FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The following is a work of complete fiction, entirely copyrighted by me, Valen. It's a brief intro to something that will probably be a much longer series than anything else I've worked on. Read, if you must. Criticize, if you must. Any and all comments are appreciated. I was going to put up some sort of warning of the sexual content in this, and then I realized there wasn't any. Sorry 'bout that, any readers who only read for that sort of thing. But not really sorry. Just wait. I have more, but the way it divided up, to have the full first section so many pages just wouldn't work, so I stuck this up as an intro. If it makes nary a splash in this vast ocean of furry stories I couldn't care less, but I'd be lying if I said I only wrote for myself. Enjoy, or try to.

Rob's Great Misadventure, the Prologue

Robert could find consolation in nothing but the fact that one day, he too would be dead. Life was tiring him, but more than anything it was boring him. He didn't want to take his own life, but was so unwilling to wait for his time to come. On a subway he sat with a thin lap top slanted slightly, perched precariously on his knees, keeping it from falling with his fingertips. Always typing, always writing, always spewing something out of his mind onto paper or screen, never trusting himself to hold and remember these things for long. He hoped to make a lasting impression on the world, lest he die in some car accident caused by him "accidentally" not looking both ways before crossing the road. That's all he ever really wanted. Some amount of worth; for so long he had felt there was none to be had.

It was very late. The subway was often full of people, having to fit more people in one car than was comfortable. But this time, there was just Robert and two others, a red fox with his nose in a book, and out of the corner of his eye he saw a scalie, he could've been a raptor; he wasn't sure. He was far too interested in what he was typing.

Robert was himself a wolf, having somewhat short fur for his species, the deep black mixed here and there with the odd white highlight; his bright streaks didn't seem to have any pattern to them, and he had never been able to explain how they had come to be. Robert was almost always wearing shorts and a blank dark-colored t-shirt, with sleeves short enough to show that he had some muscle. The wolf had never particularly cared for things like physical appearance, but felt that he had a certain amount of responsibility to keep his body in shape. He had nearly no body fat at all, just a medium amount of muscle over his firm frame.

Robert couldn't understand why life had to be quite the way that it was. All this, all that... Why so much pain? He didn't know who he was asking, but he often asked it. Others spoke of the healing power of music. Of love. Of religion. None of these appealed to him, his cynicism invariably, inevitably getting the better of him. If any of those worked, it didn't show through what he saw of the world. It should all just... Fade away. He didn't care about things like burning or bursting into a million pieces. He just wanted it to... Fade. From gray to lighter gray. Let it just leave. Less pain, less doubt... The profound silence. With these thoughts he found himself lowering his head a little more, losing focus on what he was writing. Rob paid almost no attention to it now. Thought it had to be there, but not necessarily paid attention to. All of a sudden, nothing mattered. The car stopped, and he got off, putting away his laptop, his breath a mild breeze he wished would warm him no longer.

As he went from subway to street, and from street to more minor alleyways, he strongly desired rain. Just a drizzle. He wanted weather, meteorology to just for this one second take pity on him and change itself to suit his present mood. No such luck; it was a warm, clear night. Rob glanced at his watch; it said 3:30. It felt like it had said 3:30 for the past week. Things just kept shifting from change to change, with hardly a difference of color scheme. Black, white, gray. And red. Just a little red.

He was following the alleys to where he dimly remembered his house being, preferring a faster trip to a walk along the busier streets. But then, Robert realized he wasn't in the least tired and decided to take a detour. The wolf found himself straying nearer the road. Before he knew it, glaring lights and a dim crosswalk. The corner of Pent and Main. A busy place. Two lanes, both sides. He didn't have to follow the sign on the other side of the road, telling him when he should walk and when he shouldn't.

There was a yellow, flickering street light behind him. He could smell a little tobacco smoke; he never liked the stuff, but suddenly he couldn't care. Rob forgot his watch, his laptop, his shorts, his life. A freakish calm threw itself at him like the constantly approaching-then-fading, approaching-then-fading pinpoints of white from passing cars. The sign on the other side of the road went through its cycle three times; the wolf didn't notice standing for so long. But suddenly, the sign told him clearly to not walk. The traffic sped along, and he couldn't help but take that step. Just one step... It didn't even have to hurt. Just a trip, maybe. Maybe he could trip on the curb. His foot must've moved a few inches farther outward; he could feel a little more wind against his leg. He could feel his balance compensating, him all the while wishing it wouldn't. The wolf blinked hard, but there were no tears. No tears this time. He wanted to kill his weakness.

A calm before the storm. His eyes closed entirely, there was a soft sensation of forward motion, a glint of headlights across his face, and then... Something grabbed him from behind. Within moments he was on his back on the sidewalk. Rob smelled tobacco smoke again, and then there was a grinning face coming at him. A paw was extended, and he took it. He felt as though he were looking into a mirror; it was a raccoon, with no similar facial characteristics. But something in the face, that smiling face, reminded the wolf of something... Something perhaps that he once was, and made him smile in return.

"What'd you do, fall asleep while trying to cross the road? Heh, I know it's late, but seriously..."

Rob was taken. He couldn't understand why or how or in what way, but something was definitely different about this raccoon. He couldn't have known how his life would be changed, but he knew it had been saved. Change can be a good thing. Afterwards, Rob would think about that night... Of all the busy intersections, of all the streetlights and crosswalks and suicide attempts in the world, and that raccoon just had to walk right into his...