FSE

Furry search engine

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As usual, when the alarm of the center started ringing, Zèon had already opened his eyes. He was starting to think that, for better or worse, he had developed an intuitive ability to know in advance at what time he should wake up. Silently, the arctic fox sighed, waiting for that horrible sharp sound to stop ringing.

At that moment he heard the human scream in terror, which made his fur stand on end. That could have been a morning like any other, but it was definitely not going to be such.

Zèon sat up in his bed, startled, and looked to Luca's bunk bed, where the shout had come from. The human was seated on his bed and held his head with a hand, his face contorted with a painful expression. Luca had already got down from the upper berth and looked at him, worried.

-What happened? -Zèon asked, blinking.

-I think he gave a start when he heard the alarm... and he tried to get up so quickly that he hit his head against the upper berth -Luca explained, containing a little smile. Zèon was about to smile too. After the first night they had spent there, the same thing had happened to the wolf.

Then, after rubbing insistently at his head for a few seconds, the human's eyes fell on the figure that rose beside him. A new scream of fear escaped from his throat and he pounced on Luca, who was surprised from his reaction, and could barely hold him back. After a brief struggle, both of them fell to the ground and rolled on the floor tiles; the human, attempting to escape, and Luca, trying to prevent him.

-Careful! -Zèon exclaimed, worried.

-What's happening...? -Koi's sleepy voice asked, from his bed -. Has the Bareskin woken up already?

Zèon would have answered, but at that moment the human was shouting:

-Let go! Let me go! Damn beast... Help! Help!!

It was difficult for Luca to avoid him running away and he received several painful blows, but he finally managed to contain him against the ground and place himself on top of him, holding him by his wrists. He was going to say something, feeling furious, when he saw that the human was trembling with fear and that his face, contorted with fear, showed that he was about to cry. Luca realized at that moment that the human was younger than what he had thought at first glance: he was maybe fourteen, fifteen at most. It was difficult to guess the age of someone who didn't have any fur.

-Don't kill me, please -the human begged, near tears.

-I won't -Luca promised, gently -. I'm just here to help you, okay?

There was a brief silence. The wolf wouldn't have been able to tell if the human had believed him or not, but a few seconds after, the boy asked:

-Wh-where am I? And who are you supposed to be?

-You can call me Luca -the wolf answered, kindly -. About where we are, I'm afraid I don't know. We've been trying to guess it for long time now, but we haven't reached any satisfactory conclusion yet. -He made a cautious pause, before adding -. Now, we're prisoners in this place... just like you.

The human held his gaze for a moment, unable to believe his eyes. Then, he squinted and murmured:

-You are... a wolf. -There was a tone of astonishment in his voice -. And still, you can reason and talk to me... Oh, this is crazy. I must be dreaming.

-I hope so -Zèon whispered, from the other side of the room.

Luca stood up allowing the human some freedom and then reached out in order to help him stand up.

-You have to promise me you won't run away again -he said, smiling at him -. In this place they are not very... merciful with those who try to run away and we don't want anything bad to happen to you.

<<We don't want anything bad to happen to you>>. Those words echoed in Zèon's head and mixed with another picture, one that had taken place several years before, in which the one in the ground was him and Luca also the one who extended a helping paw. The bittersweet memory remained in his mind for a few seconds, before fading away.

The human had taken Luca's paw and had stood up, looking around in awe. Zèon could imagine that he was surprised in finding himself suddenly in a place like that: a box of cold bare metal walls.

He was still spinning around with his mouth open and an absolute expression of incredulity in his face when something pounced on him and grabbed him by his waist. The human was about to let a new scream out when he realized that the thing that had just hugged him was a beast like the others, only smaller and with more childish features.

-Hello! -Koi greeted him, smiling -. I am Koi! Are you going to be our new roommate?

The little husky hadn't been able to get rid of his bed sheets yet and some still hanged from his arms and legs. Besides, his fur was all messy, giving him a wilder appearance. For someone who wasn't familiarized with the kane or the fehlar, that image had to be disturbing at the very least.

-Er... I... -the human muttered.

-Koi -Zèon reprehended him, as he got out of his bed -. Don't scare him any more than he already is.

The little husky separated from the human reluctantly, but the youth shook his head slowly.

-No. This has to be a dream. I'm sure. There's nothing more here that can scare me.

-But yesterday you looked so scared in the hall, right before you fell asleep -Koi commented, blinking innocently a few times.

-Koi! -Zèon scolded him as he reached his position. Still, that comment had been about to make him smile, so he wasn't very harsh and the husky hugged his waist a few seconds after.

-And what are you? -the young human asked, with the same tone of incredulity he had referred to Luca's species a moment before -. A fox?

-Brilliant -Zèon answered, unable to contain himself -. An arctic fox, yes. The name I've given myself here is Zèon. Just in case you prefer calling me anything apart from "fox".

That said, he glanced at the human with interest, as if waiting for his reaction. He was sure that the human hadn't got out of the course that seemed to fall on all the residents of the Box. Although that boy didn't look very bright, it wouldn't take him much to realize that there was something much amiss.

-The name you've given yourself? And what's that supposed to...? -Suddenly, he stopped in the middle of the sentence, as if he didn't know how to continue.

Luca looked at Zèon worried, but the fox just watched the changes that went through the human's face. First, he adopted an expression of absolute concentration, as if he was scraping his memories in search of something he was unable to find. That expression of concentration intensified until little by little his face turned a deadly pale.

-It can't be... -the human whispered, terrified.

-It happens to all of us when we arrive here -Luca explained in a thin voice, looking down. He seemed a bit sad.

-We all forget our name -Zèon affirmed, feeling a stabbing pain inside him -. No exception. We can remember our past, and even the names of those we knew... but not ours, nor the names of the prisoners we met before coming here -he explained, exchanging a meaningful look with Luca -. That's something that the one who really is in charge of this place has made sure of.

-But, how is it possible...? -the human asked, stepping back and falling on the lower berth, demoralized. Once there, he held his head in a gesture of deep discouragement.

Zèon gave him a long look, comprehending his situation. He had gone through the same when he had arrived there for the first time; that anguish at the loss of his own identity, the only element of his previous life as a noble that he still kept. Many nights he had tried to lose his mind in search of hints in his memory that could lead him to remember even just a letter of his name, but he had never been able to find any.

It was as if all the memories related to his name had simply vanished.

-Friend -Luca started then, approaching the human and placing a paw in his shoulder -, I know it's difficult and I know that you'll have to assume many things in the same day. It was difficult for us, but since it seems you had never seen one of our race, I'd dare to say the change will be sudden to you. -He paused for a moment -. However, I think it's necessary that you choose a name if you don't want to get mad.

-And what would it serve to do so? -the human asked, with hoarse voice -. What would it... ?

-Yeah. Why can't we just call him "Bareskin"? -opined Koi, who was watching the scene as he hugged the arctic fox by his waist -. I think it matches him.

-There you have a reason for finding a name -Zèon said, gently passing an arm over Koi's shoulders -. If you don't create a new identity for you, someone else will. And you shouldn't allow others to steal your capacity to decide who you want to be. They've stolen too much already, haven't they? -There was a subtle tone of pain in his voice, burning in the back of his gaze, that only Luca could perceive.

-You don't have to do it now -Luca calmed him -. But sooner or later, people here will need a way to call you and if you don't give them one, they'll make up their own.

The human didn't answer immediately. He was still holding his head in a defeatist attitude, completely immobile and pale, as if he couldn't still believe what was happening to him. Zèon thought it was curious that he hadn't wanted to believe the situation was real until he had realized he couldn't recall his name. That showed, from his point of view, the importance of something so little.

-I don't know what to do, I don't know which rules I should follow to choose a name -he admitted after a few seconds, with a tiny voice. Then, he rose his head and looked at them, hopeful -. What... what did you do?

Luca understood.

-When we arrived here -he explained -, Sophia called us in a very specific way. I, for example, was referred us Lupus L. That's why I decided to use that L as my initial.

-Koi and me did the same -Zèon added, before the questioning eyes of the boy. <<And most of the residents in the Box>> he completed to himself.

-I understand -the human muttered, a bit disappointed. He didn't know if that would help much.

Then, he buried his head under his arms and thought for a long while. Zèon and Luca waited patiently; they knew perfectly well how difficult that could be and if the youth managed to find a convincing name in that moment, they would think he had been lucky. It had taken to both of them a whole day to decide, but from what they have heard, for Koi it had taken several weeks, since he had changed his name over thirty times. In the light of that, Zèon almost thanked he hadn't find the little husky before.

-I was... -the human then started, doubtful.

-Sapiens V -Zèon reminded him, gently.

The other one nodded. It took him a few seconds to talk again.

-I need more time -he said, and his voice seemed to break.

Zèon and Luca nodded almost in unison. They fully understood.

The playroom of the Box was one of the most crowded places in the whole complex. That wasn't very surprising; in the middle of that tremendously monotonous prison, the playroom provided the only source of entertainment one could have in order to get away from the madness. Besides, unlike the rest of the rooms in the Box (except the private ones) it was one of the few places that didn't have guards watching closely any of the prisoner's movements.

It was a large room placed next to the hall, with several zones in which one could find games and objects of all kinds, from complex puzzles to little sport-oriented corners, in which there were balls of all sizes. Directly opposite there was a whole area exclusively destined to rest and conversation, full of little seats that looked like stuffed bags and that sank a bit when anyone sat on them, forcing him to recline. After the insalubrious meals, the fearful silences and the submissive stillness, the kane and the fehlar of the Box found it was compulsory to do anything in order to show that they were still alive. That explained why most of the community life in the Box took place in that room.

Zèon had left Koi near a little Ferris wheel that rose in the middle of the room (a really curious contraption that had fascinated the arctic fox for some days and whose name he had casually discovered in a quarrel that had took place in the first days of his stay there) and was about to sit and think. He had even some kind of ritual that he had built over the months and that wasn't that complex really.

First, he headed to the shelf of the cognitive games. There were the boxes of all the puzzles he had already completed and boxes full of little construction toys that had kept him entertained during his first weeks. Still, from the moment a fehlar had destroyed a tower he was building (in the same way they had done with his race, had said the idiot), Zèon felt a bitter aftertaste in his memory whenever he thought of that game. However, he introduced a paw between the boxes and searched something that was hidden at the bottom of the shelf. Finally, his paw closed around something of smooth and hard edges and he could take it out without many difficulties.

It was a cube.

Each of its faces was divided in nine little squares, each of them painted in six different colors that shone under the lights of the playroom. Every square could be turned with its line or its column in any direction, which allowed for a huge number of movement possibilities.

That little contraption had become one of the biggest passions of Zèon since he was in the Box. The first time he had seen it he had thought that it was merely a decorative object and had thrown it back to the dark corner in which he had found it, disdainfully. However, the image of its six different colors had stuck in his mind and he had been thinking about it for a time, wondering if they would mean something. Then, just out of curiosity, he had decided to give it a look again and had found out that the rows and the columns could move independently. Amazed, he had tried to place each color in a face of the cube, by successive turns and movements.

It had taken more than he had thought it would, but after a couple of hours he could mix the colors in the faces in order to put them back to their right positions again. It had been a matter of getting used to the way he had to manipulate the cube and of giving a thought to the movements he had to follow.

Now, he usually took the cube whenever he wanted to think. It helped him to move it in his paws and create different forms in each face: crosses, diagonals or even logical series of colors. When doing that, his mind moved frenetically trying to find answers to all the questions of that place, which weren't few. And now there was also the mystery of the presence of that human boy. Who was he exactly? What had he done to be there? Why, unlike all his race, was he so afraid of the kane and the fehlar? Did that mean that only some humans were aware of the existence of the kane and the fehlar, just like some of them knew about the humans? Zèon knew that with the information he had, it would be impossible to find a definite conclusion. However, ignoring those questions would have meant he would have too much to think at night and he preferred "exhausting" the questions at that moment rather than later.

So he grabbed the cube, satisfied, and walked through the room and towards the zone of the small seats. In his way he came across Adam, an older fox of copper-colored fur, and started the second part of his ritual:

-Good morning, Adam.

-Hello, Zèon -the other fox replied, quickly.

-Are you still trying to decipher those symbols? -the arctic fox asked, trying to sound a bit interested.

Adam nodded vigorously in a gesture that reminded Zèon of Koi: with so much energy that he was a bit afraid he hurt himself. However, there wasn't any relation between both that he knew, and that was something that somehow... relieved him.

-They are not symbols -the fox explained. He talked so absurdly fast and with such an anxious tone that sometimes it was difficult to understand what he was saying -. Look. -And then, he hit his head several times with his fist.

Zèon, startled, bent down and held him by his wrist. Adam turned to him for a few seconds and the arctic fox feared he would reprimand him for preventing him from hurting himself, but that didn't happen. The other fox just turned again to the floor, muttering something Zèon couldn't hear, and stirring again the little plastic symbols he had placed on the ground.

The arctic fox couldn't help but give him a saddened look.

Adam had been one of the first to arrive to the Box, since he belonged to the first group of kane that had been kidnapped by humans. Zèon got to know him when he was still sane. He was a timid quiet fox, but kind and always willing to help. He had lived in the Goldsprigs' villages before the fehlar invasion. After it, like many others, his life had been reduced to a refugee camp.

However, the Adam that everyone knew had disappeared the same day two guards, following Sophia's orders, had grabbed him by his shoulders and dragged him towards the crystal doors in the back of the hall. Those that, from Zèon's point of view, were the only way out the place. In his head he could still hear Adam's shouts, see his paws stretching out towards them as he was taken away; the few that had tried to stop the guards had been discouraged by Camus' lashings. After that, his shouts had disappeared behind the crystal doors.

Days had passed and the rest of prisoners had lost any hope of ever seeing him again. However, a few weeks later, Adam was back. But nothing about him reminded to the kind and shy fox he had been once.

He talked alone and seemed to be constantly looking to any corner, as if he felt he was being watched. Besides, he seemed to get obsessed with the tiniest things and had the weird habit of hitting himself. He could go from hysteric laughter to absolute weeping in just some seconds and, sometimes, he screamed about nothing. After some time, all the residents in the Box had removed him from their group, too scared of his strange behavior. He even slept in his own bedroom.

However, Zèon still felt curiosity and respect for him. He was the only one who had been beyond the crystal doors; the only one that knew what lay beyond them. In any case, if what he had seen had turned him so unstable, the arctic fox wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

-You could -Adam said then, suddenly.

-Pardon? -Zèon asked, confused.

-You could understand. You know -he hit his own head again with a fist and Zèon tried to stop him, worried, but the fox didn't repeat that gesture -. What's inside. You decipher things with it. -That said, he pointed to the symbols in the floor.

The arctic fox gave them a slow look, as usual. However, none of those symbols looked like anything he had ever seen in his whole life and, in any case, he still didn't have enough data to decipher them. On the ground, the ten plastic symbols remained forming an hexagon:

3 2 7

5 8 4 9

0 6 1

-I don't think I can -Zèon apologized, standing up again -. But I can give it some thought.

-Thought! -Adam exclaimed then, letting out a shrill laugh -. Thought!! -he screamed, so loud he attracted the gazes of some of the residents near them.

Zèon commiserated him, but he didn't like attracting attention, so he gave him one last look and then kept walking towards the seats corner.

However, he hadn't even taken three steps when he heard a sudden shout that made his blood run cold. It seemed to come from the adjacent room and it was such a disheartening scream, so sad and sincere, that the arctic fox felt his heart wrench although he hadn't been able to identify the voice due to all the noise in the room. But a surprised silence had fallen in the room and when the scream sounded again, Zèon knew for certain who it belonged to.

It was as if someone had activated a spring.

Without losing a second, he threw the colored cube to the ground and ran towards the hall. He stepped unintentionally in Adam's symbols and the fox let out a shriek, but Zèon didn't look back. Not even when he heard Luca calling his name somewhere in the room, worried. At that moment, he could only think about the scream he had just heard, that resounded in his mind as an endless echo. His heart beat strongly, anguished before the possibilities that his rational mind worked with.

Because that sad scream he had just heard, that sincere lament, didn't belong to any stranger.

It was Koi's voice.