FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

This is part 1 of a series. This time around I made sure to actually wrote them all before submitting anything, so I'll submit around one per week. Strangeness and silliness abound, hope the strange and silly find it amusing :) -Lemnbunny

The cool, early evening air blew through Jay's hair as he drove his car along his usual route home from college. The semester was over, and he only had one easy final left in a few days. Tests were something this fox didn't have much fear of, so he was pretty relaxed, and had the windows rolled down, listening to some Industrial mp3s on his stereo, and letting the wind send little ripples through his fur and ears.

So relaxed he almost didn't see the Ferret dart out in front of him as he rounded the turn past the Quik Stop convenience store.

Fortunately the anti-lock brakes brought his ride to a shuddering stop a few feet from the almost flattened ferret, whom he recognized as Eddie. But no sooner had he come to a stop, than Eddie jumped right through the open passenger window into the back seat, and shouted, "drive! drive!"

The unmistakable note of fear in Eddie's voice broke through the haze of shock and confusion and spurred Jay into action; he dropped the clutch and accelerated swiftly but calmly back onto the wide city street.

"What the hell, Eddie? What's going on?!"

Jay had known Eddie since junior high, so they were good acquaintances, but they'd never really been friends.

Eddie was always a troublemaker. He just didn't really see any point to doing things the hard way, so he was always trying to find the easy way out. He was a nice enough guy that he didn't want anyone getting hurt, but if he could put one over on another guy for a few gold, he'd do it.

"Man I'm glad I ran into you... er, that you almost ran into me... or whatever! The Sixes," Eddie gasped, "were totally chasing me!"

Jay suddenly felt queasy. Riverbrook City, where he lived, was a nice place in general. Though the city had a large population, the crime rate was low throughout, and people not involved in any vices had little to fear. So long as they didn't cross The Sixes, a criminal enterprise that pretty much controlled all vice-related activity in the area.

The police didn't go after the Sixes too aggressively, because they kept a low profile, maintained a sort of predictable order in the city's underworld, and were meticulous about not getting innocent people involved.

Jay pulled onto the freeway and merged in with traffic, which was dying down for the evening. The storm clouds cast a reddish glow, seeming to reflect the suddenly much more ominous state of affairs he was in.

"Why are the Sixes after you? What did you do? And.. um.. where are we going, or should we go?", Jay asked, driving as fast as he could without being blatantly reckless, or appearing too obvious about fleeing.

"Ugh, it's a long story, Jay, you don't even want to know. I, uh, I let some people talk me into some stuff, the money was awesome, but I dunno now..."

"Hmm, evidently not," Jay commented. Glancing to his left, he did a quick double-take as he noticed a large, black pickup truck keeping pace with them. In the passenger's seat, an enormous doberman sat, his heavily muscled arm resting on the door window opening. The doberman met Jay's gaze, waved politely, and grinned.

Turning back slowly forward, Jay spoke slowly.

"Hey, uh, Eddie, you wouldn't happen to know some enormous dobie in a huge black truck would you?"

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap," Eddie muttered, "oh crap... shit..."

With that, Eddie tried to hide even lower in the rear recesses of the car. But despite being a Ferret, Jay's sedan was still just too small to really offer good cover.

The doberman waved again, and gestured towards Jay's back seat. By now they had pulled close enough that Jay could see a scar etched across the dobie's paw. A long arc, in the shape of a six...

At that moment, Jay saw red and blue lights in his rear view mirror. Looking down he realized he was now going way, way too fast. But ticket or no, the police arriving was a welcome turn of events. The truck drifted slowly past them as Jay took a convenient off-ramp and pulled to a stop near the mall.

"Gotta go Jay, thanks for the ride!", the Ferret exclaimed, bolting from the rear window towards the crowded mall.

The officer in the car didn't even try to chase down the ferret; such endeavors were generally hopeless, and he'd already almost disappeared into the crowds by the time they came to a full stop.

The cop's calm, deep voice came on over his P.A.

"Driver... Turn off your car, drop your keys slowly out your window, and keep your hands on the steering wheel."

"Shit," Jay thought, "why is this all happening? How did this all happen? Were the Sixes still around? Would they come after me next?"

Jay did as instructed, and kept his paws firmly on top of the steering wheel, shaking slightly as the officer carefully approached, paw resting over his holster.

He almost started to blurt out an excuse or explanation or something, but realized at this point he should probably just wait. The officer had already partially lost control of the situation by letting a fleeing suspect go, and officer's really don't like losing control. He decided to just be as calm and quiet as he could, despite his heart pounding harder than it ever had.

"Open the door and come out slowly... and I'd advise against making any sudden movements..."

The officer's voice was very, very deep and male, almost intoxicatingly so. Powerful... and assertive. He couldn't yet see him, but Jay already knew this was the kind of cop who could get compliance by the sheer strength of authority in his voice.

Jay slowly opened the car door and felt a large paw completely encircle his left paw. The officer easily swung him up against his car and brought the fox's right paw to meet the left. He could hear the jingling of cuffs and a ratcheting as they came down on his back-turned paws. His fear and apprehension turned instantly to something quite different, but not entirely unexpected.

Ever since he was a kit, it gave him a strange thrill whenever someone pinned him or restrained him. As he grew older, it excited him even more.

He once tried to get into martial arts, and did quite good with the exercises and such, up until the sparring part. He just couldn't get into it, and when the Sensei demonstrated a particular hold on him, pinning him against the ground, it was almost more than he could take. He tried to pass off his submissive smile as a grimace, but was pretty sure it didn't work; his eyes gave his excitement away. He never went back to the dojo after that.

"Now you're not under arrest, but you are being detained until I get to the bottom of this..."

The officer's voice brought him back to reality, as he felt the large paws pat him down thoroughly. As the irrational excitement began to overwhelm his much more rational fear, he could feel pressure building in his sheath.

"Oh God, not now!" He thought to himself.

"Lets have you sit over here on the sidewalk..." the officer said calmly.

He led him over to some grass nearby and steadied the fox as he sat with his arms cuffed behind his back, and finally he could see the figure behind the voice. And he was massive.

He was a German Shepherd, peering down at him from what seemed like seven or eight feet. He was not the biggest Jay had ever seen, but he certainly looked to be the strongest. His muscles bulged noticeably, but not excessively, from beneath his black uniform shirt. His arms rippled as he pulled out his note pad and began writing up the event.

"I'm not even gonna bother trying to get a story out of you about that... blur of a ferret. You clearly weren't running, but any time we get someone bolting like that, we gotta check things out. Gives us probable-cause to search the vehicle. So hang tight and we'll get you on your way shortly."

By now another cruiser had arrived. A heavyset officer was already checking out Jay's car with a flashlight.

This new officer emerged from his back seat with a small package, and set it on the hood. Jay couldn't believe his eyes; it looked like a dime bag or something.

The shepherd looked at the officer, then back at Jay. He picked up the package with a gloved paw and carried it over to Jay.

"You, uh, have any idea how this got in your car?" the officer asked. Jay could clearly detect a slight grin on the shepherd's muzzle.

"I believe that must have come from my passenger, but... I'm pretty sure you've heard that about a billion times."

"Yeah," the officer smiled, "pretty much..."

The shepherd leaned down close to Jay and spoke quietly, saying, "I'd probably let this slide, but I already got backup on the scene here..."

He then stood up tall again and stretched.

"We're gonna have to get you booked on a minor misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance. Unfortunately for you it's a full moon tonight, so things may be a little crazy downtown, but it's still early so you may get processed through before things get too... hectic..."

The shepherd paused, and glanced up and down Jay, almost too quickly for for the fox to notice. Almost...

Jay's fluffy tail began to curve over of its own accord as it lay in the grass. He squirmed a bit to try to conceal it, but didn't have to mess with it for long as the large dog lifted him effortlessly to his feet to walk him over to his patrol car.

Jay noticed something seemed a little peculiar about the cruiser. It had all the proper markings and such, but little details seemed unusual. The tires looked unusual, the overall shape was odd, and the engine hood looked completely modified, perhaps to allow extra space...

The officer opened the back door and was about to back Jay into the seat when he paused, and looked down at his suspect.

"I know you're not a bad guy, " he said softly, "but I do have to enforce the law..."

Jay looked up into the officer's eyes and nodded slowly. Such a perfect archetypal German Shepherd pattern he had, black and beige and brown in a perfect camouflage pattern on his rugged face. And eyes that communicated strength, fearlessness, and... something else...

"On second thought, let's put you in the front seat. You seem too smart to try anything really stupid..."

With that, the shepherd spun him around again and led him to the passenger's door of the car, removed his handcuffs, and let him sit in the front seat. The other officer on the scene looked a little puzzled, but soon made preparations to take off as well.

By now the sky was dark except for a brilliant moon. Jay watched in silence as a tow truck operator secured his car in preparation for a trip to the impound yard. So much had happened Jay didn't know what to think, or feel. He'd lived a perfect life, never gotten into any trouble, and here he was being carted off to jail. By a German Shepherd of near godly proportions no less...

The police car started up with an oddly deep rumble. Jay looked over and noticed the shepherd's paw had now come to rest on the stick shift. Stick Shift???

"I didn't think police cars came in manual," Jay commented softly.

The officer smiled down across at him. "Not usually..."

He raised his paw to show it off to Jay. The stick shift was a short-throw arrangement, wrapped in some sort of black leather, and had a shiny chrome knob. In the dim light he could barely make out a sort of engraving or relief in it... it looked rather like an eagle, perched with out swept wings. The large paw came back down on it, sliding it into first.

"Name's Till by the way. You're gonna want to make sure that seat belt is on good and tight..."

With that, the car leapt into the road with almost impossible acceleration, all four wide tires tearing into the asphalt. Jay didn't even know tires could exert that much torque on the road without spinning out. Till put on the police lights and spiraled up the freeway on ramp, pulling enough lateral Gs to roll most any vehicle Jay had ever driven, and calmly cruised into the fast lane, passing straggling commuters like they were going backwards.

Jay grinned in spite of himself. Whatever lied ahead, downtown, was whatever lied ahead. In the meantime, he just listened to the perfectly tuned engine roar, watched the cars disappear backwards in a near-blur, and stole glimpses of Till out of the corner of his eyes...