FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

When I woke, Aresh had already made breakfast, from her own supplies no less.

I slipped up to the cooking stick opposite her, sniffed the bacon. There was way too much to be just for her. "Very good! Thank you."

She smiled weakly.

I looked down a little, not enough not to see her. "Sorry again about last night."

She shook her head. "We're adults. It's one of those things adults do."

She smothered the fire. I washed my hands and began peeling one of our hard-boiled eggs. She suddenly asked, "What do you do? For a living? I'm kind of trying to find something new."

"Kind of obscure. Telegraphy."

"Far writing?" I was taken aback that she could decipher it - ever since the mutual comprehensibility wish, language study had been nearly abandoned.

"Yes, in a way. So. Normally if you think of contacting someone far away, you think calling them. But the sound quality of the call spell gets really bad as the distance gets longer."

"Of course." Again, interesting. Someone so poor would not usually need to call anyone, let alone someone far enough away that the garbling would be severe. On the other hand, maybe she had tried to contact that soldier of hers?

"At any distance beyond, say, five hundred miles, it is impossible to speak normally and be understood. And even closer, it's much easier to maintain a crappy calling pair than a sterling one. So there is a special code we can use that isn't much affected by the garbling. Clicks, basically. And that'll travel an essentially unlimited distance without getting so bad you can't make it out, even with a cheap worn out calling pair."

"I thought you said you were coming away from Weld. Wouldn't they need telegraphers soon?"

"Yes, that's why we were there, training up telegraphers. Now they have enough for just about any contingency."

"Ah, I see. Both of you?"

"Well, Renna was mainly on the building and maintaining end, and I was mainly on the training end, but yes."

"Is it a good job?"

"Being a regular telegrapher? Decent, for a skilled labor position, with no heavy lifting. We could teach you, and you could try it."

"I'd like that."

So we tapped, clicked, and snapped out everything the rest of the day. She was not the quickest study, but perhaps that was on account of the far-from-ideal conditions, especially once we were climbing. Fortunately, our native languages were the same. The mutual comprehensibility wish didn't extend to coded material, which had made things rather more complicated in Weld. By the time we made Allegos' main gate, she was past the first phase of knowing most of the letters.

In the city, even though we weren't through the pass, we could already feel the cool sea air creeping over the edge. It felt like home.

We found the refitters, then Aresh split off to replenish our supplies, agreeing to return when done. Just stepping in revealed how differently this establishment was run. Agau and his greeter had been 1:2 or less anthropomorph; the greeter here appeared as human as I, though he was made up slightly otterish -- slicked down straight black hair on light skin. He stepped forward formally and said, "Welcome to the Allegos body refitters. I'm Nowal. How can I help you?"

Renna got up on her hind legs and changed her front hooves to hands. "Good afternoon, Nowal. I'd like to inquire about body 13-528."

Nowal nodded and riffled through a file. He pulled out a sheet of paper. "Hmm. Do you have your origin certificate?"

Renna nodded and produced it. He accepted it, nodded. "We'll have to run a full psychic profile to ensure that you are who you say you are, but assuming that works out, then you are eligible." He looked down the certificate to the last entry. "I see that your current body is... ah. I see. I see. You... are not a paying customer. If you would take the body you're in to where it's needed, we'll apply additional credit to your account."

"I have sufficient credit to get the body I asked for."

"Yes, and I see you have the one free change after - and sorry about the defective one - but sometimes it takes multiple tries to find a good fit."

"And I have somewhere to be. If I don't like the cat, I can take the goat back and move it then while going to pick up my next choice, right?"

"If we have not already, then yes. Shall we proceed? We have the body prepared."

"We'll go and take a look, and if I still want it, then yes, let's."

Nowal escorted us back to a small examination room; the body lay under a sheet on a slab. He removed the sheet and left us.

It was a black cat, with a few white spots here and there, though with a face that was more human than cat. The legs and feet were also mostly human in form, and claws poking out of the toes rather than nails laid along top. Medium breasts in the human style, and catlike paws on her hands. It was pretty cute - I could get used to it - but it was not to be.

Renna had been examining its paw; she put it down and found the details sheet. "Hmm. Doesn't look good here. Two previous holders cited difficulty grasping small objects, and in particular, writing."

She stepped out and came back in a moment with Nowal, explaining the problem. He nodded, and said, "We can give a complimentary motor test, if you'd like."

Renna shook her head. "I live by writing. Have you picked up anything else here since the catalog was last sent out?"

"The catalog here is completely up to date. If you would like to view more conveniently, we have a browsing room."

It was indeed very convenient - hangers were available on the wall to set sheets side by side. We looked through many options, looking more for practicality at this point. After a few minutes we had several options with fine fingers: a 1:1 pig, a 1:6 chimpanzee, and a 2:3 raccoon, all early twenties.

"None of these are common around here."

"Guess they get dumped for more common forms. It's hard to stand out. Or they were brought in from afar by purists."

That was where things stood when Aresh came in. "Hello there. Guess what I found out?"

Renna hated such open questions, and some of that had rubbed off on me - so I guessed rather than asking: "You found a body you want to change into?"

"Yes, actually, kind of. They're hiring. A bit of taking bodies from one place to another. Doesn't pay all that much, but it's enough, and I'll get to try a bunch of forms."

"I thought you were going to go try telegraphy."

"Oh, sure, but do you really think they'll hire someone right before the holiday?"

Renna murmurred, "Got a point there."

"They often hire on a short term basis, so I can do this for ten days, get back into my own form and come on over once things have settled down."

I replied, "That's nice. So, what do you think?"

I pointed out the three main candidates. She looked at them and at Renna. "I... don't know. I still kind of think of you as this old guy. But if it were me, I'd go with the raccoon. The monkey barely looks like it's a person, and the pig is, well, looks tiring to walk any distance."

Renna nodded. "Fair enough, but I rather more care what Famir thinks."

I was on the fence. "Well, I... it mainly matters that it's you, but you'd like to be someone I don't find it difficult to be attracted to, right? I can't tell that from here. Let's ask for a look at them."

We left the room with the three selections in hand; Nowal rushed by, saying 'in a minute'.

Aresh stayed to fill out her form; Renna and I returned to the front waiting room. Also waiting were a fox woman, and a middle-aged man in human-form. The surly look on his face gradually eased as he saw me and nodded. The fox woman gesticulated as she said, "I know they have better selection, but they're just... sleazy."

The man flashed a frown at her. "Better selection by far. What can they do? You don't care what happens after you're gone, do you?"

Nowal rushed back in with two sheets. "Here is what we have available here, and here is another in network."

The man took the sheets. "There's another I heard of, saw it earlier. Was it taken?"

"No; that's for in-house use only. Some are unsure of whether changing to a more human form will help their body-image. We keep it on hand for that case. It is not for sale."

"Everything is..."

"It is on loan to us for this purpose. We cannot sell it to you."

The man rolled his eyes. "So that leaves two? In the entire country?" He passed the sheets to the woman.

Nowal said, "There are many more if you ease your requirements on the condition of the body." The man looked sideways at the woman and shrugged.

She frowned at the first, but the second piqued her interest. "She's beautiful. And young. Is she really old enough I'm allowed?"

"Yes, she's 24."

He grunted. "What's wrong with her, that she was given up?"

Nowal said, "There are no warnings or advisements, but she is being healed. She will be available in twenty days, in Rin."

Renna and I caught that and shared a look - Nowal was offering her body for sale, nearly certainly. She buried her head in her hands, and I put my arm over her shoulders. I couldn't watch anymore, but could not stop listening.

"Three weeks!" the man had said, and gotten up. "And what are we supposed to do until then?"

As Nowal answered, "We do offer delivery. You may go wherever you please, name a refitter, and we can bring her to there." At that, all I could think of was, "This guy's problems are not as severe as he thinks."

The man humphed. "Well, that's something. Very well. How much?"

Nowal did some mental arithmetic and said, "Five hundred forty full measures of silver."

"Five hundred... what could justify that?"

"It's an exquisite body. It will be delivered fit and in good health. The value is there. As for the work put in, we had to heal it from the brink of death, we had to supply a replacement body for the previous occupant, we have to deliver it, and we have to maintain the network so you had the chance to find out about it. None of these are trivial."

Renna looked down at the three options she was looking at, and whispered, "My cut from selling my own body is forty percent. Less, counting the trade-in value on that fox body. And these bodies I'm looking at are down at one hundred."

I took her hands and whispered back. "The price is artificially high. These are good bodies."

"Still, they're getting eighty percent because I'm not even using half of my credit."

The man snarled, "Excuse me, we're trying to talk over here."

Renna made a fist, but I put my hand on it; she restrained herself.

The man went on, "We don't have that much... with us, but we can get it."

"Very well, a deposit of fifty measures will suffice. If you withdraw the reservation in the next week, there will be no fee. Beyond that we will have begun working specifically for your order, and the deposit will be forfeit."

"Paper okay, or metal only?"

"We are not equipped to handle that much silver."

"Come on, Asten."

And they left. Renna let her hands drop from her face, revealing her cheeks soaked with tears.

Nowal spent a minute on paperwork, during which she composed herself. Aresh appeared, saw Renna, and rushed in and knelt in front. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing... that I didn't know was going to happen. Just, it happened. Go, get your job."

Aresh hesitated, but went to Nowal and waited as he finished. Nowal accepted the form and came to us. He pursed his lips, then coughed. "Are you ready?"

Renna nodded. "It'll be a step up from this, anyway."

And the two of us finally met the doctor, Erndan. Like Nowal, her visible parts were almost human, the exception being long rabbit ears hanging loose around her chin. She younger than Agau, but with a crisp, assured businesslike manner that encouraged confidence. We examined the bodies, and Renna tentatively selected the raccoon.

Erndan then summoned Aresh. She and Renna held hands with the raccoon and each other, and Erndan did a more elaborate chant than Agau had done: not only were there three involved, but none had been prepared for quick transfer - so the process took around half an hour. At the end, Aresh's body was vacant, Renna was in the raccoon, and the Aresh was in the goat.

As Aresh got up, I approached Renna. She shivered, then tried to sit up. "Ow."

"Bad?"

"Just stiff, and a bit weak." She braced herself and managed to rise. "Okay. Hold my hand." I took it, and she tentatively slipped her feet to the ground.

She gradually improved as we got to the front.

"I take it you aren't up to walking a long way?"

She nodded. "That's right. Not right now."

I moved to pick her up, but she batted my hand away, scratching it. That hurt, but I held my tongue. She went on, "Fortunately, it's not a long way. My brother lives just over the border."

"Yes, but he hates me."

"Famir, he's family, and I will need a stop." She looked up to Aresh, who was waiting by the door. "So, see you in a few days?"

Aresh nodded, came over, and hugged her, then me. Her manner was so different that it was really odd to see her in a body I had only associated with Renna. "Yes. Hope this goes away soon."

Renna nodded. "Hope you don't have to deal with it on the other end."

"See you." And she was gone.

Renna picked up her paperwork and we headed up the hill to the border. To keep our paces more naturally the same, I shifted naga. By the time we made it to the pass, she was having trouble. We rested just over the border for a few minutes, and pressed on the last downhill mile to her brother's.