FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"A-Are you a god?" Chuo asked. It was the only thing that made sense to the small, intelligent biped. He was in the arms of an enormous, armored thing. After months in a tiny cell, Chuo was traumatized, and his muscles were atrophied. He wondered if he'd been killed and was being punished by spirits.

"Where am I? I want to go home." The god didn't respond.

Xkathkar, of course, couldn't understand what his new property was saying, but he could guess at the general idea. He shushed the chittering creature. It had been listed as a species called a Kocui. Undeveloped, and defenseless to type 2 tech, the Kocui were newly discovered and introduced to the legally dubious trade of 'lesser' intelligences. They had eye catching, dark, iridescent fur, that piqued the interest of collectors like Xkathkar. He knew that the galactic governance would soon secure their home planet, under protected status, but, in the interim, poachers went wild.

What Chuo didn't understand, was that he'd been sold, no questions asked, to Xkathkar. Chuo's village told stories about gods and demons, and thought that the stars were a river of ancestral souls. The Kocui were, of course, not dim, unintelligent, or stupid, just young and without advanced technology. Chuo enjoyed math, and had helped engineer a water wheel for his village, before his capture. Gods and magic, or aliens and technology, the distinction wouldn't make much of a difference to Chuo at this point, and it wouldn't do anything to change his situation.

Xkathkar carried his purchase down a hallway in his satellite home. The hallways were massive, designed for the 20 foot tall aliens. They were called the Yoxkathk and their incredible strength and intelligence was infamous, throughout the integrated, advanced civilizations. Their massive, grey and red bodies were armored, and their heads were bulbous and wedge shaped, with three, deep set, beady eyes on either side. They glowed yellow beneath ridged eyebrows.

"WHAT IS GOING ON!? Please, please, please, answer me." Chuo begged.

Xkathkar clicked and cooed, from his throat, and it reverberated out of his maw. It was time to introduce his Kocui to its new enclosure.

Chuo caught a glimpse through a decorated window, that looked down on the nearby sun, as it ejected a loop of radiation and plasma. He had no way to contextualize what he was looking at, and he started to panic. None of this was okay. None of this made any sense at all. He squirmed, in a doomed escape attempt, but his captor's arms and hands were more solid than stone or steel. Chuo just buried his face into the crook of Xkathkar's arm to hide from the world. It was all he could do at this point.

Chuo braved more glances and saw huge chambers, where strange animals lounged and darted about. Suddenly, the massive being, carrying him, grabbed him firmly in his hands and approached a great, towering, cylindrical structure. There was a forrest inside.

Chuo's captor carried him and doors slid open, on the translucent walls, and they walked inside. Chuo looked up and saw the ceiling and walls shimmer, simulating afternoon daylight. Apparently, the cylinder could be seen into, but not out of. The chamber was filled with soft foliage, warm stones, and grass.

Xkathkar got on his knees and held his Kocui on the ground with a single great hand. It wriggled in fear, but it was exhausted and soon gave up. Despite the horror of the situation, Chuo had been isolated in a minuscule cell for months, and even this contact felt like a relief.

Xkathkar placed a metal instrument into Chuo's mouth, and gently put pressure on it until the Kocui was gagging and his head was trapped against the grassy floor. His captor pressed a button, and something was forced down Chuo's throat.

Xkathkar released his new pet and Chuo scrambled to his feet and tried to walk away, but after months on all fours, he was too weak and had to crawl. He noticed that the god, or whatever it was, was leaving. Glowing daylight walls materialized, where the door was. Chuo couldn't see out of the enclosure at all. He was once again alone, in an unfamiliar environment.

Xkathkar observed his Kocui from outside, knowing that it couldn't see him peer in. He'd give it time to recuperate it's muscles and health, as well as relax and hopefully recover from its stress. He knew that the Kocui, being a social creature, would be stressed as long as it was isolated, but he worried that it might attack any new tank mates, in its current, scared, and confused state. Xkathkar was an avid collector and understood that these things take time. The supplement he had given it would help kick things off.

He used mental technology to psychically set the day night cycle for the Kocui's third of the enclosure, to match that of its home planet. For now he'd just watch his pet get used to its new home.

Chuo had been frightened and whimpering, moments before, but whatever the god had given him was taking effect. It wasn't the same narcotic haze he'd grown used to in his cell. This made him bubble with contentment and euphoria. If he had the capability, he would have ran and played.

His legs shook, as Chuo stretched them out properly for the first time in ages. That felt so good. The grass beneath him was pleasant, and he rolled onto his back. He stretched his legs again above him, and then he stretched his neck, arms, and tail. He sniffed at the ground and it smelt familiar. Soil, plants, and the outdoors! Chuo decided that, whatever this place was, it certainly beat his old cell.

Chuo tried to stand again, wobbled when he tried to take a step, and fell. He crawled over to a vine and lichen covered tree trunk and used it for support. He could stand and shuffle around while clinging to something. He stumbled and crawled, exploring the closed ecosystem. Shimmering rainbow insects sang and darted through the canopy.

Chuo crawled across boulders, roots, and grass. He reached the wall and leaned on it, to explore the perimeter. He seemed to be confined to a wedge shaped section, kind of like a wide slice of pie. Walls broke the outer circle, and they lead to a point at the middle, connecting with two other wedge shaped sections, splitting the cylinder into thirds. Chuo found a spring of warm water and a creek there. He drank from it, and the water was cold and clear.

Checking his fur and scent, Chuo wrinkled his cyan nose. He smelt like his own crusted on semen, and the chemicals the traffickers used to clean him. His dark purple fur was dull and hardly sparkled in the light at all, with its signature iridescence. He lowered himself into the spring to clean and preen his fur, until he was feeling almost normal again. He felt better than he had in months.

BONK! Something slapped into one of the walls nearby. Chuo jumped and looked wildly for where the sound came from. The walls bordering the other rooms had grown slightly translucent. He could make out the shape of a creature, pressed up against the wall and cocking it's head.

Chuo yelped, and scrambled away, splashing. He hid in his own section, but the creature followed along the wall on all fours, tracking him. It would jump up, propping its front legs on the wall, trying to get a better look at Chuo, where he hid in the cover of a gray silicate boulder and some leafy red shrubs. Lonely as Chuo was, strange, suddenly apearing, creatures were still frightening.

It stayed at the wall, sniffing, and cocking its horned head. Chuo, calmed by his supplement, decided to try and get some sleep, his enclosure was turning sunset colors, and dimming anyway. He curled up on the soft grass and in the perceived safety of the shadow, of the boulder.

Simulated morning light brightened and reddened the darkness behind Chuo's closed eyes, waking him. He rubbed his eyes and reveled in his ability to simply stretch out. The creature next door had apparently given up or grown bored.

Chuo was still lonely, and frightened, but he was feeling much, much better than his time in the transport cell. He licked his cyan paw beans and preened his tail, face, and ears. He was feeling thirsty and quite hungry, but he wanted to avoid the part of the enclosure where the walls met, so he banged at the place where the door opened yesterday. He managed to hobble to it, without falling over.

"Hey! Hello? I'm really hungry. I'm thirsty. I-I-I..." He trailed off, choked up. Tears rolled down his cheeks. It was his first time sober in months and emotions were hitting him hard. "W-w-will I get to see me family again? Please?"

No answered came. His ears fell dejectedly, and his head hung low. He kneeled there and wept until he smelled something tantalizing. He followed it to the source and found it was coming from the center, where he'd bathed the day before. He reluctantly made his way over, not wanting to get startled again, but too hungry to ignore the food.

As he approached, he saw the impressions of two other creatures, through the frosted translucent walls. They ate and drank, in their own separate sections. Chuo froze. He didn't want to move forward, but there was a bowl of food, right where the walls met. The bowl was attached to the ground, and Chuo guessed that the food came via a mechanism, similar to that in his old cell.

Hunger is an excellent motivator. Chuo nervously proceeded. The creatures noticed his approach. The one from the day before perked up and threw its head back to swallow what looked like a cut of meat. It pressed up against the wall, to get as close a look at Chuo as possible. Chuo scrambled away, but there was nowhere good to hide near where the walls met. He didn't know that was intentional, on the part of Xkathkar.

The other creature briefly looked up, but it was more interested in its meal. Seeing that they couldn't do anything to get past the wall, Chuo ran up, swiped some items blindly from his platter, and ran off with them.

His legs were still weak, and he tripped and fell. Chuo rolled across the grass, and bits of food were sent bouncing. He desperately grabbed what he could, and crawled behind a tree. He examined what was in his paws. It looked like a round, steamed vegetable, some kind of baked cube, and a pink conical shell. He glanced up to make sure that he was still safe. That creature was flicking a tufted tail as it paced and looked at him.

Chuo brought the vegetable to his nose. It smelled great, and he bit into it swallowing quickly. It tasted as good as it smelled. Next, he ate the cube. He decided it was like a huge cheesy crouton. Then there was that shell. Chuo wasn't so sure about it. He sniffed at it, and it smelled slightly of brine. The shell was hard, so he looked at the opening, where pink, cooked meat bulged out. Chuo was hungry so he brought the shell to his mouth and sucked up what was inside. It tasted good too.

He nervously crept up to eat the food he'd dropped. He was thirsty, so he got closer, to drink from the stream. He used the discarded shell as a cup. The other creatures were looking at him, but he was growing more comfortable.

Feeling brave, Chuo walked up to his bowl, sat, and continued to eat. Ears flat, he did his best to ignore the two creatures as they examined him, although, he was beginning to get curious about them too.