FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

When I woke up the next morning, there was a pleasant breeze blowing through the window. It was carrying the smell of dirt, saltwater and leaves, a smell I was sure I'd grow accustomed too quite soon. I yawned and rose from my bed, stretching out as someone started pounding on my door.

"Emelia", Tyranny said, "come on!"

"Yeah yeah", I answered grabbing my dogtags, "I'm coming I'm coming."

I hung my tags around my neck and went to the door, sliding it open and finding Tyranny standing there. This time he wasn't dressed. His sister was however. She was wearing another Minnie mouse T-Shirt with a lot of glitter on it, what I assumed were black jeans and the same bow from yesterday.

"well good morning sleepy head", Tyranny laughed.

I yawned, "yeah yeah. So where is this garden?"

"It's out back", he answered, "I gotta drop my sister off at school first."

"Okay", I said stepping out of my room and closing the door behind me.

I followed Tyranny down the hall and down the large staircase, through the lobby and through a set of double doors that were just to the right of the main entrance. The same two dragons that had lured me to the front door and then jumped me were dressed in their black security uniforms and standing watch. If I didn't know any better, I would almost think they were there to keep people in. Tyranny pushed open the two doors and then walked down a hallway that was swarming with little kids, many of whom were being chased by their parents. Some of them seemed to desperately trying to be getting away, hell two little girls even tried to hide behind me.

"Is it like this everyday?", I asked with a slight smile.

"No", Tyranny said, "it's usually worse than this."

"Dear god", I laughed.

We walked to a small door at the end of the hallway and entered a room that wasn't sized for dragons our age, rather the ceiling was about ten feet up as opposed to the normal 20 and the room itself was about 40 feet long. There were rows of desks set about six feet apart and there were six desks in each row with a few feet in between the desks and the walls. At the head of the room was a desk that by my guess belonged to a Southern or maybe even Master Otani. Tyranny's sister slid off his back and walked to a desk in the second to last row as, none other than, Master Otani walked in. Tyranny and I both bowed slightly and he smiled at us.

"How is it said in America Tyranny?", Master Otani said with a grin, "you two look good together."

Both of us flushed.

"That sounds about right Master", Tyranny smiled, "by the way, Lenna had one of her spasms yesterday at dinner, could you please keep an eye on her for me and send someone if she start's looking under the weather?"

"I will", Master Otani said.

"Thank you Master", Tyranny said bowing again.

I bowed as well and then followed Tyranny out of the school room, back up the stairs and through another set of double doors, down another long hallway with more rooms to a set of two metal doors. Tyranny pushed them open and the old styled, dark oak temple gave way to what I was pretty sure was a space ship. The metal room was almost 60 feet up and nearly 120 feet in every direction. Set at about the 30 foot mark was a cat walk that formed a sort of second floor. In the middle of the room were huge, metal bins that had arches holding at least 500 LED's each that were shining down on the plants underneath them. Each bin had a piece of five inch wide PVC pipe with a red arrow pointing at the box reading, "water in", and a black piece that was a bit wider with an arrow pointing out reading, "waste out". There was a bundle of red and yellow wires going into each arch of LED's and I could hear what I assumed had to be a generator and water pump in the background. There were more boxes set in the space between the catwalks above us with the same PVC and red and yellow wires going in and out. The room smelled of dirt, tossed salad and fish.

"Why do I smell fish?", I asked.

"The gardens are Hydroponics", Tyranny began, "we fill the tanks with water and fish, and then install a metal screen and garden bed liner above it. We fill the remainder of the space between the bed liner and the top of the screen with potting soil and then place the plants inside. We feed the fish, and the fish waste is used as food by the plants. The pump in the back keeps the water clean and oxygenated enough for the fish to live and grow, but doesn't rob the water of nutrients. The plants in here grow 25% faster than plants in dirt gardens and say, if a tomato plant in a dirt garden produces ten tomatoes a week, we'll get thirteen. Not a big difference, but it adds up, a lot."

"Cool", I said, "how long did this take to build?"

Tyranny shrugged, "hell if I know, it was here when I showed up. They have me working in here maintaining all the electrical and mechanical stuff."

"So what do you usually do over the course of one day", I asked.

"Normally I check all the wiring, the pipes, the pumps and the joints and the valves and all that", Tyranny said looking a panel of pressure and voltage gauges on the wall in the back. I walked over to him as he pulled open a vented panel in the wall to expose a large, diesel fired generator. He read a few gauges off that before pressing a button on the wall and speaking in Japanese.

"Hey Chen", Tyranny said.

"Yeah man?", Chen's voice replied.

"Tell Sky that the generators running low on diesel and she needs to make a trip into town with the rig for more", Tyranny said.

"How much running time before back up fuel kicks in?", Chen asked.

"About an hour", Tyranny said, "once the main tank comes off the back up will run it for about two and a half."

"I'll send her out as soon as I can", Chen said, "I'm busy with something right now, so thanks for letting me know."

"Sure thing", Tyranny said turning off the com.

'Whose Sky?", I asked.

"A co worker of ours", Tyranny said, "she's the only Southern here who can drive that old 85 Semi Trailer that Remmy picked up a few months ago, so she makes runs down the mountain for diesel fuel when the generator empties itself."

"How does she make it back up?", I asked, "I'm no mechanic, but my Dad was a truck driver and I wanted to be one for a while. The first time I went in the rig with him, I learned that Semi's have big ass drums with a pad about the size of our paws. Dad said that you can't use them when going up or down a hill because you'll fry them in about 15 seconds."

"She goes up hill in low gear", Tyranny said, "the engine can still rev freely, but the transmission will only accelerate it as if it were in first."

"Ah", I said.

We spent about an hour or so in the garden room. Tyranny showed me how to check all the pipe work and wiring for damage, how to clean the pump filters, how to check the LED bars over the plants and even how to reset the pumps quickly so the plants wouldn't die if the generator cut out. We were up stairs going through the checks on the pumps and pipes up there when the generator went off and then started back up. Outside I could hear the engine in what had to be a Freightliner Colorado come on.

"Sounds like Sky's going to get diesel fuel", Tyranny laughed, "I can't wait to see the bill."

"Does she have to pay for it out of her own pocket?", I asked.

"No", Tyranny laughed, "Master Otani gets the money from somewhere, but I have a personal policy of don't ask don't tell. As long as the generators have fuel when I wake up in the morning I'm good to go."

"You'd rather not be an accessory to the crime huh?", I laughed.

"Oh shut up", Tyranny laughed picking up a steel pipe, "you know what this is?"

"A steel pipe?", I asked.

"Nah", Tyranny said, "it's a blunt instrument that is the object of my murder trial."

I puffed a bit of smoke, "sorry bro, I ain't no helpless bitch. I'll fry you before you get close enough to swing that pipe."

"Oh really?", Tyranny asked, "well why don't you go ahead and set me on fire then?"

I laughed, "I would, but so much trouble to hide the body and come up with a convincing story when they do finally find it."

Tyranny set the pipe down, "well work here is done anyway, how about we go down the mountain and get some eats killer?"

I laughed, "sounds good to me."

Tyranny and I left the garden room and exited the temple. He took off the second he was out the door and turned around, heading behind the temple. I followed him. We glided down the Mountain for about a minute before we came on a wide road with a few small cars parked outside what appeared to be a Cafe. It looked like anything you might find in NYC, which led me to believe that they served American food. It seemed like a normal restaurant, but Tyranny said otherwise.

"That's new", He said as we landed.

"What's new?", I asked.

"There's a Camaro SS parked outside the Cafe", Tyranny said, "I've lived in japan for five years now and I've never once seen an American car."

I looked in the direction he pointed and saw a frosty white, 1969 Chevy Camaro SS with a custom wing, wheels and what looked like a hand made exhaust and a wide body. There were Willwood, Sparaco and Exxon logos on the side and it had a fairly decent sized hood scoop.

"Who do you think it belongs to?", Tyranny asked.

"How would I know?", I asked, "you come here more than I do."

'But I've never seen that one before", Tyranny said, "I know all the regular's here by name and never once have I seen that Camaro."

"Could it be Remmy?", I ask.

"Remmy Drives an Aston Martin", Tyranny said.

"Again", I said, "I don't know what to..."

Tyranny stopped me as the door opened and a 6'10, monster of a man stepped out. He had short brown hair, green eyes and was dressed in a long sleeve white T-Shirt and blue jeans with black combat boots. He had US Marine Corps Ink on his neck and tags around his neck.

"Hudson!?", I asked in a loud whisper.

"You know that guy?", Tyranny asked.

I nodded, "he's one of my friends from the Marines. You can eat without me, I'mma follow him and see what he does."

Tyranny sighed as Hudson started his Camaro and started going up hill. I flared my wings and rocketed up about 1000 feet. I could still see his car, but at this height he couldn't see me. I followed him up and down Kiado for hours as he raced his car through the rally track that had been built through the mountain, sometimes with others, sometimes alone. It was about ten that night when he raced up hill and parked at an over look that had a pretty awesome view of the waterfall. Hudson killed his car and stepped out, leaving the door open so he could listen to the radio. He walked to the railing and started looking over the scenery as I softly touched down and started walking towards him.

"It's nice out isn't it Emelia?", Hudson asked.

I sighed.

"How long have you known I've been following you?", I asked.

"About an hour", Hudson said, "but I suspect you've been following longer."

"What are you doing in Japan?", I asked.

"I could ask you the same question", Hudson said turning to face me.

I sighed. His card was already placed, so there was no reason to hide it from him any longer.

"I...I'm finishing the game", I said.

"Game?", Hudson asked.

I nodded, "before you guys found me at the circus, I worked there as the animal tamer, back when I was Human."

Hudson crossed his arms, "so you were Draco? And I'm assuming they wanted you for information."

"Not quite", I said, "I don't know what they wanted me for, or how they even knew I was there, Siazach must have told them."

"Whose Siazach?", Hudson asked.

"A demon", I answered.

Hudson looked at me like I was crazy.

"Yeah", I said, "sounds crazy I know, but please, hear me out."

Hudson nodded.

"About 12 hours before we met, my circus was attacked by a Demon named Siazach who was using my friend Antony as a tool. He murdered everything that had a heart beat and drank their blood. When I tried to stop him, he used my anger as a way to free himself from Antony's body and curse me, trapping me in this body. He then gave me Ten Tarot cards, which each contained a piece of the person they represented and the curse would be lifted once all ten were placed, or all ten had died. Six of them were you guys on Raven, the other four were people here, which is why I left."

Hudson stayed silent for a long time.

"Okay now tell me the truth", Hudson said.

"That is the truth", I sighed.

"Your full of shit", Hudson said.

"I'm not", I answered, "I wish that I was."

"You expect me to believe this?", Hudson asked, "you expect me to believe that we'd been cursed by a demon and that he gave you cards that could kill us if you didn't place them?"

"Yes", I said, "because I can prove it."

I held out my paw and the silver box materialized in it. The box opened and the cards floated out and spread, revealing themselves to Hudson.

"I have two left", I said, "the master at the temple I'm staying at, and the Star Card, which is me."

Hudson looked at the cards floating in my hand and sighed, "aw man."

"I'm sorry", I said, 'I should have told you."

"So John, Jackie and Frank died because a demon decided he wanted to play go fish with you huh?", Hudson asked.

"Not quite", I said, "I didn't make it in time to place Jack's card, but I did get Johns placed before he died, so I guess that would have happened any way. Frank died before I could place his, but I got you, Wyatt and Issac so you guys are safe."

Hudson sighed and stayed quiet again.

"That's why you had my wallet", Hudson said, "you really weren't searching for a missing 20 were you?"

I shook my head, "I needed to keep you from knowing for the time being."

"So where's this temple?", Hudson asked.

"About a two minute drive from here", I said.

Hudson got into his car and started the engine, "lead the way."

I flared my wings and jumped about 20 feet into the sky as Hudson spun his car in a burnout before taking off after me. I led him through the forest and up the winding paved trail that I had seen while I had been following him around. Hudson parked his car at the front of the temple and I knocked on the door, Master Otani answered.

"Where have you been child?", he asked, "it is very late."

"I've been following a friend of mine Master", I said bowing, "this is Hudson weaver, a friend of mine from the Marines."

"Nice to meet you", Hudson said.

"And you as well my friend", Master Otani answered, "I am Lee Otani. Do you have a place to stay?"

"No", Hudson said, "no I don't actually."

"I have a room I think you find quite comfortable", Master Otani said, "if you would retrieve your luggage I shall show you."

Hudson went and grabbed a suit case from his Camaro and followed Master Otani through a set of doors on the bottom floor. I walked back up stairs and entered my room, showering off before taking off my dog tags and falling into bed, unsure of how I was going to place Master Otani's card.