FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Alright! I'm back in the game! Hope you guys like this one, I had fun writing it :D

Also, if you can think of any tags I missed, please feel free to add them, thanks.

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_Two hundred and fifty years ago, humanity's sins against the very Earth that gave them life became too great. With their nuclear and other kinds of extremely toxic waste, humanity was poised to poison the Earth, permanently rendering it inhospitable to all forms of life. _

For decades beforehand, the numerous anthropomorphic races, known collectively as "Arivelans" or "The Peoples" in the Airvelan common tongue, had attempted to warn humanity of their mistakes and to induce change among them in the hopes that the humans would clean up their own mess. Unfortunately, no laws were ever passed to help preserve the sanctity of the environment, eventually leading to a war between humanity and the Arivelans.

While humanity was vastly superior to the Arivelans in terms of technological prowess, the Arivelans held something the humans lacked, magic. In the beginning of the war, both sides were evenly matched. Every blow taken was reciprocated in kind. Eventually, the Arivelans gained the upper hand and humanity, refusing to admit to its own mistakes or accept defeat fought to the last man. Children were even trained and expected to fight.

_After one hundred years, the Arivelans proved victorious, but at great cost. Large swathes of land became uninhabitable and humanity had never ceased fighting, choosing extinction over surrender. _

One hundred and fifty years have gone by since the passing of humanity, and while the pollution and other poisons have been cleansed from the world, the work continues carefully and methodically dismantling the remaining weapons and structures humanity left behind. No one, however, could have possible guessed just how much had been left behind by humanity.

"Inkwazi, why can't we just burn down the whole damn town?" sighed a midnight black gryphon garbed in nothing more than simple brown tunic, leather leggings and a silver cloak. "With all this checking and rechecking and blah blah blah, we aren't ever going to finish removing all of humanity's poison from the planet."

The gryphon and his companion, an avian of the species humans once called the "African Sea Eagle," were standing just outside the ruins of a human city which was at one time known as Salamanca, Spain. Within, lights from spells could be seen at regular intervals. The city was a hive of activity, though most of it was cautious, slow, and subdued due to the dangerous nature of their work.

Inkwazi looked at the dilapidated, vine-covered drywall and glass labyrinth before him and shook his head with a sigh before examining himself as best he could in the dirty, half broken ground floor window of what was once a towering behemoth of steel, glass and whatever cubicles are made out of.

He stood roughly six feet tall and had (in his mind at least) striking plumage. White feathers covered his head, neck, and chest to just below his shoulders. His face, though featherless, was still impressive with its yellow skin and hooked beak, the tip of which was black. His remaining chest and legs were a dark brown in color, with his wings a breathtaking ebon black. The lower half of his legs were the same yellow color as his face. His legs ended in thick, powerful talons.

With a deep breath he looked his partner in the eye and said, "First off, Kralis, humanity's poisons have been cleansed long ago. The Earth has been healed. Second, their weapons and creations are still out there and they are dangerous. Even for those who are prepared for them. Remember the gas that leaked in Germany? Took almost a whole month to clean that up, not to mention a large amount of wild life died before we could contain it. Oh, and don't even get me started on the explosives hidden in the walls of that Canadian house. It was a house. It was for humans to live in on a regular basis. Who would have thought they would keep explosives that could be detonated with fire inside the walls?"

Kralis looked down sheepishly and mumbled, "I know, I know. Trust me, I don't want to be the poor sap who rushes his work only to be melted into a puddle of goo or be shot full of holes. I just wish we didn't have to take this so seriously. I want these eyesores to be gone already. I want to be able to fly from one country to another without so much as seeing these ugly skeletons on the horizon."

Inkwazi smiled and opened his beak to respond only to be cut off by someone yelling "Hey! Inkwazi! We got something for ya! Move your tailfeathers and get to work!"

Inkwazi and Kralis turned to see an arctic fox vixen waving at them and shouting, while simultaneously showing a tall palomino horse where he was needed next by pointing without looking. The fox was what was commonly referred to as a "reader." A mage whose magical talents generally did very little to help actually dispose of dangerous materials, but did allow him or her to identify what was hidden inside a particular building and where.

With a few flaps of his wings, Inkwazi covered the distance between them and asked "What did you find this time, Kara? Acid? Liquid explosives? Lotion?"

Kara's fur bristled and she growled "Hey, shut up about the lotion, OK? You know as well as I do that the reading spells are difficult to understand at best. Add in the fact that the molecular components of that particular lotion are also found in explosives and you get a misreading. Anyways," she continued with a coy smile. "As usual, all three of your guesses are wrong. I got something exciting for you today, pal, liquid nitrogen. It's in the basement. Oh, and try not to get frozen solid, teleporting you in that state would be rather messy."

After getting the directions from Kara, Inkwazi flew into town, though he touched down and walked once he entered the actual work area. He didn't want to distract anyone from their work and cause an explosion or something. Or make someone think hundred year old eggs and milk were actually highly toxic gases capable of killing them all. Both of which he did his first day on the job, from the same flight no less.

With a minute's searching, he found the trapdoor that lead to the basement. Once his protective spells were in place, he descended the ladder and activated his light spell. Unlike someone who was proficient with the spell, Inkwazi's light came out green instead of white, giving the underground lab a distinctly eerie glow.

There was a maze of pipes on the ceiling so convoluted it was impossible to know when one pipe ended and another began. The left side of the room housed a row of computer screens, but no towers. Numerous wires crisscrossed the floor between the computers on the left and the seven foot tall, cylindrical storage tanks on the right.

Deciding to cut the tanks open to see what was inside; Inkwazi made a slashing motion with his hand and cut the rightmost container vertically down the middle. The container, though empty, was rather unique on the inside. It was actually composed of five separate layers, each sealed off from the others. The outer layer had some sort of thick insulation. The second layer from the outside was thin and had computer parts all throughout it with another layer of even thicker insulation after that. After a quick yes or no reading spell, the fourth layer was discovered to have held liquid nitrogen, though it had long since evaporated back into a gaseous state. The innermost, and by far the most voluminous layer, held nothing at all, or at least nothing Inkwazi could identify. If there was anything, however, it was harmless. Kara would have picked it up if it was.

Finally, Inkwazi turned his attention to the wall opposite the ladder he came in on. This wall was dominated by a large rectangular tank of steel with a set of three small glass windows in the middle. Curious, Inkwazi made his way over to it and peered inside. With a rather undignified squawk he was later glad no one was around to hear, Inkwazi hastily stepped back, tripped on one of the wires crisscrossing the floor, and scrambled backwards away from the metal box.

The bird was unable, however, to tear his eyes away from what he saw within the tank. Inside, one for each window, were three creatures that were obviously humans. They had no snouts or beaks or facial protrusions to speak of. They lacked fur except for some on the face of one and on top of the heads of the two outside ones. The outside ones were adults, likely one male and one female, while the one in the middle was an infant. All three of them were frozen inside of what appeared to be a giant block of ice

Inkwazi slowly got up and turned around to go tell someone important about his discovery. He only made it one step, though, before one of his talons got caught on a wire and pulled it out of its socket. Immediately, a hissing noise came from the container and gas began to pour out of the top of it. Inkwazi knew he should run, knew he was most likely going to die soon from whatever trap he had activated, but was unable to run. His legs were frozen in terror, his beak was open though no sound came out and his entire body shook violently.

After several long minutes of hissing and gas spewing, the front of the container suddenly sprang open, tossing the now defrosted humans onto the floor. The adults began to cough and gasp for air as well as vainly attempt to push themselves up off the floor. The infant, though infant was incorrect as it was more of a toddler, merely lay there, unmoving except for the gentle rise and fall of its chest.

Before the adults so much as noticed his feet, they began to clutch at their breasts and cough, splutter, and gag even harder, shortly falling into convulsions. Once their convulsions were done, the two adult humans never again moved or drew breath. The child, however, was still sleeping peacefully, blissfully unaware of its surroundings.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Inkwazi slowly crept towards the sleeping human. "Humans nearly killed the Earth with their poisons, but you didn't do that." He murmured as he picked up the child. "But you are innocent. You, you deserve a chance at life, even if you will never find another one of your kind, you should be allowed to live. I think I'm going to raise you as my own, but what to name you?"

Inkwazi racked his brain for a minute before nodding and saying "I'm going to name you 'Mirak.' It means 'miracle' in one human language or another, and you living in this time is definitely a miracle."

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So, two things. One, the title really has nothing to do with the actual plot I have planned, I just can't come up with a title right now, they aren't my thing. Two, either are names, apparently. I don't particularly like the name of the furry races, but I don't plan on spending any more time on it tonight. If you have anything to say about the word "Arivelans" please do not be afraid to say it, I will likely be changing it to something better (in my eyes at least) and if you had a suggestion it just might make it into the story. Also, the different naming styles of the characters was intended.