FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sunlight filtered in through Evans' window, casting its' harsh illumination right onto his eyelids. He grumbled a bit, then rolled over. Even while he was rolling over, the world insisted on him waking up, as his alarm went off. Loud, incessant buzzing made him pin his ears against his skull. He fumbled about blindly trying to switch off the annoying clock. After a few moments, and a satisfying smack later, there was silence again. Silence only disturbed by the soft chirping of birds outside his window.

He cracked an eyelid open. Was it really that late in the morning? He pawed at the usual resting spot beside the alarm clock. For a moment, he had forgotten that it'd been broken during his weekend trip. Instead, he settled for grabbing the clock and pulling it into his field of view.

" 9:00AM" Was etched into its' glowing face.

Definitely a bit late. Evan didn't want to get up, but he muttered under his breath and threw off his covers anyways. The cold morning air hit him, slowly bringing him back into the real world. He showed off his teeth in a wide yawn. Still sleepy-eyed, he pushed himself off of the bed, and set his footpaws onto the apartment floor. Soft, fluffy carpeting greeted the short fur on his feet, welcoming him to a new day. A new day with plenty of things to do, he reckoned.

"Urgh..." His neck popped as he stretched. Must have slept on it awkwardly last night or something.

A bit of stretching later, and after more than a few awkward pops and cracks, his day was starting to come together. More or less, anyway. He fished around his floor for his laptop. He needed to find his days' schedule, and finish up what little homework he had from last Friday. He pushed the power button, and the machine booted up quickly. Ever since he did a bit of tweaking to the internals, it had been running better than ever. Of course, it also ran a bit warmer, too. It finished signing him into various services and chat programs after a few moments. It was ready for use.

He sat back down on the bed, laptop in hand. He skimmed a few emails, mostly junk, while searching for his day schedule. It'd been sent out a while ago, so it aught to be in a folder somewhere. He chewed on his lip a bit as he scrolled through the program. He found it in a seldom-checked folder labeled 'college resources'. He clicked it and waited for it to load.

"_Partial days would start in the afternoon?"_He thought, as his mind wandered a bit.

His guess wasn't wrong, even if the time was a bit off. They'd started at noon or one, more or less, and ended by six. Of course, that was for the majority of classes.

"Pfft, only two hours of classtime?" He mumbled to no one in particular.

"_Rather short time, almost not worth going,"_He supposed.

He set the laptop aside, and pulled out his various coursework supplies. While the homework was to be done digitally, and sent in digitally, all the reference material was in these books. A rather awkward situation, but he'd make do. Though at least this section should be interesting.

"Touchscreens: Paws & Claws" Was his current section, just a bit of light reading, with a Q&A at the end. He got to work while the sun was reaching its' apex outside. With any luck, he'd be done before Maxwell even woke up.

Knock knock knock.

His ears flicked as he responded to the series of knocks on his door.

"Just doing some homework while I'm waking up!"

A muffled voice answered back.

"Aight, was wondering if you were fine with some bacon, eggs, and pancakes for this morning?" Maxwells' voice this morning was rather gravelly.

"Sure thing! Also set a pot of coffee on, too, if you don't mind!" He heard his laptop fans rev up as he spoke.

"Can do. It'll be about a half hour, I think. Will come get you when it's all done." The voice faded as the owner walked away.

"Thanks Max!"

"Yup." He must've been almost to the kitchen already, as muffled as his voice was.

With the added incentive of breakfast food waiting for him when he got done, he settled back into doing his work. While he initially doubted the reasoning of the book, it did make sense. Larger people would naturally put more pressure on a touch-sensitive device. And so, they'd need to have their screens reinforced if they were expecting larger users. Larger mice, larger keyboards, larger screens too. The whole machine would need to be set up a bit differently. Of course, the majority of that just meant more expensive hardware.

The laptop beeped a low battery warning, as he finished reading the section. He tapped a few buttons, and brought up the battery panel. It'd still have plenty of power left for the homework, but he'd need to swap batteries if he wanted to bring it to class. The battery wouldn't be quite fully charged by the time the classes started. He tossed his laptop bag onto the bed, and grabbed the spare battery. He flipped it around until he saw the power LED. Completely charged. He set it aside for the moment, he'd have it ready when it was needed.

He was just finishing up the last few questions when Maxwell tapped on his door again.

"Foods' ready, gonna go ahead and eat if you don't mind." He sounded much perkier. Coffee must have been done.

"That's fine, be out in a few minutes."

True to his word, he finished up the last few pages of questions rather quickly. After he hit 'send' on the form, and signed his credentials, he powered off his machine, and swapped the batteries. He set the depleted one onto a charger, and stuffed the laptop back into its' case. He also stacked the books in a neat little pile by the side of his bed. That bit of tidiness done, he cracked his knuckles, and pushed open his door. The warm, welcoming smell of a home-cooked breakfast was enticing to his still somewhat sleepy mind.

"Yours is on the counter, covered up. Don't recall how you liked your coffee, so I didn't put anything in it. Did set the creamer and sugar next to it though."

He gave a polite reply of "Thanks!" before he stumbled his way into the kitchen. True to his word, the platter was on the counter, covered with a bit of paper towel, with the coffee right beside it. Both dishes were still steaming hot. Just how Evan liked his morning meals. He uncovered the food and drink, and took a moment to decide how he wanted his coffee. He settled with a bit of creamer, and a small amount of sugar. He grabbed a set of silverware from the counter-top drawers, and headed for the living room. He paid no attention to the hyena with a black box covering his eyes.

"VR homework again?" Evan asked.

"No, actually. The course was also available in VR, so I figured I may as well see what it looks like." He clarified.

"Cool." Evan set his plate down on the far side of the table, coffee still in hand.

"Still on for later this evening?" Maxwell poked at some invisible object.

"Uh, yeah. I think just after class would do." He stabbed his bacon with a fork.

"Aight. You might want to get cleaned up before heading out. I can still smell the funk a bit." He pulled the device up, leaving it on top of his head.

"Might be an idea, yeah." Evan watched as Maxwell rubbed at his eyes.

"I forgot how much that bothers my eyes." He complained.

"You get used to it, or maybe get a different set of lenses for the headset." Evan clarified.

"Might be an idea to get a variety pack, you think?" Maxwell asked.

"Nah, just get your eyes checked with an optometrist, and then have a proper set of lenses made with the corrections. It'd be easy."

"But I don't really need glasses."

"No, you don't, but the new lenses would make using the headset easier. It'd be more like a set of reading glasses than anything."

"I'll keep it in mind. Definitely something to look at later. I think I'll stick to watching on my laptop for now though."

"Probably higher quality, heh." He shoved the bits of egg into his mouth.

Maxwell mumbled his agreement between sips of coffee.

"So when's your classes? I know mine are noon to two."

"Two to four. These short days are almost not worth going."

"Of course they are. Just won't be learning that much, heh." He grabbed a washcloth and gently dabbed at the headset.

"Just enough to prompt more questions."

"As always. Gonna hit the shower, and do some homework before class. Want to play some games later?"

"Maybe, ask me again then."

"Will do!" He sprung off the couch, rather quickly for someone that wasn't usually a morning person.

He scraped the last bits of egg and bacon crumbs into his muzzle, before downing the last of his mug. The breakfast was good, and rather filling. He wasn't normally one for eggs, but the way Maxwell made them was appetizing. And bacon? He had a knack for that. He swirled the dregs of the coffee, while debating another mug. Perhaps after he'd browsed a bit. He heard the water turn on.

He retired back to his room after rinsing the used dishes, and putting them into the dishwasher. His machine had already rebooted, and was waiting for him to enter his password to sign back in. Another moment of typing, and he was greeted by a familiar desktop picture. It was a picture of him graduating high school, not that long ago. He stood in the back, behind all the other piles of fur that made up his class. Mixed memories rushed back, some good, some bad. It was a interesting period of his life, to say the least.

Of course, they paled in comparison to this past weekend, but that was fine. No one in his class could use magic, or if they could, they kept it a secret. A well-hidden secret, at that. He pushed the thoughts aside for another time. Old memories, best left in the sepia-hued glasses of the mind. He could look forward to making new memories, though.

He poked around his usual haunts for a while, checking up on various topics. Some new computer hardware developments, some new programming tricks. Nothing too important, really. No pressing local or world news, either. All in all, the world had been rather quiet while he was away for the weekend. Of course, when things were quiet, that was when you should be watching. If only because there's usually a torrent of events shortly afterward. Speaking of torrents, Evan heard the shower turn off. He glanced down at the taskbar.

" 11:00AM"

Hmm, Maxwell had plenty of time, he figured. A few minutes to dry off, a few more to get ready and dressed. Maybe a few more to grab his coursework and laptop, then get walking towards campus. Might even be early, for once. Their apartments' location aided in that a fair bit. It was a straight shot from where they were, to campus. Rather good city design.

Beep

"A new message?" Evan wasn't expecting any non-junk email today.

He tabbed into his email client. It took him but a moment to find the only unread message in his inbox.

"Hiking trip?" Was the subject, and it came from a familiar-seeming email.

"Heya! I heard you went on a hiking trip this last weekend! How'd it go? Get any pictures?" Was the entire message.

Evan racked his brain for a moment, trying to recall who the address belonged to. He eventually gave in and just read the senders' name. Oh right! It was Richard, the freelancer that just moved here.

Evan started typing in a frenzy, desperate to detail all the things that happened.

"Went pretty well, fell down part of the mountain, but otherwise ok. No pictures, camera and phone got broken. Ended up staying a bit longer than planned. Saw some nice sights on the way up, either way. Was fun getting out for once! How's the freelancing going?" And send.

It'd been a while since he last talked to Richard, they'd both been rather busy for the last while. Evan with his classes, and Richard with his freelancing. Which, last Evan heard, wasn't going that well. He knew he wouldn't get a response instantly, but he waited a few minutes anyway. At least until Maxwell pecked on his door.

"Showers' free!"

"Kay!" He was glad of it, too, as he was starting to smell himself already.

He laid out a set of clothes on his bed, before locking his laptop. While he doubted Maxwell would want to poke around in his files, it was more for his peace of mind than anything else. Of course, his worries disappeared when the warm water was pouring over his fur. The soiled rags that were the clothes he had on earlier were dumped in a corner. Most likely destined for the trash, too. It took a while to get a few days worth of dirt and grime out of his fur, but eventually he did. The hot bath he took in Gregorys' hot springs helped a fair bit. But of course, it didn't quite compare to having fur shampoo and conditioner on hand, and a brush to de-tangle any fur.

After soaking for a few moments more, he turned the water off. As much as he'd like to marinate in the hot shower, that simply wouldn't do. He had coursework he could brush up on, to be extra prepared for whatever the teacher was going to do that day. Perhaps bring in a quadruped like last month? That would certainly be an idea. It was an interesting thing, having each of their designs 3D printed and put to work. And the software part put onto a working terminal, and various other end-user devices.

That would be fun.

Of course... what was also fun, and a time-waster was checking internet forums until his classes started. That, mixed with a bit of gaming made the three hours pass by in a flash. He only noticed the passage of time by the alarm he had set, and the fact that the sun was a bit lower in the sky. He swore as the alarm pop-up caused him to lose his latest killstreak, and scoreboard advantage. He'd just have to make up for that with a little more skill for the rest of the round...

BEEP** BEEP ***BEEP*

That round lasted quite a bit longer than he thought it would. This time, the alarm came at a much more opportune time, between rounds instead of mid-game. The time it displayed, was not opportune, though.

" 1:40PM!"

He would be late if he didn't pack his bags and head out right away! He typed out a quick farewell, and exited out of the game. He then clicked through to put his laptop into sleep mode, before stuffing it into the laptop case. Just as he figured, the other battery wasn't quite fully charged yet. He hadn't time to complain about the situation, though. He stuffed the rest of his books into his- wait...

He had completely forgotten about his damaged backpack. It would have to make do for today, though. He tossed the laptop in last, and zipped it shut. Carrying it with one strap was awkward, but would have to do. He wasn't lugging all those books by hand between his two classes. He pushed open his door, even as he swung the backpack onto his back. He'd be there in no time, he figured. He shut and locked the door, and headed off in the general direction of class.

Of course, he had to wait for street lights, which allowed him to catch his breath a bit. This was probably the most exercise he'd gotten all month. Perhaps even all quarter. He jogged past one of his favorite coffee shops, but he hadn't time to stop for a double-shot espresso. Evan could have sworn he saw Maxwell inside ordering one of the mostly-caffeine drinks. Definitely didn't have time to check. By the time he actually got onto campus, he was exhausted. It was all he could do to drag himself to the classroom, and flop his ragged bunch of fur into his seat.

Coincidentally, he arrived just before the teacher did.

"Wow, beating the teacher to his own class. Good job, Evan." He almost sounded surprised.

"I figured I'd be late, so I ran."

The teacher set his supplies down behind his desk before continuing.

"And here I thought I was going to be the late one this time. Guess I'm early."

"I still hold the idea that everyone else is just late."

"Perhaps."

They waited a while, the older professor shuffling through his bag, and setting various things onto his desk. The other students began to filter in after a while, and before long, the room was filled. Evan took a moment to pull out his laptop, and set it on his desk. It was unlikely he'd need it, though.

"Now... as some of you are aware, we had a new system installed in this classroom while you were away." The students whispered amongst themselves, but otherwise remained quiet.

"While it's not a newer piece with tactile feedback, I think it's about time we had a holography system installed." He flicked a button on his desk, and the room went dim.

"Wonder what that'll be for..." Evan thought to himself.

He found out when a massive screen appeared above the professor. Large enough to stretch from the ceiling to just above the lowest students desk. Gasps of amazement came from the student body.

"For those of you who have sensitive eyes... This same material is available in more regular formats through the official college website. Just log in with your credentials, as usual." Another of the students raised her scaled hand.

"Go on, Vanessa." The mentioned student stayed in her seat, while speaking.

"What else are you planning on using this for? A massive screen is nice and all, but rather useless when each student has their own laptop."

He paced behind the screen, barely visible. When he clapped, the screen disappeared, and instead another professor was standing beside him.

"It's a good thing you asked. For today, we'll also have a professor from out of district with us. Please welcome Mr. Welkins, also teaching the same course at a different university."

The blue-tinged lizard coughed, and had a shudder run through the projection. Then he stepped forward and spoke.

"As always, it's a pleasure to teach this course with you, Mr. Dawkings. We may differ on the specifics, but I think having two points of view will help the students realize their full potential."

"Indeed it will." He turned back towards the students. "Now, if you all will browse to section 210.45, we will begin our lesson for today."

"Todays' section will be on programming, and designing a U.I. for mobile devices."

While Evan had to admit it was awkward having two teachers for a class, it was interesting. The blue hologram of the lizard was a bit disconcerting, but tolerable. He greatly enjoyed the assistant teachers' extra viewpoints on a design Evan had made earlier in the year. The actual coursework was as boring as always, but it was a welcome change of pace. His teacher managed to cooperate with the far away assistant well. But, it was awkward to see the projection distort as the assistant placed his scaled hands onto a desk.

Class went by quickly. Soon, Evan was powering down his laptop, and shuffling towards his next class. He passed a few people doing the same, but it was otherwise completely uneventful. While the only other class he took was a supporting class for his chosen major, it was much more... dry.

"Welcome to class. I hope you all enjoyed your weekends, and didn't party too hard." The gator sucked in a large gulp of air. "Because today we're going straight into the deep end. Open your textbooks to 54.012, the logic section."

The class groaned. And Evan followed suit internally. It was going to be one of those classes, again. While Evan could agree that learning logic would help with learning programming, it was complex, and tiring material to learn. He opened his laptop and dismissed a battery warning pop-up. It'd last until the class was done, at the least. As the teacher droned on about concepts and structures, Evans' thoughts were far elsewhere. Namely, on a certain telephone call, and the scaled mage behind the other phone. Of course, mage may have been a bit of a stretch, considering the circumstances behind the use of his magic.

He glanced at the digital clock in his taskbar. Class seemed to be almost over, though it felt like barely a few minutes had passed. Being distracted had its' benefits, he supposed. The last few minutes, though, dragged on as if it were eternity. Evan breathed a massive sigh of relief when the gator plopped down behind his desk, and cracked open a book.

"Now, while this is the part where I usually assign you guys homework... I think you guys have had enough of that for a while. For those interested, our next section would be 56.0 through 60.2. Some interesting concepts in there, if I do say so myself."

He snapped shut the book with a loud thump.

"But until tomorrow, you guys are free to go. Class dismissed."

He put that book aside, and pulled another from under his desk. As the students were filtering out, Evan included, the rustling of pages was heard. No doubt the old croc had found himself some entertaining material from the local library. As the classroom door swung shut behind him, Evan breathed a heavy sigh of relief. He was done with classes for the day.

As he was walking back through campus, he noticed it was a rather nice day out, if a bit windy. And, while his ripped backpack, now more of a satchel bag than a backpack, had only gathered a few odd stares. A good afternoon, all things considered. He heard a soft beep from said pack, and his ears perked up. While the beep was muffled a fair bit from the other things in the bag, it sounded like his email clients 'message received' sound. He could check it later, no need to waste time on campus.

A particularly harsh gust of wind blew against him, causing him to pick up his slow, meandering pace towards home. It sapped the warmth from him, leaving his teeth chattering a bit. Dressing warmer, and bringing a coat was something he was definitely regretting not doing. Of course, he imagined it to be much worse for those without fur. He stopped a while at a stoplight, waiting for cars to pass on the road in front of him.

Evan recognized several models that came standard with self-driving autonomy equipment. While not every vehicle on the road could be automated, and self-driving, a good deal of them could. As the road was finally clear, he hurried across. Things could certainly have been quicker if people paid more attention, or even let their car do it for them. His thoughts wandered as he stared at his footpaws, their almost hypnotic pace never changing. When he started to recognize the broken-off chips of pavement, he knew he was close to home.

His ear flicked as the wind blew against it oddly. It almost felt like someone was blowing into it, though he knew that to not be the case. Just to be sure, he glanced around himself. There was no one even close. It felt weird, and almost creeped him out a bit. It didn't matter though, soon he was standing at the pathway towards his shared apartment. He fished his keys out of his pocket before he even reached the door.

A quick push, and twist, and welcome smells greeted his nose. Maxwell must have been cleaning while he was away. Shutting the door behind him, he trudged through the kitchen and into his room. It took but a moment for him to unzip his pack, and power on his laptop.

"Hey, I was making sure the apartment cell still worked! Would you believe this thing has full bars underneath the sink?" Maxwells' unmistakable voice resonated from his room just across the hall.

"I'd believe it! It's the one with an external antenna, after all." Evan shouted back. One could only wonder why Maxwell was underneath the sink while on the telephone, but it was an interesting bit of data nonetheless.

"Either way, I'm free for the evening, classes had no homework at all. Lemme know when you wanna call your big, scaly lover!"

"Oh boy..." Evan muttered to himself. The call was edging ever closer, and his anxiety was making him run through every possible scenario in his mind. Of course, while none of them were likely, they were possible. And that let his mind work itself into a frenzy. He ran his fingers through his fur. It was oddly calming to play with the longer strands on his head.

He pulled open his laptop, and stabbed the power button. It took only a moment to wake up from its' sleep mode. He pulled open his email client for the second time in the day. He scrolled towards the most recent emails and...

Oh.

He was expecting a much different email than what was sitting in his inbox. Straight into the trash it went. No out of district settlement cases needed his signature to claim a massive prize, that was for sure. It was a typical scam, typical of the modern era he lived in. He just wished the spam filter worked better. His laptop cut off suddenly. Right, he had a low battery warning earlier. He swapped batteries, and left the machine off. Changing into some more casual attire, he decided that the homework could be done later. Other, more important things occupied the forefront of his mind for the moment.

He wasn't really sure why he was worried. He and Maxwell had a few disagreements in the past, but they had always worked them out. They got along rather well, even if there were some things they didn't quite see eye to eye on. And besides, Gregory was a nice, likable person, even if you stripped away the curiosity of him using magic. A bit unpredictable, but nice.

Puffing out a breath of air, he sighed. Right about now it would be nice to have a private cell phone, but he'd have to file a warranty claim later. He'd just have to find the receipt and double-check his accidental loss or destruction of device insurance. It would be better to get this over with.

"Coming out!"

"Kay!"

Before he left his room, he glanced at the clock. It was five on the dot. Plenty of time to talk. He ambled into the kitchen, eager for something to drink. A bit of coffee later, and he plopped himself on the couch, mug still in hand. Maxwell sat across from him on one of the other seats, an expectant look on his face. He set the phone on the table, and slid it towards Evan.

"I'll give you two a while alone, shout at me after you pop the question." He sat up, and cracked his knuckles.

"Will do. Thanks."

"Yeah." With that, he stood up, and left the room.

Evan stared at the phone. It wasn't going to dial itself. He picked it up, pulled out the antenna, and began the slow process of pushing in the digits. Evan bit his lip, almost hoping he was out for the evening. Ring. What if he didn't pick up? Ring. What if he didn't-

"Hello?"

Evan stared at the phone, making sure he had the right number.

"You sound nothing like you do in person." Evan smirked a bit.

"And you aren't here to tease me." Gregory prodded.

"Yeah, I suppose not..."

"So, how'd the walk home go?"

Evan leaned back on the couch. "Well, I had someone ask me if I was a murder victim on the way back."

He heard a chuckle from the other end.

"I guess at least he had the brains to ask if you were a zombie."

"Hah. Because clearly, falling on dragons turns you into one."

"Only if it's a zombie dragon." Evan could hear the smirk in his voice.

"Other than that, it was a pretty cool walk. Got home fine, Maxwell was a little surprised, but pretty cool with it."

"That's good, I just got back from practicing some stuff. Tiring as per the usual."

"Was it the fire or the healing this time?"

"Uh, a bit of both."

He heard the dragon lean back from the phone, and shifting his bulk around.

"You didn't set your tail on fire, did you?"

"Nooooooo." Gregory trailed the word on. "But you know how the fire burns my mouth?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I overdid it a little on both ends."

"Gotta be careful doing that."

"I know. Back to your week, though."

"Classes went fine, had a holographic projector installed in one of my classrooms. Had an out of district prof help teach for today."

"Oooh, those are usually fun to mess with."

"Not a tactile feedback one, so not much to do other than distort the projection."

"D'aww." He sounded disappointed, a giant kid at heart.

"Was interesting though, at the least. My only other class for the day was dry and boring."

"A supporting class, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah, learned logic stuff today." Evan shifted the phone to his other ear.

"Could be useful in the future, can see why you'd think it's boring though."

"Yeah..."

"How about your roommate, he coming along okay?"

"Yup, his classes are coming along nicely. Not much homework today for either of us. He did want to ask a favor of me though."

"Oh?"

"Just like I thought, he wants to speak with you."

"Okay."

"You're... fine with that?"

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be? He is your roommate, after all."

"I dunno."

"Yeah, it's totally fine."

"I'll let him know." Evan leaned back onto the couch, and muted the phone for a moment.

"Hey Maxwell! He said yes! Get in here!"

"I guess you're yelling for him, and that's why I can't hear you..."

Evan unmuted the phone, and replied.

"Yeah, he'll be out in a few." He was a bit out of breath.

"Should probably look for a speaker button, heh."

"Already found it, I'll flick it on when he's out here."

"So, anything else of note happen since last I saw you?"

"Nope, other than that it was pretty uneventful. A bit of an odd sensation in my ears when I was walking home, but past that, nothing."

"Like someone blowing in your ear?"

"Yeah... actually." He raised an eyebrow.

"Probably just the wind." Gregory dismissed it.

"Was weird, either way." He heard Maxwell open his door, and walking into the living room.

"Roomies' here, gonna speakerphone."

"Alrighty."

Just as Maxwell sat down, Evan mashed the speaker button.

"Is it on and working? Hello?" Evan leaned forward and set the phone on the table.

"Yeah, it is, and Maxwells' here sitting down."

On cue, said hyena flopped himself onto the chair opposite Evan.

"Hey! So you're the new drake in Evans' life, huh!" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Yes, I am. And you must be Maxwell, the hyena."

"Yep! That is me! How are you doing on this fine evening?"

"Pretty good, a bit tired. You?"

"Basically the same, got done with classes, came home and did a bit of cleaning before Evan got back."

"I could see how that'd tire you out a bit." Evan sat back and crossed one of his legs.

"How's the magic thing going for ya?" And like that, Evans' sense of composure was shattered.

"Maxwell!" He frowned at Maxwell across the short space that separated them.

"What? It's an honest question!" He showed off his neatly kept teeth.

"Guys, guys, it's fine. And to answer your question, pretty well. Progress has been slow, but steady."

"Isn't it supposed to tire you out a lot or something?" Maxwell asked.

"It does, and I overdid it a bit today. A decent bit tired, and was really hungry afterwards."

"Bet you tipped over the refrigerator when you got home!"

"Maxwell, he lives in a cave. I doubt he'd have a fridge." Evan stated.

"I just hunted down some food. Not difficult when you're a dragon. Taste leaves a bit to be desired though."

"Yeah, a bit burnt, or raw. Not really much between."

"That's no good. I'll have to cook some steak or something and give it to you." Maxwell cracked his knuckles.

"Could be an idea... but I am a large dragon." Gregory sighed a bit.

"Just means I'll have to cook more!" Maxwell sounded rather excited.

"Could have you kill something, and him cook it." Evan pointed out.

"That could work too..." Maxwell said.

"It'd be a lot of cooking, heh."

"Dragons gotta eat!"

They all laughed for a while. For all Evans' worries earlier, it actually went pretty well. And he was greatly relieved. The rest of the group phone call went swimmingly, but all good things had to eventually come to an end.

"Welp, I just heard my phone beep, so that's probably the low battery warning." Gregory rolled over, holding the brick of a phone in his forepaws.

"That's fine, how do you even charge that thing?"

"Solar powered, sometimes I gotta give it a few light taps to make it work."

"Probably the battery wiring coming loose, or the battery dying slowly."

"It'd make sense, stranger things have happened with old batteries." He stretched a wing out towards the cave mouth.

"Probably best we let you go, and let you set it out to charge." Evan said, his voice starting to sound a bit tinny. Probably a weak signal.

"Yeah, was good talking with the both of you again. You especially Evan."

"D'aww, it's so cute!" Gregory heard the phone shuffle a bit. Evan was probably blushing a bit through his fur.

"It's NOT cute!"

"Don't tease him too much, Maxwell."

"I won't!"

"Talk to you later, drake!"

They said their mutual good-byes, and Gregorys' cave was silent. He pushed the brick out onto the cave mouth, where the sun could hit it directly. He really enjoyed talking with that wolf, and was looking forward to having him over again, and soon. Perhaps even his roomie, too.

Now was looking like a nice time for a nap. He coiled up and laid his tail on his nose. His jaw hurt a bit from talking, and his tongue stung from being singed earlier. Even with these minor discomforts, he still felt a sunny wave of relaxation.

Enough to fall right asleep to thoughts of his wolf.

(Authors' Note... As always let me know what you liked, and what could be improved on. Don't forget to Fav and Watch if you liked it!)