FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

April 13th

"Wakie, Wakie, sleepy-dunder-head! It's almost noon; you've been sleeping half the entire day!"

I groaned and rolled over, covering my ears.

A fat, familiar hand stroked my side. "Vul-vul, vul-vul pix-pix vul." A chortle. "Get up, Pixie, get up."

I would not budge, as I was still tired. Was five more minutes really too much to ask for?

Two fat fingers ambled across my side, approaching my neck and head. "Oh Pixie. Pixie, Pixie, Pixie. What am I ever going to do with you?"

Those fat fingers traversed my side, neck, and head until it got to the curly clump of fur on the top of my head. At this point, the fingers were lifted up slightly. A second later, a thumb (if you could call it that) and a finger grabbed and squeezed it repeatedly, while a pleasant laugh echoed against the cave walls.

"Oh, Pixie, you're so strange," said the strangest creature that I've ever met. "You're like a snorlax sometimes, especially now. You just want that precious sleep that you never seem to get enough of."

Squeeze. Squeeze. Squeeze. "You must break yourself from your inner snorlax. Pixie, feel the beat of the living, the rhythm of the waked. Pixie, open your eyes and let yourself be taken by the bass of reality, the tenor of the sunshine, the alto of the spring, and the soprano of camaraderie."

"Five more minutes," I gargled.

"Pixie, listen, for now I tell you: Do not listen to the fools who say unto you 'sleep in excess', for when we sleep more than we ought, ironic pangs of lethargy visit us in our waking moments."

I groaned.

The curly clump of fur on my head ceased being squeezed and the fingers and thumb were drawn away. Seconds passed, but then I was grabbed around the mid-section and lifted up into the air. Surprised, I opened my eyes and saw that crazy, purple monkey smiling at me.

"Oh look, you're finally up."

"What do you want?" I asked, a smidge annoyed.

"We're adventuring today."

"We're..."

The purple monkey impersonated Tonto. "Going on an adventure."

"Can you be more specific?" I inquired drowsily.

"Okay. An underwater adventure." She relayed enthusiastically.

I searched my mind for clues as to what she could be talking about, coming back with nothing. "What in Arceus's wide world are you talking about? Why would we go underwater?"

"Some buizel, Chi, I believe was her name, was swimming around in the lake earlier this morning. She felt a rock lodged down at the bottom, then thought she should knock on it."

I was having trouble following the logic. "Why did Chi knock on the rock?"

"Because that is the buizel way, Pixie," she answered cryptically.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, whatever. What happened next?"

"So Chi knocked on the rock, and determined there was something hollow under it; perhaps a tunnel or something. She told Tonto and they figured that there must be something inside it or something, so now they're trying to break into it."

"Interesting," I mused, "So, what did you wake me up for?"

"They don't know how to break it, but I have an idea, ooh, I have an idea." The aipom giggled excitedly and clapped her two free hands together.

"Do I even want to know?" I groaned.

"You will become a springboard and an inverse jet-pack," she announced ecstatically.

"I don't even know what either of those things are," I cried, bewildered.

"Of course ya' wouldn't, they're made by humans after all. Now if you don't mind, Pixie-snooze, we must be off." Carrying me by the mid-section with the big hand that was connected to her tail, we exited my cave and headed to the lake.

The sky was clear of clouds on this Saturday, the ground looked a bit wetter and sounded mushier, and the few budding flowers I saw on the way looked well watered from the rain. Like the crazy, purple monkey carrying me had said, it was almost noon, as shown by the height of the Sun in the sky and the heat it was currently supplying. There was a cool breeze blowing, so it felt a bit chillier than the day before, but it wasn't terrible.

Appy had always been an odd one. She was clever, spontaneous, and a tad mysterious, entertaining herself and others with a collection of numerous and ever-changing skills and interests. Tonto and I met her almost a year ago, about the same time we befriended Baxter. Unlike Baxter, who was just younger than us, Appy was new to the area. Despite not initially having any caretakers to look after her at such a young age, she was able to adapt to the surroundings quickly. No one, not even the Pokémon who eventually took her in, seems to know anything about her past or even whether she was formerly a domestic or wild Pokémon. While she knew the ins and outs of living in the wild from the start, she also has an unusually large amount of knowledge about humans and parts of their culture. Though we don't ask her about her past since it's generally considered rude and intrusive, Tonto, Baxter, and I sometimes discuss what we think her past was like. Though she hasn't commented on it, I'm sure she knows that we talk about it, but doesn't seem to mind it.

We were getting close to the lake now, and the vague forms of Chi, Tonto, and Baxter could be made out. As we approached, they became clearer to us and more of their features could be distinguished. I could distinctly hear the laughs of Chi and Tonto echoing from the short distance and imagined that they were laughing at me being carried around.

"Why haven't you put me down yet?" I demanded.

Appy shrugged. "You haven't asked yet."

"Well then, can you put me down?" I grumbled.

Gingerly, she lowered her tail, set me on the ground, and let go of me, smiling all the while. After that, she ran toward the rest of the gang, shouting, "I'm back, you guys, and I've got Snor-Pixie with me!"

I trudged along, still feeling slightly tired. There was more laughing in the distance, but they waited for me patiently.

"There's our Vrisky!" Tonto exclaimed, when I finally came to them.

"Beware of Pixie, she's been a bit huffy," joked Appy.

"You know I have a hard time waking up in the morning," I rebuked.

"That's no excuse to be short with us, darling," spoke Chi, winking at me.

"B-but..." I stuttered awkwardly.

"Stop talking about butts, Vrisk-Vrisk. Mating season is over," Tonto teased.

I glared at him menacingly, hoping to mask my amusement, but Tonto's smug expression told me that he saw right through me. Silently, I cursed myself for being so easy to read and vowed to not be deciphered so easily again.

I noticed Baxter shift uncomfortably and look down at the ground at this exchange, which puzzled me since nothing done or said was too out of the ordinary. Chi must have noticed it too because she asked, "Is something wrong, Baxter?"

He hurriedly fixed his posture and bleated, "O-Oh no, Chi. I'm fine."

She sighed, unconvinced, but dropped the subject.

"So, what do you want me to do?" I questioned. "Appy said something about turning me into a "springboard" or an "inverse jet-pack" which is some human-made object, I guess."

"I told you to explain things to her, so we would all be prepared for what to do," Tonto scolded Appy.

"That was the agreement," Appy conceded, "but I had to make sure she was wide awake to hear the plan, so that we don't mess up."

Tonto exhaled, irritated with Appy's disregard for the original plan, but reluctantly acceptant of her logic. "Fine. I'll explain it, then. Now Vrisky, what I want you to do is stand a few meters away from the shore. I'm going to jump on your back and when I do, I want you to jump up a bit, so I get that extra amount of air, when I jump off of you. Baxy will then run past you and jump up and when he's at the apex of his jump, I'll step on his back and jump even higher into the air. With me, so far?"

I shook my head, having an idea of where this was going. "This is a terrible idea and I hope you realize that."

"I do, but we're doing it anyway."

I slapped my face with my front paw. "Why am I letting you talk me into this?"

He ignored the question, deeming it rhetorical. "Ok, so then Appy is going to toss you up in the air after I've jumped on Baxy, and we're going to meet each other at our apexes midair. When we meet, grab on to me, muster the biggest flame burst that you possibly can, and shoot it up toward the sky. We'll go hurtling down toward the rock at an incredible speed!"

I stared at him, flabbergasted. "But won't it hurt when we hit the rock, assuming of course, our positioning is exactly correct?"

He was unfazed. "We won't miss our target because Chi is going to swim around in the lake and direct all of the underwater currents to that rock. She says she knows how to manipulate all of the underwater currents, and since we have no better plans, I'm just going to take her on her word."

I was still dumbfounded by what a stupid plan this was. "But it'll still hurt."

"Oh no, it's going to hurt," he said sarcastically. "We should all just go home and never find out what that rock was hiding." He shook his head "No pain, no gain, Vrisky."

Suddenly, an idea seemed to occur to Chi, and she spoke up. "If I remember correctly, yesterday Vriska and I met a shiny charizard, who seemed leveled pretty high. Why don't we just ask him if he can fly high up into the air, then dive down and crash into the rock? He seems hardy enough for it and I imagine that we could find him at Home Tree like we did yesterday, dear."

Surprisingly enough, Tonto had a ready response for this. "Chi, an adventurer, a true adventurer, does not simply ask another Pokémon to break rocks for them if they're afraid of 'getting hurt' or think it's a 'bad idea'. How could we possibly call ourselves adventurers if we ask others to do the heavy lifting for us? We can't, so we do our own heavy lifting. Besides, I'm not sure if the charizard would be small enough to not get stuck inside of the tunnel or whatever is being hidden from us."

"Shouldn't an adventurer know their limits?" argued Chi. "Shouldn't they not be afraid to ask for help when they need it?"

"But that's the thing. We don't need help. We got this, Chi; we got this. I've been with this group long enough to know what our collective limits are and I know that this is not one of them."

Chi looked at him for a moment, broodily contemplating his plan, then probed critically, "What if there's nothing behind that rock but a spike and you're going so fast that it impales you or Vriska? How will we know you dears are safe after you two pull this off?"

"Did I forget to tell you? Silly me. So, when you were away, I gave a random zubat a few berries to use his supersonic attack on the rock while I carried him underwater. Turns out that there's probably not a spike hidden behind the rock and that there probably is a tunnel of sorts. Right after we break the rock we'll come straight back to the surface, I promise."

Chi shook her head, presuming that she wouldn't be able to talk him out of what he was doing no matter how illogical she thought it.

"Are you still going to direct the currents for Vrisky and I?" he asked.

Chi stared him down. "Yes, I'll do it, but mark my words, darling, if anyone gets hurt, there will be consequences."

Tonto said nothing, and just nodded understandingly.

"I will agree to help smash the rock. Now when do we start?" I queried the group at large.

"We practice first," Tonto replied. "And Chi will get the currents going while we're doing that. We'll start practicing after lunch."

And with that, we all went together to go get some Oran berries to eat. There was a bit of nervous tension in the air, each of us feeling it in our own distinct ways, though none would admit to it. We all ate lunch in silence as the atmosphere had changed after the plan had been explained. Once lunch ended, we wordlessly returned to the lake and began practicing for this very important task.

Our practice consisted of going through the motions Tonto explained up to the part where he and I grabbed one another high in the air. From that point, I would prepare to unleash a flameburst, but would never actually do it and we would fall down to the ground together to be caught by the hand that was connected to Appy's tail. The whole routine was a bit difficult to get used to. I'd have to stay still, be stepped on, and then run over to be thrown by Appy, quickly.

Tonto and Baxter had the most trouble, though because of what went into the timing of Tonto's second jump. Baxter and Tonto had to fine-tune their jumps, so that they coincided with one another at exactly the right time. A fraction of a second too early or too late and the whole routine would be messed up. They were both very aware of what it would take for this to work and they both had that kind of mindset where they would not stop until they got it down. Both Baxter and Tonto hurt themselves from the practice, scraping knees, falling hard, tripping, face-planting even, Baxter acquiring a bit more damage. After all, he would get accidentally get stepped on the head and neck. I would get concerned sometimes that he might be pushing himself to hard.

"Tonto," I would say. "Don't you think Baxter should take a break?"

"Oh, I think he's fine," Tonto would respond. "I'm not pushing you too hard, am I Baxy?"

"No, Tonto, it's fine. I'm okay," He would say, while trying to hide his pain from me.

"See Vrisky, what did I tell you?"

I had to let it drop after he said that, but I could see in Baxter a certain determination to get this right, to not let the group down. There was a particular fire in him, something driving him along that made him withstand more face-plants, more slip-ups, and more physical punishment than an eevee like him should be able to take. It was impressive, though a bit jarring, to watch him fall down, get back up, fall down, get back up.

Appy had the least amount of trouble. From the start, she effortlessly tossed me up and caught Tonto and I while we were coming down. I'm not sure if I can recall even one time that day where she messed up. She must have had a lot of practice tossing things up and catching them, because it was just so easy to her. I mean, it makes sense, because what else are you supposed to do with a huge hand connected to your tail?

At last, it was time for us to try this once and for all. Tonto went underwater to go tell Chi that we were about to do this and the rest of us psyched ourselves up however we could. Tonto returned to us before too long and gave us a nod, indicating the obvious.

The routine went smoothly enough at first. Tonto got his running start, jumped on my back, and flew away. Baxter leaped into the air, higher than usual though still in sync with Tonto. Tonto took a hard leap off of Baxter's back, but Baxter, expecting the blow, was able to prepare for it and landed on the ground with unusual grace. Appy tossed me skyward, higher than I was used to since everything else had gone so well. After a split second in the air, I grabbed onto Tonto, my head facing up, knowing that this was it. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and unleashed a flameburst more potent than I had ever released before.

Tonto and I went barreling toward the water at breakneck speed and I continued with my move, determined not to stop until we had hit the rock; we had already come this far. Tonto, not wanting to interrupt or cancel my move with a water-type move of his own, hung onto me, braced for impact, and did nothing else. SPLASH! We hit the surface and were now underwater. Fire continued spewing from my maw, creating an underwater stream that propelled us toward the bottom. The strong currents Chi had created pushed us to our destination, but disoriented and confused me. As a result, I panicked and stopped issuing that powerful fire, but we were still being pulled under and fast. I became terrified. I opened my eyes and gasped for breath, but only water filled up my lungs. I coughed, trying futilely to breathe again, but only worsening my predicament. In the split second that I glanced at him, I found that Tonto realized the danger I was in; I could see it in his eyes, yet I could also see that he had no idea what he should do. He couldn't change our trajectory, or our speed, or the water currents, or anything really. The only thing he could possibly do was let go and the consequences of that might turn out to be even worse than what would happen if we stayed together. There was no telling where the currents might take us if we split. Though visibly afraid, visibly shaken, I could tell that he had resolved to see this to the very end. It did not feel like we were slowing down and that accursed rock was fast approaching. I swear that in those moments, time slowed down and it felt like minutes before we finally collided with our target. BAM! The rock broke open! Our plan had worked! Yet, the sheer force of the collision had separated Tonto and me and all the while, and I was choking, gasping, drowning. The last thing I saw that day was Tonto's form speeding away from me, then blackness; a dark void.

When I came to, I heard voices nearby, discussing something. I couldn't make it out for a few seconds, since it was just a buzz of sounds then. Shortly, the voices became clear and distinguishable.

The first thing I could make out was a small, anxious voice of a little Pokémon. "Do you think she's going to be okay? This is all my fault."

A distinctly feminine, angelic, voice responded soothingly, patiently. "Baxter, sweetie, don't blame yourself. You couldn't have known this would happen". The sounds of this voice had a bit of reverb to them, making it sound like we were in a cave.

Again, the anxious voice spoke, this time with a hint of anger. "But I could have prevented this, Chi. If only I jumped higher, we would all be exploring that underwater tunnel right now and-"

"Shhhh..." The female interrupted delicately. "It's okay, you did your best."

"My best wasn't good enough," the other replied.

"You did your best and that's all anyone can ask."

"But..."

The female sighed with a sense of unease. "Baxter... You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. It isn't healthy."

I heard the other, Baxter, exhale, and then fall silent. A cool, mid-nightly, wind blew longingly nearby, in some sense reflecting the mood.

"I'm concerned about you, Baxter..." Chi confessed, serious and thoughtful.

"Don't be," he replied quietly. "I'm fine."

After a few seconds of silence, Chi said, "I'm going to look after Vriska for the rest of the night. You should go back to your parents or guardians, now; they're probably worried about you."

"My parents are dead. I have no guardians," was the cold response.

I could feel a tremor of sympathy shuddering through Chi's form right now. "What? No parents or guardians...? You mean, you're all alone...?" Quiet. "Oh, Baxter..." While my eyes were still closed, I was almost certain that Chi was hugging him right now. I couldn't be sure if Baxter was returning it, though.

"I'll find a good guardian for you, Baxter, dear, don't worry."

"No. I'm almost an adult. I can look out for myself. Besides, I don't want to be a burden to anyone."

Chi didn't respond, she just continued hugging him. The embrace lasted for quite some time and I figured that I should probably relieve them of at least one of their troubles. I opened my eyes and tried to sit up, but a sharp pain in my abdomen immediately forced me back down.

Chi let go of Baxter and rushed to my side, embracing me, exclaiming compassionately, "Oh Vriska, sweetie, you're hurt. Don't move around too much, alright?"

I smiled at her, glad for the attention. She returned with a warm smile of her own, doubtless happy to see me awake.

"You must be hungry. Should I go get you something to eat?"

"I don't feel hungry at the moment, actually. What happened? Where's Tonto?" I demanded.

Chi bowed her head. "We don't know where Tonto is. He must have fallen into whatever that rock was blocking. He hasn't come back yet".

"W-What?" I spluttered deliriously. "You mean he's missing?!"

The buizel nodded solemnly. "You two were going very fast, Vriska, and he fell into the chasm after the impact. You were drowning at the time, so I knew that I had to help you out immediately. I was so worried, Vriska darling, so, so worried! I took you up to the surface as fast as I could. I laid your body down as soon as we hit dry land, but you weren't breathing, Vriska, you weren't breathing!" Tears were starting to form in her eyes, and her voice was getting shaky.

Though wide-eyed with shock and disbelief, I knew I had to get ahold of myself for us both. "Calm down," I managed to urge. "It's alright, I'm right here. I'm okay now, Chi".

The ever-considerate, ever-compassionate buizel took a few moments and a few deep breaths, successfully holding back her tears. "You're right," she acknowledged. "You're okay now, sweetie, and that's what matters."

She smiled at me thankfully, adoringly, filled with emotion, and embraced me. I embraced her back, enjoying the feel of her smooth silky fur, caring tender paws, and warmth. We stayed like this until she broke the embrace moments later and gave me a heartfelt look, though I wish we would have remained in that embrace forever.

From there, I took a deep breath, and then ventured to ask, "Why didn't he just come back up to the surface after the rock was broken, like he promised?"

Chi exhaled, the sound loudly reverberating against the cave walls. "This Tonto is quite the character, isn't he, dear?" She laughed uneasily, heavily. "He's always searching for adventures, for that next new thing to grab his attention..."

Her words confused me slightly, but I could make a good guess as to what she might have been alluding to. "So you're saying he went ahead, away?"

She shook her head. "Forgive me and my musings, darling. He couldn't change where he was going immediately after the collision, but I thought he could have done so soon enough. I couldn't afford to think otherwise at the time, for your life was in danger. After I saved you, Tonto still had not returned, so at first I thought he must have forgotten his promise. But then, I was curious: he seems close enough to you and your friends that I doubted he could have disappeared from us without a second thought. I felt that there was something amiss, so I went to investigate, leaving Appy and Baxter to take care of you. I followed the path that Tonto took, a lone and very short tunnel that made an arc to the west, eventually reaching a newly formed barrier of rock. Closely examining my surroundings, I concluded that whatever we did, quickly caused a collection of loose rock to fall and block the way. In fact, it was almost like the tunnel I was in had been completely dry but a few minutes before! Very strange, sweetie..."

"Strange indeed," I agreed with an air of slight disbelief. "Is anyone looking for Tonto, or Arceus forbid, a way to break THOSE rocks, right now? Any search parties? Anything at all?"

Chi closed her eyes and nodded solemnly. "Yes." she answered. "I've asked Pokémon from Home Tree to help and a kind few- mostly water-types- have selflessly volunteered. The Chief of Home Tree and many others were upset by our antics, though."

I laughed just a bit too hard at that. Classic Tonto, always making the Community suffer from our misadventures somehow.

Chi smiled back at me, though she didn't ask what I was laughing about. I think she knew.

"So, who's leading the search party?" I inquired, curious about the current situation.

"A vaporeon named Rita, dearie. Do you know her?" She asked, seeing my eyes light up at the name.

"Yeah, I do. She's a family friend." I answered, delighted.

"Ah, I see," the cute buizel mused. "Anyway, the search party isn't having any luck so far with breaking down that wall of rocks; it's pretty thick. Right now, a select few are even considering creating a coalition of rock and earth-type Pokémon to dig their way down past those rocks, but that would take an incredibly long time to do, hon. Appy is also part of the search party and is helping the team by thinking of ideas to try out, while Baxter and I have agreed to watch over you until you get better."

I reflected over these words briefly before a terrifying thought hit my mind: what if those rocks had crushed Tonto? He certainly couldn't have survived it. Chi saw the worry overtake me, for furrows and creases of concern had formed on her face.

"Is there something wrong, Vriska?"

I didn't want to tell Chi, since it seemed that we were all up together in the dead of night and I didn't want her to worry Tonto possibly being dead on top of being missing. I didn't want Baxter to hear about my fears, because he was already grappling with loss and I couldn't bear to make things worse for him. "It's nothing, Chi. I'm just worried."

She looked at me softly, replying, "I know, dear Vriska, I know".

We were all silent, for a while afterword. The three of us all knew that things hadn't turned out well at all today, but at least we enjoyed each other's presence. I knew I had good friends, Baxter and Chi would no doubt continue looking after me until I got better, and who knows how long that might be. Appy would continue helping the search party and will probably give me moral support in the days to come.

As the air in the cave became stiller and stiller, our eyes became more and more heavy. The day had taken its toll on us all, and our bodies were telling us that we should rest. Nearby me, Chi fell unconscious first, curled up into a bright orange ball. Baxter was farther away from Chi and me and though he closed his eyes and curled up into a ball, he did not seem relaxed enough to be asleep. Before long, I too closed my eyes, meaning to give my weary mind and aching body a sorely needed rest.

I can't say I remember much after that.