FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"The Hunt"

"Nnnhhh...what--what happened?"

Diego opened his eyes and found himself laying on his side on a cold floor; as he sat up he grimmaced and placed a paw on his head. The last thing he'd remembered was encountering some strange machine with Sid and Manfred but he was stopped by some bright blue wave of light that knocked him to the ground. "Sid? Manny?" He looked around at the almost-black metal walls surrounding him that rose in arches over his head. Slow red flashes of lights marked out doorways that led into other caverns. He got to his feet and began to walk. "Where are you guys?" He asked, completely unaware of how he got to this place, as it looked nothing like where he had been. He watched the blinking patterns on the walls and paused for a moment to stare. "Diego buddy, I don't think you're in the ice age anymore." He pondered to himself before continuing down the corridor.

Each turn looked like the one before it, with the exception of a few rooms to the side looking a bit darker than the one he was in. He hastened his pace to avoid these rooms and glanced rather nervously around, his heart rate steadily inclining. "Hello? Is anyone here?" He asked, his voice not even echoing with how tight the rooms seemed to feel; each one he stepped into felt similar to the last with only minor changes. He growled and hopped up onto one of the consoles, watching the lights flicker across it. The symbols made no sense to him, and continually changing he eventually gave up and hopped back down continuing his journey.

Eventually, he entered a room that was more brightly lit than the others. The lights illuminating from behind the panelling providing some shine to the normally dark interior of this giant machine and small bolts of color illuminating a pad at the far end of the room. Curiously, Diego was drawn closer to the flickering lights; almost entranced by the colors blinking toward the center of the strange blue pad, then pulsing outward across the floor. As he stepped onto it, he heard a noise; it sounded like clicking and made the sabre's ear twitch, looking up quickly he saw something shimmer across the far wall near one of the panels and then vanish as a series of beeping resounded throughout the room. The lights suddenly began to collapse onto the pad under Diego's paws and there was a sudden shock of energy that shot up through his body.

"AUGH!" Diego cried out as the feeling-like static surged through his fur and hoisted him up into the air. "Hey! Lemme go!" He shouted as he floated helplessly in the air, slowly spinning in place as a soft blue pillar of light encompassed him. "What are you--aaaahh!" He felt his back suddenly pop straight and he was now suspended upside down in the pillar of light. Strange, masked creatures began to appear from every corner of the room; they communicated in growls and clicks, but the way they smelled was all-too familiar to him. "Hunters?" He said to himself as his curiosity started to get the better of him. He looked down at his legs and watched as the lights began to swirl around them. His leg muscles were popping he could feel a distinct tingle in his thighs, then his hips. "He-help me! What are you doing?!" He shouted, earning a few of the masked creatures' gazes, but they swiftly ignored him and returned to whatever it was they were doing. The feeling of growth began to ache along his hips and even to his member as it flopped and bounced against him, almost unhinged at the lack of gravity. It felt like he was being struck by lightning over and over again as the radiant heat continued to climb his body. "AAAHHH! S-Stop!" He gasped as the pain crawled up to his chest, then his neck and arms, but before he could think any more a wave of darkness overcame Diego and suddenly the pain had vanished.

Diego awoke with a start, gasping in a sudden breath of air as he threw himself back and realized he was on the floor again. This time he was in a different room; it was a small enclosure, a strange black outcrop from the wall contained a soft substance and as he got up to look at it, he realized something very strange; he was shaped like a human. "Wh-what?" He said to himself as he looked at his paws; still covered with fur, still tipped with long, sharp claws, but they looked like a human's hands... only thicker. Diego used one of the claws to brush back the top of his head and he realized that its shape was still in tact, only that his body had been changed. He looked down at his legs and touched them as well; they were definitely part of him, but everything that had made him a quadraped was gone. "It's like I'm some damn human--" He said to himself.

"This is new for you?" A gruff voice asked from outside the room; it was only then that Diego noticed bars on the exit doorway.

Diego tried to find his balance by climbing onto the cropping and getting back to his feet as he responded. "Yeah. Well you know, being kidnapped and mutated into some human-looking freak ain't exactly on my bucket list." He said as he got to his feet and wobbled his way over toward the doorway. "You speak? Because it looks like our hosts don't have much of a vocabulary."

"I speak good." The voice growled back. "It good to have someone to talk to. I been here for weeks now."

"By yourself?"

"Yep."

"What do they want with us?" Diego said as he went to lean into the bars, only to be driven back by a spark of electricity that flashed on contact. "Ahh!"

"Do not touch bars. They very bad for you."

"I'll keep that in mind." Diego said sarcastically. "A warning might help next time. The name's Diego; 'friend'...who are you?"

"Tiny." The voice barked back abruptly.

Diego could tell the voice was coming from the next cell over and hummed at the mysterious figure speaking to him. It was strange he happened to wake up in a prison next door to someone who could speak his language. "So these guys are hunters, right?"

"Yes. They seek trophies for their many games."

"And let me guess. We're the next ones on their list." He said. "But why?"

"I not sure. But I been here for weeks, food comes regularly. I won't complain."

Diego hummed, looking at the sharp tip of his claw. It extended a bit further off the end of his finger, forming a sharpened claw and he spoke aloud; mostly to himself. "Yeah but I will." He said as he jammed the claw against one of the lights flickering along the cell door. Suddenly there was a crackle and a pop, then a powerful blast that exploded outward and sent Diego flying across the room. He hit the floor hard, and was dizzy for a minute.

"Diego? Diego! What happen?" Tiny's voice could be heard over the echoing in Diego's head as the sabre shook his head and got off the floor. Looking toward the door, he saw that the bars had vanished and the doorway to the hall was open. "Diego!" He heard Tiny yell louder.

Diego rushed past the door and quickly glanced around; seeing no guards running toward them, he ran to the cell next to the door. "I'm okay! I'm okay!"

Tiny wasn't tiny at all; in fact, he was a massive striped cat dressed in a strange cloth that dangled over his loins and a harness strapped across his chest. He recoiled a bit at the sight of the head-shorter Diego who rushed up to the door. "AHH! You're naked what?!" He exclaimed. "What are you doing?"

"We..." Diego looked at the panel next to the door, an innate sense rattled about in his mind, he somehow knew how this worked and he slammed his hand into the center of the console. "...are getting out of here." He said as the bars suddenly retracted up into the ceiling. "Unless you want to keep being these things' prisoner." Tiny cringed and stooped out of the cell, his body was rather muscular and towered over the sabre in a way that made Manfred look almost tiny in comparison. Diego couldn't help but stare for a moment before shaking his head clear. "Come on, let's get out of here!"

Tiny followed Diego as the two ran from the prison block and into the main corridor of the ship; Diego could see the image of the ship in his head, he understood how things worked that he couldn't even pronounce. The two ran down a long, empty corridor until they met a wall with symbols etched into it. It took a moment for Diego to realize what they read: "Dock." He said, understanding that would be their best way off the ship.

"How did you do that?" Tiny asked.

"I'm not sure." Diego answered as they ran. "Of course I'm not sure of any of this, so I guess it doesn't matter, let's go!"