FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hi. This is the first part to a weight gain/sci-fi story I write in my spare time. Obviously, don't read it if you dislike weight gain. For those looking to get their fetishy fix, I'm afraid you'll have to hold out until I've written the next submission, for this part is relatively clean, albeit something small at the end.

The story follows a malnourished crab-eating fox called Lapp, who is raised on a vassal planet called Valhalla.

Mh. Yeah. Enjoy. Or don't. I'd prefer it if you did, though.

(P.S: I wrote this in an external program so the formatting got reset upon transfer. Some things might look weird. Then again, everything I write looks weird.)

(P.S.S: this is what a crab-eating fox/Maikong looks like IRL)

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PART ONE - Return to Sender

"Rations for the Empire! You know the drill, folks." The metal-clad lizard announced, clapping his gloved claws.

With what strength my lithe, Maikong body could muster, I lifted a crate of turnips into the corvette's storage. Sighing, I watched the lizard take the crate and push it into a hollow square in the wall, where it disappeared through a chute. "C'mon, Lapp. The rest of the boxes." He said, folding his arms and glaring at me. I nodded, ears flat against my head, jumping down from the corvette and onto the marshy terrain of Valhalla, my worn-out boots slapping the muddy ground.

Approaching the stacks of crates, I looked around at the village. Valhalla - our home planet - was home to just one village and miles of farmland and wilderness. Its buildings were wooden, damp and riddled with moss. They were small, cubic huts in which we all lived.

The Empire let us keep our colony so long as the radishes we produced went to their war effort, being their 'tributary, rightful property'. In terms of our own resources, we were given a few large generators to power essential facilities, and we had what food the Empire considered us worthy of receiving (which wasn't a lot), meaning the population of our village was weak and starved, and the colony's development arrested. We had just enough food to keep us alive - but not enough to see us revolt against the Empire's firm grip. To top things off, Valhalla was naturally humid - so our malnourished bodies were vulnerable to all kinds of diseases that bred in the vast swamps. The idea of medicinal goods was unthinkable, and as a result we saw many casualties each year.

We lived in absolute deprivation, in other words, and we couldn't do anything about it. We could only hope a distant federation could liberate us - or for the Empire to lose their war against whoever they were currently brawling with.

"Failure to supply what the Empire rightfully owns will result in the glassing of Valhalla." The lizard announced for the umpteenth time to nobody in particular as he stood at the cargo bay doors, arms folded as he watched me and the rest of the foxes haul the crates.

Soon enough, said turnip crates had been lifted onto the corvette which, containing its crew, after a few minutes slowly lifted off the ground and into the heavens with a low hummm. The lizard who had been watching us disappeared into the ship as it lifted, the cargo bays doors closing behind him. Our monthly task was finished.

"See you thieving fucks in a month." A fox near to me said as we collectively watched the shadowy cruiser break through the murky, dark green clouds, until it was no longer visible. There was a moment of silence and brief recollection, where people stared into the skies, or looked around at each other as if saying 'what now'?

"That's a wrap, guys. Take a break, we'll get back to work tomorrow." The colony president finally said. Despite his grand title, the president was as thin and deprived as the rest of us. He donned the same filthy grey T-shirt and ate the same food. His title was just that - a mere title. "We can't let them bleed us dry like this forever. When are we going to do something about it?" Another person said, which brought a few groans and grumbles amongst the crowd. "What can we do about it?" The president replied, the crowd of foxes slowly beginning to gather their things and ?ling out of the landing zone and into the surrounding village. "The last time somebody revolted...you remember that, don't you?"

I, personally, remembered. Old Mr. Stanton. The old fox didn't 'revolt', so to speak, but rather had collapsed from exhaustion whilst shifting food crates, and after falling, just couldn't get up. He was rather violently dragged to the Empire's cruiser. He didn't return.

He was considered an 'unperson'. To the empire, Old Mr. Stanton no longer existed, nor did he exist before his death. We were told to think the same way, or else we'd become 'unpeople'.

A few weeks passed. The nights became colder, the days became shorter, and the food supply dwindled. I was curled up in an alcove atop of a crate that resided there, tucked away from the rest of the youth bunkhouse I was in. Scattered around the room were other young foxes, most of whom were quietly chatting or were fast asleep. We were all sorts of ages - I was the oldest at eighteen. My closest friend, Dann, who was seventeen, wasn't present. There were six others, who ranged from six years-old to fifteen. I figured Dann must've been at the bathhouse.

Hearing no noises from my bunk-mates, I dropped my spindly legs over the side of the crate and gently made my way to the door of the bunkhouse, opening it slowly as to not amplify the ungodly creaking noises it usually made. We swore that you could hear them from the other side of the planet.

I stepped into the blackness of the Valhallan night. The sky, as always, was cursed by a thick, dark green, patchy overcast. Blotches of white light shone through where the clouds were the least dense, rejected off one of the planet's two moons. Sometimes, the sun and Valhalla's two moons would all be at the other side of the planet, rendering the night pitch black. Tonight was fortunately not one of those nights, meaning I could actually see where I was going.

A bitter wind cut through my fur as I turned to close the door, casting a foreboding shiver down my spine. Door shut behind me, I slowly made my way to the bathhouse in the dark, my short journey accompanied by the sounds of Valhallan frogs and insects. I was, otherwise, completely alone. It was times like these that let me recollect and brood as I went about my evening routine.

Feeling a mosquito of sorts tickling my fur, I was glad to be able to escape into the bathhouse and smack the arm it was attacking before more of its brethren arrived to fester on my malnourished body. Seeing as the lights were off, I realised Dann must've been elsewhere. I let a small smile creep across my face, however.

There was nobody to yell at me for showering for too long! I pushed down the light-switch, after which a single bulb that hung from the wooden roof flickered for a while before shining a dull light across the bathhouse, giving me just enough light to see myself in the mirror.

I'm a tall guy. Skinny, granted, but tall, giving me a lanky, awkward, teenage physique. I have a dull, brown hide, typical of my crab-eating fox race.

My Maikong race apparently goes back millions of years, but we've only been on Valhalla for a few decades. What was originally a dreamy, newly established colony destined to become a holiday destination became corrupted when the Empire learnt of our existence. They were quick to claim the planet, with the original colonisers on it, to vassalise them. My dad was apparently one of the first colonisers, and he'd brought me and my mum with him. I didn't know who they were, though, nor did I have any living memory of them.

Perhaps they were unpeople, and in the eyes of the Empire, I just phased into existence without being born?

I quickly undressed, dumping my clothes by the sink and pushing them beneath it with my foot. Looking at the mirror again, I could see my severely underfed body. My ribs were clearly visible, pushing firmly outwards against my fur. In fact, all my bones were practically visible. Turning around, I got a clear view of my spine, which pushed against my skin and stuck out like a sore...well, spine. Not an inch of fat nor muscle blessed my body.

Sighing, I stepped into a cubicle, switching the shower on. The stream of water ran through my fur, dragging all sorts of dirt and debris with it. Its warmth soothed me, and I was able to lean my head back, closing my eyes with a sigh. The beads of water seemed to also wash away all my worries and stipulations, at least for a moment. I was so relaxed, I almost didn't hear the explosion, and the loud rumbling that followed.

My eyes shot open. I heard somebody yell "are you alright?", but there was no response. Switching the shower off, I stepped out and climbed onto the desktop by the sink to look out of the window, not caring that I was getting water everywhere. Squinting, I could see a bright light somewhere in the farmlands - which was a relief, since that meant nobody would have been present - at least not at this time of night. Saying that...whatever could it have been? Had one of the tractors somehow blown up?

Hearing voices, I clambered down from the desktop and opened the bathhouse door slightly, poking my head outside.

"Everything alright?" I called.

"Yeah, something's short-circuited, probably." Another voice called back.

"It's...it's a ship?" I heard somebody say. I pushed my head further outside.

"He's right, some ship's crash-landed. Fuck, what do we do?" I heard another voice say. Curiosity got the better of me, so I quickly put my jeans and T-shirt on, too much in a hurry to care that I was soaking wet beneath them.

Venturing outside, my bare feet slapped the mud beneath as I quickly began to make my way to the ship.

A gathering of moving, torch-wielding foxes had congregated, having left the central village to investigate. Two or three were carrying buckets of water, to put whatever fire that had started out. I joined the congregation which grew in size as we passed more houses.

We all approached the ship. It was a little, civilian corvette from an unknown nation. It certainly wasn't from the Empire. It had probably accidentally got snagged into orbit for some reason and had scraped the surface of the planet upon landing, judging by the miles-long ditch it had left behind. However, it was for the most part in surprisingly good condition, save for a fire that had broken out in the interior, which a group of men had already entered to deal with.

"It's empty!" Somebody called out, the splashing of water audible from within. Standing on my tippy-toes, I managed to get a better look at the corvette. The model was totally foreign to me. It was pancake-like in that it was wider than it was tall. Its armour was covered in dings and dents, with most of its paint having been scraped off completely. What paint was left was a baby-blue, and it looked to have covered the entire ship, alongside a white trim that adorned the ship's edges. Despite the fact it had crash landed, all the portholes I could see had their glass intact. What a sturdy little bugger!

We continued to examine the ship as the men inside dealt with the fire. At its rear were two, large, cylindrical thrusters. We were utterly fascinated, to say the least.

"Do you think it'd still work?" Somebody near the front of the crowd said. Nobody responded.

We could see the orange lights shining through the portholes get dimmer and dimmer. A few other men pushed through the crowd with more water. Soon, the fire had been put out, and a group of people a bit older than me exited through the door by the front of the ship, all of whom were sporting triumphant smiles.

"Nice job, guys. I'll see about getting your reward for that quick thinking later." A voice said.

"What now?" Somebody else said.

"We should see if we can turn it on." Somebody else said. Some of the more techie colonists had entered the ship, and I assumed they were tinkering around in wherever the pilot's area was.

A hand grabbed my shoulder.

"Hey, Lappy!" The owner of the hand said. Turning around, I saw the torchlit, youthful face of Dann, smiling at me.

"Hey Dann. Pretty cool, huh?" I said, stepping to the side to allow for the vulpine to watch next to me.

"Yeah! We should totally try and fly it." He said, attempting to look between the shoulders of the two, taller foxes in front of us.

I chuckled. "And you still don't remember when you crashed a tractor into a ditch? I wouldn't trust you."

Dann looked back and smiled, his teeth glaring brightly from the numerous torches around us. Before he could speak, there was an ominous, low whirring noise. Bright lights shone through the portholes of the ship.

"As if she still fucking works." I heard somebody say, followed by a moment of disbelief and silence. The crowd, after a few seconds, erupted into applause. I hadn't seen everybody smile so much in years.

"She's our ticket out of here!" Somebody called out, before people began to approach the entrance of the corvette.

"Stop!" A voice said, the owner of which having jumped in front of the crowd. "How do you think we'd fit everybody on board this little thing?" It said. People began to murmur. "Where would we go? Use your brains, people. This ship would likely be detected and intercepted before it could even leave the solar system." It was the colony president speaking. And as much as it hurt, he was right. A few groans were let out. "

Well, what do you propose?" Somebody else said, followed by a few grunts of approval. The president fell silent. "Well?"

"We will think of something, okay?" The president said. "If I'd had known some alien vessel was going to land on Valhalla, I'd have thought of something. For now, let us leave the ship be."

And that's what we did. I took a trip back to the bathhouse to retrieve what apparel I had left behind - my boots and socks, to be specific, then ventured back to the bunkhouse where I met with Dann.

The kids of the bunkhouse had already began to effervescently formulate grand escape schemes when I arrived. Dann, sitting in the centre with the other kids, looked up and grinned at me when I closed the door.

"You're kidding, right?" I said. "You guys really think the president will let you escape?"

"Ye gotta let them fantasise." Dann said, to which I shrugged, approaching the congregation of kids and kneeling beside them. "

Teach says there's a midworld in a neighbouring solar-system, Lapp. Can't we fly there?" One kid said.

"Well...do you think we could fit everyone in the ship?" I asked, smiling at her. "

Yes." She said, apparently not having thought her plan through at all.

The night was filled with further discussion and scheming. I retired to my bunk after an hour, hoping the adults had a plan that wasn't the equivalent of 'let's hotwire it and fly to the centre of the galaxy'

"Night, Lappy." Dann said, passing my bunk and clambering into his own.

"Night, Dann." I responded into my pillow. After a while, I descended into a deep slumber, my dreams being of escape, and a new lease of life.

When I awoke the following morning and had left the bunkhouse, the ship had been covered by a blue, plastic sheet, and the long ditch it had left had already been mostly filled in, at least for a good mile or so. All in the course of a night.

"Hey, Lappy." A familiar voice said as I planted my rump down in one of the many, wooden chairs in the lecture cabin.

There was only one person in the world who called me Lappy.

"Hey Dann." I responded, groggily.

"Did'ya see the corvette this morning?" He said excitedly. I wish I had the energy that Dann had - no matter what the circumstances with the food storage were, or whether we'd actually got any sleep, he seemed to have an endless surplus of energy.

I nodded to his question. "Yeah, I did."

The lecture cabin's door then swung open, hitting the wall as our rather flustered teacher stepped inside.

"Alright, guys. Let's get some silence." The teacher said.

"You look tired miss." Somebody at the front of the class commented.

"Yeah. How would you like to be called for an early morning meeting with the president?" She grumbled, dumping a leather rucksack by her desk. There was a brief moment of quietness as the teacher knelt down and retrieved something from her bag. "Okay. So, today's lecture is going to be on corvettes." She said, un-crumpling a piece of paper from her shorts' pocket. My ears perked up, and I noticed Dann lean forward in his desk. There were murmurs around the classroom. The teacher began to drag a piece of chalk across the blackboard. The class watched in silence, the only noise sounding being the scraping of the chalk on the blackboard. She had drawn the outline a rather familiar looking corvette.

"In terms of vulpine classifications, it is the second-smallest class of spacecraft, with the smallest being a jet. Where a jet..." she said, drawing the outline of a jet on the board, "can hold a single pilot, a corvette is designed to house two people. There are bigger ships, but we can talk about those another day. Uh..." she paused, staring down at the creased piece of paper. "It can travel faster than light, and its sublight speed can reach that of which it could probably do a full orbit of Valhalla in a matter of about twenty seconds." She said, before pausing. Due to her fairly monotonous tone of voice, it was obvious she was just reading straight from the piece of paper, albeit seemingly still in a rush. "The ship that crashed yesterday hasn't been fitted with weapons, but most corvettes can be ?tted with at most two small, civilian weapons. It is a mostly..." she paused, squinting, "defenceless ship that would be shot down in seconds. It hasn't even a shield." She said, before looking up at the class. "None of you are to touch the corvette. On collection day, we're going to give it to the empire."

"What? Why?" Somebody said.

"Because we don't want to risk Valhalla being glassed." She said, much to the disapproval of the class. Dann turned to me and pouted.

"Guys, I don't want this either. But we have to follow the president's orders. He knows what's best for Valhalla." She lectured, before sighing, and taking seat. The class erupted into complaining and arguing, to which the teacher simply sat and sighed, covering her face with her paper.

"Bullshit!" Somebody yelled, to which the teacher looked up from her paper and shouted "Language!". When we all died down, she sighed, before speaking. "Alright. Back to Memoirs of a Fallen Prince."

And that was that. Class returned to normal, and life returned to being shitty once again, with no hope of change whatsoever. It was as if he preferred the idea of his people starving than to even attempt escape.

A few days passed. I was working one particular evening on the farmland, weeding the crops. I was due to finish in an hour, according to the head farmer. Around me were other foxes engaging in the same task. There were smatterings of conversation every few minutes, but for the most part, we were silent, preferring to get the job finished rather than to dawdle.

As we were working, we noticed, slowly, the sky had begun to gradually increase in brightness.

"What's going on?" Somebody finally said, tossing her gloves onto the ground and peering up into the aether. Looking around, I saw many people join in with the study of the sky. I too looked upwards.

A ship was orbiting Valhalla, hovering just above the troposphere. Through less dense clouds, I could make out the silhouette of it.

"The Empire?" Somebody suggested. She was met with unsure grunts, but I was also pretty sure the empire was watching us.

"Perhaps they know about the corvette." Somebody else said. We watched in silence for a few minutes. The ship was obviously scouting out the village. Soon, though, the ship began to gain altitude. When it was too high to be even seen, we reluctantly got back to work.

This was an ill-omen.

PART TWO - She Beckons

I slept restlessly that night. From the window to the left of my head, I kept seeing the sky light up, dim, then light up again. What was to be a pitch-black night due to the orbital positions of the moons just wasn't pitch-black. There was undeniable activity in the sky. I figured, once again, we were being watched.

I turned my head from the window, looking away. Whilst I was met with a brief moment of relief, my attempt at sleeping was cut short when there was a piercing flash of light that illuminated the entire room for a few seconds. I heard grunts and murmurs throughout the bunkhouse.

I decided to investigate. Slowly sliding my twig-legs from underneath my blanket and pressing my feet onto the wooden ?oor, I stood up groggily. Bending down, I peered out of the window.

"What the fuck...?" I mumbled, eyes-wide. An Empirical corvette had landed in the central village. I could make out two, armour-clad lizards, who were lit up by the lights of the ships. Small, specks of rain hit their visors. Looking down their bodies, I saw they were holding... Well, they had axes. This wasn't good.

"They've got weapons. Guys, they've got fucking weapons." I said, turning around. Behind me, other kids in their underwear had already gathered.

"Are we going to die?" Somebody asked. I turned back towards the window, peering out again. The two figures had gone.

I frowned, moving my head to adjust my line of sight.

"Let me see." A girl said as she pushed against me. I let her look through the window, standing back and looking around for Dann.

Before I could, there was a soft knock at the bunkhouse door, followed by a moment of silence.

An overwhelming sense of fear flooded my body. I felt the pulsation on my wrists first, before the feeling reached my chest, then my legs. My hands went numb, and my heartrate greatly increased.

Nobody said a word, nor did anybody approach the door. We all stood in silence, staring.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I felt a trembling sensation run through my body. "Nobody answer the fucking door." I heard somebody whisper in the darkness. I looked around. We had to get out.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

I was the first to act. Quickly, I paced towards the back of the room, furthest from the door. Placing a paw on the window, I quietly began to lift it. The chill of the night air hit my chest, alongside specks of rain.

"Open up, please." Said somebody at the other side of the building. "Peacekeeper Plodd here."

"We will break the door down!" Another voice added.

The voices were lizardous.

"Here!" I whispered to the rest of the cubs, beckoning for them to climb out of the window with me. I climbed into the darkness head-first. My lithe body slid through the window frame with ease, my paws landing on the dirt beneath it. Crawling forward, my feet soon followed, landing with a thud. I stood up, wincing in discomfort at the cold rain.

"You've got ten seconds, kiddie-winks. Open the fucking door." I

helped a cub through the window, followed by another, then another.

"Five." A lizard said, having decided to start counting down. There wasn't enough time to help everybody out!

"Four." I practically grabbed a kid by the chest, pulling him through the window and dropping him to the ground.

"Three. Two."

"Help me!" I heard a girl say. There wasn't time.

"Get to the wilderness." I said quickly to those who were outside.

"One. Alright, for fuck's sake. Axe it. We're going loud." A lizard announced. I didn't have very good leadership skills. What followed was anarchy - kids running in literally every direction that wasn't my own, nor anybody else's, each yelling and screaming. I noted that there were other corvettes scattered around in the nearby fields. Though I'd started with a light jog, once I'd formulated which direction I was least likely to be seen running, I broke into a sprint. The wilderness would be my friend tonight.

And so I sprinted. I ran through the village, past the bathhouse, the interior lights of which illuminating the dirt in front of me. I heard screaming and yelling behind me - Lord, I hoped Dann was okay.

I tried not to think about it. I hadn't helped him out of the bunkhouse - saying that, I hadn't seen him in there to begin with. Perhaps he was in the bathhouse?

Please let him be in the bathhouse.

I skidded to a halt. My legs were screaming at me for the physical exertion I'd put them through. My stomach was complaining, too. I wanted to be sick. I had to push on, though. After catching my breath, I turned around, towards the bathhouse.

"Dann?" I called out, jogging to the wooden building. "D-Dann, please tell me you're in here." I said, grabbing the doorhandle and pulling the door open. I stepped inside, but found it empty.

I had to move on. The light was on, meaning he could have been here before. Hopefully this meant he had escaped.

Hopefully.

I jogged back into the rain, continuing with my escape.

"Crab at nine-o-clock." I heard a lizardous voice say, jolting my heart back into overdrive again. Practically stumbling over myself, I sprinted away from the threat. I couldn't tell if they were following me, nor did I want to look back in case I fell over and practically invited them to execute me.

I realised I was heading towards the corvette that had landed on Valhalla earlier in the month, what was probably the reason why the Empire had invaded. Though it was dark, the sky was faintly lit up by a single corvette - so I could make out that the crashedspacecraft was alone on the field. Nobody was near it. Could I...

Could I?

I couldn't.

I didn't know how to.

It couldn't be that hard?

I could at least try.

What about Dann?

"He's getting away, hurry up!"

...

I could.

Dragging the blue, plastic cover up, I pulled open the airlock's door, slamming it shut behind me. I opened the following door, finding myself in the pilot bay. Automatically, the ship's lights turned on, letting my presence be known to the village.

I didn't have long. Looking back at the door, I could thankfully (if not miraculously) rotate a crank to lock it, which is what I did, despite the fact my hands were shaking uncontrollably. Turning around, I took in as much of the pilot's bay that I could. At the front of the cosy room were windows, underneath which was a rather high-tech looking dashboard, filled with computer screens and buttons. Its horseshoe shape almost entirely wrapped around a leather chair was fastened firmly to the ground. About a metre behind said chair was the door to the rest of the ship. There was no time to explore.

I heard banging noises from outside of the ship, which sparked me back into action. I planted my underwear-covered rump into the leather seat. Examining the systems in front of me, I figured the largest button would be the...getofftheplanet button...right?

Only one way to find out.

I pressed the button down, hearing the engines begin to whir. A pair of joysticks unclicked from the table, both of which rotated and fell until they were about thirty centimetres from my stomach. Gripping them with both paws, I realised along the back of both joysticks were two pairs of triggers.

Okay...but how did I go up?

Smash!

The sound of breaking glass could be heard somewhere at the back of the ship. Had I been breached?

In a panic, I pressed the two upper-most buttons at the back of the joysticks. My body jolted downwards suddenly. Out of the window, I could see the treeline getting smaller.

I was fucking flying!

I continued to elevate. Some of the computer screens showed the exterior of the ship from different angles, through various attached cameras. I could also see the interior of each room of the ship - fortunately, I hadn't been breached. However, glass, somewhere, had been smashed, meaning there was a room in the ship that would be inaccessible once I'd left the planet - that is, assuming, the doors were air-tight.

I examined the various computer screens. The one closest to me seemed to be the main computer. It displayed a menu with many, complex-looking options. Was there an option to change the language? I thought that fate wouldn't be that generous. It had already done me enough favours tonight, after all.

Whilst the language was foreign, I at least understood the thumbnails that sat next to each menu item. One of which was clearly depicting a planet with a ring. I touched it with my claw, hoping it would give me a selection of galaxies or something. Instead, a depiction of the Valhallan solar system appeared. No...I had to go further. I pressed the button in the corner of the screen, assuming it would take me back to the menu.

I realised my ship was hovering a few ten metres above ground, doing nothing.

The button I pressed indeed took me back to the menu, so I chose the item below the one with the planet thumbnail, this one with a picture of a spiral galaxy.

Ah, now we were getting somewhere. A depiction of my Galaxy appeared, which was sectioned into different sectors. I was in sector four. I knew that from school.

I pressed sector four, after which the depiction of the Galaxy zoomed in, giving me the option to select many different stars. Valhalla's star was highlighted in green, and presumably hazardous stars were highlighted in red, most of which could have been neutron stars or other anomalous celestial bodies.

I chose at random. I had no idea if I was going to an Empire stronghold, an empty solar system, or...something else. I prayed it was one of the latter two. Pressing my claw down gently, a message, still in foreign writing, popped onto the screen, with two options below it. I hoped the top one was "fucking save my ass".

Lady Fate had decided I was worthy of all her favours, and had decided the top option indeed meant "fucking save Lapp's ass". I was so worthy of her favours that it seemed she had taken control of the ship herself. The joysticks rotated back against the dashboard and clicked back in, and the ship began to gain altitude by itself.

Sighing, I put my head back against the leather seat, closing my eyes. I could only pray, now. Pray that I wasn't going to be shot down out of the sky like an unlucky pheasant. Pray that the autopilot system wasn't the reason why this ship had ended up on our planet in the first place.

Within minutes, the village below looked like a scale model of Valhalla, lit up only by the various corvettes that had landed. I was aware we were being massacred. I was also aware that Dann was in danger. Was I selfish for escaping on the ship? No...I had no choice. It was either that or be killed. It's anthro nature to try and...y'know. Not die. But what about the kids? They were probably freezing cold in the wilderness, not knowing when it was safe to return to the village.

I had to find somebody who could help me. It was the only option. I needed to find a federation, or somebody that could come and liberate the planet - provided everybody doesn't die before then.

Poor Dann...I hoped he was okay. I just wished I had woken up earlier that morning, just so I knew where he was. He was smart. He knew how to survive in the wilderness. But...for how long, I didn't know. I could perhaps be the only Valhallan alive in the galaxy by the end of Valhalla's night. That was a scary thought. What was even scarier was that I was going to a completely foreign solar system.

I watched the cameras, keeping an eye out for the empire corvette that was lurking in the clouds with me. But, as the minutes passed, the sky remained silent. Even when I broke above the troposphere, I was alone.

Did they not care that I had escaped?

Lapp, relax. Ground yourself. What can you see? Name five things you can see.

I looked around. I could see a window. I looked down. I could see my stomach, which was lightly furred but was otherwise utterly ?at and tight. Looking down further, I had a pair of thin thighs that only looked muscular because there was no fat to hide the muscle. I looked behind me. There was a white door, clad with shiny white panels, that led to the rest of the ship. I looked up. There was an emergency trapdoor which, if I lifted my slender arm up, I could touch. The pilot's bay was quite enclosed, but that was okay. I liked having everything within my reach.

Okay. Feeling better?

I couldn't lie to myself. No. I was scared. I felt guilty that I had abandoned my friends, dooming them to be slaughtered or to live a life of constant fleeing, unable to escape the constraints of gravity and leave the planet.

That could have been you. You only acted on instinct.

I groaned, placing my paws on my face and sliding down my chair. Tears began to crawl through the fur on my face. I kept my hands there, continuing to quietly sob as time passed. This just wasn't fair...

...

I opened my eyes. All I could hear was the low whirring of the engine. At some point, the lights of the ship had turned off, leaving me in darkness that was only disturbed by the deep, blue glow of the pilot's dashboard. Looking out of the windows, I could see nothing; I was in perpetual darkness. This meant I was in FTL.

I had, obviously, fallen asleep.

Perhaps the ship's lights had turned off when the FTL was activated?

I decided that I could use the unknown period of time it would take to reach this foreign solar system as an opportunity to explore the rest of the ship, and hopefully ?nd out where the breach was. Slowly, I rotated around in my seat, so I was facing the door. I then stood up. It was as this point where I realised I was still just in my underwear. However, the ship was pleasantly warm, so I was comfortable.

I made my way through the door, and found myself in a kitchen-like area. It too was only illuminated by the various, blue monitors around the room. It formed an L shape, meaning at the end of the three-metre long kitchen, I could turn right, into an alcove. Here, to the left and right, were two doors. The right door I couldn't open, no matter how hard I pulled on the doorknob.

It must have contained a window of which the glass had been smashed. The door on the left, when I opened it, led to a cosy bedroom, which had two single-beds, a cupboard, and a desk. Between the two beds, at the very back of the ship, was a wide window. As expected, it gave me a view of the darkness caused by FTL travel.

"Thus concludes the tour of the ship." I mumbled to myself. The lack of a bathroom facility meant, unfortunately, that the only room I couldn't access was the room where I could relax in a shower.

Damn.

Grumble. I looked down. Despite my anxiety, I was uncomfortably hungry.

Okay. The chances of there being food stored up in the ship was really slim - had there been food, it would've been taken out by other Maikongs in Valhalla, surely...?

It's worth a look, though, isn't it?

The low, painful gurgling noises my belly made as I stood in the bedroom seemed to support the voice in my head. I made my way back into the kitchen, looking around for anything that resembled a fridge.

I told you.

Holy mother of Valhalla. I could have married Lady Fate! Having opened a small, what I thought was a cabinet underneath the desktop, I had located the fridge. And it was packed with food. Like, packed, from the very back, all the way to the fucking front.

Maybe the president told everybody to leave it?

I didn't give a shit what the president said - I was getting my paws on some dinner. Escaping an Empire extermination event was hungry work, and even if I couldn't save anybody, the least I could do was save myself from dying of malnourishment.

The idea of conservation was not something that was going through my head at that moment. I took from the fridge a tub of what appeared to be ice cream, some packaged cakes, a...suspicious looking packaged crab, and a litre canister of liquid. Closing the fridge, I took my spoils to the bedroom, placing them on the desk.

And I feasted.

I feasted like I'd never eaten before.

Starting with the ice cream, I opened the tub and shoved my snout into it, taking large bites and downing it. What was a perfectly cuboid shaped ice cream soon became something of an ice-cream quarry. The sweet ?avours of strawberry practically gave me a mouthgasm. Never had I tasted anything so divine!

I got so wound up eating it and getting ice cream all in my fur, I was surprised when my tongue struck plastic in all corners of the tub.

I'd eaten it all, and my stomach was satisfied. I was pleasantly full, if not a little more than that. But I still had food to eat, and I'd never had more than enough food before.

One-by-one, I gorged on the packaged cakes, each a different, sweet yet unidentifiable flavour. My stomach began to protest as it began to swell, but I wasn't done. This felt too fucking good.

After downing the cakes, I let my dirty, food-covered paws take hold of the crab.

Now, I am a crab-eating fox for a reason. It's in my blood to eat eat crab, and we never really got to see many on Valhallan.

So, eating it only came naturally to me. Using my teeth, tongue and claws, I was able to scrape out and eat the crab meat. Letting out a burp, I leant back on my chair and tossed the last of the shell onto the desktop, placing a paw on my stuffed belly.

But my feast was not over. Despite the fact my stomach was painfully distended, I wanted more. By the chair was the two-litre canister of liquid - I took hold of it, unclicking the cap and placing it by my maw. I pressed the button down, and a sweet, peachy substance filled my mouth. Of course, it was peach juice!

Slowly, the canister was robbed of its juice, with such peachy liquid having arrived in my food-packed stomach.

Empty.

I dropped the canister, letting out another belch. I was full. Really fucking full. So full, I could barely retain my consciousness. So full, I forgot about the massacre I'd just escaped from. As the seconds passed, I did what I could to ease the pain in my stomach. I found by massaging the tight surface, I could relieve myself of some of the discomfort. And so I did that. I rubbed my full belly for a while, up and down, side to side. It was...really relaxing. I let out a yawn, which midway turned into another burp. With what little strength I had left, I stood up from my chair, and slowly walked to the left-most bed. Carefully, I sat down, and turned onto my side, holding my stomach. I continued to rub, until eventually, I fell into a deep sleep.

I dreamt of myself. I looked healthier, heartier. I looked happier, and less starved. I saw myself in a new civilisation. It was alien, but I was coping better than I was on Valhalla. I felt...anxious. Anxious about how my life had been completely changed, and anxious about the things to come. But I had to stay brave. Dann depended on it, after all.

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Mh. Thanks for reading. I'll upload another submission soon. Let me know what I fucked up and what I did gud on. Yeah. Bye-bye now. Kasteel oot.