FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The sun was just beginning to rise, giving the city a saturated blue color. Many talk about the beauty of the sunset, but few talk about the dull beauty of this specific time of day. With the rising sun, came the workers of morning shifts, getting in their cars and heading out. Ethan, being one to follow the mantra of "early to bed, early to rise," was already up, despite his unemployed status. Groaning as he got out of bed, he got his pants on, staying shirtless for now; it was okay though, Brook was the only one that he was comfortable being around without a shirt. Groggily, he walked into the living room, only to see Brook was still on the sofa, fast asleep; her falling asleep on the couch wasn't surprising, at least she closed the blinds like he asked her to.

The half asleep bat opened up the fridge and looked inside... Oh, that's right, they didn't have any groceries... All they had right now was some bread and deli meat; well, there was also the beer and candy bar, but those were by no means a good breakfast, he was a responsible and physically healthy bat, after all. Looks like breakfast today was going to be some plain toast, his favorite.

With two slices of bread now being turned into toast, he went over to the blinds, opening them to brighten the dimly lit room; somehow not waking brook up, she did mumble in her sleep though. His sensitive red eyes adjusted to the light of the early morning sun as it filled the room. It looked like no one living in the apartments were up at this time, no one working a morning shift, not even Mrs. Seibert. There were a few people passing by on the sidewalk, some cars passing by, but not much else. He looked over to the clock on the wall: 6am. Seriously? What was up with his biological clock. Not even he was up this early, yet he was so wide awake now. Maybe he would go back and lie down in bed for another hour or two, then he could start his day properly. That was until he saw something in his peripheral vision, lying there in the parking lot, just a stone's throw away from the stair case up to the balcony. Looked to be about the size of a person, but looked like a large duffel bag. Blue gray denim on gray concrete, underneath the pale blue light of the early cloudy early morning. Completely camouflaged.

Then, the toaster popped up, snapping his mind fully awake, the realization hit him like a brick. It was indeed a person! Ethan quickly unlocked the front door and opened it, almost stepping outside, he darted back in once he realized he still didn't have a shirt on.

There was a person out there, one just lying there, curled up, he couldn't see what they looked like, but the main thing on his mind was if they were hurt. He looked over to Brook, still on the couch. "Brook." He said, keeping his choice down, but speaking bluntly. He stayed in front of the door as she slowly woke up.

"What's huh?" She mumbled, opening her eyes but not getting up.

"There's someone in the parking lot." He said, looking out the window again.

"What?" She repeated, rubbing the crust from her eyes.

"There's someone lying in the parking lot down there, he looks hurt." He said, waving to her to come and look. "Let me get a shirt on and check on him." He said, as he went to the bedroom to get dressed. Brook pushed herself up, using the couch as leverage, and went outfit.

"Damn..." She said, looking down from the balcony, "Yeah, was he there all night? No one just falls asleep on asphalt like that.

Soon, Ethan was dressed, clad in a thick button up shirt. Not wanting to wake anybody up, he moved somewhere between a run and a walk, going across the balcony, down the stairs, and over to the man, now getting a close up look on him.

The man looked rather young, but not a child, probably not a teenager, but he was definitely younger than both Ethan and Brook. Dressed in a boiler suit, he had dark gray fur, rounded ears, with two black tufts of fur on them, as well as a long thick tail. What species was he? Ethan had never seen anything like him. Some sort of weasel maybe?

"A binturong?" Brook said, as she walked down the stairs, answering Ethan's internal question, as if the two of them had some psychic connection. "Is he alright?"

Turning him over onto his back, Ethan saw no visible injuries on him. There was no blood on his outfit, nor his fur. But that didn't mean he was alright, especially with the boiler suit covering his whole body. Ethan noticed the nametag on the jumpsuit: Eli. But, more importantly, now that he was turned over, the duo could see his chest rising and falling slowly with breath. They, in turn, breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, suddenly, the man's eyes shot open. His eyes a deep orange color, with a gasp he shot up into a crouching position, going from lying down to on his feet in a fraction of a second, fast enough so that Ethan jumped back, landing on his ass.

"Whoa!" Brook said, eyes wide.

"Ouch..." Ethan groaned, in mild pain, but not injured.

The startled man looked around, his eyes darting between every landmark and fixture within viewing range. Then, he looked over to Brook, his vibrant orange eyes locking with hers. Both of them remained silent, both of them locked in this strange sort of staring contest. Ethan remained silent as well, unsure of what to say. The silence continued until the man with the nametag that read Eli said, "...Ah... Hello."

"Oh, hello," Brook said, nodding. She stayed on the stairs, but not because she was afraid; she trusted in her gut that this man meant no harm. "Are you alright?"

Eli stood up, patting his body, looking down at himself, shaking one land, then shaking the other, "I think I'm fine?" He said, with a casual tone, like he just got out of bed.

"Alright, then," She slowly nodded, "That's good... Eli, is it?" She asked, smiling.

Eli, however, looked confused, looking over to Ethan who was now getting up, then he looked to the nametag on his suit. "Oh! Me!" He nodded, putting his hand to his chin. "I think that's my name. Eli."

Both Ethan and Brook paused, both of them sharing the same puzzled expression. Eli then looked over to Ethan, "Oh! Sorry!" He gave a smile, "For knocking you down, that was my bad."

"Don't worry about it." He said, smiling back, ensuring the stranger knew it was okay. "Didn't do it on purpose."

Brook stayed on topic, looking to Ethan, "Alright, so you think that's your name." She mumbled, crossing her arms in thought, tapping the side of her head. "You sure you're okay? You must've been lying there all night." She wasn't gonna say it, but she had a feeling he could've hit his head on the curve there.

"I'm fine, I'm sure I'm not hurt. I don't feel hurt." He reassured her, "But, uh, I don't know how I got here. Where is here?"

Looks like this was gonna take a while. Before they continued, Ethan shivered in th ecold morning air. "Can we continue this inside?"

"Yeah, right," Brook nodded, motioning to Eli to follow her. "You can come up to our place, we'll figure things out from there. As she headed up the stairs, she looked over her shoulder, "Oh, I'm Brook by the way. Brook without an E, like the river."

"I'm Ethan," Ethan ethaned.

The trio made it up to the balcony, and Brook continued to explain, "As for where you are, you're at Old College Try, it's where we live." The place wasn't exactly a landmark, but Eli might recognize the name.

"Okay, but where though?" Eli asked, "Like where where?"

Ethan and Brook looked to each other, with the same confused and concerned look from earlier, as they opened the door to their home. "Where?" Brook repeated, "Like, what city? Palegreen City. You're far from home, aren't you?"

"I don't know where that is." Eli frowned, looking upset, the fear of offending the two on his mind. "Sorry, I don't know how far I am from anywhere..."

Not offensive, but Eli's confusion, as well as his manner of speaking, caused both Brook and Ethan to mentally bluescreen. Both of them were at a loss for what to say, a cocktail of confusion, bewilderment, and most of all, concern.

Ethan opened his mouth to speak, then stopped himself when nothing came to mind. He opened his mouth again, then the same thing happened again. "Hm..." Was the only sound out of him.

Brook though, still managed to keep her ability to speak. "Are you serious? Do you know where New Castor is? As in the nation we're in?" Was he sure that he didn't hit his head? "What about Yisk? Xiva? The other two nations of the world?"

"Sorry, I don't." Eli shook his head, looking like he was about to cry, "I'm so sorry, I don't know."

Brook continue, resting the side of her head in her palm. "Oh man, this is gonna be tricky." Noticing that the young man was about to cry, she spoke in a reassuring tone. Ethan recognized it as one that she used around children and parents with children. "Hey, hey, don't cry. We'll tell you about those places. Right, Ethan?"

"I guess?" Ethan said, looking to Eli, "What about The Last War?" The boy looked young enough to be born during the war.

"Doesn't sound familiar..." Eli said, "Last War..."

Things were becoming even stranger. You seriously couldn't be this sheltered? Was he living in a bunker for the past 25 years?

"Alright, enough of this. I hate seeing a stranger with such a sad face." Brook said, "Don't worry, Eli, as I said, Mrs. Brook here is gonna teach you all about where we are. A quick geography lesson and history lesson, alongside my assistant, Mr. Ethan."

Ethan groaned, not looking at her. She was having too much fun with this. He couldn't help but smile though, even through the embarrassment.

Eli, though, had his ears perked up in excitement, "Thank you... Mrs. Brook."

---

Moments later, Ethan and Eli were waiting in the entertainment center, alone with each other. Brook had, in her own words, gone out to get something. She didn't exactly say what it was. Ethan could only sit there in awkward silence for now, while Eli was looking around the place, curious about why there was toast just sitting the toaster. Other than that, there wasn't much to look at, so he shot a question at Ethan. The bat, normally not comfortable with strangers being in his house, put it aside out of concern for this Eli guy.

"So this is where you live? Looks nice." Eli said, as he walked over to the bedroom, seeing the two beds; both of them were messy, but you could tell which one was Brook's by the pack of cigarettes on the nightstand next to it.

"It's not much, I know." Ethan nodded, "I'm unemployed, but, uh, Brook works a job at the fishery on the coast here. The landlord is pretty chill, so she lets us skirt by on the bare minimum..."

"Neat." Eli said, "I love fish." He went back to the couch, the one where Brook normally sat, and lied in it like a ragdoll.

Well, at least he knew what fish was. "So, exactly what do you remember and not remember?" Ethan asked.

Eli hummed, "Well, I know that the sun is shining in the sky. I know about the moon and the stars. I know that we're breathing in oxygen and we drink water to survive." He sat cross legged on the couch, tugging on his nametag, "I think my name is Eli. But I don't know where we are or where this and that is. Don't know what this war is but I know what a war is."

"Hm..." Ethan nodded. "Okay, that helps narrow things down."

"Narrow them down to what?" Eli said, confused.

"No idea, narrows it down to something. Doesn't that bother you though?"

"What should bother me?"

"The whole not remembering anything,"

"I don't know, should it bother me?"

How does one respond to something like that? Ethan got hung up once again on how to respond. He didn't know how long it was, but soon the awkwardness was cleansed by Brook finally returning, holding a large rolled up paper.

"I'm here!" She shouted, waving to the two, "Did you kids have fun?"

"Mostly just some questions, I'll fill you in later." He didn't give her the pleasure of responding to the kids comment, he was 3 years older than her.

"This!" She unrolled the piece of paper, revealing a large map of Qest!

Three large land masses took up the majority of it.

One was a large continent in the east, a big nondescript blob of land.

Another was a cluster of islands in the north east, an enormous archipelago.

The last one was a brick shaped landmass, whole in the center, making it look like a fat letter C.

Eli looked in child-like awe at the map, excited to learn.

Ethan meanwhile wondered how much the stupid thing costed and why she didn't just look a map up on her phone. You stupid hyena!

"Here, we have Qest." She said, running her hand along the map, putting a bit of a dramatic flair. "It's the planet we all live on.

"Oh how fun." Eli said, "There." He pointed to the cluster of islands in the north east. "That's where we are, aren't we?"

"Nope, that's Xiva." She shook her head, "Nice this time of year. Most of the population lives on ocean platforms there, these islands are mostly for agriculture, nature, and small villages."

"Okay then, sounds cool," Eli said, "Then we're here aren't we?" He asked, pointing to the C shaped continent.

"Nope, that's Yisk." She said, "It's super cold there, but if there is one thing the people there are good at, it's injecting nature and technology."

"You mean intertwining," Ethan said, correcting her, only to get a sharp poke in his side.

"Close enough," She retorted, "Plus I'm giving the lesson." Again, she was having way too much fun with this lesson.

"So we're here then," Eli said, pointing to the largest land mass in the east. It was the least exciting place.

"Yup, that's New Castor. Use to be Castor, but then stuff happened and now it's New Castor. Super hot in the north. Lots of cities. We're in the south but it's still pretty hot here. Just don't think we're all stoners and slackers here." Thus spoke the girl who was both a stoner and a slacker.

"Got it, water place, nature place, and hot place." He said, putting things into his own simple terms.

"Y'know, sure, that checks out." Brook shrugged, laughing.

"Oh, yeah," Eli said, his expression shifting, no longer smiling but not frowning either. "What's that war thing you mentioned?"

"Well, we don't remember all of it." Brook explained, "I was a baby when it started. Ethan here was 3 when it happened. Uh... It's a long story," Brook paused, scratching her head, looking over to Ethan.

"I'm fine talking about it," Ethan reassured her.

"Alright," she continued, "I'll keep it short. But basically, it started with Xiva. Their emperor got greedy and wanted to push his empire outwards. I think he was jealous of all the land that Yisk had. So they were the target for the invasion."

"So Yisk fought back?" Eli asked.

"Yup, wouldn't you?" She nodded, "Originally, it was just the Yisk/Xiva War, but 1 year into it, Castor joined in. Again, was just Castor at the time. But this is where things became wild. There was a political disagreement on which side to take in the war, resulting in..."

"...A war inside of Castor?"

"Bingo." She nodded, "Castor became North and South Castor. North side with Xiva and South with Yisk. Xiva fought Yisk, North fought South, South fought North, and so on and so on."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why?" Brook asked.

"I don't get it. Why any of this?" He asked, earnestly.

"I..." Ethan pondered, "I don't know. Guess that people are just evil sometimes."

"Yeah, people are just dicks like that. But point is, the war ended here." She said, pointing to a tiny island in the north east. "The Isle of Glass, as we call it. It was a battle so bloody, so violent, that a truce happened between the sides. As the war ended, it was said that a bright light lit up the whole sky, marking the end of a 15 year long war." She said, smiling, hopeful. "Er... Everything returned to normal from there. Mostly."

"Like Northists still being a thing. They've kind of became there own, fascist thing and can't let go of the past."

Brook knew that Ethan was sore over living next to Augustus, a proud Northist. She pushed the topic no further, she did give him a nod of acknowledgment. "Any questions?"

"Not really," Eli said, "But not a want to go to these places."

"We'll go there eventually. Once we have the money." Brook nodded. "But until then, we can give you a tour of the city and show you stuff. Until we find out where you live, that is."

"After a nap, maybe." Ethan smiled, leaning back in his chair, realizing only now how tired he was. He could rest easy, knowing for certain that Eli was alright.

"By the way," Brook asked, "I'm getting the feeling you aren't from here. You know basis things and stuff that you can subconsciously know. But you got me thinking... Do you have any skills you remember? Like things that can retrace your steps?

Eli thought for a moment, thinking about how to answer such a question. Looking down at his fists, he clenched and unclenched them. He gave a smile, different than the innocent child-like child he normally had. But one of pride. He gave a simple answer, after all, sometimes the best option was the most simple. "I like to fight."