FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I guess I must have fallen asleep; it was comfortable there in her arms, my head against her neck and shoulder. She gently shook me awake, but I wanted to stay asleep there. So I groaned and pressed my head against her shoulder.

"We need to see if we could jog your memories, Sophia." She spoke softly. I sighed before I lightly pushed myself away from her. I knew we had to go and do this. But what we were about to do would only tell me where I am and not tell me anything about my past memories.

"So, we're headed to town...?" I asked as I looked into her honey-amber eyes. She nodded to me with a smile. I could just tell she was hoping the trip would bring back memories. She moved around until she sat on the edge of the padded slab before she stood up. I couldn't help but watch her as she did. Her body was gorgeous in the sunlight that made it under the marble roof. Honestly, I couldn't help but blush with a smile as she turned to look at me.

"We should get dressed." She said as she looked at me and my blushing, smiling face. I nodded to her in agreement. I don't think I could handle the embarrassment if I left here naked. 'Of course they wear clothes here; the town isn't some nudist colony.' I thought. But Lisa's unabashed nudity in front of a stranger - which was me - and her friend Nina almost made me wonder.

She walked over behind me and seemed to note my eyes as they followed her every movement. Lisa stopped at what looked like an old, worn, broad chest. It wasn't some rounded top chest like you see in those story books with pirate treasure; no, this was one of those chests like you would have at the foot of your bed. The disparity between the pristine temple and it really drew my eyes off Lisa, a feat that I almost thought was impossible. It was probably the oldest thing in the temple, or at least seemed like it from all the use. Little scratches adorned the top of it, a few just through the dark red paint while others cutting a little into the wood underneath. The latch on the front looked loose with one of the tacks holding it in missing. Besides that, you could say it was well kept. If anything, it wasn't dirty or dusty and the paint still covered everything except the scratches.

"What's in that?" I asked. She just lifted the top and I felt a little dumb when I saw various clothes stuffed inside. She had just mentioned getting dressed but watching her made me forget. "Oh, right." She started looking through them for something to wear.

I sat up and watched her holding dresses up to her body before saying something to herself and putting them back one after another. They all reminded me of the one the statue had on it, slight frills sewn onto the sleeves and the hemline of the dress. They were all gorgeous and I couldn't help but imagine her in each of them. But, as I watched her trying to find which dress she wanted to wear, another stray thought came to my mind. I was wearing clothes when I found the temple - my clothes. "Hey... Where are my clothes?" I asked quickly. She turned and looked at me as she held a light blue, almost turquoise dress against her. It was trimmed like all the others with a white frill on the sleeves and hemline of the skirt.

"What clothes?" That was an unnerving response to say the least. 'I was naked!? But what happened to my clothes?' I looked at her, unable to mouth a response. She gave me a smile again and began to speak. "I was quite surprised when I ran into you. You were stark naked..." She blushed as she paused. I hadn't seen her blush at all until that moment and I couldn't help but notice how cute she looked with that rosy shade on her cheeks. "And I was naked... I had just taken a bath not long before. But, you know the rest."

So she was naked as well. My mind raced back to the memory just before I blacked out. All I focused on last time I thought was it being her instead of the statue, but now I could recall more details. I felt the warmth of her soft body against my skin, our clothes nowhere to be found. Whatever happened seemed to have left my clothes behind and caused us to meet in the way we did.

"I think this would look great on you." She held that turquoise dress out as if for me to take it. I let out a faint sign of surprise when I realized it; she wasn't looking for a dress for her but instead she was looking for something for me! I carefully took the dress from her, imagining myself in the foreign threads. A pretty vision came to my mind, even if it was uncharacteristic. I was never one to wear dresses; other girls were apt to wear them but I preferred the feel of shorts, jeans and the occasional short skirt. But, I guess I could make this one exception. Besides, it was the only kind of clothing she had.

"Thank you." I said as I held it against me. After a few seconds, I slipped it on over my bare body. Before I put my head through the proper hole, she had completely dressed in an almost identical dress. The only difference was that it was black instead of turquoise. While hers fit her well, the dress I wore was a little loose. I stood up and I could tell that I was a little shorter than her.

"Let's go and see if we can jog your memories." She said as she closed the chest and turned to me. I blushed a bit when I realized she wasn't going to hand me any underwear. I was immediately worried the skirt of the dress would fly up at any gust of wind. After a few thoughts on that matter, I remembered how Nina's dress clung to her curves and revealed her lack of undergarments. 'Do they not have underwear here...?' That thought was odd to say the least. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes." I practically stuttered. Even in all my years, a long nineteen of them, I never left home without wearing at least something between me and my clothes. It was the oddest feeling, having air flowing against me down there while the rest of me was clothed.

"Something wrong?"

"Uh, nothing..." I was afraid to ask her about it. It would probably make me seem crazy and I didn't want that. "So, is the town over there?" My finger quickly pointed to the roofs I saw earlier. She nodded in reply before she began walking towards the fountain. I was right behind her.

I could hear the faint sounds of the water growing louder as we approached the fountain. As we passed by the statues, I glanced at them. I couldn't help but stare in awe. They were the same statues from before, but in great condition. They all looked so lifelike, each bent over with a clay jar in their hands. Water freely flowed out of the mouths of each of these jars. I didn't really understand how the water made it up to the jars in the first place, but it must have been through the arms of the statues. The sculptor must have been really talented to perform works like each of the statues.

"Something about the statues?" she asked as she put a hand on my shoulder. I didn't realize that I had stopped walking, but the fountain's statues had captivated me.

"They look so real." She smiled warmly at my response. She seemed happy that I noticed the realistic details of each statue.

"My mother carved them when she was younger. She used some of the women from town as reference." I looked at her wide-eyed. Her mother did this? I couldn't help but wonder if Lisa had some hidden talents like that as well. "Well, shall we continue?" I nodded in answer and we walked away from the silent figures.

I followed her, almost entranced by the world around me. I couldn't help but look around; the large, thick trees that were there before were nowhere to be seen. There was only well kept grass and pretty, colorful flowers bordering the marble stonework of the footpath. The scent of the flowers was sweet and strong, strengthened by the vast numbers of them spread across the hills.

As we continued on, we came upon the column-bordered stairs. The stark white of the fluted marble vastly contrasted the colorful scenery around it, almost much more than the marble stairs beneath our feet. Only a faint trace of moss was beginning to form on one side of a few columns. This was definitely the same place I came upon, just in much better condition.

'Am I... in the past?' It was a wild thought, but it was the only explanation that came to me. As wild as it was, I tried to keep calm; it was only one mysterious question waiting to be answered and I had others confronting me already.

She continued on and led me past the bottom of the steps and onto a smooth cobblestone path. The path split the nigh endless fields of grass and flowers, the latter of which seemed to vastly outnumber the former. The fragrance of the flowers was much stronger now thanks to that; it was overpowering my sense of smell with so many different kinds of flowers.

I shook my head a little to try and keep focus through the hazy feeling the flowers gave me. She looked back at me and gave me a concerned smile; she was unaffected by the overwhelming scents around her. Lisa must be used to this, but I had never been around so many flowers before.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she walked back to me. I shook my head in answer. She was right in front of me before the tingling itch of a sneeze formed in my nose. Even though I fought it, I just couldn't stop it. It wasn't an overpowering sneeze, but it was quickly followed by another and another. I groaned after that last sneeze and leaned against her. It felt like my body didn't like what I was breathing in; there must have been so much pollen in the air from the flowers.

"Sorry."

"Let's hurry to town." She seemed to understand what happened. I couldn't help but feel this might have happened to others, especially around this time of year... Wait, was it even the same season? All these flowers in bloom here told me it was most likely Spring. It was the beginning of Fall in Meadowlark, the days still warm and sunny and the leaves not yet changing.

We hurried along the path and thankfully the flowers gave way to the grove of trees that separated the fields of flowers and the town. They seemed like normal, plain trees so I really didn't pay them any mind. I felt a little better in the grove than I did in that field of flowers, even with the sugary smell in the air that replaced their sweet fragrance. I didn't see a bakery or pastry store immediately nearby, just tree after tree, so the source of the sugary smell escaped me.

Lisa must have noticed me looking around. She called out to me with a smile and pointed to the trees. With a second look, I noticed that they weren't plain trees but instead fruit trees. Hidden among the leaves on the branches were small budding flowers as well as very small things that must have been fruit. I didn't quite recognize what kind it was. From what I saw, the fruit were light green and round like a marble.

"What kind of fruit are they?"

"Rubi fruit. They're really delicious when they're deep red." Somehow I figured, more or less hoped, they were something like apples. While the trees looked no different than those from home, the strange fruit they bore really made me feel like I was in a completely different world than where I came from. I couldn't help but wonder what other odd things I'd find in this place.

"Sophia." With the sound of her voice, I snapped out of my curious thoughts and looked at her. She had walked ahead several steps and was beckoning me to follow her. As I caught up to her, we continued on towards the town. We had almost passed through the grove of the odd fruit before she stopped and turned to me. "Do you remember anything yet?"

I looked at her for a moment as I mulled over an answer. I didn't know a thing about this place nor did I know how I got here. ...Or how I became a cat girl. I didn't want to keep lying to her, but I didn't want her to think I was crazy. The only answer I could come up with was a simple, slow shake of the head.

"Off to town then. We're almost there." She was right; I could see the faint outlines of several of the buildings from where we stood. I quickly followed her, keeping nearly at her side. She continued to talk as we took step after step along the stone walkway. "The town is called Rubica. It's a small, quiet town - except for around the harvest." After hearing the town's name, I couldn't help but wonder if they named it after the fruit.

"Harvest? Do they harvest those fruit?" I motioned back to the trees in the grove. She nodded quickly before she continued.

"Yes. It is quite the local delicacy and the trees here produce enough that they can sell it to the nearby towns and have plenty left over." Our short chat seemed to last long enough for us to leave the grove of fruit trees behind us.