FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

DISCLAIMER: Not too much adult action in this one, but there is a tad of it so be advised. Also, a lot of new characters are being introduced in this chapter, and I want to thank everyone on FA that let me use their OC's for this chapter: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6518055 and I especially want to thank Ryan Masterpaladin Lewis for letting me use his characters from his high school story in this chapter. Make sure you check out his page and his stories here on Sofurry! Hope you enjoy :)

Oh yeah, this chapter is LONG. You've been warned. :P

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Man, why did it have to start raining?" Ryan asked, carrying his hiking equipment with him. "It's only light rain hun, we'll survive heh" Morrell responded, walking right alongside his boyfriend in the woods. The human and the Orca smiled at each other, happy to be together on their vacation away from college with their two friends.

"I wonder when it'll stop, we've had too much rain here lately" Mako then added, also walking alongside the two.

"Yeah, how's the weather over there usually in France Karma?" Morrell asked.

"It's....nice at this time....I don't like...rain though" the grey lion responded, speaking with a bit of an accent.

"Do you miss living there at all since you transferred over to our school?" Ryan asked, since all four went to the University of Albany, with Karmakat recently moving to the U.S. from France only a couple of months earlier.

"I like America a lot, but I do miss home..." he responded. The four kept talking to each other about general things such as school, work, life, and other general things as they were walking on one of the trails in the woods near the mountainside.

"See? I told you we'd survive" Morrell joked, as the rain had let up even though it was still completely overcast. "Oh shut up haha" Ryan replied. "Hey, we're not far from the Appalachian Trail, we'd just have to cross through the woods here to get to it!" Mako added, looking at the map that he had of the Mt. Washington State Forest. "How long is it from here though?" Ryan asked.

"Not sure....looks like it might be several miles from here though, but still, I heard there's some breathtaking views on that trail, and my camera hasn't captured any yet!" The white striped tiger replied.

"Yeah, I want to take some photos too" Morrell added, cutting his way through the woods, walking away from the trail they were on. "Ok I guess..." Ryan added. Karma only listened to the three talking, and simply kept walking along with them towards the trail that they were heading to.

After making several twists and turns around the tree-filled area of the woods that the group was walking in, it started to rain again, but this time it was coming down harder than before.

"Shit....can this just stop?!" Ryan exclaimed with a groan, trying to wipe away the water hitting his hair.

"That's the beauty of hiking though, getting to truly experience Mother Nature and our planet at its finest" Mako replied.

"Hey look, over there!" Karmakat exclaimed, looking to his right and noticing that a stream was not far from them. "Oh nice! My canteen here could use some of that" Morrell pointed out.

As the group walked over to the stream, each one of them began to help themselves to the pure water that was flowing through the area, while the rain was still falling from above. It was Mako though that noticed something odd as he looked down the stream somewhat.

"Hmmmm? What is that?" He asked, walking over to an object that was lying on the ground about a couple hundred feet away from him.

"What the fuck is this?!" The white tiger shouted, noticing that someone had left behind some ripped khaki shorts, that were stained very badly in both dirt and blood. "What is it Mako?" Morrell asked, filling up his canteen with water and also organizing his hiking backpack. "Someone....left these..." Mako added, holding up the shorts while walking back towards the other three.

"Damn, I wonder what happened?" Ryan asked curiously. Just then, he looked over to notice that Karmakat had a very distinct look in his eyes. "Uhhh....what's up Karma?"

"That's ....fresh... blood...." The lion answered, getting up and sniffing out the area a bit.

"Fresh?? Did something happen out here??" Morrell asked with a very confused look on his face.

"Well, let's go look around, the trail isn't too far from here I would assume" Mako responded.

It didn't take long for the group to start walking away from the stream and towards the trail, only to have Karmakat get that look in his eyes again as they walked another couple of miles into the woods.

"Something's.... not right...." Karma added, now smelling something odd around the area the group was in. As the lion was now looking around the perimeter, another voice emitted from behind him.

"Hey! HOLY SHIT!! OVER THERE!!" Mako shouted, looking diagonally to his right to notice that a body was lying on the ground completely motionless about a few hundred feet away. "What the hell?!" "Oh my god!" Ryan and Morrell both exclaimed, with Karmakat's eyes widening as well as the four ran over to the almost completely naked body.

"Oh my god, what happened here?!?!" Mako asked, now getting a chill up his spine. The body laying in front of him looked to be almost as pale as a ghost, and also looked to be somewhat emaciated. The left elbow of the human on the ground also looked to be out of place, with the arm itself being covered in black and blue markings.

"BACK UP GUYS, I'm the only one here that knows what to do here" Morrell shouted, since he knew a lot of people that were involved in the medical field that had taught him a few things here and there. The orca turned the body over, only to have the other three nearly gasp in horror to what they saw. Two stab wounds, as well as a dislocated elbow that was partially wrapped up in what looked to be a VERY stained shirt, with bullet traces and rope markings as well on the body.

"Is....he...alive...?" Karmakat asked with a VERY concerned look.

Morrell placed his fingers on the human's cold neck to check his pulse.

"It's pretty weak...he needs food and water here, come on guys" The orca replied. All four of them quickly took off their backpacks and hiking gear to pull out anything they could to help out the human. Morrell quickly grabbed his canteen, and opened the human's mouth to slowly give him some water.

*****

*Gulp....gulp* *COUGH COUGH*

"Ummmnnnffff...."

"Hey look, he's moving!" a voice shouted.

".......ungghhhh....."

My eyes barely opened, and the voices I was hearing around me I had never heard before. Was I dead? Were the voices just part of my imagination? I figured I couldn't possibly be alive since no one was around when I had collapsed on the ground, especially knowing that my body had been through enough torture to the point that I thought it was ready to shut down on me. All of these thoughts were circling inside me, when I started to hear the voices near me again.

"He's moving! Give him some room here!" something shouted above me, as I then realized that my head was being held up as the cold water was now going through my body. I was still so weak at that moment though that I couldn't even talk clearly.

"mmmmmmmmmmmmmuugghhhhhhhh......ughhh.hhh......aghhhh....." I slowly mumbled.

****"He looks like he really needs something to eat! Give him this!" Ryan said, handing Morrell some mixed fruit that he had packed in a container.

"I don't want him choking here, he seems like he can't even talk, give him some time here" The orca responded, still giving the human some water very slowly. The human could barely muster anything, and could only barely open his eyes. He seemed to be swallowing the water that Morrell was giving him though, which was a good sign.

"What can we do? There's no hospital around anywhere and we're still quite a ways away from our Jeep!" Mako asked, wondering what they were going to do with the human.

"We'll figure out something, we should at least head back towards the trail we came from, especially since the stream is on the way back so we can clean him up here. I have a first aid kit here, but you're right though, he NEEDS to see a doctor" Morrell responded.

***** "I'm really getting pissed off at this whole ordeal...." Tony mustered, as the group had been in the woods for a day in a half now, hiking along certain trails only to come up with nothing. They did bypass other people over the last couple of days they had been hiking, asking question to any by-passers if they had seen a human at all. They knew that their chances of even finding mike alive were slim to none, especially since they had no idea where he actually could've been in the mountain area....if he was even there.

The group had also rendezvoused with the helicopter that Mike's family had sent to look around the mountain area, though they also couldn't find any leads. They said that they would keep looking North of the mountain area, heading up away from where the group started looking.

"We gotta keep going, no matter what it takes" Junir replied. Their food stash in their backpacks were also now running somewhat low, and none of them actually knew how they would be able to get back to their cars since they had walked at least a good 10-15 miles from that area.

The four were now in the forest, and they had been walking away from the trail they were on for the last couple of hours.

"I wonder when this rain will stop...." Sull asked, looking above him to still see raindrops falling from the sky very rapidly.

"Yeah, it's been really crappy today, my feet are hurting...." Ord replied, walking barefoot through the forest.

"Wait guys.....you see that??" Junir asked, looking a good distance ahead to see an open field.

"Yeah....it's a field....so what?" Tony replied with a bit of a groan.

"Well....we might get lucky and find something!" The lion replied.

"Might as well check it out Tony, we've got nothing to go on anyway..." Sull added.

"Alright, let's head that way..." Tony said back to the group.

The four made their way through the wet forest area, to eventually get out to a HUGE field that had the mountains surrounding the area all over the place. However, none of them seemed to be paying attention to what was around them, since all four noticed something else to their left as they came out into the field.

".......is that......"

"Yeah....that's a fucking warehouse...." Tony mustered, taking off his backpack and reaching in for his gun.

"I don't see anything around though....maybe it's abandoned?" Sull replied.

"Could be, but we all need to be ready for anything..." Junir pointed out, taking off his backpack as well to get his weapon ready. Sull and Ord followed accordingly, though Ord was still hesitant once again.

"I hope....mike's ok.....mmnffhh!!!" Ord cried out, shivering from the rain that was hitting his body since he was now getting somewhat scared over the whole ordeal.

"Let's go.....I ain't waiting no longer" Tony responded, running towards the warehouse that was a couple thousand feet away from them.

******

"You sure you can carry him hun?" Ryan asked the big Orca after he had picked up the human to try to help him out.

"Yeah I'm fine, being a football player really helps" Morrell responded.

"Definitely."

"Where can we go though? Our cell phones have no reception!" Mako pointed out, still looking at his phone, though the tiny X through the cell bars on his status screen of the phone was not changing.

"I have no service either...." Karmakat added, looking down at his phone as well.

Morrell started walking, carrying the human and still wearing his hiking backpack. "We'll head back towards the stream, and go from there. He needs to be cleaned up, and maybe some of our clothes will fit him. Either way, we need to head back." The Orca told the three. Ryan, Mako, and Karma all agreed and started walking back along with Morrell.

*****

"Be on the lookout, I'm going in...." Tony told the other three, standing near the warehouse door on the side near two of the GIANT gates that looked like they were meant for shipments. Tony slowly opened the door with his gun in hand, but noticed that there were no lights on in the warehouse. He then slowly crept inside, and noticed the fuse box that had all the light switches near the door.

"Guys, I think this place is empty" Tony explained to the three as he turned on all the lights to the warehouse. "Yeah....sure looks like someone was in a hurry, look over here" Junir replied, pointing out the dirt tracks near the gate doors that looked like they came from a GIANT truck. The four poked their way around the warehouse, looking for any leads on anything.

"I wonder....think this was the same group those other guys we took down were in?" Sull asked.

"Probably.....hey...what is that??" Junir looked over at a wide open space near one of the walls, to notice something on the floor. As he walked over to the area, his eyes opened up, with his mouth expressing how he felt.

"The fuck??" the lion exclaimed, noticing blood, dried semen, rope, and pieces of clothing on the ground. Sull looked confused himself as he walked over to see all the items/stains on the ground, wondering why/how everything got there.

"HEY TONY, ORD, COME LOOK AT THIS" Sull shouted at the two, since they were still looking around the other areas of the warehouse.

"What is it?" Tony asked, heading over to the area.

"You find anything?" Ord then asked, also heading towards Sull & Jun.

Junir showed the stuff on the ground to Tony and Ord, saying "Look at this, seems like some nasty shit went down here".

"Wait.....why....does that look...familiar...." Ord then pointed out, looking at the ripped shorts. The shorts seemed to be ripped in half, though the pockets were still in-tact.

"Why does it look familiar?" Jun asked.

"I dunno...wait....there's something in the pocket here...." Ord mentioned as he grabbed the shorts and stuck his hand in the buttoned up pocket. When he pulled out a small device from the shorts, everyone's eyes lit up right then and there.

"THAT'S............"

"Mike's....ipod......"

".............................NO!!!!!" Tony yelled, running over and punching the wall as hard as he possibly could. "NO!!! THOSE ASSHOLES!!!!" he screamed, putting a crack in the wall after punching it, which also caused his knuckles to bleed a bit.

"oh my god.....who would do something this inhumane?!" Junir asked, grabbing the shorts from Ord and noticing the traces of blood on them. He felt the other small pocket above the one that had the Ipod in it, and then felt something.

"Something else is in here...." Junir then added, reaching into the pocket, and pulling out Mike's check from the Daily News. After looking at who the check was made out to, Junir simply shook his head, and then covered his face with his hand.

"Is Mike....even... alive ....guys? I miss him so badly..." Ord asked, feeling really upset at that one moment. All four of them felt very powerless, especially after finding what was left of Mike's shorts.

"What....do we do....now.....those....assholes..." Sull asked, turning his look of worry into pure anger. His eyes lit up like nothing that Ord and Junir had ever seen, but Tony still was looking away with his head now on the wall.

"I don't care what happens now, I'm fucking killing those bastards that did this...." Sull exclaimed, full of rage and anger now.

"...no you aren't" Tony then slowly mustered out of the corner. He turned around and gave Sull a look as if he was going to hurt him, since his eyes were more serious than ever. "I'm getting them, no matter what it takes."

"Hey, Mike is my friend too, I'm taking these guys down whether you like it or not!" Sull replied, walking right up to Tony and getting in his face.

Tony forcefully stood up to Sull, as the two stood right in front of each other, face to face. "No you aren't. Marco is mine, you hear me? He is NOT going to get away with any of this bullshit." And with that, Tony poked Sull, letting him know that he was being dead serious.

"Calm down guys, calm down!" Ord and Junir both exclaimed, running over to break up any confrontation that may be going down between the Tiger and the monster. "We still don't know where Mike is, you think they maybe drove off with him?" Junir asked, looking at both Tony and Sull.

"No. Knowing Mar.....co.....they probably.... left Mike out there somewhere.....wait....what am...I....feeling?" Tony replied, feeling his head.

"Who is this Marco anyway? What's going on Tony?" Junir asked curiously.

"................................"

Tony did not answer, walking away from the area and heading towards the doors.

The other three just looked at each other and shrugged, following Tony to the outside area again. Junir looked back over to the area where Mike was supposedly tortured, and simply shook his head, not believing what went down.

*****

"There it is!" Morrell pointed out, seeing the stream not too far ahead. The Orca had to stop several times to aid the human, giving him water and to also rest from carrying him. Karmakat had also carried the human for a little while too, yet the human still could barely muster any words from his mouth, let alone open his eyes.

"About time, seemed like that walk took forever!" Mako replied.

"Let's get him cleaned up here, my canteen is out again" The orca added.

As the group came closer to the stream though, Ryan noticed something unusual.

"Wait guys.....this area doesn't look familiar...."

"Huh?" "What?" "Hm?" The other three asked, looking all around the area they were in in the forest. "Shit......I think you're right dude...." Mako replied looking a bit puzzled.

"Don't matter where we are, your phone has the GPS and compass built in, right?" Morrell asked, still carrying the human down towards the water.

"Yeah....but the battery is too low....I can't use it...." The white tiger replied with a look of frustration. "I need a smartphone badly...." Ryan said to himself.

"Well, we're here at least" Morrell explained to the other three, laying down the human carefully and taking off his backpack to rest for awhile. The other three did the same, taking out their belongings from their hiking backpacks as well. Morrell quickly pulled out his first aid kit and a cloth, immediately taking out a few GIANT bandages as well as drenching the cloth in water to clean the injured human's wounds and to eventually bandage up the wounds. The human looked to be motioning back and forth with his head, but he still looked immensely pale and also very weak.

"Anything we can do?" Mako asked Morrell, wanting to help out in any way possible.

"Yeah, see if there's any clothes that will fit him, it's still really cold out here and he's almost naked....." Morrell replied. "Ryan, you have anything that could fit him?"

"I doubt it, he looks like he would wear large clothing, but mine are all small or medium...." The human replied, looking through his backpack.

"I think....this will work...." Karmakat then added, pulling out a white long sleeved shirt from his backpack. "His size...large will do?"

"It should, let me clean his wounds here first....damn..." Morrell responded, taking the wet cloth and slowly wiping away the dried blood on the human's stomach and arm. The Orca tried to be as careful as he could with the human's arm, especially with his left arm being black and blue, as well as the elbow being out of place. Morrell was able to rip the shirt that was holding the human's arm as a cast, since he was worried the stains might infect the human's body if they somehow got into his wounds. "If you can hear me, this might sting a bit..." Morrell then added, taking some rubbing alcohol from the first aid kit and applying it to the driest part of the cloth he was holding. As soon as he touched the human's wounded arm with the cloth, the human started to flinch very rapidly, and eventually letting out a moan.

******

"MMMMGGGHHHH....UNNNNNGGGG....." I mustered again, feeling the pain of my wounds being touched by something wet. My stomach hurt, but it felt like my arm was being slowly sawed off as it was being touched with what felt to be a cloth. The pain hurt so badly, that it didn't take long for the nerves in my arm to tell my brain that it had enough.

****

"Hey....he stopped moving!" Ryan pointed out to Morrell after noticing all the flinching, and the movements that the human was making after being cleaned by the Orca.

"Is he still alive?!" Mako then asked.

"Yeah, he's breathing still, I guess he just blacked out or something." Morrell said back to the Tiger.

"Whew....that's good, but...shouldn't we see if we can get back to the main land? I mean, as long as someone has a car, we can get this guy to the hospital!" Mako pointed out.

"Yeah, we should get moving. Karma, hand me that shirt."

The grey lion handed the Orca his long sleeved shirt, and the Orca slowly put it on the human, though he had to maneuver the human's motionless body VERY carefully. The last thing he wanted to do was have the human wake up and scream in pain. The hardest part of getting the shirt on though was working around the elbow area, since it still was out of place from what Morrell was looking at. With very small movements though and very quick reflexes though, the Orca was able to eventually get the shirt onto the human.

"Ok, I got the shirt on him.....now....where the hell are we......?"

"Hey, now that I think of it, that human's ripped shorts should still be where we found it! If we follow this stream, shouldn't we eventually find it and then know where we are?" Mako told the others.

Ryan and Morrell quickly grinned at the Tiger's thinking. "Yeah, we probably would! Let's get going then" Ryan replied. With that, they all packed up their stuff, and Morrell started carrying the human again as the five walked down the stream.

The five eventually walked about a mile or so down the stream, yet none of them had a clue as to where they were.

"Have you seen those shorts at all??" Ryan asked the others.

"Nope....where the hell are we??" Mako replied.

"I don't know guys, but let's keep moving. We'll find something sooner or later." Morrell said to the two, still carrying the weak human's body.

Only a few minutes later, the group eventually noticed that the stream was now flowing from a larger pond-like area, with a waterfall right in front of the group.

"Wow, uhhhhhhh.....ok then, I REALLY don't know where we are now!" Ryan exclaimed, looking at the very extravagant waterfall right in front of all of them, yet noticing that there were no paths or any accessible trails around the area, unless they walked back to where they came from or climbed up the rocky area of the falls. The pond looked somewhat deep from what the three could see, with a constant heavy flow of water falling from above it.

"Let's head back the way we came I guess...." Morrell told the others. Karmakat was still looking at the waterfall though, before he turned his head around to head back with the others. Right before he turned back completely though, something caught the corner of his sharp eyes.

"Hey wait! Look!" The lion exclaimed, pointing his finger upwards to the VERY deep woods near the waterfall on his left, noticing a small cabin behind several trees up the rocks of the waterfall.

"What is it?" Ryan asked, coming back up to see where the Lion was pointing. "HEY! Is that a cabin?" The human asked, with Morrell and Mako quickly heading over to notice what Karma was pointing at. "We better get up there, as long as someone is there they may be able to help us out, cause I still have no idea where we are..." The Orca mentioned, walking towards the Rocky area of the falls.

"Wait hun, can you get up there carrying him??" Ryan asked, as Morrell got near the steep rock climb heading up near the falls. "I'm fine, just guide me here" Morrell responded. Ryan quickly nodded and made sure that the Orca didn't have any problems losing his balance as he used his strong arms to carry the human up the rocky path towards the cabin, still carrying his backpack as well.

The four eventually reached the top of the rocky area, noticing that the stream continued as they started walking towards the cabin.

"Hey look, smoke!" Mako then pointed out, seeing small amounts of it coming out of the chimney from the cabin, which was now less than 1000 feet away from the group.

As the group continued to walk towards the cabin, each one of them started to get somewhat of an eerie feeling.

"You....feel that?" Ryan asked, nearly shivering now as the group was only a few hundred feet away from the cabin.

"Yeah....what is that?" Mako added. "I'm....cold...." Karma then added himself.

"I'm cold too, but this guy needs a doctor. We need to do SOMETHING." Morrell responded, now having the cabin in front of him as he walked up to it. However, before Morrell could even think about knocking on the door, a noise emitted from the inside of the cabin.

*CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK*

Mako, Ryan, and Karma all felt intimidated by the feeling that was in the air, though they all still stayed behind Morrell, who had a look of determination on his face.

The wooden door slowly opened with Morrell still holding the human, and a figure slowly emerged from behind the door.

".........................................."

".............................................."

"...................................................."

The four looked on as the figure exposed himself. It was a well built alligator, wearing a leather vest that still exposed his ripped mid-section, as well as jeans and boots. However, none of the four were paying attention to the alligator himself, since they were mainly looking at the GIANT sword attached to the gator's back, as well as the pistol that he was carrying as well.

"........................."

The gator just looked at the group, especially the Orca that was carrying the human. When he saw the injured human, the built gator then softly began to speak in a very low voice.

"....Ahhhh......I've been expecting this one....."

The gator then motioned for everyone to come inside, even though none of them were doing so.

"Who are you?? Do you know this guy??" Morrell asked, still holding the human in his arms.

"Come in." *POOOOOOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF* The gator replied, then letting out a small cloud of smoke from the cigarette he was smoking.

"HEY, this guy is hurt, you shouldn't be smoking!" Mako shouted at the gator with a concerned look. Just then, the tiger began to feel something hitting his head.

"Oh shit....it's raining again..." Ryan said, quickly heading towards the inside of the cabin. The gator simply held the door open, motioning for the others to come in while letting out a small grin. Mako followed Ryan into the small house, followed by Karmakat. Morrell still didn't know what was up with the gator that he was facing, though he eventually headed inside himself, looking at the gator right in the eyes as he passed by him.

The entire group was now inside the cabin, as they all took off their backpacks and stretched a bit. The cabin itself was very plain in general. It had no TV, or any other type of electronic device inside whatsoever. There were a few cabinets in the very small kitchen area, with windows on each side of the tiny place. There was a very small bedroom, which had a small bed and a large wooden holder on the wall, which looked to be something that would hold a sword. There was a small bathroom near the bedroom, even though the two weren't connected.

There was also a small fireplace in the corner of the main room near the front door, which had a whole bunch of what looked to be spiritual markings along the floor and the walls around it.

"You didn't answer me earlier, now who are you??" Morrell asked, bringing the human into the small bedroom and placing him on the bed. The gator quickly followed the Orca into the bedroom and came up next to him, overlooking the injured and also motionless human.

"Aquin." The gator replied very softly, as he kept staring at the human while still smoking his cigarette.

"Well Aquin, do you know where we are? We were passing......through........" The orca stopped talking as he noticed that the Gator had taken the cigarette out of his mouth and had placed it on the side burrow next to the bed. Aquin had also closed his eyes, almost acting like he was in some sort of trance at that moment. The gator then put his hands together, and started to mumble something very loudly.

"HUUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN"

"HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN"

"Whoa, holy shit!" Mako exclaimed, looking over to the bedroom while he was taking his stuff out of his backpack again to notice what was happening to the Gator.

"Are my eyes deceiving me, or is he .....glowing?!" Ryan asked, having his eyes wide open since he could not believe what he was seeing.

Karmakat kept looking on with the other two, also acting the same way as Ryan, since he couldn't believe what his eyes were looking at.

"................."

Morrell was speechless at what he was noticing. He actually felt a sense of warmth in his body standing next to the glowing gator, who was still hovering over the human.

"HUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN" Aquin called out one final time very softly, before he placed both of his hands onto the human's body, still emitting a light blue glow.

*O_O*

Morrell's eyes widened up more than ever, as he now noticed that the glow emitting from the gator has traveled from Aquin's body, into his arms, and down to his hands. It didn't take long for Morrell to then realize that the glow had started to emit from the human's body only a little while afterward.

"Holy shit...what's he doing?!" Ryan asked, looking on with Mako and Karmakat still.

"I have no idea, but I ain't fucking around with that!" The white tiger replied.

"........................done." Aquin slowly mentioned after having his hands on the human's body for a good couple of minutes, before taking the cigarette off the burrow and smoking it again.

"What...the...hell...." Morrell asked, still not believing what he just saw.

"Wake up." *POOOOOFFFFFFFFFFFFFF* Aquin then mustered, exhaling smoke into the human's face. "HEY, STOP THAT!" Morrell quickly lashed out at the gator. The gator then turned to the Orca, only to smile.

"It's ok, it heals." Aquin replied very firmly. Morrell was still giving the gator an awkward look, only to then realize that the human was starting to slowly move on the bed again. "Holy shit....I don't fucking believe it...."

****

I slowly opened my eyes, only to notice that I was in some sort of old room that I had never seen before. However, I then noticed that I was not in pain whatsoever. I certainly couldn't have been alive, mainly because I felt like the weakest human being in the world not long before that....if I was even alive at that point. I really had no idea where I was....or even what I was. It was then that I realized I had a white shirt covering me that had very faint blood stains on it, though my boxers and socks were still on from before. Somehow though, they were now dry, and my body actually felt somewhat....warm. Was I really alive?! I looked to my left to notice that it was down pouring outside. I then quickly turned to my right and then froze as I noticed two bodies hovering above me. I looked up and quickly stopped moving, as I didn't know what to do in that situation.

"I still don't fucking believe it" the person on the left exclaimed, which made my heart pound faster as I noticed an Orca talking. I really couldn't think of what to say at that moment, since I didn't know if these two guys were here to help me....or finish me. I was also struck by a sense of fear after noticing the Orca, especially after what happened with the Orca that had stabbed me beforehand. The image of that scar on the Orca's eye from that one night would not go away, and it was scaring me just thinking about it.

"Please....don't....kill...me..."

Those were the only words I could get out of my mouth after everything I had been through, especially since I didn't know who these two guys were. I slowly backed away from the two on the bed, still feeling scared at that moment.

The two seemed to look at me somewhat awkwardly. "Holy shit... is he talking?!?!" I heard another voice exclaim from around the corner in another room, though I couldn't see who was there.

"Yeah he is Ryan, I still can't believe it!" The Orca mentioned as he was motioning for "Ryan" to come into the room.

My mind started to ease a tad when I noticed a human walking into the room, looking a little younger than me with black hair, and normal clothing. "WOW!" What did you do?!" Ryan asked the gator that was still hovering above me. I still felt very intimidated at that one moment, almost trembling in fear, even though I figured that I was probably going to live now at least. If I was going to die, it would've already happened. My head started hurting as I started to think about everything that had happened over the last few days.

"Where....am....I?" I asked myself, feeling the pain circling in my head as I sat up on the bed very slowly. It was then that I also noticed that the pain in my arm was gone. I was simply stunned when I happened to look at my elbow, only to notice that it was now in place and wasn't hurting anymore, though the black and blue markings were still there.

"What....the...hell....happened...to..me?!" I then asked myself.

"I've gotta say Aquin, I'm impressed, though I don't know what the fuck just happened." The orca exclaimed to the gator that was hovering above me. I looked up to the Gator again and noticed him smiling softly, then leaving the room slowly afterwards.

"Ugh.....my head......" I then said, since my brain felt like it was being hammered with a nail with the thoughts circling inside.

"What the hell happened out there anyway?" Ryan asked me as I still sat up on the bed.

"....Ughhhh.....it's a LONG story.......fuck.....gah!" I replied back, still feeling pain in my thoughts. "But..... I do....want to thank you guys.....did you....find me?" I then mustered.

"Yeah, we were all kinda surprised to see you alive after we found you in the woods out there, especially since you had no clothes on and felt cold as ice" The Orca then said to me.

"Well....it was so damn.....scary....those guys.....ungh!" I mumbled, feeling my head again.

"I have some medicine, I'll go grab some for you. I'm Morrell by the way, and this is Ryan." The Orca then explained to me.

"Thanks..... Morrell, I'm.... Mike. I really owe you guys.... a lot. I can't believe I'm alive....." I replied, looking down at my body. Morrell nodded back and walked out of the room, though Ryan still stood near me.

"So....could you tell me what happened briefly??" Ryan asked, still looking at me very curiously.

I turned my head sideways, and my head was now pounding harder than ever. It was then that I remembered everyone else and what must have been going through their minds...

"I can't....explain....yet....it hurts...too much..." I replied slowly, shaking a bit in the bed.

"I understand, I hope you get better Mike." Ryan replied, walking out of the room.

All the thoughts of my family, as well as Tony, Sull, Ord, Junir, Gantu, Kumi, and my other friends were now processing in my mind, which now made my heart sink with a sense of panic. Did they think I was dead? Surely they must have already been looking for me for the last several days.....even though I wasn't sure exactly how long it had been since I was kidnapped on that awful day. The first thing I wanted to do though was let my family know I was ok, so I quickly wanted to get a phone.

"Morrell.....Ryan?" I asked from my bed, laying down again after thinking about everything going on in my thoughts.

"Here mike, these painkillers should at least ease your mind for awhile" Morrell responded as he brought in a canteen of water as well as a couple of pills in his hand. I wasn't even thinking about the pills though, since I wanted to get in contact with the people I knew first off.

"Do...you have a cell phone I could use?" I asked Morrell as he handed me the pills and the water.

"I do....but we have no reception whatsoever...." The Orca replied to me.

"Fuck! My family's probably worried sick....I need to call them!" I replied with a bit of a pissed off look.

"Calm down mike, you should really get some rest. You've been through a lot, and your body has definitely shown that as well." Morrell said back to me. It was then that my stomach let out a HUGE growl, since I couldn't remember the last time I had actually eaten anything.

"Damn....I need food....." I replied, taking the pills and water right afterwards.

"I've got some.....food........................" Morrell replied, only to notice that Aquin seemed to be two steps ahead of the Orca, bringing in a small bowl from the other room.

"Here. Drink." The gator said right to me, handing me a small wooden bowl that had some sort of dark liquid in it.

I took a whiff of the liquid, only to notice that it had no odor. It almost looked somewhat like a soy sauce, though I really couldn't tell.

"What.....is this??" I asked, getting ready to drink the contents in the bowl.

"................hunger will go away." Aquin replied at me, leaving the room once again. I then heard another door outside of the room open, as if the Gator was heading outside.

"Uhhh....should you drink that?" Morrell asked me.

"I dunno...but I'm......*GROWL*.......hungry...." I replied, putting the bowl up to my face and drinking the contents of it. The liquid had somewhat of a sweet taste to it, but also had a VERY awkward aftertaste. I had absolutely no clue what I was drinking, though as I started to swallow the liquid, my insides started to feel.....different.

"What......the hell?" I said softly, as I felt some sort of warmness in my body after I drank most of the liquid. "Ok this is just too damn weird for me....I need to get some air..." Morrell said to me, walking out of the room. I looked to the left of the bed to notice that the rain that had been coming down hard had now stopped somewhat, though the droplets were still falling. Just then, my body felt.....tingly. I took off my shirt, and looked at my wounds.

"What the....." I said again, looking at my arms and my stomach. The black and blue marks on my arm were now slowly gaining normal color again, which freaked me out a bit. I felt my left arm, and couldn't believe that the pain was now completely gone. What freaked me out even more though was the fact that the deep scar from the stab wound on my upper left arm was now nothing more than a slight dis-coloration of skin. I looked down at my stomach, and then noticed that the same thing happened with my stab wound on my mid-section. I was also now no longer hearing any growling from my stomach, and my body actually felt somewhat....revived.

I slowly maneuvered my legs, and almost felt like I wanted to jump right up. However, the last thing I wanted to do was something that I would regret, so I carefully got out of the bed and stood up, stretching a bit and putting the white shirt back on me.

"Hey look, Mike's up!" Ryan exclaimed from the main room of the cabin. The human, along with a grey lion and a white and black striped tiger were all going through their belongings in their backpacks they had with them, as well as pulling out different items to eat and/or drink. "How you feeling?" The white tiger asked me as I walked into the main room.

Before I could answer, I noticed that neither Aquin nor Morrell were in the cabin. I figured Morrell was outside, but I had no clue where the gator went.

"I'm......fine....but I have no idea what just happened....." I said, feeling my head yet again as thoughts were going through me.

"Well bud, at least you're ok. I'm Karmakat" The grey lion replied, walking right up to me and putting his arm around my back. He was wearing normal clothing, but he also had tattoos all over his arms and legs, as well as streaks of red hair to go along with the rest of his long black hair.

"And I'm Mako." The white tiger then said to me, as I walked up to him and shook his hand. "Here, you can wear these" the Tiger said to me, grabbing a pair of jeans out from his backpack, since I had only a white shirt on with my boxers and socks. The tiger himself was wearing a somewhat tight blue shirt, along with jeans and shoes. Both Karmakat and Mako were pretty good looking, thought I still had other things on my mind at that moment.

"Thanks Mako, and it's nice to meet you guys. I guess I can....explain everything that happened...." I said to the three, mainly towards Ryan who asked me earlier about how I got out here in the middle of nowhere. As I put on the jeans, I started to explain the whole ordeal that went down, even though I tried to keep Tony and the others out of it, since I didn't know how these guys would react about the relationship between me Tony, especially since I didn't want to think about what was going through his mind at that moment.

"...........................What?!"

"Holy shit!"

"Oh my god....."

"Are you fucking serious?!?!?!"

If I had a nickel for every time one of the three exclaimed a statement to me in disbelief or shock as to what I was explaining, I would've been one rich person. After spending a good five minutes explaining my whole story to the group, I finally concluded my story.

"And then....I thought I would die right there....But then I woke up to find myself hearing voices, and then seeing myself inside this cabin."

"And that's how....we found you...." Ryan said to me, with his eyes still wide open from the shocking story I had just told the three.

"My god Mike, that's horrible!!!" Mako exclaimed, coming right up to me and putting his hand on my shoulder, showing a very concerned look on his face. "We're here for you bud, so you don't have to worry about those assholes" he then said right to my face. I couldn't help myself at that moment, and wrapped my arm around the tiger in a small hug. "Thank you guys so much....if it weren't for you...I'd be dead...." I said back to the three as I broke the hug with Mako and then went over and hugged Karmakat and Ryan too.

"Well, even though we found you, that Aquin gator seemed to really be the biggest help....I mean, you look ten times better than when we first found you in the woods!" Ryan exclaimed.

"Yeah....you're right....where is Aquin anyway?" I asked back.

"He....went out not long ago....not sure where to though." Mako explained.

"What about Morrell?" I then asked.

"He grabbed his stuff and went swimming" Karmakat said back to me.

"Swimming? Are we near a lake or pond?" I curiously responded.

Just then, a small glimmer of light was starting to creep through the windows of the cabin.

"We're near......waterfall" the grey lion explained.

"Sweet! And the sun is coming out!" I happily said back, walking towards the front door. It was at that moment that I felt like I could use some fresh air after having my body go through so many changes over the course of a couple of days. I slowly opened the door, and felt a breeze coming through as I finally opened the door completely to walk outside.

The feeling of the warm air hitting my face felt unbelievably refreshing, especially since my body had felt revitalized and also because it was finally nice out for once, with the clouds clearing up. However, I still felt like I had lost a good 10-15 pounds over the course of the last few days. It didn't stop me though from getting out of the cabin and walking down the stream a bit, feeling the sun's rays hitting my body. I still had no idea what time it was, but with the sun being right above me, it had to be the early afternoon.

Walking up the stream away from the waterfall certainly was nice, seeing the constant flow of water making its way past me as I kept walking slowly through the forest area.

"Mind....if we join ya?" I heard a voice behind me. I turned around to see Ryan, Mako, and Karmakat all walking towards me. I smiled back at them, nodding and letting them catch up to me. The four of us started to walk down a little ways, and we all used the time to get to know each other better. I was sort of floored when Mako told me he used to live only a few towns away from where I lived before in Massachusetts, and I seemed to have more in common with him compared to Karmakat and Ryan, though I was still enjoying talking to all three of the guys at once. My mind couldn't get off the fact that I still didn't know what Tony, my parents, and the others were going through though, but walking with the other three did help calm me down a lot.

After talking about basic things between us four, like where we lived and what we did, we all started walking back towards Aquin's cabin. It was then that I started to think about the situation that was going on right then and there. I still hadn't mentioned Tony or any of the other guys to the three, mainly because I felt like it would only add more tension to my thoughts.

"....Uhhhhhhh.....I forgot to ask, where exactly are we?? What state are we in??"

"We're in the Mt. Washington Forest." Mako said back to me. I immediately gave a surprised look and almost stopped walking when he told me that.

"Wait....we're in NEW HAMPSHIRE?!" I exclaimed.

"No no no haha, we're in the southern part of Massachusetts here" Mako then replied.

"Oh.....wow, in all the years I lived in this state, I never knew a Mt. Washington existed here haha. Guess I should've explored the state more heh." I laughed back.

The four of us eventually came up to the cabin, though I kinda wanted to see the waterfall. "Wanna go to the falls here?" I asked the three, with each of them nodding and walking with me towards it.

The waterfall was only about a few hundred feet from the cabin, and when we all eventually came to it, we looked down to see Morrell swimming about all around the pond area of the waterfall.

"Hey Mike! How are ya feeling?" Morrell almost yelled out, since the sound of the water falling was pretty loud.

"I'm feeling better, I still don't know how though...." I replied back loudly, as the four of us went down the rocky area and eventually made it to the ground area of the pond where Morrell was at. The Orca came up to where we were standing and got out of the pool, exposing his very muscular body.

"That's good. I had to do something to clear my mind of what I just saw, that was so damn...weird...." The Orca said to me. I almost didn't even hear what he said though, since my eyes were glued on his ripped body.

"y-yeah.....how's the water?" I sorta mumbled back.

"It's pretty nice, you should come in! The water's not that cold surprisingly!" Morrell told all four of us.

"Yeah, but it ain't hot either, like you are hun" Ryan said to the Orca, walking up to him. The two gave each other a quick kiss and I could only smile at that moment.

"Hey hun, we're in front of company here!" Morrell said back, smiling sarcastically. It was then that I felt a little better knowing that I could open up about the relationship that Tony and myself had, since Ryan and Morrell seemed to be together themselves. Mako and Karmakat chuckled a bit, but then Morrell asked me right after that: "Mike, you ok with this?" As he and Ryan started hugging each other.

"It's ok, I've got a mate myself....but I just don't know where he is...." I replied, turning my smile into a worried look.

"You have a boyfriend? What's his name?" Mako asked me curiously.

"Well...if I tell you guys...you might not believe it...." I responded.

"Try me" Mako said back. "Yeah mike, try us too." Morrell then said to me.

"Ok....well, I was lucky enough to get into a relationship...with....Tony.... the Tiger...."

"................."

".................."

".....................REALLY?!?!"

All four of the guys gave me a look of astonishment, yet they also bombarded me with questions afterward. They all seemed to act like Tony was a hero of theirs, and someone that they would do anything to meet.

After spending about 10 minutes just answering all four of the guy's questions about Tony and myself, my head was spinning from the painful thoughts of not seeing him over the course of the last several days. I wanted to jump into the water right then and there.

"I need to clear my mind guys, I'm going in" I told the four. I took off my shirt and the jeans that Mako gave me, as well as my socks. I was debating whether I should swim in my boxers or not.

"Why don't you just swim naked?" Morrell asked me from behind, putting his hand on my back and giving me a naughty grin. "Yeah, I could use a dip in the water myself" Ryan then said himself as he started to take everything off himself, and it didn't take long for Karmakat and Mako to start taking off their clothes as well.

"Ummm...ok I guess! Heh" I said back, taking off my boxers and exposing my naked body. I jumped into the small pond, only to have my body get struck with the coldness of the water.

"MMMFFFHHHHHH....Morrell, this water's FREEZING!!!!" I shouted, quickly coming back towards the surface area. "You gotta get used to it Mike, that's what I did" The orca replied, jumping back into the water himself, though he was the only one out of the four that was wearing shorts.

I quickly got out of the water, shivering like crazy, and my body felt thinner than ever at that one moment. Morrell started floating around the pond area, looking up at the sky with his arms around the back of his head. Ryan slowly got into the water, though he hesitated after feeling how cold it was. However, the air was getting a bit warmer with the sun now shining with not a cloud in the sky above us, and it didn't take long for Karma and Mako to get in themselves with their fully exposed bodies.

The four were now in the water, all playing around with each other and swimming around.

"Come on back in Mike! You just gotta get used to it!" Ryan told me, heading towards Morrell and swimming near the waterfall itself.

I figured I didn't want to be left out, so I got back into the water VERY slowly. The feeling of the water hitting my skin felt unbelievably cold, though I slowly settled in little by little. It felt the same way the ocean would feel when it would hit my body, since that always took a lot of getting used to.

It didn't take long for me to get used to the water enough to start swimming around the pond. The pond itself felt like it was actually a rocky swimming pool in a way, since the bottom of the pond was about a good 7-8 feet under, with large rocks being at the bottom of the water.

The air started to get very humid, and eventually, my body had no problems being in the water. I swam over to the waterfall itself, since Mako and Karmakat were both there themselves. Ryan and Morrell were relaxing together not far from us, hugging each other as they swam quietly around the pond together.

"This is SOOOOOO NICE" Mako shouted to me and Karmakat as the three of us felt the water hitting our bodies from above us. My mind was slowing easing of all the painful thoughts I had as the water kept hitting my thin body.

"Yeah it is...." I replied, closing my eyes and listening to the natural sounds of the water and the forest around me.

After spending a good 20 minutes in the water, I figured I had enough, and I eventually swam back to the rocky surface to get my clothes back on. I got out of the water, still exposing my naked body to the others. "Looking good there hun" Mako said, swimming over to me.

I started blushing a bit, but my body was still very cold to feel any sort of heat in the air at that moment. "Th-thanks Mako...you look good yourself" I replied as he got out of the pond himself, since the white tiger did look pretty good with his long white & black hair and his muscular body as well. We both smiled at each other, and then started putting our clothes on.

"Sooooo....what are we gonna do now?" Mako asked me as we got everything together.

"Yeah, what are we going to do? I think we should probably head back the way we came" Ryan then said as both he and Morrell came over to get out of the water themselves. Karmakat was still at the waterfall, enjoying the water hitting his body as he was grinning with his eyes closed.

"Yeah we probably should head out soon, but I want to personally thank Aquin first.....where did he go though??" I replied.

Morrell, Ryan, and Mako all shook their heads, not having a clue where the gator went off to.

"Well, either way, he saved my life, so I owe him. I just wish I could call my parents right now....or....Tony..." I then told the three. All of us finished putting our clothes back on, and headed back towards the cabin.

"Hey Karma, we'll be up at the cabin!" Morrell shouted towards the waterfall.

The grey lion opened his eyes and gave a thumbs up in return, as the four of us headed back towards the small wooden house.

****

"Tony.....where are we??" Sull asked, as the four were walking through the woods for a good 45 minutes non-stop after leaving the warehouse area. The four had walked over numerous hills, passed through deep areas of the woods where it was hard to maneuver through all the trees and plants, and they had even come across a man and woman that were hiking together, though they unfortunately had no clue as to what could've happened to Mike.

Tony also seemed to be acting sort of odd, not really paying attention to anything around him, since he kept walking non-stop through everything he could get across.

"Tony, talk to me!" Sull exclaimed, rushing up in front of the Tiger and getting in his way. Tony quickly walked past him though, still looking like he was in some sort of trance.

"Something....I don't know.....but something is out there.....I hear something in my head....." Tony mumbled softly. Junir, Ord, and Sull all looked at each other very surprised, though they figured they still had nothing else to go on at this point and continued to follow the tiger.

As the four kept walking through the woods, they eventually came out to another VERY large hill area.

"Why.....am I feeling....this...." Tony mentioned as he felt his head, yet he kept walking towards the large hill.

"Tony...should we even be heading this way? Where the hell are we?!" Junir mentioned, looking all around the open field and seeing nothing but trees, hills, and mountains all around them.

Tony didn't even answer back to the Lion as he started walking up the steep hill in front of the four.

****

"Ah...yes....he has arrived." Aquin softly spoke, looking from the top of the hill he was standing on towards Tony and the others, who now made it to the top of the hill that was a good thousand feet away from the gator.