxes had been stacked. Among the ranks of boxes, perched on the mesh walkway with her legs dangling over the edge, was Kierra.

Her legs swung lazily at alternate times. Her arms were draped on the mid-railings, upon which rested her head. She wore a countenance that expressed a faint twinge of disappointment, and she glowered at him with half-lidded eyes, looking much like a bored student in a lecture theatre.

Kierra and Rik stared at each other silently for quite some time, which in time made the cat sitting at the till nervous and made her shift awkwardly. Of the two foxes, Rik was the first to speak,

"There the whole time?" He asked.

"Yup." She replied flatly. Rik smiled and looked down as he nervously shuffled his feet.

"Listen, about what happened, it's not what you think. That guy, Aleksi, he's my co-pilot. He bet me that I made you up, not that I could get a girl in bed with me. The bet happened because of you, not you happened because of the bet."

"Sure."

"I swear that's the truth. I haven't lied to you so far, I don't plan on starting now. I guess the bet's kind of my fault 'cause I made you seem like some sort of goddess, but this whole situation's definitely my fault, and for that I'm really, truly sorry. I invited you home because I didn't want you to get stranded out in the storm, I didn't plan on showing you off to anyone. When you ran out, I didn't follow because I was arrested for assault. If that hadn't happened, I'd have caught you up and said what I'm saying now. I really care about you, Kierra; and It'd tear me up inside to watch you go."

"I don't believe you."

"Please, you have to!" Rik pleaded, a panicked expression crossed with deep concern etched onto his face. "I care about you way more than you think I do. When I've been faced with a choice between flying and doing something else, I've picked flying; no contest. Now if I had to choose between flying and being with you, it would be the first time I would have hesitated. And you know what? I'd pick you. And I know you probably don't want anything to do with me right now, but you're everything to me. It sounds stupid, yes, but this is how I feel. I'd tear the world down if it meant I could spend one more day with you. You mean so much, and I don't want to watch you go like this. This expression's said a lot and usually is just empty words, but this time it's my heart and soul. Kierra, I love you. Please find it inside yourself to forgive me."

The arctic fox raised an eyebrow, but otherwise maintained her unimpressed demeanour.

"Hmph, cheesy." She commented. Rik began to panic; she didn't believe him. He quickly racked his thoughts for something, anything that he could say to salvage this. That's when Raymundo the joyous helmsman popped into his mind. The dreadlocked otter reiterated his last statement.

She left last time because she did not know you well, eh? You just need to be yourself and show your colours. De rest will come easy, yeah?

The pilot drove a hand into his pocket, quickly fishing out the leaflet that marked where the airfield was. Beaming euphorically, he held it up for Kierra to see.

"Let me take you out one last time." He said, the look of desperation now clear for the world to see. "If you don't like me after that, I'll leave and I won't bother you ever again."

Kierra looked back at him in pondering. Her fingers lightly drummed against the cold metal of the railings as she thought. Rik felt a familiar icy dread crawl up his spine. It was like being back in that office all over again, only this time it was worse! The silence was unbearably intense, and the painful pause she took to consider the offer felt like an invisible dagger thrust into Rik's emotions with each passing beat of his heart. The pilot had to steady himself against the till, lest he shake and risk collapsing out of sheer fear of what her decision would be. It took time, but eventually Kierra came to a conclusion. She sat up straight and looked right at him, like she was looking through his eyes and directly into his soul. He tensed up as her mouth opened to speak. She spoke quietly, barely audibly in fact, but Rik still heard her.

"One last chance."