FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Scott stared out of his ship at the foreign planets and constellations. The HUD of his armored vacc-suit labeled each in a tight box of details beside them. To Scott, these stellar bodies read as a periodical of the system to be flipped through for reference.

"Are you listening to me?" the voice of his elder called from the comm device. The hologram projected a grizzled hyena aged by decades of crop-work, reflecting Scott's broad muzzle and spotted face. Unlike Scott, his dad buzzed the mane of tangled, white fur that sprouted from the back of his head and down his neck.

Scott tapped his shuttle's mic back to life. "Sorry, Pop. I'm here," he said. "What were you saying?"

The older hyena scratched at a faded scar behind his round ears. "Shit, I don't know. The years are getting me spottier than my fur these days."

_Or you lost your place again,_Scott thought. He's watched his dad's hologram perform this song and dance a dozen times on these delivery runs.

"Listen. I'm just trying to say shipping's dangerous, and I worry about you."

"They build these suits for a reason, Pop." Scott held up his paw, showing off the slick armor covering his fur. "It has everything. This thing's radiation-proof, fire-proof, vacuum-sealed with an onboard ox-conversion system, and--"

His dad rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've bragged about all your fancy crap, and if I'm remembering right, I bought you a few of those upgrades myself. But what happens when all that fails?"

Here it comes.

"Do you remember when the hydroponic harvester broke down?" His dad groaned, settling back into his armchair. "I got my claws in the dirt, pulled up the harvest, and--"

"You carried it all back yourself. I know, Pop. You'll keep telling that story until Smile and Co. goes under." Scott could remember that winter. The storms battered the farmhouse relentlessly. His mom cradled him around the warmth of a fire while his dad worked endlessly in the field. He'd pulled up every plot, cleaned the harvest, and packed them through the storm's rage.

"You can't always rely on those machines. Designed obsolescence," he said, annunciating every syllable.

Scott sighed with relief, a flashing siren on the dashboard saving him from another two-hour reprimand. He waved his dad away, making an excuse and offering to call him later. The hologram vanished before his dad could object, showing a flashing collision countdown.

A mist of dust, gas, and shattered meteorite loomed ahead of his ship. His suit analyzed the cloud and bright red pop-ups warned of the crystals there-in, dense enough to puncture his hull.

The hyena flipped a switch and gripped the direct-control sticks tight, yanking the shuttle down from its trajectory; the craft lurched forward, its nose pressing down. The sudden shift pulled the hyena back; his projector slid from the dashboard and clattered to the floor.

He danced through the cloud, his suit aiding in expert dips and twists. Even still, the debris field stretched before him. A twist away from one chunk of meteorite hauled another chunk crashing through the wing of his ship. A shattering cockpit proved an error in his sweep away from a cluster of meteorites. Scott twisted the controls. The depressurization sucked the air from the shuttle. He couldn't breathe.

His suit's ox system cut in, filling his lungs and buying him enough time to notice the planet below grow closer and closer. He shoved his control sticks, but the ship refused his input and it continued drifting toward the planet. The upper atmosphere heated the damaged armor, and suddenly, Scott felt the cockpit transformed into a thermal oven, trying to make hyena casserole packaged and ready to eat.

Scott ripped at the belt around his waist; it tore away, releasing him. He lunged for the chute controls. The ship shifted, smashing into the trees and propelling Scott forward. His head slammed into the glass and shattered it under his weight. Air whipped him from the new opening. He was tossed planetside.

* * *

A knock to his helmet pulled Scott back consciousness. His head pounded, and he couldn't see.

"Oxygen-rich, temperate environment detected," the suit's A.I. crackled in his ears. He could barely see through the cracks in his helmet's visor. The A.I. fizzled away with that final statement.

Another knock startled the hyena. His paw fumbled to the locking mechanism and sent the helm toppling to the ground. He ruffled the tall coif of white fur between his ears. His eyes strained and adjusted to see a silhouette in bright, orange sunlight.

A muscular frame towered over the hyena. The figure looked anthronoid -- wolf-like -- except for an extra pair of arms and pecs. He dressed in nothing but a loincloth and cloth wraps around each paw. A smile spread over his brown muzzle, his fur the color of enriched dirt.

The wolf spoke an unfamiliar dialect and offered the hyena a paw.

Scott fumbled with the neck of his suit and clicked a translator on.

"Are you okay?" The mic interpreted the stranger's guttural grammar. The wolf studied Scott's suit. His foreign paws invaded the armor, sliding over its slick blue surface. He studied the overlapping white patterns.

"Who are you?" the hyena asked. "Where am I?"

"You can call me Vesk. Intricate tech. And it translates in real time?"

"I heard people from the rim don't see much higher technologies."

"You presume you're the first to end up here. Why do you think I'm here?" He offered his paw to Scott again. "I'll get you home safe."

Scott accepted the help, a muscular arm pulled him to his feet.

The hyena glimpsed the vast landscape around him. His suit's helmet would've labeled this a hypertrophic biosphere. Dense shades of massive canopies above them left the woods dark and somber. Dim light radiated from wide-capped mushrooms that feasted on the flowers. The smell of petrichor hung in the air and clung to the trees.

Scott brought his attention back to the wolf. "Why help me?"

The quad-armed canine stretched both sets of biceps, extending his arms across his chest. "It's what my people do."

"They're also why you're skipping around half-naked?" Scott asked. The wolf's earth-toned fur reminded Scott of the farm back home, while stacks muscle and an endowment barely hidden by a loincloth brought back memories of the magazines hidden beneath his bed.

"Yes," the wolf said, "my people believe the fortitude of one's body should be enough to maintain them."

Scott glanced away and studied the environment. No landmarks jumped to his attention. No defining traits to mark their path. Not even smoke from the wreckage of his ship.

Everything looked the same.

"Could you point me toward the closest relay beacon?" Scott said. "That way I can just plug in my ship's I. P. and I'll be out of here as fast as I arrived.

A piercing cry echoed from the dense thickets around them.

The wolf cleared his throat and moved Scott aside, responding with a howl that swallowed the noise.

"Screechers," he said. "They're scavengers mostly. We should get moving." The wolf turned his nose to the sky. He huffed a few deep breaths then darted in a new direction.

The hyena stumbled behind him, the joints of his suit braking his charge. It felt like his joints were full of sand, every move buying a crisp crunch.

The wolf broke his stride, drawing another deep whiff. "I can take you to where we store things visitors leave behind. Maybe you'll find what you're looking for there."

Even with the pauses, Scott struggled to keep up with Vesk. Dense branches grasped at him. The grass snaked around his knees and threatened to drag him to the ground.

The trees grew thicker, and the cry of the screechers stretched over him like long shadows.

Vesk pushed through the forest with ease, using powerful arms to snap swaying branches, claws scoring fallen logs. Ears twitched and swiveled to the screecher's song.

A sudden full stop brought them to a vine-wrapped clearing. Vesk's ears folded around his head and he scanned the area behind them.

"We need to get above the canopy," he warned.

"Why?" Scott felt his legs burning. Something was wrong.

"You ask a lot of questions."

Vesk's eyes were closed. His pointed ears twitched anxiously.

He scratched dead leaves from his neck fluff then followed the wolf's lead. The hyena focused, taking in every sound with big, rounded ears.

He heard it. The screechers tore through the underbrush after them.

"What is--"

"If we can hear them," Vesk interrupted, "they can probably hear us." He ripped vines away from a rock wall, revealing a porous, clay-colored surface and climbed high into the thick weave of branches, leaves, and vines. Vesk gripped a divot and hoisted himself.

Scott followed behind him. He missed his helmet. It would have been running configurations, and he'd be mounting up this wall with ease. All he was left with now were his instincts and the suit's strength.

Don't fall. Don't look down. It's not as far as you think. The hyena carried himself shakily, following Vesk close enough to grab the wolf's long, fluffy tail.

Beneath a 40-foot drop, thrashing screechers waited for them. These giant centipedes with hundreds of sharp limbs thrashing from disproportionately long bodies. A thin layer of fur peeked from each thick layer of chitinous armor. They crawled over each other, dozens of them vying for their first snack to cascade down the high wall; their beady eyes watched, and pincers waited to snap them up.

Scott felt the grinding in the suit's joints stiffen. His legs and arms were rendered motionless. The hyena froze, watching the screechers writhe up the wall beneath him.

Two firm paws on the back of his suit yanked Scott to reality.

Scott dangled precariously mere feet from the screechers. They used each other like a ladder, clambering closer and closer until SNAP. A screecher's mandible clamped on the hyena's dangling leg. It crushed the suit's armor before twisting the limb the wrong way.

Scott cried out. Fire burned through his leg, and his eyes welled with tears. What the hell! The built-in defense mechanisms normally prevented that kind of torsion; his leg hung limply all the same.

"Yeah, I heard it, but there's nothing we can do while dangling here like live bait," Vesk said.

Vesk swung closer and pulled the hyena onto his back. He picked up the pace, hopping up the cliff face and catching and burying his claws into a new handhold until he reached the apex.

The rock wall plateaued onto a highland of soft, rolling hills and spiraling mountains that emerged from the forest canopy. It felt like a new world, the air thinner and cooler than the humid forest below. Pastel flowers grew all around them. Scott could taste the thick perfume of lilac.

He dropped from Vesk's back and onto the soft dirt and grass. His leg screamed with pain. Blood pooled and dampened fur around his knee. The bite had fractured the armor encasing his leg, leaving shards of Damascus synth-steel clinging to the microfiber suit beneath it.

"Did you stall yourself for me?" Scott managed through trembling breaths.

"I thought I said no more questions." Vesk seemed out of breath but otherwise fine. He ambled up to Scott and lifted his injured leg, earning a whimper from the hyena. "Can you remove this piece?"

Scott slid a hand down his thigh to a disk-shaped mechanism, tapping it to reveal a handle. He tugged the handle, and a hiss released from the joints of the suit.

Scott blushed. The tight material left little to the imagination, the only extra padding coming with his codpiece and chest armor. The revealed leg had been torn up by the screecher attack. The vacc suit had been torn to ribbons, and a jagged gash ran the length between his knee and foot.

Two of Vesk's big, warm paws took Scott's calf gently and studied the wound. An arc of pain shot up Scott's side as the wolf rotated the joint. "From what I can tell, something's broken."

"Fuck," Scott cried. "Where can we clean the wound?"

The wolf nodded.

"I need a hand wrap," Scott asked.

Vesk unwrapped the thick strap of cloth from his right hand and handed it over.

Scott wrapped his leg in the fabric strip, covering the wound and soaking up the blood.

Vesk helped Scott onto his feet, a tentative step testing the limb's mobility. It still ached, but he could move it.

"That should hold for now," Scott said.

"There's a spring where we can clean that up on the way."

The wolf led Scott through the rolling hills. Even with a hobbled pace, compared to the labyrinth of branches beneath them, these grasslands flew past them. The brisk air swayed through Scott's mane of fur. The soft grass cushioned his paw pads. If it weren't for the crash, broken leg, and bestial bugs, this might've been the nicest planet he'd visited.

"Where'd you learn that?" Vesk asked.

"My dad used to have to do it with the cattle back home." Scott tucked an arm under Vesk's lower right arm, hobbling with the wolf's support. "We lived on a colony world, so if we needed a vet, they'd have to shuttle them in."

"You couldn't get any healing for the livestock? What about someone local? Even here, we have healers that can help out in case a handler isn't there."

"Nope," Scott said. "The only people grown out on the fringes are farmers."

"What if someone got hurt?"

"We'd figure something out." Scott's face turned cold for a moment. His mind heavy carrying his father's warnings. "What happened to 'no more questions'?"

Vesk opened his muzzle to speak but shut it seeing the woeful look on Scott's face.

Before long, the pair found themselves around the lip of a crimson lake clutching the base of one of the tall mountains. Two streams dribbled rose-hued water to and from the pool. A few sparse trees grew at its edge and offered bountiful shade.

Vesk lowered Scott to the water's edge and helped him to remove the wrap. He used his claws to cut free the remains of the microfiber suit's leg, revealing Scott's chocolate-brown fur matted with dried blood.

"Okay," Scott began, "we're going to need something strong to hold my leg in place. Could you get a couple of thick branches from the tree?"

Vesk nodded before mounting the tree to fetch a pair of sticks.

Scott dipped his leg. The lake water stung at first, but the feeling quickly oozed into soothing. The coolness penetrated his fur and relaxed the aching muscles surrounding the fracture. Once clean, the wound on his leg showed to be less severe, the bleeding having stopped.

When Vesk returned, Scott pulled his leg from the water to let it dry.

"We're not far now," Vesk said. "Just over this next crest we'll get to a cave opening that can carry us through the mountain." He pulled the other wraps from his arms and went to work cleaning and redressing the gash. "The tribe's been storing the leftover equipment inside."

"If there's a relay beacon there, I should be able to signal for help." Scott placed the sticks parallel to his leg, one on each side. "I'm sure there's more people out there in need of you."

"Oh, they're not my concern," Vesk said.

Scott wrapped his leg, tying the sticks tight to fashion a makeshift splint. "I thought that's what your people do."

"It's more complicated than that. This is a rite of passage for us, a way we set ourselves apart and contribute to the world."

Vesk scratched at the nape of his neck. "It's nothing... constant." He continued to scrape through his fur, searching for the words to explain like a mother telling a story to her pups. "There are different facets to our tribe and with each one comes a task: warriors have to defend our homes, hunters catch a large game, healers mend a tribe elder."

"So, what are you?"

"They call us gatherers. We--"

Before Vesk could finish his thought, he grew silent and his ears perked to attention.

Scott took the hint and did the same. He couldn't hear anything at first--the hills lay silent. Then, a slow rumble dug into his ears. Echoes cascaded over the mountains toward them.

"The mountains are about to come down." With his bottom arms, Vesk scooped Scott into a tight bridal lift and then dashed up the mountain.

Like a transformation, Vesk changed before Scott's eyes. He prowled on his free paws, his powerful upper arms and legs ripping up the mountainside. His strength and speed surprised Scott. Where was all this in the forest? He'd been holding back. With Scott clutched tight under him, Vesk could let loose and cover twice the landscape in half the time.

Soft beats of the wolf's paws against the hillside eventually gave way to the crunch of snow forming near its peak.

The higher they climbed, the colder it grew. It felt invasive and sudden. Scott shook from the chill and buried his muzzle into the wolf's neck scruff as the mountain grew colder.

Following behind them, Scott could still hear the rumble. He barely made out what was happening. In the blur of passing trees and bushes, the mountains melted, piles of snow cascading from each peak. Bright lights burst across the auburn sky like fireworks.

Warmth brushed over Scott. At first, he thought the wolf's breast offered new warmth until he saw a shining burst of color above them.

Vesk pushed over the mountain's peak. His breathing was slow and shallow, and his chest barely moved with each inhalation.

Vesk scanned the opposite side of the mountain, eyes narrowing at a cavern a few hundred feet down. He bounced from their position, clutching Scott tight and sliding down the hill, his claws pushing through the thick layer of snow.

Scott could read worry on the wolf's face. They were running out of time.

They stumbled and rolled into the cavemouth, narrowly missing a cascade of snow that now barred their exit.

Scott expected to be met with darkness when the cave sealed behind them. Instead, the wall glowed iridescently, a warm, earthy red to match the earth and rock outside.

Vesk wheezed and dropped Scott before tumbling to the floor. "Are. You. Okay?" he said, his voice catching in his chest with every word.

"I'm fine. I mean, beyond the broken leg and fractured sense of dignity this suit's providing me." He swept some snow from his shoulders as he sat up. "Actually, this could still come in handy." The hyena rubbed his paws vigorously against his forearms, as if trying to warm them, and the vacc-suit sprang to life. It shifted from a dim blue hue to a glowing orange, enveloping and radiating warmth from him. "It's a life support add-on my dad pushed me to buy. He always warned me that space gets cold."

His warnings seem to be prophetic at this point, Scott thought. The old man was right. Up to this point, Scott had been useless without his suit. He'd have been chewed up and spit out by this world if Vesk hadn't offered to help.

"That's great," Vesk said. His breaths remained shallow, like he couldn't keep down a good gulp of air.

"Are you doing okay?" Scott took a seat beside the wolf.

"Yeah. I'm fine." He choked on the words, as if it took effort for him to push them to the surface. "I took a branch on the way down. I'm not broken. There's no blood."

"Then what's going on?"

"I missed my deadline." Tears welled in the wolf's eyes before he wiped them away.

"What do you mean? You had a timeline for helping me?"

"The elders said I had until the storm caught up to us." Vesk waved a hand toward the wall of snow. "There it is."

"That seems arbitrary. How would they even know there was going to be a storm? And how'd they know someone would need help?"

"It had to do with the way you were marooned..." Vesk took his claws and started doodling on the cave floor. "There's a cloud of dense particles that form around now. They're crystals that shine in the sky." He drew the planet and tiny diamonds arcing over one side of it.

"Wait. If I'm picking up what you're saying, the cloud of rocks that knocked me out of the sky also creates that storm."

Vesk nodded and added a small triangular shape collapsing toward the planetoid.

"And you map the crashes from this cloud along with the storm to test your saviors to see if they're fast enough to save people in dire circumstances."

Dotted lines joined the triangle on the floor. "I don't like it. It turns the gatherer's duty into a--"

"You don't use any technology?" Scott cocked his head. His ears perked as he awaited a response. "That's an intense amount of data."

Vesk stuttered before clearing his throat. "Wait. I thought--"

"How many people has your tribe saved this way?"

"It happens maybe once every five years. It's not a huge amount."

"Oh!" Scott saw the wash of disappointment in the wolf's golden eyes. "Oh... that's what you're upset about?"

"I get one chance every five years to prove myself, and this is my third attempt."

Awkwardly, Scott hobbled closer to the wolf, offering some of the suit's warmth. "Have you ever lost anyone?"

Vesk looked surprised by the question. "No, nothing like that. They always make it out of the trial, but I run out of time."

"Why?" Scott thought back to the wolf's rapid burst of speed. "You're clearly capable. Couldn't you have just carried me all the way there?"

"Everyone else does it that way, and it significantly reduces their time."

"So why are you different?"

"My mother taught me better."

Scott felt his own regrets tug at him.

"I have twelve brothers and all of them took after our father. They became hunters and brought bountiful meals to the tribal table." Vesk said.

"Your mom was a gatherer then?"

"No, she was a healer," Vesk corrected. "Our father gave us everything we'd ever need. He showed us how to be strong and rely on our natural instincts. My mother... she taught us how to do things on our own."

"And you want to hand that lesson back to the people you save."

"This place, it's dangerous. People leave the village and don't come back. Even just to gather herbs..." Vesk's voice trailed off.

"You asked me what would happen if someone got hurt on the farm... it was my mom."

"What happened?"

"It doesn't matter." Scott remembered a simple mistake. One awkward fall early in the morning. His parents on the ground bleeding. That scar on his dad's head. "All that does, or all that did, was that it was too fast for the medivac trip. I watched helplessly as she faded away."

Scott's chest felt cold. He hadn't talked about this in years. "I don't have a dozen brothers, so after she died, it was just me and my dad."

He leaned against Vesk, his heat offering comfort through the cold. The wolf accepted him, pulling him close with a paw. "I wanted to be a pilot because of her. Fly medivac back home."

"Why didn't you?"

"The farm started failing, and when we needed funds to keep things afloat, I signed on with some corporate stooge making the rounds through the galaxy."

"I'm not following."

"I move merchandise. Shirts, hats, pens, turbo-wrenches, you name it and I had it on my ship with a logo stamped on it."

Scott fiddled with the micro-mesh fabric of his suit. It had held up surprisingly well for him. The company's logo still embellished the chest. In fact, beyond the leg, it was intact and functioned to some degree. Even the translator. He'd worn this to every planet he'd passed since he'd left home.

"I used to think this suit was the gate key to my locked-away dreams." He tugged at the logo, releasing the mechanisms, and snapped the suit from his body. The fabric compressed, folding into a small, smiling disk the size of his paw.

"My pop always said I'd be better off without it." He tossed the disk away, curling into Vesk's warmth. "I think he was right." He urged the wolf closer, pulling his head in.

The wolf turned away. Scott could see a look of apprehension in his eyes. It hit him that he'd moved suddenly, and that he and the wolf barely knew each other. He was beginning to miss the translator he'd haphazardly discarded.

Scott had just started to turn away when Vesk returned the kiss, their tongues exploring each other's mouths. The wolf's paws pulled Scott onto his lap, legs straddling his hips, as he caressed over Scott's bare fur and flesh. One upper paw stroked the hyena's face, fluffing the soft fur that collared his neck, while another gripped his side, pulling the hyena closer to him. His lower arms stroked down his torso, one fondling his chest and the other exploring his soft middle.

Scott broke the kiss to nibble the wolf's neck. His hands found their way lower and lower until gripping the only cloth separating their bodies. He stared into the wolf's eyes, smiling, and undid the knot in the fabric.

Vesk's 10-inch sex surged forward as the fabric unrolled over his hips. The attention clearly exciting him and his engorged member.

Scott's paws stroked along his length, barely able to wrap fully around its thickness. He stared down at the throbbing pink dick, taking in the sight of the vein that ran up its girthy length to the bulbous, untrimmed head.

A paw guided Scott's muzzle back to Vesk as the wolf kissed him again. He moaned gently into the kiss as Scott gripped them together in his hand. Their balls pulled together as their thighs overlapped. The smell of their musk tangled as he mingled and spread their pre. He gave slow, meaningful strokes, pressing his hips forward and grinding on him.

It was the hyena's turn to yip, a hefty finger pressing into his entrance gently. Vesk laughed when Scott's tail danced in response. Before Scott could blush, Vesk smiled and wrapped a paw around Scott's paw.

They stroked themselves together, gasping and moaning and kissing. Vesk's finger pressed into the hyena's wet hole slowly. Each new knuckle earned a yelp from Scott and a throb from their joined erections.

Scott could feel his incoming orgasm, his hips bucking the message to his partner.

Vesk nodded, pulling him into another kiss and increasing the pace of their hands. He pumped their cocks together rapidly and pushed his thick digit against Scott's prostate in the same rhythm, aiming for a simultaneous orgasm.

Hot cum sprayed from their grasp, spattering into their hands, and seeping to the cavern floor. Vesk huffed and puffed, groaning as his heavy load oozed from his dick tip. As he pulled his hand back, he revealed Scott's wickedly hard cock bouncing in the air needily.

Scott's eyes were full of longing.

He needed release.

Vesk laid the hyena on the ground, a paw pressing him until he lay parallel to the stone. He spread Scott's legs and buried his muzzle beneath his butt.

Scott moaned as two arms pressed his legs down while another pair spread his cheeks. A long tongue found its way inside him, adding warm pressure. It built and spread through his whole body as he called out for Vesk.

Feeling Scott pulsing around his tongue, the wolf pulled out of the hyena's hole, a string of saliva following close behind. He lowered Scott back to the ground. The hyena's dick pulsed in the cool air. Vesk swallowed up the needy member, suckling and lapping at his length until earning a final whine and a mouthful of cum. The wolf swallowed every load as Scott released pump after pump of hot seed into him.

He pulled off when he knew Scott was finished, gripping the hyena into a tight embrace, and kissing him once more. Cum swapped between their mouths, the sweet and salty flavor dancing on their tongues.

Vesk eventually broke the kiss and flopped beside the panting hyena, licking him gently on the head.

The pair lay there in their afterglow, listening to one another breathe. Their warmth and quiet breaths filled the cave.

Scott's mind raced. Raw, overwhelming feelings played out in his head, all finding ground in the man lying next to him. He'd saved him today and showed him hospitality he'd never found amongst the stars. Even if he could translate them, the words were unclear. He only had two he could imagine.

Thank you.

Vesk rolled to look in the hyena's eyes. Scott knew he got the message.

The pair lay on the cave floor for hours, enjoying each other in their quiet moment. When the snow blocking the entrance seemed to finally give, Vesk managed to dig them out of the cave, and then helped Scott hobble through the hole he'd made. The air outside felt cool but not freezing. The snow under his paw pads crunched and gave way to soft grass. A gentle breeze carried a sweet and subtle floral scent around them.

Above him, Scott stared out at the stars. No overlay appeared to label them. No index or catalogued to tell him where he is or how far he had come. Nothing filled the negative spaces that allowed them to shine ever brightly. He wasn't leaving them behind, but from here on he wouldn't view them through that overlay again. Vesk's fingers wove into Scott's, the wolf kissing him on the head.

Never alone again either.