{"sf1_id":1739942,"sf2_id":"0mvKQ3vn","title":"Skies of Memories","author":"TazTopaz","words":1913,"posted_at":"2021-07-13T18:43:20.000Z","tags":["Alien","Human","Hyena","Sci-Fi","Space"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/1739942-skies-of-memories","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/s/0mvKQ3vn","image_url":"https://cdn.sofurryfiles.com/submissions/thumbnails/c6/36/c636a8b2-f858-4ea8-85a7-b0ce4b7a3fff","description":"Imported from SF2 with no description.","content":"The sky screams with the tearing and ripping of metal, the flames and engine explosions are bright in the night sky as the spaceship rips apart the starline. As I try and escape my head pounds. I know I must escape, the faulty Bailhache engines are about to fail and will take all matter onboard the ship to the capital, I cannot go back there! I managed to crawl into an escape pod and activate it before the fumes of the crystalline core of the engine suffocate me… I feel the escape pod eject from the main ship. I start to feel numb and fade away, apathetic to my situation… I’m too late anyway… Too… Late…\n\n  \n\n----\n\n  \n\nA middle aged man scours the beach, his skin is browned from sun exposure and his hair black. Using his knife and a sharp eye he cuts sea vegetables and places them in his basket, leaving smaller leaves attached to the body and throwing it back into the ocean.\n\n  \n\nHe pauses for a moment and furrows his slightly wrinkled forehead, his brown eyes focus on something… A.. purple furred hand?!\n\n  \n\nHe rushes over, dropping his basket and keeping his knife out and starts digging and cutting through the thick seaweed, with snaps, snicks, cracks he finds a naked Hyaenoid! Checking the pulse of the creature he realises it’s still alive and breathing!\n\n  \n\nPacking up his things he throws the stranger over his shoulder and makes his way back to where he came from\n\n“We need to get you to Doctor Carcassones, we’ll get you fixed up…!” He whispers, assuring the unconscious man\n\n  \n\nAt the doctor's office a man in a white lab coat is talking with the beach scourer from earlier, the two jump as they hear a growl from the Hyaenoid\n\n  \n\n“Shit… my head hurts” the amethyst furred stranger managed to utter\n\n\u0026nbsp;\n\nThe two men are taken back, nervously the doctor speaks back in the same language before moving the privacy curtain to form a separate room\n\n  \n\n“You’re awake! Try not to move around too much, I tried fixing you up the best I could with our older tech. I’m Doctor Carcassones, resident doctor of this small town. What’s your name?”\n\n  \n\nThe Hyaenoid pauses for a bit, looking around to gain his bearings, the room was pristine, sterile. The baby blue privacy curtains were immaculate and the bed he laid on was quite firm\n\n“My… name… My name is… I… I don’t remember my name” he responds, clenching his head “I don’t remember anything”\n\n  \n\nDoctor Carcassones tilted his head before checking his clipboard\n\n  \n\n“I ran some scans and X-rays on you, it appears you suffered some brain damage, potentially from the lack of oxygen. You were found washed ashore on the beach covered in seaweed and plants. Your leg is broken too.”\n\n  \n\nThe Hyaenoid looks down and notices the cast, wincing as he realizes his leg is in mild pain then looks back up at the doctor\n\n  \n\n“So my lack of memory is linked to my brain damage you think?”\n\n  \n\n“Unfortunately yes, it appears you have retrograde amnesia. Just out of curiosity, could you tell me my own name?”\n\n  \n\n“I think you said it was Doctor… Corkson? No… Carcassones!”\n\n  \n\nThe doctor whispers something about forming new memories as he scribbles on his clipboard\n\n  \n\n“You seem to be able to form new memories just fine so you don’t have anterograde amnesia. We weren’t able to find any identification documents on your person and you have an implant of some sort on your spine but this isolated island doesn’t have the tech access and convert Hyaenoid computer data”\n\n  \n\nThe doctor opens the curtains back up and the middle age puts his magazine down, a bikini clad woman on the cover\u0026nbsp;\n\n  \n\n“You’re awake!” He walks over and reaches his hand out for a shake. “The doctor informs me this is a greeting from the mainland”\n\n  \n\nThe Hyaenoid hesitates before reaching his hand out with a firm squeeze the two shake hands\n\n  \n\n“My name Yvon, please, tell me yours!”\n\n  \n\nThe Hyaenoid, chuckles\n\n  \n\n“That’s the thing, I don’t remember that, I guess you two could give me a name until we can figure that out”\n\n  \n\n“Well I don’t want to call you furry-faced… seeing as you’re speaking French and I found you on the sands I’ll call you Sable. I’m the mayor of this small town on the island!\n\n  \n\n“Nice to meet you Mayor Yvon, Sable works for me” The Hyaenoid chuckles\n\n  \n\n“Please, just call me Yvon, we’re never formal here, why not stay at my place, we can have you do some easy chores”\n\n  \n\nSable silently nods and smiles in agreement…\n\n  \n\n----\n\n  \n\nThe two leave the door, waving their goodbyes and thank you to the doctors. He apparently could bill it to the government somehow? Yvon helped Sable on his crutches, and walked beside him as they made it down the path and into town.\n\n  \n\nTwo women and two men approach, introducing themselves\n\n  \n\n[Estelle](https://www.behindthename.com/name/estelle), the seamstress that lives with Yvon. She is a skilled weaver and she wore a colourful floral patterned dress. She has a stocky build, lighter olive tone skin, probably stayed indoors a lot. She awed at Sable’s fur patterning, she found the gold stripes on the purple fur beautiful and regal.\n\n  \n\nNext, a man, Henri as the other man was quick to correct, already seeming tested. Henri is a fisherman, his French had a noticeably different accent from the others\n\n  \n\nThe other man is Pierrot Allard, he has a position called a “colonial governor”, some sort of administrative position. He clearly wasn’t from here, his clothes had an air of fancy to them and his skin was strikingly pale. He resembles Henri somewhat\n\n  \n\nThe second woman was Delphine, introducing herself as Yvon’s wife. She heard of this mysterious Hyaenoid that washed up on shore, she mentioned “never seeing an extraterrestrial before” she was disappointed to hear that Sable had no memory of my home planet\n\n  \n\n“You know, we could show our guest a taste of our homeland!” Yvon mentioned “Governor Allard and Henri can come over too”\n\n  \n\nPierrot scoffed\n\n  \n\n“I don’t dine with subjects, know your place mayor, Henri will be eating with me tonight”\n\n  \n\nYvon didn’t skip a beat\n\n“That’s fine, we know you prefer your foreign food anyways, Henri you’re welcome anytime”\n\n  \n\nHenri eyes had a glimmer of something before Pierrot scoffed again\n\n  \n\n“Henri has been getting too familiar with you subjects, you people wouldn’t know fine cuisine if it smacked you in the face”\n\n  \n\nSable’s palms started to sweat, this felt familiar, this treatment of subjects. After that interaction Pierrot and Henri went on their way as Yvon, Delphine, [Estelle](https://www.behindthename.com/name/estelle), and Sable headed home down the road. While scaling a fish, Sable noticed a tattoo of dots on his arm, they traced to form a T shape, with a curved end. A mystery indeed… He wondered why it felt nostalgic to look at. He decided that now wasn’t the time, supper must be prepared so he went back to filleting the fish as Delphine showed him.\n\n  \n\nAt the dinner table the four had a discussion…\n\n  \n\n“This fish is delicious, I’m surprised it goes so well with this white stuff… What did you say it was again?”\n\n  \n\n“Well my friend, it seems you’re getting some energy back! This is called Leinwa. I’ll show you how it’s made tomorrow. But now is not the time for work, but for eating!”\n\n  \n\nThe four of them laughed\n\n  \n\n“I’m sorry to hear about your memories, Sable, here on the island we’re all humans so I got ahead of myself earlier. The only people that leave the planet tend to be merchants and important interplanetary people”\n\n  \n\n“That’s okay. Is French the interplanetary language of commerce?”\n\n  \n\nThe couple stopped in their tracks as if there was a revelation\n\n  \n\n“No… It’s not… The language of the planetary governments is Sulyari… But now that you mention it, it is weird an off planter like you speaks French so well…”\n\n  \n\nYvon paused in thought, [Estelle](https://www.behindthename.com/name/estelle) interjected\n\n  \n\n“And your French sounds different from colonials’, I’ve never heard an accent like it”\n\n  \n\n“Good point, it’s not from the mainland. Maybe you could ask for an audience with Pierrot tomorrow, he was born on the mainland and has travelled the planet. If anybody could recognize that accent it would be him” Delphine posulated “France has no colonies off planet to my knowledge”\n\n  \n\nA lead! Sable thought, his stump of a tail twitching ever so slightly “He’ll probably be looking for me if he’s a governor, just to see if I’m violating any laws or treaties. I’ll seek him first”\n\n  \n\nAll four nodded. As they finished supper and a long gregarious chat about the traditions, manners, and history of the town and island it was time to sleep…\n\n  \n\n… It would have been. Sable laid on his blanket, staring at his tattoo on his forearm. He couldn’t stop thinking about it. His accent, this tattoo, his amnesia… Were they connected? His mind spun in circles, circles, round and round. He got fed up and decided he needed to go out and clear his head. All these conjectural thoughts were driving him mad as they echo’d and bounced. Was the accent really native to this planet, what caused the brain damage and amnesia, the doctor said brain damage from the lack of oxygen but he was in a cocoon of seaweed, so tight that even a man as strong and muscular as Yvon struggled. What about the tattoo? That must have some sort of meaning, he was told the native people have cultural tattoos while the colonials tend not to, maybe it’s the same?\n\nThe thoughts continued until he was on top of a cliff. He sat down and looked at the night sky. Amongst the stars there were 5 other satellites, dancing in the stars. They were round, one of them was truly massive, with streaks of red, pink, and orange barely visible, the others were significantly smaller in the sky, you couldn’t make out any details in particular. Reminiscent of a garbled signal.\n\n  \n\n“Sable, what are you doing all the way up here?” He heard a deep, familiar voice and turned around “You couldn’t sleep?”\n\n  \n\nIt was Yvon?\n\n  \n\n“I could ask you the same… I couldn’t sleep. My head was spinning with thoughts” he said, looking back up at the sky “I thought the stars could help, maybe that’s the brain damage speaking though”\n\n  \n\nYvon sat down beside him, crossing his legs\n\n  \n\n“Any reason in particular the stars call to you?”\n\n  \n\n“Now that I think of it…” Sable raises his arm and shines a light on the tattoo “This tattoo… Maybe this pattern is amongst the stars?”\n\n  \n\n“It does look like a constellation… I don’t see it anywhere though… We have old star charts and records. Our people were expert navigators and sailors, using the stars. Some people still do that… Henri does. He lives with Pierrot, so you could stop by and talk to him too, maybe he knows”\n\n  \n\nSable takes a moment to ask, “What are those big stars? Are they the other planets?”\n\n  \n\n“Yes. We’re on Earth, the really big red one is Kopuani, that one right in front of it is Lamaedes, the one beside that is Tawikta, and the others are Bvuni, Elschita, and Honira”\n\n  \n\nThe two spoke about the stars, and went home, Sable was confident in his goals, no more bouncing thoughts. His resolve was steeled\n\n  \n\nEnd"}