FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The ceiling was white. That's the first thing I remember. Well, no, I remember opening my eyes, but the first thing I saw was the ceiling. I looked at it for a very long amount of time. I didn't even move. The only muscles that I used were my eyelids'. No thoughts surfaced in all that time, I just... was. I don't know, the feeling you get when you have no worries and no plans, no past and no future, just the present. I could get the weird feeling that something was off, but not even that made me think or do anything. The second thing I remember is the sound of a door creaking and opening.

I heard footsteps and I finally saw something else than the ceiling. I'll never forget that moment. The moment I realized it was another living being and that she was beautiful. She had a small snout that ended in a triangle-shaped nose. Her upper lip showed two of her fang's tips, giving her a bit of a feral touch. Her eyes were a light blue, as if the sky was caught inside her. All her fur was a grape purple with three tangerine orange lines soaring her face, one between her eyes that connected with the two below her cheekbones. Her hair was completely purple, cut to her shoulders in a very feminine way and with a pair of triangular ears surfacing through her hair. I don't know if I stopped breathing.

She seemed oddly familiar, but as I tried to remember where I had seen her a wave of pain hit my head. I tried to reach for my head to suppress it with my hand, but I felt even more pain when I moved. I gave up the attempt and I muttered "Uhg, my head".

"Yep, you hit yourself pretty bad." She said. Her voice also seemed very familiar, but I couldn't remember why. I looked at her and asked

"Have we met?"

"Not properly, no". She extended her hand. "Hello, my name is Rosaline, but everyone calls me Rose".

Rose. What a pretty name. It suited her. I don't know why, but it did.

"Where am I?" I asked, trying to hide my headache behind a conversation.

"Well, you're in my house. I brought you here after I found you lying on the middle of the road two days ago."

I frowned. "A road?"

"Yep. You were unconscious and you had your ribs broken. Also, you hit your head. Twice. So, I decided to bring you home."

"How do you know that my ribs are broken and I hit myself?"

"I used to be a nurse, so I can tell". She gave me a warm smile. "Also, you have two bruises on your forehead and one on the left side of your chest. It was pretty obvious". I chuckled slightly. She laughed a little too. "When I brought you here I grabbed some bandages and patched you up. Yesterday you felt fine I think, 'cause you walked a bit, but then you fell against the railing and got knocked out again. I put bandages on your head after that. I also gave you some jeans."

"Jeans? What's that?"

She laughed. "Oh, you're funny". But I remained silent. Then she realized I was serious.

"For real?" I tried to nod, but didn't manage to. "Yes".

"What about jackets? You remember those?"

I shook my head.

"Shoes? T-shirts? Socks? Gloves?"

I shook my head again.

"Wait. Do you remember yesterday's hit?"

"What?"

"What about yesterday's breakfast? You remember that?"

"Breakfast?"

She looked at me with concern. "So you don't remember that either". She sat down beside me, and when she did a tail appeared behind her. It was purple, as the rest of her fur, but the tip was orange. I was so distracted with her tail I almost forgot about my headache. Almost.

"Okay. I'll run some memory tests" she said, pulling my attention back.

"What's your name?"

"I don't know". She sighed in exasperation.

"It isn't funny. Really, tell me your name"

"Really, I don't remember."

I could see she grew worried. "Not even a bell ringing?"

I looked at the ceiling confused, pondering the question and looking for the answer. She started saying names at random.

"Elliot. David. Benjamin. Tim. Daniel. Freddy. Hector. Hugo-"

"Wait, what was that last one?"

"Hugo?" she said

"No, before that one".

"Hector?"

"Yeah, that one. It sounds kind of like that one. But... like... with ssss"

"Hectors?"

"No." I said trying hard to remember it's shape or something. "More like.... Eccores..."

"Echoes?"

"Yes, that's the one!"

She let out a sigh of relief and I wanted to laugh. I actually remembered something!

"Alright, so, how old are you?"

"Don't know. 5?"

"Echoes, you can't be five. You look like me and I'm 21."

"Then 21."

She looked frustrated "Fine, I'll let you have that one". She continued.

"When where you born?"

"Don't know".

"What day is today?"

"No idea".

"What is this called?" she said

I turned my head towards her and I saw her pointing at herself.

"Rose".

"Correct. 3 out of 5. Congratulations, you barely failed."

"Um... thanks?"

"One last question. In what state are we now?"

"What's state?"

"You're lost".

"Figured".

She looked at me intensely, not in a hatred kind of way, but like she wanted to see inside me, like she tried to connect a puzzle that had missing pieces.

"Alright. It seems, with my verdict of a nurse, that you have amnesia. You can remember things that happened recently with no problem, but you can't seem to remember anything before a certain point."

I kept listening, waiting for her to end. When she didn't continue I said

"That's it? There's no way to fix me?"

"Sadly no, at least not that I know of."

I felt like... I didn't know what. I felt trapped. I tried again to remember who I was and the headache became even more powerful. I winced and tried to contain the pain. I felt a gentle touch on my chest.

"Relax. There's no need to hurt yourself, you have enough pain sources." She stood up and looked me in the eyes. "Try to sleep. That way you'll heal faster."

I somehow felt she was right and I tried to subdue the pain with even, slow breaths. The last thing I remember before drifting away was her voice saying "Sleep well Echoes".

...

"Where are we going?" I asked

"You want me to tell you again?" she asked in return

"Yes". She sighed.

"Fine" she said while keeping us in the middle of the road "We are going to the mall to see what we can get".

"And you couldn't leave me at your place because..."

"I couldn't leave you there alone. If I didn't find gas I couldn't have made it back and you would be alone. Also, what if you tried to walk again and you fell from the stairs?"

I wanted to argue, but she silenced me by taking a folded paper out of her pants.

"Here's the list" she said handing it to me.

I grabbed it and unfolded it, muttering my frustrated comeback.

"Let's see" I said "Food, water, gas, sleeping bag, bandages, painkillers, shoes, albums... wait, shoes?"

"Yep, why not?" she asked

"First, didn't you say that everything went dead a few days ago? That people disappeared, electricity stopped running and the inter...(internet?) died? Also, our bodies changed, didn't they?"

"What does that have to do with wearing shoes?

"Your feet won't fit in, They're not the same as before. I don't think it would be a good idea to go walking around with those".

"My feet are fine" she said dismissively.

As soon as she said that she changed speeds and went off-track. She started to scream, grabbing the wheel with a tight grip. I grabbed my sit from where I could and I dug my claws in it. She turned the wheel to get us to the highway again. We got back on the road, I breathing heavily. A wave of pain hit me and I hugged my legs, letting go of the seat.

"Sorry"

"Do you want to kill me?" I asked in disbelief "Let me remind you I´m still rib-broken"

"Guess it's not the same to drive with this feet either" She said. Slowly, the pain faded and went to the back of my mind, as a vile reminder that I can't even walk properly. Maybe if my ribs weren't broken I wouldn't be in this position. But that wasn't the case. But, how did my ribs break? What broke them? Why was I on the middle of the road? And why can't I remember any of that? According to Rose I remembered everything perfectly when she took me in, but after the second hit I didn't, so that must've been it. I hit myself on the head and forgot everything. But that doesn't answer any of the other questions.

I leaned on the car door and felt the wind hit my face, fluttering my fur. That reminded me of what Rose had said, that a few days ago nobody had fur. Sure, some had a little on the top of their heads, but not as much as we did now. Also that we were pink and had no snout. How weird. I started to imagine my body before, basing myself on Rose's description. How would I look without a snout? And furless? It was a complete mystery. I remembered the way I looked at myself for the first on the mirror. I remember how everything about me seemed oddly right. The cyan claws and lines on the sides of my snout, the deep blue line that ran through my neck and down my torso and ended on my tail. Also the almost purple grape that covered the rest of my body, except for soft purple socks. I turned and looked at myself, following my mark patterns on the rearview mirror and something caught my attention. I looked outside and saw pines as far as the eye could see. They were perfectly scattered, as if someone had taken the time to plant each tree on its right spot. Maybe someone did?

"Echoes?"

"Hmm?" I asked, without taking my eyes off the landscape.

"What do you think was that thing that hit us?" she asked.

"What thing?" I asked still trying to keep myself on a trance or something.

"The neon wave" I opened my eyes and looked at her

"What neon wave?"

She looked at me incredulous. She returned her gaze to the road, but didn't pay it attention.

"The one that changed us. You don't remember that either?"

Right then everything went dark. I was running away from something. Bushes flashed by my sides and trees faded away as I passed them. I saw a fallen tree and jumped over it. I saw someone standing in the clearing, just standing until he saw me. I didn't care to warn him; sooner or later it would catch us both. But better later than now. I kept running.

I came back to focus and Rose's voice became clear

"Echoes! Are you ok?"

I felt Rose's hand on my arm, shaking me.

"Yes, yes" I said, coming back to reality.

"Why did you scream?" she asked her eyes wide open.

"I screamed?" I asked in confusion

"Yes, and you were howling" She said, trying to keep her eyes on me and on the road at the same time.

"Really?"

"Yes! What happened?"

"Well, I... I think I had a flashback" I said, trying to say everything correctly "I was running through the woods and saw..." Was I right? Did I look like that? It had to be but still, something was wrong. "I saw myself looking at me"

"You mean you saw the wolf?"

"No, my wolf part was looking at the human one"

"That's weird" She said "I haven´t had any flashbacks or memories from my fox part, barely some smells and sounds"

"But again." She continued "I didn't hit my head".

"So that's how we are different from before? We got mixed with... others?"

"I think so. I don't have a complete theory about it, but it makes sense".

A question surged in my mind and wondered where had it come from, but when I looked at it I realized it was actually a good question.

"What happened to you?"

"What do you mean?"

"You remember everything so, what happened?"

"I was just taking a walk on the woods and I heard a boom."

Darkness again. I'm standing in a clearing. I hear an explosion. I see a wolf jumping and running right past me. 'Fucking asshole'. Then turn around and run.

"Echoes! Echoes!"

I felt her hand shaking my shoulder again

"What?"

"You did it again!" she said angry and worried

"The screaming and howling?"

"Yes!" she said "Another flashback?"

"Yeah, this time I was in my human body"

A shiver ran through me. 'I was so much smaller'. She looked at me, then back at the road. "You gotta stop that, you're helping me get a heart attack"

"Sorry"

I opened my palm and saw the paper all wrinkled. I opened it and read again.

"Rose, you forgot something"

"What is it?"

"I'm gonna need some clothes"

...

I got down from the car and closed the door behind me. I took a look at the mall that we were going to assault. The parking lot was deserted except for some lonely little carts and bags being carried by the wind. I took a step towards the entrance, but felt a pang of pain flow through my chest. I almost hit the ground, managing to catch myself with the red convertible and tried to steady myself. I took a deep breath but ended up on the floor, cursing through seething teeth. I heard footsteps and saw Rose leaning over me.

"Fuckin' ribs" I managed to say

"What the hell did I tell you? If your lungs expand too much you'll end up even worse than you are now. No. Deep. Breaths".

I wanted to say 'sure doc', but the pain wouldn't let me. She looked at me with concern.

"I should've left you on the house".

"I told you so, but it doesn't matter now. We are here, better end with this".

Rose helped me get up, holding my waist and abdomen so she didn't hurt me more. Or so she claimed. When I managed to stand up straight I started walking towards the mall.

"And where do you think you're going?"

"To get the things".

"No you're not. You're staying in the car".

"C'mon Rose, let me not be a burden for once".

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, but don't carry too much".

I nodded and walked to the entrance, ignoring the pain and trying to look better than I really felt. Every step that I took sent tremors through my body, not really helping me. When I reached what seemed like the entrance of the mall I tried to figure how did the mechanism work. It seemed like the doors were made of glass, but didn't have a handle like the ones at Rose's house. I asked

"Where's the entrance?"

The answer came flying inches by head. As I realized the whoosh had been made by a rock a crash reached my ears. I looked behind me and Rose walked towards the broken glass.

"There it is". She walked in, her tail moving sideways behind her. My brain went dead for a second, unable to stop staring at her. Then she disappeared inside and I came back to life.

I followed her, trying to contain the moans that were trying to escape my throat. I managed to not step on any pieces of glass and entered the kind of spooky mall, the many shelves only illuminated by the light entering through the windows and the just made entrance. Everything seemed untouched, each thing on its place. I walked forward and peeked into the ail that said 'fruits and vegetables'. There she was. Rose tried to grab food from an upper shelf, but couldn´t reach it. I stepped forward and grabbed it for her. I saw what I had in my hand.

"Apples?" I asked looking at the fruit.

"Still omnivorous" she said, grabbing it and giving it a bite. It looked... kind of savage, but not quite. She had made it look... sexy?

Thank god she turned because I had not even the smallest idea of what to say after thinking that. I turned around and saw a mini-map down the hallway. I reached it with the now usual difficulty of having broken ribs. Now that I think of it, I didn't know how it was like to walk with un-broken ribs. I looked for the clothes section and found them. I went back.

"Rose, I´m going to try some clothes and you can-"

A shadow moved. I turned abruptly in its direction. Too abruptly. I made myself fight against the pain, but went down once more. Rose helped me getting into a sitting position, reclined me on a shelf and looked at me.

"Gonna get some painkillers or aspirins or whatever I find. Don't move."

I wanted to tell her about the shadow, but it got caught up on my throat. I turned my head to its direction, but saw nothing. She stood up and walked down the hallway, moving her tail graciously in her wake. I kept staring at it until she turned the corner. I slapped myself awake. Why do I keep doing that? Her tail is awesome and all, but why can't I control myself?

After scolding myself my thoughts transported to the deserted parking lot. There had to be a lot of cars so it got filled every Sunday as Rose had said over breakfast. But Rose said everyone else disappeared. What if everybody was dead? What if we were the only ones alive? No, that couldn't be. If we were alive, then surely there were others. Then, where was everybody?

"AAAAAAAHHH"

I stood up with a start, my adrenaline blocking the rush of pain running through me. I ran-stumbled in a lot of pain to the source of the scream. I turned a corner and saw Rose being grabbed by the neck. The one holding her looked canine, but had a pair of horns instead of ears like me, the tip of them a smoking black. He seemed familiar but I'm not sure how. In his other hand he had a neon yellow katana. He didn't seem to notice me and rouse his sword over his head, ready to strike.

"NO" I yelled, jumping to Rose's side.

The sword went down.

I stared at him wide eyed, and he looked back at me, noticing me for the first time. I turned my head slowly to see my arm. The katana sticking out of it, but it didn't slice through. Blood started pouring out. A single drop fell and touched the floor. Then I heard him scream. I looked at his arm and saw how it slowly fell to the floor, cut cleanly. The guy looked at his arm in terror and then at me, just before his eyes went white and fell.

On the corner of my eye I saw a yellow faint glow. The katana, still sticking out of my body. I grabbed it from the hilt with a trembling hand and took it out. I let it fall to the floor, scared out of my mind. I looked at the cut on my arm and saw that I was bleeding. Blood tears dropped to the ground, my purple fur soaking most of it. I almost panicked. I stood there, looking at his arm, trying to understand what had happened. But then I saw Rose.

"Are you ok?" I asked her

She didn't answer. Her eyes were looking into the distance, but seemed fine otherwise.

"Hey, Bull, you in here?"

Fear ran through me, knowing that someone was looking for the katana's owner. I shook Rose and tried to get her back on her own self. Didn't work. I stopped shaking her and took a peek to see the entrance. There was a single person coming in. His body was full of scales, with a slick tail and very toned. His eyes were completely black. In his hands he held a green neon artifact.

My mind started racing. ShitShitShit What do I do? Do I leave? No, Rose is still paralyzed and I can't leave her behind. Take a stand? I'm injured, barely standing. Call a truce? After cutting their friend's arm and probably killing him? No way. Seemed like taking a stand was best. I would probably die, but at least I'd die with a fight.

I reached down for the katana and grabbed it, hoping to be able to resist. Agony flowed in my chest and I fell face first. I let go of the katana, which scattered nearby. A shadow moved. I blinked in confusion. Were my eyes playing me a trick? But the shadow moved again and grabbed the katana in front of me. A shiver ran through my spine. Then yhe yellow glow disappeared. I shook my head, certain that the pain was making me delusional and focused on what I could do. I moved a bit and managed to move Rose with my knee. She finally reacted.

"Painkillers?" I asked.

She blinked several times before she understood my question. I could hear the guy's footsteps getting nearer. Rose looked at her hand and I saw that she had a pair of vacuums on her hand. She realized something and looked around in concern.

"Where is the bulldog?"

"No time to explain" I said "gotta get out of here now"

She kneeled and tried to get me to my feet, but it was too painful.

"I...I can't" I said panting "give me the painkiller, I'll meet you in the car."

"You won't"

"Have I ever lied to you?"

"I've known you for two days!"

"Exactly" I took her arm and looked deep into her eyes "leave me"

She hesitated, considering the options when a slicing sound came from the corridor followed by a thump.

I was listening intently to know what was happening. I heard nothing. I looked at Rose and she looked back. But something caught my eye. A yellow katana appeared at the other side of the corridor and as I noticed it Rose turned. She started to back away from it and put herself beside me. The shadow stepped into the light, sword in hand. The dark figure formed a female shape covered in black fur, black tight pants and a black sports bra. Her eyes were an electrical yellow, had a nuzzle and short triangular ears.

We stared in fear at her imposing image, waiting for what she was going to do next. I didn't breath.

"What are you waiting for?"

It took some time to understand that she was talking tu us

"Heal him for God's sake" she said exasperatedly, referring to Rose

"What?" we asked in unison

"You can heal wounds" she said "use your gift"

"Gift?"

"Girl, there's like twenty people out there and are not gonna be happy about what we did to them" she said, pointing to the scale guy at the end of the hallway. "Just, think about healing"

She looked at me hopelessly. I shook her arm and caught her attention

"Leave" I told her

"No. I'll try". I nodded

"Concentrate" I said trying to put the truth and certainty and sanity my words needed. She calmed down and nodded. She closed her eyes and put her hands over my chest. She breathed in and out. Nothing happened. I was about to lose faith, when suddenly felt my bones cracking again. I screamed. I could feel my ribs getting back into place, reforming. I could feel every bone, every muscle, every tendon inside of me. A timeless moment passed and I finally breathed again. I looked at my arm and saw no cut. I took a deep breath and felt my chest fill with air with no pain for the first time since I could remember. She opened her eyes long enough to look at me serenely, but they turned white and fluttered close. She hit the floor.

"Rose" I said, getting on my knees.

"She's unconscious" said the shadow girl "need to get out. Fast"

I nodded and grabbed Rose, putting her over my shoulder. She was lighter than I thought, but still she was quite a weigh. I ran to the back door, the girl clos behind me. I kicked open the door and was relieved to see the area was clear. I ran to a corner and saw the parking lot. I saw the Mc-Laren, but there was also a van with the engine running. There were ten people going towards the mall, probably looking for their dead friends. There was no one inside the van. I had an idea and told her. She agreed.

I ran to the van.

I opened the back door and threw Rose in as delicately as possible. The girl ran to the pilot's door.

"Hey! the fuck you think you're doin'?!"

Shit they noticed. She closed the pilot's door and stepped on it hard. We took the road to Rose's house. I looked behind and a smile came to my face when I saw people coming out of the mall and running after us.

...