FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 11 of Tales of Woe

Alex Beta, September 28th, 3:17pm

I was sitting on Kyle's and Ciph's lawn reading the Arcanomicon, when I felt my phone vibrate. I pulled it out and instinctually flipped it open, expecting a text, and glanced down to see I'd inadvertently taken a call.

I quickly held the phone to my ear and tried to make sure they were still on the line, "H-hello?"

I froze at my dad's voice through the speaker, "Hey, son. Um, I think you need to come home. There's three new born children here and we could really use your help."

"Oh-oh, uh... I... I don't... I don't know, dad, I-"

"Hey, you got to spend the night at your friend's place, a friend I haven't met, and I can't properly trust guys or girls now that you're gay, so you lucked out."

"Dad, I really don't think that's a good idea..."

"Oh? And why not?"

"Uh..."

"You didn't do anything with anyone, did you?"

"Ew- gross- no! Dad!"

"Alex, don't make me into the bad guy here, I'm not being unfair."

"I'm not saying you are, I just-"

"Come on, son, this isn't so hard."

"I-... W-well I can't just w-walk, th-the guy lives too far out of town, a-a-and-"

"Then get a ride from someone. Alex, I need you home, now."

"I... Fine."

"Good. See you in a little bit."

"Yeah..."

"... I love you."

"I know, I love you too, dad..." I heard the line click and I closed my phone. I felt my heart pounding in my still chest, and realized Seth was standing over me, looking worried.

"What happened?"

"... I'm a brother now. ... And my dad wants me home to help them with... with the triplets..."

"Oh god... I... What can I do to help?"

"... Master illusion and make me look like my old self again?"

"Right... Don't worry, I can go over with you and-"

"I don't think that'd help..."

"Your dad told me once that if you had to be gay, he's glad it's with me. At least I'm a good enough person in his eyes to-"

"Of course you are, it's got nothing to do with the gay thing, it's... it's the symbols."

"... That makes more sense. You're sure there's nothing I can do to help?"

"Yeah..."

"Hmm... I'm gonna come anyways. Just to keep you safe."

"That'd be nice." I closed the book and got up off the grass. Once I was up, he wrapped his arms around me, and pulled me tight, and I saw the runes drifting lightly off his body warped when I hugged him. I stopped focusing on the hug and watched as the runes drifted across from his body to mine, still levitating off of us. He noticed it too, and when I pulled away, I found some of the runes were still on me. I tried shaking them off, but they just kept drifting mindlessly across me, and it felt like I couldn't do anything to stop it.

"Well... I'll be always be with you..." Seth grinned guiltily as I shot him a quick stare before succumbing to the inner joy and thought of how ridiculous this was.

"Heh, sure. Crap, I need to go."

"Yeah, let's go see if Jeran'll take you-"

"Not Jeran."

"But he-"

"Was touched by Cid."

"... Fair enough-"

"And he's probably in the middle of a session of fun with X, so, I'm not interrupting that."

"Yeah. Be nice if we could do that..."

"Seth- no- I-... Can we talk about this later? I just-"

"Oh- I get it, yeah, it's just... you know... everyone else..."

"... Ever heard of peer pressure?"

"Ever heard of social isolation, I had no idea whether or not I'd be susceptible to peer pressure. Apparently I am! Whatever. Who's car are we taking?"

"Tanner's, I guess. I'll go ask." I glanced around quickly to see where Tanner was, and found him Cuddling with Titus, who was trying to master his ability to make fire. Apparently fire's some staple for magic or something, but whatever.

I walked over to them and was about to ask Tanner when Titus started talking, "Oh- Alex, check this out! I... can do this!" He flicked both his wrists at the same time, and a small, solid black circle appeared from nothing. He then stuck his hand through it as if it were liquid, but his hand didn't come out the other side.

"So what? It's just a portal."

"Yeah, but to where?"

"... Somewhere dark? I don't know- Tanner, I need a ride, my parents are gonna kill me if I don't get there soon, and they'll kill me when I get there because of all this glowy shit."

Tanner put up his hands defensively, "Woah- okay, calm down. Just let me get my keys and we can go." He got up and I followed him into the house as Titus dealt with the weird portal thing. "So why do your parents need you home, anyways? It's Saturday."

"My mom had triplets."

"Oh damn. That'll do it." He vanished into his room for a split second then came back out with a small keychain in his hand. He ushered me to his car and Seth and Titus hopped in after me.

"So, where's your house?"

"Uh, Birch Street-"

"Got it." He pulled out of the drive way and started backing down the high way towards the town, and I noticed how dead everything looked alongside the road. All the grass was withering, the scattered trees had no leaves, it was like this entire region was having a severe drought, and the town was still all wet, warm, and cheerful after the summer. Really puts climates into perspective.

We continued down the road, and Tanner decided to strike up conversation, "So, how do you think your parents will react to your change?"

"Either they'll kill me or disown me. At least I can be with Seth in the latter of the two."

"... Well don't you have high expectations of your parents?"

"You just got lucky, you live with your gay brother, and then you turned gay. I live with my severely Christian and homophobic parents, and then I became a gay atheist. Life hasn't been entirely fun."

"Yeah, but that's how my parents were until that car crash killed them. Man... and to think, my brother's, best friend's- now boyfriend's- brother... caused it."

"This town is convoluted. Too many connections..."

"Small world."

"The connections make it feel bigger, though. Not smaller."

"And knowing about magic, the world's only getting bigger..."