FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Twelve

"Target Acquired."

By

Furry Sith Lord

Bear sat in a folding chair on the set of the film he was starring in. He was busy trying to memorize lines because he had a secret fear he would forget them and look like a fool. It felt odd that this was the first speaking role and while he was used to having to learn where the markers are for placing and shots, speaking made him nervous. He didn't want to sound like those noobs that were reading and sounded like they were reading. Real acting was nothing like that and it was embarrassing if he was one of 'those' kinds of actors. More like an extra given a speaking part and looking like a fool.

The rest of the cast was off doing their own thing and it seemed funny because most actors told reporters that they are a close knit family but the truth was they only interacted when the camera was rolling.

"Mr. Ursidea-P, you're wanted on set, sir." A small mouse that was one of the director's aids said to him.

"Thank you," Bear said, trying not to sound annoyed that he was being called already. He was hoping for more time to practice. He grabbed what he needed and headed over to make-up to get ready on set.

Later that evening, Maxx sat on a stool as the bar slowly sipped his drink with the mostly melted ice making a soft noise as it hit the side of the glass. BH sat at a table against the wall and watched the bull carefully as he was pondering what approach to take.

He watched as Maxx sat silently drinking like he didn't have a friend in the world. He looked around at some of the other species that got near but said nothing as they just passed him by. He looked as if waiting for someone to strike up a conversation with him. BH now knew he had his hook!

He stumbled over and bumped into the bull's back. Maxx flinched and seemed to curl up instead of lashing out.

"Hay, I'ms ssorrry buddee," BH replied as he rubbed Maxx's back carefully and slowly. "I didnint mean nuthin by it.Here, let me b-eye ya a dwink ta makeup fur it." BH said and he waved to the bartender. He was glad he had the money Dr. Avram paid for all the help he did with Hueman.

"Thanks," Maxx gruffed and the bartender approached.

"Rum an Soda Coke fur me an wha-ever my buddee 'ere is havin'." BH ordered.

"Vodka on the rocks," Maxx replied. The bartender nodded and l.eft to make their drinks.

"Ah da dwink of champ-pee-ins," BH said then laughed. "That's what my daad use ta dwink."

"How about you, any kids?" Maxx asked as he started to loosen up. That brought a smile to BH's face. He was earning the bull's trust and making his plan fall into place.

"I... use-ta. I was with this bitch and we had a rotten spoiled little runt. Well he could do no wrong with her. He was a teen and we just bought new furniture and he pisses all over it. Says he's marking his territory. Well I paid out a bundle for it and I slapped the little brat. So she packs up and gets our paws untied. Says I'm a terrible husband, a poor father. Well good riddance to her, that's what I say." BH lied. He was picturing Tyger in his mind to help direct his hate. He hated how the white tiger had pretended to b e his son while looking to stab both him and Bear in the back. Even after everything he did for him.

One of his long term goals was to capture Tyger and have him sit in front of them as Hueman called him Papa in front of the cub. That would serve him right! That would make him see exactly what he had lost with that little stunt of his.

"... and it's such a suck job that I just need a little boost to pick me up. But then she's like you're an alcoholic and you need help." BH suddenly realized Maxx had been speaking but he had been so lost in thought he wasn't listening to Maxx.

"Exactly," BH responded but not really knowing what he was responding to. "Hey, you ever punish your kid for being bad and suddenly you're some sort of monster?"

"Yeah, all the time. I'm a bad parent for punishing them after she cries that they were misbehaving. That's another reason why I drink, because she makes my life miserable. I never should have married her but now I'm stuck because she gave birth to my kids. I'm not just going to abandon them even if they are pains in the ass." Maxx finished and the bartender gave them their drinks. BH raised his and Maxxed clinked glasses with him.

I sat at my computer and rubbed my eyes as I was getting very tired. Everyone had already gone to bed but I was still on my computer trying to work on the case my father had sent me. I tried bedding as quiet as I could in order to respect the others trying to sleep. The only noise was coming from Hooper's room because he was pawing off to a magazine. I really did try to ignore it but my sharp tiger ears could hear him as if he was doing it next to me.

He gave me all the footage which was basically an overhead map and a red blinking light to indicate the tracking device. There were also the time of day listed in military time so when they stopped and set up camp I knew it was in the evening and then in the morning they would begin traveling again.

The routine was pretty basic and like my father had said they didn't travel in a straight line more like zigzagged their way. A couple of days out they circled around as if they had gotten lost then retraced their steps. The only oddity was that when they approached a large hill nearby they suddenly stopped for about 15 minutes then started up again 10 minutes later. The signal stopped moving again and it remained stationary until it stopped blinking an hour later.

I had been watching this footage several times to see the entire length of the journey. I was a bit annoyed that my father said he needed help with this. It seemed so rudimentary and basic it was like an insult to my intelligence. I then wondered if my father had thought of something that I was overlooking and here was the test he was giving me.

I thought about their whole journey and I was pretty sure when they circled back they had gotten lost or thought they were lost, because if it was just a matter of forgetting something then they would simply backtrack the way they traveled. I doubted that was what my father was on to.

Then it must be that something may have happened at the hill. They paused for about 15 minutes but what if they weren't resting. Something could have happened! That hill must hold some kind of significance. I checked all of the files my father had sent which had copies of the videotape evidence of Dr. Avram and BH taught Hueman how to talk. There were also files of interviews that the doctor and BH made concerning the events of bringing the white hairless ape into society.

Finally I was too tired to continue and gave up. I figured if I had any free time tomorrow I'd spend it reading to see if anything about the hill came up. I might even try to get Lyon to pick up one of my tutoring sessions if he can. A couple of my students needed help with algebra and he was doing really well with that form of mathematics because of his football playing. He had adapted to using it to help better his performance when throwing passes and such.

It seems like he can do mathematics in his head while I need to see it on paper to understand it. He's always been gifted and he draws incredible pictures! Drawing was his only escape from the abuse he faced as a cub. The adults that gave birth to him hated him because he was born white colored.

Our father ruined the company of Lyon's adult to get revenge for all the abuse inflicted on his son. Believe it or not the adult came trying to claim ownership of Lyon once it became popular to be a rare white species. He threatened to sue father but as father pointed out to him, once you sell your son as a slave you lose all ownership of him. Then dad beat the snot outta him. The whole matter was kept silent from Lyon because we didn't want to upset him.

I knocked softly on Hooper's door and he immediately stopped and pretended to be asleep.

"Listen, I know what you're doing and I don't care. Could you please be a little bit quieter because I'm trying to sleep, thanks." I replied and closed the door behind me. I knew he could hear me and didn't care how he wanted to play it out. Just as long as he was a little bit more quiet.

My head hit my pillow and I must have immediately fallen asleep because I woke up as my alarm went off and I felt as if I hadn't slept at all. I looked at the clock and tried to figure out if I could cut a few corners to get a little extra sleep. I thought about skipping a shower but then I didn't want to be walking around all day feeling nasty.

I could try and skip breakfast but then I'd be hungry all morning. I finally got up and grabbed my stuff as I realized I had no good excuse to try and squeeze out a few more minutes in bed.

Ben was waiting for me with a town hanging on his shoulders.

"Thought you weren't gonna wake up. How late were you up last night?" He asked. I yawned, unable to stiffel it before I answered. Ben was only wearing his boxers and he grabbed the towel and boxers I was holding. He put his arm around my shoulders as he led me to the showers with him. I was still in my sleep pants but did even realize it until we got there.

"I dunno it was late though." I replied.

"You find something?"

"Maybe, They stopped by a hill and something seemed odd about it. I vaguely remember them mentioning something about a hill so I have some more reading to do." I said but then we were interrupted as Dash ran past us with Lyon yelling after him.

"Cuse me," he said as he ran by holding a pile of clothes in his arms.

"Dash! Give it back!" Lyon yelled as he ran after his friend.

"Lyon, why are you shouting at Dash?" I asked as I grabbed his arm as he was trying to run by us.

"Dash stole Vance's clothes." he replied, sighing. A german shepherd ran towards us in only his fur as he was yelling after Dash. He was still wet and dripped water all over the hallway.

"Petey, I'll pound you into a real hare-ball if you don't get back here!" Vance yelled.

Vance wanted to go into law enforcement as a drug sniffer. He was in clubs that focused on anything to do with the police. His temperament was seemingly emotionless until you pissed him off. He'd beat the snot outta you for bothering him and not too many were foolish enough to do it a second time.... Well that is to say no one except Dash.

Dash hated to be called by his real name so Vance made sure to use it as an emotional attack while he waited to corner Dash and make him pay.

"Good morning starlight," BH said as Maxx woke with his head feeling as if a jackhammer was going off in it. He found himself bound and n o matter how much he struggled he couldn't get free. He squinted his eyes as he had a rare whitye fur species of wolf standing in front of him and there were other creatures he had never seen before. The must be slaves because they only wore loinclothes but they were in poor condition and not at all l.ike the uszuzal ones slaves wear. They were also missing the slave collars on their necks.

"What... what's going on?" He managed to say. A wave of nausea hit him and he learned over and began to cough as he waited to vomit. The wolf began to rub his back gently until he felt better and was made to sit upright.

"You had a rough night and today is gonna get a little bit worse." BH said as he put a red collar on Maxx and then pressed his thumb to the clasp after securing it.

"You will obey me," BH ordered Maxx as the bull looked at him in confusion.

"Why?" Maxx asked awkwardly.

"I have use of your skills. These hairless apes are my friends and you are going to help me teach them. I'll release you after we're done and you can return to your family... if they'll take you back or if you even want to go back.

"Hairless apes? You mean they're real?!" He said as he looked at the strange creatures. Rowlf looked and waved at Maxx politely while the other just stared at him.

"You're about to learn first paw about how real they are." BH smirked and he untied Maxx and helped lift him to stand on his feet.

"So he teach how to make car?" Paul asked and BH chuckled.

"One step at a time." He replied. BH was trying to keep things friendly and he introduced the hunters to their captive. "You will not run or do anything to try and escape," BH ordered as he again pressed his thumb to the clasp of the collar.

"What am I supposed to be teaching them?" Maxx asked.

"Blacksmithing. They are still a primitive society and I'm trying to slowly help modernize them." BH explained.

"Are you crazy?! What if they start that whole Gawd nonsense and start another wear?" Maxx manicked.

"They are no way near being able to do that. If they started a war it would b e short lived with them being wiped out very quickly. I just want to help them better themselves and make their lives easier. Who knows maybe one day they can live among us just like other species do." BH said but Maxx looked at them skeptically. He did notice they were speaking the common language so he figured they couldn't be completely stupid for primastives.

"Do they even know how to refine ore?" Maxx asked.

"Wait, what??" BH asked.

"You can't just grab a bunch of iron and forge it. You need iron ore and you need to purify the ore otherwise it will be unusable. Using unrefined iron will easily break when you use whatever you make with it." Maxx explained.

"So how do we do that?"

"That's not my area of expertise." Maxx said and BH groaned as the others watched him. They seemed to have no idea what they were talking about so they started blankly.

"And I suppose you don't know how to mine iron ore either, right?" BH asked and Maxx had the audacity to start laughing.

"Are you stupid?! Do I look like a miner? I work with metals and I don't produce them. You went through all this shit to cubnap me and it's all for nothing." Maxx replied and began laughing again. BH became so infuriated that he took a step and smacked Maxx across his face.

"I hope for your sake we have a use for you other than being ground into hamburg." BH said and he walked away as the hairless apes continued to stare at Maxx. He used his hoof to touch the tender area where he had been struck. The cold stares of the hairless ones made the realization of the whole situation quite clear. He had heard that they were cannibals and would eat anything that moved. If he didn't find a way to be useful he could easily see them eating him alive, as the wolf watched.

I had about an hour until the fur I was supposed to tutor arrived. I wanted to take a nap but I knew if I didn't then I wouldn't wake up in time. This brief lull was all the time I had to look over the records my father sent me.

"So the last day I was dragged up this small hill nearby and Hueman made a circle of stones and sat in it. I later learned from him it was to pray to his Gawd thing and wait for an answer from it. During that time I was able to remove the rope they tied on my neck and I cubnapped Hueman and ran to the nearest city to find refuge." BH told the interviewer.

"Weren't you worried for your life?" she asked him. She was a famous reporter that was a parrot species. Parrots were known for their remarkable learning of other languages and it was said she could speak 4 different ones.

"Well Barby, I was terrified!" I reread his response a couple of times because for as long as I had to stray with him, he wasn't the type to easily scare. Not to mention if he was afraid then why'd he volunteer to return? I had the feeling he was lying and I wondered how much of this interview I could believe.

A sudden knock on the door of our dorm room made me jump as I realized my hour had flown by. I quickly got up to answer it. Dirk stood patiently as I answered the door and he shook my paw with his huge hands.

Although he was a head shorter than I am, Dirk, whose species was a mole, had larger hands with big claws that he could use for digging. His eyes were tiny and he wore sunglasses a lot because light bothered his eyes.

"Hey buddy, good to see ya," I replied and he smiled.

"Thanks," he replied shyly. "We have a test on the founding of modernity and I want to go over it to make sure I have the dates and everything correct." He explained and I led him over to our couch and had him sit while I took my history books out of my room.

I saw Dirk as he was studying the maps I printed up of the area around the hill. I had forgotten to pick them up from the table when I answered the door.

"Sorry, is that in the way?" I asked, trying to give him the hint that I didn't want him messing with it.

"Actually, this is near my home. You're not checking me out are you?" He asked.

"No, not at all. I had no clue you lived there." I replied. I was a bit bewildered that he knew the area. I might be able to get some more info on the hill from him.

"I don't live here but there is a city a couple of miles away. That's my hometown!"

"Do you know anything about this area?" I asked.

"It's cursed. My daddy runs a mining company and he's wanted to go out there to see what he can dig up. Every team he's sent out has never returned so he gave up and just declared the area to be too dangerous."

"Has anyone else gone out there and never returned?"

"Hikers, travelers, and it has become a place where species that want to kill themselves go to get lost and die. There is a TV show called 'Never Found' where the hosts go to places like this and investigate. They once did a segment on this, I know because they advertised because it mentioned my hometown."

"I'll have to check it out..." I remarked then turned the subject back on the study session.

BH frantically searched the Web by using his phone for any information on refining ores. The group had remained camped out by the city with their hostage as BH tried to find an answer. He didn't want to leave just in case there was someone nearby that could do smelting.

"...So there I was driving down the highway and I looked in my mirror and the cops were behind me," Maxx said as he was telling the hunters another one of his stories. They listened intently because he was talking about a car and they were obsessed with them.

"Shit...cops!!!" Jayson replied having heard Maxx used that expression several times.

"So I yell back at them," Maxx started to say.

"You'll never take me alive coppers!!!" The group shouted in unison.

"Right so thinking quickly I had a cup of Soda Coke and I threw it out the window. One of the cop cars hit the puddle and skidded into his buddies then they all started hitting each other. In the meantime I made my escaped." Maxx finished his tall tale and the hunters shouted with glee. BH tried not to roll his eyes at the foolishness but he didn't want to ruin the hunter's fun. Technically they were like children and had no idea how big a lie they were being told.

Maxx made his way over to BH as the hunters chatted among themselves about how dumb cops are and how easily the hunters could beat them.

"Any luck, master?" Maxx asked.

"You can call me BH," he replied after he sighed.

"How about Woof woof? Is that OK?" Maxx said sarcastically as BH gave him a dirty look.

"When I first met those creatures they couldn't speak a word of common language. So when I tried telling them my name I guess it sounded like I was saying woof woof. Understand this, slave. I let them call me that because they don't know better. You on the other paw are a different story."

"Back to the topic on paw, did you learn anything?" Maxx asked again.

"I learned what the ore looks like but nothing too specific on metallurgy. I know that when we refine it it loses volume so like 100 pounds might refine to ? that amount roughly. I found a mining company next to our base and I could broker a deal to get them to dig it up except..."

"Except?" Maxx asked, taking the bait.

"I'm not good at this kind of stuff and while a 50-50 deal would be acceptable they'd swindle me into taking most of it. I'd need someone who could broker a deal and that means paying them... which means they may swindle me out of our 50% of the ore." BH complained.

"Do you know anyone that could make a deal to help you out for free?"

"Only my mortal enemy. He runs the most powerful company in the world and brokers deals as easily as taking a breath."

"So could you get him to help you?" Maxx asked.

"Not without some leverage," BH said as he thought about Tyger. If he could somehow capture the cub then he could force the deer to do his bidding. The trouble was, how could he get his paws on the white tiger?

BH did a quick search and after looking up Lou's public information he was about to then look up Tyger and saw he attends Bearly Academy. He wondered if he could sneak in and collar Tyger then he could force the deer to obey him. The other added bonus was that he could have Hueman parade himself in front of Tyger and he'd realize how quickly he had been replaced. That way BH could get revenge on both of them!

"How far away from here is Bearly Academy?" BH asked as he smiled.

"Two weeks driving I think. By foot?..... Months maybe."

"I guess... it's time to steal a car" BH mused and the hunters shouted and cheered.

"Eat shit coppers!!!!" Paul shouted and the others joined in as they berated police officers the way Maxx had been. Maxx watched them and forced a smile because while it was cute they way they believed him, the truth was going to be a completely different story.

To Be Continued...