FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Rik had to wait some time before Kierra could take a break from her shift. It was beginning to head towards dinner time by the time she had finished up. She had to take part in a dive tour, to which Rik volunteered to take part in until he was told that it was an adept dive and he was unqualified. No matter, he had other things to do.

The airfield wasn't too far off from the beach, and he quickly made his way there to put in a request for a plane to rent. He was told that all available planes for that day were either booked or grounded for maintenance, except for one. He enquired about the one, which pleased him to hear its name.

The aircraft in question was a de Havilland 'Tiger Moth'. When the fox heard of its availability, he hurriedly and excitedly put in a request to book it. A Tiger Moth was the very first plane he was allowed to fly in, and they were formidably agile and fun despite their age and old airframes.

With forty five minutes worth of flight paid for, the appropriate paperwork filled out and a pilot's licence provided, Rik went back to the beach. The plane would be ready for him by the time Kierra returned from the dive.

Kierra, bogged down by a good twenty five kilos of dive gear and water, trudged out of the sea much later to find a beaming red fox waiting for her on the slipway. He held two bottles of Coca-Cola that he had acquired from the dive-shop's vending machine. Rik handed her one of them with a warm smile.

She hesitantly took the cup and sipped at it as she made her way inside the dive shop. Rik waited patiently on the beach for her to return, which happened half an hour later after she'd removed the gear and had a shower.

The pilot walked her up to the airfield, attempting to occasionally make small talk with her. She was reluctant to reply, but in the end she did. They made idle conversation all the way up to the airfield. It was nothing fun like the conversations that they had before Kierra stormed out on Rik, but it was at least something indicating to the pilot that the relationship was still salvageable.

The airfield came into view quickly, and wasn't buzzing with overhead activity as Rik had expected. In fact there were no planes in sight at all, save for one really high up airliner that slowly grumbled overhead, dragging a long vapour trail behind it. Rik checked himself in for his slot at the reception desk, and was given two pairs of goggles, two radio headsets and a couple of scarves before he was told where the Tiger Moth was waiting.

He handed Kierra her scarf, headset and goggles, to which she accepted them albeit with a raised eyebrow, deeming them a little goofy looking. The surface of the airfield was little more than large slabs of concrete placed beside each other and glued together with tar. There were three semi-dome hangars on the airstrip, two of which were full of planes having their engines stripped by mechanics. The third was empty, aside from a few oil drums and some maintenance equipment.

Outside of the third one, glistening with ethereal light from the sun reflecting off of its yellow canvas, was the Tiger Moth. Much to Rik's enjoyment it bore RAF roundels on the its wings and fuselage, and still had its serial number painted on the tail; more or less the same Tiger Moth that he remembered back from when he first flew.

Upon beholding the bright yellow bi-plane, Rik's pace sped up, betraying his eagerness to get to fly the aircraft. Kierra meanwhile simply reproachfully scrutinised the plane, mentally deeming it a little too old fashioned to be safe.

"Hop in!" Rik commanded joyfully as he ran around the aircraft in an excited manner as he did his checks, like a child making sure that the Christmas tree was all ready for Santa to see. Kierra watched him with a raised eyebrow.

"Why exactly am I here?" She asked. Rik abruptly stopped running during another sweep of the plane and looked at her with his head cocked sideways.

"You're here because I need to show you something." He said. He smiled and shook his head when Raymundo's advice popped into his mind again. "You left last time because you thought I was an asshole. I brought you here to show you that I'm not an asshole."

"How d'ya plan on doing that?"

"By showing you who I really am. I'm not an asshole. I'm not a sex-obsessed prick. I'm a guy living on an island who gets overly excited when he sees a plane. That, and I'm a sad, lonely individual who has recently met the greatest person he'll probably ever meet ever," he paused and lightly grasped Kierra by the shoulders. "...and would most likely die if she left him. I brought you here to show you that."

"Uh-huh."

"Let's go for a fly. If you don't like me by the end of it, I'll back off. At the very least I just want you to know that I'm sorry."

Kierra returned an empty stare at him as he spoke. She had plenty of time and room to leave, but she didn't. Instead, when Rik released her, she looped the scarf around her neck and approached the plane. Rik's heart jumped a little; it was all still possible to salvage this.

He instructed Kierra to sit in the passenger seat, which in a Tiger Moth was the front one, as he removed the chocks at the wheels. Rik then moved around the buckle Kierra into her seat and give her a brief run-down on safety, as per usual. Once done he hopped into the pilot's cockpit behind Kierra's, and they both applied the goggles they were supplied with.

Happy that the Tiger Moth was otherwise ready, Rik slowly pumped the brass notch in front of him to prime the engine.

"Clear prop!" The fox bellowed. Kierra jumped, and looked around, failing to see anybody around, and consequently wondered why Rik needed to sound off his warning. Rik's finger moved from the primer and hovered over the engine ignition button. He took a deep breath.

"Contact!" Rik yelled, under the impression that it was cool to mimic First World War pilots, as he hammered the ignition button down. The Tiger Moth's engine coughed, spluttered and whined momentarily, shortly prior to a resounding _BANG_sounded from the exhaust pipes mounted at either side of the front fuselage. The pipes belched forth a small wisp of dark smoke as the engine proudly roared into life. The propeller twisted and jittered pitifully for a split second, before it jumped and span faster and faster, until very soon it was spinning so fast it that it wasn't possible to make out any of the propellor blades.

With the whole fiasco over, the two sat in the plane, partially bewildered by the profound noises it had made, as the engine purred contently, vibrating the airframe ever so slightly.

"Ow." Kierra barked only just loud enough over the collective noise of the engine and the propellor as she rubbed her ears. Rik motioned her to put on the headset as he did himself. When she put it on, she found that it magically drowned out a majority of the noise.

"Feeling better?" Rik asked, the microphone conveniently attached to the headset allowing them to talk freely without disruption from the engine.

"Slightly." She replied flatly. Rik merely smiled, and promptly went about requesting take off clearance from the tower, which was really just a room in a raised part of the reception building that overlooked the runway.

"Tower, this is Golf-Alpha Delta Golf Tango, requesting clearance to taxi to runway one, over." He stated. A few moments later the headset hissed, and he got his reply.

"Golf-Alpha Delta, taxiway is clear, you may proceed at your discretion."

"Roger that tower." He replied as he placed a hand on the throttle and upped the power. The Tiger Moth responded accordingly, and it lurched back and began to slowly roll forward as the buzz of the propeller increased in volume. The pilot adjusted the pedals as he saw fit, and drove the plane onto the taxiway.

It wasn't the greatest taxiway in the world considering that its surface was constructed mainly from dirt and thus extremely uncomfortable to drive over, but luckily it was short. Rik didn't like taxiing much, and was delighted when he was soon confronted with the airfield's runway, which was thankfully made of much smoother tarmac. Once more he radioed in the tower, this time asking for take-off clearance, which it granted him. He looked back at Kierra.

"All ready?" He asked her as he checked the runway for anything that might provide an issue for take-off.

"As ready as I'll ever be." The arctic vixen responded as she gingerly shrunk in her seat at the sight of the runway. Rik saw this, and grinned heartily.

"What, you afraid all of a sudden? This isn't the Kierra I know."

"The Kierra you know likes land and sea, not getting stuck at deathly heights above them!"

"You'll be fine!" Rik chortled, putting a hand on the throttle once more. "I'm the pilot here. What could possible go wrong?"

Kierra didn't get a chance to answer, unless the timid squeak that she emitted when engine roared in front of her was her response. Rik had begun increasing the throttle, and the engine activity increased along with it. As opposed to the tender roll when on the taxiway, the Tiger Moth lurched back excitedly and hurled itself down the runway, pushing its passengers backwards into their seats in the process. Barrelling down the runway at a steadily increasing speed, Kierra covered her eyes and 'eeped' as the plane gained enough speed to lift itself off its rear wheel and travel level. Of course, it's when the plane it travelling level that she can see what's directly in front of it, which in this case was the concentration of trees gathered at the fast approaching end of the runway.

Contrary to Kierra's grimace at the sight of an imminent crash, Rik had a massive grin plastered onto his face. He was loving every moment of this, even if the vixen in front of him looked just about ready to curl up in a ball and cry. At about three quarters of the way down the tarmac, he gently pulled at the stick in the foot-well. The plane responded accordingly, and gracefully lifted itself off the ground and hauled itself into the sky.

Since beholding the trees that they would have collided with had Rik not pulled up, Kierra had her hands pressed over her eyes and refused to look. It was some time afterwards that it occurred to her that they must have crashed by now, and there was that strange sensation of added weight to her body. Her hands slowly peeled away from her eyes, only to see that they were a good few hundred feet up and climbing. She promptly squealed and hid her eyes again. Rik just laughed.

"Kierra Rose, deep sea diver extraordinaire and marine biologist prodigy, defeated by a meagre dose of altitude." He mused.

"Shuddup!" She retorted, still not looking at anything. Rik shook his head and tilted the stick slightly to the left. The plane banked right in response, and began to make its way towards the beach nearby.

"Wanna have a look now? Not looking's only gonna make it worse you know." He asked. Kierra gingerly pried her hands away from her face and looked over the side. It was the beach. More specifically, it was her beach. She could make out the dive shop where she worked, and could see the many kiosks and boats dotting the coastline, along with the buildings and the people awkwardly wandering around. It looked much different from the air.

The pilot carried on until the plane was over the sea, which brought comfort to Kierra. If she were to fall out now, there was a slight chance she would live falling in the sea rather than coming to a messy end hitting the land. Rik forced the plane to bank again, this time putting it parallel with the coastline and travelling on a beeline down the beach.

Kierra watched fervently. The water seemed so much clearer than it did when she was there on the ground. The people were tiny, nearly insignificant in contrast with the wider perspective that the Tiger Moth allowed her to see. The afternoon sky was cloudless, and the waters were calm. The purr of the engine and the whistle of air that was audible around the headset combined with the overall beauty of the scene laid before her was almost serene. The new perspective and freedom that flight gave her was awesome. She was free of any issue and sentiments that she had left back on the ground, and was free to do as she pleased up here. Now she understood why Rik was so attached to flight.

As Kierra marvelled at the beauty of the scene before her, Rik marvelled at beauty too. His perspective of beauty, however, probably didn't match up with hers. From his seat, Rik studied Kierra, taking in her natural beauty as he did when he first met her. Whenever she turned around enough for him to see her face, he studied it. Rik never thought himself as one to be swayed by someone's beauty like this. Then again, if anyone could do this to him, it would be Kierra.

To Rik, it was like she just naturally radiated brilliance. Everything he ever valued in a person he could find in her. She was also a total bombshell, but Rik did his best to put that particular fact at the back of his mind and focus on the more emotional ties he had with the vixen. As much as he tried to focus on them however, his attraction for her body kept crawling into his mind, most specifically the images of when she was flaunting herself in front of him while wearing only lingerie.

While these images flooded his head, Rik had gotten distracted from his duty of actually flying the plane, and the Tiger Moth had since fallen into a shallow but gradually increasing nose dive. Rik realised this a few seconds later, and jarred the stick back out of shock. The aircraft lurched backwards and pulled itself out of the dive, leaving the two foxes inside it a little short of breath.

"Don't ever do that again, please." Kierra cried. After recovering from his shock, Rik shook his head and laughed.

"What? You afraid to have a little adrenaline rush?"

"Well, no... just don't do it again!"

"Okay, okay."

Rik allowed the plane to fly straight for a moment, and lured Kierra into a false sense of security. When he was satisfied that she'd forgotten, he gently eased the stick to the right. When the plane began to follow, he eased it left. At first it was only gentle, and was barely noticeable. However, Rik increased the speed at which he moved the stick as he went on. Pretty soon the Tiger Moth was swaying side to side excitedly, its roll angle reaching about forty five degrees each time, as it flew its course. Kierra wasn't happy.

"What did I just say!?"

"You told me not to do that again, so I'm doing this."

"Don't!" Kierra cried, raising balled fists to emphasise her stress. Rik swore he could see a smile on her face whenever she turned enough.

"Specify what you don't want me to do." Rik said, letting the plane settle down to fly straight and level again.

"No stunts! Y'know, like don't make it roll over and stuff."

"What, you mean a barrel roll?"

"Yeah, that!" She barked.

"'Kay then." Rik replied, performing a mock salute at her. A few seconds later however, the urge to roll was far too great, and it overcame him. He jammed the stick left as far as it would go and inadvertently loosed a maniacal laugh as the plane followed. The Tiger Moth pitched to the left alarmingly, very soon going way past the ninety degree angle. Kierra watched in horror as the world's astounding rotary capacity suddenly became apparent. Her eyes screwed themselves shut, and she shrieked upon realising that they were now upside down. Contrary to the vixen, the pilot was laughing his head off, thoroughly enjoying every moment of it as the world magnificently rolled around him. The bi-plane soon righted itself again, and Rik let the stick return to its centre position.

Kierra was shaken, but otherwise okay. In fact, the adrenaline rush had had its intended effect, and the beginnings of a smile graced the edges of her mouth. Rik saw this, and smiled smugly to himself.

"NO MORE STUNTS!" Kierra bellowed, though Rik swore he heard a faint laugh in their somewhere.

"Aww, you love it really." He teased.

"I like flying, not the stunts."

"Oop, sorry, what was that?"

"I like flying."

"And are you willing to admit flying is better than diving, lest another stunt happen?"

"Never!" Kierra said with a now glaringly obvious laugh. Rik grinned, and his heart skipped a beat. It sounded like she was starting to like him again.

"Well, I've got some more stunts in my arsenal. What'll it be? Defying the ground, helix roll, immelman turn, split s, loop, stalling... anything take your fancy?"

"Rik, don't you do it."

"I feel in the mood for a good stall, don't you?"

"Fine! Flying is better than diving!" She cried, laughing heartily now. Rik laughed along with her.

"Now, was that so hard?"

Kierra didn't reply, and instead held up her hand for him to see that she had crossed two fingers. He glared at her with exaggerated rage, to which she simply laughed again. Rik joined in once more, and the two foxes sat laughing together like giddy school children. The laughing fit was only interrupted a few moments later when a third voice on the radio piped up. It was a male's voice, and it carried a sense of boredom with it.

"Attention, Golf-Alpha Delta, you've reached thirty minutes flight time, we recommend you turn back to the airfield now, over."

"Roger tower, Golf-Alpha Delta turning back now, over." Rik replied in a dull voice, clearly upset about his time restraint. He didn't even have time to twitch a muscle before the voice returned.

"All pilots, be warned we've got an inbound storm bearing down on us from East South East. It'll hit the airfield in around twenty minutes to half an hour, over."

"Uh... Golf-Alpha Delta, roger that, over."

Reluctantly, Rik turned the plane around and made a beeline back towards the airfield. Kierra meanwhile kept a lookout for the incoming storm. They sat quietly, both fretting about the storm's arrival in contrast to their touchdown time. It was soon however that another thought popped into Kierra's head, and she spoke up.

"Whatcha doin' after this?"

"I dunno. Going home I guess."

"You take a ferry here?"

"Yeah."

"They won't be running. The port master doesn't let any boats out in a storm."

"Fuck." Rik was beginning to question if Lady Luck found it amusing to lift his spirits up for the slightest of moments and then drop him back into a vat of problems. His good luck to bad luck ratio was beginning to frustrate him to the point that he would very much like to shove a pointed object into the fat lady himself so that she'd sing and let it all be done with. Kierra laughed.

"It's fine. You can crash at my place." She replied. Rik's eyes lit up for a moment, but then he shook his head and told himself not to do it.

"Nah, it's fine. There are hotels 'round here. I'm be all right."

"Yeah, but they're all five star resort hotels; gold diggers, all of 'em. They'll probably have your whole life savings out your bank just for using the bathroom. You're coming to my house."

"Really, it's fine."

"Rik, listen. You paid for my meal a couple of days ago, you let me stay at your place, you let me have your bed, you spent money to get over here just to apologise, and on top of that you then took me flying. I think I owe you one."

"But I'd feel bad."

"Rik!" She turned around as much as her seat would allow, meeting him eye to eye for the first time during the flight. "You're staying at my house, end of story. I'm not having you blow all your money on a rip-off hotel."

Rik sighed and looked down at the foot-well and weighed the options. As much as he'd hate to impose after everything, staying at Kierra's was overall the best option to take. Besides, he really did want to spend more time with her. The pilot looked up at her. She was still craning her neck to look at him, her face filled with innocence. Her puppy dog eyes were much better than his, because of which he had a slight envy of her. It was those very eyes however that held his gaze for so long, and eventually persuaded him that there was no way he could say no. He sighed and looked over the Tiger Moth's side, estimating when they would return to the airfield. He looked back at her.

"Storm's happening in twenty minutes, right?" He asked

"Yeah."

"You don't suppose we could get something to eat before that?"

The collective laughter of the two foxes resumed, and together they laughed their way through the darkening sky .