FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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And so the second chapter follows quickly after the first. And hey! Now sex. You're just going to have to wait for it. Ha!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. I haven't had this much fun writing for a while. And if you're truly in the mood for some loving, check out my previous stories "The truest Affection." I hear those got some pretty good reviews.

But here it is, The World Over: Chapter Two. Enjoy.

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Awakening of Differences

The two weeks that Sara was supposed to stay with the boy passed by faster than she had anticipated. The doctor or another of his nurses was always entertaining her. Either in games or in conversation. The doctor, she found, was not much of a game person, but was an extraordinary conversationalist. She could tell him anything and without the slightest judgement he would offer her any help or advice or kind counsel that he had in his mind to give. She found him a very sweet man, despite his lack of attentions sometimes. Often she found him drifting off in the middle of a conversation and had to bring him back with a sudden jolt. She found it amusing how anyone could be like this. So full of conversation and yet so distant at the same time. His eyes seemed to be far away as well, as if looking for something over Sara's shoulder and off into the distance.

Regardless, the time had come. The boy's wounds and cuts and every other problem had nearly been fixed. He was well enough to get out of bed, and had done so in only one instance, with a number of nurses standing around him as guards to catch him. He was given the cane and took a few steps, but fell and had to go back to bed.

Sara spent a night with him at his bedside, talking to him as though he wasn't listening. He was, he was perfectly awake, and sometimes would smile that anyone would be so kind as Sara had been. He had never told her his name however, and she didn't ask. She felt that it might be rude to ask that out of the blue when she had been so oblivious about it up until that point. Wonder still captivated her though. She wished she knew his story. How he came to be in that wicked house, how he had fallen to such a degrading level, and how long he had been there. It must have been weeks; months even, since his last time out of the house. Pity rose in her gut and often stopped her conversation.

The boy didn't mind. He was often tired and slept even when someone was talking to him. The blindfold was on, so they couldn't tell until well after he had drifted off.

Today was the day Sara had been waiting for. The boy stepped out of his room, led by the nurses, hobbling on his cane, blindfold still wrapped around his eyes and was given back into the gentle arms of Sara, who was wearing her travelling cloak, so her fur wasn't at all visible or touchable. Just the way she wanted it right now.

"Thank you doctor," said Sara, and the boy chimed in with the same.

"You're welcome, both of you, to come back any time. Just remember to take it easy for the next while. You hear?"

"Yes!" yelled Sara through the door of the office. Then they were gone.

Outside, Sara led the hobbling patient around the building and to the shed where her hover was garaged. It was in perfect order, which she thanked the heavens for, and as she brought it out, helped the boy onto the raft and began dragging it into the alley, where she could get a good amount of room to begin winding the spring.

They took off down the streets, and Sara was finally able to leave the place that wanted her dead. Or at least out of the vicinity. Despite the doctor's assurances of her not being found, there had been a few close calls. Soldiers came rapping at the door and asked to be let in, to which he merely replied that the patients were not to be disturbed lest they become yet more gravely ill. The soldiers could do nothing as long as the doctor stayed inside, as he was the master as long as he remained in control of the hospital. He could overrule any government official in his space, and enjoyed using that power whenever he got the chance. Sara often smiled at this, and told him of the soldier's looks as they were forced to leave. The town was now crawling with bounty hunters just raging to get their hands on their 15-year-old human and his human kidnapper. Because of that description, Sara and her bandaged friend escaped detection more times than she would have liked to have encounters in the first place.

Now that they were gone, and fully stocked for their journey across the desert to safety, courtesy of the doctor yet again, Sara took this opportunity to start a conversation with her passenger. It was the first friendly talk she had had by herself on this journey, and wanted to savour every moment.

"So, I suppose you're coming with me around the world then huh?"

"I suppose," he replied.

"Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves then. I'm Sara. Pleasure to be your captain on this voyage," she said charmingly.

He smiled and held out his hand to shake, but not being able to see where it was her hand was reaching for him, she grasped it instead.

"Can I know your name then?" she asked.

"It's... Far... Varian?" he said.

"You can't remember?"

"I think it's Varian. That's what master always called me."

"Listen here. You're no longer slave to that bastard. You are your own person now. No more talk of this master of yours, okay?"

The boy was a little taken aback by this response, but assured her that it wouldn't happen again, and apologized.

"No apology needed, Varian. Varian. I like that name. It kinda suits you I think."

"Really?" he asked politely.

"Yes. Now do you want to hear of where we're going?"

Varian hesitated for a moment, but then conceded and allowed Sara to go on uninterrupted for as long as she wanted until her story was complete. Varian, at the end paused and congratulated her on wanting so much of herself. To which she replied that it was nothing at all.

That's where the conversation ended, and the beginnings of a very awkward silence ensued. At least it was awkward for Sara. She loved talking, but, she suspected that being so long looked down upon, beaten and torn up, not to mention silenced, would put a bar up in front of his ability to carry on in regular speech. So he probably didn't even consider it remotely bothersome. Probably more bothersome to have her talking so much, she thought to herself. Her ears drooped, and despite herself, started talking of her village to fill the time. After all, the seams in her clothing weren't going to change any time soon.

All in all, they managed to travel very far for their first day on the road together. Sara stopped the hover in the middle of some tall sand dunes and set up a campfire on the ground with some of the wood the doctor had given her. She gathered that she had enough to burn one log a night if they wanted some for the last few days, and so took the one closest to her and flicked sparks from a makeshift lighter onto the wood. The boy stayed on the raft of the hover, afraid of falling if he tried to walk by himself.

"You can come down you know," she said to him warmly, when the log had caught fire.

"Yes, but..."

"Is your eye better?" she asked.

"Maybe... I can't tell."

"Do you want to test it?"

"Is that safe? Did the doctor say anything?"

"Stop answering questions with more questions," she snapped.

He apologized and she got up and slipped the blindfold off his face slowly, wrapping by wrapping. It wasn't bloody anymore. The doctor had changed it a while back. He said it had been a terrible blow that knocked out the boy's vision, and that the wrappings should come off when the boy felt comfortable with it. She was taking the decision into her own hands, but felt that if it was going to happen, it might as well happen sooner rather than later.

She didn't expect it to be such a shock to him though.

When the final strip of cloth came free of his eyes he took one look at Sara and screamed in horror. Not only had he never actually seen a furre before, but he had also been told horrible stories about how they eat their own kind and are the worst of barbarians.

"Oh please, if we were like that, I never would have taken you to hospital. Can't you trust me?"

"But... but you're a..."

"A furre. So? No one else gives a damn. And you're a human. To us you're just as filthy as us to you. So there," she added, sticking out her tongue at him. "If you don't want dinner fine, but it's a long walk back to town with that leg of yours. So until then you're stuck with me."

He paused a moment, almost guilty about what he had said and done. "I'm sorry... I didn't mean..."

"Apologies for food, that's original," she said, offended.

He quieted down after that and slunk back into the raft.

After a while she spoke up again. "We're not all like that you know. We have families, and care for other people just like humans do. We just happen to be covered in fur instead of skin. You know if you cut us deep enough, we're exactly alike, you and I." Then she added, "But appearances obviously count for more than anything with humans. I thought I made a good impression."

He lay down on the raft to sleep, even without food and whispered, just barely audible: "You did."

The night passed slower than any she had yet slept through. She stayed up until the log burnt out and even when she did lay down to rest, she couldn't sleep. Maybe tomorrow would be better.

But tomorrow was awkward in the true sense of the word. Neither spoke to each other, and overhead loomed a great, dark cloud of guilt and sorrow. Each wanted to apologize to the other, or give a long, prepared speech about how they didn't want hard feelings and about neither wanted to be left alone right now on this journey or whatnot. But no words ever came to either of them.

At one point Sara opened her mouth to say something, but it turned into a yawn and she forgot what it was.

The next several days proceeded in the like, though during meals Varian did enjoy food and drink. More than he had eaten in a long time, she guessed. He became full very quickly, which was probably due to the amount he was starved during his imprisonment.

It wasn't until the fifth day on their journey across the desert before Varian spoke again. It was he that began the conversation as well, which surprised Sara at first. She let him continue until he was finished.

"I'm sorry Sara," he began. A nice start, she thought. "I didn't mean to... to be like that the first time I saw you. I've never seen another furre before, so finally being with one, like this... surprised me. If I am to go with you on this journey, please don't hold it against me."

He started out pretty good, and then it went down hill. But she had to grin though, if for nothing else than the terrible looming silence being broken. She didn't care what he said in fact, as long as he said something.

"No hard feelings boyo. Just don't scream when you see more of us. The next town is supposed to be all furres. You'll be lucky to see any humans at all."

"I won't scream. I will assume that they are all like you Miss Sara."

"Just Sara..." and then she added quietly, "Ignorance is bliss."

On the tenth day, the town finally came into view. It was far nicer than either had imagined. It was built into a large oasis full of lush growths of trees and plants. And the town surrounded a large round pool of clean and sparkling water. Each smiled at the other when they saw it. The remains of their food were beginning to spoil, and their water was warm and dry; full of sand. Stocking up here would be a dream.

Or so they thought.

When they got there, she was treated with civility, but he was treated as though he wasn't there, or worse, with disrespect and attitudes befitting knaves. He hardly noticed, as the sneers and silent faces he received were often on his bad side, where he really couldn't see them. He rode along in silence, for the sneers he could see, which were obviously directed at him, looked dangerous, and he didn't want fighting to erupt on his account.

They came eventually to a small hut, or tent actually, and stopped the hover. She unwound the spring so that it wouldn't fly away and walked in. Varian was left outside to wait. The store was labelled with a sign out in front as a place to buy fresh meats. Since they were running low on meats as it was she decided to stop in and buy some of the longest lasting. She paid the badger with all but her last few coins and walked back out to the hover, where attention was being grabbed from every direction. Yells and hisses could be heard in the far distances she assumed.

"Oh, no!" she said, and raced off to her hover, hoping to God they hadn't done anything to Varian. She had noticed the dirty looks too, and sneered back at their givers, but there was nothing Varian could do to protect himself. He was a sitting duck alone.

When she got to her hover she yelled into the crowd: "And just what do you think you're doing to my hover! Get the hell off!"

One male, a fox stood up on the raft and held up an unconscious Varian by the scruff of his cloak. "Caught this trying to steal it. We'll just be taking him away for some..." and he smiled at this, "Punishment."

"Over my dead body you will! That's my partner! Put him down right now!"

"Partner?" yelled the fox, the crowd laughed, "No furre in the world would be partners with a human. Or are you a human lover? That's it isn't it? Well, we'll see how much you love humans. Defend yourself and you'll take him back."

With that several of those in the crowd pulled out swords of varying shapes and sizes, some with knives or others even with lengths of ropes and chains. Oh, this was not good, she said to herself. And with Varian down for the count, she would be facing all these goons by herself. Though that would probably be the case even if he were awake. Though it was far more encouraging to have him awake than to have him asleep like he was.

She tossed the meats onto the raft and ducked under the swing of a very long and hefty looking sword. Then she rolled out of the way of yet another, and had to leap to avoid the crashing of chains beside her. Then with a great leap she landed on her hover and grabbed her bow staff, taking out the fox holding Varian in one swift strike. He toppled over and rained down on an onlooker, who scurried away quickly. Then she leapt into the crowd and began to fend off as many of the attackers as possible. She took a few hits and at one point was knocked off her feet and into the side of her hover. The jerking of the raft roused Varian from sleep and he instantly saw, with whatever clarity he could muster, Sara fighting off innumerable enemies.

"You'll not take him away! He's my partner and you can't have him!" she yelled at one point. He wasn't sure if this was supposed to touch him or make him feel wanted. But whatever the intended effect, it had a much welcomed, yet unexpected outcome.

Varian stretched his arm out of the raft's protective railings and spread his fingers. There was a jolt from the ground, dust was kicked up and sand twirled and then he looked at one of the attackers and opened his bad eye. The resulting shockwave that emanated from his glare sent the furre in question flying across the clearing and against a ruined brick wall. Then the same happened with the furre next to Sara, he too was sent flying backward and was caught by the long stems of palm tree leaves. The furre stayed up there, whining for help down.

"Leave her alone!" Varian yelled, bringing attention onto him instead of wherever one of the phenomenons occurred.

It then sank in to the furres surrounding the hover that Varian was: "A psychic! Quick! Get out of here!"

Only those who had been felled in the battle remained. One up in the tree, still whining for help, another on the ground, bleeding from where Sara had hit him over the head, and the third laying against the brick wall across the clearing. Sara turned from the scene of battle to look at Varian in the face. His bad eye was open, revealing white, but no colour. It was haunting, in a way, and somewhat awe-inspiring.

"How?" was all she could muster before she heard the yells of a band of furres rallying help to "slay the psychic."

"We must leave," said Varian to her. "Quickly."

Sara nodded and packed the meats as fast as she could into the box on the raft and then filled up her canteens and containers with water from the spring in the middle of town, close by as it happened, and then wound the spring to full just as the army of furres, now clad in thicker armour and wielding much larger weapons than before popped out from under cover.

"Come back here and fight!" they yelled, all to no avail, as the hover was quickly gone and out of sight. It was a very good thing that they didn't have transports like hers in town, else she would have had to pull more all-nighters to get out of reach. As it was, she would have to stay awake for a long while just to make sure there were no stragglers ready to make mincemeat out of the two of them. Even though she could have taken any of them in a one-on-one, she didn't trust that she could do so without any cover.

When she felt that they were safely away from the village she asked Varian: "What did you do back there?"

His bad eye was closed again, and revealed nothing but his thick, dark eyelashes.

"I did something? I'm sorry..."

"But... you mean you don't remember?"

"Is this what that man locked me up for? I caused trouble before too. I never mean to," said Varian apologetically.

"Well, whatever you did, you can do it again if we ever get into another scrap," she said.

"Okay," he replied.

They fell silent after that. In part for cautiousness, in part because there really wasn't anything else to say.

They parked a good distance away from the town that night. Even after she had half expected to stay in a comfortable bed that night in town. That thought made her rather grumpy that night, and he refrained from saying very much unless he felt it absolutely necessary.

As the sun drew downwards on the horizon, and only the last bit was left, Varian got up from around their burning log (something else she swiped while packing up the meats) and hobbled over a sand dune. His excuse, though she didn't really need to know, was to empty his bladder and since she couldn't really argue with him on necessity of the point she let him go.

In moments there came a wailing from over the ridge of the sand dune he was crawled over. A wailing like nothing she had ever heard before. Not even his screams of agony in his imprisonment could compare. She jumped up from her resting place and darted off in the scream's direction.

"Varian! What's the--holy!" was all she could muster.

There was Varian, laying on his back in the sand, writing in such pain, it looked like, that all his joints seemed to be coming undone at the seams, as if he were being pulled apart from every angle.

"What's... happening to...?" Then he screamed in hair-raising pain.

He arched his back and closed his eye, reeling in the electricity that coursed through his veins. Sara stepped back, almost on the verge of tears. His pain was that haunting.

He rolled and curled into a little ball, then screamed again. She looked him over, or what part of him she could see. The only bare part of him was his feet, and they were... hairier... than when she saw them last. Her eyes widened, and she yanked his pants down from the back and there was also what looked like... a tail, sprouting from his behind. No wonder he was in so much pain! His spine was expanding! It continued to develop, and he rolled and writhed and agonized. His screams grew hoarse over the next few minutes and he was reduced to violent sobs as the additions to his spine grew and grew and grew, until finally, they ruptured through his skin and broke all hell out of him. At that he yelled and screamed. His body felt as though it was on fire, and being a furre herself, she knew that the worst was yet to come. By the looks of it, he would be a cat, perhaps, no, still too early to tell. His muzzle hadn't grown in yet. Imagine the splitting of the jaw and the lengthening of bones and teeth and the sharpening of one's face.

She had never seen anything like this before. A transformation. In fact, she wasn't sure if there was anything in history that happened like this. As far as she knew, no human could become a furre, or a furre the opposite. But here it was, happening before her eyes. And she saw with what gruesome precision it happened. His tail finally grew to its length and then fur sprouted from all edges of his skin, and then his muzzle began, and the night was filled with such terrible wails that she had to duck away and think of her favourite place back home to even try to block it out. Tears crawled down her face as he continued to scream.

It continued like this for an hour. Such a tortured soul, now to have to go through something like this on top of everything else. What had happened to him? What was this mysterious being's past like? She wondered this as the final transformations took place on his body, and everything was quiet again. The boy, now wolf, she had gauged wrongly, lay in a heap, unconscious. It had been like this for several minutes. She thanked whoever was watching over him for bringing him this amount of solace from his anguish. Then she cursed whoever was watching over him for bringing him such pain in the first place. No being deserves the amount of pain he had gone through. Not anyone. It was terrible. The rupture on his bottom bled for a while; even after she had cleansed it with a small dabble of water.

She didn't know what he had gone through before, but she would find out on her journey, she was sure. She made a mental note to question everyone she found about a boy who was kidnapped. Or perhaps inquire about psychics in hopes of finding someone who had "lost" one long ago.

She lay him down on the raft and tucked him under the covers of her blanket. She downed the shades of the tent and then drifted off to sleep as well, being sure to keep at least one protective hand over his chest at all times.

The next morning, as the sun rose on the horizon, so did Varian. He sat straight up as though nothing had happened, even though he was perfectly aware of the changes of his body and winced once when he felt the tug on his tail. He lifted his bum and scratched the sensitive area around the base of his tail and lifted his fingers. Dried blood. It was as though the skin was trying to graft itself back onto his body and reattach where it had broken. The next thing he noticed was that his jaw was sore. He stretched it out, just to get a feel of it and then snapped it back shut. There was nothing really odd about being so different. Just that he felt far warmer than he had been in just skin.

Now he knew why Sara wore only a loincloth and a bra. He decided that he would do that as well, and shelter his dark grey fur from the sun as much as possible. Still, despite all his other differences, his sight was still the same, as was his taste, smell and touch. But his hearing, while not being damaged in the first place, was now extraordinarily stronger. Exponentially even. He could hear the wisps of the sand and the wind beating down on the tent and even the ruffling of the silk curtains surrounding them.

As well, he felt revitalized. Aside from the initial shock of being transformed, and the pain that came with it, he felt perfectly fine. Though when he tried to stand, he still required the use of his cane. He didn't mind, and was even thinking of ways he could improve it to be of better defence next time. He suspected that, now that he was a furre, just like Sara, they would encounter a lot of hostility.

The one thing he didn't think of though was: how well he was taking the new reality of his life. To him it seemed only marginally different. His balance was thrown off a little bit by his new fluffy tail, but other than that, everything else seemed the same. If nothing else, he smiled at the thought of not having to be human around Sara. She seemed to enjoy the company of furres much more than humans anyway. So having a furre around instead of Varian the human may improve things.

He took an opportunity when he stepped out of the tent to get a good look over his body. As far as he could tell, the only difference to his outer appearance was the grey fur, the tail and the long muzzle. He couldn't see his tall grey ears on the top of his head. Nor did he realize they were different until he felt the warm, morning wind brush over top them. They twitched and at first he thought there was a bug on his head and went to slap it off, only folding his ear in the process. He was built much the same as he had been as a human. He was still very slender, no changes there, and even down below was the same. Though he couldn't really remember the last time he had a chance to look at himself down there before his imprisonment, so that fact was a little blurry.

All in all, he was a rather handsome looking boy-turned-wolf. He thought so anyway. Then his thoughts turned back to what others would think of him. Being as insecure in himself as he always was, he took time to imagine the worst possible scenarios. There was the fighting, the beatings, the weaknesses, the anger, and the hate. He supposed he would learn to deal with it eventually. Maybe even make a name for himself.

At least he knew that there was only one circumstance now where they would face racism. Humans.