FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Lucien loved walks like this when he was human, walking through the forest with bright green leaves pushing against the wind that would then blow against his skin. He pulled the sleeves down his arms, his golden fur flattening against the cloth that moved across it. Lucien stopped and looked back at the towering city behind him, its looming skyscrapers moved into the clouds and casted large shadows over the wilderness past the outer wall of the city border. With a low sigh he turned back to the road and started to walk down the path again.

Lucien's bare paws continued down the path for an hour or so until they finally reached a large pond with a rushing waterfall jumping off a rocky ridge and down into the lapis pool below. Lucien went to the edge of the pond and went onto his knees, looking at his own face in the mirroring water. A Golden Labrador looked back up at him, a golden left eye and a striking red right eye staring into his. A large backpack loomed over his back as he looked into the mirror world below. Lucien stayed like this for a little before a sigh from across the pool startled him, this made him instinctively look up in the direction the sound came from. His two canine ears standing alert to listen for sounds from the small figure sitting cross-legged not too far from him just from the edge of the water. The figure was a young horse, no more than twenty years old, with his hooved hands within the cross of his legs. The horse's eyes looked down into the water with utter sadness.

Lucien called over to the horse. "Hey! You ok over there?"

The horse looked up startled, giving Lucien a wide eyed stare for no more than a second before his eyes started to close, his body collapsed back as he fainted. Lucien quickly dropped the backpack and ran around the pool and to the horse. Once he got to the horse he fell to his knees and put his ear next to his mouth to check for breathing, luckily he was. Lucien's paws went to the horse's shoulders and started to shack him softly.

"Hey, Hey! Wake up," Lucien tried to wake the horse to no success.

Lucien took out his phone and turned it on, he checked the reception but got nothing. Lucien cursed under his breath and layed the horse back down in a more suitable position. The Golden Labrador got up, walked went back to his backpack and brought it back to the horse. Once back to the horse he took out his first aid kit, wanting to make sure this person, whoever he may be, didn't have anything wrong with him. Lucien realised just how drenched the horse's clothes were, like he had just gone through a river, as well as having a number of burn marks on them. Lucien removed the horse's shirt and hoodie to examine the horse's lean bod for injuries. Lucien instantly found a large gash on the horse's side that had been covered with a couple palm tree leaves that were held in place with vines over the wound to stop the bleeding. He took the palm leaves and vines off the wound and put a fresh, white, medical bandage onto it.

After finding a few small burns, which Lucien placed more bandages on, he then moved onto the lower body, removing the horse's trousers for his own sake. Lucien blushed hard when he saw that the horse didn't wear any undergarments, he tried to continue to examine him with his mind going to certain images. thankfully didn't find anything else and quickly went back to the bag and brought out the only bed roll he had inside it, seeing how it was getting dark. Lucien rolled out the bed and then brought the horse onto it. He folded up the shirt, hoodie and trousers and placed them next to the horse while he slept. Lucien took out a metal cylinder from his backpack and pressed the third button from the top, this triggered a metallic axe to expand from the rectangle shape engraved into the flat of the end. He went back into the forest and found a small, half bent palm tree not to the lake, blood splattered one of the lower leafs.

"At least I know where the horse got those leafs," Lucien thought out loud.

Lucien started to use the axe on the tree, small pieces of splintered wood flew off from the axe shaped wedge being dented into the tree trunk. After no more than twenty minutes of axing the tree came down, slowly due to a large amount of vines around the tree. He started to chop the trunk into thinner round strips, similar to bamboo shoots, as well as cutting up some of the nearby vines.

It took a total of two hours for Lucien to do this , mostly thanks to the axe, as well as taking the wooden strips, vines, and leaves to the area around the horse, who was still out for the count. The sun continued to move in the sky as he worked, drawing closer to the horizon. Lucien used the circler strips as struts in a rectangle around the horse and the vines as an outer line for it, he then tied the leaves as thickly as he could within the vine outline as a roof. After this Lucien used the leftover wood to create a small table and a chair, he then put his backpack up against the table and took a seat. He relaxed with his eyes on the sun set, the bright orange glow flaring over the sky.

* * * *

The horse slowly opened his eyes to the smell of sausages on a fire, the sound of a crackling fire hitting his ears. The horse's muscles aching with the past strain as he slowly pushed his upper body up, looking up at Lucien in the wooden chair, who was half way through eating a sausages.

"W-who are you?" The horse asked in a weak voice.

Lucien turned towards him, his long golden fur shining against the fire that burned on a small fire pit a metre or two away from the shelter. He finished the sausage in his maw and then spoke in a soft voice.

"You're awake, good. You had me worried for a minute," Lucien said. "My name's Lucien, what's yours?"

"Mine's Chris, nice to meet you." He said, his face going to an expression of embarrassment.

"What is it?" Lucien asked.

"Well I don't know how city folk greet others," Chris said.

"You mean you aren't from a city?"

"No, I'm not. My parents were once city people but then were disowned from city live once they got infected."

"So you were born infected?"

"Yes, my parents were infected back in a faraway city that was covered in sand and surrounded by dunes. That's all they told me about their past, they seemed very held up on keeping their past lives a secret."

"Sounds like they travelled a lot." Lucien said.

"They did, until they finally settled here. So, how do city people greet new people?" Chris said, taking his trousers from beside his bedroll and put it over his lower body.

"We shake the other's hand, or paw in this case."

"Okay," Chris said before moved out of the bedroll and reached his hooved hand over to Lucien, who then took it into his paw and shook it up and down.

"How do people outside of the city greet someone for the first time?"

"We sniff the other's armpit," Chris said going on to explain. "It holds the most smells and allows us to get the most information of the person."

"Ok, I guess that makes sense. Would you tell me how to do it?" Lucien asked, not wanting to get it wrong in case it offended Chris.

"Sure, you just put your arm up to level with your shoulder and then I sniff."

Lucien got up from the chair, coming almost eye to eye with Chris and put his arm out to the side like he had described. Chris moved forward and put his equine nose under the joint and took a long sniff from the musky area. Lucien met Chris's eyes as he pulled away, giving him a smile.

Chris returned the smile, "now it is tradition for you to do it, but you don't have to since your new to this."

"No it's ok. You respected mine fully, so will I."

Chris gave back a smile, while he moved his arm up to allow Lucien chance to sniff at the joint. Lucien took a deep breath and moved his head forward, putting his black nose under the furry, sweaty pit. Lucien's mind seemed to jump into action when the smell filled his lungs, deciphering the smell into traits and recent actions. This made him moved back in shock, making him yelp out a little.

Chris chuckled a little, "I guess that it's hard to get used to first time, huh?"

"You could say that again," Lucien said, taking deep breaths to calm himself. "So tell me, how did you clothes get so burnt and damp?"

"It's getting late, we should get some sleep." Chris said, changing the subject from the question, only then noticing that there was only one sleeping bag. "Where will you sleep?"

"I haven't quite worked that one out yet," Lucien replied, not wanting to push the subject.

"Why don't we use the same bag? I mean it seems big enough, and if you were a bad guy I would have noticed it," Chris said, tapping his nose.

"Yeah..." Lucien trailed off into thought, seeing how trusting Chris was towards him.

Chris kept his trousers on while he went into the sleeping bag, not removing them while Lucien striped to just a undershirt and the pair of jeans, Lucien the followed Chris into the sleeping bag, putting his back against Chris'. Though it is usually roomy with just a single person there wasn't much space for both the horse and the dog, making their backs touch almost constantly as the layed in the bedroll.

"Good night," Chris said.

"Good night, Lucien replied.

Shortly after this they both let sleep come over them and drifted into sleep.