FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A good 7-hours had past before Eone woke up. He blinked the grogginess out of his eyes as he looked around the cave. As he focused on his surroundings, he noticed that the storm died down, meaning they had to make haste if they wished to survive this round!

Eone shifted himself, but froze when felt Chris' torso. He looked down as he lifted his wing off of the human and his jaw dropped when he saw that his arm was wrapped around the human.

His mind was on alert. Not only did they not know if the others beat them to the escape pods, but he was panicking from the intimate contact with the human. Not even 1 day with them human (which was 30 hours where he was from) and he was already snuggling him.

"No....I'm just ensuring his survival!", he told himself. Musing the idea, he subconsciously squeezed the human lightly. The slight pressure he felt caused him to stop again and panic.

He immediately removed his arm from the human and backed up. And to surprise, the human was still sleeping through all of this.

Thinking back to the task at hand, he pushed what just happened to the back of his mind and crawled over to the human before shaking him.

"Get up Chris! We need to move now!", Eone barked.

Chris was slightly dazed at first when he stirred from unconsciousness but became wide awake when he heard the urgency in his ally's voice.

He sat up and looked around frantically.

"What-what's going on?! Are we being attacked?!", Chris asked anxiously.

"No. We need to move now!", Eone urged as he got up and headed to the cave entrance.

Chris scrambled up and followed quickly as Eone's words processed in his mind.

"What's going on?"

"We overslept. We should've left immediately after the storm died, but we both got carried away with sleep. I should've stayed awake and kept watch", Eone replied.

"And risk becoming tired and sluggish later when you are fighting for your life later? It's not your fault Eone", Chris countered.

"Do you not care if we survive?", Eone snapped, his eyes narrowing.

"I do care. But there is no point arguing over who's to blame when we can use our time to instead hurry to the escape pods", Chris countered, taken aback by his companion's tone.

Eone opened his maw in protest but shut it when he realized the human was right.

They soon reached the mouth of the cave and were greeted to the familiar white of the snow and blue of the ice. A chill sent a shiver down Chris' spine, making him regret not wearing a jacket to the club before he got abducted.

Eone's eyes scanned the frozen land, searching.

"Got it. Hold on tight", Eone stated.

"What do you mea-AAAHHH", Chris couldn't finish his sentence as Eone swiftly wrapped his arms around him and swiftly launch into the sky.

Chris shrieked as Eone took flight. The ground fading beneath him as Eone flew high and fast.

"Quit yelling like a scared hatchling!", Eone berated.

"Where are we going?!", Chris shouted.

"To the escape pods! Unless you want to die here!", Eone retorted sarcastically.

"How do you know which way the city is?!", Chris pressed.

"Because the cave we slept in was to the right of the direction that Sor-dnaal told us the city lied. So I'm going the same way", Eone shouted above the wind.

Chris was taking short, quick breaths as they zipped across the land. He was doing his best to calm down. Despite the air being a lot colder up here, Chris found warmth. From a mental perspective, he found warmth from the amazing view of the planet from such a height. That temporarily distracted him from the nipping winds.

But from a physical aspect, he felt warmth from Eone. That alien was radiating heat like the heat from a regular day in Miami. He wondered how he could maintain such body heat despite their elevation.

Suddenly, a thick wind smacked them in the face, throwing Eone out of the sky. Chris started panicking as he tumbled about in the sky. Eone grunted as he tried to steady himself, but has difficulty doing so since he was supporting Chris' weight. He splayed open his wings as he lost altitude quickly.

The snow softened their impact but it still managed to knock the wind out of them both. Chris was greeted with a mouth full of snow as he slid across the ground. Eone just groaned as he landed on his wings.

Chris looked up and wiped the snow from his face. He tilted his eyes in confusion as he spotted something ahead of him. He noticed a few dark shapes against the snow a good distance away from him. They were rested against big mounds of snow. They also had these small, yellowish flags protruding from a thin pole atop each mound.

Chris turned to Eone who was busy checking if he broke any bones.

"Hey, I think we're almost to the underground city", he told the Valraxian.

"What?", Eone questioned as he looked back at Chris.

Chris got up and pointed to the direction of those mounds. "I don't know about you, but those mounds don't look natural to me."

"Well, that seems like our best shot", Eone decided before he spread his wings and zoomed off, not before yanking the human into his arms.

Chris yelped as he was snagged off the ground. He was helpless as he clung onto Eone for dear life, not wanting to fall. Eone flew low to the ground, not wanting to run into another headwind again.

A few minutes later they arrived at one of the mounds. Now that they were up close, Chris realized that the black spots he saw were actually doors...of sorts. The entrances looked like 4 triangles arranged to make a diamond.

Chris and Eone looked it over, trying to find out how to open it. Eone grunted as he dug his claws into the crevice of the triangles, doing his best to pull them apart.

"Help me out Chris!", Eone growled.

With no other option in mind, Chris went to the left of him and did his best to open up the door. After a moment of intense exertion, Chris gave up and massaged his fingers, wincing in pain. Eone huffed in frustration as he gave up soon after.

"How in the Rings of Sqiiteen are we suppose to open this thing?!", Eone raged as he swiped one of his claws against the door.

Chris was slightly frightened by the claw marks Eone left on the door, surprised by the strength he had. Chris caught himself thinking about Eone, and immediately halted that train of thought before it went anywhere...undesirable.

Chris looked all around the mound until he spotted something amongst the snow. He approached it and brushed the snow away until he uncovered a rounded square covered by a thick layer of ice.

"I found the thing to open it I think!", Chris shouted.

Not wanting to appear weak to Eone and feeling like they were running out of time, Chris reeled back his fist and punched the ice. It hurt, the pain shooting up his right arm but he didn't care. He kept punching it and punching it and, even did it with both hands until the ice shattered.

Eone watched him with intensity. He honestly didn't expect the human to be that strong. He noticed the blood seeping from Chris' knuckles but admired the will the human had to keep punching. He was even surprised he had enough force to break it....well, crack it.

Chris' fists were numb with pain but he knew his action wasn't in vain when the ice shattered...somewhat. The ice held together but it could easily be picked away. A strange property foreign to Chris. He expected it to fall apart, not cling together still. He figured because they were on a different planet, he assumed the physical properties of objects must also be different as well.

He then began picking at the ice and in a brief moment cleared the shards before hitting the rounded square.

The door before them started to grind before it opened slowly. Chris and Eone waited anxiously to open all the way but their expressions faltered when the door jerked to a halt. The door had barely opened a sliver, too small to squeeze through.

Just then, another blast of frost engulfed the duo. Eone looked around and noticed the planet was about to be consumed in another snowstorm again.

"Come on! Grab the other side and pull!", Eone ordered as he wrapped his claws around the right side of the door and pulled.

Chris could barely hear him over the roar of the winds but understood the order. With his bloody digits, he pulled the left side of the door with all his might.

The winds grew fiercer. Even Eone was starting to shiver. Chris yelled as pushed himself to his limits. Hope reignited as the duo felt the door give slightly. It inspired them to go past their maximum. The adrenaline fueled them.

With a few moments, the opening when from a few inches to a good 2 feet in diameter. That provided them with more than enough space to squeeze through.

When they were inside, the warmth gradually returned from them. Now sheltered from the blistering cold, they carried on and followed the corridor hopeful it would lead them to the underground city.

A good 15 minutes passed as they traversed down the winding corridor.

"I hope you're right about this leading U.S. To the city", Eone voiced.

"It has too. It's not like the caves were gonna lead us there", Chris replied.

"How do you know the caves aren't all connected? That would've made our journey a whole lot easier", Eone thought out loud.

"And what would've we done when we got lost down there?", Chris retorted.

"So are you saying we won't get lost down here?", Eone pressed.

"We won't."

"How can you be sure? I don't want to waste all this energy just to get lost", Eone asked dubiously.

"Because genius, this hallway hasn't branched off. Plus, if you haven't noticed, there are pipelines above us. That has to lead us somewhere", Chris remarked.

Eone snorted and looked up, noticing Chris was right. Another good 5 minutes past before they saw light at the end of the corridor. They rushed to the exit and were astounded to see it open up to a big glossy cave.

Throughout the cave were shiny oblong buildings covered in thick ice. There were also large chunks of ice scattered among the city. Some of them crushed the buildings while others were simply in the way. The only explanation for that had to be the big hole at the very top of the cave, displaying the still-raging blizzard for all to see.

"Come on let's go", Chris stated as he took off.

"Wait you fool!", Eone snapped as he yanked Chris back by the collar.

Chris choked a bit before looking up fiercely at Eone, wondering why he stopped him.

"Don't you know anything? You don't just charge in blindly. You will easily get killed that way. You are still in a competition with people trying to kill you, remember?", Eone chided.

Chris opened his mouth but shut it when he realized Eone was right.

Eone led the way as he stuck the sides of the buildings like glue with Chris failing him. Eone didn't like this. It was too quiet. Where were the others? Were they too late?

Just then a spear sailed across the air and struck the wall, dangerously close to Eone's head.

Chris and Eone snapped their head to the direction it came from and saw 2 contestants coming towards them.

One of them was the Dhifgos, if Chris remembered correctly. All that he knew was that it looked like an anthropomorphic cheetah with feathers. It had to be the female since the male died in the last round. But Chris didn't care where she came from. She just carried a lot of spears in one hand and throwing them in the other.

Eone and Chris made a beeline for the center of the city, hoping to find the pods. That Dhifgos was surprisingly fast, chasing the two with ease. Chris and Eone did their best to elude her, bobbing and weaving through the ice, but she was quickly gaining on them.

When she was close enough, she jumped and landed on Chris. She growled and proceed to slash him. Chris covered his face and neck with his hands in a defensive posture. He could do nothing else but shout in pain from her scratches.

Just then Eone was upon her. He grabbed her and threw her against a pillar of ice. She slammed into it and became dazed.

Rome rushed her and wrapped his claws around her neck. She strained to pull Eone off of him but gave up when she felt blood pool around his claws piercing her neck. She gradually stopped moving until she was a limp ragdoll.

By that time Chris recovered. He had many scratches along his arms but he was grateful to be alive. Eone returned to him and inspected him.

"Are you alright?", the Valraxian asked.

"Yeah. Let's go", Chris said as he wiped the blood on his clothes.

They ran for what seemed like ages until they found their salvation. The pods were lined up against a wall of ice on the other side of the city. Out of the 12, 9 were already filled. Chris scanned each and every one of them and was saddened when he realized Emily wasn't in one of them.

"Chris!", Eone shouted.

His words snapped Chris out of his stupor, warning him of the threat coming his way. Chris turned and ducked just in time, avoiding an axe-type of weapon being swung at him.

Chris looked up and paled when he saw one of the Quezznar hissing at him before it lunged again. Chris scrambled out of the way as he narrowly avoided being hit with the weapon.

Eone pounced on him and slashed with all his might but his claws were defective against the armored skin of the Quezznar.

"Get off me you primitive flesh sack!", the Quezznar shrieked. It rolled around and pinned Eone to the ground. It raised the axe above its head.

"Noo!", Chris shouted as he grabbed a nearby chunk of ice and hurled it at the Quezznar.

The chunk of ice dazed the creature, causing it to miss Eone's head by a few inches. Eone roared as he slammed his foot against the creature's mandible.

The Quezznar yelled in agony as he squirmed on the ground in pain, dropping the axe in the process. Eone grabbed it immediately and was about to finish the creature off when out of nowhere Chris slammed a big block of ice down on its head, ceasing its movements.

Eone looked up at Chris, surprised.

"Come on, let's go", Chris said out of breath.

Both him and Eone rushed toward the 3 escape pods left open. Seeing the empty one made Chris sad at the loss of Emily, deciding that she probably died in the blizzard.

Chris then heard something faintly. He stopped short of the escape pods.

"Chris we no time to waste!", Eone seethed as he grabbed the human's arm.

Chris yanked it back when he heard the noise grow louder.

He looked around and his heart stopped when he saw Emily emerging from behind one of the buildings.

Emily called out again, hoping Chris would hear her. When she saw her friend she immediately ran toward him, overjoyed.

"Chris!!"

However she stopped when she noticed Eone was behind him.

"Chris get away from that thing!", Emily shouted.

"Don't worry, he's an ally now", Chris answered.

Suddenly a loud boom came from the opposite side of the city. Eone, Chris and Emily looked back and were shocked to see a thick cloud of snow quickly engulfing the rest of the city, encasing whatever it touched in ice.

"Emily get over here now!", Chris shouted.

Emily made a mad dash for the escape pods. At that rate she would easily make it. However, she wasn't paying attention to much else.

As she passed the unconscious Quezznar, it suddenly sprung back to life and pinned Emily to the ground. It then clamped its jaws around her neck before ripping out a sizable portion.

It all happened so fast. One moment Emily was running and then next she was bleeding profusely from her neck.

"EEEEMMMIIILLLYYY!!!", Chris shrieked as he started to run to her. But he was suddenly grabbed and held back. His arms were pinned as he was lifted into the air by none other than Eone.

"Let go of me! We need to save her!", Chris pleaded as he thrashed around in his grip.

Eone backstepped until he was behind one of the pods. Then he flung Chris swiftly into one before closing it shut.

The human bounced right back in the pod but was too late as the door sealed itself shut. He banged and screamed, cursing at Eone with rage. He was beyond shocked when Eone rushed into the pod next to him and sealed himself in.

His eyes darted back to Emily who was slowly dying from the bloodloss. All the while, the hideous Quezznar crawled his way towards the escape pods. Chris could do nothing but seethe with rage as his friend's murderer locked himself into the last escape pod.

Chris went back to Emily and sobbed as he watched her die. The ice cloud was closing in on them. Emily looked at the approaching cloud before she struggled to look back at Chris, a sad look on her face.

Emily tried covering her neck but that only caused her hands to become drenched in her own blood. Seeing as how she was gonna die anyway, she dropped her hands to the side as she took one last glimpse at Chris, trying to do her best to convey to him it wasn't his fault. Amongst the cold snow, the only thing keeping her warm was her blood pooling around her.

Tears were streaming down his eyes as he yelled with wraith in his voice, pounding on the clear door with all his might.

His heart shattered when the cloud of ice consumed Emily before a few seconds later it entombed his escape pod as well as the others.

The ice shrouded the tomb in a dark shade of blue and white. Chris could feel the subzero temperature against the door but he didn't care. The cold of the planet could not compare to the cold he felt in his heart. He slid down to his knees slowly, wrapping his arms around his knees in an attempt to hold himself. He couldn't stop himself from crying. He couldn't save Emily and had to watch her die before his very eyes. He didn't even care when the ice storm settled and the familiar eerie blue light of the tractor beam lift them up to safety. He didn't care about anything right now. Even though he survived this round, he wished he was dead.