FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Monk leads me up to the door of the elaborately decorated carriage, and I can feel the inquisitive eyes of the guards in front of it watching me. Paying them no mind Monk opens the door revealing the inside to the light of day in all it's luxurious glory. The inside of the carriage is as extravagant as I expected it would be considering the outside, all that is missing are the scented candles to complete the royal atmosphere

Plush carpeting covers the floor in the same color as the drapes, the seats are also the same shade of purple, if you can call them that. In fact they look more like toilet seats to me than benches with cushions, it's obvious why they are shaped like this. Monk wipes its feet on the steps hanging under the carriage under the door, the purpose of the hole in the seats shows its usefulness as the abdomen on monks rear fits nicely into it when sitting down.

It looks at me as I stare at the other bench in the carriage, if I sit down on it my ass is going to fall through just like trying to sit on a toilet with the seat up. At least there is no water in the bottom, which adds little comfort to the situation. Monk follows my gaze to the seat, and then looks back at me, it then franticly looks about the cabin before pulling off a shelf behind it and placing it over the seat giving me a place to sit. Smiling I step up onto the steps that monk used, wiping my feet in a similar manner before stepping inside.

It is not the most comfortable seat I have ever sat on, but it works. As I wiggle about on the seat to get comfortable monk reaches over closing the door and the curtains plunging the inside into darkness, yet enough light enters for me to see.

A noise coming from somewhere outside causes my ears to move to pinpoint the source, shortly after it that the carriage rocks and starts to move.

Curious about the noise I reach to open one of the drapes only to have Monk gently grab my arm. It then clicks and hisses at me, I blink and stare not getting it at all. Monk looks at me and repeats the same sounds, in the exact sequence and tone, but slower. This time it shakes its finger at the same time.

I think what it means is no or do not open, so lets test out that theory. Pointing to the curtain I make a motion of opening it up with my hands. Shaking my head from side to side I repeat the same hisses and clicks that monk made with the best of my ability. Monk stares at me for a few seconds while trying to figure out what I said. Did I get it right? I hope I got it right, I don't want to find out that I ended up insulting monk. Monk then slowly, as if unsure of the gesture's meaning, moves its head up and down in a nod. With a smile I give Monk a return nod and it looks happy at getting it right. I think I just learned a word or two in their language, to bad all negative like no or don't. But it is progress that can be built upon to learn more.

Maybe I can teach Monk to speak some common? It's worth a try, so I point to myself and speak slowly. "Athena." I then wait a few moments to see monks reaction, then repeat myself a bit slower spending time on pronouncing each syllable. It takes Monk several tries and I don't know how minutes of attempts before being able to say it back to me.

"Asthena" Monk points to me saying my name, All be it rather slowly and with a slight hiss on the th sound.

"Close enough." I say to Monk keeping in mind that I probably would just as badly butcher their language. My next move is to point my finger at Monk and wait, catching onto what I want to know it nods faster than last time and more sure of its self. A short series of hisses and clicks follow though it is only a bit longer than the word 'no' it said before, so I guess it's going to be just as easy to learn this one. Monk then repeats its name like I did for mine, slowly and carefully, so I can get all the subtle nuances. The name is more complex than I first thought, but I think I manage well enough. Monk or High pitched hiss, click, low pitch hiss, and two quick clicks going by their language is its name.

Monk corrects me a couple of times because I miss a small tone change on the second hiss part of its name. By the third try I can say its name correctly, with each of us knowing each others names we can move on to other words. I should find out if Monks species even have genders, I am getting weird vibes thinking of them as its like humans used to do with morphs. So I point to myself again and speak slowly. "Female" It hits me that the word really doesn't have any meaning until you provide some context. So I hold up on hand forming a crude representation of female anatomy while saying female again. Followed up with my other hand making a crude representation of male anatomy, then like some immature middle school student I use them imitate sex. I can't believe in a million years I would be acting this way, it is though better than the alternative and I hope Monk gets it.

Monk then looks at what I am doing while repeating what I said. "female?" It then opens up its robes and other clothing completely surprising me! It then points to its self where I can see placed between monk's legs, but a little farther back than mine, some familiar equipment. But Monk confirms what I suspect a moment later by saying "Female." and pointing there with a clawed finger. So it turns out that Monk is female, are all the other bipeds female as well? Just another bullet point to add to the mental check list of what to ask about once I am able to speak their language better.

It is what Monk does next that makes me jump a few inches off my seat, she reaches over and pokes one of my breasts. Not in the sensual way though, it is more of a curious poke and I can understand why. She doesn't have any. "Eeep." I reflexly cover them while looking at Monk with my ears back, she is looking at the bare skin and chitinous plates that make up her own chest. They cover the muscles and other structures needed for their four arms. This subject is starting to make me feel uncomfortable, but it seems my luck for once provides a distraction from the situation as the carriage suddenly stops. Monk looking surprised reaches over and parts the drapes by a sliver to look outside, Her expression grows even more surprised at what she sees.

With frantic haste she closes up her clothes and places the hood over her head before pointing a finger at me. "Athena" Then she points at the makeshift bench I am sitting on while nodding her head up and down, this is followed by pointing to the window she looked out of and shaking her head side to side.

It is easy for me to tell that she wants me to stay inside the carriage, which means we must've reached a town or some kind of settlement. With Monks robes covering her form again she moves in front of the door to block the view from the outside of me. Yea, I guess an alien would be a disturbing sight to such a low technology people. Monk closes the door as she exits the carriage, as soon as the door closes I am at the window peeking carefully through the curtain.

Oh yea I better stay inside the carriage, a large crowd has gathered in front of Monk. She is standing behind her guards who are colored the same purple as the curtains with green highlights. All the others are behind guards who are dressed in the same kind of armor, just colored with a plain brownish shade. Why is she able to draw such a large crowd? If Monk a person of royalty that would explain the personal guards and the decor, but not the crowd of people. She could also be a religious figure, but back home they are not this popular unless they are part of a theocracy. This does not bode well for my prospects as back home they don't treat morphs well.

Did I just go from the frying pan into the fire by accepting Monks invitation instead of running? But on the other hand, why is she treating me so nice instead of burning me at the stake like a devil? I watch as Monk slowly walks in front of the crowd, occasionally stopping before moving her arms over a plainly dressed villager in a ritual like manner. From there Monk moves farther down the crowd of people behind her guards, and also out of my sight least I pull the curtain back revealing myself to them.

Siting back down on the bench I place my elbows on my knees and hold my muzzle in my hands, tail twitching in boredom. Looking on the bright side of things, I don't face starving to death, or death by exposure, or by one of those Spider-Hounds catching me either. The bad news? I don't really know what else is going to happen. If I had a watch I would be looking at it, but I would bet money on seeing it move backwards as I wait. Like when I was back in school staring at the clock for the end of day as it slowly, very slowly crept forward.

The people were quiet while Monk was gone, and I only notice that as the noise picks up after a long time waiting for her. And it becomes obvious that Monk has come back as she quickly gets into the carriage. Opening the door barely enough for her to get in to prevent me from being seen again. I do my best to greet her with her name in her language and she doesn't react too badly from it. Not butchering it lifts my spirits up from the low earlier.

"Athena" Monk speaks my name with a bit less of a hiss than earlier, As she does this she taps her finger on a part of the carriage before pointing behind herself. Does she want me to sit there instead of where I am opposite of her? I stare at her curiously as to the meaning of her gesture until I feel the carriage starting to move. And now I would like to know where we are headed. That list of things I would like to know is growing pretty long. But I have to phrase what I say to her in as few words as possible while as simply as possible, she simply won't understand otherwise.

It won't hurt to ask her where we are going, so I guess I can give it a try. "Where are we going?" Talking slowly for her to understand better. I also point in the direction that I feel the carriage is moving. Monk watches me as I speak, and where I point at before lowering her hood and blinks. Confusion is present in her eyes as she sits down. "Athena." She says my name again with a shrug of her shoulders. I sigh quietly before rubbing my muzzle. There has to be some way to teach her more common, or I am going to have to learn more of their language.

Either way with the language barrier in between us I won't find out where we are going till we actually get there.

The carriage rocks back and forth as I feel the wheels go over a large bump in the road or something. Two things, first I really want to see where we are and where we are going, and second I need to teach them about suspension springs! Well to find out where we are now all I have to do is open the curtains covering the windows, surprisingly as I do so Monk does not try to stop me. What I see are the metal walls of a gigantic corridor slightly aged and tinted with rust but well made and tidy. When we pass a window the view through it figuratively makes my jaw hit the floor of the carriage. The sheer scale of this place! Several large, no immense asteroids, joined with a lot of metal super structure connected to an even more massive asteroid in the center. Inside the superstructure connecting each of them into a hub and spoke wheel like configuration are tubes. I am guessing that I am in one of those right now.

Okay I can scratch one thing off my list, the 'where am I at' is a large colony ship out in the middle of space. And we are going in between two of the asteroids in it which means there could be millions of Monk's species living here. The weight of the situation I am in dawns on me causing me to slump onto the bench. Monk on the other hand draws the curtain closed with an air of being so familiar with the scene she is bored with it.

The language barrier between us is so frustrating! What I just saw makes me want to ask Monk several more questions, but I can't say anything more than her name. It is only then that I realize how simple it is to expand my vocabulary, so freaking simple I nearly hit myself on the forehead for not realizing it. All the little kids back home do it every day, point to an object and ask about it. Hell I did it a lot when I was a toddler. Talk about over thinking a problem and missing the obvious. I'm not the smartest cat in the universe and yet even with as smart as I am I only made it as far as an environmental technician, I guess this is why.

So keeping things simple I point at small objects inside the carriage and Monk catches on quick to the game. From there I work my way to the larger objects, body parts, and simple actions like opening and closing. By the time the carriage shakes and rocks a second time I have a firm grasp of the names of the objects inside the carriage as well as some other basic words in her language. I have also managed to teach her quite a few in common as well.

"Can I look outside?" I ask slowly and carefully ask Monk in common. That is not say either of us are any good at speaking each others languages, I keep missing subtle tone changes in the clicks and some hisses. While at the same time Monk keeps messing up the TH sound with S and some C with her normal clicks as well yet oddly she gets S sounds easily. Monk shakes her head lightly. "No, need to get to a safe place first."

Sighing I lean back, the curiosity is killing me here! I want to know what this area looks like, is It grasslands like the other one, or some other environment all together? Because to me it only makes sense to me to make a colony ship like this if you are going to make each asteroid a different environment. I am going to have to ask her why I can't look and since I also have to practice her language I ask being careful not to mess up the subtle tone changes that litter it.

"Too many people will see you." She simply answers my question. I can understand her reasoning on this because if one of them landed on earth at a similar point in history the public would freak out. Though it is curious, their ancestors made the ship so how did they fall back to this kind of life style? While thinking about this the carriage suddenly tilts pushing me into the backrest of the seat, this tells me two things. First we are no longer on flat terrain, second the bare fur of my butt against the wood board on the seat gives no friction.

"Where are we?" I ask in her language once I prop myself up with my elbows, Monk just smiles.

"My home." Monk answers and then launches into a heart felt description of the place. Her words are harder to understand as she is not slowing down for me to work them out so I only get bits and pieces. Once she finishes Monk notices that I could not keep up with her and apologizes for that.

"Once we get home, I will show you." Monk says to me in her best common tongue.

The carriage levels out as she says this so I take a moment to sit upright again, only to fall face first into the padding on the bench monk is sitting on as the carriage tilts the opposite direction without warning. This prompts something that sounds very similar to loud laughter from Monk as I scramble to get back up. She is also batting at my bristled tail for some reason. Either that or it is hitting her, I can't tell with my muzzle stuck in the seat.

Oh laugh it up Monk, it caught me off guard not to mention the lack of friction on my seat. Once the carriage levels out I am able to get back up and onto my seat, at least when Monk stopped laughing she did ask if I was alright. We pass the rest of the trip in silence and I cling onto the seat with my claws so I don't repeat that face plant. Monk stands as soon as the carriage stops and opens the door but she exits without blocking the doorway or closing the door behind herself. "Home." She says while standing outside on a cobblestone plaza.

Through the door I can see of course the cobblestone plaza as well as a giant tree like trunk nearby. The view in between the bars of the fence that line the edge of the plaza reveals more of those trees I ran into on the plains. All of them gigantic, the exact scale of this forest doesn't show it's self to me until I exit the carriage. I remember from school that the largest tree on earth is the Redwood, the stalks holding up the bulb of the tree I am under right now are about as big as I remember a Redwood being. What impresses me more though is hanging under the massive bulb, an entire two story building. It is supported by a spider web of cables and other superstructure with a similar web of railed walkways leading too it from each stalk. Spiraling down those stalks are staircases which end in gated arches and guards standing in front of them.

So stunned by the sight before me I don't notice Monk walking up next to me and tapping me on the shoulder to get my attention. She then points up to the building above us. "Home." Standing beside her I recognize both Hal and Knives, but the latter seems to be a little wobbly on his or her feet. I really need to find out more about them. Are Knives and Hal female like monk? If so what does that make Squirt, male? Or is Squirt what they look like as children? I know some morphs like myself look more like their feral counterparts after being born for a short while. Monk seems to have left me behind as she and the other two are already heading to one of the stalks and the gated entrance of the staircase there. A quick jog allows me to catch up to them no doubt earning some curious looks from the other guards.

Without speaking a word or glancing at her the guard at the gate opens it for Monk, Hal, Knives, and me. That changes the second I pass by as I can feel the curious gaze of the guard on my back causing the fur to tingle on the back of my neck. My theory that Monk must be a religious or some other authority figure seems to be correct because she is allowing me to be seen by all the guards here. Turbo-lifts have spoiled me, I guess my history teacher was right when He said that if a modern day person was transported back to a time in the past they would not be able to handle it. I'm huffing and puffing trying to catch my breath by the time we reach the half way point in our climb, in contrast Monk is barely even breathing harder than normal. Even Knives who I think is sick from my clawing his or her hide earlier is less winded than I am. Monk stops followed by Hal and Knives and they talk to each other, I don't understand most of the conversation as they are using words in their language I do not know.

Hal glances at me and then at Monk before sighing. With a passive aggressive air coming from the act Hal goes down the few steps that separate us and steadies me by grabbing under my arm. Without hesitating Hal helps me up the rest of the way by nearly pulling me along. Hal lets go as soon as our feet touch the wood board walkway of the catwalk and I cling onto the railing in dear life. Monk on the other hand turns and looks over at Hal and Knives dismissing them. Monk kneels down next to me once Hal and Knives are out of sight. "Alright?" she asks with a touch of concern in it.

"Just tired from the climb up the stairs." Monk continues to look at me with concern while I wonder if she got all that I said. It takes a few minutes for me to regain my breath and pull myself up onto my feet, Monk takes that as a cue to lead me across to the building. It didn't look big from the ground but now it seems a rather imposing sight. The exterior clad in a similar style to that of the carriage, ornate wood work and draped purple cloth adorn the walls. As I admire this Monk walks over to the door and opens it, the old hinges on the door let out a loud creaking groan as it opens. The sound snaps my attention back to Monk.

She looks at me for a moment before entering the building, I follow right behind her. Once inside Monk moves behind me and shuts the door, she then goes over an ornate set of brass hooks. She sheds her robe quickly and places it on one of the ornate hooks before removing a leather wrapped case from an inner pocket. Thats odd, the pocket must have been padded to hide anything in it from view.

Looking around the rest of the room I see that it is as fancy as the outside walls. Thick carpeting, stylized wood furniture, vibrant colors on the walls and all the cloth and carpeting ooze wealth. This must be her home because as I stand here in awe at the luxury, she just acts like it is not there.

She stops in front of the hallway that the room is connected to and coughs to get my attention. I come to my senses and look at her and she smiles when I make eye contact with one pair of her eyes. Monk then points to me, then herself followed by pointing down the hallway giving me a rather obvious indication of what she wants. Nodding that I at least get an idea of what she wants I approach her and when I reach her she heads down the hallway while I follow.

I wonder where monk is taking me? This obviously is her private residence, simply due to this is only the second time I have seen her take off that robe. Add to that the fact that I have not seen or scented anyone else in this building makes that idea true in my mind.

Following Monk to the end of the hall we take a right into a side room, as soon we enter the room she walks around and closes the door behind me with a small click. The room is lavishly furnished like the rest of the place with ornate wood furniture cared into fantastic shapes. Soft and thick immaculate carpeting and rugs adorn the floor, and the walls are still painted with same vivid colors as the rest of the place. Placed in an outside facing wall is an ornate brass trimmed window. The glass in it looks odd to me for a second, then I remember my history teacher telling us how glass was made before mass production and flat sheets. They made window panes by spinning glass till it was semi flat leaving a tell tale bulge in the center where the rod was attached. Each pane in the brass framed window has that bulge giving multiple fish eyed views of the outside.

The center piece of the room without a doubt is the ornate desk placed in front of a bookshelf filled with various books.

Monk casually places the leather bound case on the desk with an ease that speaks of an ingrained routine next to an oil lamp by the smell of it and various writing utensils. Her face looks lost in thought for a moment as she gazes at the two chairs sitting in front of the desk, with regret she grabs the cushion of one of them. I watch stunned as she rips off the cushion of that ornate chair, folds it in half, and then stuffs it into the hole of the other for the part of their anatomy that I lack. Back home a chair like that would cost more than I make in a month and she just tore it apart like it was nothing. Monk adjusts the cushion until it becomes a chair half way resembling one that I can sit on. With a satisfied smile she then looks at me and points at the chair. "Athena, sit."

Her limited vocabulary in my language makes it sound like a command, thinking to myself as I walk on over to the chair. Once I sit down in it I realize how much I missed something soft to sit on, I practically melt into the cushions. Monk walks around and sits on the chair behind the desk calmly and casually. What happens next completely and utterly surprises me. She opens the leather bound case and in response there are the electronic noises of a padd like device powering up. Monk has my total attention now with my ears forward and leaning forward to get a better look at the device. The look on Monk's face as I look at her tells me that she knows, that I know, what the device is on the table.

Monk proceeds to place her hands on the lower half of the device and types on it for a few moments then she suddenly stops a finger hovers above a key as she looks at me. I wonder what she is thinking about right then as she slowly touches that button. Without giving me a chance to ask about what she is doing Monk carefully slides the device to the center of the desk. Written script that I cannot read scrolls on the screen of one half and a waveform jumps about to the silence in the room on the other. Monk speaks my name in common, doing it loud, clear and deliberately attempting to do it perfectly. The wave form jumps about as it is spoken before it stops for a moment, then a clearly synthetic voice spouts out the hisses and clicks of monk's language. She smiles with a look of relief and repeats those same hisses and clicks, again the device plays that same synthetic voice only this time saying my name in common.

It's a translator! She must have had it on the whole time we were talking in the carriage learning my language as she was. My list of questions grows ever larger with these revelations about this place. Well there is only one way to shorten it and get some answers, but as I take in a breath to speak the first in a long line of questions Monk holds up a finger. She speaks and the device translates for her. "Athena I know you must have a lot of questions, I would love to answer them but I only have a short amount of time. I will answer a few and I will then have to leave. Till I get back you will have to stay here, do not worry there is enough food and water for you." Okay, so it will have to be the top Three or Four items on my list, gotcha.

I take a breath and look at the device before I speak. "Who are Hal and knives, the two guards with you earlier?" I do nothing for Hal but for Knives I make a motion indicating where the claw mark I did was. Monk looks to me and then the device as it makes a moderate sized string of hisses and clicks. The silence after the device stops feels heaver than normal as a part of me wonders if she will do anything in response for me hurting knives. It's not like Knives did not have it coming, the bitch or bastard deserved it for jumping me like that. She then speaks her answer in short phrases allowing the device to translate properly and not get overwhelmed.

"The one that you injured is a personal guard. Her name is Shian and not Knives." I nod and I had suspected Shian and possibly Hal were female like Monk.

The device continues to translate for me. "The one you call Hal is my younger sister, Her actual name is Solter. But I like this Hal nickname you call her." Yea just as I thought, female as well. As for the name I also prefer Hal over her actual name but I will call her Solter anyway. Once the device stops speaking Monk nods to me I guess indicating that she is ready to answer another question.

Well here goes nothing. "Are all the ones that look like you female?" I wait for the device to translate. Her reply through it is a short and sweet 'yes'. So all the bipeds here are female meaning by extension Squirt and those that look like him are Male. It is odd but the spiders back home were like that too, but no sentient species the federation has encountered has had a large amount of sexual dimorphism. And then my mind and imagination goes directly to the gutter working out how certain intimate acts happen with their species like this. Those images are something I do not want to think about right now so I push them out of my mind quickly.

"The one who found you while you were sick was my little brother. His name is Catsh." I am amazed that Three of the Four of them that I have met are related. The device though has me even more amazed because nothing like this exists back home. Sure there have been attempts but nothing this easy to use or fluid.

"What is your name?" I ask right after Monk answers my last question figuring I might as well get her's while I am at it. "My name is Silzon." I am noticing a pattern here, all three of the bipeds have names starting with an S sound with hissing. While the name of the only male I met so far has one that starts with a clicking C sound. Well this is turning out great each answer creates more questions and I only have a limited amount of time here. So I go through the list of stuff I would like to know and choose something in particular to ask.

Silzon beats me to asking another question, and to be fair she should be able to ask me one Well that is if we were doing this in a formal manner, which we aren't. "What are you?" Did she really have to start off with one of the most difficult ones for me to explain to her? These people don't even have anything more advanced than metal workmanship, other than Silzon here with this padd like device. I wrack my brain on how to explain it to her in simple terms, yet I only come up with just outright telling her.

"I am a feline morph. Specifically of the domestic house-cat. A species that the morph creator race had as pets before the creation of morphs." Silzon's gets a rather confused look on her face after the device translates my answer. I sigh and rub my muzzle a bit because this was the reaction I was mainly expecting.

"My kind was manufactured. Like you would make this desk, or more a more apt comparison this building." Silzon's face goes from a confused look to what I think might be horror. I don't even get a chance to speak before her reply.

"You come from a place where life is created like furniture? Thats insane!" Yup it was horror that was on her face. But it was also a horrible time back home when we were first made, my family kept stressing that fact as did the schools. I hope I am not here long enough to have to explain that part of my kinds history to her.

"The fact is that it is better than it sounds. We are treated equally with our creator race having the same rights as they do." I am of course mostly telling the truth, in most countries back home we are but there are those which cling to the past. Not to mention all the rumors that spread on the com-net about abilities and talents of some morph species Like Chakats being immune to any biological agent, Skunk-taurs teleporting half way across the galaxy, and similar 'you have to believe me I saw it with my own eyes' sort of things. That stuff will be hard to explain if Silzon ever learns of them. Silzon calms down once my explanation is translated but instead of asking another question she looks over to what looks like a clock on the wall.

"And it seems I have run out of my spare time. I am sorry Athena but I have to go, and you have to stay in this building. Otherwise you will disrupt everything if you manage to be seen by anyone else than my personal guard." I know the sight of me would be disturbing but what would I be disrupting if I'm seen? Before I even have a chance to say something Silzon closes, and most likely shuts the device off, before picking it up and making haste for the front door. I follow her to just in time see her putting her robe back on and slipping the device into a hidden padded pocket. Silzon opens the door and walks briskly down the catwalk yet as I approach the door she turns and yells at me to stay there. A part of me considers ignoring her and following her down, but that part is soon over ruled by the rest of me that realizes that despite the house arrest I have a good thing going here. So I close the door and lean my back against it before sliding down into a sitting position with a sigh.