FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Lian had been right about the need for food. Thoughts of Isaiah's brutal battering filled my mind, but no amount of blood and brutality could keep my inner beast's hunger contained. I was famished.

Miles and Lian lead me to the cafeteria, a spacious, open area in the hall opposite the auditorium. Great circular tables scattered the room, with benches around them. Each table could sit ten, easily. A set of shutters against one wall let me know where the serving bay was, and where the kitchen was beyond that. Moonlight spilled into the cafeteria through the floor-to-ceiling windows that spanned one wall of that room.

It was Miles who fixed me a plate of spaghetti and meatballs. Pasta for sustinence and meat for the beast, he'd told me. The wolf was a carnivore after all, I suppose. It looked like students were allowed access to pretty much everything at Haven Institution.

I had a sudden thought.

"Are there any teachers at Haven, besides our diligent headmaster?" I asked, voice laced with sarcasm, and slightly muffled by the food in my mouth.

"Not really, and stop speaking with your mouth full," Lian added for the umpteenth time.

What could I say? Surving on the streets had taught me how to fight, how to scavenge and survive, but not good table manners.

"Your intellectual studies are all independant," Miles explained, "Examinations are held every few months to make sure your developing at an understandable rate, and remedial classes are assigned if needed." He was sat beside me on the bench, sipping a glass of water as he watched me chow down. Lian was sat on the table beside ours, feet propped on the bench as he gazed out of the windows at the woodlands in the distance.

"There are powerful wereanimals who come in and help tutor you in handling your inner beast and transformations. But they are more like advisors, than actual teachers," Miles continued.

"What are the advisors like?" I asked after swallowing down my food.

"Not that bad. Juliet can be a bit hardcore, but Romeo's pretty cool," Lian replied.

"Romeo...and Juliet?" I repeated their names.

"Don't ask. They have a personal joke going between the two of them about it. Either way, those two are probably the most sane adults you'll ever come across, and that's saying something."

I thought back to Linus' demonstration. I was concerned.

"Something on your mind?" Miles asked.

I nodded. "Just wondering, do those gatherings and demonstrations happen often?"

Miles shook his head, his auburn ponytail slipped over his shoulder as he replied, "Not all that often. The werewolf rallies happen once in a blue moon as well. I think the demo was more for your benefit, though."

"I got that impression too."

Miles smiled sadly.

Lian added, "Get used to it. That snake'll fuck with you at every turn."

"What'll happen to Isaiah?" I asked, changing the subject as I lifted another forkful of meatballs to my open mouth.

"Will he be killed?" Miles suggested.

"Nahh, not likely, if Linus wanted him dead, he'd have done it in front of us," Lian replied.

I swallowed. "Has no one ever questioned going to the police about Linus?"

"And saying what? There's a homicidal, maniac running a rehabilitation centre and killing off bad students, oh, and by the way, he's a weresnake?" Lian replied, voice thick with sarcasm.

I frowned back at him and then nodded. He had a point.

"No one will believe youths like us from a 'rehabilitation institute' anyway, Linus' will play on the whole they-are-off-their-meds scheme and have us locked up in no time," Miles added.

Another point made obvious.

"Not to mention, Linus has those contracts on us, loved ones who he'll kill if we fuck with him," Lian added.

"That reminds me, you know who mine and Miles' loved ones are. Does Linus have someone you care about?" I asked. It was blunt, but I was beyond tired and had no time for pleasantries in this fucked up institute.

Lian smiled sadly, "My baby."

"W-What?" I stammered.

"Don't let the regal attitude and golden hair fool you. I was a street hooker before Linus found me. I had a crush on a fellow prostitute, she offered to help me get better at sleeping with clients, and she ended up pregnant. She gave up the gig, got an apartment in New Hampshire. She's living a good life with my child. I haven't seen her, but I know I have a daughter."

"Your like, what, twenty-two?" Miles suggested.

"Twenty."

"How old were you when you got her pregnant?"

"Fifteen."

"Five years old, and you've never seen your daughter?" I summarised.

Lian hopped from the table and stretched casually. "Doesn't matter. I just want her protected from monsters like Linus. I could never offer Sharon or my baby any kind of life with what I am."

The room was quiet for a moment, Miles and I must have been in shock about Lian's past.

The silence shattered however, when Miles asked, "I wonder what Isaiah did to deserve a public beating like that?"

"Linus did mention something about an ambush, but since his situation with Jack in the office, he's been in a meeting with the Benefactors," Lian explained.

"Benefactors?"

Lian smiled at me and said, "The ones, who alongside Linus, are funding this great home of ours."

"Someone's actually helping fund this place?" I replied.

Miles nodded.

Lian added, "Your shocked? After all that's happened to you in the space of a few hours?"

A third point made true.

I wolfed down the last bit of spaghetti and smiled. I was full and that meant happy to my inner beast. No doubt my mind would be full of nightmares tonight, but at least I could still eat.

"When...does my initiation begin, Lian?" I asked.

Lian smiled sadly and replied, "Tomorrow. That doesn't mean anything will happen, just that the month period starts tomorrow. The next four weeks will be long and cruel, but endure it. Just be prepared, at any moment someone with a brand like mine could walk up and declare initiation. In that event you have to follow protocol, or Linus will get pissed."

"Tomorrow will be your first transformation session. Two o'clock. Initiations tend not to intervene with mandatory sessions like that. Your free to do what you want until then though, study, explore the grounds, whatever. Personally, I'd rest up, like I said before, Juliet can be pretty hardcore when it comes to transformation sessions."

Miles took my plate and cutlery from me and went to a small, square chute in the side of the wall. He slipped it all inside. No doubt that's where the washing up was gathered.

The three of us abandoned the cafeteria and while Lian left us on the first floor, Miles and I continued to our dorm.

I broke the quiet between us when we came to our door and asked, "Miles, could you show me where the library is tomorrow?"

The werefox smiled and nodded, "You wanna get your independant study started as soon as possible?"

"Something like that," I grinned back at him.