FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

By the time Ryan had finally stumbled into the correct campsite, his determination had faltered. His eyes were dusty slits, and he blinked with strain, feeling dizzy... he had been so close. But the body does what the body needs; and Ryan's body did it right at the entrance of the camp.

A second later, he was staring up into a blue-sky, aching all over. His thirsty mind struggled to grasp at basic thoughts. He felt as though something had revived him more than just waking up.

Suddenly there was somebody standing over him. "Huh." They said. "And here I was thinking I'd have a normal morning."

Ryan said nothing legible.

Their head, just a black shape, turned over towards the tents and started yelling some kind of call that Ryan didn't know a throat could even produce.

Then there were quite a few people standing over him. Ryan felt very self-conscious all of a sudden. He also felt a little annoyed because in his delusion he was enjoying staring up into space. And now, with other people, there were urgencies.

One of the taller boys leant bag, gargling. After a second he lowered his head back down and spat a wad of spit that ran down the side of Ryan's neck. The coyote's eyes squinted in justified disgust. The spitter noticed this, "Well e' ain't dead."

"Thanks for checking." A new voice said flatly, and then the guy it belonged to crouched down and shielded Ryan's eyes from the sun. Ryan's eyes adjusted and he identified the fur's face as a feline's. Long cat ear's, bent whiskers that stuck out at no coherent pattern. His eyes were made ever greener by the cartoonish red that had been stained into the fur on his face. His face seemed stained around his eyes in a way that it loosely resembled a bandit's mask, and this tickled Ryan as funny enough to chuckle about. A good looking cat, he was, regardless of 'war-paint'.

The cat smiled coolly and held out a water-skin. He twisted the cap off and took a swig, before offering it to the Ryan.

Ryan drank from it gratefully, but he stopped, flinching from the taste. He ignored his nerves and drank some more.

The cat pulled it away and then finished the rest himself. "Milk." He said before Ryan could ask. He pointed off at one of the others. "Was my birthday yesterday. You may be my strangest present so far."

The other boys all laughed amongst themselves, nudging each-other like a pack of excited hyenas.

The cat used the fur on his own tail to wipe the spit from Ryan's neck. "I'm Bandit." Said. "And this is group C... if you're feelin' formal. If you ain't, then this is the home of Bandit's Boys."

The others cheered and whooped, some making that animalistic shriek from earlier that rang Ryan's ears like a telephone, the call being to discuss tinnitus.

"Have you killed a man?"

Ryan nodded, despite feeling that 'killed' was too a mild a term in his case.

"Good. Then that's all we need to know about you." Bandit said. "Everything else, all the fun little details like your name, your age... even you're favourite bloody flavour of 'Ben and Jerry's'... forget about all that. In fact, don't even bring them up. I doubt anyone here could care less." He turned to face the others. "We don't like small talk much, do we boys?"

There were grunts of approval from the masses. After the sleep and rehydration, he counted that there were 5 boys standing over him, not including Bandit. He took a second to recognise one of them as Kyle, and it had taken him so long because - like bandit - his fur had been stained red with near completion.

"Speaking of talking," Bandit grinned, "I think I've about exhausted my share of words for this morning. Flack, Mortar, you two mind showing this canine where to put his things?"

There were no objections from the bear who stepped forward, nor the hyena who stepped forward soon after. Ryan was thankful to see the hyena - he had a cheeky face. He was also thankful to see that he had clothes on. Flack, was his name? Surely the bear is 'Mortar'.

The bear helped Ryan find his feet, whilst Bandit led the rest of the boys off into a more communal looking tent. They each clapped him on the shoulder on the way past, some welcoming him into the gang with hearty handshakes, others semi-jokingly warning him that'd he'd best not get annoying, nor become a burden.

The only person who lacked any personal exchange was Kyle, who kept his head down and - as the saying goes - left Ryan's shoulder cold.

The Hyena was showing him into one of six tents, which were quickly explained to be 'sleeping tents'. Not to be confused with the communal tents, toilet tents, or quiet tents. "Now, the toilets ain't really even_ a _tent. More so a tarp that... ya know... blocks the smell and all that. Unless ye' got a canine nose like I do." The hyena said with a smile. He had a face that Ryan felt strangely eager to look at, and his fangs had a way of poking out the corners of his mouth even when it was closed.

The bear grunted.

"Sorry, _not _a canine." Flack laughed, and gestured a thumb towards the bear, "He don't talk too much, but when he's pretty smart when he does."

Inside of the tent, Ryan was startled to see that there were only two beds. Each positioned on opposing sides. They were stretchers, like they had been in the other camp, and once again they were temporary lodgings that had been made to be permanent. The sheets on top were cream-coloured and already falling apart. The tent didn't even have a floor, but whatever dirt ground there was had been ridded of pebbles and other natural inconveniences. Also, by the looks of things he had a VERY messy roommate, as one of the hammocks was lined with so much brown shedded fur that it could almost serve as an extra sheet.

"Looks great." Ryan said, and he felt amazed at how much he suddenly missed his wood cabin. Trauma and all. "Who's the roommate?"

The bear answered by pushing past him and flopping face first onto the stretcher with the most fur. Napping in an instant.

And christ could bears snore. Even from where he was standing, Ryan felt his ears being pulled towards the bear's enormous breaths. And each snore was impressively loud, like a old chainsaw was starting up for every breath that the bear heaved out.

"That's Mortar, by the way." Flack said. "You'll get used to him."